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The 2012 Lermontov Cup was a professional tennis tournament played on clay courts. It was the first edition of the tournament which was part of the 2012 ATP Challenger Tour. It took place in Lermontov, Russia between 24 and 30 September 2012.
Singles main draw entrants
Seeds
1 Rankings are as of September 17, 2012.
Other Entrants
The following players received wildcards into the singles main draw:
Victor Baluda
Ruslan Chomaev
Ervand Gasparyan
Richard Muzaev
The following players received entry from the qualifying draw:
Toni Androić
James Duckworth
Michal Schmid
Yuri Schukin
Champions
Singles
Andrey Kuznetsov def. Farrukh Dustov, 6779, 62, 62
Doubles
Konstantin Kravchuk / Denys Molchanov def. Andrey Golubev / Yuri Schukin, 63, 64
External links
Lermontov Cup
Category:Lermontov Cup
Category:2012 in Russian sport | wikipedia |
Eulerian Angles --- Why three rotations can transform fixed frame into body frame?
"In general, if we restrict ourselves to rotations about one of the Cartesian axes, three successive rotations are required to transform the fixed frame into the body frame"
The origin of our fixed frame and the body frame are common. The axes of the body frame points in the direction of the principal axes of rotation of the body.
I do not understand, how three rotations are all what is needed to transform the two frames.
The body frame is defined by the principal axes of rotation, which are three unit vectors in $\mathbb{R}^3$. If restricted to rotations around the $x$, $y$ and $z$ axes, it takes (in general) one rotation around each axis to align the original three axes to the principal axes of rotation. For example, one can first choose the $x$ axis and use two rotations to align it with one of the principal axes of rotation; then one more is needed to align the $y$ and $z$ axes.
The OP has never accepted any of the answers. I'll give a constructive proof using an intrinsic rotation sequence.
>
> I do not understand how three rotations are all what is needed to transform the two frames.
>
>
>
I'll denote the original set of axes as $x,y,z$ and the final set as $X,Y,Z$, both with the same handedness. Suppose the $xy$ and $XY$ planes do not coincide. Both planes contain the origin and thus there is a line $N$ that passes through the origin and lies on both the $xy$ and $XY$ planes.
Rotate about the $\hat z$ axis such that the $\hat x$ axis now points along the line $N$. Next, rotate about the once-rotated $\hat x$ axis so that $\hat z$ points along $\hat Z$. Finally, rotate about the twice-rotated $\hat z$ axis such that the thrice rotated $\hat x$ and $\hat y$ unit vectors align with $\hat X$ and $\hat Y$.
The above assumed that the $xy$ and $XY$ planes do not coincide. Suppose they *do* coincide. This means that either $\hat Z = \hat z$ or that $\hat Z = -\hat z$. In the first case ($\hat Z = \hat z$), this devolves to a plane rotation, so that only one rotation about the $\hat z = \hat Z$ axis is needed.
Two rotations are needed when $\hat Z = -\hat z$, one about $\hat z$ to align $\hat x$ with $\hat X$, and the second a 180 the second case, or that $\hat Z = -\hat z$, in which case two rotations are needed, one about about $\hat z$ to align $\hat x$ with $\hat X$, and a 180° rotation about the once-rotated $\hat x$ to align $\hat y$ with $\hat Y$ and $\hat z$ with $\hat Z$.
This sequence of up to three rotations, first about the $z$ axis, then about the once rotated $x$ axis, and a third about the twice-rotated $z$ axis, is *the* Euler rotation sequence, as original developed by Leonard Euler.
There are a number of alternative approaches that use rotations about primary axes only. For example, there's nothing special about the use of the $x$ axis as the middle rotation in the above sequence. The $y$ axis works just as well. The same goes for the $z$ axis as the first and last axes. There are six Euler-like sequences. Alternatively, one could rotate about the $z$ axis, then about the once-rotated $y$ axis, and finally about the twice-rotated $x$ axis. This results in another six set of rotation sequences. Collectively these form the twelve intrinsic rotation sequences. Another set of sequences results from rotating about the fixed $x$, $y$, and $z$ axes. Just as there are twelve intrinsic sequences, there are twelve of these extrinsic sequences. All 24 of these rotation sequences require at most three rotations to attain any arbitrary orientation.
A general orientation can be defined by three mutually perpendicular unit vectors. Actually, only two are needed, as the third is derived by a cross product. Two vectors have 6 parameters in general, and to make them unit vectors, you need 4 parameters. Since the vectors have to be perpendicular this reduces the independent parameters to 3.
Euler angles is one of many ways 3 parameters can define the full rotational orientation. Another can be a single rotation axis (unit vector, 2 parameters) and a rotation angle (1 parameter), for a total of 3.
I guess I do not fully understand what you are asking about, but I hope this helps.
| stackexchange/physics |
although surgical aortic valve replacement represents the standard management in symptomatic severe aortic stenosis , it is also associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality in the elderly and in subjects with co - existing conditions . a recently introduced and viable alternative to standard therapy in high - risk patients with severe
symptomatic aortic stenosis is the trans - catheter aortic valve replacement ( tavr ) , which is superior to standard medical therapy in terms of cardiovascular and all - cause mortality with lower re - hospitalization rates , and improved functional status in patients with inoperable aortic stenosis . in conjunction with the improvement in functional status recovery of cardiac symptoms , quality of life ( qol )
the incidence of aortic valve stenosis increases with age , with a reported prevalence of 2.5% and 8.1% in those aged 75 and 85 years , respectively . in aortic stenosis that occurs in the 8 decade of life decision to perform a tavr
is a challenging one due to the common occurrence of comorbid conditions and decreased life expectancy . on the other hand , a major expectation from tavr in the elderly
therefore , patients in their 8 decade of life represent a distinct patient group in clinical setting in terms of a decision for tavr when one considers the potential improvement in the qol on one hand and the benefit to risk ratio on the other . in the present study , the impact of tavr , for which cardiac surgeons may be less reluctant to perform in the 8 decade ,
was compared in patients in their 7 decade of life versus 8 decade of life .
this prospective cohort study included 136 patients , who underwent transfemoral tavr due to symptomatic degenerative aortic stenosis at bezmialem vakif university hospital between september 2012 and september 2014 .
patients between 70 and 89 years of age with severe native calcific aortic stenosis with an indexed aortic valve area of < 0.6 cm / m , aortic annulus diameter of 1927 mm , ascending aortic diameter of < 45 mm and logistic euroscore greater than 15% were included .
exclusion criteria were as follows : > grade 3 aortic failure , a history of acute myocardial infarction ( mi ) within one month of study participation , renal failure ( creatinine > 3 mg / dl ) , need for chronic dialysis , hemodynamic or respiratory failure ( mechanical ventilation or inotropic support ) , hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy , echocardiographic presence of intracardiac mass , thrombus , or vegetative , severe mitral failure , and a life expectancy of less than 12 months due to comorbid conditions .
for the purpose of the analysis , patients were allocated into one of the following groups based on their age at the time of admission : patients in their 70 s ( n = 67 ; septuagenarians ) and those in their 80 s ( n = 69 ; octogenarians ) .
study protocol was approved by local ethics committee and informed consent was obtained from all patients who agreed to participate in the study . prior to tavr ,
in addition , short form health survey ( sf-36 ) was completed preoperatively by 119 patients ( 57 in the octogenarian group and 62 in the septuagenarian group ) .
tavr was performed trans - femorally and under general anesthesia or under local anesthesia and deep sedation .
patients received a loading dose of pre - procedural clopidogrel ( 300 mg ) and aspirin ( 100 mg ) , and 100 iu / kg heparin during the procedure .
an amplatz extra stiff guide wire was advanced into to the apex of the left ventricle through the femoral artery via an 18-f sheath .
a balloon valvuloplasty was carried out on the aortic valve with ventricular pacing at a rate of 80200 beats / min , and the device was implanted .
aortic valve and pericardium were also visualized with transthoracic echocardiography , followed by the trans - catheter delivery of a prosthetic heart valve
. dual antiplatelet chemotherapy ( 100 mg of acetylsalicylic acid and 75 mg of clopidogrel ) were given to all patients for the first three months following intervention and they were all prescribed life - long aspirin treatment ( 100 mg / day ) .
sf-36 , originally developed and introduced by the rand corporation in 1992 , is a generic measure and comprehensive questionnaire for evaluating qol .
kocyigit performed the first turkish validity and reliability study of sf-36 in 1999 , and found a cronbach 's alpha coefficient 0.70 .
sf-36 includes items regarding patient perception of changes in their health in the last four weeks and the previous year and comprises 36 items that evaluates the following physical and mental domains : physical functioning ( pf ) , role - physical ( rp ) , body pain ( bp ) , general health ( gh ) , vitality ( vt ) , social functioning ( sf ) , role - emotional ( re ) , and mental health ( mh ) .
each scale is transformed directly into a 0100 scale ; a lower score indicates a worse health status .
sf-36 has two summary scales , called the mental component summary ( mcs ) and the physical component summary ( pcs ) .
pcs includes pf , rp , bp , and gh , whereas the mcs includes vt , sf , re , and mh .
the pcs and mcs are standardized to reflect a general population mean of 50 and a standard deviation ( sd ) of 10 .
in addition to early postoperative assessments , patients were also followed - up for 6 months for clinical outcomes . at month 6 , a follow - up sf-36 questionnaire could be completed by 101 patients ( 48 in the octogenarian group and 53 in the septuagenarian group ) , who therefore had both preoperative and postoperative sf-36 data .
clinical results and changes in health - related qol in the two study groups were analyzed .
data are presented as mean sd or n ( % ) , where appropriate .
normality of distribution was evaluated using kolmogorov - smirnov test . for inter - group comparisons of quantitative data ,
independent sample t - test or mann - whitney u test was used . for intra - group comparisons ( preoperative versus postoperative data ) , paired samples t
chi - square or fisher 's exact test was used for the comparison of qualitative data . a p < 0.05 was considered an indication of statistical significance .
this prospective cohort study included 136 patients , who underwent transfemoral tavr due to symptomatic degenerative aortic stenosis at bezmialem vakif university hospital between september 2012 and september 2014 .
patients between 70 and 89 years of age with severe native calcific aortic stenosis with an indexed aortic valve area of < 0.6 cm / m , aortic annulus diameter of 1927 mm , ascending aortic diameter of < 45 mm and logistic euroscore greater than 15% were included .
exclusion criteria were as follows : > grade 3 aortic failure , a history of acute myocardial infarction ( mi ) within one month of study participation , renal failure ( creatinine > 3 mg / dl ) , need for chronic dialysis , hemodynamic or respiratory failure ( mechanical ventilation or inotropic support ) , hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy , echocardiographic presence of intracardiac mass , thrombus , or vegetative , severe mitral failure , and a life expectancy of less than 12 months due to comorbid conditions .
for the purpose of the analysis , patients were allocated into one of the following groups based on their age at the time of admission : patients in their 70 s ( n = 67 ; septuagenarians ) and those in their 80 s ( n = 69 ; octogenarians ) .
study protocol was approved by local ethics committee and informed consent was obtained from all patients who agreed to participate in the study .
prior to tavr , demographical , clinical , and echocardiographic data of all patients were collected and recorded . in addition ,
short form health survey ( sf-36 ) was completed preoperatively by 119 patients ( 57 in the octogenarian group and 62 in the septuagenarian group ) .
tavr was performed trans - femorally and under general anesthesia or under local anesthesia and deep sedation .
patients received a loading dose of pre - procedural clopidogrel ( 300 mg ) and aspirin ( 100 mg ) , and 100 iu / kg heparin during the procedure .
an amplatz extra stiff guide wire was advanced into to the apex of the left ventricle through the femoral artery via an 18-f sheath .
a balloon valvuloplasty was carried out on the aortic valve with ventricular pacing at a rate of 80200 beats / min , and the device was implanted .
aortic valve and pericardium were also visualized with transthoracic echocardiography , followed by the trans - catheter delivery of a prosthetic heart valve
. dual antiplatelet chemotherapy ( 100 mg of acetylsalicylic acid and 75 mg of clopidogrel ) were given to all patients for the first three months following intervention and they were all prescribed life - long aspirin treatment ( 100 mg / day ) .
sf-36 , originally developed and introduced by the rand corporation in 1992 , is a generic measure and comprehensive questionnaire for evaluating qol .
kocyigit performed the first turkish validity and reliability study of sf-36 in 1999 , and found a cronbach 's alpha coefficient 0.70 .
sf-36 includes items regarding patient perception of changes in their health in the last four weeks and the previous year and comprises 36 items that evaluates the following physical and mental domains : physical functioning ( pf ) , role - physical ( rp ) , body pain ( bp ) , general health ( gh ) , vitality ( vt ) , social functioning ( sf ) , role - emotional ( re ) , and mental health ( mh ) . each scale is transformed directly into a 0100 scale ; a lower score indicates a worse health status .
sf-36 has two summary scales , called the mental component summary ( mcs ) and the physical component summary ( pcs ) .
pcs includes pf , rp , bp , and gh , whereas the mcs includes vt , sf , re , and mh .
the pcs and mcs are standardized to reflect a general population mean of 50 and a standard deviation ( sd ) of 10 .
in addition to early postoperative assessments , patients were also followed - up for 6 months for clinical outcomes . at month 6 , a follow - up sf-36 questionnaire could be completed by 101 patients ( 48 in the octogenarian group and 53 in the septuagenarian group ) , who therefore had both preoperative and postoperative sf-36 data .
clinical results and changes in health - related qol in the two study groups were analyzed .
data are presented as mean sd or n ( % ) , where appropriate .
normality of distribution was evaluated using kolmogorov - smirnov test . for inter - group comparisons of quantitative data , independent sample t - test or mann - whitney u test
was used . for intra - group comparisons ( preoperative versus postoperative data ) , paired samples t
chi - square or fisher 's exact test was used for the comparison of qualitative data . a p < 0.05 was considered an indication of statistical significance .
table 1 shows baseline characteristics of the patients . the two age groups did not differ with regard to clinical and laboratory parameters except for a significantly lower aortic valve area ( 0.66 0.16 vs. 0.75 0.12 cm , p = 0.008 ) and a higher logistic euroscore ( 22.5% 3.4% vs. 19.8% 3.8% , p < 0.001 ) among octogenarians .
cabg : coronary artery bypass grafting ; copd : chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ; euroscore : european system for cardiac operative risk evaluation ; lvef : left ventricular ejection fraction ; mi : myocardial infarction ; pab : pulmonary arterial pressure .
table 2 shows the comparison of the two age groups with regard to early postoperative clinical outcomes .
the mean new york heart association ( nyha ) class improved after tavr in both groups : decreased from 2.95 0.70 to 1.81 0.46 in the octogenarian group and from 2.92 0.50 to 1.94 0.39 in the septuagenarian group ( p < 0.001 for both ) .
overall , 57 ( 82.6% ) and 48 ( 69.5% ) patients in the octogenarian group completed the questionnaire preoperatively and postoperatively , whereas 62 ( 92.5% ) and 53 ( 79.1% ) patients did so in the septuagenarian group , respectively .
table 3 shows comparison of the groups with regard to changes in qol ( sf-36 ) .
all sf-36 norm - based scale ( pf , rp , bp , gh , vt , sf , re , and mh ) and sf-36 summary scale ( mcs and pcs ) scores improved significantly in both groups during the postoperative period , compared to the preoperative assessments ( p = 0.000 ) .
preoperatively gh , vt , and mh scores were significantly higher in the septuagenarian group than in the octogenarian group ( p = 0.001 , 0.000 , and 0.01 , respectively ) , whereas the two groups were similar with regard to other quality life parameters .
postoperatively , pf and gh scores were significantly higher in the septuagenarian group than in the octogenarian group ( p = 0.02 and 0.01 , respectively ) .
although the mcs score was similar across the groups , the pcs score was higher in the septuagenarian group than in the octogenarian group ( p = 0.03 ) .
p : p value for inter - group comparisons ; p : p value for intra - group comparison ( preoperative versus postoperative ) .
bp : bodily pain ; gh : general health ; mcs : mental component summary ; mh : mental health ; pcs : physical component summary ; pf : physical functioning ; postop : post - operation ; preop : pre - operation ; re : role - emotional ; rp : role - physical ; sf : social functioning ; vt : vitality .
table 2 shows the comparison of the two age groups with regard to early postoperative clinical outcomes .
the mean new york heart association ( nyha ) class improved after tavr in both groups : decreased from 2.95 0.70 to 1.81 0.46 in the octogenarian group and from 2.92 0.50 to 1.94 0.39 in the septuagenarian group ( p < 0.001 for both ) .
overall , 57 ( 82.6% ) and 48 ( 69.5% ) patients in the octogenarian group completed the questionnaire preoperatively and postoperatively , whereas 62 ( 92.5% ) and 53 ( 79.1% ) patients did so in the septuagenarian group , respectively .
table 3 shows comparison of the groups with regard to changes in qol ( sf-36 ) .
all sf-36 norm - based scale ( pf , rp , bp , gh , vt , sf , re , and mh ) and sf-36 summary scale ( mcs and pcs ) scores improved significantly in both groups during the postoperative period , compared to the preoperative assessments ( p = 0.000 ) .
preoperatively gh , vt , and mh scores were significantly higher in the septuagenarian group than in the octogenarian group ( p = 0.001 , 0.000 , and 0.01 , respectively ) , whereas the two groups were similar with regard to other quality life parameters .
postoperatively , pf and gh scores were significantly higher in the septuagenarian group than in the octogenarian group ( p = 0.02 and 0.01 , respectively ) .
although the mcs score was similar across the groups , the pcs score was higher in the septuagenarian group than in the octogenarian group ( p = 0.03 ) .
p : p value for inter - group comparisons ; p : p value for intra - group comparison ( preoperative versus postoperative ) .
bp : bodily pain ; gh : general health ; mcs : mental component summary ; mh : mental health ; pcs : physical component summary ; pf : physical functioning ; postop : post - operation ; preop : pre - operation ; re : role - emotional ; rp : role - physical ; sf : social functioning ; vt : vitality .
furthermore , a significant improvement in all qol parameters was noted in both age groups as compared to preoperative assessments .
tavr has been reported to afford a higher probability of patient survival compared with more traditional medical therapy in inoperable or high - risk patients .
improved survival was mostly accounted for by the decrease in mortality and re - hospitalization rates and improvement in functional capacity .
tavr has demonstrated superiority over standard medical therapy regarding cardiovascular and all - cause mortality , lower re - hospitalization rates , and improved functional status in patients with inoperable aortic stenosis .
one - year all - cause mortality rates reported in the placement of aortic transcatheter valves trial for tavr and standard medical therapy were 30.7% and 50.7% , respectively , and corresponding 5-year all - cause mortality rates in the respective groups were 71.8% and 93.6% .
similarly , we observed a 30-day mortality rate of 7.2% ( n = 5 ) in octogenarians and 8.9% ( n = 6 ) in septuagenarians , without a significant difference between the two age groups in terms of early mortality rates . as a procedure that is performed more frequently among the elderly , outcome of tavr
several factors such as the severity of the aortic stenosis , co - morbid conditions , anatomical suitability of the patient , general prognosis , patient preference as well as the improved qol are important factors in the decision to perform tavr in the older patients
. effects of tavr on functional capacity and qol has also been investigated on the basis of observations suggesting that improved qol is paralleled by increases in patients ' functional capacity .
previous studies utilizing sf-36 as a measure of the qol reported positive effects of tavr on physical and mental health - related qol . , krane , et al .
observed most pronounced improvements in pf and pcs domains of sf-36 , with no significant changes in re , sf , mh , or mcs .
these authors also reported no change in mental health parameters other than vitality , probably due to the presence of comorbid conditions in the elderly population .
a review on post - tavr qol found a more marked improvement in physical health parameters of sf-36 than in mental health parameters . on the other hand , the relative importance of life expectancy and patient age with respect to comorbid conditions
, it may be worth to mention that several studies found significant improvements after tavr even in the very advanced age groups. for example , biermann , et al .
observed even a higher degree of improvement after tavr among patients > 80 years of age than those less than 80 years of age . in the present study , significant improvements in the overall and summary sf-36 scores six months postoperatively
the improvement in qol was significantly better only for pf , gh , and pcs in septuagenarians than in octogenarians .
current understanding regards very advanced age as a partial obstacle to improvement in the qol . on the other hand , although younger patients tend to perform better in terms of physical improvement following invasive interventions , they may also experience an age - related difficulty for accepting their health conditions and may be inclined to experience future depression with an anticipation of the recurrence of the disease(s ) .
while the rate of clinical improvement may be slower in the elderly owing to comorbidities and increased occurrence of post - interventional complications , they may be in a more favorable position than their younger counterparts with respect to psychological or mental improvement .
for instance , an improvement in exercise capacity leading to recuperation of autonomy to carry out daily activities of living may , from an advanced age 's perspective , represent a major improvement in the qol . in other words
, there may be a differential perception of disease and improvement among elderly and other age groups .
thus , a reconsideration may be given to perform a tavr for patients who are deemed too old for such a procedure , not only due to potential functional and clinical improvements that may occur following the intervention , but also due to expected improvement in the qol that is at least equivalent to that in younger patients .
single - center nature and small sample size of our study limit the generalizability of our results .
another limitation that should be mentioned involves the use of a single life - quality scale , i.e. , sf-36 for qol assessments .
tavr was associated with a significant improvement in clinical parameters and the health - related qol in both age groups consisting of elderly individuals .
although , the improvement in the qol in terms of physical health was more marked in septuagenarians than in octogenarians , substantial benefits on the qol and particularly on mental health seem to justify re - consideration of tavr indications in the very elderly .
single - center nature and small sample size of our study limit the generalizability of our results .
another limitation that should be mentioned involves the use of a single life - quality scale , i.e. , sf-36 for qol assessments .
tavr was associated with a significant improvement in clinical parameters and the health - related qol in both age groups consisting of elderly individuals .
although , the improvement in the qol in terms of physical health was more marked in septuagenarians than in octogenarians , substantial benefits on the qol and particularly on mental health seem to justify re - consideration of tavr indications in the very elderly . | pubmed |
Art Freeman couldn't understand why he survived
Kathy Rumleski CTV London
Published Friday, June 20, 2014 7:13PM EDT Last Updated Monday, March 13, 2017 9:31AM EDT
Arthur B. Freeman served in the First World War
Arthur B. Freeman enlisted under a different name so his parents wouldn't find out.
Freeman was born in St. Thomas in 1896 on St. George Street and lived in the same house his whole life.
He was a postal worker and served in several community organizations.
His next service was with the 91st Battalion. He signed up to join the 25th Elgin Regiment.
He arrived at the front lines to fight in the Battle of Somme. Nearly 8,000 Canadians died there and Freeman had survivor guilt, his grandson Paul said.
"You go down there and he'd be on the porch, or at the kitchen table with his hands on the side hill and he'd be crying, 'Why me? Why did I live and so many have to die?'"
Freeman was awarded a Military Medal for his bravery at Passchendaele Ridge and also received a British War Medal and Victory Medal.
"For so many years, you try to put the war out of your mind. You try to forget it. And then something will come to you in the middle of the night, when you haven't thought about it for 40 years," he said in one interview.
His brother Robert died while on duty as a Lewis gunner when a shell exploded at his position on Aug. 31, 1916.
Robert was described in a newspaper after his death as a splendid type of manhood.
The Freeman family has put together a book about the service of both Robert and Arthur. It's at the Elgin Military Museum and is titled, The Fighting Freeman's of Elgin County.
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Hundreds turn out for charity fundraiser in memory of Addison Hall & sister | slim_pajama |
in order to understand how cells become disorganised in tumours it is vital to understand the key players and regulators that control and maintain cell polarity , which lead to epithelial tissue organisation . as expected , the molecular complexes involved in the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity are largely conserved throughout the metazoa , despite the wide range of epithelial tissue types and biological processes that require them .
three major complexes involved in the regulation of apical basal cell polarity of epithelial cells have been described : the crumbs - pals1 ( stardust)-patj - lin-7 ( crumbs complex ) and par3 ( bazooka)-par6-apkc ( par complex ) complexes , which are found apically , and the lethal giant larvae ( lgl)-scribble ( scrib)-disc large ( dlg ) proteins ( scribble complex ) that localise at the basolateral membrane .
both the par and crumbs complexes promote apical membrane identity , whereas the scribble complex promotes basolateral membrane identity by antagonising the other two ( figure 1 ) . among the three polarity complexes , the par complex is the best studied in the context of apical basal polarity in epithelial cells .
classically , the proteins considered to be the core of the par complex include the two par pdz domain - containing proteins par3 and par6 , with the addition of atypical protein kinase c ( apkc ) , and the par complex has been shown to be required for the establishment and the maintenance of apical basal polarity and apical domain development in epithelial cells .
phosphorylation has a key role in controlling polarity , and this is reflected by the fact that par1 and par4 , homologous in mammals to microtubule affinity regulating kinases ( marks ) and lkb1 , respectively , are serine / threonine kinases and par5 is a member of the 14 - 3 - 3 family of proteins that generally binds ser / thr phosphorylated proteins .
par3 is phosphorylated on ser827 of its apkc - binding region by apkc itself , resulting in decreased affinity for apkc .
rho kinase also prevents the interaction between par3 and apkc by phosphorylating thr883 of par3 , thereby suppressing the activity of the par complex .
the activity of the par complex is further regulated by the dynamic nature of par3 's association with the stable par6apkc complex .
a compelling study in drosophila demonstrated that par3 is in fact excluded from the apical domain by the par6apkc complex .
instead , the drosophila par3 homologue baz localised independently of apkc and par6 in the follicular epithelium , and below them at the level of the apical / lateral junction .
this correlates with the observation that in many epithelial tissues , including in mammals , par3 and the par6apkc complex do not colocalise .
however , in mammals , the apical / lateral domain is formed by tight junctions , which are more apical and distinct from the adherens junctions , thus par3 is essentially localised at the level of tight junctions where it colocalises with zonula occludens-1 ( zo-1 ) .
this model for par3 exclusion from the apical domain involves both the par6apkc complex and the crumbs complex , in order to prevent the interaction between par3 and the par6apkc complex . on one hand , apkc phosphorylates par3 on ser827 in mammalian par3 to decrease their affinity for each other while , on the other hand ,
crumbs and stardust compete with par3 to interact with the same domain of par6 ( figure 1 ) .
this exclusion mechanism is crucial to restrict the extent of the apical / lateral junction and define the border between the apical and lateral domains in drosophila epithelial cells .
further investigation is required , but the existing evidence suggests that the observations outlined above may be generalised to epithelial tissues in mammals .
the three members of the scribble complex have been shown to interact genetically , with dlg and scribble physically interacting through a protein called guk - holder in drosophila neuronal synapses . however , there is little evidence for their physical interaction in mammalian epithelial cells and , as a result , the term module ' is sometimes used when referring to the scribble complex .
more recently , scribble and lgl2 have been reported to interact directly in polarised mammalian epithelial cells , although this interaction has not yet been reported in other experimental systems .
lgl , by competing with par3 for par6apkc , restricts the par complex to the apical domain .
furthermore , phosphorylation and inactivation of lgl at the apical domain by apkc restricts the par and scribble complex apically and basolaterally in epithelial cells , respectively .
interestingly , in drosophila , apkc is also able to phosphorylate crumbs to promote the apical localisation of the crumbs complex .
key phosphorylation events and protein / protein interactions therefore result in the exclusion of scribble from the apical domain , and of the crumbs and par complexes from the basolateral domain .
these membrane domains consequently acquire unique identities that set the basis for the establishment of apical basal polarity in epithelial cells .
asymmetric cell division is pivotal for the maintenance of epithelial tissue homeostasis . when a stem cell divides asymmetrically , it generates two daughter cells : one with an identical cell fate and the other with a different one .
asymmetric cell division relies on the asymmetric distribution of cell fate determinants ( numb , pros , brat , pon and mira ) and , as a result , core polarity proteins and the correct orientation of mitotic spindles .
emerging evidence , in particular from studies of neuroblasts in drosophila , indicates that asymmetric division functions as a mechanism of tumour suppression .
when polarity genes or cell fate determinants are deleted or mutated , neuroblasts divide symmetrically , leading to tissue overgrowth and transplantable tumours that are similar to mammalian cancers ( figure 2 ) .
for example , dlg / scrib / lgl mutant neuroblasts have defects in basal protein targeting , a reduced apical cortical domain and reduced apical spindle size , which is thought to lead to symmetric divisions and , as a result , to the accumulation of cells and the development of tumours . in drosophila , a number of proteins such as pins , mud and the mitotic kinases aurora - a and polo have been shown to have a major role in regulating mitotic spindle orientation and asymmetric cell division . intriguingly , adenomatous
polyposis coli 2 ( apc2 ) was discovered to be part of the centrosome complex of drosophila germline cells , where it functions in establishing the correct orientation of the mitotic spindles .
moreover , deletion of both drosophila apc genes results in asymmetric stem cell division defects as a result of mitotic spindle misorientation .
have developed an induced cortical polarity ' assay in drosophila s2 cells that should facilitate the identification of further proteins , domains and amino acids that regulate spindle orientation . in mammals , probably as a consequence of their redundancy , the function of core polarity proteins in the regulation of asymmetric cell division has been harder to elucidate .
however , lgl1 knockout mice present some defects in the asymmetric division of neural progenitors , that may result in overproliferation and a lack of differentiation . recently , in a compelling study using in vivo electroporation of mouse embryos and cortical slice cultures , par3 has been shown to regulate the asymmetric division of neural progenitor cells via the control of the notch signalling pathway in the developing neocortex .
this study has also shown that par3 is distributed and inherited asymmetrically as cells divide , suggesting that its subcellular distribution regulates the mode of progenitor cell division and daughter cell fate specification .
the transition from an epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype that occurs during emt has been associated with metastatic progression ; apical basal polarity is lost during this process and cell cell junctions are weakened and disrupted .
several lines of evidence suggest that core polarity proteins are important for the formation and maintenance of the ajc , suggesting that their loss could induce or at least contribute to emt ( figure 3 ) .
for example , it has been shown that par3 depletion in mammalian epithelial cells disrupts the formation of tight junctions .
moreover , it has been suggested that the par6apkc complex , together with cdc42 , can control adherens junction remodelling through the regulation of arp2/3-dependent endocytosis .
another example comes from knock - down experiments showing that patj is important for the proper polarisation of mammalian epithelial cells and the formation of tight junctions .
sirna - mediated knockdown of scrib in sk - co15 cells inhibits tight junction reassembly .
tgf , in cooperation with the ras pathway , is a key inducer of emt and promotes invasion and metastasis .
several studies suggest that disrupting cell polarity may work in concert with tgf signalling or facilitate tgf-mediated emt . for instance
, it has recently been shown that disruption of the crumbs complex predisposes to emt in eph4 cells , a cell line normally insensitive to tgf-mediated emt .
another study shows that tgf signalling is able to downregulate the expression of par-3 through the induction of mir-491 - 5p in rat proximal tubular epithelial cells , suggesting that tgf may induce the disruption of cell polarity .
probably , one of the most direct links between the disruption of cell polarity and emt comes from the finding that tgf receptors directly interact with par6 at the level of adherens junctions .
tgf is able to induce phosphorylation of par6 at ser345 , enabling the recruitment of the e3 ubiquitin ligase smurf1 , which is required for localised tgf-induced degradation of the actin regulator rhoa .
importantly , this phosphorylation event is required for tgf-dependent emt in mammary gland epithelial cells , as mutation of this residue blocks emt and tight junction disruption .
furthermore , in a mammary fat pad assay , over - expression of par6/s345a in emt-6 cells reduced their ability to induce metastasis to the lung , further demonstrating the importance of tgf/par6 signalling in emt and the development of metastasis .
taken together , these studies show that polarity proteins are important emt regulators in epithelial cells .
underlying their potential role as tumour suppressors , core polarity proteins are often targeted and disrupted by oncogenic signalling .
for example , scrib - deficient mutants cooperate with oncogenes to mediate transformation in drosophila .
normally , scrib - deficient mutant clones in the eye imaginal discs are eliminated by jnk - dependent apoptosis . however , in the presence of activated oncogenic pathways such as ras or notch , apoptosis is inhibited and neoplastic tumours occur .
in addition , in support of these data , loss of hscrib has been shown to cooperate with h - ras to promote cell invasion through deregulation of mapk signalling in an organotypic culture system . a number of viral oncogenes have been found to directly interact with polarity proteins , suggesting that disruption of polarity is important .
for example , the human t - cell leukemia virus type 1 tax protein binds to hscrib and alters its subcellular localisation in infected t - cells .
in addition to scrib , tax and the oncoprotein 9orf1 have been shown to interact with dlg .
the interaction of tax and hdlg was shown to affect the function of hdlg in controlling cell growth , and tax disrupted the interaction between hdlg and apc .
however , it remains to be shown whether disruption of the hdlg / apc complex is the critical event that leads to deregulated cell growth .
e6 oncogenes in human papilloma virus ( hpv ) have also been found to interact with pdz - containing polarity proteins .
for example , e6 proteins from hpv-16 and hpv-18 have the ability to interact with , and induce the proteasomal degradation of , dlg and hscrib .
intriguingly , e6 has also been shown to target phosphorylated forms of dlg , and patj of the crumbs polarity complex , for degradation .
these findings suggest that key pdz - containing polarity proteins are common cellular targets of viral oncoproteins .
moreover , it seems that viral proteins have evolved additional ways to target cell polarity , strongly suggesting that its disruption is necessary for malignant transformation .
in addition to viral oncogenes , core cell polarity mechanisms are targeted by abnormally activated growth factor signalling pathways .
both the erbb2 and tgf signalling pathways have been shown to be directly involved in the regulation of polarity independently of their transcriptional response . in conclusion , many activated oncogenic pathways target and disrupt epithelial polarity in order to achieve malignant transformation , supporting the importance of cell polarity in suppressing tumour formation .
scrib , dlg and lgl were identified as tumour suppressors in drosophila , in screens for mutations causing cancerous overgrowth of the larval imaginal discs and brain .
interestingly , the phenotypes of these mutants can be rescued by the mammalian homologues of these genes , showing that they are functionally conserved and suggesting that they may have a tumour suppressive function in human cells .
a growing amount of data showing mislocalisation , decreased expression or complete loss of the products of these genes in primary tumours from human patients further indicate their involvement in mammalian tumourigenesis . over the past few years
, there has been an increasing body of evidence that the deregulation of these core polarity complexes , both in terms of expression level and subcellular localisation , may have a causal link to disease and cancer in particular ( for an exhaustive list of changes in expression and localisation of polarity proteins in carcinoma cell lines and primary tissues see huang and muthuswamy ) .
perhaps the best - studied polarity complex in human tumours is the scrib / lgl / dlg complex .
in particular , the deregulation of scrib has been reported to promote the transformation of mammary epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo , by disrupting morphogenesis and cell polarity and by inhibiting myc - induced apoptosis , thus providing novel insight into how core polarity proteins regulate cell transformation . in this study ,
loss of scrib was shown to cooperate with myc to induce mammary tumours , correlating with a drosophila study that showed that lgl requires myc to promote clonal malignancy . in human keratinocytes
, scrib loss has been shown to result in erk activation which might contribute to cancer progression .
scrib was found to be mislocalised or downregulated in several cancer types including cervical , colon adenocarcinoma and endometrial .
scrib , as well as dlg1 and lgl1 , was also mislocalised and downregulated in a transgenic mouse model of cancer . in a screen of 60 tumour samples , hugl-1 ( the human homologue of lgl ) transcripts were often reduced or lost in tumour tissues of the breast ( 76% ) , prostate ( 53% ) , lung ( 63% ) , ovarian ( 50% ) and colon carcinoma ( 75% ) . however , the numbers in this study are relatively small and it will be important to verify these data on a larger scale .
hugl-1 was lost in 75% of tumour samples in a cohort of 94 patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer , and was associated with advanced stage and lymph node metastases .
loss or downregulation of hugl-1 expression was also observed in malignant melanoma and associated with an advanced stage of the disease .
a study of 80 hepatocellular carcinomas showed that hugl-1 mrna is frequently mutated by aberrant splicing , and that two of the variants were able to promote hepatocellular carcinoma in nude mice .
dlg expression levels and localisation have also been shown to be affected in high - grade premalignant cervical neoplasia , invasive squamous cell carcinoma and colon adenocarcinoma .
the deregulation of core polarity proteins in cancer is not limited to scrib , dlg and lgl , however , as almost every protein involved in the core apical
basal polarity machinery of epithelial cells has been shown to be affected in some way .
for example , the par3 gene is deleted in 15% of primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas and downregulated in a number of tumour tissues .
a recent study identified homozygous intragenic microdeletions , involving genes encoding components of the core polarity complexes in a genome - wide screen of 684 cell lines .
interestingly , among these genes , par3 was found to be the most commonly targeted and was disrupted in both cell lines and some primary tumours .
this study will undoubtedly be complemented by data from ongoing cancer genome sequencing efforts such as the cancer genome atlas .
taken together , these data strongly underline the causal link between the deregulation of core polarity proteins and human cancer . over the past decade ,
a number of tumour suppressor pathways have been directly linked to epithelial cell polarity , suggesting that the integrity of apical basal polarity is crucial for the prevention of tumour development .
although lkb1 deficiency does not cause a gross defect in cell polarity in the intestine , for example , it may regulate cell polarity through its ability to phosphorylate members of the ampk - related kinase ( ark ) family in other tissues .
hence , par4/lkb1 is able to activate par1/mark in the drosophila oocyte and , in epithelial cells , may have its role through par1/mark activation .
alternatively , par4/lkb1 may regulate polarity through the activation of ampk ( amp - dependent activated protein kinase ) , which in turn activates myosin ii . among all of the par genes identified in model organisms , par4/lkb1 is the most well - established tumour suppressor .
all of these factors suggest that regulators of cell polarity may have an important role in suppressing tumours . in agreement with this ,
for example , the tumour suppressor von hippel - lindau exerts its regulation on polarity at several levels : it is able to directly interact with apkc and mediate its ubiquitination and subsequent degradation , and its interaction with the par complex is involved in the regulation of polarised microtubule growth and formation of primary cilia .
another tumour suppressor that regulates cell polarity is phosphatase and tensin homolog ( pten ) , which is likely to be involved in different aspects of epithelial cell polarity .
however , as apical accumulation of phosphatidylinositol 4,5 biphosphate is dependent on apical targeting of pten , and as membrane targeting of par3 is mediated by direct binding to phosphoinositide lipids , pten may be instrumental in the apical localisation of par3 .
for example , hdlg can interact with the apc tumour suppressor , and their interaction negatively regulates cell cycle progression .
apc was also found to interact with hscrib and it has been suggested that scrib controls its localisation at the level of the adherens junctions in epithelial cells .
recently , apical basal polarity in epithelial cells has been linked to another tumour suppressor , with the discovery that aspp2 is a new binding partner of par3 .
aspp2 is critical for the localisation of par3 at the level of tight junctions in epithelial cells and , therefore , has a crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of apical basal polarity in epithelial cells in culture . in vivo , aspp2 deficiency results in defects arising during the development of the central nervous system , characterised by a loss of apical basal polarity and an expansion of neural progenitor cells .
aspp2 colocalises with par3 at the level of tight junctions in a variety of epithelial cells and tissues , suggesting that its role in controlling apical
aspp2 is a transcriptional target of e2f1 and was first identified as a p53 regulator that specifically promotes its apoptotic function .
tumour studies in mice have identified aspp2 as a haploinsufficient tumour suppressor gene , and aspp2 levels have been shown to be deregulated in human tumours and tumour cell lines , suggesting that its tumour suppressive role is conserved in humans .
studies in drosophila have shown that daspp , the unique aspp protein in drosophila , localises at adherens junctions .
these studies suggest that daspp regulates retinal morphogenesis by acting in concert with drassf8 to promote dcsk activity , thus , the function of aspp2 in the establishment and maintenance of apical basal polarity in epithelial cells appears to have been conserved from drosophila to humans .
basal polarity is linked to its ability to regulate p53 and its family members , p63 and p73 .
one possibility is that aspp2 , upon external stimuli , may be able to shuttle from tight junctions to the nucleus to have its transcriptional role , in a similar way to other junctional proteins such as -catenin or zo-1 .
therefore , it will be of great interest to investigate the extent to which aspp2 's regulation of the localisation of par3 and the apical basal polarity of epithelial cells contributes to its tumour suppressive function , and how this interplays with its role in regulating p53 , the most mutated tumour suppressor in human cancers , and p63 , a key regulator of epithelial stratification .
there are a number of studies that also suggest that mitotic spindle orientation is crucial for asymmetric cell division in mammals .
for instance , p63 has been shown to be important for mitotic spindle orientation during asymmetric cell division of epidermal stem cells .
finally , emerging evidence suggests that there is also a direct relationship between loss of cell polarity of stem cells and asymmetric division and tumour initiation in mammals . for example , the tumour suppressor p53 has recently been linked with the regulation of asymmetric divisions of mammary stem cells . in the future , due to their redundancy in mammals , the real challenge will be to investigate whether core polarity proteins regulate asymmetric stem cell division in mammalian epithelia , and whether their deregulation consequently drives tumour initiation as a result of asymmetric stem cell division defects .
taken together , these studies emphasise the role and importance of known tumour suppressors in the control of epithelial cell polarity . many of those tumour suppressors regulate the functions of core polarity proteins through direct interactions suggesting that , in addition to their better - known roles in the control of cellular proliferation , these roles are crucial for the prevention of tumour development .
underlying their potential role as tumour suppressors , core polarity proteins are often targeted and disrupted by oncogenic signalling .
for example , scrib - deficient mutants cooperate with oncogenes to mediate transformation in drosophila .
normally , scrib - deficient mutant clones in the eye imaginal discs are eliminated by jnk - dependent apoptosis . however , in the presence of activated oncogenic pathways such as ras or notch , apoptosis is inhibited and neoplastic tumours occur .
in addition , in support of these data , loss of hscrib has been shown to cooperate with h - ras to promote cell invasion through deregulation of mapk signalling in an organotypic culture system . a number of viral oncogenes have been found to directly interact with polarity proteins , suggesting that disruption of polarity is important .
for example , the human t - cell leukemia virus type 1 tax protein binds to hscrib and alters its subcellular localisation in infected t - cells .
in addition to scrib , tax and the oncoprotein 9orf1 have been shown to interact with dlg .
the interaction of tax and hdlg was shown to affect the function of hdlg in controlling cell growth , and tax disrupted the interaction between hdlg and apc .
however , it remains to be shown whether disruption of the hdlg / apc complex is the critical event that leads to deregulated cell growth .
e6 oncogenes in human papilloma virus ( hpv ) have also been found to interact with pdz - containing polarity proteins .
for example , e6 proteins from hpv-16 and hpv-18 have the ability to interact with , and induce the proteasomal degradation of , dlg and hscrib .
intriguingly , e6 has also been shown to target phosphorylated forms of dlg , and patj of the crumbs polarity complex , for degradation .
these findings suggest that key pdz - containing polarity proteins are common cellular targets of viral oncoproteins .
moreover , it seems that viral proteins have evolved additional ways to target cell polarity , strongly suggesting that its disruption is necessary for malignant transformation .
in addition to viral oncogenes , core cell polarity mechanisms are targeted by abnormally activated growth factor signalling pathways .
both the erbb2 and tgf signalling pathways have been shown to be directly involved in the regulation of polarity independently of their transcriptional response . in conclusion , many activated oncogenic pathways target and disrupt epithelial polarity in order to achieve malignant transformation , supporting the importance of cell polarity in suppressing tumour formation .
scrib , dlg and lgl were identified as tumour suppressors in drosophila , in screens for mutations causing cancerous overgrowth of the larval imaginal discs and brain .
interestingly , the phenotypes of these mutants can be rescued by the mammalian homologues of these genes , showing that they are functionally conserved and suggesting that they may have a tumour suppressive function in human cells .
a growing amount of data showing mislocalisation , decreased expression or complete loss of the products of these genes in primary tumours from human patients further indicate their involvement in mammalian tumourigenesis . over the past few years
, there has been an increasing body of evidence that the deregulation of these core polarity complexes , both in terms of expression level and subcellular localisation , may have a causal link to disease and cancer in particular ( for an exhaustive list of changes in expression and localisation of polarity proteins in carcinoma cell lines and primary tissues see huang and muthuswamy ) .
perhaps the best - studied polarity complex in human tumours is the scrib / lgl / dlg complex . in particular , the deregulation of scrib has been reported to promote the transformation of mammary epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo , by disrupting morphogenesis and cell polarity and by inhibiting myc - induced apoptosis , thus providing novel insight into how core polarity proteins regulate cell transformation . in this study ,
loss of scrib was shown to cooperate with myc to induce mammary tumours , correlating with a drosophila study that showed that lgl requires myc to promote clonal malignancy . in human keratinocytes ,
scrib loss has been shown to result in erk activation which might contribute to cancer progression .
scrib was found to be mislocalised or downregulated in several cancer types including cervical , colon adenocarcinoma and endometrial .
scrib , as well as dlg1 and lgl1 , was also mislocalised and downregulated in a transgenic mouse model of cancer . in a screen of 60 tumour samples , hugl-1 ( the human homologue of lgl ) transcripts were often reduced or lost in tumour tissues of the breast ( 76% ) , prostate ( 53% ) , lung ( 63% ) , ovarian ( 50% ) and colon carcinoma ( 75% ) .
however , the numbers in this study are relatively small and it will be important to verify these data on a larger scale .
hugl-1 was lost in 75% of tumour samples in a cohort of 94 patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer , and was associated with advanced stage and lymph node metastases .
loss or downregulation of hugl-1 expression was also observed in malignant melanoma and associated with an advanced stage of the disease .
a study of 80 hepatocellular carcinomas showed that hugl-1 mrna is frequently mutated by aberrant splicing , and that two of the variants were able to promote hepatocellular carcinoma in nude mice .
dlg expression levels and localisation have also been shown to be affected in high - grade premalignant cervical neoplasia , invasive squamous cell carcinoma and colon adenocarcinoma .
the deregulation of core polarity proteins in cancer is not limited to scrib , dlg and lgl , however , as almost every protein involved in the core apical basal polarity machinery of epithelial cells has been shown to be affected in some way .
for example , the par3 gene is deleted in 15% of primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas and downregulated in a number of tumour tissues .
a recent study identified homozygous intragenic microdeletions , involving genes encoding components of the core polarity complexes in a genome - wide screen of 684 cell lines .
interestingly , among these genes , par3 was found to be the most commonly targeted and was disrupted in both cell lines and some primary tumours .
this study will undoubtedly be complemented by data from ongoing cancer genome sequencing efforts such as the cancer genome atlas .
for example , deregulation of par6 was observed in er - positive breast tumours . taken together , these data strongly underline the causal link between the deregulation of core polarity proteins and human cancer .
over the past decade , a number of tumour suppressor pathways have been directly linked to epithelial cell polarity , suggesting that the integrity of apical basal polarity is crucial for the prevention of tumour development .
although lkb1 deficiency does not cause a gross defect in cell polarity in the intestine , for example , it may regulate cell polarity through its ability to phosphorylate members of the ampk - related kinase ( ark ) family in other tissues .
hence , par4/lkb1 is able to activate par1/mark in the drosophila oocyte and , in epithelial cells , may have its role through par1/mark activation .
alternatively , par4/lkb1 may regulate polarity through the activation of ampk ( amp - dependent activated protein kinase ) , which in turn activates myosin ii . among all of the par genes identified in model organisms ,
all of these factors suggest that regulators of cell polarity may have an important role in suppressing tumours . in agreement with this ,
for example , the tumour suppressor von hippel - lindau exerts its regulation on polarity at several levels : it is able to directly interact with apkc and mediate its ubiquitination and subsequent degradation , and its interaction with the par complex is involved in the regulation of polarised microtubule growth and formation of primary cilia .
another tumour suppressor that regulates cell polarity is phosphatase and tensin homolog ( pten ) , which is likely to be involved in different aspects of epithelial cell polarity .
however , as apical accumulation of phosphatidylinositol 4,5 biphosphate is dependent on apical targeting of pten , and as membrane targeting of par3 is mediated by direct binding to phosphoinositide lipids , pten may be instrumental in the apical localisation of par3 .
for example , hdlg can interact with the apc tumour suppressor , and their interaction negatively regulates cell cycle progression .
apc was also found to interact with hscrib and it has been suggested that scrib controls its localisation at the level of the adherens junctions in epithelial cells .
recently , apical basal polarity in epithelial cells has been linked to another tumour suppressor , with the discovery that aspp2 is a new binding partner of par3 .
aspp2 is critical for the localisation of par3 at the level of tight junctions in epithelial cells and , therefore , has a crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of apical basal polarity in epithelial cells in culture . in vivo ,
aspp2 deficiency results in defects arising during the development of the central nervous system , characterised by a loss of apical basal polarity and an expansion of neural progenitor cells .
aspp2 colocalises with par3 at the level of tight junctions in a variety of epithelial cells and tissues , suggesting that its role in controlling apical
aspp2 is a transcriptional target of e2f1 and was first identified as a p53 regulator that specifically promotes its apoptotic function .
tumour studies in mice have identified aspp2 as a haploinsufficient tumour suppressor gene , and aspp2 levels have been shown to be deregulated in human tumours and tumour cell lines , suggesting that its tumour suppressive role is conserved in humans .
studies in drosophila have shown that daspp , the unique aspp protein in drosophila , localises at adherens junctions .
these studies suggest that daspp regulates retinal morphogenesis by acting in concert with drassf8 to promote dcsk activity , thus , the function of aspp2 in the establishment and maintenance of apical basal polarity in epithelial cells appears to have been conserved from drosophila to humans .
however , it remains unclear whether the function of aspp2 in regulating apical basal polarity is linked to its ability to regulate p53 and its family members , p63 and p73 .
one possibility is that aspp2 , upon external stimuli , may be able to shuttle from tight junctions to the nucleus to have its transcriptional role , in a similar way to other junctional proteins such as -catenin or zo-1 .
therefore , it will be of great interest to investigate the extent to which aspp2 's regulation of the localisation of par3 and the apical basal polarity of epithelial cells contributes to its tumour suppressive function , and how this interplays with its role in regulating p53 , the most mutated tumour suppressor in human cancers , and p63 , a key regulator of epithelial stratification .
there are a number of studies that also suggest that mitotic spindle orientation is crucial for asymmetric cell division in mammals .
for instance , p63 has been shown to be important for mitotic spindle orientation during asymmetric cell division of epidermal stem cells .
finally , emerging evidence suggests that there is also a direct relationship between loss of cell polarity of stem cells and asymmetric division and tumour initiation in mammals .
for example , the tumour suppressor p53 has recently been linked with the regulation of asymmetric divisions of mammary stem cells . in the future , due to their redundancy in mammals
, the real challenge will be to investigate whether core polarity proteins regulate asymmetric stem cell division in mammalian epithelia , and whether their deregulation consequently drives tumour initiation as a result of asymmetric stem cell division defects .
taken together , these studies emphasise the role and importance of known tumour suppressors in the control of epithelial cell polarity . many of those tumour suppressors regulate the functions of core polarity proteins through direct interactions suggesting that , in addition to their better - known roles in the control of cellular proliferation , these roles are crucial for the prevention of tumour development .
in this review , we have highlighted how epithelial cell polarity may contribute to tumour suppression ( figure 4 ) , through its role in controlling asymmetric cell division and the integrity of the ajc .
loss of cell polarity is a hallmark of cancer , however , studies in transgenic mouse models have so far been unable to clearly answer the question of whether core polarity proteins are tumour suppressors or not .
future studies using multiple and/or conditional knockout mouse models will be essential to finally demonstrate their direct role in tumour suppression . due to the vital importance of core polarity proteins in maintaining tissue homeostasis ,
redundancy mechanisms have evolved in mammals that may make this issue too complex to address .
nonetheless , it is emerging that an increasing number of well - known tumour suppressors have a pivotal role in regulating cell polarity . | pubmed |
Designed by Dutch design duo Scholten & Baijings, this square cushion features stripes in graduating colors. Made in merino wool cover with a feather filling, it is available in several different designs. Please note that the color placemant may vary slightly to the ones shown in the pictures. Dry clean only. | slim_pajama |
alzheimer s disease ( ad ) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide and represents one of the most serious health issues for the elderly .
an estimated 5.4 million americans have ad , and this number is expected to triple in 2050 due to lack of medical breakthroughs to stop , prevent , or slow the disease.1 over the years , research efforts have focused extensively on delineating the mechanisms and identifying targets involved in ad pathogenesis ; however , to date , no disease - modifying therapy has been clinically approved for ad .
the 2 major neuropathological hallmarks of ad are extracellular deposition of amyloid beta ( a)containing senile plaques and intracellular tau - containing neurofibrillary tangles ( nfts ) in the brain.2 a plaque formation is considered relatively specific to ad pathology ; however , nfts are found associated with other disorders as well.3 a plaque formation involves a cascade of events beginning with the sequential cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein ( app ) , a large transmembrane protein , by proteolytic enzymes -secretase and -secretase .
cleavage by -secretase releases a , peptides which are usually composed of 40 to 42 amino acid residues , into the extracellular space where they aggregate into oligomers , -sheet structured fibrils , followed by clumping into a plaques.4 some studies suggest that a pathology more closely reflects the preclinical ( asymptomatic ) stage of ad , whereas accumulation of tau tangles more closely reflects the onset of clinical symptoms in ad.5 among the numerous targets explored to treat ad , anti - a approaches directed toward removal of a and/or decreasing its production ( eg , inhibition of -secretase , active immunotherapy , and anti - a antibodies ) have shown promising results in animal models of ad68 and have been at the forefront of ad research .
most of the studies investigating the effects of anti - a approaches have had limited success in mid- to late - stage clinical development and have failed to reach primary clinical end points.9 a recent study investigated the effect of a selective tau aggregation inhibitor in patients with mild - to - moderate ad .
this anti - tau approach , however , failed to reach primary outcome measures.10 more recent research has pivoted focus to cytokine - mediated neuroinflammation as a major contributor to the development of ad , and evidence suggests that inflammation promotes pathological processes that lead to ad.1113 among the cytokines involved in neuroinflammation , tumor necrosis factor ( tnf- ) is the most studied and plays an essential role in the cytokine cascade during an inflammatory response .
although the levels of tnf- in the periphery and central nervous system ( cns ) of healthy adults are maintained at very low levels , the levels of this cytokine are significantly elevated in blood14 and cns12 of patients with ad , and many clinical and animal studies have demonstrated a link between excess tnf- levels in the brain and ad.15 here , we focus on the involvement of tnf- in ad , challenges associated with the development of existing biologic tnf- inhibitors ( tnfis ) for ad , and potential therapeutic strategies for targeting tnf- for ad therapy .
tnf- , first recognized for its antitumor activity,16 is one of the main inflammatory cytokines involved in initiating and propagating an inflammatory response .
tnf- is a monomeric ( 17 kda ) nonglycosylated type 2 transmembrane protein that belongs to a superfamily of ligand / receptor proteins called the tnf / tnf receptor ( tnf / tnfr ) superfamily proteins .
tnf- is inserted into the membrane as a homotrimer which is then cleaved into a 51-kda soluble trimer via proteolytic cleavage by the tnf-converting enzyme.17 in the central nervous system , tnf- can be synthesized in the brain by microglia,18 neurons,19 and astrocytes.20 tnf- binds to 2 receptor subtypes , tnfr1 ( p55-r ) and tnfr2 ( p75-r ) , each having distinct signaling pathways differentiated by the presence of an intracellular death domain ( dd).21 tnfr1 , which contains the dd , is ubiquitously expressed in various cell types and is activated through either soluble tnf- ( stnf- ) or membrane tnf- ( mtnf-).22 tnfr1 , once activated , is involved in divergent effects including cell proliferation , activation , antiviral activity , and primarily in tnf-mediated apoptosis and cytotoxicity .
tnfr2 has a higher affinity for tnf- , is activated preferentially by mtnf- , and is primarily expressed at low levels by cells of the immune system and endothelial cells.22 tnfr2 lacks the dd and can trigger signaling cascades that activate pro - inflammatory and pro - survival pathways through the activation of the cellular inhibitor of apoptosis proteins 1 and 2 , nuclear factor b , and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase dependent signaling pathways.23 some studies also report an indirect role of tnfr2 in tnf-mediated cytotoxicity via the enhancement of tnfr1-mediated cytotoxicity , but no induction of cytotoxicity by tnfr2 alone.24 overall , the general consensus is that tnfr1 exerts pro - apoptotic functions , whereas tnfr2 typically promotes cell survival and proliferation.23
the role of tnf- in the pathophysiology of ad has been examined both in clinical and animal studies .
one of the earliest evidence suggesting the involvement of tnf- in ad pathophysiology was its presence around the a plaque in postmortem human ad brains.25 following studies in human ad brains showed that tnfr1 signaling is required for a-induced neuronal death , and although tnfr1 protein levels are significantly greater in ad brains compared with nondemented brains , tnfr2 protein levels are lower.26 furthermore , an increase in the binding affinity of tnf- to tnfr1 , but a decrease in binding affinity to tnfr2 , was observed.26 genetic association studies showed that chromosome 12p region encoding for the tnfr1 gene and the chromosome 1p region encoding for the tnfr2 gene are associated with late - onset ad.27 the role of tnf- in ad pathology was further suggested by studies in which significant elevation of tnf- levels in the cerebrospinal fluid ( csf)28 and serum29,30 of patients with ad correlated with disease progression.30 the reported clinical findings regarding the role of tnf- in ad pathology are consistent with observations made in mouse models of ad .
elevated tnf- levels were observed in the brain tissues of ad transgenic mice.31 furthermore , elevated tnf- levels were associated with intraneuronal a immunoreactivity in the entorhinal cortex , and these elevated tnf- levels correlated with cognitive deficits in ad mice.32 the role of tnf- signaling in abnormal app processing , a plaque accumulation , tau - related pathology , and cell death has also been reported .
deletion of tnfr1 in ad transgenic mice lowered a formation , a plaque burden , -secretase 1 ( bace1 ) expression , and cognitive deficits.33 however , ablation of both tnfr1 and tnfr2 exacerbated a and tau pathology due to aggravation of tnfr1-mediated ad pathology resulting from silencing of tnfr2.34 furthermore , genetic inactivation of tnfr1 signaling in ad transgenic mice prevented intraneuronal accumulation of a,35 whereas genetic deletion of tnfr2 exacerbated ad pathology in a transgenic mouse model of ad.36 in ad transgenic mice , tnf- increased a production through upregulation of both -secretase expression37 and -secretase activity,38 and chronic neuronal tnf- expression resulted in extensive neuronal cell death.19 excess tnf- levels in the brain can disrupt clearance of a by inhibiting microglial clearance of a,39 cause synaptic dysfunction,40 and accelerate disease progression and cognitive decline.41 overall , tnf-driven processes are involved at multiple stages of ad pathophysiology and disease progression ( figure 1 ) .
the most potent tnfis are biologic drugs that are food and drug administration ( fda ) approved for the treatment of peripheral inflammatory conditions including crohn disease , rheumatoid arthritis , and psoriatic arthritis .
these biologic tnfis include tnf-specific monoclonal antibodies ( mabs ) ( infliximab , adalimumab , golimumab , and certolizumab ) , and recombinant fusion proteins ( etanercept).15 tnf-specific mabs bind to either mtnf- or stnf- thus preventing tnf- signaling mediated by both tnfrs
. however , recombinant fusion protein tnfi ( etanercept ) is comprised of the extracellular domain ( ecd ) of the tnfr2 fused to the c - terminal of the fc domain of human igg1 .
the fusion protein also binds to both mtnf- and stnf- with high affinity preventing tnf- signaling mediated by both tnfrs.23 the protective effects of tnf- inhibition using these biologic tnfis have been demonstrated both in clinical and experimental ad ( table 1 ) .
inhibition of stnf- signaling by intracerebral infusion of a dominant negative tnfi prevented preplaque a-associated pathology in a transgenic mouse model of ad.35 intracerebroventricular injection of the anti - tnf- mab , infliximab , reduced tnf- levels , a plaques and tau - phosphorylation,42 and cognitive deficits43,44 in mouse models of ad . in a small open - label 6-month study in humans , perispinal etanercept administration ( dose range : 2550 mg per week ) resulted in significant improvement in 3 standard measures of cognition : the ad assessment scale - cognitive subscale , the severe impairment battery , and the mini - mental state examination in patients with ad.45 these observed clinical improvements
are hypothesized to be due to rapid penetration of etanercept into the csf following perispinal administration and mediated by nonsynaptic signal transduction mechanisms of etanercept .
however , in a recent study , perispinal injection of etanercept resulted in perispinal drug accumulation , but consistent intracranial delivery of the drug was not observed.46 in a recent case report , intrathecal administration of infliximab resulted in rapid cognitive improvement in a female patient with ad,47 and larger controlled trials are warranted . collectively , both clinical and preclinical evidence underscore the therapeutic potential of biologic tnfis for ad therapy .
one hindrance to the further development of the fda - approved biologic tnfis for ad is their limited blood - brain barrier ( bbb ) penetration,48 and invasive delivery approaches may not be practical or safe for chronic dosing for ad .
recently , modulation of peripheral tnf- activity by biologic tnfis has shown promise in transgenic mouse models of ad49 ; however , in a randomized double - blind phase 2 clinical trial , weekly subcutaneous injections of etanercept did not improve cognition , global function , or behavior in a small group of subjects with mild - to - moderate ad dementia.50 further studies will be needed to determine whether peripheral modulation of tnf- offers clinical improvement in ad .
biologic drugs such as etanercept , ecd of the tnfr2 , can be reengineered to enable bbb penetration by fusion of the biologic drug to a bbb molecular trojan horse ( mth).51 a bbb mth is an endogenous peptide or peptidomimetic monoclonal antibody that undergoes receptor - mediated transport across the bbb via endogenous peptide receptors , such as the transferrin receptor ( tfr ) or the insulin receptor .
this binding triggers receptor - mediated transport of the mab across the bbb , which ferries the biologic drug into the brain.52 one such bbb - penetrating tnfr , specific for the mouse , has been engineered and tested in mouse models of neurological diseases ( figure 2 ) .
the amino terminus of the human tnfr2 ecd is fused to the carboxyl terminal of the heavy chain of the chimeric tfrmab to engineer a fusion protein designated as ctfrmab - tnfr.53 this orientation frees the amino terminus of the ctfrmab that is involved in binding to the bbb tfr and places the tnfr ecd in a dimeric configuration . because both human and mouse monomeric tnf- share high amino acid identity , and the human tnfr binds mouse tnf- with high affinity,54 the ctfrmab - tnfr fusion protein involves the human tnfr and not the mouse tnfr .
the ctfrmab - tnfr fusion protein binds to both the mouse tfr and tnf- with high affinity evident from the low binding constants ( kd = 2.6 0.3 nm for mouse tfr and 96 34 pm for tnf- ) .
the ctfrmab - tnfr is thus a bifunctional molecule that allows ( a ) rapid noninvasive transvascular delivery of the tnfr across the bbb using a receptor - mediated transcytosis approach and ( b ) once in the brain , the tnfr can sequester excess tnf-. a complete pharmacokinetic analysis of this bbb - penetrating biologic tnfi , the ctfrmab - tnfr fusion protein , showed that systemic routes ( intraperitoneal , subcutaneous , or intravenous ) of administration result in brain concentrations of the ctfrmab - tnfr fusion protein that are 20-fold to 50-fold greater than the concentration of tnf- in pathologic conditions of the brain.55 the intravenous route of administration is preferred for acute neurological conditions , such as ischemic stroke , whereas the intraperitoneal or subcutaneous routes of administration are more practical for dosing during chronic conditions including ad .
the ctfrmab - tnfr fusion protein was found to be protective in both acute ( ischemic stroke ) and chronic ( parkinson disease ) mouse models of neurological diseases5658 and is currently being investigated in a mouse model of ad . for use in humans , a fusion protein of the ecd of the tnfr2 and a chimeric or humanized antibody against the human insulin receptor ( hirmab ) , designated as the hirmab - tnfr fusion protein ,
has been engineered.48 the hirmab is the most potent mth engineered for the human brain and cross - reacts with the insulin receptor of the old world primates . in rhesus monkeys ,
the brain uptake of a 0.2 mg / kg dose of the hirmab - tnfr fusion protein after intravenous injection was 3 0.1% id/100 g brain compared with the brain uptake of the tnfr : fc fusion protein which was 0.23 0.06% id/100 g brain .
furthermore , chronic administration of a high dose ( 20 mg / kg ) of a hirmab - based fusion protein was found to be safe in rhesus monkeys.59
a plethora of clinical and animal studies strongly suggest an involvement of tnf- in the pathophysiology of ad . the fda - approved biologic tnfis are thus a potential treatment for ad ; however , these large molecules have limited bbb penetration .
clinical studies using the perispinal route of administration for biologic tnfis have shown encouraging results in small open - label trials ; however , larger controlled trials are required to confirm these results .
another approach currently under investigation is to target peripheral tnf- rather than brain tnf-. however , this approach has not shown any cognitive improvement in a clinical setting so far , and further studies are required to determine the effect of peripheral tnf- modulation on ad pathology .
novel drug delivery strategies , such as the mth technology , enable noninvasive delivery of biologic tnfis to the brain and target both peripheral and brain tnf-. considering the multifactorial role of brain tnf- in ad pathophysiology , such noninvasive drug delivery strategies may be a reasonable approach to deliver biologic tnfis to the brain for ad treatment . | pubmed |
Thopeutis is a grass moth genus family Crambidae of subfamily Crambinae, tribe Haimbachiini. Some authors have placed it in the snout moth family Pyralidae, where all grass moths were once also included, but this seems to be in error.
Species
Thopeutis diatraealis Dyar, 1910
Thopeutis diffusifascia Hampson, 1919
Thopeutis forbesellus Fernald, 1896
Thopeutis galleriellus Ragonot in Staudinger, 1892
Thopeutis respersalis Hübner, 1818
Thopeutis xylinalis Hampson, 1896
References
Category:Haimbachiini
Category:Crambidae genera
Category:Taxa named by Jacob Hübner | wikipedia |
metastatic growth is the major cause of cancer - associated mortality . to successfully grow metastases , epithelial tumor cells need to acquire invasive properties to disseminate and stem cell properties to grow new tumors at distant sites ( hanahan and weinberg , 2011 ) .
metastasizing cancer cells have been suggested to hijack a developmental program named epithelial - to - mesenchymal transition ( emt ) ( bill and christofori , 2015 , kalluri and weinberg , 2009 , lim and thiery , 2012 ) . during developmental emt ,
cells lose cell - cell contacts and concomitantly decrease the expression of the epithelial adherens junction molecule e - cadherin ( e - cad ) and gain expression of proteins involved in , e.g. , invasion and stemness ( kalluri and weinberg , 2009 , lim and thiery , 2012 , thiery and sleeman , 2006 ) .
the effect of emt on stemness , as well as the role and even the very existence of emt during metastasis , are heavily debated ( del pozo martin et al . , 2015 , fischer et al . , 2015 , zheng et al . , 2015 ) .
for example , contradicting findings were published on the stem cell potential of tumor cells with an epithelial or mesenchymal state .
some studies found that emt - inducing transcription factors , such as twist , coincide with the acquisition of stem cell properties , thereby supporting metastatic growth ( mani et al .
other studies found that a forced reversion to an epithelial state through twist knockdown leads to metastasis - initiating abilities ( ocaa et al .
importantly , both experimental approaches may not represent the true in vivo status of cells because they require gene manipulations that artificially force cells into fixed states , while in vivo cells may be able to transiently and reversibly switch between states , a process that from here on is referred to as epithelial - mesenchymal plasticity .
moreover , the non - physiological overexpression or complete loss of emt - regulators , such as twist1 , may induce expression profiles and subsequently stem cell phenotypes that do not exist under physiological conditions .
finally , emt regulators can have oncogenic functions independently of their ability to induce emt , thus observed phenotypes that result from gene manipulation may not be exclusively due to emt induction ( beck et al . , 2015 ) .
these data and concerns illustrate the importance of studying emt in non - manipulated in vivo settings .
although emt would best be studied in the physiological in vivo settings , non - experimentally induced emt during metastasis has yet to be observed .
for example , extensive histological examination of human invasive ductal mammary carcinomas shows that , even in tumors that have metastasized , tumor cells in the primary tumor , as well as the metastases , display an epithelial phenotype ( e.g. , bukholm et al . , 2000
, jeschke et al . , 2007 , kowalski et al . , 2003 ) .
this means that either emt does not exist when it is not experimentally induced or emt remains undetected in these static images because only a small population of cells temporarily adapts a mesenchymal state .
therefore , in addition to the development of models in which emt can occur without modifying emt - regulators , techniques are required that are able to reveal and study the potentially rare and undetectable pool of cells going through emt . here ,
we combine high - resolution intravital imaging , single - cell sequencing , and transplantation techniques to investigate the role of emt and epithelial - mesenchymal plasticity in metastasis of invasive ductal carcinomas .
our data suggest that epithelial - mesenchymal plasticity supports tumor cell migration and causes metastasis - enhancing stem cell capacity differences between epithelial and mesenchymal states to be irrelevant .
to determine whether emt occurs without artificial induction , we used polyomavirus middle t antigen ( pymt ) mice that develop ductal mammary carcinomas that recapitulate the progression of human mammary adenoma to late carcinoma stages and metastasize primarily to lymph nodes , lungs , and , occasionally , liver ( guy et al . , 1992 , lin et al .
similar to human ductal carcinomas , these mammary tumors highly express e - cad , even in the late carcinoma stage and metastases ( figure 1a ) . to visualize emt in vivo
, we crossed these mmtv - pymt mice with mmtv - cre and r26r - loxp - stop - loxp - yfp ( r26r - yfp ) mice ( srinivas et al . , 2001 ) to specifically label all tumor cells with yellow fluorescent protein ( yfp ) .
next , we crossed these animals with e - cad - mcfp mice in which a monomeric cyan fluorescent protein ( mcfp ) is fused to endogenous e - cad ( snippert et al . , 2010 ) , in order to label all endogenous e - cad with mcfp ( figure 1b )
the resultant mmtv - pymt ; mmtv - cre ; r26r - yfp ; e - cad - mcfp animals develop ductal mammary tumors and metastases in which all tumor cells are yfp - labeled and endogenous e - cad is tagged with mcfp ( figure 1c ) . microscopic inspection ( figure 1c ) and flow cytometry ( figure s1 ) of these fluorescent tumors showed that the vast majority of cells appear to have high levels of membrane - localized e - cad ( e - cad cells ) . to test
whether these tumors also contain a population of tumor cells that have undergone emt in which e - cad is not functional by either downregulation of the expression or by decreasing membrane - localized e - cad , we dissociated fluorescent pymt tumors and exposed the extracellular domain of e - cad to a fluorescently labeled antibody .
we sorted yfp - expressing tumor cells , excluding , for example , lymphocytes ( see figure s1 ) .
in contrast to analysis of histological images , careful analysis of the flow cytometry data showed that in addition to the population of e - cad tumor cells another , much smaller population of tumor cells could be found . in this population
the expression of e - cad - mcfp was low and/or e - cad was non - functional due to intracellular localization as determined by low extracellular antibody staining ( e - cad ; figure s1b ) .
western blot analysis confirmed that e - cad cells have low levels of e - cad and a concomitant upregulation of vimentin ( figure 2a ) , which is consistent with mesenchymal characteristics ( kalluri and weinberg , 2009 ) .
moreover , using mrna deep sequencing , we observed differential expression in the e - cad and e - cad cells of typical emt genes , such as vimentin , fibronectin , and n - cadherin , and transcription factors that regulate emt , including snail , slug , twist , zeb1 , and zeb2 , referred to as the e - cad gene set ( figures 2b and 2c ; table s1 ) .
these data show that in our system e - cad status can be used to distinguish between epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes on the population level . to test whether this holds true at the single - cell level ,
we performed single - cell mrna sequencing of 72 e - cad and 25 e - cad cells . when performing unsupervised k - medoids clustering of the individual expression profiles , two separate clusters were identified that overlapped with the e - cad and e - cad cells ( figure 2d ; p < 1 ) . the single e - cad cells had higher expression of the e - cad gene set from the bulk sequencing data , confirming the mesenchymal identity of the e - cad cells on the single - cell level ( figure 2e ; t test p < 1 ; figures s2b and s2c ) . furthermore , e - cad and e - cad cells clustered separately in a heatmap ( figure s2d ) , and we observed that the expression profiles of e - cad cells were more similar to each other ( pearson correlation of 0.45 ) than to the profiles of e - cad cells ( pearson correlation of 0.35 , wilcoxon two - sided test = p < 10 ; figures 2d and s2d ) .
collectively , these data show that in pymt tumors at the single - cell level that e - cad status can be used to discriminate between cells with epithelial and mesenchymal features .
next , we tested whether human tumors also contain e - cad cells . as a first indication
, we found that the e - cad gene set ( marked with red dots in figure 2b ) is upregulated in human cells in which emt is induced upon e - cad knockdown or expression of dominant - negative e - cad ( onder et al . , 2008 )
next , we obtained tumors directly after patients underwent mastectomy and selected four tumors that stained positive for e - cad on histological sections ( figure 3b ) .
we dissociated the tumors into single cells , stained the cells with dapi to exclude apoptotic cells , epcam to select for tumor cells ( yu et al . , 2013 ) , and e - cad to distinguish between e - cad and e - cad cells . by flow cytometry
we indeed detected both e - cad and e - cad cells ( figure 3b ) . to test
whether human e - cad and mouse e - cad cells are similar , we used a recently published dataset of gene expression in epithelial- and mesenchymal - circulating tumor cells ( ctcs ) from breast cancer patients ( yu et al . , 2013 ) .
importantly , the mouse e - cad gene set was also upregulated in the human mesenchymal ctcs , but not in the human epithelial ctcs or in healthy blood specimens ( figure 3c ) .
combined , these results show that we have identified a subpopulation of mouse tumor cells ( e - cad ) that is similar to that of human mesenchymal ctcs .
since tumors are genetically very heterogeneous , the e - cad ctcs from breast cancer patients and from our mouse model may either adapt a permanent mesenchymal state by , e.g. , mutations in emt - regulators , or represent a transient reversible mesenchymal state . to test whether the mesenchymal state is reversible , we first generated organoids from the mmtv - pymt ; mmtv - cre ; r26r - yfp ; e - cad - mcfp carcinomas .
we stimulated these organoids with transforming growth factor beta ( tgf - beta ) and hepatocyte growth factor ( hgf ) and indeed observed an increase in the number of e - cad cells ( figure s3a ) , showing that the mesenchymal state of e - cad cells can be stimulated .
this state can also be lost , since orthotopic transplantation of e - cad cells always resulted in mammary tumors containing tumor cells with a predominantly epithelial phenotype as indicated by e - cad expression ( figure s3b ) .
this reversibility is not necessarily dependent on cell division , since sorted e - cad cells plated into a 3d matrix and stained with a celltracker dye to visualize cell division , reverted to an epithelial state both before ( figure s3c , upper ) and after cell division ( figure s3c , lower ) .
combined , these results show that the mesenchymal state of e - cad cells is plastic and can be gained and lost by tumor cells .
, 2004 , wang et al . , 2007 ) , many categories of e - cad gene set were related to tissue development , morphogenesis , migration , and adhesion ( figures s3d s3f ) .
this result prompted us to visualize the behavior of these e - cad and e - cad tumor cells in vivo using multi - photon microscopy .
to exclude yfp expression in non - epithelial lineages , tumors were imaged that developed upon transplantation of e - cad tumor cells into the mammary glands of wild - type mice ( figure 4a ) .
in addition to endogenous mcfp - labeled e - cad and yfp , we visualized type i collagen by imaging the second harmonic generation signal . as reported previously ( wyckoff et al
, we found that the migratory behavior of tumor cells in these genetic pymt tumors is very heterogeneous : while no migratory cells were found in the majority of imaging fields ( figure 4b ; movie s1 ) , we found many migratory cells in some imaging fields ( figure 4c ; movie s2 ; in figure s4a we demonstrate that cell motility is not due to z - drift of the focal plane ) .
the tumor cells migrated either individually or as streams in which single cells appeared to follow each other s migration path ( figure 4c ) , as has been demonstrated before in other tumor models ( patsialou et al .
2011 ) , but collective migration of cohesive epithelial clusters was not observed in this model .
while on average e - cad cells were non - motile , the rare e - cad cells were either protruding or displaying migratory behavior ( figure 4d ) . these migratory e - cad cells
do not relate to the ck14-positive cells ( figures s4b and s4c ) that lead collective migration in organoids ( cheung et al . , 2013 ) .
collectively , our data show that e - cad cells represent a rare population of motile cells that have undergone spontaneous emt without experimental induction , within otherwise non - motile epithelial tumors .
since we found that the small population of migratory cells in tumors has undergone emt , we questioned whether these tumor cells enter the circulation in this mesenchymal state only or whether they can revert and/or enter in an epithelial state . despite a large variation between mice regarding the total number of ctcs and the percentage of e - cad and e - cad ctcs , both types of ctcs were present in the blood of tumor - bearing mmtv - pymt mice ( figure 5a ) .
next , we tested whether the e - cad - circulating tumor cells show the same expression profile as the e - cad tumor cells in the primary tumor .
we performed single - cell sequencing and observed that the circulating e - cad and e - cad cells cluster into two populations and that the circulating e - cad cells show the same expression profile as the primary e - cad tumor cells ( figures s5a and s5b ) .
since in this mouse model tumor cells do not stay long enough in the circulation to switch to another state ( 99.99% of iv - injected tumor cells get cleared from circulation within 30 s [ figure s5c ] ) , we can conclude from our data that disseminating tumor cells that enter the circulation are in a mesenchymal , but also an epithelial , state .
next , we investigated the epithelial and mesenchymal state of endogenous spontaneous metastases to the lung .
in line with the percentages of e - cad and e - cad cells in the blood , 40% of single metastasized tumor cells appeared to be e - cad cells , and 60% were e - cad cells ( figures 5b and 5c ) .
in contrast to findings in prior studies in which emt was induced ( stoletov et al . , 2010 ) , our data suggest that naturally occurring emt does not influence the arrival and extravasation of the ctcs at the site of metastatic outgrowth .
to investigate the cells that grow out to metastases , we examined endogenous metastases with a size of two and more than three cells .
although 20% of the two - cell micrometastases were e - cad negative , all metastases larger than three cells were e - cad positive ( figures 5c and 5d ) . since our histological analysis shows that all metastases larger than three cells contain e - cad cells , we hypothesized that either only e - cad cells are able to grow metastases or e - cad cells convert to an epithelial state during the first cell divisions .
interestingly , e - cad and e - cad cells do not differ in their proliferative capacity ( figures s5d and s5e ) . to further test the impact of each state , and especially epithelial - mesenchymal plasticity , on metastatic potential , we investigated the ability of e - cad and e - cad cells to initiate liver metastases .
in contrast to previous reports with fixed states ( fantozzi et al . , 2014 , ocaa et al . , 2012 ,
shibue and weinberg , 2009 , shibue and weinberg , 2011 , tsai et al . ,
2012 ) , the potential to grow metastases from plastic e - cad cells and e - cad cells is approximately equal ( figure 5e ) .
the outgrowth of epithelial metastases from the e - cad cells strongly suggest that at least a significant fraction of the spontaneous metastases as found in figure 5b are grown from mesenchymal e - cad cells that have converted to an epithelial state during the first few cell divisions . considering all these data together ,
we conclude that , although intrinsically epithelial and mesenchymal cells may differ in their stem cell potential , this difference does not provide a large metastatic outgrowth advantage as mesenchymal cells adapt an epithelial state after the first few cell divisions , thereby abolishing any potential initial differences in stem cell properties .
collectively , our data provide evidence for the existence of emt in vivo without experimentally altering emt - inducers .
artificial interference of emt regulators does not reflect the moderate fluctuations of expression levels that occurs under physiological conditions and therefore is likely to lead to more extreme phenotypes .
moreover , these manipulations artificially keep cells in fixed states , whereas we here show that cells adapt transient and reversible states .
our data support the notion that temporal acquisition of the mesenchymal state is important for migration , but not for entering the circulation .
we observed that mesenchymal cells that arrive at the secondary site adapt an epithelial state after a few cell divisions .
thus , due to epithelial - mesenchymal plasticity , any differences in stemness between epithelial and mesenchymal states will be lost and become irrelevant for metastatic outgrowth . in conclusion , we have demonstrated plasticity between epithelial and mesenchymal states , thereby ruling out a critical role for differential stemness capacities and ultimately the potential to grow metastases .
all experiments were carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the animal welfare committee of the royal netherlands academy of arts and sciences , the netherlands . for more details , see the supplemental experimental procedures .
human tissues were obtained in compliance with dutch law that does not require informed consent when leftover materials are used anonymously . after putting cells through a 70-m strainer cap ( bd falcon ) ,
cells were sorted on a fluorescence - activated cell sorting ariaii special - ordered research product ( bd biosciences ) .
the sort strategy is illustrated in figure s1b . for more details , see the supplemental experimental procedures .
imaging was performed on an inverted leica tcs sp5 aobs multi - photon microscope with a chameleon ti : sapphire pumped optical parametric oscillator ( coherent ) . for more details , see the supplemental experimental procedures . | pubmed |
Red Ribbon Express chugs into Mancheswar railway station
The Red Ribbon Express exhibition train, which is on a whirlwind tour of the country to spread HIV/AIDS awareness, attracted a huge crowd at Mancheswar railway station of the city on Tuesday.
Attending a function organized to mark the arrival of the train at the state capital, health minister Prasanna Acharya said concerted efforts are needed by everybody to counter HIV/AIDS and other health challenges.
The train, the third of its kind, is on its last leg in Odisha with Balsore to be its last stop in the state after the halt in the city. The train touched Koraput, Kantabanji, Balangir, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Angul, Cuttack and Ganjam during its Odisha sojourn.
The train, which was flagged off in the second week of January from New Delhi as part of the third edition of HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, arrived in Odisha on June 20 during its nationwide journey of 23 states, covering 162 halt stations.
The special train has six coaches. While three coaches are dedicated to an exhibition on HIV/AIDS, the fourth coach exhibits information on tuberculosis, malaria, reproductive and child health services, general health and hygiene.
HIV/AIDS, Sambalpur News
Samsung Expects...
Samsung on Tuesday said persistent macroeconomic uncertainty will make for a tough first half year as the world's biggest maker of memory chips and smartphones reported a 69 percent plunge in fourth-quarter profit, its lowest quarterly profit since 2014. Consumer demand for electronic devices has dropped as clients spend less in a weak economy, dragging down memory ch...
Multiple Benefits Of Sleeping Under A Weighted Blanket That Should Not Be Overlooked
In case you have not gotten a good night's sleep this winter, get hold of a weighted blanket immediately and you will see the change- | slim_pajama |
Is there a general consensus on the causes of the alpha-effect?
There have been various explanations posited for the [α-effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_effect). The α-effect refers to a phenomenon wherein nucleophiles with lone pairs on atoms adjacent (i.e., in the α- position) to the atom bearing the reacting lone pair sometimes exhibit dramatically higher reactivity than similar nucleophiles without α-electrons. This effect is especially adduced when no associated increase in Brønsted basicity occurs. For example, hydroperoxide ($\ce{HOO-}$) experimental reaction rate constants are orders of magnitude greater[1] those of hydroxide ($\ce{HO-}$) with various electrophilic substrates, despite the former exhibiting lower Brønsted basicity. There is also a thermodynamic α-effect, in which equilibrium constants are enhanced[2]. It is currently on the [list of unsolved problems in chemistry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_chemistry) on Wikipedia, but, due to a lack of references to that effect, I'm not entirely convinced it really should be listed there. Here's the summary of my research on the topic thus far:
* I read Ren, Y. & Yamataka, H.[3], *"The alpha-effect in gas-phase SN2 reactions revisited"*. In it, they claim that explanations based on ground-state destabilization (presumably due to repulsion between the electrons of the nucleophilic atom and the α-electrons) are not correct. Their reasoning is that this would result in a difference in the $\Delta G$ between reactants and products, leading to thermodynamic equilibrium effects. They argue that a correct explanation should be one exclusively involving stabilization of the transition state (i.e., minimization of $\Delta G^{\ddagger}$), and go on to offer some explanation for how this may occur (along with experimental data). Intuitively, their conclusion seems reasonable to me, and it also (at least to my naive comprehension) seems eminently testable. I don't know whether equilibrium effects consistent with ground-state destabilization have actually been observed or not; however, if they haven't, shouldn't that put the nail in the coffin of that theory? Or is it simply that the authors are searching for a purely kinetic α-effect, so that a distinction between a thermodynamic one needs to be made?
* Fleming devotes a section to the effect in his book, *Molecular Orbitals and Organic Chemical Reactions*. He notes that the presence of the α-lone pair should raise the energy of the HOMO of the nucleophile, but also points that experimental results don't correlate sufficiently well with the HOMO energies of various α-nucleophiles. In particular, certain soft electrophiles (per HSAB theory), such as alkyl halides, apparently show an anomalous low preference for α-nucleophiles. In the context of SET mechanisms, Fleming says that the higher energy of the HOMO and the availability of α-electrons (which can stabilize a radical intermediate) ought to have a highly favorable effect on the rate of reaction, and notes that experimental results have borne this out. My interpretation of this is that, while the picture is perhaps murky for anionic mechanisms, transition-state stabilization clearly seems to be operative in SET mechanisms.
I've also read the original 1962 paper by Pearson and Edwards[4], which also largely argued for transition-state stabilization as the primary explanatory mechanism.
Overall, from my reading thus far, it seems that transition-state stabilization has been most consistently invoked and has the largest wealth of evidence and the most plausible arguments supporting it. What I'd like to ask is, **(a)** are there flaws in my reasoning or understanding of the material, and **(b)** is this truly a fundamentally unsolved problem, or is there actually some emerging consensus among experts?
---
**Notes and References**
1. Fleming provides a small table with relative rates ($k\_\mathrm{rel} = k\_{\ce{HOO-}}/k\_{\ce{HO-}}$) in his book. For example, he gives $k\_\mathrm{rel} \approx 10^5$ for reaction with $\ce{PhCN}$ and $k\_\mathrm{rel} \approx 50$ for $\ce{PhCH2Br}$, while $k\_\mathrm{rel} \approx 10^{-4}$ for reaction with $\ce{H3O+}$. The rate of reaction correlates in the expected way with Brønsted basicity only in the case of proton transfer.
2. Again, citing Fleming, he gives the example of the reaction of *N*-acetylimidazole with hydroxylamines, in which both rate and equilibrium constants are positively affected. Qualitatively, he explains this by noting that the α-electrons raise the energy of the lone pair conjugated to the π-system, making overlap of said lone pair with the π\* LUMO more effective. Additionally, he claims *both* ground-state stabilization and transition-state destabilization as being factors in the reduced electrophilicity of oximes and hydrazones relative to (most) other standard imines.
3. Ren, Y.; Yamataka, H. The α-Effect in Gas-Phase SN2 Reactions Revisited. *Org. Lett.* **2006,** *8* (1), 119–121. [DOI: 10.1021/ol0526930](https://doi.org/10.1021/ol0526930).
4. Edwards, J. O.; Pearson, R. G. The Factors Determining Nucleophilic Reactivities. *J. Am. Chem. Soc.* **1962,** *84* (1), 16–24. [DOI: 10.1021/ja00860a005](https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00860a005).
I am not a kineticist, and my quantum chemistry is long, long out of date, but what I was about to say was that I'd guess the reason the "effect" is "unsolved" is that it's not real.
That is, it is **not** a property of a single reactant while disregarding its environment (gas phase, solvent interactions). Then I saw that the two recent articles both were about solvation, so my comment is redundant (and certainly only a partially/inadequately educated guess). I'd also comment that comparing $\ce{HO-}$ with $\ce{HOO-}$ is apples and oranges. You should compare it with a species with an alpha atom which is electronegative but doesn't have a lone pair.
If it doesn't really have a published DFT model, then it might be good for an MS student to work on. I suspect answering it is like "curing cancer", it doesn't have just one 'reason', rather the cures depend on the exact nature of the reaction (including solvation).
| stackexchange/chemistry |
_ lisa _ pathfinder ( _ lpf _ ) is a science and technology demonstrator programmed by the european space agency ( _ esa _ ) within its _ lisa _ mission activities @xcite .
_ lisa _ ( laser interferometer space antenna ) is a joint _ esa - nasa _ mission which will be the first low frequency ( milli - hz ) gravitational wave detector , and also the first space - borne gravitational wave observatory .
_ lpf _ s payload is the _ lisa _ technology package ( ltp ) , and will be the highest sensitivity geodesic explorer flown to date .
the ltp is designed to measure relative accelerations between two test masses ( tm ) in nominal free fall ( geodesic motion ) with a noise budget of @xmath0 \frac{\rm{m\ ; s}^{-2}}{\sqrt{\rm hz } } \label{eq.0}\ ] ] in the frequency band between 1 mhz and 30 mhz @xcite .
noise in the _ ltp _ arises as a consequence of various disturbances , mainly generated within the spacecraft itself , which limit the performance of the instrument .
a number of these disturbances are monitored and dealt with by means of suitable devices , which form the so - called _ diagnostics subsystem _ @xcite . in _ lpf _ , this includes thermal and magnetic diagnostics , plus the radiation monitor , which provides counting and spectral information on ionizing particles hitting the spacecraft
. the magnetic diagnostics system will be the subject of our attention here .
one of the most important functions of the ltp magnetic diagnostics is the determination of the magnetic field and its gradient at the positions of the tms . for this , it includes a set of four tri - axial fluxgate magnetometers , intended to measure with high precision the magnetic field at the positions they occupy in the spacecraft see figure [ fig.1 ] .
their readouts do not however provide a direct measurement of the magnetic field at the positions where the tms are , and an interpolation method must therefore be implemented to calculate it . in the circumstances we face ,
this is a difficult problem , mostly because the magnetometers layout is such that they are too distant from the locations of the tms compared with the typical scales of the distribution of magnetic sources in the satellite .
its solution is however imperative since magnetic noise can be as high as 40% of the total budget @xcite given by eq .
( [ eq.0 ] ) , and hence it must be properly quantified . ] in order to design a suitable interpolation scheme , information on the actual distribution of magnetic sources is necessary .
data from the spacecraft manufacturer ( eads astrium stevenage , uk ) have kindly been handed to us @xcite for this purpose . according to these data ,
magnetic sources can be characterized as magnetic dipoles , whose positions are known and whose magnetic moments are only known in modulus not in orientation .
most of these dipoles are associated to electronic boxes , with a few genuinely magnetic elements .
an exception to this rule is the solar panels , which cover the entire spacecraft and can hardly be considered as a dipole as seen by the magnetometers .
they are however designed so that their cells are arranged to minimize magnetic effects by having their rim wires wound contiguous and in opposite senses .
astrium data are based on system design , so validation with the real spacecraft must be done by means of experiment , which is of course included in the planned activities before launch .
actually , though , the structure of the magnetic source distribution and their properties will not be directly visible either to the magnetometers or to the interpolation algorithms , which will just work with magnetic field values no matter how they are generated .
nevertheless , we think that the information available so far , though not final , qualifies very well as a guide to the elaboration of a magnetic model which will be needed to define and verify the performance of the analysis algorithms which will eventually be applied to the data delivered by the satellite in flight . in this paper we will make use of the dipole model of the sources to assess the performance of two different types of interpolation methods : multipole interpolation and neural network algorithms .
the first is the more immediate one to try , but as we will show below it is not as efficient as one might expect _ a priori_. to overcome this problem we propose a novel method , based on neural networks .
based on the results obtained with the same dipole source model , our solution looks promising since the errors of the interpolated fields and gradients are significantly smaller than those obtained with the multipole approach .
the paper is structured as follows . in sect .
[ chap.2 ] we provide a general description of the problem .
it follows sect .
[ chap.3 ] , where we discuss the multipole interpolation , whereas in sect .
[ chap.4 ] we explain our neural network approach .
the results of applying this algorithm are presented in sect .
[ chap.5 ] , while in sect .
[ chap.6 ] we summarize our major findings and we draw our conclusions .
magnetic noise in the _ ltp _ is allowed to be a significant fraction of the total mission acceleration noise : @xmath1ms@xmath2hz@xmath3 can be apportioned to magnetism , i.e. , 40% of the total noise , 3@xmath410@xmath5ms@xmath2hz@xmath3 , see eq .
( [ eq.0 ] ) .
this noise occurs because the residual magnetization and susceptibility of the tms couple to the surrounding magnetic field , giving rise to a force @xmath6{\bf b}\right\rangle v \label{eq.1}\ ] ] in each of the tms . in this expression * b * is the magnetic field in the tm , @xmath7 and * m * are its magnetic susceptibility and density of magnetic moment ( magnetization ) , respectively , and @xmath8 is the volume of the tm ; @xmath9 is the vacuum magnetic constant , @xmath10mkgs@xmath2a@xmath2 ) , and @xmath11 indicates tm volume average of the enclosed quantity .
moreover , the magnetic field and its gradient randomly fluctuate in the regions occupied by the test masses , thus resulting in a randomly fluctuating force : @xmath12{\bf b}+ \frac{\chi}{\mu_0}\,\left[\delta{\bf b}{{\mbox{\boldmath${\cdot}\/$}}}{{\mbox{\boldmath${\nabla}\/$}}}\right]{\bf b } \right\rangle v \label{eq.2}\ ] ] where @xmath13 represents the fluctuation of the magnetic field , and @xmath14 stands for the fluctuation of the gradient @xcite
. quantitative assessment of magnetic noise in the _ ltp _ clearly requires real - time monitoring of the magnetic field , which in _ lpf _ is done by means of a set of four tri - axial fluxgate magnetometers @xcite .
these devices have a high - permeability magnetic core , which drives a design constraint to keep them somewhat far from the tms .
the price to be paid for this is that the measured field is not directly useful ( we need to know it at the positions of the tms ) .
hence , a procedure to estimate it at these positions , based on the data delivered by the magnetometers , must be set up .
as previously mentioned , the sources of magnetic field are essentially electronics boxes plus a few genuinely magnetic components inside the spacecraft .
the interplanetary magnetic field is orders of magnitude weaker , hence of little relevance to the effects considered here , and solar panel effects will not be considered see section [ chap.1 ] .
there are no sources of magnetic field inside the _ ltp _ core assembly ( _ lca _ ) , all being placed outside its walls .
the number of astrium identified sources is around 40 , and can be modeled as point magnetic dipoles @xcite .
figure [ fig.2 ] gives an overview of the geometry , see caption for details . ]
perhaps the most immediate ( and obvious ) procedure to interpolate the magnetic field is to resort to its multipole structure .
this is known to be the best option in some mathematical sense @xcite .
consequently , we first describe the details of its implementation , and then we assess its practical merit .
we will treat the _
lca _ region as a vacuum .
this is a reasonable hypothesis , as the materials inside it are essentially non - magnetic .
accordingly , the magnetic field has zero divergence and rotational : @xmath15 since @xmath16 , we thus have @xmath17 where @xmath18 is a scalar function .
additionally , since @xmath19=0 , too , it immediately follows that @xmath18 is a harmonic function , or @xmath20 the solution to this equation can be expressed as an orthogonal series of the form @xmath21 where @xmath22 are the spherical coordinates of the field point * x * , whose origin is by ( arbitrary ) convention assumed in the geometric center of the _ lca_. equation ( [ eq.7 ] ) could also contain terms proportional to @xmath23 , but these have been dropped because the field can not diverge at the center of the _ lca_. actually , the expansion of eq .
( [ eq.7 ] ) is only valid in a region interior to the closest field source . finally , the coefficients @xmath24 , which will be called multipole coefficients in the sequel , depend on the sources of magnetic field . to obtain the field components we take the derivative of eq .
( [ eq.7 ] ) following eq .
( [ eq.5 ] ) : @xmath25 \label{eq.9}\ ] ] according to standard mathematics , the coefficients @xmath24 can be fully determined if the magnetic field is known at the boundary of the volume where the field equations are considered , in this case the _ lca_.
this data is of course not available to us , since we only know * b * in four points of the boundary , where the magnetometers are .
therefore the question we need to address is : how many terms of the series can we possibly determine on the basis of the limited information available ? or , equivalently , how many multipole coefficients can we estimate , given the magnetometers readout data ?
then , also , to which accuracy can we estimate the actual magnetic field after the maximum number of multipole coefficients have been calculated ?
the answer to the first question above is actually not difficult : let us assume that the series in eq .
( [ eq.9 ] ) is truncated after a maximum multipole index value @xmath26=@xmath27 . the estimated field , @xmath28 ,
is then given by : @xmath29 \label{eq.10}\ ] ] the number of terms in this sum is @xmath30 which obviously equals the number of multipole coefficients needed to evaluate the sum .
for example , we have @xmath31=8 and @xmath32=15 . on the other hand ,
the number of magnetometer data channels is 12 three channels per magnetometer , as the devices are tri - axial .
this means we can not push the series beyond the quadrupole ( @xmath26=2 ) terms .
this means that since we only have 12 data channels we have some redundancy to determine the first eight @xmath24 coefficients up to @xmath26=2 , though we also lack information to evaluate the next seven octupole terms .
are actually complex numbers , which may mislead one into inferring that actually fewer can be calculated .
this is however not so because of the symmetry @xmath24=@xmath33 , which ensures that @xmath34 is actually a real number . ] in order to make a best estimate of the @xmath24 , a least - square method is set up as follows .
firstly , we define a quadratic error : @xmath35 where @xmath36 is the real magnetic field and the sum extends over the number of magnetometers , situated at positions @xmath37 ( @xmath38=1, ,4 ) .
we then find those values of @xmath39 which minimize the error : @xmath40 once this system of equations is solved , the estimated coefficients @xmath24 are replaced back into eq .
( [ eq.10 ] ) and then the spatial arguments * x * substituted by the positions of each test mass to finally obtain the interpolated field values . this process needs to be repeated for each instant @xmath41 of time at which measurements are taken , thereby generating the magnetic field time series .
the gradient is estimated by taking the derivatives of eq .
( [ eq.10 ] ) : @xmath42 \label{eq.14}\ ] ] it is to be noted that eq .
( [ eq.10 ] ) is a polynomial of degree @xmath43@xmath441 in the space coordinates @xmath45 , hence its degree equals 1 when @xmath27=2 . since this is the most we can get of the magnetometer readout channels , the multipole expansion is actually equivalent to a _ linear _ interpolation of the field between its values at the boundary of the _ lca _ and its interior .
we may therefore not expect this method to produce excellent results , simply because the magnetic field inside the _ lca _ is weaker than at its boundaries , the reason being that the magnetic field sources are outside the _
lca_. this valley structure of the magnetic field needs at least octupole ( quadratic ) terms to be approximated , but this would require at least one more vector magnetometer , which is not available . by the same argument , the field gradient can only be approximated by a _
constant _ value throughout the _ lca _ see eq .
( [ eq.14 ] ) . in order to have a quantitative idea of the actual performance of the above interpolation scheme , we make use of the source dipole model .
it has the following ingredients and assumptions : 1 .
the sources of magnetic are point dipoles outside the _ lca_. 2 .
the sources are those identified by astrium stevenage , as already mentioned , whose positions in the s / c are known .
the set itself , as well as the source magnetic parameters need to be updated , but the data used ( which date back to november 2006 ) qualifies to verify the performance of the interpolation methods . 3 . the magnetic field created by the dipole distribution at a generic point * x * and time @xmath41 is therefore given by @xmath46\,{\bf n}_a - { \bf m}_a(t)}{\left|{\bf x}-{\bf x}_a\right|^3 } \label{eq.15}\ ] ] where * n*@xmath47= @xmath48/@xmath49 are unit vectors connecting the the @xmath50-th dipole * m*@xmath47 with the field point * x * , and @xmath51 is the number of dipoles .
fluctuations of the dipoles , both in modulus and direction , are unknown , but this is not essential to assess the numerical performance of the algorithm .
we aim to compare interpolated magnetic field results with exact ones within the context and scope of the above model . to artificially simulate several possible scenarios
, we will take advantage of the uncertainties in the source dipole orientations to randomly generate different magnetic field patterns , which we intend to reconstruct based on the multipole expansion . more specifically
, the procedure is the following one : 1 .
each dipole has a known fixed position in the spacecraft , and a fixed modulus , also known .
the number of magnetic dipoles is also fixed to 37 , which is the number in astrium s list .
the orientations of the dipoles are instead unknown .
an example scenario is characterized by a specific selection of the 37 dipole orientations .
3 . in order to explore the behavior of the algorithm ,
a batch of examples are examined , each corresponding to a randomly generated set of dipole orientations .
4 . in each case , eq . ( [ eq.13 ] ) is solved for @xmath39 , and the field estimate at each tm is then calculated with eq .
( [ eq.10 ] ) . in the last step , the result
is compared with the theoretical one given in eq .
( [ eq.15 ] ) , and the differences annotated .
5 . finally , a statistical analysis of the differences ( errors ) is done .
the random character of the procedure may seem unrealistic , since the actual satellite configuration is not random . in this context
, however , randomness is an efficient way of mimicking lack of knowledge .
as we will see in the next section , numerical analysis based on this methodology sheds much light on the merits of the interpolation procedure as it will also be the case when we come to neural networks performance in section [ chap.5 ] .
is the direction between the two tms , and @xmath52 is in the `` horizontal '' plane , which in the plot is at the tms centres of mass altitude .
left panels : moduli of the magenetic field .
the top panel displays the exact one , and the bottom one shows its multipole estimate .
right panels : same as in the left panels , but for one of the field components ( @xmath53 ) .
the modulus of the magnetic field shows a complex structure in the central area , while @xmath54 has a saddle structure there see along the diagonals of the frame graph .
the red dots mark the centers of the tms , and the black triangles the positions of the magnetometers .
[ fig.2.1],title="fig : " ] is the direction between the two tms , and @xmath52 is in the `` horizontal '' plane , which in the plot is at the tms centres of mass altitude .
left panels : moduli of the magenetic field .
the top panel displays the exact one , and the bottom one shows its multipole estimate .
right panels : same as in the left panels , but for one of the field components ( @xmath53 ) .
the modulus of the magnetic field shows a complex structure in the central area , while @xmath54 has a saddle structure there see along the diagonals of the frame graph .
the red dots mark the centers of the tms , and the black triangles the positions of the magnetometers .
[ fig.2.1],title="fig : " ] + is the direction between the two tms , and @xmath52 is in the `` horizontal '' plane , which in the plot is at the tms centres of mass altitude .
left panels : moduli of the magenetic field .
the top panel displays the exact one , and the bottom one shows its multipole estimate .
right panels : same as in the left panels , but for one of the field components ( @xmath53 ) .
the modulus of the magnetic field shows a complex structure in the central area , while @xmath54 has a saddle structure there see along the diagonals of the frame graph .
the red dots mark the centers of the tms , and the black triangles the positions of the magnetometers .
[ fig.2.1],title="fig : " ] is the direction between the two tms , and @xmath52 is in the `` horizontal '' plane , which in the plot is at the tms centres of mass altitude .
left panels : moduli of the magenetic field .
the top panel displays the exact one , and the bottom one shows its multipole estimate .
right panels : same as in the left panels , but for one of the field components ( @xmath53 ) .
the modulus of the magnetic field shows a complex structure in the central area , while @xmath54 has a saddle structure there see along the diagonals of the frame graph .
the red dots mark the centers of the tms , and the black triangles the positions of the magnetometers .
[ fig.2.1],title="fig : " ] + in this section we summarise the most relevant results of the analysis of the multipole interpolation method .
we use a batch of 1000 example scenarios such as described above .
magnetic moment orientations were chosen by randomly picking values of the two defining spherical angles @xmath55 from two independent uniform distributions .
figure [ fig.2.1 ] graphically represents a magnetic field map in the _ lca _ region corresponding to an arbitrarily chosen example out of the 1000 considered .
the valley structure is very clear in the @xmath56 plot , while the @xmath54 component shows a saddle shape see figure caption .
@xmath57 and @xmath58 show qualitatively similar forms , and thus we do not show them .
the elliptical forms in the estimate of @xmath56 are due to the quadratic combination of the field components .
the estimate of @xmath54 shows instead a linear structure , with constant gradient in all directions .
naked eye inspection immediately reveals a poor resemblance between estimated and exact quantities , but let us elaborate some numerical data . component .
they are reported in percentage .
colors correspond to each of the _ ltp _ tms , respectively .
inset values of @xmath59 indicate the rms half - width of the distributions .
solid lines are gaussian fits to the histograms .
[ fig.3.1],title="fig : " ] component .
they are reported in percentage .
colors correspond to each of the _ ltp _ tms , respectively .
inset values of @xmath59 indicate the rms half - width of the distributions .
solid lines are gaussian fits to the histograms .
[ fig.3.1],title="fig : " ] figure [ fig.3.1 ] displays the binned distribution of estimation errors , defined by @xmath60 where we have used a denominator @xmath61 in @xmath62 to avoid meaningless infinities when @xmath54 is close to zero .
@xmath57 and @xmath58 show similar trends and are not displayed . as can be seen , errors average to zero , but have rms deviations well above 100% .
even worse , outliers are significant , as can be seen in table [ tab : table1 ] , where averaged absolute values over the 1000 simulated cases are displayed . except ,
obviously , for the modulus error , we are around 500% , but detailed examination of individual data further shows that errors as high as 2000% eventually happen .
.[tab : table1]averaged absolute value of the estimation errors in the components of the magnetic field and of its modulus .
they are reported in relative percent . [
cols="<,^,^",options="header " , ] in table [ tab : table2 ] we present a statistical comparison of the properties of the distribution of interpolated magnetic fields .
for the sake of conciseness we only list the statistical properties of the interpolated modulus and @xmath63-component of the magnetic field .
in particular , we show the standard deviation ( @xmath59 ) of the interpolating errors for both the multipole interpolation and the neural network estimate , the skewness of the distribution ( @xmath64 ) and the corresponding kurtosis ( @xmath65 ) . clearly , and as already mentioned , the interpolating errors are very large for the case in which a multipole interpolating scheme is used , as clearly shown by the very large standard deviation obtained when using this method . also interesting to note
is that for the case of the @xmath63-component of the magnetic field both methods yield distributions which are almost symmetrical .
however this is not the case for the modulus of the magnetic field when the multipole interpolating method is used .
finally , the kurtosis of the multipole interpolation is very large , revealing a large number of outliers .
all in all , a look at table [ tab : table2 ] reveals that the neural network method presents much better statistical properties than the multipole interpolation .
the magnetic diagnostics sensor set in the ltp is such that to infer the magnetic field and gradient at the positions of the tms based on the readouts of the magnetometers is far from simple .
the more standard interpolation scheme , based on a multipole expansion of the magnetic field inside the _ lca _ volume , can not go beyond quadrupole order which , in practice , means that just a linear approximation can be done , due to the reduced number of magnetometers available .
this grossly fails to produce reliable results , with errors exceedingly large .
this has motivated our search for better alternatives .
artificial neural networks have been presented as a more elaborate , non - linear procedure to estimate the required field values at the tm positions . in this paper
we have presented results which very significantly improve the performance of the multipole expansion technique by almost two orders of magnitude .
this a very encouraging outcome which points to the use of the neural networks as the baseline tool to analyse _ ltp _ magnetic data .
one of the main problems of using the neural network to assess the magnetic field at the positions of the test masses is to find a training process adequate to the set of data that the magnetometers will deliver in flight .
this underlines the need to characterize on ground to our best ability the magnetic field distribution across the _ lca _ for as many as possible foreseeable working conditions , both regarding dc and fluctuating values .
reliable information on this is essential for a meaningful assessment of magnetic noise in the _ ltp_. however , the neural network analyses presented in this paper only apply to static fields .
what they actually show is that neural networks work very well ( @xmath6610% accuracies ) no matter which the source dipole configuration is .
a different issue , which is beyond the scope of this paper and it is currently under investigation , is how to deal with time series of magnetometer readouts , which is of course the kind of data the satellite will transmit to ground .
features such as trends , field fluctuations, will likely happen during mission operations , and the neural network algorithm must be trained to properly deal with them .
preliminary results indicate that the network is able to deal with moderate trends and levels of fluctuations , but further effort is needed to explore alternatives , e.g. self - adaptability , which will make more robust the performance of the system . | arxiv |
When two plane mirror are inclined at 60° to each other?
How many images will be formed? In the case above I think 5 images will be form. But how can I exactly find out the number of images if the inclination angle is different. Is there any formula or it is just we have to draw a ray diagram for this purpose?
Yes there is a formula for this
$$N=\frac{360}{A}-1$$
where $N$ is no: of images formed and $A$ is the angle
Hope this will be helpful
Plane mirrors are inclined to each so as to produce many or multiple images.Theatre Art makes use of this on stage.[formular for finding the number of images formed when plane mirrors are incline is given as\_N0=360-1/the angle¤]
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BY9ST.png)
i hope this diagram will make it more clear along with the above given formula.
| stackexchange/physics |
astrophysical discs composed of ionized gases accrete toward a central object because subject to the magnetorotational instability ( mri ) ( balbus & hawley 1991 ) , which induces transport of angular momentum outwardly . extended zones of protoplanetary discs are , however , scarcely ionized ( gammie 1996 ) . in these regions
the mri drive is absent and other instabilities of hydrodynamical nature must be active in order to explain the process of planet formation . among various candidates the strongest are the vertical shear instability ( vsi ) and the subcritical baroclinic instability ( sbi ) .
the vsi is a linear process studied first in differentially rotating stars ( goldreich & schubert 1967 ; fricke 1968 ) and then investigated in discs linearly by urpin ( 2003 ) and nonlinearly by nelson , gressel & umurhan ( 2013 ) .
urpin s analysis investigates quite generally the local stability of a fully stratified and thermally diffusing disc in the presence not only of vertical shear but also of convection ( radial and vertical ) .
its treatment provides a unified axisymmetric dispersion relation for all the aforementioned processes .
the sbi ( klahr & bodenheimer 2003 ; lesur & papaloizou 2010 ) is of non - linear nature and was recently related to a linear growth mechanism ( klahr & hubbard 2014 ; lyra 2014 ) , denominated convective overstability , capable of amplifying small disturbances to finite perturbations , the seeds from which the sbi developes .
convective overstability is a radial convective instability arising in the presence of thermal relaxation ( or thermal diffusion ) when the radial richardson number , @xmath5 , is negative and for vertical wavelengths much shorter than the radial ones . here
we will first discuss the convective overstability in the context of the general theory of urpin ( 2003 ) .
we will show that the dispersion relation of klahr & hubbard ( 2014 ) is the branch of the dispersion relation of urpin ( 2003 ) in the regime @xmath6 ( @xmath7 and @xmath8 are the vertical and radial wavenumbers respectively ) . as well
the growth rates are essentially the same .
the difference between the thermally diffusing model of urpin ( 2003 ) and the thermally relaxing model of klahr & hubbard ( 2014 ) stays in the fact that in the latter the growth rates are independent of the perturbations wavelengths , whereas in the first one perturbations with intermediate wavelengths grow fastest .
the main focus of this paper is the investigation of the branch of the dispersion relation of urpin ( 2003 ) corresponding to @xmath9 and @xmath10 .
we will show that in this sector , even for radial and vertical stratifications with @xmath2 and @xmath3 , the disc can become unstable when the ratio @xmath11 is significantly larger or smaller than @xmath12 ( @xmath13 and @xmath14 are the radial and vertical entropy lenght scales respectively ) .
the origin of this slightly counterintuitive behaviour stays in the hybrid richardson number @xmath15 $ ] . in order to provide a tangible realization of this instability and to connect these linear results to recent nonlinear simulations we present an equilibrium , with temperature profile function of both radial and vertical coordinates , for which the disc has vertical stratification with @xmath3 and where the destabilization mechanism here described occurs . for such equilibria
we determine the contours in the @xmath16 plane where the instability developes .
the growth rates , which in general vary greatly along the contours , are as well determined at some representative locations both in the case of thermal diffusion and of thermal relaxation .
the configuration considered generalizes the equilibria studied in nelson , gressel and umurhan ( 2013 ) , which were either vertically isothermal ( i.e. @xmath17 , where @xmath18 denotes temperature ) or vertically isentropic ( i.e. @xmath19 ) , to an equilibrium where @xmath20 and @xmath21 .
our equilibrium should , however , be viewed more as a proof of concept for the instability mechanism here presented than as an attempt to a detailed description of a protoplanetary disc .
the local stability of a baroclinic disc with full stratification and in the presence of thermal diffusion was studied in full generality by urpin ( 2003 ) .
we reformulate here his analysis along the lines of volponi ( 2014 ) .
we start from the shearing sheet equations @xmath22 @xmath23 @xmath24 where @xmath25 , @xmath26 and @xmath27 are density , pressure and temperature , @xmath28 is the equilibrium temperature , @xmath29 is the fluid velocity , @xmath30 is a measure of the fluid entropy , @xmath31 is the adiabatic index , @xmath32 is the local rotation frequency , @xmath33 is the shear parameter ( @xmath34 for keplerian rotation ) and @xmath35 is the thermal diffusion coefficient .
the term @xmath36 is the coriolis term , @xmath37 is the tidal expansion of the effective potential and @xmath38 is the vertical gravitational acceleration .
the equations are expressed in terms of the pseudo - cartesian coordinates @xmath39 , @xmath40 and @xmath41 ( @xmath42 and @xmath43 are reference radius and angle ) .
+ the disc consists of an ideal gas with equation of state @xmath44 where @xmath45 and @xmath46 are the gas constant and molecular weight respectively .
+ the equilibrium is constrained by the equations @xmath47 and @xmath48\hat{{\mbox{\bf y } } } , \label{eq1.5b}\ ] ] which provide vertical structure and velocity field respectively .
the subscript `` @xmath49 '' denotes equilibrium quantities .
deriving equation ( [ eq1.5a ] ) with respect to @xmath50 , equation ( [ eq1.5b ] ) with respect to @xmath41 and introducing the sound speed @xmath51 , we obtain the following expression for the vertical velocity shear @xmath52 \label{eq1.5c } \\ & = & \hspace{-0.25 cm } \frac{1}{2\omega}\big[\frac{\partial_{z}c_s^2}{\gamma}\big(\frac{\partial_{x}\rho_{\rm e}}{\rho_{\rm e}}+\frac{\partial_{x}c_s^2}{c_s^2}\big)+\frac{\partial_{x}c_s^2}{c_s^2}{{\omega}^2 z}\big ] \nonumber . \ ] ] for discs with equilibrium temperature profiles smooth and symmetric about the midplane ( i. e. depending on @xmath53 rather than @xmath41 ) @xmath54 becomes a function of @xmath53 .
this is due to the linear dependence of the vertical gravity on @xmath41 . in atmospheres , instead , which are modelled with a constant @xmath55 ( goldreich & schubert 1967 ) , @xmath54 is linear in @xmath41 . in this study , by parametrizing the vertical shear with a constant coefficient @xmath56 , we consider velocity equilibria of the type ( volponi 2014 ) @xmath57\hat{{\mbox{\bf y}}}. \label{eq1.6}\ ] ] equation ( [ eq1.6 ] ) is valid overall in atmospheres , while in discs holds at finite altitude , since in the neighborhoods of the midplane @xmath58 . linearizing equations ( [ eq1.1])-([eq1.3 ] ) about the equilibria discussed above , short wavelength axisymmetric eulerian perturbations of the type @xmath59 evolve according to the equations @xmath60 @xmath61 @xmath62 @xmath63 @xmath64 where @xmath65 and @xmath66 is an effective shear rate ( johnson and gammie 2005 ) varying with @xmath50 .
the radial and vertical length scales for pressure , density and entropy are defined by @xmath67 @xmath68 we are interested in the evolution of incompressive perturbations and we work therefore in the boussinesq approximation , which consists in transforming equation ( [ eq1.8 ] ) into an incompressibility condition and in neglecting the pressure terms in equation ( [ eq1.12 ] )
. equations ( [ eq1.8 ] ) and ( [ eq1.12 ] ) become respectively @xmath69 and @xmath70 deriving with respect to time equation ( [ eq1.8b ] ) and then in the expression obtained substituting ( [ eq1.9 ] ) and ( [ eq1.11 ] ) we have @xmath71 .
\label{eq1.20}\end{aligned}\ ] ] by means of equation ( [ eq1.20 ] ) equations ( [ eq1.9])-([eq1.11 ] ) become @xmath72 @xmath73 @xmath74 normalizing time with @xmath75 , velocities with @xmath76 and density with @xmath77 , we obtain for the evolution of the non - dimensional variables @xmath78 , @xmath79 , @xmath80 and @xmath25 the system @xmath81 @xmath82 @xmath83 @xmath84 where @xmath85 , and @xmath86 and @xmath87 is the peclet number .
we introduced , as well , @xmath88 and the richardson numbers @xmath89 @xmath90 and @xmath91 are the brunt - visl frequencies @xmath92 assuming an exponential time dependence of the type @xmath93 for the perturbations , equations ( [ eq1.31])-([eq1.12bb ] ) lead to the following dispersion relation ( urpin 2003 ; volponi 2014 ) @xmath94- \nonumber \\
\frac{k_x k_z}{k^2}\big(2{a_z}+\frac{{l_s}_x}{{l_s}_z}ri_x+ \frac{{l_s}_z}{{l_s}_x}ri_z\big)+\frac{ri_z k_x^2}{k^2}\bigg]+ \nonumber \\
pe^{-1}[2k_z^2(2-\tilde{q})-{2k_x k_z}{a_z}]=0 , \label{eq1.35c}\end{aligned}\ ] ] thermally relaxed models ( klahr & hubbard 2014 ) are essentially equivalent to the above formulation , the only difference being the replacement of the laplacian operator @xmath95 in equation ( [ eq1.3 ] ) with a multiplicative constant @xmath96 where @xmath97 represents the inverse of the thermal time .
this is tantamount to the substitution @xmath98 in equation ( [ eq1.12b ] ) ( urpin 2003 ) or @xmath99 in terms of the non - dimensional quantities in equation ( [ eq1.35c ] ) .
we notice that in klahr & hubbard ( 2014 ) @xmath100 is denoted as @xmath101 . by casting equation ( [ eq1.35c ] ) in the form @xmath102 where @xmath103-\frac{k_x k_z}{k^2}\big(2{a_z}+\nonumber
\\ \frac{{l_s}_x}{{l_s}_z}ri_x+\frac{{l_s}_z}{{l_s}_x}ri_z\big)+\frac{ri_z k_x^2}{k^2}\bigg ] , \nonumber\\ a_0=pe^{-1}[2k_z^2(2-\tilde{q})-{2k_x k_z}{a_z } ] , \label{eq1.35e}\end{aligned}\ ] ] the instability conditions are ( urpin 2003 ) @xmath104 the first and the second of the above inequalities read @xmath105<0 \label{eq1.35instvert}\ ] ] and @xmath106<0 \label{eq1.35instconv}\ ] ] respectively . from ( [ eq1.35instvert ] ) it can be seen that for @xmath107 the discs is subject to the vertical shear instability when @xmath108 and @xmath109 have the same sign , whereas ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) concerns the convective stability of the disc .
volponi ( 2014 ) discussed the combined effect of the vertical shear and vertical convective instabilities finding that the resulting growths are of mixed type in the sense that the growth rate is given by convection whereas the sign of the angular momentum transport is determined by the vertical shear . here
we would like to concentrate on the second of the above conditions and discuss more in detail the convective stability of the disc in different regimes characterized by the relative strength of @xmath5 and @xmath110 .
for each of these regimes we will discuss the limits @xmath111 , @xmath107 and @xmath112 .
here we consider stratifications which are stronger radially than vertically .
+ + @xmath111 : in this limit we are essentially dealing with a two - dimensional disc ( i.e. vertical structure is neglected ) .
the dispersion relation reads @xmath114 + \nonumber \\
pe^{-1}[2k_z^2(2-\tilde{q})]=0 , \label{eq1.35cc}\end{aligned}\ ] ] which is the same relation obtained by klahr and hubbard ( 2014 ) , considering that @xmath115 corresponds to their @xmath116 , @xmath117 for @xmath6 and that there time dependence of perturbations was assumed to be of the form @xmath118 .
the instability condition ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) becomes simply @xmath119 .
+ + @xmath107 : in this case equation ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) becomes @xmath120<0 .
\label{eq1.35instconv2}\ ] ] and a variety of different evolutions are possible in principle depending on the specific values of @xmath5 , @xmath110 , @xmath8 and @xmath7 .
however , if @xmath108 and the product @xmath121 have the same sign , the vertical shear instability dominates .
+ + @xmath10 : the instability condition becomes @xmath122 which can be alternatively expressed as @xmath123<0 .
\label{eq1.35instconv3a}\ ] ] characteristic values of @xmath5 , @xmath110 and @xmath124 in the disc domain can vary greatly with the equilibrium considered .
it is therefore difficult to discuss equation ( [ eq1.35instconv3 ] ) without reference to a specific configuration . if @xmath125 ( i.e. @xmath126 ) , however , ( [ eq1.35instconv3 ] ) simplifies to @xmath127 in the case of @xmath128 instability ensues for @xmath119 when @xmath129 and for @xmath2 when @xmath130 .
+ if @xmath131 , instead , instability occurs for @xmath132 when @xmath2 and for @xmath133 when @xmath119 .
+ if @xmath134 ( i.e. @xmath135 ) instead , equation ( [ eq1.35instconv3 ] ) becomes @xmath136 in ( [ eq1.35instconv3c ] ) @xmath137 has the same role that @xmath124 has in equation ( [ eq1.35instconv3b ] ) and therefore observations analogous to the ones above given pertain .
here we focus on stratifications which are stronger vertically than radially .
+ + @xmath111 : for such perturbations the epiciclic frequency dominates the vertical shear ( see equation ( [ eq1.35instvert ] ) ) and therefore the disc is unstable if @xmath139<0 . \label{eq1.35instconv4}\ ] ] various types of evolutions are possible depending on the specific value of wavenumbers and richardson numbers .
+ + @xmath107 : equation ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) becomes simply @xmath140 . if @xmath108 and the product @xmath121 have the same sign , however , the vertical shear instability drive is present .
this case was discussed in detail in volponi ( 2014 ) . for stable stratification ( i.e. @xmath3 )
we expect an evolution dominated by the vertical shear instability . for unstable stratification instead ( i.e. @xmath140 )
we expect evolutions of mixed types where growth rate is the convective one and the sign of transport is determined by the vertical shear .
+ + @xmath10 : equation ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) reads @xmath141 which can be as well cast in the form @xmath142<0 .
\label{eq1.35instconv5b}\ ] ] this case is formally analogous to the corresponding one discussed in the previous section but with the @xmath50 and @xmath41 coordinates interchanged .
as mentioned there , any discussion of the above condition strongly depends on the particular equilibrium considered .
we will come back in greater detail to equation ( [ eq1.35instconv5 ] ) in section 3 .
+ if @xmath134 ( i.e. @xmath143 ) ( [ eq1.35instconv5 ] ) reduces to @xmath144 in case of positive @xmath121 , for @xmath140 the disc is unstable when @xmath145 and for @xmath3 when @xmath146 . +
if @xmath131 , instead , instability occurs for @xmath147 when @xmath3 and for @xmath148 when @xmath140 .
+ if @xmath125 ( i.e. @xmath149 ) ( [ eq1.35instconv5 ] ) becomes @xmath150 everything stated above about equation ( [ eq1.35instconv6 ] ) holds as well for equation ( [ eq1.35instconv6b ] ) when substituting @xmath151 with @xmath152 .
here we consider radial and vertical stratifications which are comparable .
+ + @xmath111 : the instability condition ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) assumes the simple form @xmath119 .
we are dealing with a two - dimensional disc and the same remarks made for the corresponding case of subsection 2.1 pertain .
+ + @xmath107 : equation ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) becomes simply @xmath140 . in this case , though , the disc is as well vertical shear unstable .
therefore if @xmath3 the vertical shear instability dominates the evolution .
we observed as well that the larger @xmath110 the weaker the vertical shear growth rate . if @xmath140 a mixed type of evolution of the type described in volponi ( 2014 ) follows .
+ + @xmath154 : this is the most interesting subcase for the present study along with the corresponding case of section 2.2 . equation ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) reads : @xmath155 let s discuss in detail the case @xmath156 .
when @xmath2 and @xmath3 the disc is unstable if @xmath157 ( excluding the case @xmath158 ) and stable otherwise .
this is a situation which is possible in a real disc .
it is slightly counterintuitive how a disc with positive radial and vertical richardson numbers can become convectively unstable .
however from equation ( [ eq1.35instconv8 ] ) it can be noticed that the critical term driving the disc to instability is the hybrid richardson number @xmath159 when discs are fully stratified , instability drives arise not only from purely radial and vertical gradients but as well from mixed radial - vertical ones .
+ + when @xmath119 and @xmath140 the disc is unstable if @xmath160 and stable otherwise .
+ + when @xmath2 and @xmath140 we have instability for @xmath130 or @xmath161 .
+ + when @xmath119 and @xmath3 instability occurs for @xmath132 or @xmath162 .
+ + if @xmath163 considerations similar to the ones developed above pertain .
+ the bottom line of the above classification is that if @xmath164 and @xmath165 are comparable the disc is potentially unstable even when @xmath5 and @xmath110 are positive .
these instabilities are just different sectors of equation ( [ eq1.35instconv ] ) . in this section
we revisit what found by urpin ( 2003 ) concerning the growth rate of perturbations .
this will allow us a close comparison with growth rates obtained by klahr & hubbard ( 2014 ) .
+ first of all we simplify the notation . by defining @xmath166 equation ( [ eq1.35c ] ) can be cast in the form @xmath167 with @xmath168 equation ( [ eq1.35csimplified ] ) splits in two relations one for its real part and the other for its imaginary part : @xmath169 and @xmath170 for @xmath171 we can substitute ( [ eq1.35csimplifiedimaginary ] ) in ( [ eq1.35csimplifiedreal ] ) obtaining @xmath172 where @xmath173 in the limit @xmath174 the growth rate @xmath175 is @xmath176 we conclude this subsection noting that by using the prescription @xmath99 we can obtain from equation ( [ eq1.35csimplifiedgrowthratediff ] ) the growth rate pertaining to the thermally relaxed case as @xmath177 where @xmath178 .
equation ( [ eq1.35csimplifiedgrowthraterelax ] ) is just a reformulation of the growth rate derived by urpin ( 2003 ) . in urpin
s analysis the growth rate for the cases @xmath179 and @xmath180 was respectively given in equations ( 30 ) and ( 32 ) of that paper , where @xmath100 was denoted as @xmath181 .
we notice that , in the limit @xmath182 , equation ( [ eq1.35csimplifiedgrowthraterelax ] ) is identical to equation ( 27 ) of klahr & hubbard ( 2014 ) .
+ @xmath183 is almost independent on whether perturbations are of short or long wavelength , whereas @xmath184 decreases for short and long wavelength perturbations with respect to the case @xmath185 .
the classification developed in the previous section is general .
one of the most interesting regimes is that of similar radial and vertical richardson numbers and similar wavenumbers presented in section 2.3 . we have seen that even for stratifications with @xmath2 and @xmath3 the disc can become unstable when @xmath11 is significantly away from 1 . as a rule of thumb for @xmath186
we would expect that @xmath187 and therefore no substantial growth of perturbation should occur .
this was indeed the case when we considered the vertically isothermal disc considered in nelson , gressel & umurhan ( 2013 ) .
no significant difference was found between @xmath188 and @xmath189 when @xmath186 .
as well for the cases @xmath190 and @xmath191 no growth was found for @xmath2 and @xmath3 in the regime of similar wavenumbers . the vertically isentropic profile considered in nelson , gressel & umurhan ( 2013 ) is of scarce interest here since in that case @xmath19 .
however , the above mentioned profiles are somewhat idealized since a realistic disc has both a temperature profile depending on the radial and vertical coordinates and a vertical richardson number different from zero . in the following we consider two types of profiles in which the equilibrium temperature depends on both radial and vertical coordinates .
the first profile is of central interest for the present study and pertains to a disc with @xmath3 .
the second profile describes a disc with @xmath140 and could be useful in the study of the interaction between the vertical convective and the vertical shear instabilities in an hydrodynamic disc .
we consider a profile where the density radial dependence at the midplane is identical to the one of the isothermal equilibrium studied in nelson , gressel & umurhan ( 2013 ) , i.e. @xmath192 where @xmath193 is the midplane density at the representative radius @xmath194 .
temperature , instead , acquires a @xmath41 dependence of the type @xmath195 where @xmath196 is the midplane temperature at @xmath194 . assuming an ideal gas equation of state , equation ( [ eq1.41 ] ) corresponds to @xmath197 where @xmath198 . in the above equations @xmath199 , where @xmath200 is the gravitational constant and @xmath201 is the mass of the central object . solving the equilibrium equations @xmath202 @xmath203 subject to the equations of state ( [ eq1.40 ] ) and ( [ eq1.42 ] ) we obtain the equilibrium density and angular velocity profiles @xmath204\big ) , \label{eq1.44}\end{aligned}\ ] ] @xmath205\bigg\ } , \label{eq1.45}\end{aligned}\ ] ] where @xmath206 is the keplerian angular velocity and @xmath207 a local scale height depending on @xmath208 and @xmath41 . to have a notation consistent with the equilibrium discussed in this section we rename the radial richardson number and length scales in terms of the radius @xmath208 , i. e. @xmath209 @xmath210 keeping in mind that @xmath211 . in this section
we will study contours of the type @xmath212 , where @xmath213 is a real number , for different values of @xmath213 . in fig .
[ axifig:0 ] we show the shape of such contours and how they change with increasing @xmath213 .
= 3.0 in = 2.0 in relative to the cases @xmath214 for profile ( [ eq1.41 ] ) ( @xmath215 and @xmath216 ) . ] in general a contour is composed of lines lying in the proximity of the midplane , from now on denoted as `` internal '' , and lines positioned further out vertically , characterized hereafter as `` external '' .
when @xmath213 is increased the contours tend to shrink both radially and vertically . in the following
we will mainly investigate @xmath212 in the domain @xmath217\times[-20,20]$ ] .
we start our analysis with the case @xmath218 .
we need now to determine the set of points @xmath16 solving the equation @xmath219 and there find the value of the ratio @xmath220 . from the equilibrium equations ( [ eq1.44 ] ) and ( [ eq1.45 ] ) it is straightforward to find the analytical expression of these quantities .
they are reported in appendix .
[ axifig:2 ] shows the graph of @xmath110 .
+ we set @xmath215 and studied the cases @xmath221 , @xmath216 , @xmath222 for a disc of aspect ratio @xmath223 and @xmath224 . in all these cases
the physically relevant part of @xmath219 occurs in the vicinity of the midplane as shown in fig .
[ axifig:1 ] for @xmath216 .
[ axifig:1 ] is a close - up of the upper left contour of fig .
[ axifig:0 ] .
to estimate the vertical velocity shear @xmath108 we make use of eq .
( [ eq1.5c ] ) obtaining the expression @xmath225,\ ] ] which for the contour of fig .
[ axifig:1 ] gives a reference value @xmath226 .
= 3.0 in = 2.0 in for profile ( [ eq1.41 ] ) ( @xmath215 and @xmath216 ) . ] = 3.0 in = 2.0 in near the midplane for profile ( [ eq1.41 ] ) ( @xmath215 and @xmath216 ) . ] along the contour , @xmath110 and @xmath220 in general change . to these different values correspond different growth rates . in table 1
we list the growth rates ( last column ) at @xmath227 relative to the case of thermal diffusion .
similarly table 2 reports growth rates in the case of thermal relaxation .
maximum growth rates ( about @xmath228 ) pertain to values of @xmath229 and closest to 0 ( here we considered always @xmath230 ) .
we notice that at locations symmetric to the ones reported in tables 1 and 2 with respect to the midplane , the ratio @xmath220 assumes opposite values and instability occurs with the same growth rate when @xmath220 and @xmath121 have the same sign .
for instance , in the case of @xmath221 for @xmath231 we have @xmath232 and instability occurs with @xmath233 for @xmath234 .
.growth rates @xmath235 for profile ( [ eq1.41 ] ) along the contour @xmath219 in the case of thermal diffusion for @xmath236 , aspect ratio @xmath237 and vertical shear @xmath238 .
@xmath239 is the common value of @xmath240 and @xmath110 at the @xmath208 and @xmath41 specified [ cols="<,<,<,<,<,<,<,<",options="header " , ] the linear theory therefore predicts inward transport of angular momentum in the external layers of the disc or for larger radii at robust rates and indefinite sign in the interior .
we consider here an equilibrium with midplane density identical to the one discussed in the previous section ( equation ( [ eq1.40 ] ) ) and a temperature profile of the type @xmath241 which corresponds for an ideal gas to @xmath242 solving the equilibrium equations ( [ eq1.43a ] ) and ( [ eq1.43b ] ) we have @xmath243\big ) , \label{eq1.44b}\end{aligned}\ ] ] @xmath244\bigg\}. \label{eq1.45b}\end{aligned}\ ] ] this profile could be useful to study the interaction of vertical shear and vertical convective instabilities . in fig .
[ axifig:5 ] we show the graph of the vertical richardson number corresponding to this equilibrium .
= 3.0 in = 2.0 in for profile ( [ eq1.41b ] ) for @xmath215 and @xmath245 . ]
we described the convective stability of a fully stratified disc .
we have considered the sector of the dispersion relation derived by urpin ( 2003 ) pertaining to the regime @xmath246 and @xmath112 finding that even in the case of @xmath2 and @xmath3 the disc can be destabilized for values of the ratio @xmath247 significantly away from 1 .
we presented as well an equilibrium profile where this condition can be realized .
the instability is very strong in the outer layers or for larger radii with inward transport of angular momentum occurring there , while in internal layers growth is more contained with indefinite sign of @xmath248 .
the overall picture arising is one where an astrophysical disc is potentially teeming with instabilities of different origins .
perturbations with @xmath107 grow due to the vertical shear instability ( urpin 2003 ; nelson , gressel & umurhan 2013 ) or the vertical convective instability ( @xmath140 ) , if present , or a combination of the two ( volponi 2014 ) . on the other side the ones with @xmath111 are subject to growth in zones of the discs where the condition @xmath119 ( urpin 2003 ; klahr & hubbard 2014 ) pertains . for the intermediate regime @xmath112 the disc
can be destabilized owing to the hybrid richardson number @xmath15 $ ] .
one important point concerns the sign of the angular momentum transport associated to linear perturbations .
linear theory predicts outward transport for the vertical shear instability , inward transport for vertical convection and no definite sign for the convective overstability . for the hybrid convective instability here
presented we mentioned above that the sign is either negative or non definite . in the studies of klahr & hubbard ( 2014 ) and lyra ( 2014 )
the convective overstability was identified as the triggering mechanism for the subcritical baroclinic instability . in those studies in the nonlinear regime
the @xmath249 parameter was found to be of order @xmath250 and inducing an outward transport of angular momentum . in this sense
it appears that an inherently nonlinear mechanism is at work in determining the outward direction of the transport , since the sign of @xmath248 is not definite for the convective overstability .
the reynolds stress of linear perturbations , @xmath248 , is usually a good indicator of the direction of the angular momentum transport in the nonlinear regimes .
this happens for the magnetorotational , vertical shear and vertical convective instabilities for which linear and nonlinear reynolds stresses have the same sign , positive for the first two instabilities and negative for the third one .
the ratio @xmath124 plays a central role in the instability mechanism under consideration . in the equilibrium of section 3.1 its scaling for @xmath251
is given with good approximation by @xmath252 at height @xmath253 , @xmath124 increases linearly with @xmath208 , whereas it becomes zero at @xmath254 .
we expect , therefore , @xmath255 at large radii and @xmath256 at the midplane . as well , when @xmath257 we obtain the limits @xmath258 and @xmath259 .
it follows that the midplane is a region where the condition @xmath260 holds .
we conclude by summarizing the three ingredients necessary for the onset of the instability here investigated .
the first is the presence in the disc s domain of surfaces @xmath212 .
the second is a not too small value of the richardson numbers on these surfaces .
finally a ratio @xmath220 significantly away from 1 is required there .
roughly , growth occurs when either @xmath261 or @xmath262 is of order one .
the equilibrium here discussed fullfills the three conditions above specified .
however for a similar equilibrium temperature , i.e. @xmath263^{1/2}$ ] , we noticed that both @xmath261 and @xmath262 are always much smaller than 1 and therefore growth , when present , is weak ( we obtained characteristic growth rates of about @xmath264 for @xmath215 and @xmath222 ) . a sistematic analysis of realistic equilibria which are susceptible to destabilization owing to the hybrid richardson number is a matter which is left open by the present study and which will be worth investigating in the future .
the author is grateful to the reviewer of this paper for suggestions which improved the original manuscript . 99 balbus s. a. , hawley j. f. , 1991 , apj * 376 * , 214 fricke , k. , 1968 , zap * 68 * , 317 gammie , c. f. , 1996 , apj * 553 * , 174 goldreich p. , schubert g. , 1967 , apj * 150 * , 571 johnson b. m. , gammie c. f. , 2005 , apj * 626 * , 978 klahr h. h. , bodenheimer p. , 2003
, apj * 582 * , 869 klahr h. h. , hubbard a. , 2014 , apj * 788 * , 21 lesur g. , papaloizou j. c. b. , 2010 , a&a * 513 * , a60 lyra w. , 2014 , apj * 789 * , 77 nelson r. p. , gressel o. , umurhan , o. m. , 2013 , mnras * 435 * , 2610 urpin v. , 2003 , a&a * 404 * , 397 volponi , f. , 2014 , mnras * 441 * , 813
here we present the formulas for radial and vertical richardson numbers and length scales for the equilibrium of section 3.1 .
we are considering sound speed with dependence of the type @xmath265 where @xmath266 recalling that @xmath30 and that @xmath267 we have @xmath268 @xmath269 for the density profile of equation ( [ eq1.44 ] ) , considering that @xmath270 equations ( [ eqa3 ] ) and ( [ eqa4 ] ) become @xmath271+\frac{q}{\gamma r } , \label{eqa5}\end{aligned}\ ] ] @xmath272 the radial and vertical richardson numbers are easily expressed as @xmath273 we can as well express all the above quantities by means of the nondimensional variables @xmath274 and @xmath275 obtaining @xmath276 , \label{eqa9}\end{aligned}\ ] ] @xmath277 @xmath278 | arxiv |
Home & Away The Last Chance
_I was seeking some CJ nostalgia and I always thought the scene where Charlie and Joey are allowed to see each other again was really sweet, despite Charlie being a big, dirty liar. So, I thought I'd write a little one shot based on that. We'll follow the scene for half of it and then branch off and hopefully see what might have been if this story had played a different way. I hope you like it! Love, IJKS xxx_
**The Last Chance**
Joey Collins sat in the living room at the only place she had been genuinely able to call home in recent years. She hadn't been comfortable in her family house for quite some time now. Lying about who she really was in order to keep her brother onside had been tiring. It had been too much. And although she had been to hell and back twice over with Robbo, at least it had brought Charlie into her life. And Joey was convinced that Senior Constable Charlie Buckton was the single most amazing woman she had ever met. In fact, she wasn't prepared to limit it to gender – she was the most amazing _person_ she'd ever met. And Joey felt extremely lucky to be able to say that she was her girlfriend. Sometimes she had to pinch herself to remember that it was real and she wasn't living in some kind of fantasy land.
It had been a hard road to win the apparently heterosexual Charlie over. She'd saved Joey from a terrible ordeal and their friendship had grown from there. Charlie had taken her into her house, under her wing and into her heart. She'd panicked over falling in love with her at first but when push had come to shove and Joey had basically given her an ultimatum, Charlie had been brave and chosen her. It was either that or Joey would have sailed away from Summer Bay forever and left her behind. But when she'd given her one last chance to be with her, Charlie had taken it. They'd spent hours kissing in Charlie little, blue car, parked up at the beach and eventually, one thing had led to another. They'd gone to a nearby hotel and spent a glorious night consummating their love.
Unfortunately, they'd been forced out of the closet far more quickly than they'd intended. First, Ruby had caught them kissing and after a bit of a temper tantrum, she'd accepted them as a couple. Charlie had continued to struggle and when they'd gone out to dinner with Ruby that night, Joey had been extremely wounded that she'd refused to hold her hand in public. And Charlie had been anxious about spending the night together in Leah's house without her knowing the truth. Then Brett had shown up, drunk and angry, and he'd spilled the beans to Leah. With the secret out, Charlie had been shaken but she'd more than happily taken Joey to bed with her that night. They'd made love again and again and slept soundly in each other's arms.
But yesterday, it had all gone wrong. They'd been having a happy breakfast when Ruby's boyfriend, Xavier Austin had arrived and awkwardly announced that someone had spray-painted 'queer' on Charlie's car. And that had led to a day of hell. Charlie had been humiliated at work, where she'd been giving a talk at Ruby's school and Brett had made a formal complaint against her for taking advantage of a victim whose case she was investigating. Charlie and Joey had both been interviewed and kept apart for the whole night. Joey had unhappily spent the night in the caravan park, thankfully paid for by the police station as they had demanded it. She'd hardly slept and come so close to calling Charlie on so many occasions. But she'd got through it and she'd received the call to say that everything was okay and they were allowed to be together again. Joey had got dressed quickly and tried to do something extra nice with her hair. Then she'd raced over to the house and was now mindlessly watching television, desperately hoping that her girlfriend would be home soon.
* * *
Charlie took a deep breath and walked into the house. She felt sick over what had happened last night. She'd showered for ages and soaped her body so many times but she still felt dirty. She could still feel Hugo Austin on her skin. What the hell had she been thinking? She hadn't been thinking. It had taken so long for her and Joey to finally get together. She could hardly believe that she had thrown it all away at the first hurdle. Over the years, Charlie knew she had made a lot of mistakes, mistakes that she hated herself for. But this was certainly one of the two worst things she had ever done. She was disgusted with herself and she knew that as soon as her beloved girlfriend found out, she would hate her too. Stepping silently through the kitchen, Charlie entered the lounge and paused when she saw Joey, facing away from her, watching TV. But she looked tense, like her mind was elsewhere.
Charlie studied her for a few moments and she wondered if her heart would ever stop leaping whenever she set eyes on her. Joey was definitely the most beautiful person she had ever met, inside and out. And while it was all taking a lot of adjusting, Charlie knew that she had never been happier than she was when she was with Joey. She struggled with the gay label and she hadn't managed to feel comfortable in public, but when they were alone together, Joey brought out a side in Charlie that she'd never seen in herself before. Her heart leapt, she couldn't stop smiling, she was able to tell her over and over again just how in love she was. So, why then, had she done what she did last night? Inside, she shuddered at the memory and her heart broke at the sight of her innocent, beautiful Joey sitting there, oblivious to everything.
Anxiously, Charlie moved further into the room. Joey turned and leapt to her feet in sheer elation when she saw her.
"Hey!" she greeted.
"Hey," Charlie replied softly, accepting Joey happily into her arms.
She hugged her tightly, taking a moment to breathe in her scent and feel their bodies pressed so closely together. Holding on, Charlie hardly wanted to let her go. Maybe they could stay like this forever. Maybe then they would never have to face reality. She still hadn't quite figured out what to do next. Should she tell the truth about her betrayal? Maybe if she was upfront and honest, Joey might be able to find it in her heart to forgive her. She could pass it off as temporary insanity, a blip that they could ignore and move on from. As they drew away from each other, Charlie gazed into Joey's eyes. _She's so beautiful_, she thought lovingly. _How can I ever tell her what I did? I can't bear to be the cause of more pain in her life._
"They rang and told me we were clear to see each other," Joey said, unable to stop smiling.
She let her eyes wander over Charlie. She looked like she'd barely slept and had the weight of the world on her shoulders and yet she was still so stunning. Joey didn't think she'd ever seen a real life person so beautiful before. She was in shorts that revealed her slender, shapely legs and a red, sleeveless top. She had curves in all the right places and Joey hoped she didn't look too lustful. But she'd spent so many weeks wanting but not being allowed to have Charlie that now that they were an item, Joey struggled not to keep touching her. For her part, Charlie gazed lovingly at Joey. She had done something different with her hair and Charlie thought it was particularly pretty and the blue top she was wearing was very flattering.
"It was torture not being able to talk to you last night," Joey said.
Charlie fought images of how she had spent her night. It made her feel sick. She didn't even like Hugo, not in that way. But she'd been so messed up and he'd called her gay. In all her life, she'd never had a problem with gay people but when the word was being flung at her, she hadn't been able to cope. Hugo had been after her for a while and Charlie had needed something, anything to take the pain away. She cursed herself now and wondered how she could ever have gone through with it. If she'd thought she had been in pain last night, it was nothing compared to now.
"Are you okay?" Joey asked worriedly.
She could read the sadness in Charlie's expression and she desperately wanted to take her pain away and she hoped now that they had the go ahead, she'd be successful.
"Yeah," Charlie said, forcing a smile and nodding. "Yeah, good. How about you?"
"Yeah," Joey said. "Just relieved."
They smiled at each other for a moment before Joey took Charlie's hand and pulled her onto the couch. They sat close to each other. Turning her options over and over in her head, Charlie ran a hand through her hair. Was it better to tell the truth or was it better to lie? Perhaps if she kept quiet, Joey would never find out what she had done, although Martha, Brendan and Xavier had all seen her do the walk of shame that morning. All it would take was one person to spill the beans and it would all be over. And would it be fair to build a lasting, loving relationship on a lie? She couldn't bear to hurt Joey but she knew that either way, she would. Her self loathing increased.
"I'll never forgive Brett for what he did," Joey ventured. "You know, you should maybe press charges against him for making a false complaint or something."
Charlie's heart lurched at the idea that Joey would willingly sacrifice her only family for Charlie's sake. _She loves me that much_, she thought to herself. _And I don't deserve it_.
"In his own way, he was just trying to protect you," she said.
She smiled sadly at her girlfriend who shook her head firmly.
"I don't need protecting," she said. "Not from you."
Charlie chewed on her lip so hard that she tasted blood. Joey watched her, full of concern, touching her hand and asking what was wrong. Their eyes met and Joey was startled to see that Charlie was crying.
"Charlie..." she said lovingly, reaching out to stroke her face. "Charlie, it's okay. Everything's okay now."
Charlie shook her head.
"It's not," she squeaked.
"What are you talking about?"
"I've done something terrible..." Charlie said, her voice cracking with emotion. "And I'm so, so sorry. I hate myself. And I know you're going to hate me too. After everything... I can't believe I'm losing you."
She cried harder. Confused and concerned, Joey gathered her into her arms and held her tightly, gently kissing the top of her head. Charlie sank onto the floor, resting on her knees in front of Joey and clinging on tightly.
"Charlie, nothing can be that bad..." she ventured, although she was feeling more than a little unsure.
What could Charlie have done that would cost them their relationship? She tried not to jump to conclusions but it was hard not to panic at what Charlie was telling her. She tilted Charlie's face until they were looking at each other. Charlie gazed longingly into Joey's eyes and took a deep breath.
"I... I... I slept with someone else."
Joey's face fell. She dropped her hands from where she had been holding Charlie, feeling suddenly sick. She sat up a little straighter and stared at her.
"What?" she asked meekly.
"I slept with someone else," Charlie said tearfully, hating to have had to say it once let alone twice.
Joey continued to stare. She licked her lips, trying to process what Charlie was telling her. _How could she betray me like that? I thought she loved me._
"I'm so sorry," Charlie said.
"What... um... what... why? Who?" Joey asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.
"It was Hugo," Charlie said quietly, hanging her head.
Joey leapt up, pushing Charlie away in the process. Charlie continued to weep, gazing up at Joey who was pacing a little.
"Do you love him?" Joey asked.
"No!" Charlie said, getting to her feet and approaching her girlfriend. "I love you!"
"Then why did you do it? Cheating isn't exactly a traditionally method of letting someone know that you love them, Charlie!" Joey said, tears brimming in her own eyes.
"I know. I know. I hate myself for hurting you, Joey. I'm so sorry. I was just so messed up last night..."
"And I wasn't?" Joey exclaimed.
She furiously wiped her eyes.
"I spent the night in a crappy, little caravan, hardly able to sleep because I was missing you so much. I was so worried about you. And I wanted to break the rules and call you but I guess it would have been fruitless anyway. You wouldn't have heard it ring because you were too busy having sex with some guy!"
"I'm sorry."
"You keep saying that but if you were that sorry, you wouldn't have done it in the first place."
"I was a mess," Charlie said again. "I didn't know if I'd ever be allowed to see you again..."
"So you decided to celebrate?"
"No!"
Charlie stepped closer, taking hold of Joey's hands. The younger girl was tempted to pull away. She felt like her world was imploding. But a big part of her just wanted to shake it off, start again and pretend it never happened.
"I love you so much," Charlie said.
"How can you?" Joey asked.
"I know I did the wrong thing. But please, never doubt my feelings for you."
"How can I not?" Joey asked.
"I screwed up," Charlie said. "When you came into my life, you turned my world upside down..."
"So, this is my fault now?" Joey asked coldly, pulling her hands away and shoving them into her pockets.
"No," Charlie replied desperately. "No. Joey, nothing has been your fault. You've done nothing wrong. This whole thing has been me. From the start. We fell for each other and I messed you around so much. I hurt you and I still don't forgive myself for it. And then we tried to make it work and then... with the car and Brett... and it all went wrong. I made the worst mistake of my life. I was being called a lesbian and being accused of being a sexual predator. And I couldn't cope. I did the stupidest, most hurtful thing I could ever have done and I regretted it before it even happened..."
"You did it though," Joey pointed out.
"I did. I did and I'm sorry."
"Did you spend the whole night with him?" Joey asked, her voice hollow and tight.
Charlie nodded her head, full of shame. Joey's lip trembled as she asked her next question.
"Did you like it?"
"No," Charlie replied without hesitation. "I hated it. I hated betraying you. And I hated being with someone who wasn't you. It was awful. It was one of the worst nights of my whole life. Joey, I never want to be with anyone who isn't you. You're the person I love. You're the person I want to be with."
She reached out for Joey again, placing her hands delicately on her hips and searching her eyes.
"Joey, I know what I've done is unforgiveable but... is there any chance that we could...?"
"What?" Joey asked tearfully.
"Please could you try and forgive me?" Charlie begged. "Could we draw a line under it all and start again? For real this time. No more drama. No more hurt. I swear that I will do anything... absolutely anything to make this up to you. Everyone knows now. We can be out and proud. We can be a proper couple. No more hiding. I'll... I'll tell my Dad about us. I'll... I don't know. I'll do anything you want. Please... please give me another chance?"
Joey was shaking a little and she'd long since stopped trying not to cry. She felt like everything that meant anything had been taken away from her. Gazing into Charlie's sorrowful, pleading face, she was torn over what she ought to do and say.
"Please?" Charlie begged.
"I don't know, Charlie," Joey said honestly. "I need some air."
Charlie sank to the floor, her hope collapsing as Joey left the house.
* * *
Joey left the house and almost flew down to the beach. Her head was spinning with the morning's revelations and her heart was breaking all over again. How many times was she going to let Charlie hurt her? She'd denied her feelings in the first instance, then she'd admitted she liked her but told her she couldn't do anything about it. Then they'd finally got together but Joey had been painfully aware that Charlie had been ashamed of her. And now, sleeping with a guy to prove she wasn't gay, only confirmed that Charlie was uncomfortable in a relationship with a woman. _Am I that bad? _Joey thought to herself. _Am I horrible that Charlie really can't bear to love me? _She shook her head in utter desperation. Arriving at the beach, she sank onto the sand and wept. Not caring about what she looked like, she let heaving sobs wrack her body as she tried to wash away all her pain.
* * *
Ruby's head was reeling with the news that Xavier had seen her big sister slipping out of Hugo's room that morning. What was Charlie playing at? One minute she was straight. Then she was making out with female Joey every chance she got. And now she was sleeping with Hugo. It didn't make sense. So, in a bid to find out exactly what was going on, she headed home and found her curled up on her bed, wailing to the point she was struggling for breath. Any anger and sarcasm left Ruby immediately and she perched anxiously on the side of the bed.
"Joey?" Charlie said hopefully, looking up.
Disappointment flooded her as she realised it was Ruby. Mascara streaked her face and she still couldn't stop crying. Ruby put her arm around her and Charlie settled in her embrace.
"I heard about Hugo," the younger girl said, stroking her sister's hair.
Charlie couldn't speak. She just continued to cry.
"Did you tell Joey?" Ruby asked.
"Yes," Charlie nodded. "I don't know if I did right or wrong by telling her but I couldn't lie."
"What did she say?"
"She's hurt," Charlie said. "She feels betrayed. She _has _been betrayed. She left."
"For good, left?" Ruby worried.
For all her flippant remarks and her shock over the fact that Charlie had suddenly switched teams, the truth was that Charlie was happier with Joey than she'd ever been with anyone. Joey worshipped the ground Charlie walked on. She adored her and unlike the Roman's and Angelo's of this world, she was sure that Joey would never treat her badly. She just wished that Charlie had been able to treat her with the same respect.
"I don't know," Charlie said. "I can't believe how stupid I am! I had the most incredible partner. I had someone who loved me for who I am and I just... I've screwed it all up. I've lost her and for what?"
"Why... why did you do it?"
"I was scared that I'd hurt her by dating her when she was in my care," Charlie said weakly. "There was all this talk of me being a sexual predator and abusing her and... Ruby, I love her so much. I've never felt like this about anyone before and I..."
She sighed heavily, still struggling for breath. Sitting up, she wiped her eyes.
"Why did I have to get so fixated on the gay thing?" she asked. "If I'm dating a woman then yeah, I must be a bit gay or bi or... Does it even matter?"
"Not really," Ruby said. "I mean, you knew people were going to gossip but at the end of the day, nobody can help who they fall in love with."
"I've lost her forever," Charlie realised. "She's never going to want to be with me again, is she? She's never going to forgive me for this."
* * *
It was several hours later before Joey finally wound up back at home. Finding the communal areas empty, she braced herself to poke her head around the bedroom door. Her heart broke a little more at the sight of Charlie sprawled out on the bed, her hair in disarray and tear tracks down her cheeks as she slept lightly, looking stressed. _She's always going to be the most beautiful girl I've ever known_, Joey thought to herself. She still felt very conflicted. How could someone so wonderful be so hurtful? The Toni Braxton song 'How Could an Angel Break my Heart?' sprang to mind. She sighed heavily. The sound made Charlie stir. She leapt up in fright and took a few moments to figure out where and who she was. Her eyes found Joey immediately and her heart surged in her chest.
"Joey..." she said, although she had nothing to say after that.
"You've really hurt me," Joey said, still hovering in the doorway. "Every time I think about you and him together, I feel sick. I was in that caravan missing you and fretting about you and you were in bed with Hugo. We... we made a commitment to each other. Didn't we?"
Charlie nodded.
"After everything we went through... all the struggle and pain... nearly losing each other and then finally deciding to make a go of things... It just... it feels like none of it was worth it if you were just going to do this," Joey continued.
"Please, don't say that," Charlie said tearfully. "I know I messed up but the few days we had... that meant something. Didn't it? I could never take that back. I could never wish it didn't happen. Every moment I've spent with you has been incredible."
"Then why did you destroy it?" Joey asked.
"Because I'm an idiot," Charlie said, wiping her eyes. "I finally found the one and then I pushed her away because she wasn't the person I expected her to be."
Joey managed a small smile at the thought that Charlie believed her to be 'the one'.
"I've never met anyone like you before, Charlie," she said. "I remember that first day. You didn't even know me and yet you were so caring. You helped me. And you encouraged me to be strong, to stand up for myself and press charges against the man that I felt had destroyed me. You protected me and you made me feel safe for the first time in years. And even when you messed me around, I kept loving you. I believed that you were worth it. I loved you so much and I was so desperate for you to love me back."
"I do love you," Charlie said, just in case there was any doubt.
"It's going to be a long road to forgiveness," Joey said. "I'm not even sure if I can do it. But I want to try."
Charlie's eyes lit up, hardly daring to hope that she was really being given another chance.
"I want to see if we can make a go of things," Joey said. "For real this time. Like you said. But there have to be a lot of changes."
Charlie stood up, wanting to reach out to her but not wanting to scare her away.
"Anything!" she said eagerly. "I'll do anything you want."
"No more being ashamed of me," Joey told her.
"I was never..."
"No more shame," Joey interrupted. "If people call you gay or whatever, you need to be able to rise above it because let's face it, if you really love me you can't exactly be completely straight, can you?"
Charlie nodded her agreement.
"I will," she said. "I can do that. I can accept that part of me. I can. I will."
"And I don't want to be some dirty little secret. You would never think twice about holding my hand or kissing me in public if I was a guy. I don't want you to think twice about it with me being a girl."
"I won't," Charlie promised. "I'm so happy that I might get the chance to hold you and kiss you again that I swear I'll do it wherever and whenever I can. I promise you. If you'll give me a chance to prove it to you, I'll be whoever you need me to be. I'll do anything."
She inched forward. Joey observed her, twisting her fingers together, still feeling very on edge.
"I want you to be you," she said. "I want you to be the girl who protected me, who accepted her feelings for me, who's willing to stand up for me and our relationship. I want you to be the person I know in private. I want you to be the loving, wonderful, caring woman that I know and love."
Charlie stepped closer and Joey finally reached out and held both her hands. She gazed into her eyes and saw the woman she loved, the woman who had never wanted to hurt her, gazing back.
"You betrayed me by sleeping with Hugo," Joey said. "But I know how bad you feel about it. And I'm so relieved that you told me because I swear, if you'd have lied and kept it from me and I'd found out... I'd be gone. I'd be out of here and so fast and I wouldn't have even said goodbye."
Charlie nodded, still crying.
"But I love you," Joey said. "I've loved you for as long as I've known you and I want to be with you."
Charlie smiled, tears of relief spilling from her eyes. Joey cried and smiled in returned, leaning in closer. Charlie felt overwhelming comfort as Joey held her in her arms. She rested her tired body against Joey's, her heart skipping a beat as Joey's lips brushed against hers. They kissed tenderly, savouring the moment, closing their eyes and losing themselves in each other.
"I love you so much," Charlie managed when they parted but refused to move far away from each other. "I swear that I will make everything up to you. I swear."
Joey nodded and stroked Charlie's face.
"This is our last chance, Charlie," she reminded her.
"I know," Charlie replied. "I know. And I promise you now that I am not going to make a mistake again. I am going to love you like you deserve to be loved. I'm going to be the best girlfriend I could ever be. I don't... well, I feel like a really bad person right now. I feel like a really bad person most of the time..."
Joey stroked her cheek, whispering that she wasn't.
"But you make me a better person," Charlie said honestly. "I feel like I could be someone with you in my life. You make me better. You bring out the best in me. And I want to spend the rest of my life, if you'll let me, proving that you haven't made a mistake by taking me back. I really will do anything to make you happy, Joey."
"You do make me happy," Joey replied softly. "That's the point."
She smiled warmly at her girlfriend, with the same affection she always had, determined to let the previous night go and move on together, towards their future.
End file.
| fanfiction |
What is the uncertainty principle?
I looked on [Wikpedia](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle) for information on the uncertainty principle, but after reading it I still had no idea. I know it has something to do with how many things you can hold at some spot for some amount of time (maybe?). This is inspired by [this question](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/175985/can-we-theoretically-balance-a-perfectly-symmetrical-pencil-on-its-one-atom-tip).
Let's forget physics for a moment and just talk about the mathematics of waves.
The uncertainty principle is a property of waves. Think of a single, narrow pulse traveling along one direction. The pulse is narrow, and so the position of the pulse at any given time is easy to quantify. But this is a single, non-periodic pulse. You can build up such a pulse from a lot of sinusoids, but in doing so, the wavenumber (frequency) of such a pulse becomes ill-defined. It's a combination of a lot of wavenumbers, so no single wavenumber describes it.
Conversely, think of a pure sinusoidal wave. It has a single wavenumber, but what is the position of such a wave? It a periodic thing; it doesn't have a single position. You can describe it in terms of magnitudes at a lot of positions, but that's all.
That's the uncertainty principle, a fundamental property of waves. You can localize a wave in terms of its position or wavenumber, but not both at the same time (at least, not below a certain limit). The quantities $\sigma\_x$ and $\sigma\_k$ describe the distribution of positions and wavenumbers for a given wave (smaller $\sigma\_x$ means that the wave is more like a localized spike at one position; larger $\sigma\_x$ means that it's smeared out more like a sinusoid), and their product is constrained by the uncertainty principle.
The uncertainty principle is usually phrased in terms of position and *momentum*, instead of wavenumber as I've written. This is just a little bit of physics: we say that momentum is proportional to wavenumber by the constant $\hbar$.
In classical physics you are supposed to be able to measure the coordinates and the velocity (really the momentum) of a mass with infinite precision at the same time. If you try this trick in the lab you notice that that's not the case. Either your position or your momentum measurement or both will always show some non-trivial statistical fluctuations when you repeat your experiment many times. If you multiply the standard deviations of these fluctuations with each other, no experiment that you can ever perform yields a product that is smaller than a certain number. That is it.
There is a related (and relevant) question with answer called [Uncertainty principle and measurement](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/169730/uncertainty-principle-and-measurement/169757#169757) but I want to give a specific answer for this situation and background. You will need top know the difference between precision and accuracy. A precise dart thrower throws darts that land very close to each other, this isn't a deep statement, in fact it is just a definition of the word precision as it is used in science. An accurate dart thrower throws darts that average out near the center, this also isn't a deep statement, in fact it is just a definition of the word accurate as it is used in science. A precise dart player might throw them all at the same small upper region just barely on the dart board. If only they could aim more accurately they would be awesome. Maybe they are blind and someone is describing the center of the dart board poorly, but they are precise, they can control their variability very very well. An accurate dart player might throw them so they always hit the middle half of the target, distributed equally in that region. They know where the center is very accurately a better description wouldn't help, they have totally accurate image of their target, they just can't reliably throw the same way each time, they have control over not being too high or low in general but can't control how off they are each time.
The same things happen for experiments.
In general, the uncertainty principle relates how a particular experimental setup sometimes has a tradeoff between how variable the results of different measurements could turn out. The precision of one measurement comes at the expense of the precision of other measurements. And I hate the name measurement because it makes that sound totally crazy. Just think of it as the variability of the the results of one interaction coming at the expense of the variability of the results of other interactions.
Imagine you setup your equipment but you don't know who is going to come in or what they are going the measure. In Newtonian physics you can just set it up precisely and whatever they measure they will get results based on how precisely you set it up. (Precision being how reliably you set it up, accuracy being how close to what you aimed for, but this discussion is all about precision (reliably consistent, not variable), not accuracy). In quantum theory there is a tradeoff, no matter how you set up your system some people will find it a more reliably setup system then other people will find it. And whether they find it reliable will depend on what they choose to measure. So we need to discuss variability so that we can discuss and quantify how well it can be done.
One way to measure the variability of a measurement $A$ is to first look at the average of many results, denoted $\langle A\rangle$. Sometimes people put a line over it as an alternative notion, and sometimes people call it a mean rather than an average. OK. But a mean or average doesn't tell you how variable is, it really tells you more about the accuracy, whether you are on average over doing it or under doing it. But if you always got the same result, then your results would always be that average result, so you can look at the result of measurement $A$ and see if it is above or below $\langle A\rangle$, which is the same as checking whether $A-\langle A\rangle$ is positive or negative or zero. So for a low variability result (a precise result) that number will be close to zero. However it will on average be zero, regardless of how precise or variable you are. So we can't just discuss the average of $A-\langle A\rangle$ since $\langle A-\langle A\rangle\rangle=0$.
But we can look at$ \langle \left( A-\langle A\rangle\right)^2\rangle$ and since each result of $\left( A-\langle A\rangle\right)^2$ is zero or positive, we don't expect the average to be zero unless it is zero with probability 100%.
So that's a way to measure variability. We said there was a tradeoff. The tradeoff is that sometimes a decreased variability for one measurement comes at the expense of an increased variability of other measurements.
I'll get into that later. But first I want to mention that when people say "the" uncertainty principle they often mean the particular tradeoff between position measurements and momentum measurements. So they will say the variability of position and the variability of momentum have a tradeoff in that they can't both be small.
But we do need to be clear about what the tradeoff is.
Step 1, select a state $\Psi$. You can select any state you want.
Step 2, prepare many systems in same state $\Psi$ (you need many to see how reliable/precise or variable you are).
Step 3, select two operators A and B (these correspond to the interaction/measurement, as mentioned people probably assume position and momentum as the two operators/interactions/measurements)
Step 4a, for some of the systems prepared in state $\Psi$, measure A (mathematically you use the operator to make the prediction, in reality you do the interaction, and linguistically you call it a measurement even though that is a horrific name)
Step 4b, for some of the systems prepared in state $\Psi$, measure B (same deal, different operator/measurement/interaction)
Now you analyze the results. Every time you measured A, you got a a result. (Mathematically every time the oeprator A came up you got an eigenvalue of A), and similarly for B. Each result had a probability (which is equal to the ratio of the squared norm of the projection onto the eigenspace divided by the squared norm before you projected onto the eigenspace, but that doesn't matter here). So your results of A come from a probability distribution that often has a mean $\langle A\rangle=\langle \Psi|A|\Psi\rangle $ and a standard deviation (that measures the variability) of $\Delta A=\sqrt{\langle \Psi|\left(A^2-\langle \Psi|A|\Psi\rangle^2\right)|\Psi\rangle}$. And your results for B come from a probability distribution that often has a mean $\langle B\rangle=\langle \Psi|B|\Psi\rangle $ and a standard deviation $\Delta B=\sqrt{\langle \Psi|\left(B^2-\langle \Psi|B|\Psi\rangle^2\right)|\Psi\rangle}$. You don't get those from a single measurement, o they are averages. You don't even get them from a whole bunch, but from steps 4a and 4b you do get a sample mean and a sample standard deviation (which are mean and deviation of the actually experiments you did not the mean of the unlimited number you could have done but didn't), and for a large sample these are likely to be very close to the theoretical mean and the theoretical standard deviation.
The uncertainty principle says that way back in step 1 (when you selected $\Psi$) you could select a $\Psi$ that gives a small $\Delta A$, or a $\Psi$ that gives a small $\Delta B$ (in fact if $\Psi$ is an eigenstate of A then $\Delta A=0$, same for $B$). However, $$\Delta A \Delta B \geq \left|\frac{\langle AB-BA\rangle}{2i}\right|=\left|\frac{\langle\Psi| AB-BA |\Psi\rangle}{2i}\right|,$$
So it's saying that the product of the two measures of variability $\Delta A$ and $\Delta B$ each of which is not negative have to have a product that is at least $\left|\frac{\langle\Psi| AB-BA |\Psi\rangle}{2i}\right|$ (itself a kind of average). When A and B are position and momentum, that thing is $\hbar/2$, so if $\Delta B < \hbar/2$ (numerically) then $\Delta A > 1$ (numerically).
So this explains why people bring it up. They say that when you claim to balance the pencil it sounds like you have a never small $\Delta X$ where $X$ is position, and that therefore $\Delta P$ must be large (where $P$ is momentum), so they want to say that it must have a large variability in momentum, hence velocity, hence can't be balanced.
But that is misleading. The uncertainty principle talks about the distribution of results for many systems prepared the same way under particular interactions. And the inherent tradeoff that when results of one interaction (say momentum) are low variability then the other one (say position) his highly variable.
The real problem is that things like electric fields are quantum too, so matter what state you put them in, there is some uncertainty, so they are never truly "not there". You can try to have as small an electric field as possible but at some point there is a tradeoff even for the state we call the vacuum. So photons (light, electric fields) can interact with your pencil. And your pencil is capable of falling in a way that gives energy to the photons, and you can't really stop that from happening. The quantum photons can break the symmetry of the pencil even if you try to minimize their effect.
Unfortunately the uncertainty principle for the photons is not the momentum-position uncertainty principle that people usually bring up. Which is why I brought up a more general one. Some people will call the minimal electric field a zero point field or discuss a zero point energy. The point is that it can steal energy from your pencil and you can't stop it. And since the electric field can come from elsewhere and can't go away entirely no matter what you do, it is unavoidable.
Let $X$ and $Y$ be random variables with density functions $f$ and $\hat{f}$, where $\hat{f}$ is the Fourier transform of $f$. Then the uncertainty principle is a lower bound on $\sigma\_X\cdot \sigma\_Y$ (where $\sigma$ is the standard deviation). In particular, $\sigma\_X\sigma\_Y\ge 1/4\pi$.
For example, take a particle moving in one dimension, in a fixed quantum state. Let $X$ be the observed value of the particle's location (if you choose to measure its location) and let $Y$ be the observed value of its momentum (if you choose to measure its momentum). Then $X$ and $Y$ satisfy the assumptions above, and hence satisfy the conclusion.
A highly simplified analogy that attempts to get thinking going in a direction that can sometimes lead to eventual understanding...
Think of various photographs taken of a baseball in flight. Different photographs are taken with different exposures. They are part of an attempt to measure both speed and position **at the same time**. In particular, imagine that one photograph is "instantaneous".
All of the photographs except the "instantaneous" one will show the baseball as something of a smear because the exposures caught the ball in motion. Longer exposures will show longer smears.
By knowing the exposure times, you can measure the lengths of the smears and determine how fast the baseball was moving. The longer the exposure, the closer you can get to determining the speed because the length of the smear can be measured more precisely. If measuring the smear has a measurement error of half a millimeter, then a 10 centimeter smear gives a more precise result than a smear that's only one millimeter long. Unfortunately, the longer the smear, the harder it is to say exactly what the "position" is because the position was continually changing.
The smear helps some with speed, but it still doesn't tie down all related details, e.g., it doesn't expose whether travel is from left to right or right to left. There is much more to the problem for precision on the much smaller scales where the uncertainly principle becomes more important.
Then think of the "instantaneous" photo. In that exposure, there was zero smear. It's a perfect image of the ball at one/single point in its flight. But now, by looking at your 'measurement', what can you tell about its speed? Or even about its direction? The ball would look exactly the same if it was going left to right across the photo or falling straight down or if it had been tossed up in the air and had just reached the highest point and was reversing its direction. With a perfect measurement of position, you totally lost all information about motion.
Now, a physical baseball is not a great expression of the details about particle physics. Unfortunately, nothing we experience in 'the real world' is. But if we want simple analogies, we're stuck with incorrect examples. Still, by using real-world examples, it sometimes becomes possible to use the terms to illustrate the bizarre happenings in quantum realities. Maybe it helps lead to understanding for you, maybe not. Just always be aware that analogies **are not** the realities and and are never correct.
user2338816 put forth a photography analogy. I like photography analogies, but I have a different one to share which I believe is a hair closer to the full story.
First off, to answer the question directly, the uncertainty principle is that the product of the minimum error possible in your measurements often limited. The most famous example is position and velocity. If you measure position and velocity of a particle (QM scale), you will have some errors. Some of it is because your machine is imprecise, but the Uncertainty Principle states that no matter how good your measuring equipment is, you will never get that product below h-bar/2 (ΔxΔp >= ℏ/2).
Why do they claim this? Well the really short answer is because the math of QM says it should be so, and nobody has ever found an experiment that contradicts the claim. The long version is that quantum mechanics claims that everything is a waveform, and there methods of generating a "classical measurement," like position or velocity cannot capture "all of the information."
Here's my photography metaphor. We're going to take a picture of a string on a violin after it has been plucked. We know from the mathematics of how strings vibrate that there should be a standing wave. We should see one of those nice sinusoid waves we see in mathematics class.
However, our camera has limits. It has to see photons to resolve an image. Arguably it measures the photons which interact with the string and find their way to the lens. To get enough photons, we keep the shutter open a long time. This means, instead of a nice clear sinewave, we get a blur whose envelope is definitely the magnitude of the standing wave. We can even calculate the velocity of the particles going up and down on that string, we just don't know their position in the up/down axis.
So lets use a strobe. Strobes emit a huge number of photons rapidly, so that they interact with the string in "almost an instant." With this, we can collect a bunch of photons that show the string, clear as day. Now we can easily see exactly where the string is, but we've lost velocity information. The string looks like it is holding still.
Now we're clever people, so we can make a strobe that fires over a larger time period, so we can get "decent position information" and "decent velocity information" from a picture where the string has some blur (from a long strobe time), but much less blur than the first picture, so you can get some position information as well.
If you squint your eyes at this analogy, you can see the first layer of the uncertainty principle forming. There's a tradeoff between how well you can measure the velocity of any part of the wire against how well you can measure its position. You're free to play the tradeoff game, but you can't exceed the physical limits of the system.
So now we solve the problem by taking two pictures. In the classical world, this is a totally valid technique to measure both position and velocity -- we do it in highschool physics classes. Two super-bright strobe flashes later, we have two super-crisp pictures of the string in different positions. We can do some math between the pictures, calculate the velocity and position of the wave at both times, and then we can predict the state of the wave forever. Easy! And very classical.
In the quantum world, the rabbit hole goes deeper. As you get smaller, a discrepancy between classical and QM measurements comes to light: your machine is no longer a passive observer -- it is part of the system. The flash bulb had always affected the string by bombarding it with photons. However, at the macroscopic level, this didn't do much to the string at all. It behaved just as though you were not there.
However, get smaller, and your measurement apparatus starts to interact with your subject. For the photography analogy, the photons from the strobe start to shove the string around in highly unpredictable ways (the actual QM situation is more complicated, but I find this analogy is sufficient for understanding). The strobe flash of the first picture dramatically changes the velocity of the string, as the photons bombard it (interact with it, in QM speak). The same goes for the second one.
When we try to run the math in this case, we find that the strobe flash effectively invalidates a great deal of the information we thought we knew about the system before hand because it perturbs the subject. The mere fact that we used a strobe flash strong enough to apparently freeze the string in space cause it to disrupt the velocity of the particles so greatly that we lost nearly all information about it.
And so, the uncertainty principle is the real life version of this photographic metaphor. It is "true" simply because we've measured this behavior, and never once have we found a way to get around it, no matter how hard we try.
Is it possible to measure a quantum state exactly, using classical terms? Maybe. The universe is a strange place, and we're only just starting to understand it. However, to date, not only has there been no theory showing how to do it, most theories proposed explicitly forbid it. It's simply the world, as best as we know it!
| stackexchange/physics |
How to convert metre to ångström? [closed]
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In my book it says
>
> Convert $1.213\cdot10^{-11}$ metre into Angstrom.
>
>
>
The answer is $12.13\cdot10^{-2}$ Angstrom.
How is it possible? I thought of multiplying the metre with $10^{-10}$, but I didn't get the correct answer. The same applies to the conversion of centimetres to Angstrom.
The ångström (symbol: Å) is a widely used non-SI unit of length. Its value in SI units is:
$$1\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}=0.1\ \mathrm{nm}=100\ \mathrm{pm}=10^{-10}\ \mathrm m$$
Thus, the required conversion factor is given by
$$\frac{1\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}}{10^{-10}\ \mathrm m}=1$$
or
$$\frac{10^{-10}\ \mathrm m}{1\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}}=1$$
This conversion factor can be used to express the given length of $1.213\cdot10^{-11}\ \mathrm m$ in terms of the unit ångström:
$$1.213\cdot10^{-11}\ \mathrm m=1.213\cdot10^{-11}\ \mathrm m\cdot\frac{1\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}}{10^{-10}\ \mathrm m}=0.1213\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}$$
Note that $0.1213\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}=12.13\cdot10^{-2}\ \mathring{\mathrm{A}}$, which is the answer given in your book.
Also note that you do not simply divide the given length by $10^{-10}$ since the units are part of the conversion factor. You actually divide the value by $10^{-10}\ \mathrm m/\mathring{\mathrm{A}}$.
You're correct in saying you need to do is multiply by $10^{-10}$. The answer you gave is equivalent to $1.123\cdot10^{-1}$ (just divide by $10$), which is exactly $(1.123\cdot10^{-11}) \cdot (10^{-10})$. If you're using a calculator, make sure you wrap each term in brackets so that the order of operations is correct.
| stackexchange/chemistry |
pulmonary veins carry oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium of the heart .
there are typically four pulmonary veins : the right superior , right inferior , left superior , and left inferior .
tumor thrombosis from pulmonary veins can enter centrally into the left atrium [ 24 ] or extend peripherally from the pulmonary vein .
cytokines can be produced by cancer and are involved in the host response to tumor growth , cancer invasion , and metastasis .
cancer cells can pass into the pulmonary vein through lung capillaries and through direct extension .
reported that patients with operable non - small - cell lung cancer had a poor clinical outcome when disseminated cancer cells were found in their pulmonary venous blood . a study conducted by phillips et al . reported that circulating tumor cells appeared at a significantly higher rate in pulmonary venous blood during primary lung cancer surgery .
our previous article reported that tumor thrombus , coagulation , and cytokines contribute to pulmonary venous obstruction syndrome ( pvos ) in cancer patients .
several inflammatory cytokines have been shown to participate in the progression of the epithelial - to - mesenchymal ( emt ) transition , which is associated with cancer metastasis and therapy resistance [ 1015 ] . in the present case
series study , we investigate the role of pulmonary veins in cancer progression using computed tomography ( ct ) scans .
data were collected from 1256 patients hospitalized in oncology wards of the chang - gung memorial hospital .
the data for the 260 cancer patients with pvos was obtained from the original 1256 patients .
the criteria for a diagnosis of pvos included dyspnea symptoms ( 1 ) , chest x - ray findings ( 2 ) , and ct findings ( 3 ) .
all three of these criteria points were required to be present in the patient for use in this study . to elaborate , these criteria involve ( 1 ) episodes of shortness of breath ; ( 2 ) chest x - rays that show unilateral or bilateral abnormal pulmonary hilum shadows , with or without the presence of pulmonary edema and/or pleural effusion ; and ( 3 ) ct scans that demonstrate pulmonary vein thrombosis / tumors , sticking to the outer vein surface with or without lesions .
when dyspnea occurred and chest x - rays showed an abnormal hilum shadow , ct scans were used to detect pulmonary vein thrombosis / tumors .
this may result from the aggravation of acute respiratory distress by chemotherapy and by other medical or surgical procedures .
common thromboembolism - associated complications included loss of consciousness and mental change [ 16 , 17 ] , paraneoplastic pain , and iliofemoral venous obstruction or thrombosis .
paraneoplastic pain is defined as a breakthrough pain that occurs in the absence of an identifiable precipitating cause .
cerebral thromboembolic complications and paraneoplastic pain in most patients could only be clinically suspected , due to the difficulty in acquiring a definite diagnosis .
paraneoplastic syndromes included neoplastic fever ( tumor - related fever that responds well to the naproxen test ) and cachexia syndrome ( a weight loss of > 5% within six months , with reduced food intake and muscle wasting ) .
a d - dimer test using enzyme - linked immunosorbent assay ( elisa ) was conducted on all patients , and c - reactive protein levels were checked in selected patients .
the cutoff d - dimer value was 500 ng / ml . paraneoplastic syndromes included hypercalcemia ( serum calcium levels that exceeded 11 mg / dl ) and a leukemoid reaction ( peripheral count that exceeded 20,000/l without evidence of infection or leukemia ) .
we divided the pulmonary lesions into central and peripheral lesions depending on their anatomical position : in lung parenchymal tissue or within pulmonary veins ; in the superior or inferior pulmonary veins ; and by unilateral or bilateral presence in the lungs .
pulmonary lesions from the ct scans were divided into four subgroups : central parenchymal lung lesions , central thrombotic lesions , peripheral parenchymal lung lesions , and peripheral thrombotic lesions .
a central parenchymal lung lesion was defined as a lung parenchymal lesion that did not adhere to the proximal pulmonary vein .
a central thrombotic lesion was defined as a thrombus or tumor that was located within the proximal pulmonary vein , near to or extending into the left atrium .
a peripheral parenchymal lung lesion was defined as a lesion with a distal - peripheral location to the pulmonary vein .
a peripheral thrombotic lesion was defined as a thrombus / tumor lesion located within or along the pulmonary vein .
mixed types were defined as a mixed central ( either parenchymal or thrombotic ) lesion with a peripheral ( either parenchymal or thrombotic ) lesion subtype .
obvious cardiac extension was defined as lesions extending into the left atrium , as shown by ct scans . finally , we defined the presence of nodules to be when nodules were noticed within pulmonary veins , as shown by ct scans or from the lung window .
therapeutic treatments included the subcutaneous injection of low molecular weight heparin ( lmwh ) , either fraxiparin ( glaxosmithkline ; 3800 iu or 5700 iu daily ) or enoxaparin ( sanofi - aventis ; 6000 iu daily ) , intravenous dexamethasone , intravenous fluids , or furosemide when pvos occurred along with acute respiratory distress . further use of chemotherapy , targeted therapy , or hormone therapy depended on the patient 's condition .
ct scans were obtained from the hospital picture archiving and communication system ( pacs ) .
continuous data ( presented as mean standard deviation ) were used for the d - dimer and c - reactive protein level tests .
survival was calculated as the time from the diagnosis of pvos to the patient 's death .
of the original 1256 patients , 260 patients ( 20% ) were determined to have pvos .
pvos was documented from clinical symptom , chest x - ray , and ct scan findings .
the data for these 260 cancer patients ( 164 men and 96 women ; 2793 years old ; median age , 71 ) was collected for the evaluation of their pulmonary veins .
185 patients ( 71% ) had an eastern cooperative oncology group ( ecog ) performance status of 2 or greater .
a common association with thromboembolic complications occurred in 171 patients ( 66% ) : consciousness disturbance in 124 , paraneoplastic pain in 55 , and iliofemoral venous obstruction or thrombosis symptoms in 21 . of them , 66 patients had multiple thromboembolic presentations .
of the 124 patients with consciousness disturbance , 18 had angiographic , ct scan or magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ) evidence of cerebral infarction .
common association with paraneoplastic syndromes occurred in 131 patients ( 50% ) : cachexia syndrome in 105 , neoplastic fever in 29 , leukemic - like reactions in 19 , hypercalcemia in 6 , and lactic acidosis in 3 .
acute respiratory distress ( n = 260 ) was aggravated by chemotherapy in 28 patients ( 11% ) , or by medical or surgical procedures in 23 patients ( 9% ) , and showed diurnal fluctuations in intensity in 35 patients ( 13% ) .
the mean d - dimer value was 3214 2162 ng / ml ( ranging from 265 to greater than 10,000 ng / ml ) .
d - dimer values were less than 1000 ng / ml in 32 patients ( 12% ) , 10013000 ng / ml in 96 patients ( 36% ) , 30015000 ng / ml in 56 patients ( 22% ) , and greater than 5000 ng / ml in 79 patients ( 30% ) .
the mean c - reactive protein value was 112 94 g / d ( it ranged from 0.7 to 384 g / d ) .
table 2 showed chest ct scan findings relating to the pulmonary veins from 260 cancer patients with pvos .
they were categorized by lesion location into the following groups : central location ( figures 1 and 2 ) , peripheral location ( figures 3 and 4 ) , and mixed location ( figures 5 and 6 ) .
of the 260 patients , 226 ( 87% ) had central location lesions , and 231 patients ( 89% ) had peripheral location lesions .
exclusive central lesion location occurred in 29 patients ( 12% ) , exclusive peripheral location occurred in 34 patients ( 14% ) , and mixed central and peripheral location occurred in 197 patients ( 75% ) .
lesions located in the lung parenchymal tissue occurred in 15 patients ( 6% ) , lesions within pulmonary veins occurred in 99 patients ( 38% ) , and mixed lung parenchymal and pulmonary vein lesions occurred in 124 patients ( 56% ) . finally , 82 ( 32% ) of the original 260 patients had lesions within the proximal pulmonary vein and/or entering the left atrium ( figures 2(b ) , 3(b ) , 4(b ) , 5(b ) , 6(b ) , 7 , and 8) .
out of the 226 patients with centrally located lesions , pulmonary vein lesions occurred in 88 patients ( 39% ) ( figure 2(b ) ) , and mixed lung parenchymal and pulmonary vein lesions occurred in 138 patients ( 61% ) ( figure 1(d ) ) .
bilateral lesion presence was detected in 110 patients ( 49% ) , and unilateral presence was detected in 116 patients ( 51% ) .
lesions in the superior pulmonary vessel were detected in 195 patients ( 86% ) , in the inferior pulmonary vessel in 16 patients ( 7% ) , and in both vessels in 15 patients ( 7% ) . among these 226 patients ,
93% had lesions located within their superior pulmonary vein ( figures 1(d ) , 2(b ) , 5(b ) , and 6(b ) ) .
out of the 231 patients with peripherally located lesions , lesion presence in the pulmonary vein was detected in 87 patients ( 38% ) ( figures 7 and 8) , and lesion presence in the mixed lung parenchymal and pulmonary vein locations was detected in 144 patients ( 62% ) ( figures 3(b ) and 4(b ) ) .
bilateral lesion presence was detected in 150 patients ( 65% ) and unilateral presence was detected in 81 patients ( 35% ) .
lesions in the superior pulmonary vessel were detected in 70 patients ( 30% ) , in the inferior pulmonary vessel in 111 patients ( 51% ) , and in both vessels in 74 patients ( 19% ) .
overall , lesions in the inferior pulmonary vein were detected in 70% of these 231 patients ( figures 4(b ) , 5(b ) , and 6(b ) ) .
figure 9 shows rapid peripheral tumor progression after lung adenocarcinoma two months after a lung lobectomy .
obvious left atrium extension was found in 59 patients ( 23% ) ( figures 6(b ) and 8) .
all patients presented with nodules in their pulmonary veins ( figures 3(b ) , 7 , 8 , and 9 ) .
lmwh therapy was given to 218 pvos patients , including 113 treated with fraxiparin ( 3800 iu or 5700 iu daily ) and 95 treated with enoxaparin ( 6000 iu daily ) .
symptoms were relieved and image improvement occurred in 141 patients ( 65% ) , including 135 of those treated with dexamethasone . of these patients ,
sixty - nine patients received alternative therapy , including chemotherapy for 59 patients , targeted therapy for 9 patients , and hormone therapy for 1 patient .
pvos developed again after disease progression in 32 patients ( 74% ) , including 21 who were treated with lmwh therapy for secondary prevention .
13 patients were lost during follow - up ; however , 244 patients were followed up until death or up to the present .
the 3-month , 6-month , 1-year , and 2-year survival probabilities were 29% , 14% , 8% , and 2% , respectively .
the predeath status was identified in 234 patients as respiratory failure ( n = 93 ; 40% ) or loss of consciousness ( n = 141 ; 60% ) .
sixty - nine patients ( 29% ) died of septicemia or febrile neutropenia , including 35 who had respiratory failure and 34 who exhibited a loss of consciousness .
pvos occurred in 20% of our original 1256 patients who were hospitalized with various malignancies .
the 260 pvos patients also exhibited paraneoplastic syndromes that are related to cytokine production [ 1820 ] .
this paper demonstrates that pulmonary veins most likely play an important role in tumor progression .
about three - quarters of the pvos patients in this study had mixed centrally and peripherally located lesions . more than 60% of the patients had tumor / thrombotic lesions that extended into the lung parenchymal tissue , and greater than 20% of patients exhibited obvious lesion extensions into the left atrium of the heart .
more than 90% of central lung lesions originate in the superior pulmonary vein , either bilaterally or unilaterally .
about 70% of peripheral lung lesions arise from inferior pulmonary veins , and these are predominantly bilateral ( 65% ) .
figure 10 demonstrates that the probable mechanisms of how pulmonary vein lesions relate to cancer progression .
the cancer cells are found in the tumor - draining veins of patients with non - small - cell lung cancer .
virchow describes three elements , including venous stasis , endothelial injury , and hypercoagulability , that are thought to contribute to venous thromboembolism ( vte ) [ 21 , 22 ] .
once cancer cells enter into and approach the pulmonary vein , blood flow stasis and vascular injury can result .
significant increase of tumor cell abundance in pulmonary venous blood is related to the production of inflammatory cytokines [ 23 , 24 ] .
thrombin - activated tumor cell adhesion to host cells also enhances tumor cell growth , seeding , and spontaneous metastasis and can stimulate tumor angiogenesis [ 2224 ] .
cytokine production intricately relates both to tumor production and to a host 's reaction to infection , chemotherapy , and invasive therapeutic procedures [ 5 , 25 , 26 ] .
for example , reddy et al . reported that pulmonary venous blood sampling can significantly increase the yield of circulating tumor cells in early - stage lung cancer .
figure 9 demonstrates the case of rapid tumor progression after lung adenocarcinoma following a lung lobectomy .
elevated d - dimer or crp levels have been associated with increased production of cytokines and thrombosis [ 28 , 29 ] . in more than 20% of our patients ,
tumor / thrombotic lesions can travel from the pulmonary veins through the left atrium and left ventricle and enter the brain circulation [ 13 ] .
one is associated with thromboembolic phenomenon , where hypercoagulability of cerebral veins or arteries occurs .
the other mechanism is the association of strokes with paradoxical embolisms [ 16 , 17 , 31 ] .
more than 60% of patients had tumor / thrombotic lesions that extended into their lung parenchymal tissue .
emt and inflammatory cytokines have been associated with cancer metastasis and therapy resistance [ 1015 ] .
tgf- promotes heterogeneity and drug resistance in cancer patients , where tumor - initiating stem cells often escape cancer therapies [ 14 , 32 ] .
because of tgf signaling in tumor initiation , emt , and metastasis , we can consider using potentially effective therapies to control cancer during the emt period before tumor resistance develops [ 1014 , 32 ] .
cytokines and nuclear factor - kappa b ( nfb ) inhibitors , such as dexamethasone , are used to suppress cytokine formation [ 33 , 34 ] .
lmwh therapy was also reported to downregulate tissue factor expression and activity , by modulating the growth factor receptor - mediated induction of nfb .
known aggravation factors involved with cytokine production include infection , chemotherapy , and invasive treatment procedures .
adequate fluid supplementation is necessary for maintaining sufficient vital organ perfusion for the brain , coronary artery , and the kidney .
lmwh therapy was reported to inhibit plasma thrombin generation and can also inhibit chemotactic migration of cancer cells .
maintenance of lmwh therapy is suggested for secondary prevention [ 39 , 40 ] and probably confers a survival benefit [ 41 , 41 , 42 ] .
underlying disease therapy can be conducted if it is considered useful in overcoming drug resistance ; however , it is overall advantageous to avoid rigorous treatment in order to prevent cytokine overproduction .
first , the data was collected from a case cohort study in a single center , mainly from a single physician .
second , the images used in the study , including chest plain films and ct scans , were not conducted simultaneously .
third , the differentiation of pulmonary vein thrombosis , tumor , or mixed type was difficult to judge from the ct scans .
fourth , the loss of consciousness and mental changes related to thromboembolic complications were seldom proven by image study .
fifth , there was an absence of tissue confirmation of the diagnosis by either biopsy or autopsy .
pvos cancer can enter centrally into the left atrium , which can result in cerebral thromboembolism and eventually lead to death .
cancer may metastasize from pulmonary veins into the lung parenchymal tissue and can result in drug resistance .
we suggest that decreasing cytokine production , using lmwh therapy and early treatment of metastatic lung lesions can help pvos patients . | pubmed |
Inuyasha 1. Im back!
_**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha!**_
_**This story is Secrets of the unknown priestess 2: What The Truth Can Save. **_
_**Members of Kagome's gang (lead order): Kagome, Ayami, Ryu, yura, Hari, ruri, Kagura, Botan, Mumichi, Sizuna, Sunami.**_
_**Members of Inuyasha's gang (lead order): Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Kouga, Ayame, Shiori, Kida, Shippo, Kohaku, Ginta, Hikaku. **_
_**Summery: A year after all Kagome's secrets got out, now Kagome is keeping another secret. Inuyasha and Kagome have became allies, But Kagome gets pregnant with Inuyasha's kid and loses all her demon powers, now what happens when Inuyasha finds out that it's his child that's causing world destruction? And how are they going to stop her? R&R!**_
_**Chapter one: I'm back!**_
_**(Flash back) **_
_1year ago…_
Inuyasha sighed." You and your gang are welcomed at our mansion when ever you feel the need to visit ok?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome nodded and then looked out the window. "Ok" Was Kagome's final answer. Inuyasha smiled as he then scooted closer to her and grabbed her chin and gently forced her to look at him. "Don't forget who you belong to now." Inuyasha said with a grin, Kagome giggled and nodded. "I'm still mad at you, you know." Kagome said with a grin. "I know a way to change you mind. " Inuyasha said as he pulled Kagome closer and pressed his lips to her. Kagome then deepened the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck. They soon pulled apart breathless. Kagome smiled and looked back to her gang. "I have to go now." Inuyasha pouted. "Actually you don't Kagome" Inuyasha whispered as he kissed her hand. Kagome smiled. "Inuyasha?" Kagome said. Inuyasha nodded and smiled. "Come back to me soon." Kagome nodded Inuyasha then pulled her into another quick kiss and Kagome got out of the car.
As Inuyasha drove off Kagome's gang all ran up to her and all of them started to grin causing Kagome to blush beat red. "Kagome…." They all said at once. Kagome blushed darker. "What?" Kagome asked. Every one began to laugh. "You are not fair." Kagome whined in a giggly voice. Everyone laughed harder. "Lets go home now." Kagome said as everyone nodded and walked back to their mansion.
(End of flash back)
1 Year later….
(With Kagome)
"Yo Kagome! What will it be tonight?" A bartender asked.
"Water on the rocks please." Kagome said as she looked around the club for any sign of her 'target'.
"On a mission huh?" the bartender asked. Kagome nodded. "Oh well if your looking for Inuyasha I seen him leave just a few seconds ago with 'your target' Kagome jumped up and ran to the parking lot and put on her ear piece. "Yo Ryu where are they heading?" Kagome said as she got into her car and sped away.
"There heading to the 'targets' mansion right now, I'm hacking into her man computer frame to shut down all security as we speak." Ryu said as she typed away.
"Good job Ryu! " Kagome said as she pulled into a parking lot of a huge mansion. She clapped her hands when she saw Inuyasha and their 'target' walk into the house making out. "Yay every thing is going to plan, he just better not fuck the dumb bitch" Kagome mumbled as she got changed into her black and green priestess out fit. 'Some priestess I am' Kagome thought as she put on her guns daggers and swords. "Ok now that I'm ready are you girls ready to kick some ass and get this loot?" Kagome asked into the earpiece as she got out of the car as Ryu and Sango jumped out of their car. They nodded and headed into the house.
(With Inuyasha)
Inuyasha and his date 'the target' where making out as the landed on the couch and climbed on top of her. "I want you so bad Kome" Inuyasha moaned as he continued to kiss her down her neck.
"I want you to" She said as she started stripping off her clothes while Inuyasha sat up and helped her get undressed. "Is this hot enough for you baby?" Kome asked.
Inuyasha looked up and seen Kagome at the door and he smiled. "No" Just then Kagome kicked down the door with her guns pointed out at the girl and Sango and Ryu standing there as well. Inuyasha's grin got wider. "Now that's hot." Inuyasha said as he pointed at Kagome. The girl Kome sat up and tried to pull out her gun but Inuyasha pinned her down. "I'm sorry but I don't think your gonna be moving for quiet some time." Inuyasha said with a low growl.
"What do you want from me?" Kome screamed
"Kagome walked closer to the girl and put the gun to her forehead. "Why you money of course" Kagome said in a cheery voice. Inuyasha smiled at her and winked. Kome caught this.
"You to are together huh?" Kome muttered. This made Inuyasha look down and smile. "Why of course we are but that not on the subject right now so tell us where the fucking money is and we'll leave you alone." Inuyasha growled as he put his own gun to her thought.
Kome closed her eyes and gulped. "I should know who is threatening me before I give you this info." Kome sneered.
"Kagome grabbed her by the hair. "The Inu-youkai's and the Elementals": Kagome said with a seductive voice and grinned as she seen the poor girls features pail up.
"Ok I'll tell you where he money is. It's in a safe under the stairs, Ill show you where." Kome said
Inuyasha looked up at Ryu and nodded. Ryu pulled out some handcuffs and put them on Kome's hands and they all began walking to the stairs. "Its here." Kome said as she kicked a floorboard up and pressed a red button. The wall opened up almost instantly. Inuyasha grinned. "Thanks we have no use for you any more" and threw her on the floor. Kagome pulled out her silencer and put it on her gun and shot the girl in the head.
Inuyasha and Kagome grabbed all the money and quickly left the house and drove to Inuyasha's mansion where both gangs are waiting. "Mother fucker that was good" Inuyasha said as he grabbed Kagome and kissed her. Kagome pushed him off her as she pulled up into his driveway. "What was that for Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as his ears when down onto his head. Kagome sighed. "I was driving silly" Kagome said as she got out of her seat belt and climbed on Inuyasha's lap and kissed him deeply while slipping her tongue between his lips causing Inuyasha to moan and put his hands on her hips.
Kagome smiled as she opened the car door and climbed out. "We should get in there," Kagome said as she straitened out her top. Inuyasha looked up at her and smiled. "You are so different" Inuyasha said as he shut the car door behind him. "You are nothing like you were a year ago." Inuyasha said as he pulled her into another kiss. Kagome smiled and broke the kiss seconds later and grabbed his hand "Come on" She whispered as they ran into the house.
Inuyasha walked in first. "Every one, welcome the lady of the hour!" Inuyasha said as Kagome walked in the door and blushed as they opened campaign bottles. Inuyasha handed her a glass. "Here you go."
"Kagome! daddy!" Two voices yelled as Inuyasha and Kagome got ambushed by Rin and Shiori.
"Kagome I missed you so much!" Rin yelled.
"Good job daddy!" Shiori yelled as she hugged her dad. Shiori then turned to Kagome as Rin turned and left. "Kagome?" Shiori said in a low voice as she stared at the floor. "Yes?" Kagome asked as she looked at Inuyasha who was looking at Shiori. "I'm really sorry for being such a bitch to you last year, and I'm really sorry, can you ever for give me?" Shiori asked as she looked up at Kagome. "Of course I do Shiori." Kagome said with a smile, Shiori smiled and hugged Kagome. Kagome hugged her back, and looked up at Inuyasha who was smiling.
"Shiori how would you like a sister?" Inuyasha asked. Shiori looked up at Kagome then back at her father. "You really mean it?' Shiori asked. Kagome looked up at Inuyasha with her eye's wide as saucers. Inuyasha grinned.
"Every one get quiet!' Inuyasha yelled and every one got quiet and looked at him and Kagome. Inuyasha smiled as he pulled out a small black box from his pocket. He then got down on one knee and grabbed Kagome's left hand. "Kagome will you marry me?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome looked down at him and smiled as tears started to fall. "Yes, I will" Kagome said as she began to laugh, Inuyasha pulled out the ring and Kagome gasped. It was a 3ct ruby diamonds in the shape of Sakura blossoms, with1ct emerald leaves. Inuyasha then put the ring on Kagome finger and pulled her into a kiss.
Every one cheered. Inuyasha broke the kiss and started wiping away Kagome's tears. "What to go to my room?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome looked up at him and blushed. "Yeah" Kagome said in a small giggle. Inuyasha picked her up bridal style and carried her up the stairs. "If anyone of you are by my door I'll rip you damn ears and arms off!" Inuyasha yelled.
A/n: Hey they're every one! Hope you all liked this chapter! Well I will update soon ok? Ja!
_**Review please!**_
2. a warning from Abi the butterfly youkai
Disclaimer: Hey I said I don't own Inuyasha ok? And I do not like to repeat myself.
A/n: Hey there my lovely fans I am sorry for taking so long to update. But you know how it is for this time of school year. You have to go shopping and blah, blah, blah and yeah. Well I am going to go now ok? Ja!.
Chapter 2: Warning
Inuyasha and Kagome woke up to the morning sun and the sound of birds chirping outside their window. Kagome looked up and saw Inuyasha's beautiful golden eyes staring down at her. "Good morning " Kagome yawned which made Inuyasha smile. "Good morning to you to my mate." He said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. Kagome smiled and snuggled into his bear chest. "This is sad." Kagome said as she began to giggle. Inuyasha looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. "What is so sad? I thought you were happy to be with me finally?" Inuyasha asked as he frowns, causing kagome to giggle a bit more.
"I am happy yasha, but what I ment by 'this is sad' was that we have been together for a year and we have only been in bed together once" Kagome said as he giggling began to rise. Inuyasha finally got the message and began laughing his self. "Yeah? I guess your right." Inuyasha said between laughs.
After their laughter stopped Kagome got up and out of bed and wrapped a sheet around her and walked over to the closet, she then pulled out a silver and black kimono with neon blue flames going up the sleeves and two neon blue dragons on the back with the symbol of the dragon on the back. Inuyasha to get out of bed with a black sheet wrapped around his waist as he got up and walked to Kagome and pulled out a similar Kimono accepted his was black and silver with neon green dragon and flames.
"Copy cattier!" Kagome said as she stuck out her tongue at her silver haired hanyou mate. Inuyasha just smiled and pulled her into an embrace. "Kagome, that is my robe you are wearing, it's not my fault if I picked the same one with different colors on It." Inuyasha said with a smirk across his face. Kagome turned and walked away with a laugh, "whatever puppy" Kagome said as she looked back to see Inuyasha charging after her.
"Fuck!" Kagome yelled as she took off out of the room and down the hall to the living room where Sango, Miroku and Kouga were all sitting, Kagome jumped down the stairs and hid behind Sango. "Help me Sango! Inuyasha is trying to kill me!" Kagome cried.
Sango turned to face a smirking hanyou, "What the hell are you to doing?" Sango asked as she placed her hands onto her hips. Inuyasha smile grew, "I'm trying to capture my mate if you don't mind now move out of my way." Inuyasha said in a frustrated growl, Sango smiled and looked behind her to face Kagome, "please Sango don't leave me" Kagome begged. Sango smiled and looked back at Inuyasha. "She's all yours" Sango said as she jumped out of the way and Inuyasha talked Kagome to the ground, causing her to let go of her sheet,
"Um Inuyasha you might what to fix your girlfriends sheet," Sango growled as she hit Miroku upside the he with a book, Inuyasha sat up and fixed Kagome's sheet and stood up, "Well enough of that, any news on Kagome's gang?" Inuyasha asked. Kouga looked up and shook his head.
"What is happening to my Gang?" Kagome asked as she stood up.
"Inuyasha told them that they had to decide rather or not to except our gang as there allies." Kouga said as he continued to read the newspaper.
"Why do they have to decide on anything? I mean I am the leader after all." Kagome said as she walked over to the stairs. Then looked back, "Or has that changed somehow?" Kagome asked as she turned and faced Inuyasha.
"No Kagome that has not changed, but they have to sign the documents on our marriage." Inuyasha said as he sat down next to Sango, who scooted back, "Um Inuyasha maybe you should go and get dressed" Sango stuttered out as she blushed. Inuyasha looked at her and smiled. "What ever you say Sango." Inuyasha said as he stood up and walked over to Kagome who was still standing there.
"But why do they have to sign documents on us? I don't get it?" Kagome asked as she started up the stairs, Inuyasha sighed, "you will soon babe right now lets get dressed.
Kagome and Inuyasha walked to his room and got dressed and walked back down stairs and sat down, then a siren went off causing ever one to get up and run and get there weapons. "Kagome you run out and go find Ayame" Inuyasha yelled. Kagome nodded and took off down a different hall where she found Ayame in the gadget room,
"Ayame what is going on?" Kagome asked. Ayame looked at Kagome. "Someone is attacking your gang we need to get out there quickly, pick out a new gadget!" Ayame said. Kagome looked down and pulled out some new looking daggers and held it up as it glowed green. "These are Elemental daggers," Kagome said as she faced Ayame.
"Yes they are but they are stronger then your original ones. I took one of your and made stronger ones" Ayame said as she grabbed her gun and ran out the room followed by Kagome. "Now come on before we are too late" Ayame yelled.
Kagome ran out of the mansion and ran to the garage where she found Inuyasha waiting for her next to her bike. Kag9oome jumped on and threw on her helmet but before she took off Inuyasha grabbed her arm.
"Be careful out there Kagome" Inuyasha said as he let go of her arm, Kagome smiled and nodded as she started to drive off with Inuyasha close behind her.
Kagome and Inuyasha arrived to the battle that was being held between the elementals and some other gang that seems to be new around town. Kagome jumped off her bike and pilled out both of her swords and ran into the battle and sliced one of the new gang members in half, causing everyone to stop fighting.
Kagome turned and faced the other gang and growled as her powers began to swarm around her. "Where is your leader?" Kagome yelled as looked over at her gang, "Is anyone hurt?" Kagome asked every one nodded and Kagome sighed. "That's good" Just then a demon walked to the front of the crowed in front of her. The demon had long back hair that went down to her to the middle of her back. She had 1 neon green marking down the side of her cheeks and neon green eyes and neon green markings that look like eyeliner and eye shadow. She had on a long black dress with neon green butterflies shattered on it. Kagome looked at her and noticed that she had black and neon green wings and antennas. Kagome smiled.
"You're a butterfly youkai huh?" Kagome asked as she stood up strait. The youkai smiled and nodded. Kagome growled. "Who are you and why are you attacking my gang?" Kagome demanded. The youkai smiled. "They were in my way." The youkai said with a grin. "Who are you?" Kagome asked.
"My name is Abi and this here butterflies youkai's behind me are my gang" said Abi. Kagome sheathed her swords, "What do you call your self's?" Kagome asked. Abi smiled. "We are know as frail" Abi said, Kagome cocked an eyebrow. "Well then, I am Kagome and these here people behind me are the elementals and I am their leader" Kagome said in a cold voice. And the gang over there is my allies, if you want to know whom they are then go ask." Kagome said as she turned around and faced her gang. "Lets go" Kagome said as she began to walk away but was stopped by Abi.
"We are not done yet" Abi growled out, Kagome smiled. "Oh yes we are, now remove you hand from me or you will be missing it" Kagome said as she shocked Abi with her powers and began to walk away again." I already know who you and your gang is along with your allies and MATE!" Abi yelled kagome smiled and turned to face her, "I am listening" Kagome said with a smile. "Kagome you are in danger, and it is going to be you who kills every one and everything, Kagome you have to kill your mate before every thing gets out of control and the world is destroyed." Abi said as she walked to Kagome. Kagome pulled out a dagger. "What do you mean I will kill every thing?" Kagome asked as she charged up her dagger with her power.
"I can not tell you right now, but all I can say is that you have been warned" Abi said as he and her gang disappeared into thin air. Kagome sighed and put away her dagger as she walked over to Inuyasha and her gang.
"Kagome are you ok?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome nodded.
"Yeah I'm ok, but I'm a little worried about what she ment by all that" Kagome said as she jumped on her bike. "Come on girls we are going back to Inuyasha's place, and within a few minuets they were all taking off. Kagome drove up the driveway and sat on her bike for a few minuets, Inuyasha walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Whets wrong Kagome?" Inuyasha asked
"I wander what she said is true, I wonder if I really am going to kill every one" Kagome said as she looked up at Inuyasha,
"Kagome you just have to make sure your powers stay in check and we will be fine." Inuyasha said as they all walked into the house.
A/n: Sorry to end it here but I still have three other stories to update, hope you all like this chapter. JA!
_**Review please!**_
3. Something to speak about
_**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, **_
_**A/n: Sorry it's has been takeing me so long to update, my computer was broke and all my stuff got erased so now i have to try and remember**_
_**how to right this chapter ok? Ja! **_
_**Oh yeah and one more thing, I don' have Microsoft word no more so If there is any miss spelled words in here I am sorry ok? Ja! **_
**_Chapter 3. -something to speak about_**
'It has been three days since I have seen that demon and yet i still don't get what she ment by I will detroy everything, What could that mean, Why would I want to kill every one around me? and what would it have to do with Inuyasha being my mate? I just dont know anymore.' KAgome thought as she sighed and got up from the window she was sitting in, Kagome was sitting in a bay window that had black and red patting on made with silk, KAgome walked over to the door and opened it to see Inuyasha standing there looking started,
"Oh I'm sorry Inuyasha, did you want to talk to me or something?" Kagome said in an almost dead voice. Inuyasha nodded, "Um yess I wanted to ask if you were ok? You have been locked up in your old room for three days now with out a word to anyone." Inuyasha said in a worried tone, as he looked at Kagome he saw noticed that Kagome was in deep thought. He then took a couple steps twords her and slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to his chest. "Kagome, please talk to me, I don't like seeing you so quiet and so...lonly and confused. it scares me baby" inuyasha said as he rocked Kagome back and forth. KAgome let out a small sigh.
"I'm sorry Inuyasha, I don't mean to worry you so much" Kagome said in a low voice, Inuyasha pulled her away enough so he could looked at her face. "Kagome you look pail, you need to eat or something, Inuyasha said as he picked Kagome up in his arms and carried her down stairs, once he was in the living room every one including her gang stood up and ran over to the couple asking questions.
"how are you feeling?"
"Why are you so pail?"
"Kagome you need to eat"
"Whats happening to..."
"That is enough!' Kagome yelled causing all the demons and humans to back up, "Stop asking me questions! What happened to me the other day should not consern you!' Kagome yelled as she held on tight to Inuyasha, Inuyasha looked down at Kagome and seen that she was upset, he then looked back up and called Shiori over.
Shiori quickly ran threw the crowd till she was sanding in front of Kagome, she deeply bowed and said in a firm voice, "Lady Kagomesama, the 'frails' are here to speak with you and Inuyasha" Shiori said as she looked up at her dad and nodded to him for him to something.
Inuyasha turned to Kagome and smiled, "What would you like me to tell them?" Inuyasha asked Kagome in a low voice, Kagome smiled and looked down at shiori, "Tell them that I will be on my way down there in a few minuets, but i have to first get cleaned up" Kagome said as she slowly looked up at Inuyasha to see him snarling. Kagome put a hand on inuyasha's shoulder and smiled. "Inuyasha will you please come with me for a moment? I need to speak with you" Inuyasha nodded and Kagome turned and walked back into her room. Kagome shut the door and turned to face inuyasha but just before she was able to speak Inuyasha beat her to the punch.
"Kagome, What the hell are you thinking? going down staries to them might not be such a smart thing, what if they hurt you or capture you? or even worse, take you away from me? Kagome I can't lose you" Inuyasha said as he pulled Kagome into a tight embrace, Kagome only smiled.
" Inuyasha, if they were here to kill me, don't you think they would do it outside and not in our head quarters?" Kagome asked as she raised an eye brow. Inuyasha glared at here, " And what exactly are you emplying?" Inuyasha asked in a stubborn tone, Kagome grinned. "Well I dont think they would be that stupid to attack us while there in or mansion don't you think?" Kagome asked as she raised her eye brow, Inuyasha smiled. "You have point then" Inuyasha said in a small huff.
Kagome smiled and kissed him on the cheek, great then I will get dressed and meat you down there in a second ok? " Kagome asked in a sweet voice. Inuyasha nodded and turned and walked out.
Kagome let out a small sigh and walked over to her dresser, she pulled out a red top that had two dragons going up the front and back and black and white hems on the shirts, she then pulled out a long black skirt that flowed out behind her, kagome puit on her out fit and then put a red obi around the skirt and tied it behind her back, she then grabbed her weapon belt and strapped her pitsal belt on her right leg and her dagger belkt on her left, (she placeed these under her skirt) she then grabbed both of her swords and strapped then to her sides, kagome turned to look at her self in the mirror and smiled, she then picked up some consealer and gently put some on her face, Kagome then placed some red and black eyeshadow and some black eye liner, she then hurried up and put in sone red contacts and looked at the mirror again, "All done" She said before she ran out of the room, down stairs and sat next to Inuyasha.
"Sorry im late" KAgome said with a bright smile, Abi smiled. "It's ok lady KAgome, we were just getting started." Abi said with a grin, kagome gulped and looked at Inuyasha, "So what is it that you want to speak to me about? KAgome asked as she grabbed Inuyasha's hand,
Abi smiled and leaned forward a bit, "Well, it all started..."
_**A/n: Sorry for leaving it here but my bird is sick and i think it's dieing so I have to go and take care of the mess, well I am going to go now ok? Ja! **_
4. New information and troubled feelings
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.
A/n; sorry that it took me so long to update, I have been really busy with school and stuff and I kind of really don't have time to do it anymore but here I am…I am remaining faithful to my stories and will try to update as soon as I can ok, Well and also I had a sick bird and I have tried to nurse it back to health but I am afraid that my help has failed, my baby bird has died and now I am sad, but life sucks then you move on, ya know? Well I am going to stop talking now and write this chapter ok? Ja!
**Attention!**
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**Thank you all for reading my story and I love you all vary much! (Group hugs everyone.) Thank you all vary much, you people are the best, now on with the story, Jane! **
**Chapter 4: new information and troubled feelings. **
**(Flash Back) **
Kagome smiled and kissed him on the cheek, great then I will get dressed and meat you down there in a second ok? " Kagome asked in a sweet voice. Inuyasha nodded and turned and walked out.
Kagome let out a small sigh and walked over to her dresser, she pulled out a red top that had two dragons going up the front and back and black and white hems on the shirts, she then pulled out a long black skirt that flowed out behind her, kagome put on her out fit and then put a red obi around the skirt and tied it behind her back, she then grabbed her weapon belt and strapped her pistol belt on her right leg and her dagger belt on her left, (she placed these under her skirt) she then grabbed both of her swords and strapped then to her sides, kagome turned to look at her self in the mirror and smiled, she then picked up some concealer and gently put some on her face, Kagome then placed some red and black eye shadow and some black eye liner, she then hurried up and put in some red contacts and looked at the mirror again, "All done" She said before she ran out of the room, down stairs and sat next to Inuyasha.
"Sorry i'm late" Kagome said with a bright smile, Abi smiled. "It's ok lady Kagome, we were just getting started." Abi said with a grin, kagome gulped and looked at Inuyasha, "So what is it that you want to speak to me about? Kagome asked as she grabbed Inuyasha hand,
Abi smiled and leaned forward a bit, "Well, it all started..."
**(End of Flash back) **
"Well it all started when Naraku brought Kikyo back from the dead, the reason for this was so Kikyo could reclaim her soul from Kagome, After Kikyo had Kagome's soul she would have helped Naraku take control of all of Japan if not the rest of the world. Abi said before she stopped to look at kagome and Inuyasha wide eyes and parted lips, and shocked faces, "Any thing you want to say before I continue?' She asked as she leaned back into her seat and watched Kagome and Inuyasha look at each other before kagome looked back at her.
"But why would she need my soul? I thought Kikyo still had her powers" Kagome asked as she looked back at Inuyasha who nodded and looked back at Abi, Abi smiled.
"Why that my koi, is the easy part, Kikyo needed your soul because you have something that she never had' Abi said as she started to grin as she watched Kagome's eye brows furrow together.
"What is this thing that I have that she don't?" Kagome asked as she visually gulped.
"Kagome, unlike Kikyo, you have the one power that no one can have, when I heard of you powers it was something that not even I had dreamed about, you have the powers of Madoriko herself my chilled, you have the elements at your command. Abi said as she closed her eyes kagome looked back up at Inuyasha who was smiling before she looked back at Abi.
"Ok and your point are? I knew all this already" Kagome said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Yes I know you know this kagome, but do you know how dangerous it is for you to give birth to Inuyasha's chilled?' Abi asked as she re-opened her eyes and looked at kagome before raising her eyebrow at kagome's face expression,
Kagome let out a small shake of her head, "No, I don't know the dangers of giving birth to Inuyasha's child, please tell me, what is it that makes it dangerous for me to give birth to my mate's child." Kagome asked as she looked back at Inuyasha, who was staring back at her. Kagome turned back to Abi who was stills enjoying the sight of the priestesses facial expressions.
"Kagome, if you were to give birth to Inuyasha's chilled, All your demon powers would go into your son, or daughter and make them into something that can and will bring this world to it's demise, when your child reaches a certain age, your demonic powers will take control of the child's mind and cause it to create world disasters, and eventually kill off the world. Abi said as she tapped the tips of her claws together.
Kagome stared at the floor. "What if I don't have a child?" Kagome asked as she looked back up into Inuyasha's eyes and noticed a bit of sadness under his hard mask, before she looked back at Abi.
"Then we won't have nothing to worry about mi-lady" Abi said as she stood up. "Sorry to tell you these but I have to go." Abi said as she began to slowly walk away but stopped when her arm was being grasped. She slowly turned around and came face to face with Inuyasha, "Yes? What would you like to say Mi lord?" Abi asked with a low bow.
Inuyasha let go of the butterfly demoness's arm before he spoke, "How would you know all of this? How do I know that what your saying is not all lies?" Inuyasha asked in a loud voice while pointing to kagome, every time he said I.
Abi smiled, "You love her vary much, I can see that, but I know this because my kind has the ability to see the future. But unfortunately all I can tell you is the information that I had already given you" Abi said as she turned back around and looked down at the floor. "If what I said dose happen, I will be there for you the whole way to fight it off ok?" Abi asked as she glanced over her shoulder to look at Inuyasha from the corner of her eyes. Inuyasha nodded and held out his hand.
"Let me show you the way to the door then ma'am" Inuyasha said as he looked back at Kagome. ' I will be right back my koi ok?" Inuyasha asked as he turned to face her. Kagome nodded and Inuyasha smiled and began to walk out of the door with Abi.
Kagome let out a small sigh as she sat back down on the couch. 'What am I going to do now?' Kagome thought as she stood back up and walked to the other door that leaded to the living room where every one was still sitting.
"Hey Kagome, how are you doing?" Sango asked as she ran over to Kagome's side and put her arm around her shoulder, Kagome smiled.
"Ok I guess, but I am still a lil upset about the information that the butterfly demoness just informed me and Inuyasha about." Kagome said as she let out a small sigh, and smiled back at Sango and the others.
"So what did she say?" Ayami asked her most rusted friend.
Kagome was about to answer her but was cut off by Inuyasha. "It doesn't concern you Ayami, so stay out of it!" Yelled Inuyasha, Ayami let out a low growl,
"Listen here asshole, Kagome can tell me what ever she wants to and you can't say shit about it so HA!' Ayami yelled as she stuck her tongue out at Inuyasha, which only made Inuyasha and Kagome growl at her.
Kagome grabbed her friend by the shoulder and turned her around to face her. "If you ever disrespect my mate again, then I swear I will not waste a second on ripping your pretty face up with my claws!' Kagome shouted s he demonic side flashed then disappeared causing Ayumi's face to pail and bow on the ground in front of Kagome. "Please mi-lady, forgive me! I ment no harm!' Ayumi begged as she pressed her head to the carpet, Kagome smiles a sharp toothy grin as her fangs pocked out from her lips.
Inuyasha looked up at Kagome with a shocked face, "Kagome, calm down she was only playing, don't kill her and come with me please?" Inuyasha asked as he slowly stepped closer to Kagome and put a clawed hand on her shoulder.
Kagome looked at Inuyasha as he eye's flashes red then turned back to brown, Kagome then turned and looked back down at Ayumi, "I am so sorry Ayumi" Kagome said as she slowly leaned down and touched her shoulder. "Please get up," Kagome said as she stood back up and looked back at Inuyasha. "Lets go." Kagome whispered as she walked with Inuyasha up stairs and walked into their room. Kagome walked to the bed and sat down on it.
Inuyasha shut the door and turned to see Kagome already sitting on the bed with her head down. 'I wander what she is thinking right now" Inuyasha thought as he walked over to his dresser and pulled out a cherry vanilla incense and lit it up and placed t into his incense holder before he walked back over to kagome and sat down next to her. He then wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap.
Kagome slowly wrapped her arms around Inuyasha's neck and began to cry. Inuyasha began to rock Kagome back and forth in his arms slowly, "Shh my koi, every thing will be ok, my love, we will figure something out ok?" Inuyasha said in a low whisper as he continued to rock kagome in his arms.
"What if what she said we true, What if I can't have your kids?" Kagome asked, while her body rocked with sobs, "Then what use will I be to you?" Kagome sobbed out, as she held tighter to Inuyasha's shoulders.
Inuyasha let out a small sigh and slowly laid Kagome down onto the bed. "Kagome, all you need to worry about is getting enough sleep, baby your vary tired and you need your rest, you haven't been to bed for more the three days." Inuyasha said as he laid Kagome on the bed. He slowly tucked her in, and began to walk to the door before he stopped.
"Inuyasha" Kagome moaned out as she turned around to face Inuyasha's direction.
"Yes kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he walked back over to the bed to see what kagome wanted.
Kagome looked up at him and smiled. "Will you sleep with me? I don't want to be alone anymore," Kagome said as she looked up into Inuyasha's eyes, Inuyasha looked down at her and smiled. "Of course my mate, I would love to sleep by your side" Inuyasha said as he smiled down at her, Inuyasha then took off his shirt and pants and slowly climbed into bed, Inuyasha reached over to kagome and pulled off her shirt and pulled her closer to his chest.
Kagome then snuggled into Inuyasha's warmed and let out a small sigh. "I love you Inuyasha" Kagome said as she looked up at him, Inuyasha looked down at Kagome and slowly leaned down and kissed her gently. "I love you to my koi" Inuyasha whispered as he pulled her closer and placed his chin on top of her hair.
Inuyasha counted the rhythm of Kagome's Hearst beat until it softened and she was a sleep, Inuyasha let out a small sigh as he moved a small strand of hair from kagome's face. "I don't care if you and I can have kids or not, as long as I have you, that is all that matters" Inuyasha whispered before he fell asleep seconds later.
**A/n: Hey they're every one! I hope you all liked this chapter, I was thinking on putting a lemon in the next chapter but I am still debating on weather I should or not, tell me what you all think and I will chose if I want to or not. I will then try to update as soon as I can ok? Love you all, and please Review… I makes me so sad when you don't well byez! **
**Kida Kitsune. **
5. Setsuna
**Disclaimer; I don't you own Inuyasha so don't ask. **
**A/n: ONG School sucks ass, I got into three fights to day and almost got suspended if it wasn't for my teacher helping me out and said the three girls started the fight. (Even though I was the one who started it) lol. But enough of that, I am getting tired of all these long haired preppy ass bitches that have no common sense and is oblivious to every thing around them except other girls boyfriends. Anyways. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I have had so much to do, like schoolwork, um. I hardly ever spend time with my boyfriend anymore, so I try to when ever he comes over, me and him just have so much to do, we hardly have time for each other but now we have a date to go to home coming together. Yay! . But anyways, on with the story. **
Chapter 5, Setsuna.
Kagome woke up to find Inuyasha not in the room, she slowly sat up and went to get out of bed until she stopped when she heard Inuyasha yelling at someone, Kagome hurried up and jumped out of bed and ran to the door, but before she touched the handle, the door swung open and almost hit her if she had not of jumped back. Kagome striated herself out as she gazed upon Inuyasha.
"What is wrong Inuyasha?" Kagome asked as she walked up to the angry hanyou.
"Kagome get dressed quickly, we have company surrounding us" Inuyasha said as he walked to a wall that had a picture on it of slipknot. He gently pushed on the picture and Kagome watched as the picture went into the wall and moved behind the wall. Behind the picture it was a wall of different types of guns, knives, swords, belts and electronic of every kind, along with surveillance TVs.
Inuyasha reached over and pulled out two golden Berettas and two silver ones that have blue chrome on the trigger and something written on the handle in purple and pink two tones. Inuyasha then turned to Kagome and smiled, "I have something for you" Inuyasha said as he handed the two silver Berettas.
Kagome looked down at them, she slowly turned it so the pink would turn purple so she could read it, it said.
' _This is to the woman that I cherish the most in the universe,' Kagome_ looked up at him and smiled, she leaned over and kissed him gently before breaking the kiss, Inuyasha then smiled even wider. " I am glad you like it, but there is a secret to it, this gun doesn't use bullets, its uses miko powers to shoot what ever it is that you want it to, it shoots ice bullets and other elemental powers you can use. And if you want real bullets all you have to do is hit this button here, and it will have an infinity supply at your dispose." Inuyasha said, as he got dressed into a pair of black baggy pants with a black wife beater and a white shirt over it, he then strapped on his two silver guns and then put on a skull belt and then picked up his sword called the tetsusaiga and tied it in place on his side and then put on a long trench coat that had the gangs name on the back and about 50 daggers on the inside along with three other hidden guns. One on the left side and two on his right.
Inuyasha turned to kagome and looked at her, "what the hell are you waiting for? Christmas? Get dressed and get ready for a battle Damnit, you have fifteen minuets." Inuyasha said as he walked out of the room.
Kagome let out a small sighs as she opened her closet door and picked out one of her new babble out fits that she just made.
The out fit was like her others ones (priestess outfits) but only this one was teal and neon blue, the skirt was a lil longer then her other ones and the shorts were a lil shorted as well, and were teal, the skirt was neon blue and the top was teal. Kagome hurried up and put on the outfit, she then pulled out her gun holsters and wrapped then around both of her legs and placed the two black pistols. She then put on some black army boots and then tied her two Katana's onto both on her sides. She then pulled her hair up into a high ponytail. Kagome then walked back over to her closet and pulled out a black leather jacket and placed in the sides of it the two guns Inuyasha gave her. She then hurried up and put in teal contact and teal eyeliner and lipstick with teal eye shadow with teal mascara and then ran out of the room while grabbing her keys.
Kagome ran down the stairs and into the living room where she met up with the rest of the gang.
"Inuyasha are we ready to go?" Asked Ayame in a low voice, Inuyasha nodded as he looked at Kagome, who also nodded, "Yes lets get out of here." Inuyasha said as he grabbed Kagome's arm and pushed her against the wall and kissed her deeply, "You look awfully sexy right now" Inuyasha said in a seductive voice.
Kagome glared at him as she pushed him away. "Inuyasha we have a job to take care of, I find that this job is far more important then sex so get your damn act together!' Kagome yelled.
Inuyasha backed away from her with a shocked expression, "What the hell is your problem?" Inuyasha asked in a pissed off tone causing Kagome to let out a small growl.
"WE have a job to do, so I suggest you get your shit together and quit acting like a dog in heat!" Kagome yelled as she walked away from a vary angry puppy.
"I'll get you later then!" Inuyasha yelled as he walked to catch up with her."
_**Meanwhile...**_
" Damnit where the hell are those dogs at?" a dark and sinester voice said from the shadows.
"Why my lord they should be on their way here any minuet." said a small voice on the cell phone.
"Good, continue with the plan, and I will get the girl" Said the voice.
"But what about her mate?" Asked the small voice on the phone.
"Kill him, I have had enough of that damn dog!" the voice yelled. "Now get on with it!"
"Yes lord Takemaru!" said the voice before the phone turned off.
"Any minuet now, and I will have what I wanted, the priestess with elemental powers and the shikon no tama will be mine!" said lord Takemaru.
_**A/n: Yes I know, this was a really short chapter but I don't have a lot of time right now, I have to go to bed for school tomorrow, I will try to update ASAP ok? Ja! **_
6. ch6 A Vary angry Kagome
_**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha **_
_**A/n: Wow you guys have no idea how bad I feel about not up dating this story Lol. I haven't updated since October. That is horrible how can you guys ever forgive me? Well hopefully writing this new chapter will help a little bit ya know? Well hope you like it…I haven't really thought about my story for a while so for this chapter I'm just going to wing it and hope for the best. Byez! **_
Chapter 6: A vary angry Kagome
**(Flashback) **
**(With Kagome) **
"_Inuyasha are we ready to go?" Asked Ayame in a low voice, Inuyasha nodded as he looked at Kagome, who also nodded, "Yes lets get out of here." Inuyasha said as he grabbed Kagome's arm and pushed her against the wall and kissed her deeply, "You look awfully sexy right now" Inuyasha said in a seductive voice._
_Kagome glared at him as she pushed him away. "Inuyasha we have a job to take care of, I find that this job is far more important then sex so get your damn act together!' Kagome yelled._
_Inuyasha backed away from her with a shocked expression, "What the hell is your problem?" Inuyasha asked in a pissed off tone causing Kagome to let out a small growl._
_"WE have a job to do, so I suggest you get your shit together and quit acting like a dog in heat!" Kagome yelled as she walked away from a vary angry puppy._
"I'll get you later then!" Inuyasha yelled as he walked to catch up with her."
**(With the enemy) **
_" Damnit where the hell are those dogs at?" a dark and sinister voice said from the shadows._
_"Why my lord they should be on their way here any minuet." said a small voice on the cell phone._
_"Good, continue with the plan, and I will get the girl" Said the voice._
_"But what about her mate?" Asked the small voice on the phone._
_"Kill him, I have had enough of that damn dog!" the voice yelled. "Now get on with it!"_
_"Yes lord Takemaru!" said the voice before the phone turned off._
_"Any minuet now, and I will have what I wanted, the priestess with elemental powers and the Shikon No Tama will be mine!" said lord Takemaru._
**(End of Flashback) **
Kagome and the gang all pulled up to the abandon warehouse where they have a link to the Enemy gang. Kagome climbed off her bike and walked over to Inuyasha and the others.
"So what is the plan?" Kagome asked Inuyasha as she pulled out her gun and loaded it.
"Well we don't know how many there is in there, but what we do know is that we out number them by five so we might get out of this fine." Ryu said as she sat in the van and placed her head set on.
"So basically we are going to run in to a trap blind folded?" Kagome asked as she cocker her eyebrow.
"Yes" Was all they said.
Kagome turned and looked back at the warehouse and took a couple steps forward and looked around the outside and began to think of what else they could do.
"Well Kagome what do you think?" Asked Inuyasha.
Kagome didn't answer she just looked at everyone and furrowed her eyes brows together then took another look at the building then back to everyone else. Kagome then smiled and let out a demonic growl as began to transform into her demon form. She then flapped her wings till she was about 10 ft into the air. She then looked at everyone and placed them into a sound barrier and let out her demon call, which was a loud shrieak that can cause anyones ears to burst, and the earth to shake and the windows to burst. (Basically an earthquake, only caused by sound). Moments later about 20 armed men began to run out of the warehouse squirming in pain and letting out loud screams as the sound waves began hitting them harder now that hey were out side.
Kagome then landed back on the ground and caused the call to stop and the barrier to disperse. Kagome then drew out her guns and began to run towards everyone shooting, she then quickly shot down the guy in front of her and put her guns away and spin kicked the other guy running towards her. Kagome then pulled out her Katana's and began spinning using her demonic speed to spin even faster. Kagome then stopped spinning and then placed her Katana's back into the sheath.
"Its ok everyone! We can go in now! In not sensing any more humans" Kagome said as she waved to everyone and began to walk inside while being followed by the others.
Inuyasha then ran up to Kagome and grabbed her by her arm. "Kagome what the hell was that all about back there?" Inuyasha asked.
"I was just angry is all? Now I'm all better," Kagome said with a toothy smile.
**A/n: I know you all think that this chapter sucked but I couldn't come up with anything…I promise it will be better next chapter ok? It's the thought that counts I always say well I'm going to go now ok? Byez! **
** 3 Kiddie Kida Kitsune **
**P.S**
**I am changing my display name from Kiddie Kida Kitsune, to Emo mistress ok? Byez! **
7. My demonic Princess
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or characters
A/n: Hello time for another update I have a lot on my mind as well as new ideas lol so hope you all enjoy!!!
Chapter 7: My demonic Princess
Kagome didn't answer she just looked at everyone and furrowed her eyes brows together then took another look at the building then back to everyone else. Kagome then smiled and let out a demonic growl as began to transform into her demon form. She then flapped her wings till she was about 10 ft into the air. She then looked at everyone and placed them into a sound barrier and let out her demon call, which was a loud shriek that can cause anyone's ears to burst, and the earth to shake and the windows to burst. (Basically an earthquake, only caused by sound). Moments later about 20 armed men began to run out of the warehouse squirming in pain and letting out loud screams as the sound waves began hitting them harder now that hey were out side.
Kagome then landed back on the ground and caused the call to stop and the barrier to disperse. Kagome then drew out her guns and began to run towards everyone shooting, she then quickly shot down the guy in front of her and put her guns away and spin kicked the other guy running towards her. Kagome then pulled out her Katana's and began spinning using her demonic speed to spin even faster. Kagome then stopped spinning and then placed her Katana's back into the sheath.
"Its ok everyone! We can go in now! In not sensing any more humans" Kagome said as she waved to everyone and began to walk inside while being followed by the others.
Inuyasha then ran up to Kagome and grabbed her by her arm. "Kagome what the hell was that all about back there??" Inuyasha asked.
"I was just angry is all? Now I'm all better," Kagome said with a toothy smile.
Kagome and the gang then ran into the warehouse with all gun drawn she then looked at Inuyasha. "Smell anything Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.
Inuyasha looked puzzled. "Yeah there is a demon here masking his demonic aura." Inuyasha said with a low growl.
Kagome looked around. "It's coming from up stares kagome said as she looked at her team. "Ok people we split up. And listen for me to tell you to clear out" kagome directed to her team. Inuyasha looked to his men and nodded, "Follow kagome lead and watch your backs, there might be traps everywhere" Inuyasha said as he pulled out his gun and followed kagome up the spiral staircase to the top floor.
Once they were at the top kagome pulled out a dagger and used her spirit energy and transformed it into a flame because it was dark, she then casted a aura around her and Inuyasha so nothing could jump out at them and catch them under surprise.
"Hmm, I see I have both the beautiful fairy goddess and her mate in my hands now" said a dark voice from the shadows. Causing Kagome to growl.
"Show your self or be purified!" kagome yelled as her aura flared.
"And risk hurting all your friends?" Asked the dark voice.
"That is why I have a secret weapon for" Kagome said with a cocky smile.
"Inuyasha Now!" kagome yelled as she and Inuyasha pulled out big as guns that created hyper beams from there own spiritual powers. Kagome's gun began glowing blue as Inuyasha glowed red. They both aimed them at the demon and fired the beams at once causing the demon to turn into a pile of ashes. Kagome looked at Inuyasha and growled. "that was too easy" kagome said as she stood her ground,
"It was a demon puppet" Inuyasha said as he walked up to the pile of ashes and say a wooden doll.
"I thought only Naraku could use those" kagome said in a small growl. Inuyasha then crumbled the doll in his hand and stood up. "It was someone else, but I don't recognize the scent"
"I don't either" kagome said as she took a small smell, "Lets call everyone off, its too dangerous to linger here anymore" kagome said as she put her gun away and turned to looked around.
Inuyasha stood up and grabbed his mic. "Everyone, get out of here now, its not safe. We killed the demon but there might be something else here. Get out of here now!" Inuyasha demanded. "Yes Sir" everyone said in unison as they took off back outside.
Inuyasha looked at kagome. "K'gome, you ok?" asked Inuyasha as he felt her aura flare up drastically.
"That basterd should have never gotten away!" kagome growled out.
"Kagome we will figure out who did this, lets go home now ok?" Inuyasha asked in a slightly pleading voice.
Kagome looked and Inuyasha and nodded. "Ok." kagome said as they began to walk out and met up with the gang outside. Kagome looked at everyone. "Is everyone ok?" kagome asked.
"Yes kagome we are all good, no one had any troubles." Said Ryu.
"OK then lets head home, I guess we have a new enemy to look into" Inuyasha said as he wrapped his arms around kagome to try and comfort her. Kagome let out a sigh and jumped on her bike and took off home without another word.
Sango looked up at Inuyasha. "What was that all about?"
"She is pissed about the demon, he was a demon puppet." Inuyasha said as he got onto his bike. Lets head home before Kagome does something stupid. Everyone then jumped on there bikes and took off after Kagome.
(With the enemy)
"Boss the girl killed the puppet and everyone else, what now?" asked the women with purple eyes.
"We move to plan B, I can't let her get away for that, and those were our best men too Damnit!" Yelled Takemaru.
"Yes sir, will that be all?" Asked the women.
"Yeah they're one more thing, don't fuck up on me again this time Kagura! I'm watching you" Said Takemaru with a evil grin.
"Yes sir" Kagura said as she walked out of the office and down the hall.
'_He thinks he can control me! Just like Naraku had tried to, but no one is going to stop me! I am going to be free and I will kill him right before everyone vary eyes!'_ Kagura thought with a smile on her lips.
(Back with Inuyasha and gang)
Inuyasha ran into the house and to his and kagome room to see that she was there then followed her scent to the top of the mansion. There he saw kagome in her full demon form looking up to the moon while singing the song that was playing on her radio.
All that I'm living for-Evanescence
**All that I'm living for,
all that I'm dying for,
all that I can't ignore alone at night. **
I can feel the night beginning.
Separate me from the living.
Understanding me,
After all I've seen.
Piecing every thought together,
find the words to make me better.
If I only knew how to pull myself apart.
All that I'm living for,
all that I'm dying for,
all that I can't ignore alone at night.
All that I'm wanted for,
although I wanted more.
Lock the last open door; my ghosts are gaining on me.
Inuyasha looked at Kagome's form as she sung the lyrics so beautifully, yet he whimpered to himself knowing his mate was in pain and he couldn't help her.
**I believe that dreams are sacred.
Take my darkest fears and play them
Like a lullaby,
Like a reason why,
Like a play of my obsessions,
Make me understand the lesson,
So I'll find myself,
So I won't be lost again. **
All that I'm living for,
All that I'm dying for,
All that I can't ignore alone at night.
All that I'm wanted for,
Although I wanted more.
Lock the last open door, my ghosts are gaining on me.
Inuyasha looked as Kagome's aura flared and she aimed the beam up to the moon as she sang even louder. Inuyasha was mesmerized at the beauty of the moon now; it shined a beautiful crystal color and looked like it was turning blood red causing Inuyasha to feel like his demon was being drawn out.
**Guess I thought I'd have to change the world to make you see me,
To be the one.
I could have run forever,
But how far would I have come
Without mourning your love? **
All that I'm living for,
All that I'm dying for,
All that I can't ignore alone at night.
All that I'm wanted for,
Although I wanted more.
Lock the last open door, my ghosts are gaining on me.
Kagome sunk to her knees as she sung the last of the song with tears in her eyes,
**Should it hurt to love you?
Should I feel like I do?
Should I lock the last open door,
My ghosts are gaining on me.**
Kagome then wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them up to her chest as she slightly sobbed into her arms. "What is wrong with me?" Kagome whimpered out.
"Kagome are you ok baby?" Inuyasha asked as he walked up to his mate and wrapped his arms around her crying form.
"I'm scared. I don't know what is wrong with me anymore, I feel like my should is being torn in two, and there isn't anyway I can stop it." Kagome cried out.
Inuyasha tightened his hold on her and kissed her softly. "What ever the problem is I'm sure we can fix it kagome" Inuyasha said as he pulled her closer. 'Why do I feel like my demon side was being drawn out?' Inuyasha thought to himself. As another song came on her stereo. (LEMON WARNING)
**"Lose Control"-evanescence **
**You don't remember my name.
I don't really care.
Can we play the game your way?
Can I really lose control? **
Just once in my life,
I think it'd be nice,
Just to lose control, just once,
With all the pretty flowers in the dust.
Kagome turned in Inuyasha's arms and kissed him passionately and pinned him to the ground as she kissed his neck and slowly began tugging at his clothes.
Inuyasha was caught off surprise but began to heed to her pleas as he begin taking off his close and weapons and let his mate take the situation into her own hands. Kagome then ran her hands down his body began to undo his belt, after she was don't with his belt she then pulled off his pants with Inuyasha's help and let out a small purr as she kissed him passionately.
**Mary had a lamb.
His eyes black as coals.
If we play very quiet, my lamb,
Mary never has to know. **
Just once in my life,
I think it'd be nice,
Just to lose control, just once.
If I cut you down to a thing I can use,
I fear there will be nothing good left of you.
Inuyasha felt something tug at his soul as she kissed him, Inuyasha then turned kagome till she was on her back and began to carefully remove her clothes making sure not to hurt her. Kagome then changed back into her human for and moaned in slight pain from the transformation, Inuyasha then got the strong scent that kagome was now in heat causing his blood to boil and his demonic side scream to take her. Inuyasha then pulled off all of kagome's clothes and laid her down. He then parted her legs and thrusted into her roughly causing kagome to gasp as he began to pound into her using his demonic energy. Kagome let out a rough moan as she hit her first climax causing Inuyasha to go faster. Kagome then ran her nails down his back as he picked up the pace, kagome then changed into her demon form and then pinned Inuyasha onto his back. She then thrusted him inside her and took over the pace painfully slow, Inuyasha let out a small whimper as he felt himself coming close to his peak. He then grabbed Kagome's hips and begin to grind her on him harder causing kagome to throw her head back and moan louder and reach her second climax. Inuyasha them rolled them both over and pulled Kagome's body closer and began to thrust into her as her as he could while grabbing her hips with his claws and pump into her harder causing kagome to hit her third climax before Inuyasha released into her womb and collapse on top of her shaken form.
Kagome then released Inuyasha from her claws as she slowly began changing back into her human for. Kagome then let out a rough moan as a wave of pain hit her causing Inuyasha too look at her concerned. "You ok Kagome?" Inuyasha asked as he kissed her forehead.
"Yeah but I'm not used to transforming like that." Kagome said in a low voice as she began to relax. Inuyasha then rolled into his back and pulled kagome into his arms and grabbed her leather trench coat and covered them up with it and gazed at the stars.
"I love you Kagome"
"I love you too Inuyasha" kagome said before sleep over came her tired body.
Inuyasha smiled as he looked up at the midnight sky. '_What is wrong with you my demonic princess?' _Inuyasha asked as he closed his eyes and fell into a light sleep as Kagome formed a barrier around both of them so they would be safe from any dangers.
A/n: I hope you all liked it! It took me forever to write it lol. Ill update the other two later ok? Love you all Byez!
End file.
| fanfiction |
Negima! Magister Negi Magi/魔法先生ネギま！ 1. Chapter 1
Notice " I do not own Harry Potter or Mahou Sensie Negima If I did Albus Dumbledore bashing would be a must really any one can tell he is a minipulitive old fool"
**Mahou Sensei Harry?**
We find ourselves on a quiet Street on A halloween night. outside on A brick wall sat a Tabby Cat sat perfectly still as a statue staring at a blank spot on the road as if expecting something there. A few seconds later a old man with a long flowing beard and a crooked nose in a purple robe with stars on it (he would fit the definition of what muggles would picture Merlin to look like) pulled out a silver instrument and with a click the light in the nearest street lamp went out another click and another till all the lights went out then he walked toward the wall with the Tabby cat on it and said "I thought I would be seeing you here eh, Proffessor McGonagall" Where the Tabby cat was sitting now sat a stern looking woman her brown hair tied into a bun she said "How did you know it was me" "My dear Proffessor I have never seen a cat sit so stiffly" he said.
"Albus is it true what there saying" she asked and when she didn't get an answer she continued with "There saying That you-no-who went to the potters that the killed lily and James and tried to kill Harry but couldn't and he disappeared please Albus tell me its not true" "I'm afraid so Proffessor McGonagall" "Oh no not James and Lllllllily" She sobbed. Then she asked "What is going to happen to Harry" She eyed his robe as if he were hiding him there " Hagrid is bringing him" "Is it wise to trust Hagrid with this task" "I would trust Hagrid with my Life" he retorted "Im not saying his heart isn't in the right place" just then there was a load boom and a giant of a man flew down riding a motorcycle with a baby basket in the side car.
" 'ello Proffessor got him here like you asked little guy feel asleep as we were flying over Bristol" "There weren't any problems were there Hagrid" asked the old man. "Nope young Sirius Black asked if he could take him but I said he couldn't that you told me to bring him to you, so he left me with this bike and left" Dumbledores eyes flashed at the name Sirius Black 'Thats a problem I'm gonna have to deal withvif I'm going to isolate my weapon... I mean Harry' he thought. "Albus you are surely no thinking of leaving him here I've been Watching them all day there the worst Muggles imaginable" "Ah but there the only family he has left" he replied in that grandfatherly tone that usually got people to do what he wanted.
So they left him on the door step and little Harry slept not knowing he was special not knowing he was famous not knowing that for the next few years his life would be a living hell. Meanwhile across the world people were raising the goblets "_To Harry Potter the Boy Who Lived."_
Two years later ..
We find ouselve with a young man with Brown Hair Brown eyes walking through the streets of london when he sees a sickening sight a baby boy looking to be no more than one with black hair green eyes bruises covering hes skin and a lightning shaped scar on his forhead
being beaten by a heavy set male with very little neck. He Says "Sir leave that child alone" the fat man says "Bugger off im teaching my nephew a lesson" this pissed the man off beyond belief to think this man was actually related to a child Family should never hurt eachother. So he got into a Kenpo stanceand beat the man away and then went to help the child the child started to back away in fear and curl into a ball "Its okay little one I'm not gonna hurt you My name is Nagi Springfield" he said " I don't havea name my uncle says freaks like me don't deserve a name" "Dont worry child your not a freak and I'll Call you Negi, So how about it Negi feel like traveling with me" the little boy looked up with a hopefull look in his eye as he said "okay" then Nagi Said "Okay Im gonna use an adoption spell so I can change your appearence so no one will recognize you it will also make you my son" as he says this he pulls out a little booklet while muttering" adoption spells adoption spells" aw here it is "EGO adopt is parvulus ut mei"(I adopt this child as mine) when that was said negi changed untill he looked like a younger version of Nagi except with a lightining shape scar.
2. So it begins
Disclaimer: I do not ownt Mahou Sensei Negima or Harry Potter.
**Mahou Sensei Harry?**
7 years into the Future. We find our young hero recieving his diploma from the acadamy for mages he is 10 years old and is the youngest mage to graduate from the academy in a century. "Hey Negi what does it say, I got assigned to a fortune teeling job in london" said Anya Negi's childhood friend. "It's about to appear!" said negi as words slowly start to apear on the page "A teacher in Japan" a loud eeeeeeeh could be heard through the Academy. "Pricipal whats the meaning of this what do you mean teacher" Said Akane negi's cousin/mother like figure. "Oh a Teacher is it" said the principal. "If its a the diploma than thats is the training, Train hard and become a great mage, and don't worry the tacher there is a old friend of mine."
'Train hard of course I'm going to train hard I have been ever since father left me here with Nekane' thought Negi which was true about a year after Nagi adopted Negi he left him with Nakane and dissapeared but he would always remember his Father and Studied hard while Training in Mixed Martial Arts.
A. a little of a UFC fan
He wore weighted clothing and always pushed himself to death and after that get nagged by Nekane for overworking himself. negi never understood why but magic came naturally to him and he never seemed to run out of magical energy. Good thing because he is going to need all of the energy he can get soon.
'Wow Japan is so crowded and there are so many woman' negi thought while riding the railway to the academy 'oh no' Ah ah choo he sneezes and a huge gust blew up the female skirts revealing there under garments. He sighs 'sometimes its not always great to be a wing elemental' he thought. He then remembers what his sister said before he left.
**Flashback**
_"Do you have everything" Akane said. "Yes sister" said Negi "Clean Underwear" she said "yyyy-eeee-sss sss-iiii-sss-ttt-ee-rrr" he stuttered while blushing. Than Akane started crying "Ir seems like only yesturday you came here and I started rasing you, I'm going to miss you negi" she cried out which only caused Negi to start crying "I'll miss you to sister". "Remember to be nice to girls Negi" "I will sister"._
**End Flashback**
"Next stop Mahora Acadamy" said the conductors voice over the intercome. 'So it finally begins said Negi.
**A.N**
Poll still open thinking about having an arranged marriage between Konoka and Harry Potter/Negi I wonder If I should Have the Principal at Mahora know and/or reveal to negi his true name please review suggestions welcome and please vote on my profile.
**Poll results so far**
Should be in Harem?
1 Tonks 3 » 25%
2 Konoka 2 » 16%
3 Fleur De'lecleur 2 » 16%
4 Setsuna 1 » 8%
5 kaede 1 » 8%
6 Ku Fei 1 » 8%
7 Hermione 1 » 8%
8 Daphne Greengrass 1 » 8%
9 Mana 0 » 0%
10 Evagalian 0 » 0%
11 Nadoka 0 » 0%
12 Yue 0 » 0%
13 Makie 0 » 0%
14 Ayaka 0 » 0%
15 Bellatrix 0 » 0%
16 Susan bones 0 » 0%
17 Hannah Abbott 0 » 0%
18 Minerva McGonagall 0 » 0%
3. Idiots,Fortunes and Meetings
**A.N. I do not own Harry potter or Mahou Sensie Negima though I wish I did I would be rich lol**
**Mahou Sensei Harry?**
To all students this is the attendance committee "This week is Zero Late Attendance Week and its only ten minutes to the bell" 'Wah I'm gonna be late on my first day' thought Negi as he steps off to the side takes off his wrist and ankle weights which way a total of 500 lbs (200 ea. leg 50 ea arm) and places them carefully behind a bush while discreetly placing an invisibility barrier over them so no one takes them (Hey there expensive and custom made) and He runs down the crowded street at a high speed (Like the speed that Konoka travels on roller blades hey he doesn't want people to be suspicious of him) he notices A lovely young woman black here all the way to here hips with black eyes and a carefree smile on roller blades ('Beautiful' he thinks when he sees her) along side another young with blond done up in two pony tails going down to the small of her back. He gets close enough and heres part of there conversation the blond says "Why do you the principals Granddaughter have to meet the new teacher, Hes friends with the principal right, probably just an old geezer" 'geezer am I' thought Negi "You think so? My fortune today says you'll have a meeting with destiny" said the Beautiful black haired woman "and it also says repeating the name of the guy you like ten times, then barking is efficient" 'I got to see this' thought neg he knew it was a joke "Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei Takahata-sensei ruff ruff ruff' Negi had to put a hand to his mouth to stop from laughing out loud 'She fell for it what an idiot' he thought.
He keeps running and passes the two not wanting to ruin there day by telling the blond that she should give up that the person she loves wouldn't love her back he hated making people upset by giving out fortunes like that. he reaches Mahora Academy and bums into an old friend "Hey Takamichi whats up" said person turns around he has spiked and slicked back light brown hair some facial hair wearing glasses and a suit and tie smoking a cigarette (or as I call them cancer sticks or death sticks any who) "Hey neg how have you been still wearing those weighted clothing I see " 'Dang hes gonna kill himself working so hard' thought Takamichi "Takamichi can you lead me to the principals office" "Of course Negi we can catch up on the way"
"Excuse me principal Negi is here to see you" "of course Takamichi please send him in" "See you later neg" sad Takamichi as Negi entered the principals office The Principal was a very old and wise looking man He was bald on top except for a shoulder length white ponytail in the back thick long eyebrows and a long goatee he also seemed to be eying Negi as if Measuring him up 'Mm he has a lot of power for one so young in a couple years I believe He will Surpass even me and if it continues to grow it may surpass Merlin himself' he thought as he eyed the young man than he stopped as his eyes hit his forehead were the lightning shaped scar was 'That Scar I've heard Stories of that Scar but the young man who it belonged to should have black hair and green eyes and I believe his name was Harry Potter I'll have to keep a close eye on Negi if I'm right than I have to look through My papers for that contract that Me and James potter drew up' "Hello Negi I see your training to be Magister magi is to be a teacher I have talked to Takimichi about you and from what he told me we should be able to expect great things from you Negi" (no not another Olivander lol Olivander creeps me out a little)
"I'll do my best, Sir" he said confidently 'I'm sure you will Negi you have already surpassed your fathers raw power from when he was your age' the principal thought**. **At that moment there was a Knock on the door. "Come in" said the principal
A.N. I'm thinking of having Setsuna and Mana make a pactio with Negi also I think That I'll have Setsuna Have Sephiroths' Sword from final fantasy 7 and Mana have the Angel Arm gun from Trigun I want you opinion and no I'm not bringing in characters from Final Fantasy or Trigun just Weapons also I would like your opinion on this so please review.
4. Marriage Contracts
**Notice " I do not own Harry Potter or Mahou Sensie Negima'" Just to let you know poll for harem is up on my profile**
_Last time... 'I'm sure you will Negi you have already surpassed your fathers raw power from when he was your age' the principal thought__**. **__At that moment there was a Knock on the door. "Come in" said the principal_
**Mahou Sensei Harry**
In walked the Beautiful Black Haired Woman that was on Roller Blades. "You wanted to see me Grandpa" she said "Yes, come in I'd like you to meet your new Teacher Negi Springfield" "Negi this is my lovely and single granddaughter who I hope you will Marry one day" out comes the hammer of doom leaving a lump on the Principals head". "Grandpa I don't Even Know Him besides I thought I had an arranged Marriage with Someone else". 'Aw, She's already Taken' thought Negi looking depressed. The Principal sees this look and says"I told you Konoka the Terms of that contract said only if you both agree and the gentleman who was Suppose to Marry has been missing for some time" 'Though if I'm right he is standing right in front of us, This is Perfect Know all I have to do is find that Contract James and I made and Verify he is indeed Harry Potter and My granddaughter will finally be Married to a man' he thought.
"Anyway, the reason I called you here Konoka is to tell you that Negi here will be staying with you because we do not have any room available right now" he says. 'I'm gonna be staying with this Beautiful woman' Negi thinks while blushing but quickly hides it when he notices Konoka looking at him Dreamy eyed. 'This young man will be staying with me at least he looks good look at those Muscles he must Work out and he is almost as tall as I am ('Hey working out and eating right helped him so he had a nice growth spurt') too bad I'm in an Arranged Marriage I wouldn't mind Marrying him' she thinks then she notices Negi looking at her and turns away blushing. "Oh Negi your birthday is Tomorrow right how old do you turn?" the principal asked. "Eleven, sir why?" Negi Responded. 'Hmmm, Harry was just about to turn eleven too maybe I'm right' thought the headmaster "No reason" he said. Meanwhile Konoka is having her own thoughts 'Eleven he looks like he is fourteen I guess there goes my chances with him he wouldn't want to go out with someone as old as me' The principal seeing an opportunity to find out the truth and maybe Cheer up his Granddaughter Says "Why so down dear granddaughter I'm sure they'll find Harry Potter (Negi stiffening was seen by the headmaster who thought gotcha) after all your husband to be is Famous in his world" he said. At this Negi Passed out do to the overload of information his final thought was 'That beautiful Woman is my future bride'.
Mean while Miles away in a castle an old man with a white beard thinks 'It's been 7 years since that brat dissapeared hopefully the school Owl will find him so I can put him under my control when he comes here'. "Next week is his birthday and young Harry should be receiving his Hogwarts Letter so don't worry Minerva I'm Sure He's fine" "But Albus he was so young when he dissapeared and you haven't been able to locate him I'm Worried I told you not to leave him at the Dursleys' Why did I ever let you talk me into it" she cried. 'This is the Brats fault if he hadn't somehow got rid of the tracking charms I placed on him I'd have him sub-servant to me as my perfect weapon and people wouldn't be questioning my decisions' he thought "Now Now Minerva Tomorrow is his birthday and he should receive his letter then". That seemed to work as she stopped crying and thought about little Harry Potter coming to Hogwarts 'I hope he is Healthy and Happy"she thought.
**A.N** OK. Another chapter done so what do you thinks like dislike. I still want to know you guys thoughts and opinions and no Asuna is not gonna be in the Harem She acts more like an older sister than girlfriend voting only 8 people voted so far
**Poll results so far**
1
Konoka
4
2
Tonks
4
3
Fleur De'lecleur
4
4
Daphne Greengrass
3
5
kaede
2
6
Mana
2
7
Ku Fei
2
8
Hermione
2
9
Setsuna
1
10
Evagalian
1
11
Nadoka
1
12
Yue
1
13
Bellatrix
1
14
Susan bones
1
15
Makie
0
16
Ayaka
0
17
Hannah Abbott
0
18
Minerva McGonagall
0
5. Fiancee
**Notice " I do not own Harry Potter or Mahou Sensie Negima'" If I did do you think I would be writing this story.**
_'This is the Brats fault if he hadn't somehow got rid of the tracking charms I placed on him I'd have him sub-servant to me as my perfect weapon and people wouldn't be questioning my decisions' he thought "Now Now Minerva Tomorrow is his birthday and he should receive his letter then". That seemed to work as she stopped crying and thought about little Harry Potter coming to Hogwarts 'I hope he is Healthy and Healthy"she thought._
**Mahou Sensei Harry**
"What happened" said Negi. "You fainted Negi are you alright and can you tell me why you fainted" said the Principal. "Information overload can you promise to keep a secret Konoka and you too Principal" "Of, course Negi" they both replied. "Well my original name is Harry James Potter and the reason I don't go by it is because my Father warned me that people would be looking for me."
_flashback Negi is sleeping after the adoption process was complete and Nagi was looking him over what he found disgusted him Tracking Charms Cumpulsion charms which seemed to be keyed to make him obedient to authority figures and a binding spell reducing his magical power 'who would do this to a child' Nagi thought as he pulled out his handy pocketbook of spells and found the spell he was looking for '__Aufero__alica__' (Remove spells) which would remove all spells on his now adopted son._
"Later, my dad went looking for why someone would do that to me and he found out who I was before he adopted me , He told me be careful who I tell because people would try to use me, apparently I am quite Famous back home". At this information was sinking in Konoka was blushing she found out the guy she thought of as hot was her future Husband. "So please don't tell anyone if people knew where I was it would create so many problems" Negi said "Don't worry Negi your identity is safe with me and your fiancée' the headmaster said making Negi and Konoka put on a blush that would make a Weasly Jealous meanwhile somewhere in a tall house a red haired boy sneezes while thinking 'it wont be long till I befriend Harry Potter and get his money and fame for helping Dumbledore keep an eye on him'
"Ah yes we have yet to discuss your living arrangements and for the sake of a successful future Marriage I believe you shall room with my Granddaughter here and also she will show you to the class you are teaching as it is her homeroom" the Principal said. With that the newly formed couple left. The walk to the classroom was awkwardly silent the two people contemplating what they just found out. 'He's my husband to be and he's famous what if he doesn't like me I mean he's famous and I'm just a normal girl' where Konokas' thoughts while Negi was thinking 'I'm to be wed to this beautiful woman I hope she likes me I mean I'm not that attractive and she is Beautiful enough to have any man she wants'.
Mean while in a castle in Scotland 'Only 1 more week it will be his birthday the letter will be sent and I will have my weapon' thought the manipulative bastard I mean Dumbledore.
A.N My thoughts on Harry Potter and my evidence on how Dumbledore is a manipulative old man think for a second in the 1st year Mrs. Weasly was Awfully Loud for a place full of Muggles really acting like she couldn't remember where the platform on after how many children went there and this conversation happened to be caught by Harry, also Dumbledore basically told everyone where the stone was and besides the mirror (Which Dumbledore showed Harry how it works) how come the obstacles to the stone were so easy and seemed designed with them in mind chess, troll, logic puzzles. 2nd year you honestly expect me to believe Hermione could find out what was causing the attacks and the supposed greatest wizard of all time couldn't plus how could they not tell Ginny was acting Differently. 3rd year Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban he was never given a fair trial or allowed Vertaserum of course being Harrys' Godfather he would have Custody. 4th year you telling me its a magical binding contract if you didn't sign your name and if Dumbledore and Moody were in the Order together during the first war than shouldn't Dumbledore be able to tell the difference between a real and fake.
**Poll results thus Far**
1
Tonks
9
2
Fleur De'lecleur
7
3
Konoka
6
4
Evagalian
6
5
kaede
5
6
Mana
5
7
Daphne Greengrass
5
8
Setsuna
4
9
Ku Fei
4
10
Hermione
4
11
Nadoka
3
12
Yue
2
13
Bellatrix
2
14
Susan bones
2
15
Minerva McGonagall
1
16
Makie
0
17
Ayaka
0
18
Hannah Abbott
0
6. Death Glares
**Notice " I do not own Harry Potter or Mahou Sensie Negima'" If I did do you think I would be writing this story.**
**Mahou Sensei Harry**
We find ourselves with our young hero walking awkwardly to his soon to be class next to him being a beautiful woman. The previous conversation with the headmaster caused them to not be able to talk to each other. They reach the classroom and Negi senses a trap on the other side so he opens it and watches as an eraser drops as the eraser drops before it reaches the ground he kicks it and it hits a trip wire which launches the second series of traps. As he's doing this the classroom is silent and awe struck 4 students in particular at the skill level to not only detect the trap but disble it by kicking something at it 'Wow he has good aim maybe he can use a gun' thought a weapon obsessed woman (If you don't know who it is you should read the manga but I'm nice so ill tell its Mana) 'if he can detect traps this well maybe he can help with my training' Thought a Swords woman and ninja together 'this boy could pose a problem I sense much power in him maybe I should make him join me' thought a vampire.
They were shaken from there thoughts by the voice "Hello class I am your new classroom teacher my name is Negi Springfield" he smiled as he said. Than he stared at all the students just Gawking at him finally there was a scream of "Kawaii" as he was hugged to death by a multitude of woman until one woman broke it up while giving death glares to the others "Keep your hands of my Fiancée'" she shouted at them then blushing realising she just told everyone that Negi was her Fiancée' meanwhile the class is gawking while one woman with a sword is glaring daggers at Negi.
Sorry it took so long to update hard to write when you have barely any crossovers of this kind I've been trying to get others to do A Mahou Sensei Negima cross but I think there is only one or two others also im not a good writer and ideas are scarce.
7. Randomn Class
**Notice " I do not own Harry Potter or Mahou Sensie Negima'" If I did do you think I would be writing this story.**
**Mahou Sensei Harry**
"Well this is awkward" said Negi rubbing the back of his head. Which caused the class to stop gawking and pay Attention. "Good morning class my name is Negi Springfield and I will be teaching English I will also be your Homeroom teacher" as he said this he can feel a pair of eyes burning into his head he looks and sees a girl with two ponytails glaring at him he looks in the roster "Can I help you Kagurazaka-San" Negi asked. "Yea pipsqueak Why did you have to get rid of my Takahata-sensei" Yelled Kagurazaka. "Your Takahata" thought Negi. " Well Kagurazaka-San I didn't get rid of _your Takahata-sensei _as you put I am just replacing he will still be taching just not this class, and it was the principal that gave me this job your just gonna have to dead with it" He stated.
"Now as I was Saying before I was rudely interrupted (Asuna glares at him) I will be your new english teacher" with that said he turns around and writws his name on the board while somehow dodging peaces of eraser being shot at him by an upset woman. "Stop that Asuna" cries Konoka but quietly enough so only she can hear."Why should you care" said Asuna. "Because if you were paying attention earlier you would know that negi-kun is my Fiancée" Konoka Stated Matter of factly. Apparrently there is something not many people knew about this class when it comes to maters of romance they apparently have super hearing. While naruto was giving a lecture some of the students were scooting closer toward Konoka. "So its true what you said earlier Negi-sensei is your Fiancée" asked one of the many students now surrounding Konoka "Yes of course its true" Konoka said. "Details, Details" they said but thankfully Negi turned around in time he noticed all of them crowding around Kanoka and decided to have fun.
"Excuse me Ladies but can you give my Fiancée some breathing room I love her dearly and wouldn't want any of you trying to take her away, (here he started grining) though I don't mind sharing" He grinned and had to laugh at the expressions on them ranging from shock tou full out blush to what appeared to be someone holding back a nosebleed. "Eww Ecchi-sensei" the chorused. "Just kidding, just kidding unless Konoka-chan agrees" he laughed out now that got konoka going she was blushing and probably about to start stuttering. So the Class continued like that until the bell rang "Aww Konoka-chan can you stay after for a bit" "Hai negi-kun" she replied. Asuna decided to stay too to keep in eye on this teacher. "I was wondering Konoka-chan seeing as I am new here can you show me around Campus" "of corse Negi-kun" with that said she dragged Negi off to show him all her favorourite spots on campusalso to get some private time to learn more about her husband to be (and no not that you perverts still too young and I don't do Orochimaru come on hes athe animated version of michael jackson thos poor deluded children)
Winner of Harem poll
1st place Tonks
2nd place Konoka
3rd place Evagalion
and in 4th place Fleur De'lecleur
A.N probably need a beta reader and also someone to bounce ideas off of I decided to see If I can actually finish this and hopefully find someone to help at least beta if you want that PM me. Also I have a poll on my profile I want to Know who do you think is the greatest slasher of all time.
End file.
| fanfiction |
transport in low - dimensional strongly correlated systems continues to excite theoretical and experimental physicists alike . for theorists ,
transport problems pose a formidable challenge , as established tools to work out ground - state properties of strongly correlated systems do not always provide an adequate description of transport as well ( see refs . and and references therein ) , which , in particular , pertains to systems driven out of equilibrium .
within linear - response theory , one often distinguishes between ballistic and diffusive transport by invoking the notion of the drude weight,@xcite _ i.e. _ , the prefactor of a delta - function at zero - frequency in the frequency dependent transport coefficient .
a finite drude weight defines ballistic transport , while in the case of a vanishing drude weight , the zero - frequency limit of the conductivity s regular part determines the long - time behavior .
significant theoretical attention has been devoted to one - dimensional spin systems ( see refs . for a review ) .
open theoretical questions include , for instance , the finite temperature transport of the anisotropic spin-1/2 chain with nearest - neighbor interactions ( the @xmath0 chain ) , with an unsettled debate on whether finite temperature transport in the heisenberg chain is ballistic or not @xcite as well as on the actual temperature dependence of the drude weight.@xcite for nonintegrable models and finite temperatures , one expects diffusive transport on general grounds,@xcite and numerical studies have widely confirmed this picture in the high - temperature limit and massive phases of spin models.@xcite a similar scenario has emerged for thermal transport.@xcite yet , the issue of ( quasi)ballistic transport in gapless phases of , _
e.g. _ , the frustrated chain,@xcite at low temperatures is still under scrutiny .
moreover , the possibility of anomalous transport due to a diverging coefficient of the dc conductivity has been emphasized.@xcite much less is known about the non - linear transport at large external driving forces , or more generally , nonequilibrium properties .
a recent study using a quantum master - equation approach has addressed the spin transport in the antiferromagnetic phase of the @xmath0 chain.@xcite the time - evolution of magnetization profiles in analytically exactly solvable models has been the case of interest in refs . . besides the fundamental interest in understanding large - bias and out - of - equilibrium phenomena , research into transport properties of low - dimensional spin systems is strongly motivated by exciting experimental results on large thermal conductivities in spin ladder and chain materials ( see , e.g. , refs . for a review ) .
most evidently in spin ladder materials such as ( la , sr , ca)@xmath1cu@xmath2o@xmath3 , such large thermal conductivities have been attributed to magnetic excitations.@xcite in a more recent experiment on la@xmath4ca@xmath5cu@xmath2o@xmath3,@xcite heat dynamics has been probed by time - of - flight measurements . in this
set - up , the surface of a sample is covered with a thin fluorescent layer . after shining on that surface with a laser
, one can then follow the propagation of heat in the surface by thermal imaging at different times .
a pronounced difference is seen comparing a surface that contains ladders to one that is perpendicular to the ladder direction . in the former case , heat diffuses predominantly along the ladder direction , while little dynamics is seen in the latter case .
these results support the notion of anisotropic heat transport in this material,@xcite due to the contribution of magnetic excitations . besides thermal transport measurements , questions of diffusive versus ballistic transport have been experimentally probed in nuclear magnetic resonance@xcite ( see ref . for related theoretical work ) as well as muon spin resonance experiments.@xcite in a more recent development ,
transport properties of low - dimensional ultra - cold atom gases have gained attention as well , with experiments focusing on the detection of anderson localization.@xcite interacting two - component bose gases in optical lattices have been suggested to potentially realize spin-1/2
hamiltonians.@xcite as far as numerical approaches are concerned , on the technical side , full exact diagonalization ( ed ) studies are restricted to system sizes of about 24 sites in the case of a spin-1/2 chain , while in quantum monte carlo simulations , the calculation of frequency dependent properties of more than two - point correlation functions remains difficult ( see , _
e.g. _ , ref . and references therein ) .
the density matrix renormalization group ( dmrg ) method@xcite has most successfully been applied to zero - temperature phenomena . with the advent of the adaptive time - dependent dmrg method
( tdmrg),@xcite the study of non - equilibrium and large bias phenomena has become possible .
while the methods mentioned so far are designed for pure bulk systems , quantum - master approaches that account for dissipation by incorporating baths have been used as well in the study of transport in 1d spin systems.@xcite such methods are not constrained to the linear response either and circumvent the use of kubo formulae , as they measure gradients and current expectation values directly . in this work
we will introduce and exploit an alternative approach based on zero - temperature tdmrg calculations . instead of analyzing currents and their correlation functions directly ,
we study the magnetization dynamics after preparing the system in inhomogeneous initial states . for instance
, we subject the system to an external magnetic field of gaussian shape and , after releasing the confining field , follow the time evolution of the magnetization . computing the variance of the magnetization allows us to distinguish ballistic from diffusive regimes , depending on model parameters : we consider the dynamics to be ballistic if the variance grows quadratically in time , which is the behavior of noninteracting particles , while a diffusive behavior manifests itself in a linear increase of the magnetization s variance .
our approach has the advantage that we can characterize diffusion by following the time - evolution of a local quantity , the magnetization , as compared to the technically more difficult evaluation of the kubo formula@xcite or the measurement of time - dependent currents.@xcite moreover , we can control the deviation of the initial state from the ground state , thus scanning the regime of systems substantially driven out of equilibrium .
while we show that our results for the spin-1/2 chain with an exchange anisotropy in the regime of small perturbations over the ground - state are consistent with the picture established by analyzing drude weights at zero temperature , namely ballistic transport in the massless and diffusive transport in the massive regime,@xcite we , in particular , argue that this also applies to systems far from equilibrium .
the dynamics is further sensitive to the overall filling , or average magnetization , as expected from linear - response theory results for the high - temperature limit.@xcite beyond the anisotropic spin-1/2 chain with nearest - neighbor interactions only , we further consider nonintegrable systems such as the frustrated chain and the two - leg spin ladder . as a result
, we find that in massive phases , the dynamics is typically diffusive , while in the massless one of the frustrated chain , the zero temperature dynamics are ballistic .
transport in the @xmath0 chain has previously been studied in ref . using tdmrg , there following the time - evolution from a highly excited initial state of the @xmath6 form .
the long - time behavior of the magnetization was found to be correlated with the phase transition from easy - plane to easy - axis symmetry .
further , the expansion of particle density packets of nearly gaussian form has been looked at with tdmrg in the context of ultra - cold atomic gases,@xcite modeled with the 1d bose - hubbard , as well as for short pieces of interacting spinless fermions.@xcite the plan of the paper is the following . in sec .
[ sec : model ] we define the spin models studied and we describe our numerical method , the tdmrg .
we further motivate our definition of diffusive transport by discussing the solution of the diffusion equation in sec .
[ sec : theory ] .
section [ sec : init ] details the preparation of initial states . in sec .
[ sec : xxz ] , we study the magnetization dynamics in the @xmath0 chain , with ballistic transport in the massless regime , and diffusive transport in the massive regime .
section [ sec : non ] summarizes our results for two nonintegrable 1d systems , the frustrated chain and the two - leg ladder .
we conclude with a discussion in sec . [
sec : sum ] .
here we will first concern ourselves with the integrable @xmath0 chain : @xmath8 where @xmath9 and@xmath10 are the components of a spin-@xmath7 operator acting on site @xmath11 and @xmath12 are the lowering / raising operators , respectively .
we denote the number of sites by @xmath13 and we introduce an exchange anisotropy @xmath14 .
equation can be re - expressed in terms of spinless fermions @xmath15 through the jordan - wigner transformation:@xcite @xmath16 with @xmath17 . setting @xmath18 results in a noninteracting system .
if not mentioned otherwise , we impose open boundary conditions .
we denote the filling factor with @xmath19 .
the local magnetization is given by @xmath20 , and the total magnetization is @xmath21 .
the ground - state phase diagram of the @xmath0 chain ( see , _ e.g. _ , ref . and references therein ) exhibits quantum critical points at @xmath22 .
a critical phase covers the @xmath23 region , while the ground state for @xmath24 exhibits antiferromagnetic order .
the region @xmath25 has a ferromagnetic ground - state , yet we will restrict the discussion to @xmath26 .
the model is integrable through the bethe - ansatz.@xcite in the second part of this work , we will focus on two nonintegrable models with isotropic interactions ( i.e. , @xmath27 ) , the frustrated chain and the two - leg ladder ( for a review on these models , see , _
e.g. _ , refs . ) .
both models can be understood as limiting cases of a single hamiltonian that incorporates a dimerization @xmath28 and a frustration @xmath29 : @xmath30 the frustrated chain corresponds to @xmath31 and @xmath32 , while the two - leg ladder is the @xmath33 limit . in the latter case
, we identify the coupling along legs as @xmath34 and the coupling along rungs as @xmath35 .
the frustrated chain features a quantum phase transition at @xmath36 , separating a gapless phase from a massive one.@xcite the spectrum of the two - leg ladder is gapped for any @xmath37.@xcite for the time - evolution of the noninteracting case ( @xmath18 in eq . ) , we use exact diagonalization which allows us to treat large systems . for all interacting cases ,
we employ the adaptive time - dependent dmrg method@xcite with a krylov - space - based time - evolution scheme@xcite in the space of matrix product states.@xcite the control parameters are the discarded weight @xmath38 and the time - step @xmath39 .
our simulations are canonical ones as we work in subspaces with a fixed total @xmath40 or particle number , respectively .
we have performed an extended error analysis by ( i ) comparing ed and tdmrg results in the noninteracting case and ( ii ) by performing several runs with different time - steps and discarded weights at representative parameters in the interacting case .
specifically , in case ( i ) , we have analyzed the relative errors in the local magnetization @xmath41 and its variance ( see below ) .
it turns out that typically , a time step of @xmath42 and a discarded weight of @xmath43 keeps the relative error @xmath44 in @xmath45 below @xmath46 for a chain of @xmath47 sites at half filling and for times @xmath48 .
within linear response theory , one often separates the dynamical conductivity @xmath49 into a delta - function @xmath50 at zero frequency and a regular part at frequencies @xmath51,@xcite @xmath52 these quantities derive from the kubo formula that is based on evaluating current - current correlation functions.@xcite we repeat that a finite drude weight in a clean , one dimensional system at zero temperature defines an ideal conductor and thus ballistic behavior , while if @xmath53 , one has an insulator.@xcite the dependence of the drude weight on the exchange anisotropy @xmath14 in the case of the integrable @xmath0 chain and at zero temperature is well - known:@xcite @xmath54 where , in this equation , the anisotropy is parameterized through @xmath55 .
we thus have @xmath56 for @xmath23 , featuring a discontinuous drop to zero at @xmath27 .
due to the excitation gap in the massive regime @xmath24 , we have a true insulator with @xmath57 that can only transport magnetization once the gap has been exceeded by a sufficiently large external perturbation .
similarly , the drude weight vanishes in the massive phases of both the spin ladder and the frustrated chain , while in the massless regime of the latter model @xmath58 is finite at @xmath59.@xcite strictly speaking , on all systems with open boundary conditions , the drude weight vanishes identically . yet , it turns out that the corresponding weight is just shifted to small but finite frequencies,@xcite and thus the system is expected to still exhibit ballistic and anomalous transport properties . to justify and motivate our way of analyzing ballistic and diffusive transport ,
let us , for pedagogical reasons , consider a 1d system that obeys the diffusion equation : @xmath60 here , @xmath61 denotes , _
e.g. _ , a particle density , and @xmath62 the diffusion constant .
the green s function associated with this equation is , in a @xmath63-dimensional setup , given by @xmath64 therefore , we can calculate the expectation values @xmath65 and see that the variance @xmath66 is linear in @xmath67 for normal diffusive transport . on the contrary , for ballistic dynamics ,
one expects the variance @xmath68 to grow quadratically in time , as is well - known from elementary quantum mechanics for free particles . given a distribution of @xmath69 at a time @xmath67
, we find it most straightforward to compute the variance from the corresponding particle density distribution @xmath70 as this is a positive quantity .
we then compute the variance from @xmath71 where @xmath72 is the first moment of the normalized distribution @xmath73 . note that we normalize @xmath73 on the actual number of fermions rather than the system size . from half filling [ see eq . ] in the initial state prepared by applying a gaussian magnetic field [ eq . ] with @xmath74 as a function of @xmath75 for @xmath76 and @xmath77 .
, scaledwidth=45.0% ] for a gaussian initial state with @xmath78 , @xmath74 for ( a ) : @xmath18 ( ed data ) and ( b ) : @xmath79 ( dmrg data , @xmath47 sites ) .
, scaledwidth=45.0% ] for a gaussian initial state with @xmath78 , @xmath74 for ( a ) : @xmath18 ( ed data ) and ( b ) : @xmath79 ( dmrg data , @xmath47 sites ) .
, scaledwidth=45.0% ]
we consider three different ways of preparing the initial state , which we now illustrate for the case of the @xmath0 chain , eq . , and at half filling @xmath80 , _ i.e. _ , at @xmath81 . with the exception of sec .
[ sec : restore ] , our simulations are always performed in subspaces with these quantum numbers . technically , we add a term @xmath82 to the hamiltonian . by choosing the @xmath83 appropriately ,
this realizes ( i ) a gaussian magnetic field , ( ii ) a box - shape magnetic field , both applied during a ground - state dmrg run , and turned off at time @xmath84 : @xmath85 @xmath86 is the heaviside function . in eq .
, @xmath87 is the variance of the external gaussian field , @xmath75 its amplitude , and we set @xmath88 , while in eq .
, @xmath89 denotes the width of a box in which a constant field @xmath75 is applied .
the third initial state ( iii ) is realized by finding the ground state of a system at filling @xmath90 and then applying a single spin flip @xmath91 on a site @xmath11 .
the time - evolution is then performed at half filling , as in cases ( i ) and ( ii ) .
the typical shape of the induced density @xmath92 , or equivalently , the magnetization profile is illustrated in figs . [
fig : init](a)(c ) at @xmath93 ( all panels ) and @xmath79 ( panel ( a ) only ] , for the three initial states ( i)(iii ) , respectively .
inherent to the fermionic nature of the model eq .
, we first observe friedel oscillations with a @xmath94 period , where @xmath95 is the fermi momentum at half filling .
second , there are slower spatial oscillations , that are more evident in the case of @xmath79 [ fig .
[ fig : init](b ) ] .
these oscillations characteristic wave - length depends , as we have checked , on @xmath87 as well as the system size . as we shall see later
, for the purpose of qualitatively analyzing the time - dependence of the variance , the presence of the long - ranged oscillations is irrelevant , as the dynamics stems from the cental peak dispersing , while away from the center , the oscillations contribute subdominantly to the time - dependence after turning off @xmath96 .
we will nevertheless sometimes find it illustrating and useful to work with a density @xmath97 averaged over adjacent sites with @xmath98 and @xmath99 . to recover the variance of the non - averaged density , we multiply @xmath100 by a factor of @xmath101 . the averaged density @xmath102 is plotted with dashed lines in fig .
[ fig : init](a ) for @xmath18 and 0.5 , and we see that this averaging results in quite smooth curves . for @xmath102 and a gaussian external @xmath83 , we can now further address the question whether the induced density profile follows a gaussian as well .
we find that this is the case at small @xmath14 , in good approximation . in the massive phase @xmath24 ,
deviations of @xmath102 from a gaussian profile are substantial
. we will nevertheless refer to initial states prepared with eq . as gaussian initial states throughout . as we go from @xmath93 into the massive regime @xmath24 ,
a gap opens , and qualitatively , despite the field @xmath83 being inhomogeneous , we expect the existence of the gap to affect the average deviation from half filling at a given set of @xmath103 . to illustrate this point , we display this average deviation @xmath104 , defined as @xmath105 in fig .
( @xmath106 ) . for @xmath107
, we observe a steep increase in @xmath104 at @xmath108 , and we will use @xmath109 for the time - evolution , as below this value , little dynamics in the time - evolution is seen .
note that fig .
[ fig : delta_n ] has a logarithmic scale on the @xmath104 axis , and below @xmath108 , @xmath110 in the case of @xmath107 .
we find @xmath111 and this roughly coincides with twice the spin gap for this value of @xmath14.@xcite ( or magnetization profile @xmath112 ) for a gaussian initial state with @xmath78 , @xmath74 at @xmath79 ( dmrg data , @xmath47 sites ) : snap - shots from fig .
[ fig : u0_states ] at times @xmath113.,scaledwidth=45.0% ]
after detailing the way of preparing initial states , we now come to the analysis of @xmath112 , focusing on the variance @xmath114 . in this section , we will first discuss @xmath115 in the massless regime in sec .
[ sec : massless ] , and show that we clearly see ballistic behavior with @xmath116 , independently of the initial state .
we will then analyze the dependence of the coefficient @xmath117 on @xmath75 , scanning the full range of perturbations from a linear one with @xmath118 to the largest perturbations possible .
these regimes are distinct by a different finite - size scaling behavior , to be discussed below . as we illustrate in the case of a gaussian magnetic field eq .
, ballistic dynamics is found for @xmath119 .
this holds independently of the actual choice of @xmath103 and thus also far from equilibrium , except for the most extreme initial states considered here ( see the discussion in sec .
[ sec : massless_b ] below ) .
we then , in sec .
[ sec : xxz_massive ] , discuss the transition from ballistic to diffusive behavior which is expected to occur at @xmath27 .
our data are consistent with this picture , as we find strong evidence for diffusive transport for @xmath120 .
we will present results for several @xmath75 at @xmath121 to substantiate that the observation of diffusive transport is independent of the initial state . for @xmath18 and 0.5 in the large @xmath75 regime ( @xmath122 , @xmath74).,scaledwidth=31.0% ]
we now turn to the analysis of @xmath69 in the massless regime .
figures [ fig : u0_states](a ) and ( b ) show @xmath123 for @xmath18 and @xmath124 , respectively .
the initial density profile first melts and then , at times @xmath125 , splits into two packets that travel into opposite directions.@xcite figure [ fig : snap ] shows snapshots of @xmath126 at times @xmath113 for @xmath79 .
it is noteworthy that , while substantial oscillations are present far away from the central peak , these oscillations are frozen in and do not contribute to the increase in @xmath127 since , far away from the center of the chain , @xmath128 .
the variance @xmath129 , plotted vs. time , is displayed in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](a ) , for @xmath18 ( solid line ) , @xmath79 ( dashed line ) , and @xmath27 ( dotted line ) for the evolution from an initial state of the type ( i ) , enforced by a gaussian magnetic field with @xmath130 and @xmath74 .
the circles represent the time - evolution of @xmath131 computed from the averaged density @xmath132 ( see sec .
[ sec : init ] ) for @xmath76 . for @xmath18 and @xmath133 ,
the averaged results very well coincide with @xmath114 . for the purpose of characterizing ballistic or diffusive behavior , it therefore does not matter whether the pure fermionic density @xmath126 or the averaged quantity @xmath134 is used . in what follows , we will present results extracted from the former , unless stated otherwise .
we mention , though , that the quantitative difference in the variance extracted from the averaged as compared to the bare density becomes more pronounced the larger @xmath14 and the smaller @xmath75 is .
this becomes evident in the case of @xmath27 , included in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](a ) .
the key observation from figs .
[ fig : u0_dofb](a ) and ( b ) is the quadratic increase of the variance with time observed for @xmath135 and 1 , which confirms the expected ballistic behavior in the critical regime . for the isotropic chain ( @xmath27 )
, we find that the best fit of a power - law to @xmath136 yields @xmath137 , which is thus slightly below the behavior expected for ballistic transport .
however , a deviation of just one percent from the expected exponent of 2 is very much within the accuracy of our numerical calculations .
moreover , this behavior , as we show in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](b ) for the example of @xmath79 , is independent of the shape of the initial state : all three types of states studied here - gaussian field , box shape , and application of @xmath138 - result in ballistic dynamics at half filling .
so far , we have worked at a fixed pair of @xmath75 and @xmath87 .
we will now explore the dependence of the dynamics on how far the initial state is perturbed away from the actual ground state .
this deviation is measured through the average deviation @xmath104 from half filling ( compare fig .
[ fig : delta_n ] ) .
for that purpose , we fix @xmath74 , and perform a set of simulations at different @xmath75 , at @xmath135 and 1 . independently of @xmath75 , we always find a quadratic increase of @xmath115 with time , _
i.e. _ , @xmath139 . as a main result
, we therefore conclude that the _ qualitative _ behavior of the dynamics is independent of the external perturbation , it is always ballistic in the massless regime . on a more quantitative level , it is instructive to plot @xmath117 vs @xmath75 , shown in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](c ) for @xmath18 and 0.5 , as it allows us to distinguish two regimes : first , the linear regime , in which @xmath117 is linear in @xmath75 with @xmath140 at a fixed @xmath75 . for @xmath18 and 0.5
, the linear regime extends up to @xmath141 .
second , at larger @xmath75 effects of both the band curvature and the finite band - width start to play a role , with significant finite - size effects , as illustrated in fig .
[ fig : fs ] for @xmath122 . in the case of @xmath18 and @xmath122 , we are able to access system sizes of @xmath142 , and at large @xmath13 , the scaling is of the form @xmath143 , allowing for an extrapolation to @xmath144 . in the interacting case , the accessible system sizes are too small to establish such scaling and we thus have not attempted any extrapolation in the case of @xmath79 .
let us next discuss the limiting cases of first , the linear regime , _
i.e. _ , @xmath118 , and second , the limit of @xmath145 . starting with the former , the linear regime , @xmath146 , we find that the prefactor is @xmath147 for values of @xmath148 . at large @xmath14
, this reduces to @xmath149 as the results for @xmath27 displayed in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](c ) show ( circles ) .
the interpretation of @xmath117 being linear in @xmath75 for @xmath119 is based on the observation that the area @xmath150 under the initial gaussian - like magnetization profile increases linearly in @xmath75 , which we can strictly confirm in the @xmath18 case and chains with up to @xmath151 sites .
this analysis requires an estimate of the background density , which can the best be done in the @xmath18 case , but suffers from finite - size effects at a nonzero @xmath14 . in the @xmath18 case
, we find that @xmath152 and for @xmath79 , @xmath153 .
we may therefore conclude that in the linear regime , @xmath154 , where @xmath155 is the group velocity ( see , _
e.g. _ , ref . ):
@xmath156 with @xmath55 . from our numerical data for @xmath47 sites and at @xmath157 , we obtain @xmath158 due to finite - size effects , but qualitatively , @xmath159 increases with @xmath14 at a fixed @xmath75 in the linear regime as expected from eq ( 15 ) for the behavior of the velocity @xmath160 . at sufficiently large @xmath75 , we expect the band - curvature to play a role as well which we are able to verify in the case of @xmath18 .
@xmath161 then decreases below @xmath162 as @xmath75 increases .
as for the limit of large @xmath163 , note that since @xmath164 and since we work at fixed half filling of the full system , the most extreme initial state that , on a fixed system size @xmath13 , @xmath145 drives the system into is a fock state @xmath165 with @xmath166 for @xmath167 and zero otherwise .
we thus follow the evolution from such a state as well as the evolution from states with very large @xmath168 ( @xmath169 ) .
the inset in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](c ) shows that as @xmath75 increases , @xmath170 indeed approaches the value found for the limiting state @xmath165 for @xmath171 in the example of @xmath18 . in that limit , @xmath172 . while for the parameters of the main panel of fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](c ) , _ i.e. _ , @xmath76 and @xmath173 , the variance always follows a power law with exponent two , curiously , this is not the case for the aforementioned fock states encountered in the @xmath145 limit and @xmath174 .
there , we find exponents that are consistently below two for @xmath175 and @xmath176 .
this behavior was also observed in ref . for the evolution from similar fock states .
a full analysis of the evolution from fock states will be presented elsewhere .
we mention that the time - dependent evolution from fock states or , more generally , the evolution of particles originally trapped in a confined region into an _ empty _
lattice , has been intensely studied with numerical methods in refs .
, for the cases of hardcore bosons @xcite , soft - core bosons,@xcite and the interacting two - component fermi gas.@xcite these studies have a fundamental interest in out - of - equilibrium phenomena , with a perspective onto experiments with ultra - cold atoms in optical lattices . among these
we mention the experimental efforts directed at detecting anderson localization in cold atom gases , precisely by utilizing such expansion set - ups.@xcite finally , while all results discussed here were obtained from chains with @xmath47 , we stress that we have carefully studied the finite - size scaling of @xmath117(see figs . [
fig : u0_dofb](c ) and[fig : fs ] ) . by plotting @xmath177 in fig .
[ fig : u0_dofb](c ) , we account for a trivial size - dependence , and curves obtained from different @xmath13 but the same @xmath14 indeed collapse onto a single one in the linear regime . at larger @xmath75
, @xmath117 tends to decrease with system size @xmath13 as less particles per @xmath75 can be accumulated in the initial gaussian peak , due to @xmath178 ( see fig . [
fig : fs ] ) .
linear - response theory predicts a sharp transition from ballistic spin transport , characterized by a finite drude weight @xmath58 , to diffusive spin transport at @xmath27.@xcite we have carried out several simulations with different @xmath179 at fixed parameters @xmath122 and @xmath74 to check whether an analysis of the variance captures this transition . as the data for @xmath115 displayed in fig .
[ fig : delta](a ) show , we clearly find a linear increase of @xmath115 at large times in the case of @xmath121 , which , in the sense of sec .
[ sec : theory ] , we interpret as evidence for diffusive transport . at smaller
@xmath180 , our data do not allow for this conclusion , yet at least we can state that the data for @xmath181 and @xmath182 do not follow a power - law , indicative of non - ballistic transport .
also note that there is no contradiction with eq .
( [ eq : drude_xxz ] ) as it is is well - known that finite - size effects in the vicinity of @xmath27 are severe and come along with a logarithmically slow convergence with system size of quantities such as the drude weight or the spin stiffness.@xcite we suspect that larger system sizes , hence access to longer simulation times , are necessary to fully capture the sharp transition from ballistic to diffusive behavior at @xmath27 .
we stress that with @xmath122 , we work with highly perturbed initial states , and thus the observation of diffusive transport for @xmath183 is a nontrivial one , going beyond the case studied in ref . .
our results for @xmath183 thus establish an example of diffusive dynamics with @xmath184 in this model for the out - of - equilibrium situation .
note that a recent tdmrg work on transport in spin chains incorporating baths has reported similar results , derived from current and spin profiles in the steady state.@xcite it is noteworthy that at short times , obviously , the dynamics is always ballistic , independently of @xmath14 , as can be seen in fig .
[ fig : delta](a ) .
even the value of @xmath115 is roughly the same for all @xmath14 at short times . in the long time limit , which is the relevant
one to characterize the system as diffusive or ballistic , we find that @xmath115 systematically decreases with increasing @xmath14 .
the reason is that , in the @xmath185 limit , no dynamics is possible at all .
we have further studied the dependence on @xmath75 at @xmath121 . in sec . [
sec : init ] we hinted at the fact that at @xmath24 , a reasonably large @xmath75 is necessary to observe a significant change in the magnetization profile over the time scales simulated . we attribute this to the existence of a spin gap in the antiferromagnetic phase @xmath24 and focus on @xmath186 .
our results of several runs at @xmath121 , scanning the @xmath75 dependence , are displayed in fig .
[ fig : delta](b ) .
we find that the variance increases with @xmath75 , which we mainly attribute to more particles accumulated in the central peak .
furthermore , the figure suggests that the time - scale at which diffusive behavior sets in depends on @xmath75 such that for larger @xmath75 , we are able to observe a linear increase of @xmath115 earlier in time .
while so far we have restricted ourselves to the case of half filling , we now address the magnetization dynamics at incommensurate filling .
the initial states are now created by applying the external fields in subspaces that already have a finite magnetization . , _
i.e. _ @xmath187 .
results for the variance at @xmath121 are displayed in fig .
[ fig : delta](c ) .
the @xmath188-component of the total spin is @xmath189 .
we find that any nonzero @xmath40 is sufficient to render the dynamics ballistic again , on the time scales accessible to our simulations .
according to our data , the variance follows @xmath190 , with @xmath191 .
this observation is in agreement with the infinite - temperature behavior of the drude weight,@xcite which in the @xmath0 chain is finite at any @xmath14 away from half filling .
note that @xmath24 and @xmath192 but below saturation is in the easy - plane phase of the @xmath0 chain , with gapless excitations.@xcite note that the prefactor in @xmath193 depends on @xmath40 in a non - monotonous way : it is the largest at around @xmath194 and then decreases as saturation is reached .
we finally move on to the discussion of the dynamics in two nonintegrable models , the two - leg ladder and the frustrated chain , both limiting cases of eq . .
numerical studies of the _ high_-temperature limit , based on the kubo formula , conclude that spin and thermal transport in the massive phases of these models ( see sec .
[ sec : model ] ) are normal , with a vanishing drude weight.@xcite the conclusions on the massless phase of the frustrated chain are not unambiguous,@xcite and it has been pointed out that the _ energy - current operator _
, to first order in the next - nearest - neighbor interaction @xmath195 , is conserved.@xcite [ @xmath196 , @xmath33 in eq . ] : contour plot of @xmath123 . in the initial state ,
a gaussian external field @xmath83 with @xmath78 and @xmath74 is applied [ see eq . ] .
dmrg data , @xmath47 sites . , scaledwidth=45.0% ] one scenario is that the high - temperature drude weight vanishes,@xcite while it is still possible to find _ anomalous _ transport properties in the low - temperature regime , _
e.g. _ , in the form of a peculiar low - frequency behavior of @xmath197 .
exact diagonalization results show that the drude weight is finite at zero temperature in the massless phase of the frustrated chain.@xcite we here use the approach outlined in the previous sections to show that the zero - temperature dynamics of two - leg ladders and frustrated chains with a spin gap is of diffusive nature . to this end , we prepare initial states with gaussian magnetic fields eq . .
we emphasize that , in the case of the spin ladder , both sites on a rung experience the same field . in these two cases , and similar to the discussion of initial states for @xmath24 in the @xmath0 chain ( compare fig .
[ fig : delta_n ] in sec .
[ sec : init ] ) , the amplitude of the gaussian field , @xmath75 , needs to be large enough to induce a substantial perturbation in the magnetization @xmath198 that will actually propagate through the system .
we thus here probe the magnetization dynamics and transport at large external perturbations . starting with the example of a spin ladder with @xmath199
, we display the magnetization profile @xmath112 in fig .
[ fig : ladder ] as a contour plot .
the time - dependence of the corresponding variance is shown in fig .
[ fig : ladder_v](a ) [ solid line , squares ] , and we find a linear increase in @xmath200 for times @xmath201 , clearly establishing the notion of diffusive dynamics in the ladder system .
a more involved picture emerges in the case of the frustrated chain . for this model we present results for @xmath202 ( circles ) and @xmath203 ( stars ) in fig .
[ fig : ladder_v](b ) .
while on the time scales simulated , the variance for the @xmath202 curve perfectly follows the form @xmath204 ( a least - square fit to this function is displayed by a thin solid line ) , in the case of @xmath203 , we observe that the data do not follow a power law @xmath205 , which supports the notion of a time - dependent crossover from ballistic to diffusive dynamics .
in fact , the numerical results yield a variance that clearly increases linearly in time for @xmath206 .
note that the transition from the massless to the massive phase in this model is of the beresinski - kosterlitz - thouless type,@xcite with an exponentially growing correlations lengths as the critical point @xmath207 is approached from @xmath208 .
this renders it very difficult to see a sharp transition in the transport behavior using exact diagonalization or dmrg as @xmath207 is crossed .
we mention , though , that for other values of @xmath209 ( results not shown here ) , on similar time - scales , no diffusive behavior is seen . moreover , the time - scale at which diffusive dynamics emerges seems to strongly depend on @xmath75 , _
i.e. _ , on how far the initial state is perturbed over the actual ground state .
the qualitative trend is that the larger @xmath75 , the faster diffusive transport is established .
unfortunately , the larger @xmath75 , the worse is the entanglement growth which renders tdmrg simulations more difficult ( see , _
e.g. _ , ref . ) .
keeping in mind these remarks , we are in a position to conjecture that in general , in massive phases of one - dimensional spin models , spin transport is diffusive .
combined with the existing results for the high - temperature limit,@xcite our work suggests that this observation applies independently of temperature .
note that a recent exact diagonalization study@xcite has promoted a different behavior , namely evidence for ballistic spin transport at zero temperature in the frustrated spin chain at @xmath196 .
this conclusion is based on the presence of certain oscillations ( dubbed _ a bouncing behavior_)@xcite in @xmath210 in the evolution from an initial state with all spins pointing up(down ) in the left(right ) part of an open system ( compare refs . ) .
we believe that our analysis of the variance is more quantitative , which may imply that the oscillations in @xmath210 reported on in ref .
are possibly of a different origin .
a recent study of quantum quenches in the @xmath0 chain proposes that oscillations seen in the order parameter are related to the quantum phase transition at @xmath27 ( ref . , see also ref .
( a ) spin ladder , solid line with squares , compiled from the data of fig .
[ fig : ladder ] , @xmath211 .
( b ) frustrated chain with @xmath202 ( circles , @xmath78 ) and a frustrated chain with @xmath203 ( stars , @xmath212 ) . in all cases , @xmath74 .
the dashed lines in ( a ) and ( b ) are a fit of const@xmath213 to the variance of the spin - ladder and the frustrated chain with @xmath203 at long times , while the thin , solid line in ( b ) is a least - square fit of @xmath214 to the result for the frustrated chain with @xmath202 .
dmrg data , @xmath47 sites .
, title="fig:",scaledwidth=45.0% ] .
( a ) spin ladder , solid line with squares , compiled from the data of fig .
[ fig : ladder ] , @xmath211 .
( b ) frustrated chain with @xmath202 ( circles , @xmath78 ) and a frustrated chain with @xmath203 ( stars , @xmath212 ) . in all cases , @xmath74 .
the dashed lines in ( a ) and ( b ) are a fit of const@xmath213 to the variance of the spin - ladder and the frustrated chain with @xmath203 at long times , while the thin , solid line in ( b ) is a least - square fit of @xmath214 to the result for the frustrated chain with @xmath202 .
dmrg data , @xmath47 sites .
, title="fig:",scaledwidth=45.0% ]
in this work we studied the nonequilibrium magnetization dynamics in one - dimensional spin models at zero temperature using the adaptive time - dependent dmrg method on system sizes as large as @xmath47 sites .
we considered several models : the integrable spin-1/2 @xmath0 chain , the frustrated chain , and the two - leg spin ladder .
based on the analysis of the time - dependence of the spatial variance of the magnetization during the time evolution starting from initial states with an inhomogeneous magnetization profile , we conclude that in the critical regime of the @xmath0 chain , the magnetization dynamics is ballistic .
in contrast to that , in the massive regime , our results indicate diffusive transport at half filling , while ballistic transport is restored away from half filling .
a major aspect of our work is that we scanned the entire regime going from small to very strong perturbations over the ground state .
this substantially extends previous studies of linear - response functions as we clearly enter into a regime with the system driven out of equilibrium . in the case of the massless regime of the @xmath0 chain ,
ballistic transport is seen for substantially perturbed initial state , while for the most extreme initial states , _
i.e. _ , pure fock states , we still find a power - law for the time - dependence of the variance , but , on the times scales simulated , with an exponent below two.@xcite as for the nonintegrable models , the frustrated chain and the ladder , the numerical data clearly support the notion of diffusive dynamics in the ladder system . in the case of the frustrated chain ,
our data are consistent with a transition from ballistic to diffusive behavior as the quantum critical point @xmath215 is crossed . in the limit of small perturbations
, this result confirms with the general picture that massless phases support ballistic , and massive ones diffusive dynamics , at zero temperature and irrespective of integrability.@xcite overall , a difference between the low- and high - temperature behavior is then evident : numerical results for the high - temperature limit@xcite consistently support the notion of vanishing drude weights in nonintegrable models , and thus normal transport behavior , irrespective of what the ground state phases are .
conversely , exact diagonalization studies find a finite drude weight in the gapless phase of the frustrated spin-1/2 chain at zero temperature.@xcite in the low , or more extremely , zero temperature case , effective low - energy theories are expected to give a valid description , which typically predict diverging transport coefficients of clean spin systems ( see , _ e.g. _ , ref . ) . as for the heat transport measurements on spin chain and ladders experiments ( see refs . for a survey ) , a dominant magnetic contribution is usually evident in the _ high_-temperature regime , where the validity of effective low - energy theories for the description of transport is not obvious .
finally , the approach of distinguishing ballistic from diffusive transport by analyzing the spatial variance of a density like quantity could be instrumental in characterizing ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices as well .
there , one typically realizes the expansion of particles into an empty lattice , and experimentally it is possible to measure the expanding cloud s radius .
it would thus be very interesting to identify conditions for ballistic as compared to diffusive dynamics for model systems typically encountered in ultracold atomic gases such as the bose - hubbard model or a two - component fermi gas in an optical lattice . | arxiv |
Naruto 1. A Legacy Revealed
**Disclaimer: _Naruto _IS NOT MINE! I don't own any of this, except for the changes I am making to the plot of the wonderful creation of Masashi Kishimoto. **
**A/N 1: Anyway, welcome to my newest project. In honor of Naruto having only a handful of chapters left, I've been in a bit of a Naruto-kick recently. And so I decided to start up a new Naruto story, this will be different than '_Underneath the Underneath_' in several ways but I won't say much more since it will spoil things. But moving on from that, I hope you all enjoy this new journey throughout the Naruto story.**
_'Man, jiji must be really slipping,_' a blonde blur thought as it sped through a rapidly darkening forest, a large scroll strapped to his back. The scroll was massive; it was nearly the size of the young boy who was carrying it. _'I can't believe how easy this was, I mean, it was just sitting there in jiji's office.'_
As soon as this thought passed through Naruto Uzumaki's head, it caused him to do something that many people believed him incapable of doing, think.
'_Why was this so easy?_' the blonde pondered. '_Jiji is the strongest ninja in the village, why would this scroll be in his office unless it is really important? But why was it so lightly guarded, I mean come on, I know I'm pretty good at stealth for a kid but there is no way that jiji would let me just walk out of his office with something so important. And Mizuki-sensei knew where is was, how?'_
Naruto stopped at a clearing, about a ½ mile outside the village, the place where Mizuki said he would administer the make-up exam.
"There has got to be something going on," Naruto muttered as he slung the scroll off his back. "I should take this back to jiji, he would understand…But what if I'm caught before I find him, jiji is the only one who believes me, the others wouldn't believe me. I think it's too late to turn back now. If I'm right, and this is a set up then the best thing to do is…spring the trap."
Naruto looked down at the large scroll at his side. "I better get to work then, have to make this look convincing," he shrugged. "Come on, open you stupid scroll!" Naruto growled as he tried to open the large scroll. "Ow!" he yelped as he lightly cut his hand on the scroll's edge. Before he could stop them, several drops of blood fell from his hand and landed on the scroll.
The scroll glowed a bright blue and peeled open. Naruto starred at the now-open scroll, he noticed a circle of writing for a spilt second before there came a small explosion of smoke that obscured the scroll. Naruto yelped and scrambled backward from the scroll as a tall man appeared in the middle of the cloud of smoke.
This man had spiky gray hair, with dark eyes that seemed to catch everything and, to Naruto, pierce right through his very being. The man's face was framed by an odd-looking piece of armor with Konoha's symbol etched in the center. Naruto swallowed a lump in his throat as the man looked down at him.
"Where am I boy?" the man asked, his voice sharp and heavy with the air of command. Naruto knew that this man meant business and wanted answers fast.
"Konoha," Naruto stammered. The man nodded.
"Who are you?"
"Naruto Uzumaki."
The man's eyebrow rose at Naruto's answer.
"Do you know who I am?" Naruto shook his head, though the man's face did seem familiar. "I am Tobirama Senju, the Nidaime Hokage."
"Nidaime Hokage? But jiji is the Hokage!" Naruto shouted.
"Jiji? What Hokage is this jiji?"
"Jiji is the Sandaime Hokage," Naruto answered.
"Hiruzen," Tobirama said softly.
"Wait, if you are the Nidaime Hokage, that means you are dead!" Naruto cried. "Are you a ghost?" he asked, his voice trembling.
"I am a **Shadow Clone**," Tobirama said.
"**Shadow Clone**?"
"How old are you Naruto-san?"
"I'm 12!"
"Are you a shinobi?"
"Of course," Naruto shouted. "Well, not yet, I am still in the Academy. But once I learn a jutsu from this scroll, I'll be a ninja!"
Tobirama gazed down at the blonde boy before him. He could sense that the boy in front of him held an immense amount of chakra, especially for one so young. But as he sensed deeper, Tobirama felt something that he had only sensed once before in his sister-in-law, Mito Uzumaki.
'_This boy hold the Kyubi,_' Tobirama thought. '_But it seems that he is unaware of it, if he were, then there is no way that Saru would not have made him a ninja already._'
"Hey clone guy, can you teach me that **Shadow Clone** jutsu?" Naruto asked. "The **Clone Jutsu** is the one jutsu I just can't get to work, and I've failed the exam always because of it."
'_If he has such chakra and very little control over his chakra, then he would not be able to perform the _**Clone Jutsu**_,_' Tobirama thought. '_The _**Shadow Clone Jutsu** _would suit him well._'
"Very well Uzumaki-san, I will teach you the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**," Tobirama announced.
"All right!" Naruto shouted with joy, pumping his fist into the air.
"Silence," Tobirama barked, causing Naruto to fall silent. "Do not believe I am doing this as a kindness boy. Even from the short time I have observed you, I can tell that you have no idea what it means to be a shinobi. You believe that being a shinobi just fun and games, flashy jutsu and being a hero. You are wrong, being a shinobi is to become the pillar of strength. Being a ninja is to be the one who will shoulder the burdens of the village. You will do whatever it takes to protect the village; do you think that you can do that? Become the pillar that holds the house that is Konoha upright?"
"Yes sir," Naruto vowed, his eyes brimming with determination.
Tobirama nodded. '_This boy, he is much like you were brother when we were younger,_' the Nidaime thought, a small smile appearing on his face. '_But he was able to open this scroll, which means he is related to both of us. Could Akemi-chan have been?_'
"I did it!" Naruto shouted as he successfully performed the **Shadow Clone Jutsu** for the fifth consecutive time.
Tobirama nodded at the sight of the blonde boy running around in celebration for successfully learning a B-rank kinjutsu, of his own make, in only two hours. The clone of the deceased Hokage admitted to himself that the boy, Naruto, had quite a bit of talent but it seemed that his greatest strength was also his greatest weakness; Naruto had too much chakra. If the boy didn't burn chakra, he would get jittery and hyper and that meant he couldn't concentrate.
"Naruto-san," Tobirama said garnering the boy's attention. "My chakra is running low and soon I will dispel."
"What! Why?" Naruto cried.
"It is the way of things," Tobirama said stoically. "Now, I can sense a person quickly approaching our position, so I will make this quick. The scroll you opened would have only done so if the blood spilt on it matches my own."
"What does that mean?" Naruto asked, his voice quiet.
"It means that on some level, we are related Naruto-san," Tobirama said. "Who were your parents?"
Naruto's face fell. "I don't know," he said. "Jiji has only told me that they died in the Kyubi attack and that they loved me."
"I see," Tobirama said. "Well, when you next see Saru, tell him that withholding information can be just as dangerous and damaging as releasing too much. Also show him this scroll and tell him that it is your heritage."
"I will Tobirama-ojisan," Naruto beamed, cradling the scroll like a mother would hold a newborn babe.
"Another thing Naruto-san, you mentioned the Kyubi attacking the village and that your parents died in the attack," Tobirama commented. "Tell me what you know about the attack?"
And Naruto did so, telling Tobirama about how his hero, the Yondaime Hokage, defeated and killed the Kyubi by using some ultra powerful jutsu. When Naruto finished the tale, he noticed the clone frowning at him.
"Naruto-san, I do not know why Saru has told you this fabrication," Tobirama said. "But the Kyubi is a Biju, a massive construct of pure chakra. It can not be killed by any means, only sealed away."
"Sealed away?" Naruto asked, a cold pit forming in his stomach.
"Yes, the Biju can be sealed away into objects or people."
"People?"
"Yes Naruto-san," Tobirama said. "When a Biju is sealed within a person, that person is considered a jinchuriki." A cold trickle dripped down the back of Naruto's neck at the word jinchuriki. "You, Naruto-san, are the jinchuriki of the Kyubi."
Silence fell upon the clearing like a blanket.
"I am the Kyubi?"
"No," Tobirama said sharply. "You are not the Kyubi, you are its prison! You are the one who contains the Kyubi, protecting the village from the Kyubi. I do not know why Saru has not told you of this, he will have his reasons but I am of the mind that one must have all the relevant facts to make the correct decision. Now, Naruto-san, my chakra has just about run out, I am sorry to be leaving you just after telling you this but that is life. Not everything will go your way; you must be able to persevere or you will be crushed. You are a descendant of the Nidaime Hokage, you will be fine. I believe in you Naruto-san, don't prove me wrong."
"Hai Tobirama-ojisan," Naruto said clearly. "I promise you that I will not let you down. I will become the pillar of strength for the village, and I will become Hokage just like you."
Tobirama nodded as a faint smile graced his stern features. "I am sure you will Naruto-san, goodbye."
"Goodbye Tobirama-ojisan," Naruto said softly as the clone dispelled itself, vanishing in a puff of smoke. Wiping his eyes, Naruto turned to pick up the scroll just as a new figure leapt down from the trees.
"There you are!" Iruka shouted, his **Big Head Jutsu** activating on instinct. "Do you have any idea what you've done Naruto? Do you know how much trouble you are going to be in?"
"Hello Iruka-sensei," Naruto said solemnly. The blonde's calm and respectful response drew Iruka short. "I'm sorry about this, I was told you Mizuki-sensei that if I snuck into jiji's office and stole this scroll and learned a jutsu from it, then he would pass me and I would become a real ninja."
Iruka gaped down at the blonde. '_Mizuki? What's going on?_' he thought.
"Ok Naruto, say I believe this, we need to get back to the village and explain everything to Hokage-sama," Iruka said.
"I know Iruka-sensei," Naruto said. "Lead the way."
"Sorry to break up this cozy scene, but you two aren't going anywhere," a mocking voice called down from the trees. Iruka and Naruto looked up to see Mizuki sneering down at them, a pair of fuma shuriken strapped to his back.
"Mizuki, what is going on?" Iruka asked.
"Well I was planning on there not being any witnesses to this but not everything can go as planned," Mizuki chuckled. "This way I can even pin another death on the demon, and I'll be treated as a hero when I kill it."
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, playing up his idiocy even though his suspicions had just been confirmed, he had been set up.
"Naruto, do you know why everyone in the village hates you?" Mizuki laughed.
"Mizuki, no! You know it's forbidden!" Iruka cried.
"Why should I care?" Mizuki laughed, sending chills down Naruto's spine. "You two are going to die here and now." The crazed chunin reached back and unclipped one of the fuma shuriken hanging on his back. Naruto and Iruka tensed as Mizuki began spinning the large instrument of death with just one finger.
"Naruto, I'll hold him off," Iruka said. "You need to get that scroll back to the Hokage, you can't allow Mizuki to get it."
"Ah poor little Iruka is trying to protect the very monster that killed his parents," Mizuki mocked. "Tell me Iruka, why are you trying to protect the very thing that made you an orphan. The Kyubi killed your parents and now you are protecting it."
"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.
"Oh that's right, you still don't know, do you?" Mizuki laughed. "You are not Naruto Uzumaki. That is just some name that the Hokage gave you to try and fool the others, but I know the truth. You are the monster that attacked our home, killed our loved ones and nearly destroyed the village twelve years ago, you are the Kyubi no Yoko!"
Iruka turned slowly toward Naruto with a large amount of trepidation. Now Naruto knew, but the question was how would the boy handle it. "Naruto, you are not the Kyubi," Iruka said, looking at the frozen boy. "You are the prison for the demon. You are Naruto Uzumaki, the number one prankster of Konoha and one of my precious students."
"How touching," Mizuki sneered. "Enough talking, time to die demon!" Mizuki hurled the spinning fuma shuriken at the still unmoving Naruto. The spinning blades sliced through the stale air, gleaming in the bright moonlight.
"No Naruto!" Iruka cried, reaching out toward his student.
Naruto stumbled backward but tripped over a tree root falling to the ground as the fuma shuriken closed in. Mizuki's eyes gleamed with malice and glee as the whirling instrument of death neared its target.
"Gah!"
Naruto slowly opened his eyes as he felt something warm and wet drip onto his cheek. It was Iruka, crouching over Naruto. The blonde's eyes widened when he spotted the large shuriken sticking out of Iruka's back. Blood was trickling down Iruka's chin and several drops had landed on Naruto's face.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto gasped as he took in the pain-twisted grimace of his sensei. "Why?"
"Because you are just like me Naruto," Iruka said, his voice rough with pain and several more flecks of blood from Iruka's mouth, landing on Naruto's jumpsuit. "After my parents were killed, all I wanted was for someone to look at me, to pay me any attention. I was a troublemaker and prankster, always trying to find a way for people to just look at me. I am sorry that you had to suffer the pain of loneliness when I knew what you were going through. I was not strong enough to help you and I am sorry."
Naruto starred up at his sensei as the wounded man poured out his soul to the blonde. Naruto was about to say it was okay when a cruel laugh cut him off.
"How pathetic!" Mizuki howled. "You are really trying to comfort the demon, the very monster that killed your parents. Well, you'll soon be joining them Iruka. I wonder what they'll say when they learn that you were protecting the demon that killed them."
Iruka winced as another stab of pain crashed through his body. He looked down at Naruto to apologize once more, for not treating him correctly and for not protecting him. But those words died in his throat at the sight of cold and steely blue eyes looking over his shoulder. He had never seen Naruto look so angry; normally the boy would shout and rage till his face turned blue. This anger was focused and wound so tightly that it sent chills down the chunin's spine that had nothing to do with the large shuriken in his flesh.
"You will not harm my sensei!" Naruto snarled, pulling himself to his feet from underneath Iruka. "You are a traitor to the village and you will face the penalty for doing so."
"And who is going to stop me?" Mizuki laughed. "You?"
"I will do my duty," Naruto said. "Even if it costs me my life, you will not leave here alive. **Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**"
Mizuki's laughter died as an explosion of smoke filled the clearing. When the smoke cleared, it was a sea of orange and yellow. Mizuki felt a cold bead of sweat trickledown his spine at the innumerable cold blue eyes glaring at him from all angles.
"How is this possible? You are just a talentless orphan, how can you create this many clones?" Mizuki shouted.
"Because I am Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said. "Get him."
The clones gave a nearly deafening roar and surged toward a frozen Mizuki. Naruto watched with emotionless eyes as the horde of his clones descended from the trees and pounded Mizuki into a bloody pulp.
"Naruto, you really did learn a jutsu," Iruka coughed.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cried. The clones that Naruto summoned vanished in puffs and the original raced over to the injured Academy teacher.
"Hey Naruto," Iruka said with a slight wince. "You were amazing, I've never seen anyone create so many clones before, let alone **Shadow Clones**."
Naruto's face lit up at Iruka's praise. "Well, I might have over done it though," Naruto admitted, rubbing the back of his head."
"Don't worry about him," Iruka growled. "Like you said, he is a traitor and doesn't deserve our thoughts. Now I want you to close your eyes, I have something to give you."
"You're not going to kiss me or something are you sensei?" Naruto asked.
"No you little brat!" Iruka shouted, his **Big Head Jutsu** activating on reflex. "Just close your eyes."
Naruto gave Iruka a piercing look; it made the scarred Chunin feel like the Hokage was examining him. But the blonde then nodded and closed his eyes.
"Ok Naruto, go ahead and open your eyes," Iruka told Naruto.
The blonde slowly opened his eyes and saw his instructor sitting in front of him, a pained smile on the man's face. Then Naruto felt something on his forehead, he reached up and felt his hand bump into a hard metal plate.
"What the?"
"Congratulations Naruto, you graduate!" Iruka said brightly. The scarred Chunin cried out in pain as Naruto threw himself at Iruka but the Academy teacher looked down at the blonde with a fond smile.
A soft cough brought the bonding moment to a quick end. Iruka looked up to see a squad of masked ANBU standing above them in the trees.
"Iruka-san, are you injured?" the dog faced ANBU asked.
"Inu-san!" Naruto cried. "Iruka-sensei is hurt really badly, we've got to get him…"
"It's ok Naruto," Iruka calmed the frantic blonde. "It's not that bad." Though Iruka's reassurance was lost as he coughed up some more blood.
"Neko, take Iruka to the hospital," Inu ordered. "Tori, Gama, secure the traitor and I will escort Uzumaki-san to the Hokage to report on what has happened."
The other three ANBU nodded and leapt down from the trees to go about their orders. Naruto jumped slightly as Inu appeared beside him.
"Come along Uzumaki-san," Inu said. "The Hokage is waiting."
Naruto nodded, tightening his grip on the large scroll as Inu put hand on the boy's shoulder. The blonde looked over at Iruka who was being given first aid treatment by Neko. "Bye Iruka-sensei."
"I will see you later Naruto," Iruka grinned, though his face twitched as he felt his skin being stitched back together. "Don't worry about the Hokage, just tell him the truth and you will be fine."
Naruto only had time to nod before the forest vanished.
"Whoa," Naruto gasped at the interior of the Hokage's office came into view. "What was that? Can you teach me?"
"Perhaps another time Naruto," an amused voice said from behind a large desk. It was the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Hey jiji," Naruto said sheepishly. "I guess I have some explaining to do?"
"Yes you do Naruto-kun," the Hokage said. "That will be all Inu-san, you are dismissed."
"Hokage-sama," Inu said before fading into the shadows.
"So Naruto-kun, care to explain why you snuck into my office and stole a very important scroll?" Hiruzen asked.
"After I failed the graduation exam, Mizuki-sen…I mean Mizuki approached me, saying that I could still graduate if I completed a make-up exam," Naruto explained. "He said I had to sneak into your office, steal the scroll and learn a jutsu from it, and if I did all that without being caught, I would pass and be able to become a ninja."
Hiruzen set his fingers in front of his face, looking down at the blonde boy in front of him. "I see," he said. "And did you succeed?"
"Yes!" Naruto said. "But it was weird, I accidently cut myself on the scroll and some of my blood got on the scroll and then the weirdest thing happened."
"What happened Naruto-kun?"
"This guy appeared from inside the scroll," Naruto said. "He said he was the Nidaime Hokage."
"What?" Hiruzen gasped.
"I know," Naruto agreed. "But he said he was a **Shadow Clone**, he even taught me the jutsu, watch! **Shadow Clone Jutsu**!"
Hiruzen was stunned as three solid copies of Naruto appeared in the office. "Very well done Naruto-kun, you successfully learned a B-rank kinjutsu in just one night," the Hokage said. "There are not many people who can even claim such a feat."
Naruto beamed at the praise from the Hokage and his grandfather figure. "Thanks jiji," he said. "Oh and Tobirama-ojisan said to tell you that withholding information can be just as dangerous as releasing too much. He also said that we were related somehow, since the only people who could open the scroll was someone with his blood."
Hiruzen fell back into his chair in disbelief. "Are you sure Naruto-kun?" he asked. "I am not doubting you but I need to be sure."
"I'm sure jiji," Naruto said looking Hiruzen straight in the eye. "He told me that the only way that the scroll would open is if the blood was of his line, whatever that means. Is it true, am I related to the Nidaime Hokage?"
Hiruzen sighed heavily. "I have no idea," he admitted. "As far as I knew, my sensei did not have a family aside from his brother's family. But I also will say that Tobirama-sensei was a very secretive person, so it is certainly possible. The fact that your blood opened the scroll lends credence to the theory that you are related to him."
"But the Nidaime Hokage died a long, long time ago, right?" Naruto said. "There is no way that he could be my dad right? So what is he to me? Is he my dad's dad or what?"
"I can't tell you for certain," Hiruzen said. "Like I told you Naruto, Tobirama-sensei was very secretive and I did not know if he had a lover or wife. And no, there is no way that the Nidaime Hokage could be your father. I knew your parents very well and…"
"You knew my parents! Who were they jiji? Please, you have to tell me?" Naruto cried. Tears began pouring down his cheeks. Hiruzen felt his heart clench at the sight of his surrogate grandson's face.
"Naruto, your parents were very strong ninja and during their lives they gained many enemies," Hiruzen said. "Enemies who would have no qualms about taking revenge by killing you. I promise that I will tell you about your parents when I feel you are strong enough to defend yourself. And that is my final word on the matter."
"Very well Hokage-sama," Naruto answered curtly. "Is that everything?"
"Yes Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said, masking the hurt he felt from Naruto's use of his title. "If you would just return the scroll…"
"I am afraid I can't do that Hokage-sama," Naruto said. "As this scroll is my family's property, I will be taking possession of it."
"I can not let you do that Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said. "That scroll is much too valuable to be in an unsupervised environment."
"There isn't anything you can do about this Hokage-sama," Naruto retorted. "The Clan Charter, set down by the Shodaime Hokage, means you can not confiscate any scrolls that belong to an active clan as long as the head of the Clan is an active shinobi."
"An active Clan also means a clan that has at least a dozen members in it," Hiruzen argued.
"Then release the Uchiha jutsu scrolls," Naruto fired back. "There are only two members of that clan alive, including Itachi. So don't try and pull that card."
"Naruto, you are too young…"
"Like I was too young to know that the Yondaime sealed the Kyubi in me," Naruto snapped, his eyes growing stormy. "Why didn't you tell me? You knew why people kept looking at me with such hate and coldness but you never did anything about it."
Hiruzen felt every one of his advanced years weighing down on him, Naruto's words struck deeper and more painful than any kunai. "I am sorry Naruto-kun, but I didn't not wish for you to find out like this. I couldn't tell you before because I wasn't sure you would be able to handle the truth."
"You didn't trust me," Naruto accused. Hiruzen winced sharply. "I asked you how many times if you knew why they all glared at me and every time you would tell me to ignore it or blow the question off. Were you ever going to tell me?"
"Yes Naruto-kun but I needed to make sure that you understood the burden that you bore," Hiruzen tried to explain.
"How many people know?" Naruto asked. "How many people know that the fox is sealed in me?"
"The generation above yours," Hiruzen admitted. "I made it a law not to revel your status to anyone that was not already in the know. I had hoped to keep it a tighter secret but that was a fool's thought. I also hoped that you would be able to find friends in your classmates, as they wouldn't know."
"Well that failed miserably," Naruto sneered.
Hiruzen hung his head. "Yes, and I am so sorry about that Naruto-kun," he said.
"You can start making it up to me by letting me keep this scroll," Naruto said. "As far as anyone knows, I am the only one who can open it, so it is my property. I promise that I will not let anyone know that I have it but please jiji, let me have this one piece of my family."
Hiruzen schooled his features as he starred his surrogate grandson in the eye. Naruto's blue eyes were hard and determined; the boy was not going to give this up, reminding the aged Hokage of another Uzumaki.
"All right Naruto-kun, I will let you keep the scroll," Hiruzen said. "On one condition."
"Yes Hokage-sama?"
"Tomorrow after you have your team meeting, I would like you to come to my office so we can examine the scroll," Hiruzen said. "I want to give you some advice, I don't want you to get in over your head in learning my sensei's jutsus."
Naruto closed his mouth and thought about the Hokage's offer, he knew that he was pushing his luck with the Clan Charter card; the Hokage could take possession of the scroll mainly because no one would believe Naruto could ever be the descendent of the Nidaime Hokage. If Naruto tried to fight and the situation was brought before the Village Council, Naruto would be laughed out of the chamber, he had no allies among the Council.
"Very well Hokage-sama, I will agree to this condition," Naruto said. "But I want reasons from you if I am limited in what I can learn, actual reasons, not just that I am too young. Once I accepted this headband, I ceased being a child."
"All right Uzumaki-san," Hiruzen said. "I will also accept your terms and will see you tomorrow. Dismissed."
"Yes Hokage-sama," Naruto saluted before securing the scroll and leaving the Hokage's office, leaving the elder Hokage hoping that he had made the correct decision.
**A/N 2: Well there you have it, the first chapter of my newest project '_Bloodlines'. _I hope that you all enjoyed this start and will let me know by leaving a review. These first couple chapters will be pretty basic, one of the things I didn't like after finishing '_Underneath the Underneath_' was the fluctuation of Naruto's skill level, it wasn't very realistic. I will try and make sure that mistake doesn't happen in this story. Also the timeline might be stretched a bit as we never really get a concrete timeline throughout the entire series except for the 2+ years that Naruto spends training with Jiraiya. Anyway, til next time,**
**SlytherinKnight**
2. Teammates not Friends
**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own _Naruto_, if I did then Kishi wouldn't have gone to the JK Rowling school of crappy epilogues. But I'll get to that at the end of the chapter. But to reiterate I do NOT own _Naruto_. **
Bleary blue eyes slowly opened as sunlight streamed through tattered curtains. Rubbing his eyes, Naruto sat up on his thin mattress and took in his bedroom. Pale yellow walls starred blankly back at the young Uzumaki; there were no photos or pictures hanging from the bare walls. It was a very sobering sight.
Naruto hissed as he swung his legs off the bed and stood up, the cold wood floor waking the blonde up far faster than anything else. As Naruto made his way toward the bathroom, he noticed a large scroll standing in the corner of the bedroom with a Konoha headband sitting on top of it. And the memories from the previous night came storming back to Naruto and a wide smile broke out across the blonde's face. He had graduated, finally graduated from the Academy.
That wide smile turned somber as more details from the previous night came back to Naruto. The fact that he was related to both the Nidaime Hokage, and through him the Shodaime Hokage but also that sealed within him was the Kyubi, the demon that had attacked the village twelve years ago and caused an immense amount of destruction that Konoha was still trying to recover from.
A frown creased Naruto's face as he remembered the conversation that he had with the Sandaime Hokage, about the old man had kept the knowledge of him holding the Kyubi from him in the hopes of letting Naruto have a normal childhood. Naruto snorted at the man's naiveté, it was obvious that the vast majority of the villagers knew what he housed and treated him with fear and disgust.
After washing up and eating a quick breakfast, Naruto locked up his apartment, straightened his headband and made his way off toward the Academy, his mind thinking ahead to his team placement. Most villagers and shinobi thought that Naruto was a complete idiot, with a large mouth and no skills to back it up, and while that was somewhat true, Naruto realized that he had not done himself any favors by goofing off and not paying attention in class. As a genin, Naruto knew that it was on him to improve himself, no one would help him, he had been alone all his life and had grown to rely only on himself.
The words of the Nidaime Hokage rang in his head, "To be a ninja, you must be the pillar of strength for the village, to shoulder the burdens that others can not."
Naruto schooled his features as he approached the Academy building. This was it, Naruto thought; he was about to take the next step on his journey to become Hokage.
"Naruto! What are you doing here, team placements are only for people who passed," the rough and grating voice of Kiba Inuzaka sneered.
Naruto just pointed at his forehead. "I passed," the blonde said.
"How?" Kiba growled.
"If I tell you, I'd have to kill you," Naruto snarked. He really enjoyed riling up the feral boy. "Real secret stuff, the Hokage has to read you in if he thinks you are worthy."
"What?" Kiba shouted. "You're lying!"
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not," Naruto grinned. "But you'll have to take your question to the Hokage if you want an answer."
Kiba opened his mouth to continue the argument but was stopped by Shino Aburame. "Kiba, do not speak," Shino said. "If the Hokage has deemed Naruto worthy of graduating, who are you to say otherwise?"
Kiba huffed and shrugged Shino's hand from his shoulder. "Fine," he grumbled. "But don't think that just because you graduated means that you are a better ninja than me, you are still the dead last."
Naruto grit his teeth but didn't respond to the boy's jib. He found a seat closest to the window and in the back row, not noticing a pair of pale eyes watching his every movement. Naruto laid his head down on the desk to catch up on some more sleep while waiting for the rest of the class to appear.
"Team 7 will be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha…" an ear piercing squeal jolted Naruto out of his dozing with the subtlety of a pack of exploding tags.
"What the hell?" he grumbled sitting up. Blinking his eyes rapidly to clear them, Naruto noticed the rest of the class staring at him.
"Ah Naruto, good to see you decided to join us," Iruka said from the front of the room, an amused smile on his face. "Now as I was saying, Team 7 will be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki."
"What!" Sakura cried, jumping to her feet and pointing at Naruto. "Iruka-sensei, why do Sasuke-kun and I have to be saddled with Naruto?"
"Because Sakura, the Hokage has selected these teams," Iruka said, frowning at the pink haired child. "Now if you think you know better than the Hokage, please speak up."
Sakura quietly sat down, somewhat trembling from the stern glare that Iruka had pinned her with.
Naruto felt a twinge of pain in his chest at his crush's adamant refusal to work with him, but he filed it away.
Iruka finished reading off the team rosters and looked up at his now-former students. "Your jonin-senseis will be here shortly to pick you up," he told them. "Now don't think that just because you have graduated means you can take it easy. You are now ninja of this village, and that means you will all now have a new sort of responsibilities. You are the future of our village; good luck and always remember to carry the Will of Fire wherever your journey may take you. It has been an honor and an adventure teaching you all."
Naruto watched as Iruka looked each of the graduates in the eye before leaving the classroom. As soon as the door closed, the chatter in the classroom rose. Naruto looked down and saw the Rookie of the Year, Sasuke Uchiha, staring back up at him with a mix of confusion and superiority.
"What are you looking at teme?" Naruto asked sharply.
Sasuke grunted. "Just wondering who you had to suck off to get that headband," the Uchiha sneered.
"What did you say?" Naruto snarled, his anger flaring.
"It's the only way an idiot like you could ever graduate," Sasuke grinned darkly. The room around the two boys had gone silent, with several of the students rapidly switching their attentions back and forth between Sasuke and Naruto.
"Listen here Uchiha," Naruto growled. "I don't honestly care what you think how I graduated. I know how it happened, so does the Hokage and the people who need to know."
Sasuke's face twitched at Naruto's response, and the blonde grinned.
"That's what has got your panties in a twist," Naruto chuckled. "It's not that I graduated but that you don't know how I did. In the Academy, you were the big fish, the one who had all the answers but now you are nothing more than just another genin, and that pisses you off, doesn't it teme?"
Sasuke's face tightened as Naruto's jib struck true. He spun back to face the front of the classroom again.
"Naruto! Don't you talk to Sasuke-kun like that!" Sakura shouted.
Naruto closed his eyes and looked back out the window, ignoring the pang in his chest at Sakura's defense of Sasuke.
Soon two jonin had arrived to pick up Teams 8 and 10. Naruto recognized Team 10's sensei, Asuma Sarutobi, from the picture on the Hokage's desk but he didn't recognize the beautiful dark-haired woman who picked up Team 8. That left only Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto in the classroom.
"Ugh! Where is our sensei?" Sakura growled an hour after the other two teams had been picked up.
Naruto restrained himself from making a similar comment, knowing that Sakura would just shout at him but he did agree with her. This was no use of his time, he would much rather be reading more of Tobirama-ojisan's scroll. If only he could be in two places at…the sound of Naruto's head slamming into the desk snapped Sasuke's and Sakura's heads around to look at him.
"What the hell Naruto?" Sakura shouted.
"I'm going to the bathroom," Naruto said getting to his feet. "I'll be back in a bit."
"What if our sensei comes by while you are gone?" Sakura asked.
"Well, then they can wait," Naruto said. He walked out, ignoring the shout from his female teammate and turned down the hallway toward the bathroom. He entered the bathroom and with a quick hand sign, a second Naruto appeared in a puff of smoke.
"All right, you go back to the classroom to wait with teme and Sakura-chan," Naruto told his clone. "I'll go back to my apartment and start reading grandpa's scroll."
"What if Sakura-chan is right and sensei does show up? Shouldn't you boss be there, I can go back and read the scroll," the clone said. "Who knows what our sensei will want to do when they get here, it would be smarter to have you stay here to be safe."
"You just don't want to be in the same room as the teme," Naruto argued.
"Neither do you," the clone fired back. "Look my idea is the smartest, you still get to read grandpa's scroll and still meet our sensei."
"Fine," Naruto muttered. "I can't believe I got outsmarted by my own clone," he grumbled as he left the bathroom and headed back to the classroom.
"What happened dobe, did you fall in?" Sasuke snarked.
Naruto breathed out sharply through his nose as he let the comment wash over him. He sat down in the same seat as before and looked out the window.
It was another two hours before Naruto jerked awake as the classroom's sliding door opened to revel a tall jonin with gravity defying silver hair. The only visible part of the man's face was his right eye, a mask covered the lower half of his face and he had his Konoha headband angled to cover his left eye.
"You're Team 7 then?" the man said. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke nodded. "Right then, my first impression of you all is…you are all boring as hell." The three genin stared at the man. "Anyway, meet me on the roof in five minutes or all three of you will be sent back to the Academy." The man vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura watched as the smoke faded away before the three scrambled to their feet and raced out of the classroom.
Naruto followed Sasuke and Sakura out of the classroom when he felt a tingle in the back of his head. He got the images of his apartment, picking up the scroll and realizing that he needed blood to open the scroll.
'_Wait, how do I know that I couldn't open the scroll?_' Naruto thought. '_I sent my clone to read it. Do I learn what the clones do?_'
"Hurry up Naruto!" Sakura shouted, noticing that the blonde had fallen behind. "You better not get me and Sasuke-kun sent back to the Academy because you forgot where the roof was."
Naruto shook his head and followed Sasuke and Sakura up the back stairs of the Academy and out onto the roof. There the three ninja saw their tardy sensei, leaning against the railing with an orange book covering his already hidden face.
"So you all made it, good," the man said. "Now take a seat and we can get started." Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura scrambled to take seats in front of the jonin. "Now, why don't we all introduce ourselves?"
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"Your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, that sort of stuff," the man said without looking up from his book.
"Well, we've all been in the Academy for years together now," Naruto said. "But we don't know you sensei, so why don't you go first?"
"Fine then," the man said, closing his book with a snap. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes are…(perverse giggle), well, you might be a little too young to know. My dislikes are…(shrug) and I don't really have a dream."
'_So all we learned is that he's a pervert named Kakashi,_' was the same thought rushing through Sakura's, Sasuke's and Naruto's heads.
"Your turn blondie," Kakashi said.
"Right, I'm Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said. "My likes are ramen, training and new jutsus. My dislikes are the three minutes I have to wait to cook ramen, traitors and those who threaten my home. And my dream is to become the strongest pillar of the village, and become the Hokage. Hobbies are, probably pranks, I guess."
Sakura and Sasuke just rolled their eyes at Naruto's declaration but unbeknownst to all three genin, Kakashi was quite impressed at the blonde's answer. '_He's certainly grown in an interesting way,_' the jonin thought.
"You pinky?"
"My name is Sakura Haruno, not pinky," Sakura growled. "My likes are…(blushes) and reading I suppose. My dislikes are people who make fun of my forehead, Ino-pig and Naruto. And my dream is…(perverse giggle)."
Naruto's head dropped when he heard Sakura announce to the world that he was one of her dislikes, another thing that Kakashi didn't miss. '_I guess girls her age are more interested in love than being a shinobi,_' he thought.
"All right, what about you broody?"
"Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke grunted. "I don't have any likes, I have many dislikes and I don't have a dream but an ambition that I will accomplish by killing a certain man, and then restarting my clan."
Naruto saw Kakashi lower his book fractionally to observe Sasuke, before snapping it shut.
"Right then, now that we've gotten that out of the way," Kakashi said. "I guess the only thing I have to do now is tell you about your genin test."
"Genin test, but sensei aren't we already genin?" Sakura asked.
"Nope," Kakashi chirped. "Passing the Academy is only to weed out those who didn't have the potential to become shinobi. Now you have to prove yourselves to me. And let me tell you, only 9 members of your class will pass. The rest will be sent back to the Academy, or dropped from the program entirely. So, I will see you all tomorrow morning at Training Ground 3 at 6am. Oh, and I wouldn't bother eating breakfast, you'll probably just throw it. Later."
Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving the three stunned and slightly scared (though one would never admit it) prospective genin.
Naruto turned to Sasuke and Sakura. "If we are going to be a team, do you two want to get something to eat? You know, get to know more about each other?"
Sasuke snorted. "I already know all about you dobe, you are weak," he snapped. "Both of you," he added when the Uchiha saw that Sakura was going to agree with him. "If either of you hold me back from achieving my ambition, I will show you the difference in our strength."
Naruto growled lowly in his throat, his anger spiking dangerously. Sakura's face fell at Sasuke's dismissal of her strength.
"Look Sasuke," Naruto spat. "You might be the Rookie of the Year, but we aren't in the Academy anymore so class standings means shit now. We are all genin; the same rank now, so you better lose the arrogant 'I'm so much better than you' attitude before someone stronger comes along and shoves their boot up your ass. Now, if neither of you want to go eat with me fine, then I'll go by myself. Then I'm going to go train and be ready for whatever Kakashi-sensei wants to throw at us."
The blonde leapt off the Academy roof without another word, leaving Sakura and Sasuke speechless at their blonde teammate. Sakura looked at her crush and was stunned to see a reddish tinge coming to Sasuke's face. She could feel the anger rolling off Sasuke in waves.
Meanwhile in a nearby tree, a certain silver-haired cycloptic jonin had been watching the festivities with an amused eye. '_Well said Naruto,_' Kakashi thought. '_Someone needed to remind Sasuke that he isn't the big fish any longer, he's just another minnow in a massive ocean now. Let's see how he reacts tomorrow._'
* * *
><p>The sun crested over the Hokage monument and illuminated the Village Hidden in the Leaves in soft, warm, yellow light. All in all, it was a picture perfect early summer morning.<p>
"Where the hell is our sensei?" a loud voice shattered the early morning silence like an air raid siren.
The scene shifted to a nearby training ground where three young ninja were awaiting the arrival of their sensei to being their careers as shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.
"He told us to be here at 6am and now it's nearly eight, and he's not here," the blonde boy shouted.
"Naruto, shut up!" a pink haired girl screamed, just as loudly. "Shouting like an idiot is not going to change anything. Right Sasuke-kun?" she asked the black haired boy who was leaning against one of three posts, scowling.
"Hn," Sasuke grunted.
"See Naruto, Sasuke-kun agrees with me," Sakura beamed.
Naruto just ignored the pair. '_Damn you Kakashi, I could be home sleeping or reading grandpa's scroll,_' he fumed. '_I only had time to learn more about the _**Shadow Clone Jutsu** _before I went to bed to make sure I got enough sleep._'
While reading about the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**, Naruto's suspicions were confirmed when he learned that the memories of his clones were transferred back to the original. Tobirama, the creator of the technique, had used the jutsu as a scouting technique, a way to infiltrate an enemies' stronghold, gain accurate intel with very little risk. Tobirama also wrote that the clones were a useful training tool, as while they did not pass on physical results, anything the clones learned, once dispelled the original would learn, though Tobirama did comment that if one tried to learn more than two or three things at the same time, or dispel too many clones at the same time, the creator would suffer from deliberating headaches until the mind sorted through the information, if it did at all.
The main note that caught Naruto's attention was that the clones could transfer knowledge of jutsus, somewhat like the Uchiha clan's **Sharingan**. If a clone tried to use a jutsu, then once dispelled, the original would learn how to mold their chakra to perform the jutsu. Of course the original need to know the correct way of molding the chakra or they could fall prey to doing it incorrectly, which could have disastrous results.
"Hello there my cute little potential genin," an amused and cheerful voice said. In a puff of smoke, Kakashi appeared in front of Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto.
"You're late!" Sakura screamed.
"Where the hell have you been?" Naruto shouted.
"Well, you see there was this black cat that crossed my path, so I had to take the long way," Kakashi explained. "But then my path went under a ladder and I had to…
"Lair!" Naruto and Sakura cried.
"Fine," Kakashi sighed. "Now that we are all here, we can get this show on the road." He pulled out a small clock from his pouch and set it on one of the training posts. "Now, your objective is to get these two bells from me by noon. You can use any means at your disposal, in fact you better come at me with the intent to kill, or you will surely fail. And if, at the end of the test, any of you don't have a bell, you automatically fail and will be sent back to the Academy."
"But wait sensei, there are only two bells?" Sakura pointed out. "If there are only two bells, that means…"
"That one of you will be sent back to the Academy regardless, yep that's right," Kakashi chirped. "So are you three ready?" The three genin nodded. "Then begin!"
The three genin vanished into the nearby forest, leaving Kakashi standing in the middle of the training ground alone.
'_Well, at least they know how to hide themselves well enough,_' Kakashi thought. '_Then again,_' he amended, turning around to face Naruto. The blonde was glaring at Kakashi, arms crossed.
"You know, you are a bit different than the others," Kakashi commented.
"I've waited long enough," Naruto said. "You made us wait, I'm done waiting. So I'm coming after you!"
"It's said that those who bark the loudest are the dumbest."
Naruto grit his teeth, the lesson that Tobirama-ojisan told him echoed through his head. 'Emotions do not control a shinobi, a shinobi controls his emotions.' He took a deep breath and released it through his nose, calming his surging blood.
"**Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Naruto cried, his fingers in a familiar cross seal.
Kakashi's eyes widened as a dozen clones appeared around Naruto. With a cry, the clones charged toward Kakashi. The jonin grinned behind his mask as he fell back under the badly choreographed onslaught. '_His taijutsu could certainly use some work,_' Kakashi thought as he ducked under a spinning kick.
"Where'd he go?" Naruto asked aloud as Kakashi vanished in a burst of speed.
"You shouldn't let your opponent get behind you," an amused voice said. Naruto looked over his shoulder to see Kakashi crouching behind him, his fingers in a Tiger seal.
"**Konoha Hidden Jutsu: Thousand Years of Pain!**" Kakashi shouted before giving Naruto a chakra-charged ass poke that sent the blonde screaming, before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
'_A clone eh, not bad Naruto,_' Kakashi thought pulling his copy of Icha Icha from his pouch. '_Now then, where are the other two?_'
'_Damn you pervert sensei,_' Naruto scowled as he watched Kakashi from a treetop. The memories of the clone that had been dispelled by the jonin caused him to rub his backside in phantom pain.
'_This test is so stupid,_' Naruto growled. '_Why would Kakashi taunt us with an impossible objective! He's a jonin for Kami's sake! Three genin can't take on a jonin, sure I beat Mizuki but he was just a chunin and I got lucky that he underestimated me. And anyway, I've only seen genin teams with three genin…_'
A light bulb went off above Naruto's head, causing him to smack his face with his hand. "I got to find Sakura-chan and Sasuke," Naruto said to himself as the blonde leapt off from the branch.
'_What do you have in mind Naruto?_' Kakashi thought, reveling that the jonin had been hiding in the shadows beneath the branch that Naruto had been standing on.
"What do we have here?" Naruto snickered as he landed on the forest floor next to a peculiar sight; one Sasuke Uchiha stuck up to his neck in dirt. "What happened to you teme?"
"Never mind that dobe, just get me out of here," Sasuke growled, struggling to free himself.
"I will but you need to listen to what I have to say first, all right?" Naruto said, crouching down next to Sasuke. "I can just walk away and leave you, or I can find Sakura-chan and have her…" the blonde trailed off. Sasuke paled as he thought of what the pink haired fan girl would do if she saw him like this.
Sasuke glared up at the blonde, vowing that once he got free he would pound the blonde into the ground. "Fine," he spat.
Naruto grinned. "Look Sasuke, neither one of us like each other very much," Naruto admitted. "I think you are a stuck up ass who believes he's better than everyone. Now in the Academy you were the best…"
"Did that hurt?" Sasuke snarked.
Naruto just rolled his eyes. "But like I said yesterday, you are no longer the strongest," he said. Sasuke looked away. "You might not want to believe it but its true, do you really think you are stronger than Kakashi?"
"No," Sasuke admitted.
Naruto refrained from echoing Sasuke's previous jab. "None of us have any chance of laying a finger on Kakashi by ourselves but if we work together then maybe we can get those bells."
"You want to work with me?" Sasuke asked, his surprise overriding his sense of superiority.
"I want to pass," Naruto said. "I want to become a ninja, just like you. And if that means working with you, fine then."
"What about Sakura? Would we work with her?"
"Three is better than two," Naruto said. "And while she isn't very physically strong, Sakura is smarter than both of us, and you know it."
Sasuke grunted. He didn't want to admit it, especially out loud but Naruto was right. Sakura was the smartest of the three.
"And besides, have you ever heard of a two man genin team?" Naruto commented. "I know you've gone around and seen older teams train, looking for tips, and they are always in groups of four; three genin and a jonin."
"What if you are wrong?" Sasuke asked.
"Then I'll take the fall and go back to the Academy," Naruto said. "But I'm not wrong and you know it."
"So how do we get Haruno to work with us?" Sasuke asked. Naruto grinned, knowing that he had won.
"Simple, you say its your plan and she'll fall over herself to please her 'Sasuke-kun'," Naruto said.
Sasuke shivered. "Fine, now get me the hell out of here," Sasuke said.
Naruto made a pair of clones and the three quickly dug Sasuke free. Suddenly a high-pitched scream tore through the forest causing Sasuke and Naruto to whip their heads around.
"Come on," Naruto said, leaping off toward the scream.
"Don't order me around dobe!" Sasuke shouted, jumping after the blonde anyway.
"What's wrong with her?" a familiar and loud voice asked.
"Dobe, Kakashi obviously put her in a genjutsu," another voice, this one curt and cold, said.
Emerald green eyes fluttered open to see two faces looking down at her. One face was topped with golden blonde hair and had bright blue eyes; the other was framed by dark blue hair and had coal black eyes that seemed to pierce through her.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried, shooting into a seated position and throwing her arms around Sasuke's neck.
"Get off," Sasuke grunted, quickly extricating himself from Sakura's grasp. "Look Haruno, we need your help."
"We?" she asked. "What is Naruto doing here?"
"He helped me out of a tight spot," Sasuke said, spitting out the words. Naruto hid a grin at Sasuke's confession. "Kakashi is too strong for me, so I need yours and Naruto's help to get those bells."
"But Sasuke-kun, why do we need Naruto?" Sakura asked. "Surely he can't help all that much, you are the Rookie of the Year and he's just the dead last."
"Perhaps," Sasuke agreed. "But three is better than two. So can I count on your help?"
"Of course Sasuke-kun, you can count on me," Sakura said with stars in her eyes.
"Good, now here's the plan," Sasuke said, hiding the shudder that came from Sakura's adoring look.
'_Not much time left for those three,_' Kakashi thought as he stood in the middle of the training ground with his book out. '_Maybe I thought too highly of them. They haven't shown anything close to being worthy of being shinobi._'
The rustling of leaves caught Kakashi's attention. The jonin turned as a mass of orange clad clones came surging out of the underbrush. Kakashi sighed and turned to face the oncoming army of **Shadow Clones**. Suddenly Kakashi leapt upward as his finely tuned danger sense warned him of approaching danger. Just in time as a roaring fireball sped through the space that Kakashi had just occupied.
'_What's this?_' Kakashi thought. '_Naruto can't perform that jutsu, that was…_' Twisting in mid-air, Kakashi avoided a brace of shuriken, catching two of them with his free hand.
Landing, Kakashi substituted with a nearby log as he had landed on a pressure trap that sent another group of shuriken came speeding toward him.
'_That's right, Sakura was first in trap making in the Academy,_' Kakashi grinned beneath his mask. '_Maybe I was wrong._'
The army of blondes reached Kakashi and began swinging wildly, with both arms and legs. '_His taijutsu is atrocious,_' Kakashi thought, easily cutting his way through the mass of clones. '_Did he even pay attention in the Academy?_'
A blur of black and blue caught Kakashi's attention as Sasuke came racing toward him and the mass of Narutos. The clones dispelled themselves, covering much of the area in smoke. Kakashi channeled chakra to his legs and leapt into the air. And just in time as another string of shuriken came speeding through the smoke.
As Kakashi landed he sensed that he was surrounded once more. He readied himself to use the **Substitution Jutsu** once again when a bell rang out through the training ground.
"Damnit!" Naruto cursed.
"Oh that's too bad," Kakashi chuckled as he walked toward the three genin. Inwardly the jonin was praising the three young ninja. "Well, none of you have a bell, so that means I'm going to have to…pass you!"
"What!" the three genin cried.
"But we didn't get the bells sensei?" Sakura asked.
"True but the objective of this training wasn't really to get the bells," Kakashi told them. "I've been a ninja much longer than you three have been alive, did you really think you could get them? I wanted to see how you all would do when faced with an impossible obstacle. You all have to realize that you are much stronger together than by yourselves. There is a reason why Konoha is considered the strongest village, it is because we know the value of working together."
"But why then only two bells?" Naruto asked.
"I couldn't just tell you what the real reason was now, could I?" Kakashi chuckled. "You had to figure it out for yourselves or the lesson would have no meaning."
"So we passed? We're real ninja now?" Naruto asked.
"Yep," Kakashi chirped. "You are now officially Team 7 of Konoha, but always remember those who abandon the mission are trash but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash. Now be here tomorrow at 8am for our first day of training. Later!"
The jonin vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving the three genin standing in the middle of the training ground stunned.
"All right! We did it, we passed!" Naruto shouted, jumping for joy. Sakura smile at the blonde's exuberance while Sasuke had a small smirk. "So now what do you guys want to do?" he asked his two teammates.
"Don't think this has changed anything dobe," Sasuke said. "We might be teammates but that doesn't mean we are friends. I'm going to train."
Naruto sighed as Sasuke marched off, Sakura trailing after him like a puppy. '_Well at least now I can read grandpa's scroll some more,_' Naruto thought.
In the shadows of the trees, Kakashi watched as the blonde made his way off the training ground. '_This might be more difficult than I thought,_' he mused. '_But where would the fun be if it was easy?_'
**A/N: Well there you have it, the second chapter of this story, hope you all liked it. It was fun to write and to come up with some hopefully subtle hints into the changes in our favorite blonde hero. Let me know how you all think about the chapter, also I've been having some second thoughts about the title and so I am going to be posting a poll on my profile with a couple of options for the title, please vote on what you think. There will be a 'Other' option, if you choose that one, just drop me a suggestion on what you think the title should be in either a review or PM. **
**A/N pt 2: Now onto my thoughts about the end of an era. As we all know, Naruto has finished its 15 year run and what a run it has been. Roughly 700 chapters of manga, probably around 500 episodes of anime and 10 movies but to me, the final chapter really didn't wrap things up for me. Yeah, we all knew that Naruto would become Hokage eventually but the use of confusing placing of real world technology (laptop computers, skyscrapers, etc.) just was weird. But no one really cares about that, we all cared about the final pairings, and it looks like it ended up being NaruHina and SasuSaku, which probably wasn't a huge surprise to a lot of us. But I do think that Kishi again followed JK Rowling's lead in picking pairings, you have your lead protagonist ending up with a 'fangirl' that had very little background to her. That was always my biggest hangup with Naruto/Hinata, we so little of those two interacting that them being paired off just didn't sit well with me. However my biggest hangup was the fact that Sasuke survived his wounds and has seemingly married Sakura (did anyone else think that Sasuke and Sakura's daughter looks more like a cross of Karin and Sasuke than Sakura/Sasuke? not just the glasses but her face as well), I think that if Sasuke had died from his wounds, it would have really made Naruto grow up and would have made for some interesting Naruto/Sakura interactions in the aftermath. I am going to wait until I see the new Naruto movie (which will probably come out in the US in the summer of 2015) before I make a final decision about Naruto, as for what I've read about the movie's plot it will focus on Naruto and Hinata's possible relationship. Can't wait til then, and til next time,**
**SlytherinKnight**
3. Right into the Frying Pan
**Disclaimer: _Naruto _IS NOT MINE! If it was, then the epilogue/final chapter wouldn't have been nearly the exact same as JK Rowling's epilogue of _Harry Potter_. **
"Is the target in sight?" a garbled voice asked.
"Yes, I have eyes on target," a blonde haired boy answered. "I'm about 10 meters above the target and a little west. Raven, where are you?"
"I am roughly 15 meters to your three o'clock," Sasuke's curt voice answered.
"Roger, Blossom, what about you?" Kakashi asked.
"I am about twenty meters in front of the target," Sakura answered. "My snare is set about ten meters ahead. Raven, Fox, if you can lead the target there, we can end this mission finally."
"Excellent," Kakashi said happily. "Now on my signal, Fox, you will rush in while Raven, you make sure that the target goes toward the trap. On three, one, two…three."
Naruto burst through the underbrush, racing toward a small black blur. "It's heading your way Sasuke!" Naruto cried as the animal made a sharp turn right.
Three soft thuds caused the animal to stop sharply as three shuriken embedded themselves in a tree in front of the target.
"Raven, watch it!" Kakashi scolded. "We are trying to capture the thing, not skin it."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted as he landed in front of the scared animal. It took one look at Sasuke and shot to the left. And right into the snare trap that Sakura had set up only minutes earlier. A yowling sound came from the trap.
"Is it Tora? Confirmation please, there should be a red ribbon on his right ear," Kakashi asked.
"It's him Kakashi-sensei," Naruto grumbled. "I think after having this mission a dozen times, we can recognize the furball quite well."
"Right then, the Capture Tora mission is complete," Kakashi said. "Let's get back to the Hokage Tower."
It had been five weeks since the trio of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke had become Team 7 under the leadership of Kakashi Hatake. In that time, the trio's romanticized notions of being a ninja had been quickly squashed by the monotonous and quite basic missions. The three young ninja quickly learned that being a shinobi was not all about going on adventures, recusing damsels in distress or learning powerful jutsus. Kakashi, seemingly, took great pleasure in introducing the three young shinobi to the wonders of D-rank missions, especially the Capture Tora mission.
When the trio complained to their sensei, Kakashi would just respond, "You three are not ready for higher ranking missions yet. D-ranks are perfect for new shinobi. They help you three learn to work together. A shinobi's life is not glamorous and wonderful; you will have to do things that make you feel dirty. Pray that this is the worst experiences you have as a shinobi."
While Sasuke and Sakura both felt that Kakashi was just holding them back, well Sakura was more just going along with whatever Sasuke said, Naruto was grateful for the slow start, much to the amazement of his teammates. Naruto didn't receive a monthly stipend from the village any longer now that he was a genin, and had to pay the rent and for food by himself, and while D-ranks weren't very highly paying; Naruto used them as a steady source of income.
Growing up on his own had forced Naruto to learn a lot of different things that his classmates had taken for granted. Except for Sasuke, all of Naruto's classmates had families to help them, and Sasuke had his clan's funds to help. Naruto had to pay rent, food and ninja supplies; in his youth Naruto scavenged the training ground for abandoned kunai and shuriken. Naruto knew that he wasn't the best thrower in his Academy class but that was more because the equipment he used was not always completely balanced which would throw off his accuracy.
His first purchase with his new funds was a set of brand new kunai and shuriken. Naruto also wrangled a pair of jutsu from the Sandaime Hokage; two support ninjutsu that were created by the old man himself, the **Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu **and **Kunai Multiplication Jutsu**. Naruto loved the two jutsus, as they made sure he didn't need to be absolutely perfect with his accuracy, and with his chakra levels, Naruto could easily block out the sun with only a handful of real shuriken or kunai.
"Ah hello Team 7," the warm voice of the Sandaime said as Team 7 entered the Mission Dispersal Office. "A successful mission then?"
"Hai Hokage-sama," Kakashi said. "Mission: Capture Tora complete!"
"Excellent," Hiruzen grinned. "That seems to be a new record, it only took you three a couple of hours to find Tora this time. Neko, can you please inform Madam Shinji that Tora has been found."
The cat-masked ANBU nodded and slid back into the shadows to inform the wife of the Fire Daimyo that her escape artist of a cat had been found and returned.
"Now then, if you three are up for it we have a number of missions still available," the Hokage said. "A council member needs a babysitter for their grandson, the Inuzaka clan needs some assistance in walking their dogs…"
"Oh come on jiji, we've been doing these chores for over a month," Naruto interrupted. "Don't you have anything better? We are ninja for Kami's sake."
"Naruto, you have only just graduated from the Academy," Iruka scolded. "You are not ready for a higher ranking mission. You know how missions are ranked, and as genin you can only receive D-rank missions…"
"Or C-ranks if deemed advanced enough," Naruto cut in. "Come on Hokage-sama, we have the Rookie of the Year, the smartest kunoichi, the Copy Cat ninja and me, who learned a B-rank jutsu in one night. I think we are advanced enough of a simple C-rank mission."
The Hokage turned his gaze toward Kakashi who met the aged man's stare. "Well Kakashi, do you believe they are ready for a C-rank mission?"
Kakashi looked down at the three genin, who had turned to him. Naruto and Sakura were failing miserably to hide the pleading in their faces while Sasuke was only just failing. '_They have come a long way,_' Kakashi thought.
"Yes Hokage-sama, I believe Team 7 is ready for a simple C-rank mission," Kakashi answered. Naruto and Sakura cheered while Sasuke's smirk was the extent of the stoic boy's excitement.
"Very well," Hiruzen said. "I believe that I have just the…"
"Hokage-sama!" a panicked voice shouted out, barging into the MDO.
"Easy there Shiji-kun, what's wrong?" Hiruzen asked.
"We just released word from Asuma Sarutobi and Team 10," the chunin panted. "It seems that their client, Tazuna of the Wave, didn't relay all the information about who might be after him. Sarutobi-san has requested additional backup, Team 10 managed to fend off an ambush by the missing ninja duo, the Demon Brothers, but he believes there might be more enemies around."
The Hokage's usual jovial expression hardened into one of granite, much like the Hokage monument overlooking the village.
"Team 7," he barked. The four ninja instantly came to attention at their Hokage's command. "You've just gotten very lucky or unlucky. Your mission is to back up Team 10 and assist them in their mission of guarding Tazuna until he completes his bridge. Understood?"
"Hai Hokage-sama," the four ninja barked.
"Dismissed!"
"Meet at the east gate in thirty minutes," Kakashi said. "Pack for three weeks, move it!"
The three genin nodded and raced off.
"Hokage-sama, are you sure it is wise to send just another genin team?" Iruka asked.
"Wise, probably not," Hiruzen admitted. "But there are no teams so readily available, and Kakashi-kun and my son should be able to handle anything Gato is able to muster. Also, Naruto-kun was correct, Team 7 is more than ready. I have high hopes for them and more importantly, I have faith in them."
"Good you are all here," Kakashi said as Team 7 met at the east gate of Konoha. "Have you got everything?" The three genin nodded. "Good, now it's a full day's travel to the coast, Team 10 will most likely be there so we've got to move fast. Now let's move!"
The three genin and one jonin leapt off into the forest that surrounded and protected Konoha, leaving no visible trace.
* * *
><p>"Tazuna, where is this boat supposed to meet us?" Asuma Sarutobi asked the older man with a conical hat and gourd of sake hanging from his satchel.<p>
"Right here," Tazuna said. "Don't worry he'll be here. His boat is the only way across to Nami without Gato knowing."
"Hey sensei, who do you think will be sent as back up?" Choji Akimichi asked, in between bites of chips.
"It will probably be a team of chunin or something," Shikamaru Nara answered. "This whole mission is troublesome, why did we even decide to continue it. We are way out of our depth."
"Because we couldn't just let the people of Nami continue to suffer," Ino Yamanaka shouted.
"I thought that you voted to keep going because you thought that Sasuke would like you if he heard about this mission," Shikamaru pointed out, causing the blonde girl to turn red in anger, and embarrassment at being caught.
"Shika…"
"Ino be quiet," Asuma barked. "Someone's coming."
The other genin instantly surrounded a scared Tazuna while Asuma slipped his trench knives onto his fingers. "Come on out," he called out. "We know you are there."
"Ma, ma," a lazy voice answered Asuma. "No need to get so authoritative Asuma."
Asuma's shoulders relaxed as he returned his knives to his belt. "It's all right team, our back up is here."
Four figures leapt down from the trees, three figures that Ino, Choji and Shikamaru instantly recognized.
"Sasuke-kun!" Ino cried, her blonde hair trailing behind her as she rushed past her teammates toward the Uchiha heir.
"What are you guys doing here?" Shikamaru asked.
"We are your back up Shikamaru," Naruto answered.
"But you guys are only genin too? Why were you sent and not a squad of jonin?"
"Because Hokage-sama ordered us," Sakura said.
The soft rumble of an engine brought any conversation to a rapid halt.
"That will be Genji," Tazuna said.
Through the gloom and mist a long boat appeared with a weather-beaten man at the helm.
"Tazuna, what's going on? Who are these people?"
"These are the Konoha shinobi I hired," Tazuna said. "They are here to free us from Gato's yoke."
The boat driver grinned broadly. "Excellent," Genji said. "But we better hurry, Gato's patrol boats will be coming through here soon."
The two Konoha teams and grizzled civilian climbed aboard the rickety boat and they were off.
"Keep all your heads down," Genji ordered. "If we are spotted by Gato's men, we are done for."
"I'll put a genjutsu around the boat," Kakashi said. "That should keep us under the radar." Kakashi's hands flashed through some hand signs and the genin felt a subtle level of chakra fall over them.
The boat ride lasted only ten minutes but none of the genin made a sound in fear of being discovered. When the boat gently nudged against the shoreline of Nami did the genin finally allow themselves to relax.
"How far is it to your home Tazuna?" Asuma asked.
"Not far," Tazuna said. "Only a couple of miles from here. This was the closest Genji could land without us being spotted by Gato's spies inside the village."
The group set off for the bridge builder's home, the six young genin all feeling tense as if they were being watched. Unbeknownst to the young Konoha shinobi, they were being watched. Hidden in the trees were a pair of figures; one was well over six feet tall, dark hair and bandages covering the lower half of his face. Strapped to the man's back was a massive sword that was as long as the man was tall. A smaller figure stood next to the swordsman, this figure wore a uniform of some sort and a white mask hid its face with four wavy lines on the forehead.
"That's Asuma Sarutobi and Kakashi Hatake," the taller man growled. "I didn't expect Konoha to respond so rapidly, and to send Kakashi is something I didn't plan for."
"What should we do Zabuza-sama?" the shorter figure asked.
"We retreat," Zabuza said. "We can't fight both Kakashi and Sarutobi, even if we had the Demon Brothers. And those brats are unknowns, even if they are brats. Let's go Haku, I have to call in some favors if we want to complete this job."
The shadowy ninja leapt from their hiding place and faded into the mist.
"You noticed right?" Kakashi murmured.
"Yes," Asuma answered. "Things are going to become a lot worse than it gets better." Kakashi nodded.
* * *
><p>"Tsunami! Inari! I'm back!" Tazuna shouted as the old man entered a two-story house.<p>
An attractive young woman with long black hair came rushing out of another room.
"Father!" the woman cried before embracing Tazuna. "You're home!"
"Yes I am," Tazuna chuckled. "And these brave shinobi are here to help us."
The woman turned to the Konoha shinobi. "Oh please come in," Tsunami ushered. "Thank you very much for seeing my father home safely."
"It is no problem ma'am," Asuma said, a faint blush tingeing his cheeks at the sight of the woman. "Tazuna, is there a place where we all can sit down and discuss what will be happening from this point forward."
"Right, there's enough room in the kitchen," Tazuna said. "Tsunami, where's Inari?"
"He's down by the docks," Tsunami said. "He should be home soon, it's getting late."
The eight Konoha shinobi sat down at the kitchen table with Tazuna and Tsunami.
"Ok everyone listen up," Asuma said. "This mission, while it has had some very unexpected bumps in the road, will only get more difficult. While we were making our way here, Kakashi and I sensed two people watching us."
"These two people did leave after observing us for a bit," Kakashi picked up the conversation there. "We can only surmise that these two were comrades of the Demon Brothers, and were waiting to ambush us."
"Why didn't they then?" Naruto asked.
"Probably because they didn't feel confident taking on two jonin," Shikamaru said. "An successful ambush means scoring the most damage while sustaining the least amount of risk to themselves. What's the point of an ambush if you get hurt or killed in the process?"
Asuma and Kakashi nodded at the Nara heir's explanation.
"Shikamaru is correct," Kakashi said. "Konoha's most recent information on the Demon Brothers was that they are aligned with Zabuza Momochi, a former Seven Swordsman of the Mist. If this is true then this mission is easily A-rank, can could be even more difficult if Zabuza after seeing Asuma and I, decides to find more help."
"We are no way near ready for this type of mission," Choji moaned.
"No you are not," Asuma said frankly. "But it is too late to change anything, so Kakashi and I are going to use this time to get you all as ready as possible."
"But how?" Ino asked. "How can you possibly train us for this sort of thing?"
"We are not sure," Kakashi admitted. "But this is the life you have all chosen, mission are not always cut and dry. Incidents happen on missions and circumstances will change, and not always for the better."
"I am sorry that I have dragged you all into this mess," Tazuna apologized. "But we are desperate, we had no other option. If the bridge is not completed then Gato will completely rule this land and continue to strangle its people."
"Don't worry Tazuna, we will do all we can to stop this scumbag," Naruto said. Tazuna gave the exuberant blonde a thankful smile.
"I knew you were dumb Naruto but not this stupid," Ino scolded. "We are just genin, what can we do to save an entire country?" The blonde girl shook her head, missing the glares that Sakura and Sasuke sent her way, something that Shikamaru and Choji didn't.
"Anyway, tonight we will relax," Kakashi said. "Make sure you all get a good night's sleep because tomorrow, we hit the ground running."
After a delicious dinner provided by Tsunami, the jonin sent their teams off to bed while they began hashing out a training regime for the young ninja.
"You've missed your chance Forehead," Ino said as the two kunoichi settled themselves down for bed. "It's obvious you haven't captured Sasuke-kun's heart yet and not that I'm here, he'll see what a real woman is like."
Sakura's brow twitched at the use of her hated nickname. "Look Ino-pig, just because Sasuke-kun hasn't responded to my advances doesn't mean he won't. Who between us knows Sasuke-kun's dreams and ambitions?"
Ino glared at her rival, knowing that she didn't have a clue and that Sakura now had a leg up on her. "You might think you have the advantage now Sakura, but you'll see, by the end of this mission, Sasuke-kun will see that I'm his girl," Ino claimed.
In the boys' room, the last loyal Uchiha felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
"Good morning brats," Kakashi chirped, jolting the four male genin from sleep. Instantly, Naruto and Sasuke had kunai in their hands and were ready to attack before recognizing their sensei. "Well done you two, Choji, Shikamaru, we aren't in the village anymore. You should be expecting an attack and always be on guard. Now get dressed and meet us downstairs, its time to start your training."
The cycloptic jonin left the four boys to get dressed in a puff of smoke.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled. "Your sensei is annoying, it's barely the crack of dawn."
"It's the way he is Shikamaru," Naruto said as he pulled on his jumpsuit. "Oh and by the way, if you aren't downstairs soon, he'll come back and drag you out, trust us." Sasuke nodded, and the two male members of Team 7 left the bedroom.
Soon enough the six genin were gathered outside Tazuna's house, but only Team 7 looked alert.
"Now that you are here, we can get started," Asuma said. "Kakashi and I have discussed what you've al learnt so far and knowing that we could be attacked at any time, you all won't be learning anything new, there simply isn't enough time."
"What?" Ino cried. "Then what is the point of training us then?"
"You all will be training on mastering your current abilities," Kakashi said. "Asuma tells me that his team has already learn tree walking, so all genin will work on the next step, water walking. Lucky for us, there are plenty of places in which to practice."
"Now water walking is a more advanced chakra control exercise than tree walking," Asuma said. "While with tree walking, you only need to expend a set amount of chakra to 'stick' to the tree's surface, water is not a solid. Water is constantly moving and changing, and so your chakra must match it. The aim of this exercise is to be able to stand on water without exuding a ripple. Once you have achieved that, then we will more onto walking and then running on top of water."
"To stand on water you must release you chakra from the soles of your feet in a constant flow to in essence create a platform that you will stand on," Kakashi said. "Oh and unless you don't mind wearing wet clothing, you might as well strip down."
Instantly Sakura and Ino's faces bloomed a beet red as they glanced toward Sasuke. The boys hid their embarrassment a bit better but were still nervous about wearing so little in front of girls.
"Come on then, you are all ninja of Konoha," Asuma said, trying to act stern but you could hear the undercurrent of amusement in his voice. Kakashi had hidden his face behind his book but there was a slight hitch in his shoulders.
Naruto glanced at his teammates and Team 10 and saw that none of them looked like they were willing to be the first. The blonde sighed and unzipped his jacket.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Choji asked.
"I don't feel like only having one set of sopping wet clothes," Naruto said. "And anyway, people's bathing suits are just like our underwear, sometimes covering even more."
Asuma and Kakashi grinned as Naruto tossed his jacket and pants to the shore and stood, facing away from his teammates, and tentatively took a step into the water.
"You'll need to go deeper than that Naruto," Kakashi said. "And are you all just going to stand there? Get moving genin."
The other five genin jumped at Kakashi's command and began to discard their own outer clothing, and took their own tentative steps into the water.
Naruto felt his feet wobble as he stepped out further into the small inlet that the Konoha shinobi were training in. The blonde could feel the water fighting his chakra as it tried to stabilize the water beneath his feet.
"Hey this is really easy."
Naruto turned to see Sakura and Ino, dressed in only their shorts and thin tops, standing roughly eight feet out in the water. The sight of his pink haired crush and Ino, who many of his classmates thought was the cutest girl in their class, standing only feet from him, wearing nothing more than short shorts and thin T-shirts was enough for Naruto to lose control and fall into the water causing Sasuke to laugh and the kunoichi to giggle.
But one of those giggles died in a young woman's throat as Naruto resurfaced, sputtering. His black shirt was clinging to his chest, outlining a very fit physique for a boy who was only 13. Naruto's normally spiky blonde hair was laying partially flat thanks to the water, causing the young girl to think of another blonde.
'_Holy Kami! Naruto is hot!_' a stunned voice echoed throughout the head of Sakura Haruno.
'_Yeah, who knew that under that hideous orange jumpsuit, Naruto was hiding such a rocking body,_' a second voice giggled in Sakura's head.
'_Who are you?_' Sakura asked. '_And what are you doing in my head?_'
'_I'm you_,' the voice answered. '_I am your subconscious, who you truly are at the most basic level._'
'_If you are me, then why are you complimenting Naruto, I love Sasuke-kun,_' Sakura argued.
'_Girl, you are 12, what do you know about love?_' Inner Sakura asked. '_And so what if I did compliment Naruto, he's cute. There's nothing wrong with looking._'
'_I guess so,_' Sakura agreed.
Training was called for the day when the mist began to burn off, and the two Konoha teams returned to Tazuna's house.
"All right you guys, that was a very solid first effort," Asuma said. "It is not surprising to see how quickly Sakura and Ino picked this up, they have the smallest chakra capacity. But I was surprised at how fast Naruto was able to get the basics down; I mean he has the largest chakra reserve of them all. Hell, its larger than pops."
Kakashi nodded. "Yes, they all have been quite surprising but will it be enough," he said. "We still need to know what they are capable of, I am sure that each of your team knows some of their clans' jutsus?"
Asuma nodded. "They each know at least one," the son of the Sandaime said. "Shikamaru knows the **Shadow Possession Jutsu**, Choji knows his **Partial Expansion Jutsu** and Ino knows the **Mind Body Switch Jutsu**, what about your brats?"
"Well Sasuke knows the **Great Fireball Jutsu** and the **Phoenix Flame Jutsu**," Kakashi said. "Sakura knows the Academy three and the **False Surroundings Jutsu** and Naruto knows the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**, and the **Kunai Multiplication** and **Shuriken Multiplication Jutsus**."
Asuma whistled. "So pops did show him those two jutsus then?" he commented. "All right then, looks like we have quite a talented group."
Kakashi nodded. "But it won't likely be enough," he said. "Zabuza was ANBU-level when he tried to overthrow the Mizukage, and I doubt that he's lost that much strength since then."
"True but surely you can handle them," Asuma said. "I doubt that Zabuza has many friends that he can call on to help him."
"That is true but we can't be sure," Kakashi pointed out.
A knock interrupted the jonins' conversation.
"Come in," Kakashi said. The door slowly opened to show Naruto and Shikamaru. "What can we do for you boys?"
"Kakashi-sensei, we wanted to speak with you and Asuma-sensei about an idea we…"
"No, you Naruto," Shikamaru interjected. "This was your idea."
"Fine," the blonde sighed. "You said that this Zabuza guy was most likely going to ambush us but didn't because he didn't have enough teammates, right?"
"That's right," Kakashi said.
"Well, I was thinking why don't we take this Zabuza and Gato down before his back-up gets here," Naruto said. "Don't we have the advantage?"
Kakashi grinned beneath his mask. "What makes you think we haven't already thought of that? The problem with that idea is that we don't know where Zabuza's base is?"
"Well, I can find out," Naruto said. "I mean, I can send out my clones, disguised and we can find it really quickly."
Kakashi and Asuma turned to one another.
"That could work," Asuma admitted. "So you know the trick about the **Shadow Clones** then Naruto?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I've known about the memory thing since team announcements," he said. "But would it work?"
"It could," Kakashi said slowly. Naruto noticed Kakashi's hands twitching and Asuma responding. "All right Naruto, you have three days to find out where Zabuza's base is and come up with a suitable assault plan. If you can't, then we will have to wait until Zabuza makes his own move, understood?"
"Yes sensei," Naruto said with a crisp salute. The two genin quickly left to find a place to plan.
"You are putting a lot of faith in those two, especially Naruto," Asuma said.
"I am," Kakashi agreed. "Naruto has this gift to get people to believe in him, I don't know what it is but it makes me want to see what he'll do. He's going to surprise a lot of people, something has changed in him since he graduated."
"He does have that gift," Asuma said. "Being able to get Shikamaru to participate means something, kind of reminds me of him, doesn't it?"
"It does," Kakashi said. "It's in his blood for sure."
**A/N: Well there's the newest chapter of '_Hidden Legacy_,' hope you all enjoyed it. I wanted to change up the Wave Mission from my previous stories, I looked back on my previous Naruto story '_Underneath the Underneath_' and wow, it was pathetic. I really didn't know how to write with any type of pacing, Naruto's power levels were all over the place and I couldn't get like anything right. I hope that this new edition will be much better. I do have an announcement, this story will follow all of Naruto, from the start of the manga, to his journey with Jiraiya, and then into Shippuden and perhaps past that, at the very least that is what I am hoping to accomplish. It is going to take some time, I am hoping to have an update every 10 days to two weeks but that is fluid and can always change. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and til next time,**
**SlytherinKnight**
4. First Blood
**Disclaimer: I do NOT own _Naruto_! If I did, the final chapter of the manga would not mirror the crap-ilogue of the _Harry Potter_ series. Hero marries fan-girl while heroine marries the guy who has deserted/betrayed her twice! Come on man!**
It had been two days since Naruto had approached Kakashi and Asuma with his idea for searching for Zabuza's hideout using his **Shadow Clones**, and the clones had reported no success. The genins' training had quickly moved along, now all six of the genin could stand easily on the water; Sakura, Ino and Shikamaru could run across the surface while Naruto, Sasuke and Choji were able to jog. The Uchiha heir was openly jealous of the two kunoichi and Shikamaru for their seeming ease in learning the exercise but was calmed when Kakashi pulled him aside and told him that he had a larger chakra reserve than the others (aside from Naruto), making it more difficult to control.
The genin had also met Tazuna's grandson, Inari, and the young boy had done nothing to ingrain himself well with the young ninja. Inari constantly belittled or insulted the genin, always telling them that their efforts were for naught, and that they were going to die no matter what they did. Naruto's grasp on his temper was beginning to fray from the mental stress of sorting through his clones' memories, and Inari's constant snide comments were not helping matters. And finally at dinner on their third day in the Wave, Naruto finally snapped.
"Will you shut up and stop your pathetic whining?" Naruto shouted, slamming his hands down on the table. "All you've done since we got here is whine and claim that Gato is going to kill us. You don't know any of us, and yet we are here risking our lives to protect your grandfather, even though he lied to us."
Inari gave a watery glare at Naruto. "What do you know about us?" the boy shouted. "I bet you've never suffered a day in your life, sitting there always laughing or smiling…"
An oppressive feeling fell over the kitchen robbing Inari, Tazuna and Tsunami of breath, and causing Sakura, Ino and Choji to struggle for breath themselves.
"Don't you ever think you are the only one who has suffered in their lives," Naruto snarled, his blue eyes dark. "Judging from all your whining you have lost someone close to you, probably to Gato but you don't hold the monopoly on suffering. Have you ever gone to bed for weeks on end hungry and wondering why? Have you ever been on the receiving end of an entire village's worth of glares and cold looks? I bet you've rarely left this house, you don't know how lucky you have it. Have you seen the squalor and filth that people are living in the center of the village? You have a mother who makes sure you are fed and tucked in each night and a grandfather who is trying to save this country by finishing his bridge, and you are spitting in his face. You disgust me, coward!"
Tears were now streaming down Inari's cheeks by the end of Naruto's rant and he pushed off from the table and raced from the room, his sobs echoing down the hallway.
"Naruto!" Sakura snapped. "You went…" but her scolding died in her throat as Naruto looked at her with stormy eyes.
"Excuse me, I'm going to train," Naruto said and left without another word. Only once he had left the house were Tazuna and Tsunami able to take a deep breath and calm their racing hearts.
"Apologies for my student," Kakashi said. "He grew up without anyone teaching him the social niceties, and has had a difficult life. If you don't mind, I will speak with Inari to explain that Naruto doesn't actually hate him, he just is very blunt."
Tsunami nodded and Kakashi went after the young boy.
"Asuma-sensei, what about Naruto?" Ino asked. "What gave him the right to…"
"Ino," Asuma said sharply, halting the talkative Yamanaka. "Why Naruto might have overstepped his bounds, he has more right than more to speak about suffering. Even more than you Sasuke."
"What?" Team 10 said at the same time.
"It's true," Sasuke said. "Naruto has always been alone, he never knew his parents and does not have a clan to help him. He knows what it means to be strong in the face of adversity."
Team 10 was stunned to hear Sasuke's defense of Naruto. Their only interaction with the pair, before this mission, was during the Academy and there, Naruto and Sasuke were complete opposites and were always at each others' throats.
"Excuse us as well," Sakura said as she and Sasuke rose from the table. "Tsunami-san, dinner was excellent as usual."
The others watched as the final two members of Team 7 left the room in search of their teammates.
"Stupid little brat," Naruto growled as he threw a kunai at a nearby tree. The force of the throw made the kunai sink nearly an inch into the tree. "What does he know about me, my life?"
Naruto yanked his kunai from the tree and stomped off ten paces from the tree. He took aim once more at the tree and hurled the kunai at the trunk. Naruto watched as once again the kunai slammed into the trunk with a thud. '_You don't know anything about how we've suffered,_' Inari's voice shouted in Naruto's head.
"Argh!" Naruto shouted as he reached for more and more of his kunai. Soon all that was heard were the dull thuds of Naruto's kunai impacting the tree.
"You've gotten a lot better at throwing those kunai," an amused voice commented.
"I'm not in the mood for your commentary Sasuke," Naruto said, not looking around. "What are you two doing here?"
"We came to see if you are ok Naruto," Sakura said as she and Sasuke entered the small clearing where Naruto was practicing. "We know that Inari was really over the line but also you have to remember, he is just a child. Inari doesn't know you Naruto, he's just speaking about his own pain."
"I know that," Naruto said. "I know he's just a sheltered little kid but that gives him no right to think he has the monopoly on having a tough life."
"We know Naruto," Sakura said. "But you really scared Team 10 back there. You have to remember that they don't know you like we do."
Naruto sighed and nodded, retrieving the last of his kunai. "I know Sakura-chan," he said. "I should probably go and apologize to them."
"No," Sasuke said curtly. "You have nothing to apologize for Naruto, the brat claimed that he suffered and you could not understand his pain. Pain and suffering is unique to each person but to claim that someone has never suffered before is idiotic and arrogant beyond measure."
Naruto sat down at the base of a tree, and looked at his teammates. Sakura had taken a seat next to Naruto while Sasuke was leaning against a nearby tree.
"Can you imagine what the others would say if they saw us now?" Sakura commented.
"They would have no idea what to think," Naruto chuckled. "We have really changed since the Academy."
"This lifestyle will do that to you," Sasuke said. Naruto and Sakura nodded.
* * *
><p><em>"Look you three, you all might think you are something special but you're not!" Kakashi barked as he met Team 7 a week after they had passed the true genin test. "You three are the lowest of the low, just genin. Rookie of the Year, dead last, those titles are now meaningless. You just entered a world that is a lot larger than you might think. You all need to grow up! Stop acting like children!"<em>
_"What! How dare…" Sasuke began but Kakashi cut him off. The jonin had appeared behind the Uchiha boy and had put the boy in a chokehold._
_"That's what I am talking about," Kakashi growled. "You hear something that makes you angry and you fly off the handle. A shinobi does not let his or her emotions control them. You are acting like spoilt children, expecting everything to be handed to you. You must earn strength, it will not be given to you."_
_"But you haven't taught us anything to make us stronger!" Naruto shouted. "How are we supposed to get stronger if you don't…"_
_"Do you really think that just being given powerful jutsus will make you strong?" Kakashi asked. The three genin nodded. "You're wrong. Wielding powerful jutsus does not make one strong. One's strength comes from within. You can wield all the powerful jutsus in the world but be the weakest person because of it."_
_"Then how do I get stronger?" Sasuke growled._
_"That is a question you must answer for yourselves," Kakashi said. "This team has the potential to be great perhaps as great as the Sannin but that will never happen unless you all learn to work together. And I think I know the perfect way."_
_Before any of the genin could even blink, Kakashi had released Sasuke and vanished. Then the world went dark._
_"Where the hell are we?" Naruto shouted as he came too in the middle of a dark room. The sounds of two groans made the blonde aware that he wasn't alone. Naruto turned and could just make out the forms of Sasuke and Sakura stirring._
_"What happened?" Sakura groaned. "Sasuke-kun!" she cried noticing the downed object of her affections. She quickly scrambled to her feet and rushed toward the dark haired boy, who was getting to his own feet._
_"Get off me," Sasuke growled, pushing the girl aside causing her to stumble and fall._
_"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura whispered from the floor._
_"What the hell was that for bastard? Sakura-chan was only trying to help you Sasuke, you didn't need to push her," Naruto shouted._
_"I don't need help, especially from weaklings like her," Sasuke snapped causing Sakura to flinch._
_"Sakura-chan is not weak!" Naruto shouted. "Neither of us would have passed without her help and traps! Sakura-chan is also the smartest person in our class, just because she isn't as strong as you doesn't mean she's weak. You wouldn't be a genin without her."_
_"Tch," Sasuke grunted looking away from Naruto and Sakura._
_"Naruto," Sakura whispered, looking at her blonde teammate in surprise._
_"Where are we anyway?" Sasuke asked, looking around the dimly lit room, Sasuke was thankful for the low light as his face was flushed with embarrassment from Naruto's scolding._
_"No idea, the last thing I remembered was Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto trailed off._
_"Kakashi-sensei!" the trio shouted, wildly looking around for their sensei._
_"Yo," the man's voice echoed around the room._
_"Where are you, you bastard?" Naruto shouted. "Let us out of here!"_
_"Now where would be the fun in that?" Kakashi's amused voice chuckled. "You three were acting like children, so I'm treating you like children and putting you all in timeout."_
_"What!" the three genin cried._
_"You three are going to learn to get along," Kakashi ordered. "I don't care how long it takes but you three will become a team. On and don't try and break out, I've placed chakra restricting seals on each one of you so you can't use any chakra."_
_"How dare you!" Sasuke roared. "How dare you take my power away!"_
_"So Sasuke-kun, how does it feel to be a weakling?" Kakashi asked. "You are nothing more than a civilian with a fancy last name now."_
_"You…you bastard!" Sasuke roared, rearing his fist back to punch the wall._
_"Sasuke, that's enough!" Naruto said sharply, catching the boy's fist. "There is no sense in getting yourself hurt over a pointless venture. You punching the wall and messing up your hand is not going to get us out of here."_
_"What do you know dobe!" Sasuke shouted. "You are nothing but a clan less orphan!"_
_"Just like you," Naruto said calmly. "You might be an Uchiha but right now you are without a clan and parents, which makes us both clan less orphans. We have both lost our families; the only difference is that you at least knew your parents for years and have those memories. I never met my parents, I have always been alone so I will not let you mess this chance up."_
_"Naruto," Sakura whispered, feeling the weight of her actions toward Naruto from over their years at the Academy pressing down on her._
_"You are nothing like me Naruto!" Sasuke snarled but Naruto thought he heard a tiny waver in the boy's voice. "You never had your family ripped away from you by the one person you most looked up too. You don't have to live with the memories of that man slicing my mother's throat right in front of me!"_
_Naruto and Sakura were stunned. They of course had heard about the Uchiha Massacre but they had no idea that Sasuke had witnessed it. They had thought that Sasuke had only come across the aftermath. Sasuke saw Naruto's face harden into a set expression._
_"Don't you fucking pity me Naruto!" Sasuke roared, his eyes flashing in the dim lights._
_"I am not pitying you Sasuke," Naruto said. "This information has only increased my respect for you Sasuke."_
_If Sasuke was expecting an answer, it certainly was not that._
_"Sasuke, you went through something that was horrendous and the fact that you haven't become a stark raving lunatic bent on revenge is a credit to your mental fortitude," Naruto said. "I don't think that I could be able to function at all if I had to go through something like that. And it's made me want to be just like you, well without the massive pole in your ass."_
_Sakura gave a soft giggle at Naruto's comment, though the boys didn't know if it was because she thought it was funny or because it involved Sasuke's ass._
_"You were the one I always strived to be," Naruto admitted. "You were the best in the class and everyone wanted to be around you. Me, I was always the screw-up, the fool who everyone ignored or made fun of. When I found out that we were going to be teammates, I couldn't have been happier because now, I could work my way closer to being at your level and you would see it. And then maybe…"_
"It's getting late," Naruto said, looking up and noticing that the moon had risen high above the trees. "We should head back. We have a big day tomorrow."
The two other genin of Team 7 nodded and as one began the walk back to Tazuna's house, not noticing a pair of brown eyes watching the three genin walk away.
* * *
><p>"Good morning my cute little genin," Kakashi's cheerful voice chirped. "Asuma's cut genin as well," he added as Team 10 entered the clearing where the Konoha shinobi had been training. "Now as you know, we are getting closer to the time when we believe that Zabuza will make his move. It has been three days now since we arrived and there has been no movement on Zabuza's side but it has also been long enough for him to call in reinforcements, so we are now going to rotate training and providing protection for Tazuna at the bridge."<p>
"What do you mean rotate?" Naruto asked.
"Each day, two of you will go with Tazuna and either myself or Asuma to the bridge while the others will remain behind and train," Kakashi said.
"Now Naruto, have you been able to find out where Gato's hideout is?" Asuma asked. Naruto shook his head.
"Not yet but I know I'm getting close," Naruto said confidently. Suddenly the blonde paused and his eyes gained a far-off look.
"Naruto? Are you all right?" Kakashi asked.
"I just found Gato's hideout," Naruto said. "And it seems like Zabuza's back up has arrived."
"Zabuza's back up first," Kakashi said sharply. "Can you describe them?"
"Do you have a bingo book sensei?" Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded and fished one out of his pouch. He handed it to Naruto, and the blonde quickly began to flip through the pages.
"Here's one of the newcomers," Naruto said, showing Kakashi and Asuma a photo of a man with dark green hair and gray eyes.
"Aoi Rokusho," Kakashi sighed. "This just got a whole lot more troublesome."
"Who is Aoi Rokusho?" Sakura asked.
"Aoi was a chunin from Konoha before he deserted the village," Asuma explained. "Aoi believed that the village was deliberately holding him back, so he ran off but not before stealing the Nidaime's Sword of the Thunder God."
"He did what?" Naruto shouted.
"About two years ago," Kakashi confirmed. "He's listed as an A-rank bounty but that is more because of what he stole, not his skills. Aoi, when he defected, was around high-C to low-B in skills at best. But he has managed to survive this long, so we must figure that he has gotten stronger since leaving the village."
Naruto had taken the bingo book back from Kakashi and was staring at the older photo of Aoi Rokusho. Ever since learning that he was related to the Nidaime Hokage, the blonde had tried to learn as much as he possibly could about the Hokages, and to find out that this Aoi had stolen the Nidaime's prized possession sent Naruto's blood boiling.
"Naruto!" Kakashi's voice jerked Naruto back to the outside world. "Was there anyone else that came to help Zabuza?"
Naruto quickly scanned through the rest of the bingo book. "No, none of the others are in here," he said. "There were three others that came with Aoi but they all looked pretty young, around our age."
"Ok, good job Naruto," Kakashi said. "It looks like we won't be splitting up. We have to assume that Zabuza will attack sooner rather than later, so we are going to stick together and all be at the bridge."
"But sensei, what if they come here?" Sakura asked. "If we are all at the bridge, then if Gato or Zabuza sends someone to the house, there won't be anyone to protect Tsunami-san or Inari-san?"
"Good point," Kakashi said, trying to cover up his embarrassment at forgetting about the client's family. "Naruto, I want you to stay here tomorrow and watch over Tsunami and Inari. Send a **Shadow Clone** with us to keep up appearances. But if the situation gets too hot, bug out and hole up in a safe place with Tsunami and Inari."
"Right," Naruto nodded.
"Shikamaru, I want you to stay with Naruto as well," Asuma said.
"All right," Shikamaru agreed, looking relieved that he wasn't having to go to the bridge and possibly fight a pair of missing ninja.
The next morning saw the Konoha group, minus Naruto and Shikamaru, leave the house with Tazuna in tow. Two of Naruto's **Shadow Clones** went with the others to keep up the façade that Tazuna's house would be unprotected.
"Hey Naruto?" Shikamaru asked as the two boys helped Tsunami finish cleaning up breakfast.
"Yeah Shikamaru?" Naruto answered, drying his hands on a towel.
"What happened to you?" the Nara heir asked. "In the Academy, you were this, this…"
"Screw up, idiot, etcetera, right?" Shikamaru nodded. Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, I was a major moron back then, wasn't I?" he said softly. "In the Academy, all I cared about was getting attention, having someone notice me and it didn't matter if that attention was good or bad. Being alone is the worst kind of hell, Shikamaru. Everyone else except for Sasuke, has someone who they can rely on or know that will have their backs, to tuck them in at night, tell them that things will be all right. And even Sasuke had his family for at least some of his life, I've been alone my entire life."
Shikamaru bowed his head. He knew that he was one of the ones who had kept away from Naruto while they were younger. Not because of his parents or anyone had told him too but because he felt it was too troublesome to approach the lonely boy. Shame licked hot and fierce at Shikamaru's innards.
"Naruto, I'm…" Shikamaru began but Naruto cut him off.
"Don't Shikamaru," the blonde said. "It's all in the past and we can't change it, so don't bother. You wanted to know what caused me to change Shikamaru. It was because I found out that I have a legacy to live up too, I made a promise to someone that I would become the pillar of strength that will shoulder the burdens of the village. And to do that, I had to change how I acted if I wanted to fulfill my promise, and I never go back on my word."
"Who?" Shikamaru asked.
"Someone very important," Naruto said. "I can't tell you more. Hokage's orders." Naruto's head suddenly snapped around to face the front door. "They are here. Tsunami-san, take Inari and go upstairs, hurry."
The dark haired woman saw the complete seriousness in the blonde's eyes and nodded. She quickly ushered Inari upstairs, though the boy didn't want to go. Once the two civilians had been moved to a secure location, Naruto and Shikamaru each used the **Henge** to change into Tsunami and Inari. Suddenly two swords slashed through the front door. The door fell to the floor in pieces and two men entered.
"Heh, who knew that the old man had such a looker of a daughter?" one of the men grinned nastily.
"You know what Gato said, she is to come with us, unspoiled," the other man said sharply.
"Fine," the first man growled sulkily. "All right beautiful, twerp, let's go."
"Go where?" Tsunami asked, her voice trembling. "What do you want?"
"Look babe, no questions," the second man snapped. This man was thin and muscled with a dark goatee and blue tattoos on his chest. The other man was very tall and heavily muscled, much like a body builder. He was also completely clean-shaven. "Our boss wants you and the twerp to come with us. Once the ninja are all dead, the bridge builder will have no one to protect him. He'll listen to Gato if he knows what's good for him. Now let's go!"
"You're not taking my mom anywhere!" Inari shouted.
"You know Gato never said how many hostages we needed," the bald man said with an evil glint in his eyes. "Only that the daughter was unspoiled. I bet the kid's corpse will send a real strong message to Tazuna."
The second man sighed. "Fine," he said. "Just hurry up, I don't want to miss all the fun."
The bald man's face twisted as an evil smile enveloped it. Inari shivered as he stumbled backward away from the man who was now drawing his sword. The sound of metal softly scrapping against leather filled the kitchen.
"What the hell!" the man shouted as he froze, his sword half drawn. "I can't move!"
The thinner man tried to move as well but was stuck. He noticed that Inari was kneeling in front of them with a small smile on his face, his hands in a weird shape.
"**Shadow Possession Jutsu**, success." Inari's voice changed, growing slightly deeper and it gained a drawling quality.
"Good work Shikamaru," Tsunami said, her voice now a male's. Two puffs of smoke later revealed Shikamaru and Naruto standing in the kitchen.
"Ninja!" the thin man realized as his struggles grew stronger but it was too late as his vision went dark and he slumped to the floor, his partner next to him.
"What should we do with them?" Shikamaru asked.
"We should kill them," Naruto said flatly. "It's what they would do."
"But we are not them," Shikamaru said, his face looking slightly queasy at the thought of killing in cold blood.
"We are ninja Shikamaru," Naruto said. "Killing is part of the way of life we've chosen."
"Yes but killing in cold blood makes us just as bad as these two," Shikamaru argued. "Let's tie them up and leave their fate for the people of the Wave to decide."
"Fine," Naruto said, though he was inwardly relieved that he didn't have to kill the men in such a cold manner. He paused as his **Shadow Clone** traveling with the others went pop. "Let's go, the others are in trouble."
* * *
><p>"They're here, aren't they sensei?" Sakura asked as the Konoha group and Tazuna reached the unfinished bridge. A thick mist was blocking nearly the entire bridge from sight.<p>
"Yes, this is not a natural mist," Kakashi commented. "This is most likely the **Hidden Mist Jutsu**. Everyone be on guard, Zabuza is a master of the **Silent Killing Technique**."
A cold, cruel laugh echoed around the Konoha shinobi. "Well informed as always Kakashi," a voice said. "Hand over the bridge builder and you all can leave with your lives."
"Not going to happen Zabuza," Asuma said. "Konoha shinobi don't abandon a mission, and we sure as hell won't let you and Gato continue terrorizing this land."
The laugh turned to one of amusement. "Ah yes, the vaunted Hidden Leaf's sense of righteousness," Zabuza said. "In this world, there are those with power and those without. Those without will never be anything more than stepping-stones for those with power. Why do you think Konoha has been considered the strongest village for so long?"
"You're wrong!" Ino shouted. " The Leaf is nothing like that!"
"Such naiveté," Zabuza commented. "Let me guess girly, this is your first time outside of your village. You haven't even wet your hands in the blood of your enemies yet. We are shinobi, the weapons that the Kage point at each other. You children know nothing of the harsh realities of this world. By the time I was your age, I had already drenched these hands in blood. We are the monsters of this world, hiding in the shadows waiting for the time to strike."
As Zabuza spoke, a chill fell over the genin. They had never felt such cold that seeped into their very bones, and a bloodlust that snatched away the very air from their lungs. Ino and Sakura were struggling to stay on their feet, Choji was panting heavily while Sasuke's skin had a noticeable sheen to it."
"Looks like the only true shinobi here are Kakashi, Sarutobi, the blonde and the pineapple head," Zabuza commented. "They can stand some killing intent."
"Enough of the games Zabuza," Asuma barked. "Come out and fight us!"
"Now why would I do that? It would be so much easier to just slit all your throats," Zabuza said. "You wouldn't even know you were cut until you are already dead."
Kakashi looked to Asuma and the son of the Sandaime Hokage nodded.
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" Asuma shouted, exhaling a large stream of wind.
"**Fire Release: Fire Stream!**" Kakashi echoed. The twin jutsus collided and instead of exploding, they swirled together to form a tornado of flames that raced across the bridge evaporating the mist.
"Think that got him?" Choji asked, staring in awe at the two jonins' combination jutsu.
"I'd be a pretty piss poor shinobi if that was all it took to kill me," Zabuza commented, appearing a couple down meters away from the Konoha shinobi. And he wasn't alone, five other shinobi were standing next to the tall former Mist shinobi. One was wearing a white mask, much like an ANBU mask, a second was the Konoha missing ninja, Aoi Rokusho, but the other three were unknown to the Konoha shinobi. The three young ninja didn't look much older than the Konoha genin but wore an unfamiliar headband, the symbol was that of a musical note and all had dark camouflage pants.
"I see you brought friends," Kakashi commented lightly, giving the newcomers his patented eye-smile.
"No one said we couldn't," Zabuza answered back. "Though calling them friends would be an enormous stretch."
"Enough chit chat!" Aoi barked. "Let's wipe these weaklings out and get going."
"You certainly won't be leaving this place alive Aoi," Asuma growled. "Not after what you pulled."
"Oh come now Asuma-kun, do you really think you have chance against me while I wield this blade," Aoi chuckled, drawing a sword handle from his back. "With it, I am invincible!"
Kakashi noted that Zabuza narrowed his eyes at Aoi's bragging. '_I wonder what that's all about,_' he thought.
"Look at your little genin Kakashi, Asuma, they are trembling," Aoi laughed. "They look like they are about to piss their pants, so much for the Last Uchiha and the next Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Pathetic."
Sasuke growled lowly as he drew a kunai from his pouch.
"Easy Sasuke," Kakashi said. "He's just trying to make you angry and unfocused. Control your emotions, don't let them control you."
"As much as I hate agreeing with that wannabe, its time to begin," Zabuza said, hefting his blade onto his shoulder.
"Kakashi, can you handle Zabuza? I'll take Aoi," Asuma said. "Team 19, you'll have those three ninja wearing the music headbands."
"Team 7, you have Zabuza's accomplice," Kakashi ordered. "Sakura, you have Tazuna."
"Right sensei," the six genin barked.
"Now we are talking," one of the unfamiliar ninja, a boy with dark hair and a headband much like the Nidaime Hokage, said with an arrogant air.
The two sides watched each other for a moment as a breeze blew across the bridge, acting as an unspoken starting bell. The two groups charged forward, each ninja angling for their opponent.
"**Shuriken Shadow Multiplication Jutsu!**" a voice rang out from behind the Konoha shinobi, a voice that they all knew very well. A shower of shuriken pierced the bridge just in front of the enemy ninja, halting their advance in its tracks.
"Naruto!" Sakura cried as Naruto and Shikamaru appeared next to their respective teams.
"So Tsunami and Inari are ok?" Kakashi asked.
"Of course, what sort of heroes would we be if we didn't rescue the women and children?" Naruto asked.
"Don't drag me into this," Shikamaru groaned. "Sensei, the two thugs that came after Tsunami and Inari said something about Gato betraying Zabuza."
"What?" Zabuza shouted. "Speak boy, what's this about that little midget betraying me?"
"Yeah, yeah, the two thugs said that the plan was for us to either kill or tire each other out and then he'd show up and clean house," Naruto said, nodding."
"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Zabuza snarled. "If Gato even tries to betray me, he'll end up being a good head shorter then he already is. Now, Hatake and Sarutobi's heads will bring quite the bounties, and who knows how much people will pay for an Uchiha."
"It's the truth," Naruto shouted. "Why would we lie to you?"
"How about the fact that you have no chance of beating all of us?" Zabuza countered. "The only threats here are Hatake and Sarutobi, the rest of you are just babies trying to play ninja. So you are trying to save yourselves by trying to trick me into letting my guard down. Now enough talking, let's fight!"
**A/N: Well there's that, the newest chapter of this fine tale. Hope you all enjoyed it. Now I've been seeing some rumors about "Naruto: The Last" and it's kind of making me sick. Full disclaimer, I have had a problem with Naruto/Hinata for a while, mainly because there has been so little interaction between the two characters in the manga. To me, Hinata is a Naruto fan-girl through and through. Her main reason for trying to become strong is Naruto, sounds a lot like Sakura in how she acts toward Sasuke. Kishimoto, IMO, followed JKR in her thoughts of pairings, he didn't want the hero and lead female character to be together in fear of being too cliche, so he put the hero with a fan girl who has very little character development. A lot of Sakura haters say she abused Naruto while they were kids, and it is true, she does hit Naruto. Though it is usually when Naruto does something stupid, mirroring Tsunade and Jiraiya and a bit of Kushina and Minato. **
**Honestly, throughout the manga, what does Hinata bring to the table for Naruto? She tells him she loves him during the Pein battle, but does she really feel love or just obsessive admiration? She would always watch Naruto, what him struggle to get something or struggle to gain acceptance and recognition, and yet she never does anything about that. Hinata never sticks her neck out for Naruto, she didn't go comfort him when he was lonely, when he was struggling for recognition and acceptance. This rant will probably bring down the Hinata lovers on me but I am just pointing out Hinata's flaws, Sakura has her own flaws. She and Hinata are, IMO, very similar people just that Sakura had Ino help Sakura gain some confidence when they were younger, Hinata didn't get that chance. I'll most likely watch "Naruto: The Last" just to see how Kishimoto bridges the gap between chapter 699 and 700. Also, I think he wanted to balance Sakura and Hinata by letting them each have a major role in a film, and according to the Naruto ****wikia, Hinata gets captured by the mysterious enemy in the film and Naruto has to rescue her, just like he did in "Road to a Ninja" for Sakura. Well, there's my rant.**
**A/N 2: I have hand written out several chapters in advance, at this point, I am just finishing up chapter 7 but I am reaching an impasse, what to do with Sasuke? Should I have him follow his path in the manga, or do I have him blaze his own path? Let me know what you all would like to see by voting in the poll that is on my profile page. Now, I'm done, til next time**
**SlytherinKnight**
5. Decisions and Choices
**Disclaimer: Anything relating directly to **_**Naruto**_** does NOT belong to me, I don't own any of the recognizable characters from Kishimoto's magnificent creation, even if he screwed up the final chapters. Madara should have been the final villain not Kaguya. **
It was quite a peculiar site for a battle between ninja, a partially completed bridge. But such as in life, you don't get a choice in some things. These were the thoughts that were speeding through the head of one Naruto Uzumaki as he and his teammate, Sasuke Uchiha, battled the masked accomplice of Zabuza Momochi. The masked ninja was a very tricky opponent for both Naruto and Sasuke. She used a lot of elemental jutsus, namely Ice jutsus and was faster than both Sasuke and Naruto.
"**Ice Release: Ice Senbon Barrage!**" the masked ninja called out. Dozens of ice needles rose into the air in front of her. Both Sasuke and Naruto felt the subtle pulse of chakra that came from their opponent that signaled the start of the attack. The icy needles sped toward the two boys, forcing them to separate.
"**Water Release: Water Clone!**"
From a puddle, a copy of Zabuza's accomplice formed and turned to face Naruto. The blonde drew a pair of kunai and continued racing toward the clone. The **Water Clone** created a kunai made of ice to counter Naruto's kunai.
Clang!
Naruto's kunai and the ice kunai met each other with a loud clang.
"Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked. "I was not lying about how Gato is going to betray you and Zabuza, we don't have to fight."
"My master has ordered me to fight, and so I fight," the girl said. "I will not fail Zabuza-sama."
"Can I at least know your name? Don't really want to call you, hey you," Naruto asked.
"I am Haku."
"Ok Haku, if you won't stop fighting, then I'll have to make you," Naruto vowed. He swiped at Haku with his off-hand kunai, forcing the Ice wielding ninja to leap backward. Naruto flipped the kunai in his left hand and tossed it at the **Water Clone**, with his other kunai in its shadow.
The **Water Clone** easily dodged the two kunai and charged toward Naruto. The blonde was frantically racking his brain for a way to defeat the clone and team back up with Sasuke, but he couldn't think of a way to win. He didn't know any ranged jutsu aside from the **Shuriken** and **Kunai Multiplication Jutsu** and while he was getting better at taijutsu, it was still worst area, he didn't count genjutsu, it just wasn't worth mentioning.
"**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted. Two dozen clones appeared around Naruto, and with a mental command he sent the clones in waves after the lone **Water Clone**.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Naruto cried, flinging a pair of shuriken at Haku who had been hemmed in by the clones. The two real shuriken became a cloud of three dozen. Haku looked up at the approaching storm of spinning metal and seemed to take a breath as the shuriken sliced into her. The clone fell apart into a puddle of water and a few seconds later, the majority of Naruto's shuriken vanished as well.
A loud crash caught Naruto's attention and his breath caught in his throat at the sight of a large dome of ice. Through its distortion, Naruto saw Sasuke launch his **Great Fireball Jutsu** at the ice dome, and the blonde was stunned, and frightened, that it had no effect.
Naruto was about to rush over to Sasuke's aid when a shrill scream stopped him short. Turning around, Naruto saw Team 10 being besieged by the genin team that were wearing headbands with musical notes on them. Ino and Choji were down while Shikamaru was kneeling in front of them in his **Shadow Possession Jutsu** stance, trying to keep their enemies at bay.
"You will not be able to save all of them," a soft voice said from behind Naruto. The blonde spun around to see Haku standing in front of him. Naruto quickly drew another kunai. "Do not worry Naruto, this is only a clone and it has very little chakra left. But you have a choice to make: who do you attempt to help: your teammate or your comrades? Those ninja from Oto will kill your comrades for sure unless you help them but if you do, then your teammate will fall to me. So what will you choose: your teammate or your comrades?"
"I…" Naruto stammered. "I will save them all!"
"You won't," Haku said coldly. "You will fail and someone will die. You must make a choice: your teammate or your comrades?"
"Shut up," Naruto shouted. "I am going to save them all. I am not a failure!"
"You are a failure," Haku said. "You are being a child if you think save everyone. People die all the time, you cannot save everyone. Now choose!"
"I choose…" Naruto stuttered, his voice cracking as he heard Shikamaru grunt in pain and clutch at his head. "Stop it," he whimpered. "Stop hurting them!"
"I am not hurting them," Haku said. "You are the one hurting them by your inaction. What will you do Naruto? Will you attempt to save your comrades or your teammate? Choose Naruto or you will fail at everything. Choose!"
Naruto clutched his own head, trying to block out Haku's voice, the screams of Team 10 and Sasuke's seemingly futile attempts to break free of Haku's ice dome but nothing was working. "Stop it!" Naruto pleaded. "Make it stop!"
"_**Pathetic,**_" a deep and booming voice sneered deep within the recesses of Naruto's mind. "_**So weak,**_" it growled. A reddish flow illuminated the silhouette of something massive hidden behind a massive gate. "_**You better thank me for this brat!**_"
Naruto gasped as he felt a massive surge of boiling hot energy swell up inside him, emanating from his stomach. He felt refreshed and energized, he felt invincible.
"**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Naruto roared. The battles around the bridge had all paused at the feeling of a new chakra appear in the area. The genin all shivered at the roiling and wild chakra, they had never felt such cold and destructive feeling chakra. But the two Konoha jonin (and former Konoha chunin) had, and a former Kiri jonin had felt something similar.
"Naruto," Kakashi whispered. "It's time we ended this Zabuza, I don't have time to keep playing around."
Haku's clone was stunned as it was suddenly blown away by what could only be described as a tornado of chakra. The final thought that passed through the clone's brain was, '_What is this boy?_'
As the smoke cleared, Naruto was surrounded by a mass of clones, nearly as many as he had made the night Naruto learned that the Kyubi was sealed within him.
'_This is incredible,_' Naruto thought as he enjoyed the power coursing through his body. '_I've never felt this strong. I like it,_' he added, clenching a fist.
"You know what to do!" Naruto ordered. The clones nodded and turned en mass toward Team 10, Naruto himself racing off toward the ice dome where Sasuke was battling the real Haku.
"What the hell was that?" the raven-haired girl wearing a musical not headband asked. "I've never felt such strong and evil chakra, even from…"
"Silence Kin," the mummified boy warned. "We can't speak of our Lord, you know that. But you are right, and it seems that whoever possesses that chakra is coming this way."
"Who cares?" the third genin, a smug looking boy wearing a headpiece much like the Nidaime Hokage had, sneered. "I've had enough of these weaklings, maybe this new guy can give us a real fight."
"So you three were the ones who hurt my comrades?" a deep and dark voice asked from a thin mist that had blown over the bridge. From the mist walked Naruto, but this Naruto looked very little like the Naruto that Team 10 had known from the Academy. Naruto's eyes were now a deep red and his whisker-like birthmarks were now much darker, giving the blonde a feral look.
"Yeah, we are. So what?" the loud boy sneered. "All you Konoha kids are weak. These wannabe ninja couldn't even lay a hand on us."
"I see," Naruto growled. "Well maybe we can do better?"
"You and what army?"
"This army," another voice snarled. A strong breeze cleared away the thin mist to reveal a large amount of Naruto clones.
"What is this?" the mummified boy shouted.
"Your end," Naruto's lead clone growled. "Get them!"
The army of clones roared and charged at the arrogant Oto team.
"Look what you did Zaku," Kin cried as she rapidly tossed senbon after senbon into the charging horde of clones. But with each one that dispelled it seemed that two more clones would take its place. "You had to fool around with those weaklings, now we have to deal with this freak."
"I'd watch whom you are calling a freak," a deep voice growled behind her. Kin whirled around only to be backhanded aside. To her, it felt like she had been hit by an avalanche.
"One done," Naruto growled as he and his clones turned as one to face the other two Oto ninja. The mummy-looking one was watching him warily, while the other was grinning madly.
"Finally!" the grinning boy cried. "A real fight!"
"Zaku, we need to leave," the Kakashi-wannabe said. "We are no match for this boy. Grab Kin and let's go. This mission is over!"
"No way Dosu," Zaku argued. "I want to fight this guy, just because he took down Kin doesn't mean he can lay a finger on me."
"Zaku," Dose growled. "Our Lord said we were not to reveal too many of our abilities and even if we were able to defeat this boy, we would be showing too many of our skills to do so. Now grab Kin and let's go!"
"Tch, fine," Zaku grumbled. "**Decapitating Airwaves!**" The boy raised his arms and Naruto only had time to notice twin holes in the boy's palms before a dozen of his clones were blown away. By the time the clones had regained their bearings, the three ninja had vanished.
Meanwhile the original Naruto was quickly approaching the ice dome, he could still hear Sasuke fighting within the dome.
"You will not escape this jutsu Sasuke Uchiha," Haku's voice said from within the dome. "This is my most powerful jutsu, no one has ever escaped from my **Demonic Ice Mirrors**, not even Zabuza-sama."
Through the cracks in the dome, Naruto saw Sasuke staring toward the top of the dome. Looking up, Naruto saw Haku sticking out of one of the many mirrors, three senbon gripped in her hand.
"I do not like to kill," Haku admitted. "Zabuza-sama tells me that because of that weakness, I will never become a true shinobi. Well Sasuke Uchiha, you should be honored as you will be the one in which I harden my heart and became truly the weapon that my master deserves."
Haku sank back into the mirror and images of Haku appeared in every mirror. Naruto could see Sasuke trying to figure out which image was the real Haku. The Uchiha's eyes were darting between the mirrors looking for a target. Naruto frowned as he saw Sasuke's coal black eyes slowly bleed into red. '_The __**Sharingan**_,' Naruto realized.
In Naruto's stomach, the Kyubi stirred at its host's thought. With a growl, the legendary demon sent another wave of its potent chakra through the seal and into its host's chakra network.
Naruto gasped as he felt another fiery surge race through his body as more of the Kyubi's chakra flooded his body. The chakra seemed to have a mind of its own as it moved from all over his body and into his right hand. '_What's going on?_' Naruto thought. The red chakra was flickering like an open flame as it engulfed Naruto's right hand.
Naruto's attention was brought back to his teammate by Sasuke's cry of pain. Sasuke was yanking several senbon needles from his arms and had tossed them to the ground. Naruto would see that the Uchiha was quickly becoming overwhelmed by Haku's attacks.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted as Sasuke began slowing down, as evident by the fact that more and more senbon were finding spots in Sasuke's body. The blonde slammed his hand against the closest mirror. And was stunned when a spider web of cracks appeared on the mirror.
Both Sasuke and Haku turned toward the stunned blonde in shock. Haku felt a shiver of fear travel down her spine; no one had ever done what the strange blonde had just done. No one had ever managed one crack on her **Demonic Ice Mirrors**.
"Enough of this Haku!" Naruto shouted, punching the mirror again. Naruto felt the Kyubi's chakra travel down his hand and almost inject itself into the mirror. The mirror glowed a dull red as Haku's chakra valiantly tried to fight off the Kyubi's chakra but it was a futile effort. No human's chakra could match the corrosive power of a Biju's chakra. The mirror glowed brightly before it shattered into tiny pieces.
Haku winced as she felt the backlash of her mirror being destroyed, her chakra levels dropped noticeably before evening out.
"This way Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, urging his teammate to escape. Sasuke felt a twinge of anger at Naruto for calling for a retreat but both his sense of survival and his mind overrode his pride, and the Uchiha dashed toward the opening.
"You will not escape!" Haku cried as she sent dozens of senbon flying after Sasuke.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted, flinging his final two shuriken over Sasuke's head. The two shuriken became two dozen, knocking many of the senbon off course.
Sasuke grunted as he dove through the opening in the dome. Rolling to his feet, Sasuke wobbled as he noticed two senbon lodged in the back of his left knee. The knee buckled as he tried to put weight on it.
"Damnit," Sasuke cursed. "Dobe, my knee is messed up. I won't be able to move."
Naruto bit back a curse of his own. Haku's mirrors dissolved into puddles of water, and Zabuza's accomplice appeared, breathing heavily herself.
"Haku, its over," Naruto said, stepping in front of his teammate. "You can barely stand, and have no chance of beating us."
"Perhaps I can not defeat you," Haku admitted. "But I can still ensure that Zabuza-sama's mission is completed." The girl vanished in a burst of speed that stunned the two Konoha genin.
"Where'd she do?" Naruto cried, looking around for Haku.
"She said that she was going to complete Zabuza's mission," Sasuke said. "But that was…"
"Killing the bridge builder! Tazuna!" the two genin realized.
"Haku's going after Tazuna and Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted.
"Damnit I can't move," Sasuke snarled in frustration. "Naruto, you need to go! I'm stuck here, go protect Sakura and Tazuna!"
"But I'm out of chakra," Naruto admitted. "There's no way I could reach them in time."
"What about that red chakra you were using?" Sasuke asked. "Use that!"
Naruto paused, trying to come up with an excuse that would satisfy Sasuke. "I can't, the red chakra is just a hidden reserve," the blonde said. "And I've used it all up."
"But then…" Sasuke said though he trailed off.
'_Sakura-chan will die,_' Naruto realized. His thoughts turned inward, deep within his mind. '_Please, just give me some more,_' Naruto pleaded. '_Give me more power, I need more!_'
A deep, dark chuckle rolled through Naruto's head. '_**So you are now begging for my power then,**__' _the Kyubi growled. '_**So pathetic and weak.**_'
'_I want the power to protect my friends,_' Naruto said. '_I want the power to protect my home, to be the pillar of strength for my village!_'
'_**You want power?**__'_ the Kyubi snarled. '_**Very well human, you shall have power. Now let's see if you can handle it!**_'
A flood of white-hot chakra flooded Naruto's chakra network. The blonde howled as his body burned as if he had been dipped in hot lava.
'_No, I will not let you win!_' Naruto growled as he fought to swallow his screams. '_I will save my friends, and I will not succumb to you!_'
The Kyubi smiled widely as if faded back into the dark recesses of the seal. '_**We shall see brat,**_' the ancient fox commented. '_**Soon enough you'll come crawling back to me, begging for more of my power.**_'
Sasuke watched in growing amazement as his blonde teammate became engulfed in that cold, swirling red chakra. Naruto turned, and Sasuke fought to not tremble under Naruto's now blood red stare.
A scream brought Naruto's attention away from Sasuke, and the blonde vanished in a burst of speed. Sasuke finally released the breath that he hadn't known he was holding in, the feeling of death, decay and bloodlust lingered around Sasuke even after Naruto had vanished.
"Naruto, what are you?" Sasuke whispered as he struggled to his feet.
At the other end of the bridge, Tazuna and Sakura were standing a bit away from the battles. Sakura had a kunai out and held in a reverse grip, ready to protect herself and Tazuna. The aged bridge builder was terrified and a little bit angry at the fact that his only close protection was this little girl who had pink hair! What type of ninja had pink hair? Of course, Tazuna did not voice this thought, as after seeing what this girl would do, he was as scared of her as he was of the other ninja. Her traps were deadly.
"What is going on over there?" Sakura asked out loud. She and Tazuna had felt the cold and wildly destructive chakra wash over the bridge. Tazuna had fallen to his knees while Sakura's legs were trembling like leaves.
"We should leave," Tazuna suggested. "Did you not feel that wave of whatever it was? There is no way your friends are still alive if Gato has someone like that on his payroll!"
"I am not abandoning my team or my comrades," Sakura snapped. "There is no way Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun or Naruto would be killed so easily. We are risking our lives for you, the least you could do is to have a little faith in us!"
Tazuna looked down at the small girl before him, she had somehow mastered her legs as they had stopped trembling. The old man felt a wave of shame wash over him, the girl was right. These children were risking their lives for him, even though he had tricked them into helping him and his country.
"You should have run when you had the chance," a soft yet icy cold voice said. Sakura and Tazuna stiffened and slowly they saw a single figure step from the mist. It was the masked ninja that aided Zabuza.
"Stay behind me Tazuna," Sakura ordered. "I will not let her get by me, even if it costs me my life."
"Brave words girl," Haku said. "But your friends are dead, as you soon will be. But if you hand over the bridge builder to me, I will let you live."
A wave of fear and despair fell over Sakura like a tidal wave. "No, you're wrong," Sakura whispered. "Sasuke-kun and Naruto would not die so easily. You are lying!"
"Then why haven't they come here themselves?" Haku asked. "You are their teammate, so why aren't they here?"
Sakura had no answer for that. She just looked at Haku with wide eyes. "I don't know why they aren't here," she responded after a moment. "But I refuse to believe you, I have faith in Sasuke-kun and Naruto. And nothing you can say will change that!"
Beneath her mask, Haku smiled at the young girl's conviction and faith in her teammates. "Faith is naught but a fool's hope girl," Haku said. "It will not save you nor did it your teammates. Now let me show you how your teammates died."
Haku concentrated and the puddles around her glowed a bright white. Streams of water rose from the puddles and formed thin needles of ice. Sakura's heart froze at the sight.
"**Ice Release: Needle Barrage!**"
The dozens of needles sped through the air toward Sakura and Tazuna. The pair seemed frozen as certain death soared toward them.
"What!" Haku cried as the ice needles passed right through Tazuna and Sakura. The duo seemed to waver before fading away. "Genjutsu!" she cursed.
"Right," Sakura's voice said from behind Haku. "**False Surroundings** to be exact. It's a basic genjutsu, and one that costs only a little chakra but when used properly, it can be greatly effective."
Sakura kneeled down and cut a thin wire near her feet, setting off a trap that she had set up earlier. A dozen shuriken shot from the mist toward Haku, from all angles ensuring that there would be no escape.
Haku twisted her body around and flung the last of her senbon, deflecting all but two of the shuriken. The masked ninja gasped in pain as one shuriken clipped her upper arm while the other sliced through her leg, forcing Haku to the ground.
Sakura warily approached her downed opponent, a kunai poised to strike or defend. "Just give up," Sakura said. "You are out of chakra and you are wounded. I don't want to kill you, you are beaten."
"I will not fail Zabuza-sama!" Haku shouted. "**Ice Release: Glacial Spikes!**" Haku slammed her hand into a puddle and the water glowed brightly before spikes erupted from the puddles around Sakura.
The Konoha genin cried out in surprise and pain as a thin spike of ice shot from a puddle near her and pierced her left leg. Sakura screamed and fell to the ground, clutching her bleeding leg.
Both kunoichi froze as they felt an immense wave of power wash over them. It was the same power that had been felt earlier. Sakura looked up through tear-filled eyes to see a familiar figure appear in a blur in front of her.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked weakly.
The blonde figure turned, and Sakura's eyes widened when she realized that it was Naruto but something had happened to her teammate. His normally clear ocean blue eyes were a deep red and his whisker marks were much thicker and darker.
"Are you alright Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, his voice thick and gravely.
"I have an ice spike sticking out of my leg, how do you think I am doing?" Sakura snapped.
"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto said sheepishly. The blonde turned back to Haku. "That's both of my teammates you've hurt."
"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.
"He's fine," Naruto assured his female teammate. "It looks like you don't have anymore chakra left Haku, please just give up."
"I will not," Haku growled as she forced herself to her feet. "I will not fail Zabuza-sama, I will not be a broken tool!"
Naruto flinched at Haku's admission of her viewing herself as nothing more than a weapon. "Haku, Zabuza is most likely dead," he said. "He can't beat Kakashi-sensei. And there is no way Aoi could beat Asuma-sensei, and those other ninja have run off. You have no help coming. And Gato is coming to betray you all."
"It does not matter Naruto-kun," Haku said. "I have pledged myself to assisting Zabuza-sama in his goals, and will gladly give my life to do so. And that means killing the bridge builder."
Naruto looked on with pained eyes as Haku channeled the remnants of her chakra into an ice kunai.
"Sakura, can I borrow a kunai?" Naruto asked. Sakura dug her final kunai from her pouch and tossed it to Naruto. As soon as he caught it, the blonde became engulfed in red chakra.
The two ninja raced toward each other and with a loud clang, their two weapons clashed. Sakura blearily saw Naruto and Haku standing, facing away from each other. A sound like glass breaking brought Sakura's attention to Haku. The ice kunai the girl held had shattered, Haku only held the handle.
Haku's body shuddered and she coughed. Blood splattered against the ground as blood flowed from her mouth.
Naruto coughed and felt some blood trickle out of his own mouth. Looking down, Naruto gave a pained grin seeing the thin ice spike sticking from his stomach. As the blonde looked on, the ice spike melted away into water.
A soft thud made Naruto turn around, and to his horror, he saw that Sakura had collapsed to the ground.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted as he limped rapidly to his downed teammate. When he got to her side, Naruto saw that her wounds were grievous but not immediately life threatening. Naruto silently thanked Kakashi for ensuring that his team knew basic first aid, field dressing and field knowledge of medicinal herbs. Sakura had taken to learning first aid like a fish to water, while Naruto struggled with it.
Digging through his equipment pouch, Naruto found the small first aid kit that each member of Team 7 carried with them. He ripped open the packaging that held the coagulating agent with his teeth and poured it over Sakura's leg.
Sakura hissed as the agent burned and attempted to harden the wound. Naruto unfurled a large roll of bandages and wrapped Sakura's leg tightly.
"You better be doing that right idiot," a low and pained growl came from above Naruto, causing the blonde to chuckle weakly.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan, you beat this information into my head so deep that I could do this in my sleep," Naruto commented.
"Good," Sakura said weakly. "But if I lose my leg, I'm coming for your head…both of them."
Naruto fought to keep the fear from his face at Sakura's threat.
Footsteps heralded the approach of someone, and both Naruto and Sakura grabbed a kunai that Naruto had scoured up. A figure emerged from the mist.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried as the bruised and battered Uchiha appeared. Sakura tried to get to her feet but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her attempt.
"Don't move Sakura-chan, your wounds could still open," Naruto said. Sakura pouted but ceased struggling.
Sasuke limped over to his teammates and paused when he noticed the still body of Haku behind them. "Is she?"
"Yes," Naruto said flatly. "How are you?"
"Fine," Sasuke grunted. "Where are the others?"
"Team 10 is somewhere over there," Naruto said, pointing over Sasuke's shoulders. "That other genin team ran off but they messed Team 10 up pretty well. I don't know about Kakashi-sensei or Asuma-sensei."
"We should meet up with Team 10 then," Sakura said. "If you are right, and Gato is planning on betraying Zabuza, we will need the numbers."
Naruto nodded. He helped Sakura to her feet, slinging one of her arms over his shoulders. Sasuke fell into step next to his teammates, his **Sharingan** active and searching for any movement. Tazuna was next to Sasuke, helping the Uchiha boy walk. Further down the bridge, Team 7 could hear the sounds of battle, the chirping of birds and smell the pungent odor of charred flesh.
"Ino, Choji, Shikamaru!" Sakura cried as Team 7 saw Team 10 huddled together against the railing of the bridge. Each of the three genin were wounded just as badly as Team 7 it seemed, their clothes and bodies were littered with cuts and bruises, and all three genin had dried blood below their ears.
"Are you guys alright?" Naruto asked.
Neither Ino nor Choji moved to answer; they both were clinging to each other and staring out across the bridge.
"We are not all right," Shikamaru spoke up. "But we will be."
"What happened?" Sakura asked. "You three were fighting against those unknown ninja, right?"
"Yes," Shikamaru answered. "They said they were from Oto, a new village that will quickly assert as the most powerful village in the world, or so they claim."
"What were their abilities?" Sasuke asked.
"Not now," a familiar voice said from behind Team 7.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Team 7 cried as their sensei appeared, a bloody slash across his chest.
"Where's Zabuza?" Naruto asked.
"Dead," Kakashi answered. "And your opponent?"
"Haku is dead, and those other three genin ran off," Sakura reported.
"What about Asuma-sensei?" Shikamaru asked.
"I'm here," Asuma said, appearing much like Kakashi had.
"Aoi?" Kakashi asked.
"Dead too."
"Did you recover the Sword of the Thunder God?" Naruto asked. Asuma nodded and showed Naruto the hilt of his great grandfather's sword.
"Well, well, well," a cruel voice shouted from the unfinished end of the bridge. The Konoha shinobi turned and saw a short, oily looking man with a cane standing there, with a large number of thugs behind him. "I must hand it to you Konoha ninja, you just saved me the risk of having these find gentlemen fight Zabuza and his brat. So much for the Demon of the Hidden Mist."
"Gato," Naruto snarled, recognizing the man from his clones' memories.
"While I must thank you for dealing with the trash," Gato said. "I can't afford to leave witnesses, so my friends will clean this up. Its just good business, you know? Finish them up but bring me the two girls. Young girls like them will most certainly fetch a pretty penny," he ordered with a nasty leer.
Naruto and Sasuke slid in front of their female teammate, and Naruto felt a pulse of anger deep in his stomach.
"Teme, do you have any shuriken left?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded and handed over his final three ninja stars to the blonde.
"What are you doing Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"I'm finishing this," Naruto answered. He felt deep within himself, scrounging up the very last dregs of his chakra. "**Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" A dozen clones appeared around the Konoha ninja. The appearances of these clones caused the thugs to pause. Each of the clones held up the trio of shuriken.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Naruto and his clones shouted, tossing their shuriken. The shuriken multiplied into a spinning mass of flying metal, all the thugs could see were the rapidly approaching rain of deadly metal. Their screams sent shivers down the Konoha genins' spines as the shuriken pierced the bodies of the thugs. Only Gato was spared as he had been hiding at the back of the mob.
Naruto wavered, his body feeling completely drained. "That's all I've got," he mumbled, feeling the lack of chakra and his wounds catching up to him. As the blonde blacked out, Naruto could have sworn he heard Inari's voice.
**A/N: Well there you have it, the fifth chapter of this epic tale. Hope you all liked it, this was the first chapter I've ever written that was totally all battle scenes. I hope that I did at least a solid job and transitioning through the different fights. This chapter was a lot of fun to write but it was quite difficult because I wanted to make sure I did the fights in a realistic way. Let me know if I did a good job, or what I need to improve on. Also, keep voting on the poll about Sasuke's fate, I've got ideas floating around my head but I would like your input in deciding it. I'm probably going to have the poll up for a couple more chapters, so don't wait. Til next time,**
**SlytherinKnight**
6. A Return Home and a New Test
**Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto_, if I did, well let's just say that the final ten or so chapters wouldn't have been so rushed and perhaps we could have gotten some characters that didn't lose all their development from 15 YEARS of manga chapters in a single chapter. So once again, I don't own any recognizable characters, settings or jutsus from _Naruto_, they are all owned by Kishimoto.**
"And that's what happened Hokage-sama," Asuma finished. Teams 7 and 10, along with their senseis were in the Hokage's office. The leader of Team 10 had just completed the mission report to the Hokage.
"So in essence, you took an undertrained team of genin into a warzone," the Hokage said. "Instead of returning to the village, you put yourself, your genin and Team 7 at risk. What do you have to say for yourself?" The Hokage's voice never rose a decibel but the two jonin were on the verge of collapse from the weight of the Hokage's released chakra, the six genin had dropped to the floor of the office, as they couldn't withstand the pressure.
"I did not think that Gato had secured such a prominent missing ninja," Asuma said. "And I was confident that we could handle the mission, with sufficient backup."
"You didn't think things through, did you Jonin Sarutobi?" Hiruzen barked. "You put yourself and your charges in needless danger. What you should have done was come back to the village with Tazuna in tow, and then perhaps we could have worked out a solution to the Wave's problem. Only by the grace of Kami did you all come out of this alive and relatively unharmed. That is the only reason you won't be demoted to chunin, Asuma, as well as that this mission has wrought several boons to the village. Now leave, we will be having words later."
"Hokage-sama," Asuma said with a sharp bow. He and Team 10 left the office quickly and quietly. As soon as the door closed, Hiruzen dropped back into his chair, looking to all the world an old and tired man, not the foreboding and powerful Hokage or kindly grandfather figure that he was usually seen as.
"What am I going to do with that boy?" Hiruzen asked out loud. He then looked up at Team 7. "I am going to mark this mission as an A-rank in your profiles and you will be paid accordingly. Well done."
"Thank you Hokage-sama," Team 7 answered.
"You three are dismissed but Kakashi, I still need to speak with you," the Hokage said. The three genin bowed and left the office. "Now what aren't you and Asuma not telling me?"
"Naruto actively used the Kyubi's chakra," Kakashi said flatly.
The Hokage froze, his pipe nearly slipping from his fingers. He did?" Hiruzen asked. Kakashi nodded. "How is he handling it?"
"He seems to be ok," Kakashi answered. "He hasn't spoken about it but I sense no residual effects from Naruto using its chakra."
The Hokage lit his pipe with a low-powered **Fire Jutsu**, and puffed on it for a moment. "Keep any eye on Naruto," Hiruzen said. "Let me know immediately if he uses anymore of the Kyubi's chakra. I will send a summons to Jiraiya, telling him to return to the village but that might not be for some time. The Chunin Exams are being held in the village in two months time and many people will want to see the Last Uchiha participate, and of course people will quickly hear about the Great Naruto Bridge."
Kakashi fought, and failed, to keep the smile from his face. "Ah yes," Kakashi said. "So you wish for me to put forth my team for the Exams?"
"Of course not," the Hokage answered with a smile. "Only if you believe them to be ready."
"If they aren't ready in two months time, then I'm not doing my job as a sensei," Kakashi said.
"Kakashi, there are things moving in the shadows," the Hokage said. "I can feel it in my bones that we are quickly approaching the start of another conflict, one that will be nothing like we've ever seen. Konoha will need to flex its muscles once more, and your team will be the vanguard."
"Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked.
"Train them Kakashi," Hiruzen ordered. "Train them so they can be ready to waltz through these exams."
"Yes Hokage-sama," Kakashi saluted and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"Train them Kakashi, so that they become the sword and shield that Konoha needs," Hiruzen said to his now-empty office.
* * *
><p>The next morning, Team 7 found a peculiar and frightening sight waiting for them at Training Ground 3. Kakashi was waiting for them.<p>
"Ma, ma, before you three all lose it let me explain," Kakashi said. "The Hokage has ordered me to get you three ready for the Chunin Exams, which are being held here in two months. The Hokage believes that you three have the potential to be the next great group of Konoha shinobi, but you still need a lot of work. So for the next month, we will not be taking any missions but training. And when I'm through with you, you three will be able to breeze through the exams. After that month, I'll see about getting a mission or two."
"All right!" Naruto cried, jumping into the air. Sasuke and Sakura smiled at their blonde teammate's enthusiasm.
"Don't think this will be fun," Kakashi said. "I will be running you all into the ground this month. So be prepared to say your prayers because your asses are mine. Let's get started!"
* * *
><p>"All right you three that's enough for today," Kakashi shouted. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all stopped their individual workouts and turned toward their sensei. "Come over here, I have something for you."<p>
The three genin jogged over, letting Kakashi get a good look at them. The jonin had a hidden grin under his mask as he looked at his team. They had really grown in the past two months; each of the genin were now what Kakashi called, 'The Terrible Terrors'. Sasuke was the most well balanced of the group; his ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu all high-genin or low-chunin level and with his **Sharingan**, he could see things before the others.
Sakura was the weakest of the trio but she had made enormous strides in the last two months. When she had left the Academy, her chakra levels were pathetic, barely that of a first year Academy student. In the little over two months, her chakra levels had ballooned to that of an average genin and coupled with her near-perfect chakra control made her the perfect genjutsu support for the two powerhouses, Naruto and Sasuke. And Sakura's near-perfect recall made her dabbles into traps and fuinjutsu a very successful venture as well, expanding her burgeoning skillset.
Sasuke's chakra levels had grown as well in the time since graduation but the growth was not as drastic as Sakura's. His control over his chakra had grown as well. He could now use the **Great Fireball Jutsu** four times in rapid succession without exhausting his chakra. The Uchiha also added the **Dragon Flame Jutsu**, the **Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu** and he was now able to his **Sharingan** to place the **Hypnotic Eye **genjutsu on his opponents.
Naruto's reserves had changed very little, they were already possibly the largest in the village but his control was now much improved. He would never gain the control that Sakura or even Sasuke had but now Naruto would only waste minimal chakra when using jutsus. Kakashi had introduced Naruto to fuinjutsu, after telling the blonde that the Yondaime Hokage was a master of fuinjutsu, and that it would really work with his prankster nature. Kakashi had both Sakura and Naruto start learning fuinjutsu by copying already created seals such as explosive notes or weight seals, once their handwriting was at a high enough level.
Kakashi had also shown each of his genin their elemental affinities, and was quite surprised to see that between the three genin, Team 7 covered all five elements. Sasuke had a Lightning primary affinity with a Fire secondary affinity. Naruto had a Wind primary with a Water secondary, while Sakura had an Earth affinity. In an effort to stop the genins' pleadings, Kakashi had given each of the genin a low-ranked jutsu attuned to their elements.
Sasuke got **Lightning Release: Static Wave** and **Fire Release: Dragon Flame**. Sakura got **Earth Release: Earth Barrier Wall**, and Naruto got **Wind Release: Great Breakthrough** and **Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu**. When Naruto saw he had a Water affinity, the blonde begged Kakashi to teach him the **Hidden Mist Jutsu** after seeing it on their mission to the Wave. He told Kakashi that it would be a perfect covering jutsu for a retreat, and even if the air wasn't very moisture-rich, with his chakra levels, it wouldn't be much of a problem to convert his chakra into the mist needed.
"What have you got for us sensei?" Naruto asked.
"What I have you ask," Kakashi said. "Why, I have the application forms you have need to turn in in order to participate in the Chunin Exams."
"All right!" Naruto cried as he took the paper from Kakashi. "We are so going to own these exams, right guys?"
Sasuke grunted his agreement while Sakura was looking over the form. "Are you sure we're ready sensei? I mean we only graduated less than six months ago, shouldn't we wait?"
Naruto and Sasuke looked at their female teammate with hurt and betrayed expressions.
"Now, now, let's hear what Sakura-chan has to say," Kakashi said, noticing the two boys' looks. "I am sure that Sakura-chan has her reasons."
"Fine," Naruto said. Sasuke just crossed his arms and stared at Sakura.
The pink-haired teenage swallowed to gather her thoughts. "Well the Chunin Exams are open to any genin who are nominated by their sensei, and have completed a certain amount of missions," Sakura began. "So it is reasonable to assume that some teams will be much older and more experienced than us."
"Maybe," Sasuke interrupted. "But if they are a lot older than us but haven't been promoted yet, that just means they are weak."
Sakura nodded. "That might be true," she said, conceding Sasuke's point. "But there will also be teams that were held out to get more experience. From what I've read, the Exams are held every six months. So why don't we wait until the next Exams when we have six more months of experience."
"That is quite true Sakura-chan," Kakashi said. "You are correct that the Chunin Exams are held every six months but they also rotate between the villages. The next time the Exams are being held in Konoha or Suna, will be in nearly two years. We normally don't send new genin teams to the other villages' Exams because the Exams are very dangerous and there will be deaths. At least here in the village, we can 'protect' you as much as possible."
"Protect us?" Naruto asked.
"The Chunin Exams are not to be taken lightly, even in your own village," Kakashi said. "But especially in an enemy village. In other village, they won't hesitate to give their genin a home-field advantage."
"What do you mean home-field advantage sensei?" Sakura asked.
"It can mean whatever you want it to mean," Kakashi said. "It's probably different in each of the villages but most likely, the local genin will have some intel on what the exams will be about, sometimes teams aren't given timely medical treatment, etc. Whatever they can to gain an edge."
Sakura paled.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan, the Exams are here in the village and we are so ready," Naruto said confidently. We've been training our butts off for the last two months, we are ready."
"I don't know," Sakura admitted. "Naruto, you and Sasuke-kun have gotten as much stronger since we graduated but I just think I've been standing still."
"That's not true Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "You are plenty strong. You are the smartest kunoichi in the village, you are a brilliant trap maker and you can put a genjutsu on almost anybody."
Sakura had to look away to hide the embarrassed blush that Naruto's words had caused. When she looked back, Sakura froze when she caught eyes with Sasuke. "Naruto is correct," Sasuke said. "You have grown stronger."
Sakura's heart swelled at her crush's words. "Thank you Sasuke-kun, and you too Naruto," she said. "But I still don't know about the Exams."
"Sakura, I would not nominate you three if I didn't feel you were ready," Kakashi reassured. "Just treat the Exams as a mission, and you three will be fine. Now, you all must have these forms filled out and be at room 301 of the Academy at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. Later!"
Team 7 watched as their sensei vanished in his customary puff of smoke.
"So now what do you guys want to do?" Naruto asked. "Should we, I don't know, go over what we will need for the exams?"
"Just bring everything we would need for a B-rank mission," Sasuke said. "See you tomorrow."
The Uchiha heir leapt off toward his apartment, leaving his two teammates standing on the bridge alone.
"Hey Sakura-chan, I was going to get some Ichiraku's before heading home, want to join me?" Naruto asked.
"Sorry Naruto, I told me parents that I would come right home after training," she answered.
"Ok then," Naruto said. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Bye Naruto," Sakura called as she headed toward her home. Naruto gave a half-hearted wave to his teammate before turning toward his own path home.
'_**Why do you constantly attempt to woo that pink-haired weakling?**_' the deep, growling voice of the Kyubi asked from within Naruto's mind. The first time the fox had spoken to Naruto without the blonde entering his mind had nearly sent Naruto into hysterics. When Naruto finally calmed down, the fox explained that Naruto's use of the Kyubi's chakra in the Wave had opened a link between the pair, enabling the fox to communicate with Naruto when it wanted too.
'_Sakura-chan isn't weak!_' Naruto growled. '_She has always been stronger than she thinks. She was the only civilian-born to graduate from the Academy._'
'_**Please, your Academy is pathetic**__,_' the fox snarled. '_**When I was stuck in your…my previous container, their standards were much higher. None of your precious classmates would have passed back then**__._'
'_Whatever fox, it's not like you ever strove for recognition from someone,_' Naruto grumbled.
'_**Do not think you know me brat!**_' the fox roared, making Naruto wince.
'_What was that for fox?_' Naruto barked but the ancient demon did not answer leaving Naruto to stew in his confusion.
* * *
><p>The next morning found Naruto in front of the Memorial Stone, staring at one name in particular; Tobirama Senju.<p>
"Hey there Grandpa," Naruto said lowly. "Today I'm taking the Chunin Exams, I know it seems that I'm young but Kakashi-sensei believes that we are ready. Sakura-chan didn't know if she was ready, she thinks that she is too weak and will just hold us back. But I think she's the strongest out of us all, I mean she doesn't have a bloodline or some furball sealed inside her to fall back on. Sakura-chan has worked for everything she's gained, and had nothing handed to her. That to me means she is truly strong. Anyway, did you feel nervous before your first Chunin Exam? What am I talking about, of course not, you became Hokage, you probably weren't afraid of anything."
The sound of a snapping twig made Naruto's head whip around.
"Who's there?" he asked. A soft gasp from behind a tree allowed Naruto to zero in on a tall oak tree about twenty meters away.
"Are you have to pay your respects as well?" Naruto asked as he walked around the tree to find a vaguely familiar face, a girl about his age with navy blue hair and milky white eyes. She wore a light gray jacket and blue pants and had her headband around her neck.
"Hey, you are that Hyuga girl from the Academy, right?" Naruto asked. "Hina…something, right?"
"Hinata, I am Hinata Hyuga," Hinata stammered.
"That's right Hinata," Naruto snapped his fingers. "So what are you doing here Hinata? Do you know someone on the Stone?"
"No, no, I was on my way to the Academy and I saw you standing there," Hinata said.
"Oh you are going to the Academy," Naruto said. "Me too. Are you taking the Chunin Exams?"
"Yes," Hinata whispered. "My sensei nominated us from the exams but I don't think I am ready."
"Why not?" Naruto asked, his face scrunching up in confusion.
"I am not strong enough," Hinata admitted. "I am afraid that I will just drag Kiba-kun and Shino-kun down, I don't want to let them down."
"Don't worry so much Hinata," Naruto said. "If you don't believe in yourself then you will never get stronger. If you don't at least try, then you will never know if you can do it."
"But what if I fail? I don't think I could handle letting down Kiba-kun and Shino-kun," Hinata said.
"Well if you fail, then try again," Naruto said. "I mean I failed the graduation exam three times, and that didn't stop me. You can't be afraid of failing; if you are then you'll never get stronger. And besides, if I got everything right the first time then I would probably get all stuck up and arrogant like Sasuke.
Hinata giggled but quickly clamped a hand over her mouth. "I shouldn't have laughed like that," she said through her hands.
"Ah don't worry about it Hinata," Naruto laughed. "The bastard knows I don't mean anything by it. And besides, someone needs to deflate his big head. Look Hinata, so what if you are scared, if you don't face your fears then you will always be weak."
Hinata looked down, her mind thinking that her crush thought she was weak.
"Now don't go doing that Hinata," Naruto said, noticing the girl's mood had dropped. "Keep your head up, never look back. You can't change the past, only the future. And can I tell you a secret Hinata?"
"Of course you can Naruto-kun," Hinata said quickly. "You can tell me anything."
"I'm scared too," Naruto admitted. "I'm afraid that I'll let down my teammates too."
"But, but, Naruto-kun, you are so strong," Hinata claimed. "You always act so happy, you never give up no matter what is thrown at you. You've always been an inspiration to me, when I watch you always get back up, I sometimes feel like I can be stronger."
Naruto blinked. Then a soft blush came across Naruto's face, as he rubbed the back of his head. "Wow," Naruto said. "I don't really know what to say Hinata. No one has ever told me that I was the source of his or her strength, I'm flattered. But I don't think you relying on me to be your pillar of strength is a very good idea."
"Why not?" Hinata stammered, her white eyes wide.
"Well, relying on someone else to give you strength is only good if you are surrounded by those people," Naruto said. "What if you are alone? You need to be able to rely on yourself, on your own strength at times. Sometimes you will be in a fight that no one can help you, you have to rely on your strength to win."
"But…"
"Hinata, I'm not saying you taking strength from me is a bad thing," Naruto said quickly. "But you need to find a reason to become strong. At first, all I wanted to become strong was to be recognized and looked at. But I found out that was a selfish and terrible reason to become strong, I didn't care how I was recognized or looked. It wasn't until the night of the Academy exams that I found my reason to become strong."
"And what is it Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked softly.
"To become the main pillar of strength for the village," Naruto said with a wide smile. "To be the one that protects this village, and takes on the burdens that others can't. You need to find your own path Hinata, don't just follow someone in hopes of getting parts of their strength, find that one way and I hope that I'll be there to see it."
"There you are Hinata!"
Hinata and Naruto turned to see Hinata's teammates, Kiba Inuzaka and Shino Aburame, approaching the Memorial Stone.
"Kiba-kun, Shino-kun," Hinata stammered.
"What are you two doing here?" Kiba asked bluntly.
"I was paying respects to Konoha's heroes," Naruto said. "Hinata was passing by and we started talking. What of it Kiba?"
"Whoa there Naruto," Kiba said. "Just asking, no need to get defensive. Unless you two were doing more than talking," he added with a strange gleam in his eye. Hinata 'eeped' and blushed heavily.
"Of course we were just talking," Naruto said. "What else would we be doing?"
Kiba just shook his head.
"We should continue moving," Shino said, speaking for the first time. "We do not want to be late for the exams."
"That's right, you guys are taking the Chunin Exams too," Naruto said. "Sakura-chan and Sasuke are probably waiting for me."
"You're taking the Chunin Exams? Ha," Kiba laughed. "There's no way you'll pass, you failed the Academy exam three times, and now you think you'll pass these?"
"I am a lot stronger than I was in the Academy," Naruto growled. "Just you watch Kiba, I'll be a Chunin way before you will."
"Yeah right dead last," Kiba mocked.
"Don't fight Naruto-kun, Kiba-kun," Hinata tried to interject but the two hotheaded boys ignored her.
"Whatever Kiba," Naruto said. "Just watch. I gotta go, Sakura-chan and Sasuke waiting for me. See you guys later, bye Hinata."
Naruto turned and walked off leaving Team 8 staring after him.
"Kiba-san, Hinata-san, did you guys notice that Naruto-san was wearing something other than that nasty orange jumpsuits?" Shino asked. Both Kiba and Hinata blinked and then nodded slowly.
* * *
><p>"Naruto! Where have you been?" Sakura screamed. "We were supposed to meet here 15 minutes ago!"<p>
"Sorry Sakura-chan, I was paying my respects at the Memorial Stone and then I ran into Hinata and Team 8," Naruto said.
"Li…wait, that actually makes sense," Sakura said.
"Of course it does, what do you think I would make up excuses like Kakashi-sensei does?" Naruto asked. Sakura blushed. "Aw Sakura-chan," Naruto whined.
"It doesn't matter you two," Sasuke said. "We need to go or we'll be late."
"Right," Naruto and Sakura said, falling into flanking positions.
"What were you talking to Team 8 about, Naruto?" Sakura asked as Team 7 approached the Academy.
"Oh right," Naruto said. "Well, Hinata told me that I was the source of her strength and then I said that she had it wrong."
"Naruto! How could you say something so tactless?" Sakura scolded. "Hinata poured her heart out to you, and you just stomped on it like mud."
"What?" Naruto gasped. "I just told her that relying on me to give her strength is not the way to go. She needs to find her own path to strength, not rely on someone else giving it to her."
Sakura blinked. She hadn't expected such a mature answer from Naruto. "All right Naruto, but you better not have hurt Hinata," Sakura warned. "She is a sweet girl and doesn't deserve that."
"I know that," Naruto said. "I would never do that."
"Enough talking, we're here," Sasuke said. They had reached the Academy.
"This brings back memories, doesn't it?" Naruto asked as Team 7 entered the Academy.
"Yeah it does," Sakura agreed. Sasuke grunted his own agreement.
"What the?" Naruto asked as Team 7 came upon a peculiar scene. The hallway in front of them was packed with other genin. The door to classroom 301 was being guarded by two older looking genin.
"Look brats, we are doing you all a favor," the older genin with bandages across his nose. "We have taken and failed these exams the last two times, so we know who are Chunin material. And none of you come close."
"Please sir, you have to let us pass," a bun-haired girl pleaded. The girl seemed familiar to Naruto; he knew that he had seen her before.
"Wait, didn't we only go up one flight of stairs?" Sakura whispered. Naruto and Sasuke blinked and looked back down the hallway.
"They must have put a genjutsu on the door," Sasuke realized.
"Nice catch Sakura-chan," Naruto praised. "So what should we do?"
"Just keep moving," Sasuke said. "There must be a reason they put it up, and I'll wager that it is supposed to be some sort of pre-test. If they can't see through such a low-level genjutsu, then they don't deserve to become a chunin."
"Like us Sasuke," Naruto chuckled. "If Sakura-chan hadn't noticed it, then where would we be?"
"Speak for yourself," Sasuke grumbled. "Let's just keep moving."
Team 7 began making their way down the hallway when a voice called out, "Where are you three going?"
Team 7 turned to see the other older genin looking them.
"Giving up already?" the bandaged genin smirked. "You know the exit is the other way."
"We're not giving up," Naruto snapped. "We're just going to the real exam room."
"Real exam room?" a female genin wearing a headband with four wavy lines on it said.
"Didn't anyone else realize that we only went up one flight of stairs?" Sakura asked. "This is only the second floor."
"Drop the genjutsu too," Sasuke said.
"So you noticed then?" the older genin grinned. The classroom sign wavered for a second and then the number changed from 301 to 201.
"In these exams, you will be faced with a lot of unknown situations," the scarred genin said. "You need to be always on guard, especially when in another village. Chunins are team leaders, and must always look underneath the underneath."
"So its not just Kakashi-sensei who says that?" Naruto commented.
"Come on you two," Sasuke said. "We have a test to dominate."
"So that's Kakashi's team? They look ready," the scarred genin said.
"These exams sure will be interesting," his partner said.
"Sasuke Uchiha!" a loud voice shouted. Team 7 turned and saw a boy their age but wearing a green spandex jumpsuit and orange leg warmers.
"Whoa!" Naruto said. "That's one weird outfit."
"Coming from someone who used to wear a bright orange jumpsuit, that's a bit hypocritical," Sakura said blandly.
"Hey, I got rid of my jumpsuit, didn't I?" Naruto pouted.
"I guess that's true," Sakura admitted. Naruto did look a lot more ninja-like now. The blonde was now wearing dark blue cargo pants that were taped at his ankles. He also wore a dark orange long-sleeved shirt with a sleeveless dark green hooded jacket over it.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked the newcomer.
"I am here to challenge you," the boy announced. "I am Rock Lee, and I want to challenge the Uchiha genius. I am the strongest genin in the village, and I want to see how you measure up."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the challenge.
"Sasuke, we don't have time for this," Naruto said. "We don't know what the exams are going to be like, and if you get hurt, we all might fail. I'll bet you'll get to fight this guy during the exam, let's just keep moving."
Sasuke looked like he wanted to shoot down Naruto's suggestion but his common sense kicked in before his pride could. "Fine," he grumbled. "My teammate is right. There will be opportunities later in the Exams, so we will settle this then."
"Very well then Sasuke Uchiha," Rock Lee said with a blinding smile. "And you must be the lovely Sakura Haruno. Please be my girlfriend?"
"No way!" Sakura cried. "I would never date someone like you!"
Lee's head dropped to his chest at Sakura' vehement denial.
"Come on, its almost three," Naruto said. "We don't want to be late."
Team 7 turned from Lee and made their way out of the presentation hall and up the second flight of stairs.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Team 7 gasped when they saw their sensei leaning against the wall next to the door to the exam room.
"Yo you three," Kakashi said looking up from his book. "Glad to see you all made it."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"Well, this exam is a team exam," Kakashi said. "So unless all three of you showed up, I would have to bar the others from entering."
"Then why didn't you tell us that?" Sakura asked.
"If I had, then you would have pressured each other into participating," Kakashi explained. "Now before you go in there, remember you three are stronger together than you apart. And look underneath…"
"The underneath," Team 7 finished in unison.
"Don't worry sensei, we won't let you down," Naruto promised.
"I know you three won't," Kakashi said. "Good luck."
"Let's kickass!" Naruto cried as he kicked open the door.
**A/N: Well there you have it, the newest chapter of _Naruto:Hidden Legacy_, hope you all liked it. I've introduced some new(old) characters into the story. The main problem that I've always had with Naruto/Hinata is that lack of Hinata's character development. There is so little that we see or know about Hinata, one of my favorite scenes between Naruto and Hinata was when they ran into each other before Naruto's fight against Neji. Really wish that Kishimoto had expanded on those brief scenes to give us more interaction between the two. **
**A/N 2: _Naruto: The Last_ has come out in Japan, I'm in the US, so while I haven't seen it yet, I have been looking around the Internet and so far the reviews I've seen haven't been very good. Most people are claiming that while the movie has made quite a bit of money, the film is the lowest rated Naruto movie. Many reviews that I've seen say that the film is too much of a love story, the characterization for many of the characters really went to s**t. Again, I have not seen the film yet so I can't say these things for sure. I will see the film whenever it becomes available in the US and then make my final decision but it doesn't look good. Til next time,**
**SlytherinKnight**
7. I hate Exams!
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ doesn't belong to me, it all belongs to Kishimoto. If it had, the manga would have ended very differently, and there wouldn't be a final movie that seems to be just a money grab rather than a furthering of the series.**
"Whoa!" Naruto gaped as Team 7 entered the examination room. It was packed nearly wall to wall with genin teams, and all of them were now staring right at Team 7.
"There's a lot of people here," Sakura said.
"Good, that means there should be a lot of strong opponents," Sasuke said, looking around the room.
"Sasuke-kun!" Team 7 cringed at the loud voice of Ino Yamanaka. The longhaired blonde kunoichi came barreling through the crowd and latched onto the back of Sasuke. Her teammates, Shikamaru and Choji, trailed behind her at a more sedate pace.
"So you guys are here too?" Shikamaru asked. "Troublesome."
"Of course we are," Naruto said. "Did you really think we would miss this?"
"You are still the same Naruto," Shikamaru shook his head. "This isn't a party or a game Naruto."
"I know that Shikamaru," Naruto retorted, his face turning serious. "But I'm excited. I get to test myself against the best of the best."
"Troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled.
"Looks like everyone is here," a new voice barked. It was Kiba and Team 8.
"It seems so," Sasuke said. "I guess they'll let anyone enter these exams, pity, I was hoping that they would weed out the weaklings," taunted.
"What did you say?" Kiba growled.
"You should keep it down over there," another new voice said. The young genin turned to see a taller teen with grayish hair and glasses walking up to them. The teen also wore a Konoha headband.
"Who are you?" Kiba asked gruffly.
"Lower the hackles," the teen chided with a disarming grin. "My name is Kabuto Yakushi, and I'm a Konoha genin just like you, just a bit older."
"I don't recognize you from the Academy," Naruto said. "How long have you been a ninja?"
"I graduated about five years ago now," Kabuto replied. "In fact, this will be my seventh time taking the Chunin Exams."
"Wow, you must suck then," Kiba laughed.
"Or these exams are much harder than you think they are Kiba," Shikamaru warned.
"Kabuto-san, if this will be your seventh time taking the exams, you can tell us what they are like, right?" Ino asked.
Kabuto chuckled. "Actually I can't," he said. "You see the Exams aren't always held here in Konoha, and they change things up to make sure people like me can't tell the newbies what to expect. This is only the second time I've taken the Exams in Konoha, and the first time was three years ago, so I am sure they've changed things up since then."
"Can you tell us anything?" Shikamaru asked.
"Not about the exams themselves," Kabuto said. "But with my nin-info cards, I can tell you about the major players in these exams."
"Nin-info cards?" Sasuke asked. Kabuto smiled as he pulled out a deck of cards. "They are blank."
"They respond only to my chakra," Kabuto answered somewhat smugly. He selected a single card and held it between two fingers. The card glowed blue. "Sasuke Uchiha, age 12, 5'3", and 129lbs. Graduated from Konoha's Academy this year as the Rookie of the Year, and now under the command of Kakashi Hatake, the **Copy-Cat Ninja**, along with Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki. Recently activated the Uchiha bloodline, the **Sharingan**. Mission stats: 23 D-ranks, 2 C-ranks and 1 A-rank missions. Wow, an A-rank mission as a rookie genin, impressive."
Team 8, who didn't know about Team 7's back up of Team 10 in the Wave, looked stunned and impressed.
"You guys went on an A-rank mission already!" Kiba cried.
"That's quite specific information you have there Kabuto," Naruto said. Alarm bells were blaring in his head. Being the subject of an SS-rank secret, and after meeting Tobirama Senju, made Naruto realize the value of information and its uses.
"I pride myself on knowing all that I can about my opponents," Kabuto answered with a smile.
"And your allies, I gather," Naruto fired back. "You just gave out information on a fellow Konoha shinobi in a room full of potential enemies."
"The information was nothing more than what you would find on Sasuke's registration card or a bingo book entry," Kabuto answered easily. "I have yours here too Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto looked up, directly into the dark, glinting eyes of the older, taller genin. The blonde could see the amusement in Kabuto's eyes, his instincts were screaming at Naruto that this teen was bad news.
"Go ahead Kabuto," Naruto challenged. "Read my card."
Kabuto arched an eyebrow at Naruto's challenge. "All right Naruto-kun, if you insist," he grinned. Kabuto pulled out another card and channeled some chakra into it. "Naruto Uzumaki, age 12, 5'1", 118lbs. Failed the Konoha Academy graduation exam three times before being granted an exemption by the Hokage after learning the **Shadow Clone Jutsu** in a single night. On the same team, Team 7, as Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno under the command of Kakashi Hatake. Mission stats: 23 D-ranks, 2 C-ranks, and 1 A-rank, oh and here's an interesting note, Naruto was born on the same night as the Kyubi attack twelve years ago."
"Everyone already knows that Naruto was born at the same time as the Kyubi attack," Kiba said. "Tell us something we don't know."
"Well, I suppose," Kabuto said with a sly smile. "It seems that Naruto is a surviving member of the Uzumaki clan."
"Clan? What Uzumaki Clan?" Sakura asked. Naruto frowned.
"The Uzumaki Clan was once the ruling clan of the Village Hidden by Whirlpools," Kabuto explained.
"Once?" Sasuke asked.
"The village and clan was attacked near the end of the Second Shinobi War," Kabuto explained. "The Rock, Cloud and Mist villages gathered together and nearly wiped the village off the face of the planet. The clan's survivors were scattered to the winds. The Uzumaki Clan were well known for their mastery of fuinjutsu, and it is thought that was the reason the clan and village was attacked."
"Where did you find that out?" Naruto asked. "The Hokage never told me that I was part of a clan."
"Around," Kabuto chuckled. "A good ninja never revels his tricks."
Naruto opened his mouth to continue questioning Kabuto but was interrupted when there came several explosions of smoke at the front of the examination room. The group turned to see at least two dozen gray-uniformed Konoha shinobi appear, all flanking a giant of a man.
"Silence you maggots!" the man roared. "If you aren't in a seat in five seconds, you will be disqualified! One…"
There was a mass scramble for seats as everyone raced for a chair.
"Hey! There aren't enough seats!" a genin shouted.
"It seems so," the man grinned darkly, letting the room know that he knew that there wasn't enough. "Anyone not in a seat, and their teammates, automatically fail! Now get out! NOW!" the man roared as the stragglers made to argue. They were then escorted out of the room.
"Now then," the man said. "I am Ibiki Morino, and I am the proctor for the first exam. Before we begin there are a couple of ground rules that we have to go over. First, there will be no talking; anyone who talks out of turn will fail instantly. Second, if you fail, then your team fails as well, no exceptions. Third, this exam will last one hour and not a minute longer. Now the other proctors will hand out the test, there are ten questions, nine on your test sheet, and one not. The tenth and final question will be reveled at the fifty minute mark of the exam."
"Now, you begin with ten points, one for each question," Ibiki explained. "If you get a question wrong, you lose one point, answer all ten questions incorrectly, you fail. And if you fail, your team fails with you. You'll also notice that the other proctors have taken seats around the room. They are there to catch anyone dumb enough to try and cheat; they have been trained specifically to catch anyone trying to cheat. For each time you are caught trying to cheat, you will lose two points, if you are caught cheating five times, you will lose all ten points and you will fail, and so will your teammates."
Naruto paled as Ibiki finished explaining the rules. '_Oh crap, Sakura-chan and Sasuke are going to kill me,_' Naruto thought. '_I suck at taking tests!_'
Ibiki's smile broadened at the looks of horror coming from the genin in front of him. "In this room, you are all mine to do with as I please," Ibiki said. "I am your Lord and Master in this room. You have one hour to impress me, begin!"
There was a rustling of paper as the genin turned over their exams for the first time. Naruto's eyes widened as he took in the exam questions.
'_What the hell! I can't answer any of these questions!'_ Naruto realized. '_These questions are way too hard for anyone to answer, except maybe Sakura-chan. What are these guys playing at?_'
Naruto glanced around the room, seeing that most of the test takers were in a very similar state as himself, chewing on their pencils, nervously glancing around the room or staring blankly at the test in front of them as if praying that the paper would hand over its secrets. Around the edge of the room, the other proctors were watching and scribbling away on clipboards.
Naruto took a deep breath and closed his eyes to try and calm himself. '_The proctor said that we start with 10 points, for every wrong answer we would lose one point,_' he thought, recalling Ibiki's explanation of the exam. '_He also said that if we were caught cheating, we would lose two points. Why would we only lose two points if were caught? In the Academy, if we cheated we would fail instantly. So why are they giving us chances to cheat and not fail?_'
Naruto opened his eyes and looked around the room once more. To his left, he saw Hinata with her eyes staring straight ahead, the veins around her eyes bulging. '_She's cheating!_' Naruto realized. '_That's it! The point is to cheat but not get caught! That's why they gave us five chances, for most ninja stealing information is very hard even more so for genin. So how can I get the answers without getting caught?_'
Naruto mentally reviewed the techniques he had learned, and came up with nothing. '_Damnit, I don't have any jutsus that would help me steal the answers without getting caught,_' he thought. '_Wait! I have five chances to get caught before failing! As long as I don't get caught five times, I won't fail and get kicked out. But how do I pull this off?_'
Naruto scanned the room, looking for a target. The prankster part of his mind had taken over. '_Bingo!_' Naruto thought, zeroing in on a taller genin with spiky brown hair two rows in front of him. The older boy was rapidly moving his pencil across his paper, and from what Naruto could see of his face, was smirking proudly. '_I have to time this just right. If I move too soon, he'll notice and I'll be screwed. I have to wait until just before the tenth question is given. So that gives me a little over thirty minutes now. And I'll need all that time to make this work, I've never performed the _**Hidden Mist Jutsu**_ without water nearby, but the books said that Grandpa could perform _**Water Jutsus**_ by using the moisture in the air, though for someone without a high _**Water** _affinity this was really risky. Unless they have huge chakra reserves, and I've got chakra in spades._'
The minutes ticked by, inching closer and closer to the fifty-minute mark and the giving of the tenth question. Every so often, one of the proctors would pick out a genin who they had caught cheating five times and throw them and their teammates out of the room. The exam room was quickly being whittled down. The room that had been once packed wall to wall now held less than 50 genin.
Naruto glanced up at the clock. '_It's time,_' he thought. With a deep breath, Naruto closed his eyes and focused on converting his chakra into a thick mist that would shroud the exam room.
"What the!" Naruto heard someone cry out. He cracked open one eye and saw that the classroom was rapidly filling up with mist. Naruto quickly summoned a **Shadow Clone** that grabbed its target's exam sheet and replaced it with itself.
"Get this mist out of here!" Ibiki shouted. "Open the damn windows!"
Naruto heard the windows being thrown open and the mist was rapidly dispersing. With a sigh, Naruto released the **Hidden Mist Jutsu** and sat back in his seat, trying to look confused.
"When I find out who did that they will regret it," Ibiki growled. "They'll wish that they had never been born."
Naruto fought to keep the smug grin off his face as Ibiki scanned the room. The tall man glanced at the clock.
"Looks like its time to announced the 10th and final question," Ibiki said. "But first, a couple of rules."
"More rules?" a genin from Ame shouted.
"Did I say you could speak yet?" Ibiki growled, pinning the genin with a hard glare. "Number 83, you fail, you and your teammates can get out."
"What! You can't do that!"
"Watch me!" Ibiki snarled. An enormous pressure settled over the room, it became almost impossible to breathe. "Get out!"
The three Ame genin scrambled from their seats and raced from the room. Once the door had finished swinging shut, the pressure vanished.
"Good, now where was I?" Ibiki mused. "Ah right, new rules. First before you all instantly decide to leap before looking, know this, if you decide to take the question and get it wrong, you will be banned from taking the Chunin Exams ever again."
"You can't do that!" Kiba shouted. "There are others here who have taken the Exams before this year!"
"True but I wasn't their proctor," Ibiki said. "Unlucky for you. Oh and I guess it isn't just Ame genin that don't know how to listen, Number 57 you and your team are eliminated!"
"What?" Kiba cried. "You can't do that!"
"Of course I can," Ibiki growled. "What, just because you are a fellow Konoha shinobi you were safe from being eliminated. Tough, you didn't heed the lessons from the others failures. That right there tells me you are not Chunin material. Now get out before I throw you out."
Kiba looked at Ibiki, a furious scowl set of the boy's face.
"Kiba, that's enough," Shino said. "You have spoken enough. We are eliminated; there is nothing more we can do. Why? Because those are the rules."
Kiba's head dropped at his teammate's words. "I'm sorry Shino, Hinata," he muttered finally. Akamaru whined piteously from atop Kiba's head.
Naruto watched as Team 8 was led from the room, Hinata looked back at Naruto as she followed her teammates out of the room. He could see the tears sparkling in her pale eyes as she left the room.
"Eyes forward," Ibiki barked. "Now then, you all have a decision to make; to take the tenth question or not? If you decide to stick around and take the tenth question, and get it wrong, you will fail, your team will fail and you all will be barred from taking the Chunin Exams ever again. But if you decide to not take the tenth question, you and your team will automatically fail but you will still get to take the Chunin Exams in the future. So choose!"
Naruto looked back at Sakura and Sasuke. The three teammates all shared a resolute look; they were not going to give up. But many of the other teams wavered one by one, genin stood and backed out. After five minutes, there were only ten teams left in the room.
"Time's up," Ibiki said. "Now then, I have only one thing to say to you all…You pass!"
"What!"
"That's right, you all have passed the first exam," Ibiki smiled broadly.
"How? What about the tenth question?" Sakura asked.
"The decision to take the unknown tenth question was actually the tenth question itself," Ibiki explained. "In our world, you will be faced with harsh decisions, decisions that can have dire consequences. When faced with such a decision, will you run away? No!" The genin jumped at Ibiki's shout. "Running away is cowardice, and it is not the way of a chunin. As a chunin, you will be the leader of your own team, and will be responsible for their lives."
"But what was the point of the other nine questions?" a genin from Kusa asked.
"To gather accurate information under difficult circumstances," Ibiki answered. "While the tenth question's do or die answer was the point of the exam, the ability to gather accurate information discreetly is vital to being a chunin. Information is the lifeblood of a ninja's successful mission, false information is worse than no information. And being able to collect accurate information is worse than no information."
CRASH!
The remaining genin tensed as one of the windows smashed in and a large black blur sped through the opening. A banner unfurled in front of Ibiki that read 'The Sweet and Sex Second Proctor, Anko Mitarashi.' In front of the banner stood a very attractive looking young woman. The woman wore a tan overcoat with a high collar and pockets, underneath the jacket was just a mesh-armor bodysuit that just barely extended past the orange mini skirt. The woman's headband was mostly covered by her spiky dark violet hair that was pulled up in a ponytail.
"Looks like you had a pretty tough test this time Ibiki," the woman said. "There are only 10 teams left, well done."
"Perhaps but underestimate them Anko," Ibiki said. "These brats have some talent."
"We'll see," Anko cackled. "They still have to impress me. And I guarantee that only half of these brats will pass what I've got in stare them, at best."
Naruto felt a slight chill run down his spine at Anko's bloodthirsty grin and claim, and he was sure he wasn't the only one.
"Look brats, you have one hour to gather your gear and meet me at Training Ground 44," Anko said. "If you are even one second late, you'll fail. Now move it!"
The remaining genin teams scrambled from the room, leaving only the proctors to pick up the tests papers.
* * *
><p>"So what do you think this exam will be like?" Naruto asked as Team 7 reached the massively imposing Training Ground 44. A ten foot high chain link fence ran around the training ground, and on the fence was a large sign that read 'DO NOT ENTER: YOU WILL MOST LIKELY DIE.'<p>
"I don't know," Sakura said. "But we should be ready for anything, that written exam came out of nowhere."
"And that proctor told us to grab our gear, so we should assume that there will be combat," Sasuke pointed out. The other two members nodded.
An explosion of smoke captured Team 7's attention. It was the proctor, Anko Mitarashi.
"All right brats, glad to see you all made it in time," Anko said. "Now listen up because I won't repeat myself, and I'm not as forgiving as Ibiki. Behind me is Training Ground 44, or better known as the Forest of Death. And it will be your home for the next five days."
"What? Five days!" a random genin shouted.
"Yep, Anko chirped. She pulled two scrolls from her jacket. "Each team will be given one of these scrolls, and the point of this exam is to reach the tower in the middle of the training ground with both scrolls in five days, oh and to not die in the process."
"That's it?" Naruto asked.
"Well that is if you all manage to get by the giant bugs, killer beasts and the other teams," Anko said. "Before we go any further, let me tell you the ways you can fail. If you don't have both scrolls by the time you reach the tower, you fail. If you don't reach the tower inside the time limit of five days, you fail. If a member of your team is seriously injured or killed, you fail. Or if you look inside the scrolls before reaching the tower, you fail. Aside from that, anything goes. Oh, I almost forgot, you all need to fill out these forms before you are given your scroll. Nothing important, just a release form."
"Release form?" Ino asked. "Release for what?"
"They just absolve myself and Konoha from any responsibility or fault if you get killed while in the forest," Anko giggled. She passed out a stack of the forms to the genin and waited for them to be handed back in. "Right then, you will get your scroll from the chunin in the tent," she instructed. "Then you will be led to a gate. Once the horn sounds, the exam begins. Have fun."
Twenty-five minutes later, Team 7 was waiting for the exam to begin at Gate 12.
"So what's the plan?" Naruto asked as they waited.
"Find another team with an Earth scroll and take it," Sasuke said.
"Well I got that," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "But how do we do that?"
"This is pretty much a search and destroy mission," Sakura said. "We should scout out an area about halfway to the tower, and see if we can trap anyone. With only nine other teams, we only have five chances to get a scroll. I'll bet that most teams will go straight for the tower and set up an ambush along the way." Naruto and Sasuke nodded.
"I can use my clones to scout out more of the training ground than the other teams," Naruto pointed out. "And with your traps Sakura-chan, we can breeze through this exam."
"Don't get overconfident Naruto," Sasuke warned.
"All right you three, get ready," the chunin warned. "The horn should go off any minute."
A moment later, a loud horn sounded and the gate was flung open, allowing Team 7 to dash through the gate leaving the chunin standing alone watching their backs.
Team 7 stopped a couple hundred meters inside the training ground on a large branch well above the forest floor.
"Ok Naruto, go and find us a team," Sakura ordered. The blonde grinned and made his signature hand sign.
"**Multi Shadow Clone!**" Naruto shouted. Team 7 was suddenly surrounded by a mass of Naruto clones. "You know what to do," Naruto told his clones.
The clones grinned and leapt off into the forest, leaving barely a trace.
"I still can't believe how good you are at stealth," Sakura commented, shaking her head.
"It's easy to hide when no one wants to see you," Naruto said with a sad smile. Suddenly the blonde stiffened. "Found a team."
"Who?"
"It's that team from the Wave," Naruto said. "The ones that beat up Team 10 and ran off."
Sakura and Sasuke's eyes narrowed at Naruto's identification of their newfound target.
"This will be interesting," Sasuke said with a dark grin. "Where are they?"
"About two hundred meters away at our 4 o'clock, and heading our way."
"Perfect," Sakura and Sasuke chorused.
"I think I should tidy up before our guests arrive, don't you?" Sakura suggested. Sasuke and Naruto shared a grin.
* * *
><p>"Where are they Dosu?" Zaku snarled. "You said they were this way!"<p>
"They are here Zaku," Dosu growled. "Come on out you brats. I can hear you."
"You three have some guts, showing your faces here," Naruto growled as he, Sasuke and Sakura leapt down to the forest floor opposite the Oto team.
"Please brat," Zaku laughed. "I hope that you have gotten stronger than the last time we fought. Otherwise it wouldn't be much of a challenge."
"I seem to remember you three running off the last time we met," Naruto taunted. Zaku growled and took a step forward.
"Zaku, control yourself!" Dose barked. "Do not let your anger blind you. The brat is trying to get you angry enough to make a mistake."
Zaku shot Dosu a dark look but took a step back. Dosu knelt down and placed his gauntleted hand on the ground. "Did you really think you could fool me with such a flimsy trap?" Dosu asked, looking up at Team 7, who flinched. Dosu drew a kunai and snipped the trip wire. The six genin leapt apart as a shower of kunai and shuriken rained down upon the group.
"Kin you take the pink haired bitch," Dosu ordered. "Zaku will take on the blonde shrimp and I will handle the Uchiha."
"Why do you get the Uchiha, Dosu?" Zaku argued. "I wanted to fight him not some blonde runt."
"Those are your orders Zaku," Dosu snarled. "Now if you want the Uchiha then beat your opponent before I beat the Uchiha."
"Wow you three are really confident that you can beat Sasuke or I," Naruto laughed. "Big words for a trio that ran off with their tails between their legs the last time we met."
"That's it brat!" Zaku roared. "**Decapitating Airwaves!**" The dark haired boy raised his arms and twin blasts of air were fired from two holes in the boy's palms. Team 7 scattered and were followed by their opponents.
"Man, I hate that Dosu guy," Zaku growled as he and Naruto landed in a small clearing. "He thinks he's our leader, and thinks that he can order me around."
"Your mind should be here on this fight," Naruto said. "Not on Sasuke and your teammate."
"Whatever brat," Zaku said dismissively. "You aren't even worth thinking about. I just hope that the Uchiha can hold out against Dosu."
"Oh don't worry about that," Naruto grinned. "Sasuke is one tough bastard, he won't go down so easily. And his **Sharingan** can see chakra, so that your teammate's sound attacks won't catch Sasuke by surprise."
Zaku's eyes widened. "How?"
"You really thought that I wouldn't talk with Team 10 about their fight against you three back in the Wave," Naruto laughed. "Like that proctor said, information is the lifeblood of a ninja. Knowing your opponent is half the battle."
Zaku shouted and fired off another salvo of air blasts from his palms. Naruto easily dodged the telegraphed attack and raced forward, a calm coldness settling over him. He had noticed that this feeling would come over him whenever he sparred against his team and had first experienced it in the aftermath of the Wave bridge battle.
Naruto drew a pair of kunai and held them in reverse grips. Dashing forward, Naruto slashed at Zaku who leapt backward. The Oto ninja shot another pair of air blasts at Naruto. The blonde cursed, realizing that he was too close to dodge. In desperation, Naruto sent as much wind chakra into his kunai and tried to spilt the two air bullets.
Boom!
"Heh," Zaku sneered as he surveyed the damage that his jutsu had caused and saw no sign of his blonde opponent. "Pathetic. Knew that weakling couldn't handle the power that Orochimaru-sama gave me."
"So you work for Orochimaru," a voice said from behind Zaku.
"What?" Zaku cried as he turned around. Naruto was standing behind Zaku, his arms held loosely at his sides. The blonde's clothing was ruffled and dirty but overall the blonde was uninjured. "How?"
"You are too slow," Naruto answered before vanishing in a blur of speed. The last thing that Zaku saw before his world went black was Naruto flicking some blood from the blades of his kunai.
"That was easy," Naruto said. An explosion caught Naruto's attention, and the blonde raced back toward his teammates.
* * *
><p>"You're not done yet?"<p>
"Naruto!" Sakura grinned not looking up from her battle against Kin.
"There's no way you could have beaten Zaku that quickly!" Kin cried.
"Did you really expect something different?" Naruto asked, feeling generally confused, did he really look that weak? "That guy was not all that strong, just had that weird wind jutsu. It was easy. Sakura, why haven't you finished this one off yet, you're way stronger than her."
"Shut up!" Kin shouted. "I don't believe that a shrimp like you could beat Zaku."
"Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant," Naruto said. "I am here and Zaku is rotting away well on his way to becoming animal food. I know that you three are working for Orochimaru, Zaku spilled the beans. So that means you are working for a missing ninja from Konoha, an S-rank criminal and one of the biggest criminals in my village's history. What does he want?"
"I'm not telling you anything!" Kin shouted, trying to sound angry but both Naruto and Sakura could hear the waver in her voice.
"Your teammate is dead, you can't pass the exam," Naruto said. "You might as well just give up and surrender to us. If you tell us what Orochimaru is planning, we can help you."
"Why would you help me?" Kin asked. "I am your enemy."
"I don't think you want to be our enemy, I can tell that you hate or fear working for Orochimaru, so what do you say?"
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked. "Like she said, she's an enemy. Don't you think I can beat her, I don't need you trying to get her to surrender?"
"I know you can beat her Sakura-chan," Naruto said, waving his hands in front of himself. "But we should at least try and learn why the biggest criminal in the village's history is back and sending agents into the Chunin Exams, right?"
Sakura glared at Naruto, causing the blonde to feel a bead of sweat trickle down the back of his neck. "Fine," Sakura agreed. "I hate it when you actually use that brain of yours. Things were so much easier when you were an idiot."
Naruto laughed. "Perhaps, just wrap her up and once we find Sasuke, we can drop her outside the fence," he said. "Someone will pick her up. She'll slow us down too much to take her with us."
"Don't talk like I'm not here!" Kin shouted.
"**Earth Release: Sinkhole!**" Sakura muttered, slamming her hands to the ground. Kin yelped as the earth softened beneath her and pulled her down until only her head was visible.
"That's new," Naruto commented.
"Yep," Sakura chirped. "I modeled it off of sensei's **Headhunter Jutsu**. I can't make a hole much larger than a single person because of my chakra levels though."
"Well it works," Naruto grinned. "Do you have any prisoner tags on you?"
"No," Sakura admitted. "But I can make one if you have any sealing paper and ink?"
"Yeah, I have some," Naruto said, digging through his pouch and pulling out some paper and a jar of ink.
"Thanks," Sakura said, taking the ink and paper from Naruto.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Kin cried, trying to wiggle herself free from Sakura's jutsu.
"Oh be quiet," Sakura snapped before slapping the tag of Kin's forehead. The Oto kunoichi slumped as the tag put her to sleep. Two clones appeared next to Naruto with a slight gesture and began digging Kin free.
Another explosion caught Naruto and Sakura's attention.
"Looks like Sasuke might need some help," Naruto said. He turned to his clones. "Get her to the fence and find a proctor or someone. Tell them that she is working for Orochimaru." The two clones nodded and picked Kin up before leaping off. Naruto and Sakura turned toward where the explosion had come from and raced off to find their teammate.
* * *
><p>"<strong>Fire Release: Great Fireball!<strong>" Sasuke shouted, spewing a large ball of flames at Dosu. The Oto genin dove behind a huge tree to avoid being burnt to a crisp by the fireball.
"I would have hoped that the Last Uchiha would prove a better opponent," Dosu taunted, even though he was inwardly cursing. He had been on the back foot this entire fight, ever since Sasuke revealed that he could see his **Sound Drill Jutsu** with the **Sharingan**. This forced Dosu to abandon his favorite strategy of countering any physical attack with a focused **Sound Drill Jutsu** to his opponent's ear.
Sasuke panted as he sucked in a breath after using the **Great Fireball Jutsu**. He knew that his opponent was buying time, trying to make him exhaust all his chakra before making his move. Sasuke had to admit, that **Sound Drill Jutsu** was a very clever jutsu, and it would have seriously hampered Sasuke if it wasn't for his **Sharingan**'s ability to see chakra.
The Uchiha teen grabbed several shuriken from his pouch and deftly wrapped some ninja wire through the holes in the metal throwing stars.
Dosu felt the flames from the Uchiha's fire jutsu die out and took a deep breath. '_Now_,' he thought dashing around the smoldering tree. Dosu's lone visible eye widened as he came around the trunk, he spotted several shuriken speeding toward him. The Oto genin leapt into the air to avoid the shuriken, but realized his mistake almost instantly.
"Too late," Sasuke grinned as he jerked his head back. The wire attached to the shuriken led the ninja stars upward and wrapped around the bandaged Oto genin. Sasuke smirked as his hands sped through several hand signs. "**Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!**"
Sasuke watched dispassionately as his fire jutsu sped down the wire and engulfed the boy. When the flames finally died, all that remained of Dosu was a charred husk. Sasuke felt his stomach rebel at the sight and smell of flesh melting away as he approached the corpse and fished gingerly through the remains to find the scroll that he knew this genin had been carrying.
"So you won?"
Sasuke turned to see Naruto and Sakura standing on a branch, looking down at him.
"Was there any doubt?" Sasuke retorted. Naruto chuckled while Sakura smiled broadly.
"Of course not, so we got the scroll?" he asked. Sasuke nodded and held up a Heaven Scroll.
"Excellent, let's get to the Tower," Sakura said. Team 7 leapt off not sensing the gleaming yellow eyes watching them with excitement and hunger.
**A/N: Well there you go, the newest chapter of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_. Hope you all enjoyed it, let me know if you all enjoyed it. I know that the Chunin Exam Arc has been quite overdone but hopefully the changes I've made to it so far will make it interesting for you all. Just some news for my readers, there will NOT be any pairings in this story, the characters are 12-13 years old. As this story will have a sequel, any pairings will come in that story if there are any. _Naruto_ ****wasn't about who got paired with who, it was supposed to be about preserving, friendship and being loyal to yourself. To me, the final chapters of _Naruto_ totally messed up the previous 15 years, Kishimoto or whoever, decided to scrape all that _Naruto_ stood for in order to pander to all those who were clamoring for shipping. While I didn't like Naruto and Hinata being paired together, I don't mind it. It was Sasuke and Sakura being paired together that really annoyed me, IMO Sasuke didn't deserve to live after what he pulled. I think a great way for Sasuke to be forgiven would be if he had died of his wounds, or died killing Madara to wrap up the Uchiha bloodline. From what I've heard and read about _Naruto: The Last_, Sasuke is barely in it, so why have him survive the war anyway. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and til next time,**
**SlytherinKnight**
8. Nothing Brings People Closer than Death
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine, I don't own any of the characters, settings or recognizable jutsus. It all belongs to Kishimoto and all that he has deemed worthy of owning a piece of it. Just having some fun and trying to fix the holes that I felt were unacceptable in the epic that was _Naruto_.**
"How much further to the Tower?" Naruto whined as Team 7 leapt through the massive Training Ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death.
"A bit closer than the last time you asked, five minutes ago!" Sakura shouted. "Now shut up and keep running!"
"Look out!" Sasuke shouted as he caught movement and felt a massive spike of chakra. An enormous gust of wind whipped through the trees, stripping them of bark and leaves, as it rocketed toward Team 7.
"Whoa!" Naruto shouted as he was blasted off the branch that he had been trying to stick too.
"Naruto!" Sakura and Sasuke cried as they watched their teammate being blown away.
"What the hell was that?" Sakura asked when the wind finally died. "That was no natural wind!"
"It was a jutsu," Sasuke agreed. "I felt a chakra spike just before it hit."
"What do we do?" Sakura asked. "If that was a jutsu, there's no way that a genin could produce that strong of a jutsu."
"We need to find Naruto," Sasuke said. "And then get the hell out of here."
"Oh you needn't worry about Naruto-kun," a high yet icy cold voice hissed from the shadows. "He will be quite occupied with my little friends. You two must keep your attention here."
Sasuke and Sakura watched silently as a tall, dark haired woman rose from the shadows in front of them. The woman's skin was as pale as a corpse, and the predatory gleam in her yellow eyes sent shivers down Sakura and Sasuke's spines.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, inwardly curing himself at the waver in his voice.
"Oh don't worry Sasuke-kun, we will get to that in due time," the woman giggled. "But first, you must pass my test."
"What are you…" Sasuke fell silent as he and Sakura felt a crushing cold surround them. The two genin fell to their knees as the air was stolen from their lungs. It felt as if a hand had just forced its way into their chests and was slowly crushing their heart and lungs. Sasuke looked up at the tall woman who was watching he and Sakura with the air of a bored spectator. His coal black eyes met the woman's yellow eyes and Sasuke gasped as he saw visions of a kunai piercing his skull, and he could feel the blade slowly making its way through his flesh, bone and brain.
"It's a pity," the woman commented lightly. "One would think that being _his_ brother, you would show more promise and skill. Oh well." The woman slowly drew a pair of kunai and with casual ease, threw them at Sasuke and Sakura.
'_Move!_' Sasuke thought as he saw the kunai sped toward him and Sakura. Suddenly the kunai slowed down as the world seemed to snap into ultra focus.
"Interesting," the woman said as her two kunai sank into the tree branch where Sasuke and Sakura had been kneeling. There were several flecks of blood on the branch where Sasuke had been. "He managed to overcome the genjutsu with pain. Perhaps he does have quite a bit of talent, the hunt begins."
"Sakura, Sakura!" Sasuke hissed as he looked at his teammate who looked as pale as the woman they had just escaped from.
Slap!
A pinkish tinge formed on Sakura's face from where Sasuke's hand had impacted her cheek.
"Sasuke-kun?" she whispered as if coming out of a daze. "Where are we?"
"We're in the Forest of Death, the Second Exam of the Chunin Exams, remember," Sasuke answered.
"Oh right," Sakura said. Then she stiffened as if struck by lightning. "Where's that woman? How did we get away?"
"She put us in a genjutsu or something," Sasuke said. "I was able to break it and get us away."
"Where's Naruto?"
"I don't know," Sasuke admitted. "He got blown away, remember?"
"We need to find him," Sakura said. "If that woman comes back, we will need Naruto to have a chance."
A small part of Sasuke didn't want to admit that she was right but the larger part of Sasuke, the part wanting to keep him alive agreed with Sakura. If there was one thing that Kakashi had beaten into Team 7's heads was that they were stronger together than they were by on their own.
"You know you really shouldn't lower your guard so easily," an amused voice hissed from behind Sasuke.
All Sasuke needed to know that the voice behind him belonged to the woman they had run from was Sakura's widening eyes and rapid draining of color from her face. Sasuke rapidly spun around and saw the tall woman standing about ten feet away, her arms crossed across her chest and an amused smile on her pale face.
"When in the presence of a predator, one must never let down their guard," the woman said, sounding like a pale imitation of an Academy instructor.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked.
"Oh there are many things I want Sasuke-kun, but the question you should be asking is what I can offer you?" the woman answered cryptically.
"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked.
"What is it that you want Sasuke-kun?" the woman asked. "What do you desire most deep down in the depths of your very being?"
Visions of Itachi lying beaten and bloodied at his feet filled Sasuke's mind. A large puddle of blood was spreading out from beneath Itachi's body as Sasuke watched the light fade from Itachi's eyes.
"There it is Sasuke-kun," the woman laughed. "Show me that you are worthy of bearing the name Uchiha."
"Sasuke-kun, we need to find Naruto," Sakura whispered.
"Sakura, I don't think this woman will just let us leave," Sasuke argued. "If we want to find Naruto, we have to beat this woman or you go find him and I stay behind."
Sakura looked annoyed that Sasuke would even think of asking her to abandon her teammate, though she knew that both she and Sasuke were greatly outclassed by this woman. This woman who had made her nearly pass out and become nothing more than a drooling mass with nary a look. Her killing intent was magnitudes stronger than Zabuza's and a nagging voice in the back of Sakura's head was screaming at the pinkette that this woman was just toying with the two genin.
"Sakura, make your choice," Sasuke said sharply. "Our opponent is not going to remain this patient forever."
Sakura was torn between wanting to run, under the pretense of trying to find Naruto, and staying by Sasuke's side. Then the words of Kakashi-sensei rang through her head, '_Those who abandon their teammates are worse than scum._'
'**Naruto is strong too**,' Inner Sakura said in Sakura's mind. '**He won't die easily, have faith in him.**'
Sakura nodded. '_You're right_,' she agreed. "I'm staying Sasuke-kun," Sakura said. "Naruto is too strong to be stopped by a single jutsu. And we both know what Kakashi-sensei thinks of those who abandon their teammates."
"So Kakashi-kun is your sensei, and he is still peddling that teammates come first mentality," the woman laughed sending shivers down the two genins' spines. "Do you know that Kakashi-kun is the lone surviving member of his genin team? That he abandoned his own captured teammate to continue a mission. Not a very good track record for a man who talks so highly of valuing one's teammates."
"How do you know Kakashi-sensei? Who are you?" Sasuke demanded.
"Perhaps if you impress me Sasuke-kun, I will tell you my name," the woman said. "But only if you do. So it seems that it will be two against one, very well. Let's begin then, shall we?"
Sasuke and Sakura leapt apart as a pair of kunai shot from the woman's sleeves. Sakura returned fire with a handful of shuriken that the woman effortlessly weaved her way through.
"**Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!**" Sasuke shouted. A large fireball spat from Sasuke's mouth and sped across the forest.
"Such mastery of the gamed **Great Fireball Jutsu**," the woman commented as she sank into the bark of a tree to avoid Sasuke's jutsu. "So you show quite a bit of talent. Let us see how much talent you have Sasuke-kun."
The woman shot forward Sasuke at such high speeds that she became just a blur to Sakura. Sasuke was able to track the woman, in fact the world had seemingly snapped into crystal focus. He raised his left arm and blocked a bone crushing punch from the woman; Sasuke bit his lip to hold back the cry of pain as he felt his bones shake from the impact. Sasuke launched a kick at the woman's head but she easily caught his leg.
"You are going to have to do better than that Sasuke-kun," the woman chided. She squeezed Sasuke's leg causing the boy to grunt in pain. With effortless ease, the woman threw Sasuke aside.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried. She leapt after Sasuke to catch him but the Uchiha managed to twist himself in mid air and land on his feet. Sasuke grunted as pain lanced up his leg. The branch quivered as Sakura landed next to Sasuke. "Are you all right?" she asked.
"Fine," Sasuke said, rubbing his leg. He could already feel the bruises forming on his leg. "Do you have any idea on how to beat this woman?"
"No," Sakura answered. "I can tell she's holding back and is toying with us."
"I know," Sasuke agreed.
"Your opponent won't always be willing to give you time to regroup and neither will I," the woman cried as she dashed forward. Before either Sakura or Sasuke could react, the woman had appeared in front of them. With just a single punch, Sakura was sent flying off the branch.
"Sakura!" Sasuke shouted. He could tell that Sakura had been knocked out cold by that single punch judging by the way she was limply flying through the air.
"You shouldn't take your eyes off me Sasuke-kun," the woman giggled. Sasuke turned and found the woman towering over him. Sasuke's mind took him back to _that night_, when _he_ had slaughtered their family and clan. Sasuke had vowed that he would never again be in such a position weakness, he would never be as weak as he had been that night.
Sasuke's **Sharingan** spun rapidly as he leapt after Sakura even though he knew that he would not be able to catch her. He felt a helplessness begin to overwhelm him as Sasuke watched with perfect clarity as Sakura's limp body drew closer and closer to a large tree.
"What the hell Sasuke!" a loud but welcome voice shouted out as a yellow blur flashed in front of Sasuke and caught Sakura. It was Naruto. The blonde was standing on lower branch with Sakura held bridal-style.
Sasuke breathed a small sigh of relief. "Where have you been Naruto?" he shouted, schooling his features into a mask to hide that relief.
"Sorry Sasuke, I got held up by this massive snake," Naruto said. "It tried to make me into dinner. What's up with you?"
"So Naruto-kun, you managed to escape my slippery friend," the woman said with an amused smile.
Naruto glared at the woman. "So you were the one who sent that wind jutsu at us and nearly made me into snake food, eh?"
"Indeed Naruto-kun." The blonde flinched slightly as the woman's face stretched almost impossibly wide in a smile.
"What do you want?" Naruto demanded.
"I do not like repeating myself," the woman said. "I wish to test Sasuke-kun, and I believe I have been interrupted enough."
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" Naruto shouted without warning, sending a large wind bullet at the woman who had surged forward.
"Oh, so we have another wind user," the woman said as she slithered around Naruto's jutsu much like a snake. "But you will have to do much better than that to stop me."
"Sasuke, remember when Kakashi-sensei combined his jutsu with Asuma-sensei's," Naruto shouted as he leapt backward with Sakura back in his arms. Sasuke nodded.
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" Naruto shouted.
"**Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!**" Sasuke echoed.
The two jutsus combined and sent a rushing whirlwind of flame spiraling toward the woman. Naruto and Sasuke shielded their eyes from the combination jutsu as it engulfed several trees in flames.
"Think that did it?" Naruto asked, setting Sakura down on a branch.
"I don't know," Sasuke answered.
"We need to get out of here," Naruto said. "The snake that tried to eat me vanished after I beat it. The only animals that do that are summons."
"Summons?" Sasuke repeated. "The only summoner that uses snakes is…"
"Orochimaru," a weak female voice coughed from next to Naruto and Sasuke.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto breathed. "Are you all right?"
"I feel like I've been run over by a herd of cows," Sakura groaned. "What happened?"
"You were knocked out by that woman," Sasuke explained.
"I seem to be losing my touch if a weak little girl is able to stand after being punched," an eerie cackling voice came out of the fire. Followed by the tall silhouette of the woman. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura looked on horrified as the woman walked out of the flames, without a care in the world, but she was not unscathed. Half of the woman's face had melted off but instead of charred and blackened flesh and bone, another face looked out at Team 7.
The woman reached up and tore off the hanging flesh with nary a flinch, and she tossed the skin into the flames behind her.
"That was quite a powerful combination jutsu Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun," the woman said. "Very impressive but not quite powerful enough."
"What are you?" Sasuke shouted.
"Since you have already guessed, I am Orochimaru of the Sannin," Orochimaru said with a wide smile.
"What do you want?" Naruto demanded.
"I suppose have to answer that now," Orochimaru commented. "I am here to give Sasuke-kun an offer."
"An offer? An offer of what?" Sasuke asked.
"One of power of course," Orochimaru laughed. "You wish to gain power to kill Itachi, I can give you that power."
Sakura and Naruto looked to their teammate who had gone stock-still.
"Yes Sasuke-kun, I can give you all the power you desire," Orochimaru continued his pitch. "All that you desire can be yours if you wish it, and I can give them to you."
"Sasuke, think about what this bastard has done," Naruto said. "We've all heard the rumors, you can't trust a word he says."
"Oh Naruto-kun, how naïve you are," Orochimaru laughed, sending shivers racing up and down the genins' spines. "You call me untrustworthy when Sarutobi-sensei has hidden so much from you. Or what you've hidden from your own team, what does that say about you?"
Naruto glared at Orochimaru whose smile only widened.
"Come now Naruto-kun, why the anger at me? It is Sarutobi-sensei that you should be angry with," Orochimaru taunted. "He is the one who is hiding things from both you and Sasuke-kun. Oh the things I could tell you both."
"What do you mean the both of us?" Sasuke asked.
"Sasuke-kun, do you really think as powerful as your brother is, how could he kill your entire clan in a single night with no one noticing?" Orochimaru asked. "Your clan, while not the largest, still had how many shinobi in its ranks? Why did anyone not notice what was happening, surely at least one or two of your clansmen could fight back or make enough commotion to bring attention to the compound?"
Sasuke stared at Orochimaru in both confusion and suspicion. The Sannin could tell that his words were having an effect on the boy. '_Perhaps I don't have to mark him, at least just yet,_' Orochimaru thought. '_He would come to me on his own, and having him choose me over the village would really twist the knife in Itachi's chest._'
"I have spoken enough," Orochimaru said. "Think about it Sasuke-kun. What you have been told doesn't add up. And Naruto-kun, why are you so loyal to those who would toss you aside without a second thought, as well as continuously hide things from you? I have your answers if you wish them, Sarutobi-sensei will never let things come to light because they would tarnish his grandfatherly image. If you truly want the answers to all the questions you have, I will know. I have eyes and ear everywhere."
Team 7 watched as Orochimaru sank into the tree, leaving no trace of his presence.
"Can you see him Sasuke?" Naruto asked, five minutes later.
"No," Sasuke answered. "I can't see him anywhere nearby."
"We should get out of here," Sakura said. She was leaning against the tree, still holding her ribs from where Orochimaru had punched her. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto disagreed with their female teammate.
"How far is it to the Tower?" Naruto asked later on.
"I don't know Naruto, just keep going," Sakura snapped, tightening her grip around Naruto's neck. She had argued that she hadn't needed to be carried but both boys said that speed was the better part of valor at that moment. Sakura was still recovering from Orochimaru's blow, and couldn't move at full speed. She theorized that the punch had broken at least one rib, because of the sharp pain that shot up through her chest with each breath.
Sasuke was racing out in front of Naruto and Sakura with his **Sharingan** blazing. The rapidly darkening forest was closing in around Team 7, and Sasuke's **Sharingan** was able to see much easier than Naruto and Sakura.
"Hey Sasuke, we need to stop," Naruto shouted. "I can barely see ten feet in front of me. Can you see anyplace where we can spend the night?"
Sasuke landed on a branch and scanned the area, barely noticing Naruto landing next to him, with Sakura on his back.
"There is a cave below us," Sasuke said. "But I still think we should keep moving."
"Normally, I would agree with you but we are all on edge and with Sakura-chan hurt, we need to find a place to rest," Naruto said. "Lead the way."
Sasuke nodded and led his teammates down from the treetops down to the cave that he had spotted.
"What's bugging you Sasuke?" Naruto asked. Team 7 had settled down in the cave and had spilt up the evening into watch shifts; Sasuke, Naruto and then Sakura.
"Nothing," Sasuke answered.
"It's what Orochimaru said, isn't it?" Naruto pressed. Sasuke's shoulders hitched. "Look Sasuke, I know it's probably really tempting, thinking that Orochimaru has all the answers but do you really think that he would just give up that kind of information for free."
"Naruto, what do you know about this!" Sasuke snapped. "Ever since that night, I've wondered why he did it! Why did he only leave me alive? And no one has told me why it happened? Orochimaru made some very strong points, how could Itachi wipe out my entire clan by himself? He was the strongest ninja in my clan but he couldn't do it by himself."
"Sasuke, I will admit that Orochimaru raised some interesting questions," Naruto said. "But there has to be a good reason that these questions haven't been answered. After the Exams, why don't you ask jiji about them? He has hidden things from me too, he knows who my parents were but won't tell me. He says I'm not strong enough."
Sasuke looked at his blonde teammate, being reminded that Naruto was also an orphan, and didn't even know who his parents were, let alone have any memories of them.
"Sasuke, I can't make your choice for you," Naruto said. "Just don't make your decision without getting all the information. If Orochimaru does have information about what happened to your family, you have to know that anything he says will be twisted to make the village look bad."
Sasuke nodded. "I know that but its still agonizing not knowing, isn't it?" he asked. Naruto gave a single nod in response. "If we were to ask the Hokage, and he doesn't give us our answers, what will you do?"
"I don't know," Naruto admitted. "I will have to see why jiji won't tell me, I can't give you a better answer than that"
"I guess you're right, for once," Sasuke quipped. Naruto rolled his eyes at his teammate's comment.
"You know that tomorrow is going to be hell," Naruto said. "We might have both scrolls but the other teams will be on the lookout. And there's what Orochimaru said, having eyes and ears everywhere. We have to assume that any team that we run into is working for Orochimaru…even those from Konoha."
Sasuke grunted in agreement.
"You can take off now, I'll send out some **Shadow Clones** to scout and patrol around," Naruto said. "They'll warn me if any other teams come by."
Sasuke shot Naruto a grateful look and turned from the cave mouth. Naruto watched as Sasuke unpacked his bedroll and lay down near Sakura.
Turning back to the outside forest, Naruto summoned a dozen **Shadow Clones**, and had them scatter into the woods. He then pulled out several slips of paper and stuck them around the cave mouth.
"**Barrier: Four Corners Barrier!**" he muttered. The mouth of the cave shimmered slightly as Naruto's barrier erected itself. The blonde had read about the use of barrier jutsus while studying fuinjutsu and decided to try and incorporate it into his skill set. The **Four Corners Barrier** was the only one that Naruto could use and it was really only an alarm barrier, any jutsu, C-rank or higher, would shatter it. But as long as it alerted Team 7, it would serve its purpose.
* * *
><p>"Why didn't you wake me up?" Sakura growled.<p>
"Well Sakura-chan, you needed more sleep and you looked so peaceful that we couldn't bring ourselves to wake you up," Naruto stammered, sweat trickling down the back of his neck. "And besides, with my clones and barrier there was no way someone could sneak up on us."
"Hey don't drag me into this," Sasuke said. Sakura glared at her blonde teammate.
"Look, we need to keep moving," Sasuke said sharply, ending Naruto and Sakura's argument. "We can't be out in the open for to much longer or we'll be spotted."
Naruto and Sakura fell silent and nodded. Team 7 turned from their sanctuary and out toward the Forest of Death.
"Let's go," Sasuke ordered and the three genin raced off back into the forest.
"Look out!" Sasuke shouted as Team 7 leapt from branch to branch. They had only been running for an hour or so when Sasuke's **Sharingan** had caught the glint of a kunai speeding toward them. Team 7 halted as a kunai struck deep into the branch they had landed on.
"Come on out, we know you are there," Sasuke barked as Team 7 fell into a defensive position, back to back in a triangle formation.
"Scatter!" Naruto ordered as a rain of senbon needles came speeding down at Team 7 from the treetops. Team 7 easily dodged the needles and regrouped just as a trio of ninja descended from the treetops.
"Looks like we caught a bunch of tree rats," the tallest ninja sneered. "Give up you brats, you are surrounded and outclassed. Just hand over any scrolls that you have and maybe just maybe we'll let you go."
"Why don't you make us?" Naruto growled. "You won't get our scroll without a fight."
"You asked for it," the ninja said. Amusement glittered in the man's dark green eyes as he reached up and pulled the umbrella from his back. Tossing the umbrella into the air, he shouted, "**Ninpou: Needle Rain!**" Needles began spitting down toward Team 7.
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" Naruto countered, firing a large wind bullet at the needles, knocking them from the air.
"So, it looks like the Leaf brats know how to play," the lone female ninja sneered. "Good, it's been much too boring so far. **Water Release: Water Bullet!**"
Several fist-sized blobs of water shot from the woman's mouth and sped toward Team 7. The Konoha genin easily avoided the attack and readied themselves for a follow up but it never came. The enemy ninja continued to pepper Team 7 with long range attacks. Naruto continued firing back with **Wind Bullets** to knock aside any attacks that came close.
"What are these guys doing?" Naruto asked as he sent another **Wind Bullet** at the enemy. "All they've done is pepper us with these weak attacks."
"Naruto, its time to counterattack," Sasuke barked. "Flush them out."
"Right!" Naruto shouted. "**Multi Shadow Clone!**"
Dozens of Narutos burst out of the smoke and rushed toward the enemy ninja.
"Oh how cute, one of the Leaf brats can make clones," the short male ninja said. "Well two can play at that game." All around Team 7, black shadows rose from the trees and ground and solidified into clones of the shorter Rain ninja. "Get them," he shouted. The clones of the Rain ninja charged Team 7 at their creator's order.
The clones of Naruto all grinned as one.
"What are you smiling at?" the short Rain ninja sneered.
"At how dumb you are," one of the clones said.
"What the…" a high scream cut off the man's question as Team 7, which had hidden in the smoke from Naruto's jutsu, reappeared behind the Rain ninja. Each member had a kunai in their hand, and they were placed at the throats of the Rain ninja.
"Call off the clones or they will be the last thing you ever see," Sasuke ordered.
"Fine," the clone maker growled. The clones sank back into puddles of black.
"What!" Team 7 shouted as the Rain ninja they had been holding at kunai-point also dissolved.
"Did you really think we would be fooled so easily?" a laughing voice called down from the treetops. "Switching out with clones is one of the oldest tricks in the book."
The three Rain ninja fell down from the trees, landing on each member of Team 7. Naruto's, Sasuke's and Sakura's eyes all widened as they struggled for a moment before they felt the cold sting of a kunai slip between their ribs. The three Rain ninja grinned at each other.
POOF!
The impaled bodies of Team 7 vanished with subdued puffs of smoke.
"Fooled you," Naruto's own laughing voice echoed around the Rain ninja. Several dozen clones of Naruto dropped down from the trees.
Before any of the Rain ninja could move, the tables have been reversed and Team 7 had their kunai at the throats of the Rain ninja.
"Where's your scroll?" Sasuke snarled.
"It's in my pack," the tall Rain ninja said quickly and in a panicky voice. "Take it and let us go, please."
Sasuke looked over at his teammates. He could see that both Naruto and Sakura were tired and wanting desperately to get out of this forest and rest somewhere without having to set a watch to make sure they didn't get a blade across their necks while they slept.
A Naruto clone came up to Sasuke's side and quickly searched through the ninja's pack. The clone pulled out an Earth scroll and showed it to Sasuke. The dark-haired Uchiha nodded at the clone.
"Thank you," Sasuke said. He nodded to his teammates and as one; Team 7 slammed the handles of their kunai into the heads of the Rain ninja and knocked them out cleanly.
"Come on, let's get out of this kami forsaken forest," Sasuke said.
"Right!" the other two genin of Team 7 agreed. Team 7 leapt off, unaware that a pair of gray eyes were watching them from the trees.
A tall, spindly tower rose above the trees of the Forest of Death. It's uneven surface and spiraling height made it fit right in with all the tall trees. And it was an immensely welcome sight to the genin of Team 7. They dashed through the open doors of the tower and entered a large entrance hall.
"Now what?" Naruto asked, panting. Team 7 had been running for roughly six hours straight, they could have made the run only last an hour but Team 7 didn't want to go through another fight, so they had to go in a circular route to make sure they didn't run into another team.
"I don't have any idea," Sasuke snapped.
"What about the scrolls?" Sakura suggested. "Didn't the proctor say that we couldn't open them unless inside the tower, so why don't we open them?"
"Better idea than I can come up with," Naruto shrugged. He and Sasuke took out the scrolls from their pouches and opened them. "Drop the scrolls, that's a summoning scroll!" Naruto shouted. The blonde recognized the writings on the scroll from the Nidaime's scroll.
He and Sasuke tossed the scrolls down and leapt backward as the scrolls exploded and a cloud of smoke filled the hall.
"Congratulations," a warm and welcome voice said as the smoke cleared away to reveal Iruka standing on top of the scrolls.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted at the sight of the Academy instructor.
"What's going on?" Sasuke asked. "Why were you summoned?"
"Well, I wanted to be the one who passed or failed you three, since you were in my class at the Academy," Iruka said.
"So…"
"You passed!"
"All right!" Naruto cried along with Sakura, Sasuke just gave Iruka a smug grin. Iruka smiled at the blonde's exuberance. '_You've grown so much Naruto,_' Iruka thought. '_You have come so far._'
"Now what?" Naruto asked. "I mean, we brought the scrolls to the tower in the time limit, so what do we do now?"
"Ah right," Iruka said. "Since you three got here inside the deadline, you can all rest up. The exam will end in two days. There are rooms in the tower to rest in and relax. Once the exam is concluded, you will be called to the main arena for a meeting where you will be given further instructions. I am so proud of all of you."
"Thanks sensei," Team 7 said in unison.
"Hey Iruka-sensei, have any other teams made it?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, actually two other teams have made it," Iruka answered. "One team from Suna and a team from Konoha."
"Who from Konoha?" Sakura asked.
"A team that graduated a year before you three," Iruka said. "Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga and Tenten Noguchi."
"When did they arrive?" Sasuke asked, his competitiveness leaking out. He didn't like knowing that a team from Konoha had beaten.
"The Suna team got here on the first day," Iruka said. "Actually, they beat the old record, it was very impressive. The Konoha team reached the tower yesterday."
"Ah who cares if we weren't the first team here Sasuke," Naruto said, noticing his teammate's mood. "We passed the exam and that's all that matters. I'm beat Iruka-sensei, where's our room?"
"Follow me."
* * *
><p>"What are you still doing up?" Naruto turned to see Sasuke stepping out of his room and into the common room of the suite that the Team 7 had been assigned.<p>
"Can't sleep," Naruto answered. "You?"
"Same," Sasuke said. "Why?"
"Why do you think?" Naruto asked, rolling his eyes.
"Orochimaru?" Sasuke guessed. Naruto nodded, confirming the Uchiha's guess. "Same here."
"You know that we shouldn't even be talking about him," Naruto said. "Who knows who might be listening, and this man is one of the biggest traitors in the village's history."
"I know," Sasuke admitted. "But I can't get the thought that the village might be hiding more than they are telling me about that night."
"Sasuke, like I said in the Forest, anything Orochimaru tells you would be twisted to paint the village in the worst light," Naruto said.
"Why are you so vigorously defending the village that has treated you like crap?" Sasuke asked strongly. "Orochimaru claimed to know who your parents are and was willing to tell you, while the Hokage wasn't. Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"Of course I am," Naruto fired back. "I have always wanted to know who my parents were, you have no idea what its like growing up completely alone and unwanted. To have never known a mother's hug or to hear your father say he is proud of you? But I trust that jiji has a reason for not telling me, when I find out that reason I will probably not like it, hell, I will probably want to punch jiji. But I know he is only doing what he thinks is right."
Sasuke huffed at Naruto's answer. The blonde was right on some level, the Hokage must have his reasons for not telling Sasuke anything about that night. But Orochimaru's words had place a seed deep within Sasuke's mind, a small flame that would not die.
"What do you think happened that night?" Sasuke asked, his voice very soft, almost like the pre-teen was afraid.
"I don't know Sasuke," Naruto said. "The only person who can truly answer that question is your brother." Sasuke's head snapped to look at Naruto. "It wasn't that difficult to figure out, especially after what Orochimaru said. I am sure that before you kill him, you'll ask him."
"You think that I will kill him?"
"Of course I do, you are my teammate," Naruto answered simply.
Sasuke couldn't understand what Naruto's simple statement was making him feel. It wasn't the same warm feeling that Sasuke had felt when his father finally acknowledged him, or when his mother had given him a hug after coming home from the Academy or training. Sasuke thought that it felt closest to when _he_ acknowledged Sasuke after Sasuke achieved something.
"Naruto, you know you are the first person who has told me that," Sasuke said. "Everyone else has just pandered to me about achieving my dream, telling me how strong I have to become just to have a chance. But you are the first one to sincerely believe in me. And you don't know how much that means to me. Thank you Naruto."
Naruto grinned. "Of course Sasuke, that's what friends are for."
"Friends, right."
**A/N: There you have it, hope you all enjoyed it. I noticed that not many people reviewed on my previous chapter, and was just wondering why? If you don't like the story and want to suggest changes, then either PM or review me. I wanted to use this chapter as a building block to Naruto and Sasuke's friendship, more than what we got in the manga and anime. I also wanted to delve more into Sasuke's character as I want to show him as a conflicted young man, not as an avenger hellbent on revenge like he was in the manga at least to me. I hope that I have started to do so. Anyway, that's all for me, hope you all enjoyed the chapter, til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
9. A Brief Respite
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! I don't own any recognizable parts of Kishimoto's amazing (at least up until the final 10 or so chapters) manga work. I am just having some fun in the _Naruto_ world, trying to add my own little quirks to our favorite blonde's life.**
**Jutsu or Bloodline Ability**
_Inner thoughts_
_**Demon Speak**_
Naruto groaned lewdly as he sat up in bed, his back cracking and popping. The mattress that he had been sleeping on was immensely more comfortable than the lumpy and thin mattress that he normally slept on at his apartment. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Naruto swung his legs off the bed, hissing at the touch of the cold wooden floor.
"Good, you're up," a familiar voice said.
Naruto looked around and saw Sasuke stepping out of the bathroom, running a towel through his still wet hair.
"Man, I slept like the dead," Naruto said. "What time is it?"
"Around seven, I think," Sasuke answered.
"Where's Sakura-chan?"
"No clue, probably still in her room," Sasuke shrugged.
"So what's the plan for today? I mean, we still have two full days before the end of the Second Exam," Naruto said. The door to the boys' room opened and Sakura walked in. She had obviously also just gotten out of the shower as her long pink hair was glistening as she ran a brush through it.
"Good morning Naruto, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said. "What were you two talking about?"
"What is on the agenda for today," Sasuke answered. "We have two days before the exams finish and now we don't know what to do."
Sakura frowned, cutely in Naruto's opinion, and sat down next to Sasuke on the couch. "We could walk around the Tower, see who else has made it here and maybe we can learn what will happen next," she suggested.
Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other and the blonde shrugged. "I've got nothing better," he said. "Let's go!"
"Shouldn't you get dressed first Naruto?" Sakura asked, trying not to stare at the blonde's sleep attire of a black tank top and dark orange sweats.
Naruto looked down at his clothes and blushed. "Oh right," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "I'll get washed up and changed. I'll bet there is some sort of cafeteria in here, I can meet you guys there once I'm done."
"All right," Sakura agreed quickly, glancing at Sasuke and trying not to blush and squeal at the thought of being alone with Sasuke. "Come on Sasuke-kun, let's go find some food."
"Ah!" Sasuke cried out in surprise as Sakura grabbed Sasuke's hand and yanked the Uchiha from the couch and out of the room. Sasuke looked back over his shoulder at a smiling Naruto with a glare. But that glare quickly vanished when Sasuke noticed that the smile Naruto was wearing was completely wooden and fake.
Naruto sighed as the door slammed shut behind Sasuke and Sakura, letting the false cheerful smile he had shown his teammates slide from his face. Naruto turned toward the shower, ignoring the slight pang in his chest. He knew that Sakura loved Sasuke, and would always love Sasuke but it did hurt to see Sakura run off with Sasuke and look so happy doing so.
'_**You should just give up on that weakling!**_' the deep, dark voice of the Kyubi echoed around Naruto's head. '_**She is not worth your feelings**__._'
'_Didn't we already have this argument already,_' Naruto growled. '_I don't care what you think about Sakura-chan but you will not call her weak._'
The massive fox just rolled its eyes and fell back asleep.
'_Stupid asshole fox,_' Naruto grumbled.
"That's enough Sakura," Sasuke growled, wrenching his hand from Sakura's grasp. "I can walk just fine on my own."
"Sorry Sasuke-kun," Sakura whispered. "Where do you think the cafeteria is?"
"I have no clue," Sasuke snapped. "I don't know where anything is anymore than you do. And you were dragging me along too quickly to see any directions."
Sakura's face gained a pink tinge that matched her hair. "Sorry Sasuke-kun," she apologized again.
"Sakura."
"Yes Sasuke-kun?" Sasuke grimaced at the almost worshipful tone that Sakura used when saying his name.
"Sakura, what do you think of Naruto?"
Sakura blinked and gave Sasuke a confused look. "What do you mean Sasuke-kun?"
"What I said, what do you think of Naruto Uzumaki, our teammate?"
"That's a hard thing to answer Sasuke-kun," Sakura admitted after a minute. "During that Academy, and when we first became a team, I thought that he was annoying and rude and dumb, always pestering me for dates and just being a nuisance. It seemed like he was meant to always pester and annoy me, but now, now that I've gotten to know him, my opinion of Naruto has changed. Sure he is still annoying but I've learned there is more to Naruto, like Kakashi-sensei always says 'look underneath the underneath'. Naruto is my teammate; he can be funny, clueless, serious and sometimes scary. Looking back, I am disgusted at how I treated Naruto in the Academy, sure he wasn't the easiest person to get along with but he didn't deserve all the hate that I put on him. Why do you ask Sasuke-kun?"
"It is something that Orochimaru said," Sasuke said. "It has been bugging me, Naruto is hiding something from us. I've been suspecting this ever since our time in the Wave. On the bridge, he used this cold and wild red chakra. The chakra gave him incredible strength but when I asked him about it, Naruto wouldn't give me a straight answer. You felt it too didn't you?" Sasuke asked, noticing Sakura's look.
"Yes, I felt it," Sakura admitted. "I didn't know that it was Naruto. I had never felt such cold and hatred, even from Zabuza or Orochimaru. To think that that chakra came from Naruto, actually I don't know what to think. What do you think it was?"
"I don't know," Sasuke answered. "I thought it might be some sort of bloodline but then I wondered why Naruto would keep it quiet. The village loves its bloodlines but Naruto is treated so badly by most of the villagers so I don't think it's a bloodline."
"Why then hasn't Naruto told us about it? We are his teammates, he should trust us!" Sakura argued.
"Does six months of being teammates make up for years of mistreatment?" Sasuke pointed out. Sakura winced.
"So what do we do?" she asked.
Sasuke paused as he thought about his answer. "As much as I want too, confronting Naruto and demanding he answer our questions will only send him running," he began. "I think all we can do is wait until Naruto trusts us enough to tell us."
Sakura didn't look pleased at Sasuke's answer but couldn't think of a better way and nodded her agreement. The two genin continued on down the hallway toward what they hoped was the cafeteria, not knowing that a pair of blue eyes had been watching from the shadows.
'_**What will you do know now meat bag?**_' the voice of the Kyubi growled from deep within Naruto's mind.
'_Shut up fox,_' Naruto snapped.
'_**They will find out about me, and when they do, you know what will happen,**_' the Kyubi sneered. '_**They will call you freak, monster. You will be all alone again. They will hate and fear you, they will run away from you.**_'
'_Shut up!_' Naruto roared. The massive fox smirked darkly as it faded back into the recesses of Naruto's mind, its work down for now. '_Stupid asshole fox,_' the blonde growled as he trailed his two unaware teammates.
The blonde found the cafeteria a few moments later and spotted Sakura and Sasuke sitting at a table at the far end of the room.
"So you finally decided to show up, eh dobe?" Sasuke quipped when Naruto reached the table. "We thought that you had gotten lost."
Naruto just rolled his eyes and sat down, grabbing a cup of juice offered to him by Sakura. "Thanks Sakura-chan," he said. "Have you seen anyone else? We know that two teams have already passed before we did."
"No, we haven't seen any of the other teams," Sakura said. "All that we know is that one is a team from Suna and the other is an older team from Konoha. Maybe we should scout out the competition, see what we are up against?"
"After breakfast," Naruto said before digging into the food that had been put out. Sakura and Sasuke just rolled their eyes at the antics of their blonde teammate.
Naruto had just pushed away his third plate of eggs and bacon when the doors to the lounge flew open and the team from Suna entered. The team was made up of two boys and one girl; the smaller boy was being flanked by his two teammates as they walked in. The boy had red hair with dark green eyes with black rings circling them, making the boy look like a raccoon.
Deep within Naruto's mind, the Kyubi stirred. '_**Now that's a feeling I have not felt in some time**_,' the fox muttered.
Meanwhile Naruto felt the fox stir and felt unease settle upon him at the sight of the short redhead. A subtle sense of bloodlust was following the redhead as he passed Team 7. Naruto also noticed that the redhead's teammates were walking very stiffly as if they were afraid of making any sudden movements, and their eyes kept darting back toward the boy between them.
"So that must be the Suna team," Sasuke said. "Did you guys notice…"
"Yeah, that the taller two were afraid of the redhead," Sakura finished. Sasuke nodded.
"We should avoid them," Naruto said. "Something doesn't feel right about him, like he is one second away from going over the edge." Sasuke and Sakura each saw the serious look on Naruto's face and knew that the blonde was not messing around. Both Sasuke and Sakura knew that Naruto's gut feelings were nearly always right; the blonde seemed to have an inordinate amount of good luck at least in some things.
"Let's check out the rest of the Tower," Sasuke said. Naruto and Sakura nodded and Team 7 left the lounge as one, only Naruto feeling the gaze of the short redhead following their movements as they left.
* * *
><p>"Sasuke Uchiha!"<p>
Team 7 turned to see Rock Lee come racing down the hallway like a train. Behind Lee were two Konoha ninja who were most likely his teammates, the girl was the bun-haired girl from the genjutsu pre-test, and the other male was obviously a Hyuga judging from his milky white eyes.
"So you guys made it as well?" Naruto asked. "Congrats, did you guys just make it to the Tower?"
"We arrived yesterday morning," the Hyuga boy said.
"Wow, we got here last night," Naruto said. "You guys must have gotten lucky to find a team with a scroll so quickly."
"It was Fate that we passed, not luck," the Hyuga said with a sneer. "There is no such thing as luck."
"Ok then, have it your way," Naruto said warily.
"Sasuke Uchiha, the time has come for us to have our most youthful match!" Lee shouted.
"Lee, now is not the time," the bun-haired girl said. "For Kami's sake, we haven't even had breakfast yet, and you are already challenging people to fights."
"But Tenten, I want to test myself against the Uchiha heir," Lee pouted. "I already waited for this chance, I will not wait any longer."
"A spar sounds fine," Sasuke said. "Let's find a place to fight, I could use a good work out."
"All right!" Lee cried, pumping his fist. Tenten rubbed her brow in exasperation, while the Hyuga boy only shook his head. "Come Sasuke, let us find a hall where we can display our youthfulness for all world to see!" And with that, Lee ran off constantly shouting about youth.
"I'm guessing that this happens a lot?" Naruto asked as Team 7 and Lee's two teammates followed the energetic ninja down the hallway.
"You have no idea," Tenten muttered. "Oh, I am Tenten by the way and this is Neji," she added, introducing herself and the Hyuga.
"You three didn't graduate with us," Sakura said. "How long have you been ninja?"
"We graduated a year before you three did," Tenten answered. "But this is our first Chunin Exams. Our sensei wanted to make sure we were ready and that we took the Exams in the village. And you are Kakashi's team, the famed Team 7."
Naruto chuckled. "I don't think if you can say we're famous," he said. "I mean we've only been a team for six months, not a lot of time to build a reputation."
"Please, haven't you heard about the Great Maelstrom Bridge?" Tenten asked. "Our sensei was ranting about his rival's blinding youthfulness and how his team saved a country from the 'unyouthful grip of Gato'! Not famous, right?"
Team 7 all blushed slightly at Tenten's gushing over their mission to the Wave. "Honestly, it wasn't just us who saved the Wave," Sakura said. "Team 10 was there too, it was their mission to escort Tazuna in the first place. We were just sent to back them up since Tazuna lied about who was after him. It was just good luck, or bad luck depending on how you look at it, that we were given the mission at all."
"So what, you guys still went on an A-rank mission as baby genin," Tenten exclaimed. "We didn't even get to leave the village on a C-rank until six months had passed since we had graduated."
The two Konoha teams reached a large hall that looked perfect for a spar. Lee was already at one end of the hall, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet in excitement. Sasuke stood about ten feet away from Lee, his posture relaxed and ready but Naruto and Sakura both knew that Sasuke was just as excited as Lee was. His tells were more subdued then Lee's but the constant flexing of his fingers told Naruto and Sakura that Sasuke was itching for a fight as much as Lee was.
"Sasuke, don't do anything stupid," Naruto warned. "We don't know what is going to happen after the Exam, so don't get yourself really hurt."
Sasuke gave his blonde teammate a clipped not. "Naruto has his moments of brilliance every once in a while," Sasuke admitted. "Why don't' we agree to only use taijutsu, make sure we really don't get hurt or wreck this place?"
"That is a most youthful idea, Sasuke!" Lee said. "It is most sporting of you to limit yourself to only taijutsu, I myself cannot perform ninjutsu or genjutsu, so I have dedicated myself to learning all that I can about taijutsu. My dream is to show the world that a ninja can become strong using only taijutsu, so do not hold back yourself back in fear of harming me."
"Oh crap," Naruto muttered, shaking his head. "Now Lee's done it."
"What do you mean?" Tenten asked.
"Lee is making it seem like the only way Sasuke-kun could possibly beat Lee is if Sasuke-kun were to use ninjutsu or genjutsu," Sakura said. "Lee, unknowingly or not, just put Sasuke-kun down, making Sasuke-kun think he is weak by needing ninjutsu or genjutsu to defeat Lee."
"On the bright side, at least they won't totally wreck this place," Naruto said.
Sasuke settled into the ready stance of his family's **Interceptor Style**, while Lee took up an unfamiliar stance. He was standing ramrod straight; his right foot in front of his left, with both arms were tight to his body with his right forearm and hand pointing at Sasuke.
Sasuke's **Sharingan** spun to life as he took in his opponent, at first glance it looked like Lee was leaving himself wide open but with his **Sharingan**, Sasuke could tell that Lee was in a excellent defensive position.
"Let us begin!" Lee shouted as he rocketed forward at surprising speed. If Sasuke hadn't had his **Sharingan** activated, there would have been a very good chance that this spar would have already been over in only one blow.
'_Never thought that running into the traitor Orochimaru would be beneficial,_' Sasuke thought as he ducked under another kick from Lee. Lee's blows, while powerful, were nothing compared to the Snake Sannin's, nor was the boy's speed.
"Wow, the Uchiha isn't all talk if he's able to keep up with Lee," Tenten said. "But then again, Lee is just warming up."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"Lee wasn't lying when he said he has completely dedicated himself to mastering taijutsu," Tenten said. "And Gai-sensei is a taijutsu master himself, and even he says that Lee is well on his way to surpassing him. While Uchiha is quite talented, against Lee though, he has no chance."
"Don't rule Sasuke out just yet," Naruto said. "He's one tough bastard."
"Truly Sasuke, you have shown that you are worthy of the Uchiha name and title of genius," Lee shouted. "And your **Sharingan** is a most fearsome weapon but thanks to my most youthful sensei, I know of the major weakness of your **Sharingan**."
"Flaw?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes flaw," Lee said with a blinding smile. "With your **Sharingan**, you might be able to see my movements, if your body is not fast enough to avoid them then it won't matter if you can see them. Let me show you the true power of hard work!"
Sasuke saw Lee surge toward him but instantly Sasuke knew that he couldn't keep up with the green-clad boy.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried as her teammate and crush was spent flying across the hall.
Sasuke managed to twist in mid-air and landed in a crouch but still skidded across the floor. '_How fast is this guy?_' Sasuke thought. '_If I can barely keep up with Lee now, how much was Orochimaru holding back?_'
"**Konoha Senpuu!**" Lee shouted as he appeared in front of Sasuke, the boy's body coiled to deliver another devastating spinning kick. Sasuke managed to raise an arm to lessen the blow but it still felt like a sledgehammer had hit him and sent him flying through the air.
"Lee, enough fooling around," Neji barked, speaking for the first time. "Finish this!"
Lee nodded and began to unfurl the bandages that covered his arms and hands. "Forgive me sensei but to truly show that I am a genius of hard work and have achieved my dream, I must use _that_ jutsu," Lee said. "Sasuke-kun, the time has come to finish our spar. And to do so I will show you my most powerful move, a move that I have mastered using only hard work."
Sasuke felt a tinge of doubt enter his mind after hearing Lee's declaration. The Uchiha knew that he was barely hanging in against this boy, and now Sasuke was about to face Lee's strongest move. Lee vanished in a blur of speed unmatched to what he had shown so far, and all Sasuke could feel was pain as Lee's foot caught him under the chin, sending Sasuke soaring through the air. Lee leapt after Sasuke, his bandages coming to life as they ensnared Sasuke, wrapping the Uchiha up like a mummy.
"This isn't good," Naruto said, concern filling his chest at the sight of his teammate flying through the air wrapped up and unable to move.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried, her hands flying to her mouth in fear.
"Lee!" a deep voice shouted out. The watching genin looked around for the source of the voice, but Neji and Tenten's heads snapped up recognizing the voice.
A kunai came whistling from the shadows, slicing through the bandages restraining Sasuke and setting him free. The two genin landed on the floor and turned toward the far end of the hall. A single figure stepped from the shadows, Team 7 blinked rapidly at the appearance of the newcomer, who looked like an older version of Lee.
"Gai-sensei!" Lee cried. "I just wanted to prove that I could…"
SLAP!
Team 7 winced as Gai slapped Lee across the face hard, sending the young genin flying.
"What have I told you Lee?" Gai scolded. "That jutsu is very dangerous and should never be used on a comrade! You could have seriously harmed yourself, and Sasuke-kun, and then you would have cost both your team and Sasuke-kun's team a chance to advance. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I am sorry sensei," Lee said, his head downcast.
"You foolish child," Gai shouted. "Your flames of youth do burn most brightly but you must also temper that youthfulness with wisdom. You must know when it is right to use such a jutsu; a youthful spar is not one of those times. As punishment, you will run 100 laps around the training ground, on your hands, once the exams have been completed of course."
"Right sensei!" Lee cried.
"I see you three have met Team 9," a familiar aloof voice said from behind Naruto and Sakura.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto and Sakura yelped as they spun around. Sasuke made his way over to his team and sensei, holding his right arm.
"Yo," Kakashi answered, waving a hand at his genin. "Congrats on passing the Second Exams, I am proud of you three."
The three genin of Team 7 grinned at their sensei's praise.
"But Sasuke, you shouldn't have accepted this spar," Kakashi continued. "Especially without a proctor or jonin to watch. You put yourself and team at risk of being disqualified from the Exams." Sasuke ducked his head at the chiding from Kakashi. The Uchiha boy knew that the jonin was right; Sasuke had let his pride get the best of him. "Still, being able to push Lee, a genin who has a full year experience more than you, into using a trump card is pretty impressive."
Kakashi grinned beneath his mask at the perk up in his student.
"Sensei, can you tell us what will happen after the Exams end? No one seems to know," Sakura asked.
"I could," Kakashi answered.
A minute passed, "Well sensei, are you going to tell us?" Sakura asked.
"No of course not."
"What! Why not? You said you would!" Naruto shouted.
"No, I said I could tell you, not that I would," Kakashi said, giving his frustrated team an eye smile. "What I can tell you is why I can't tell you what happens next."
"Well, why can't you tell us?" Sasuke growled.
"Because it's a secret," Kakashi said with a shrug as if it answered everything. Team 7's heads dropped to their chests in unison. "Sorry you three but its tradition that all genin taking the Exams not know what is coming. You never know what you will face in this business; it's a very important quality to have as a ninja.
"Fine…sensei, is there a place we can talk, alone?" Naruto asked. "Something happened in the Forest that you should know about."
Kakashi knew that this was serious from the way that Sakura and Sasuke deferred to Naruto and didn't look surprised. "Follow me," he said.
* * *
><p>"So what did Orochimaru tell you?" Kakashi asked once Team 7 plus Kakashi were back in the genins' quarters.<p>
"What!"
"How did you know?"
"Give me a little credit," Kakashi said, sounding wounded. "Also, the proctor of the exam ran into him as well, and managed to raise the alarm. You guys have no idea how lucky you three are to still be alive."
"We kind of figured that," Naruto admitted. "That guy, he was on a totally different level."
"It was terrifying," Sakura said. Sasuke nodded his own agreement.
"Still, I can't express how proud I am of you all," Kakashi said, causing the genins' heads to look up at him in confusion. "Standing your ground against Orochimaru is something that even I would have second thoughts about doing." Team 7 beamed at their sensei. "Now what did you three want to talk about?"
"Nothing now," Naruto said. "We wanted to tell you about Orochimaru but since you already know, what's the point." Kakashi nodded.
"What about that team from Oto?" Sakura asked. "They said they were working for Orochimaru, doesn't that mean he might have others working for him."
"A team said that they worked for Orochimaru?" Kakashi asked, his posture straightening. "What team?"
"It was the same team from our mission to the Wave," Naruto said. "The ones that beat up Team 10."
"The ones with the headband symbol of a musical note," Sasuke finished. "They said they were from Oto, right?"
"Otogakure no Sato," Kakashi said softly. "They are a new village, just springing up this year and we don't know a lot about them so far."
"Naruto, what about that Kin girl your clones took to the proctor? Didn't they find her?" Sakura asked.
"What is this about?" Kakashi asked.
"Well, the team from Oto tried to ambush us," Sasuke explained. "I fought this one-eyed guy who had this metal gauntlet and used some sort of sound based attack, using his chakra to direct sound waves to injure his opponents. Naruto faced off against this asshole who could fire **Wind Jutsus** from his hands, like these holes in his hands. And Sakura..."
"I fought the girl who was pretty good at weaving sound-based **Genjutsu** with senbon needles," Sakura said. "But I had her beat until Naruto decided to intervene."
"Hey, I know you had her beat but I thought we should try and get some information on why Orochimaru had sent a team to the Exams," Naruto tried to explain himself. "And I remember my clones handed Kin off to an ANBU. The ANBU said that he would take custody of Kin and deliver her to the T&I department so they could get all the information they could from her."
"This is the first I am hearing of this," Kakashi said. "But I wouldn't worry about it too much, the T&I will get all they can from this Kin. And the other two ninja, you killed them?"
"Yes," Naruto said, his voice quiet. "They didn't leave us much choice."
"It's ok you three," Kakashi said. "I know that you three have already been bloodied but killing people your own age is never easy. Was there anything else that you needed to tell me?"
"Yes, Orochimaru said that he had eyes and ears everywhere," Sasuke said. "Wouldn't that mean he could have another teams working for him."
Kakashi's visible eye widened at Sasuke's information. "You're right," he said. "I need to tell the Hokage about this. Do not tell anyone else about what you've just told me, this is top secret, do you understand?"
"Yes sensei," the three genin of Team 7 answered sharply. Kakashi nodded before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"So Sasuke, how strong is Lee now?" Naruto asked when the smoke dissipated from their sensei's escape.
"You know Lee?" Sakura asked. "And you didn't tell us?"
"Yeah sorry about that," Naruto shrugged. "Remember, I started the Academy two years before you guys did, so I had classes with Lee, Tenten and Neji. I didn't recognize them at first because, well they've changed a lot since I last saw them."
"What about his teammates, Tenten and Neji? Do you know anything about them?" Sasuke asked. "We found out about Lee already."
Naruto cupped his chin and his eyes glazed over as he thought back to his time at the Academy, normally a time he wouldn't want to revisit. "Well Tenten always hated fan girls and wanted to prove that kunoichi could be as strong as shinobi. Oh and she was always the best in the class at target practice, she never missed, ever! Neji was a cold bastard whenever he talked, even more than Sasuke but he was insanely good at taijutsu, even better than Lee."
Sasuke and Sakura blinked at the thought that Neji was supposedly stronger than Lee in Lee's chosen ninja discipline.
"Well, the Hyuga clan is renowned for their clan's taijutsu prowess," Sakura said. "It's said to be nearly unbeatable."
"I doubt that," Naruto said. "Remember what Lee told Sasuke. He said that even though Sasuke could see the moves with his **Sharingan**, if his body can't move quickly enough to block or evade, then it wouldn't matter. If you can't get hit, then the enemy can't beat you."
"So we need to get faster then?" Sasuke suggested. "But how?"
"Well, according to what I've read, the Yondaime Hokage used weight seals to train his speed," Sakura said. "We could do the same. But I don't think I'm advanced enough to put a seal on my body or yours?"
"Naruto, you can do it right?" Sasuke asked.
"Probably," Naruto admitted. The blonde knew that he was the most advanced in fuinjutsu, it just seemed to come naturally to him. "But we should wait until I can get Kakashi-sensei to check things over, I don't want to screw things up with something so serious." The other two agreed and made sure to speak to their sensei after the Exam.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked softly. Naruto turned to his female teammate; she looked both curious and scared. "Naruto, about Orochimaru. We all know what he meant by promising Sasuke-kun power but what was he talking to you about? What did he mean by things you've hidden from us?"
Sasuke's head snapped around to look at Sakura, completely stunned that she would ignore his advice to not push Naruto into answering their questions. _'And she's supposed to be the smart one,'_ he thought.
Naruto froze. To Sasuke and Sakura, it looked like their blonde teammate had turned into a rabbit in the presence of a fox or another predator. His eyes were wide and darting around the room wildly, looking for an escape route.
"Naruto, are you all right?" Sakura asked. She had never seen Naruto act like he was now, scared and nervous. He always acted like nothing could faze him, always able to brush things aside with ease no matter what people said or thought of him. "You can tell us anything Naruto, we are your teammates, and your friends. Please trust us."
'_**They will hate you if you tell them,**_' the deep voice of the Kyubi growled from within Naruto's mind. '_**They will call you monster and murderer!**_'
'_No Sakura-chan is right,_' Naruto argued. '_They are my teammates and my friends. If I can't trust them on this, then how can I ever truly trust them to watch my back on a mission?_'
'_**That's the point idiot!**_' the fox growled. '_**You can't trust anyone but yourself.**_'
'_I do trust myself,_' Naruto fired back. '_And that's why I am trusting my decision to tell them._'
Naruto took a deep breath and looked both Sasuke and Sakura straight in the eye. "Look, if I tell you this, you can not tell anyone ok?" he said. "This is a matter of village security, if you tell anyone you will be killed."
"Come on Naruto, stop pulling our legs," Sasuke chuckled.
"I am being dead serious Sasuke," Naruto said. "Only myself or the Hokage can tell anyone. If you don't believe me, just think where is Mizuki-sensei?"
Sakura and Sasuke looked at one another, realizing that they hadn't seen or heard of their former Academy sensei since the day they graduated from the Academy.
"Mizuki tricked me into stealing a very valuable scroll from the Hokage's office after I failed the Academy exam," Naruto said. "He told me that it was a make up exam, and if I passed it, I would become a ninja. What he didn't tell me was that I was just to be a fall guy; Mizuki wanted this scroll and the jutsus inside it for power. When Mizuki caught up with Iruka-sensei, and me he told me the reason most of the villagers hated me. It was because of the Kyubi."
"The Kyubi?" Sakura asked. "But it was killed by the Yondaime Hokage 12 years ago."
"That's not what happened," Naruto said. "The Kyubi is a mass of pure chakra that has gained consciousness. Since it is made up of chakra, it can't be killed, only sealed away."
"Sealed?" Sasuke spoke up. "Sealed into what?"
"Me," Naruto admitted. "I am what is called a jinchuriki, a human sacrifice."
"Sacrifice?"
"Yeah," Naruto said heavily. "The fox was sealed into me by the Yondaime Hokage on the day of my birth. Actually, I was born just before the attack started according to the old man. And babies or younger children are best because their chakra networks haven't fully formed, and ever time are able to withstand the influx of demon chakra. An adult's network wouldn't be able to handle the strain and it would collapse, killing them."
"But why wasn't this announced, why are we just learning about this now?" Sakura asked. "It's obvious that people don't know about sealing…"
"They think you are the Kyubi, don't they?" Sasuke asked, interrupting Sakura.
"Probably some of them do, yes," Naruto nodded. "Hokage-sama told me that only our generation doesn't know about the fox. The older generations know the true story though. I think that most of the villagers, civilian and ninja, are afraid."
"Afraid?" Sakura asked. "Afraid of what?"
"The fox breaking free," Sasuke reasoned. "Like you said Sakura, fuinjutsu is not that well known, even by most ninja. They might be wary of the fox breaking free because to them, if the Yondaime Hokage, one of the strongest ninja this village has ever produced, can be killed by the Kyubi, what chance does a baby have of containing it?"
Naruto nodded, a sad smile on his face telling Sakura and Sasuke that their blonde teammate had come to the same conclusion.
"But again, why didn't Hokage-sama just announce that the fox can't break free?" Sakura asked, tears welling up in her eyes as the memories of each and every time that she had treated Naruto badly for doing absolutely nothing. "All he had to say was that the fox would never get out, and they would believe him right?"
"He did announce that the fox couldn't break free," Naruto said. "But some people I guess refused to believe him. There is another definition for a jinchuriki, other than a human sacrifice, they are also considered weapons of war."
"Weapons of war?" Sakura asked, blinking in confusion.
"Thank about it Sakura-chan, the Kyubi is a living mass of chakra, essentially a massive chakra battery, so that means I probably have more chakra than any single ninja in the village, even old man Hokage," Naruto said. "That means I can use more jutsus than anyone else, fight longer and pretty much be the village's trump card. In most villages, jinchuriki are nothing more than that, trump cards to keep villages out of war."
"How do you know this?" Sasuke asked.
"The Hokage told me," Naruto answered simply. '_Well, Grandpa's journals told me,_' Naruto thought to himself.
"Naruto, why are you telling us all this?" Sasuke asked. "You could have made something up."
"I trust you guys," Naruto said simply. "You two are my teammates, my best friends. If I can't trust you, then who can I trust?"
Sakura threw herself at Naruto, pulling him into a crushing hug, all the while sobbing, "I'm sorry," over and over into Naruto's shoulder. Sasuke ate a chuckle at Naruto's helpless and confused expression, meanwhile feeling a surge of warmth and gratitude well up inside him at the trust that Naruto was showing him and Sakura.
"Hey Sasuke, a little help here?" Naruto asked.
"You're on your own there dobe," Sasuke smirked.
**A/N: Well there you have it, the newest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_, hope you all enjoyed it. It was a bit of a ****character and dialogue driven chapter rather than action, but I really did like writing this one since it dove deeper into Team 7's dynamics. I always wondered, did Sasuke and Sakura not find out about Naruto holding Kurama until Shippuden? And if that were true, what would have happened if they found out earlier. Please let me know what you all think of this chapter, I want to know how I am doing in fleshing out the characters, etc. **
**Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
**P.S: Bonus points for anyone who can catch the famous line from one of the most iconic villains in movie history I put into the chapter. Here's a hint: The line is spoken by a villain turned hero both in the chapter and the movie. The answer will be in the next chapter.**
10. An Opportunity to Show Off Part I
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! I don't own anything recognizable from either _Naruto _or _Yu Yu Hakusho_, so there you go. **
**Key:**
**Jutsu Names**
"Dialogue"
'_Thoughts_'
_**Demon Speak or Demon-influenced speak**_
The time had finally come, the end of the Second Exam. Team 7 had been woken up by a Konoha chunin, the same bandage wearing chunin from before the First Exam, and told to be at the main hall by 5pm or they would be disqualified from the Exams. Team 7 made sure to get to the hall with plenty of time to spare in order to make sure they could see the competition, or that's what they told themselves, to be honest none of the genin could stand waiting around in their rooms, watching the clock tick down.
"It seems that we have reached the end of the Second Task of the Chunin Selection Exams," the aged voice of Hiruzen Sarutobi said from the platform at the front of the hall. "Congratulations to the five teams that have passed the trials within the forest, you have proven yourselves to be the best that your villages have to offer. Now, it seems that we still have too many participants to move directly along to the Third Stage, and so we will be having preliminaries to see who will advance to the finals. Ah Kabuto-kun, I'm afraid since your team did not manage to arrive intact, you will not be able to continue."
"I understand Hokage-sama," Kabuto said with a bow. "May I ask a favor though Hokage-sama?"
Hiruzen looked down at the gray haired genin. "Very well Kabuto-kun, what is it?"
"I have only managed to reach this stage in previous Exams, and while I know I can not be allowed to advance, I ask you to allow me to participate in the upcoming matches so that I might see where I stand with my comrades?" Kabuto asked.
A bead of sweat trickled down Kabuto's neck as the Hokage examined him.
"Very well Kabuto-kun," Hiruzen said. "I will allow this as we have an uneven amount of participants, but you will battle in the final match is that understood?"
"Yes sir," Kabuto said quickly, coming to attention. "Thank you very much Hokage-sama."
"Hokage-sama, what do you mean by preliminaries? Haven't we suffered enough?" Shikamaru asked. The Hokage chuckled.
"Unfortunately not Shikamaru-kun," Hiruzen said. "There will be a series of one-on-one matches to determine who advances and will be given the opportunity to be promoted."
"Oh come on, ji-Hokage-sama," Naruto groaned. "I mean there are only fifteen of us, that's got to be a small enough number."
"I am afraid not Naruto-kun," Hiruzen grinned. "While the first two stages have cut down the participants by a good amount, there still need to be a few less of you." A loud groaning came from behind the Hokage and the other jonin; a part of the wall was moving slowly upward to reveal an electronic blackboard. "This board will show two names…"
A Leaf jonin suddenly appeared before the Hokage, kneeling. "Forgive me Hokage-sama," the ninja coughed. "But I, Hayate Gekkō, as the proctor for this preliminary stage should be the one to explain from here on."
"Very well Hayate-kun," Hiruzen said.
"Thank you Hokage-sama," Hayate said. The bandana-wearing ninja turned around to face the assembled genin. "When your name is called, you will come down here and fight. The match will continue until one of the fighters is unable to continue, or I call the fight. Lethal force is allowed, now let's begin."
Names began scrolling on the board, rapidly flashing through each surviving member until it pinged and the board showed Naruto Uzumaki and Hitsryu Ishida.
"All right, I'm up first!" Naruto shouted as he vaulted over the railing and landed on the floor in a crouch. Naruto's opponent Hitsryu, however walked calmly down the steps, all the while watching Naruto with a critical eye.
"Are you both ready then?" Hayate asked. Naruto gave a broad smile and thumbs up while Hitsryu just nodded. "Then begin!"
The two genin leapt backward and began sizing each other up. Naruto's opponent was a good head taller than the blonde but was thin. To Naruto, the boy looked like a tall blade of grass with his dark green hair and attire. Even the boy's headband cloth was a forest green.
"What have you not attacked yet?" Hitsryu asked.
"Why haven't you?" Naruto asked in return.
"From what I have observed of you, you are one of those ninja who rush in," Hitsryu said calmly. "A ninja who is always itching for a fight. Even now I can tell you are holding yourself back from attacking. Why is that?"
"I guess you're right," Naruto chuckled. "I'm not the most patient person, I like acting and moving instead of waiting. So I guess I've waited long enough. **Shadow Clone Jutsu!**"
A large cloud of smoke covered Naruto, and Hitsryu blinked slowly as he saw that over two dozen clones surrounded him.
"So it appears you are ready to begin," Hitsryu said as he slid into an unfamiliar stance. "You may begin your attack."
Naruto furrowed his brow, confused as to why his opponent was letting him attack so easily. "All right, let's see what you've got," Naruto grinned. With a mental command, he sent a handful of clones charging at Hitsryu.
Naruto froze as he felt his clones being dispelled rapidly. He looked up and saw Hitsryu twirling a whip that looked like it was made of a thorny vine. Naruto exchanged another look with his remaining clones and they nodded at their creator before charging in at Hitsryu again, this time with kunai drawn.
"Those kunai will do you no good Uzumaki-san," Hitsryu said as he ducked under a swipe from one of Naruto's clones. He casually dispelled the clone with a spin kick to its neck. "My vine is not so easily cut. I have grown it ever since I was a child, infusing it with my chakra for years. It has never failed me and it shall not this day. **Hidden Jutsu: Thorn Barrage!**" Hitsryu twirled his vine rapidly around himself, causing the clones to back off. Suddenly dozens of green thorns came firing from the whip in all directions at an impressive speed. Before Naruto could react, his clones were mowed down leaving just a single one. And even that lone survivor was quickly dispelled when Hitsryu wrapped his vine around the clone and with a pulse of chakra; its thorns skewered the clone. Naruto flinched as he received the memory feedback from the last clone.
"That's a very interesting weapon you have there," Naruto said. "But let's see if that vine can stand up to the wind." Naruto drew two trench knives from his belt. Ever since he had heard that Asuma Sarutobi also had a wind affinity, Naruto had approached the sensei of Team 10 for tips and ideas into how to incorporate his wind affinity into his fighting style outside of just wind jutsus. Asuma showed the blonde his knives and how wind chakra was the best affinity for close range fighting as it could be used to extend the reach of handheld weapons and their cutting power. Naruto was hooked immediately and asked where he could find a pair of knuckle knives for himself. "Let's see which is stronger: your vine or my wind?"
Naruto raced forward, aiming to get inside Hitsryu's whip before the green haired boy could react.
"You have the right idea, trying to get inside my reach," Hitsryu said. "But do you not think I would not know my own supposed weakness? I have trained myself night and day to make that weakness a strength, and because of that, you will not defeat me."
With a snap of his wrist, Hitsryu's whip shortened and hardened. Now in place of a whip, Hitsryu held a thorny looking sword. Naruto arched an eyebrow at the versatile weapon. Naruto raised his knives and blocked the overhead strike from the sword, grunting under the force. The Konoha shinobi (and a certain Suna kunoichi) were stunned to see that the whip-vine-sword was not sliced in two by Naruto's knives.
"But I thought that wind could cut through anything?" Sakura asked aloud, feeling a slight tinge of worry in her chest for her teammate.
"In most cases it can," Kakashi said. "But as Hitsryu said, that vine has been grown with chakra so it would be stronger, tougher and more versatile than normal. Kusa ninja are known for this type of weapon development. The Land of Grassy Plains has very little in the way of metals, so they must use other means to create weapons since importing mass amounts of metal weapons is expensive and dangerous."
"It seems that Naruto-kun is in a bit of trouble," the Hokage muttered. "Let's see what kind of surprises he has in store for us."
"A very impressive weapon," Naruto said. "It can be used at range and up close, and you wield it very well.
"Thank you," Hitsryu answered.
"But I've learned quite a bit since these exams have started," Naruto said. "Including one vital tidbit coming from a fellow Leaf ninja."
"And what would that be?"
"The strongest defense is an overwhelming offense," Naruto said. "And the best offense is to be too fast for your opponent to hit back. Ya see, if they can't hit you, they can't hurt or kill you. I learned that important lesson from a ninja who can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu and is one of the strongest people I know."
A soft glow enveloped Naruto and the spectators could see that Naruto seemed to be standing straighter and holding himself lighter.
"What is Naruto doing?" Sakura asked. "We promised to ask Kakashi-sensei about weight seals after the exams. Naruto better not have been holding out by lying to us about not being able to make them."
"That's not it Sakura," Sasuke said, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. "Naruto has channeled as much of his chakra as he can into his legs to make himself faster it would seem."
"Let's see how you handle this," Naruto grinned as he vanished in a blur of speed. Hitsryu only had time to blink before he felt a fist crash into his jaw, sending him head over heels backward and skidding across the floor.
"You might as well give up now," Naruto said. "Unless you have something more to show."
"I do," Hitsryu said, wiping the thin stream of blood that was trickling from his mouth. "That was quite an impressive boost of speed. I will admit that you surprised me with it but you should have ended this fight with that one blow and there because you will not surprise me a second time."
"We'll see," Naruto grinned, his blood pumping rapidly through his body. Hitsryu rose to his feet and lengthened his vine sword back to its whip form. He then began twirling it around him, faster and faster, until Naruto could barely make out Hitsryu's form through the thicket.
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" Naruto shouted, sending a large ball of compressed air at his opponent. But the blonde was stunned to see his jutsu crash harmlessly into the vine swirling around Hitsryu.
"You will have to do better than that Uzumaki-san," Hitsryu said. "This is my ultimate defensive jutsu."
"Ultimate defensive jutsu, eh?" Naruto grinned. "Well, let's put that to the test. **Multi Shadow Clone!**"
The arena was suddenly filled wall to wall with clones of Naruto.
"How can he make so many clones?" Ino gasped, looking wildly around the hall.
"Naruto has always had very advanced chakra reserves," Asuma said. "It is his greatest strength and weakness."
"Weakness?" Choji asked. "Doesn't look like a weakness to me."
"It might not to you," Kakashi chuckled. "But all that chakra makes it very difficult to control. That was why Naruto struggled with exercises that only use small amounts of chakra, like the leaf sticking exercise, tree walking and the **Clone Jutsu**. And he can't use genjutsu."
"Now for the second part, Clone group one, you line him up. Clone group two, you've got propulsion. Let's see how the ultimate defensive jutsu holds up to this." One half of the clones each drew a handful of shuriken and threw them at Hitsryu.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**"
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**"
The wall of shuriken gained a huge boost of speed from the **Wind Jutsu** behind them.
"Hitsryu!" one of the other Kusa ninja cried as the shuriken closed in on her teammate.
The wind-assisted shuriken tore through the vine sphere with sickening snips and embedded in the opposite wall with heavy thuds. Pieces of the vine whip fell to the ground with soft splats.
"Quite a destructive combination," the calm voice of Hitsryu said as the Kusa ninja rose out of the ground behind Naruto. Before the blonde could move, he was wrapped tightly up by another vine whip.
"How?" Naruto asked. "I know that you were in that dome thing."
"I was," Hitsryu said. "But you were overconfident in believing that you had me trapped. A true ninja must always have an escape plan ready to be used. Now give up, it will be quite easy for me to skewer you now and kill you, if you don't
"Sorry," Naruto said. "Giving up really isn't my thing."
"Very well," Hitsryu said. His grip tightened on his whip and in response the whip tightened and its thorns grew and pierced the blonde all over.
"Gah!" Naruto gasped, before he grinned, "Fooled you," and burst into smoke.
Hitsryu froze, feeling the cold sting of metal at his throat along with an iron grip on his wrist. His face grimaced as Naruto wrenched his wrist, causing Hitsryu to drop his whip.
"Very clever," Hitsryu admitted. "You have trapped me."
"Give up or I will make you," Naruto growled, shifting the knife at Hitsryu's throat. A thin red line appeared along the blade.
"Your threats do not frighten me," Hitsryu countered. "But I am running low on chakra, and judging by the amount of clones you made, added to the fact that you haven't collapsed yet, tells me that you have a very large reserve of chakra, as indicative of a member of the Uzumaki Clan. Proctor, I give up, I can not continue this fight."
"Winner Naruto Uzumaki!" Hayate announced. Naruto lowered his kunai and released Hitsryu before stumbling backward. The Kusa ninja nodded to Naruto and Hayate before making his way back to his teammates.
"Congrats Naruto," Sakura said when Naruto reached Team 7. Sasuke just grunted his agreement.
"Yes Naruto-kun, you did well," Kakashi said. "You gave us quite a scare when your clone was trapped though.
"Oh come on sensei, didn't you guys have any faith in me?" Naruto pouted, causing Sakura to giggle while Kakashi gave his blonde subordinate an eye smile. "Man, I'm beat. That speed boost took a lot out of me," he said dropping to his butt.
"Yes, that was quite an interesting trick you pulled Naruto-kun," the exuberant voice of Rock Lee said from behind Kakashi. "Where did you learn it?"
"Well, funny story about that," Naruto chuckled. "I kind of modeled it off of you. I knew that I needed to be faster, so I thought if I channeled as much chakra into my legs as possible it would make me faster but man, it took a lot more chakra than I thought it would. I had to go overboard to make sure I was faster."
"It is very dangerous to attempt such an untested maneuver in the heat of battle," Gai warned. "It could have backfired and left you injured. And if that had happened during a mission, you would have put your team and comrades in great danger Naruto-kun."
Naruto bowed his head in recognition of the taijutsu master's advice and scolding.
"But Naruto-kun, the fact that you were able to pull off that move shows that you have a great deal of talent in taijutsu," Gai said. "When this is over, I shall send you some taijutsu scrolls to help you learn, if that is acceptable."
"That would be great, thank you very much Gai-san," Naruto said.
"Don't go trying to steal my student there Gai," Kakashi interrupted, though the genin could hear the amusement in his voice.
"Would Shikamaru Nara and Kankuro Sabaku please come down here?" Hayate called out. The black jumpsuit wearing Suna ninja leapt over the railing and landed on the arena floor.
"Go on then Shikamaru, show them what you can do!" Ino shouted, trying to egg on her lazy teammate.
"Come on, can't I just forfeit?" Shikamaru groaned. "This preliminary thing is too troublesome."
"No Shikamaru, you can't forfeit," Asuma said. His student's laziness was annoying the jonin. Asuma knew that Nara men were always lazy and nonchalant about pretty much anything but Shikamaru seemed to take it to another level. While after their mission to the Wave, Asuma had seen Shikamaru begin to change. That mission had opened his team's eyes to the reality of being a ninja, it showed all three genin that the glossed over stories of heroism and rescuing damsels in distress that Academy seemed content to peddle out. All three genin had begun training with a vengeance when Team 10 had returned to Konoha, each now having a reason to become strong. Shikamaru and Choji vowed to become strong in order to protect their friends and never feel helpless again. Ino had seen Sakura stand fearlessly against their opponents, and vowed that she wouldn't fall further behind her rival.
"Fine," Shikamaru grumbled as walking past his team and down to the arena floor.
"Took you long enough," Kankuro sneered. "And here I thought Konoha shinobi hated conflict."
"We may not like fighting, but we are undefeated in war," Shikamaru said. "But enough witty banter, it's no fun when the opponent has no wits to speak of."
"Why you?" Kankuro snarled.
"All right that's enough," Hayate interrupted. "You two are obviously ready to begin, so let's get started. Fight!"
Neither genin made a move, both just staring at one another. Shikamaru had his hands deep in his pockets and shoulders slouched, while Kankuro was gripping the straps of the package on his back, looking like he couldn't wait to charge forward.
"Well aren't you going to make a move?" Kankuro asked.
"Why haven't you made a move?" Shikamaru countered. "I'm not a very take the initiative-type of guy. So I don't mind waiting, though I'd much rather be watching the clouds than fighting a puppeteer."
"How did you…" Kankuro gulped.
"Your village is world-famous for puppet-using ninjas and the large wrapped package on your back pretty much gives it away," Shikamaru said with a shrug. The Suna ninja growled at Shikamaru's casual recognition of his skills.
Kankuro pulled the bandaged package off his back and it unfurled. To many of the spectators, it looked like a second Kankuro had appeared but Shikamaru knew that one of them was a puppet, the trick was figuring out which was the real Kankuro.
Shikamaru withdrew his hands from his pockets and pulled two kunai from his pouch. He knew he had to disable the real Kankuro if he had any chance of winning. If Shikamaru didn't get the real Kankuro the first time, Shikamaru would lose. With a speed belying his lazed posture and attitude, Shikamaru threw two kunai at the two Kankuros. Shikamaru's eyes followed his opponent; both of them, as they leapt apart easily avoiding the kunai.
'_He knows I am trying to figure out where he is_,' Shikamaru thought. '_He won't make any moves that will expose himself unless he is sure he's got me trapped. So troublesome._'
Shikamaru reached into his pouch again, grabbing a light bomb. It was a Nara clan secret, how these bombs were made. Many other clans and villages had tried to recreate the formula but none had managed it. Tossing the light bomb into the air, Shikamaru dropped to a knee.
"What the?" Kankuro frowned, watching the Konoha ninja kneel down after throwing something into the air. "Argh!" Kankuro shouted as the light bomb exploded.
"**Shadow Possession Jutsu** success," Shikamaru grinned as he felt his shadow connect and snare Kankuro's shadow with his own.
"What the!" Kankuro cried as he found himself unable to move. "Why can't I move?"
"For someone who speaks so lowly of my village, you don't know a lot about the major clans that live here," Shikamaru said. "Now who is who?"
"What do you mean?" Kankuro asked.
"I know that one of you is the real Kankuro and the other is your puppet, but which is which?" Shikamaru pondered.
"Ha, you'll never figure out which one of us is the real one," Kankuro laughed. "And you are running out of time. Your jutsu is getting weaker and weaker."
"Then let's wrap this up," Shikamaru said. One tendril of Shikamaru's shadow vanished, freeing one of the Kankuros.
"Wrong guess," Kankuro shouted as he raced toward Shikamaru, a kunai appearing in his hand. Shikamaru slowly turned, his eyes widening in shock and horror, as he raised an arm to try ward off the blow that he knew was coming.
"Gotcha," Shikamaru grinned as he dodged the blow and touched Kankuro's shoulder.
"What?" Kankuro cried as he froze. A wooden clatter filled the arena as the second Kankuro dropped to the floor, the sand covering his face drained away revealing that the downed Kankuro was a puppet. "How did you know?"
"That was easy," Shikamaru said. "While our shadows are connected, I can notice any movements you make, no matter how small. So I could tell that you were the real one because your fingers were moving. I suggest you give up."
"I'll never give up," Kankuro growled, trying frantically to free himself from Shikamaru's jutsu.
"Suit yourself," Shikamaru shrugged, Kankuro copying his movements. "**Shadow Strangulation Jutsu!**"
"What's going on, what are you doing?" Kankuro gasped as he felt something move up his legs.
"It is one of my clan's jutsus," Shikamaru explained. "If you don't give up, you will lose. The close you get to me, the stronger my shadow's hold is. And you are much too close to escape."
Shadowy hands continued to creep up Kankuro's legs, as the Sand ninja continued to struggle but he couldn't move. Slowly the hands reached Kankuro's neck, and stopped there. Kankuro flinched at the cold feel of the hands touching his skin.
"Last chance," Shikamaru said. "If you don't surrender, I will finish this."
"I'm a ninja of Sunagakure no Sato, and I'll never surrender to the likes of you," Kankuro shouted.
"Fine then," Shikamaru growled. He could feel the strain of the **Shadow Strangulation Jutsu** beginning to take its toll, his father had warned him that using the jutsu for prolonged periods of time before being ready was not a good idea. But Shikamaru had vowed to himself, after seeing what being lackadaisical with being a ninja could do, to get stronger in order to never see his teammates in pain again.
"Gah!" Kankuro gasped as the shadowy hands began to squeeze.
"That's enough!" Hayate said, jumping into the fray. "Winner, Shikamaru Nara."
Shikamaru released his jutsu and fell back onto his butt, panting. "Man that was close," he said. "Just a few seconds longer, and I would have exhausted all my chakra."
"What! You were bluffing?" Kankuro shouted, enraged at losing to Shikamaru.
"No, I could have easily snapped your neck back then," Shikamaru said, his face stern and harsh. "But that would have been too troublesome, and could have caused issues between our two villages if I killed the oldest son of the Kazekage in a simple preliminary match."
"Well done Shikamaru," Asuma chuckled as he landed behind his student.
"Yeah whatever," Shikamaru grumbled as he struggled to his feet.
Kankuro snarled as he made his way back to the viewing platform.
"You lost Kankuro," a cold voice said as Kankuro reached his team. The puppeteer froze as he looked up at his teammates. The short redhead was the one who had spoken.
"S…sorry Gaara," Kankuro stammered. "I…I underestimated my opponent."
"Yes you did," Gaara said. "You failed miserably and lost."
Kankuro flinched at the cold, dead look in Gaara's eyes. "I'm sorry," Kankuro apologized again. Gaara turned away from his older brother as the board began to scroll through the remaining names. The board's beep drew the attention of the arena.
"The next preliminary match will be between Choji Akimichi of Konoha and Karin of Kusa," Hayate announced. "Would the two participants come down here?"
"Good luck Choji," Naruto called as the friendly Akimichi heir ambled his way down to the floor, stuffing chips into his mouth at a frantic pace. Across the hall, Choji's red-haired opponent was making her way down to the floor as well.
"So how much do you think Choji has grown since the Wave?" Naruto asked his two teammates, as Choji and Karin got ready to face off against each other. "Shikamaru learned some new tricks."
"Well with the way Choji was inhaling those chips, he still hasn't mastered his clan's abilities," Sasuke said. "The fact that he was eating so much tells me that his chakra levels are still pretty low."
"True but his opponent doesn't look like much," Sakura said. "She doesn't look very strong or fast."
"Don't underestimate her," Naruto said. "She's on the same team as Hitsryu and they got through the Forest."
"I guess so," Sakura admitted though she still didn't look convinced.
"Quiet, they are about to begin," Sasuke ordered.
"Are you two ready?" Hayate asked, and received two nods in return. "All right then, the third match will begin!"
"**Partial Expansion Jutsu!**" Choji shouted. His body expanded to three times its normal size.
"Eep!" Karin cried as Choji's arms and legs withdrew into his clothes, making his body resemble a large cannonball.
"**Rolling Meat Boulder!**" Choji's muffled voice cried out as he began to spin rapidly. He surged forward toward Karin, who was barely able to evade the attack. She reached into her pouch and withdrew several smoke bombs.
"Clever," Kakashi commented from behind Team 7.
"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, still not impressed by Karin's abilities.
"Watch," Kakashi answered cryptically, causing Sakura to huff in annoyance.
Karin threw the smoke bombs on the ground, causing most of the arena to be covered in smoke and obscuring the spectators' views.
"No Choji!" Shikamaru shouted as Choji raced into the smoke cloud, still in his ball form.
"Man I can't see anything," Naruto whined.
"That was the point of Karin's move," Sasuke said. "If we can't see her, then neither can Choji, and that gives her the advantage."
"But it makes this so boring," Naruto pouted, resting his head on the railing.
"Naruto, stop acting like a child," Sakura scolded. "And just be patient."
Inside the cloud of smoke, Karin had her eyes closed and was focusing on singling out her opponent's chakra signature, and while she could tell which was Choji's, it was the only one moving around. Karin was having difficulty focusing in on it due to the other signatures that were all around her. The Hokage's chakra presence was nearly overwhelming along with the jonin around him, Kakashi Hatake and Asuma Sarutobi among others famous shinobi. Karin also felt the tightly coiled and icy cold chakra coming from a lone Leaf ninja standing at the far end of the arena in waves, however there were two signatures that drew her attention. The massive amount of chakra flowing off the blonde boy from Konoha was staggering, and it felt like Karin was being bathed in warm sunlight while the cool and calm chakra presence of the dark haired Uchiha sent shivers up and down Karin's arms and legs. That chakra felt like the cold touch of a full moon on a cloudless night.
"Shit!" Karin cursed as while she was distracted by the chakra flowing around the room, Choji had managed to find her and was bearing down on her. Karin leapt away and pulled out several slips of paper. '_The smoke is thinning, I will have only one shot at this,_' Karin thought as she backed herself up against a wall. Moving quickly, Karin placed two slips of paper on the floor and the other two on the wall behind her. '_Let's see if the Intel on Konoha's Akimichi clan is right._'
"Hey fatso! I'm over here!"
The Konoha crowd was shocked at Karin's shout. They all knew that you didn't call a member of the Akimichi clan fat, if you knew what was good for you.
"I'm not FAT!" Choji roared. "I am pleasantly plump! **Rolling Meat Boulder!**"
Choji once again spun rapidly before tearing off toward Karin, who looked shocked at her own outburst. Karin backed up, bumping into the wall; the spectators watched on as the look on Karin's face morphed from shock and fear into a look of smug satisfaction.
Karin sank into the arena floor just before Choji ran her over, vanishing from sight. Choji, unable to stop himself, slammed right into the wall.
"Activate!" Karin said with a grin. The four slips of paper that Karin had placed earlier in the match grew white as they activated. Electricity raced from tag to tag, ensnaring Choji in a cage of electricity. "**Fuinjutsu: Electric Entrapment!**"
Choji cried out in pain as he was wrapped up in arcs of electricity.
"You should give up," Karin said. "There is no way you'll be able to break free of my trap. So give up."
"Come on Choji, get out of there," Shikamaru muttered, his hands gripping the railing so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.
Hayate watched on dispassionately as electricity surged through the young Konoha genin's body, though inside he was cringing. He had been caught in a similar trap during the Third Shinobi War, and being constantly attacked by electricity is no fun.
"All right, that's enough," Hayate said, stepping in as Karin's trap sent another surge of electricity through Choji. "Winner, Karin of Kusa."
Karin released the fuinjutsu and Choji fell to the floor, his muscles still twitching randomly due to the aftereffects of the lightning that had coursed through his body. A medical team came running out onto the arena floor with a stretcher. One of the medics made several hand signs causing his hand to glow a pale blue, and then placed his hand on Choji's forehead. Choji's face relaxed and his body went limp. The medics lifted Choji up and placed him on the stretcher.
"Choji?" Shikamaru called out as the stretcher neared the wall.
"Don't worry, he's just asleep," the lead medic said. "With the damage to his nerves and muscles, it's better that Akimichi-san is asleep for this, this way he won't feel as much pain."
Shikamaru nodded and watched on as the medics carried Choji out of the arena. Naruto watched as Choji's opponent, Karin, return to her team who stoically congratulated her. To the blonde, it seemed that her teammates were not very familiar with Karin.
"Naruto!"
The blonde jumped in surprise at the loud shout of his name, and turned to find Sakura looking at him, her arms crossed and a foot tapping in impatience.
"Heh, sorry Sakura-chan, what did you need?" Naruto asked, rubbing the back of his head.
Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance and huffed. "Why were you staring at that girl from Kusa?" she asked.
"Well, she used a fuinjutsu to trap Choji, you don't see a ninja use fuinjutsu as their main weapon," Naruto said. "I'm wondering where she learned it."
"Oh, I guess you are right," Sakura said quickly. "It was an impressive fuinjutsu."
"What did you think I was doing?" Naruto asked.
"Nothing," Sakura said in a huff, looking away.
"Wait, were you jealous or something?"
"Oh course not, you idiot!" Sakura shouted. "Why should I be?" she asked, raising a clenched fist.
"Ok Sakura-chan, ok, no need to get angry," Naruto said, his hands out in calming gesture.
"Enough bickering you two," Sasuke said. "The next match is about to begin."
Naruto and Sakura turned and looked down to see that one of Lee's teammates, Tenten, was facing off against the Sand kunoichi. Naruto looked up and saw that the blonde kunoichi was named Temari.
"The fourth match between Tenten of Konoha and Temari Sabaku of Suna will now begin!" Hayate said.
What followed was a very unexpected result for the Konoha genin, and it frightened several of them. Tenten boasted that she was nothing like some kunoichi that only became ninja to impress boys or because it looked fun, that she was going to surpass the great Tsunade Senju, the Slug Princess and medical genius of the Sannin.
Temari didn't respond to Tenten's boast, she just waited for Tenten to begin the fight. Tenten drew a string of kunai and hurled them at Temari with a speed that surprised the spectators, and Temari judging by the widening of Temari's teal-colored eyes but the blonde kunoichi reacted just as quickly and dove out of the way. Rolling to her feet, Temari grabbed the large metal beam and yanked it off her back.
"When you see all three moons, this fight will be over," Temari declared. The metal beam was revealed to be a fan as it was opened slightly to show a purple circle.
Tenten only huffed and pulled out more kunai and shuriken. She began hurling the projectiles at Temari, who merely waved her fan in front of her, and the kunai and shuriken were scattered.
"Is that all you can do? Throw pointy things and run around?" Temari mocked. "Some kunoichi."
Tenten's face twisted into a fierce scowl and she grabbed two scrolls from her back. "Then try this one on for size!" she shouted. "Let's see if your fan can stop this! **Twin Rising Dragon!**"
Tenten's scrolls unfurled as they were tossed into the air. Suddenly the scrolls exploded and kunai, shuriken, and all manner of pointy things began raining down on Temari but the Suna kunoichi didn't look fazed at all. She only opened her fan wider to show two purple moons.
"**Wind Release: Rising Gale!**" Temari cried, whipping her fan out in front of her. A large swirl of wind appeared in front of Temari and casually swatted aside each and every single piece of weaponry that Tenten had thrown and summoned.
"I missed?" Tenten whispered in shock, as the ground around her was littered with weapons, her weapons.
"You did, I won't," Temari scoffed. "**Wind Release: Tempest Force!**" The Sand kunoichi slashed her fan in front of her and a large swath of wind raced toward Tenten. The Leaf kunoichi tried to evade the attack but was not quick enough as the attack grew and widened.
Tenten screamed as the Wind jutsu slammed into her and propelled the prone Tenten across the arena and sent her careening into the opposite wall. The Konoha shinobi winced as one as Tenten crashed into the wall with a meaty thud.
"Winner, Temari of Suna," Hayate announced.
Temari sneered at Tenten as she walked away from the floor. "Pathetic wanna-be kunoichi," she muttered, though it was loud enough to be heard by the entire arena.
"That's got to hurt," Naruto commented, watching Tenten be carried off by the medics. "And for a girl who wants to prove that kunoichi can be as strong as male ninja and surpass Tsunade Senju, Tenten didn't really show much."
"Don't mock my teammate's youthfulness," Lee shouted, stunned that Naruto would say something like that.
"I'm not mocking Tenten Lee," Naruto argued. "I am just saying that Tenten only showed that she can throw weapons. She is amazingly accurate and all but one has to wonder what else she can do, especially with your sensei, a world famous taijutsu master, teaching her."
Lee looked like he still wanted to argue with Naruto but the hand of his sensei gave him pause.
"Lee, Naruto-kun is correct," Gai said. "Tenten is a wonderful student and very youthful in her pursuit of her dream but she is single-minded in her use of weapons. But she does not broaden her horizons in combating her weaknesses. Hopefully this defeat will most certainly stoke Tenten's flames of youth into an inferno."
The board beeped again, signaling a new matchup.
"Would Neji Hyuga of Konoha and Kenshin Ryu of Kusa please come down here?" Hayate asked.
"Hyuga?" Naruto asked. "So he's from the same clan as Hinata, right?"
Neji bristled when he heard Naruto's question, as the teammate of Lee and Tenten made his way down to the floor.
"Yes, they are both of the Hyuga clan," Lee said. "But Hinata is from the Main family while Neji is from the Branch family. Now I must apologize for deceiving you Sasuke, but I lied when I said that I was the strongest genin in our village. That title goes to Neji, he is the strongest genin in the village."
"Is he now?" Sasuke asked, his interest peaked.
**A/N: Well there you have it, the newest chapter of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_. As you can tell, we've reached the preliminary arc of the story, I've tried to mix up some of the match ups as well as still hold true to the characters and their abilities. And yes, Hitsryu was modeled after Kurama from _Yu Yu Hakusho_, one of my favorite animes. Also, next time will the second half of the preliminaries but chapter twelve will be the start of a new _Naruto_, so please be patient. Anyway, let me know what you all think of these fights since that has always been something I believe I've struggled with, writing action scenes, so any advice will be welcome. Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
11. An Opportunity to Show Off Part II
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! It all belongs to Kishimoto, if it had belonged to me, I would have tried to not rush the finale and pretty much destroy any character development that had ****occurred in the 15 years building to this point. But that wasn't my decision. **
**Jutsu Name**
'_Thoughts_'
'_**Inner, Demon or Demon-influence speak**_'
"Are you two ready?" Hayate asked. Neji and Kenshin nodded. "Then begin!"
"You should give up," Neji said. "Fate has decreed that I will be the victor of this battle. You have no chance of beating me."
"Sorry mate, but I don't believe in giving up or no-win scenarios," Kenshin said with a confident grin. "I never back down from a fight and I don't intend to start now."
The green-haired boy reached up and tightened the headband around his head. Then Kenshin gripped the hilt of the massive sword attached to his back. It was just as tall as the boy himself.
"So you are a swordsman then?" Neji asked. Kenshin nodded. "It makes no difference, you shall still lose here."
"You talk big Hyuga but you still haven't attacked," Kenshin said. "Are you sure you aren't scared of getting too close. The Hyuga clan is known the world over for its skill in taijutsu and how coupled with your **Byakugan**; you are nearly unstoppable in hand-to-hand combat. But nearly unbeatable does not mean invincible."
"You are delusional to think that you can defeat Fate," Neji sneered.
"I am not fighting Fate, I am fighting you," Kenshin retorted. "Enough banter, let's fight!"
Kenshin shot forward, his sword quickly coming into play as he slashed at Neji. The Hyuga ducked under the slash and sent a **Juken** strike at Kenshin's chest, aiming to disable his opponent in one blow. But Kenshin blocked the strike with the pommel of his sword, much to the surprise of Neji.
Kenshin leapt backward to gain space before rocketing forward, his sword slicing through the air. Neji heard the sword whistling through the air and ducked gracefully and nimbly underneath the sword strike. Neji's right hand shot forward, his fingers glowing blue with chakra, Kenshin twisted his body rapidly on his right foot to just barely avoid Neji's strike.
"You were able to avoid my **Juken**, impressive," Neji commented as he straightened up and faced Kenshin.
"Thanks, I think," Kenshin said. "You are pretty quick yourself, in fact I think I should take this up a notch, don't you? We've had enough of a warm up."
Neji arched an eyebrow at Kenshin's claim. "You say you are holding back, then show me," Neji said. "It will not matter how much you have been holding back, Fate has already decided that I will be the victor."
"We'll see," Kenshin said. The green-haired boy placed his palm flat on the blade of his sword and whispered something. The sword glowed a deep luminescent blue before Kenshin swung it several times, as if to test its weight. "That's better, now we can start round two."
Neji activated his bloodline, the **Byakugan**, and readied himself. He could tell that something was different now; his opponent seemed to be holding his blade easier now.
Kenshin rocked back on his heels before shooting forward, his blade held down at his hip. Neji's eyes widened in surprise as Kenshin appeared much quicker than before. Neji leaned backward as Kenshin drew his sword in an upward slash; one that would have spilt Neji in two had the Hyuga not moved backward. Before Neji could even think about countering, Kenshin's grip shifted and was now bringing the sword down in a powerful overhand slash.
Neji nimbly leapt out of the way, and was stunned to see a large crack in the floor where Kenshin's sword was resting. Neji looked up to see Kenshin grinning at him.
"What are you smiling at?" Neji asked.
"Just wondering when you were going to get serious," Kenshin said. "I can tell you're just testing me, come on Hyuga, show me what you've got!"
"Very well Kusa ninja," Neji retorted. "If you wish to see the full might of the Hyuga clan, the strongest clan in all of Konoha, then I will not be responsible for the injuries that you receive. Prepare yourself."
Neji raced forward, his fingers glowing and eyes bulging, aiming to end the fight in a single blow. Kenshin slashed at Neji, hoping to divert the Hyuga's charge. But Neji nimbly ducked around the slash and his arm shot out to strike Kenshin's left arm. But Kenshin rotated his upper body just enough to avoid the strike.
Neji ducked under another slash that would have left him a head shorter however he did notice that he felt a breeze across the back of his neck. Looking down, Neji growled when he saw that while he had avoided the sword strike, his hair hadn't and was now lying on the ground in a clump at his feet.
"Well, look on the bright side, now you won't be mistaken for a girl," Kenshin joked with a grin.
"Let's see if you can make those quips when you are drooling in a hospital bed," Neji snarled. "You are within my range of divination." Neji lowered himself into a peculiar stance; his upper body was bent down over his right leg while his arms were outstretched in both directions with his palms facing upward.
Kenshin's eyes narrowed and readied himself. But before he could even take a step toward Neji, the Hyuga boy surged forward and struck.
"**T****wo palms!**"
"**Four palms!**"
"**Eight palms!**"
"**Sixteen palms!**"
"**Thirty-two palms!**"
Neji's arms were a blur as he struck at Kenshin. The Kusa ninja tried to bring his sword up to block some of the blows but Neji was too quick and agile. The spectators watched in awe, and a bit of fear, as Neji swept through Kenshin's defenses like they were nothing. Bursts of chakra flashed at each blow, and with each strike Kenshin's stance crumbled more and more until the only thing keeping the boy upright was his grip on his sword.
"This match is over," Neji declared. "You are lucky to be alive let alone standing I have closed off most of your chakra points in your arms and legs. Be grateful I didn't aim for your heart and lungs."
"Winner Neji Hyuga," Hayate announced. Lee shouted in excitement, as did Gai, but they were the only noises of congratulations. Most of the spectators were looking on in fear and trepidation at the display Neji had just put on.
"Are the Hyuga really that strong?" Sakura asked.
"Well, Neji is said to be a prodigy in their taijutsu and clan jutsus," Kakashi said. "They are a tough opponent for sure, and are nearly unstoppable at taijutsu thanks to their **Byakugan** but they can be beaten, you just have to figure out how."
The board beeped, drawing attention of the hall once again.
"Would Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka please report to the arena floor?" Hayate called.
"Good luck Sakura-chan, wipe the floor with Ino," Naruto said. Sasuke merely nodded as Sakura looked to him for encouragement.
"You're going down Sakura," Ino said when the two kunoichi faced each other. "I have gotten loads stronger since the Wave, and I'll show Sasuke-kun that I am the one for him."
"Dream on Ino-pig," Sakura growled. "And while you might have gotten stronger since then, I haven't gotten weaker. I've been training even harder since the Wave, you don't even hold a candle to me now."
"Prove it Forehead," Ino snapped, reaching for a kunai.
"Begin!" Hayate shouted before leaping out of the way. Ino and Sakura charged at each other, with a kunai in hand.
"You will never measure up to me Sakura," Ino laughed as she and Sakura's kunai ground against each other, the two kunoichi trying to gain leverage on one another. "You are nothing but a rider of coat tails. I am the heir to one of Konoha's most prestigious clans, how could you ever hope to gain the attention of another clan heir? Face it Forehead, all you will ever be is a weak little girl who managed to slip through the cracks by riding the coattails of her more powerful teammates, you and Naruto both."
Naruto and Sasuke glared down at the fight. Kakashi arched an eyebrow at the sound of the railing creaking under Naruto's grip.
"What the hell Shikamaru!" Naruto snapped. "Why is Ino acting so, so Sasuke-like? And calling Sakura-chan names like that?"
"That's part of Ino's strategy," Shikamaru answered. "The Yamanaka clan is famous for their mind techniques, they are experts in psychological warfare, getting into their opponents' heads and wrecking havoc. Ino is trying to rile Sakura up, to make her make a mistake. A key trait of a successful shinobi is to keep their emotions in check, let's see if Sakura can handle this."
"Of course she can," Naruto shouted. "Sakura-chan is really strong, she's going to wipe the floor with Ino."
"I might not be from a shinobi clan," Sakura said. "But that doesn't mean I am weak! I will prove to you Ino-pig, and to the world that one doesn't have to be from a famous clan to become a strong ninja." With a loud shout, Sakura summoned another level of strength and pushed Ino away.
Sakura's hands blurred through a set of hand signs. "**Clone Jutsu!**" Two copies of Sakura appeared next to the real Sakura, who grabbed a pair of smoke bombs from her hip pouch and threw them on the ground. Ino leapt backward to avoid being caught in the smoke cloud.
Ino's arm came up on instinct as she deflected the several shuriken that came whistling out of the smoke. "You are going to have to do better than that, Forehead, to beat me," Ino said as the smoke began to dissipate. "Cheap tricks won't be enough."
Two copies of Sakura came rushing out of the smoke, angling to flank and surround Ino.
"That won't work on me," Ino cried as she took off toward the Sakura to her right. "My team is known for trapping out opponents, I won't let you try and turn the tables on me."
The blonde kunoichi hurled two kunai at her target, hoping to disrupt Sakura's attack plan. Ino watched as Sakura easily dodged the kunai and continued to try and get around to Ino's blindside.
"Gotcha!" Ino shouted, catching up to Sakura with a surprising burst of chakra-enhanced speed. Sakura's green eyes widened as Ino appeared in front of her but that surprise quickly vanished. Ino watched in detached horror as her kunai passed through Sakura's grinning face without resistance. The clone Sakura faded from sight, leaving Ino blinking rapidly in shock.
"Ino! Behind you!"
Shikamaru's shout broke Ino's shock as she spun around to see another Sakura rushing toward her, with a kunai drawn.
"You are not fooling me this time Sakura!" Ino shouted as she hurled another kunai at Sakura. The kunai passed right through the clone and Ino heard rapid footsteps approaching her from behind. She whirled around and Ino's world spun as Sakura's fist slammed into her cheek.
Shikamaru and Asuma both winced as Ino was sent skidding across the floor and came to a rolling stop in a heap.
"All right Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted from the platform. "Show everyone how strong you are!"
Ino slowly got to her feet, and gingerly touched her throbbing cheek. She winced as pain flared in her cheek. The tie holding Ino's hair back in a ponytail had loosened and her hair was now hanging freely and shielding her face from view.
"You are going to pay for that Forehead," Ino growled as she grabbed her hair and with a swift swing, Ino's kunai sliced through her hair leaving it only long enough to reach her shoulders. Ino threw aside her cut hair and glared at the real Sakura. The pinkette's remaining clone had long since evaporated.
"Make me pig!" Sakura challenged. She had been stunned when Ino had cut her hair, the Ino that Sakura had known always tried to balance her looks and being a serious ninja. Ino's bruised face painfully stretched into a grin.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Ino mocked. "You'll soon see the gap between us." The Yamanaka heir suddenly charged at Sakura, rearing her fist back.
"Have it your way then Ino!" Sakura growled as she rushed forward.
The match dissolved into a taijutsu brawl between the two former friends. Neither girl had been top of their Academy class in taijutsu, and even after six months of being in the real world, little had changed. Sakura and Ino were still lacking in skill in hand to hand combat, and were sloppily trading blows
"Face it Ino-pig, you can't beat me," Sakura said as she ducked under a sloppy punch and countered with a punch to Ino's stomach, causing the blonde to fall to her knees at Sakura's feet. "Give it up Ino, you can barely stay on your feet…What's going on! I can't move!"
A weak and pained giggle came from Ino, who had one hand clutching her stomach and the other was holding herself up from the floor in the middle of her hair.
"Gotcha!" Ino said, drops of blood falling from her mouth and staining the floor. Sakura looked down and saw that her feet were entangled with the fallen strands of Ino's hair, which was glowing a light blue.
"What did you do?" Sakura asked as she struggled to escape Ino's hair.
"I told you that my team specializes in trapping our opponents," Ino smiled, spitting a gobble of blood from her mouth, destroying her princess image in the mind of Sakura. "Shikamaru isn't the only one who can come up with a plan to capture an unsuspecting opponent. Now Forehead, I thinks its time to end this. **Mind Transfer Jutsu!**" Ino cried, holding her arms out with her hands in an unusual sign.
A streak of white light shot from Ino's hands and struck Sakura in the chest, causing the pinkette to nearly fall over, only being held up by Ino's hair.
"This fight is over," Shikamaru said with a small smile.
"No way! Sakura-chan won't go down so easily," Naruto argued. "Come on Sakura-chan, snap out of it!"
"The Yamanaka Clan's **Mind Transfer Jutsu** is something that can't be snapped out of," Shikamaru said. "Right now, Ino's spirit is in Sakura's body and has taken control of it. Ino is probably going to force Sakura to forfeit."
'_Man it really is spacious in here,_' Ino commented as she took in her surroundings. '_Kami, Forehead, how can you be so smart when there is so much empty space in here?_'
Dimly, Ino thought she heard someone shout out. '_That's probably Naruto, that idiot, Sakura isn't here and…_'
'_**What the hell are you doing here Ino-pig!**_' a booming shout shook the ground beneath Ino's feet.
'_What?_' Ino cried. The empty space that had been a brilliant white suddenly turned black with a reddish glow coming from beneath Ino. The blonde looked down and froze when she saw a pair of blazing green eyes glaring up at her. Ino then realized that she was standing on a sheet of water. Two massive hands rose from beneath the water, reaching for the blonde.
'_**There is no way in hell that you are making me lose this fight Ino-pig!**_' the booming voice roared. The blazing green eyes now had a face with them; it looked like Sakura's face only older and it had the word 'Inner' written on its forehead. '_**You don't control this place mind walker, I do!**_' Inner Sakura roared, her hands closing in on Ino.
'_Release!_' Ino shouted. Her body glowed white and vanished just before the two hands closed around her.
"What are you Sakura?" Ino asked, panting heavily. Her father had told her that only those with great mental strength and sufficient chakra reserves could expel a user of the **Mind Transfer Jutsu**.
"I'm complicated," Sakura answered, also panting. Expelling Ino had taken up most of her remaining chakra reserves. "It's time we end this Ino." Sakura raised a hand and made the Ram sign with her fingers. "Activate!"
"Ah!" Ino cried as she suddenly fell to a knee. It felt like her body weight had suddenly doubled. "What is this?"
"A gravity seal," Sakura said, still holding the Ram sign. "Right now, your body is feeling four times the normal weight of gravity. And unless you give up, I'll keep raising the gravity level until you can't move. So give up!"
"Never!" Ino growled, struggling back to her feet but the room could see that her legs were trembling slightly.
"Have it your way," Sakura said without emotion. She pulsed her chakra and Ino crashed back down to the floor. "Now you are feeling five times the normal gravity, please Ino, just give up."
"No! I will not give up," Ino shouted. "You will not make me look weak in front of Sasuke-kun or anyone else!"
Sakura sighed and pulsed her chakra twice in quick succession. Ino cried out as she was flattened. "Now the seal is at seven times normal gravity," Sakura said. "You need to find another reason to become strong Ino, trying to impress someone is not enough. The world is a cruel place; you should know this from the mission to the Wave. Find you own way Ino, focus on yourself, not Sasuke-kun, in order to become strong."
Ino had tears welling up in her eyes as Sakura walked up and chopped the blonde in the back of the neck causing Ino's world to go dark.
"Winner Sakura Haruno," Hayate announced.
"All right!" Naruto shouted. "Way to go Sakura-chan, you were awesome!"
"Well done Sakura, I'm proud of you," Kakashi said with a smile when Sakura reached her teammates.
"You did good," Sasuke said with a nod. Sakura smiled at Sasuke and turned to stand next to Sasuke with Naruto on the other side of Sasuke.
"Would Gaara of Suna and Rock Lee of Konoha please come down here?" Hayate asked. The redheaded boy appeared in a swirl of sand at one end of the arena while Lee leapt over the railing and rushed over to his spot, his body trembling in excitement.
"Lee better not hold bock against Gaara," Naruto said quietly. "If he does hold back, Lee might be killed."
"Naruto, you should have more faith in your comrades," Kakashi chided. "Though there is something different about Gaara," he admitted.
"I don't know why but I feel a kinship or something with Gaara," Naruto said. "Like I am looking at a mirror image of myself."
Kakashi glanced down at his blonde student with a sharp stare. '_Could Naruto know something more than we do?_' Kakashi thought.
**(You all know what happens in Lee and Gaara's fight, so I won't even try and describe it.)**
"Would Sasuke Uchiha and Kabuto Yakushi please come down here?" Hayate asked once everything had been cleared away from Gaara and Lee's battle.
"Good luck Sasuke," Naruto said. "Be careful, there is more to this guy than it seems."
"Good luck Sasuke-kun," Sakura repeated. Sasuke grunted and made his way down the staircase. Kabuto and Hayate were waiting for him, Sasuke locked eyes with his gray-haired opponent and felt a shiver race up his spine. While Kabuto was smiling, to Sasuke it looked like the older teen was dissecting Sasuke with his eyes.
"So I get to fight Sasuke-kun," Kabuto said pleasantly. "This should be quite enjoyable. I hope that I don't disappoint you Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke grunted, trying to get rid of the oily and dirty feeling that had come over him just from listening to Kabuto speak.
"The final match of the preliminaries, between Sasuke Uchiha and Kabuto Yakushi will now begin!" Hayate announced before leaping backward.
"**Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!**" Sasuke shouted before sending a large fireball speeding toward Kabuto. The gray-haired teen just barely rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet.
"Whoa, close one," Kabuto said. "You aren't holding back, are you Sasuke-kun? Well then, I guess I have only one choice."
"And what is that?" Sasuke asked.
"Ah, now that would be telling," Kabuto chuckled. He reached down and pulled out a curved kunai and rushed Sasuke with surprising speed. Sasuke managed to draw a kunai of his own and blocked the swiped from Kabuto.
For several minutes, the only noises coming from the battle were the clanging of kunai crashing and scraping against one another and the low huffs as both Sasuke and Kabuto tried to gain the upper hand. Kabuto, with his longer reach and larger body, began to face Sasuke on the defensive, pushing the boy back toward the wall.
"Come on now Sasuke-kun, surely the heir to the famed Uchiha clan can do better than this," Kabuto chided, leaning over the shorter boy, the reflective glare of Kabuto's glasses obscuring his eyes.
Sasuke grit his teeth and pushed off the wall with all his strength, sending Kabuto stumbling backward. Sasuke's **Sharingan** had spun into existence and his hands blurred through a set of hand signs. "**Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!**"
A large stream of fire spewed from Sasuke's mouth and rose high into the air, scorching the ceiling.
"Impressive," Kabuto commented, pushing his glasses back onto his nose with a finger. "You certainly have exceptional control over your Fire affinity, like all Uchiha."
"You sure like to praise your opponents, don't you?" Sasuke said as the flame dragon soared down and slammed into the floor, sending flames spewing everywhere. Sasuke's eye narrowed, Kabuto had vanished from sight.
"Very powerful too," Kabuto said appearing behind Sasuke. "You are quite deserving of the Rookie of the Year title."
"Tch," Sasuke grunted. "Enough talk!" Sasuke drew several shuriken and hurled them at Kabuto. "**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" The shuriken multiplied into a storm of metal and forced Kabuto to sink into the ground to avoid the jutsu.
"Kai!" Kabuto cried after rising from the ground and not seeing Sasuke anywhere.
"Make another move, and I will slit your throat," Sasuke growled. He was behind Kabuto with a kunai to the older teen's throat.
"Excellent use of your **Sharingan** Sasuke-kun," Kabuto said, acting as if there was nothing wrong with having a kunai at his throat. "You are truly talented to put me under a genjutsu with just a glance. It seems that you have won this fight, proctor I give up."
"Winner by forfeit, Sasuke Uchiha," Hayate announced. Sasuke lowered and holstered his kunai.
"All right!" Naruto shouted, pumping his fist in excitement. "We all won!"
"We did it!" Sakura squealed. "Team 7 rocks!"
Kakashi grinned down at his genin. He was immensely proud of the three young shinobi under his command. They had certainly grown from the pathetic lumps of clay that they had been only six months ago.
"Yes, well done Sasuke-kun, well done to all the victors," the Hokage said. "But your trials do not end here. You eight winners have advanced to the Third Stage."
"Third Stage?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, in one month's time, you will be pitted against one another in front of the village, guests and other Kages to show if you have what it takes to be promoted," Hiruzen said. "You will all draw numbered lots to see who your opponents shall be. Anko?"
The proctor of the Second Exam, Anko, stepped forward with a box in her hands. "All right you brats, each one of you will get a number and then you'll show those numbers to me so we can figure out the tournament order," she ordered.
"Tournament?" Shikamaru asked.
"Yes, the Third Exam will be a series of one-on-one matches in which all of you will have the chance to show your skills," Hiruzen said. "The format will be a tournament."
"Won't that mean only one person can be promoted?" Temari asked.
"No, winning the tournament will not necessarily mean you will be promoted," Hiruzen said with a smile. "Nor will losing your first match eliminate you from being promoted. Of course, the more times you fight the more opportunities you will have to impress the judges."
Anko came to each of the genin and the young ninja reached into the box and selected a number.
"Two."
"Six."
"Three."
"Seven."
"Four."
"One."
"Five."
"Eight."
"Excellent, we have our matches," Hiruzen said. "The first match will be Neji Hyuga vs. Sakura Haruno, followed by Sasuke Uchiha against Temari Sabaku. Then Shikamaru Nara will face Karin, and finally Naruto Uzumaki vs. Gaara Sabaku. You will have one month's time to prepare, your senseis will escort you from the Tower and Forest. Good luck."
"Come on you three, let's get out of here," Kakashi said. "We need to discuss how you three will be trained in this month layoff."
"Can we go to Ichirakus?" Naruto asked. "I haven't had ramen in like forever."
"Ramen addict," Sasuke snorted. "But that sounds good to me." Sakura nodded.
"All right then, Ichirakus it is," Kakashi said.
"All right!" Naruto shouted.
"There you are Naruto-kun," Ayame said as Team 7 and Kakashi entered the small ramen stand. "Where have you been? Dad and I haven't seen you in forever."
"Sorry Ayame-nee-chan but we were taking the Chunin Exams and we were in this scary forest for five days. But we all passed!"
"That's great Naruto-kun!" Teuchi said. "This first bowl is on the house for all four of you, for passing of course."
"Thank you very much," Team 7 chirped.
"So Kakashi-sensei, what's the plan for our training?" Naruto asked after pushing aside his tenth bowl of ramen.
"Well, since all three of you have passed the Second Exam and might have to face each other in the Finals, I won't be able to train you all individually," Kakashi said. "Now that doesn't mean I will just abandon you all. This first week, we will work together as a group, working on your physical abilities, and I will try and find each of you a teacher for those final three weeks."
"Ok sensei," Sasuke said. "So when do we start?"
"Meet me at Training Ground 3 tomorrow morning at dawn," Kakashi ordered. "You three will need a lot of work if you want to be ready."
"Ready for what?" Naruto asked but Kakashi had already vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving all three genin wondering what their sensei meant.
**A/N: Well there you have it, the newest and shortest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy. _Sorry about that by the way, but these fights aren't the best, and obviously skipping Lee and Gaara's fight made the chapter shorter than the others but since there is no way I could write the fight as well as it is done in the manga/anime, just use that as your reference. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, but now that the preliminaries are over, we can really start moving on with this story. Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
12. A New Jutsu and New Plan of Attack
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! I don't own the sensation that swept across the world for the past fifteen years, and after the final few chapters of the manga, I am glad that I don't. As you can guess I did not like the ending of _Naruto_ but that's what fan fiction is for, to mold our favorites stories, films and comics, etc into something we all wish we could have created.**
_**Demon Speak**_
_'Thoughts'_
**Jutsu Name**
It had been a week since the end of the Second Exam, and Team 7 had been training as if their lives depended on it, which it kind of did, under Kakashi. The first morning Sakura and Naruto had asked about gravity seals, and Kakashi agreed to help Sakura and Naruto learn to place gravity seals on themselves and Sasuke to increase their speed and strength. Kakashi had warned the three young ninja that the seals were very dangerous if used improperly, as they could stunt the teens' growth if they tried to advance too quickly, and to always come to him if they wanted to increase the weight.
"All right you three, come over here for a moment," Kakashi said. "I need to speak with all three of you."
Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke jogged over from the lake where they had been running laps around for the past hour, getting used to their new weight.
"Yes sensei?" Sakura asked.
"Well, I've managed to find senseis for you three for the next three weeks," Kakashi said. "Sakura, Team 8's sensei Kurenai Yuhi, has agreed to teach you some more genjutsu. She will be able to take you further than I would be able too, but I still expect you to continue with your physical training."
"Of course sensei," Sakura said.
"I also have a pair of jutsu scrolls for you," Kakashi said, fishing two scrolls out of his pouch. "They should be right in your wheelhouse. Now get going, Kurenai is waiting for you at Training Ground 8, and she is not as laid back as I am."
"Thanks sensei, I won't let you down," Sakura said before racing off.
"Naruto, the Hokage said that your teacher has just returned to the village and you should go to his office to meet your sensei. Also, here are two jutsu scrolls for you to learn, one is a wind jutsu, and the other is a water jutsu. I expect you to show them off at the Finals."
"Thanks sensei," Naruto said, pocketing the two scrolls. "Sasuke, you better beat that Suna girl cause I want to kick your ass in the Finals."
"Don't worry dobe, I'll be there," Sasuke smirked. "You have to get by that Gaara guy first, if you want to fight me."
Naruto nodded. "I know," he said. "It will be tough but I'll beat him, believe it."
Kakashi grinned beneath his mask as his two male students bumped fists before the blonde ball energy leapt off toward the center of the village. He then turned back to Sasuke and his expression turned sadistic. "You ready Sasuke?"
Sasuke nodded even as a chill ran down his spine at Kakashi's expression.
* * *
><p>"Hey jiji, Kakashi-sensei said you wanted to talk to me," Naruto said as he entered the Hokage's office. "Oh sorry, I didn't know you were in a meeting. I can wait outside," he added seeing that Hiruzen was not the only person in the office.<p>
"No need Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said. "We were just finishing up, and you couldn't have come at a better time. This is Jiraiya, one of my former students."
Naruto turned his attention to the tall ninja at Hiruzen's side. The man towered over Hiruzen, with spiky white hair held back in a ponytail that nearly touched the floor, and a large scroll strapped to his back. The man had a jovial looking face even with the two red lines of makeup running down his cheeks, though at that moment, Jiraiya's face was locked in an expression of surprise.
"Hey kid," Jiraiya said. "So you're the one that sensei dragged me away from my research to whip into shape. You sure as hell don't look like much."
Naruto's face grew firm. "Look old man, if you don't want to train me, then fine. But you'll miss out on training the next Hokage!"
"Naruto-kun, Jiraiya is the one who taught the Yondaime Hokage," Hiruzen said with a smile while Jiraiya was roaring with laughter at his side.
"Oh," Naruto said. "Well then you can train the ninja who will surpass all the previous Hokage!"
"You've got spunk there kid," Jiraiya said. "What makes you think you will surpass the past Hokage?"
"Because its my dream!" Naruto declared. "I promised myself that I would become the pillar of strength that supports the village and bears the burden of being Hokage."
Jiraiya blinked at Naruto's declaration. He saw another short blonde standing in front of him, making a very similar vow. "Ok brat, you've intrigued me," the Toad Sage said. "Meet me at the hot springs tomorrow morning at 9am and if you pass my test, then we'll see about your training."
"You got it old man, I'm going to blow this test of yours out of the water," Naruto shouted. "See you later jiji!"
"Goodbye Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said as the hyper blonde ran out of the office.
"So that's him then?" Jiraiya said, leaning against the windowsill. "He's grown in an interesting way."
"He certainly has," Hiruzen agreed. "However Naruto-kun has had to grow up much faster than I would have liked."
"You said he is a student of Kakashi's?" Hiruzen nodded. "Well then, I better find out what my student's student has taught my godson."
"Jiraiya, Naruto-kun only knows about the Kyubi," Hiruzen said taking a slow drag of his lit pipe. "He does not know about his parents or your relationship to them. Minato put his trust in you and I to tell Naruto-kun when we believed him ready, that time is rapidly approaching. I have hidden much from Naruto-kun, for his own good, but it has weighed on our relationship. Do not make the same mistakes I have made."
"Thanks for the advice sensei," Jiraiya said as he climbed through the open window and leapt off, leaving Hiruzen to lean back in his chair and take another drag from the pipe.
"Minato, I hope that when we meet again I shall be able to look you in the eye, you and Kushina-chan both, for how I've let the village treat your son," Hiruzen sighed.
Naruto opened the front door to his apartment and kicked off his sandals. There was a thin film of dust covering much of the floor, as the apartment had been empty for over a week. He hadn't been here since before the Second Exam. Closing the door, Naruto heaved a sigh and breathed sharply out through his nose. The apartment was cold and barren, as it had always been. Flipping on the hallway light, Naruto walked deeper into the apartment and entered his bedroom.
'_Good, its still here,_' Naruto thought. He reached out and pulled off the camouflage cloak that had hidden the Nidaime's scroll. It always surprised Naruto how much people overlooked the obvious, that the simplest deception could be the most effective. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Naruto opened the scroll and found the instructions for the **Water Release: Water Bullet Jutsu** that he had been trying to learn before the Chunin Exams. Next to the scroll was the hilt of the Nidaime's sword, the Hokage had given it to Naruto in order to protect it as no one would think the Sword of the Thunder God would be in the hands of a genin.
The blonde was tempted to start carrying the sword around, as it was an awesome weapon but he decided against it due to the sword's obvious known appearance and the simple fact that Naruto wasn't a swordsman.
"Let's see what Kakashi-sensei got me," Naruto muttered, pulling the two small scrolls that Kakashi had given him out of his pouch. The first scroll was a water jutsu, one that was familiar to Naruto from his ancestor's scroll, the **Water Bullet Jutsu**. The second jutsu was a wind jutsu, the **Wind Scar Jutsu**.
"Ah man, neither of these jutsus will work against Gaara," Naruto complained.
'_**Quit your complaining meat bag,**_' a deep voice snarled.
'_That you fox?_' Naruto asked.
'_**Of course its me, who else can speak to you in your empty head**_,' the massive fox growled.
'_Fine then, what do you want?_' Naruto asked.
'_**Gaara is just like you**_,' the Kyuubi said.
'_You mean he has a Biju in him too?_'
'_**That's what I just told you, you moron!**_' the fox roared, causing Naruto to wince at the volume.
'_Ok, ok,_' Naruto answered, clutching his head. '_Do you know which Biju he has in him?_'
'_**The Ichibi**_,' the fox answered. '_**The sand spirit.**_'
'_So then, what do you recommend? How can I beat Gaara?_' Naruto asked.
'_**You want my advice?**_' the Kyubi asked, its voice sounding surprised for the first time that Naruto had ever heard it. The blonde had only heard his prisoner's voice sound dark, deep and demanding.
'_Well, you are probably the foremost expert on Biju I know, so why wouldn't I ask you?_' Naruto explained.
The massive fox blinked, feeling something that it hadn't felt in an era.
'_**The Ichibi has complete control over sand,**_' the Kyubi said. '_**The rodent's hosts usually are granted similar abilities. That Gaara can control his sand without thinking, or wasting chakra. But that rodent, Shukaku, believes that he is more powerful than he actually is. To have a chance of beating Shukaku, you will have to fight smart.**_'
'_Thanks Kyubi,_' Naruto said. '_Hey, why did you call the Ichibi Shukaku?_'
'_**Because that is that stubby-tailed rodent's name,**_' the Kyubi answered.
'_Wait! You have names?_' Naruto shouted. '_What's your name then?_'
'_**Something that you will never learn!**_' the Kyubi roared. '_**Now I told you what you wanted to know, now leave me alone!**_'
'_All right then fox, but someday I will find out your name,_' Naruto vowed. '_And thanks for the advice._'
Naruto dimly heard the fox grunt as he felt the fox's presence leave his mind.
"Ok, the fox said I need to fight smart if I want to beat Gaara," Naruto said to himself. "If Shukaku gives Gaara control over sand, then I have to take away that sand. But how?"
* * *
><p>"Hey there Hinata!" Sakura called out as she reached Training Ground 8.<p>
The Hyuga heiress turned away from her teammates and sensei to see the pinkette member of Team 7 quickly approaching.
"S…S…Sakura-san, what are you doing here?" Hinata asked.
"Well, Kakashi-sensei said that your sensei was going to teach me more genjutsu for the Finals," Sakura said.
"You reached the Finals!" Kiba shouted. "Ah man! How did someone like you manage to get all the way to the Finals?"
"What is that supposed to mean mutt?" Sakura growled, glaring at the feral boy. Akamaru whimpered slightly at Kiba's side.
"I mean it's just that…" Kiba stammered, noticing his puppy's reaction to Sakura.
"Kiba, it would be smart if you would stop talking," the third member of Team 8, Shino Aburame, said.
"Ah Sakura Haruno, I see you haven't followed in your sensei's footsteps in being late all the time," the amused voice of Kurenai Yuhi said, as she walked up behind Shino.
"Yes Kurenai-san," Sakura grinned. The dark haired woman had an air about her that put Sakura at ease. "Thank you for agreeing to help with my training."
"Of course Sakura-chan, but before we begin you need to answer my question," Kurenai said. "And be warned, if you don't answer the question to my satisfaction, you'll need to find someone else to train you. Do you understand?"
"Yes Kurenai-san," Sakura answered. "What's the question?"
"Why do you want me to train you? Why do you want to become strong?" Kurenai asked. Hinata, Shino and Kiba all fell quiet at their sensei's question, wanting to know the female member of Team 7 answer to the question.
Sakura blinked. She hadn't expected that type of question, though she probably should have. It was very similar to when Kakashi-sensei had asked her, Sasuke-kun and Naruto their dreams when they first became Team 7. Thinking back to that day, Sakura was disgusted with her past self at how she had answered Kakashi's question.
"I want to become stronger because I want to probe that a ninja not from a clan can become a powerful ninja," Sakura said. "I want to have my teammates and comrades look at my back instead of it being me that is always watching from the background. And most importantly, I want the strength to be able to protect my teammates, comrades and my home, not have them stuck protecting me."
Kurenai was impressed at the girl's answer. '_Seems that Kakashi has gotten through to Sakura,_' Kurenai thought. "Very well Sakura-san, your answer has impressed me," she told Sakura with a smile. "You'll come here at 8 am each morning and train with my team."
"But sensei, what about us?" Kiba asked.
"You three have training with your clans in the afternoons, so I will work with Sakura one-on-one after your three go home," Kurenai said. "In the mornings though, Sakura will work with us. Do you have a problem with that Kiba?"
A slight chill washed over the four genin, even though there was barely a cloud in the sky.
"No sensei," Kiba answered quickly.
"Good," Kurenai said with a smile that stole the day's warmth. "Now then, Sakura-san, why don't you show us what you can do? A simple spar against Hinata-chan will do nicely, I think?"
"Me?" Hinata squeaked. "B…but sensei, I don't know if that…"
"I don't have a problem with that," Sakura said. "It would be fun to spar against Hinata, and since I'm facing Neji in the first match, fighting against Hinata would be a great help."
"Neji…Neji-nii-san," Hinata stammered.
"That's right," Sakura said. "And from what I saw in the preliminaries showed me that Neji is really strong."
"Yes," Hinata whispered. "Neji-nii-san is very strong. He is probably the strongest genin in the village."
"That is what Rock Lee, Neji's teammate, said," Sakura agreed. "Honestly I don't know if I have much of a chance against him. But since you know the same moves that Neji does, it would help me out a lot, so please Hinata? I can really use your help."
"I don't think I will be able to help you much Sakura-san. Neji-nii-san is much better at our clan's taijutsu style than me, he is hailed as a genius," Hinata said, looking down at her feet.
"Please Hinata, you are my best shot," Sakura pleaded. When the pinkette saw that Hinata was still struggling to answer, Sakura decided to up the ante. "How about this Hinata, you help me with this and I can help you with your problem."
"My problem?" Hinata asked, so surprised at the question that she didn't stutter.
"Naruto," Sakura said with a sly smile.
"Naruto-kun?" Hinata whispered, her face glowing red.
"You help me with Neji, and I will help you get Naruto to notice you," Sakura said. The pinkette knew she had Hinata the moment Sakura had uttered Naruto's name. Hinata's crush on the blonde knucklehead was legendary, just as legendary as how oblivious Naruto was to the dark haired girl.
"Ok," Hinata said. "I will help you Sakura-san."
* * *
><p>"Where the hell is he?" Naruto growled when the blonde genin reached the hot springs the next morning. "He said to meet him here at 9am, he better not turn out to be another Kakashi."<p>
A giggle made Naruto turn around to a sight that if he weren't a ninja would have been very peculiar. Naruto's new sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin, was sitting on an enormous orange and blue-spotted toad, up against the fence that blocked the female side of the baths from sight.
"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto shouted.
In a comical fashion, Jiraiya leapt in surprise off the toad before crashing to the ground with a thud.
"Would you keep your voice down brat!" Jiraiya hissed. "You are ruining prime research material here."
"Research?" Naruto asked. "You are just peeping on bathing women!"
"Brat!" Jiraiya barked as the duo heard splashing on the other side of the fence. "You just ruined my precious research!"
"I can't believe you are supposed to teach me," Naruto complained. "You are as big a pervert as Kakashi-sensei!"
"Don't compare me to Kakashi," Jiraiya said. "I am a much bigger pervert than that novice, I am a super pervert," he laughed.
'_And he's proud about that?_' Naruto thought. '_While I like women and naughty pictures as much as the next guy, to act like that is taking it way over the top._'
"Look old man pervert, are you going to train me or what?" Naruto asked. "Cause if all you are going to do is peep on women then I am out of here. I can train myself for the Finals," he said turning away from the Sannin.
Jiraiya turned serious in the blink of an eye. "Kid, there is no way you could beat Gaara like you are now, even if you trained non-stop for an entire year. You need a trump card."
"Trump card?" Naruto asked. "What do you mean?"
"Not here," Jiraiya said. Before Naruto could even squawk in protect, the two ninja had vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"What the hell!" Naruto shouted when he got over the high-speed disorientation. "And where are we?"
"Naruto, this is not something that can be discussed in the open," Jiraiya said. "As to where we are, we are at a special training ground just outside the village. The Yondaime's personal training ground in fact."
Naruto blinked. "The Yondaime?" he whispered, looking around at the spacious clearing with a large cliff face looming over it.
"Yep, this is where the Yondaime came to train under me," Jiraiya boasted. "Now kid, your opponent, Gaara, he is more like you than you might think. He is a…"
"A jinchuriki, I know," Naruto interrupted.
"How?"
"I had this weird almost familial feeling when I first saw him," Naruto explained. "Like I had known him from before, and that I could be looking into a mirror when I looked at him. What I could have been if it hadn't been for the Ichiraku's, jiji and Iruka-sensei."
Jiraiya nodded at the blonde's answer, though inside he was wincing. To hear that his godson could have turned out to be a murderous monster if it hadn't been for two ramen stand owners, a chunin Academy instructor and the Hokage did not fill the Sannin with much confidence, and also quite a bit of shame. Only four people out of the entire village, even if one was the Hokage.
"Well that should help you speed things along then," Jiraiya said. "Yes, Gaara is the jinchuriki of the Ichibi, the sand spirit. You probably saw what some of his abilities were in the preliminaries against the Lee kid."
Naruto frowned as he remembered the cries of pain coming from Lee when Gaara had crushed his right arm and leg. "Yeah, I saw them."
"You probably also saw that Lee had the right idea to beat Gaara using speed, to move faster than Gaara could react too," Jiraiya said. "A month is not enough time to get you fast enough, but Lee doesn't have your trump card."
"Again with the trump card, what is it?" Naruto asked.
"The Kyubi's chakra," Jiraiya answered.
"What! No way, you have got to be kidding me!" Naruto shouted. "I can't control _that_ chakra, the two times I've used it, and I nearly lost control both times."
"And that's what we are here to do," Jiraiya said. "To learn to control that power. Look kid, you were the one the Yondaime entrusted the Kyubi too, he knew that you would be the one who could wield its power."
"How do you know that?"
"I taught the Yondaime remember," Jiraiya said. "And he made the right choice, he believed in you, that's why he chose you."
Naruto felt a warmth wash over him at Jiraiya's words. '_The Yondaime believed in me,_' he thought.
"Ok then, say I do go along with this crazy idea," Naruto said. "How do I control the fox's chakra?"
"Well first you have to gain the ability to draw on its chakra at will," Jiraiya said. "And to do that, you first have to exhaust your own chakra."
"And how do you suggest I do that? In case you don't know, I'm pretty much a chakra battery," Naruto quipped.
"By practicing this," Jiraiya said. With a flourish, Jiraiya whipped the large scroll off his back and unfurled it. "This is the Toad Summoning Contract, and you are going to sign it."
"Me? But why?" Naruto asked. "I mean I'm just a genin. Shouldn't this go to a ninja of higher…"
"Kid, you are my apprentice now," Jiraiya interrupted the rambling blonde. "So just go with it. Now, cut your finger, sign your name in blood and then you are ready to go."
Naruto blinked rapidly trying to clear his eyes of tears and nodded. He pulled out a kunai and made a small cut on his palm and quickly signed his name next to the name of Minato Namikaze.
"Great," Jiraiya said. "Here are the signs; Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram, then you have to build up your chakra. The more chakra you put into the jutsu, the larger the Summon. Have at it."
"Right," Naruto grinned. He bit his thumb and sped through the five signs, then slammed his palm to the ground. "**Summoning Jutsu!**"
A large puff of white smoke obscured Jiraiya and Naruto for a moment. "Yo," a new voice called from within the smoke. When the smoke finally cleared, the new voice belonged to a small orange toad.
"All right!" Naruto cried, pumping his fist.
"Not bad kid, you managed to Summon a son of the Toad Boss," Jiraiya said, quite impressed at Naruto. He had expected the blonde to barely Summon a tadpole but on the boy's first attempt, he summoned a full toad.
"Hi, I'm Gamakichi, who are you?" the toad asked.
"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto answered. "Nice to meet you Gamakichi."
"Gamakichi, why don't you head back home," Jiraiya said. "Naruto has just signed the contract, and will be practicing for the time being, so you might be coming back soon."
"Cool, a new Summoner," Gamakichi said. "I'll let Dad know. Later!" The toad vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Ok Naruto, keep practicing," Jiraiya said. "Remember to build up your chakra before performing the jutsu."
"I know, I know," Naruto said. Jiraiya huffed and walked to the shade of a nearby tree and settled down to watch his student.
Jiraiya was snoring loudly when he was woken abruptly by a cry of frustration and exhaustion. The Toad Sage opened his eyes and saw that Naruto had dropped to his ass and was panting heavily.
"Done so soon?" Jiraiya asked, standing up and stretching.
"No," Naruto growled. "I'm just taking a breather. I've been doing this for like four hours now."
"And how do you feel?" Jiraiya asked, walking over to the sweating blonde.
"Completely drained, why do you think I am taking a break?"
"Good then, hold on," Jiraiya said. Before Naruto could say anything, Jiraiya had grabbed the blonde by the shoulder and they vanished from the training ground in a swirl of leaves.
"Where are we now?" Naruto demanded when the world stopped spinning.
"This is where you'll have your final test," Jiraiya said. "Try not to die."
"What!" Naruto cried as Jiraiya gave him a chakra-enhanced push to the chest. The last thing Naruto saw was Jiraiya's stern face before he only saw stone and sky.
"What the hell!" Naruto shouted as he tried frantically to grab the sides of the ravine that he was plummeting down but the sides were too smooth for Naruto's hands to get a solid grip on, even by using his chakra.
"Why did he do this?" Naruto screamed as he racked his brain, trying to come up with a plan. "What's the point of teaching me the **Summoning Jutsu** if he was just going to shove me off a cliff and kill me?"
'_**The old pervert wants you to use my chakra, then fine,**_' a deep voice growled in Naruto's mind.
Naruto gasped as he felt the Kyubi's boiling hot chakra flood his system. In desperation, Naruto's hands quickly blurred through the signs for the jutsu that he had just learned.
"**Summoning Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted.
There was an enormous plume of smoke beneath Naruto.
"What is going on here?" a booming voice asked. Naruto looked down to see that he was now on the head of a massive reddish-brown toad. "Where am I?"
"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed, falling to a knee on top of the massive toad at the sudden stop as the toad had stopped their plunge with its arms and legs.
"What the! Who the hell are you brat? And what are you doing on my head?" the toad roared.
"I summoned you," Naruto answered, his face spilt in a wide grin. "That bastard pervert pushed me over the side of this ravine, I couldn't get a grip on the walls, so I summoned you to stop my fall."
"Ha, ha, ha, ha," the toad laughed uproariously. "You summon me? Not happening you little snot. Now where is Jiraiya?"
"Hey, don't call me a liar!" Naruto shouted. "I did so summon you, and I will prove it!" Naruto quickly made the five hand signs for the **Summoning Jutsu** and in a puff of smoke, a second toad appeared.
"Hey Naruto, what are you doing?" Gamakichi asked.
"Gamakichi, what are you doing here?" the massive toad demanded.
"Oh hi there pops," Gamakichi said nervously. "Well Naruto here is our new Summoner. Didn't I tell you that?"
"No," the Toad Boss said gruffly.
"My bad," Gamakichi said. "Dad, this is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto, this is my pops, the chief of the Toads, Gamabunta.'
"Your pops!" Naruto exclaimed.
"I told you that my pops was the Boss," Gamakichi snapped, leaping up and slapping Naruto on the back of the blonde's head.
"So you really are our new Summoner then? My kid wouldn't lie, so it must be true," Gamabunta said.
"Of course I am," Naruto said. "How else do you think you got down here?"
"Look brat, just because you are a Toad Summoner doesn't mean I have to listen to you," Gamabunta said. "We haven't even sealed the deal over a cup of sake."
"But I'm only 12 years old, I can't drink!" Naruto argued.
"You're a ninja aren't you?" Gamabunta asked. At Naruto's confused nod, the Toad Boss continued. "Well kid, underage drinking is the least of your worries. Now where is Jiraiya?"
"Probably still at the tope of this ravine," Naruto said. "He's the one who threw me down here."
"Well then, let's just go have a chat with Jiraiya," Gamabunta said. "Hold on you two."
"What!" Naruto asked before Gamabunta leapt. "Gah!" Naruto was forced flat on his chest and face by the air pressure generated by the toad's leap.
"Come out here Jiraiya!" Gamabunta demanded when the Toad Boss landed on the plateau overlooking the ravine. "I know you are here. Now tell me why you threw this brat down there?"
"Ah well, you see Gamabunta," Jiraiya stammered as he stepped from the shadows of the trees. "My plan worked, you see Naruto. Now, you've mastered the **Summoning Jutsu**, and learned to call upon your second reserve of chakra."
"Plan?" Naruto asked, glaring down at the white haired Sannin. "You call that a plan! You nearly killed me by throwing me off the side of a cliff! How the hell is that a plan?"
"Look kid, just because you don't think it's a plan doesn't mean there isn't one," Jiraiya said. "Once you are older then you'll understand."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, I'm going home," Naruto said. The blonde leapt down from Gamabunta's head and only took two steps before collapsing to the ground, utterly spent.
"Heh, kid has got spunk," Gamabunta said. "So that's his boy, right Jiraiya?"
"Yeah, and my godson to boot," Jiraiya said. "You can head back Bunta, I'll take the kid home." The massive toad nodded.
"Come on Gamakichi, let's go home," Bunta said.
"Right pops," Gamakichi saluted.
"And Jiraiya, I want to properly meet the boy," Gamabunta said before he and Gamakichi vanished in puffs of smoke.
"Pushy, bossy toad," Jiraiya grumbled as he hoisted the unconscious blonde onto his shoulder and vanished from the plateau, not seeing the pair of dark eyes that had been watching them.
* * *
><p>"Ah good you are finally awake," a familiar voice chuckled as Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He recognized the ceiling above him as his own bedroom.<p>
"What happened?" Naruto asked.
"You passed out," Jiraiya answered. "I had to drag your sorry ass back here and then wait until you woke up."
"Serves you right," Naruto growled. "You tried to kill me by throwing me over the side of a ravine!"
Jiraiya chuckled. "Well yeah, look it worked anyway, didn't it?" he reasoned. "Kid, it was the only way you could learn to call upon the fox's chakra at will."
"But what if I don't want to use the fox's chakra?" Naruto argued. "That chakra is dangerous and unstable. I want to grow strong using my own strength, not someone else's."
Jiraiya blinked at the blonde's answer. He hadn't expected that answer from a kid, let alone Naruto who he had been told was a simpleton and a troublemaker. But Jiraiya knew that while Naruto's answer was mature sounding and admirable, it was also dumb and childish.
"Look kid, don't be stupid," Jiraiya scolded. "You might think you are being noble and strong for thinking that but you are just limiting yourself. The Yondaime Hokage believed that one day you would be able to control the fox's power."
"But how am I supposed to change the villager's minds that I am not the fox when you want me to use its chakra?" Naruto demanded.
"You are not a child anymore Naruto," Jiraiya said sharply. "You shouldn't worry or care what other people think of you. Look, because of you being a jinchuriki, you will never have a normal life. There will be always be people who hate or fear you because of what you hold, and you will never change their minds, so just forget about them."
Naruto's face fell at Jiraiya's words. Then the blonde set his face. "I don't care," he said. "I am going to prove that I can be strong without the fox's chakra. I'll beat Gaara without it."
"You are an idiot, you know that right?" Jiraiya asked. "Gaara will kill you if you don't use all your gifts."
"The fox is not a gift, it is a curse," Naruto said. "I have been hated by most of the villagers all my life. This gift as you call it has been nothing but pain for me."
"Stop complaining brat," Jiraiya snapped, sounding angry for the first time, obviously having enough of Naruto's whining. "You are a ninja of Konoha, not a mewling brat looking for pity."
"What do you know about me?" Naruto shouted back. "You only met me two days ago, and now you are telling me that the only way I will get strong is if I use the very thing that has made my life hell. No way, I am not using the fox's chakra!"
"Stubborn brat, just like your…" Jiraiya grumbled before stopping abruptly. "Fine brat, get yourself killed because you don't want my help. You'll come crawling back to me in time."
"Whatever," Naruto growled. "Thank you for bringing me back here but you can leave now."
Jiraiya gave the blonde a searching look before leaving Naruto's room and apartment all together.
Naruto fell back onto his bed, not knowing exactly how he felt. He was proud that he had stood up to Jiraiya; his heroes, the Hokage, hadn't gotten strong by relying on something other than their own strength, so why couldn't he? But at the same time, Naruto couldn't shake the feeling that he was making a mistake.
A sharp knock at the front door caught Naruto's attention.
"What now you old pervert," Naruto growled as he gingerly got out of bed. The knocking came again. "I'm coming, I'm coming," Naruto called out as he approached the front door to his apartment.
"What do you want Jiraiya?" Naruto snapped as he threw open the door.
"Hello Uzumaki-san."
**A/N: DUN, DUN, DUN! Well there you go, a cliffhanger for you all. But there you have it, the newest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_, hope you all enjoyed it. As you can probably all guess, next chapter will be the Chunin Exam Finals, so this chapter is a bit of a filler chapter unfortunately but I hope you all liked it. It was a fun chapter to write for me due to all the dialogue and diving deeper into the characters than what is done in the manga IMO. Please let me know what you all thought of the chapter, and we should be starting the Chunin Finals in about two weeks as long as my muse keeps up and I get enough time to type and edit the chapter. Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
13. Finals Commence
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! I don't own any recognizable part from the _Naruto_ manga phenomena that Kishimoto tore down in the final two chapters of the manga.**
**Key:**
**Jutsu Names**
_'Thoughts'_
"Speech"
The entire village of Konoha was abuzz with excitement; there was fervor in the air as the Finals of the Chunin Selection Exams had finally arrived. And the first two matches of the Finals featured two of the village's two most prestigious clans, Neji Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha. The stadium had been rapidly filling with villagers, ninja and guests alike, all wanting to make sure they didn't miss a minute of the fights.
"Wow," Naruto gasped as he looked around the massive stadium.
"Baka, pay attention," Sakura scolded. "And act professional for once, you better not embarrass the village. There are a lot of very important people here, and we need to show off our strength."
"I know that Sakura," Naruto said somewhat sharply. The pinkette was quite surprised at Naruto's snappish tone, he had never really snapped at her before, no matter how much she might have deserved it. Sakura also felt a small pang of loss when her blonde teammate didn't refer to her with his customary 'chan' suffix. Looking over at her blonde teammate, Sakura had to admit that he certainly looked professional and like a proper Konoha shinobi. He had changed his attire once again to make himself look like an actual shinobi. Naruto now wore black ninja pants that were taped at his ankles with dark gray shin guards protecting his lower legs that matched the arm guards that protected his forearms. Underneath his sleeveless dark green hoodie was a black long sleeve turtleneck-like shirt and his hands were guarded by fingerless gloves that had metal plates sewn on them like Kakashi but had a spiral design etched on the metal. Naruto's trench knives were clipped at his belt with a kunai holster strapped to both thighs. To Sakura, Naruto looked a lot like some of the ANBU that she had seen around the village.
"Are you ready Sakura? You are going against Neji," Naruto asked. "Lee did say that Neji is the strongest genin in the village."
"Don't worry about me Naruto," Sakura said, feeling slightly better at the genuine concern that she heard in Naruto's voice. "I can handle myself, it's your opponent that I'm worried about. He hasn't stopped staring at you since we arrived."
"I know," Naruto said. "He seems quite eager for our match, wish I could say the same."
"You're not eager to fight?" Sakura asked surprised. "That doesn't sound like you, you would normally bouncing off the walls to show off."
"Oh don't get me wrong Sakura, I'm quite excited but I'm also worried about what I'll have to do in order to win against Gaara," Naruto said.
"What do you mean?"
"Forget about me and just focus on your own match, I'll be fine, believe it," Naruto grinned. Sakura wanted to know what Naruto was hiding but just then two forms appeared beside them. It was Sasuke and Kakashi.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's fan-girl side reared its head at the sight of her crush. Naruto blandly noticed that Sasuke had also changed his outfit. (**Same as in the anime**)
"Good, you three are all here," Kakashi said with a smile. "Now good luck, and be ready for anything. The Finals are nothing like the previous exams," he warned.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the jonin's cryptic warning. "We'll be careful Kakashi-sensei, don't worry," he said.
Kakashi nodded at his blonde student. He had been told by the Hokage and Jiraiya that Naruto had only spent one day being taught by the Toad Sage, and was wondering what the boy had learned. Jiraiya had said that Naruto had refused his teachings but under the stare of the Hokage, Jiraiya faltered and quickly revealed the truth. Hiruzen and Kakashi were not happy with Jiraiya, how the Sage only planned on teaching Naruto the **Summoning Jutsu**, and how to control the fox's chakra, as well as how Jiraiya told Naruto that the only way Naruto would become strong was by using the Kyubi's chakra.
But the Sage stood firm on the fact that he wouldn't train the blonde unless Naruto got rid of the foolish idea that he wouldn't need to use the Kyubi's chakra to beat Gaara. Jiraiya's pride wouldn't let him accept Naruto back any other way. Hiruzen and Kakashi were furious but apparently Naruto had found someone else to train him, someone that the blonde refused to tell the Hokage about. And that worried both the silver-haired jonin and the aged Hokage.
"Looks like you're training was successful," Naruto said to Sasuke.
"Same to you," Sasuke answered. "You better beat that guy, I want to fight you in the Finals."
"Don't worry, I'll be there," Naruto said with a grin.
"Look alive you brats," a new voice ordered. Naruto turned to see a Konoha jonin standing in front of the genin Finalists who was wearing a bandana-type forehead protector and had a senbon hanging from his lips.
"My name is Genma Shiranui, and I'll be the proctor for the Finals," Genma said. "Listen up because I am not going to repeat myself. The rules are the same as the preliminaries, and just like in the prelims, if I step in and say the fight is over, the fight is over. Got it?"
"Yes sir," the Konoha shinobi answered while the two kunoichi nodded, Gaara did nothing.
"Good, now unless your name is Neji Hyuga or Sakura Haruno, get your asses up to the viewing platform," Genma ordered.
"Good luck Sakura-chan," Naruto said as he and Sasuke moved off toward the staircase. Sasuke just nodded.
Sakura turned to face her opponent, who was staring right back at her with the large white and pupil-less eyes of the Hyuga clan. The kunoichi of Team 7 fought to keep the shiver from running down her spine as she met Neji's stare. The boy was handsome in a cold and stoic way, much like how Sasuke was, but the older boy also gave off an air of superiority, like Neji knew he was going to win and was making sure that Sakura knew it was as well, again like her Uchiha teammate.
"Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuga, are you both ready to begin?" Genma asked. Sakura and Neji nodded. "Excellent, then let the first match of these Chunin Selection Exam Finals begin!"
Sakura snatched a pair of shuriken from her pouch and hurled them at Neji. The Hyuga easily leaned out of the shurikens' paths.
"My teammate is a weapons specialist, and she doesn't miss," Neji said. "You are nothing compared to her."
"Yet I am here in the Finals, and your teammate is not," Sakura retorted.
"She was fated to lose to that Suna ninja, just like you are fated to lose to me," Neji said.
"Well then if I am fated to lose then I don't have to hold anything back," Sakura said. And surprising the entire crowd, Sakura rushed forward.
"What is she thinking?" Shikamaru commented from the viewing box where he and the other Finalists were watching. "She has to know that close combat against a Hyuga is suicide."
"Sakura-chan knows that," Naruto said. "But surprise is a powerful ally in battle. Neji knows that he is stronger than Sakura-chan in taijutsu, and it looks like Sakura-chan is trying to surprise Neji into making a mistake."
"Neji doesn't make many mistakes," Sasuke said. "Sakura will have to pull something special out of her bag of tricks to have a chance."
"Have faith Sasuke, Sakura-chan will surprise you," Naruto said with a grin.
"Are you so truly reckless as to try and defeat a Hyuga in taijutsu?" Neji asked with a sneer.
"Hey weren't you the one who said that I was Fated to lose?" Sakura mocked as she launched herself into a spinning kick, aimed at Neji's head, but the Hyuga casually blocked the blow. Sakura used Neji's block as a pivot point and flipped over him.
"If you wish to meet defeat so quickly then on your head be it!" Neji said, charging toward Sakura. The kunoichi grinned as her opponent raced toward her. She reached into her pouch and threw two shuriken at Neji, making the boy dodge right.
Sakura raced forward, aiming to meet Neji. The Hyuga's eyes narrowed and he raised a hand to strike down this commoner down, as Fate decreed.
"Argh!" Neji cried as he was suddenly blinded when a flash bomb went off behind Sakura. The pinkette took advantage of Neji's stumble and landed a heavy blow to the boy's stomach that bent Neji over her fist.
Neji felt his jaw slam shut as Sakura's knee came up and snapped his head back, sending the Hyuga flying head over heels and Neji crashed to the ground with a thud. A crushing silence descended over the stadium, a ninja born outside of a clan was beating a genin from the village's largest and most powerful clan.
Neji slowly got to his feet and wiped the thin trickle of blood from his chin. His eyes flared in anger as he took in Sakura standing twenty feet away from him with a smug grin on her lips.
"Did your Fate see that?" Sakura mocked.
"You will pay for that!" Neji snarled as his **Byakugan** flared to life.
Sakura swallowed thickly. '_Now the fight really begins,_' she thought. '_Let's see how much my training with Hinata will help against Neji._'
Neji surged forward at an impressive speed, much faster than Hinata had ever shown. But Sakura had trained under Kakashi Hatake, the famed Copy Ninja, and had dealt with fast combat. Sakura slid to the left, avoiding Neji's strike by mere inches and retaliated with a quick strike of her own. One that Neji easily batted aside and his arm blurred forward, fingers glowing blue, aiming to disable one of her major chakra points in her shoulder.
Sakura had learned much about her own body during her training with Hinata. She learned that most Hyuga aimed to disable their opponent's chakra points and render them unable to use chakra. After learning about that, Sakura poured over any medical or anatomy text that she could find trying to find a way to counter the Hyuga's style of fighting. But with only three weeks to prepare, Sakura was unsuccessful. So she turned her brilliant mind to another way of beating Neji.
And it was Hinata that came up with a way to possibly beat Neji. Hinata said that there were over 60 chakra points throughout the human body but there were ways to fight while your chakra points were disabled. The most important chakra points were located around a person's heart, lungs, neck and liver. As long as you could stand quite a bit of pain, and did not get struck in one of those vital points, you could possibly survive a taijutsu match against a Hyuga.
Sakura leaned backward to avoid a palm strike to the chest and swept her leg, aiming to knock Neji off his feet. But the Hyuga boy saw it coming and easily leapt over the sweep. Sakura rolled backward from the airborne Neji to gain space but the Hyuga was slightly quickly in recovering. Sakura raised her arms to defend her chest and neck but hissed in pain as the chakra points in her arms were sealed off.
"Submit," Neji ordered, standing in front of Sakura like a pillar. "I have closed off the chakra points in your arms, and such you can not use any jutsu."
Sakura slowly got to her feet, her arms hanging limply at her sides. "So I can't use my arms, big deal," Sakura shot back. "I will not give up. I will prove that you don't need to be from a clan to become a strong ninja, and that means I will not forfeit or give up!"
With a cry, Sakura charged toward Neji, her arms slowly gaining control again. She clumsily pulled some shuriken from her pouch, several falling to the ground and tossed them at Neji.
"This again," Neji sneered.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Sakura shouted, biting back a cry of pain as she forced as much chakra through her arms. It felt like fire was flowing down her arms, as her chakra was not able to flow as freely as usual. The two shuriken that Sakura had thrown multiplied into ten as they flew toward Neji. The Hyuga was surprised that Sakura was able to perform a jutsu, and that surprise nearly cost Neji. Nearly.
"**Rotation!**" Neji shouted, spinning in place. A visible blue dome of chakra erupted around the boy, surrounding and obscuring him from view. Sakura watched helplessly as her shuriken bounced harmlessly off the dome of chakra.
"What is that?" Sakura asked, panting.
"The ultimate defensive jutsu of the Hyuga clan, and one only taught to those of the Main family of the clan," Neji sneered when he stopped spinning. "But yet I, a lowly member of the Branch family, has managed to learn and master it by myself, no coddling or being handed things. Now, let me show you and the world the true power of Neji Hyuga."
Neji got into a peculiar stance and shot forward. Sakura didn't even have a chance to cry out in pain before the world went dark.
"Winner Neji Hyuga," Genma announced.
As Neji walked off the field, there was only a smattering of applause. Most of the audience were still in shock and awe at the fight, the shinobi in the audience were impressed at both fighters; Neji for knowing the **Rotation**, and Sakura for pushing the Hyuga prodigy so far. The civilians were somewhat disappointed that Sakura lost but also proud that she put up a good fight in their name.
"Like I said, she was Fated to lose," Neji said as he entered the viewing box, looking over at Naruto and Sasuke.
Naruto turned to Neji, a fierce scowl on the blonde's face. "So Sakura-chan lost, she put up one hell of a fight if she made you use a trump card like that **Rotation** jutsu," he growled.
"She surprised me is all," Neji said.
"But if your all mighty Fate said you were going to win, then how could you get surprised?" Shikamaru quipped from the railing. Sasuke and Naruto grinned at the Nara heir. Neji just huffed at Shikamaru and turned away. The two male members of Team 7 nodded their thanks to Shikamaru.
"I'll go see how Sakura-chan is doing," Naruto said. "You just focus on your fight."
Sasuke nodded and looked down at the stadium floor where Temari was already waiting. Sasuke heard the mutterings and excited chatter grow in volume and decided to take his time down to the stadium floor, knowing that the Konoha-dominate crowd would continue to stoke itself into a veritable frenzy at the seeing the Last Uchiha's match.
"Where's the infirmary?" Naruto asked a random ninja as the blonde walked down the hallway.
"Down the hall and take a right," the man said. "It will be the first door on the left after that right turn."
"Thanks," Naruto said.
"No running!" a stern voice snapped as Naruto came barreling around the corner and into the infirmary.
"Sorry," Naruto said. "Where's Sakura Haruno?"
The medical ninja gave Naruto a searching look before pointing to a bed the fair end of the room. "She is down there, resting," the woman said.
"How is she?" Naruto asked, surprising the woman by not running off to Sakura's bedside.
"Sakura-chan will make a full recovery," the nurse said. "She is only suffering from some minor bruises and low chakra levels. It will take some time before Sakura-chan can return to her duties though since the only way to open her chakra points is for them to open naturally unless a Hyuga were to open them."
"Isn't there a nurse who is a Hyuga?" Naruto asked.
"No," the nurse said softly. "And it's unfortunate, their **Byakugan** would make an invaluable asset in finding injuries and diagnosing them. But clans are so leery of people stealing their secrets that they refuse to even think about helping. Just like how the Uchiha clan would never write any of the jutsus they would copy to put in jutsu library before…" The nurse paused as she realized who Naruto's teammate was.
A low groan came from the end of the room.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried as he rushed over to his teammate's bed.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked lowly as her eyes fluttered open. "What happened?"
"You're in the infirmary," Naruto explained. "Neji beat you by closing most of your chakra points but you were awesome anyway. A lot of people were impressed at how well you did against Neji."
"But I still lost," Sakura muttered, gingerly pushing herself up into a sitting position on the bed. "Where's Sasuke-kun?"
"He's fighting that Suna girl, his match was right after yours, remember?" Naruto said. "Do you want to go watch the fight?" Sakura nodded. "Let me help you up then," he said. Naruto helped Sakura swing her legs off the bed and put one of her arms over his shoulders to support Sakura as the teammates headed back to the viewing room. As they clumsily walked out of the infirmary, the nurse watched them go with a thoughtful look on her face.
'_So that's Naruto Uzumaki?_' she thought. '_He's nothing like the others say he is. I wonder…_'
"You're up already?" Shikamaru asked as Naruto and Sakura returned to the viewing room.
"Of course, it will take more than closing some chakra points to keep me down," Sakura said. "How's Sasuke-kun doing?"
"Fine," Shikamaru muttered. "He and that Suna kunoichi have just been feeling each other out, they haven't done much except trade insults."
Down on the stadium floor, Sasuke was watching his opponent like a hawk. He knew that she used wind jutsus, mainly coming from her fan that was strapped to her back. The Uchiha heir knew that he had the elemental advantage over his opponent with his fire jutsus.
"Let's get this match going," Sasuke said as his hands flew through a jutsu that had become second nature to him. "**Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!**"
The ball of orange flames sped across the ground, leaving hard caked dirt in its wake from the heat. Temari scowled as she quickly dodged the attack and pulled her fan off her back in one smooth motion.
"Dodge this! **Wind Release: Raging Gale Jutsu!**" Temari shouted, swinging her fully opened fan. The wide spread Wind jutsu raced toward Sasuke with impressive speed. Sasuke backtracked until he was up against the wall of the arena and leapt skyward. The jutsu slammed into the wall below him kicking dirt and debris into the air in a large cloud.
"**Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!**" Sasuke cried, sending a large stream of fire in the shape of a dragon speeding down at Temari.
Temari cursed as she was once more forced on the defensive by Sasuke's fire jutsu. She barely avoided being cooked alive by the **Dragon Flame Jutsu**, and sent another** Raging Gale** at the area where Sasuke was going to land. '_Gotcha!_' she crowed as Sasuke descended right into the path of her jutsu.
"What!" Temari cried as her jutsu shredded, not Sasuke, but a log. "**Substitution!**" She whirled around to see Sasuke rushing toward her with a kunai outstretched and about to pierce her. Temari closed her fan and brought it in front of her just in time to avoid being skewered by Sasuke.
"Nice reflexes," Sasuke commented, his kunai grating alongside the edge of the war fan. "But not quick enough." A second kunai appeared in Sasuke's other hand.
Temari's eyes widened as she rotated her fan and managed to block Sasuke's second kunai but she wasn't quick enough to avoid all damage as Sasuke's blade scored a thin red line along Temari's right arm.
Temari leapt backward to try and gain room to use her fan but Sasuke wouldn't let her get away. He slashed at Temari with his two kunai, scoring nicks on the metal casing of Temari's fan as the Suna girl desperately tried to get back on the offensive.
"Sasuke-kun is really taking it to that Temari girl," Sakura commented as she leaned on the railing. She could feel her strength slowly returning as the constant burn in her arms that was slowly lessening in intensity.
"Well he has the edge in speed and jutsu type," Shikamaru said. "But look closely at her, she isn't panicking. She has something up her sleeve, even if she has been on the back foot all match."
Naruto and Sakura looked down at their teammate with curious and slightly worried looks.
"I'm sure that Sasuke will be fine," Naruto said with a reassuring tone. "He's too much of a bastard to lose to some random Suna ninja. He promised that we would face each other in the Finals."
Sakura nodded to Naruto in thanks for reminding her about Sasuke's promise and she knew that Sasuke, like Naruto, did all they could never break a promise.
Down on the stadium floor, Sasuke was watching his opponent closely. He had activated his **Sharingan** when Temari had managed to avoid his attack just seconds before. He knew that he had missed a golden opportunity to finish this fight, an opportunity that his opponent would not give again, and was cursing himself for it.
"**Fire Release: Phoenix Flame Jutsu!**" Sasuke said, sending several small fireballs soaring at Temari.
The Suna kunoichi knew she couldn't use her fan, or any wind jutsus to deflect Sasuke's jutsu, and had to settle for leaping around nimbly to avoid the fireballs.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Sasuke shouted, tossing a handful of shuriken toward Temari. The handful grew into a cloud of speeding metal. Temari's face twitched into a grin as she drew her fan. Finally a jutsu that she could fight against without it exploding in her face.
"**Wind Release: Raging Gale!**"
The cloud of metal were batted aside with ease. But Temari knew immediately that she had made a mistake, she had lost track of her opponent. Temari yelped as she felt a pair of hands grab her ankles.
"**Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu!**" Sasuke's smug voice said from behind Temari who was buried up to her neck in the ground. Temari growled when she heard her fan being kicked aside. Sasuke crouched down behind Temari and put a kunai to her throat. "Give up, you're done."
Temari snarled but she knew that he was right. "I give up," she growled.
"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha of Konoha!" Genma announced as a loud roar rang through the stadium. Sasuke permitted himself a small smirk at the cheers raining down around him, it felt good to be cheered for winning rather than just his family name.
"Nicely done," Naruto said when Sasuke reached the viewing room.
"Congratulations Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, smiling at her teammate. The Uchiha heir nodded to his teammates.
"So Shikamaru, you're up now," Naruto said. "What's your plan?"
Shikamaru looked at his blonde comrade. "It would be too troublesome to explain right now," he said, pushing off the railing and walked toward the stairwell that led down to the arena floor.
"He's probably going to forfeit," Sasuke said once Shikamaru had left the room. "He doesn't have the stomach for a fight like this."
"Don't count Shikamaru out yet," Naruto chuckled. "He could have given up in the preliminaries but didn't. If there is one guy who will have a plan, its Shikamaru. I'll bet you 100 ryou that Shikamaru wins against Karin."
"Deal," Sasuke said. "If Shikamaru loses, or forfeits, I win."
"You got it," Naruto said, shaking Sasuke's hand. Sakura just shook her head at her teammates' antics. '_Doesn't Sasuke-kun know that Naruto never loses a bet?_' she thought.
"Troublesome, why do I always have to fight a girl?" Shikamaru grumbled as he approached Genma and Karin.
"What did you say?" Karin growled. "You think that just because I'm a girl that I'll just give up! You sexist pig!"
"Troublesome," Shikamaru repeated causing Genma to chuckle.
"Looks like I better start this one," he commented. "The third match of the Chunin Selection Finals, between Shikamaru Nara and Karin, will now begin!"
At the signal, Karin charged Shikamaru, drawing a kunai from her pouch. Shikamaru drew his own kunai and met Karin's charge. The sound of two kunai meeting rang through the stadium.
"What is she doing?" Sasuke muttered. "She has to know that the Nara clan's jutsus work better at close range."
"Remember that this Karin uses fuinjutsu to fight," Naruto said. "She didn't show much in her fight against Choji except for that fuinjutsu trap, so we don't a lot about her."
Sasuke conceded the point with a nod and turned back to the fight.
Shikamaru was blocking the rapid kunai strikes from Karin as he backpedaled away from the redhead.
"Stand and fight you coward," Karin shouted as she continued slashing wildly at Shikamaru with her kunai.
"I'd rather not," Shikamaru said. "I don't want to fight but my mother would be too troublesome to deal with if I forfeited or lost. So it's time I get started."
Shikamaru opened his left hand and a light bomb dropped from it. Karin saw Shikamaru grin and cursed. She leapt backward and closed her eyes to shield them from the bomb.
"**Shadow Possession Jutsu** success," Karin heard Shikamaru say as her body froze and ceased listening to her commands.
"What!" Karin cried. "How?"
"Deception," Shikamaru answered. "I knew that everyone had seen me use the light bomb in the preliminary, so it was easy to make a fake to fool you. See." Karin felt her head move and she saw the light bomb that Shikamaru had dropped was a fake. "Now to end this, **Shadow Strangulation Jutsu!**"
Two shadowy hands rose from Shikamaru's and Karin's connected shadows and began to crawl up Karin's legs.
"You know what happens next," Shikamaru said. "You can't break free of my jutsu, and once those hands reach your neck, it will be all over for you. So just give up."
"Never," Karin growled, struggling against Shikamaru's jutsu. "I am going to kick your ass for making that sexist comment."
"What did I say that was sexist?" Shikamaru asked, tilting his head.
"You know exactly what you said!" Karin shouted. "You said that fighting a girl was beneath you!"
"What?" Shikamaru said confused. "I didn't say that. You girls always have to make everything into such a big deal. I didn't mean anything by saying I had to fight a girl, I just don't like fighting in general."
"Then give up," Karin argued.
"If I did that, then my mom and my teammate would shout and scream," Shikamaru explained. "And that would be even more troublesome than fighting. So I'll ask you again, give up."
"Never!" Karin shouted, continuing her struggles.
"Fine then," Shikamaru said gruffly. The two shadowy hands slid back down to the ground, releasing Karin much to the kunoichi's surprise. But before Karin could react, Shikamaru made another hand sign. "**Shadow Spikes Jutsu!**"
Karin screamed in pain as two black spikes shot from Shikamaru's shadow and pierced Karin's legs above her knees. The spikes retreated back to Shikamaru's shadow and Karin fell to the ground, clutching her legs and trying to stem the blood that was staining her pants and the dirt around her.
"Winner Shikamaru Nara," Genma announced. The crowd, a vast majority of them being Konoha citizens, erupted into cheers as another Konoha shinobi defeated their foreign opponent.
Shikamaru walked slowly off the field as a medical team came out to put Karin onto a stretcher. Shikamaru could hear Karin groaning in pain as she was lifted off the ground and placed on the stretcher.
"Well done," Shikamaru heard Naruto say when he reached the viewing room where the others were watching.
"Thanks," Shikamaru said. Then the Nara heir froze at the feeling of bloodlust rolling off the red haired Suna ninja, and he, Sasuke and Sakura all turned toward Gaara. The Suna ninja was staring at Naruto with crazed eyes and a twisted and bloodthirsty smile.
Sakura shivered at the look on the boy's face, and looked over at her blonde teammate. Naruto was looking right back at Gaara with hard and flat eyes.
"Would Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara Sabaku please come down here?" Genma's voice rang through the stadium.
Gaara slowly dissolved into a cloud of sand that floated out of the viewing box, with Naruto standing right in the middle of its path.
"Be careful Naruto," Sakura said quickly as Naruto hopped up onto the railing. "There is something seriously creepy about that guy."
"Don't worry Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "I can handle this guy. He's a lot like me, or at least what I would have become if I hadn't found my precious people and found my nindo."
"You mean he's a…" Sasuke said.
"Yep," Naruto said. "So I'm the only one who can fight him, and don't worry I can kick his ass no problem."
"Naruto Uzumaki, get your ass down here!" Genma shouted. "If you aren't down here in…" he stopped when Naruto appeared in front of the Konoha jonin. "Took you long enough Uzumaki. Not taking after your sensei, are you?"
"Hm, did you say something?" Naruto asked.
Genma laughed loudly at Naruto's quip. "Well played," he said. "Now then, the final match of the first round of the Chunin Selection Finals has arrived. This match will be between Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara Sabaku, now are both combatants ready?" Naruto nodded while Gaara did nothing. "Ok then, since you two are ready, let the match begin!"
* * *
><p><strong>Character Stats: (each ranking goes up to 10, 1-2: civilian, 3-4: genin, 5-6: chunin, 7-8: jonin, 9-10: Kage)<strong>
**Naruto Uzumaki: Genin, 12 years old, Konoha **
**Speed: 4 (5 w/o weights) ****Strength: 5**
**Stamina: 9 ****Intelligence: 6**
**Ninjutsu: 5 ****Genjutsu: 3**
**Taijutsu: 4 ****Chakra: 10**
**Weaponry: 5 ****Fuinjutsu: 6**
**Total: 57**
**Sasuke Uchiha: Genin, 12 years old, Konoha **
**Speed: 5 (6 w/o weights) Strength: 4**
**Stamina: 6 ****Intelligence: 6**
**Ninjutsu: 6 ****Genjutsu: 5**
**Taijutsu: 5 ****Weaponry: 5**
**Fuinjutsu: 4 ****Chakra: 7**
**Total: 53**
**Sakura Haruno: Genin, 12 years old, Konoha**
**Speed: 4 (5 w/o weights) ****Strength: 4**
**Stamina: 4 ****Intelligence: 8**
**Ninjutsu: 5 ****Genjutsu: 5**
**Taijutsu: 4 ****Weaponry: 5**
**Fuinjutsu: 5 ****Chakra: 5**
**Total: 49**
**A/N: Well there you go, the newest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_. Sorry about the delayed release, work and volunteering got in the way of me posting last week but we've reached the Chunin Finals and gotten three fights. Hope you all liked those fights, please let me know how you might think I need to improve my fight writing. There shouldn't be a delay on my normal posting schedule for the next chapter, and I'm sure you all know where that's going. Please let me know if you have any ideas on where I should go from here, anything from the anime episodes that you would like to see added to the story. Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
14. A New High Rank Mission: Invasion
**Disclaimer: I don't any part of _Naruto_, it all belongs to Kishimoto and whoever he gave the rights to it too. I am NOT one of those lucky, or unlucky depending on how you view it, few. No money is being made off this homage to the manga.**
**Key:**
"Talking"
'_Human thinking_'
**Jutsu Names**
**Biju or Summon speak**
**_'Biju or Summon thoughts_**'
An uneasy quiet fell over the stadium as Naruto and Gaara faced off against one another. Neither had moved since Genma had signaled the beginning of the match, however steadily the air grew thicker and thicker, many of the civilians and younger ninja were beginning to have trouble breathing, as if a great weight had settled upon their chests.
"What's going on?" Sakura asked, noticing her own discomfort and that of Sasuke's.
"They are releasing their chakra," Sasuke said. "It's a showdown, each time this Gaara raises his chakra level, Naruto does the same. It's unbelievable, I've never seen so much chakra in just one person."
"That's Gaara for you," Temari boasted. "He has the most chakra of anyone in our village, your teammate doesn't stand a chance."
"I wasn't talking about Gaara," Sasuke said with a small smug grin of his own. "Gaara might have the most chakra of anyone from your village but this isn't Suna. This is Konoha, and Naruto's holding back."
"What? That's impossible!" Temari cried.
"That's Naruto for you," Sakura grinned, shaking her head fondly at her teammate's antics.
"You are not afraid of me," Gaara said, staring at Naruto with his cold and expressionless sea green eyes.
"I wouldn't say afraid is the best word to describe what I am feeling," Naruto said. "I'll admit that I am nervous, you are strong Gaara, I can tell that much. But if I didn't feel nervous then I would be overconfident and probably do something stupid. I can't lose here Gaara; I have a dream that I will make a reality. So are you ready to start?"
Suddenly sand shot toward Naruto at surprising speed. The blonde channeled chakra to his legs and leapt backward to avoid being snared by the sand that had taken the shape of a large hand. Naruto's hands dipped into his pouch and grabbed several shuriken.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted, the blonde's shuriken multiplied into a cloud of deadly, speeding metal. Gaara didn't react as the sand fell back and rose into a shield that blocked every shuriken.
Gaara's eyes widened as several of the captured shuriken exploded. More sand poured from his gourd and quickly wrapped Gaara in a cocoon that protected him from the flying shrapnel.
"Tch," Naruto said. "Guess that didn't work. Oh well, wasn't expecting it too but you never know."
The sand covering Gaara fell away, revealing a very different Gaara than the emotionless and cold Gaara that Naruto had been fighting. A crazed light now shone brightly in Gaara's sea-green eyes, a bloodthirsty light.
"Yes Naruto Uzumaki! You will prove my existence!" Gaara exclaimed. "Your blood will sate mother!"
Naruto felt a small chill run down his spine at Gaara's new expression. "Ok then Gaara, you want to play serious, then let's play," Naruto said. He tapped himself on the shoulder, deactivating his weight seal. "Let's go!"
The blonde vanished in a burst of speed that took many of the spectators by surprise. "Whoa, Naruto has gotten a lot faster," Sakura commented.
"He looks almost as fast as Lee is with his weights on," Sasuke said. "But that won't be enough. Lee was a lot faster than Naruto and he was still beaten by Gaara in the preliminaries. Speed alone won't beat Gaara." Sakura nodded.
"But Naruto can use jutsu," she said. "Lee could only use taijutsu, Naruto doesn't have Lee's handicaps."
"Nor does he have Lee's greatest strength," Sasuke said.
"You have a lot of sand," Naruto said. "Let's see how well you can control mud. **Water Release: Tidal Surge!**"
The small lake in the corner of the arena erupted into a large column of water. The column rose high above the two genin and then crashed down in one massive wave, soaking both Naruto and Gaara. Naruto shook his head, trying to clear his sodden hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. Looking up, Naruto grinned when he saw that nearly all of Gaara's sand had fallen to the ground in great clumps of mud and girt.
Naruto flicked his wrist and a twelve-inch blade shot out of his arm guard. The blade glowed slightly as Naruto channeled chakra into it. "Let's see how well you can defend against this," the blonde said as he shot forward, arm held down at his side.
In the crowd, a gray haired jonin's visible eye widened as he took in his student's attack pattern.
"Kakashi, that looks very much like your…"
"I know Gai," Kakashi said, cutting his fellow jonin off. "But I have no clue how Naruto learned something that resembled my attack so closely. I don't think Naruto has even seen me use it before."
Gaara saw only a yellow blur racing toward him as he tried to raise the wet sand in front of him to protect himself but the sand was heavy and slow.
"**Wind Release: Wind Scar!**" Naruto shouted as he got within ten feet of Gaara, slashing his arm upward. A tall swath of air rushed toward Gaara. The boy's sand rose in time to shield him but the **Wind Jutsu** was not meant to wound Gaara, only occupy his sand.
"Gotcha!" Naruto cried as he burst through the crumbling sand wall, his gauntlet blade once again coated in bluish-white chakra. Naruto plunged his blade into Gaara's chest. "Shit," Naruto snarled as Gaara's features changed into a **Sand Clone**, which grabbed Naruto's arm in a vice-like grip.
"Nowhere to run now Naruto Uzumaki," Gaara said as he rose from the muddy sand behind Naruto. The **Sand Clone** dissolved into a pile of sand that quickly began to slither its way up Naruto's leg, tightening its grip. Gaara's face was twisted in a gleeful smile as his sand slowly encased Naruto.
Naruto tried to pull himself free from Gaara's sand but the sand's grip was too strong. The smile on Gaara's face widened as his sand reached Naruto's chest.
"Soon mother, you will get to drink all of his sweet blood," Gaara cooed to someone that Naruto couldn't see. "I am a good boy, right mother?"
"Who are you talking too Gaara?" Naruto asked.
"It does not matter to you Naruto Uzumaki!" Gaara snapped. "You are about to die!"
"Not today," Naruto said as the sand reached his neck.
"**Sand Coffin!**" Gaara cried gleefully, eagerly awaiting the crunch of bone, the scream of pain and steady drip of blood. But the only thing that Gaara heard was a soft puff.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**"
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**"
Gaara whirled around as a flying wall of steel came rushing toward him. Behind the wall of steel, Gaara could just make out the forms of two Narutos grinning at him. The sand that had been used to crush the clone Naruto rose up and blocked the speeding shuriken.
"Damn, I thought that would work," Naruto said. "It seems that your defense lives up to its name as ultimate but let's see if you can defend against an attack you can't see. **Bringer of Darkness Jutsu!**"
"Since when can Naruto use genjutsu?" Sakura cried. "That's the Second's own genjutsu!"
"Why are you asking me? I have no clue," Sasuke shot back, looking at his female teammate.
"Where are you Naruto Uzumaki?" Gaara shouted, looking around frantically. "Come out and face me!"
"Now why would I do that?" Naruto's voice came from all around Gaara. Shouts of "**Wind Release: Wind Scar!**" rang out all around Gaara from the darkness that surrounded him.
"Quite an interesting genin you have there Hokage-dono," the Kazekage said. "To be able to perform such an advanced genjutsu, and to successfully place it on my youngest son is quite impressive."
"Yes, Naruto-kun certainly is full of surprises," Hiruzen said with a smile though on the inside, his mind was spinning wildly. He knew that the Kazekage never referred to Gaara as his son. '_So my wayward student, you have returned,_' Hiruzen thought before turning back to the match.
Gaara's sand rose all around him, just as Naruto's jutsus slammed into the sand. The wind jutsus were powerful but Gaara's sand was more so.
"Is that it Naruto Uzumaki?" Gaara shouted. "Show me your true strength so that I might crush you and prove my existence!"
"Fine if that's the way you want to play it," Naruto's voice called from the darkness. "**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**"
Unseen by Gaara and Naruto, a mass of Naruto clones appeared, each drawing a kunai. The mass of clones hurled the kunai at Gaara, and shouted, "**Kunai Shadow Multiplication!**" The hundred kunai multiplied into a thousand.
Gaara's sand rose in defense once more, surrounding the boy in a sphere of compressed sand. Naruto and his clones grinned when they heard their kunai bite and scrape against their target. The blonde released the lone genjutsu that he had learned and the world became light again. Naruto frowned at the sight before him, a sphere of sand with kunai littered around it.
"Damn," Naruto muttered. The sound of shifting sound made Naruto look up. Slowly the sand protecting Gaara was draining away into the ground around the boy.
"Pathetic," Gaara sneered. "Here I thought you were strong Naruto Uzumaki, that you would be able to prove my existence but I was wrong. This fight is over."
"Not quite! Activate!" Naruto grinned. Suddenly the hissing of snakes surrounded Gaara, the boy looked down and saw some of the kunai that Naruto had thrown had an explosive tag wrapped around the handle. BOOM!
The entire stadium was rocked by an immense explosion causing the spectators throw their arms up as a cloud of dust, debris and smoke blanketed the entire stadium.
"What the hell was that?" Sakura shouted. "Is Naruto trying to bring down the entire stadium?"
"I don't know, Naruto has always been crazy," Sasuke said.
When the smoke finally cleared, a crater roughly half the width of the stadium floor was the only thing left; the trees and shrubs had been uprooted or blasted to splinters, the small lake was rapidly draining into the bottom of the crater, leaving muddy tracks and rivers.
"Where's Naruto?" Sakura asked, her eyes frantically searching for her blonde teammate.
"And Gaara," Sasuke pointed out, his **Sharingan** gaze scanning the stadium blonde. "I don't see…" Sasuke trailed off as near the middle of the crater, the ground began to shift. The crowd held its breath as a figure rose from the dirt.
"It's Gaara," Sasuke said.
The Suna ninja shook his head, dirt and dust falling to the ground around him. "Where are you Naruto Uzumaki?" Gaara shouted, though his voice sounded distant. Gaara shook his head, trying to rid the ringing in his ears but it would not go away. Reaching up, Gaara froze when he felt a warm wetness touch his hand. Brining his hand down, Gaara saw that the tips of his fingers were stained red.
"Blood?" Gaara whispered. "My blood!"
A bone-chilling scream tore its way from Gaara's throat, though the redhead only heard a low ringing. Hunching over and clutching his head, Gaara vanished from sight as the sand enveloped him again. Just then, a blonde mop of hair burst from the dirt about fifty feet away.
"Naruto!" Sakura cried in relief at the appearance of her teammate. At her side, Sakura felt Sasuke relax as well.
"Oh no you don't Gaara, no more playing hide and seek," Naruto growled. He drew a kunai as his wrist blade had shattered when he had stabbed Gaara's sand moments before and channeled as much wind chakra into the blade as he could. The kunai glowed a bright bluish white, and its tip was now extending a good foot from the metal point. "Come out and fight," Naruto shouted as he raced forward, the kunai held at his side like a spear ready to be thrust.
The crowd watched in amazement as a yellow blur streaked across the stadium floor toward the ball of sand in the middle of the large crater. Hiruzen felt a warm smile stretch his lips at the sight of Naruto racing across the stadium. '_He looks so much like his father, I don't know how much longer I can keep it from you Naruto-kun,_' he thought. '_I only hope that you forgive me for keeping it from you so long._'
All noise in the stadium seemed to go silent as Naruto reached the sphere and in one fluid motion, stabbed his kunai deep into its depth. Another scream echoed all throughout the stadium as the sphere of sand crumbled to bits, revealing a panting Gaara, dried blood covered the sides of his face and his hand was clutching a blood-drenched shoulder.
Naruto felt a chill race down his spine at the sight of Gaara's mismatched eyes; one was teal, the other golden with a black star as its pupil.
Suddenly an explosion shook the stadium, causing Naruto to around. The box where the Hokage and Kazekage had been sitting was covered in white smoke.
"Naruto!"
Naruto heard Sakura's voice call out just as instincts shouted at him to move. Naruto dove to the right just as a blade of wind rushed through the space where his head had just been. Naruto saw several strands of his hair flutter down in front of his eyes, severed from his head. The blonde noticed five blurs leapt down to the stadium floor around him.
"Close shave there dobe," Sasuke said as he and Sakura took up flanking positions next to Naruto. Across from Team 7 was the Suna team and their sensei.
"What's going on?" Naruto asked.
"We're being invaded," Sakura answered. "The Sand and Sound villages."
Naruto turned to face the Suna team, his head slightly bowed so that his bangs partially hid his eyes. Temari and Kankuro shivered at the icy look staring at them from the blonde kid's glacial blue eyes. "So you thought you could attack my home?" Naruto snarled. "You will pay!"
A howl of pain came from Gaara who was slightly behind the Suna team.
"Get Gaara out of here," the Sand jonin ordered. "He is vital to the plan, take him out of here to recover and regroup."
Temari and Kankuro nodded to their sensei and grabbed Gaara by the arms and leapt off. Baki turned back to Team 7, a sneer twisting the man's face.
"We need to get through this bastard," Naruto growled. "Gaara is the key to their plans, we need to stop him."
"You three brats aren't going anywhere," Baki snarled. The Sand jonin's hands rose in preparation of a jutsu but he was forced to abort the jutsu as a senbon made him leap backward.
"You three go, I'll handle this guy," the proctor Genma said appearing between Team 7 and Baki. "Now go!"
Team 7 didn't hesitate at the command and raced off after the Sand siblings.
"You are sending those brats to their deaths," Baki sneered. "They don't stand a chance against Gaara."
"You don't have much faith in the next generation, do you?" Genma said. "Those three are something special, I can tell."
"Your funeral, or those kids then," Baki snarled. "**Wind Release: Blade of Wind!**"
* * *
><p>"Are you sure they went this way?" Naruto asked as Team 7 raced through the thick forests that surrounded the village.<p>
"Yes dobe, I am following that Gaara's chakra," Sasuke growled, his **Sharingan** active. "Now pick up the pace, they've stopped for some reason."
"Why would they be doing that?" Sakura asked.
"Gaara is a jinchuriki," Naruto said. "They were probably planning on having Gaara unleash his Biju in the stadium to destroy the village."
"He's like you," Sakura said. "How are we supposed to beat him then?"
"We aren't, I am," Naruto said. "You two will take on Gaara's teammates, I am the only one who can take on Gaara. And I've been training to fight Gaara all month."
"Tch," Sasuke grunted but didn't argue, knowing that Naruto was right. "Fine then Naruto, what's the plan?"
"Sasuke, you take on the girl, you've already beaten her but just be careful. She might have some tricks that she was holding back during your match," Naruto said. "Sakura, you take the puppeteer. Be careful, he will most likely use poisons, so don't get hit by anything. Both of your opponents are mid to long range fighters, so they are weak up close and personal. So get in close and you will be them."
"How do you know so much about Gaara and his teammates Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"My sensei told me that knowing your opponent is half the battle," Naruto said.
"Enough talking," Sasuke barked. "We're nearly there."
"You two know what to do," Naruto said. "Let's go!"
The sound of creaking wood was the only warning that Temari and Kankuro had before two blurs shot from the forest around them and tackled them, separating them from Gaara and carrying the two siblings away from their charge.
"Now its just you and me again Gaara," Naruto said, staring down at the stationary Sand ninja. Gaara looked up at Naruto with bloodlust filled eyes.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" Gaara roared. "You have come! Face me Naruto Uzumaki and I shall prove my existence by killing you!"
"You won't be killing anyone today Gaara," Naruto said. "You thought that you would come into my village and threaten its people! I will not allow you to harm anyone in my village, not now and not ever! **Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**"
All around Naruto, clones appeared covering the clearing in a cloud of smoke and a mass of green, gray and black.
"Take this!" the clones shouted. "**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**" Each clone grabbed a shuriken and hurled it at Gaara. The shuriken multiplied into a cloud that blocked out the sun and the woods all around Gaara. "**Wind Release: Howling Tempest!**"
Behind the approaching cloud of shuriken, the clones fired a massive Wind jutsu that propelled the shuriken into streaks of barely visible light. The dirt around Gaara rose to protect him along with the sand in his gourd. The shuriken slammed into Gaara's defensive dome of sand, releasing little puffs of sand with each impact.
Naruto frowned as he surveyed his jutsu's effectiveness. He was sure that some of the shuriken had managed to punch their way through the sand but most hadn't. '_Where are you Gaara?_' Naruto thought.
A soft creek was the only warning that Naruto had before the forest floor erupted. Naruto's clones were all but wiped out as an immense figure now towered over Naruto and his few remaining clones, bathing them in shadow.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" Gaara's voice made Naruto look up. The blonde spotted his opponent now on top of a massive thing.
"So that's Shukaku?" Naruto whispered.
'_**Yes, that's the stubby tailed rodent,**_' the Kyubi's voice came from within Naruto's mind. '_**But his container is still in control.**_'
'_How do you know?_' Naruto asked.
'_**Because I just do**_,' the fox snarled. '_**Now pay attention you idiot!**_'
Naruto blinked, the massive fox's visage vanished, and now Naruto was looking up at the massive sand construct. '_How the hell am I supposed to beat that thing?_' Naruto thought. '_Just look at the size of it? I don't have a jutsu that can defeat something that big_.'
"Naruto Uzumaki, come out, come out wherever you are," Gaara's voice taunted from high above the treetops. "I can see your pathetic village from here and your teammates, perhaps you will be more willing to fight if they are crushed to pieces before your…" Gaara's voice broke off as a **Wind Bullet** slammed into Shukaku's chin. "There you are Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto leapt onto the tallest tree that was in the area, and still standing. "You will not harm anyone in my village Gaara," the blonde snarled, his blue eyes glaring up at Gaara.
Gaara threw his head back and laughed. "You little gnat," he roared. "You can not hope to defeat me. You are weak; you are only strong when you fight for yourself. Let me show you how strong I am, and how weak you are."
Shukaku's right arm rose and a massive amount of sand rose in concert with the arm, all around the tree that Naruto was standing on. The blonde Konoha ninja leapt into the air, channeling as much chakra into his legs to boost his jump. But the sand followed Naruto higher into the air. In a puff of smoke, a single **Shadow Clone** appeared next to Naruto and threw its creator away from the sand just before the sand reached up and snagged Naruto's clone's foot. Naruto watched as his clone was mercilessly crushed. The original flinched as the phantom pain flashed through his mind.
"**Wind Release: Wind Scar!**" Naruto shouted, exhaling a strong stream of wind that scattered the rapidly approaching sand. Naruto landed on a treetop and looked up at Gaara, who was smiling broadly and crazily from atop Shukaku's head.
Naruto frantically searched his mind for any jutsu that would even the odds he was facing. Then it hit him, the **Summoning Jutsu**. Naruto berated himself for not thinking of the jutsu earlier, though he had tried to drive any thought of Jiraiya from his head. Naruto leapt back, further away from the approaching Gaara, as the blonde built up as much chakra as he could. Naruto bit his thumb as his arms and legs burned from the buildup of chakra flooding their pathways.
"**Summoning Jutsu!**" Naruto roared.
Gaara paused in his approach as Naruto was engulfed in an enormous explosion of smoke. As the smoke cleared away, Gaara saw a massive reddish-brown toad wearing a blue toad with a tanto strapped to its side and breathing deeply from a pipe.
"**What's this?**" Gamabunta asked. "**Why the hell did you call me out here brat?**"
"The Sand and Sound have invaded the village," Naruto answered. "Gaara is their secret weapon, and I have to make sure he does not reach the village. And as you can see, I need your help."
"**Why should I risk my life fighting this**…" Gamabunta trailed off when he noticed who he was facing off against. "**So your opponent is the jinchuriki of Shukaku, the Ichibi.**"
"Yes," Naruto said. "But I have no clue how to beat him."
"You think that this oversized frog will help you defeat me," Gaara laughed. "You amuse me Naruto Uzumaki, let us see what you can do."
"**Oversized frog?**" Gamabunta snarled. "**Hang on brat, I can't let that insult stand.**"
Naruto barely had time to secure himself to Gamabunta's head by his chakra before the Toad Boss surged forward, drawing his blade. From atop Shukaku's head, Gaara laughed madly and threw his arm forward to snare the toad. Gamabunta's sword flashed upward and Gaara howled as his outstretched hand was separated from the rest of his body. Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw that the severed arm was rapidly dissolving back into the sand that had created it.
"**Man, that hide is tough,**" Gamabunta growled. "**I barely was able to make that cut, he's so heavy. Hey brat, got any bright ideas?**"
"No, why do you think I called on you Boss," Naruto answered. "I was handling him ok in the arena but now that he's turned into that, I have no clue what to do."
"**What were you doing that was working earlier?**"
"Getting him wet, it was slowing his sand down," Naruto said. "But I don't know any water jutsus that would work on something that big, and there isn't a water source close by that I can use to add to it."
"**Don't worry about that, water jutsus I can handle,**" Gamabunta said. "**Water Release: Toad Water Bullet Barrage!**"
The Boss summon's cheeks swelled before he fired off a dozen massive **Water Bullets**. Gaara snarled as he raised his remaining arm to defend himself as well as leaping back. But several of the bullets landed, drenching much of Shukaku.
"Excellent, now what?" Naruto asked.
"**You have to take down the medium,**" Gamabunta said. "**Taking that form but handing over control to the Biju must be taking up a lot of chakra, so you have to get in close and get them separated.**"
"And how do you think I should do that?"
"**Look brat, I can't do everything for you,**" Gamabunta growled. "**What jutsu do you know? We need to keep him in one spot.**"
"Several wind and water jutsus, oh and one fire jutsu," Naruto quickly rattled off.
"**Wind and fire, perfect,**" Gamabunta grinned around his pipe. "**Ok kid, we are going to melt this hunk of sand. I'll provide the oil, and you…**"
"Provide the fire and wind. Got it Boss," Naruto said quickly. A **Shadow Clone **appeared at his side. "Whenever you are ready Boss."
"**Here we go,**" Gamabunta ordered. His cheeks swelled once again, but this time a stream of oil came speeding out of the summon's mouth. "**Now brat!**"
"**Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted, announcing the only first jutsu that he knew.
"**Wind Release: Howling Tempest!**" Naruto's clone shouted, sending a massive amount of wind at the stream of fire. The fire engulfed Gaara and Shukaku. Naruto winced when he thought he heard a terrified scream over the roaring blaze. Gamabunta leapt backward as the fire maelstrom grew too intense.
'**_Nicely done brat_**,' he thought. '_**Too pull off a **_**Combination Jutsu** _**like that, is mighty impressive. Now lets see if that did the trick**._'
The flames slowly died away, revealing a still very much alive Gaara and Shukaku but the Biju's features were misshapen, as the head had been so intense that quite a bit of the sand that made up Shukaku had melted. It looked like if someone had only partially caught a pancake and half of it was hanging off the edge of the pan, still not fully cooked and batter was dripping to the floor in great dollops.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" Gaara's voice made Naruto and Gamabunta look up. "You have proven most tiresome to kill. So I shall complete my transformation and you shall die! **Play Possum Jutsu!**"
Gaara went limp, slumping over at the waist, and Naruto saw that the golden eyes of Shukaku spun rapidly before they glowed brightly.
"**Yahoo! I'm free!**" a high-pitched childish voice came from the massive sand construct. "**I'm finally free!**"
"**Oh shit,**" Gamabunta muttered.
"Now what?" Naruto asked.
"**That Gaara boy just gave control over to Shukaku completely, by using the** **Play Possum Jutsu**," Gamabunta explained.
"I figured that out," Naruto shouted. "But how do I beat him?"
"**Wake him up,**" the Toad Boss said. "**If you awaken the medium, then Shukaku will be pulled back into the seal that contains the sand spirit.**"
"And how do you suppose I do that?" Naruto snarled.
"**Well you better think of something quick because here he comes,**" Gamabunta said. "**Water Release: Water Bullet!**"
"**Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!**" Shukaku countered. Naruto raised his arm to shield his eyes from the rain that came from the two jutsus colliding.
"**Hold on brat,**" Gamabunta warned.
"What?" Naruto asked but the Toad Boss didn't answer as he leapt into the air to dodge the **Drilling Air Bullets** that were speeding at them. Gamabunta fired a salvo of **Water Bullets** at Shukaku, who easily leapt backward to avoid getting struck.
"**You're not bad, for a frog,**" Shukaku laughed. "**But playtime is over, I want to kill!**"
"Gamabunta, you need to get me closer," Naruto ordered. "I can't wake Gaara up from a distance."
"**Tch, giving me orders,**" the Toad growled. "**All right brat but my hands aren't suited for grabbing a hold of the enemy. We need something like hooks or claws that will grab onto the enemy.**"
"I've got just the thing," Naruto grinned. "You ready Boss?"
"**Here we go,**" Gamabunta grunted as the massive toad surged forward. Naruto made a single hand sign and he and Gamabunta were engulfed in a massive plume of smoke. Out of the smoke, an enormous reddish-brown shape came rushing forward.
"**Kyubi**?" Shukaku gasped, freezing at the sight of the Nine-Tailed Fox. "**No, you're not that arrogant bastard**." Shukaku sent another **Drilling Air Bullet** at the massive fox who nimbly dodged the attack.
"**Yow!**" Shukaku screamed as the fox leapt forward and dug its claws and teeth into Shukaku's skin, along with wrapping its tails around Shukaku for a more secure grip.
"**Now kid!**" Gamabunta growled. The **Transformation Jutsu** broke and out of the cloud of smoke, Naruto came flying toward the unconscious Gaara.
"Wake up!" Naruto roared as he sent a large **Wind Bullet** of his own at the Sand ninja. Sand rose up and surrounded Gaara, protecting the boy. Naruto snarled as he began to descend toward Shukaku's head. "**Shadow Clone Jutsu**!" Naruto shouted; a single clone appeared at his side. The clone grabbed its creator by the arm and hurled Naruto at Gaara. The fast-moving Naruto landed a few feet from the slumping Gaara.
"Wake up!" Naruto shouted again. He spun on his heel and raced toward Gaara, fist cocked back. "No," Naruto growled as two tendrils of sand rose out of Shukaku's head and caught Naruto by both arms, stopping the blonde just a foot from Gaara. "I won't stop!" he shouted, rearing his head back. "Now wake up!"
With a sickening crack, Gaara's head snapped back as Naruto head-butted the redhead. Blood flew from Gaara's nose, which was obviously broken.
"**Heh, well done brat,**" Gamabunta chuckled.
"**Oh come on, I just got here,**" Shukaku whined as his eyes lost their glow. Slowly the massive sand creation that was the Ichibi crumbled away. Naruto, his muscles burning, caught a falling Gaara and landed on the ground heavily, dropping to one knee.
"**Looks like you have this under control brat,**" Gamabunta said. "**It's time for me to be heading home.**"
"Ok, thank you Gamabunta," Naruto panted. The enormous toad grunted before vanishing in a giant plume of smoke. "Now what to do with you Gaara?" Naruto asked himself, looking down at the barely conscious redhead.
"Don't touch him!" a male voice snarled out.
"Be quiet," another female voice barked, this one as familiar to Naruto as his own voice. The blonde turned to see Sakura, looking battered and bruised, standing behind him with a bound Kankuro struggling on the ground.
"So you beat him?" Naruto asked.
"Of course, you didn't doubt me, did you Naruto?" Sakura asked in a sickly sweet tone.
"No, no, that was the farthest thing from my mind Sakura-chan," Naruto amended quickly, knowing that his teammate hated to be doubted.
"Good, where's Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.
"Here," Sasuke's voice came from above them. The Uchiha heir leapt down from a tree with a bound Temari tossed over his shoulder. Sasuke dumped the Sand ninja on the ground with a thud. "Now what?"
"Not sure," Naruto said, once more looking down at the unmoving Gaara. "Our mission is over, we stopped Gaara from wrecking the village."
'_Bring him to the village,_' a voice whispered in Naruto's head. '_The jinchuriki will strengthen the village and weaken Suna._'
"We should…"
"How?" Gaara croaked, causing Team 7 to look down at him. "How are you so strong?"
"Because I am fighting to protect my home and friends," Naruto answered. "I refuse to let anyone harm my home, and I will fight to my last breath to defend it. You, who only fights for himself, will never be stronger than me because of that. I will become the pillar of strength that keeps the village strong and bears the burden of being Hokage, and if you ever think about attacking my home again, I will end you!"
Sasuke, Sakura, Kankuro and Temari all shivered at Naruto's declaration as the blonde's eyes turned as cold as ice, piercing right through Gaara. The redhead stared up at Naruto with wide eyes, not seeing the blonde boy who was only a year older than him but instead he saw a towering mountain that loomed over everything, a mountain that would not bend or break no matter what nature or man threw at it.
"Cut them loose," Naruto said.
"What?" was uttered from four voices.
"They are not a threat to the village any longer," Naruto said. "Let them go back to Suna and they'll tell their village that their strongest ninja was beaten by a genin."
Sasuke and Sakura both looked to Naruto in shock but seeing resolute look in the blonde's eyes, they cut Temari and Kankuro free from their bonds. Temari and Kankuro rubbed their wrists as they stood up.
"You're seriously letting us go?" Kankuro asked.
"Yes," Naruto said even though the small voice in his head was hissing at him to tie the Suna ninja back up and drag them through the village as trophies. "Your mission failed, and most likely Orochimaru was going to hang your village out to dry even if the invasion succeeded. Now get out of here before I change my mind or someone else shows up."
Temari and Kankuro lifted their younger brother off the ground and put his arms across their shoulders.
"Naruto Uzumaki," Gaara said causing his siblings to stop. "You say you are strong because you fight to protect your village and friends, in order to bear the burden of your village by becoming the Hokage. Perhaps I can become strong like you Naruto Uzumaki."
"I wish you luck then Gaara," Naruto said. "I would look close by to the first people you want to protect. Because you have something I never did."
"And what is that?"
"A family," Naruto answered simply. Gaara gazed at Naruto with wide eyes for a moment before he close his eyes and lowered his head.
"Thank you Naruto Uzumaki," Gaara said. "Temari, Kankuro, let's go home."
"Ok Gaara," Temari said as Kankuro nodded. Team 7 watched the Suna team leap off into the forest away from the village.
"Are you sure that was the right thing to do Naruto?" Sakura asked. "You said that Gaara was their village's strongest ninja, shouldn't we have brought them back to the village?"
"Probably," Naruto admitted. "But taking them back to the village would just put them in danger. They were just following orders, and most likely it was Orochimaru that ordered the invasion."
"How do you know that?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto paused. "My…well think about it," he said. "Orochimaru appears in the Second Exam, and then Suna, our ally, attacks us with help from the Sound, who we know was working for Orochimaru from those genin that attacked us in the Forest of Death."
"I guess so," Sakura said. "It makes sense in a weird sort of way. We should get back to the village though, the invasion could still be going on."
Naruto and Sasuke both nodded. A soft thump brought that plan to a screeching halt.
"Heh, it looks like I used too much chakra," Naruto chuckled from the ground. "Any chance you could help?"
Sakura giggled at her teammate while Sasuke just shook his head. "I don't think I've ever you this worn out Naruto," Sasuke said as he knelt down and lifted Naruto to his feet. The blonde swayed on his feet and nearly pitched forward but was caught by Sasuke.
"You try fighting a Biju by yourself," Naruto snapped though the smile on his face took away any heat from the comment.
"Come on," Sakura reminded her two bickering teammates. Sasuke just grunted and Team 7 turned back toward the village.
What they found horrified the three young genin. Much of the village had been destroyed; something huge had obviously carved a huge swath of destruction through the village. Bodies were strewn in the streets, with blood still pooling beneath the cooling corpses. Most of the dead were wearing the camouflaged fatigues of the Sound village or the dust colored flak jackets of the Sand but here and there Team 7 saw the green flak jackets of a Konoha shinobi stained with blood.
Sakura felt her stomach rebel at the sight; she had never seen such devastation or gore. Sasuke felt the stirrings of rage building within him as the sight reminded him of _that night_, the blood soaked streets and houses of the Uchiha compound. To Naruto, the sight only fueled his determination and resolved to become Hokage and protect his home, though he was also tinged with sadness and despair at the destruction and death that surrounded them.
"There you three are," a welcome voice said. It was Kakashi. The silver-haired jonin looked disheveled, covered in blood and dust but was uninjured.
"Hey there sensei," Naruto said tiredly, his eyes blinking blearily up at his sensei.
Kakashi felt his heart clench at the sight of his students; the jonin could see the last of his students' innocence burn away right before his eyes. The silver-haired man had held onto the naïve hope that his students would never have to face the dark and disgusting side of the shinobi world but Kakashi knew that his students had already had much of their innocence stripped away back in the Wave, though Sasuke and Naruto already had much of their innocence ripped away even before then thanks to their childhoods.
"You three look like shit," Kakashi said.
"Thanks sensei," Naruto muttered. "You don't look much better."
Sakura and Sasuke snorted at Naruto's comment.
"How's the village?" Sakura asked.
The three genin felt their hearts skip a beat when their sensei bowed his head.
"We took some hits," Kakashi said. "The Hokage informed the jonin that with the appearance of Orochimaru last month to be on ground at all times. We were ready to some extent but the inclusion of the Sand was a surprise. Well done in stopping Gaara, he was the lynchpin to their plans."
"What aren't you telling us sensei?" Naruto asked. The blonde felt dread well up inside him when he met Kakashi's lone dark eye.
"It's Hokage-sama," Kakashi admitted. "He died fighting Orochimaru."
"What?" Team 7 exclaimed.
"Good one sensei," Naruto laughed dryly. "Come on, what really happened?"
"Naruto," Kakashi said softly.
Naruto's eyes widened as he realized that Kakashi wasn't joking. "No, you're lying," Naruto exclaimed. "There's no way the old man would lose to that snake freak!"
Sasuke and Sakura looked at their blonde teammate, his pained and disbelieving expression etched on his face making them wince. They knew how close Naruto was to the Hokage.
"I'm sorry Naruto," Kakashi said, kneeling down in front of Naruto. "But Orochimaru used a forbidden jutsu to bring the First and Second Hokages back to life, and under his control. Hokage-sama had to use a very powerful jutsu to defeat his predecessors and Orochimaru, however the use of that jutsu cost Hokage-sama his life."
"No," Naruto argued, shaking his head as he staggered toward Kakashi, shrugging off his two teammates. Naruto's mind was whirling, memories of himself and the Hokage flashed through his head; eating ramen at Ichiraku's, being scolded by the Hokage after his many pranks, arguing with the old man about getting a better mission. "He can't be dead," Naruto whispered. "He said that he would be there to see me take the hat, he promised."
Kakashi wasn't sure how to react to this Naruto; the jonin was so used to the Naruto that was loud, boisterous and happy. This Naruto before him looked broken, the light had seemingly gone out behind Naruto's usually vibrant blue eyes.
"What happened to Orochimaru?" Sasuke asked.
"He escaped," Kakashi said. "Hokage-sama injured him but Orochimaru was able to slink away."
A spike of chakra came from the blonde member of Team 7. "Orochimaru will pay," Naruto snarled. "He will not get away with this."
"Naruto," Sakura whispered. She knew how close her blonde friend was to the Hokage, and how much he must be hurting.
"Dobe, this is Orochimaru, you're talking about," Sasuke said. "He's one of the Sannin, a Kage-level shinobi. You're no where near strong enough to beat him."
"I will be," Naruto vowed, his voice hard as steel and cold as ice. "That bastard will die by my hand."
**A/N: Well there you go, the newest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_. Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up, between working and trying to find a job its been a tough slog through the writing and editing process. I am hoping that I can get back onto the twice-a-month posting schedule but don't hold me to that as real life loves to throw you curveballs. Anyway, please let me know what you all think of this chapter, and if you have any suggestions on what should be added in the coming chapters. I am planning on adding a couple of the early _Naruto_ movie arcs in this story, so let me know what you'd like to see. **
**Question: I've heard rumors that Kishimoto has stated in an interview since finishing the manga, that Naruto's feelings toward Sakura were only due to his rivalry with Sasuke, how he wanted to beat Sasuke at something in gaining Sakura's affections? Can anyone confirm this? And if this is true, then I have to say that it totally destroys Naruto's character IMO, turning him into a total scumbag and not worthy of anyone's affections. I hope that this is not true.**
**Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
15. Memories and a New Journey
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! I do not own any recognizable part from Kishimoto's creation, I am just trying to pay homage to his creation and maybe try and fix some holes that I believed to be there.**
**Key:**
"Talking"
'_Thoughts'_
**Jutsu Names**
**Biju or Summon speaking**
_**Biju or Summon thinking**_
The weather that came with the morning of the Third Hokage's, and all the others that had died in the invasion, funerals matched the mood of a certain blonde genin. The sky was overcast and there was a hint of thunder in the air, just across the horizon. No one had seen the blonde member of Team 7 since Kakashi had escorted him, Sasuke and Sakura back to the stadium where they saw the body of their fallen leader. Naruto had just stared at the body, his eyes blank and lifeless.
"Naruto, are you in there?" the soft voice of Sakura Haruno filtered through the apartment. "Come on Naruto, its time to go."
There was no response.
"Damnit Naruto, if you don't open this door right now, I'm going to break it down and drag you out of there!" Sakura shouted.
Only more silence answered her.
"You asked for it Naruto," Sakura growled. A loud crashed echoed through the dark apartment as the front door came careening off its hinges and flew inside. "Where are you Naruto?"
"He's not here," a soft voice came from behind Sakura. The pinkette turned to see Hinata Hyuga at the end of the hallway, partially hiding behind the corner.
"Oh hi there Hinata," Sakura said. "I didn't see you there. What do you mean Naruto isn't here? Where else would he be?"
Hinata just pointed to her eyes. "After I heard you knocking, I used my **Byakugan** to check his apartment," she said with a slight shutter. "It's empty."
"Right," Sakura said. "So where is he?"
"I don't know," Hinata whispered.
"Argh!" Sakura growled. "Doesn't he know what today is?"
"Hey, what do you think you are doing?" a deeper voice asked from behind Hinata, causing the Hyuga heiress to yelp in surprise and spin around. "Did you do that?" the man demanded.
"Sorry," Sakura said quietly. "I thought that my friend was sleeping in and when he wouldn't open the door, I sort of lost my temper," she finished.
"The kid isn't here," the man said. "He left really early this morning."
"Thank you," Sakura said. She grabbed Hinata's hand and pulled the dark haired girl down the hallway, ignoring the man's shout "Hey who's going to fix this?"
"Where the hell is that idiot?" Sakura growled as she and Hinata left the apartment building.
"I don't know," Hinata stammered quietly, slipping her hand free from Sakura's. "But we are going to be late for the funerals if we don't hurry."
Sakura huffed but turned to follow the Hyuga genin down the street and toward the cemetery.
Overlooking the village of Konoha was the Hokage monument, the faces of the previous Hokage etched in rock and stone, gazing out over the village that they had protected and led. The stern visages of Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Minato Namikaze provided a sense of both protection and pride to the villagers below. To one villager and ninja, these four men were something that he strived to become; to have his face etched alongside these four. But now, Naruto Uzumaki wasn't sure what to think about two of his heroes.
During the month long break between the Second and Third Exams of the Chunin Exams, Naruto had learned many things about the Third and Fourth Hokages. Naruto had discovered that the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, the man who had sealed the Kyubi in him and his hero, was also his own father. And that the Third Hokage had known all along, and kept it from Naruto. When Naruto had been told, the blonde was irate and ready to storm into the Hokage's office and demand why had never been told. But cooler heads had prevailed, and Naruto did not confront the Third Hokage.
And now it was too late. The Third Hokage was now dead, having sacrificed his life in an attempt to end the threat of Orochimaru. But the Third had failed, Orochimaru had escaped, grievously injured but was still alive. And Naruto would never have the opportunity to ask why Hiruzen had kept his parents', or at least his father's, identities a secret.
So here Naruto sat, atop one of his favorite places in the village, the top of the Fourth Hokage's stone head. He knew that the vast majority of the village would be making their way toward the cemetery for the mass funeral of those that had fallen during the invasion but Naruto couldn't bring himself to attend. He didn't think he could go and morn the man, who had knowingly kept Naruto ignorant of his heritage, had lied to him whenever Naruto had asked about his parents.
"There you are brat," the somber voice of Jiraiya came from behind the blonde.
"What do you want Jiraiya?" Naruto asked shortly.
"Wondering why you aren't at the funeral?"
"Don't want too," Naruto said. "Besides, I doubt many people down there would want me to attend, you know me being the demon brat."
"Pfft, who cares what they think," Jiraiya snorted. "You shouldn't care what those morons think of you, besides word has been circulating throughout the village that you were the one that defeated Shukaku."
"What of it?" Naruto asked.
"Well it made a lot of people rethink their thoughts about you," Jiraiya said. "You made sure that the enemy's trump card didn't harm anyone in the village, and you only being a rookie genin made a very impressive statement. And you proved me wrong."
"What are you talking about?"
"You didn't use the Kyubi's chakra," Jiraiya said. "I was wrong, I thought that you would need to use its chakra to have a chance against Gaara."
"Yeah, I sure showed you," Naruto said, resting his chin on his hands. "What's going to happen now?"
"Well after the ceremony, the Council will have to convene and decide on a new Hokage," Jiraiya said. "Once we have an official Hokage, then a decision about the Sand village can be made."
"What about the Sound?" Naruto asked.
"That's the key question isn't it?" Jiraiya said scratching his chin. "Orochimaru impersonated the Kazekage, and tricked the Sand into attacking, so probably there might be only some sanctions against the Sand. But the Sound is another matter altogether."
"Who's going to be Hokage?" Naruto asked.
"Sensei wanted either me or my teammate Tsunade Senju, to take his place if he ever died before naming a successor," Jiraiya said.
"So you're going to be Hokage then?"
"No," Jiraiya laughed. "No, we're going to convince Tsunade to take sensei's place."
"We?"
"Of course, you're coming with me to find her."
"Why would I do that?" Naruto asked.
"You're my apprentice now," Jiraiya explained. "Look Naruto, I know that I didn't make a very positive impression a month ago. I was wrong and you proved it. I want to make it up to you Naruto, I have an eye for talent and you have more potential than I've seen in a long time, and I want to help you reach that potential."
Naruto looked at the Sannin. Jiraiya couldn't help but shiver under the blue-eyed stare coming from the younger ninja, reminding Jiraiya so much of another blonde that he had taught.
"Are you going to try and make me use the fox's chakra?" Naruto asked after staring at Jiraiya silently for several moments.
"No," Jiraiya answered firmly. "I will not make you. I still believe that the fastest way for you to get stronger is to learn to control the fox's chakra but I will not force you. I have plenty of other things to teach you, if you are willing?"
"I'm not looking for the quickest way to get stronger," Naruto said, looking out over the village. "I'm looking for the best way to get stronger. There are no shortcuts to strength or becoming Hokage, and I won't go back on my word just to save some time."
"Ok then, so are you coming with me?" Jiraiya asked.
Naruto nodded. "When do we leave?" he asked.
"Tomorrow morning," Jiraiya answered.
"Til then," Naruto said standing up.
"Where are you going?"
"To pay my respects," Naruto said. "No matter what the old man might have hidden from me, I know he truly believed he was doing what was best for me and the village."
Jiraiya watched as the blonde genin turned away from the village and headed for the path that led back down to the village. When the blonde was out of sight, Jiraiya turned back to look out over the village of his birth.
'_Sensei, what else did you keep from Naruto?'_ Jiraiya thought, looking over at the Sandaime's stone head. '_Minato, Kushina, you would be so proud of your boy,_' Jiraiya continued. '_This village doesn't deserve your son, or his loyalty after the way he has been treated. If you two were still alive, I know I'd be on the receiving end of one hell of a beat down, one that I certainly deserve._'
* * *
><p>From the shadows, Naruto watched as the ceremony for the fallen broke up and the mourners began to leave the cemetery. He had arrived near the tail end of the ceremony, as the two Elders presided over the Hokage's funeral. The blonde frowned as his sharp ears caught the Hokage's two teammates extol Hiruzen's accomplishments during his lifetime and reign as Hokage. Naruto knew that the two Elders were frequent thorns in the Hokage's side, constantly questioning Hiruzen's decisions but they were also his closest friends. When the final mourner had finally left the cemetery, Naruto leapt down from the tree he had been hiding in and walked into the cemetery, coming to a stop in front of the large photo of Hiruzen Sarutobi that marked the old man's memorial.<p>
"Hey there old man," Naruto said. "When I heard that you had died, I didn't know what to think. You always seemed to be there, that you would be there to see me take the hat, become Hokage. But now, I don't know what to think about you at all. You hid so much from me, to protect me I guess. But you knew how badly I wanted to know about my family. When I found out about Grandpa, I was furious at you for trying to keep something of my family from me. But now after learning about my parents, I can see why you never told me. If I had known who my father was when I was younger, I would have shouted it from the top of the Hokage monument, I would have bragged about it to everyone and anyone, and I would have painted an even larger target on my back. So thanks old man. Don't get me wrong, I am still angry at you for hiding so much from me but I know you did care for me and did what you thought was best. And I swear that Orochimaru will pay for what he's done, and I will become the pillar that holds Konoha up and become Hokage."
Naruto bowed to the memorial and as he raised his head felt a warm breeze ruffle his hair. The blonde smiled and closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling; he could almost feel the old man's hand on his head.
"I'll see you later old man," Naruto said before leaving the cemetery, not seeing the pair of eyes watching him from the edge of the forest that ringed the grounds.
* * *
><p>"Naruto!"<p>
The blonde teen turned and saw Sakura running down the street toward him, Sasuke was following at a more sedate pace. Naruto could feel his stomach lurch at the sight of his teammate's long pink hair trailing behind Sakura much like a river.
"Hey there Sakura-chan," Naruto stammered, feeling his face heat up. "Sasuke, what's up?"
"Where were you Naruto?" Sakura demanded, her hands perched on her hips. "You weren't at your apartment this morning, and we didn't see you at memorial!"
"Oh, right," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "You see I was…"
"You know what, I don't want to hear your excuses Naruto," Sakura interrupted. "Come on, everyone is waiting!"
"Whoa Sakura-chan, who's waiting for what?" Naruto cried as Sakura grabbed his hand and started dragging him down the street.
"Everyone, we're all waiting on you at Ichiraku's!" Sakura said. "Why?"
"Well, we haven't all been together since we graduated," Sakura said. "So Ino and I came up with an idea to get together, see how everyone is doing and all that. Now quit dragging your feet Naruto!"
Sasuke smirked at the helpless look on Naruto's face as he watched Sakura drag the blonde down the street. Suddenly he tensed, feeling the hairs on the nape of his neck stand up, like someone was watching him. Sasuke's eyes blew red as he activated his **Sharingan** and scanned the area. Frowning, Sasuke deactivated his bloodline and shook his head, wondering why he was acting so paranoid. Above the street, perched on a power line, was a single crow staring down at Sasuke.
"Found him!" Sakura cried as she brushed aside the curtain to Ichiraku's and dragged Naruto inside. The blonde was surprised to see the rest of his graduating class seated around at the bar, along with their senseis.
"Finally we can eat!" Choji cried as he spun around to face the kitchen. Sakura pulled Naruto forward and shoved him into an open stool while she took the seat to his left, and Sasuke sat on Naruto's right.
"So where were you Naruto?" Ino asked. "None of us saw you at the ceremony, weren't you close to the Hokage?"
"Back off Ino-pig!" Sakura snapped. "Naruto was leaving the cemetery when I found him. Maybe he wanted to have some peace when he paid his respects?"
"So Naruto, we heard you were the one who stopped that monster Gaara," Kiba said. "How'd you do it?"
"Don't call Gaara a monster," Naruto said sharply.
"Why not?" Kiba argued. "You saw what he turned into, how can you say he wasn't a monster?"
"Yes I saw what Gaara turned into," Naruto growled. "But I also know that he was like that because of ignorant people like you, calling him a monster."
"What did you say?" Kiba snarled.
"Do you know what Gaara holds? What he is called? How he has suffered throughout his entire life?" Naruto asked.
"He's a monster," Kiba shouted.
"Gaara is a jinchuriki, a human sacrifice," Naruto shouted, leaping down from his stool. "It means Gaara has a Biju like the Kyubi sealed inside him, most likely since birth. Gaara has been considered a weapon all his life, hated and feared by his village all his life, and that changes a person. How would you like to be all-alone for your entire life, no family or clan to help you, all for something that happened when you were a baby? Before you condemn someone, try putting yourself in their life before you open your mouth and confirm to all that you are a hot-headed fool."
"Why you!" Kiba snarled, getting down from his stool and getting into Naruto's face. "You think you're all high and mighty now, all invincible because you beat Gaara, but please you are still the dead last loser who failed the Academy three times."
"And yet I made it to the Finals of the Chunin Exams on my first attempt when you failed in just the First Exam all because you couldn't keep your mouth shut," Naruto said.
Kiba snarled, grabbing the blonde by his collar. "Let's take this outside then," he growled. "I'll show everyone that you beating Gaara was just a fluke."
"Kiba-kun, Naruto-kun, don't fight," Hinata spoke up, only stuttering once. "We are all friends here, we shouldn't be fighting."
"Hinata's right," Sakura said, grabbing the two hot heads by their ears and twisting them.
"Yeow!" Naruto and Kiba cried.
"Let go Sakura-chan, that hurts," Naruto said.
"Good, it's supposed to hurt," Sakura said, releasing the two boys. "Now sit down and eat. You two can have your pissing contest later."
Grumbling, Naruto and Kiba sat back down, rubbing their throbbing ears.
"Naruto-san, how do you know so much about Gaara?" Shino asked once everyone had settled back down, though there was a sense of tension that now existed between Naruto and Kiba.
"Know thy opponent," Naruto answered simply. "I had a month to learn as much as I could about Gaara so I could beat him."
"So sensei, will there be any promotions?" Ino asked her sensei, Asuma, who was seated at the end of the bar next to Kurenai.
"Well, without a Hokage," Asuma paused, "the possible promotions will be on hold. The Shinobi Council can make suggestions but the Hokage has final say."
"Who do you think will be promoted?" Sakura asked. The two jonin looked at one another. Naruto noticed that weren't looking directly at one another but glancing down at each other's hands, which were twitching randomly.
"I don't know," Asuma said. "You all did quite well, both in the Finals and the invasion. We might be biased but we both think that you all could use some more experience before being promoted."
"That is not to say we know anything for sure," Kurenai said, seeing the expressions on the genins' faces. "We are your senseis and we also know what it takes to become a chunin. All of you haven't been recognized ninja for an entire year yet, you need to get more experience before you should be promoted."
The explanation given by Kurenai, while kindly delivered, still didn't make the feeling of disappointment on several of the genins' faces any less pronounced.
"Don't feel too bad you guys," Asuma said. "With what you went through, the next Chunin Exams will be a piece of cake."
"Oh, there you all are."
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried, spinning on her stool. "I told you we were meeting here at 1pm, you're late again!"
"Ah, sorry about that Sakura," Kakashi apologized. "There was this old lady who…"
"Oh come on Kakashi-sensei, don't make excuses," Sakura growled.
"But I wasn't," Kakashi pouted. "Anyway, Kurenai, Asuma, Shikaku-sama has called for a general assembly."
Asuma and Kurenai nodded and rose from their stools.
"General assembly?" Naruto asked.
"All the jonin have been called to gather by the Jonin Commander," Kakashi explained quickly. "Can't say more, above your pay grades. Later."
The three jonin vanished in swirls of leaves, leaving the genin looking at one another.
"What's that all about?" Kiba asked.
"No idea," Shikamaru said. "But it doesn't matter. Like Kakashi said, it's above our pay grade, so it's too troublesome to wonder about."
Naruto and Sasuke caught each other's eye, knowing that Kakashi wouldn't have mentioned an assembly if it truly was something that was meant to be kept truly secret. Naruto saw Shikamaru watching him and Sasuke, and the blonde knew that Shikamaru knew there was more going on then what they had been told.
* * *
><p>"Nice of you to finally join us," the stern voice of Shikaku Nara drawled as Kakashi, Asuma and Kurenai appeared in the chamber.<p>
"Sorry sir," Kurenai began but Shikaku waved her off. The three jonin took their seats and looked up at the front of the room. Six figures were seated at the top of the room; Shikaku Nara, Head of the Nara Clan, Jonin Commander and Konoha's top strategist, next to him was Ibiki Morino, the Head of the Torture and Investigation Department. Beside Ibiki was the masked leader of the ANBU, codenamed BEAR, and finally an elderly man with bandages covering his right eye, and only had one arm visible, Danzo Shimura, the head of the ANBU division, ROOT. Next to Danzo were the other two Elders, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, the Third Hokage's former teammates. Without a named Hokage, these six individuals ruled the village.
"Now that we have all gathered, it is time to begin," Shikaku said. "First order of business, we have finished compiling the causality reports from the invasion. 42 genin, 75 chunin and 53 jonin were killed in the invasion with a further 78 genin, 109 chunin and 48 jonin were injured serious enough to warrant significant recovery time in the hospital. Roughly 10% of our ninja are out of commission for at least some time. Though without genin Uzumaki forcing Suna's jinchuriki outside the village and defeating him, those figures could have been much worse."
Kakashi grinned beneath his mask at the recognition his student was receiving, even if he wouldn't hear of it, officially. Though Kakashi did wonder where Naruto learned several of the jutsus that he had shown before the invasion.
"From what Jiraiya-sama's intelligence network has found out, the Kazekage has been dead since right after the Second Exam," Ibiki said. "Suna has informed us that due to Orochimaru's deception, they truly believed that it was the will of their Kage that the invasion go forward. As you are all aware, the Wind Daimyo has been cutting Suna's budget for nearly two years and most of Suna believed that they needed to take drastic action to keep as a viable ninja village."
"How did both Suna and Oto managed to get their forces to the village without us knowing?" a random jonin asked from the back of room.
Ibiki growled at being interrupted but before he could speak up, Danzo spoke first. "That is true," the oldest shinobi in the room said. "The knowledge that Orochimaru had infiltrated the village was only known to the higher ups but Jiraiya, how is it that Orochimaru was able to outwit your spy network, and get his combined forces to our walls with no forewarning?"
Jiraiya stepped from the shadows of the room, a fierce scowl on his face. "I don't know," Jiraiya growled. "I have been trying to find the gaps in my network and plug them." He hated that his teammate had managed to outwit him so easily.
"Good," Danzo nodded. "We are teetering on the brink of war, and having an intelligence network with gaps could be devastating."
Jiraiya bit the inside of his cheek so hard that he quickly tasted the warm and sticky taste of blood. He just nodded and slid back into the shadows.
"Next is our recovery from the invasion," Shikaku said. "As previously stated, our forces have been depleted by roughly 10% so for the time being all jonin and chunin have been called to active duty. The chunin shall take over any jonin senseis duties to free up those jonin for more high profile missions. All genin teams will remain in the village, assisting with the clean up and rebuild of the village along with patrol duty around the village. Until we have regained enough manpower, the current Academy class will also be helping out. This will give them some experience while limiting the risks to them. Also the Academy will be put on a wartime footing. I have looked at the current Academy curriculum and it is pathetic, many of our genin wouldn't last a year in the outside world at their current level."
Several of the jonin who had put their teams in the Chunin Exams bristled at the scorn coming from their commander.
"If you have a problem with that, tough," Ibiki snarled. "It was pathetic how weak and fragile our genin were in the First Exam. If it wasn't for the three rookie teams and one other experienced team, no Konoha ninja would have passed the First Exam. That is unacceptable."
"It is but it does lead well into our next order of business," Shikaku said. "While all of the Konoha finalists performed well, none of them showed enough qualities to be promoted to chunin, at least right now. Genin Haruno, while showing exceptional tactical ability, was not able to defeat her opponent. Genin Hyuga showed great potential in his clan's abilities but he does not have the proper mindset to become a chunin, evident by his beliefs in Fate controlling his life. Genin Nara does not possess the physical attributes needed to become a chunin, at some point he will come across an opponent that he can't just outsmart. Genin Uzumaki and Uchiha are the closest to being ready for promotion, their physical and tactical abilities are very promising but we have decided not to promote them just yet. They need more field experience and with our depleted manpower, we don't have the ability to have a jonin or older chunin watch over them on missions."
Kakashi frowned beneath his mask but knew that Shikaku was making the right decision. Both Sasuke and Naruto were too young to be put in a command position; he certainly had been, being promoted to chunin at only 6 years old and jonin at 13. '_Though that was a different time,_' Kakashi thought. '_A time that we might be rapidly approaching._'
"Something you wish to say Hatake?" the curt voice of Danzo broke Kakashi from his thoughts.
"No Elder," Kakashi said. Danzo watched Kakashi for another moment before turning back to Shikaku.
"Moving onto our next point, our response to Suna," Danzo said. Kakashi caught both Shikaku and Ibiki's tightening of their eyes as the elder shinobi war hawk spoke up. "They invaded our village, killed our shinobi and people, and we shall respond…"
"That decision is for the Hokage to make Danzo not you," Jiraiya said sharply. The venom in Jiraiya's voice was easily distinguished; there was no mistaking the hatred that Jiraiya held for Danzo.
Danzo bowed his head in acceptance of Jiraiya's point. "That is true," he said. "So we should decide on selecting the Hokage. The other village will not hesitate to take advantage of our weakness without a Kage."
"Sensei wanted one of his students to take over for him," Jiraiya said. "Obviously Orochimaru is out, and I am not suited for the position. So I will be leaving tomorrow to find Tsunade and bring her back to take up the title."
"Tsunade Senju?" Danzo asked with a tremor of scorn in his voice. "She ran from the village, she is weak willed and totally unsuited for being Hokage. She shames the name of Senju!"
"Watch how you speak of my teammate Danzo," Jiraiya snarled. "Tsunade is the perfect person to become Hokage, she has the strength and the lineage. She will be Hokage!"
"Very well Jiraiya, if you can find Tsunade, and convince her to return and take up the title that her ancestors held, you will hear no more from me," Danzo said. Jiraiya frowned at the lack of argument coming from the war hawk.
"That wraps up this meeting, you will receive your assignments in time," Shikaku said. "Dismissed."
The jonin quickly left the chamber. Kakashi watched as two ninja appeared next to Danzo, flanking the elderly man and escorting him out the door.
"Be wary of Danzo Kakashi," Jiraiya said as he walked up to the silver-haired jonin. "There is a reason he has survived this long even after what he has done."
"I know about Danzo Jiraiya," Kakashi answered. "I don't know why the Sandaime let him live after what he tried to pull all those years ago?"
"Sometimes it is better to keep one's enemies close by," Jiraiya said. "Also, for all of Danzo's faults, he loves the village more than anything."
"Yes he might but Danzo and Sandaime believed the village to mean two different things," Kakashi said.
Jiraiya hummed in agreement. "I'm taking Naruto with me to find Tsunade," he said.
"I'm surprised that Naruto agreed to even speak to you," Kakashi commented. Jiraiya sighed.
"I know I messed up royally with Naruto Kakashi," he said. "I was wrong in thinking that Naruto needed its chakra to beat Gaara, and I'm happy I was. But there are stronger people out there after him than a genin jinchuriki. Some might be in the village itself."
"What are you talking about?" Kakashi asked.
"There is an organization that has appeared," Jiraiya said. "They're called the Akatsuki. Orochimaru was once a member but left for some reason. Information is sketchy but I believe that this Akatsuki is made up solely of S-rank missing ninja. And if someone has managed to get a group of S-rank criminals to fall in line, then we have a huge problem. My source also has told me that this Akatsuki is searching for information on jinchuriki."
"Naruto," Kakashi breathed. "And you believe that all the members of this Akatsuki are S-rank missing ninja?"
"Yes."
"Then excuse me Jiraiya-sama but I have some training to do," Kakashi said. Jiraiya grinned as the younger shinobi vanished in a plume of smoke. That grin faded away as he sensed someone standing just out of sight.
"What do you want Danzo?"
The elderly shinobi stepped from the shadows. "I only wanted to wish you luck on your journey Jiraiya," Danzo said easily. "If you are successful then having two Sannin back and having a visible presence within the village will send our enemies a message of strength. And I wanted to suggest taking some support along to assist you?"
"I have already selected someone to come along and help," Jiraiya said. "And he's the perfect person to convince Tsunade to come back."
"Oh," Danzo said, sounding surprised but Jiraiya didn't believe it for a second. "And who is that?"
"You know exactly who I am talking about Danzo," Jiraiya growled. "And let me tell you this; stay away from my godson Danzo, if you know what is good for you."
Danzo watched silently as Jiraiya walked off, a tiny smile making its way onto the man's lined face. "Come along Fu, Torune, we have work to do," Danzo said, turning around and walking back down the hallway with his two subordinates flanking him.
* * *
><p>"So what do you two think is going to happen now?" Sakura asked as Team 7 left Ichiraku's. "The Sand and Sound attacked us, does that mean we are at war with them?"<p>
"I don't know," Naruto said. "I think it's more likely that we are at war with the Sound than with Suna."
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke answered. "He was the one who led the invasion, and is a missing ninja from Konoha. Rumor has it that Orochimaru killed the Kazekage and impersonated him during the Finals, and that's why Suna was part of the attack."
Naruto nodded, agreeing with Sasuke's assessment but it wasn't anything new. Jiraiya had told him the same thing earlier in the day.
"Are we really at war then?" Sakura asked quietly.
"Probably," Naruto admitted, trying to mask uneasy feeling that was welling up inside him. "We will probably have to wait until a new Hokage is named before we'll know for sure. And besides as genin, I doubt we'll be part of any real fighting, more like we'll be stuck with patrol detail or something close to the village."
"Are you ok with that Naruto?" Sakura asked. "I mean you vowed you would kill Orochimaru, how will get the chance if we're here in the village?"
Naruto felt a spike of anger surge in him at the mention of Orochimaru's name but he released his anger with a deep breath. "I don't know," he said. "I will kill him but I know I have absolutely no chance against him right now."
"Like I told you dobe," Sasuke snarked.
"I know teme, no need to sound so smug about it," Naruto growled. He looked over at his teammates, thinking about what to tell them about the mission that he would be going on without the other members of Team 7. Naruto knew that the mission was a huge deal, if he and Jiraiya were successful, retuning a Sannin to the village would be a huge boon; both to the village and Naruto's own career. Having a mission that was led by Jiraiya the Toad Sage, and it being the search and recovery of Tsunade Senju would certainly make you stand out amongst your peers.
"What are you thinking about Naruto?" Sakura asked. "You've been too quiet over there."
"I have a mission tomorrow," Naruto said.
"You have a mission, not we have a mission?" Sasuke asked. Naruto cursed the perceptiveness of his teammate.
"Yes," the blonde admitted. "I am going on a mission by myself, not as a member of Team 7."
"You're going on a solo mission!" Sakura cried.
"No, not solo," Naruto said. "I am going with Jiraiya on a search and recovery-type mission. I can't really say much more than that because of the nature of the mission."
"Oh," Sakura said, looking downcast. "But wait, I thought that you hated Jiraiya-sama?"
"I wouldn't say I hate Jiraiya, we've come to an understanding of sorts," Naruto explained. "After the invasion, Jiraiya saw that he was wrong when it came to me. I want to give him a second chance because he is the strongest ninja in the village, and hopefully teach me a lot, he already has called me his apprentice."
"That's amazing Naruto," Sakura gushed, a slight crack appearing in the non-fangirl kunoichi side of the young girl. "To be the apprentice of one of the Sannin is such an honor. The last apprentice that Jiraiya-sama had was…"
"I know who it was Sakura-chan," Naruto said quickly.
"Yeah it is," Sasuke said. Naruto thought he heard a tinge of jealousy in Sasuke's voice. "You're going to get so much stronger."
"Sasuke, I'm sure that Kakashi-sensei will be able to train you while I'm gone just fine," Naruto said. "I mean, he's the only one able to teach you about your **Sharingan**, and he's already taught you the **Chidori**. When I get back, who knows how much stronger you'll be? Honestly, I don't know how much training I'll get if we're moving all the time?"
Sasuke nodded, feeling slightly mollified about the jealousy that had welled up inside him when Naruto told him about learning under a Sannin. A thought appeared in his head, a memory that was better off forgotten. Orochimaru, a Sannin as well, promising him the power to kill Itachi as well as claiming to have information about what really happened _that night_, it was a tempting offer, and one that Sasuke thought he had forgotten about.
"When do you leave?" Sakura asked.
"In the morning," Naruto answered. "Jiraiya wants to get moving as quickly as possible, and don't tell anyone about this. Jiraiya doesn't want word getting out that he's leaving the village so soon after the invasion."
Both Sakura and Sasuke nodded, knowing that the village was in a precarious position.
As Team 7 continued walking down the street toward Naruto's apartment, both Sasuke and Naruto noticed that Sakura was being very quiet.
"What's wrong Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as they reached his building.
"Oh nothing," Sakura said, waving off her teammate's looks of concern.
"Don't give us that Sakura, something is bothering you," Sasuke said. "What is it?"
Sakura took a deep breath. "It just feels like I am going to get left behind," she said. "Naruto, you're going to be taught by Jiraiya, the Toad Sage, the man who taught the Yondaime Hokage. And Sasuke-kun, you are getting personal training from Kakashi-sensei, one of the most powerful ninja in the village. And then there's me, just a non-clan ninja whose only talent is my chakra control. I know that I'm not as talented as you two but now it seems I'm going to get left in the dust by you two and…"
"Sakura-chan," Naruto interrupted his teammate sharply. "Don't ever think that Sasuke or I are just going to leave you behind. You are our teammate, a part of Team 7, and nothing will ever change that. And why wouldn't you just keep training under Kurenai-sensei, she trained you during the last month and you got so much stronger."
"But you and Sasuke are getting personal training!" Sakura argued. "Kurenai-sensei has her own team to worry about, and I'm going to just be in the background with Team 8 anyway."
"So what are you going to do about it?" Sasuke asked. Sakura looked up at her crush.
"What do you mean Sasuke-kun?" she asked.
"Are you just going to sit around and mope and whine about being left behind?" Sasuke asked. "Or are you going to do something about it?"
"I don't get what you mean."
"I think what Sasuke means is, no one is just going to come along and offer you training," Naruto said. "And you shouldn't just sit around and wait for that to happen. You have a lot of talent Sakura-chan; don't ever think you are weak or not worthwhile. Look at what you did to Neji with just a month of training? What type of ninja do you want to be anyway Sakura-chan?"
"What are you talking about Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"Well, there are so many types of ninja," Naruto said. "Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and I are supposed to be front-line ninja, combat specialists. Lee is a taijutsu specialist like Neji and Hinata, Kurenai-sensei is a genjutsu master and Tsunade Senju is a medical ninja. So you should figure out what kind of ninja you want to be?"
"Tsunade Senju was said to have unmatched chakra control, and revolutionized medical ninjutsu," Sasuke said. "You said that your talent was chakra control, maybe becoming a medical ninja is the path you need to take?"
"Yeah that would be awesome," Naruto agreed. "Imagine if you became an amazing medical ninja, and then you could heal us up easily after getting hurt on a mission."
"I'm not going to become your personal doctor Naruto," Sakura growled. "But maybe becoming a medical ninja would be a good idea. Thanks Sasuke-kun!"
"But…" Naruto pouted.
"Just leave it Naruto," Sasuke muttered as they reached Naruto's apartment. Naruto sighed and nodded.
"Ok guys, I guess this is it," Naruto said. A sense of awkwardness fell over Team 7; this was going to the first time that one of their members would be going on a mission without the others along as part of the team.
"Yeah I guess so," Sasuke said. "Just don't die on us dobe," he quipped.
"Oi!" Naruto barked while Sakura giggled at the blonde's outraged expression.
"Seriously Naruto, be careful," Sasuke said. "You might be traveling with one of the Sannin but remember our first mission?"
"You don't have to remind me that things can go wrong," Naruto said, knowing that anything could happen outside the walls of Konoha; that missions could always take a wrong turn for dozens of reasons including faulty information from clients, or just plain bad luck.
"Don't do anything stupid out there Naruto," Sakura added her own acknowledgement. "Like you said, we are Team 7 and that is not going to change. So if you go and die on our first mission not as a team, I'll never forgive you!"
Naruto hid a shiver of fear that raced up his spine at Sakura's threat. He had plenty of experience on being on the receiving end of Sakura's anger.
"I promise to be careful," Naruto said. "And honestly, it is just a search and return mission. It's not like I'll be fighting on the front lines or something."
Sakura giggled while Sasuke smirked.
"And you guys better get a lot stronger while I'm gone," Naruto said. "When I get back, we're going to have a spar for sure, especially since we didn't get to fight during the Finals."
"I'm looking forward to it dobe," Sasuke grinned.
"Me too," Sakura added.
**A/N: There you have it, the newest chapter of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_. Hope you all have ****enjoyed the journey so far, please let me know if you have any suggestions on what I can do better to make this story more enjoyable. I do reserve the right to not use your suggestions if they don't fall in line with my basic outline, but I will not just toss them aside for no reason. Also, thank you so much for all the reviews last chapter and answering my question about Sakura and Naruto's feelings toward her.**
**A/N 2: Sorry about the second Author's Note, but I wanted to address the question I asked last chapter. I greatly appreciate all the answers that you, the readers and reviewers, left me and thank you very much for those answers. After seeing the answers that came from you all, I stated thinking about why Kishimoto would have Sakura tell Naruto this, especially since you can make a strong case that Sakura's feelings toward Sasuke are exactly how she claims Naruto's feelings toward her are. Think about it before decrying my claim: Sakura is ostracized and bullied due to her appearance, she meets Ino who starts to bring Sakura out of her shell. Sakura sees that all the girls in her class have a crush on Sasuke, and develops one herself (possibly in an attempt to fit in with the other girls). Ino becomes her 'Love' rival, and Sasuke is the object of her affections and prize to the winner. If people want to say that Sakura's feelings changed from immature crush/obsession to actual love because of the time that she spent with Sasuke, fine but then you can't claim that Naruto's feelings for Sakura couldn't have changed from 'beating Sasuke' to actual true feelings. Honestly, I think Kishimoto just used this 'conversation' as a quick way to break any idea that Naruto and Sakura could get together, and bring Hinata into the fold. But to me, it also totally destroys both Naruto and Sakura's characters in doing so. Let me know if you guys think this is true.**
**Also the first chapter of Naruto Gaiden has been released! And man, does it start off with a bang! Perhaps it will rekindle my love for Naruto**
**Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
16. Departures and Dinners
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine! I don't own any recognizable characters, settings or jutsus from the wildly popular series created by Kishimoto. I only own some episodes and a couple of volumes of the manga. Just having some fun inside the _Naruto_ universe, and hopefully will clean up some of the plot holes that caused a lot of annoyance for me as I read the series til completion. **
"Glad to see that you haven't taken up Kakashi's habit of showing up late," Jiraiya said as Naruto appeared at the gates, or where the gates had been before the invasion. The massive wooden gate doors had been ripped from their hinges when Orochimaru's Snake Summons had burst through them at the beginning of the invasion. While the actual gates that had been created by the Shodaime Hokage's fabled **Wood Release**, had only suffered superficial damage, the doorway where they stood had been nearly totally destroyed. The towers that bordered the gates had been destroyed and all that was left were two piles of rubble. The walls that ringed the village were littered with large holes and gaps from where the Snake Summons had smashed their way through.
"Never," Naruto said. "I hate that he always was late to missions or training but he has gotten a lot better since our mission to the Wave."
Jiraiya nodded. "Have you got everything?" he asked, noticing that Naruto only had a small backpack slung over his shoulder.
"Storage scrolls are a wonderful thing," Naruto answered.
Jiraiya laughed heartily. "Boy, you sounded so much like Minato right there," he said. "He took to sealing like a fish to water, and always found a way to incorporate sealing into his everyday life."
"What was he like?"
"Who?" Jiraiya asked.
"The Yondaime," Naruto said. "He's the one who put the fox in me, and you said that it was because he believed that I could control its power at some point. I want to know more about him, the Academy didn't really have much to say about the man."
"Well Naruto, you are traveling with the right guy," Jiraiya said. "I can tell you all about the Yondaime. But first lets get moving, we have a lot of ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it in."
Naruto nodded and the two shinobi leapt off into the thick forest that surrounded and protected the village. Their abrupt departure scattered a flock of birds that had been perched in one of the trees.
They had been running for a couple of hours when Jiraiya called for a stop. The Sannin looked back at his traveling companion, and was proud to see that the young genin had held up reasonably well. Jiraiya had slowly been increasing his pace every few minutes ever since they had left the village, and Naruto hadn't complained once. The blonde wiped at his face, clearing his face of the light sheen of sweat that had appeared.
"We've made good time," Jiraiya said. "And you did well in keeping up with me."
"I thought that something was going on," Naruto said. "You were going faster and faster weren't you?"
Jiraiya nodded with a grin. "Glad you caught that," he said. "Seems like you've taken Kakashi's underneath the underneath lesson well."
"Why?"
"I need to know what you can take," Jiraiya answered. "Naruto, because of what you carry, there will always be people who will come after you, and you are going to need to get strong quickly. And I know exactly what the first jutsu you are going to learn is."
"What is it?" Naruto asked.
"This," Jiraiya grinned. He held up a hand and Naruto watched in amazement as a swirling ball of chakra materialized in Jiraiya's hand.
"What is that?"
"The **Rasengan**," Jiraiya said. "This was Minato's signature ninjutsu. He created it from scratch, and your sensei's **Chidori** was his attempt to recreate it."
"Wow," Naruto gasped. "And I'm going to learn it?"
"Yep," Jiraiya nodded. "There are three steps to learning the **Rasengan**; rotation, power and stability. Take this," Jiraiya tossed Naruto a water balloon that he had pulled from somewhere," Your first training is to pop that balloon using only your chakra."
"Using only my chakra," Naruto repeated, looking down at the water balloon in his hands. "How?"
"You have to figure that out for yourself," Jiraiya said. "You said that there were no shortcuts to strength, so I can't just tell you everything and hand feed you if you want to get stronger."
Naruto huffed and looked down again at the balloon in his hands. "How long did it take the Yondaime to create the **Rasengan**?" he asked.
"Three years," Jiraiya answered. "But remember, that was from scratch."
"What about you?"
"It took me six months to learn and master it," Jiraiya said. "Kakashi, who also knows it, took a full year to learn and master the **Rasengan**."
"It took you six months and Kakashi-sensei a year to learn this," Naruto said, feeling a slight pang of unease at hearing how long it took two of the strongest ninja in the village to learn one jutsu. "Well, I'm going to destroy that time! I'll learn this jutsu in half that time."
"Big claim brat, can you really back it up?" Jiraiya asked.
"Just watch me," Naruto growled, his eyes gaining an edge to them that made Jiraiya think of another young ninja that hailed from a destroyed clan.
"Ok then, you have one hour of training time before we move out again," Jiraiya said.
"Only one hour," Naruto pouted.
"Quit whining brat," Jiraiya said. "You should take advantage of any down time you get while we are out here, so get to work."
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Sannin but then turned back to the water balloon in his hands. He slowly began channeling his chakra into the water balloon, trying to get a feel for the water. Slowly the water began to spin inside the balloon, flattening it out as the water inside it began to rotate.
"Come on, come on," Naruto muttered as he pushed more and more chakra into the balloon. The water flattened so much that the sphere now looked like a flat disk, almost like a Frisbee.
"Damnit!" Naruto cursed as the tenth balloon that Jiraiya had given him slowly deflate thanks to a small hole that he had made.
"Need another one?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto growled but nodded. Jiraiya filled up another balloon.
"Can't you give me a hint?" Naruto asked. "Show me the **Rasengan** again, I know if I see it again, I'll be able to figure it out."
"Fine," Jiraiya agreed. "Give me that balloon."
Naruto tossed the Sannin the balloon, who caught it easily and held it up in front of him. Slowly the balloon began to distort, the water was squirming like a snake or Naruto when he was trying to escape his blanket after waking up in the mornings. Suddenly the balloon burst, the water that had been contained splashed all over Jiraiya's hand. He shook his hand, flinging the scraps of balloon to the ground.
"There you go," Jiraiya said. "Back to work with you, you only have 15 minutes before we're moving out."
Naruto caught the newest balloon and began channeling his chakra into it once more. Slowly the water began responding to Naruto's chakra, swirling within the balloon. Once again, the balloon flattened as the spinning water stretched the plastic to near its breaking point but the balloon refused to pop. No matter how fast the water spun, powered by Naruto's chakra, the balloon refused to pop.
"Let's go Naruto, time's up," Jiraiya said.
"Ah!" Naruto cried as Jiraiya's voice startled him. The blonde lost his concentration and dropped the water balloon. The balloon burst when it hit the ground and the water splashed all over Naruto's feet. "Damnit Jiraiya, why did you distract me?"
"A ninja must always be aware of his surroundings," Jiraiya chided. "You will have to learn to focus on many different things all at once, and be able to do it instantly."
Naruto growled. "I almost had it," he snapped. "If you had just given me a few more minutes, I would have figured it out."
"Perhaps but you'll have to think on it more while we are moving," Jiraiya said. "Now let's go!"
Naruto grumbled but picked up his backpack, slung it over his shoulder and followed Jiraiya into the trees.
* * *
><p>"Good job you two," Kakashi said as both Sasuke and Sakura finished the agility exercise that he had the pair run through. "Much improved."<p>
"Thanks sensei," Sakura panted. Sasuke grunted through there was a sheen of sweat covering his face.
"Sensei, has there been any word on what is going to happen with Suna?" Sasuke asked.
"Nothing that I can tell you two," Kakashi said. "You two should only worry about getting stronger. You'll know soon enough about Suna."
"So there is news!" Sakura claimed, her eyes gleaming with interest.
"Ma, ma, don't get excited," Kakashi said, waving his hand at his two genin. "Just focus on your own problems, and the missions you two will be getting."
"Missions?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes," Kakashi said. "I'm being sent on a solo mission tomorrow, and you two will have a temporary sensei who will lead you two on some missions of your own."
"Like what?" Sasuke asked.
"Don't know but most likely, since our team is short handed, you two will be patrolling the village or helping with the clean up," Kakashi answered.
"Hm," Sasuke grunted while Sakura's face fell slightly.
"Hey you two, don't get to down," Kakashi said. "Remember, most of a ninja's career is spent not on missions. Use this time well, train, spend time with your friends, you never know when you'll see them again. Take the rest of the day off, meet me back here tomorrow morning at 8am. See you."
The jonin vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving the two genin alone, a fact that the young kunoichi member of Team 7 was very much aware of.
"Say Sasuke-kun, if you are not doing anything later, do you want to come over for dinner at my house?" Sakura asked.
Sasuke blinked in surprise. He thought that his teammate would use this opportunity to pester him into accepting a date with her. Inviting him over for dinner was a new twist. "Why?"
"Why what?" Sakura asked.
"Why are you inviting me to your house?"
"Oh, well I was actually going to invite both you and Naruto over," Sakura answered with a faint blush. "We've been teammates for a while now but neither of you have met my parents. And I thought that this would be a good opportunity, though with Naruto gone, if you don't want too I can understand."
"No," Sasuke said. "What time should I come by?"
"Around seven would be perfect Sasuke-kun," Sakura said happily. "See you then Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke nodded, watching his teammate jog, nearly skip, out of the training ground. He had no clue why he had agreed to Sakura's invitation, he had spent years on his own, going back to an empty apartment every night. Sasuke refused to stay at the Uchiha compound; it held too many painful memories. So now, why was he feeling a sense of longing, wanting to belong? Sure, he had grown closer to his team; Naruto, his annoying best friend and rival, Kakashi was his sensei and a mix of the perverted uncle and…perhaps the father or older brother. And Sakura…she wasn't a romantic interest he thought, Sasuke wasn't but she was certainly his teammate and someone who he would protect.
Meanwhile, Sakura was on cloud nine. She was barely refraining from skipping like a little girl all the way home as she left the training ground. Sasuke was coming over to her house for dinner! Sure it wasn't a date but here was an opportunity that Ino would probably kill for. Sakura giggled as she thought about what Ino's reaction would be when Sakura told her about Sasuke-kun coming over for dinner. But Sakura's giggle slowly died away when she remembered that even though Sasuke-kun was coming over, Naruto wasn't. Sakura marveled at how the blonde had wormed his way into her world. When they first became Team 7, Sakura lamented the fact that Naruto Uzumaki was on her team, the annoying hyperactive and stupid blonde that always pestered her for dates.
But now, Naruto was counted amongst Sakura's closest friends. The blonde had seemingly changed overnight, sure he still had his moments of being an idiot but he was quieter, more controlled with his emotions and had quickly shown Sakura that he was just as talented as Sasuke was. And Sakura had to admit that when Naruto took charge, he was just as attractive as Sasuke-kun was, he had this charisma that made her feel confident, and feel that everything would work out in the end.
"I'm home," Sakura cried as she entered her family's modest two-story home.
"In the kitchen," Sakura heard her mother, Mebuki, call out. Sakura left her sandals at the front door and walked into the kitchen where her mother was busying herself at the sink.
"Hi mom," Sakura said, taking a seat at the counter.
"Welcome home Sakura-chan, how was training?" Mebuki asked.
"It was all right, a little quieter without Naruto there but ok," Sakura answered.
"Oh, why was Naruto-kun not there?"
"He's on a mission," Sakura said softly, looking down.
"By himself?"
"No, at least I don't think so," Sakura said. "He didn't say, only that his mission didn't involve us."
"Any idea when he'll return?"
Sakura shook her head. "He didn't know," she admitted.
Mebuki chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"You Sakura-chan," Mebuki said with a smile. "I remember when you were first assigned Team 7, how you complained on and on about how Naruto-kun was going to get in your way to Sasuke-kun's heart. And now, you are worrying about him like some wife who had her husband go off to war."
"Mom!" Sakura cried, her face turning as pink as her hair. Mebuki's laughter filled the kitchen.
"What's going on?" a male voice called out.
"Daddy!" Sakura shouted, spinning on the stool she was sitting on.
Kizashi Haruno entered the kitchen and immediately scooped his daughter up in his arms, spinning her around like he did when she was just a child.
"Daddy!" Sakura repeated, slipping from her father's embrace, her face as pink as her and her father's hair. "I'm not a child anymore!"
"Oh I know princess, but to me you will always be my baby girl," Kizashi said, his mustache twitching.
"Um mom, daddy, before I forget, I invited Sasuke-kun over for dinner," Sakura said, brushing aside a lock of hair. "And he said that he would come over, is that ok?"
Mebuki and Kizashi looked at one another for a moment. To Sakura, it looked like her parents were having a conversation without saying a single word. Sakura wondered how they were able to do so, and if she would ever find someone that she could connect with at such a level.
"What time is Sasuke-kun expected to arrive?" Mebuki asked.
"He said he would arrive around seven," Sakura said brightly.
"Well then I better get to work," Mebuki smiled at her daughter. "What does Sasuke-kun like to eat?"
Sakura opened her mouth but then realized that she didn't know. Her eyes widened as she struggled to answer her mother. "I don't know," Sakura finally admitted.
"Oh well, don't worry about it Sakura-chan, I'm sure your mother will come up with something excellent," Kizashi reassured his daughter. "And this will be an excellent opportunity to find out what Sasuke-kun likes, and give you a leg up on winning Sasuke-kun's heart, right Sakura-chan?"
Sakura blushed heavily. "Daddy!" she cried.
Mebuki threw her head back, laughing madly. "Oh Sakura-chan, you looked just like a tomato, blushing like that," she said, still laughing. "Oh what Kushina-chan would say if she saw you like that."
"Kushina?" Sakura asked.
Mebuki blinked. "Oh, Kushina-chan was one of my teammates when I was a genin," she explained. "It's funny though, the Sandaime had one interesting sense of humor."
"What do you mean?"
"My teammates during my time as a genin were Mikoto Uchiha and Kushina Uzumaki," Mebuki chuckled.
"Uchiha, Uzumaki?" Sakura repeated. "Like Sasuke-kun and Naruto?"
"Yes," Mebuki said. "In fact, Mikoto was Sasuke-kun's mother and I think that Kushina-chan was Naruto-kun's mother. She was the only Uzumaki in the village that I knew of."
"But if this Kushina was Naruto's mother, why would he have her last name and not his father's?" Sakura asked. "And where has she been?"
"Well Sakura-chan, Kushina-chan died in the Kyubi attack," Mebuki said softly. "Also, I don't know if Kushina-chan was Naruto-kun's mother, so who knows. As for Naruto-kun having the same last name as Kushina-chan's last name and not his father's, well that could be several things; Naruto-kun's father could have been an Uzumaki as well, or Naruto-kun's father might not have married Kushina-chan, I don't think she had a boyfriend when she died."
Sakura furrowed her brow but before she could say anything, Kizashi interrupted her. "Say Sakura-chan, shouldn't you go get washed up?" he offered. "Sasuke-kun will be here in an hour or so, and I'll need your help in setting the table."
"Right," Sakura said. Her parents watched as their daughter raced out of the kitchen and upstairs to her room.
"Mebuki, you know we're not supposed to be talking about these sorts of things," Kizashi warned.
"Oh come now Kizashi, I haven't said anything that anyone with two brain cells to rub together couldn't figure out. Why in Kami's name would the Sandaime not tell the village who Naruto-kun truly was? He certainly let everyone know that he held the fox quick enough. Naruto-kun could have easily been adopted by us but Hiruzen-sama was too afraid of upsetting the clans to make sure Naruto-kun was happy and healthy. Every time I saw Naruto-kun slinking around the park, sticking to the shadows in an alley, I knew that Kushina-chan was looking down at me with disgust."
"Mebuki, you can't blame yourself," Kizashi said, walking around the kitchen table and embraced his wife. "The Sandaime is the one who will have to answer for his inactions. I'm sure that both Kushina-chan and Minato-sama are furious at how their son was treated but they aren't furious at you. Now we better get started on dinner in order to be ready for the great Sasuke-kun."
Mebuki giggled and kissed her husband on the cheek before turning back to the sink.
* * *
><p>"He's here!" Sakura squealed as the doorbell rang. She leapt from the couch and raced to the front door. Sakura then took a deep breath and threw open the door. "Hi Sasuke-kun."<p>
"Hello Sakura," Sasuke said. He was wearing dark slacks and a white collared shirt with a small Uchiha crest on his chest. "Thank you for inviting me."
"Of course, please come in," Sakura answered, frantically trying to control the blush that was creeping up her neck.
'_**Damn, he looks so hot!**_' Sakura's Inner personality screamed.
'_I know, now be quiet_,' Sakura answered, stepping aside to let Sasuke inside.
"So this is the mysterious Sasuke Uchiha," Kizashi joked, rising from his own chair. "The boy who has stolen my daughter's heart."
"Daddy!" Sakura cried, losing control of her blush.
"Haruno-san, thank you for inviting me this evening," Sasuke said with a formal bow. His mother and father had drilled into him manners befitting of an Uchiha.
"Oh no, none of that Uchiha-san," Kizashi chuckled. "Just call me Kizashi, and my wife is Mebuki. We don't stand much on formality here."
Sasuke's lips twitched at the pink-haired man's openness. "Just Sasuke then," he said before greeting Mebuki when she entered the family room from the kitchen.
"Welcome Sasuke-kun, I'm afraid Sakura-chan didn't tell me what you liked to eat," Mebuki began.
"That's ok Mebuki-san," Sasuke said. "It's no problem."
Mebuki smiled. "Excellent, then why don't we sit down as dinner is ready," she said.
Sasuke followed Sakura into the kitchen and felt a pang of something resonate throughout his chest at the sight of the made kitchen table.
"Um Sasuke-kun, are you all right?" Sakura asked. Sasuke shook his head to clear it.
"I'm ok Sakura," Sasuke said.
"Where would you like to sit Sasuke-kun?" Mebuki asked.
"Wherever is fine ma'am," Sasuke answered.
"You can sit across from me Sasuke-kun," Sakura offered. Sasuke nodded, refraining from his usual answer of grunting. The Uchiha took his seat with Kizashi on his right, at the head of the table, Mebuki to his left and Sakura across from him.
"No need to wait Sasuke-kun, have whatever you like," Mebuki said.
Conversation trailed off as the four diners piled food upon their plates and began eating.
"So Sasuke-kun, how do you like being a ninja?" Kizashi asked. "Is it everything you thought it would be?"
Sasuke paused and set his utensils down. "Not exactly," he said. "Growing up, I knew that being a ninja wasn't what many people thought it was. I think most kids think that being a ninja is being a hero, a dashing prince rescuing a princess," Sasuke noticed that Sakura's face now matched her hair, "or super warriors that could do anything. Now, after what happened, I know that the life of a ninja is not for the faint of heart or for those who believe that the world is separated by only light and dark. Being a ninja will eat those people up in an instant and spit out their mangled and fractured souls."
"You are quite wise beyond your years Sasuke-kun," Mebuki said with a soft smile. "Your generation has been lucky so far."
"What do you mean mom?" Sakura asked.
"What your mother means Sakura-chan, is that your generation has yet to experience war," Kizashi said. "Your mother and I were lucky to survive the Third Shinobi War, when many didn't. War is a terrible experience, it changes everything you thought you know what is right and wrong."
Sasuke looked at the elder man with a more appreciative eye. "Kakashi-sensei told us something similar," Sasuke said.
"Yes your sensei would know all about the war," Mebuki said with a sad tone.
"Mom?"
"You don't know?" Mebuki asked.
"Sensei is not the most open person," Sakura said. Sasuke nodded.
"After his past, I would say it is understandable," Mebuki said. "What do you know about your sensei's life before he became your sensei?"
"Not a lot," Sakura said.
"Kakashi Hatake, son of Sakumo Hatake, the **White Fang of Konoha**," Sasuke said. "He graduated from the Academy at the age of 5, promoted to chunin at age 6, then became a jonin at 13. He was part of the previous Team 7 under Minato Namikaze, with Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara. Kakashi is the only surviving member of Team 7, as both Obito and Rin died during the war. After The Third Shinobi War, Kakashi became one of the most notorious and famous ninja around the world, gaining the monikers of '**The Copy Cat Ninja**' or '**Kakashi of the Sharingan**.'"
"How do you know all that?" Sakura asked.
"His Bingo Book entry," Sasuke said.
"That is all true of course," Mebuki said. "But not all of the story. Kakashi lost his father when he was very young, and Minato-sama became his father figure. When Minato-sama died protecting the village, Kakashi was cast adrift and threw himself into ANBU. It wasn't until he became your sensei that I believe Kakashi found his way again and began to heal."
"How do you know all that about Kakashi-sensei mom?" Sakura asked.
"Just because I've retired from active duty, doesn't mean I still don't have some skills," Mebuki said with a mischievous smile that looked a lot like Naruto's.
"So Sasuke-kun, what are your dreams?" Kizashi asked, obviously trying to steer the conversation away from sensitive information.
"Dreams?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes, dreams. Surely a young man like yourself has dreams that he wants to accomplish?" Kizashi said.
Sakura looked over at her teammate, the memory of the day she, Sasuke and Naruto became Team 7 resurfacing in her mind. She remembered what Sasuke had said when Kakashi-sensei had asked them that very same question her father had just asked. As the memory played itself out, Sakura was disgusted at how she had acted that day. She wondered what Sasuke would now say.
"My dream is to find my brother," Sasuke said. "I need to know why, and I will have my answers, no matter what."
Mebuki and Kizashi glanced at one another, while Sakura looked at her teammate, surprised at his answer.
"What about you Sakura-chan?" Kizashi asked. "What are your dreams?"
"I want to prove to the world that you don't need to come from a clan to become a powerful ninja," Sakura said. "I am the only member of my graduating class that didn't come from a clan except for Naruto."
Mebuki and Kizashi smiled at their daughter. Sasuke also nodded, sending a feeling of warmth shooting through Sakura.
"Well, I think that it is time for dessert," Mebuki said once everyone had cleared their plates. "Sasuke-kun, would you care for some ice cream? We have some chocolate, vanilla and strawberry."
"Strawberry would be wonderful," Sasuke said.
"Strawberry it is then," Mebuki smiled. "Sakura-chan, Kizashi?"
"Chocolate for me mom," Sakura said.
"Strawberry for me dear," Kizashi grinned.
Mebuki nodded and bustled off to the refrigerator.
"So Sasuke-kun, who do you think will be our temporary sensei since Kakashi-sensei is being given solo missions?" Sakura asked.
"I have no clue," Sasuke said. "Hopefully it will be someone strong and able to teach us a lot. We all need to get stronger."
"Why the rush Sasuke-kun?" Kizashi asked, accepting the bowl of strawberry ice cream from his wife. Sakura gladly took her own bowl of chocolate ice cream while Sasuke took his bowl of strawberry with a nod of thanks.
"With what happened at the Chunin Exams, the village will need all the strong ninja it can use," Sasuke said. "And without a Hokage, the village is in a precarious position and the other villages could try and take advantage."
"Why didn't Jiraiya-sama take over as Hokage then?" Sakura asked.
Kizashi chuckled drawing the attention of the two genin, and his wife who was frowning, thought if one looked close enough, her lips were twitching.
"Dad?" Sakura asked. "Why are you laughing? Don't you agree that Jiraiya-sama should have taken up the Hokage position?"
"Sakura-chan, there is no question that Jiraiya-sama is the strongest ninja in the village," Kizashi said. "But his quirks are just as legendary as his feats in battle and they make him not the most popular pick for Hokage."
"Quirks, now that is a very loose term for that," Mebuki said. "He's a self-proclaimed super pervert, and is the author of those Icha Icha books."
"What!" Sakura cried while Sasuke blinked rapidly at Mebuki.
"Oh yes, you learn quite a bit about someone when your best friend is the girlfriend of the man's apprentice," Mebuki said. "The man has no shame in his perversion but I will also say Jiraiya-sama is one of the most honorable men you will ever find. And he loves the village more than anyone. So while he has the strength and love for the village, a Hokage Jiraiya-sama is not."
"Well Naruto better not come back as a pervert then," Sakura grumbled.
"Oh?" Kizashi asked. "I sense a story here."
"Well Naruto is going on a mission with Jiraiya-sama," Sasuke said. "They are looking for someone apparently."
Kizashi glanced at his wife. "Well then Naruto is in perfect hands," Kizashi said. "You won't need to worry about Naruto being in any danger with Jiraiya-sama."
"That's not what I'm worried about dad," Sakura said. "You told us that Jiraiya-sama is a super pervert, I just don't want to Naruto to turn into a pervert like Kakashi-sensei or Jiraiya-sama."
"Oh I think that Naruto will be fine," Kizashi said. "He seems to have a level head on his shoulders."
Sasuke and Sakura nodded, agreeing with Kizashi's assessment of Naruto.
"Well, it is getting late," Mebuki said when everyone had finished their desserts. "I think its time for you to be heading home Sasuke-kun, you both have training in the morning I'm sure."
"Yes but Kakashi-sensei is always a couple of hours late," Sakura groused.
"He has been better than when we first became a team," Sasuke admitted. "Sensei will probably be there on time since we are getting a new sensei. I should be going."
Sakura reluctantly agreed.
"Thank you very much Mebuki-san, Kizashi-san, for a wonderful meal," Sasuke said, bowing to Sakura's parents.
"Of course Sasuke-kun, it was no problem," Mebuki said with a smile. "It is always nice to meet Sakura-chan's friends and teammate. Hopefully we will get to meet Naruto-kun another time."
Sasuke nodded. "Yes perhaps we can do this again," he said causing Sakura to beam broadly. "I'll see you tomorrow Sakura."
"Bye Sasuke-kun," Sakura chirped.
* * *
><p>"Wake up Naruto!"<p>
The blonde jolted awake, a kunai appearing in his hand. "What the!" he mumbled as his eyes quickly gained focus. "Damnit Jiraiya, what was that for?"
"Hey don't blame me, you need to be aware at all times, especially when outside the village," Jiraiya said. "You never know when your enemies will attack, especially for you Naruto."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, pulling on his shirt.
Jiraiya gave Naruto a searching look before he made several hand signs and then slapped the floor. Naruto felt something wash over him and the birds chirping fell silent.
"What was that?" Naruto asked.
"A **Barrier Jutsu** of my own creation," Jiraiya said proudly. "No sound can escape this barrier while its active."
"Amazing, can you team me that too?" Naruto asked, his eyes bright with excitement.
Jiraiya felt his throat constrict as Naruto's expression matched another blonde teenager from a decade and a half ago. "Maybe after you learn the **Rasengan**," he compromised. "But first, information. Naruto, there is an organization that is after what you carry."
"The fox?"
"Yes," Jiraiya said with a solemn nod. "This organization is called the Akatsuki, and they are made up of S-rank missing ninja. Orochimaru used to be a member but left for some reason."
"Orochimaru," Naruto growled.
"Naruto focus!" Jiraiya snapped. "You are no where near strong enough to even think of taking on Orochimaru. He'd take you apart in a heartbreak."
"I know that," Naruto fired back.
"Well you are going to have to keep your mind off Orochimaru for a while," Jiraiya said. "Now the Akatsuki are after the Biju for some reason. These guys are seriously good at keeping their identities and actions quiet. I don't know how many members there are or what their overall goals are but anyone asking about the Biju and their jinchuriki should be watched warily."
"Do you know anything else about this Akatsuki aside from Orochimaru once being in it?" Naruto asked.
"No," Jiraiya admitted with a frown. Naruto could tell that it stung for the Konoha spymaster to admit such a thing. "Like I said, these guys are seriously closed off. I was only able to learn about Orochimaru's previous membership because I've kept tabs on the snake ever since he turned traitor."
"So I've got a group of S-rank missing ninja, the strongest criminals in the entire world, after me for reasons unknown, all because of what I've got sealed inside me," Naruto said.
"That just about wraps it up," Jiraiya said.
"Great," Naruto drawled.
"Don't act smart brat," Jiraiya chided. "You aren't strong enough to back up that tongue just yet."
"Then I better get moving on learning that first step," Naruto said. "How many more water balloons do you have?"
"How many do you need?"
"I'll show you when we get outside," Naruto said.
"All right Naruto, where are you going with this?" Jiraiya asked when he and Naruto found a clearing a couple of miles from the hotel they had spent the night at.
"This," Naruto grinned. "**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" he cried, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Jiraiya was surrounded by Naruto clones. "Hey Jiraiya, do you have enough water balloons for all of us?" the clones asked.
Jiraiya blinked. "I think so," he said. "What are you planning?"
"You know how I get the memories from **Shadow Clones**," Jiraiya nodded, "Well, I can use this jutsu to speed up learning new jutsus," Naruto said. "I had a thought about the **Rasengan** last night, your balloon was moving all over the place when you showed it to me while I've only been spinning my chakra in only one direction. The **Rasengan** is more like a drill isn't it?"
Jiraiya grinned broadly. "Excellent," he said. "Yes, the key to the **Rasengan** is that your chakra is spinning in multiple directions which leads to a drill effect. Watch." Jiraiya walked over to a tree and had a **Rasengan** appear in his hand. Naruto watched in amazement as the **Rasengan** ate its way through the trunk of the tree with ease.
"Awesome," Naruto grinned.
"Let's see what you've got," Jiraiya said as he began tossing water balloons to Naruto and the clones. He stepped back and watched as his apprentice immediately got to work.
"All right, you guys know what to do," Naruto ordered his clones. "I want us to have this down before we leave."
"Right," the clones shouted in unison.
"All right Naruto, we need to get moving," Jiraiya called out an hour later. The sun had just begun to peak out over the tops of the trees that surrounded the clearing.
"Come on guys, we need to get this," Naruto growled as he swiped at the sweat pouring down his forehead. The water balloon in his hand was moving wildly as the blonde spun his chakra faster and faster inside the balloon and in several different directions.
"Yes!" a clone cried out as its balloon popped. The original Naruto and his other clones looked over at the clone that shouted.
"What happened?" Naruto asked.
"I got it," the clone claimed.
"How?" another clone asked.
"Just dispel, and then we'll all know how," a third clone said. The first clone grinned and vanished in a puff of smoke. Naruto blinked as the idea of concentrating on a single point at the middle of his palm and having his chakra rotate around that central point came to him. It reminded him of a memory from back in the Academy when Iruka-sensei had caught him, Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji skipping class, and had made them do the leaf sticking exercise. When Iruka had drawn a Konoha symbol on Naruto's forehead in order to help the boy focus, Naruto had done much better on the exercise. Of course because of his massive chakra reserves, he would never truly get the exercise but having to concentrate on one single spot made things much easier for the easily distracted boy.
Naruto looked down at the balloon in his hand and closed his eyes. In his mind's eye, Naruto pictured a swirling whirlpool inside the balloon. Dimly he could feel the balloon beginning to spin and wobble in his hands. He concentrated harder and harder, spinning his chakra faster and faster.
Pop!
Naruto's eyes opened and a broad grin slowly spread across his face as he looked down at the few scraps of wet plastic that clung to his hand. All around him, the sounds of dozens of water balloons popping brought an even bigger smile to his face. Naruto shivered as the memories of his dozens of clones came crashing through his head. Luckily since the memories were all the same thing, the mental backlash was not as bad as it could be. Naruto had discovered that the first time he had tried training with his **Shadow Clones**; he had been so excited to learn new and powerful jutsus that the blonde had tried to learn everything at once and when his clones had dispelled, the backlash caused him to pass out instantly. He quickly learned about the restrictions that needed to be followed if he wanted to train using his clones. Only train one thing at a time, as if he spread himself out too much, he would suffer those headaches and pass out.
"Well done Naruto," Jiraiya praised with a smile. "Looks like you've figured out the first step to learning the **Rasengan**. Now I'll teach you the second step when we stop for the night but we need to get moving."
Naruto nodded and grabbed his backpack from the ground and slung it over his shoulder. Without another word, the two Konoha shinobi leapt off into the trees, leaving the clearing without a trace of them being there except for the scattered remains of several dozens of water balloons.
* * *
><p>"Good morning Sasuke-kun!" Sakura chirped as she arrived at the training ground to find Sasuke already there.<p>
"Morning Sakura," Sasuke said, nodding to his teammate. "Thank you again for inviting me to dinner last night, it was nice."
"Of course Sasuke-kun," Sakura beamed. "Is Kakashi-sensei here yet?"
Sasuke shook his head. "No I haven't seen him," he answered.
"Hey what's going on over there?" Sakura asked, pointing over Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke turned around and saw a column of smoke rising from somewhere in the village.
"That's nowhere near any of the training grounds," Sasuke said. "That can't be good. Let's go!"
"Right!" Sakura responded and the two genin leapt off toward the rising cloud of black smoke.
"What the hell happened here?" Sasuke asked as he and Sakura came upon what was obviously a battleground.
"Kurenai-sensei!" Sakura cried, spotting the raven-haired female jonin who was being attended to by a member of the medical corp. The pinkette rushed over to the woman who taught her so much about genjutsu, and that a girl can be a strong ninja and be beautiful at the same time. "What happened?"
Kurenai looked up to see her part-time student and her teammate rushing over to her. "Oh hello there Sakura-chan, Sasuke-kun," Kurenai said, grimacing slightly as moving stretched her side where her wound was still healing.
"Sensei, what happened to you?" Sakura asked. "Are we being attacked again?"
"No, no, nothing like that," Kurenai said waving her hand at the two genin. "Just a training exercise that got a little out of hand."
"Don't try and cover this up Kurenai-san," Sasuke said. "This is no way that this was a training exercise. Tell the truth."
"Watch your tone genin," Kurenai snapped. "Look you two, just let this go."
"Where is Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. "He was supposed to meet us at the training ground to introduce our temporary sensei before he went on a mission."
Kurenai paused. "Kakashi had to leave earlier than he expected so he's not going to meet you guys," she said. "Why don't you two head back to the training ground, I'm sure that your new sensei will meet you there."
Sakura opened her mouth to keep asking questions but Sasuke put his hand on her shoulder and she stopped. "Come on Sakura, let's go," Sasuke said. Sakura nodded and the two members of Team 7 left. Kurenai sighed when she could no longer sense either Sakura or Sasuke.
"There's something they're not telling us," Sakura said when Sasuke stopped leading her a couple of streets away from the scene of the fight.
"Of course they aren't telling us what happened," Sasuke said. "We are only genin. Something happened that they want to keep quiet and out of the public's knowledge, especially after the invasion."
"So what are we going to do?" Sakura asked.
"We're going to be ninja-like," Sasuke answered with a grin, a grin that looked a lot like Naruto's whenever the blonde would come up with a prank. Sakura matched her teammate's grin with one of her own. The two vanished in swirls of leaves.
"Has there been any word?" Kurenai asked as she reached the hospital room where Asuma and Kakashi were being treated.
"No," Gai said, his face set in stone. "It seems that they managed to escape. I know that ANBU sent a squad after those two but I doubt that they will catch them."
"How's Kakashi?" Kurenai asked.
"No clue," Asuma answered. "The docs can't find anything physically wrong with him but they can't get him to wake up. Whatever Itachi did to him was serious, I sure as hell don't want to get caught."
"Quiet," Kurenai hissed. "You don't know who might be listening. Sasuke and Sakura noticed the smoke from the fight and came to investigate."
"What did you tell them?" Gai asked.
"I made something up about it being a training exercise but I don't think they believed me," Kurenai told Gai and Asuma. "Kakashi told them that they were to meet a temporary sensei while he was on a mission, any idea who it is?"
Both Gai and Asuma shook their heads.
"Why was Itachi looking for Naruto anyway?" Kurenai asked. "I would have thought that he would be looking for Sasuke."
Suddenly, the three jonin froze at the sound of a branch creaking just outside the window. Gai rushed over to the window and saw a dark-haired boy racing off while a pink-haired girl was calling after him.
"Shit," the jonin cursed.
**A/N: Well, there you go, the newest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy. _Sorry that it is a bit delayed from my normal posting schedule, I just started an internship and it is eating up the majority of my time and when I'm not working, the house I am staying at doesn't have Internet (I know, it's shocking in this age that a house doesn't have Internet) so future updates might be a bit scattered. Anyway, hope you all liked this chapter, while it isn't very action packed, I enjoyed writing it since it allowed me to dive into Sasuke and Sakura's characters a bit more, as well as introduce Sakura's parents. Please let me know what you all think about the chapter, and if you have any ideas on where I should go from here, let me know. Til next time,**
**SlyNinKnight**
17. Unexpected Interlopers
**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own _Naruto! _If I had, Sakura wouldn't be a doormat to an seemingly abusive and absent Sasuke, Naruto wouldn't be more concerned about his image than his own family, oh and Sasuke would be dead. But since all those things didn't happen, I don't own _Naruto_.**
**KEY:**
"Talking"
'_Thoughts_'
**Jutsu name**
_**Summon or Biju talking**_
"Come on Jiraiya, show me the next step!" Naruto whined as he and the Sannin leapt down from the trees to the path that led out of one of the many forests in the Land of Fire.
"Fine," Jiraiya said with a touch of annoyance. The blonde had been pestering Jiraiya ever since Naruto had managed the first stop of the **Rasengan**. The Sannin rummaged through his cloak and pulled out a rubber ball. "Here," Jiraiya said, tossing the ball to Naruto.
"This?" Naruto asked, catching the ball with an arched eyebrow.
"Yep," Jiraiya answered. "The second step to learning the **Rasengan** is power. Since there isn't any water inside the ball, moving your chakra is much harder and a rubber ball is much thicker than a water balloon. Pop that."
Naruto stared at the white haired Sannin in disbelief before turning his attention to the small ball in his hands.
"That's it?" Naruto asked, looking back at Jiraiya.
"That's it," Jiraiya confirmed.
"You know for a jutsu that so few people know, and so dangerous, these steps aren't very difficult," Naruto said. Jiraiya laughed. "What's so funny?"
"You think it's easy now," the Sannin said. "Just try and pop that ball and you'll see how easy learning the **Rasengan** is. There is a reason only two people alive know this jutsu."
"Just two, who?"
"Me and Kakashi," Jiraiya said. "Minato wanted to keep the jutsu in his family, and only taught myself as his sensei and Kakashi as his last surviving student."
"Then why are you teaching me?" Naruto asked.
"You're my apprentice," Jiraiya answered. "And you are Minato's legacy, the one who he trusted with the Kyubi, so you'll need all the help you can get. The **Rasengan** is the ultimate, the pinnacle of pure shape manipulation. It can be created and unleashed in an instant and is a sure kill to anyone it connects with, just the type of trump card that you need."
Naruto nodded, seemingly accepting Jiraiya's explanation. Though the Sannin didn't know that Naruto knew that Minato was Naruto's father. Naruto didn't want to know that he knew. The blonde still wasn't sure what he felt about his father; the man who had chosen the village over his own son, sealed the strongest Biju in him and believed that the village would treat him fairly and honestly. Naruto also knew that as a jinchuriki, he was typically thought of as a weapon of war, an army destroyer, or a deterrent of war in Konoha's sake. He had learned that Konoha had always kept the identities of their jinchuriki secret, well at least until the title was forced upon him. It seemed that the entire village was aware that he held the Kyubi, even if they didn't know that he was its prison not the demon itself.
"Now hop to it Naruto," Jiraiya said. "You have one hour before we reach Tanzaku Town."
Naruto nodded and held up the rubber ball. He slowly began channeling as much chakra as he could into the ball. Immediately Naruto knew that this step would be much harder than he thought it would. He could barely feel his chakra moving inside the ball. With the water balloon, he could feel the water sloshing around inside it, but air didn't weigh anything, so there wasn't anything to feel moving around.
"Not so easy is it?" Jiraiya grinned, watching the blonde teen struggle with the exercise.
"Shut up," Naruto growled.
"Youth today, no respect for their elders and betters," Jiraiya mused, shaking his head at the blonde.
Naruto heard the comments and growled deeply as he sent more and more chakra into the rubber ball. Naruto felt sweat begin to build on his forehead as he sent as much chakra as he possibly could in one strong burst. On the edge of his consciousness, Naruto felt the rubber ball twitch and bubble slightly as his chakra swirled within it. But just as Naruto's mood began to rise, his hand and arm gave a painful throb causing Naruto lose concentration and drop the ball.
"Damnit," Naruto cursed as the ball bounced away and he shook his hand, trying to regain feeling in it.
"Ah, you ran into the first problem in learning the **Rasengan**," Jiraiya said. "The amount of chakra to use the **Rasengan** is substantial but it is the fact of how much chakra is needed in an instant. Forcing a substantial amount of chakra through your chakra pathways can be hazardous. Minato was several years older than you are when he created the **Rasengan**, and his chakra network was more fully matured. But with your tenant and healing ability, your pathways are much stronger than someone who isn't jinchuriki, that is as long as you can handle a little pain?"
"Of course I can!" Naruto barked. "Just watch!"
With another loud snarl, Naruto channeled as much chakra as he could into his hand and the ball. Naruto grimaced as he felt his hand and arm begin to burn as his chakra pathways started to feel the strain of all that chakra rushing through them, it felt like he was slowly putting his arm into an open flame.
"Ahh!" Naruto shouted, feeling his arm burn as he forced one last surge of chakra into the rubber ball.
Pop!
Naruto cautiously opened his eyes and looked down at his hand. It was bleeding from several thin cuts on his palms and fingers but there was no sign of the rubber ball. Looking past his hand, Naruto saw that the ground was littered with scraps of plastic from the ball.
"All right!" Naruto cried before yelping in pain as his hand gave a painful throb.
"Yeah, that's what happens when you force too much chakra through your network at once and a rubber ball blows up in your hand," Jiraiya said with a grin.
"But I completed the second stage," Naruto said with his own grin.
"That's true," Jiraiya agreed. "But you aren't advancing to the third stage until you can pop the ball in under five seconds and do it without nearly blowing your hand off."
"What! Why?" Naruto whined.
"Just because you managed to pop the ball doesn't mean you've mastered the stage," Jiraiya said sternly. "Like I said earlier, one key to the **Rasengan** is that it can be unleashed in an instant and without hand signs to mold the chakra. So until you can pop the ball to my satisfaction, you aren't learning the next step."
Naruto glared at the Sannin but kept his mouth shut, wiping his bloody hand on his pants. Jiraiya nodded and tossed the blonde another rubber ball.
"Let's go Naruto," Jiraiya said. "We need to be in Tanzaku Town as quickly as possible. My sources say that Tsunade is heading there."
"Why?"
"There is a new casino opening up there, and Tsunade could never resist gambling," Jiraiya chuckled fondly. "Now move it."
Naruto growled but shoved the ball into his pocket and followed Jiraiya into the trees.
"Whoa!" Naruto gaped as he and Jiraiya approached the city of Tanzaku Town. The blonde dimly recalled Iruka telling his Academy class about the geography of the Land of Fire, and that Tanzaku Town was the second largest city in the nation with only the Fire Capital surpassing it, Konoha was the third largest city in the Land of Fire. Dominating the scenery was a tall castle that rose up out of the city. Naruto wondered which was taller: the castle or the Hokage Monument.
"Come on brat, we need to find a place to stay then start looking for Tsunade," Jiraiya ordered. Naruto flinched at Jiraiya's voice; he had forgotten that the Sannin was there.
The two ninja made their way into the city, Naruto trying to take in as much of the city as he could, his head constantly on a swivel. It was so different than Konoha or the Land of Waves.
"Naruto!" Jiraiya barked. Naruto tore his gaze away from the various buildings and saw Jiraiya entering a hotel lobby. The blonde jogged across the street as Jiraiya spoke with the older man behind the counter.
"Here, room 114," Jiraiya said shoving a scroll and room key into Naruto's hands. "Go up to the room, I'm going to check out the sights," trailing off as a group of attractive young women walked by the inn. "Oh ladies!"
Naruto grumbled about lazy perverts as Jiraiya raced off after the women but headed off toward the stairs.
Shouldering open the door, Naruto tossed the scroll onto the nearest bed and then slammed the door behind him. '_Damn that asshole, ditching me just to go skirt chasing!_' Naruto thought. '_How in Kami's name did dad deal with Jiraiya when he was a genin?_'
Naruto sat down on the second bed and pulled the rubber ball from his pocket. He took a deep breath and began channeling his chakra into the ball, feeling only the slightest twinge of pain in his forearm and hand. Soon Naruto heard the pop of the ball breaking apart. He looked at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it had only taken him 22 seconds to pop the ball that time, a good two seconds faster than the last time he had completed the exercise. But it still wasn't fast enough; Jiraiya wanted him to be able to pop the ball in less than five seconds before he would let Naruto advance to the final stage of the **Rasengan**.
* * *
><p>Pop!<p>
Naruto turned his hand and let the remnants of the ball fall to the floor, joining the growing pile at Naruto's feet. That ball was the sixth one that Naruto had shredded, and he had gotten his time to less than 20 seconds to pop the ball.
The blonde was about to unseal another ball from the scroll that Jiraiya had given him when there came a sharp knock at the door.
"Got shot down already you perverted old man," Naruto grumbled. He sidestepped the scraps of plastic scattered around his feet and reached the door. "Cool your jets!" Naruto barked as the knocking continued. "What!" Naruto shouted, throwing open the door. "You're not Jiraiya?"
Two cloaked men were standing in the hallway. Both men were wearing the same high-collared black cloaks with red clouds dotting the fabric. The shorter man, who was still a good foot taller than Naruto, tilted his head to revel a very familiar looking face. The man's partner toward over Naruto and had blue-tinged skin, beady bloodshot eyes and shark-like teeth.
"So Itachi, this is the Kyubi-brat then?" the blue giant asked. "Doesn't look like much."
"Yes," Itachi said. "This is Naruto Uzumaki."
'_Itachi?_' Naruto thought. The name sounded familiar for some reason.
"Naruto-kun, we are going to need you to come with us," Itachi said. The wide-brim of Itachi's straw hat tilted back to show his eyes, red eyes.
'_Sharingan!_' Naruto realized. '_Oh shit, this is Sasuke's brother! The guy who killed the entire Uchiha clan!_'
"I don't think it is smart of me to go with one of Konoha's most notorious traitors," Naruto said. "I'm already not liked very much in the village, so I don't want to give the villagers even more of a reason to hate me."
"The brat has got quite the mouth eh Itachi?" the monster asked. "He probably won't be such a smart ass if I shave his lips off."
"Kisame," Itachi said emotionlessly, though Naruto thought he heard a touch of exasperation in his voice. "Naruto-kun, you really should come with us, it would be unwise for your health."
"Itachi!" a new voice roared.
The three ninja turned to see that at the end of the hallway, panting heavily was Sasuke Uchiha.
"You know that kid Itachi?" Kisame asked.
"Yes," Itachi said. "That is my little brother."
"Oh," Kisame said. "Do you mind if I take care of him, I mean you already killed how many Uchihas?"
Sasuke's eyes blazed with fury at the comment.
"No Kisame, I will handle this," Itachi said. "It is a family matter."
Sasuke's **Sharingan** whirled into existence and he surged forward, screaming incoherently.
"Sasuke-kun!" another new voice cried out. Naruto's gaze tore away from the charging Sasuke to the newly arrived Sakura.
"Oh, whose this little princess?" Kisame asked, noticing Naruto's reaction toward the pink-haired newcomer. "Maybe you won't come with us willingly when we are threatening you, but I'll bet you'll do anything to make sure I don't shave the flesh from her bones, right brat?"
"Don't you dare touch Sakura-chan!" Naruto snarled, snatching a kunai from his holster and flinging it at Kisame's head with lightning speed.
The monster just tilted his head slightly, letting the kunai dart past and stick in the ceiling. The monster's face twisted into a gleeful look. "Ho, ho, looks like I struck a nerve," Kisame said. "Let's see how long you can handle her screams?"
Sakura felt her heart freeze as a towering figure wearing a black cloak appeared in front of her. The 'man' held an enormous sword wrapped in bandages in one hand. The sword was even bigger than the broadsword that Zabuza had used.
"Leave Sakura-chan alone!"
Sakura blinked as a flash of yellow blinded her for a spilt second. Naruto appeared in front of Sakura, a swirling ball of chakra in his hand. He thrust the not fully formed **Rasengan** forward at Kisame's stomach. But the blue-skinned giant just swung his sword downward.
"Gah!" Naruto cried in pain, clutching his right hand. It was bleeding much worse than when he had injured it learning the second step of the **Rasengan** but Naruto knew he hadn't hurt himself with his own jutsu.
A soft gurgle echoed up and down the hallway causing Naruto to look up. Some of the bandages covering Kisame's sword had been torn revealing a very unusual looking sword, it looked like it was covered in dark blue scales.
"This is Sameheda," Kisame grinned. "And unlike other swords, she doesn't cut or slice like a blade, she shaves, layer by layer. And she likes your chakra."
"What?" Naruto grimaced, still clutching his hand. It was slowly healing thanks to the Kyubi but it still hurt like hell.
"Sameheda also eats chakra and gives it to me," Kisame said. "It makes it very difficult for me to find an opponent that I can go all out on. My opponents die to easily to give me a good fight."
Naruto and Sakura gulped at Kisame's boast, each taking a step backward at the same time.
"So the Kyubi brat is sweet on the princess, ain't that precious?" Kisame laughed, shouldering Sameheda. "Too bad though, maybe we are doing you a favor brat, she doesn't look very strong. Probably one of those girls who wanted to become a ninja because it looked cool or she wanted to impress a boy."
Sakura shrank back further away from Kisame and his harsh words.
"Take that back!" Naruto snarled. "Sakura-chan is not weak! She is one of the strongest people I know."
"Naruto," Sakura whispered.
"That's right Naruto, defend your girlfriend," a third new voice said from behind Naruto and Sakura.
"Jiraiya," Kisame breathed, looking over Naruto and Sakura's heads.
"Yes, no need to fear anymore, I'm here," Jiraiya said. "The great and gallant Jiraiya. Men fear me and women swoon in my presence."
Naruto groaned at his sensei's entrance but inwardly he was supremely relieved at Jiraiya's appearance.
"Kisame, we are leaving," Itachi's voice said sternly. Sasuke was slumped against the wall, not moving.
"Oh but it was just getting interesting," Kisame pouted but heeded Itachi's words and the two shinobi vanished.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried, dashing around Naruto to their downed teammate. "He's hurt! His wrist is broken and he won't wake up."
"Move aside girl," Jiraiya ordered, crouching down next to Sasuke. Sakura frowned at Jiraiya's tone but did slide aside. "He's under some sort of genjutsu, one I can't break him out of. We need to get him back to the village, where's your sensei girl?"
Sakura blushed at being addressed by one of the legendary Sannin, and also in embarrassment. "He's not here, he's in the hospital," she said. "We overheard some of the jonin talking, and when Sasuke-kun heard Itachi's name, he just lost it. I went after him to stop him but he's much faster than me."
"How'd you find us?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know how Sasuke-kun found you," Sakura said. "He just seemed to know where he was going."
Jiraiya rose to his full height, which was quite considerable. "You know I could have you both brought up on charges of desertion and insubordination," the Sannin said. Sakura froze and looked down at her feet. "But I won't," Jiraiya continued. "I know that Itachi is a touchy subject for Sasuke but you need to realize how tenuous your position now is Haruno. You and your teammate deliberately and knowingly left the village without orders or informing your sensei or a superior officer."
Sakura nodded slowly, the fear she had felt only moments ago had loosened considerably. "But how can we get Sasuke-kun back to the village? I'm not strong enough to carry him all the way back."
"Do not fear fair Sakura!" a fourth new voice shouted. It was Gai. "I'll carry Sasuke-kun back to the village, and do so in three hours or I shall have to run one hundred laps around the village on my hands."
"Thank you Gai," Jiraiya said. "Make sure this one gets there too."
"Of course, come along Sakura-chan," Gai said while picking Sasuke up.
"Did you find anything about this Tsunade chick Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Tsunade? Princess Tsunade, that's who you are looking for Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"Naruto," Jiraiya grumbled.
"What?" Naruto fired back. "I was asking a question. You ditched me as soon as a pretty woman looked your way. And besides, what's the big deal? Sakura-chan is my teammate, I trust her with my life."
Sakura couldn't help but feel her cheeks warm at Naruto's defense of her. "Naruto, you shouldn't give out mission information, especially vital information like your mission's objective so easily," she scolded her teammate, unable to refrain from chastising him. "But why are you searching for Princess Tsunade?"
"She's to become the next Hokage," Naruto said quickly.
"Really?"
"Naruto!" Jiraiya warned.
"Tsunade Senju is the most accomplished medical ninja of all time," Sakura said. "She is widely considered the strongest kunoichi of all time too, and she's the granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage and the grandniece of the Nidaime."
"Looks like your girlfriend is a bookworm, eh Naruto," Jiraiya joked before his face turned serious. "Now it is time for you to leave Haruno. Gai will see you and Uchiha back to the village."
Sakura nodded meekly to the Sannin. She mouthed 'good luck' to Naruto before following Gai down the hallway.
"And you Naruto, are in a serious need of learning how to keep things secret from the fairer sex," Jiraiya said firmly with his arms crossed.
"I know how to keep a secret Jiraiya, being the subject of an S-rank secret does that to you," Naruto fired back. "And you are the worst possible person to be talking to me about women, given your reputation."
"My reputation as a god among women has nothing to do with this," Jiraiya countered. "We are on a highly important mission for the village, a mission that not many people are to know about. Word has certainly already gotten out about the invasion and that the Hokage is dead, leaving the village at its weakest point since the Kyubi attack. If other villages were to find out about our mission, they would certainly send out ninja to kill Tsunade to take away a powerful ninja from our ranks."
Naruto paused at Jiraiya's explanation. He hadn't thought about the possible consequences, farfetched that they might be. "Isn't that being a little paranoid?" he asked.
"Boy, being paranoid has kept me alive much longer than the amount of jutsu I know," Jiraiya explained. "And its not paranoia if its true. After the Kyubi attack, I had to spread the rumor that the Yondaime had actually found a way to kill a Biju in order to keep Iwa and Kumo from attacking, and even then it was a close thing."
"Ok Jiraiya-sensei, I get it," Naruto said. "I'm sorry."
Jiraiya nodded. "Good," he said. "And Naruto, I understand that you were only telling teammate but you will learn to keep your mouth shut. Now let's go, we've attracted too much attention."
The master and apprentice went back down to the lobby, where the innkeeper was waiting and looking furious. Jiraiya gave the man a hard look before pulling out his wallet and scribbling out a check. "This should cover our stay and the damages," he said pushing the check into the man's hands and walked off without looking back. Naruto followed his sensei.
The pair skirted around the edge of the city, looking for another inn in which to spend the night.
"Here we are," Jiraiya announced, stopping outside a dingy looking inn that had a glaringly sign hanging above its door.
"Oh hell no, you want to sleep here?" Naruto asked, reading the sign.
"Look Naruto, it's late and all the other inns we've passed have been filled," Jiraiya said. "And besides, this place is perfect for two young bachelors looking for some companionship and comfort."
And with that Jiraiya proudly entered Zuko's House of Hearts.
"But it's a brothel?" Naruto complained as he followed his sensei inside.
"Welcome young man," a nasally voice said from right next to Naruto's ear.
"Gah!" Naruto cried as he whirled around, his hand darting for his kunai pouch.
The speaker was an oily looking man with thinning hair and a thin mustache. He was wearing a brilliantly white suit with a fake rose in the lapel and had several gold rings on both hands.
"Now, now, none of that ninja-san," the man said. "I don't want any trouble from ninja tonight. Say, you look a bit young to be in here."
"Old enough to kill, old enough to drink and certainly old enough to have sex," Jiraiya boomed as he came up behind Naruto. "Zuko, I'd like a private booth and a pair of rooms for the evening."
"Ah Jiraiya-sama, of course right away," Zuko said. He clapped his hands twice and in an instant, very attractive and scantily clad women surrounded Jiraiya and Naruto. Jiraiya burst out laughing as two women began leading him out of the main lobby.
"Hi there cutie," a woman's voice chirped next to Naruto. He turned and then had to stumble backward as he nearly put his face into a women's chest.
Naruto's face was nearly as red as a tomato, as he forced himself to keep his eyes above the woman's neckline, plunging neckline at that.
"Is this your first time here?" the woman asked. Naruto, who was struggling to keep his eyes on her face which was extremely difficult as the woman had bent over at the waist.
"Yes," Naruto cursed inwardly as his voice cracked like a whip.
"Oh you are so cute!" the woman squealed. "Let me show you around, my name is Mika."
"Naruto," the blonde answered as he was dragged out of the lobby and into a dimly lit main room. A large stage dominated the room, and a scantily clad woman was dancing up on it. There were about twenty small tables scattered around in front of the stage, several had men of various ages at them with ryou in hand. Around the edges of the room, booths were set up. Naruto spotted Jiraiya in one with two women, a bottle of sake and three saucers.
"So then Naruto-kun, what brings a cutie like you here?" Mika asked after pushing Naruto into a booth and sliding up next to him.
"My sensei just dragged me here," Naruto said.
"Sensei?"
"Jiraiya."
"You're a ninja?" Mika squeaked, looking impressed. "You must be strong then, to be a ninja and to have Jiraiya-sama as your sensei."
"Well, I'm strong for my age but I'm not truly strong," Naruto said.
"Oh I don't know about that Naruto-kun," Mika giggled. "You feel plenty strong here," she added squeezing Naruto's bicep. A light blush came over Naruto's cheeks at the compliment. "So what's it like being a ninja then Naruto-kun?"
"Nothing like the stories or rumors might say," Naruto said breathing deeply. The scents of sake, smoke and several different perfumes invaded his nose and mind.
"Oh, so you're not the knight in shining armor coming to rescue the beautiful princess?" Mika asked, taking a sip of sake.
"No, we are the people in the shadows that protect using any and all means," Naruto said. "Words like honor, chivalry are not in a ninja's vocabulary."
"Oh Naruto-kun, you seem honorable and chivalrous," Mika said softly. Naruto shivered as her warm breath tickled his ear. "And these scars, how did you get them? An epic battle of good vs. evil perhaps?"
"Actually," Naruto's blush deepened. "I was born with them."
"Really?" Naruto nodded. "Can I touch them?" Mika asked, looking down and biting her lip. Naruto's resistance quickly crumbled at the woman's expression and nodded his permission. Mika slowly raised a dainty hand and gently ran her fingers up and down Naruto's cheeks, marveling at the boy's reaction.
Naruto was struggling not to give into the sensations that were coming from his cheeks. They had always been sensitive when touched and what Mika was doing was no different.
"Oh wow," Mika breathed. "They feel just like real whiskers."
"Thanks Mika-chan," Naruto said as he caught the woman's hands. "It's starting to trickle."
"Oh I'm so sorry Naruto-kun, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Mika said. "What can I do to make it up to you?" she breathed causing Naruto's heart to leap into his throat.
"It's ok Mika-chan, you don't need to do anything," Naruto stuttered his face burning.
"Don't worry Naruto-kun, we won't do anything that you've not comfortable with," Mika purred in Naruto's ear. Naruto froze when he felt a pair of soft lips press against his cheek. He leapt backward, pressing himself against the far end of the booth.
"Ah Mika-chan, what are you doing?" Naruto stammered.
"What do you think I am doing Naruto-kun?" Mika giggled, crawling across the couch toward Naruto, looking like a lion stalking its prey.
"Mika-chan, we shouldn't be doing things like this!" Naruto cried, putting his hands up to keep Mika back.
"Oh Naruto-kun, relax," Mika giggled. "You are much too cute to be acting all uptight. Let me show you how to relax." Mika grabbed Naruto's hands and placed them on her chest. Naruto's face went bright red as his hands instinctively flexed around the soft mounds they now held. Mika cooed as Naruto squeezed her breasts gently. The dark-haired woman bit her lip to keep from giggling at Naruto's scared and awed expression. A trickle of blood dripped from Naruto's nose as Mika leaned forward, pressing her breasts further into Naruto's hands.
Mika grinned at the young man in front of her, no boy would have such a developed 'body'. She slid her body up Naruto's and settled herself in his lap.
"Mika-chan!" Naruto cried, his blue eye wide with shock even as more blood trickled from his nose.
"Shush Naruto-kun," Mika whispered putting a finger to Naruto's lips. "Just relax and enjoy," she continued before her lips replaced her finger. Naruto's mind went blank as Mika's soft lips met his own.
Across the room Jiraiya saw that his godson was being well taken care of by Mika and turned his attention back to the two women beside him.
"So then ladies, what do you know about the new casino opening here?" he asked.
* * *
><p>"Ugh," Naruto groaned as consciousness came back to him, roaring like the Kyubi. "What happened?"<p>
"Mmm, its too early," a female voice purred next to Naruto. The blonde froze and slowly turned his head. Laying next to Naruto was, hidden under a sheet of dark, shimmery hair, was Mika.
A scream began to worm its way up Naruto's throat but he managed to just slap a hand over his mouth to quell it. Eyes darting back and forth, Naruto took in his surroundings. He was obviously still at the brothel, recognizing the wallpaper and lights from the lobby, and the bed spread was obviously geared toward romance and…other things. Naruto still as he felt a slender arm wrap around his chest and pull him. Looking down, Naruto had to clamp his hand to his nose to stop the nosebleed that he knew was coming. Mika was still asleep but she had moved over closer to Naruto and had put her arm around his chest. A pair of sparkling brown eyes opened next to Naruto.
"Good morning Naruto-kun," Mika purred.
"Uh good morning Mika-chan," Naruto stammered trying not to stare as when Mika awoke, the sheet covering her shifted revealing some very healthy and attractive attributes. "You wouldn't mind telling me why you are in my room?"
A faint blush appeared on Mika's cheeks. "Well Naruto-kun, we were having such a great time last night," she said. "You invited me up here because you could tell that I had had too much to drink last night and you didn't want to getting taken advantage of. My charming shining knight."
This time it was Naruto's turn to blush as fragments of memory flashed through his head. Dimly he could hear the Kyubi chortling in the background as Naruto began to piece together the previous night.
'_**Well, well, well, looks like you managed to act like a man for once,**_' the Kyubi chuckled. '_**And a much better mate than that pink-haired banshee to boot.**_'
'_What are you talking about, a mate?_' Naruto asked. '_And don't insult Sakura like that, sure she was loud in the past but you have to admit that she's gotten a lot better._'
'_**I won't admit to nothing you meatbag!**_' the fox roared. '_**Now pay attention to your mate idiot, she's looking at you like you are a moron, oh wait…**_'
Naruto ignored the fox's laughter as he willed himself back to the outside world and saw Mika, now sitting up in bed with the sheet covering her chest, looking at him with a confused expression. "What's wrong Naruto-kun?" she asked.
"Nothing Mika-chan, nothing," Naruto said quickly. But it was obvious that Mika didn't believe him.
"Ok Naruto-kun."
CRASH!
"There you are Naruto!" Jiraiya shouted as he burst through the door. "Oh, I'm sorry am I interrupting?" he asked with a perverse grin etched on his face.
"Get the hell out you pervert!" Naruto roared, hurling a pillow that slammed into Jiraiya's face.
"All right, I know when I'm not welcome," Jiraiya said. "Just don't do anything that I wouldn't do?"
"ARGH!" Naruto shouted, leaping from the bed and chasing after Jiraiya who laughed uproariously and ran out the door. Naruto slammed the door shut and stomped back over to the bed.
"Are you all right Naruto-kun?" Mika asked, putting her hands on Naruto's shoulders and gently rubbing them. Naruto sighed as Mika's gentle kneading melted away the tightness in his shoulders.
"I don't know Mika-chan," Naruto admitted after a moment gathering his thoughts. Memories of the previous night were racing through his head and he was struggling to keep his body from reacting to them and Mika's hands. "Mika, about last night…"
"Oh," Mika's hands left Naruto's shoulders as he turned around. The dark-haired woman was blushing deeply. "Well Naruto-kun, I had a wonderful time with you last night…"
"No, it's not that Mika-chan," Naruto interrupted. "I want to know why? Why did you sleep with me?"
"Well, you looked lonely last night," Mika said. "And you are really cute with those big blue eyes and blonde hair, and those whiskers give you a fierce look that just made me want to eat you up."
Naruto's face was as red as the sheets. He laughed uncertainly while scratching the back of his head. "Thank you Mika-chan," he said. "But still, why me? I'm only thirteen."
"Why so many questions Naruto-kun? Do you have a girlfriend or something back in your village?"
"No, no, nothing like that!" Naruto exclaimed waving his hands out. "But…"
"But what?"
"There is this girl that I like, and I guess I had always dreamt that I would…"
"Lose your virginity to her?" Mika guessed. Naruto nodded.
"Pretty stupid I guess right?"
"No, not at all," Mika said. "I think its sweet that you were waiting for this girl, I feel bad now that you won't get that chance."
"Don't feel bad Mika-chan," Naruto said hurriedly. "I didn't mean anything like that. I feel kind of dumb thinking like that, people don't live very long in my line of work and honestly, until I became a ninja I had never been outside of my village before. And I should live life while I can."
"Really? Why? Didn't your family take any trips?"
"I'm an orphan," Naruto answered. Mika gasped. "You don't need to apologize Mika-chan, you didn't know and it's something that I've learned to live with."
"So who is this girl that you have a crush on? She isn't your girlfriend?" Mika asked.
"No, she isn't," Naruto confirmed. "Sakura-chan is my teammate and friend…"
"But you wished she would be more, right?" Mika asked. Naruto sighed and nodded.
"Yeah," he answered. "I've had a huge crush on her since we were kids, from the moment I first saw her. But my reputation in my village hasn't been the best and our other teammate is the pride of the village, and she has a huge crush on him and…"
"And what Naruto-kun? It sounds like you have a lot to get off your chest, maybe if you tell me you'll feel better?" Mika suggested. Naruto looked up into Mika's earnest brown eyes and nodded.
"Our teammate is an all right guy I suppose, now that he's taken the massive stick out of his butt," Naruto said. "He used to be so arrogant and always having this attitude of 'I'm better than you and you'll never come close to me' it always pissed me off because I could tell that he was just as lonely as I was. He's an orphan too though he at least grew up with his parents for some time. I've always been a bit of a screw-up and klutz and he's a genius so I decided that he would be my rival and that I would prove to everyone, including Sakura-chan, that I was just as strong as Sas…him." Naruto paused, knowing that he had almost given away information to a stranger, even if it was Mika. Sasuke was a very valuable ninja to the village, and as his teammate, Naruto would be a perfect goldmine of information on Sasuke.
"But I would always screw up and pretty soon everyone knew it and just made fun of me, calling me worthless, dead last, idiot, all sorts of names," Naruto said. "I never let it get to me, well much at least. It hurt for sure but those names just drove me on because I knew that once I got strong, the looks on those people's faces would be the best revenge."
"When we were put on the same, I was so happy to be on Sakura-chan's team but at the same time, pissed that I was on his team as well," Naruto continued. "Sakura-chan has had huge crush on our other teammate for just as long as I've had one on her, but he treats her like dirt! Well, maybe not as much since we became a team but he would always ignore Sakura-chan when she was trying to impress him or call her weak because she wasn't as strong as he is. I'm the one who always supports her, tells her that she's strong or to ignore whatever the teme says because he doesn't mean it but she still doesn't like me. Why? Why doesn't Sakura-chan like me like she does Sasuke!"
"Naruto-kun," Mika whispered as the blonde teenage broke down before her. She slid across the bed and put her arm around his shoulder, letting the young man cry into her shoulder. "Let it out Naruto-kun, you've been holding this in for too long haven't you?"
"I'm sorry Mika-chan, I didn't mean to start whining like that," Naruto said, wiping his eyes dry. "I must have sounded like a snotty little brat, right?"
Mika gave Naruto a warm smile. "No Naruto-kun, you sounded like a young man who has been holding in your emotions for far too long and that isn't healthy," she said. "I know that ninja are not supposed to show emotions but you are still a human, and need an outlet for those emotions or they will continue to be bottled up until you burst."
"How do you know that ninja are not supposed to show emotions?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto-kun, you don't know how many ninja I have seen come through this place with the same issue," Mika giggled. "They try and drown their problems in booze or gambling or sex that it quickly becomes apparent that they didn't know how to deal with their issues in a healthy way. Emotions are what make a person human, without them we would all just be lifeless dolls or puppets. Always remember that Naruto-kun."
"I will Mika-chan," Naruto said. "Thank you."
There was a knock on the door and the two heard Jiraiya's voice call out, "Let's go Naruto, we're wasting daylight."
"It looks like I've got to go Mika-chan," Naruto said. "Thank you again for listening to me and for an amazing night. Maybe…we can see each other again."
Mika giggled, causing Naruto to smile brightly. "I would like that very much Naruto-kun," she said. "You are a very special young man and I know that your Sakura-chan will soon see that. Girls your age don't always know what they want in a guy and sometimes it takes them a lifetime to figure out what they actually want."
Naruto beamed at Mika before quickly dressing and rushing out of the room. Then he raced back in and kissed Mika quickly on the cheek, his own face burning brightly. "Bye Mika-chan," Naruto called as he chased after Jiraiya who had already started off down the street.
"So brat, guess you had an unforgettable night?" Jiraiya chuckled when Naruto caught up to him. Naruto blushed heavily but ignored the jib.
"Don't even try and get me to talk about Mika-chan you letch," Naruto said. "Let's just find this Tsuande lady and get back to the village."
"Mika-chan eh?" Jiraiya laughed seeing Naruto's face turn even redder.
"Argh!" Naruto growled. He decided to ignore the white-haired pervert and focus on the second stage of the **Rasengan**. Naruto pulled out a rubber ball from his pocket and began channeling his chakra into it.
10…11…12…13…Pop!
"All right!" Naruto cried as he shook his hand free of any lingering scraps of rubber and stuck his hand out for another ball.
"So, you've managed to get your time down to 13 seconds, impressive," Jiraiya said, tossing Naruto another ball. "You are getting closer."
"And what about the mission? Are we any close to finding out where this Tsunade is?" Naruto asked, shoving the ball into his pocket and flexing his hand, making sure that he had 100% feeling back in it. That was the biggest issue slowing Naruto's progress, each time he forced as much chakra through his arm, he would have to wait to regain feeling in it and with each quick repetition, the feeling of numbness would linger longer than the last.
"Actually, good news on that front," Jiraiya said. "We may have just found her."
"Really?" Naruto asked.
"Yep," Jiraiya said. "12 o'clock, walking toward us. See the blonde woman with the green jacket walking next to the dark haired woman holding a pig, that's Tsuande and Shizune for sure."
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Naruto demanded. "Let's go over there and…"
"Whoa there Naruto," Jiraiya said, grabbing the blonde by the scruff of his jacket. "Something isn't right. Tsunade just walked past five gambling halls without missing a beat, she wouldn't do that unless something has happened. Come on, follow my lead and keep your mouth shut."
Naruto frowned at his sensei but didn't comment and followed the tall man across the street and into the diner that Tsunade and her friend had entered.
"Well, isn't this a sight for sore eyes," Jiraiya boomed as he made a show of entering the diner and looking around for an open seat, even though the diner was half empty. "Tsunade and Shizune, looking lovely as ever the both of you."
"What in the seven hells of Kami are you doing here Jiraiya?" Tsuande snarled, not even looking up from the booth where she and Shizune were sitting.
"Just passing through the neighborhood," Jiraiya said with a wide smile. "Mind if we join you? You know, being old teammates and all?"
"Fine," Tsunade spat. She looked up for the first time and saw Naruto sliding into the booth opposite her. "So who's this?"
"My new apprentice," Jiraiya announced proudly.
"And here I thought you swore off teaching after your last apprentice got himself killed," Tsunade jeered, draining her sake cup in one go before pouring herself another cup. "At least that one looked intelligent, this one here looks like he is a bit more than a few bricks short of a wall."
"Oi! Who you calling stupid you old hag," Naruto growled.
"Calm down Naruto," Jiraiya ordered, putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder to keep him from leaping across the table. "Now Tsunade, my last apprentice was a once in several generations type of genius, to compare Naruto to him is not fair."
"So why then did you pick him to be your apprentice Lord Jiraiya?" Shizune asked.
"Because he's a lot like me," Jiraiya chuckled. "Bumbling, foolish, hot-headed, pretty much an all-around idiot but Naruto has got something that sets him apart, something that will help make him one of the greatest ninja this world has ever seen."
"Oh and what's that?" Tsunade sneered.
"The guts to never give up," Jiraiya said proudly. "The will to keep going no matter what the obstacle, or how difficult something may appear to be. Something that someone could do well to remember."
Naruto could instantly tell that what Jiraiya had said was a touchy subject for the three older ninja as Shizune gasped while Tsunade flinched and then looked up at Jiraiya through her blonde bangs. The female Sannin's light brown eyes were dark with rage.
"Jiraiya," she snarled. Naruto shivered under the intense pressure coming off the enraged Tsunade. "What do you know…"
"Tsunade, I've been your teammate longer than Shizune has been alive," Jiraiya cut off the blonde sharply. "I know what you've been through and you know what I've been through, so why don't you cut that pity act. You are not the only person in this world who has lost loved ones. It's time you stopped acting like a child and grow up."
"Grow up?" Tsunade scoffed. "What do you know about growing up Jiraiya? Always goofing off, using that 'research' excuse to act like a pervert, running off and abandoning your…"
A spike of KI came from Jiraiya so fast and so potent that Tsunade's face paled as white as the sake bottle in front of her. It took all of Naruto's willpower to not crawl into a ball and cry at the feeling of death and cold coming from Jiraiya, even though it wasn't being directed at him.
"We've gotten off topic here Tsunade," Jiraiya said, his voice very even though there was an undercurrent of ice in it. "As you probably heard, sensei is dead. Killed by…"
"Orochimaru, I know," Tsunade said. "He told us himself, well gloated more like it."
"He what?" Jiraiya asked. "When did you see Orochimaru?"
"Yesterday," Tsunade answered draining another cup of sake. "Came to me looking for a way to heal his arms. Sensei did something right it seems, Orochimaru's arms were completely dead it looked like."
"Sensei used the **Death Reaper Seal** to seal away Orochimaru's arms, as well as your grandfather and granduncle," Jiraiya said.
"He what!" Tsunade cried. Naruto grit his teeth, even though Kakashi had told him about how the Sandaime had died, the blonde was still furious that his grandpa's body had been desecrated by Orochimaru and used as a puppet to attack the village that he had given his life for.
"Orochimaru has managed to learn the **Edo Tensei**, and used it to summon the First and Second Hokages back to 'life'," Jiraiya explained. "Sensei used the **Death Reaper Seal** to seal their souls away and Orochimaru's arms but at the cost of his own life as you are well aware Tsunade. So what did Orochimaru promise you in return for helping him?"
"What makes you think he offered anything?" Tsunade asked.
"Orochimaru is…was my best friend Tsunade, I know how he operates," Jiraiya said. "What did he offer in exchange for you healing his arms?"
Tsunade looked away, picking up another saucer of sake and draining it in one gulp.
"Tsunade?" Jiraiya pressed.
"He offered to bring my uncle Dan and Nawaki back," Shizune said. Jiraiya's head snapped to the dark-haired woman sitting next to Tsunade.
"**Edo Tensei**," Jiraiya said. He turned back to his old teammate. "Tsunade, you know that if Orochimaru were to bring those two back they would be under his control forever. They would be his puppets to his will until he were to release the jutsu, and you know that he would never do that except for when it suited him."
"I know that," Tsunade snarled, turning her furious gaze back on Jiraiya after staring a hole through Shizune's forehead.
"Tsunade, obviously this deal has you thinking but think about this," Jiraiya said. "Should you ever attempt to betray the village, I will hunt you down and kill you myself. Come on Naruto, let's go."
**A/N: Well there you go, the newest installment of _Naruto: Hidden Legacy_. Sorry that the updates have been delayed and infrequent, my internship this summer is eating up a lot of my time. Hopefully this chapter will sate my voracious readers for the time being. Please let me know what you all think about it, this chapter was interesting to write and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, I like several parts of it but I'm not sure how well it flowed together. Any help from you, the readers, will be greatly appreciated. Til next time,**
**SlytherinNinjaKnight**
18. A Fist Full of Legends
**Disclaimer: I don't own _Naruto!_ Of course I don't, if I did I wouldn't have totally destroyed the plot just to boost two characters, I wouldn't have had to use a movie that ruined the canon TL to guilt trip a character into marrying another character. Honestly, I'm glad I don't own _Naruto_ after what has happened to it, with how it devolved into shipping wars and talk-show 'baby momma' drama, whatever happened to the ideals of perseverance, overcoming obstacles through hard work and remaining true to one's self. I guess money does truly run the world.**
**Key:**
"Talking"
'_Thoughts_'
**_Biju/Summon thoughts_**
**Biju/Summon speaking**
**Jutsu **
It had been a week since Jiraiya and Naruto had found Tsunade and Shizune, and for whatever reason Naruto had had this uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. There hadn't been any sign of Itachi or Kisame since that first encounter, and Naruto know that Jiraiya was concerned about the two S-rank missing ninja far more than he let on. The blonde wondered why Itachi had ordered a retreat so quickly a week ago, just as the appearance of the Toad Sannin. Was Jiraiya really that strong to have such an effect on two S-rank ninja?
During the week, Naruto had finally managed to reduce the time he took to summon a **Rasengan** to five seconds, and as promised Jiraiya showed Naruto the third and final step to mastering the legendary jutsu.
"Stability," Jiraiya said.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"The third and final step in learning the **Rasengan** is stability," Jiraiya explained. "You have to take all that you've learned in the two previous steps and create a stable and useable jutsu, here."
Jiraiya handed Naruto a balloon.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
"The opposite of what you've done with the other two," Jiraiya explained. "Don't pop that balloon."
"That's it? Don't pop the balloon."
"Yep," Jiraiya chirped. "You need to create a stable **Rasengan** inside the balloon without it popping. When you've done that, you'll have learned the **Rasengan**. Now get to work."
Naruto growled at Jiraiya but obeyed his sensei and began attempting to control the spinning chakra needed to create the **Rasengan** inside the thin plastic shell of the balloon.
Pop!
"Damnit!" Naruto cursed as another balloon was shredded by his swirling chakra. He had been working on the final stage of the **Rasengan** for the entire week and was still no closer to mastering the jutsu. He had managed to keep the balloon from popping for three seconds but still wasn't able to hold the shape small enough to keep it contained in the balloon for the five seconds it took to channel as much chakra as he needed to complete the **Rasengan**. At the last possible instant, a strand of chakra would either break free of the sphere or Naruto's arm would throb with pain causing him to lose concentration.
"Shit!" Naruto snarled as he grabbed another balloon from the bag that Jiraiya had left him before the Sannin had run off to do who knew what.
"Looks like you still haven't made much progress," a new voice said. Naruto turned and saw that it was Tsunade. "You should just give up, a brat like you will never be able to master a jutsu like the **Rasengan**."
Naruto grit his teeth. "And why's that?" he asked.
"Cause brat you don't have the talent," Tsunade said. "The Yondaime was a once in ten generations genius, his creation of the **Rasengan** and the **Hiraishin** are proof of that. You, you're just a brat with no talents that's better off giving up before…"
"Before what? I end up like you, a washed up drunken hag who has thrown away all sense of honor and decency," Naruto cut in.
"You little punk!" Tsunade snarled, lunging for Naruto. The younger blonde quickly abandoned his training and leapt backwards to avoid Tsunade's grasp.
"What, you can't handle the truth?" Naruto taunted. He quickly released all of his weight seals, knowing that even one glancing blow would put him out of commission for days. "You abandoned the village, refused to return in the village's hour of need and are thinking about working with one of the village's most notorious criminals and traitors."
Tsuande flinched at Naruto's verbal jabs but charged forward. "You know nothing about the pain I've had to live with," she shouted before planting her fist a foot deep into the ground, splintering it like frozen glass.
"Whoa!" Naruto gasped as he nimbly leapt backward, using chakra to keep his balance. "You say that I don't know your pain, I know a lot about you Tsunade Senju. You are the granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage; you are considered the greatest medical ninja of all time and a member of the legendary Sannin. You are a veteran of two shinobi wars, and lost both your younger brother Nawaki, and your fiancé Dan, in the Third Shinobi War. You obviously feel guilty about their deaths and not being able to save them even with your medical prowess."
"Shut up!" Tsunade roared, dashing forward with incredible speed.
"They died not because you couldn't save them," Naruto said as he narrowly dodged a punch from the enraged Tsunade. "They died because they gave their lives for the village and the dream it represents. They felt that protecting the village your grandfather and grand-uncle created was worth their lives, and you spit on their memories and sacrifice by blaming yourself and the village."
"Shut up!" Tsunade shouted though Naruto heard her voice quaver slightly.
"I know the pain of losing loved one for a village that doesn't respect their sacrifice," Naruto added, attempting to seize this chance to calm Tsunade down.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what I am Tsunade," Naruto said. "I am the jinchuriki of the Kyubi, my parents gave their lives sealing the fox into me less than an hour after my birth, and then the village spat upon their wishes for me to be seen as the hero that held the Kyubi. Instead I was treated as if I carried a plague, one that would infect all those that even came close to me. It wasn't until I graduated from the Academy that I learned why I was treated so poorly. When I found out, I was sorely tempted to use the fox's power and destroy the village, to get back at them all for what they had done to me. I had the power, and with the Forbidden Scroll I would have easily destroyed the village."
"Well, why didn't you then?" Tsunade sneered.
"Because someone acknowledged me for me, and deep down I knew that if I did run away and then come back to destroy the village, I would just be proving them all right, that I was the demon they believed me to be and not Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto said.
"So what does that have to do with me brat?" Tsunade growled. "So you had a rough childhood, big deal, lots of shinobi grow up in crappy environments and turn out fine. What makes you so special?"
"How would Dan and Nawaki feel if they saw how you were living your life? Would they be happy or proud at how you have wasted away, drinking and gambling?"
Tsunade roared in anger and charged Naruto again. The blonde teen leapt backward, barely avoiding Tsunade's fist that created an eight-foot deep crater in the ground.
"You should have kept your mouth shut brat!" Tsunade snarled, her honey brown eyes flashing darkly. "I am a Sannin, I can swat you down like a bug."
"Why haven't you then?" Naruto taunted. "You might have been able to claim the title of Sannin a decade ago but you have let your skills wane and wither. You can't even hit a genin with less than a year's worth of experience, you've fallen Tsunade Senju."
"Why you little puissant!" Tsunade roared. Naruto's eyes widened as he realized he might have pushed things a little too far. The blonde woman charged forward at speeds that she hadn't shown before and before Naruto could even blink, he was flying through the air courtesy of Tsunade's punch.
The sky was still spinning rapidly when Naruto skidded to a stop a hundred yards. Slowly the blonde genin sat up, groaning as he felt the hot chakra of the Kyubi flowing through him, healing at least two broken ribs, several broken fingers and a concussion.
"I'm impressed, you're still able to move after that," Tsunade said. "Though that punch wasn't anywhere close to my full strength."
Naruto slowly got to his feet, hiding the wave of pain that flashed across his face. "Don't hold back granny," Naruto coughed. "I barely felt that."
Tsunade's eye twitched and Naruto was suddenly reminded of Sakura, and the female blonde vanished. Naruto's instincts were screaming at him to move, and he listened to them, diving away just as Tsunade's heel came smashing down where he had just been standing. For a second nothing happened, then the ground shattered into tiny pieces leaving a twenty-foot wide crater.
"That was 40% of my full strength," Tsunade said, looking up at Naruto from the bottom of the 10-foot deep crater.
Naruto swallowed as he got to his feet again. Within the seal, the Kyubi stirred as a scent reached its nose. '_**Senju**_,' the Biju sneered, its lips curling back in a snarl, reveling razor sharp teeth three times the size of a normal person. '_**I will not be made a Senju's plaything!**_' With a great roar, the Kyubi flooded the seal with its potent and corrosive chakra.
Naruto gasped as he felt the Kyubi's chakra rush from the seal and flood his system. '_What the!_' he though before he was covered in a cloak of reddish chakra. Naruto's whiskers had darkened, his eyes turned red and slit as he felt his canines grow into fangs.
"The fox's chakra won't help you brat!" Tsuande sneered. Naruto snarled beastly before crouching down and racing toward Tsunade on all fours.
Tsunade's lips curled into a smirk as she raised her right fist, blue chakra covering it. With a cry, Tsunade punched down at Naruto. The rage-filled jinchuriki was barely able to avoid the Sannin's punch at the last second but was unable to attack Tsunade due to losing his footing, as Tsunade's punch created another large crater.
Naruto's elongated nails scraped along the ground, leaving furrows in the dirt as he dodged away from another of Tsunade's punches. The Kyubi was growing frustrated at how easily the Senju was keeping the human boy at bay, and as its frustration grew, so did its anger and the amount of chakra it sent Naruto increased as well.
A long single tail made purely of chakra grew behind Naruto, and a heavy bloodlust fell over the clearing.
"Please brat, I battled Hanzo of the Salamander, and the Five-Tailed Jinchuriki, this little attempt at intimidation is nothing," Tsunade scoffed.
"What the hell is going on here?" a deep voice demanded. It was Jiraiya. "Naruto, stand down!" he ordered, seeing the Biju-influenced jinchuriki.
The feral Naruto growled deep in his throat and his fingers flexed but before the boy would even blink, Jiraiya appeared in front of him and slapped a piece of paper on his forehead.
'_**Damn Sage**_,' the fox snarled as it felt its power get sucked back into the seal, releasing the boy from its grasp.
Naruto's eyes slowly bled back to their normal blue and he collapsed to the ground.
"Tsunade, what the hell were you doing?" Jiraiya snarled at his teammate. "You could have killed him if that punch had connected!"
"So what?" Tsunade spat. "The brat had it coming, talking about those two like that and acting like he knew my pain."
"So Naruto made a comment that made you mad and you try and kill him for it!" Jiraiya exclaimed incredulously. "You've fallen Tsunade, to think that two of the Sannin would turn their backs on the village."
"I have not turned my back on anyone," Tsunade screamed. "That place has taken too much from me for me to ever go back."
"Stop being selfish Tsunade," Jiraiya said calmly. "I'll ask you again, do you truly believe you are the only one who has lost loved ones in service to the village? Should I remind you that I lost my parents to war as well, my students, my best friend and my sensei all taken down due to war, their own demons or their burdens. You are not the sole recipient of loss Tsunade!"
Tsunade glared at her teammate. "Big words coming from you Jiraiya," she sneered. "You talk as if you have the moral high ground here. I wonder what would happen if I told your new apprentice who you really are? What would he do then, knowing that you ran away?"
Jiraiya deflated before Tsunade's, and Shizune's, who had arrived seconds after Jiraiya, eyes. "Yes, I know that I don't have much of a leg to stand on," he admitted. "I was a coward. I so wanted to take care of Naruto after that night but I knew that I couldn't take him with me; it would have been too dangerous. I trusted that Sarutobi-sensei would take care of him, and that I would come back every once in a while to see Naruto. But I put my trust in the wrong person, and Minato was too naïve in believing that the village would honor his last wish so now I am trying to make things right. I doubt Naruto will ever forgive me when I tell him who I am but I will not stop teaching him and nor stop trying to protect my godson, even if it means hardening my heart and stopping you."
"Now isn't that sweet," a sickeningly amused voice said. Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune whirled around to see Orochimaru and Kabuto standing about ten yards away, both with amused smiles that sent shivers racing down Shizune's spine.
"Orochimaru," Jiraiya snarled, taking a step forward and to the right, placing himself between the Sound ninja and Naruto.
"Jiraiya," Orochimaru greeted. "So Tsunade, have you come to a decision? Everything you wish could come true as long as you agree to heal my arms."
"Tsunade," Jiraiya warned, his eyes cutting over to his blonde teammate.
"Your beloved Dan and Nawaki back and whole once more," Orochimaru continued. "All that I require is that you help me this one time, oh and provide the sacrifices needed to revive your loved one."
"Two sacrifices?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes, well your grand uncle's jutsu does require a sacrifice to bond the departed soul back to this plane," Orochimaru said clinically. "And what do you know, with Jiraiya and Naruto-kun here we have two such sacrifices, excellent."
"That jutsu, the one that brings people back to life, was meant to be used only in times of great and desperate need by using convicted criminals, not the innocent," a new but weak voice said. The group turned to see Naruto slowly getting to his feet and removing the seal tag from his forehead. "And it was not meant as your personal piece of blackmail, you Snake bastard!"
Orochimaru quirked an eyebrow at the boy's words, and the impressive amount of bloodlust rolling off of the blonde. "And how would you know so much about a forbidden jutsu like that Naruto-kun? Keeping secrets are we?"
"When your life revolves around an S-rank secret, you get good at keeping them," Naruto snarled. "Enough talking, its time I avenge my grandpa, both of them!"
"Both?" Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune all asked, confused.
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" Naruto roared, sending an enormous wind bullet at the two Sound ninja.
Orochimaru and Kabuto leapt apart as the jutsu slammed into the ground where they had been standing and erupted, spraying dust and debris all over the place.
"Naruto! Wait!" Jiraiya shouted as he took off after his apprentice who was rushing at the Snake Sannin.
Orochimaru snorted in amusement. "Kabuto, would you deal with the annoyance please?" he asked. "I have other business to attend too."
"Of course Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto dutifully answered. With a flick of his wrist, a strange looking kunai appeared in Kabuto's hand. One edge was serrated while the other had a fine edge like a normal kunai but with a hook protrusion near the hilt.
"Out of the way!" Naruto snarled, drawing his own kunai and channeling his wind chakra down its edge. The blade glowed a dim blue as Naruto brought the blade up to a guard position.
"Come now Naruto-kun, do you really think that a talentless dead last would even last a second against the strongest of the Sannin," Kabuto laughed, his glasses glinting in the sunlight. "You won't even last a minute against me."
"Well let's find out then," Naruto growled. He channeled more chakra into his legs and rocketed forward. Kabuto arched an eyebrow as the increase in speed and raised his kunai to block Naruto's telegraphed slash. But instead of hearing the clash of metal against metal, there was a soft sound and Kabuto felt something warm and wet trickle down his cheek. He looked at his kunai to find that the last five inches of the blade had been cut cleanly off, and then his tongue darted out on instinct as the wet feeling on his cheek had reached his lips. Kabuto's eyes widened as the tangy and coppery taste of blood reached his taste buds.
"Looks like first blood goes to me," Naruto said from behind Kabuto. The grey-haired teenager snarled as he turned to face Naruto. He raised a single finger, glowing green, and traced the weeping cut. Naruto watched with narrowed eyes as the wound smoked slightly and then vanished like it had never been there.
"I see you've improved slightly Naruto-kun," Kabuto said, dropping the ruined kunai and grabbing a new one. "Interesting little skill you've learned there, manipulating an element to extend a kunai's blade, quite clever. But you should have made that attack a killer since now I won't be underestimating you."
'_Why do the bad guys always underestimate their opponent, or overestimate their own strength?_' Naruto wondered as he prepared himself. '_Like is there a villain handbook that they all read; first Mizuki, Zabuza, those Oto ninja and now Kabuto!_'
Naruto immediately tensed as Kabuto gave the blonde pre-teen a sickly smile before sinking into the ground without a trace. Naruto stretched out with his senses as far as he could but came up with nothing. It was as if Kabuto had vanished off the face of the earth. A bead of sweat began to slide down Naruto brow as he looked around wildly for his opponent. This was nothing like when Naruto had seen Kabuto fight against Sasuke during the Chunin Exams.
Naruto leapt into the air just as a pair of glowing blue hands burst from the ground. Looking down, Naruto saw Kabuto rise from the ground with a slight frown. '_Thank you Kakashi-sensei,_' Naruto thought. That tactic was one of Kakashi's favorites and one that Team 7 had learned very well.
"**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted while still airborne. Two-dozen clones appeared around Naruto and Kabuto as the blonde landed lightly.
Kabuto sneered as he drew another of his unique kunai. His arms flashed up, his kunai deflecting several senbon needles that were aimed at his neck.
"Ah, an interloper," Kabuto said as Shizune appeared at Naruto's side.
"Shizune, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.
"Lord Jiraiya sent me to battle Kabuto," Shizune said. "You are not strong enough to fight Kabuto whom Lord Jiraiya says is comparable to Kakashi's strength."
Naruto bit back a snarl and looked over at the three Sannin who were standing off in a triangle, facing off against each other. Turning back to Kabuto, he said to Shizune, "Fine, I'll back you up Shizune."
"So instead of Konoha's failed weapon, I get to fight the apprentice of the weakest Sannin," Kabuto sneered. "And here I was thinking that I could test my skill against one of the Sannin. Oh well, once I finish here, I will assist Lord Orochimaru against Jiraiya and Tsunade."
"We won't be so easy to defeat," Shizune said rolling back her sleeve to revel a senbon launcher strapped to her forearm.
"This again." Kabuto rolled his eyes as he raised a kunai to block the senbon.
"**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**"
Kabuto leapt backward, deflecting several shuriken that had materialized due to Naruto's jutsu.
"Clever Naruto-kun, using Shizune's jutsu as cover for your own," Kabuto said. "But not clever enough."
The Sound ninja once more sunk into the ground, vanishing from sight and sense.
"Shizune, this guy likes to sneak up on people by using Earth Jutsus or something," Naruto warned. "Move now!"
Shizune jumped into the air but she was a spilt second too late as a glowing blue hand shot from the ground and grabbed Shizune's left ankle. The dark-haired woman gave a cry of surprise and pain.
"Shizune!" Naruto shouted as Kabuto rose from the ground, his glowing blue hand still holding onto Shizune's ankle.
"Pathetic," Kabuto sneered. "To think that the apprentice of the greatest medical ninja alive is this weak."
"Why you!" Shizune snarled, reaching back with a kunai to free herself but Kabuto just effortlessly tossed her aside.
"Are you ok Shizune?" Naruto asked, appearing at the woman's side.
"I will be," Shizune said. "He severed all the ligaments and tendons in my ankle, so I won't be able to move until I've healed the damage. You will need to face Kabuto alone until I'm done, can you do that?"
"No problem Shizune," Naruto said.
"Be careful, he is obviously a very talented medical ninja, being able to use chakra scalpels in battle," Shizune warned. "Don't let him touch you, with that technique he can inflict very serious internal injuries just by grazing you."
"Then I won't let him touch me," Naruto said, stepping in front of Shizune. "**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Roughly thirty clones appeared around Naruto and Shizune.
"Now Naruto-kun, surely you don't think that these measly clones will be enough to stop me," Kabuto laughed.
"Let's find out shall we?" Naruto said before ordering his clones forward with a mental command. The clones each grabbed a kunai before charging toward the smug looking Sound ninja. Kabuto's sneer faltered for a brief second as he noticed that each of the clones' kunai were glowing slightly. The Sound ninja knew that Naruto could channel wind chakra through his blades, which would both extend their reach and strengthen their cutting power.
'_Clever Naruto-kun_,' Kabuto thought as he drew a single kunai and activated his **Chakra Scalpel** technique in the other hand. The sliver haired teen dashed forward, straight into the ranks of charging clones.
Naruto grimaced as the memories of his destroyed clones came to him. Kabuto was on another level compared to Naruto, and the teen was showing it with just how easily he was cutting through the clones.
"**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**" the original Naruto shouted just as Kabuto finished destroying the clones.
"Tch," Naruto growled as he watched Kabuto evade his jutsu with ease. "Shizune, are you able to fight yet?"
"A few more minutes Naruto," Shizune answered.
"That's a few more minutes that you don't have," Kabuto shouted, dashing toward Naruto. The blonde gripped his two kunai tightly and channeled more wind chakra down their blades.
Naruto ducked under a thrust from Kabuto, knowing that even a single touch could spell defeat and death. He slashed at Kabuto with his kunai, frowning at how easily Kabuto healed from the small cuts that Naruto was inflicting. Naruto could tell that Kabuto was just letting Naruto cut him slightly and easily heal himself as an intimidation tactic, showing Naruto that no matter what; the younger boy wouldn't hope to beat him.
If there was one thing that Naruto hated above all else, it was being underestimated. And that was what Kabuto was doing, and Naruto was going to make him pay for it.
"**Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" Naruto cried, summoning another two dozen clones around him.
"This trick again Naruto-kun?" Kabuto laughed.
"Not quite," Naruto said. "**Water Release: Water Bullet Barrage!**" he and several of his clones shouted, sending a volley of water bullets at Kabuto.
Kabuto was quite surprised that Naruto knew two separate elemental types but was still able to evade the attack quite easily.
"So Naruto-kun, you have two different affinities then," Kabuto said. "So perhaps you have some talent after all. But that talent is stifled by the chains of Konoha, so have you decided on whether to accept Lord Orochimaru's offer? Surely, you have given it some thought. Why be so loyal to a village that hates and fears your very existence that would only use you as a weapon to save their own skins. Come and serve Lord Orochimaru and you will be treated as the hero you were meant to be all along. The village has kept secrets from you, held you back in fear of your potential and power, but under Lord Orochimaru's tutelage you can become the most powerful shinobi alive."
"No thanks," Naruto said. "Orochimaru has a nasty habit of betraying those close to him. And if I were to betray the village, it would only prove to those who hate me that they were right. So no, I won't be joining a traitor. What I will be doing is killing you."
Kabuto laughed. "You kill me, dreams Naruto-kun," he cackled. "Dreams are nothing more than delusions of those too weak to attain their ambitions. And you are the biggest dreamer of them all, crying to the heavens that you would become Hokage! Ha a joke, you becoming Hokage! Though weak and pathetic villages like Konoha could use a weak and pathetic Hokage, just like the Sandaime."
"Never insult the old man in front of me," Naruto snarled. Inside the seal, the Kyubi perked up once again, feeling Naruto's rage. "**Wind Release: Wind Scar Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted.
Kabuto's eyes widened in surprise as a large swath of wind sped toward him. It was twice his height, and its bottom edge was cutting through the hard packed earth like butter. The gray-haired teen leapt clear of the jutsu, watching it fade away into the wind.
"Have you been holding out on me Naruto-kun?" Kabuto asked.
"You haven't seen anything yet," Naruto growled, several shuriken appearing in his hands. He hurled the shuriken at Kabuto before calling out, "**Shuriken Multiplication Jutsu!**"
The five shuriken multiplied into a cloud of metal. Behind the cloud, Naruto summoned three clones and in perfect sync, they called out, "**Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!**"
The shuriken blurred into spinning darts as they were propelled to nearly invisible speeds. Kabuto sank into the ground avoiding the spinning stars of death but just barely.
"**Rasengan!**" Naruto shouted, slamming the incomplete jutsu into the ground. The drilling motion of the jutsu cut easily through the dirt, creating a large crater that forced out of the earth.
"Another trick eh Naruto-kun?" Kabuto asked. "I'll admit that jutsu was one that I have never seen. What is it?"
"It will be the last thing you ever see traitor," Naruto growled, another **Rasengan** appearing in his hand. All around the blonde, clones appeared, each holding their own **Rasengan**.
'_Incredible!_' Shizune thought, the green glow fading from her hands. Getting to her feet, she grimaced feeling the strain on her recently repaired ligaments and tendons in her leg. '_To create the jutsu of the Fourth Hokage, and use the Shadow Clone Jutsu to such an extent, Naruto-kun is an amazing ninja._'
Kabuto felt a tiny bead of sweat trickle down the back of his neck at the sight of so many clones holding that intriguing jutsu. The power it possessed both frightened and excited him, and the fact that it seemed to be made of pure chakra and of a non-elemental chakra at that. He saw the power it held and wanted it for himself.
"Again Naruto-kun, I must insist that you tell me that jutsu," Kabuto said. "It is most formidable and intriguing, I must know it."
"Too bad," Naruto said. "This jutsu is a village secret, and a traitor like you will never get your hands on it. Now it is time to end this!"
Suddenly each of the clones began to shiver and shimmer, as if they were ghosts. Kabuto spun around, slashing through Naruto, who had tried to sneak up behind Kabuto only for Naruto to burst into smoke.
"You will never catch me traitor," Naruto's voice taunted from all around Kabuto. The gray haired teen growled as he dispatched another Naruto clone.
"This is getting tiresome Naruto-kun," Kabuto said. "Surely you can do better than those cheap tricks."
"But that's what makes a ninja great, cheap tricks," Naruto said. Suddenly all the Narutos burst into smoke, clouding Kabuto's vision.
"**Rasengan**!" Naruto roared, bursting through the smoke, his hand outstretched with a **Rasengan** blazing.
"Not quite Naruto-kun," Kabuto laughed as he dodged Naruto's sneak attack. He grabbed Naruto's arm, wrenched it back so that the **Rasengan** vanished. A kunai appeared in Kabuto's hand and he held it to Naruto's throat. "You need to be trickier than that to beat me."
"I know," Naruto said before he grabbed Kabuto's arm and glowed blue. Kabuto's eyes widened before the clone exploded, engulfing him in smoke and fire.
Out of the smoke cloud, a figure dove free. Shizune limped toward the figure as fast as she could but stopped short when she saw that it was Kabuto lying on the ground. Much of the teen's hair was burnt away, his chest, arms and upper legs were badly burnt. Shizune could see bits of white bone peeking out from the blackened flesh. The sound of coughing made Shizune's breath catch in the back of her throat as Kabuto stirred.
"How are you still alive?" Shizune asked in horror, watching Kabuto slowly rise to his feet like some deranged zombie. "Being that close to an **Exploding Clone** should have killed you."
"Lord Orochimaru doesn't keep me around just for my medical knowledge," Kabuto coughed, blood dripping from his lips. "But also my healing ability. You see my ability rivals that of a jinchuriki, but I can also send chakra to an area before even being injured, essentially starting the healing process before I receive an injury. It is so advanced that I can not be killed in battle."
"Heal from this," a low voice growled from behind Kabuto. A glowing blue kunai passed across Kabuto's throat. The silver haired teen's face went from smug triumph to shock and horror in a second as a waterfall of blood burst from his neck, staining his shirt and the ground at his feet a deep purple. Kabuto fell to his knees, hands clasping at his throat before dropping to the ground, his blood turning the recently upturned dirt a reddish mud puddle.
"Traitor," Naruto spat, wiping clean his kunai on Kabuto's shirt. "Bad guys always seem to talk too much."
"Naruto-kun!" Shizune cried, limping over to the blonde boy. "I can't believe you were able to defeat Kabuto."
"Neither can I!" a furious voice hissed. Naruto whirled around, his kunai in hand. Luckily for Naruto it was, as Orochimaru was mere feet from him with the Legendary Sword of Kusanagi sticking out of his mouth. Naruto jerked both his head backward and his kunai upward as the blade suddenly extended. Naruto hissed in pain as the legendary blade cut him across the chin. The blonde could feel the burning in the bleeding cut and knew that the blade was poisoned as the burning was coming from the wound, not his seal.
"Gah!" Naruto cried as Orochimaru's knee followed through with his sneak attack, planting itself in Naruto's stomach. The force of the blow sent Naruto somersaulting backward, finally coming to a rest at Shizune's feet.
"Shit that burns," Naruto cursed, blinking his eyes rapidly. Suddenly his instincts were screaming at him to move, and so he did just as Orochimaru's head came crashing up from beneath him, sword extended and ready to skewer Naruto like a fish.
"You little brat!" Orochimaru snarled as the Sword of Kusanagi retreated back into his throat. "I am going to enjoy cutting you open boy!"
"Not while I am here Orochimaru!" Jiraiya shouted. "**Summoning Jutsu: Toad Food Cart Destroyer!**"
Above the group a large toad appeared, and then slammed into the ground, sending Naruto and Shizune flying.
"Sorry about that," Jiraiya cried as he glared down at his former teammate and best friend. "Orochimaru, it ends today. After today, there will be only two who can call themselves Sannin."
"You are quite right Jiraiya," Orochimaru smiled widely. "There will only be two." In a flash, the traitorous Sannin was slithering across the ground at an amazing pace, and right toward Tsunade.
"Tsunade! Look out!" Jiraiya shouted, leaping down from his toad mount.
"Die!" Orochimaru cried out victoriously as his blade shot out of his mouth and impaled the standing blonde.
"What!"
"**Rasengan** you bastard!" Naruto roared, slamming the completed jutsu into Orochimaru's chest.
"No!" Orochimaru screamed as the grinding action of the **Rasengan** stripped away his clothing and flesh before with one last push, the Snake Sannin was blasted away.
"Gah!" Naruto gasped as the Sword of Kusanagi was wrenched from his lower abdomen. The blonde could feel the sword's poison coursing through his body as he fell to his knees. Flecks of blood dripping from his mouth joined the growing puddle at his knees.
"Naruto!" The blonde heard Jiraiya's shout but it was very soft and he was getting really cold…
* * *
><p>"Ugh," Naruto groaned as consciousness returned to him with all the force of one of Kakashi's training sessions.<p>
"You're awake!" a familiar voice made itself known to Naruto's side. The blonde slowly opened his eyes and saw Shizune getting up from a chair that was next to Naruto's bed.
"Shizune?" Naruto asked, surprising himself at how hoarse his voice was.
"Take it easy Naruto-kun," Shizune said as she picked up a glass of water from the bedside table. "Here, drink some water, slowly."
Naruto took noisy slurps of the water, almost crying at the feeling of cold water soothing his burning throat. "What happened?" he asked when he had finished the glass.
"You were injured by Orochimaru," Shizune explained. "You have been unconscious for nearly a week."
"A week!" Naruto cried before coughing heavily. His throat was burning even worse now.
"You mustn't talk too much Naruto-kun," Shizune chided. "Your throat is still very dry and sore from disuse for so long. But yes, you have been unconscious for a week. Your stab wound was very serious and the poison on the blade was quite potent as well. If it wasn't for your…tenant, you wouldn't have survived."
Naruto's eyes widened and he looked down at his stomach that was bare aside from the bandages covering his wounds, and the black ink seared into his stomach from the sealing. '_Thanks fox,_' Naruto thought. The blonde couldn't tell for sure but he thought that the fox gave an Uchiha-like grunt in return, which made Naruto have to stifle a chuckle.
"Ah good you're awake brat."
Naruto looked up to see Jiraiya and Tsunade enter the room. Naruto was somewhat surprised to see the blonde Sannin there, and his surprise must have shown on his face as Tsunade looked like she was steeling herself for something unpleasant.
"Look brat, this isn't easy for me to say and I will deny it ever happened if someone else were to learn of it but thank you," Tsunade said. "You saved me life back then and I know that…"
"You are fellow Konoha shinobi," Naruto answered. "While you might be a crabby, cantankerous old hag, you are still a Konoha shinobi and comrade, and I wasn't going to just stand by and let that bastard Orochimaru kill you." Memories of his final moments of consciousness popped into Naruto's head. "Did I kill him? Did I kill Orochimaru, the thing I remember was nailing the bastard with a **Rasengan**."
"You did good kid," Jiraiya said.
"I sense a 'but' coming," Naruto said. Jiraiya nodded.
"Orochimaru is extremely slippery and hard to kill," the white haired man sighed. "You hurt him, bad but he didn't die. We managed to drive him off but he escaped…and so did that Kabuto kid."
"What!" Naruto cried before coughing hoarsely. He took another glass of water from Shizune and sipped it. "That's impossible, I slit the bastard's throat myself!"
"We know," Tsunade said. "But somehow the kid survived it, he seems to have inherited his master's evasiveness of death."
"What now?" Naruto asked, pushing the rage that he felt to the back of his mind as he had been taught.
"Well since you seem to be on the mend, tomorrow we'll start heading back to the village," Jiraiya said.
"Yes," Tsunade agreed. "I've been gone long enough, and it's time I stop running."
Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the true Tsunade Senju, the one that Jiraiya had told him about during their travels in finding her, shine through. "So you are going to become Hokage?"
"Yes," Tsunade answered. "Kami knows that if Jiraiya took up the position, all the women in the village would be gone within a week. And if someone like Danzo were to take over, the village would fall into darkness."
Behind Tsunade, Jiraiya was watching his godson closely. Seeing the boy lying on the ground with blood pouring from his side and mouth after Orochimaru had stabbed him had frozen Jiraiya's heart. He had attacked Orochimaru with all his strength, holding nothing back, wanting to finally finish his best, no former best friend. He would not fail Naruto again; he had been doing that all the boy's life. His prize student, the young man he thought of as a son had given him responsibility over Naruto by name him Naruto's godfather. '_I promise you Minato, Kushina, I will make Naruto into the strongest shinobi this world has ever seen, even the Shodaime and Madara Uchiha will tremble at his strength! This I swear!_' Jiraiya vowed. Pulling himself from his memories, Jiraiya noticed that Naruto's face twitched when Tsunade spoke of Danzo. '_What was that? It almost looked like Naruto was mad that Tsunade has so little faith in Danzo. I'll need to get to the bottom of that._'
"I still can't believe that Kabuto survived," Naruto muttered. "And Orochimaru as well."
"Don't overthink things Naruto," Jiraiya said. "Orochimaru is still much stronger than you are, I don't even know if I could finish him if I went all out," he admitted. "But look on the bright side, you mastered the **Rasengan**."
Naruto's eyes brightened as the memory of slamming the completed jutsu into Orochimaru's chest. He slowly raised his hand and watched as the ninjutsu that made his father so feared appeared in his hand. "Hey, I didn't even feel the strain of pushing so much chakra through my arm that time," Naruto said letting the jutsu fade away.
"Excellent Naruto," Jiraiya said. "That means you have fully mastered the jutsu, the only thing now you'll have to do is speed up its creation time. The stories about the Yondaime said he could create a **Rasengan** in just one second."
"All right, that's enough excitement for today," Tsunade said. "You," she added pointing at Naruto, "are going to stay in that bed until tomorrow morning, am I clear?"
Naruto nodded quickly, unsure why he felt such doom wash over him but decided that discretion was the better part of valor for the moment.
"Good," Tsunade nodded. "Come on Jiraiya, we need to talk. Shizune, do you mind staying here with Naruto?"
"Of course not milady," Shizune chirped. Tsunade arched a blonde eyebrow at her apprentice but didn't say anything, only grabbing Jiraiya by the ear and dragging the squealing man from the room.
"Thank you Naruto-kun," Shizune said once the door had closed.
"What do you mean Shizune?" Naruto asked tilting his head in confusion. Shizune had to bite back a squeal at how cute and innocent Naruto looked at that moment. It almost made her forget how strong the boy was, she would never in her life forget the sight of the blonde pre-teen dragging his kunai across the neck of Kabuto with nary a flinch.
"I wanted to thank you for saving my life," Shizune said. "He would have killed me, easily, if you hadn't fought him as well."
"It's ok Shizune," Naruto said. "You are a fellow Konoha shinobi and that guy is a psychopath for sure. He needs to be put down for good; I got this weird vibe from him when we met at the Chunin Exams, and then after the invasion, learning how he was Orochimaru's spy. Kabuto is a traitor to the village and deserves to rot in an unmarked grave to be eaten by worms and forgotten by the world as if he never existed."
Shizune shivered at Naruto's words. These were not the words of a boy not even thirteen years old, these were of a man who had fought for every inch in his life and would never go back to being weak or scared.
'_What made you like this Naruto-kun?_' Shizune thought. '_What made you grow up so fast?_'
**A/N: Well there you have it, the newest installment of _Hidden Legacy_, hope you all enjoyed it. Please let me know what you all thought about the chapter, good or bad. The only way I can get better is to hear from you the readers, what I am doing wrong. Til next time,**
**SlyNinjaKnight**
19. Discoveries and Decisions
**Disclaimer: _Naruto_ is NOT mine, if it was, well I wouldn't be frantically searching for a decently paying job and I wouldn't have ruined the entire story line of 'overcoming obstacles, persevering and achieving your goals through hard work' to make everything about Fate and who you are born too. Oh, well enjoy the chapter.**
**Key:**
**Jutsu**
'_Thoughts_'
"Talking"
_**Biju/Summon**_
Naruto was laid up in bed for only two days after regaining consciousness thanks to the Kyubi's healing factor. Tsunade had proclaimed Naruto clear of all the poison that Orochimaru had coated his blade with, and the group set off back for the village at a leisurely pace. While on the road Jiraiya taught Naruto the hand signs for one of the Sage's favorite jutsus, **Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld**. At first Naruto was skeptical of learning it since he did not have an Earth chakra affinity, but Jiraiya explained to Naruto that he could still perform the jutsu, it just might not be as powerful as someone with an Earth affinity and that it would cost him more chakra because of his lack of his affinity.
"But because of your chakra reserves you don't have to worry about wasting chakra," Jiraiya said. "And this jutsu will be perfect for you to trap people, holding them in place for you to finish them off."
Naruto nodded. "Fine sensei," he said, mentally going over the hands signs again.
"Halt!" a loud voice cried out as the group approached the village.
Naruto instantly could feel the tension in the air as they approached the closed gates. Only the smaller side gate was open, and the two guards Kotetsu and Izumo, were standing outside the walls on guard.
"I said halt!" Kotetsu shouted. "Or we will be forced to attack!"
"Kotetsu, what's going on?" Jiraiya asked. "What are you doing? Surely you recognize us?"
"You might look and sound like Lord Jiraiya but a skilled ninja with a **Henge** could easily portray him," Izumo said. "Now stand there and we will confirm your identities."
"How?"
"You will provide a blood sample on this seal," Kotetsu told them. "If it matches, then you shall be allowed to enter." Kotetsu left the obvious hanging.
"I'll go first," Naruto said. As he walked up to the stand that was next to the gate, he noticed that both Kotetsu and Izumo stiffen slightly. Feeling the tension rise even further, Naruto picked up the needle and pricked his finger. Several drops of blood fell from Naruto's finger and landed on the small seal. The seal glowed blue before bursting into flames.
"Welcome home Naruto," Izumo said with a relieved smile.
"What is going on Izumo? I've never seen you or Kotetsu acting so seriously," Naruto asked.
"Not now kid, not here in the open," Kotetsu answered. "You will find out inside the village. Now, who's next?"
The process only took five minutes for Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune's appearances to be confirmed, and that was only because of Tsunade's aversion to blood and that Izumo and Kotetsu needed to get special seals to confirm their blood since they hadn't been active shinobi for almost two decades.
"Interesting little seal there," Jiraiya said, looking at the stick of seals that Kotetsu had on the desk. "Who designed it? I don't recognize the style."
"Lord Danzo brought forth the design," Izumo said. "He told the Council that it was a seal of his own design."
"Danzo!" Jiraiya and Tsunade cried.
"Yes Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade," Kotetsu said. "After the news broke, Lord Danzo brought forward these seals as a way to make sure that the village was not infiltrated by enemy shinobi spies."
"What news?" Naruto asked.
"The Council is meeting in a half hour, you will be informed of everything then," Kotetsu said. "ANBU should be here momentarily to escort you."
"You won't believe it anyway if we told you," Izumo said, looking at Naruto.
"Lord Jiraiya, Lord Tsunade," a new voice said. The group turned to see an ANBU wearing a cat mask standing just inside the gate. "Please follow me, a War Council has been summoned, I will escort you both, Shizune and Naruto-kun to the Council Chambers."
"Why me as well?" Naruto asked.
"Because the news is about you Naruto-kun," the ANBU said. "Please come along."
Tsunade and Jiraiya glanced at one another but kept quiet. Naruto and Shizune followed their respective masters and the ANBU through the gate and into the village. Naruto glanced over his shoulder and watched as Izumo and Kotetsu closed the gates with a thud.
While walking through the village, Naruto saw that the villagers who were walking around outside were doing so quickly, not wanting to be out in the open for very long it seemed. There was this feeling of unease that had fallen over the village, like one misstep would mean something bad would happen.
Several villagers were walking in a group hurriedly down the street toward Naruto, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Shizune, all talking with each other but when they saw Naruto and the others, they froze before pointing at the two Sannin and two apprentices. As the two groups passed one another, Naruto thought he heard a woman mutter, "It's him." But what Naruto didn't hear was the venom or disgust that normally came with such a statement; this time it was curiosity that colored the woman's voice.
"You should go right in Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade," Cat said when they had arrived at the Hokage Tower where the Council meetings took place.
"Let's get this over with," Tsunade said before shoving open the doors to the Council Chambers.
"Welcome back Lady Tsunade, Lord Jiraiya," a voice said from the shadows of the doorway.
"Danzo," Tsunade growled. The bandaged Elder stepped out from the shadows, the tap of his cane the only sound he made.
"It is good that you have returned to the village Lady Tsunade," Danzo said acting as if Tsunade hadn't said his name with venom. "And remembered your duty to the village that your ancestors built."
"Why you!" Tsunade snarled, taking a step toward the Elder.
"Tsunade control yourself!" another aged voice snapped from behind Danzo. It was Koharu, and Homura, the other two Elders and former teammates of the Third Hokage. "You are in hallowed chambers."
Tsunade grit her teeth but stayed silent.
"So what is going on? Why is the village on such a high-level alert?" Jiraiya asked.
"We should wait until the rest of the Council arrives," Homura said. "It concerns your apprentice Jiraiya, this one and your last one."
Jiraiya looked up at the older man with confusion and a bit of dread, wondering what the old man meant.
The rest of the Village Council slowly entered the chamber. The Council was spilt between two parties: the shinobi council and the civilian council. The shinobi council was made up of the major clans that inhabited the village: the Hyuga, the Nara, the Akimichi, the Yamanaka, the Aburame, the Inuzuka, the Sarutobi, the Senju and the Uchiha. The civilian council was made up of representatives from the six civilian sectors within the village. Normally the two councils would not be meeting at the same time and place. But this was not a normal summons nor time and place.
"Good, we have all assembled," Koharu said when the final council member arrived. "ANBU, seal the doors."
The two masked guards stepped from the shadows and closed the doors. A light blue glow filled the chamber as the security seals were activated.
"So then, is someone going to tell us what in Kami's name is going on?" Tsunade demanded.
"Kumo and Iwa are threatening war," Danzo said.
What?"
"Why?" Jiraiya asked. "My contacts have told me nothing about this!"
"The reason is right in front of us," Homura said. Naruto felt a sinking feeling enter the pit of his stomach.
"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked.
"This," Danzo said. He gestured and a thin book came flying out of the shadows at the group. Jiraiya caught it.
"A bingo book?" Jiraiya asked. "Why would a bingo book be the cause of a possible war?"
"Look at page 47," Danzo said.
Jiraiya frowned but opened the book to the proper page. His face suddenly became as white as his hair, and he looked at Naruto.
"Jiraiya, what's happened?" Tsunade asked. Still looking at Naruto, Jiraiya handed the bingo book to Tsunade.
"Naruto, there are things that you are about to learn that will shock and anger you but if you will just give me a chance to explain," Jiraiya said quietly.
"Naruto," Tsunade said quietly. Naruto looked over at his fellow blonde, and saw that Tsunade was just as pale as Jiraiya. She held out the bingo book. Naruto took the bingo book from Tsunade and blinked at his picture looking back up at him.
Name: Naruto Uzumaki (Namikaze)
Affiliation: Konoha
Height: 5'3" Weight: 125lbs.
Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Blue
Rank: Genin
Description: Uzumaki is the only son of Minato Namikaze, Konoha's Yellow Flash, and Kushina Uzumaki, the Red-Hot Whirlwind. He is also the jinchuriki of the Kyubi, and has learned to wield some of its chakra. While Uzumaki failed the Konoha Academy graduation exam three times, Uzumaki is not to be taken lightly. He learned the B-rank **Shadow Clone Jutsu**, and it's A-rank counterpart, **Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu**, in just one night. Under the tutelage of Kakashi Hatake, Uzumaki has grown in strength at a rapid pace. He defeated the Suna jinchuriki, Gaara of the Desert, in full-transformed state, using only a small amount of the Kyubi's chakra to summon the Chief Toad Gamabunta. Uzumaki has been taught by Jiraiya of the Sannin and has recently learned the legendary **Rasengan**, the signature ninjutsu of his father, in under a month.
Known Abilities/Jutsus: **Shadow Clone Jutsu**, **Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu**, **Rasengan**, **Summoning Jutsu** (Toads), Wind and Water elemental jutsus (number unknown), limited use of Kyubi's chakra.
Threat Assessment: A-rank, approach with caution
Bounty:
Oto 50,000 ryou
Kumo 25,000 ryou (alive) 10,000 ryou (dead)
Iwa 75,000 ryou (alive) 40,000 (dead)
"I'm the son of the 4th Hokage?" Naruto asked. While the question was asked softly, it filled the chamber and it carried a hint of accusation. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"The Third Hokage believed it best that your parentage be hidden until you were strong enough to defend yourself against those who would attack you due to your parents' reputation," Koharu explained. She could see that Naruto wasn't really processing the information. Koharu hadn't agreed with Hiruzen about withholding Naruto's true family but she had agreed that it was in the best interest of the village that Iwa and Kumo believe that the Namikaze line had died out with Minato.
"Why?" Naruto repeated. "He could have told me to keep it a secret and I would have."
"He could not take that chance," Homura said sternly. "He had to weigh the safety of the entire village against one boy's happiness. That is what it means to be Hokage, to make those decisions. The village was at its weakest after the attack and our enemies were already probing for weaknesses; if they learned that the Fourth had a surviving heir, it would have been war. A war that we would not have survived."
Naruto looked up at Jiraiya and Tsunade, who were watching him closely. "May I be dismissed?" he asked. "I…I need some time to process this…"
"Not yet Uzumaki, much still needs to be discussed," Danzo said.
"Like what?" Jiraiya asked.
"What measures are needed to protect Uzumaki and the village," Danzo answered. "And our response to this."
"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked.
"We need to decide whether or not to confirm what Orochimaru has claimed," Homura said. "Due to his missing-ninja status, and the fact that he just failed to destroy the village, we could pass it off as a ruse to get Kumo and Iwa to do his dirty work. But just this claim, even without confirmation, could be enough to plunge us into war. Naruto, your father, Minato Namikaze was the reason that Konoha came out on top in the Third Shinobi War. His jutsu, the **Flying Thunder God**, devastated Iwa's armies and it has taken them nearly two decades to recover. Many of the survivors swore vengeance against Minato, and would not hesitate to kill a child of his."
Naruto swallowed thickly, not realizing how precarious his position was or how much danger his heritage was putting the village in.
"If we confirm what Orochimaru has released, then we would be essentially dangling Naruto out as bait for Kumo and Iwa," Shikaku Nara, Shikamaru's father, said. "But as Elder Homura said, how do we protect Naruto?"
"Why not send the boy out of the village?" a civilian councilmember asked. "If he is not here, then the other villages will not come here looking for him."
"Coward," Tsume Inuzuka spat. The mother of Kiba was a very aggressive woman, indicative of the Inuzuka Clan, and she was showing it, snarling at the civilian. "Iwa and Kumo won't care if Naruto is not in the village, they will still come here if they believed they could draw Naruto out."
"Then what, hide him away like a prisoner?" Tsunade asked. Naruto looked up at the Council with wide eyes.
"That is a possibility," Koharu said. "Though it would be a shame to shackle one of our most promising young shinobi like that."
"But if we let Naruto move freely, Iwa or Kumo could easily find him and without support, Naruto would be helpless," Shibi Aburame, Shino's father, said.
"Hey, don't I get a say in this?" Naruto asked loudly. "I mean, this is my life you are all talking about."
"Yes but this is also a village security matter that goes past one genin's life," Koharu said. "And you are not just any ninja, you are the Heir to the Uzumaki Clan and the son of the Fourth Hokage."
"I have a suggestion," Jiraiya said. "I was hoping that Naruto would continue as my apprentice, and we would go on a training trip for at least three years. When we would return, I promise you that Naruto would easily be strong enough to protect himself from anything that Iwa or Kumo could throw at him."
Naruto looked at Jiraiya, who turned back to the blonde. "That is if he agrees?"
"But what about my friends, my team and missions?" Naruto asked.
"Naruto, the missions will be there when you return," Tsunade said. "I would put my vote to having Naruto travel with Jiraiya. Jiraiya explained to me on the way back to the village that Konoha is still undermanned due to the invasion, and we cannot afford to stretch our already limited manpower. Jiraiya is one of, if not, the strongest ninja we have, and his constant movement would insure that Naruto would be safe."
The three Elders looked at one another before looking around the chamber at the assembled shinobi clan leaders and civilian representatives.
"Very well," Homura said after a moment. "We shall put it to a vote. All those in favor of allowing Naruto Uzumaki a leave of absence from his duties as a shinobi of Konoha to train under Jiraiya of the Sannin, raise their hands."
Nearly all of the councilmembers raised his or her hand in approval of the plan, only four hands stayed down; the Kurama clan, the Hyuga clan, a civilian councilmember and Danzo.
"It is decided," Koharu said. "Naruto Uzumaki, you have been granted a leave of absence from your duties as an active shinobi of Konoha for a period not to exceed five years, and you shall be under the guidance and protection of Jiraiya of the Sannin. May your journey be fruitful and safe."
"That's it?" Naruto exclaimed. "A simple vote and now I have to spend the next five years traveling with this pervert. Why don't I get a say in this? What if I don't want to go with Jiraiya?"
Since Naruto was facing the Elders, he missed the hurt look on Jiraiya's face but Tsunade didn't.
"You do not seem to realize the precarious position that this release of village secrets has left us in Uzumaki," Homura said. "Two Hidden Villages are threatening war against us, because of you and your name. With this decision we gain valuable time; time to prepare the village and you."
"Me?"
"Lord Jiraiya might have his…quirks," Koharu said. "But Lady Tsunade was correct in her assessment of his strength. He is the strongest of our active duty shinobi, and he taught your father. You would be wise to learn as much as you can from him, for your enemies will not hesitate in their pursuit of you due to your youth."
Naruto looked hard at the elder woman, knowing that she wasn't only talking about Kumo and Iwa.
"Look Naruto, why don't you head home for the night?" Jiraiya suggested. "We can talk more in the morning if you'd like."
"Fine," Naruto sighed, knowing that he was just going to have to deal with the Council's decision. "Come by my apartment tomorrow morning and we can talk."
Jiraiya nodded his agreement.
"Thank you," Naruto said, looking up at those seated and bowing. The newly promoted chunin left the council chamber without another word, aiming to return to his apartment and rest. But it wasn't meant to be.
* * *
><p>"Naruto, you're back!"<p>
Naruto looked up and saw Sakura walking quickly toward him. He noticed that she was wearing the red dress she used to wear at the Academy and was carrying a picnic basket.
"Hey Sakura-chan," Naruto smiled. "No mission today?"
"Of course not Naruto," Sakura said. "With you and Kakashi-sensei on missions of your own and Sasuke-kun still in the hospital, Team 7 was put on reserve and off active duty."
"Sasuke's in the hospital! Why?"
"Whatever his brother did to him was much stronger than was initially thought to be," Sakura explained, her eyes looking down. "It is some sort of genjutsu but nothing the doctors try is having any effect."
Tears were welling up in Sakura's eyes as she spoke, and Naruto felt his chest constrict at the sight. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, we brought Tsunade back to the village, I'm sure that she'll fix Sasuke right up."
"You found her? Lady Tsunade?"
"Of course we did," Naruto boasted. "Do you really think I'd come back to the village empty handed?"
Sakura shook her head. "No, you wouldn't Naruto."
"Where are you going Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, pointing at the picnic basket. Sakura's face went bright red.
"Oh, I was going to visit Sasuke-kun," she said. "I read in some books that those in comas can hears others talking to them, at least on some level. So I figured that I would keep Sasuke-kun company while he is in the hospital, also I've been reading a lot on medical ninjutsu and watching the doctors at the hospital whenever I can."
"That's awesome Sakura-chan, so you decided on becoming a medical ninja then?" Naruto asked.
"Yep," she chirped. "Someone has got to make sure that you and Sasuke-kun don't get killed. Why don't you come with me Naruto to visit Sasuke-kun, I'm sure that he would like hearing another voice."
"No, that's ok Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "I'll go check on him tomorrow, I'm just going to head home. I'm really exhausted from my mission."
"Oh ok Naruto," Sakura said, sounding surprised that Naruto wasn't jumping at the chance to spend time with her. "I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Believe it," Naruto grinned. "Tell Sasuke that he better get his lazy ass out of the hospital, I want to have that match we promised each other at the Chunin Exams."
Sakura giggled. "Ok Naruto, I will," she said. "Bye then, see you tomorrow."
"Bye Sakura-chan," Naruto said before the two teammates parted ways; one heading deeper into the village, the other making his way to the outskirts of it.
'_**Why are you still mooning over that pink-haired bitch?**_' the dark voice of the Kyubi echoed throughout Naruto's head. '_**She will never return your feelings.**_'
'_I don't know Kyubi,_' Naruto said. '_I don't know._'
The blonde arrived at his apartment, and after deactivating the basic security seals he had placed on the door, entered the run down residence that he called home.
"You need to improve your security Naruto-kun," a voice said from the shadows. "Just a chakra recognition seal, you have been taught better than that."
"Yeah well, its not like I have anything worth stealing in this place," Naruto said.
"Perhaps but when your heritage is released to the public, people will come here," the voice said.
"Then I guess I have some housekeeping to do," Naruto said. "Now what do you want?"
"Your orders and a set of scrolls that contain elemental training methods for all five elements, and several jutsus for each element."
"And you expect me to learn all these by when?"
"You will be tested when you return from your travels with Lord Jiraiya."
"Seems reasonable I guess," Naruto said. "Is that all?"
"For now Naruto-kun."
Naruto breathed sharply out his nose when he no longer felt his visitor's chakra signature. Making his way to his bed, Naruto slid the thin mattress over to the side of the room. He kneeled down and placed his hand on the floor. Naruto winced as blood was drawn from his palm and filled several cracks in the floorboards, a blue glow illuminated Naruto's face as the blood turned black and with a muted pop, several floorboards came loose.
Inside the hidden space was the scroll into which Naruto had copied much of the Forbidden Scroll of Seals; he had returned the real one to the Hokage's office before the Chunin Finals. After undoing another blood seal, Naruto laid the scroll flat on his bed. He had only learned a few of the jutsus that his great-grandfather had copied, learned or created but Naruto had learned about Tobirama's mindset which was very complex; the Second could be warm and caring as he seemed to be when writing about his clan, his fiancé Akemi, his students or the village. Tobirama could also be cold, calculating and ruthless when writing about the village's enemies or the decisions that he had been forced to make as Hokage, the decisions that had eaten away at him but that he couldn't show as being Hokage meant shouldering the burdens that the village couldn't. Reading about his great-grandfather only strengthened Naruto's resolve to become Hokage; he wanted to live up to the legacy that his great-grandfather and his father had left him.
His father. Naruto had known that Minato Namikaze was his father since before the Chunin Finals though he had suspected for much longer. As a ninja and Hokage, Naruto could understand why Minato had sealed the fox into the newborn Naruto, who had been the closest baby and with his lineage, Naruto was the perfect vessel to house the Kyubi. But as a man, Naruto burned with a despise toward Minato, the man who had chosen the village over his own son, the man who had naively believed that the uneducated masses would understand an ninja art that only few ever attempted to learn let alone master. And after such a disaster, the people would need someone to blame and who better than the baby who held the monster that had ravaged their home, and who was defenseless. The Third Hokage tried to protect Naruto with his non-disclosure law but the damage had already been done.
And now he was supposed to travel around the world with his father's sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin. Naruto wasn't truly sure what to make of the Toad Sage; the man was arguably the most powerful ninja in Konoha's roster and had taught Naruto three very powerful jutsus: the **Rasengan**, the **Summoning Jutsu** and **Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld** but he was also the man who taught Naruto's father and had to know that Minato was Naruto's father yet never told him. But Naruto would be safe, or at least as safe as he could be, under Jiraiya's watch as the mere presence of the Toad Sage made Itachi and Kisame flee.
Training under Jiraiya was what made his father strong, would it do the same for Naruto? That was the question. Naruto had some of the most powerful ninja gunning for him, and learning from one of the most powerful ninja in one-on-one training for several years would put him on the fast track to holding his own against his enemies.
As Naruto lay down to sleep that night, the question swirled in his head like his name suggested. Should he accept Jiraiya's training and travel with him, leaving the village for several years on end or should he stay in the village, training with his friends and comrades but under heavy watch and guard? It was quite sometime before Naruto would find his answer and be able to fall asleep.
A buzz had filled the village ever since the return of Tsunade Senju; the return of the third Sannin had been announced to the village. Her return had lifted many of the villagers' spirits that had been down since the death of the Third Hokage. There was a rumor floating around the village also that Tsunade had returned to take up the title of Hokage just as her grandfather and great-uncle had done. A second rumor floating around the village was one that the majority of the civilians had trouble believing, it was said that the Fourth Hokage's heir had been discovered, and that Kumo and Iwa were possibly on the move because of his accomplishments during the war.
* * *
><p>"Naruto!"<p>
The blonde turned to see his teammates slowly walking toward him. Sasuke was out of the hospital obviously but was still quite weak as evident by the fact that he was leaning on Sakura for support. Sakura didn't look too bothered by being used as a crutch though.
"Sakura-chan, Sasuke," Naruto greeted as they reached him.
"Are you going to the coronation?" Sakura asked.
"I suppose," Naruto said. "Need to see what it will look like when I become Hokage. How you doing Sasuke?"
"Fine," Sasuke said. Naruto blinked while Sakura gave the blonde an apologetic smile.
"That's good to hear."
"What happened to you Naruto?" Sasuke asked.
"What do you mean?"
"That scar on your chin, where did you get it?" Sakura asked.
"On my mission," the blonde answered.
"But what about…you know, the…"
"It can't heal this one, something to do with the weapon that cut me," Naruto shrugged. "And besides, I kind of like it, gives me a rugged kind of look don't you think?"
"No."
Naruto's head dropped at Sasuke's single word answer, making Sakura giggle. "Anyway it also reminds me to always keep my head on a swivel."
"Come on you two, we need to hurry if we want to get a good spot to watch," Sakura said.
"So what do you think about the rumors that Kumo and Iwa are threatening war?" Naruto asked as Team 7 turned onto the center street of the village, the one that went directly from the gates to the Hokage Tower.
"It's scary isn't it?" Sakura said. "We could be going to war against two whole villages, both of whom have been our enemies for generations."
"I don't think it will come to that Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "There hasn't been a war since before we were born. I don't think that Kumo or Iwa would start a war for no reason."
"What about the rumors that the Fourth Hokage's son has been found?" Sasuke asked looking at his blonde teammate.
"Come on Sasuke-kun, that's just a rumor," Sakura laughed. "The Fourth Hokage didn't have a family."
"I'm not saying he did," Sasuke said. "But he was the reason that Konoha won the last war, and that the village wasn't destroyed by the Kyubi, so Iwa would have a grudge to settle with Konoha because of him."
"Enough rumormongering, it's about to begin," Sakura said pointing up.
Naruto looked up at the top of the Hokage Tower. On the balcony that looked out over the main street of the village stood Tsunade, Jiraiya, the three Elders and several members of the shinobi council.
"People of Konoha!" Koharu shouted, stepping forward. "We have suffered gravely these past few weeks; the attempted invasion, the tragic deaths of our comrades, loved one and the Third Hokage but despite all of that, our Will of Fire has not been smothered out. Today is not a day of mourning, today is one of rejoicing as today we welcome back one of our village's greatest heroes. A hero who helped our village win two wars with her skills and strength on and off the battlefield. Welcome home Tsunade Senju!"
Tsunade stepped forward to Koharu's side to wild cheering and applause. After waving to the crowd, Tsuande raised her hand for silence and the crowd obeyed, though the air of celebration was still thick around them.
"Citizens of Konoha, thank you for that extraordinary welcome," Tsunade said. "It has been too long since I last visited these streets with you all. And I apologize for that. I let my pain and selfish desires overwhelm my mind and heart, I believed that I was the only person to suffer loss and despair. It took a very obnoxious blonde-haired brat and his shamelessly perverted sensei to make me realize that the world didn't revolve around my pain and anguish. They made me realize that others had felt the same pain I had but they had refused to bow to its demands, instead they grew stronger. And that is what we shall do, grow stronger together. We shall never forget those who have given their lives for this village, to keep us safe. We will honor their lives by living our own to the fullest. And as the Fifth Hokage, I, Tsunade Senju, vow to do all in my power to see this village restored to its rightful place as the shining example that my grandfather envisioned. I vow to protect this village, our home, from anyone who would dare threaten it or its people, I vow to do all that I can to make sure that your dreams come true. With these words, I pledge all my strength, power and love to this village as its Fifth Hokage!"
The crowd erupted as Koharu placed the Hokage's hat on Tsunade's head. Tsunade nodded to the elderly woman before turning back to the crowd. Naruto could see that Tsunade had a wide smile on her face as she waved to the crowd. The scene shimmered as Naruto imagined himself up upon the balcony, receiving the hat from Tsunade, with the crowd screaming itself hoarse.
Tsunade continuing her speech brought Naruto out of his imagined future. "We are a precipice as a village," Tsunade said. "Many of you have heard rumors that Kumo and Iwa are on the move. At this moment, those are just rumors. We have no concrete information or evidence that these two villages are making any aggressive moves toward our borders. However we will not be lax in our view on security. We will make sure that our borders are secure and that our security is not threatened in anyway. But let these troubling thoughts flee from your minds, enjoy the festival, eat, drink and be merry."
"Naruto Uzumaki," a muffled voice uttered from behind Team 7. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke turned to see an ANBU standing behind them.
"Yes?" Naruto asked.
"Lady Hokage wishes to see you," the ninja said.
"When?"
"Now."
Naruto breathed out sharply through his nose. "Very well, I shall be there in a moment," he said. The ANBU nodded before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.
"What does the Hokage want with you Naruto?" Sakura asked.
"No clue," Naruto lied. "But I better get going, don't want to get on her bad side on the first day. See you late Sakura-chan, Sasuke."
"Bye Naruto," Sakura said as the blonde headed toward the Hokage Tower.
"Where is he?" a loud voice cried out. Sakura and Sasuke turned to see Teams 8, 9 and 10 all walking toward them. It turned out to be Kiba who had shouted.
"Where's who?" Sakura asked.
"Naruto," Kiba barked. "He has some explaining to do. How could he not tell us!"
"Tell you what mutt?" Sasuke growled. Kiba's attitude was really grating on his nerves.
"This," Shikamaru said. He stepped forward and handed over a thin black book that was open to a middle page. The picture on the page was of a very familiar blonde.
"Why is Naruto's picture in a bingo book?" Sakura asked.
"Look at his name," Kiba growled.
"That can't be true," Sakura gasped. "The Fourth didn't have any family, didn't he?"
"Apparently he did, Naruto," Shino said. "It is illogical to falsify Naruto's identity in a bingo book, so the information must be true."
"So where is he?" Kiba demanded.
"Watch it Kiba," Sasuke growled, his eyes flashing. "That's our teammate."
"Relax Kiba, Naruto is meeting with the Hokage right now anyway," Sakura said trying to cool the tension that had been steadily increasing.
"So let's meet him there when he gets done," Ino offered. "How could he have kept this from us? We're his friends aren't we?"
"You wanted to see me Lady Hokage?" Naruto asked as he entered the Hokage's office. Inside were Tsunade, Jiraiya, another ANBU agent and the three Elders.
"Yes Naruto, thank you for coming," Tsunade said. "Now there are three reasons why I have called you here. First is to make this announcement, Naruto Uzumaki, it is my great pleasure to present you with this." She picked up a scroll from the desktop and tossed it to the blonde.
"What's this?" Naruto asked catching the scroll.
"Open it Naruto," Jiraiya said with a smile.
Naruto did so and was surprised as a green flak jacket popped out and fell to the office floor. "What?" he asked.
"You have been promoted to Chunin Naruto," Tsunade answered. "After learning about your performance in the Chunin Finals against Gaara, and your deeds during the invasion of holding off and defeating Gaara again, reading the proctors' notes and seeing you personally in action against Orochimaru and Kabuto, you have certainly proved yourself capable for the promotion in combat and from reports given to me by Kakashi, you have the leadership qualities as well. With this promotion it also allows us several more options in what to do with you. Have you decided on what you are going to do about Jiraiya's offer to take you on a training trip?"
"I have decided to accept the offer," Naruto said. "Jiraiya taught my father, and with what Orochimaru revealed I need to get as strong as possible."
"Perfect," Tsunade said. "That makes things much easier."
"How?" Naruto asked.
"Because Uzumaki, you won't be just promoted to chunin, you'll be joining ANBU," the ANBU said.
"What!" Naruto shouted. "You can't be serious!"
"We are quite serious Naruto," Tsunade said firmly. "As a cover for your leaving the village, we will discreetly release that you have been advanced to ANBU as a way to both protect and train you."
"You're not joking are you?" Naruto asked. "Me in ANBU?"
"Yes to an extent Uzumaki," Tiger said. "You will be considered a provisional member of ANBU until your return where you will be tested to see if you are worthy of becoming a fully fledged ANBU member. Also, during your trip there might be times where you are given a mission and placed on a team that will both assist you and observe your actions to get a more complete picture of your skills and progress."
"What about my friends? What do I tell them?" Naruto asked.
"You may tell them whatever you decide Naruto," Tsunade said. "But if I could provide some advice, tell them the truth. Lying to friends never ends well even if done with the best intentions."
"When would we leave Jiraiya?" Naruto asked.
"Day after tomorrow."
Naruto nodded. "By your leave Lady Hokage?" he asked.
"There is one last thing we need to give you Naruto," Tsunade said. She rose from her desk and walked over to the portraits of the previous Hokages, stopping in front of picture of Minato Namikaze. "Come here Naruto."
Naruto stepped over to his father's portrait and looked up at Tsunade.
"Jiraiya has told us that it is likely that Minato put something in the Hokage Vault, and would have secured it with a seal only he or his family could open it."
Naruto nodded, realizing what Tsunade was asking. Biting his thumb, Naruto pressed it to the portrait's frame. The portrait glowed blue for a second before it popped forward off the wall. Tsunade stepped back and let Naruto open the safe. Inside were two small scrolls. Naruto picked them up and then closed the safe.
"Don't open them here Naruto," Tsunade said. "Open them at your place. We have more to discuss."
Naruto pocketed the scrolls and turned back to face the room.
"Now Naruto, the final thing we need to discuss is how the announcement of your heritage will be handled," Tsunade said. "Your father was much beloved by the people of this village. He was the first Hokage who was not born from a clan, a civilian-born Hokage. And as you know, your reputation with the civilians is not the best. There is sure to be some backlash when the information comes out. Some will probably claim that you have hoodwinked me and that this is all some scheme that the Kyubi is cooking up to take revenge. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the clans don't like you even more. Some of the clans didn't appreciate Minato's policies and decisions while he was in office, they felt that he was taking too much power away from them."
Naruto nodded. "I think it best we just not worry about it," he said. "People aren't going to like me whether it's because of the fox or my father anyway. I can't change people's minds for them."
Jiraiya grinned. "Good answer," he said. "Focus on the things you can change and forget about the things you can't. Something your mother said and lived her life by."
"My mother?" Naruto asked.
"Kushina was a one of a kind woman," Jiraiya laughed. "She was someone who would never take no for an answer, and believed that you could accomplish anything as long as you never gave up. After she moved here, on her first day at the Academy Kushina vowed to become the first female Hokage."
"My mom wanted to be Hokage too?"
"Yep," Jiraiya chuckled. "She and your father were in the same Academy class, and she thought that he was just a sissy weakling."
"My mom thought that my dad was weak?"
"Well, as a kid Minato wasn't the biggest or strongest kid around," Jiraiya explained. "He was exceedingly bright though and very quick."
"Enough story telling," Danzo said sharply. "Uzumaki, you have been given your orders and I am sure that you have some preparing to do."
Tsunade and Jiraiya both glared at Danzo but Naruto just nodded. "I do in fact," he said. "If that is all Lady Hokage, I'd like to be dismissed to prepare."
"Very well Naruto," Tsunade said.
"Meet me at the gate tomorrow morning, 1000 hours," Jiraiya said. Naruto nodded and left the office.
"There you are!"
Naruto looked up and saw his teammates waiting for him along with Teams 8, 9 and 10. The secretary was alternating between glaring at the others and giving Naruto an apologetic look.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Naruto asked, though he had a sneaking suspicion he already knew, spotting the thin black book in Kiba's hand.
"Like you don't already know," Kiba snapped storming right up to Naruto and shoving the bingo book into his chest. "What the hell man! You couldn't tell us about…"
Naruto slapped a hand over Kiba's mouth. "Not here," he hissed. "If you guys are here to talk about what I think you are, then lets go somewhere a little less public alright?"
The other rookies, and Team Gai, all nodded seeing the steely look in Naruto's eyes. "Come on," Naruto said. The others spilt apart as Naruto walked through the group and filed in line behind him.
"Where are you taking us Naruto?" Ino asked as the group left the Hokage Tower and headed toward the village's walls.
"My apartment," Naruto said. "It's the only place that I know of where we won't be overheard."
As they walked through the village, Naruto could feel the glares that Kiba and Sasuke were sending him along with the confused looks he was getting from the others.
"You live here?" Ino asked when they reached Naruto's rundown apartment building. Looking back at the blonde girl, Naruto noticed that both Lee and Tenten were giving Ino darker looks; this was especially noticeable from Lee as the taijutsu-user usually never looked mad or angry.
"Yes Ino, I live here," Naruto answered. "It's not like we all live in clan compounds in the nice part of the village. Some of us are on our own, or have been for most of our lives."
Ino blinked at Naruto's tone but then noticed the looks she was getting from Lee, Tenten and even Sasuke, and kept her retort unknown to everyone. Naruto unlocked the door to his apartment and ushered everyone inside. Kiba opened his mouth to restart shouting at Naruto but the blonde held up a finger to quiet him before activating the seals around the apartment.
"There, now we won't be interrupted," Naruto said taking a seat in the lumpy but comfortable chair. "Now Kiba, what do you want to know?"
"Why the hell didn't you tell us that you were the Fourth Hokage's son!?" Kiba shouted, throwing the bingo book at Naruto's chest. "And don't bother denying it, we've all already read your book entry."
"I suppose the best answer to your question is, why should I have told you anyway?" Naruto asked. "What business is it of yours who my father was?"
"What!" Kiba growled. "We are your friends!"
"Really, you all are my friends?" Naruto asked calmly, looking the increasingly angry Inuzuka boy right in the eye. "From where I stand, the only friends I have are Sakura-chan and Sasuke. And I'll admit, I hadn't had the chance to tell them this new information, since I only found out yesterday!"
Kiba blinked and stepped back as Naruto rose to his feet, growling the last few words of his answer.
"You didn't know?" Ino asked.
"No, I did not," Naruto said. "I had no clue who my parents were until a few weeks ago, and even then I only learned what my mother's name was. So excuse me for not telling people something that I didn't know. Do you have any idea what it's like to grow up without a family, let alone even knowing their names? Only Lee and Tenten know that pain since all three of us are orphans."
"What about you being the jinchuriki of the Kyubi?" Choji asked. "Why didn't you tell us about that?"
"Yeah!" Kiba agreed, obviously grabbing at straws to keep himself from being even more embarrassed.
"Do you guys even know what a jinchuriki is?" Naruto asked. Everyone but Shikamaru, Sakura, Sasuke and Shino shook their heads. "A jinchuriki is a human sacrifice, a weapon of war. I am the prison that holds the Kyubi back from trying to destroy the village again, why the hell would I want people to know about something like that?! Hell, most people think I am the Kyubi itself, not knowing the first thing about fuinjutsu. Why do you think I was treated like scum by most of the villagers all my life?! And besides, I didn't even know that until I graduated from the Academy, the old man wanted to keep me from learning the truth for as long as possible, hoping that I would have a normal childhood," Naruto spat.
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered. Naruto looked up and Hinata blushed heavily but pressed on. "Aren't you happy now that you've learned who your parents are?"
Naruto sagged back into the chair and closed his eyes. "I honestly don't know how to answer that Hinata," he said. "Sure I am happy to know who my parents are, ecstatic even. But I am also furious."
"Furious, why?" Ino asked. "You are the son of the Fourth Hokage, you should be jumping from rooftops and shouting it to the world."
Naruto shook his head. "Ino, did you not listen to what Tsunade talked about in her speech today?" he asked. "My father is regarded as one of the most hated villains in the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning. He was the reason why Konoha defeated Iwa in the last war, and there are some that wouldn't hesitate to take revenge on him by killing his son. It would be killing two birds with one stone; killing the son of one of Konoha's heroes and taking out Konoha's secret weapon."
"Secret weapon?" Tenten asked.
"Jinchuriki are a village's secret weapon, a way to keep themselves out of war," Naruto explained. "While Konoha has not used its jinchuriki as a weapon of war in the past, other villages have and if we have to battle two major villages, I am sure that I'll be thrown to the front lines."
"Do you really think that Iwa or Kumo will send people after you Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked.
"I can't say," Naruto said. "It all depends on whether people feel revenge is worth it."
"Uzumaki, what are you going to do?" Neji asked, speaking for the first time. "If you are truly this important to the village, what is the village going to do with you?"
Naruto narrowed his gaze at the older Hyuga. "All I know is that I've been given a leave of absence from the village, and I'll be traveling with Jiraiya for a couple of years."
"Jiraiya? Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Toad Sage?" Tenten asked. Naruto nodded.
"You are leaving?" Hinata asked.
"For at least two or so years, yes," Naruto answered. "This way I am out of the spotlight until I get strong enough to defend myself."
"What about Team 7?" Sakura asked. "What about m…us, Sasuke-kun, Kakashi-sensei?"
Naruto took a deep breath. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan but this is the way it has to be," he said. "I refuse to let you or the village suffer because I wasn't strong enough to defend the people I care about."
"So you are leaving the village to get stronger, why can't you just stay here?" Choji asked. "I mean, here you'll have an entire village of ninja to protect you."
"I don't want to be protected at the cost of others' lives," Naruto said. "No one knows if Kumo or Iwa will come after us for this. It could just be a lot of saber rattling but the Hokage can't really take that chance."
"When do you leave?" Sasuke asked.
"Tomorrow morning."
"So soon?" Hinata asked.
"Jiraiya wants to hit the ground running," Naruto answered. "And he's hoping that people won't notice my leaving with Tsunade taking over as Hokage."
"So that's it then," Sakura said. "We won't see you for years, not knowing if you are even still alive!"
Naruto sighed. "Sakura-chan, I don't like this much more than you do," he said. "I have my issues with Jiraiya, and spending years in his company is not something I am looking forward too but it is something I need to do."
"All right Naruto, so you're leaving the village but you were just going to leave without telling us that you are the son of the Fourth Hokage!" Kiba demanded.
"I believe I have already answered this question Kiba," Naruto said. "Why is it any of your business who my father was? I don't care who your father is, a person's parentage doesn't matter to me, only who the person actually is."
"But…"
"No Kiba," Naruto said getting to his feet causing Kiba to take a step back. "Just because you wanted something from me doesn't mean I am just going to roll over and tell you! If I had it my way, none of you would know that the Fourth Hokage was my father! Because it shouldn't matter, I want people to get to know _me_ Naruto Uzumaki, not Naruto Namikaze!"
Kiba stepped back into the group, looking quite cowed from Naruto's shout.
"If you are all here just to badger me about why you all weren't informed about my family, then you can leave," Naruto said. "I need to start packing and it has been a long day, so I'd like to take a nap first."
Slowly the group made their way out of Naruto's apartment, leaving only Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.
"Naruto, will you be able to write us while you are gone?" Sakura asked.
"I don't know," the blonde admitted. "I'm sure that Jiraiya will be sending Tsunade reports about my training so I'll see if I can piggyback any letters with his reports." Sakura smiled and nodded.
"I guess this is goodbye," Sasuke said.
"No," Naruto grinned. "It's I'll see you later, not goodbye. When I get back, we'll have to see who is stronger. So you two better not slack off on your training."
"Never," Sasuke answered with a small grin of his own. Sakura nodded her agreement. The two boys shook hands before Sakura nearly squeezed the life out of Naruto with her hug.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow when I set out right?" Naruto asked.
"Of course."
Naruto smiled broadly as his best friends and teammates left his apartment. As he closed the door behind them, Naruto couldn't help but think he was closing the door on one chapter of his life and was about to begin the next.
**A/N: THE END! There you go, we've reached the end of this tale! Don't worry my rabid readers, this is only Part One of this saga. Part Two will cover Naruto's training trip with Jiraiya, as well as the other members of the Konoha 12, and Part Three will cover Shippuden. Part Two won't be released for some time as I am moving out to California to start a new job so much of my free time will be used adjust to that move. Let me know what you all thought about this story, and if you have any ideas that you want to see in Part Two (like training ideas, missions, etc.) and I'll give them some thought. Til next time,**
**SlyNinKnight**
20. New Story Announcement
Hey all, this is SlytheringNinjaKnight here to announce the first chapter of my newest Naruto story, _Naruto: Hidden Potential_. It is the second part of my three part rewrite of the Naruto manga, it will cover Naruto's training journey with Jiraiya as well as several interludes back to Konoha with the other members of the Konoha 12. I want to use this story as a way to show Naruto's growth as a ninja and a person since we aren't shown anything in the actual Naruto manga (which is owned by Kishimoto, not me).
So go on over to my new story and check it out.
SlyNinKnight
End file.
| fanfiction |
Elbasan County is one of the 12 counties of Albania. The population at the 2011 census was 295,827, in an area of 3199 km². Its capital is the city Elbasan.
Administrative divisions
Until 2000, Elbasan County was subdivided into four districts: Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd, and Peqin. Since the 2015 local government reform, the county consists of the following 7 municipalities: Belsh, Cërrik, Elbasan, Gramsh, Librazhd, Peqin and Prrenjas. Before 2015, it consisted of the following 50 municipalities:
Belsh
Bradashesh
Cërrik
Elbasan
Fierzë
Funarë
Gjergjan
Gjinar
Gjoçaj
Gostimë
Gracen
Gramsh
Grekan
Hotolisht
Kajan
Karinë
Klos
Kodovjat
Kukur
Kushovë
Labinot-Fushë
Labinot-Mal
Lenie
Librazhd
Lunik
Mollas
Orenjë
Pajovë
Papër
Peqin
Përparim
Pishaj
Polis
Poroçan
Prrenjas
Qendër Librazhd
Qukës
Rrajcë
Rrasë
Shalës
Shezë
Shirgjan
Shushicë
Skënderbegas
Steblevë
Stravaj
Sult
Tregan
Tunjë
Zavalinë
The municipalities consist of about 385 towns and villages in total. See Villages of Elbasan County for a structured list.
Demographics
According to the last national census from 2011 this county has 295,827 inhabitants. Ethnic groups in the county include:
Albanians = 253,170 85.58
Macedonians = 94 0.03
Montenegrins = 10 0.00
Aromanians = 747 0.25
Romani = 1,064 0.36
Egyptians = 433 0.15
Turkish = 300 0.13
others = 149 0.05
no answer = 39,980 13.51
References
External links
Regional Council of Elbasan
Elbasan | wikipedia |
winter depression ( seasonal affective disorder , or sad ) has proved to be a useful model for evaluating the role of circadian rhythms in psychiatric and sleep disorders .
the successful treatment of the first patient , as well as the first controlled study using bright light , assumed sad to be a disorder of seasonal biological rhythms .
both studies were based on the finding that bright light could suppress melatonin production in humans .
accordingly , bright light exposure was scheduled in the morning and late afternoon / evening in order to mimic a spring photoperiod .
the investigators involved in these early studies diverged into two groups : our group focused on a circadian approach to sad while the other group did not .
the circadian approach was based on the phase shift hypothesis ( psh ) which states that most patients with sad become depressed in the winter , at least in part because of a phase delay in circadian rhythms relative to the sleep / wake cycle .
the psh further postulates that a smaller subgroup of sad patients becomes depressed in the winter because of a phase advance . in 1987 , based on our hypothesized phase response curve ( prc ) to light and prior preliminary light studies in humans , we reported that bright light scheduled in the morning causes a phase advance ( a shift to an earlier time ) and that bright light scheduled in the evening causes a phase delay ( a shift to a later time ) , using the dim light melatonin onset ( dlmo , that is , the time of the beginning of melatonin production in dim light ) as the marker for circadian phase position .
we also reported that seven of eight sad patients preferentially responded to the antidepressant effects of morning light , whereas one patient preferentially responded to evening light .
there was a statistically significant , but small , delay in the dlmo of the patients compared with the controls at baseline .
the clinical recommendations following this report published 20 years ago remain state - of - the - art and unchanged , except that light intensity can be increased to 10 000 lux , offering some shortening of minimal exposure duration .
accordingly , these recommendations are reprinted in table i sad patients and controls were phase shifted with bright light according to figure 1 ( which also includes how to use melatonin administration to cause similar phase shifts ) .
the dim light melatonin onset ( dlmo ) is now the most commonly used marker for circadian phase position in humans .
either plasma or saliva is collected usually every 30 minutes between 6 pm and bedtime .
the current recommendation for dim light is light that is too dim to allow reading without a book - light pointed directed at the page .
the dlmo can be operationally defined as the interpolated time when melatonin levels continuously rise above 10 pg / ml in plasma or 3 pg / ml in saliva . in some cases ,
thresholds of 2 pg / ml in plasma and 0.7 pg / ml in saliva are used ; melatonin usually reaches these thresholds about 1hour earlier than the 10 pg / ml ( 3 pg / ml ) thresholds ( figure 2 ) .
the dlmo appears to be a better marker for circadian phase position than core body temperature , even when the latter is measured in a constant routine .
furthermore , posture , sleep , activity , and meals do not need to be controlled when using the dlmo as a marker for phase position of the endogenous circadian pacemaker .
salivary dlmos obtained in the home may soon become a standard procedure for the clinician .
space constraints do not permit a critical review of the literature in which the dlmo was initially considered to be the marker of just one component of a complex circadian oscillator .
in order to provide a critical and falsifiable test of the psh , we administered melatonin to cause phase shifts and thus avoided the large placebo component that accompanies light treatment .
according to the melatonin prc , melatonin administered in the morning ( am ) causes a phase delay , and melatonin administered in the afternoon / evening ( pm ) causes a phase advance .
that is , the melatonin prc is about 12 hours out of phase with the light prc .
therefore , according to the psh , most sad patients should preferentially respond to pm melatonin . after a baseline week in which subjects were permitted to sleep only between consistent bedtimes and wake times of their choosing and a baseline dlmo assessment , subjects were assigned to one of three regimens ( am melatonin , pm melatonin , or placebo capsules only ) .
the melatonin dose varied slightly according to the year and was divided into 3 to 4 capsules , 2 hours apart ; the total dose was 0.225 to 0.3 mg per day , depending on the year .
patients took 7 to 8 capsules per day , depending on the year . at the end of the third treatment week , capsules were stopped and the next day a post - treatment dlmo assessment was undertaken .
the 29item sigh - sad ( 21-item ham - d plus eight items characteristic of sad ) was administered weekly for 3 weeks .
when this study was initially formulated , it was thought that the phase - advanced subgroup was too small to significantly influence , testing the hypothesis that pm melatonin would be more antidepressant than am melatonin .
however , more informative findings were revealed after phase typing , based on an operational definition of normal phase alignment as a 6-hour interval between the dlmo and midsleep , that is , a phase angle difference ( pad ) of 6 h ( figure 3 ) .
although the clock time of a phase marker is important , pad is more useful because : ( i ) it removes confounding effects from sleep / wake cycles that occur at the different times ; ( ii ) it is almost impossible for subjects or their raters to infer pad from knowledge of sleep times ; and ( iii ) psychiatric symptoms are more likely to be related to internal circadian misalignment .
plotting baseline sigh - sad scores against pad revealed a statistically significant ( p=0.003 ) parabola with an r of 0.17 and a minimum ( vertex ) of pad 5.88 h ( figure 4 ) . in psychiatric studies , an r of 0.17 is considered meaningful , given the inherent noise in behavioral ratings .
six hours was hypothesized to be the sweet spot ( the therapeutic interval representing optimal mood ) , because this is the average pad for healthy controls .
pad 6 could be used to operationally distinguish at baseline those subjects who were phase delayed ( pad 6 ) from those subjects who were phase advanced ( pad > 6).the parabola revealed greater depression severity in 68 subjects who deviated from pad 6 ( in either direction ) . using pad 6 at baseline to retrospectively phase type subjects , analyses revealed that the prototypical phase delayed group represented only two thirds of the subjects .
post - treatment , the parabola was statistically significant for the prototypical delayed group ( i 2=0.f 9 ; f=0.002 ; minimum = 6 ) , whereas the group as a whole has a less significant parabolic fit ( r=0.11 ; p=0.02 ; minimum = 6 ) . eleven subjects in the prototypical group ( that is , those who were phase delayed at baseline ) had been assigned to pm melatonin ( the equivalent of morning light , the treatment of choice ) .
a plot of their sighsad scores against pad revealed an r of 0.65 , p<0.001and parabolic minimum of 6 ( figure 5 ) .
that is , 65% of the variance in the behavioral ratings could be explained by the clrcadlan misalignment component .
patients who became overly phase advanced on the pm melatonin and shifted across the sweet spot were more depressed than those who had shifted closer to pad 6 ( figure 6 ) .
in this figure ( which also includes prototypical patients treated with am melatonin and placebo ) ,
we did not find a statistically significant linear correlation , as reported by the terman research group with respect to the decrease in depression ratings change scores plotted against phase advances in the dlmo .
therefore , while there is some consistency between their study and ours , there are some clear differences leading to differing treatment recommendations .
terman group claims the key to understanding the circadian mechanism of light lies in its ability to cause a phase advance ; the greater the phase advance , the greater the antidepressant effect .
this does not take into account the possibility that some patients may do better with evening light so as to provide a corrective phase delay .
furthermore , the terman group recommends that patients awaken earlier than usual in order to schedule light at an earlier circadian time . however , an earlier wake time would shorten pad , and , according to our findings , would compromise light 's antidepressant effect in the prototypical phase - delayed patient .
moreover , we would predict that these prototypical patients would do less well if overly phase advanced by light scheduled too early ; it had been known for some time that as long as the light was not scheduled too many hours before dawn , the earlier light exposure was scheduled relative to the dlmo , the greater was its phase - advancing effect . in our study
, we also compared sigh - sad change scores versus changes in pad ( figure 7 ) .
if a subject had a pretreatment pad of 4 and a post - treatment pad of either 5 or 7 , this would represent a change closer to pad 6 of 1 .
if the same subject had a post - treatment pad of 8 , this would represent a change closer to pad 6 of 0 .
if the same subject had a post - treament pad of either 9 or 3 , this would represent a change closer to pad 6 of -1 , that is , the pad is f hour further away from pad 6 , after treatment than before treatment . in this analysis , it does not matter whether the deviation from 6 is in one direction or the other , given what was found in the previous analyses , le , that subjects were more depressed as the deviation from 6 increased in either direction . in the change - score figure , we plotted pre- vs post - treatment percent change in sigh - sad score against the pre- vs post - treatment change closer to or further away from pad 6 in all patients who received either am melatonin ( administered to cause a phase delay ) or pm melatonin ( administered to cause a phase advance ) .
thus , sad may be the first psychiatric disorder in which symptom severity has been demonstrated to correlate with a physiological marker before and in the course of treatment in the same patients .
the above analyses also indicate that circadian misalignment seems to be the causal term in the correlation with symptom severity .
this remarkable finding is further confirmed by retrospectively comparing the behavioral response to the correct treatment vs the incorrect treatment or placebo .
patients who were phase delayed at baseline and were assigned to pm melatonin received the correct treatment , while those who were assigned to am melatonin received the incorrect treatment ; patients who were phase advanced at baseline and were assigned to am melatonin received the correct treatment , while those who were assigned to pm melatonin received the incorrect treatment . the pre- to posttreatment decrease in depression ratings was 20% more in the correctly treated groups as compared with the other two groups , which is remarkably impressive for a fixed - dose trial of an antidepressant ( figure 8) .
the most conservative effect size was 0.61 , which also is quite robust for an antidepressant .
given that most studies of antidepressants can not disguise side effects and that melatonin was administered in such a way that sleepiness , its only side effect , was not present , melatonin appears to be of enormous therapeutic value , particularly once the dosing regimen is optimized .
we used melatonin only as a means to test the psh for light and the inclusion of am melatonin was primarily as a control for pm melatonin .
future studies should continue to use the instructions we provided to the patients which minimized their expectations and helped to lessen the placebo response ( about 13% , compared with the usual 30% in antidepressant studies ) .
circadian alignment appears to cause at most about 35% to 65% of the variance in symptom severity in sad .
the psh for these other disorders suggests that they are caused at least in part by a phase shift in circadian rhythms as marked by the dlmo with respect to the sleep / wake cycle .
while we regard the psh confirmed in sad , the psh remains to be tested in other sleep and psychiatric disorders . in our recent study
, we reported that the weekly sighsad ratings continuously declined over the 4 weeks of the study only in the correctly treated group .
these are plotted in the figure along with those of the incorrectly treated group combined with the placebo group ; the slopes ( not shown ) are significantly different ( figure 9 ) .
the treatment response appears to be clinically relevant , if not statistically significant , at weeks 1and 2 .
patients who can sense improvement soon after beginning treatment are more likely to comply and continue until the maximum benefit is achieved .
we are in the process of analyzing the data for the purpose of determining which of the 29 items of sighsad account for the statistically significant findings for all of the main analyses of our recent study unexpectedly , the group of eight additional sad items was not statistically significant when used instead of the 294tem scale .
this suggests that nonseasonal major depressive disorder , as measured by the 21-item ham - d , might have a substantial circadian component related to the psh .
furthermore , we have found that all of the main analyses using just three items substituted for the entire scale ( that has a tenfold greater range ) results in almost identical findings .
these three items on 1 - 5 scales were : ( 1 ) self -reported symptoms of depression ; ( ii ) self -reported symptoms of anxiety ; and ( iii ) objective assessment of agitation of the subject by the rater at the time of the interview .
thus , anxiety disorders and mixed depressive / anxiety disorders should be evaluated for the psh . since depression and anxiety
are frequently a part of sleep disorders , sleep disorders should also be tested for the psh , as well as substance abuse disorders . as these iterative analyses proceed , we might be able to define a circadian endophenotype .
however , we hesitate to use this term , as the range in pad in healthy controls is the same as in our sad patients , and the means are not much different .
therefore , the circadian component is a necessary but not sufficient cause of sad . why some people become symptomatic
when their dlmo becomes delayed or advanced with respect to mid - sleep while others do not is an important research question .
however , the answer to this may not affect treatment , and would not diminish the clinical importance of the circadian component in sad : no matter how many necessary - but - not - sufficient causes there may be , correction of just one of these could produce a successful clinical outcome .
it is hoped that the work presented here will alert researchers to another way of conceptualizing a biological marker , in addition to the current concept of using a biological marker to distinguish between patients and healthy controls , which can often be made by merely taking a good history , that is , identifying patients who are anxious , depressed , obsessivecompulsive , paranoid , psychotic , substance abusers or poor sleepers , etc .
indeed , a symptom severity biological marker may be more useful than a chemical test for a dsm diagnosis , particularly if the former informs the type of treatment and provides a way of monitoring treatment in addition to assessing subjective and objective signs and symptoms . given how relatively inexpensive and noninvasive the salivary dlmo is compared with other markers , neuroimaging for one example , and given how safe and inexpensive low - dose melatonin and light are compared with most other allopathic treatment modalities , there is ample justification for future investment in circadian research .
our recent study establishes the psh and the circadian component as a necessary but not sufficient cause of a substantial component of sad , as well as a biological marker .
it is hoped that the three criteria met by the circadian component for the latter designation will clarify what is important for other biological markers to demonstrate , something like koch 's postulates .
we have recently described these ; in the same patients :
symptom severity correlates with the biological marker before treatment .
symptom change scores in symptom severity correlate with the change in the biological marker . in our recent study
, we concluded that ( in order of certainty ) : the prototypical sad patient is phase delayed , whereas a less well defined subgroup may be phase advanced ; ( ii ) the circadian component ( at least for the prototypical patients ) is substantial , and it is consistent with the psh and a hypothesized therapeutic window for optimal circadian alignment ; and ( iii ) the work presented here will be useful as a template for reanalyzing extant data sets and for implementing new studies of nonseasonal depression , as well as other sleep and psychiatric disorders , in which a circadian component might be present . accordingly , we tested three a priori hypotheses using the extant data from our 1998 sad light treatment study .
we restricted our analyses to the baseline data due to the known profound placebo component associated with light . using the dlmos as provided in the data set as well as diary - recorded sleep onset and offset times averaged across the 7 days of the baseline week , we tested the following hypotheses , plotting 29-item sigh - sad scores against pad :
a parabola but not a linear regression would be statistically significant .
the minimum ( vertex ) would occur at pad 6 , rounded to nearest integer .
two - thirds of the patients would be phase delayed ( pad < 6 ) .
the results confirmed our three hypotheses , as can be seen in table ii for disorders other than sad , pad 6 may not necessarily represent optimal circadian alignment .
however , it is nevertheless important to operationally define the circadian alignment in terms of the interval between dlmo and midsleep .
it may also be heuristically useful to consider pad 6 , or some other therapeutic window , in disorders other than sad .
once again , we encourage other researchers to make use of this work in reanalyzing extant data sets and in the design of future studies .
interestingly , we noticed that figure 2 of the terman paper contained data from which the proportion of phase delayed vs phase advanced patients at baseline could be estimated . in this figure ,
rounding to the nearest integer this equation becomes y = x-6 ( or y - x=6 ) . since y is dlmo and x is midsleep , the line estimates pad 6 .
therefore , all data points to the left of this line are probably pad < 6 ( phase delayed according to our criteria ) and all data points to the right of this line are pad > 6 ( phase advanced according to our criteria ) . despite the limitations of this type of analysis ,
it is clear that the predominant group of patients are phase delayed and that there is a smaller , but substantial , subgroup of patients who we would categorize as phase advanced at baseline , which is consistent with the findings in our pnas paper , although their presumably phase - advanced subgroup appears to comprise more than one third of the patients . before closing
, we should note that the work of others in the field of circadian rhythms and depression was recently reviewed .
we should also note that agomelatine , a melatonin agonist with serotonergic actions , appears to be effective in major depressive disorder .
furthermore , at least animal studies suggest anxiolytic effects . these findings are consistent with what we have reported above . for the clinicians , particularly those practicing in the us , it is important to note that melatonin is easily available to consumers without a prescription .
our impression is that some sad patients prefer light , some prefer melatonin , and some prefer the combination , at least for the very shortest days of the year .
until more clinical labs are capable of measuring melatonin in saliva , clinicians must proceed without this test and the recommendations of table i remain state - of - the - art .
since most patients with sad are of the phasedelayed type , morning light should usually be tried first .
failure to respond is apparent within the first week of treatment , after which bright light should be switched to the evening .
if morning bright light causes too much of a phase advance , patients will start to complain of early - morning awakening . | pubmed |
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Smoking and Major Cancer Deaths in Those Over 35
Eighty percent of lung cancer deaths linked to smoking, researchers say
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- About half of U.S. deaths caused by certain cancers -- including lung, colon and pancreatic tumors -- can be attributed to smoking, a new American Cancer Society study estimates.
In 2011, nearly half of the almost 346,000 deaths from 12 cancers in people 35 and older were linked to smoking, the study found.
"Despite large declines in smoking in the United States over the last 50 years, smoking still accounts for the majority of lung cancer deaths," said study co-author Rebecca Siegel, the American Cancer Society's director of surveillance information.
The researchers looked at 12 cancers known to be caused by smoking. In 2011, they found that 346,000 people died from these types of cancer. The researchers also had data on current and former smoking, and found that almost 168,000 of these deaths were due to tobacco.
For some cancers, the researchers said smoking was responsible for more than half of the deaths. Almost 126,000 of the deaths attributed to smoking were from cancers of the lungs, bronchus and trachea. That is about 80 percent of deaths from those cancers linked to smoking, according to the study. Just under 3,000 deaths from cancer of the larynx were tied to smoking, which is about 77 percent of the deaths that occurred in 2012 from that type of cancer, the researchers said.
In addition, approximately half of the deaths from cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus and urinary bladder were due to tobacco use, the researchers noted.
Smoking was also cited as the cause of many deaths from cancer of the colon, kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, and from myeloid leukemia, Siegel said.
The number of Americans who smoke has dropped from 23 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2012, the study said. Still, smoking-related cancer deaths will continue to increase over the next several decades, Siegel said, because it will take 30 to 40 years to see the consequences of smoking among current smokers.
The rates of lung cancer have been declining among men and have begun to decline among women. The lag in the decrease among women is because larger numbers of women took up smoking years later than men and were slower to quit, she explained.
"If we could reduce smoking, we would have a lot fewer cancers," Siegel said. Smoking cessation efforts are especially needed among the poor, she said. "The poor are twice as likely to be smokers as the non-poor," Siegel said.
"While we have made a lot of progress in tobacco control, there is still a lot to do," she said.
The report was published online June 15 as a letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Dr. Norman Edelman, a senior scientific advisor to the American Lung Association, said when people hear about smoking and cancer, they often think about lung cancer and nothing else.
"This study shows that there is a huge burden of other cancers caused by smoking in addition to lung cancer," he said.
Edelman said that smoking is a huge public health problem and remains the major cause of preventable deaths in the United States. "Things are better, but we are not out from under it by any means," he said.
Edelman urges smokers to quit. "Smoking is even more deadly than thought," he said. "It is the most deadly element in our environment that we can control -- at least in theory."
SOURCES: Rebecca Siegel, M.P.H., director, surveillance information, American Cancer Society; Norman Edelman, M.D., senior scientific advisor, American Lung Association; June 15, 2015, JAMA Internal Medicine
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in electoral competitions many candidates compete for one or few seats .
their success can range from landslide victory to complete failure with only a handful of votes received .
how does this huge variability come about ? in 1999 costa filho et al .
studied vote statistics in brazilian parliamentary proportional elections . in this kind of elections , at odds with what occurs in the us , in each electoral district , a few to a few dozens seats are awarded simultaneously , and the number of seats won by a party is proportionate to the number of votes received .
costa filho et al .
considered all candidates , winners and losers , regardless of their electoral district or political affiliation and computed the histogram of the number of votes received by each of them . in the central range of the number of votes , the histogram has a regular profile , where the number of candidates receiving @xmath0 votes appears inversely proportional to @xmath0
this means that the number of candidates who obtained 1000 votes , say , is approximately 10 times higher than the number of candidates who collected 10000 votes .
this type of analysis neglects a factor that is fundamental in the political life of most countries : the influence of parties .
a great deal of the electoral success of a candidate depends on the popularity of the party s political agenda he / she is running for .
the observed histogram reflects the complex intertwined effect of the competition among parties and the competition among different candidates within parties .
given the peculiarities of the specific political landscape of each country , one can hardly expect to see similar results across different countries .
for this reason , we have proposed a different analysis for proportional elections where voters select a party and in addition express a preference for one of the candidates within the party list . to disentangle the role of the party and the role of the candidate ,
the key variable is not the absolute candidate performance , expressed by the number of votes obtained , but the performance relative to the average performance of competitors within the same party . for each party list , we divide the number @xmath0 of votes collected by each candidate by the average score @xmath1 of all candidates in the list .
the histogram of the relative performance @xmath2 turns out to be not only very stable for different elections in the same country , but also across countries [ fig . 1 ( left ) ] .
the generality of this result , and the stability of the performance curve over more than half a century , suggests that we are facing a basic feature of social dynamics , independent of the cultural , historical , economic and technological context where the elections took place .
we model the electoral campaign of candidates as a word - of - mouth process , starting from the candidates and branching out to the community of voters , through their social relationships .
each candidate convinces his / her immediate contacts with a certain probability @xmath3 .
only voters who have not yet made up their mind may be convinced to choose a candidate .
convinced voters , in turn , become activists and campaign in favor of the candidate they have chosen .
the number of contacts of each individual is a random variable @xmath4 , broadly distributed as @xmath5 to account for the large variability in personal inclinations and social stance .
the process stops when each voter has picked a candidate .
the model yields a distribution of candidates performance which matches well the empirical one [ fig .
1 ( left ) ] and is rather robust with respect to variations of the parameters @xmath3 and @xmath6 .
it turns out that the most successful candidates are those who manage to acquire the largest number of voters in the initial stages of the process . indeed , with an initially high number of activists on their side
, they may target and eventually gain a high number of supporters , thus limiting the opportunities of their competitors .
imitation and adaptation are the main features of the social atom , and frequently overrule the individual freedom to make decisions . knowing how people s decisions are affected by those of their contacts is fundamental in marketing , policy making , panic situations , etc .
borghesi et al . have used space - resolved election data to address this issue .
they focused on the main decision of a voter : shall i vote or not ?
turnout statistics are available at the municipal level for many countries and years . for
each municipality one can easily extract the geographical location as well . in this way it is possible to check whether there are spatial correlations between turnout rates of different towns , i.e. whether the decision of many people to go to vote ( or not to go ) in one place is related to the behavior of the voters in nearby places .
borghesi et al . studied the logarithm of the ratio between the number of registered voters who participated in each election and the number of those who did not .
the histogram of this variable , called logarithmic turnout rate ( ltr ) , is a skewed bell - shaped curve that , after proper rescaling , is essentially the same in different countries and elections , for municipalities having approximately the same population .
the main result of the analysis , however , is that participation to elections is not independent in different places .
turnout rates are correlated over long ranges in space [ fig .
1 ( right ) ] : quantitatively , the correlation function of ltr decays logarithmically with the distance r between the locations ( @xmath7 ) , where @xmath8 is of the order of the size of the country .
the phenomenology uncovered can be reproduced in terms of a decision model where a voter actually participates to the election only if his own propensity to vote overcomes a threshold .
the propensity of each voter is modeled as a continuous unbounded variable , resulting from the sum of three contributions : an idiosyncratic disposition ( specific to each individual and varying in time ) , a city - dependent term ( with short - scale spatial correlations ) and a slowly varying `` cultural field '' . the latter transports ( in space ) and keeps the memory ( in time ) of the collective intentions and is responsible for the long - range spatial correlations of turnout rates .
the evolution of this cultural field is affected by two types of mechanisms .
people travel to neighbouring cities and interact with acquaintances , carrying their own local cultural specificity and exchanging ideas and beliefs . in so doing
, cultural differences between near areas tend to narrow and this implies that the cultural field undergoes a diffusion process over geographically separated locations .
the mood of the community in a given area may also be influenced by special events , like the closing down of a factory , or the construction of new infrastructure , which can be modeled by a random noise term .
the cultural field thus obeys a diffusion equation in the presence of random noise , whose solution , after a transient leading to stationarity , displays the same spatial correlation profile found in the electoral data .
the fit of the model predictions with the empirical distributions reveals that the equilibration time of the cultural field dynamics is very long , of the order of a century , which is consistent with the observed historical persistence of the voting habits in different areas of a country .
the findings we have discussed confirm that elections are phenomena that can be understood quantitatively with the concepts and tools of physics .
this new line of research has just started to scratch the surface of the wealth of information contained in electoral data .
it promises to shed light on the decisional processes of voters , with potential strong impact on the policy of governments and parties , the design of electoral systems and the organization of political campaigns .
* m. buchanan , _ the social atom _ , bloomsbury , new york ( 2007 ) * c. castellano , s. fortunato , v. loreto , `` statistical physics of social dynamics '' , _ rev .
phys . _ * 81 * , 591 ( 2009 ) .
* r. n. costa filho et al . , `` scaling behavior in a proportional voting process '' , _ phys .
e _ * 60 * , 1067 ( 1999 ) . * s. fortunato , c. castellano , `` scaling and universality in proportional elections '' , _ phys .
lett . _ * 99 * , 138701 ( 2007 ) . * c. borghesi , j .- c .
raynal , j .-
bouchaud , `` election turnout statistics in many countries : similarities , differences , and a diffusive field model for decision - making '' , _
plos one _ * 7 * , e36289 ( 2012 ) . | arxiv |
in older adults , performance of many habitual daily activities and tasks requires moving and controlling the center of gravity ( defined as the vertical projection of the center of mass ) to various positions within the base of support .
however , effective displacement of the center of gravity during either self - initiated voluntary movements or externally triggered perturbations requires the capacity to remain within the limits of stability , which is described as the maximum distance a person can intentionally displace his or her center of gravity from a midline vertical position in any direction without losing balance and stepping or grasping for support.14 thus , a constricted limits of stability boundary or uncontrolled center of gravity movement can impair functional balance of older adults and constrain safe performance of their daily activities such as reaching , bending , walking , gait initiation , and moving from sit - to - stand.5 current literature suggests that aging is associated with diminished limits of stability capacity69 due to multiple factors , including reduced ankle muscle strength10 and poor cutaneous mechanoreceptor function in the soles of the feet , thus exposing older adults to more instability in functional daily activities and a higher risk of falling.11,12 therefore , from the perspectives of injury prevention and/or clinical rehabilitation of physical function , developing exercise intervention strategies that maximize the center of gravity sway envelope ( ie , the area an individual can move his or her center of gravity with control within the base of support)4 and subsequently expand the limits of stability boundary becomes functionally important for improving balance and mobility and , critically , for reducing the risk of falling among the elderly , which is a significant public health problem worldwide.13,14 because of its functional significance and implications for risk of falling , limits of stability should be integrated into exercise balance training programs that target fall prevention in older adults .
however , among the many types of group- and evidence - based exercise programs1518 designed to prevent falls , few have a specific , tailored focus on integrating training elements that would maximize limits of stability .
given that constrained limits of stability can lead to an increased propensity to fall in older adults,1,19 fall prevention programs that explicitly integrate therapeutic balance training of limits of stability are needed . taking a therapeutic approach ,
li et al20,21 developed the tai ji quan : moving for better balance ( tjqmbb ) program that specifically includes an element of training on limits of stability .
integrating tai ji yin - yang theory22 and theories of motor control and clinical practice,1,2,23 tjqmbb uses an innovative strategy of embracing a complementary interplay between stability and instability ( dualities of yin - yang ) during training to achieve balance equilibrium.20 more specifically , training focuses on eliciting both reactive and anticipatory responses to self - induced , deliberately controlled and coordinated tai ji quan movements aimed at stimulating postural adjustments to progressively increase the sway envelope .
the primary purpose of this study , therefore , was to determine whether a year - long training intervention with tjqmbb , given its specific focus on training limits of sway , could enhance limits of stability among community - dwelling older adults .
it was hypothesized that tjqmbb would enhance indicators of limits of stability . in light of the functional significance of the limits of stability , a secondary purpose was to examine concomitant changes between limits of stability and physical performance resulting from the intervention .
the study design involved a single - group pre- and post - intervention with repeated measures , conducted between may 2012 and january 2014 .
participants in this study were a subset of community - dwelling older adults recruited for a large community - based dissemination project through promotions ( newsletters , flyers , sign - up sheets ) at local senior centers in lane county , or , usa . the research protocol was approved by the institutional review board of oregon research institute , and an informed consent was obtained from all participants .
those who met the following criteria were eligible for participation : ( 1 ) 65 years of age or over ; ( 2 ) physically mobile ( objectively assessed by the ability to walk at least one block with or without an assistive device ) ; ( 3 ) showing no severe cognitive deficits , as defined by the mini - mental state evaluation ( 23);24 and ( 4 ) having medical clearance from a health care provider .
individuals who responded to the promotions were subsequently contacted and scheduled for an in - office visit where the details of the study were explained . following a consent process ,
baseline data were collected at a research laboratory prior to the beginning of the tjqmbb program with follow - ups at 24 and 48 weeks . trained research staff collected demographic and study outcome data . the tjqmbb program , with the conceptual basis and technical detail fully described elsewhere,20 is a balance training modality based on applications of tai ji quan with a specific focus on training limits of stability and sensory integration .
eligible participants participated in a full 60-minute tjqmbb class session taught by a trained instructor twice per week for 48 consecutive weeks . in terms of the training protocol , each session began with tai ji quan - based movement warm - up exercises ( 510 minutes ) , followed by teaching and practicing the core components ( described in the following section ) ( 4045 minutes ) , and ending with a simple set of breathing exercises ( 35 minutes ) .
the training protocol involves a core set of adapted yang style22 tai ji quan - based forms with built - in practice variations and a subset of mini therapeutic movements aimed at stimulating and integrating musculoskeletal and sensory systems via performance of self - initiated tai ji quan movements .
exercise sessions were structured from an easy - to - difficult learning - and - practice progression with an emphasis on within - session practice integration of forms , variations of the forms , and mini movements . both seated and standing exercises were implemented , with seated exercises emphasizing weight shift , trunk rotation , transitioning from sit - to - stand and stand - to - sit , and standing exercises focusing on the features described in the following section . during each session
, participants practiced choreographed tai ji quan forms / movements ( eg , part wild horse s mane ) while engaging in controlled circular ankle sways ( ie , lateral , anterior posterior , medial
lateral together ) that moved the center of gravity progressively toward and near the edge of the base of support with planted feet ; trunk - driven rotational ( laterally and posteriorly ) weight shift ; plantar / dorsiflexion during transitioning between moves ; reactive and proactive ( anticipatory ) postural adjustments in response to self - induced perturbed actions on either fixed support or
change - in - support;25 and active and coordinated eye head hand movements . throughout the training and practice , emphasis was placed on ( 1 ) an interplay between stability ( static movements ) and instability ( self - induced movement perturbations ) in performing each form / move ; ( 2 ) functional ankle - based training by mimicking reaching , tilting , stepping , and turning tasks ; and ( 3 ) a variable approach that stressed practice variations in movement speeds , range of joint motion , movement directions and patterns , and base of foot support .
the primary outcome was limits of stability , which consisted of three indicators : ( 1 ) endpoint excursion ; ( 2 ) movement velocity ; and ( 3 ) directional control , assessed by computerized dynamic posturography ( balance master system ; neurocom , clackamas , or , usa ) .
endpoint excursion assesses the limits of self - initiated movements as participants shift or lean their center of gravity toward the theoretical limit ( 100% ) in eight prespecified target directions without loss of balance ( scores expressed as a percentage ; % los ) .
movement velocity assesses the average speed of the center of gravity movement from the center to the eight targets ( scores expressed as degrees / second ) .
directional control provides a measure of movement accuracy by comparing the amount of movement toward the target to the amount of extraneous movement ( scores expressed as % of 100 ) .
reliability of limits of stability has been established26 or shown in previous studies.21,27 in this study , 24-week test retest reliability ( correlation ) ranged from 0.520.64 ( 0.57 for endpoint excursion , 0.52 for movement velocity , and 0.64 for directional control ) .
secondary measures included physical performance measures of the : ( 1 ) timed up and go test28 and ( 2 ) 50-foot speed walk , adopted from the physical performance test.29 timed up and go measured the time ( in seconds ) taken to rise from a chair , walk 10 feet ( 3 m ) , return , and sit down , with a lower time indicating better mobility . the 50-foot speed walk measured the time ( in seconds ) it took participants to walk as quickly as possible 25 feet out and 25 feet back .
the 6-month test retest reliability was 0.82 for timed up and go and 0.91 for the 50-foot walk test , respectively .
intervention outcomes were analyzed on a sample size of 145 participants who provided at least two data points ( baseline , 24-week , and/or 48-week follow - up ) .
descriptive statistics ( mean , standard deviation ) were performed to describe the study sample characteristics .
coefficient of variation was calculated for each variable across time as the ratio of standard deviation to the mean , multiplied by 100 . minimal detectable change ( mdc )
scores were calculated for each of the limits of stability indicators to determine whether the change score was at or above the minimal level of detectible change .
mdc is based on the standard error of measurement and calculated at a 95% confidence interval ( mdc95 ) using the formula of :
standard error of measurementn1.96,(1 ) where the standard error of measurement is derived from the square root of the mean square error term in the repeated measures analysis of variance and n is the number of measurements used .
intervention effect on the primary and secondary outcomes was analyzed via latent growth curve analysis . in the latent curve analysis ,
the primary interest was on the following estimates : ( 1 ) slope means on each of three limits of stability indicators and ( 2 ) a slope - to - slope correlation between each of the limits of stability indicators and the two physical performance measures .
given the single - group intervention design , change at 48 weeks from baseline was estimated for the indicators of endpoint excursion and directional control using the pooled estimates from prior studies.21,27 assuming an alpha level of 0.05 with 80% power to detect 7% los points difference in endpoint excursion and 8% of 100 points in directional control with an anticipated dropout rate of 30% for the 48-week intervention , a minimal sample size of 70 participants for the tjqmbb was planned .
all descriptive analyses including mdc scores were performed using spss version 17 ( spss inc . , chicago , il , usa ) and microsoft office excel software for windows ( microsoft corporation , redmond , wa , usa ) .
changes in the latent means of the limits of stability indicators and correlations of changes between limits of stability and physical performance measures were performed using mplus software ( v 6 ; muthn & muthn , los angeles , ca , usa).30
the study design involved a single - group pre- and post - intervention with repeated measures , conducted between may 2012 and january 2014 .
participants in this study were a subset of community - dwelling older adults recruited for a large community - based dissemination project through promotions ( newsletters , flyers , sign - up sheets ) at local senior centers in lane county , or , usa . the research protocol was approved by the institutional review board of oregon research institute , and an informed consent was obtained from all participants .
those who met the following criteria were eligible for participation : ( 1 ) 65 years of age or over ; ( 2 ) physically mobile ( objectively assessed by the ability to walk at least one block with or without an assistive device ) ; ( 3 ) showing no severe cognitive deficits , as defined by the mini - mental state evaluation ( 23);24 and ( 4 ) having medical clearance from a health care provider . individuals who responded to the promotions were subsequently contacted and scheduled for an in - office visit where the details of the study were explained . following a consent process ,
baseline data were collected at a research laboratory prior to the beginning of the tjqmbb program with follow - ups at 24 and 48 weeks . trained research staff collected demographic and study outcome data .
the tjqmbb program , with the conceptual basis and technical detail fully described elsewhere,20 is a balance training modality based on applications of tai ji quan with a specific focus on training limits of stability and sensory integration .
eligible participants participated in a full 60-minute tjqmbb class session taught by a trained instructor twice per week for 48 consecutive weeks . in terms of the training protocol , each session began with tai ji quan - based movement warm - up exercises ( 510 minutes ) , followed by teaching and practicing the core components ( described in the following section ) ( 4045 minutes ) , and ending with a simple set of breathing exercises ( 35 minutes ) .
the training protocol involves a core set of adapted yang style22 tai ji quan - based forms with built - in practice variations and a subset of mini therapeutic movements aimed at stimulating and integrating musculoskeletal and sensory systems via performance of self - initiated tai ji quan movements .
exercise sessions were structured from an easy - to - difficult learning - and - practice progression with an emphasis on within - session practice integration of forms , variations of the forms , and mini movements . both seated and standing exercises were implemented , with seated exercises emphasizing weight shift , trunk rotation , transitioning from sit - to - stand and stand - to - sit , and standing exercises focusing on the features described in the following section . during each session
, participants practiced choreographed tai ji quan forms / movements ( eg , part wild horse s mane ) while engaging in controlled circular ankle sways ( ie , lateral , anterior posterior , medial
lateral together ) that moved the center of gravity progressively toward and near the edge of the base of support with planted feet ; trunk - driven rotational ( laterally and posteriorly ) weight shift ; plantar / dorsiflexion during transitioning between moves ; reactive and proactive ( anticipatory ) postural adjustments in response to self - induced perturbed actions on either fixed support or
change - in - support;25 and active and coordinated eye head hand movements . throughout the training and practice , emphasis was placed on ( 1 ) an interplay between stability ( static movements ) and instability ( self - induced movement perturbations ) in performing each form / move ; ( 2 ) functional ankle - based training by mimicking reaching , tilting , stepping , and turning tasks ; and ( 3 ) a variable approach that stressed practice variations in movement speeds , range of joint motion , movement directions and patterns , and base of foot support .
the primary outcome was limits of stability , which consisted of three indicators : ( 1 ) endpoint excursion ; ( 2 ) movement velocity ; and ( 3 ) directional control , assessed by computerized dynamic posturography ( balance master system ; neurocom , clackamas , or , usa ) .
endpoint excursion assesses the limits of self - initiated movements as participants shift or lean their center of gravity toward the theoretical limit ( 100% ) in eight prespecified target directions without loss of balance ( scores expressed as a percentage ; % los ) .
movement velocity assesses the average speed of the center of gravity movement from the center to the eight targets ( scores expressed as degrees / second ) .
directional control provides a measure of movement accuracy by comparing the amount of movement toward the target to the amount of extraneous movement ( scores expressed as % of 100 ) .
reliability of limits of stability has been established26 or shown in previous studies.21,27 in this study , 24-week test retest reliability ( correlation ) ranged from 0.520.64 ( 0.57 for endpoint excursion , 0.52 for movement velocity , and 0.64 for directional control ) .
secondary measures included physical performance measures of the : ( 1 ) timed up and go test28 and ( 2 ) 50-foot speed walk , adopted from the physical performance test.29 timed up and go measured the time ( in seconds ) taken to rise from a chair , walk 10 feet ( 3 m ) , return , and sit down , with a lower time indicating better mobility .
the 50-foot speed walk measured the time ( in seconds ) it took participants to walk as quickly as possible 25 feet out and 25 feet back .
the 6-month test retest reliability was 0.82 for timed up and go and 0.91 for the 50-foot walk test , respectively .
intervention outcomes were analyzed on a sample size of 145 participants who provided at least two data points ( baseline , 24-week , and/or 48-week follow - up ) .
descriptive statistics ( mean , standard deviation ) were performed to describe the study sample characteristics .
coefficient of variation was calculated for each variable across time as the ratio of standard deviation to the mean , multiplied by 100 .
minimal detectable change ( mdc ) scores were calculated for each of the limits of stability indicators to determine whether the change score was at or above the minimal level of detectible change .
mdc is based on the standard error of measurement and calculated at a 95% confidence interval ( mdc95 ) using the formula of :
standard error of measurementn1.96,(1 ) where the standard error of measurement is derived from the square root of the mean square error term in the repeated measures analysis of variance and n is the number of measurements used .
intervention effect on the primary and secondary outcomes was analyzed via latent growth curve analysis . in the latent curve analysis ,
the primary interest was on the following estimates : ( 1 ) slope means on each of three limits of stability indicators and ( 2 ) a slope - to - slope correlation between each of the limits of stability indicators and the two physical performance measures . given the single - group intervention design , change at 48 weeks from baseline was estimated for the indicators of endpoint excursion and directional control using the pooled estimates from prior studies.21,27 assuming an alpha level of 0.05 with 80% power to detect 7% los points difference in endpoint excursion and 8% of 100 points in directional control with an anticipated dropout rate of 30% for the 48-week intervention , a minimal sample size of 70 participants for the tjqmbb was planned .
all descriptive analyses including mdc scores were performed using spss version 17 ( spss inc . , chicago , il , usa ) and microsoft office excel software for windows ( microsoft corporation , redmond , wa , usa ) .
changes in the latent means of the limits of stability indicators and correlations of changes between limits of stability and physical performance measures were performed using mplus software ( v 6 ; muthn & muthn , los angeles , ca , usa).30
the major reasons for being determined ineligible were age ( n=13 ) , time conflict ( n=3 ) , or significant change in health ( n=2 ) .
in addition , six eligible participants ( 4% ) were removed because they attended only one session and provided no follow - up data .
the mean age at enrollment was approximately 75 years , 79% of the participants were women , and approximately 92% were caucasian . in all , 124 participants ( 85% ) reported having two or more chronic conditions , 70 ( 48% ) were taking two or more prescribed medications , and 73 ( 50% ) reported having fallen at least once in the previous 6 months , with about 25% of those having fallen two or more times .
a total of 98 participants ( 68% ) reported having some level of fear of falling .
of the total 145 participants , 21 ( 14% ) dropped out of the study during the 48-week intervention period , due primarily to reasons such as deterioration in medical conditions ( n=14 ) , change in health status ( n=5 ) , or relocation ( n=2 ) .
there were , however , no significant differences in baseline demographics and functional characteristics between the participants who completed the intervention and those who dropped out of the study ( completers : n=124 versus dropouts : n=21 ) .
the average number of class sessions attended per participant for the intervention ( a total of 96 sessions ) was 66 sessions ( range : 596 sessions ; median : 73 sessions ) for the whole sample ( n=145 , including dropouts [ n=21 ] ) compared to 73 sessions ( range : 2896 sessions ; median : 78 sessions ) for those who completed the 48-week intervention ( n=124 ) .
the percentage attendance for the intervention was 69% ( median : 76% ) for the whole sample ( n=145 ) and 76% ( median : 81% ) for the completers ( n=124 ) .
table 2 provides descriptive statistics ( mean , standard deviation ) for the three primary and two secondary outcome variables across the three measurement time points .
the observed means for each of the three limits of stability show a linear improvement over time .
change from baseline values were 17.21% los ( 32% ) for endpoint execution , 1.71 degrees / second ( 68% ) for movement velocity , and 12.41% of 100 ( 19% ) for directional control compared to mdc95 values , which were 16.88% los for endpoint excursion , 1.63 degrees / second for movement velocity , and 12.14% of 100 for directional control , respectively .
results of the latent growth analysis are presented in table 3 , which further indicates that there was a significant rate of change ( as reflected in latent linear slope means ) in the indicators of endpoint excursion , movement velocity , and directional control over the 48-week intervention period .
the analyses also show a significant small - to - moderate negative correlation ( indicating improvement ) between rate of change in each of the limits of stability indicators and the two physical performance measures over time ( table 3 )
. there were no significant adverse events attributable to the intervention observed during the intervention period .
three falls were reported during warm - up sessions , but the participants sustained no injuries and continued the classes .
the mean age at enrollment was approximately 75 years , 79% of the participants were women , and approximately 92% were caucasian . in all , 124 participants ( 85% ) reported having two or more chronic conditions , 70 ( 48% ) were taking two or more prescribed medications , and 73 ( 50% ) reported having fallen at least once in the previous 6 months , with about 25% of those having fallen two or more times .
a total of 98 participants ( 68% ) reported having some level of fear of falling .
of the total 145 participants , 21 ( 14% ) dropped out of the study during the 48-week intervention period , due primarily to reasons such as deterioration in medical conditions ( n=14 ) , change in health status ( n=5 ) , or relocation ( n=2 ) .
there were , however , no significant differences in baseline demographics and functional characteristics between the participants who completed the intervention and those who dropped out of the study ( completers : n=124 versus dropouts : n=21 ) . the average number of class sessions attended per participant for the intervention ( a total of 96 sessions ) was 66 sessions ( range : 596 sessions ; median : 73 sessions ) for the whole sample ( n=145 , including dropouts [ n=21 ] ) compared to 73 sessions ( range : 2896 sessions ; median : 78 sessions ) for those who completed the 48-week intervention ( n=124 ) .
the percentage attendance for the intervention was 69% ( median : 76% ) for the whole sample ( n=145 ) and 76% ( median : 81% ) for the completers ( n=124 ) .
table 2 provides descriptive statistics ( mean , standard deviation ) for the three primary and two secondary outcome variables across the three measurement time points .
the observed means for each of the three limits of stability show a linear improvement over time . change from baseline values were 17.21% los ( 32% ) for endpoint execution , 1.71 degrees / second ( 68% ) for movement velocity , and 12.41% of 100 ( 19% ) for directional control compared to mdc95 values , which were 16.88% los for endpoint excursion , 1.63 degrees / second for movement velocity , and 12.14% of 100 for directional control , respectively .
results of the latent growth analysis are presented in table 3 , which further indicates that there was a significant rate of change ( as reflected in latent linear slope means ) in the indicators of endpoint excursion , movement velocity , and directional control over the 48-week intervention period .
the analyses also show a significant small - to - moderate negative correlation ( indicating improvement ) between rate of change in each of the limits of stability indicators and the two physical performance measures over time ( table 3 ) .
there were no significant adverse events attributable to the intervention observed during the intervention period .
three falls were reported during warm - up sessions , but the participants sustained no injuries and continued the classes .
this is the very first study to evaluate the effect of a specifically tailored tai ji quan training program on improving limits of stability , an important prerequisite for performing many of the functional activities of daily living in older adults .
the results showed that 48 weeks of tjqmbb training significantly improved older adult limits of stability as reflected in increases in the indicators of movement excursion , velocity , and control , and that increased limits of stability were concomitantly associated with improved physical performance .
thus , with no significant adverse events during the study period , it appears that the intervention is an appropriate one for this at - risk population . while cross - sectional studies that showed that older adult practitioners of tai ji quan tended to exhibit better stability limits compared to nonpractitioners31,32 provided early nonintervention data on the potential of tai ji quan to enhance limits of stability , more recent intervention studies from the author s group that integrated limits of sway training demonstrated the benefit of this focused tai ji quan program for improving limits of stability in older adults and patients with parkinson s disease.21,27 in contrast , other tai ji quan - based studies , ranging from 4 to 12 months of intervention,33,34 have not shown significant improvements in postural stability measures in older adults .
the tjqmbb program differs from the programs in these other studies in a clinically important way in that this approach transforms traditional martial arts - based training into a therapeutically oriented training paradigm that specifically emphasizes the practice of deliberate , voluntarily controlled tai ji quan postural actions .
these actions include manipulation of the center of gravity movements , variations in the base of support , and adaptation training with reactive and proactive actions to self - induced perturbations , with the purpose of increasing the sway envelope and thereby expanding the limits of stability , with the ultimate goal of reducing the risk of falling .
although there are currently no guidelines for gauging clinically meaningful change in the measures of limits of stability , this 48-week , twice - per - week training schedule intervention appears to have provided a substantive change over time in the measures used in this study : 32% on endpoint excursion , 68% on movement velocity , and 19% on directional control .
improvements in these limits of stability indicators support the potential for the tjqmbb program to address problems of improper weight shifts that are observed in elderly people residing in long - term care.35 consistent with findings from a cross - sectional study,5 the results demonstrate that improved measures on limits of stability through this tai ji quan training in older adults was sufficiently sensitive to elicit change in clinical measures of balance and mobility , suggesting that training with tjqmbb offers the potential to improve functional activities and activities of daily living , including sit - to - stand , walking , turning , and stand - to - sit tasks .
the author s intervention approach linking martial - arts - based tai ji quan to clinical and functional training of balance in older adults offers some practical implications . from an applied perspective
, the training approach used in this study can be readily introduced in various settings .
for example , as an effective balance training modality , tjqmbb can be readily adopted in diverse communities for the purpose of preventing falls36,37 and in health care settings to assist patients with balance disorders and fall risk problems.21 uniquely different from all other existing tai ji quan - based programs , tjqmbb also has a specific , tailored clinical focus in that training incorporates therapeutic approaches such as closed and open kinetic chain movements;38 motor control mechanisms through manipulation of movement magnitude , speed , direction , and base of support ; and training of functional activities that take into account interactions between individuals , tasks at hand , and environmental constraints imposed on the tasks.23 these specific training features thus make the program amenable and applicable to clinical training and rehabilitation that address neuromuscular and movement disorders in patients with balance and gait problems and who are at high risk of falls .
the mechanism by which the training protocol improves the limits of stability indicators in this study was not explored and therefore remains unclear .
limits of stability is known to be influenced by a number of physiological and biomechanical factors,4,23 including lower extremity strength , range of ankle motion , and cutaneous mechanoreceptors in the feet,2 acting either alone or in combination . through integration of tai ji quan and physical therapy , the protocol in this study
puts great emphasis on controlled weight shifting and ankle movement sway , alternation between a narrow stance and a wide stance to continually change the base of support , rotational trunk - driven movements , and dorsiflexion and plantar flexion during movement transitioning .
these therapeutically tailored training features may have made an impact on important sensorimotor elements that contribute to enhanced limits of stability .
therefore , it is plausible that improvement in the limits of stability performance may be attributed to unmeasured improvements in flexion / extension ankle torques , the range of ankle motion , movement recovery strategies , or sensory integration features that are inherent in tjqmbb training . some of these mechanisms of action may be revealed by evaluating the kinematics of body movement or conducting kinetic analysis of these ankle swing - based static and dynamic movement exercises , thus offering a better understanding of the movement strategies and forces contributing to the intervention - induced change in limits of stability .
its design does not include a control condition , making it difficult to draw a firm conclusion regarding the true intervention effect of tjqmbb on limits of stability .
therefore , the results should be corroborated by future clinical randomized controlled trials . given the importance of plantarflexor muscle strength in limits of stability,10
another limitation is the lack of a measure of ankle muscle strength , which precludes the opportunity to examine the role of ankle strength in the observed improved limits of stability outcomes .
finally , the study used theoretical limits of stability values derived from computerized dynamic posturography that correspond to the maximum range in which center of gravity can be moved safely without changing the base of support.26 however , the capacity of stability limits may vary depending on the task performed;23 therefore , consideration of performance - based or functional limits of stability resembling real - world situations may be needed in future assessments.39
the tjqmbb program , a transformed protocol of traditional tai ji quan training approaches , was found to improve limits of stability in older adults , and the improved limits of stability were associated with improved functional performance . within the limitations of the current study , the combined results provide promising preliminary data that suggest the potential utility of tjqmbb for increasing limits of stability in older adults , thereby enhancing functional performance of habitual daily activities . | pubmed |
Why did a green light appear white when looked out of the corner of my eye? [closed]
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The other day I saw a green light emitted from some source far away, and I realised that if I looked at it out of the corner of my eye I perceived it completely white. What is the explanation for this? Should this be more of a biology of the human eye question perhaps?
Take a look at <https://xkcd.com/1080/large/>. Red and green-sensing cones are mostly found in the center of your visual field. Interestingly, this is not true for blue-sensing cones. It's also not true for rods, which detect black-and-white, so the reason the light appeared white is likely that it was picked up mostly by rods.
| stackexchange/physics |
Titration of NaOH with acetic acid
During a titration lab where 0.1 N of NaOH is added to 20 mL of acetic acid with the same concentration, the equivalence point occurred after adding about 70ish milliliters of NaOH (different peers acquired different values, ranging from 65 mL and 75 mL of NaOH). This completely puzzled me, because after calculating a theoretical titration curve, my equivalence point occurred after adding about 20 mL of NaOH.
My teacher could not explain why this happened, except that acetic acid can act as a buffer – but how do you calculate this and incorporate it into a theoretical titration curve? I just don't understand how 20 mL of acetic acid would require 70 mL of NaOH to neutralise it (both have the same concentration).
It can't happen. Neutrality in aqueous solution means equal quantities H+ and OH-; since your solution is unlikely to have a net electric charge, so too must your anion and cation quantities be equal. Buffering from acetic acid being a weak acid is meaningless if you don't have other anions around to make up that balance.
Solution is electrically neutral:
[H+] + [Na+] = [OH-] + [AcO-]
Solution is pH neutral:
[H+] = [OH-]
Substitute the latter in the former, subtract, you can only get:
[Na+] = [AcO-]
If the concentrations of both solutions were the same, and you're titrating by adding both to the same volume, you can only have equal concentrations if you add equal volumes.
If this was not the case (as you describe) we have to violate one of our assumptions:
* Solution actually had a net electric charge (you're doing the titration in space and you're bombarded by beta radiation, i.e. unlikely)
* Solution was not truly neutral. Maybe someone calibrated your pH meters wrong, maybe everyone titrated with a faucet while texting and over-shot by a factor of 3.
* Contamination with a strong acid added a variable we don't know about to the ion balance.
* Most likely, the solutions were not truly the same concentration. See if your teacher made her NaOH solution from solid NaOH that she let sit around in open air. It can pick up a lot of moisture from the air, i.e. it's hygroscopic, and before you know it the weight you're measuring on a balance is half water.
| stackexchange/chemistry |
intensity modulated radiation therapy ( imrt ) is a technique that delivers high levels of radiation to the tumor and provides sharp dose gradients to spare surrounding healthy tissues .
the introduction of image - guided radiotherapy ( igrt ) through various on - board imaging devices assists in correcting daily patient set - up and reduces a portion of the uncertainty . typically , the irradiated area is larger than gross tumor volume ( gtv ) . a clinical target volume ( ctv )
is created by adding a margin to account for microscopic extensions . to account for inter- and intra - fraction anatomy changes and organ motion , a planning target volume ( ptv )
one possible method to increase dose to the tumor while decreasing damage to surrounding tissue could be to reduce the ptv margin by creating adapted
alternately , adapted plans can maintain the dose to the target while decreasing the dose to the surrounding healthy tissues .
the most frequent usage of the term adaptive radiation therapy ( art ) for cancer patients refers to changing the radiation delivery , taking into account
slow or systematic variations of patient anatomy ( e.g. weight loss , tumor growth or shrinkage , etc . ) .
art may be further complicated with functional imaging to assess tumor response as the driver for changes . in general , art is a therapy where information gained during the course of treatment is used to alter treatment .
the delivery is modified for treatment fractions following the day when the necessity to adapt has been detected .
there have been several interesting reviews published on this topic , including those by wu et al . and kupelian et al .
online adaptation , when the patient 's delivery is modified after imaging but prior to delivery , has an advantage of accounting for both systematic and random anatomy changes . clearly , it should be performed quickly , and to this end there have been advances in shortening the adaptation time .
helical tomotherapy 's ability to generate megavoltage ( mv ) computed tomography ( ct ) images is mainly used to provide proper daily patient positioning .
past studies have shown that although their quality is surpassed by that of kilovoltage ( kv ) ct images , the mvct images produced by a helical tomotherapy unit are adequate for image guidance in radiotherapy and can be used reliably for re - contouring .
this property makes it possible to create adapted plans that account for changes in anatomy . in our clinic ,
lung cancer patients sometimes required re - planning due to considerable tumor shrinkage and important weight loss in the neck accompanied by changes in shape and position of organs at risk , which warranted creation of a new plan in the head and neck cancer patients .
there have been various studies done previously on adapting plans for shrinking tumor volume and patient weight loss.[451719 ] in this case study , we are optimizing the plan of a bladder cancer patient on a daily basis using pre - treatment mvct studies in order to simulate online adaptive planning .
this patient caused concern to our radiation therapists due to seemingly large inter - fraction variation in shapes and volumes of the bladder and rectum . while it is not yet feasible to efficiently provide online adaptation clinically , this simple study provides some insight into whether or not adaptation provides substantial benefits .
the patient reported in this study was treated on the hi - art helical tomotherapy ( tomotherapy inc . , madison , wi , usa ) unit at our center .
this 84-year - old male was diagnosed with high - grade transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder .
he received eight weekly cycles of carboplatin chemotherapy at 65 mg / m body surface area : two cycles were delivered prior to the start of radiation therapy and the remaining six cycles were concurrent with radiation treatment .
the patient was set up in the supine position for his ct simulation 2 weeks before the start of radiation .
the structures for initial treatment planning were contoured by a radiation oncologist using pinnacle ( version 9.0 , philips , amsterdam , the netherlands ) , and included the rectum , penile bulb , right and left femurs , the external contour , and four targets .
two ctvs were delineated : one to receive a total of 60 gy ( ctv 60 ) and another to receive at least 45 gy over the course of 30 fractions ( ctv 45 ) as shown in figure 1 . the ctv 45 encompassed the bladder with a variable margin , as well as the prostate .
the ctv 60 was within the ctv 45 , and encapsulated the gtv and possible microscopic extensions throughout the bladder and prostate .
each ctv was expanded by a three - dimensional margin of 10 mm to form the ptv 45 and ptv 60 .
tomotherapy treatment planning was completed and verified by delivery quality assurance with the arccheck ( sun nuclear , melbourne , fl , usa ) 3 days in advance of treatment . mvct image from fraction 1 with contours of the ctv 60 ( black ) , ctv 45 ( green ) , and rectum ( purple ) the patient used in this study was selected because considerable changes in the inter - fraction anatomy were observed early in the treatment by mvct , as demonstrated in figure 2 .
much of this was a consequence of inconsistent bladder and rectal filling , as well as gas .
occasionally , the patient 's small bowel was found protruding into the ctv 60 at the time of imaging . to remedy this ,
the patient was instructed to drink water and release gas before being re - imaged 30 minutes later .
there were three occurrences where the patient was imaged twice for set - up prior to treatment , and one occurrence where he was imaged three times .
two images of the same slice from ( a ) fraction 2 and ( b ) fraction 3 . in ( a ) the rectum ( purple ) occupies little area , and the bladder is large and shifted in caudal direction . in ( b )
the rectum is quite large , while the bladder is smaller and shifted in cranial direction the images for this retrospective study were acquired through the daily pre - treatment mvct scans on our hi - art unit .
the tomotherapy planned adaptive software ( version 4.0.4 ) was used to create merged images .
as kvct slices are separated by a distance of 3 mm , the merged images must interpolate between the 6-mm mvct slices to create 3-mm slices .
the merged images replace the segment of the kvct planning study with the 40-cm field of view of the mvct study .
the original kvct contours were overlaid on the merged images , and then manually altered to correspond to the daily anatomical changes . although the boney structures remained the same , the rectum and ctv contours had to be redone for each fraction . for each fraction , the merged studies and structure set
were then exported to pinnacle , where the ptvs were created by introducing a three - dimensional 10-mm margin to the ctvs because in the current version of tomotherapy it is possible to create only two - dimensional margins to the structures .
the planned adaptive software ( tomotherapy inc . ) was used to calculate the dose distribution that would be produced in the patient on each fraction by using radiation fluence from the original plan and the merged kvct / mvct study with its adapted structure contours .
this procedure allows for the evaluation of the expected dose delivered to the patient with changing anatomy without plan adaptation .
the sum of these daily verification doses over the course of 30 fractions gives the total dose to the regions of interest ( rois ) . at this point ,
new plans were created on tomotherapy planning station ( version 4.0.4 ) using the adapted structure sets and merged studies .
the original optimization protocol was used ; all constraint parameters were kept the same as those in the initial plan .
the cumulative dose as simulated for using daily adaptation procedure was determined by summing the planned dose for each roi ( divided by the total number of fractions in order to mimic a single fraction delivery with each plan ) calculated by every adapted plan .
the dose volume histogram ( dvh ) data for both the adapted plans and the verification dose calculation procedure applied to plans are shown in table 1 . the dose delivered to the rois without any adaptation was evaluated through post - treatment verification dose calculation .
the dose is higher than both the original planned dose and the predicted dose , with online adaptation in all aspects .
the cumulative dose to the rectum produced with daily adaptation afforded a slightly higher d15 ( 2.8% ) and d25 ( 0.9% ) than the original plan .
the increased d15 and d25 display linear relationships ( r = 0.76 and r = 0.60 , respectively ) with the percentage of the rectal volume that overlapped with the ptv 60 , as shown in figure 3 .
the adapted plans displayed an equivalent d35 to the rectum and lowered the d50 from the original plan by 2.7% .
cumulative doses ( gy ) to the rectum and planning target volumes ( ptvs ) for the original plan , as evaluated for changed anatomy with no plan adaptation , and for the daily adapted plans change in dose to 15% and 25% of the rectum ( d15 and d25 ) as a function of the percentage of the rectal volume that overlapped with the planning target volume receiving 60 gy ( ptv 60 ) random anatomy changes continued throughout the complete treatment .
the volume of the ctv 45 varied from 234 to 416 cm , with an average of 326 47 ( sd ) cm .
the rectal volume ranged from 147 to 395 cm , averaging 201 55 cm .
there was no correlation between the ctv 45 and the volume of rectum on any given day .
the percentage of the rectum that overlapped with the ptv 60 remained random throughout treatment , as shown in figure 4 .
percent of the rectal volume that overlapped with the planning target volume receiving 60 gy over the course of treatment daily contouring took approximately 30 minutes per fraction , while the remainder of the re - planning process took approximately 90 minutes . over the course of 30 fractions
, it would be expected to take an extra 60 hours of resources to provide online adaptation with current technology and processes .
in this case study , we assessed the use of helical tomotherapy 's mvct imaging capacity to create daily adaptive plans that would further tailor specific radiation therapy treatments for one individual patient . with the current technology ,
often , a single adapted plan can be effective if anatomy is changing at a consistent , predictable rate .
however , daily adaptation to account for anatomy changes may become feasible as technology advances .
this study suggests that online adaptation may be beneficial , but it seems that adaptation need not be done at every fraction .
our goal in the adaptation procedure was to maintain the same dose to the ptv 45 and ptv 60 , while sparing the rectum .
the evaluation with the planned adaptive software used daily images with contours of the day and the radiation fluence of the original plan .
we have not found any underdose [ quantified by the d95 parameter in table 1 ] of either ptv 45 or ptv 60 .
this is the result of the volume shrinkage of both targets by 3% for the ptv 60 and by 9% for the ptv 45 on average per fraction , so that the planned radiation fluence could provide the prescribed dose coverage to the ptvs even if they change their positions with respect to the original plan .
however , rectal sparing was different as the patient 's anatomy no longer matched the plan .
this resulted in higher doses to the rectum , as shown in the no adaptation column of table 1 , due to large variations in the rectum position with respect to the ptv 45 and ptv 60 .
the daily adaptations resulted in very close d95 values of the ptv 45 for the initial plan and a summation of adapted plans because the normalization at d95 for the prescription dose was used both for the initial plan and each adapted plan .
adaptation improved upon some aspects , displaying a lower d35 and d50 for the rectum .
the increases of d15 and d25 from the original plan were unavoidable with the given anatomy changes .
we found no correlation between the ctv 45 and the volume of rectum on any given day .
the higher dose proved to be a direct result of a larger portion of the rectum overlapping with the high dose region of the ptv 60 as shown in figure 3 .
the rectum overlap data with the ptv 60 [ figure 4 ] have a large spread , but a distinct , negatively sloped trend because usually , as the treatment progresses , the patients have a mild diarrhea that effectively decreases the rectal volume and its overlap with the ptv .
a large ptv margin ( 10 mm ) combined with high mobility of the rectum leads to increased irradiation of healthy organs in radiotherapy for bladder cancer .
while there may not be a considerable benefit to the patient in this case , the same can not be said for all circumstances . in the treatment of this particular patient ,
dvh parameters in the initial plan for the rectum were well below radiation therapy oncology group ( rtog ) tolerance levels , while in other cases ( where sparing of sensitive organs is very close to tolerance levels ) the adaptation procedure may be crucially important .
daily adaptation may be more relevant for patients with plans that include sharper dose gradients , often seen with tumors located in the head and neck or spinal areas . with these cases ,
a slight anatomy change left unaccounted for could prove critical to the surrounding healthy tissue .
our group is continuing this work on a larger patient base so that the study becomes more comprehensive .
there are tangible benefits to online adaptation , although such adaptation is currently too time - consuming to be practical .
until the planning process is shortened to a more reasonable time , a possible intermediate step could be adapting plans for the first few fractions where the patient 's anatomy is considerably different . as
treatment progresses , therapists could use whichever plan best fits the patient for that day .
we explored the potential benefits of daily online plan adaptation using the mvct capability of helical tomotherapy on a bladder patient .
while the dose to the rectum and targets was acceptable in all cases , online adaptation managed to provide a lower dose to healthy tissue than no adaptive planning at all , while maintaining the correct dose to the targets .
further study is required on a larger patient database in order to develop recommendations on the type of patient - specific parameters or some combinations of parameters that can serve as a robust indication for plan adaptation .
currently , online plan adaptation with igrt is too time - consuming to be done on a clinical basis .
however , with the constant increase in speed and processing power of technology , it is likely that it will one day become a reality . | pubmed |
Harry Potter 1. prologue
Titre :Draco Malfoy à la campagne
Résumé :Draco malfoy se fait envoyer par son père à la campagne, là il va devoir travailler dans un orphelinat où il tombera amoureux du propriétaire. Slash.
NDA : Je ne sais pas comment j'ai pu avoir cette idée lol… mais je voulais vous en faire part… vous me direz ce que vous en pensez avec une petite reviews… me ferait grand plaisir…. : ) bonne lecture!!!!!!
Prologue Pov Draco
Pensiez –vous me voir moi Draco Malfoy en train de travailler dans une ferme? Hey oui … Mon père a eu la brillante idée de me faire faire du bénévolat dans un orphelinat en pleine campagne et en plus les vaches il n'en manque pas.
Il fait une chaleur mortelle et ce n'est pas bon pour ma peau. Mais le propriétaire n'a pas voulu m'entendre, tiens justement le voilà.
« Monsieur Malfoy, il est l'heure de dîner vous pouvez entrer. »
Je soupire et je le suis jusqu'à la maison de plusieurs étages, plein de gamins y courent et risque de nous foncer dedans.
« Alors comment c'est passé votre première journée de travail? »
« Elle était s.u.p.e.r » Dis-je sarcastique.
Monsieur Potter s'arrêta et se retourna vers moi. Il est plus grand que moi, ses yeux sont vert émeraude et en plus ce qui fait son charme c'est sa petite barbe autour de sa bouche.
J'ai le goût tout de suite de lui avouer que je suis gay mais j'ignore ce que serait sa réaction alors il vaut mieux attendre et observer.
« Écoutez Monsieur Malfoy, j'ignore encore pour quel motif votre père vous a envoyé ici, mais je peux vous dire que vous n'allez plus être le même en sortant d'ici. »
Alors là j'étais sur le cul, personne mais alors personne ne m'avais jamais parlé sur ce ton, c'est vrai que j'avais l'habitude d'avoir tout ce que je voulais et ça sans que je lève le petit doigt.
Mais ce que j'ignorais était que j'allais apprendre une autre façon de vivre que celle que j'avais apprise avec mes parents.
Nous rentrâmes dans la maison et nous rendîmes à la cuisine où déjà plusieurs enfants y étaient installés.
Je m'assis près d'une jeune fille qui devait avoir mon âge et qui me regardait avec curiosité.
Une chose me surprit quand je fis le geste de remplir mon assiette les jeunes avaient fermés les yeux et tenaient la main de son voisin.
C'est alors que le propriétaire de l'orphelinat commença une prière.
Non, je ne peux pas le croire, je ne vais pas être obliger de faire une prière à chaque dîner, déjeuner ou collation.
À la maison on ne faisait jamais la prière avant de manger pourquoi est-ce que je la ferais maintenant?
Quand ils eurent terminés je me servis sans dire un mot mais je sentais très clairement le regard inquisiteur d'Harry.
Je sens que je vais avoir une conversation avec lui après dîner.
Justement cela arriva, quand je montais dans ma chambre il me suivit pour fermer derrière lui.
« Draco, je sais bien que tu es ici que pour faire du bénévolat mais j'aimerais quand même que tu te conformes aux règlements. » Commença –t-il.
Ceci était une chose que je voulais parler avec lui les règlements, j'étais pas d'accord avec quelques uns surtout celui du couvre feu.
« Monsieur, je suis pas d'accord avec quelques uns des règlements et j'aimerais en discuter. » Lui dis-je il me regarda et s'assit sur mon lit.
« Je t'écoute Draco et tu peux m'appeler Harry. »
« Monsieur, je suis pas d'accord avec le couvre feu, j'ai prévus beaucoup de chose cet été avec des copains et je ne veux surtout pas les compromettre, alors je vous demande bien de vouloir me laisser jusqu'à deux heures du matin. » demandais-je.
« Non, mais une heure du matin sera plus convenable et je voudrais savoir où est-ce que tu vas pour pouvoir être là au bon moment si tu as un problème. »
Je savais qu'il allait y avoir un compromis alors j'acceptais.
« Tu as autres choses à me dire Draco? »
« Oui, je ne veux surtout pas faire la prière avec vous. Je n'ai jamais fait de prière et je ne vois pas pourquoi je la ferais parce que je n'y crois pas du tout. » Lui expliquais-je.
Harry soupira et me regarda.
« D'accord mais je veux quand même que vous fermiez les yeux parce que si vous faîtes pas semblant au moins de la faire les autres voudront sûrement faire comme toi. »
Encore une fois j'acceptais.
Alors Harry sortit me laissant seul, je regardais autour de moi et me demandait bien qui serait mon colocataire de chambre.
Dès que j'allais prendre ma douche, un garçon d'environ 15 ans entra dans la chambre et alla s'installer sur son lit sans me parler. Il était brun avec le teint un peu hâlé, il était sûrement Italien et il n'était pas très grand.
Je m'approchais de lui pour me présenter.
« Je m'appelle Draco malfoy. » lui dis-je main tendue.
Il me regarda et se présenta ensuite.
« Moi Blaise Zabini. »
Zabini ce nom de famille me disait vaguement quelque chose mais je ne m'en formalisais guère longtemps et allait prendre ma douche.
Entre moi et Blaise fut un commencement d'une grande amitié, il m'aida pour les tâches ménagères que je n'avais pas l'habitude de faire chez moi, puisque j'avais toujours eu des servantes et le premier soir de sortie avec mes potes eu lieu deux semaines après mon arrivée.
Fin du prologue…. Alors j'ai essayé de faire du point de vue de Draco et je crois que j'ai bien réussis : ) qu'est-ce que vous en dîtes… quelques fois je vais faire du point de vue Harry mais très rarement parce que le personnage principal est Draco. Le prochain chapitre serait la sortie avec ses copains… : ) et je crois bien que je vais faire le point de vue d'Harry avant son opinion à l'arrivé du jeune blond :) je crois que c'est mon plus long prologue : ) trois pages WOW!!! Lol Une petite reviews Bye bye kisou
2. Chapter 1
Disclaimer : rien ne m'appartient tous est à JK Rowling… sauf l'orphelina et les enfants que Harry prends soin m'appartienne sauf Draco, Blaise, Ron, Hermione et Ginny. Qui feront partit de la vie d'Harry.
Chapitre un Pov Harry
Je sens que cet été va être très mouvementé, déjà que j'ai un nouveau employé qui travail bénévolement à cause de son père Monsieur Malfoy je le connaissais depuis un temps déjà, mes parents faisaient affaire avec lui et quand j'étais enfant je le voyais souvent chez moi.
La conversation que j'ai eue avec Lucius Malfoy avait été brève.
Flash back
J'étais dans la cuisine à ce moment là, un des enfants est venu me dire qu'un monsieur aux cheveux longs et blonds m'attendait dans le salon. Alors je ne l'avais pas fait attendre, je n'avais aucune idée en premier que se serait lui mais je fus très surpris.
Monsieur Malfoy qu'elle me vaut l'honneur de votre visite. Lui demandais-je.
très bien monsieur Potter, je suis très heureux de vous revoir et aussi vous voir en si bonne santé.
Je lui souris il se souviens de moi malgré le fait que lui et mais parents même si ils travaillaient ensemble se détestaient.
Moi aussi sa plaisir de vous voir, alors pourquoi cette visite? Je suis sur que ce n'est pas une visite de courtoisie.
C'est vrai. J'ai un fils avec qui j'ai beaucoup de difficulté à ce qu'il soit discipliné et il est un peu rebelle. J'aimerais le faire un peu travailler et que vous y jeter un coup d'œil.
Très bien, j'accepte mais il travaillera avec les employés bénévolement, je n'est pas assez d'argent pour pouvoir le payé.
C'est parfait pour moi, alors vous acceptez?
Oui.
Nous nous serrâmes les mains pour conclure l'affaire et me dit que son fils arrivera demain matin par limousine.
Fin du flash.
La limousine noire attira tous les enfants à l'extérieur, eu qui na jamais vue quelques choses de luxurieux, un jeune homme tout aussi blond que son père sortit de la voiture, je suis sous le choc vraiment je peux pas le croire, il est très portrait à son père et aussi arrogant aussi.
Vous êtes le bienvenu au pensionnat Potter, Monsieur Malfoy. Salua Harry.
Draco m'a fait qu'un signe de tête et m'a suivit à l'intérieur.
Je lui expliqua les règlements de la maison et je lui ais dit qu'il aurait des tâches ménagères à faire.
C'était à ce moment là qu'il se rebella.
NON HORS DE QUESTION JE NE VEUX PAS FAIRE DE TÂCHE MÉNAGÈRES. JE SUIS SUR QUE MON PÈRE M'A PAS ENVOYÉ ICI POUR FAIRE CELA. Avait –il crié
J'ai soupiré en entendant cette tirade, je m'attendais à cela et sans dire un mot je lui montrai sa chambre.
Plusieurs semaines plus tard.
J'entends cogner à la porte de ma chambre et le jeune malfoy entra.
Monsieur Potter!
Oui.
Hum… je vais à une sortit avec mes amis, et c'est au night club le plus populaire de Londre, Sexy boy…
Le bar Gay? Lui demandais-Je
Oui.
D'accord. N'oublie pas couvre-feu une heure du matin. Lui rappelais-je.
Je le vis hocher la tête et il sortit.
Maintenant j'ai un gros problème moi aussi j'y allais.
Faudrait que je me fonde dans sur la piste.
Fin du chapitre un.
Alors qu'est-ce que vous en pensez? Moi j'ai adorés l'écrire.
Reviews please…
Merci …
oOoOo Black siri oOoOo
3. Chapter 2
Disclaimer : Rien ne m'appartient c'est dommage snif... Parce que je suis sur que moi le slash serait très présent lol….
Titre : Draco malfoy à la campagne.
Résumé : Draco malfoy ce fait envoyer par son père à la campagne ou il va devoir travailler dans un orphelinat ou il tombera amoureux du propriétaire. Slash.
Chapitre deux : Pov Draco et Harry
**POV DRACO **
Sa fait une demi heure que je suis près et que j'attends mon ami sur la véranda. Je regarde ma montre et il est déjà 20 h 30. C'est à ce moment là que je vois une BMW entrer dans la cour. Je sors et j'embarque immédiatement dans la voiture.
Mon pote Théo me souri et je le regarda. Il a beaucoup changé malgré le fait que cela faisait que quelques semaines que je ne l'avais pas vue.
Il avait décidé de coupés ses longs cheveux bruns et les avaient maintenant très court.
Tes hyper sexy comme sa. Lui dis-je.
Théo me souris, c'est vrai j'avais jamais remarqué que mon meilleur ami était aussi sexy et ce que je me souviennes il l'était aussi quand il avait les cheveux long.
Merci ! j'espérais que tu aimerais parce que je l'ai fais un peu pour toi.
M'avoua Théo. Je fus très surprit par cette déclaration mais je m'en formalisa guère retourna mon attention sur le paysage.
Ce fut quinze minutes plus tard que nous arrivons tous les deux au night club ou Théo eux beaucoup de difficulté à se garer. À l'intérieure nous y trouvâmes nos amis , ce night club était très ambiant, une grande piste de danse était au milieu et autour des tables rondes ou pouvaient s'asseoir plusieurs personnes.
Théo alla au bar ou il commanda ma boisson préféré le sexe on the beach c'est toujours cette boisson que je prends quand j'arrive et après je prends des boissons plus forte.
Je m'installes près de Roch qui me regarde à la dérobée.
Et bien Dray ta fais quoi pour avoir tout ces muscles. Ce moqua-t-il de moi.
J'avais toujours été l'air un peu frêle, je ne jouais à aucun sport et parce que cela j'étais un peu paresseux.
Bon je crois que tes au courant que je travaille dans un orphelinat bénévolement a cause de mon père. Il y a une ferme et donc je dois lever des bêles de foins, hum… tout les trucs qui sont lourds ces moi qu'il les faits. Parce qu'il semble que je suis le plus fort.
Maintenant oui, Me dit Roch touchant mes pectoraux.
Je frisonne au contacte de sa main et lui le sens.
Il me fait un de ses sourires charmeurs que tous les mecs en tombe amoureux mais mon cœur est déjà pris.
Je regarde sur la piste de danse et je fus très surpris, en faite j'en tombai presque sur le cul d'y voir le proprio ce déchaîner sur la piste de danse.
J'Y CROIS PAS L'IDIOT EST VENU ICI JUSTE POUR ME SURVEILLER JE VAIS ALLER LE VOIR DIRE CE QUE JE PENSE!...
Je me leva en vitesse et me dirigea vers lui en grande enjambée.
En même pas dix secondes j'étais devant lui et lui se déhanchais devant.
Il avait un corps à se damné et il faisait exprès non parce que là j'avais une très grande érection.
QU'EST-CE QUE VOUS FAÎTES ICI ? lui demandais-je
Harry se retourna vers moi et fut surpris de me voir.
Il ne m'avait pas remarqué? Alors il me prit le bras et me sortit de la piste de danse pour aller dans un coin plus tranquille.
Du coin l'œil je vis mes copains rigoler et là j'imaginais tous ce qu'ils pourraient se dire.
Le petit Dray c'est fait un copain et en plus, plus vieux que lui. Maintenant il va avoir plus d'expérience.
En faite, je crois même que se serait seulement Roch qui parlerais les autres trop entraîne de boire.
Nous sommes très proche l'un de l'autre et je suis sur qu'il pourrait sentir son érection.
Écoute Draco, je suis venu ici parce que j'ai été invité, je suis gay moi aussi alors ….
C'est en ce moment là que je perdis tous contrôle de moi je ne savais pas ce que j'avais c'était comme une attraction.
Je l'embrassai à pleine bouche, mais ce ne fut que courte durée puisque je sentis une main sur mon épaule et me bouscula.
J'ai vu les yeux d'Harry et j'y ai vu de la peur.
TES QUI TOI?
Heu je… heu… tes qui toi d'abord.
Je suis le petit ami d'Harry.
Se grand gaillard était le petit ami du proprio, merde dans quoi est-ce que je me suis embarqué encore.
Je sentis Harry changé de place ce mettant devant moi.
**POV HARRY **
Je me mets entre mon petit ami actuelle et mon coup de foudre.
Seamus, stp. Ce n'est qu'un ami.
- UN AMI QUI T'EMBRASSE OUI….
Je sais qu'il ne va pas me résister et je sens très bien que je vais passé une de ses nuits de cauchemar.
Draco ne me lâchais pas des yeux, je voyais très bien qu'il ne comprenait rien mais je ne pouvais rien lui expliqué pas devant Seamus.
Je partis donc avec Seamus sur la piste de danse et je laissai Draco encore sous le choc.
Je crois même que Draco partis après cette scène et comme je l'imaginais la nuit n'avait été que cauchemar.
Seamus est brutale et avait toujours été brutale. J'ai rencontrés Seamus dans cadre d'un projet pour les enfants de mon orphelinat. J'ai eu la mal chance d'accepter le contrat.
En faite c'était que j'avais besoin d'argent pour pouvoir payé la maison, habillé les enfants etc… Sur le contrat était écrit que je devais sortir avec lui en tant qu'amoureux transi et coucher avec lui.
Je retourna à la maison ou les enfants étaient déjà entraîne de manger.
Je sentais tous leur regards vers moi et je sentais leur inquiétude surtout les plus vieux. Je monta sans un regard vers eux et alla me laver.
Quand j'eus terminée, je décidai d'aller voir Draco mais celui-ci n'était pas dans sa chambre. Je retourna dans la cuisine et vit que Blaise y était.
Blaise est-ce que tu aurais vu Draco? Lui demandais-je
Non, il n'est pas rentré hier soir Pourquoi?
MON DIEU ! J'espère qu'il n'a rien fait de stupide.
Je me demandais si je devais appeler son père ou non?
Je décida que j'allais gardé cette soirée pour moi et aller le chercher.
Mais quand j'allais justement sortir je le vis entré.
Fin du chapitre ne pas tuer l'auteur lol…
4. Chapter 3
Titre : Draco malfoy à la campagne
Disclaimer :
Harry et Draco : ELLE EST DE RETOUR SAUVE QUI PEUT !!!
Siri : et oui je suis de retour pour martyriser les personnages qui ne m'appartiennent pas.
NDA : PARDON, PARDON, je suis désolée si je n'ai pas Updater c'est que j'ai une très bonne excuse, je travaillais et j'avais une panne d'inspiration et j'ai commencé plein d'autre fics que je vais updater bientôt… mais j'aime mieux faire la fic aux complet avant de la mettre sur voilà mes excuses…
LISEZ SI VOUS POUVEZ M'AIDER SE SERAI SUPER. J'ai un gros problème avec fanfiction … je ne reçois pas les Alertes des Auteurs que j'aime et je ne sais pas pourquoi pourtant tout le monde les reçoit alors si quelqu'un peut m'aider …. Comment arranger cela se serait super… :) Merci d'avance et Bonne lecture !!!!
Chapitre trois
Draco arrêta de tourner en rond dans la ville et décida de retourner au bar où ils étaient allé la veille et appela à l'orphelinat.
**11 h 30 À L'orphelinat **
Harry Potter était assit sur son canapé énervé du comportement de Draco la veille mais inquiet pour le blond.
Il se leva et fit les cents pas. Le téléphone sonna et Harry se précipita vers celui-ci priant que cela soit Draco.
Oui Allô?
Hum… Harry je …. Je suis encore au bar et je n'ai pas de moyen pour rentrer à l'orphelinat est-ce que tu peux venir me chercher?
Le cœur d'Harry avait fait un bon dans sa poitrine, il était heureux qu'il ne soit rien arrivé à Draco sinon il était sûr que le père de celui-ci lui aurait fait payer.
Harry prit son manteau et alla avertir Hagrid qu'il partait pour quelques minutes.
Quinze minutes plus tard il arrivait au bar où Draco l'attendait sur le trottoir.
Monte, est-ce que ça va ? Demanda Harry.
Non.
**POV D'HARRY **
Quand je vis Draco sur le trottoir en train de m'attendre devant le bar, je fus sous le choc, vraiment il était sexy, c'était peut-être mal placé comme pensée à ce moment là mais il ne m'aidait pas du tout. Il était débraillé, les cheveux en bataille, le teint pâle et les vêtements en désordre.
Draco regardait le sol et quand il vit la voiture il embarqua. Nous restons sans rien dire, évitant le sujet d'hier soir, Draco m'a embrassé je me demande ce qu'il en pense maintenant, sûrement pas grands choses.
Je devrais peut-être arrêter la voiture et avoir une conversation avec lui ? Tout lui expliquer pour Seamus ? Parce que je suis sûr qu'il se pose des questions.
Alors j'arrête la voiture et lui me regarda étrangement.
Draco il faut qu'on parle! Lui annonçais-je.
De quoi ? me dit-il innocemment.
De Seamus.
Ça ne me regarde pas. Me dit-il
Je fus légèrement choqué, mais je m'abstiens de commentaire.
Je vais t'en parler quand même. Lui dis-je.
Je m'assis confortablement pour pouvoir mieux le regarder et je commençais.
Seamus n'est pas un petit ami très doux. À ces paroles Draco me regarda sans comprendre. En fait moi et seamus n'est pas une relation comme les autres. J'ai comme signé un contrat avec le diable. Lui expliquais-je
Je pris une profonde inspiration et continuait.
J'avais besoin d'argent pour les enfants de l'orphelinat, j'en manquais alors pour un projet j'ai dû signer avec lui mais avec une condition, que je sorte avec lui et que nous ayons des relations sexuelles.
J'étais vraiment gêné, je n'avais jamais pensé de le dire à quelqu'un quand j'ai signé le contrat et maintenant Draco me regardait avec pitié. Je ne voulais pas de sa pitié tout ce que je voulais était ses bras mais ça c'était pas couru d'avance.
Le silence s'éternisait, moi j'attendais une réponse mais Draco semblait vouloir rester muet alors nous repartîmes, nous arrivâmes à l'orphelinat à 12 et quart. Je le suivis des yeux tandis qu'il montait à l'étage sans me regarder ni m'adresser la parole.
Fin du POV D'Harry
Draco alla prendre une douche et quand il sortit il vit Blaise assit sur son lit l'attendant.
Salut Draco ça te dit une promenade à cheval ?
Non, excuse moi tout ce que je veux c'est dormir, je n'ai pas dormit de la nuit et j'ai besoin de sommeil.
Blaise soupira et sortit de la chambre.
Draco se coucha emmitouflé dans ses couvertures et s'endormit automatiquement.
La journée se passa comme cela, Draco ne se leva guère pour aller souper c'est alors qu'Harry prit un plateau repas et l'amena dans la chambre du blond.
Il cogna à la porte mais ne recevant aucune réponse, il entra, il vit que le blond était encore couché alors il mit le plateau sur la commode et s'assit sur le bord du lit pour réveiller doucement le jeune malfoy.
Draco… Murmura Harry. Draco…
Il le secoua légèrement et le blond grogna.
Laisse moi dormir encore quelques minutes.
Draco il faut que tu manges.
Le blond se retourna doucement, Harry le trouva mignon les yeux pleins de sommeil et la voix rauque d'avoir trop dormit.
je n'ai pas faim.
Il faut que tu manges un peu. Lui dit-il.
Le blond soupira et s'assit sur le bord du lit près d'Harry qui sentait la chaleur de son corps.
Mais la sonnette le repris, il déposa le plateau et descendit.
Quand il ouvrit il eu une grande surprise.
Monsieur Malfoy, Qu'est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Demanda t-il.
Il le fit entrer et Harry sentit que tout cela n'était pas bon signe.
Fin du chapitre trois …. La suite bientôt … désolée encore….
Reviews please
Bye bye kisou
5. Chapter 4
Draco malfoy à la campagne
Chapitre quatre : Pov Draco
Tandis que Harry parlait à Monsieur Malfoy, Draco avait déjà terminé de manger et était sortit par la porte de la cuisine pour aller à l'écurie.
Blaise était déjà là entraîne de seller son cheval.
Salut Draco sa va? Tu n'étais pas là hier soir ?
Oui sa va Blaise t'inquiète pas.
Blaise lui sourit et lui proposa de lui faire un cours d'équitation.
POV DRACO
Blaise me montra comment monter à cheval, mais l'animal était vraiment énervé sûrement parce qu'il sentait ma peur. À chaque fois que j'essayais de monter sur la selle il bougeait de côté, même une fois je suis presque tombé sur les fesses mais Blaise m'a rattraper. Finalement après une demi heure je réussis enfin à le monter, Black était vraiment énervé il faisait des bonds me faisant sauter, j'avais des hauts le cœur, je détestais les manèges et cela y ressemblait tellement.
Blaise arrête ce maudit cheval! Lui criais-je.
Il riait, il se foutait de ma gueule, non mais, personne ne rie d'un Malfoy et tout le monde obéit.
Blaise tira sur la bride qui fit immédiatement arrêter le cheval.
J'étais essoufflé et n'était pas très sûr de vouloir continuer les cours.
Bien, maintenant que tu as réussis à monter, il faut que tu saches que quand tu tires les brides vers toi doucement il s'arrête.
Il me montra comment faire.
Il me demanda de talonner avec mes talons les flans du cheval, et celui-ci se mit à marcher.
J'étais légèrement nerveux, mais il me dit de me calmer sinon le cheval le serait aussi.
Je fus très heureux après quinze minutes de pouvoir au moins diriger mon cheval.
Blaise pu monter sur le sien qui était blanc et m'indiqua le chemin.
Il me conduisit vers la forêt derrière l'orphelinat, j'avais entendu par la bouche des enfants il y quelques jours qu'elle s'appelait la forêt interdite.
J'haussais les épaules malgré le fait que cette forêt avec ses arbres tassés les uns près des autres était sombre, il faisait noir et il y avait plein de petits bruits.
J'avais peur, oui, je l'avoue mais je ne dis rien à Blaise. Un Malfoy ne montrait jamais qu'il avait peur. Pour garder sa dignité.
J'ai découvert l'an passée un endroit magnifique et j'aimerais te le montrer. Me dis Blaise.
Je galopais près de lui pour ne pas le perdre de vue, nous marchâmes tous les deux sur un sentier assez large pour chevaucher l'un à côté de l'autre.
Après une dizaine de minute de galop Blaise s'arrêta devant une grotte.
La grotte n'était pas assez grande pour y amener les chevaux mais Blaise m'assura que ce n'était pas très long comme marche alors je le suivis.
Il faisait extrêmement noir et je m'approchai de lui en prenant sa main.
Finalement j'étais pas très courageux alors que plusieurs minutes silencieuses passèrent ont arriva devant trois tunnels et Blaise passa dans le premier à droite.
**------ De retour à l'orphelinat-------**
Monsieur Malfoy, Qu'est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Demanda t-il il le fit entré et Harry sentit que tout cela n'était pas bon signe.
J'ai su ce matin par un ami de mon fils qu'il avait sortit dans un bar Homo? Questionna Lucius qui toisa Harry d'un œil mauvais.
Heu!!! …. J'ai autorisée une sortit pour Draco mais je ne savais pas qu'il….
Mensonge… Harry vous y étiez aussi.
Mais comment…
Pour dire la vérité je fais suivre mon fils pour mieux le protéger même si il est ici je dois le protéger par ceux qui voudront le menacer pour que je leur donne une rançon alors j'ai su comme cela que mon fils était allé dans un bar homo.
Vous ignorez que votre fils était homo? Demanda Harry.
Oui et heureusement que je savais que vous l'étiez.
Harry était très gênée, il semblait que Lucius lui en voulait pour que son fils soit devenu gay.
Lucius je suis pour rien de ce que votre fils est devenu.
Ah oui!! Et le baiser alors dans le bar c'était quoi ?
Harry fut sous le choc le baiser il l'avait complètement oublier.
Je … j'ai… ffff.. Je n'ai rien a voir avec sa. C'est lui qui m'a embrassé pour…
Harry coupa ses explications à ce moment là, Lucius malfoy l'avait empoignée par le collet et le regardait dans les yeux.
Écoute – moi bien d'accord, je vous ais confier mon fils pour le faire changer mais pas au point qu'il se remettre en question sa sexualité.
Mais il l'était peut-être bien avant non?
Peut-être mais je veux pas courir la chance, plus de sortit pour lui tant que vous soyez tous les deux….
D'accord.
Bien je vais y aller, et je veux voir des progrès venant de mon fils…. Avant la fin de l'été et si il n'y a aucune changement il se pourrait que je ne soit plus si indulgent envers vous.
Sur cela Lucius Malfoy partit.
Harry avait le cœur battant, il alla à la cuisine et prit un thé pour ce calmer.
**------- de retour avec Draco et Blaise-------**
Seulement deux minutes plus tard nous arrivâmes et je fus estomaqué.
C'EST MAGNIFIQUE BLAISE. Criais-je
Oui mais j'aimerais que tu gardes cet endroit pour toi.
Je hochais la tête mais le seul visage en ce moment même qui me venait en tête était celui du propriétaire.
Fin du chapitre quatre hi hi… Je sais je suis vraiment méchante d'arrêter là… La suite va venir bientôt … :)
Bye bye reviews please…
6. Chapter 5
Titre :Draco malfoy à la campagne
Note de l'auteur : Merci à mambanoir pour avoir corriger le chapitre : ) et merci tout le monde pour vos reviews… : ) scuser pour le temps que j'ai pris pour l'écrire j'étais en panne d'inspiration et je travaillais beaucoup …
Chapitre cinq
« Aller Draco nous ne devons pas nous absenter trop longtemps sinon Harry va s'inquiéter, Blaise prit la main du blond et le dirigea à l'extérieur.
C'était magnifique Blaise commenta Draco.
Ouais je suis content que tu ais aimé.
Ils galopèrent jusqu'à l'orphelinat et quand ils arrivèrent dans la cour ils trouvèrent étrange de ne voir aucun enfant jouer à l'extérieur.
Alors ils décidèrent d'entrer et c'est là qu'ils virent Harry parler avec deux hommes en noirs dans le petit salon.
Quand le propriétaire les vit il leur fit signe de le rejoindre.
J'aimerais que vous alliez dans vos chambres svp. Demanda Harry.
Qu'est-ce qui se passe Harry ? demanda Draco
Rien de bien important Draco.
Attendez dit l'un des hommes en noir. Vous êtes Draco Malfoy le fils du célèbre Maître Lucius Malfoy? Demanda l'avocat.
Oui, est-ce que je peux savoir ce qui se passe?
Je crois que Monsieur Potter aurait besoin de l'aide d'un avocat peut –être devriez vous appeler votre père. Suggéra l'un des avocats.
Vous êtes qui ? Demanda Draco
Maître Shky et Maître Tyler.
Draco alla à la cuisine suivit de près par Harry qui s'excusa auprès des avocats de Seamus.
Draco je ne crois pas que cela soit une bonne idée.
Le blond se retourna et fit face à Harry.
est-ce que ces avocats sont là à cause du contrat que tu as passé avec ce Finnigan ?
Harry baisa la tête, il avait honte d'avoir accepter se contrat mais dans ce temps-là il avait eut vraiment besoin d'argent et maintenant il risquait de perdre l'orphelinat.
Oui. Murmura le brun.
Draco décrocha le téléphone et appela au cabinet de son père.
Oui. Lucy est-ce que vous pourriez me passer mon père svp… c'est urgent c'est à propos de l'orphelinat il y a un problème.
Votre père est en réunion.
Pas grave passez moi le tout de suite Lucy. Insista le blond.
Harry l'observa et fut très surpris, le garçon rebelle qui était entré il y a quelques jours dans l'orphelinat avait radicalement changer très peu mais quand même cela ce voyait. Il appréciait l'orphelinat et était prêt à l'aider.
' J'espère juste que Lucius voudra m'aider malgré que je n'ai pas un sous à lui donner.' Pensa Harry.
Draco attendait que le transfert soit fait; il eu enfin son père au téléphone.
Il lui expliqua la situation et son père lui expliqua ce qu'il devait faire.
D'accord à tout à l'heure.
Le blond raccrocha.
Il ne faut surtout pas parler aux avocats. Je voudrais savoir, pendant que je n'étais pas là est-ce que tu leur a dit quelque chose ? demanda Draco.
Non … ils m'ont questionné mais je n'ai pas répondu.
T'as bien fait parce qu'ils auraient prit tout ce que tu aurais dit contre toi. Avoua Draco.
Et maintenant qu'est-ce que je dois faire? Demanda Harry
Les renvoyer de chez toi…. C'est ce que mon père m'a dit et que si il les voyait chez toi quand il arrivera il ne t'aidera pas.
D'accord alors je vais les renvoyer tout de suite.
Harry retourna au salon où il retrouva les avocats de Seamus.
Messieurs je crois qu'il est temps pour vous de partir avant que mon avocat arrive. Leur conseilla Harry.
Tyler et Shky se regardèrent et se levèrent d'un seul mouvement.
Bon très bien monsieur Potter mais nous pouvons vous assurer que nous allons gagner ce procès. Vous n'avez même pas assez d'argent pour vous payer un avocat.
Harry ne répondit guère à cette provocation et leur montra la sortie.
Au revoir messieurs.
Ils partirent en lui disant de bien se préparer.
Une heure plus tard Lucius Malfoy était dans le petit salon avec Harry tandis que Draco, Blaise et les autres enfants étaient en train de manger.
Ils prièrent tous ensemble espérant que leur vœu le plus cher soit réalisé.
Fin du chapitre Alors qu'est-ce que vous en pensez ? super bien, nul …
Aller cliquer sur Go pour me le dire…
Bye byekisou
7. Chapter 6
Titre : Draco malfoy à la campagne
NDA : Louange m'a fait savoir que je n'avais pas précisé l'âge de Harry et de Draco alors je vais essayé d'inclure les âges dans le chapitre… mais Harry est plus vieux que Draco, je crois que vous l'aviez devinez. Bien avant lol
Disclamer : Rien ne m'appartient tous est à JK ROWLING sauf l'orphelinat et les enfants… a part bien sûr Draco, Blaise, Harry, Lucius etc… Snif…
Chapitre six…
Après avoir reçu l'appel urgent de son fils Lucius malfoy mit fin à sa réunion pour préparer un nouveau dossier. Il savait qu'Harry n'aurait pas assez d'argent pour le couvrir il décida, alors qu'il était en chemin pour l'orphelinat qu'il le ferait gratuitement pour les enfants.
Harry avait donné l'ordre aux enfants de descendre toute de suite pour dîner au plus vite avant que Lucius arrive.
Quand ils remontèrent dans leurs chambres pour s'occuper, seul Draco resta au rez-de-chaussée pour accueillir son père comme il se doit.
Une demi heure plus tard Maître Malfoy était dans le petit salon buvant du thé assit devant Harry et Draco.
« Vous avez quel âge Monsieur Potter? »
« Quel est le rapport avec le contrat monsieur Malfoy? » Questionna Harry.
« Quel âge avez-vous? » Répéta-t-il.
« 25 ans. » Répondit Harry gêné.
' Mon fils aime un homme âgé de 25 ans un adulte de surcroît.' Une voix qui semblait être celle de sa femme se fit entendre dans sa tête. ' Mon cher votre fils n'a plus cinq ans mais il en a 15 ans presque un homme, il faut le laisser vivre ses propres expériences.'
' Narcissa, vous avez toujours raison.' Malgré que sa femme soit morte depuis quelques années, Lucius Malfoy essayait toujours de penser quelles seraient les paroles de Narcissa face à ce changement. Que leur fils soit devenu gay et qu'il aime un homme de 25 ans.'
Il s'empêcha de rire et retourna son attention vers son fils et le propriétaire.
J'aimerais voir les papiers de propriété de cette maison Monsieur Potter!
Harry se leva et se dirigea vers une autre pièce où était son bureau. Une pièce que Draco n'avait pas encore remarquée et qu'Harry ne lui avait pas montrer lors de sa première visite.
Le jeune homme brun revient quelques minutes plus tard avec les actes de propriété et quand Lucius Malfoy les examina il fut surprit d'y voir autre chose que la signature de Monsieur Potter. Il y avait aussi celle d'Albus Dumbledore directeur d'une des plus célèbre Université qui enseigne le droit.
« Monsieur Potter, est-ce que Albus Dumbledore était au courant de ce contrat que vous avez fait avec Monsieur Finnigan? » demanda Lucius.
Harry baissa la tête, honteux, non il ne l'avait pas dit à l'ami de ses parents qu'il avait ce contrat et maintenant il repensa à une discussion qu'il avait eut avec le directeur.
Flash back.
« Harry je veux que vous me promettiez que vous me direz tout de vos décisions futures sur l'orphelinat, et je voudrais vous faire savoir que je suis prêts à vous aider financièrement si vous avez besoin d'argent. »
« Monsieur je suis sûr d'être capable de me débrouiller, je vous remercie beaucoup pour le départ de cette orphelinat et je vous donnerais des nouvelles à chaque fin de mois. »
Fin du flash back.
'J'ai brisé la promesse que je lui ais faites et maintenant comment va-t-il le prendre?' Se questionna Harry.
Cet orphelinat était aussi celui du directeur, Harry n'était que l'administrateur et travaillait que pour Albus, normalement il aurait dû y avoir la signature du vieux Dumbledore.
« Non, il n'est pas au courant. » Avoua tristement Harry.
Lucius fronça les sourcils, alors il devrait mettre Albus immédiatement au courant pour pouvoir entamer les procédures. Seamus Finnigan était un sale manipulateur et aussi un sale pervers.
« Très bien alors veuillez m'excusez Monsieur Potter mais je vais devoir avertir le directeur de ce malentendu de votre part. »
Harry hocha la tête et dirigea Lucius vers la cuisine. Draco était resté silencieux et avait laissée son père discuter avec le brun.
Il les suivit jusqu'à la cuisine et Lucius se tourna vers lui.
« Draco tu as sûrement autre choses à faire ? » Demanda son père.
« heu!!! non… rien. »
« Draco, j'aimerais que tu ailles à l'étage pour rassurer les enfants, les maîtres de tantôt leur avaient fait peur. »
Le blond hocha la tête et monta.
« Merci Monsieur Potter, il ne devrait pas être ici, je n'aime pas du tout le fait qu'il se mêle des affaires de la justice. »
Lucius n'attendit guère de réponse de la part d'Harry et prit le téléphone.
Il contacta Albus.
« Albus Dumbledore à l'appareil que puis-je pour vous? »
« Oui Albus Dumbledore ici Maître Malfoy, je vous appelle de l'orphelinat Ste- Brutus. »
« Qu'est-ce qui se passe? » Questionna aussitôt inquiet le directeur.
« Votre présence serait requise à l'orphelinat immédiatement j'ai besoin de vous parler en urgence. » Dit Lucius.
« D'accord je serais là dans une heure ou moins. » Répondit le vieil homme.
Lucius salua Albus et raccrocha.
« Il arrive dans peu de temps. »
Harry se sentit nerveux d'un coup.
NDA : Voilà un nouveau chapitre je sais la relation entre Harry et Draco n'avance pas du tout, désolée … mais il faut que je mette un peu d'intrigue dans l'histoire ( je vous promet de pas oublier le couple : ) j'ai plein de petites idées qui demande que de sortir…
Reviews please désolé pour le chapitre court mais plus les chapitres sont courts plus la fic dure longtemps … niark…
Bye bye kisou je vous aimeuhhhhhhhhh……
8. Chapter 7
Chapitre sept
Dumbledore arriva une demi-heure plus tard à l'orphelinat. Les enfants avaient eu l'autorisation d'Harry de sortir jouer un peu, Draco et Blaise les surveillait en leurs faisant des jeux comme la marelle ou à la cachette mais seulement dans la grange.
Dumbledore accueillit les enfants dans ses bras et entra dans la maison.
Harry et Lucius Malfoy étaient assis dans la cuisine et buvait une tasse de thé en discutant du contrat.
« Harry dis-moi ce qui se passe? » Demanda Albus après avoir saluer le maître.
Harry invita Albus à s'asseoir et lui dit tout.
Le vieux directeur avait semblé très déçu du comportement qu'Harry avait eut mais semblait lui avoir pardonner.
« Je suis vraiment désolé Albus mais je ne voulais pas vous déranger. »
« Écoutes je t'avais dit que j'avais tout mon temps pour toi, Combien a-t-il débourser pour l'orphelinat? » Demanda Albus.
Le blond regarda dans les papiers qu'Harry lui avait donnés et annonça le prix.
Albus resta calme en apparence mais en dedans de lui tout était de rage, comment son neveu avait-il pu faire cela, heureusement pour lui il avait l'argent pour et n'avait aucun problème à pouvoir le payer mais Harry devrait le rembourser c'est certain.
Ils parlèrent du contrat pendant plus d'une heure et Lucius prit rendez-vous avec l'avocat de Seamus dans un café de la ville, Harry devrait être présent à ce rendez-vous et Albus aussi.
« Je suis encore désolé Albus. » S'excusa pour la millième fois Harry.
Le brun avait la tête basse et n'osait pas regarder son aîné.
« Harry je te pardonne mais que cela te serve de leçon. »
Harry hocha la tête et promit à Albus de le rembourser.
Malfoy père partit tard dans l'après midi après avoir un peu parler avec son fils qui avait agréablement changé, il n'avait plus l'air d'un adolescent rebelle et stupide.
Il remercia grandement Harry et retourna chez lui.
Draco alla rejoindre le propriétaire et regarda son visage qui exprima de la tristesse.
« Tout va s'arranger. »
Ce n'était pas une question mais Harry y répondit tout de même.
« Oui, enfin je l'espère Draco. »
Harry regardait les enfants jouer autour de Blaise et sourit.
Il voyait aussi le visage de Draco dans la fenêtre et ils ressemblaient à un couple regardant leurs enfants jouer dehors et Harry sourit de nouveau à cette idée.
Il se retourna et prit d'une impulsion soudaine il embrassa le blond.
Draco fut surprit d'un coup mais se reprit pour répondre doucement au baiser du plus vieux et entreprit de l'approfondir.
Harry entendit le blond légèrement gémir et sourit.
Ils durent arrêter leur baiser à ce moment là puisque les orphelins de st-brutus avaient semblé vouloir tout aller se laver après cette journée à jouer.
Harry aida les plus jeune avec l'aide de Draco et Blaise qui faisait en sorte que les plus vieux se lave aussi.
Une heure plus tard tout le monde était au lit, il était 22 h 30 et Harry était toujours réveillé. Draco l'avait rejoint un peu de temps après que Blaise se soit endormit et Harry en fut très heureux.
« Tu n'as pas sommeil? »Demanda Draco en s'asseyant devant le brun.
« Non, même si je suis fatiguée physiquement je suis incapable de m'endormir. » Expliqua Harry.
Draco se leva et se plaça derrière Harry.
« Tu es peut-être trop tendu, un massage te ferait du bien. » Suggéra le blond, sans attendre la réponse il prit la main d'Harry et l'amena dans la chambre du brun.
Il lui ordonna d'enlever son t-shirt noir et de se coucher sur le ventre.
Harry le fit avec hésitation il avait un peu peur jusqu'à où tout cela allait les mener.
Alors le blond s'assit les jambes écartées sur les hanches de Harry.
Il commença par masser légèrement les épaules en faisant des petits cercles jusque dans le bas du dos n'allant pas plus loin, Draco fit le même manège pendant quelques minutes et changea de tactique.
Il prit son coude droit et entreprit de refaire la même chose mais dans le bas du dos.
Harry se détendit petit à petit mais incapable de pouvoir se rendormir puisqu'il sentait autre chose que le coude de Draco. Le sexe dressé du blond sur ses hanches semblait vouloir son attention alors le brun se retourna docilement et renversa la situation. Le blond était sous lui et Harry entre ses jambes.
« Mais que fais-tu? »Demanda Draco.
Harry ne répondit pas, puisque Draco avait aussi enlevé son haut le brun s'attaqua immédiatement au bas.
La ceinture ne résista guère bien longtemps et Harry enleva le pantalon qui alla rejoindre les autres vêtements de son futur amant.
Draco était encore sous le choc mais revient à la réalité quand la langue de Harry vient lécher le long de son sexe tendu au maximum.
Le blond gémit, et bougea légèrement le bassin pour qu'Harry le prenne en bouche mais celui-ci évita le membre et lécha la ligne de poil de bas en haut jusqu'au nombril, son compagnons gémit légèrement, conscient qu'il ne devrait pas faire trop de bruit à cause des enfants endormis.
« Harry, Prend moi stp. Tout de suite. » Souffla Draco après quelques minutes de tortures.
Le brun ne s'en fit pas prier, il présenta ses trois doigts à la bouche du blond qui les lécha avidement.
Draco avait les yeux remplis de désir contenu depuis déjà un mois qu'il se retenait de sauter sur le propriétaire et c'est ce dernier qu'il fit. Harry mit un doigt dans l'antre étroit du blond plus vierge depuis longtemps.
Celui-ci trembla un peu quand son amant mit le troisième doigt et qu'il fit les mouvements de va et vient pour pouvoir le préparer.
Quand Harry sentit que le blond était prêt il enduit son sexe de lubrifiant et entra doucement dans l'antre chaud de son amant.
Le brun et le blond gémirent en concert, essayant de retenir leurs cris de plaisir qui étaient rauques à force de les retenir.
« Draco, Oh oui. » C'était tout ce qu'Harry était capable de dire et le blond était pire.
« Encore, encore, encore plus vite Harry, plus loin. » C'était toujours la même chose.
Après quelques minutes plus tard ils jouirent ensemble en murmurant leur prénom.
« Je t'aime » Murmura Draco.
« Je t'aime aussi. »
Draco sombra dans les bras de morphée.
Fin du chapitre une reviews si ça vous plait : ) Merci tout le monde pour toutes vos reviews désolé si j'ai oublié de répondre à quelqu'un… Bye Bye
Kisou
9. Chapter 8
Titre : Draco Malfoy à la campagne
Résumé : Draco malfoy est envoyé dans un orphelinat par son père pour qu'il apprenne la discipline… la seule chose qu'il fait est de tomber amoureux du propriétaire… UA couples un énorme HP/DM …. Lol
Note je m'excuse de poster en retard j'ai pas eu le temps de faire le chapitre et ce qui est étrange c'est que c'est le dernier chapitre… le couple HP/DM est formé… c'est une mini fics que je voulais faire de toute façon et puisque j'ai beaucoup d'autre fics à faire… Ben j'aime mieux la terminée… : ) je suis contente que cette fics vous est plu… et j'ai beaucoup aimé vos reviews… elles m'ont fait énormément plaisir… je sais pas si la plus part de vous avez vue ou lue ma nouvelle fics … Le bien et le mal… je trouve que cette fics est la plus sérieuse que j'ai fait en ce moment malgré le fait qu'il y est un peu d'humour… Draco : Tu te fais de la pub? Siri : Ben non….
RE NOTE : je veux remercier mambanoir de m'avoir corriger c'est super …
Merci de m'avoir lue… à la prochaine…
Bonne lecture !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Après leur folle nuit d'amour, ils n'eurent guère le temps de faire quoi que ce soit en couple puisque entre prendre soin de l'orphelinat et aussi d'être en cours pour combattre Seamus, Harry n'avait plus le temps… Alors après que le jeune propriétaire est gagné, faisant payer Seamus une petite fortune en avocat il eu un grand poids de moins sur les épaules, bien sûr Harry devait rembourser Albus mais il savait que le vieux lui donnerait tout le temps pour cela.
Ils étaient tous les deux sur le balcon assis sur une balançoire, Draco dans les bras de Harry. Il faisait nuit, les enfants étaient tous endormis.
« Draco? »
« Hmmm!!!! »
« Veux-tu venir vivre avec moi? Ou Plutôt avec nous? » Demanda soudainement Harry.
Draco se leva brusquement pour faire face au brun.
Il semblait réfléchir à la question, il devrait d'abord en faire part à son père, mais il était sûr que celui-ci ne ferait rien pour l'en dissuader. Lucius Malfoy aimait bien Harry et savait maintenant que Draco était gay mais comment allait-il réagir face à la nouvelle?
« Je vais en parler à mon père, parce que je ne suis pas encore majeur. »
Harry hocha la tête et embrassa doucement le blond. Pendant quelques minutes s'ensuivit une séance de baisers et de caresses.
Harry prit Draco par la main et ils allèrent à leur chambre. Ils étaient tous les deux épuisées par leur journée alors ils n'entreprirent rien, Draco se mit en boxer et Harry fit de même avant de se coucher l'un dans les bras de l'autre.
Le lendemain matin Draco appela son père et lui demanda si il pouvait venir à l'orphelinat.
Draco savait qu'il devait partir bientôt, les vacances d'étés se terminaient dans quelques jours mais le blond ne voulait pas quitter l'orphelinat et là il était près à dire la vérité à son père il n'avait pas peur de lui annoncer.
Celui-ci arriva dans l'après midi et prit son fils dans ses bras tout heureux de le voir.
« Père j'ai à vous parler de quelque chose d'important. »
Harry ne voulant pas s'interposer malgré que la discussion le concerne alla aider les jeunes à la grange.
« Qu'est-ce qui se passe Draco? » Demanda inquiet Lucius.
« Bien hum… je …. Je… » C'était pas un bon commencement pour Draco, c'était la première fois qu'il ne trouvait pas ses mots.
« Père vous savez que je suis homo! »
Son père hocha la tête et fit signe à Draco de continuer.
« Je suis tomber amoureux de quelqu'un. » Avoua-t-il.
« De qui? »
« Je ne sais pas comment vous allez le prendre, mais je suis amoureux d'Harry. »
Lucius Malfoy poussa un soupire non dissimulé.
Draco eut peur d'un coup, est-ce que son père allait lui demander de quitter immédiatement l'orphelinat?
« Tu voudrais rester ici? » Demanda Lucius.
Draco ouvrit grand les yeux, il était étonné, son père l'avait comprit.
« Je… oui. »
« Alors d'accord, c'est grâce à lui que tu as changé en bien donc pourquoi t'empêcher? »
Draco sourit à son père, l'embrassa sur la joue et alla voir Harry.
' Il grandit bien vite' Fut la pensée de Lucius avant de partir.
Une petite fille blonde vit l'homme sortir de la maison et s'en approcha.
Lucius s'arrêta et l'observa. Elle lui faisait penser à Narcissa quand elle était jeune.
« Bonjour toi comment t'appelle-tu? » Demanda Lucius.
« Maria et Vous. »
« Lucius je suis le père de Draco. »
« Enchanté de vous connaître. »
Il lui serra sa petite main dodue et tomba sous le charme de la petite fille.
Plusieurs mois plus tard Draco avait une petite sœur, avec Harry en plus il avait une nouvelle famille.
Fin du chapitre et de l'histoire… Personnellement je suis satisfaite de cette fin et vous????
Bye bye kisou et merci beaucoup pour vos reviews…
End file.
| fanfiction |
follicular dendritic cell sarcoma ( fdcs ) is a rare neoplasm ( 0.4% of soft tissue sarcomas ) originating from follicular dendritic cells ( fdcs ) , a nonlymphoid , nonphagocytic antigen presenting cells of the lymphoid system .
since that time , only 3 cases of fdcs arising from castleman 's disease ( cd ) with paraneoplastic pemphigus ( pnp ) have been reported in the literature .
a 20-year - old boy presented with 7 months history of multiple polymorphous vesiculobullous mucocutaneous eruptions around the lips and subsequently in buccal mucosa causing dysphagia .
he later developed conjuntivitis associated with blurred vision and atypical targetoid lesions with crusts surrounded by erythema scattered on the trunk and extremities including prepuce and perianal region [ figure 1 ] .
direct immunoflorescence of biopsy specimen from skin lesion showed deposition of immunoglobulin g ( + ) and c3 in the intercellular region of epidermal cells mainly in the suprabasal region .
linear deposition of igg is also seen in dermo - epidermal junction suggestive of pnp .
computed tomography ( ct ) scan revealed a well defined intensely enhancing mass lesion with central necrosis in the right hemipelvis , 6 cm in size , abutting the right obturator internus muscle and displacing the urinary bladder anteriorly .
histopathlogy of the mass showed oval to spindle cells in a background of vascular stroma infiltrated by lymphocytes .
the cells were immunopsitive for cd21 , cd35 , cd23 , s-100 , claustrin , cd34 , cd31 , s-100 ; leucocyte common antigen , and h uman leukocyte antigen - dr were also positive in some cells .
hyaline - vascular follicles were identified at the peripheral portion or occasionally scattered in the center of the tumor .
the presence of rich vascularity around the tumor and few hyalanized vascular follicles found in histopathological examination ( hpe ) gave the clue that the tumor might have developed from cd .
his truncal lesions marginally improved after steroids but there was no improvement in arm lesions .
( a ) vesiculobullous mucocutaneous eruptions around the lips ( b ) crusts surrounded by erythema scattered on the extremities well defined intensely enhancing mass lesion with central necrosis in the right hemipelvis , 6 cm in size , abutting the right obturator internus muscle and displacing the urinary bladder anteriorly photomicrograph shows cells are arranged in sheets with small lymphocytic nodules forming germinal center .
[ fig c , 200 , d 400 ] photomicrograph shows positivity of cd20 in the nodules [ fig 4e , ihc - cd20 100 ] , the nodules are negative for cd3 ( 4f , 100 ) , the spindle cells are immunopositive for cd35 , cd43 , clusterin [ fig 4 g , ihc - cd35 100 , h - cd43 200 , j - clusterin 200 ]
fdcs arises from fdcs which are localized within lymphoid follicles ; morphologically have entangled cytoplasmic processes and frequent desmosomes ; have the ability to trap and retain antigens for long periods of time in the form of immune complexes , but have a non - phagocytic activity ; and express molecules involved in the proliferation and differentiation of b - cells .
the only predisposing factor identified for fdcs is hyaline - vascular cd ( 10 - 20% of cases ) .
fdcs are associated with epstein barr virus ( 12% ) especially those occurring in the liver .
it generally affect young to middle - aged adults , with a mean age of 43 years with no sex predilection .
they usually present as painless coalescent nodal mass ( 60% ) of variable size ( 1 - 20 cm diameter ) , but extranodal disease is most commonly seen in the head and neck ( tonsil , nasopharynx ) and intraabdominal organs ( in particular the pancreas and peripancreatic tissues ) .
other locations : axilla , gastrointestinal tract ( 17% ) , liver , oral cavity ( 13% ) , mediastinum ( 8% ) and spleen ( 2% ) .
hpe showed ovoid to spindled cells whorls with long cellular processes , distinctive nuclei , speckled to vesicular chromatin ; sometimes multinucleated cells .
immunohistochemistry positive for cd21 , cd23 , cd35 , fascin , clusterin , podoplanin , desmoplakin epithelial membrane antigen , epithelial growth factor receptor , anti - follicular dendritic cells antibody(ki - m4 ) , anti - follicular dendritic cells antibody cna 42 , cd68 , fragment crystallizable region , s100 ( but not strong ) factor xiiia while negative for leucocyte common markers ( cd1a ) , cytokeratin , lysozyme , cd34 , cd3 , cd79a , cd30 , human melanoma black hmb45 .
a subset of these tumors has been reported to arise in or concomitantly with foci of cd as in our case .
the presence of rich vascularity around the tumor and few hyalanized vascular follicles found in hpe gave the clue that the tumor might have developed from cd .
in fact , some argue that fdcs actually develops from cd as a hyperplasia dysplasia neoplasia sequence so fdcs may share some of the radiologic features of cd . in our patient , we saw a large lobulated soft - tissue mass with engorged vessels seen around it on ct , the feature of cd .
complete surgical resection is considered the treatment of choice ; the role of adjuvant therapy ( chemotherapy or radiation ) is unclear because of the rarity of the disease .
cyclophosphamide , adriamycin , vincristin , prednisolone chop have shown good response . in a small series by soriano et al .
patients who received all three modalities of treatment upfront had the longest disease - free intervals .
sarcoma - based regimen gemcitabine and taxane ; imatinib in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin , rituximab was also reported to have some activity against fdcs .
but response could not be assessed as he expired post first cycle due to pseudomonas infection .
poor prognostic factors like extensive necrosis , a mass larger than 6 cm , cytologic atypia , intraabdominal location , and a high proliferative index increase the likelihood of recurrence , metastasis , and mortality .
the lung , liver , and lymph nodes are the most common sites for metastasis , and the tumor may be highly aggressive and fatal within 2 years of diagnosis .
local recurrence rate was reported to be 43% while distant metastases 24% ( lung , liver , peritoneum , pancreas and lymph nodes ) .
five - year recurrence - free survival rates of 27% to 32% . and overall 5-year survival rate of 79% .
our patient presented with pnp , an autoimmune bullous disease charaecterized by severe stomatitis , polymorphous skin eruptions that occurs in association with various forms of underlying neoplasia .
it is characterized by the presence of autoantibodies that react with intermediate filament - associated proteins in desmosomes and hemidesmosomes ; desmoplakin , bullous pemphigoid antigen 1 , and envoplakin . a review of 163 case reports of pnp reported that 84% of cases were associated with hematologic malignancies ( non hodgkin lymphoma [ 39% ] , chronic lymphocytic leukemia [ 18% ] , cd [ 18% ] , thymoma [ 6% ] , waldenstrom macroglobulinemia [ 1% ] , hodgkin 's lymphoma [ 1% ] , and monoclonal gammopathy [ 1% ] ) .
the remaining 16% were associated with nonhematologic neoplasms ( epithelial origin carcinoma [ 9% ] , mesenchymal origin sarcoma [ 6% ] , and melanoma [ 1% ] ) .
oral ulcerations were the presenting feature in 45% of all cases and appear to be a key feature of pnp . in conclusion , our case report is unique because it reports for the 1st time to our knowledge as a pathological constellation of follicular dendritic cell sarcoma with castleman 's disease and paraneoplastic pemphigus arising from extranodal pelvic region , a rare disease at a rare site .
its importance lies in suspicion of diagnosis and considering the treatment of paraneoplastic pemphigus according to the underlying pathology . | pubmed |
Sailor Moon 1. 01 The Tradegy, Part I
Today on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, the journey for Nissha and
Taiyo begins; when a drunk driver hits them head on! What will happen?
Will they survive? Find out next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 01: "The amazing trip begins for Nissha and Taiyo!
The terrible car crash!"
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a nice morning in the Gunshi home. Julia and her husband
Mark had two beautiful daughters which they loved very much. How
much they knew would change their lives forever. Nissha and Taiyo
were about fourteen years old and they were very pretty. They both
had the Odango hair style like their mother. Their hair was blond.
Julia's hair was silver and Mark's hair was blond. Julia and her
family was planning a trip to Disney Land.
"Girls, are you ready?"
Julia asked her daughters.
"Yes mother!"
Nissha and Taiyo replied.
"Good."
Julia responded and then continuing talking to her daughters,
"We leave in five minutes."
Julia announced to her daughters.
"Yes mother."
Nissha and Taiyo replied again.
Soon, the family was off. Not far from home, a drunk driver hit
them head on and caused the car to go off the embankment. The
car hit a tree injuring the four member family severely. A car
behind the Gunshi's car was able to prevent them from crashing
and they phoned the police. The police and the ambulance arrived
in minutes. However before the police arrived. Julia spoke.
Although badly injured worse than her daughters. Julia spoke.
"My daughters, Nissha and Taiyo. I have kept this secret from
you for fourteen years. You are not twins, but triplets. Back
then when you were born, the first born daughter was adopted
out because we couldn't afford to have triplets. So after
you recover, find your missing sister. We love you."
A terribly wounded Julia spoke softly to her daughters and then
slipped into unconsciousness. The Gunshi girls heard what their
mother had spoken. Then the Gunshi girls had slipped into
unconsciousness.
The police and the ambulance had arrived. The guy that hit
the Gunshi's head on was only slightly wounded. The police
arrested the drunk driver whose name was William Q. James
III.
"William Q. James III, you are under arrest for drunk driving."
One of the two policemen told him. The paramedics rushed the
Gunshi family to the hospital. Once there...
The mother and father died on the way to the hospital, however
the two girls are far worse than the parents were and are in
need of immediate medical attention. Not only that, the girls
have slipped into comas.
"The two girls have survived, however they are in our care."
The hospital administrator told his team of doctors.
"Those girls are depending on us. We can't let them die."
The hospital administrator continued.
"Yes sir."
All of the doctors agreed.
"Nissha has the worst injuries, while Taiyo has moderate
injuries. They both have about 75% of survival. Let's
make the most of it. Let's get these girls into emergency
surgery."
Lots of people were outside heard what happened. A spokeswoman
went outside the hospital to address the public.
"I am Mrs. Jane Walsh. I am here to brief you on the girls;
Nissha and Taiyo Gunshi. This morning, a drunk driver hit
the Gunshi family head on. Mark, Julia, Nissha, and Taiyo
were severely injured. The girls survived the crash. They
are in emergency surgery. We believe they will make a full
recovery. We will soon set up a fund that will help the girls
plan their future. Now I will take some questions."
The spokeswoman told them.
"You in the front."
The spokeswoman said.
"What is your question."
"Do the girls; Nissha and Taiyo have any other
living relatives?"
A reporter asked.
"Our hospital records, fourteen years ago, the girls had
one more sister that was adopted out."
The spokeswoman answered.
"Can you tell us who this girl that was adopted?"
The reporter asked.
"I do not know at this time who this third sister's name
is. And if I did, I couldn't tell you due to the adoption
laws of this state. That's all for now."
The spokeswoman answered the question and went back inside.
After the surgery was over. The girls were placed in I.C.U.
"Now we wait."
Said the hospital administrator.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Next episode: "Hold on for dear life! Nissha and Taiyo's
struggle to survive!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, the Gunshi girls
hang on for dear life. Meanwhile the people start to leave
cards and flowers. Meanwhile, Corona, the girl's cat is
brought to the hospital to help the girls recover. What will
happen next? Stay here for the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 02/22/2003
This episode was released on: 03/02/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
2. 02 The Tradegy, Part II
Last time on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, The Gunshi family
left on a vacation which was cut short when a drunk driver
hit them head on. The two girls are the only ones in the family
that survived. The hospital staff are determined not to let
these girls die. What happens next? Find out on the next
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 02: "Hold on for dear life! Nissha and Taiyo's
struggle to survive!"
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The day that the Gunshi car crashed, at home, Corona the guardian
cat had no idea what had happened. Soon she would know about
the tragedy that hit.
"They deserve a vacation."
Corona spoke to herself.
"I hope Nissha and Taiyo never have to become Sun Soldiers."
Corona made a thought.
"It's so peaceful, I hate to disturb their normal life."
Corona thought again.
The next day after the car crash...
The hospital administrator was wondering if the Gunshi girls
had any family.
"No sir."
The nurse answered,
"They don't have any that lives around here. The girls do
have a sister somewhere, since that sister was born here too
just before they were born. Besides that, there is no other
family."
"I know it is against the rules for anyone besides to visit
people at the I.C.U. however, Nissha and Taiyo has two
best friends, right?"
Questioned hospital administrator.
"Yes. I looked into their friends. They are Amanda Lockhart and
Andrea Sackston. Shall I have a policeman bring them here to
the hospital?"
The nurse answered and then gave a question of her own.
"Yes."
The hospital administrator replied.
Meanwhile... at the Forestville Junior High school...
A police officer walked up to where two beautiful red heads were.
"Are you two Amanda Lockhart and Andrea Sackston?"
The police officer asked.
"Yes."
They replied.
"Good. Did you hear what happened to the Gunshi sisters?"
The police officer asked them.
"No. What happened?"
Andrea asked.
"Nissha and Taiyo were in a car crash. They were severely injured.
However, their parents received terrible injuries. Nissha and
Taiyo's parents died on the way to the local hospital. The girls
now are in comas. You two could increase their chances of survival
if you come with me to the hospital. They need you now. They have
no other surviving relatives in the state. The only one the girls
have is a sister that lives in an unknown location. Will you come
with me?"
The policeman questioned them.
"Yes, but they do have another relative in the area, that they
love very dear."
Amanda replied.
"Who?"
The policeman questioned.
"Their cat, Corona."
Andrea answered.
"I see. Then we shall pick the cat up. Where is this cat?"
The policeman asked.
"At the Gunshi household on Birch Street."
Amanda replied.
"Let's go."
The policeman answered and took the girls to the Gunshi House.
Once there, Amanda called Corona.
"Corona!"
Amanda called for the cat.
"Meow!"
Corona; an orange looking cat came out of the pet door and to
Amanda's arms. Then they got back to the police car and
headed for the hospital. Once there, the girls: Amanda and
Andrea went inside with the policeman and Corona.
"What is the cat doing at the hospital?"
The hospital administrator asked.
"The cat will help the girls recover."
Andrea answered.
"Very well. This way."
The hospital administrator replied and led the girls to the
I.C.U.
"Here we are. Be warned. They are in bad shape."
The hospital administrator warned them. Amanda and Andrea
went inside with Corona.
Once inside, they saw Nissha and Taiyo strapped up to
machines that monitored the lungs and heart. There
was also a respirator since the girls lost the ability
to breathe on their own. The girls were bandaged up so
you couldn't tell 'who' was 'who.' The only way they
could tell was the name plaques on the beds. Amanda
and Andrea was shocked. Amanda set Corona on the beds.
The beds were put together since these girls were twins
and it might help them recover more if they were together.
In Corona's mind, she wondered how it could happen. to the
girls that 'she' had loved like her own children. Corona
sat on the bed between the girls and fell asleep and purred.
Two weeks past...
Nissha was still in horrible shape and was not going to come
out of her coma. However, Taiyo showed the first signs of
healing. The doctors suggested that she might awake soon.
"Taiyo..."
A doctor talked to the comatose Taiyo,
"You are healing very good. I suggest by the end of the
next week, you will awaken. Keep it up girl."
The doctor told Taiyo.
"I want to thank you girls; Amanda Lockhart and
Andrea Sackston for your devotion. The girls will
have a new hope. They will have to know the truth
as soon as the both of them awakes. If Taiyo awakes
first, you cannot tell her about what happened to
her parents. It may devastate her. Understand?"
The doctor asked.
"Yes."
They replied.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Next Episode: "Taiyo awakes! The beginning of her long recovery!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Taiyo recovers from her
comatose state and begins her recovery. What will happen? Be
there for the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 02/23/2003
This episode was released on: ??/??/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
3. 03 Togetherness, Part I
Today on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Taiyo recovers from her
comatose state and begins her recovery. What will happen? Find
out next.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 03: "Taiyo awakes! The beginning of her long recovery!"
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Almost another week past and Amanda and Andrea looked over the
Gunshi's daughters as they remained in their comatose states.
However, Andrea and Amanda had other business to take care of
elsewhere. So they left the room. Meanwhile, at the county
jail, the guy that crashed into the Gunshi's car, was booked
into the county jail. However, the guy laughed at the jailer.
"Ha!"
William Q. James III laughed.
"What's funny William?"
The Jailer asked.
"You fools don't know who you are messing with, do you?"
William Q James III asked.
"Oh we know what you are."
The Jailer answered him.
"You have no idea... human!"
With that William Q. James III transformed into a mutant!
"Who are you?"
The Jailer asked.
"I am the Mutant Master! I seek to destroy of those who might
oppose me. And those Gunshi sisters are a threat to me. No
one can hold me here!"
The Mutant Master told him and then making his staff appear.
The Mutant Master looked like a Ox with two horns on his
head. His staff was in his right hand. The he blasted his
cell and then blasted the jailer. Then The Mutant Master
teleported away.
At the hospital...
The room of the Gunshi sisters was empty with visitors except
Corona, the Gunshi sisters cat. Then The Mutant Master appeared
into the room and was going to destroy the girls, but a power
being stopped him. This being appeared in the room! He was an
older man that looked like Endymion. This was the Sun King;
his name was Solace.
"Halt! You may not destroy them! They are my children and I protect
them! So leave!"
King Solace told the intruder.
"Oh? You really think so?"
The Mutant Master questioned him.
"You cannot touch them. They have my kiss of protection. Your
powers cannot touch them at all. So leave!"
King Solace told him.
"Drat! I'll have to think of another plan!"
The Mutant Master replied and vanished.
"You are now safe. I will watch over you."
King Solace told the comatose girls and then
vanished.
A few more days passed and Taiyo started to awake. Amanda and
Andrea was in the room again. Taiyo started to wake up slowly.
Then her eyes were opened and she looked around the room.
She had no idea where she was.
"Taiyo! You recovered! Are you okay? Do you remember what happened?
Do you know who we are?"
Amanda questioned Taiyo.
Taiyo slowly nodded her head in response, but didn't speak.
"Andrea. Go get the nurse."
Amanda commanded.
"Right!"
Andrea answered and ran out of the room to the nurses station.
"Come quickly! Taiyo Gunshi awoken from her coma and has
responded to us!"
Andrea told the nurses and then ran back to the room. The nurses
followed.
"Are you okay?"
A nurse asked her.
"I feel sore and I feel pain!"
Taiyo spoke up and answered the nurse.
"In time, your pain will cease. Now you must rest so you
can help your sister recover."
The nurse told her.
"Okay."
Taiyo answered.
A week went by and Taiyo was doing well. People heard about
her recovery and wanted to see her for themselves. So the
nurse led her outside the hospital where the people were.
"Are you okay Taiyo?"
A person asked.
"I am fine. I am doing better."
Taiyo answered.
"Do you know what happened?"
Another person questioned her.
"Yes, in some detail, not all."
Taiyo answered. Then she spoke.
"I want to go back inside."
Taiyo told the nurse.
"More questions..."
The people demanded.
"No more for now..."
The nurse told them.
Taiyo and the Nurse went back inside.
A couple of days passed again and Taiyo was able
to be out of bed now, now she focused on her sister
Nissha which was still struggling.
"Don't give up Nissha! I am here! Live!"
TO BE CONTINUED....
Next Episode: "Nissha in worse shape! Nissha awakens! The real
journey begins!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Nissha still fights for
her life and then she awakens. Her true recovery begins for
her when she struggles to remain conscious. Can she do it?
Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 03/01/2003
This episode was released on: ??/??/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
4. 04 Togetherness, Part II
Last time on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Taiyo and Nissha were
again targets of the one who had killed their parents. The Mutant
Master wanted to kill them, because they stood in the way. But,
they were protected by King Solace. Then finally Taiyo awoken
from her comatose sleep. What happens now? Stay there and find
out next!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 04: "Nissha in worse shape! Nissha awakens! The real
journey begins!"
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Taiyo finally had joined Amanda and Andrea in aiding Nissha begin
the long road to recovery, however with each chance of her getting
better, there was complications to mess it up. Their hope looked
slim. Taiyo was 90% recovered, however Nissha still was badly
wounded and had not came out of the coma yet. Taiyo looked worried.
"Why don't she come out of her coma and awake?"
Taiyo asked Amanda and Andrea.
"Maybe, its better for her to remain unconscious, than her being
awake. That way she can heal more."
Amanda replied.
"Don't worry Taiyo! I am sure Nissha can hear you that you are
worried for her. You want her to recover, don't you?"
Andrea asked.
"Yes. I do."
Taiyo answered.
"I knew you would say that."
Andrea commented to Taiyo, and then continued to speak.
"Taiyo, I can see your shine! You shine like the sun itself!"
What did Andrea mean by that? That Taiyo had a beautiful shine.
Could she see Taiyo's aura although she wasn't a Sun Soldier
yet? Obviously she could see Taiyo shine, because Taiyo was a
good girl and was concerned for others more than herself.
"Nissha! Hang in there! Never give up! You can't give up! You
hear me? That is an order?"
Taiyo commanded as she held Nissha's hand. Nissha's hand got a
good grasp of Taiyo's hand. Taiyo was shocked!
"Oh my God! Nissha! You heard me? Are you coming out of the
Coma?"
Taiyo asked her still comatose sister. Slowly Nissha came out
of the Coma and was awake. Andrea got a nurse.
"Nissha Gunshi! Do you know where you are?"
Nissha looked around and then responded.
"No."
Nissha answered.
"You are at Forestville Hospital. You were involved in a terrible
car crash. Your sister recovered nicely. I believe you'll do the
same, but you still need to recover some more. Your injuries are
still severe. Rest, okay?"
The nurse asked and then left the room.
"Yes."
Nissha replied.
"Do you remember who you have to look for once you recover?"
Andrea asked.
"Nissha thought back to the Gunshi's final moments..."
"My daughters, Nissha and Taiyo. I have kept this secret from
you for fourteen years. You are not twins, but triplets. Back
then when you were born, the first born daughter was adopted
out because we couldn't afford to have triplets. So after
you recover, find your missing sister. We love you."
Nissha remembered what her mother had said.
"So we have another sister somewhere? We are triplets and not
twins? That would explain some things. I bet she can feel
what we have gone through and don't know what it is. I pity
her."
Nissha answered.
"Once you recover, you'll true journey will begin..."
Amanda started...
"... To look for your missing sister."
Andrea told them.
They were right. Their true journey had only begun. Other trials
await them. And also something dark and sinister is coming to
test them.
Next Episode: "The girls recovery completes, their search for the missing sister begins!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar beginnings, The completely recover and
are finally told about the fate of their parents! The girls begin
looking for ways to search for their missing sister. Will they
do it? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 03/02/2003
This episode was released on: ??/??/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
5. 05 Togetherness, Part III
Today on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, The completely recover and
are finally told about the fate of their parents! The girls begin
looking for ways to search for their missing sister. Will they
do it? Find out next!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 05: "The girls recovery completes, their search for the
missing sister begins!"
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Missing sister?"
Nissha asked like she didn't believe it.
"Yeah."
Taiyo answered and then continuing,
"That's what I heard mother say, that we have one more sister
out there. How old is are other sister?"
"Triplets!"
Nissha responded as she lit up.
"Do you think it's true then?"
Taiyo asked.
"What do you think?"
Andrea asked Taiyo and Nissha.
"Why did she keep this from us?"
Nissha asked.
"May it was necessary to keep her safe from others.
Maybe she meant to tell you when the time was right,
but something worse happened. Don't worry, you'll
find her."
Amanda answered.
A week later...
The girls; Nissha and Taiyo had fully recovered. Now it was time
to deliver the horrible news. The hospital administrator, a couple
of nurses, and some counselors were there to help the girls cope
with the awful news.
"Do you know why we are assembled here?"
The Hospital Administrator asked.
"No."
The two girls said in unison.
"Where's are parents?"
Nissha asked.
"Where did they go?"
Taiyo asked.
"If I told you any sooner, it might have done more harm than good.
I'm sorry. They aren't here anymore. They're gone."
The Hospital Administrator answered.
"What do you mean 'gone' huh?"
Nissha asked.
The Hospital Administrator decided to give it straight.
"They died on the way to the hospital. We couldn't save
them, but we had to save you at all costs."
The Hospital Administrator dropped the bombshells on the
girls. The girls emotions broke like never before. The
girls hugged it other and cried.
Then they stopped briefly to ask a question.
"What do we do now?"
Nissha asked.
"I suggest you try to find your missing sibling and make the
best of it. We also have these which we found among your
mother's effects. There's one for each of you. They look
like baby rattles or pens. They have the 'sun' symbol
on it."
The Hospital Administrator told them as he handed them
the pens. When the girls got the pens, it glowed.
"What does this mean?"
Nissha asked.
There was no answer. Then the hospital administrator
spoke to the girls.
"Maybe one day you'll find the answer. Why don't you
go outside and enjoy the day."
The Hospital Administrator asked.
"We will."
Nissha and Taiyo answered.
Nissha and Taiyo went outside... what happens out here is
for next time.
Next Episode: "The Dark Youmas are free! Nissha and Taiyo
becomes the Sun Soldiers."
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, The Mutant Master
discovers a seal near Denver, Colorado and frees the
contents that lie inside! Then they are unleashed on
Forestville, what will happen? Find out on the next
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 03/08/2003
This episode was released on: ??/??/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
6. 06 Solar Power, Part I
Today on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, The Mutant Master discovers
a seal near Denver, Colorado and frees the contents that lie
inside! Then they are unleashed on Forestville, what will happen?
Find out next!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 06: "The Dark Youmas are free! Nissha and Taiyo becomes
the Sun Soldiers."
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Mutant Master was looking for another way to destroy the
Gunshi girls. But How? Then the Mutant Master discovered a
seal near Denver, Colorado and decided to investigate it.
"What's this?"
The Mutant Master asked himself.
"It says, 'Whoever frees the demons inside will be guilty of the
most horrible crime of all!' Do not free them! Whatever, at all
costs, don't free them!"
The Mutant Master spoke the rune-like letters on the tomb.
"Like I care! They should be like my kind; a monster!"
The Mutant Master spoke then powered up his staff and broke
the seal! Inside were four villains that had no physical
appearance! They all had names. The Mutant Master spoke.
"I am the Mutant Master! Please Identify yourselves!"
The Mutant Master commanded them.
"I am Demoneus!"
Demoneus answered.
"I am Mudious!"
Mudious answered.
"I am Bandos!"
Bandos answered.
I am Kuraikos!"
Kuraikos answered.
"Good. You have a master near by. I can feel him. I have a job for
you four! Go to Forestville, California and destroy the Gunshi
sisters for me. You can identify them easily. They have the
Odango hair style! My powers will teleport you there. Ready?"
The Mutant Master asked.
"Yes."
They replied.
"Good."
The Mutant Master teleported the Dark Youma Generals to
Forestville, California! Then the Mutant Master continued
to search for the Darkness Master. He found him, embedded
in a cliff. With the Mutant Master's power, the Darkness
Master was free.
"You freed me. Who are you?"
The Darkness Master asked.
"I am the Mutant Master! Four of your kind are free are in
a town called 'Forestville' there is where we are headed!
Let's go!"
The Mutant Master said and then he teleported himself and
the Darkness Master.
Meanwhile in Forestville...
Nissha and Taiyo went outside. Their cat Corona followed suit.
Then the four Dark Youma Generals appeared on the street
approaching the girls location. Then the Mutant Master appeared
with the Darkness Master. The girls looked shocked and frightened!
"Monsters! What do we do?"
Nissha and Taiyo said in unison.
Amanda and Andrea joined them outside.
"We cannot fight them!"
Nissha said.
Then the girls' sticks that they each had in their hands were
glowing. Nissha and Taiyo looked at their pens that they
had in their hands.
"Our pens! They are glowing!"
Nissha commented.
"What does this mean?"
Corona looked at the pens and discovered what they really
were. Then she spoke to them.
"Nissha and Taiyo! Those aren't pens, but Henshin Sticks! They
will give you the ability to transform into something else!"
Corona started. Nissha and Taiyo were even more shocked.
"Our Cat... spoke!"
Nissha said in a shocked tone.
"How?"
Taiyo asked.
"Never mind now how I can talk. These villains will end your
life if I don't act fast! I remember now! You have the ability
to transform into the Sun Soldiers!"
Corona announced.
"Sun Soldiers?"
Nissha asked.
"I think you lost me Corona!"
Taiyo announced.
"Listen! It's simple. Nissha, you are Sailor Sun. Taiyo, you are
Sailor Solar! Nissha, your transformation phrase is 'Sun Celestial
Power!' Taiyo, your transformation phrase is 'Solar Celestial
Power!' And each of you must end your phrases with 'Make Up!'
Your Henshin Sticks. Transform now!"
"Okay! I hope this works! Sun Celestial Power!"
Nissha cried.
"Oh boy! What a day this has turned out to be! Solar Celestial
Power!"
Taiyo cried.
"Make Up!"
Nissha and Taiyo cried.
Solar energy surrounded the girls and within seconds stood
two Soldiers of the Sun appeared where Nissha and Taiyo
were.
"What do we do now?"
Sailor Sun asked Corona.
Corona thought for a moment and then answered.
"Each of you has some powers that you can use to fight those
monsters!"
Then the Dark Youmas created other Dark Youma Monsters to
take on the Sun Soldiers.
"I remember what your attacks are!"
Corona told the Sun Soldiers.
"I know your attacks! Taiyo, yours is 'Solar Flare Arrows Strike!'
Nissha, yours is 'Sun Fire Burst!' You know what to do."
Corona finished.
"Very well! Sun Fire Burst!"
Sailor Sun said as a hot orange fire came out of her hands
and hit several Dark Youmas! The Dark Youmas were burned
up.
"My turn! Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
Several fiery arrows headed to the remaining Dark Youmas. They
too were burned up. Now the only ones were the Dark Youma Generals,
the Darkness Master, and the Mutant Master.
"We will tell you all something! Forestville had nursed us back
to health! We are grateful! We will protect this town!"
The Sun Soldiers told all of the villains.
"Very well... we'll attack next time."
The Darkness Master replied and they all vanished.
Then the towns folk came up to the Sun Soldiers.
"I think they now have some protectors."
Amanda commented.
"Still... our true mission has not been realized... locate our
missing sister."
Sailor Sun said as she retransformed.
"Right."
Sailor Sun said as she retransformed.
Corona spoke to Nissha and Taiyo.
"Good job! I will reveal other attacks to you."
Corona told Nissha and Taiyo.
"Good job!"
Andrea told Nissha and Taiyo.
Their journey had only begun...
TO BE CONTINUED....
Next Episode: "Cannot out run destiny! Nissha and Taiyo's
real decision!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Nissha and Taiyo
face a powerful Dark Youma, however they are reluctant
to transform. Their other mission must be realized!
Can they do it? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar:
Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 03/09/2003
This episode was released on: ??/??/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
7. 07 Solar Power, Part II
Last time on Sailor Moon Solar, Nissha and Taiyo recovered and
were surrounded by Dark Youmas! Then they became the Sun Soldiers!
What will happen next? Stay there and find out on Sailor Moon
Solar Beginnings!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings
Episode 07: "Cannot out run destiny! Nissha and Taiyo's
real decision!"
By: [email protected] (The Crystal Knight)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before
'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I
created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own.
Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use
my characters, you must get my permission first.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Corona, the orange guardian cat cheered and congratulated the girls
on their victory.
"Good job you two! This is only the beginning! The Dark Youmas know
that you are their enemy... they will think up another plan
against you!"
Corona cheered. The girls just stood there like they wondered what
happened right before their eyes.
"It really happened, right? We beat that monster?"
Sailor Sun asked.
"I'm pretty sure it did."
Replied Sailor Solar. The town's folk saw the girls transform and
were amazed! They ran up to them and congratulated them.
"Thank you for protecting us!"
One person thanked them.
"No problem."
Sailor Sun replied.
"Let's go."
Said Corona as the girls walked home with their friends Amanda and
Andrea. Once at home. Corona spoke.
"Good job! Now that you've become Sun Soldiers, remember this; you
two must accomplish your mission! Never run from destiny and defeat
the Dark Youmas! Also you have another mission don't you?"
Corona asked them.
"Yeah."
Replied Nissha.
"Our sister..."
Taiyo trailed off.
"You will find her... for now... let's concentrate on this new enemy..."
Corona told them.
Later...
Nissha, Taiyo, and Corona were in the park. Other people were there...
then a new Dark Youma appeared!
"You have to transform!"
Corona insisted.
"But..."
Nissha stalled...
"If you don't transform... people will get hurt! Transform now!"
Corona ordered them. For a moment, their lives were flashing before
their eyes. Then they heard a familiar sound...
"Sun Celestial Power!"
Nissha cried.
"Solar Celestial Power!"
Taiyo cried.
The two Sun Soldiers transformed.
"Come on! I don't have all day!"
The Dark Youma snarled at them.
"If we can't run from destiny..."
Sailor Sun started.
"Maybe we can learn from it!"
Sailor Solar finished.
Sun Fire Burst!"
Sailor Sun said as a hot orange fire came out of her hands
and hit the Dark Youma! The Dark Youma was burned up.
"My turn! Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
Several fiery arrows headed to the Dark Youma. The Dark Youma burned
up.
"Good job! Now you beat them again!"
Corona congratulated them.
"Yeah... our mission to find our third sister has been left
unfulfilled."
Sailor Sun replied with despair.
Next Episode: "Search the Internet! Look beyond the horizon."
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, the girls search the internet
for their missing sister... then a local internet provider is attacked
by Dark Youmas! Can they beat them? find out on the next Sailor
Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 03/30/2003
This episode was released on: ??/??/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight
Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the
proper copyright owners.
8. 08 Internet Power!
Today on Sailor Moon Solar: beginnings, the girls search the internet for their missing sister... then a local internet provider is attacked by Dark Youmas! Can they beat them? find out next!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 08: "Search the Internet! Look beyond the horizon"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first.
The last few days, the Dark Youmas didn't attack. The Sun Soldiers had foiled every plan so far. The towns people loved the fact that two super heroines was there to protect them from evil.
Nissha and Taiyo were at home. Amanda and Andrea were there.
"How do we look for our missing sister?"
Nissha asked Andrea.
"Have you tried... Yahoo?"
Nissha looked puzzled.
"Yahoo?"
Nissha questioned and then speaking again,
"What's Yahoo?"
Nissha asked.
"Yahoo is a search engine. You can find web pages of information. It may help you find your missing sister."
Andrea answered.
"Okay."
Nissha agreed.
"Let's go to Yahoo."
Taiyo agreed with Andrea.
So Nissha and Taiyo connected to Yahoo.
"Okay... we are at Yahoo... now what?"
Nissha asked.
"You have the odango hair style, right?"
Amanda asked.
"Yes."
Nissha answered.
"Okay, please type in 'Odango' in the search box and press return."
Amanda told her.
"Okay."
Nissha answered.
"Wow! There's so many pages listed here... where do we go first?"
Nissha asked.
"Try the first page, the Odango maker page!"
Taiyo suggested.
"Okay!"
Nissha answered.
Nissha and Taiyo surfed on to the 'Odango Maker Page...'
"Well?"
Amanda asked.
"A dead end..."
Nissha replied. The server must be down!
"The internet server? It never goes down!"
Andrea suggested.
"Why would it go down?"
Nissha asked.
"Maybe Dark Youmas are attacking the internet provider."
Taiyo gave a suggestion.
"Right! Let's go."
Nissha commanded. The four girls left for the Internet Provider.
"Destroy this building! Now that the server has been cutoff from the rest of the world!"
Demoneus ordered. Then Sailor Sun and Sailor Solar appeared!
"HOLD IT Demoneus! Attacking an Internet Provider is wrong and we will punish you!"
Sailor Sun started...
"... And if you have hurt people... we will punish you!"
Sailor Solar continued...
"... and we will burn you up and spit you out!"
Sailor Sun and Sailor Solar finished together.
"DARK YOUMAS... ATTACK THEM!"
Demoneus commanded causing three Dark Youmas appearing out of nowhere.
"Sailor Sun... Here! Take this!"
Corona said handing her a shiny looking sword.
"What's this?"
Sailor Sun asked.
"This is the Starry Sword! Its power is unmatched like nothing you have ever seen before! Say 'Starry Matter Sword Strike'
It will help you greatly!"
Corona told Sailor Sun as she handed her the Starry Sword.
"Thank you! Starry Matter Sword Strike!"
Sailor Sun thanked Corona and grabbed the sword and threw it!
It glowed and moved like a boomerang hitting all the enemies!
The three Dark Youmas were destroyed. Even Demoneus was injured.
Demoneus vanished.
Three internet people came out of the bushes.
"You have saved us! You're heroes!"
One of the people cheered at the Sun Soldiers.
"No. We are just doing our job!"
Sailor Sun replied.
"We can get our internet provider back up and running in no time thanks to you."
Another person stated.
"You are welcome."
Sailor Sun answered again.
"But, we are no closer in locating our missing sister."
Sailor Sun complained.
"Don't worry."
Andrea started and then she continued,
"You'll find her. Have patience. It will pay off sooner or later."
Andrea gave some words of encouragement.
Sailor Sun and Sailor Solar watch the sunset as they close another chapter in their quest for their third sister.
Next Episode: "The Haunted past returns, relive the last moment of the Gunshi's!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, A Dark Youma gives Nissha and Taiyo nightmares of the Gunshi's last moments! Can they overcome this new threat to them? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar:
Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 05/03/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
9. 09 Haunted Memories!
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, A Dark Youma gives Nissha and Taiyo nightmares of the Gunshi's last moments! Can they overcome this new threat to them? Find out on the next!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 09: "The Haunted past returns, relive the last moment of the Gunshi's"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first.
It was the middle of the night. Corona was sleeping when she noticed something odd. An eerie light entered the room and started shining on the Gunshi sisters; Nissha and Taiyo. Corona just watched to see what would happen next. The eerie light was green. It started to shine on Nissha and Taiyo. Nissha and Taiyo started having nightmares. First Nissha experienced in her nightmare the following dream.
Nissha experience that she was the 'one to blame' for her parents death. Not only that, but the people of Forestville held her responsible. They put Nissha on trial for the deaths of Julia and Mark Gunshi! But the dream was so real... after a long time of suffering from the dream, the dream ended and Nissha woke up.
Taiyo dreamed that she ran away after her parents deaths, due to the fact that she could no longer handle the depression. She hid her worst fears from everybody and remained separate from society. It was just a dream. Soon after, Taiyo woke up.
Nissha and Taiyo woke up and looked at each other. They were thinking of one same question...
"Are we responsible for the deaths of our parents?"
Nissha and Taiyo said as they were overlapping one another.
Corona understood the question.
"Listen to you two. This is something you must overcome. I do not know what you experienced in your nightmares, but your parents loved you so much that they wouldn't let that happen to you!
YOU aren't RESPONSIBLE for YOUR parents DEATH."
Corona told them.
"But, why does it feel that we feel so guilty?"
Taiyo asked. Corona looked up to the ceiling and floating there in the air was the green eerie light. The eerie light moved outside. Nissha and Taiyo followed outside.
The eerie light transformed into a Dark Youma! It was Demoneus!
"Ha! You looked so flustered! Now I will give you a real Dark Youma to battle! Nightmare Dark Youma! Put these two on ice and give them good and terrible nightmares!"
Demoneus commanded. The Nightmare Dark Youma appeared.
"Transform yourselves!"
Corona insisted.
"RIGHT!"
Nissha and Taiyo replied.
"Sun Celestial Power!"
Nissha Gunshi cried out! Nissha spun around, and with a flash of light she transformed into Sailor Sun!
"Solar Celestial Power"
Taiyo Gunshi cried out! Taiyo began to twirl around very fast, as starry matter engulfed her. In a flash, she transformed into Sailor Solar!
"For causing nightmares to us..."
Sailor Sun started.
"... And you will be punished for your evil deeds..."
Sailor Solar continued.
"... And we are the Sun Soldiers the only hope and salvation of the world."
The Sun Soldiers finished off.
"Starry Matter Sword Strike!"
Sailor Sun grabbed the sword and threw it! It glowed and moved like a boomerang hitting Nightmare Dark Youma! Then Nissha made her attack.
"Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
Several fiery arrows headed to the Nightmare Dark Youma!
"Let's finish this off!"
Sailor Sun commanded.
"Right!"
Sailor Solar relied.
"Starry Matter Sword Strike!"
"Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
The two powers came together and hit Nightmare Dark Youma! It started to burn the Dark Youma! Nightmare Dark Youma fell down face forward and exploded!
"We are now avenged!"
Sailor Sun stated.
"Yeah. My our parents rest in peace knowing that we will save the world from the darkness!"
Sailor Solar stated.
"There is another 'Sun Soldier!'
Corona announced.
Nissha and Taiyo looked shocked.
"Our missing sister?"
Nissha asked.
That is a story for another time!
Next Episode: "The Search on the internet shows a candidate, Nissha and Taiyo prepare for a trip!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, There search for the sister continues. Then Dark Youmas attack a local café. Then they are told of an astonishing lump sum that was once the Gunshi parents former wealth when they were alive. What happens next? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 05/04/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
10. 10 A Revealing Candidate!
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, There search for the sister continues. Then Dark Youmas attack a local café. Then they are told of an astonishing lump sum that was once the Gunshi parents former wealth when they were alive. What happens next? Find out next!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 10: "The Search on the internet shows a candidate, Nissha and Taiyo prepare for a trip"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first.
Nissha and Taiyo were at a café. It was a quiet morning. The birds was singing. Everything was quiet. Then Taiyo brought up a question.
"How do we find her?"
Taiyo asked.
"I don't know."
Nissha answered. Taiyo thought and then an idea came to her.
"Hey! I have an idea!"
Taiyo said as she drug her sister along. They ran through the streets and got to their house. Taiyo got on the internet. She started a new search at yahoo dot com.
"What kind of search?"
Nissha asked.
"A search of the word Odango."
Taiyo answered.
"What is an 'Odango?' I am kind of confused."
Nissha asked.
"The Meatballs in our hair Nissha!"
Taiyo answered. Then some search results came up. She clicked on the first page at the top of the list. It was a web site of Mizuno, Ami!
"But this is a different person!"
Nissha protested.
"QUIET!"
Taiyo yelled.
"Watch!"
Taiyo read the web page aloud to Nissha. It showed a picture of Usagi. The caption said the following:
"This is Usagi Tsukino! My friend maybe a crybaby and irresponsible, however when I really need her, she is there for me!"
After Taiyo finished reading the web page and then waited for a reply from her sister.
"Where does she live?"
Nissha asked.
Taiyo looked at the web site. Then she replied.
"Tokyo, Japan!"
Nissha's eyes opened wide.
"Tokyo, Japan?"
Nissha asked.
"What will we do?"
Taiyo asked.
There was a knock at the door. Nissha opened the door.
"Hello, Mister Foster!"
Mister Foster worked at the bank.
"Are you planning in going on a trip soon?"
He asked.
"Yeah. We are thinking about it."
Taiyo answered.
"Well, before your parents died, they left you with a lump sum of $1,500,000.00! It's yours. You'll need it if you are planning a trip. If you will come to the back, we will release the money after you sign some papers."
Mister Foster told them.
"Okay."
They answered. The Went to the Bank of Forestville.
The papers were signed. A letter had been left for the the Gunshi girls. Nissha read it. It said the following:
"My daughters; Nissha and Taiyo, if you received this letter, that is because we have been killed by someone else! Please remain strong! Here at the bank is our 1.5 Million Dollars! Use it to plan your trip to Japan! We already know where your sister lives! Search in Tokyo for her. Be strong! Find and protect her, since she is your only other sibling. Your father and I love you very much.
Sincerely, Julia and Mark Gunshi."
Nissha had tears in her eyes. Their emotional experience was cut short when someone came in.
"Nissha! Taiyo! A monster is attacking the Forestville Café!
We need your help!"
A person demanded.
"Right!"
The they replied. They transformed and met the monster head on!
"Oh! Goody! It's those Sun Soldiers!"
A Dark Youma announced.
"Starry Matter Sword Strike!"
Sailor Sun grabbed the sword and threw it! It glowed and moved like a boomerang hitting the Dark Youma! Then Nissha made her attack.
"Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
Several fiery arrows headed to the Dark Youma!
"He's still here!"
Sailor Sun announced. Corona came up.
"Combine your powers together!"
Corona suggested.
"Right! Starry Matter Sword Strike!"
"Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
The fiery arrows went into the Starry Sword! The combined powers hit the Dark Youma! The Dark Youma burned up to nothing!
"Another one bit the dust!"
Sailor Sun replied.
"Now what?"
Sailor Solar asked.
"We buy airline tickets and head for Japan."
Sailor Sun answered. Our quest continues there.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next Episode: "Say Goodbye to Forestville, California! Hello skies!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, Nissha and Taiyo prepare to leave Forestville and board a jet for Tokyo! Once on the jet they meet someone from their past! What will happen? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 05/10/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
11. 11 I am leaving on a Jet Plane, Part I
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, Nissha and Taiyo prepare to leave Forestville and board a jet for Tokyo! Once on the jet they meet someone from their past! What will happen? Find out next!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 11: "Say Goodbye to Forestville, California! Hello skies"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first.
Nissha and Taiyo made some last preparations. Then they boarded a jet plane. Tears flowed from their eyes. Since they never left their hometown before.
"I feel bad."
Taiyo stated.
"Don't worry. When we find our sister, we'll bring her back here to show her where we were born!"
Nissha replied. The girls seemed to talk forever about what had happened to them. Time seemed to pass away! Then once in the air, suddenly time seemed to stop. Except for them.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Nissha asked.
"Yeah! I feel someone I haven't felt in ages."
Taiyo replied.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
Corona demanded.
Then an image of a man started to appear out of nowhere! He called out their names!
"Princess Equanimity! Princess Equability!"
He called them by name! However, they felt it wasn't 'their' names!
A tall man dressed in orange armor started walking close to the Gunshi girls.
"Sun Celestial Power! Make Up!"
"Solar Celestial Power! Make Up!"
Nissha and Taiyo cried. They transformed into Sailor Sun and Sailor Solar.
"I don't know who you are, but we will defend ourselves!"
Sailor Sun announced in angry tone. The man slowly approached them and spoke to them again.
"Nissha Gunshi, you are Princess Equanimity! Taiyo you are Princess Equability! You don't remember me, that am the way I had planned it! I am Solace, king of the Sun Kingdom and the creator of 'Your Powers!' I am your father from the Silver Millennium! I have waited for this day!"
King Solace spoken softly then sent a soft energy at the girls!
Their powers were cutoff temporarily and they were transformed into their Princess forms for the first time. Then a beautiful woman appeared.
"Who are you?"
Princess Equanimity asked.
"I am your mother from the Silver Millennium! You are searching for your sister right?"
Queen Serenity asked.
"Yes."
Princess Equanimity replied.
"We can tell you, in ways she is like you, however, she still not evolved far enough yet where she is a 'Sun Soldier'
We can tell you how to find her and who she actually is."
Queen Serenity told them.
"Thanks, but we want to find out and discover it for ourselves."
Princess Equanimity replied.
"Always remember, never give up."
King Solace spoke to them.
"Right!"
The Sun Princesses replied.
"Corona, help them succeed in their mission!"
King Solace commanded her.
"I will!"
Corona the Guardian cat replied. King Solace and Queen Serenity vanished. The girls retransformed into their civilian forms and fainted. They fell to the floor. Time resumed. The stewardess noticed them.
"Are you okay?"
The stewardess asked.
The girls woke up.
"Yeah."
Nissha replied.
"We're fine. We now know that our mission is only beginning!"
Taiyo stated.
This is only the beginning of their ultimate destiny!
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next Episode: "Nissha and Taiyo meet their space age father and mother!"
Next time on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, King Solace and Queen Serenity return to the girls to take them back to the past to learn of their destiny! What will happen? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings!
This episode was completed on: 05/11/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
12. 12 I am leaving on a Jet Plane, Part II
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, King Solace and Queen Serenity return to the girls to take them back to the past to learn of their destiny! What will happen? Find out next!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 12: "Nissha and Taiyo meet their space age father and mother"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first.
Nissha and Taiyo were still on the plane. The girls were wondering of what they were told the last time King Solace and Queen Serenity were there.
"So they were our parents of the time of the Moon Kingdom?"
Nissha asked herself.
Time seemed to pass... and they fell asleep. When they woke up they were on the Moon Kingdom of the past.
"Where are we?"
Nissha wondered which was now in her Princess form of Princess Equanimity!
"Yeah. The place looks so beautiful."
Taiyo commented which she was now in her Princess form too. Hers Was Princess Equability! They were at the Sun Kingdom, the palace existed deep within Sol. Sol was given by the Romans. They named it for our star, the Sun.
They could see their past selves, however they couldn't talk to Them or anyone there could see them either.
Princess Equanimity And Princess Equability were learning for their tutors about the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Silver Millennium, the Asteroid Province of the Moon Kingdom, math,
runes, the mysterious Sun language, math, and science. Not only that, but history too. Nissha and Taiyo heard their father from the moon kingdom speak.
"I am Solace, king of the Sun Kingdom and husband of the Moon Queen; Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium."
The girls were wondering why they were in their Princess forms.
"To be frank with you. The enemy; the Dark Youmas will follow you and you must find your sister. We protected you from dying when you were terribly injured. The Dark Youmas has massive power and it will take three Sun Soldiers to make a dent into these Dark Youmas."
"Does our sister have the powers of a Sun Soldier?"
Princess Equanimity asked.
"That is something you'll have to discover for yourselves. You found out who your sister is. I am sure you'll discover your sister's true condition of being a Soldier of the Sun."
Queen Serenity answered them.
"I see."
Princess Equability responded.
"Now let's travel to the past and discover the truth about the Dark Youmas."
King Solace said as the two Princesses were transported back a 1000 years. Then King Solace began.
"A 1000 years ago, relations between Earth and the Moon was kind of rough and never went well. The only ones that had allied with us were Princess Naruko and Prince Endymion of a kingdom of Europe; on the Planet Earth. Naruko was a Soldier of the Earth.
She was known as Sailor Earth. Not only that, but the Dark Youmas came from outside of the Solar System to try to take over our world. However, at the time when the war was taking place on Earth. You Royal Princess of the Sun and of the Moon weren't allowed to fight these Demons. So the only thing there was to do was to seal the Dark Youmas in hopes they will not get free again. Sailor Earth sealed them because they couldn't defeat the Dark Youmas.
Somme important information you should know. If you find your sister, you three must stay united! Another thing, only Solar power can hurt the Dark Youma Demons! Now let me take you to a time where the Sailor Senshi fought the Dark Youmas.
--- Flashback ---
"DIE!"
Shouted the Dark King.
"WE will destroy you!"
The Darkness Master stated!
"You cannot darken this world!"
Sailor Earth snarled.
"We will die in trying to protect the Solar System!"
Sailor Mars spoke.
"Right."
Sailor Destiny agreed, and then continuing,
"We will protect the future of the Earth from Demons like you!"
Sailor Destiny finished!
"Also to protect the three heirs of the Silver Millennium and so they have a future."
Sailor Venus stated.
Even more Dark Youmas appeared!
"DIE!"
The Dark Youmas got even stronger.
"We can't defeat them."
Sailor Earth stated.
"What do we do?"
Sailor Mars asked.
"We must seal them."
Sailor Earth announced.
"How?"
Sailor Uranus asked.
"I have the power to seal them. I have to find a place where they can be seal them. You hold them off."
Sailor Earth replied. Then she teleported away. On Earth,
she discovered a cave,
"This will be perfect."
Sailor Earth spoke to herself and then teleported back to the Dark Youmas and the Sailor Senshi were.
"I have had it with you Dark Youmas! Prepare to be sealed!"
Sailor Earth announced.
"Oh! I am scared!"
The Dark King announced!
"You should be! Earth Sealing Power!"
Sailor Earth started her sealing attack. First all the Dark Youma Generals and the normal Dark Youmas were placed in the cave. As to the Darkness Master was embedded into a cliff. Now the dark King was transformed was into a space ship where he couldn't do any harm then Sailor Earth caused it to bury on the surface of the moon. Then all was quiet.
"She did it."
Sailor Venus added.
"Yeah."
Sailor Earth replied.
--- Flashback End ---
"So we have to find our sister, huh?"
Princess Equanimity asked.
"You right Equanimity, it takes three to have any effect on the Dark Youmas."
"Will we really find her?"
Princess Equability asked.
"What does your heart say?"
King Solace asked.
"We'll find her."
Princess Equability responded.
"Good Observation! Farewell for now."
King Solace told them. Then him and his wife vanished.
Princess Equanimity and Princess Equability retransformed back to their civilians. The plane returned to normal.
The plane continued to head for Japan.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next Episode: "The history of a kingdom, learn of its past!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, King Solace reveals to the girls the history of the Sun Crystal and that the Dark Youmas were trying to capture it. What will happen?
Will Nissha ever reach Japan? Will they find their sister?
Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
This Episode was completed on: 09/18/2003
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
13. 13 I am leaving on a Jet Plane, Part III
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, King Solace reveals to the girls the history of the Sun Crystal and that the Dark Youmas were trying to capture it. What will happen?
Will Nissha ever reach Japan? Will they find their sister?
Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 13: "The history of a kingdom, learn of its past"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first. Also please read the following series:
Sailor Moon Solar I: The Sun Moon Child Sailor Moon Solar II: Kaleidoscope Passion of Oneself I: Cosmos Moon Power Passion of Oneself II: Stolen Soul Passion of Oneself III: Resurrection!
Enjoy!
Nissha and Taiyo sat in their seats, wondering about their mission that they had to complete, not only to just complete their mission,
but to find their sister too!
"I hope everything will be okay and we find our sister."
Nissha thought out loud.
"But our mission is just more than finding our sister! Our mission is to destroy those Dark Youmas!"
Taiyo talked back to her sister.
"What about the Sun Crystal?"
Nissha thought out loud.
Queen Serenity and King Solace appeared.
"The Sun Crystal, has the power to destroy the Dark Youmas,
but it is Serenity's Crystal and hers alone. In order for her to inherit the Sun Crystal, she must earn it!"
King Solace reported.
"Where is it?"
Taiyo asked.
"It's safely hidden on the Moon and no one can find it, but us."
Queen Serenity answered.
"Does it really have the power of the Sun?"
Nissha asked.
"yes it does, right now... it can do nothing. The Sin Crystal reflects the love found in the users heart! When they are determined to save the world, its power will grow!"
King Solace answered.
"What's the history of the Sun Crystal?"
Taiyo asked.
"Long before the Silver Millennium seen Queen Beryl, the Sun Kingdom had existed on its own, our treasure and our way of life! See, from king to prince, it's what my family had been given by the heavens above. We were told to protect it always. But, neither me or our sons couldn't use it. So, I made a proposal,
to the Kingdom of the moon, I told them that none of us could use the Sun Crystal. So, I married Princess Serenity,
the future queen and mother to you sun triplets. We had hoped that with you being descended from both kingdoms,
that one of you could use that crystal. So, we tested the Sun Crystal on each of you! The Crystal responded Princess Serenity. So, we knew that finally that the Crystal had chosen someone to use its power."
King Solace replied.
"She is the only one who can wield the Sun Crystal."
Queen Serenity told them.
"The only one? Why not us? We our his daughters too."
Nissha almost protested.
"The Sun Crystal chose her because the Crystal trusts and believes in her."
King Solace told them.
"You have your mission. You can't join the Sailor Senshi until after you unite with your sister! Farewell!"
King Solace replied. Then they vanished.
"We have our priorities."
Nissha told her sister Taiyo.
"Yes, let's fulfill them!"
Taiyo replied. Nissha and Taiyo put their hands together.
Meanwhile...
"Soon we will rule the world and nothing can stop us!"
Demoneus spoke in a determined tone.
"Yes. Demoneus, if you cloak Usagi's brooch in darkness.
she'll be powerless against the Dark Youmas!"
Bandon announced.
"That's right! Our time is almost here!"
Kuraikos cheered.
"Our time has come, the rule of the Dark Youmas will soon begin!"
Mudious shouted.
Back in the jet plane...
"We are approaching Tokyo. Please buckle in!"
The captain announced.
"Our time and mission is about to begin."
Nissha spoke in a soft tone.
"Yes, to find our sister..."
Taiyo continued.
"... AND OUR ULTIMATE DESTINY!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Next Episode: ""The plane lands in Tokyo! The quest continues!"
Next Time on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Nissha, and Taiyo A land in Tokyo and their search continues! Meanwhile, Demoneus cloaks Usagi's brooch! Will Nissha and Taiyo finally meet Usagi?
Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003, 2005 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
14. 14 I am leaving on a Jet Plane, Part IV
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, Nissha, and Taiyo A land in Tokyo and their search continues! Meanwhile, Demoneus cloaks Usagi's brooch! Will Nissha and Taiyo finally meet Usagi?
Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 14: "The plane lands in Tokyo! The quest continues"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first. Also please read the following series:
Sailor Moon Solar I: The Sun Moon Child Sailor Moon Solar II: Kaleidoscope Passion of Oneself I: Cosmos Moon Power Passion of Oneself II: Stolen Soul Passion of Oneself III: Resurrection!
Enjoy!
The jet plane was approaching Tokyo. A stewardess walked by Nissha and Taiyo.
"It looks like you two have been through an intense ordeal!
I don't know what you have been through, but I hope you find what you are looking for."
The stewardess told them.
"Thank you."
Nissha and Taiyo replied at once.
"Enjoy the rest of your flight."
The Stewardess told them and she continued walking down the isle. Soon, the plane landed in Tokyo. Nissha and Taiyo got their cat Corona and headed for customs.
"You are cleared to enter Japan. Enjoy your stay!"
The customs official them and then they left the airport.
"Where to now?"
Taiyo asked.
"We did arrange for an apartment here. Let's see the land lord."
Nissha replied.
"Let's go find it."
Taiyo cheered her sister on. They started walking down the street when Luna saw them.
"Who are they? I sense a strong familiar power in them. Could they be the new enemy I have been sensing lately?"
Luna thought out loud. Meanwhile, Nissha and Taiyo found the Landlord and their new apartment!
"Hello! You must be Nissha and Taiyo. I have been expecting you!
You said you need a 3-bedroom apartment, correct? But, there's only two of you!"
The landlord told them.
"I know, but when we find our other sister... she'll be living with us too."
Nissha replied.
"I see."
The landlord replied.
"Here's the advance payment of the rent and the deposit."
Taiyo told the landlord as she handed the money order.
"Thank you, I guess you won't have any trouble paying the rent?"
The landlord asked.
"Don't worry. Our parents had a fortune stored up before they died. We had used up only a portion to realize our parents dream."
Nissha answered as she looked up to the sky.
"A dream? What was their dream?"
The landlord asked.
"That we find our missing sister."
Taiyo replied again.
"I see. Good luck! Here's the key."
The landlord told them as she handed them the key. Nissha and Taiyo got the key and went inside.
"This will do nicely."
Nissha told her sister.
Later that night...
Usagi had gone to bed. Demoneus appeared in her room.
"Ah! Her brooch! I'll cloak it in darkness!"
Demoneus whispered as his dark power went into the brooch.
The brooch glowed dark for a moment, then the darkness vanished. Then Demoneus vanished.
The next day...
Usagi, Rei, Luna, and Makoto were walking down the street.
"What's wrong Usagi?"
Rei asked. Usagi had a concerned look on her face.
"I don't know. I feel that an answer of some kind is approaching me, but I have no idea what it is."
Usagi thought as she looked up in the sky.
"An answer of some kind? You never had acted this way before!"
Makoto told her.
"I know, I can sense them. The answer I seek, I feel them!"
Usagi replied like she was psychic.
"You sense someone else out there? Then who?"
Luna asked.
"I don't know. All I know is they have a connection to me and I sense them. The feeling is getting stronger!"
Usagi replied.
Ami and Minako appeared.
"Hey guys!"
Minako and Ami greeted them. Ami noticed something different about Usagi!
"What's wrong Usagi-Chan?"
Ami asked.
"Ami, a question for you."
Usagi told her.
"Okay."
Ami replied.
"What kind of people has the ability to sense someone else?"
Usagi asked. Ami thought a moment before answering.
"Twins and triplets have the ability to sense each other."
Ami explained.
"Then, I understand what I am feeling now. I sense two other girls here in Tokyo!"
Usagi replied.
"two other girls? How?"
Minako asked.
"I can't explain it. I am confused by it! it all happened months ago! I felt that someone were killed and two that was familiar to me were terribly injured, but now... they are here. The feeling is so strong now."
Usagi explained even when she herself didn't understand it.
"Why didn't you tell us that you sensed them all this time?"
Luna asked.
"What would you have done Luna?"
Usagi asked.
"Nothing."
Luna replied.
"See, I sense them and I don't know how! I thought my parents were..."
Usagi told them. Usagi felt something that had been hidden for a long time from her!
"Usagi? You say you sense girls here in Tokyo that has a connection to you?"
Ami asked.
"Yes."
Usagi replied.
"Only siblings like you're describing have the ability to sense each other!"
Ami explained.
"Maybe Usagi has two sisters out there that are part of the Tsukino family."
Rei added.
"But, how? The Tsukino's have no other children other than Shingo!"
Makoto replied.
"All will be revealed in time."
Luna added.
"But, there's more to it than you know! Right Rei and Ami?"
Usagi questioned them.
"Yes. It happened a few months ago. Usagi, Ami, and myself were going to Mako-Chan's apartment for a get together when suddenly..."
Rei trailed off as she remembered something crucial!
Flashback
Usagi, Rei, and Ami were headed to Mako-Chan's for a get together. All seemed to be going well. The girls talked on the way to Makoto's apartment when...
"I love Mako-Chan's cooking!"
Usagi replied cheerfully.
"Yeah, we know you're going to pig out Usagi-Chan!"
Rei scolded Usagi.
"You're so mean Rei-Chan!"
Usagi protested.
"Will you two cool it?"
Ami asked. Usagi stopped. Usagi held her head.
"Guys... I don't feel good... I feel dizzy!"
Usagi told them as she still struggled to fathom of what was happening to her.
"What's wrong Usagi-Chan?"
Ami asked.
"The pain I feel... terrible pain..."
Usagi call out to Rei and Ami and collapsed to the ground.
"USAGI!"
Rei yelled. Ami rushed to Usagi and checked her pulse. Ami got no pulse. Usagi wasn't even breathing!
"She's not breathing! I can't get a pulse."
Ami told Rei in a desperate tone. Ami did C.P.R. on Usagi and tried to restore Usagi's breathing, but to no avail!
But, as soon as she mysteriously died, she revived again on her own without any explanation! Usagi was still unconscious.
Rei or Ami had no answers of what happened. Rei picked up Usagi to the emergency room!
"May I help you?"
The E.M.T. asked.
"Yes! My friend here collapsed suddenly and we don't know why!"
Rei responded desperately.
"Has she overexerted herself lately or has she have any ailments of any kind?"
The E.M.T. asked.
"No! Usagi is perfectly healthy as far as we can tell."
Rei replied. Rei placed Usagi on a hospital bed and the E.M.T.
hooked up Usagi to a heart-monitoring machine. And also hooked her up to other diagnostic machines to see why Usagi had collapsed as she did, after a couple hours of testing, the E.M.T. talked to them!
"She's perfectly healthy, but you said she was in pain or felt pain before she collapsed right?"
The E.M.T. asked.
"Yes, that's correct."
Rei replied.
"I see. Usagi is feeling someone else's pain. Whatever it is,
it's horrific enough to cause her to be in the same fate as the ones that she has felt!"
The E.M.T. explained.
"Felt?"
Rei asked.
"Yes, this power is felt among identical triplets and twins! No matter the distance, another can feel someone else's pain even when they are far apart."
The E.M.T. explained. Usagi remained unconscious for at least two ore more weeks! Then she finally awakened!
"Usagi, do you know where you are?"
Rei asked.
"The pain I still feel..."
Usagi spoke in a weak tone.
"Pain? Are you in pain?"
Ami asked.
"No. Not of myself... someone else is in pain... I am feeling their pain!"
Usagi replied.
"I see."
Rei answered.
End Flashback
"So, that's what happened."
Rei explain.
"So, you can feel them Usagi-Chan?"
Minako asked.
"Yes. Guys, I could use something to eat."
Usagi spoke in a weak tone.
"Are you okay Usagi?"
Makoto Asked.
"I feel okay, just a bit weakened. That café there... let's go inside!"
Usagi told them. The girls and Luna went inside. They sat at a table! meanwhile, Nissha and Taiyo were in the same café. Usagi was sitting in the next row over, but where she was sitting, Usagi couldn't see them. The feeling that she wasn't alone was too strong. Usagi dropped her spoon and her eyes were great big.
"Usagi, what's wrong?"
Rei asked.
"They are here."
Usagi replied.
"Are you sure Usagi that they're here?"
Makoto asked.
"Yes, my intuition tells me they are here and very close by!"
Usagi replied again and stood up looking around until she found the two girls. Rei and the others looked at the two girls. Luna saw them and spoke.
"I seen those two girls earlier. I am getting a strange feeling from those two!"
Luna spoke quietly. Usagi undid her Odangos. Then she stood up.
"I am going to talk to them."
Usagi announced.
"I you going to reveal yourself to them?"
Rei asked.
"No. I want to see if it is them that I been sensing all this time!"
Usagi got up and walked over to Nissha and Taiyo's table.
"Excuse me. May I join you?"
Usagi asked them. Nissha and Taiyo looked up with great interest.
"Who are you?"
Nissha asked.
"I was sitting over there with my friends and I noticed that you're new around here. Welcome!"
Usagi told them.
"Here! Sit!"
Nissha invited her.
"Thanks."
Usagi thanked them. She sat down next to Nissha.
"What's your name?"
Taiyo asked. Usagi didn't want to give her name away yet.
So, she replied in a different way.
"I am the one who can sense you two!"
Usagi replied in a riddle. Nissha and Taiyo were puzzled.
"I am Nissha and this is Taiyo."
Nissha told Usagi.
"Nice to meet you. Maybe, we'll see each other again!"
Usagi told them. She got up and met back with the others.
Nissha and Taiyo heard Rei shouting Usagi's name.
"COME ON USAGI! IF YOU ARE LATE! MAMORU WILL SKIN YOU ALIVE!"
Rei yelled.
"Rei-Chan, you're so mean!"
Usagi yelled. Nissha and Taiyo stood up.
"Taiyo, that girl that visited us, she's Usagi! We just a Close Encounters of The Sibling Kind!"
Nissha exclaimed.
"She said that she sensed us."
Taiyo answered.
"How?"
Nissha asked.
Will Nissha and Taiyo find the answers they seek in watching Usagi?
Will the Dark Youmas try to stop Nissha and Taiyo from reuniting Nissha and Taiyo with Usagi? Be here for the conclusion of Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
Next Episode:
Their missing sister in their grasp, their encounter coming closer!"
Next time on Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings, Nissha, and Taiyo continue to watch Usagi. They are baffled because Usagi could sense them! Corona explains the bond the three have even when they had been separated! And The Dark Youmas try to prevent Nissha and Taiyo's reunion with Usagi! Be here next time for Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003, 2005 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
15. 15 Close Encounters!
Today on Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings, Nissha, and Taiyo continue to watch Usagi. They are baffled because Usagi could sense them! Corona explains the bond the three have even when they had been separated! And The Dark Youmas try to prevent Nissha and Taiyo's reunion with Usagi! Find out next!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings Episode 15: "Their missing sister in their grasp, their encounter coming closer"
By: (The Crystal Knight)
This series 'Sailor Moon Solar Beginnings' takes place before 'Sailor Moon Solar' and contains most of the characters that I created in 'Sailor Moon Solar.' All characters I created, I own. Sailor Moon is owned by the original holders. If you want to use my characters, you must get my permission first. Also please read the following series:
Sailor Moon Solar I: The Sun Moon Child Sailor Moon Solar II: Kaleidoscope Passion of Oneself I: Cosmos Moon Power Passion of Oneself II: Stolen Soul Passion of Oneself III: Resurrection!
Enjoy!
Note: You may have noticed that Usagi had bet Nissha and Taiyo in the last chapter and in this one! You may remember in Sailor Moon Solar, that Usagi met Nissha and Taiyo in episode one of Sailor Moon Solar, that is not true though, their first meeting was in Sailor Moon Solar:
Beginnings Episode 14 and continued in this episode! So,
enjoy!
Corona, Nissha, and Taiyo sat in their apartment. Nissha and Taiyo was still in confusion.
"How did she know?"
Nissha asked.
"She doesn't know that you are her siblings. She is in a state of confusion too."
Corona answered. Corona was an orange cat.
"Then, how did she sense us?"
Taiyo wondered.
"Simple! She's your other sibling, remember? Only another sibling that's related to you could sense you two without seeing you! She's the third identical triplet! You three can sense each other! Right now, if you try hard enough, you can sense Usagi."
Corona answered.
"Will our instincts tells us where she is and what she is doing?"
Taiyo asked.
"Well, it will tell you her feelings and as where she is,
your feelings will be able to determine where she is!
as to what she is doing, you still won't know."
Corona answered.
"I see."
Nissha thought.
"Try it."
Corona suggested.
"Okay."
Nissha and Taiyo spoke at once. They closed their eyes and tried to concentrate on Usagi! Finally, they were able to sense her!
"I can feel her!"
Nissha announced excitedly.
"She's nearby too!"
Taiyo almost shouted. Meanwhile, Usagi, Rei, Ami, Minako, and Makoto, and Mamoru were at Makoto's apartment. They were all chatting when Usagi was alerted to Nissha and Taiyo sensing her! Usagi stood up.
"Usagi what's wrong?"
Rei asked.
"Are you sensing those girls again?"
Ami asked.
"No! They're sensing me!"
Usagi announced.
"Sensing you?"
Everyone spoke at once.
"I still sense them too."
Usagi replied.
Meanwhile...
Nissha and Taiyo were still trying to feel the presence of their sister.
"She's alerted to our presence!"
Nissha announced.
"Why don't you two meet and talk to her?"
Corona asked.
"We will soon."
Nissha answered.
The next day...
Usagi, Ami, and Rei were walking down the street with Luna.
"Usagi, are you okay?"
Luna asked.
"Fine."
Usagi answered in a tone of not really paying attention to them.
Usagi then turned to them and spoke.
"Guys, why do I have such feelings? It baffles me! Even now as we are walking, I sense them! I feel close to an answer of some kind, but I wonder who they are!"
Usagi spoke while staring into outer space.
"Why don't you talk to them?"
Luna told her.
"Talk to them? Get real!"
Usagi told them and she ran off.
"Oh Usagi-Chan, why do you make it so difficult for yourself?"
Luna talked out loud. Usagi barreled down the street and crashed into Nissha and Taiyo! The triplets fell to ground.
"I am so sorry!"
Usagi told them as she stood up. Nissha and Taiyo got up too.
Then the triplets stared at each other!
"It's you again!"
Nissha told Usagi.
"Who are you two again?"
Usagi asked.
"I am Nissha Gunshi."
Nissha announced herself.
"And I am Taiyo Gunshi."
Taiyo announced herself. When they mentioned their names, Usagi's body tensed up greatly.
"What is this damn feeling?"
Usagi thought to herself.
"Gunshi! I heard that name somewhere before!"
Usagi continued to think to herself. Then Usagi spoke to them.
"You two were involved in an accident, weren't you? A terrible one, right?"
Usagi asked. Nissha and Taiyo jolted back suddenly.
"Yes it's true. How did you know?"
Nissha asked.
"Because, back then, when the accident occurred, I felt your pain enough that I collapsed and fell unconscious!"
Usagi answered. Nissha and Taiyo looked at each other and nodded their heads. Nissha replied.
"Months ago, we were involved in a terrible car crash.
Our parents were killed and we were terribly injured and hanging on to life. We finally overcame that ordeal and now we are here in Tokyo looking for something that means a lot to us!"
Nissha explained.
"I see. I have to go."
Usagi told them. Usagi ran off.
"She's an interesting sister."
Nissha pointed out.
"Yeah. She's definitely confused. Does she believe us?"
Taiyo asked.
"She knows, we are connected, but I don't think she believes us. She doesn't want to show her true feelings to us."
Nissha answered. Demoneus, Bandon, Mudious, and Kuraikos appeared with Dark Youmas!
"It's you! Our sworn enemy!"
Nissha told them.
"That's right! We can't have you reuniting with your sister!
So, we'll kill you off here!"
Demoneus told them.
"Sun Celestial Power!"
Nissha cried.
"Solar Celestial Power!"
Taiyo cried.
"Make up!"
Nissha and Taiyo yelled together. Solar energy overcame them and they transformed.
"Sailor Sun!"
Nissha announced herself.
"Sailor Solar!"
Taiyo announced herself.
"We are the Sun Soldiers!"
sailor Sun and Sailor Solar called out.
"Dark Youmas, arise!"
Demoneus yelled. At least a hundred Dark Youma appeared.
"ATTACK!"
Demoneus commanded them. The Dark Youmas started charging Sailor Sun and Sailor Solar.
"Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
Several fiery arrows hit several Dark Youmas!
"Sun Fire Burst!"
Hot orange fire came out of her hands and hit several Dark Youmas.
"How dare you!"
Demoneus yelled at them.
"Solar Flare Arrows Strike!"
Several fiery arrows hit several more Dark Youmas!
"Sun Fire Burst!"
Even more Dark Youmas were hit.
"We will withdraw for now."
Demoneus told them. Him and the other Dark Youma Generals vanished with the Dark Youmas.
"Now, they have appeared here! The Senshi may be attacked next!"
Sailor Sun spoke to her sister.
Later...
Usagi, Rei, and Ami were going down the street. Nissha and Taiyo stood on top of a building. The sun was about to set.
Nissha and Taiyo heard Usagi talking to her friends.
"I will be okay. I will just forget those two girls that look like me! I can't be related to them."
Usagi stated to them.
"Usagi, it's uncanny! The feelings you have for them and what you've been feeling! You can't ignore it!"
Rei yelled.
"I can, and I will..."
Usagi answered as they walked away from Nissha and Taiyo's view.
"We are so close, but so distant!"
Nissha told Taiyo.
"Yes, she doesn't believe, does she?"
Taiyo answered.
"That's what it looks like. We'll help her to believe! Our next encounter will be soon, after school tomorrow! To reunite with her, we were sent. And now we're so close, yet so distant."
Nissha analyzed the situation.
"Yes, she closed herself from us. We will show her the truth! We should test her!"
Taiyo told her sister.
"Right! We will! Tomorrow!"
Nissha replied.
Their next encounter is coming soon and so is the new enemy.
the Dark Youmas! The Sailor Senshi's next battle will soon begin!
TO BE CONTINUED IN: SAILOR MOON SOLAR!
Next Episode: "A New Enemy! 2 New Sailor Senshi Appear. Eternal Sailor Moon Is weakened!"
Next on Sailor Moon Solar, A new enemy appears to cause havoc. Then, Usagi's broach seems to have problems in transforming her! Later, a couple of new Sailor Senshi appears! Are they good or evil? Find out on the next Sailor Moon Solar!
Sailor Moon Solar: Beginnings is (c) 2003, 2005 by Crystal Knight Fanfiction Productions. Sailor Moon is owned by the proper copyright owners.
End file.
| fanfiction |
When Do You Know It's Time to Leave Your Church?
Since we're still in the first few days of 2008, it's always a good thing to assess where you are and what you're doing. I was amazed to hear Mike Holmgren, coach of the Seattle Seahawks in an interview say that each and every year, no matter how well his team plays (and they're still in the playoffs, by the way) he assesses whether or not he's going to re-up for another year. This is not a bad thing for any of us to do, particularly if you're a pastor of a church.
Just because you've been the pastor in 2007 doesn't mean you need to stay there. Trust me, you don't need the work. The same God that employed and brought you there can take care of you at the next assignment.
The question is, how do you know when it's time to leave the church you're serving, whether you're a pastor, or leader, either paid or volunteer? Here are some suggestions.
1. When you no longer love the people. When you find yourself complaining about them more than praising them, it's time to get out.
2. When you no longer love the city or the location you're serving. The most sustaining factor any pastor has going for himself or herself is that they love where they're serving – the town, the people. If you don't love where you are serving, it's time to find a place that you can.
3. If you find your speaking stale. You're finding it hard to be inspired about what to speak on. You have a great big Bible filled with 66 books and thousands of stories and illustrations, principles and applications that can be made. And yet with all that material, you feel dry and stuck.
4. When you find yourself wandering in your heart and mind about what might be out there for you. We all do that some, but if you're doing it almost exclusively, it's time to launch out into the brave new world and see exactly what might be next.
5. If you stop believing in the people you're serving alongside in leadership. If you don't believe in the people you're serving alongside, they know it. You know it. And it's time to make a change.
7. If you're finding that you and your spouse are arguing more and more over the problems at the church, rather than the joy of being a family, it's time to get out of the boat. | slim_pajama |
I've watched a few Netflix adaptations of books over Christmas, which is something I normally avoid. I am that person who jumps up and says – that's not what happens in the book.
My husband read this book last year, and raved about it. I read it earlier on this year and thought it was fantastic. Bird Box is an atmospheric and terrifying novel.
The protagonist Malorie is pregnant when people start to harm themselves, causing mass hysteria. The afflicted seem to have seen something so terrifying, it makes them kill themselves.
Malorie and a few survivors bunker down in a house. They cover all the windows, ration supplies and try to make it through this catastrophic event.
Five years later, Malorie is trying to make it to a sanctuary down the river, blindfolded, leading her two children to safety, or certain death. The children are named simply boy and girl, Malorie cannot bring herself to give them proper names, as she doesn'tknow if they will make it.
The film adaptation is mostly accurate, there are a few changes, but it mostly holds up. Heads up – you will not see the monster. If you want to watch the film to find out what the monster looks like, you will be disappointed. The whole point of this book and film, is that it's what you can't see that is terrifying. | slim_pajama |
almost @xmath3 years after the discovery of the organic superconductors @xcite , the problem of determination of their pairing state has not yet found a definite solution .
the critical magnetic field @xmath4 exceeds the pauli paramagnetic limit and indicates that the pairing symmetry is triplet @xcite .
the knight shift does not change between the normal and superconducting states and it is a signature for triplet pairing state @xcite . however the absence of hebel - slichter peak and the power - low decay of @xmath5 below @xmath6 @xcite is an indication of the presence of nodes of the pair potential on the fermi surface .
the scattering theory can be used to distinguish the symmetry of the pair potential @xcite . in @xmath1-wave superconductors the pair potential changes sign under a @xmath7-rotation .
so under appropriate orientation of the @xmath8-axis within the @xmath9 plane of @xmath1-wave superconductor the transmitted quasiparticles feel different sign of the pair potential .
this results in the formation of bound states within the energy gap , which are detected as zero energy peaks ( zep ) in the conductance spectra @xcite .
the scattering theory has also been used for the determination of the pairing symmetry in ( tmtsf)@xmath10x by sengupta _
however their calculation is restricted to the presence or absence of zep at the surface , which can not distinguish the @xmath0 from the @xmath2-wave case . in a more realistic calculation tanuma _
@xcite used the extended hubbard model on a quasi - one - dimensional lattice at quarter - filling , to study the quasiparticle states near the surface of a quasi - one dimensional organic superconductor , where the pairing symmetry can actually be distinguished from the overall line shape of the surface density of states ( sdos ) and the presence or absence of zep . in this paper
we extend the btk formula to calculate the tunneling conductance in a normal - metal / insulator / quasi - one - dimensional organic superconductor , where the structure of the fermi surface is taken into account .
the pairing symmetry of the superconductor is assumed to be triplet @xmath0 , singled @xmath1 , @xmath11 , and triplet @xmath2-wave .
in particular , we find that the zep appears in the electron tunneling along the @xmath8 or @xmath12 axis , when the transmitted quasiparticles experience different sign of the pair potential .
also the line shape of the spectra is sensitive to the presence or absence of nodes of the pair potential on the fermi surface .
the present calculation is useful for ( tmtsf)@xmath10pf@xmath13 , although this salt needs pressure to show superconductivity , but is not very suitable for ( tmtsf)@xmath10clo@xmath14 , which is the only material exhibiting superconductivity in the bechgaard salts at ambient pressure , but its unit cell is doubled due to anion ordering @xcite . also tunneling spectroscopy on the quasi two - dimensional organic superconductor @xmath15-(bedt - ttf)@xmath10cu(ncs)@xmath10
has been performed by using scanning tunneling microscopy @xcite . in this compound
the conducting cu(ncs)@xmath10 layers run parallel to the @xmath16 plane , along the @xmath8-axis , and the in - plane tunneling data strongly suggest @xmath1-wave pairing state .
these features can be used to distinguish the pairing symmetry in quasi - one - dimensional organic superconductor .
the motion of quasiparticles in inhomogeneous superconductors is described by the four component bogoliubov de gennes ( bdg ) equations .
the bdg equations are decoupled into two sets of ( two component ) equations , one for the spin up electron , spin down hole quasiparticle wave functions ( @xmath17 ) and the other for ( @xmath18 ) . the bdg equation for spin index @xmath19 or @xmath20 ,
read @xcite @xmath21 the single - particle hamiltonian is given by @xmath22 , @xmath23 is the external magnetic field , @xmath24 is the energy measured from the fermi energy @xmath25 . for a given spin projection @xmath26 the magnetic field shifts the energy by @xmath27 .
@xmath28 is the pair potential , after a transformation from the position coordinates @xmath29 to the center of mass coordinate @xmath30 and the relative vector @xmath31 .
after fourier transformation the pair potential depends on the relative wave vector @xmath32 and @xmath33 . in the weak coupling limit @xmath32
is fixed on the fermi surface ( @xmath34 ) , and only its direction is variable . after applying the quasi - classical approximation , i.e. , @xcite
@xmath35 so that the fast oscillating part , of the wave function is divided out , the bdg equations are reduced to the andreev equations @xcite @xmath36 where the quantities @xmath37 and @xmath38 are electron - like and hole - like quasiparticles with spin index @xmath26 , and @xmath39 respectively , and @xmath40 is the fermi velocity .
we consider the normal - metal / insulator / superconductor junction shown in fig .
[ fig1.fig ] .
the electron momentum parallel to the interface @xmath41 is conserved . for the interface that is normal to the @xmath8-axis
, the insulator is modelled by a delta function , located at @xmath42 , of the form @xmath43 .
the temperature is fixed to @xmath44 k. we take the pair potential as a step function , i.e. , @xmath45 . for the geometry shown in fig .
[ fig1.fig ] , eqs .
[ ndrv ] take the form @xmath46 where @xmath60 , @xmath61}=\frac{2 z_0}{k_{fx } } $ ] .
the bcs coherence factors are given by @xmath62/2,\ ] ] @xmath63/2,\ ] ] and @xmath64 .
the internal phase coming from the energy gap is given by @xmath65 $ ] , where @xmath66 ( @xmath67 ) , is the pair potential experienced by the transmitted electron - like ( hole - like ) quasiparticle .
for the spin triplet pairing state the cooper pairs have spin @xmath74 degree of freedom .
the gap function is a @xmath75 symmetric matrix which in the spin space can be written as @xmath76 where @xmath77 denotes the pauli matrices and @xmath78 is a vector which defines the axis along which the cooper pairs have zero spin projection . in the following
we will take @xmath79 , i.e. , parallel to the chains . in that case @xmath80 , while @xmath81 .
the fermi surface ( fs ) consists of two branches and is open in the @xmath82 direction , as shown in fig .
[ fs.fig ] .
we consider the following pairing cases \a ) in case of @xmath83-wave , @xmath84-wave superconductor @xmath85 @xmath86 changes its sign along the fs in the @xmath87 direction while the @xmath88 changes its sign along the fs in the @xmath82 direction as seen in figs .
[ fs.fig](a ) and [ fs.fig](d ) .
\b ) in case of @xmath89-wave , @xmath90-wave superconductor @xmath91 @xmath92 changes its sign along the fs in the @xmath87 direction while the @xmath93 changes its sign along the fs in the @xmath82 direction as seen in figs .
[ fs.fig](b ) and [ fs.fig](e ) .
\c ) in case of @xmath94-wave , @xmath95-wave superconductor @xmath96 @xmath97 changes its sign along the fs in the @xmath87 direction while the @xmath98 changes its sign along the fs in the @xmath82 direction as seen in figs .
[ fs.fig](c ) and [ fs.fig](f ) .
\d ) in case of @xmath11-wave , @xmath99-wave superconductor @xmath100 @xmath101 , @xmath102 change sign along the fs as seen in figs .
[ fsdxy.fig](a ) and [ fsdxy.fig](b ) .
in figs . [ p.fig]-[dxy.fig ] we plot the tunneling conductance @xmath103 as a function of @xmath104 for various values of @xmath105 , for different orientations normal to the @xmath8 or @xmath12 axis .
the pairing symmetry of the superconductor is @xmath83-wave , @xmath84-wave , in fig .
[ p.fig ] , @xmath89-wave , @xmath90-wave , in fig .
[ d.fig ] , @xmath94-wave , @xmath95-wave , in fig .
[ f.fig ] , @xmath11-wave , @xmath99-wave , in fig .
[ dxy.fig ] .
the conductance peak is formed in the electron tunneling along the @xmath8 or @xmath12 axis , when the transmitted quasiparticles experience different sign of the pair potential .
also the line shape of the spectra is sensitive to the presence or absence of nodes of the pair potential on the fermi surface . for the @xmath83-wave case , when the @xmath8-axis of the crystal is at right angle to the interface , the horizontal line in fig .
[ fs.fig ] ( a ) , representing the scattering process , connects points of the fs with opposite sign of the pair potential for @xmath106 . as a result a peak exists in the conductance spectra , at @xmath107 as seen in fig .
[ p.fig ] ( a ) for @xmath108 .
the height of the zep is proportional to the range of @xmath82 for which sign change occurs and it is expected to have its maximum value when the @xmath8-axis of the crystal is normal to the interface , since for this orientation the transmitted quasiparticles feel a different sign of the pair potential for all @xmath106 . on the other hand , when the @xmath8 axis is along the interface , then the vertical line in fig .
[ fs.fig ] ( a ) connects points of the fs with the same sign of the pair potential for @xmath109 , i.e. , there is no @xmath87 for which , the transmitted quasiparticles feel the sign change of the pair potential , and no zep is formed as seen in fig .
[ p.fig ] ( b ) . for
the @xmath83-wave case the nodes of the pair potential do not intersect the fs and the line shape of the spectra is u - like as in the case of the @xmath26-wave superconductor .
the situation is opposite in the @xmath84-wave case , where the scattering process for the surface orientation normal to the @xmath8 ( @xmath12)-axis , described by the horizontal ( vertical ) line in fig .
[ fs.fig ] ( d ) connects points of the fs with the same ( opposite ) sign . as a consequence for the surface orientation normal to the @xmath8-axis
, there is no @xmath82 for which the transmitted quasiparticles feel the sign change of the order parameter , and no zep is formed , as seen in fig .
[ p.fig ] ( c ) , while for the interface along the @xmath8-axis the transmitted quasiparticles feel the different sign of the pair potential , for all @xmath110 , and a zep exists as seen in fig .
[ p.fig ] ( d ) . for the @xmath84-wave case the nodes of the pair potential intersect the fs and
the spectra has a v - shaped form as in the case of @xmath1-wave superconductors . for the @xmath1-wave case , and for tunneling along the @xmath8 or @xmath12-axis , the scattering process , described with the horizontal or vertical line in figs .
[ fs.fig](b ) and [ fs.fig](e ) connects points of the fs with the same sign in all cases .
this means that the pair potential does not change sign and no zep is formed as seen in fig .
[ d.fig ] . also due to the presence of nodes of the pair potential along the fs ,
the line shape of the spectra is v - like . for the @xmath2-wave case , although the pair potential has a different structure , the lines in figs . [
fs.fig](c ) and [ fs.fig](f ) connect points of the fs with the same sign - change of the pair potential as in the @xmath0-wave case . as a result
the tunneling shows zep as in the @xmath0-wave case , due to the sign change of the transmitted quasiparticles .
however , in all cases in the @xmath2-wave case the pair potential intersects the fs and nodes are formed . as a consequence
the line shape of the spectra is v - like , as seen in fig .
[ f.fig ] unlike to @xmath83-wave case , where the pair potential is nodeless and the tunneling spectra has a u - shaped form .
the conclusion is that the line shape of the spectra can be used to distinguish the @xmath83 from the @xmath2-wave pairing state .
our results are comparable to that of tanuma _ et al . _
@xcite although their calculation was based on a different model , i.e. , the extended hubbard model on a quasi - one dimensional lattice at quarter - filling . for the @xmath11-wave ( @xmath99-wave ) case , and for tunneling along the @xmath8 or @xmath12-axis , the scattering process , described with the horizontal or vertical line in figs .
[ fsdxy.fig](a ) and [ fsdxy.fig](b ) connects points of the fs with different ( the same ) sign .
this means that the pair potential felt by the transmitted quasiparticles changes ( conserves ) sign during the scattering process and a zep ( no zep ) is formed at @xmath107 for the @xmath11-wave ( @xmath99-wave ) case as seen in fig .
[ dxy.fig ] . also due to the presence of nodes of the pair potential along the fs , the line shape of the spectra is v - like .
in addition the tunneling spectra for the @xmath11-wave , for tunneling direction along the @xmath8 or @xmath12 axis , is equivalent to the tunneling spectra for @xmath99-wave with surface orientation tilted by @xmath111 , i.e. , along the nodal direction . in the metallic limit ( @xmath112 )
, @xmath103 has the same form for each pairing potential independently from the orientation . in table
[ tables ] we summarize the results concerning the presence or absence of zep , and also the overall line shape of the tunneling spectra for various pairing potentials .
these features are explained if we calculate the energy of the midgap state , which is given for large @xmath105 by the value in which the denominator of eqs .
( [ ra ] ) and ( [ rb ] ) vanishes .
the equation giving the energy peak level is written as @xcite @xmath113 in the @xmath83-wave case , for surface orientation normal to @xmath8-axis , this equation has the solution @xmath107 , for @xmath114 , since @xmath115 , and also the transmitted quasiparticles feel a different sign of the pair potential , i.e. , @xmath116 .
when a midgap state exists the tunneling conductance @xmath117 is equal to @xmath118 and the peek in @xmath103 seen in fig .
[ p.fig](a ) , is due to the normal state conductance @xmath119 in eq .
[ sq ] , which depends inversely on the @xmath120 for large @xmath105 . for surface orientation normal to @xmath12-axis the range of @xmath87 for which eq . [ midgap ] has solutions collapses to zero , and
no bound states are formed .
then @xmath103 goes to zero as @xmath121 and there is no conductance peak . in the @xmath84-wave case for surface orientation normal to @xmath8-axis eq .
[ midgap ] has no solutions because @xmath122 , while for surface orientation normal to @xmath12-axis a bound state is formed for all @xmath87 in the interval @xmath110 . for the @xmath1-wave case and for tunneling along the @xmath8 or @xmath12 axis of the crystal ,
the condition @xmath116 is not satisfied and no bound states are formed . for the @xmath2-wave case
that condition is the same as in the @xmath0-wave case , and thus the zep is formed as in the @xmath0-wave pairing state . for the @xmath11-wave ( @xmath99-wave ) case
that condition @xmath116 is ( is not satisfyied for tunneling along the @xmath8 and @xmath12 axis and hence the zep ( no zep ) is formed for both tunneling directions .
in this section we describe the effect of the external magnetic field @xmath23 in the direction parallel to the chains , in the spectra .
the effect of the magnetic field depends on the spin , of the quasiparticles .
the tunneling conductance is given by @xmath123 in fig .
[ h.fig ] the tunneling conductance @xmath103 is plotted for a fixed magnetic field @xmath124 , and barrier strength @xmath108 .
the pairing symmetry of the superconductor is @xmath0 , @xmath1 , @xmath2 , @xmath11 respectively .
the magnetic field splits symmetrically the tunneling spectrum which is a linear superposition of the spectra for spin up(down ) quasiparticles .
the amplitude of the splitting depends linearly on the magnetic field @xmath23 . for the case of @xmath124 , seen in fig .
[ h.fig ] the spin up(down ) part of the spectra partially overlaps while for larger values of the magnetic field the spin up and down branches are well separated . in the latter case the right(left ) branch of
the spectra originates from spin up(down ) quasiparticle spectra @xmath125 .
the condition for the formation of bound states is slightly modified under the presence of a magnetic field to @xmath126 , for the spin - up region , and @xmath127 , for the spin - down , from the corresponding @xmath107 in the absence of any field
. so the multiplication of the bound states and the presence of magnetic field results into the appearance of double peak in the conductance spectra .
we calculated the tunneling conductance in normal - metal / insulator / quasi - one - dimensional superconductor , using the btk formalism .
we showed that the zep appears in the electron tunneling along the @xmath8 or @xmath12 axis , when the transmitted quasiparticles experience a different sign of the pair potential .
also the line shape of the spectra is sensitive to the presence or absence of nodes of the pair potential on the fermi surface , and results to a u - shaped structure for the @xmath83-wave case and to a v - shaped one for the @xmath1 and @xmath2-wave cases .
the zep are due to the formation of bound states within the gap .
the calculation of the conductance @xmath128 , for which bound state occurs , shows an enhancement at the bound state energy .
the effect of the magnetic field in the direction parallel to the chains is to split linearly the zep . throughout this paper the spatial variation of the order parameter near the surface , which depends on the boundary orientation ,
is ignored for simplicity . however , since the features presented here are intrinsic which are generated by the existence of surface bound states , the essential results do not change qualitatively .
also we assumed perfectly flat interfaces in the clean limit , so any impurity scattering and the effect of the surface roughness are ignored . .
presence ( yes ) or absence ( no ) of a zero - bias conductance peak in electron tunneling along the @xmath8 and @xmath12 axes for different symmetries of the pair potential .
also the overall line shape of the tunneling spectra is shown [ cols="^,^,^,^",options="header " , ] | arxiv |
Can we construct a Chern-Simons theory provided that the ground state is degenerate and gapped, like the Abelian fractional quantum Hall effect?
I am studying the Chern-Simons approach to fractional quantum Hall effect, which a special focus on the topological order in the context of Abelian fractional quantum Hall effect.
To me, the logic to adopt (Maxwell-) Chern-Simons theory as an effective theory is pretty bottom up (says, Wen's book): We can write down a current with fractional Hall conductivity, from which we can introduce the statistical gauge fields as auxiliary fields for the effective action and it turns out to be the Chern-Simons theory. However, it seems to me that the concept of topological order is mainly based on ground state degeneracy and gapped bulk systems.
My questions are:
1. Consider systems satisfy (my prototype example is Laughlin's state at filling 1/m): (i) gapped bulk; (ii) degenerate ground state; (iii) $U(1)$ charge conservation; (iv) only one kind of fractional excitation. What are the extra minimal ingredients needed to derive the corresponding effective (topological) action? Is it possible to derive the Chern-Simons theory directly, only based on these constraints?
2. Also, can the fractional Hall conductivity be derived solely from these constraints?
The answer to your question is basically yes, if we are willing to accept an algebraic description of 2+1D gapped phases. In this algebraic description, one does not resort to a particular field theory. Rather, we abstract out "universal" properties of low-energy localized excitations, the anyons. The mathematical structure is called a modular tensor category (MTC). In this theory, all such excitations can be classified into a few "elementary" types (and their "direct sums"). Two excitations can be fused to form another excitation. MTC also contains information about braidings between anyons and mathematical consistency conditions for fusion and braiding.
The only tricky question is what you mean by "having only one kind of excitation". If that means there is just one type of nontrivial anyon in the MTC, then the internal mathematical consistency of MTC only allows two possibilities: either a semion theory, e.g. $\nu=1/2$ Laughlin state, or Fibonacci anyons (assuming the system is bosonic. For fermions there is one more choice). So this is probably too restricted.
A slightly different way to proceed is to assume that all anyons are Abelian. What it means is that the quantum state of the system is uniquely determined once the locations of the anyons are fixed. It can be shown that if the anyons are Abelian, then the universal properties can be captured by a $U(1)\times U(1)\times\cdots$ Chern-Simons theory. Now if we further assume that all anyons can be "generated" by a fundamental one from fusion, then it must be a simple U(1) Chern-Simons theory.
U(1) symmetry can also be incorporated into this framework abstractly, and one can indeed derive various constraints on what the Hall conductance could be based on very general considerations.
| stackexchange/physics |
"We have 3 candidates. There seems to be a growing consensus that the winner needs to (a) be from a developing country rather than a US candidate; (b) be anti the Washington consensus agenda (privatisation and liberalisation) and pro-equitable and bottom up development; and (c) have experience of managing a large organisation.
So how do the candidates measure up to these criteria ?
Jim Yong Kim, the US nominee to head the World Bank, is coming under fire over a book he co-authored that criticises "neoliberalism" and "corporate-led economic growth", arguing that in many cases they had made the middle classes and the poor in developing countries worse off.
Some economists are arguing thatDying for Growth, jointly edited by Dr Kim and published in 2000, puts too great a focus on health policy over broader economic growth.
Can Jim Yong Kim Reinvent the World Bank?
shortlist for the position, be able to reinvent the World Bank? | slim_pajama |
Can water be liquefied or solidified just by adjusting the temperature, regardless of the pressure?
technically the line between liquid and solid phase would go a long way before hitting the y-axis, but the point is it will eventually.
So the question remains, can any liquids, including water (with its unique phase diagram) be liquefied regardless of the pressure?
If I actually understood your question correctly, yes there are regions above which there will be **only** solid state (rather than no solid state). This is limited to the molecular region.
The Roman numerals indicate various ice phases.
From the above phase diagram (which can be found [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_diagram#Crystal_phase_diagrams)) the solid-liquid equilibrium line doesn’t touch the y-axis as you suggest. But there will be only solid phase above the $10\ \mathrm{GPa}$ region(approximately).
In the phase diagram you drew, if (a big if) such a PD exists for some element/molecule, then there will be no solid above the point where solid-liquid line meets y-axis.
As pointed out in the comments, when we reach high temperatures and pressures we won’t be seeing the molecular water. It will dissociate into atoms/ions as shown in the figure. 
Theoretically, **YES**!
**But why?**
In the real world there are a thousand different ways to accomplish a certain task, but only a few will be the most efficient. So in considering your question.
>
> So the question remains, can any liquids, including water (with its unique phase diagram) be liquefied regardless of the pressure?
>
>
>
First of all, **I do not like how you put regardless of the pressure**, there has to be a certain amount of pressure. Yes you can do this, but there really is an easier way to this. Use a freezer to solidify it, or leave it out in the open to liquify it. :)
| stackexchange/chemistry |
Loki (auch altnordisch Loptr, Hveðrungr) ist eine Figur aus der nordischen Mythologie, besonders aus der eddischen Dichtung des Snorri Sturluson bekannt. Die literarischen Quellen zur Figur des Loki sind neben der Prosa-Edda und der Lieder-Edda, darunter etwa den Lokasenna ("Lokis Zankreden"), auch die Werke der Skaldendichtung. Lokis Abstammung ist in der Forschung umstritten. Einige Forscher rechnen Loki aufgrund seiner väterlichen Abstammung den Jötnar zu. Gleiches ließe sich über Odin sagen, der wiederum mütterlicherseits von einem Jöten abstammt. Loki wird in den Quellen nirgends den Jötnar zugeordnet, allerdings explizit ein Ase genannt. Anders als den anderen Asen kam Loki keine Verehrung zu. Es gab weder einen Lokikult noch sind Ortsnamen, die auf Loki Bezug nehmen, in Skandinavien bekannt.
Etymologie des Namens Loki
Die Bedeutung seines Namens ist ungesichert und ist wahrscheinlich eine Kurzform zu Loptr, was altnordisch "der Luftige" oder "Luftgott" bedeutet. Dieser Ausdruck ist jedoch eher im Sinne von "Luftikus" zu verstehen. Vielleicht liegt auch das altnord. lúka zu Grunde, das "schließen" bedeutet, was auf seine Rolle bei Ragnarök hinweist. Loki ist nicht identisch mit dem Feuerriesen Logi.
Rolle und Funktion
Loki kam, anders als den anderen Asen, keine Verehrung zu. Bei Loki handelt es sich um eine ausschließlich mythologische Figur, die in keiner Beziehung zu den Menschen steht. Innerhalb der Mythologie ist Lokis Rolle wechselhaft. Seine Handlungen fallen mal zu Gunsten der Asen aus, die den Tod der Jötnar nach sich ziehen, manchmal zu Ungunsten der Götter und im Interesse der Jötnar. Nach der Snorra-Edda tötet er auch den Asen Balder.
In der Lokasenna tritt Loki als Ankläger auf. Hierbei handelt es sich wahrscheinlich um eine Geschichte, die unter christlichem Einfluss entstanden ist, aber auf älteren Mythen und Sagen aufbaut. Hier zeigt Loki diverse, aus christlicher Sicht betrachtet, moralische Vergehen der Götter auf, womit die Moral der Götter wahrscheinlich neu bewertet werden sollte.
Im 18. Jahrhundert wurde Loki häufig die Rolle des Teufels zugeschrieben, der sich als Freund der Götter ausgibt, um sie zur Ragnarök heimtückisch zu hintergehen. Dabei wurde auch auf die irrtümliche Gleichsetzung zwischen Logi, dem Feuerriesen, und Loki aufgebaut.
Die Gleichsetzung des Feuerriesen mit Loki beruht auf einem Missverständnis, und die Deutung Lokis als Antagonist der Götter erweist sich als einseitig. In vielen Geschichten tritt Loki als nützlicher Verbündeter und Freund der Götter auf. Ihm verdanken die Asen viele ihrer Gegenstände und Attribute, darunter auch Mjölnir und Sleipnir. Erst mit dem Nahen Ragnaröks verschlechtert sich Lokis Beziehung zu den (anderen) Asen.
Yvonne S. Bonnetain interpretiert Lokis Rolle als "Beweger der Geschichte", der den Göttern neutral gegenübersteht und lediglich die Geschichte vorantreibt. Dabei wandele sich nicht Loki, sondern die Meinung der Götter über ihn.
Lokis Beziehung zu anderen Figuren
In der Snorra-Edda ist Loki der hübsche und hinterlistige Sohn des Jöten Fárbauti und der Laufey oder Nal. Seine Brüder sind Býleist und Helblindi. Seine Frau ist Sigyn, seine Söhne sind Narfi (auch Nari) und Vali. Sigyn bleibt Loki auch während seiner Bestrafung treu.
In der Gestalt einer Stute gebar er dem Hengst Svadilfari das achtbeinige Pferd Sleipnir, das er Odin schenkte. Des Weiteren geht aus der Lokasenna hervor, dass er der Blutsbruder Odins ist. Häufig begleitet Loki Thor auf seinen Reisen. In der þrymskviða verhilft Loki Thor seinen Hammer Mjölnir wiederzubeschaffen.
Während Lokis Beziehungen zu Beginn der Welt zu den Asen und Wanen tendenziell positiv und zu den Jötnar tendenziell negativ ausfällt, ändert sich dies gegen das endzeitliche Geschehen hin zu Ungunsten der Götter und im Sinne der Jötnar.
Mit der Jötin Angrboda zeugt Loki die Totengöttin Hel, den Fenriswolf und die Midgardschlange. In Ragnarök ziehen sie gegen die Götter auf. In der Völuspá steuert Loki die Schiffe der Söhne Muspels den Asen entgegen. In der Snorra-Edda steuert der Jöte Hrymr das Schiff Naglfari und Loki führt die Bewohner Helheims und die Thursen an.
Wenn er auch nicht explizit als solcher genannt wird, deutet die Haustlǫng darauf hin, dass Loki schon in früherer Zeit mit den Jötnar in Verbindung gebracht wurde.
Loki und Heimdall sind Feinde und werden sich in der letzten Schlacht in Ragnarök gegenseitig töten.
Loki tötet den Hahn Widofnir mit seiner hergestellten Waffe Läwateinn.
Baldur und Fesselung Lokis
Snorra-Edda
Die Snorra-Edda, die als die gängige Version dieser Mythe gilt, bringt die Fesselung Lokis in den Zusammenhang mit dem Tod Baldurs. Nach Snorri Sturluson zerbricht das Verhältnis zu den anderen Asen, nachdem er den Tod Balders absichtlich herbeigeführt hat. Zunächst flüchtet er auf einen Berg, auf dem eine Hütte mit 4 Türen steht (eine für jede Himmelsrichtung). Über diese 4 Türen kann er beobachten, wann seine Verfolger ihn erreicht haben. Tagsüber verwandelt er sich in einen Lachs, der sich in einem Wasserfall oder nahegelegenen Bach aufhält. Abends entwickelte Loki das erste Fischernetz. Eines Tages hört er die Asen (Odin, Thor, Tyr) kommen. Er wirft das Netz in ein Feuer und springt als Lachs in den Bach. Die Asen entdecken das halb verbrannte Netz, erkennen seinen Sinn und knoten nach seinem Vorbild ein neues. Mit diesem Netz treiben sie Loki (als Lachs) in eine Enge und schließlich fängt ihn Thor. Sie bringen Loki und kurz darauf seine Söhne Narfi und Vali in eine Höhle. Die Götter verwandeln dort Vali in einen Wolf, der seinen Bruder Narfi zerreißt. Aus Narfis Gedärmen werden unzerstörbare, mit einem Zauber belegte Fesseln erschaffen. Die Göttin Skadi befestigt aus Rache eine Giftschlange über Loki, aus deren Kiefer unablässig Gift auf ihn tropft. Davor kann ihn seine Gattin Sigyn nur zeitweise mit einer Schale schützen, indem sie sie über ihn hält. Jedes Mal, wenn sie die Schale leeren muss, tropft das Gift auf den hilflosen Loki, der sich vor Schmerzen so aufbäumt, dass die Erde bebt (Erklärung für Erdbeben). Mit dem Beginn von Ragnarök kann Loki sich aus seinen Fesseln befreien und kämpft im Verbund mit den Jötnar und den Toten (aus Helheim) gegen die Götter. Loki stirbt im Zweikampf mit Heimdall, dem Wächtergott des Bifröst. Auch Heimdal stirbt bei diesem Zweikampf.
Historische Einordnung
Balders Träume und die Völuspá bringen Loki nicht in den Zusammenhang mit der Ermordung Baldurs. Mit einer möglichen Ausnahme der Lokasenna erwähnt lediglich die Gylfaginning Loki als Mörder. Auch wenn die meisten Forscher Loki die Rolle des Mörders zuschreiben, kritisierte Eugen Mogk, dass diese Annahme ausschließlich durch die Snorra-Edda gestützt wird und womöglich auf einer Eigeninterpretation Snorri Sturluson beruht, die sich aus verschiedenen vorherrschenden Mythen zusammensetzte. Der Kritik an der Vorstellung, bei Loki handle es sich ursprünglich schon um einen antagonistischen Gott, schließt sich auch Anatoly Liberman an. Auf zahlreichen Brakteaten konnte die Abbildung von drei Göttern gefunden werden, die meist als Loki, Baldur und Odin interpretiert werden. Womöglich geben sie Aufschluss über eine ältere Rolle der Götter bei dem Tod Baldurs. Odin habe dem Tod demnach nicht untätig zugesehen, sondern diesen gebilligt. Da keiner der Götter bereit war die Opferung auszuführen, übernahm Loki die Tötung Baldurs. Snorris Bemerkung "Loki gefiele dies schlecht" könnte ebenfalls ein Rudiment dieser älteren Vorstellung sein.
Lokis Charakter
Loki ist eine der vielschichtigsten Gestalten des nordischen Pantheons: Einerseits hilft er den Göttern, andererseits spielt er ihnen auch Streiche und hintergeht sie. Dabei macht er von seiner Fähigkeit als Gestaltwandler Gebrauch und erscheint zum Beispiel in der Gestalt eines Lachses oder einer Fliege. Aufgrund dieser ambivalenten Rolle wird er häufig als Trickster-Figur interpretiert. Es gibt viele Geschichten in der Edda, in denen Loki eine Rolle spielt:
Loki, Thjazi und die Entführung Iduns
Loki und der Bau von Asgard
Loki und Thor bei Utgardloki
Loki und die Kleinode der Götter
Loki als Räuber des Brisingamens
Loki und Andvari
Loki und Baldurs Tod
Loki und Ragnarök
Loki und Angerboda
Loki und Skadi
Verbreitung in der Wikingerzeit
Der Gott war allgemein wenig beliebt; man benannte seine Kinder nicht nach ihm. Wikingerzeitliche Darstellungen sind entsprechend selten. Eine wurde als Anhänger im Gnesdowo-Hort in Russland gefunden, eine andere auf dem Snaptunstein. Ob die Abbildung auf dem Gosforth-Kreuz in der Grafschaft Cumbria, ehemals Northumberland (Großbritannien), aus dem 9. oder 10. Jahrhundert wirklich Sigyn und den gefesselten Loki darstellt, ist nicht gesichert.
Richard Wagners Loki
In Richard Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen taucht die Figur des Loki als Loge auf. Dies geht auf eine Verwechslung Wagners mit dem Riesen Logi (deutsch "Lohe, Flamme") zurück, der ein Feind Lokis war. Dies wird in der Erzählung von Thor und Utgardaloki berichtet.
Varia
Die Tiefsee-Hydrothermalquelle Lokis Schloss ( ), ein sog. "Schwarzer Raucher", sowie das dort in der Nähe entdeckte Archaeenphylum Lokiarchaeota wurden nach Loki benannt.
Siehe auch
Lodur
Literatur
Yvonne S. Bonnetain: Der nordgermanische Gott Loki aus literaturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive. In: Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik. Nr. 733, Göppingen 2006, ISBN 3-87452-985-1, (zugleich Dissertation an der Universität Tübingen 2005).
Georges Dumézil: Loki. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1959 (aus dem Französischen übersetzt von Inge Köck).
Anders Hultgård: Loki. In: Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Band 18. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-016950-9, S. 583–595.
John Lindow: Norse Mythology. A guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Believes. Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-19-515382-0.
Jens Peter Schjødt: Loki. In: Jens Peter Schjødt, John Lindow und Anders Andrén (Hrsg.): The pre-Christian religions of the North. History and structures. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, Bd. 3, S. 1247–1271.
Katja Schulz: Loki. In: Julia Zernack, Katja Schulz (Hrsg.): Gylfis Täuschung. Rezeptionsgeschichtliches Lexikon zur nordischen Mythologie und Heldensage. Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2019, S. 360–374.
Rudolf Simek: Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie (= Kröners Taschenausgabe. Band 368). 3., völlig überarbeitete Auflage. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X, (mit weiterer Literatur).
Folke Ström: Loki: Ein mythologisches Problem. In: Göteborgs Universitet: Göteborgs Universitets årsskrift. Band 62, Nr. 8. Almquist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1956.
Jeffrey Turco: Nets and Snares: The Loki of Snorri's Edda and the Christian Tradition. In: History of Religions. 56, Nr. 2, 2016, S. 198–231 (englisch, academia.edu).
Gabriel Turville-Petre: Myth and religion of the North. The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1964 [Reprint Westport 1975], ISBN 0-8371-7420-1.
Jan de Vries: The problem of Loki. Helsinki, Suomalainen Tiedekatemia (FF communications, 110 = Vol. 43,1), 1933.
Jan de Vries: Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. Band 2: Die Götter – Vorstellungen über den Kosmos – Der Untergang des Heidentums. 3. unveränderte Auflage. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1970, ISBN 3-11-085519-4.
Weblinks
Werdegang Lokis
Einzelnachweise
Germanische Gottheit
Männliche Gottheit
Literarische Figur | slim_pajama |
Can we just talk about how cosy and teddy bear like Max Mara coat is! It's the ultimate oversized coat, that would most certainly keep you warm. I don't know whether to snuggle up in it or walk down the street. Either way its a MUST buy!
Previous Did you see Silver Boots coming? | slim_pajama |
Dynasty Warriors 9 got a new trailer. The new trailer touches on the game's narrative, characters and the brand-new State Combo system. Dynasty Warriors 9 will be released in early 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
Koei Tecmo of America revealed today that their upcoming open-world game Dynasty Warriors 9 will be released in early 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
In order to properly celebrate the good news, Koei Tecmo took their significant other to dinner and a movie. Actually, they released a new trailer for the game. The new trailer touches on the Three Kingdoms narrative and showcases some of the game's most popular characters traversing new environments, scaling city walls, and charging from rooftops. The narrative still hasn't commented on the harassment charges.
In addition to introducing the game's story, characters, and locations, the trailer highlights the brand-new State Combo system. The State Combo system "offers players a wide selection of options during attacks. Flow Attacks create move-set combos that differ depending on the enemy's position and seamlessly continue when enemies become prone, are in mid-air, or stunned."
"Reactive Attacks are extremely versatile and can range from counterattacks, dash attacks, assaults, to guard breaks and finish moves. Trigger Attacks are powerful moves that change an enemy's state. Attacks will change depending on the combination of buttons pressed" says the press release.
There's even a new character, Xu Sheng, a young, charismatic ruffian/general of the kingdom of Wu. Serving as a military general of Sun Quan, he played a key role in the battles at Chibi, Hefei, and the in the invasion of Jing. He was known for his "fake towers" ruse which caused Cao Pi to retreat believing Sun Quan knew of his attack and had the city heavily fortified beforehand. | slim_pajama |
What does $ \mu \nabla^{2} \vec V$ mean in the Navier-Stokes equations?
$$\rho\frac{D \vec V}{Dt}=-\nabla p+ \mu \nabla^{2} \vec V+\rho g$$
In the Navier-Stokes equations there's this term $ \mu \nabla^{2} \vec V $.
I don't really understand what this means. What is the physical meaning of the Laplacian of the velocity vector field? I've seen some explanations of this, but they seem complicated. Could you just give an intuitive explanation of what it means?
Since you are asking for some intuition, forget about the other terms in the Navier-Stokes apart from:
$$
\partial\_t \bf v = \mu \nabla^2v
$$
All the other terms of the full equation will do their job (convection, external forces...), but this simplification highlights the pure effect of the Laplacian. Its effect is not modified by the presence of all the other terms, just all the processes driven by each term will happen at the same time in the full equation.
The above equation is the simplest version of the [diffusion equation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_equation), not different from the [heat equation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_equation).
The name already gives you the idea of what this Laplacian term is doing: it will **smooth out the gradients** of the velocity field and will tend to make the velocity field **more and more uniform** as time passes by: this is the diffusion of momentum in a viscous fluid (the heat equation is the diffusion of internal kinetic energy at the molecular level).
Assume a steady and homogeneous flow in the whole space (this is a trivial solution of the above equation) and perturb it in some limited region of space: after a while, the solution has relaxed back to the original, unperturbed configuration. This is the typical behaviour of a **dissipative (i.e., "viscous") fluid** (let the water in your glass relax to a stationary state, perturb it, and observe it to relax back to the initial zero-velocity state: the mechanical energy of the perturbed flow at the macroscopic scale is now in some internal degrees of freedom of the liquid).
**This is the physical effect of the Laplacian term, but why does the Laplacian implement the "diffusion" process?**
My intuition (that applies to this case as well as to the usual heat equation) is this:
* The Laplacian is a "second derivative" (practically $(1/3)\nabla^2$ is the arithmetic mean of the second derivative along three arbitrary mutually orthogonal directions).
* Valleys have a positive second derivative.
* Mountain tops have a negative second derivative.
* Therefore, the Laplacian will push the mountain tops down (i.e., towards the valleys), and vice-versa: this is why the "homogenization" (aka "diffusion") process takes place.
More explicitly:
$$
\partial\_t \text{(valley)} = \nabla^2 \text{(valley)} >0
\qquad \text{(i.e., the valleys go up)}
$$
$$
\partial\_t \text{(mount top)} = \nabla^2 \text{(mount top)} <0
\qquad \text{(i.e., the peaks go down)}
$$
In short, it's an internal friction of the fluid. The friction is proportional to how fast the fluid velocity changes sideways to the velocity. For a piece of fluid following the flow,
$$
\mathbf{F}\_{\text{friction}} = \mu \iint\_{\text{surface of piece of fluid}} (\mathbf{n}\cdot\nabla)\mathbf{v} \, dS,
$$
where $\mathbf{n}$ is the unit normal. (Note that $\mathbf{n}\cdot\mathbf{v}=0$ on the surface of the piece of fluid; no fluid enters or leaves the piece through the surface.)
By a generalization of the divergence theorem, the friction force can be written$$
\mathbf{F}\_{\text{friction}} = \mu \iiint\_{\text{internal of piece of fluid}} \nabla^2\mathbf{v} \, dV,
$$
which is why $\mu \nabla^2\mathbf{v}$ occurs in the Navier-Stokes equation.
I'll derive the Navier-Stokes equation, but focusing on the viscosity term, that is the critical one. Indeed I'll write only a justification for the equation: the price to pay to offer a simple road to the Navier-Stokes equation is that it will not be a proof, but only a reasonable argument. I hope that I (or someone else) will improve these steps in future, keeping the road to $\eta \nabla^2 \bar{v}$ simple, but more satisfying. Before reading this answer it could be very useful (if not essential) reading the answer I wrote on the Cauchy equation and on the Euler equation. Note: I will use no bar for scalars, one bar for vectors (hat for versors) and two bars for tensors (for brevity, when I will say "tensor" I will always mean "rank 2 tensor", but of course scalars and vectors too are tensors).
Introduction
------------
Navier-Stokes is similar to the Euler equation but it describes a fluid with viscosity (indeed we find the Euler equation taking $\eta \to 0$). In evaluating forces in the interior of the fluid we take into account not only forces due to pressure, but also of forces that are dependent on how fluid moves. It is intuitive that these "extra" forces are zero if fluid moves with rigid motion (think to Newton bucket), and are bigger if motion try very hard to destroy rigid motion (think to a turbine), but transforming this vague intuition into equations is very hard and in what follow I'll do some heuristic steps (I found this by myself almost alone because Cengel-Cimbala doesn't report proofs and Granger is often too hard and obscure: I hope that writing this "work done" will prevent to others my headaches). It would be better if these heuristics steps were linked with some microscopic interpretation or some direct experimental evidence (in this sense, many headache problems are left open here: are there simple road to fix these steps?).
Navier-Stokes equation is (be not afraid, I'll calmly explain each term)
\begin{equation}
\rho \frac{D \bar{v}}{D t} = \rho \bar{f} - \nabla p + \eta \nabla^2 \bar{v} \tag{1}
\end{equation}
where $\rho$ is density (constant), $\bar{v}$ velocity field, $p$ is pressure, $\eta$ is viscosity (see below) and $\bar{f}$ is the vector described in my S.E. answer about the Cauchy equation.
The operator $\frac{D}{Dt}$ is the material derivative $\frac{\partial }{\partial t} + \bar{v} \cdot \nabla \otimes$ (see my S.E. answer about Cauchy equation).
Finally, $\nabla^2 \bar{v}$ is by definition the vector whose components are laplacian of components: $(\nabla^2 v\_x , \nabla^2 v\_y , \nabla^2 v\_z)$.
A way to write the different speed of two nearby point at a given time
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observe that $\bar{v}(\bar{r},t) = v\_x(\bar{r},t)\hat{x} + v\_y(\bar{r},t)\hat{y} + v\_z(\bar{r},t)\hat{z}$ so omitting many dependencies (when not written they are $(\bar{r},t)$) we can write
\begin{equation}
\bar{v}(\bar{r}+d\bar{r},t) = \left( v\_x + \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial x}dx + \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial y}dy + \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial z}dz \right) \hat{x} +
\left( v\_y + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial x}dx + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial y}dy + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z}dz \right) \hat{y} +
\left( v\_z + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial x}dx + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial y}dy + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial z}dz \right) \hat{z}
\end{equation}
And so
\begin{equation}
\bar{v}(\bar{r}+d\bar{r},t) =
\bar{v} (\bar{r},t) + \left( \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial x}dx + \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial y}dy + \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial z}dz \right) \hat{x} +
\left( \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial x}dx + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial y}dy + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z}dz \right) \hat{y} +
\left( \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial x}dx + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial y}dy + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial z}dz \right) \hat{z}
\end{equation}
Exploiting the notation introduced in my S.E. answer about Cauchy equation, for example with
\begin{equation}
\nabla \otimes \bar{v} =
\begin{pmatrix}
\frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial x} & \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial x} & \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial x} \\
\frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial y} & \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial y} & \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial y} \\
\frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial z} & \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z} & \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial z}
\end{pmatrix}
\end{equation}
We could also write $\bar{v}(\bar{r}+d\bar{r},t) = \bar{v} (\bar{r},t) + \nabla \otimes \bar{v} \cdot d \bar{r}$, a nicer equation but it is not essential do that now.
A different way to write the different speed of two nearby point
----------------------------------------------------------------
We have found the different speed of two nearby point (at a given time $t$), now we can check that the different speed we have found, can be written in this way too (Granger call this "Helmholtz theorem")
\begin{equation}
\bar{v}(\bar{r}+d\bar{r},t) = \bar{v} (\bar{r},t) + \bar{\omega} \times d\bar{r} + \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \cdot d \bar{r} \tag{2}
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
\bar{\omega} = \frac{1}{2} \nabla \times \bar{v}
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
\bar{\bar{\epsilon}} =
\begin{pmatrix}
\frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial x} & \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial x} \right) & \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial z} + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial x} \right) \\
\frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial x} \right) & \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial y} & \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z} + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial y} \right) \\
\frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial z} + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial x} \right) & \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z} + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial y} \right) & \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial z}
\end{pmatrix} \tag{3}
\end{equation}
The check is long but not difficult, in principle.
This symmetric tensor can be written in a nicer way as $\bar{\bar{\epsilon}} = \frac{\nabla \otimes \bar{v} + (\nabla \otimes \bar{v})^T}{2}$, as you can check. In literature you may find $\bar{\bar{\epsilon}}$ here or there written in that way (but $\otimes$ is omitted) and it is called strain rate tensor, but these shorter notations are not important now.
A quantitative hypothesis about viscous forces
----------------------------------------------
The tensor $\bar{\bar{\epsilon}}$ is the mathematical term that describes the speed of "deformation" of the fluid, I mean that this term describes how much the fluid deviates from rigid motion. Why do I claim that? Because the fundamental equation of rigid motion says that each time $\exists ! \,\, \bar{\omega} : \bar{v}\_A = \bar{v}\_B + \bar{\omega} \times (\bar{r}\_A - \bar{r}\_B) \, \, \forall \, A,B$ (as consequence of the constraint $|\bar{r}\_A - \bar{r}\_B|$=constant $\forall \, A,B$), so looking at (2) I see that the claim is meaningful.
Of course a fluid doesn't have a relaxed state to which it tends to return (while a solid has) and speaking about deformation of a fluid can sound wrong, but we are speaking about speed of deformation, and this is meaningful. We have that the difference of speed between $\bar{r}$ and $\bar{r}+d\bar{r}$ (at a given time $t$) has a part that is linked to how much fluid deviates from rigid motion, and this part is (infinitesimal because it is proportional to distances between the two points, who are close by hipotesis)
\begin{equation}
d\tilde{v} = \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \cdot d \bar{r}
\end{equation}
Please note that $d\tilde{v}$ is an infinitesimal vector, function of $(\bar{r},t,d\bar{r})$. It is linked to the speed of deformation but we don't see how such a vector can be used in determining viscous forces: we have to work on it. To evaluate viscous forces we would like to have a vector that is bigger when speed of deformation is bigger (and zero in case of rigid motion), but that is finite and that is function of $(\bar{r},t,\hat{n})$, i.e. of position, time and direction. It is reasonable that a such vector multiplied by $dA$ would give the force exerted on the atoms lying near one side of the imaginary surface $d\bar{A}=\hat{n}dA$ inside the fluid, by the atoms near the other side. A such vector can be found by dividing by $dr$:
\begin{equation}
\frac{d\tilde{v}}{dr} = \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \cdot \hat{n}
\end{equation}
In conclusion, our hypotesis is that viscous forces acting on the "lower" side of a surface $d\bar{A}$ inside the fluid are proportional to $dA$ and to $\bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \cdot \hat{n}$ with $\hat{n}=\frac{d\bar{A}}{dA}=\frac{d\bar{r}}{dr}$ (I move in direction $d\bar{A}$ by a lenght $dr$, and the I normalize finding $\hat{n}$, $\bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \cdot \hat{n} dr$ is the "not rigid" contribution to the different speed between starting point $\bar{r}$ and end point $\bar{r}+d\bar{r}$). In short, we assume that for some constant $k$, the force exerted on the "lower" side of $d\bar{A}$ due to the presence of viscosity is
\begin{equation}
d \bar{F} = k \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \cdot d\bar{A} \tag{4}
\end{equation}
i.e. (look to definition of stress tensor in my answer on Cauchy equation) we assume that the stress tensor that describes viscous forces is
\begin{equation}
\bar{\bar{\sigma}}\_{visc} = k \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \tag{5}
\end{equation}
Determination of $k$ constant
-----------------------------
Now we will show how the $k$ constant introduced is linked to viscosity. Viscosity is defined in a bit artificial way: with two infinite parallel plates sliding (you will find things about that everywhere in books and web). You can't create a such configuration in laboratory, so it looks at first glance too abstract, but as pointed out by Cengel-Cimbala there are practical flows for which this "Couette flow" idealization is a very good approximation, this allows experimental confirmation of newtonian law of viscosity. For example using a long coaxial cylinders viscometer ($R\_i$ and $R\_o$ inner and outer radius, length $L$, torque applied $N$ and angular speed $\omega$) we find experimentally that for a given fluid the quantity $\frac{N(R\_o-R\_i)}{2\pi\omega R\_i^3 L}$ is always the same constant $\eta$, and it is the same constant that we find in Poiseuille law $\frac{dm}{dt} = \frac{\rho \pi R^4}{8 \eta} \frac{dp}{dz}$. This shows that the newtonian definition of viscosity works. So the abstract, artificial way in which viscosity is defined is acceptable.
Let's so focus on mental experiment that define viscosity: let's think to two plates that slide on each other (separated by the fluid), and suppose that the surface $d\bar{A}$ is in the lower plate oriented upwards, as in figure
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MAwvi.jpg)
Axes are at rest with the lower plate. $V\hat{y}$ is the speed of the upper plates. $\hat{n}=\hat{z}$ and exploiting (4) and (3) we see that
\begin{equation}
d\bar{F} = k \left( \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial z}+\frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial x} \right) , \frac{1}{2} \left( \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z}+\frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial y}\right) , \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial z} \right) dA = \left( 0 , \frac{k}{2} \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial z} , 0\right) dA
\end{equation}
because velocity field has only $y$ component and varies only in $z$ direction. Effectively we see by simmetry that velocity field must be $\bar{v}=\left( 0,\frac{V}{h} z , 0 \right)$, so the stress acting on $d\bar{A}$ is (don't confuse stress tensor $\bar{\bar{\sigma}}$ with the stress vector $\bar{\sigma}=\frac{d\bar{F}}{dA}$, in our case orizontal) $\bar{\sigma} = \frac{kV}{2h}\hat{y}$. But by definition of viscosity its magnitude is ${\sigma} = \eta \frac{dv}{dz}$, so we have $\bar{\sigma} = \eta \frac{V}{h} \hat{y}$, and we conclude that $k=2\eta$. Exploiting (5) we get the stress tensor that describes viscous forces:
\begin{equation}
\bar{\bar{\sigma}}\_{visc} = 2 \eta \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \tag{6}
\end{equation}
Note that this tensor is $\bar{\bar{0}}$ if $\eta \to 0$ and/or if $\bar{v}$ is uniform (not necessarily constant in time, think to the zero viscous forces of water in a vessel on the ground of an elevator).
The stress tensor of an ideal viscous fluid
-------------------------------------------
We know (see answer about Euler equation) that for inviscid fluid (zero viscosity) the stress tensor is $\bar{\bar{\sigma}}=-p\bar{\bar{I}}$, and we know that the stress tensor that describes viscous forces is given by (6). The simpler solution is to assume that taking account of both pressure and viscosity, the stress tensor is simply the sum of the two:
\begin{equation}
\bar{\bar{\sigma}}=-p\bar{\bar{I}} + 2 \eta \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} \tag{7}
\end{equation}
Often in studying nature we start with simple hypotheses (think to Hooke law, Fourier law of heat, Planck hypothesis, etc.) and then we test them to check if they work and we try to go in deep in understanding the meaning. Of course I suppose this try of writing stress tensor can be better justified, but like Cengel-Cimbala I'll simply claim claim to generalize the $-p\bar{\bar{I}}$ adding another stress tensor that take into account viscous forces (but unlike what they do, I added some arguments to try to justify this term that describes the deviation from rigid motion). Even if I don't find it satisfactory, I find it reasonable.
Please note that $-p\bar{\bar{I}}$ gives only normal stresses (see my S.E. answer about Euler equation) while $2 \eta \bar{\bar{\epsilon}} $ gives both normal and tangential stresses.
Proof of Navier-Stokes equation
-------------------------------
In the final of my S.E. answer about Cauchy equation I wrote it in this way
\begin{equation}
\frac{D \bar{v}}{D t}=\frac{1}{\rho} \nabla \cdot \bar{\bar{\sigma}} + \bar{f} \tag{8}
\end{equation}
If stress tensor is writable as in (7), we have then
\begin{equation}
\rho \frac{D \bar{v}}{D t}=
\left( \frac{\partial}{\partial x} \quad \frac{\partial}{\partial y} \quad \frac{\partial}{\partial z} \right)
\begin{pmatrix}
-p & 0 & 0 \\
0 & -p & 0 \\
0 & 0 & -p
\end{pmatrix} + 2 \eta \left( \frac{\partial}{\partial x} \quad \frac{\partial}{\partial y} \quad \frac{\partial}{\partial z} \right)
\begin{pmatrix}
\epsilon\_{xx} & \epsilon\_{xy} & \epsilon\_{xz} \\
\epsilon\_{xy} & \epsilon\_{yy} & \epsilon\_{yz} \\
\epsilon\_{xz} & \epsilon\_{yz} & \epsilon\_{zz}
\end{pmatrix} + \rho \bar{f}
\end{equation}
Let's focus on the $x$ component, the first big term is clearly $-\frac{\partial p}{\partial x}$. The other can be calculated by exploiting (3):
\begin{equation}
2 \eta \left( \frac{\partial \epsilon\_{xx}}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial \epsilon\_{xy}}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial \epsilon\_{xz}}{\partial z} \right) =
\eta \left( 2 \frac{\partial^2 v\_x}{ \partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2 v\_x}{ \partial y^2} + \frac{\partial^2 v\_y}{ \partial x \partial y} + \frac{\partial^2 v\_x}{ \partial z^2} + \frac{\partial^2 v\_z}{ \partial x \partial z} \right)
\end{equation}
The term in parenthesis can be written as
$\frac{\partial^2 v\_x}{ \partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2 v\_x}{ \partial y^2}+ \frac{\partial^2 v\_x}{ \partial z^2} +
\frac{\partial}{\partial x} \left(\frac{\partial v\_x}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial v\_y}{\partial y} + \frac{\partial v\_z}{\partial z} \right) $, i.e. as $\nabla^2 v\_x + \frac{\partial}{\partial x} (\nabla \cdot \bar{v}) = \nabla^2 v\_x$ because the fluid is incompressible so $\nabla \cdot \bar{v}=0$. We conclude that $x$ component of the equation (8) must be
\begin{equation}
\rho \left[ \frac{D \bar{v}}{D t} \right]\_x =
- \frac{\partial p}{\partial x} + \eta \nabla^2 v\_x + \rho f\_x
\end{equation}
The other components will be similar, so after having defined $\nabla^2 \bar{v}$ as we did after (1), we got Navier-Stokes equation, which is nothing but the Cauchy equation for momentum conservation after having chosen (7) as stress tensor (please note that if we consider $\nabla \cdot \bar{v} = 0$ due the continuity equation, the number of unknown
$v\_x$, $v\_y$, $v\_z$ and $p$ is equal to the number of independent equations, but it is not surprising that will not be a picnic exploiting these four equations to explore problems).
| stackexchange/physics |
ophthalmic anestheia has evolved over years from no - anesthesia couching to no - anesthesia phacoemulsification .
still , regional anesthesia is widely used in ophthalmology . unless contraindicated , cataract surgery is usually performed under regional / topical anesthesia .
regional anesthesia is the blockage of a nerve subserving a given part of the body by infiltrating the area around the nerve with local anesthetic . in the eye
the goal is to provide safe , painless , efficient , and effective local anesthesia.1 although , regional anesthesia is safe , serious complications do occur , even in expert hands .
we present a case of subperiosteal hematoma after peribulbar block in young myopic male , who was later found to have coagulopathy .
a 17-year - old male from north - east part of india was presented to us with gradual painless diminution of vision and abnormal eye movements noticed by parents since 2 years of age .
he was using power eight diopter myopic glasses since last 5 years for both the eyes . on examination ,
he had best corrected visual acuity ( bcva ) of 20/200 in both the eyes with latent / manifest nystagmus .
slit lamp examination revealed congenital cataract ( involving fetal and embryonic nucleus ) in both the eyes .
diagnosis of high myopia with congenital cataract with manifest / latent nystagmus was made in both the eyes .
routine blood investigations like hemoglobin , total leukocyte count , and platelet count were within normal range .
after informed consent was taken from the parents , he was posted for lens aspiration under peribulbar block in both the eyes .
day 1 post - op showed a bcva of 20/60 and subconjunctival hemorrhage was noted .
he was posted for left eye surgery by the same surgeon after 7 days . a peribulbar block using 26
g 12.5 mm needle was given in the left eye after the lower lid retracted manually , and the needle was placed half way between the lateral canthus and the lateral limbus .
the needle was advanced in the sagittal plane , parallel to the orbital floor passing under the globe . when the needle tip was judged to be past the equator of the globe ,
the direction was changed to a point slightly medial ( 20 ) and cephalad ( 10 upward ) to avoid the bony orbital margin .
the needle was advanced without any resistance till the hub of the needle was at the depth similar to that of the iris plane .
following negative aspiration , 5 ml of local anesthetic agent ( a mixture consisting of equal volumes of 2% lignocaine and 0.75% bupivacaine with hyaluronidase 7.5 iu / ml ) was injected . immediately after giving a peribulbar block , a complete akinesia , subconjunctival hemorrhage , tight eyelids , and stony hard eyeball was noted .
surgery was cancelled , a provisional diagnosis of left eye retrobulbar hemorrhage was made , and he was immediately started on intravenous ( iv ) mannitol 250 ml ( 7 ml / kg ) .
an abaxial proptosis of approximately 7 mm , inferior dystopia with ecchymosis , and subconjunctival hemorrhage was noted ( figure 1a and b ) ; intraocular pressure ( iop ) was 30 mmhg .
lateral canthotomy and inferior cantholysis were performed by our oculoplasty colleague on emergency basis under local infiltration of a mixture of lignocaine 2% and adrenaline ( 1 in 20,000 ) and he found it difficult to control the bleed ing .
indirect ophthalmoscopy showed no evidence of intraocular or subretinal bleeding , and central retinal artery pulsations were inducible after giving pressure over eyeball with cotton tip applicator . a pulse dexamethasone therapy for 3 consecutive days , 100 mg in 150 ml of 5% dextrose over 23 hours daily , was started .
topical eye drop moxifloxacin 0.5% qid ( four times a day ) and eye drop prednisolone acetate 1% qid were started .
oral acetazolamide 250 mg qid and topical eye drop timolol 0.5% bid was given to control iop .
due to uncontrolled bleeding , coagulation abnormality was suspected and bleeding time clotting time was determined immediately , which came to be normal .
a contrast - enhanced computed tomo graphy ( cect ) scan showed inferolateral subperiosteal hematoma in the left eye ( figure 2 ) .
he was posted for drainage of subperiosteal hematoma , but due to strong clinical suspicion of coagulation disorder , prothrombin time ( pt ) and activated prothrombin time ( aptt ) were determined , which were observed to be prolonged , that is , pt was 22 seconds and aptt was 50 seconds .
after 5 days , coagulation profile came to be within normal range and tarsorrhaphy was performed for exposure keratopathy .
our first important differential diagnosis was retrobulbar hemorrhage which was ruled out after cect scan , and the second differential diagnosis was any coagulopathy which was supported by pt and aptt and confirmed by coagulation factor assay . at discharge , he had bcva of 20/80 in right eye and no perception of light ( no pl ) in left eye due to compressive optic neuropathy . on 7 days follow - up , there was a healing corneal ulcer of 32 mm size , and after 2 weeks of follow - up the ulcer healed completely with no pl in the left eye .
why we had this complication ? is it due to coagulopathy , or due to highly vascular periosteum in young people , which is loosely adhered to bone , or due to the difficult situation for block ?
so detected factor v deficiency may be due to an acquired cause like any liver disease or spontaneous autoimmune reactions after surgery .
so there may be possibility of spontaneous autoimmune reactions after first surgery in the right eye leading to factor v deficiency temporarily in our case .
it has been proved beyond doubt that regional anesthesia does not increase the risk of serious bleeds , and it is not advisable to stop anticoagulants before cataract surgery.2
figure 2 shows large globe filling the orbit .
the length of the needle we used was half inch , which has less chance of damaging periocular vascular structures .
moreover , in our case emergency surgical intervention could have been done by transfusing fresh frozen plasma early .
they used retrobulbar and peribulbar blocks , respectively . in the first case the patient lost her vision and in the second case the patient
average adult orbital volume in south - east asian population is 23.943.47 ml and that of caucasians is 28.412.09 ml.5 the patient in this study was from south - east asian origin with small orbital volume but with large myopic eye ball ; this could be another reason for aggravated compartment syndrome and rapidly progressive proptosis , leading to vision loss despite timely intervention .
nowadays , the technique of retrobulbar block has become obsolete , as it involves more complications in comparison to peribulbar block , because of its long course of needle insertion , leading to complication from intraorbital tissue injury to sight - threatening complications like retrobulbar hemorrhage and optic nerve damage.6 although peribulbar block is not free of any complication , it is still the most preferred practice of block today .
recently , the sub - tenon s block and the topical anesthesia have gained popularity .
even sub - tenon s block has its own complication like chemosis and subconjuctival hemorrhage , and hence should be used in cooperative patients with shorter duration of surgery . as our patient was a young patient we preferred peribulbar block with a properly described technique,7 and the right eye was without any major complication except mild subconjuctival hemorrhage .
so we went ahead with the peribulbar block by same person who has given the right eye block .
the dreaded complication of retrobulbar hemorrhage can be diagnosed by hard eyeball , tight eyelids with ecchymosis , and proptosis .
disappearance of red reflex and loss of direct pupillary response are also the warning signs of retrobulbar hemorrhage .
patient may complain of sudden vision loss or vision blackout due to central retinal artery occlusion .
management depends on severity of the bleed and assessment of ocular circulatory compromise . in all cases , it is advisable to give external ocular pressure .
additional measures include immediate cancellation of surgery and reduction of both iop and intraorbital pressure by paracentesis , intravenous mannitol , and performing lateral canthotomy and cantholysis . | pubmed |
aberrant salivary gland neoplasms arising within the jaws as primary central bony lesions are extremely rare , of which most common is central mucoepidermoid carcinoma .
lepp in 1939 first reported an intraosseous mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the mandible in a 66-year old woman . in 1991 ,
the world health organization classification recommended that the term mucoepidermoid tumour be changed to mucoepidermoid carcinoma .
waldron and mustoe suggested that intraosseous mucoepidermoid carcinoma be included in primary intraosseous carcinoma of jaw as type 4 lesion .
several case reports are recorded in the literature about neoplastic transformation of epithelial lining of odontogenic cyst .
we report a case of central mucoepidermoid carcinoma arising from a previously diagnosed case of dentigerous cyst .
thus , we can suggest the origin of central mucoepidermoid carcinoma to arise from the malignant transformation of epithelial lining of odontogenic cyst .
an 80-year old female patient came with a chief complaint of pain and swelling over the left lower half of the face since 3 months .
patient gave a history of impacted mandibular 3 molar , which was extracted 2 years ago .
on extraoral examination , an ill - defined swelling was noted on the lower left side of the face , irregular in shape , measuring about 23 cm in size ( figure 1a ) .
intraorally , on palpation left ramus of mandible was obliterated and on orthopantamograph , a multilocular radiolucent lesion in relation to left angle ramus of mandible was noted . a straw colored fluid was aspirated from the cystic space . a provisional diagnosis of odontogenic keratocyst / ameloblastoma/ dentigerous cyst was considered .
on histopathological examination , a non - keratinizing cystic lining epithelium with mucous cell metaplasia and a connective tissue wall was noted .
( figure 2a ) correlating patient s history with the clinical , radiographical and histopathological findings , a diagnosis of long standing case of dentigerous cyst with mucous metaplasia was given .
a surgical excision of the entire lesion was performed and histopathological examination of the excisional specimen revealed numerous microcysts and macrocysts , islands of epidermoid cells and mucous cells , minimal to absence of pleomorphism ( figure 2b ) and cholesterol clefts with multinucleated foreign body type giant cells .
foci of the section showed a single layer of non - keratinizing cystic lining epithelium with mucous cell metaplasia , which stained positive with mucicarmine staining ( figure 2c ) .
central mucoepidermoid carcinomas ( mecs ) are extremely rare tumors . according to pires et al . , less than 200 cases have been published . in 1939 , lepp described the first case of central mec ( cmec ) in mandible of 66-year old women . according to eversole et al . , 50% of central mec are associated with dental cysts and/or impacted teeth .
the incidence of central mec is estimated to be around 2 - 4.3% of all mec .
the age of occurrence ranges 1 - 78 years ( peak 4 - 5 decade ) .
females are twice more commonly affected than males and mandible is twice more commonly affected than maxilla . according to classification of primary intraosseous carcinoma given by waldron and mustoe central mec comes under type 4 of primary intraosseous carcinoma ( table 1 ) .
the origin of central mucoepidermoid carcinoma is thought to be from : i ) entrapment of retromolar mucous glands within the mandible , which subsequently undergo neoplastic transformation ; ii ) developmentally included embryonic remnants of the sub maxillary gland within the mandible ; iii ) neoplastic transformation of the mucous secreting cells commonly found in the pluripotential epithelial lining of dentigerous cysts associated with impacted third molars ; iv ) neoplastic transformation and invasion from the lining epithelium of the maxillary sinus .
, intra - osseous minor salivary gland tissue is seen in 0.3% of bone specimens . according to ellis et al . , ectopic salivary gland tissue is rare even than the occurrence of central mucoepidermoid carcinoma .
therefore , the origin from intraosseous minor salivary gland is questionable . according to eversole et al .
, approximately 50% of the mandibular tumors were associated with dental cysts and/or impacted teeth .
brooksto - ne and huvos , also reported a rate of 32% of central mec to be associated with odontogenic cysts .
central mec and squamous cell carcinoma account for 1 - 2% of jaw tumors associated with an impacted 3 molar .
since the initial report was based on incisional biopsy , it is difficult to elucidate whether the lesion was primarily a dentigerous cyst or a cystic part of mucoepidermoid carcinoma , which was biopsied . in the literature , there are case reports of mec in predominantly cystic pattern with many mucous cells in lining and there are also reports of dentigerous cyst transforming into mec .
thus , taking patient s history into consideration and the fact that the patient had an impacted 3 molar extracted 2 years back on the same side as the cmec , we could propose that follicular tissue / part of cyst left around the impacted tooth lead to further development of cmec .
this may be due to the pluripotentiality of the follicular tissue around the 3 molar or the dentigerous cyst lining epithelium .
this may suggest towards the origin of mec from neoplastic transformation of epithelial lining of odontogenic cyst .
most common symptoms of cmec are swelling and pain with trismus , paresthesia and tooth mobility , previous history of impacted tooth or cyst .
on radiograph , it is characterized by well - circumscribed unilocular / multilocular radiolucency with well - defined borders .
the most commonly accepted criteria for diagnosis of central mec proposed by alexander et al . , which was modified by browand and waldron
is as follows : i ) presence of intact cortical plates ; ii ) radiographic evidence of bony destruction ; iii ) exclusion of another primary tumor ; iv ) histopathological confirmation ; v ) detectable intracellular mucin .
brookstone and huvos gave the staging system for central mucoepidermoid carcinoma depending up to the condition of the overlying bone ( table 2 ) .
in our case , there was an intact cortical plate with some degree of expansion .
the mainstay of treatment of central mec is surgery . on conservative treatment like enucleation and debridement ,
the recurrence rate was seen to be around 40% and upon radical treatment such as segmental resection with / without associated adjuvant therapy , a recurrence rate of 4% was noted .
maxillary central mec have worse prognosis due to possibility of local extensions into vital structures .
a differential diagnosis of ameloblastoma , keratinizing cystic odontogenic tumor ( kcot ) , primary intraosseous carcinoma and metastatic lesions to the jaw was considered .
differentiating features included presence of follicles , anastomosing cords and strands of odontogenic epithelium with ameloblastomatous change for ameloblastoma , parakeratinized stratified squamous epithelium of uniform thickness with typical epithelial features for kcot , dysplastic epithelial islands with / without keratin pearl formation in the connective tissue stroma for primary intraosseous carcinoma and presence of primary tumor elsewhere in the body for metastatic lesions to the jaw .
usually around mucous cells , clear cells are seen in chronic long - standing cases . according to slabbert et al .
, these clear cells were reported to be stage in the histogenesis of mucous cell metaplasia . according to them ,
keratinocytes become vacuolated and mucin granules begin to appear and accumulate within the vacuolated cells and mucous cells develop .
the cyst fluid when examined under light , demonstrates cholesterol crystals , which impart a shimmering appearance to the gold or strawcolored fluid .
unstained smear of cyst fluid under light microscope will show typical rectangular shaped crystals with notched corners .
( figure 3 ) while stained sections show needle shaped cholesterol cleft surrounded by multinucleated foreign body giant cells .
the cholesterol clefts are artefacts in histopathology formed due to the removal of the cholesterol during tissue processing .
cholesterol clefts are usually encountered in lesions such as radicular cysts , dentigerous cyst , keratinizing cystic odontogenic tumor , other inflammatory lesions , salivary gland neoplasms - mucoepidermoid carcinoma and atherosclerotic lesions . according to thoma ,
cholesterol clefts accumulate in the tissue as a result of degeneration and disintegration of epithelial cells . according to slabbert et al .
, circulating plasma lipids are a more likely source for cholesterol clefts . according to browne
, he noted that cholesterol clefts and hemosiderin pigments and postulated that the main source was disintegrated red blood cells .
other sources of cholesterol clefts are degenerated epithelial cells , connective tissue cells , inflammatory cells and plasma lipoproteins .
the presence of cholesterol clefts and multinucleated giant cells indicates the long - standing nature of the lesion .
the clinical significance of malignant tumors arising from odontogenic cysts or de novo should never be underestimated .
we need to re - emphasizes the importance of radical surgery , adjuvant treatment and a careful histopathological evaluation of the entire excised tissue so that such neoplastic transformation may be identified and treated effectively .
a differential diagnosis of ameloblastoma , keratinizing cystic odontogenic tumor ( kcot ) , primary intraosseous carcinoma and metastatic lesions to the jaw was considered . differentiating features included presence of follicles , anastomosing cords and strands of odontogenic epithelium with ameloblastomatous change for ameloblastoma , parakeratinized stratified squamous epithelium of uniform thickness with typical epithelial features for kcot , dysplastic epithelial islands with / without keratin pearl formation in the connective tissue stroma for primary intraosseous carcinoma and presence of primary tumor elsewhere in the body for metastatic lesions to the jaw .
presence of mucous and ciliated cells is considered a metaplastic change . usually around mucous cells ,
clear cells are seen in chronic long - standing cases . according to slabbert et al . , these clear cells were reported to be stage in the histogenesis of mucous cell metaplasia . according to them ,
keratinocytes become vacuolated and mucin granules begin to appear and accumulate within the vacuolated cells and mucous cells develop .
the cyst fluid when examined under light , demonstrates cholesterol crystals , which impart a shimmering appearance to the gold or strawcolored fluid .
unstained smear of cyst fluid under light microscope will show typical rectangular shaped crystals with notched corners .
( figure 3 ) while stained sections show needle shaped cholesterol cleft surrounded by multinucleated foreign body giant cells .
the cholesterol clefts are artefacts in histopathology formed due to the removal of the cholesterol during tissue processing .
cholesterol clefts are usually encountered in lesions such as radicular cysts , dentigerous cyst , keratinizing cystic odontogenic tumor , other inflammatory lesions , salivary gland neoplasms - mucoepidermoid carcinoma and atherosclerotic lesions .
according to thoma , cholesterol clefts accumulate in the tissue as a result of degeneration and disintegration of epithelial cells . according to slabbert et al . , circulating plasma lipids are a more likely source for cholesterol clefts . according to browne
, he noted that cholesterol clefts and hemosiderin pigments and postulated that the main source was disintegrated red blood cells .
other sources of cholesterol clefts are degenerated epithelial cells , connective tissue cells , inflammatory cells and plasma lipoproteins .
the presence of cholesterol clefts and multinucleated giant cells indicates the long - standing nature of the lesion .
the clinical significance of malignant tumors arising from odontogenic cysts or de novo should never be underestimated .
we need to re - emphasizes the importance of radical surgery , adjuvant treatment and a careful histopathological evaluation of the entire excised tissue so that such neoplastic transformation may be identified and treated effectively . | pubmed |
osteoid osteoma is a distinct clinical entity that was first described by jaffe1 in 1935 .
it is a benign skeletal neoplasm that is usually encountered in young adults under the age of 30 .
its prevalence in jaws is less than 1% , making this unique entity exceeding rare in the jaw bones2 .
furthermore , only five cases in jaws are reported so far in the literature , wherein the osteoid osteoma has always occurred in the condylar region of the mandible . among all the documented cases in the literature ,
the authors yang and qiu3 reported the largest osteoid osteoma ( 4.03.5 cm ) that presented in the left articular eminence of a 24-year - old female .
we present an exceedingly large osteoid osteoma in the mandibular condylar neck ( 7.06.5 cm ) that presented in a 41-year - old female , causing conductive hearing loss and restricted mouth opening in addition to pain . in the scientific literature ,
we did not come across any cases with clinical manifestations similar to our case or with such a large size osteoid osteoma .
in addition , all the cases that are documented in the scientific literature regarding osteoid osteomas presenting in the jaws were also reviewed456789101112.(table 1 )
a 41-year - old female patient was referred to our unit with the chief complaint of swelling in the right preauricular region over 7 years.(fig .
a ) the increase in the size of the swelling was slow but steady over these 7 years . within a period of 4 months from the development of swelling , she started experiencing pain in the same region that was dull and intermittent , which increased in intensity at night and was relieved with analgesics .
there was also a positive history of decreased hearing in the right ear and restricted mouth opening for 3 months .
on extra - oral examination , a well - defined swelling was seen extending superiorly from a line joining the tragus of the right ear to the lateral canthus , to about 2 cm form the lower border of the mandible inferiorly and posteroanteriorly from the right ear lobule to about 2.5 cm anterior to it.(fig .
b ) on palpation , the swelling was bony hard in consistency , non - tender and attached to the underlying bone . the skin overlying the swelling was of normal color and was movable with no local rise in temperature .
d ) the patient was initially subjected to radiographic imaging in the form of the waters projection , revealing a well - defined radioopacity with a thin radioluscent rim in relation to right mandibular condyle , roughly measuring roughly about 6.03.0 cm in its greatest dimensions.(fig .
2 ) in order to define the lesion size more precisely in order to assist in surgical planning , a high resolution helical computed tomographic ( ct ) scan was sought .
the image revealed a large , lobulated and heterogeneously ossified lesion of size 7.06.86.4 cm , originating from the right mandibular condylar neck and extending into the right infratemporal fossa and masticator space.(fig .
3 . a - d ) sclerotic changes were noted in the upper portion of the ramus of the mandible .
a well circumscribed circular nidus on the buccal aspect of the condylar neck with decreased attenuation was visible with a variable amount of surrounding sclerosis and periosteal new bone formation.(fig .
anteriorly , the lesion was indenting the posterior wall of the right maxillary sinus , causing bowing of the posterior sinus wall .
e ) posteriorly , the lesion extended up to the mastoid process with subsequent displacement of the internal carotid artery and internal jugular vein .
medially , the mass obliterated the right parapharyngeal space through compression of the right pterygopalatine fossa and right pterygoid bone .
laterally , the lesion extended up to the subcutaneous plane , indenting the parotid gland .
superiorly , the lesion indented the greater wing of the sphenoid through mild intracranial extension into the right middle cranial fossa.(fig .
f ) inferiorly , the lesion was seen to extend up to the upper third of the ramus of the mandible . based on radiographic images , a differential diagnosis of fibro - osseous lesion , osteoblastoma , osteoid osteoma , fibro - osseous lesion , ossifying fibroma and giant cell granuloma was made .
no similar lesions were found in other bones , including the mandible , on general physical and radiological examinations .
opinions from an ear nose throat ( ent ) surgeon were sought regarding the patient 's decreased hearing .
based on the weber test and audiometry testing coupled with ct scans , the patient was diagnosed as having conductive hearing loss secondary to pressure compression of the eustachian tube .
considering the large dimensions of the lesion , an incisional biopsy of the lesion was planned through a preauricular incision , and a wedge of specimen was submitted for histopathological examination .
4 ) after obtaining written informed consent , the patient was scheduled for surgical excision of the lesion under general anesthesia .
a ) the mandibular ramus was horizontally osteotomized and the entire lesion was skeletonized from adjacent structures and delivered in toto .
the excised specimen was once again submitted for histopathological examination , proving beyond doubt that the lesion was indeed osteoid osteoma .
no recurrence was observed over a 1-year follow - up on clinical and radiological examinations .
6 , 7 , 8) a gradual improvement to normal levels in hearing was seen on the affected side over a two month postoperative period .
there was definite improvement in mouth opening following surgery , with deviation of the mandible on the same side due to unopposed action of the contralateral lateral pterygoid muscle .
the patient will soon be scheduled for temporomandibular joint reconstruction to correct hollowness in the right preauricular region that had developed post - surgery .
small , oval or roundish tumor like nidus that is predominantly composed of osteoid and trabeculae of newly formed bone deposited within the substratum of highly vascularized osteogenic connective tissue4 . to date , the true nature of such a lesion is not clear and therefore varied pathogenesis has been suggested , ranging from neoplastic to inflammatory reaction to unusual healing12 .
distinct benign skeletal neoplasms comprise 10% to 12% of all benign bone tumors and are usually seen in patients under 30 years of age .
osteoid osteomas have the predilection of occurring anywhere in the skeleton ; the lower extremities are the most common sites , with 50% to 60% of the cases reported in the femur and tibia1113 .
, only 26 cases of osteoid osteoma involving jaw bones have been documented in the literature .
( table 1 ) by analyzing the reported cases , we inferred that the majority of osteoid osteoma cases in jaws occurred during the second and third decades of life ( n=16 , 61.53% ) , with a slight female predilection ( female to male ratio of 1.08:1 ) . the reports clearly show that the mandible is more commonly involved than the maxilla ( n=22 , 84.61% ) , with the body region of the mandible being the most commonly affected site . as of now , only 5 cases of osteoid osteomas originating from the condylar region are reported in the literature , making the condylar region of the mandible a rare site for osteoid osteomas . to the best of our knowledge ,
an osteoid osteoma originating from the condylar neck has not yet been reported in the scientific literature .
pain was the most common presenting complaint in the reported cases ( n=17 , 65.38% ) .
in this study , we have put aside the norms set by other authors with regard to osteoid osteoma size .
most authors are of the opinion that this lesion usually does not grow more than 2 cm in size7812 .
however , we have presented a case wherein the osteoid osteoma grew to almost 3.5 time ( 7.06.5 cm ) this standard size , making it the first case to be reported in the literature with such large dimensions .
the pain is dull or intermittent , characteristically worsens at night and is relieved via non - steroidal anti - inflammatory drugs ( nsaids ) .
various theories have been put forward to explain the precise nature of the pain and its tendency to worsen at night .
some authors believe that prostaglandins , especially prostaglandin e2 , plays a pivotal role ; this is evident by the high concentration of prostaglandins that is found in the nidus of the lesion10 .
others are of the view that its rich vascularity brings about innervation of the free nerve endings or direct irritation of the nerve fibers , leading to pain and tenderness8 .
the radiographic features of such a lesion further assist in diagnosis . characteristically , there exists a central nidus that is less than 2 cm in diameter with a sclerotic bony margin .
the zone of sclerosis surrounding the nidus is not included in the measurement , as it is considered to be a secondary reaction and may be extensive34 . according to jaffe1 , the nidus was more radioluscent than radiopaque and is surrounded by reactive radioopacity , which was extended at variable distances from the nidus .
less mature lesions were more likely to have a radiopaque nidus , whereas fully mature osteoid osteomas had a radiolucent nidus . according to pritchard and mckay14 , calcification of
the osteoid in the later developmental stages resulted in a central opaque body that varied in density as calcification progressed . in the present case , a well - defined radioopaque mass with a thin radioluscent rim
non - specific findings on plain radiographs prompted surgeons to opt for additional imaging modalities .
ct scans are currently the best radiographic examination for diagnosis of an osteoid osteoma ; this is because they show more detail regarding the relationship between the tumor and adjacent structures in comparison to conventional radiography .
furthermore , sclerotic change of the adjacent bone and periosteal reaction is also well demonstrated . in our case ,
the osteoid osteoma was diagnosed using ct scans , which not only disclosed the exact dimensions and extent of the lesion , but also enabled better surgical planning .
this syndrome is an autosomal dominant trait characterized by multiple osteomas , gastrointestinal polyps , skin and soft tissue tumors and multiple impacted or supernumerary teeth11 . from the histopathologic perspective ,
the intermediate stage is characterized by osteoid deposition between the osteoblasts . in the mature stage , the osteoid transforms into well - calcified compact trabeculae of an atypical bone , which are typically neither woven nor lamellar . from the clinical and radiographic perspectives , the differential diagnosis can be osteoblastoma , fibro - osseous lesion , ossifying fibroma , or giant cell granuloma .
considering the large size of the osteoid osteoma in the present case and its similar presentation to osteoblastoma , it becomes challenging to differentiate these two clinical entities1516 .
osteoblastomas can be asymptomatic or can cause significant pain and swelling , but the pain does not worsen at night and is not relieved via nsaids , which is typical of osteoid osteomas41217 .
histologically , osteoid osteomas have a nidus composed of osteoid tissue surrounded by densely reactive bone ( not seen in osteoblastoma ) , lack multinucleated giant cells and present less vascularization compared to osteoblastomas10 .
fibrous dysplasia is a poorly defined lesion and has radioluscent and ground glass appearances in the early and mature stages , respectively , both of which were not seen in this case . although ossifying fibromas have some features identical to osteoid osteomas , including both clinically and radiographically , they are usually painless with no nidus12 .
giant cell granulomas are distinguished on the basis of multinucleated giant cells lying on extremely vascular stroma .
the recommended treatment for such a tumor is complete excision , which alleviates the pain and cures the disease5 .
although some reported cases have spontaneously regressed , identifying such cases in advance is difficult51819 .
recurrences are rare following complete removal of the lesion , but some cases have been reported .
very rarely , the tumor can undergo sarcomatous or locally malignant changes12 . as of now ,
only a single case of malignant transformation of osteoid osteoma into low grade aggressive osteoblastoma has been reported20 .
long term follow - up is therefore recommended to detect locally malignant or sarcomatous changes . in conclusion , we have presented a rare case of osteoid osteoma originating from the right condylar neck with very large proportions , causing conductive hearing loss in addition to pain , swelling and restricted mouth opening . to the best of our knowledge , an osteoid osteoma of such large dimensions has not been reported in the literature and therefore requires special mention .
furthermore , such large dimensions of the tumor make it increasingly difficult to distinguish osteomas from osteoblastomas due to the considerable overlap between both entities in clinical , histopathologic and radiographic features .
the role of ct scans is instrumental in identifying the extent , dimensions and relationship to adjacent anatomical structures , in addition to identifying the number of lesions , sclerotic changes of the adjacent bone and periosteal reaction . | pubmed |
Eytan Modiano
Prof. Eytan Modiano is a member of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Operations Research Center at MIT. From 1993 to 1999 he was with the Communications Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he designed communication protocols for satellite, wireless, and optical networks and was the project leader for MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Next Generation Internet project. He was a Naval Research Laboratory Fellow between 1987 and 1992 and a National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellow during 1992-1993 while he was conducting research on security and performance issues in distributed network protocols. He had served as associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and as guest editor for IEEE JSAC special issue on WDM network architectures; the Computer Networks Journal special issue on Broadband Internet Access; the Journal of Communications and Networks special issue on Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks; and for IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology special issue on Optical Networks. He was the technical program co-chair for IEEE Wiopt 2006, IEEE Infocom 2007, and ACM MobiHoc 2007.
Email:[email protected]
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How does the Hutchinson Effect work? [closed]
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We deal with **mainstream physics** here. Questions about the general correctness of unpublished personal theories are off topic, although specific questions evaluating new theories in the context of established science are usually allowed. For more information, see [Is non mainstream physics appropriate for this site?](https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4539).
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I have seen pictures online of metal ripped apart and metal completely messed up due to the [Hutchinson Effect](http://www.google.com/search?as_epq=hutchison+effect). How does this effect work and what are the other principles behind it?
It isn't real. [source 1](http://skepdic.com/hutchisonhoax.html) [source 2](http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/02/the-hutchison-effect-the-mahabharata-and-acoustic-levitation/)
"One suggestion made by skeptics is that Hutchison uses an electromagnet on the ceiling, and places hidden pieces of metal inside objects so they will be attracted to the magnet. He could then film the objects with an upside-down camera as he powers down the electromagnet, making the objects on film appear to float up and out of the shot when in reality they are falling down to the floor. Many of the videos include conspicuous objects in the scene which do not move (such as an old broom), which could be deliberately attached to add to the illusion that the camera is not upside-down. Critics also point out that the videos do not show what happens to the objects after they levitate."
It is supposed to use zero-point energy, which is real, but it doesn't.
| stackexchange/physics |
Graph relating load force and spring extension in Hookes Law
I've come across a graph in my physics book, similar to this one.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/zhXS3.jpg)
But wouldn't the extension increase per load increase be reduced after the elastic limit.
The graph I have in mind is like this [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1Nrdl.png)
Both graphs were found online, but which is correct, or are they referring to two different elastic objects, if so which?
The elastic limit means that if you extend the material beyond that point and then unload the material it will suffer a permanent deformation.
So you extend your material beyond the elastic limit and then remove the force.
Which graph gives a reasonable unloading curve such that at zero force there is a positive extension?
Your first graph.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ibXh3.jpg)
You have to be a little careful about the energy stored in the material.
You should use the area of the unshaded triangle rather than the area of the shaded triangle.
Now as long as the graph is a straight line through the origin it does not matter but as when this is not so it does.
The area of the unshaded triangle represents the work done by the load in extending the material by $50.0$ cm.
The assumption is then made that all of that work done by the load is stores as elastic potential energy in the material.
Now continue beyond the elastic limit "under" the graph which still represents the work done by the load in extending the material but this is no longer the elastic potential energy stored in the spring.
The elastic potential energy stored in the material is the area "under" the blue graph and the area between those two graphs represents the work done by the load in permanently extending the material - that is, permanently breaking bonds.
No, after the elastic limit, the extension should increase more per unit load. I think you can find this out in any standard physics textbook such as Halliday and Resnick (Fundamentals of Physics)
The critical pieces of information aren't usually the materials, but the the units on the graph. When we reach the elastic limit, materials begin to deform permanently which takes more force. They stop storing more spring energy, though, because the broken bonds don't spring the object back to shape - that energy goes to breaking intra-molecular bonds.
This deformation incorporates a thinning or breaking of the material. As the material deforms, what remains connected continues to get stronger, but since there's less of it, the object under tension gets noticeably weaker.
The units of strain are the same as pressure - force per area. In this case, it's the cross-sectional area at the thinnest point. Be warned, it's a confusing topic, so not everybody correctly labels their graphs.
| stackexchange/physics |
Integration by parts in statistical physics
In the book *Equilibrium Statistical Physics: Phases of Matter and Phase Transitions* by Marc Baus and Carlos F. Tejero at page 49 (English version) says
**3.2 Liouville's Equation**
[...]
and hence
$$ a(\textbf{r},t)\equiv \int \text{d}q\int\text{d}p a(q,p;\textbf{r},t)\rho(q,p),$$
may be written as
$$ a(\textbf{r},t) = \int \text{d}q \int \text{d}p \left[ \text{e}^{-L\_N t} a(q,p; \textbf{r},0)\right] \rho (q,p) \overset{?}{=} \int \text{d}q\int\text{d}p a(q,p;\textbf{r},0) \left[ \text{e}^{L\_N t} \rho (q,p)\right], $$
where to go from the first to the second expression an integration by parts has been performed (since $L\_N$ is a linear differential operator), and it has been admitted that $\rho(q,p)$ and all of its derivatives vanish at the limits of integration.
**How can I go from the first to the second expression? I don't understand how the book has made the integration by parts.**
\*In particular, if
$$ \int x y' =xy-\int x' y.$$
Who is who?
Just like this:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IlGlf.jpg)
from *Statistical Mechanics of Nonequilibrium Liquids* by Evans and Morriss. (Page 48)
I think that the answer is:
$$ \int \text{d}\Gamma \text{ }a(\Gamma)\text{ } L \text{ } \rho (\Gamma) = \int \text{ }\text{d}\Gamma \text{ } a(\Gamma) \text{ }\dot{\Gamma } \dfrac{\partial}{\partial \Gamma} \rho (\Gamma)\tag{1}$$
because of the Chain rule and the Hamilton's equations. The measure of the phase space $\Gamma$ is d$\Gamma =\text{d}q\text{ d}p.$ We know that
$$ \int \text{d}\Gamma \text{ }a(\Gamma)\text{ } L \text{ } \rho (\Gamma) = \int \text{d}\Gamma \text{ }\rho(\Gamma)\text{ }\left[- L \right]\text{ } a(\Gamma) \tag{2}$$
The equation (2) is obtained by integrating by part once
$$ \int \text{ }\text{d}\Gamma \text{ } a(\Gamma) \text{ }\dot{\Gamma } \dfrac{\partial}{\partial \Gamma} \rho (\Gamma) = \left. a(\Gamma) \text{ }\dot{\Gamma} \text{ } \rho(\Gamma) \right|\_S-\int \text{d}\Gamma \rho(\Gamma) \dfrac{\partial}{\partial \Gamma}\left[ a(\Gamma)\dot{\Gamma}\right] = -\int \text{d}\Gamma \rho (\Gamma) \dot{\Gamma}\dfrac{\partial}{\partial \Gamma} a(\Gamma). \tag{3}$$
So, by induction, we have
$$ \int \text{d}\Gamma \text{ }a(\Gamma)\text{ } L^n \text{ } \rho (\Gamma) = \int \text{ }\text{d}\Gamma \text{ } a(\Gamma) \text{ }(-1)^n L^n \rho (\Gamma),\quad \forall n \in \mathbb{N}\tag{4}.$$
Note that, in order to get the equation (4), we've been made $n$ integrations by parts:
$$ \int \text{ }\text{d}\Gamma \text{ } a(\Gamma) \text{ }\dot{\Gamma }^n \dfrac{\partial^n}{\partial \Gamma^n} \rho (\Gamma) = \left. a(\Gamma) \text{ }\dot{\Gamma}^n \dfrac{\partial^{n-1}}{\partial \Gamma^{n-1}} \text{ } \rho(\Gamma) \right|\_S-\int \text{d}\Gamma \dfrac{\partial^{n-1}}{\partial \Gamma^{n-1}}\rho(\Gamma) \dfrac{\partial}{\partial \Gamma}\left[ a(\Gamma)\dot{\Gamma}^n\right] $$ $$ =...= (-1)^n\int \text{d}\Gamma \rho (\Gamma) \dot{\Gamma}^n\dfrac{\partial^n}{\partial \Gamma^n} a(\Gamma). \tag{3}$$
Therefore, we can express the exponential function $\text{e}^{\pm Lt}$ as
$$ e^{\pm Lt} = 1 \pm tL + \dfrac{t^2}{2}L^2 \pm \dfrac{t^3}{6} L^3 + O(L^4)$$
and apply the previous result.
| stackexchange/physics |
FADE IN:
EXT. SUBURBIA - NIGHT
A beautiful late summer night. Crickets chirping, sprinklers
sprinkling.
We PAN across one particular lawn, up one particular tree,
where we see THE PEEPER (Jon Lovitz) sitting on a limb. He
has a bottle of wine, some sandwiches, a Walkman. Suddenly
the lights turn on.
PEEPER
(whispering)
Showtime!
We see a young mother walk into the room outside the Peeper's
window. She is wearing business attire.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Rough day at the office Mrs. Dunleavy?
(takes bite of sandwich)
Well you'll feel better once you slip
off those work clothes and get into some
sweats.
The mother sits on the bed and pulls off her shoes, rubbing
her feet.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Oh my G-D, yes! I wish you would let me
rub those feet. Of course I wouldn't
use my hands. Heh heh heh heh...
He sips some wine.
The mother starts to unbutton her blouse. She takes it off,
revealing a nice bra.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Looks like Victoria just told me her
secret.
The peeper frantically writes in a dirty notebook. Mouthing
the words as he goes.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Thursday the ninth, eight-thirty p.m.,
first brassiere sighting...
(stops writing)
I will pleasure myself to this image for
months. MONTHS I TELL YOU!
The mother starts to unbutton her pants. Her young son walks
in wearing a scouts uniform.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Young Scottie Dunleavy. What
unfortunate timing. You mother was just
getting comfy.
The son talks to his mother excitedly.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Yes, yes, I'm sure you tied many great
knots today or whatever. Now get out.
The son, not going anywhere, sits in a chair.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Now what. This simply won't do.
The peeper takes out a cell phone and dials. The son
answers.
SCOTTIE
Hello?
PEEPER
Hello, Scottie. Why don't you go
downstairs like a good boy and let your
mother freshen up.
SCOTTIE
Who is this?
PEEPER
Just a little birdie. A birdie who
wants to see if your mother's panties
match her bra.
MOTHER
Oh my G-D Scottie. Is there a man up
our tree?
The peeper gets nervous.
PEEPER
Tell her no. Tell her it's just a big
bird.
The peeper starts flapping his arms and making bird noises.
We SEE Scottie with his sling shot. The mother nods yes. He
shoots it. It hits the peeper square in the head. He falls
to the ground with a thud.
PEEPER (CONT'D)
Mrs. Dunleavy, please come help me. And
wear your bikini.
The peeper looks up. He sees Scottie pushing a television
out the window. It lands on top of the peeper. He's dead.
HARD CUT:
INT. HOLE - DAY
The peeper is zooming down a hole, walls of dirt racing by on
all sides.
The peeper is falling down, down, down. The whole way
screaming like a five-year old girl.
PEEPER'S POV
We see the tunnel turn into more of a slide now and the
peeper races towards the opening which is lit by fire. He
SCREAMS.
EXT. FIRE GATES OF HELL
We see the GATE/WALL OF FLAMES. We hear screaming. Wham!
We see the peeper come flying through the flames and land in
a heap in a shallow pit of coals.
Dazed, he stands and we see other people shooting through the
fire wall at different levels. (NOTE: All the arrivals
clothes are now burned & shredded).
GATEKEEPER (O.S.)
Welcome!
The peeper looks left to see the GATEKEEPER standing at his
station greeting the new SOULS with mock cheer.
PEEPER
Am I in hell?
GATEKEEPER
What do you think?
A GIANT BIRD appears and bites the peeper's crotch area. We
leave the peeper in the pit and tilt up to...
MATTE PAINTING HELL
MUSIC UP: "RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL" BY VAN HALEN
The VAST and insane kingdom of Hell. A road leads toward it
like the yellow brick road only with fire and coals. We see
the black castle in the distance. The camera zooms into the
castle, to one particular window.
INT. NICKY'S ROOM - DAY
Looks like an American teenager's room - models, a dresser,
heavy metal posters (tons of OZZY stuff) everywhere (but no
bed - Devils don't sleep). Nicky is air guitaring to the
song. Over at the stereo, we see the cassette playing titled
"NICKY'S MONSTER METAL MIX."
The head demon, JIMMY THE DEMON, opens the door, scaring
NICKY who falls backward into the table, breaking it.
NICKY
(embarrassed)
Hey...
JIMMY THE DEMON
Your father wants to see you and your
brothers in the throne room.
NICKY
Okay, but Jimmy, when the house is
rockin', don't forget the knockin'!
INT. BLACK PALACE THRONE ROOM - DAY
ADRIAN and CASSIUS are playing darts. They're aiming for
people's faces that are coming through the wall.
CASSIUS
I knew it. He's finally retiring.
ADRIAN
I've been waiting on this day for ten
thousand years.
He throws a dart that hits one of the heads in the forehead.
HUMAN DARTBOARD
Aaaah!
CASSIUS
If the old man picks me to take over
Hell, I'll keep the torture going twenty
four seven. No breaks.
ADRIAN
Well Dad says it's the breaks that make
the torture. You have to let people
feel a sense of relief.
Cassius whips a dart which hits one of the HUMAN DARTBOARDS
in the eye.
HUMAN DARTBOARD
Aaaaaaaaaaaah!
ADRIAN
Then again, the beauty of Dad retiring
is what he says doesn't matter anymore.
Cassius pulls out the dart. The eye comes with it.
CASSIUS
I'll take that.
Cassius throws the eye on the ground and stomps it. THWACK!
It splatters like a grape.
HUMAN DARTBOARD
Was that really necessary?
Nicky enters sheepishly.
CASSIUS
Hey, how's Daddy's little girl doing
today?
NICKY
Good, thanks.
Cassius snaps his fingers in Nicky's face.
CASSIUS
Hey. Hey. Hey. Wanna mind wrestle?
Cassius' eyes start glowing red.
NICKY
Actually, I'll take a rain check on0
Nicky is slammed into a nearby desk as if by an invisible
force.
CASSIUS
Got ya!
NICKY
(picking up his head)
Yes, you got me...
Nicky's head slams back down again.
CASSIUS
Got ya, again!
NICKY
(picking head up)
Got me for sure, yes...
He grabs a lamp off the desk and cracks himself over the
head.
CASSIUS
Got ya! Now here's the big finish...
Nicky frowns as he finds his own right hand heading for his
own crotch.
NICKY
Oh no. Please Cassius...
Nicky's hand is being possessed. It gets closer and closer
until it latches on to Nicky's crotch.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Aaaaah.
Cassius concentrates even harder, making Nicky twist his own
hand. Nicky screams even louder. Adrian smiles. They don't
notice that DAD, wearing a sweatsuit (and with very small
devil horns), enters behind them.
DAD
What are you boys doing?
Cassius releases Nicky's hand.
NICKY
Nothing, Dad. Just re-arranging the
furniture.
DAD
Cassius, didn't I tell you to stay out
of your brother's mind?
CASSIUS
I forgot.
DAD
Maybe this will help you remember.
Dad's eyes flash red and Cassius punches himself hard in the
nose, sending him back against the wall and down to the
floor.
Dad gives Nicky a wink. Nicky smiles. Dad has an air of
confidence and power.
DAD (CONT'D)
Now everybody sit down.
NICKY
Hey, Dad, I'm almost finished laying
down my monsters of metal compilation
tape. I really think it's a
masterpiece.
DAD
Okay, kid, we'll listen to it later.
He leads the boys to the throne area. We see outside the
window the peeper staring in sexily. Dad looks, shakes his
head. Just then, THE BIRD appears and attacks him. Dad
closes the curtains.
Nicky, Adrian and Cassius sit on little stools at the foot of
his throne. Dad lights a cigarette with his finger, the tip
of which glows red like a cigarette lighter and looks down at
his three sons.
DAD (CONT'D)
My dad, your granddad, Lucifer, was
thrown out of Heaven by G-d and rules
here in hell for ten thousand years.
And after this ten thousand years had
passed, he decided to abdicate his
throne...
Confused, Nicky sheepishly raises his hand.
DAD (CONT'D)
...to step aside.
(Nicky lowers his hand)
...and let me become the ruler of hell.
This, as some of you might know, is my
ten thousandth year as Prince of
Darkness. So I think the time has come
to discuss who will succeed me.
Jimmy the Demon walks in.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Knock, knock.
DAD
Yes, Jimmy.
He whispers in Dad's ear.
DAD (CONT'D)
No, no, that's not what I said. He can
keep his thumbs, but the fingers gotta
go.
JIMMY THE DEMON
(turning to leave)
Oh, and don't forget, you're shoving a
pineapple up Hitler's ass at four
o'clock.
Dad nods, and Jimmy shuffles out. Dad turns his attention
back to his sons.
DAD
This was a very difficult decision,
because I have three wonderful sons. I
mean, Adrian, so smart, so ruthless.
And Cassius, so strong, so tough. And
Nicky, so...so...
NICKY
Don't worry about coming up with
anything. It's cool.
DAD
Such a sweet boy. But after much
thought and careful consideration, I've
decided that the ruler for the next ten
thousand years is going to have to
be...me.
CASSIUS AND ADRIAN
(dumbfounded)
What!?
NICKY
Hallelujah.
They all look at Nicky.
NICKY (CONT'D)
I mean...tough break.
DAD
The important thing for the stability of
our rule is to maintain the balance
between good and evil. And I don't
think any of you are ready for that
responsibility yet. You need the wisdom
that comes only with the passage of
time.
CASSIUS
Dad! This is Hoyashit.
Dad glares. Cassius goes FLYING BACK. One of the Human
Dartboards laughs. Cassius whips a dart and hits him in the
tongue. Jimmy enters and points at his watch.
DAD
Right. Right. Send him in.
(to the boys)
I'm sorry, boys. I've got to get back
to work.
Nicky, Cassius and Adrian start filing out. Adrian stops.
ADRIAN
You sure about this decision, Dad?
DAD
I'm telling you, pal, it's the right
thing to do.
HITLER (in a French maid's outfit), is being brought in by
Jimmy. They head towards the closet.
Inside the closet is a crate of pineapples. Hitler picks out
a relatively small one. Dad shakes his head "no." Dad walks
over to the closet. Hitler picks out a really big pineapple.
Dad nods "yes." Hitler sadly hands it to Dad. Jimmy bends
Hitler over and as Dad raises the fruit...
CLOSE ON HITLER'S EYES
As the pineapple's jammed up his ass.
HITLER
Holy schnit!!
EXT. HIGHWAY TO HELL - DAY
Cassius and Adrian are standing by the road still flowing
with souls. Both are pissed. There's a big, ugly, Bigfoot
looking MONSTER hanging out with them, kind of nodding along.
CASSIUS
You work your ass off for ten thousand
years, hurting people, helping others
hurt people, then you get a decision
like that.
ADRIAN
And he's dead serious.
CASSIUS
It's just such a slap in the face.
Adrian turns to the Monster.
ADRIAN
Um, excuse me, we're having a private
conversation here.
CASSIUS
Yeah, get out of here! Beat it!
Cassius insanely snaps his fingers in the Monster's face.
The Monster shrugs and walks off.
ADRIAN
Twenty-thousand years ago, Grandpa
Lucifer said, "It is better to rule in
hell than serve in heaven." Well, I'm
getting tired of serving in Hell. We
need a place where we can rule.
Cassius throws a rock at the Monster. He yelps, then turns
around, motioning like he's thinking about coming back.
Cassius sees this and gets enraged.
CASSIUS
Oh you wanna be a big man? Bring it
on!! Let's see what you got!
The Monster, upon further reflection, throws his hands up in
an "aw phooey" gesture and continues walking away.
CASSIUS (CONT'D)
That's what I thought!
ADRIAN
(to Cassius)
Could you concentrate for five seconds?
CASSIUS
I am concentrating. Where can we rule?
ADRIAN
What do you think about...Earth?
Cassius seems to think this isn't a bad idea.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
We could create our own hell there.
CASSIUS
You saying we go up there and kill
everyone?
ADRIAN
Eventually, Cassius. But first we
corrupt as many as we can so that when
we do destroy them...
CASSIUS
...their damned souls will be ours.
ADRIAN
It's our time, brother.
The two look at each other. They start running toward the
fire wall. Knocking souls out of their way.
GATEKEEPER
Hey, what are you doing?!?
They get closer to the fire.
GATEKEEPER (CONT'D)
You can't go through there. The fire
flows in, not out.
They dive through the fire wall. It FREEZES.
GATEKEEPER (CONT'D)
You know something? You guys suck! You
really suck!
Sirens go off. Dogs start barking. Lights flash. And we
hear the sound of DAMNED SOULS hitting the back of the
firewall hard.
INT. THRONE ROOM - SHORTLY AFTER
Dad and Nicky are listening to one of Nicky's metal mix
tapes. We hear the end of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."
Pause. Dad exhales.
DAD
Now that was an experience. "You are
only coming through in waves." That
line blows my mind every time.
NICKY
Definitely.
DAD
I don't care what kind of mood you're in
at the start of that song. When it's
over, that mood has been altered. Wow.
Great shit. What's next?
NICKY
Well, I thought that after messing with
your head, I'd give you a little kick in
the keester.
Hits the tape player. "Enter Sandman" blasts.
DAD
Who is this, Metal-lick-a?
NICKY
Metallica, Dad. Come on.
DAD
I was just playing with you.
Dad and Nicky dance to the song.
INT. THRONE ROOM - LATER
CLOSE ON DAD.
DAD
I'm sorry. After careful consideration,
I regretfully have to decline.
ON PERSON HE'S TALKING TO: DAN MARINO.
DAN
C'mon, man, I'm just asking for one
Superbowl ring.
DAD
In exchange for eternal damnation of
your soul? You're too nice of a guy for
me to want to do that to you, Mr.
Marino.
DAN
You did it for Namath.
DAD
Yeah, but Joe was coming here anyways.
Just go back to Earth and enjoy your
records and the Hall of Fame and the
beautiful family and all that.
DAN
This is bullshit, man.
(gets up to leave)
I'm gonna win the Superbowl this year,
with or without you!
DAD
Now you're talking.
Dan exits.
NICKY
You're a good devil, Dad.
DAD
And I also happen to be a Jets fan.
Nicky and Dad share a laugh which is interrupted by faint
sirens. The Gatekeeper enters in a hurry and falls to his
knees.
GATEKEEPER
Your highness, Cassius and Adrian have
escaped from hell. They went through
the fire, and they broke it. I think
they took the New York tunnel. I tried
to stop them, but they overpowered me,
sir.
DAD
Oh, boy. Oh boy. Calm down. Get off
your knees.
The Gatekeeper stands up.
GATEKEEPER
Thanks for being so understanding, your
worship. You're the man. You've always
been the man.
Dad's EYES GLOW RED as the Gatekeeper stands up. Two huge
boobs grow out of either side of the Gatekeeper's head. We
only see them from the front for a second.
From behind the gatekeeper, we see the boobs but not the
nipples as he talks to Nicky.
GATEKEEPER (CONT'D)
(to Nicky)
I'm lucky to get away with just the head
boobs, right?
NICKY
Coulda been much worse.
GATEKEEPER
That's what I'm thinkin'...
Dad is staring off. He looks shaken.
DAD
This is bad, Nicky.
NICKY
How bad?
DAD
I'm gonna die, Nicky. If the gates are
broken, no new souls can get in, which
means I'll start to deteriorate into
nothing.
GRANDPA LUCIFER enters.
LUCIFER
What's with all the whoo-whoo noises?
DAD
Everything's fine, pop.
LUCIFER
Last time you said that the renaissance
happened.
DAD
Please, pop, just go back to your room.
LUCIFER
(regarding gateskeeper)
Can I take him with me and have sex with
his head?
DAD
Sure, pop. Whatever you want.
The gatekeeper walks towards Lucifer.
GATEKEEPER
Oh, this is gonna be a whole new
lifestyle for me, isn't it.
EXT. GATES OF HELL - SHORTLY AFTER
We see the coals are cooling down on the road and the DAMNED
SOULS in hell are sneaking off.
The DEMONS are baffled and don't quite know what to do.
Dad, Jimmy and Nicky walk to the frozen fire.
DAMNED SOULS (O.S.)
What's going on? Where are we?
We keep HEARING people hit behind the frozen fire with loud
thuds.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Nothing's getting through that. The
fire is solid as a rock.
NICKY
We gotta get this bad boy burning again.
Ideas?
DAD
To do that Cassius and Adrian have to
come back through the other way.
NICKY
So go get 'em, Dad!
DAD
I'm too weak. The process has already
begun.
Dad holds up his hand. His pink is hanging by a thread. We
see the bigfoot MONSTER grunt disgusted by the sight.
NICKY
So go get 'em, Jimmy!
JIMMY THE DEMON
I'm just a demon, Nicky. I don't got
devil blood in me. I'd last two minutes
up there with your brothers.
NICKY
You're not saying it's up to me?
The MONSTER puts his hands over his eyes shaking his head as
if to say, "oh no."
NICKY (CONT'D)
I've never been to Earth. I've never
even slept over at some other dude's
house!
JIMMY THE DEMON
You're the spawn of Satan. You got it
in you.
DAD
Nicky, the worst thing that could happen
on Earth is you get killed, in which
case, boom, you end up back here.
NICKY
Are you telling me I have to go to Earth
and kill my brothers?
JIMMY THE DEMON
Not go. They left together at the exact
same time. They gotta come back
together at the exact same time.
Dad takes an ornate flask from his robe.
DAD
Here. Get them drunk from this. One
sip and they'll be trapped inside. Once
you've got both of them, you bring the
flask back through the gate.
Dad's pinky is hanging. Jimmy pulls it off and examines it.
The Monster gags.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Your ol' man's got less than a week.
Nicky looks petrified.
NICKY
No. This can't be happening.
DAD
Son, just do your best.
Nicky looks teary eyed. The moment is broken by the Monster,
who runs in and pushes Nicky through the fire.
Nicky goes through the solid fire wall. PAUSE. The Monster
taps his own wrist and looks at Dad as if to say, "gotta get
a move on."
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION PLATFORM - DAY
A SIGN: 42ND ST. GRAND CENTRAL
PAN DOWN to the darkened bowels of the old station, between
two tracks, to a putrid puddle. Nicky breaks through the
surface, sputtering. We hear a rumbling in the near
distance.
NICKY
Okay. Earth. The Blue Marble. This
doesn't look too bad.
Nicky sees a fast approaching light, furrows his brow and
WHAMMM!
EXT. GATES OF HELL - MOMENTS LATER
Nicky comes shooting through the solid fire wall and lands in
the coal pit. His Dad limps back to him.
JIMMY THE DEMON
You were gone ten seconds. What
happened?
NICKY
I got hit by a big light that was
attached to a lot of metal.
DAD
That's a train, son. Don't stand in
front of them.
NICKY
Well, I guess I'm going to have to take
a mulligan on this one.
DAD
Please, Nicky, get back up there.
(his ear falls off)
Try to hurry.
Nicky climbs up and heads back toward the fire wall.
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION PLATFORM - DAY
Nicky makes it back through the hole. Looks both ways and
hops out of the hole. He carefully crosses the tracks and is
stopped by the sight of a bulldog, BEEFY, on the other side.
In his mouth is one of those signs car service drivers use to
identify their passengers at the airport. On the sign is
scrawled "NICKY."
Nicky and Beefy stare at each other a beat.
NICKY
I'm Nicky.
Beefy drops the sign from his mouth.
BEEFY
(voice of Sandy Wernick)
Hey, terrific!! Now get off the track
and come with me, shitstains.
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - PAVILLION - DAY
The throng of commuters making their way through the terminal
are giving a wide berth to the filthy man who's looking
around suspiciously, talking to the dog.
BEEFY
My name's Beefy. I'm an old friend of
your father's. He's asked me to help
you out.
NICKY
I just need to find my brothers and be
on my way, Beefy.
BEEFY
It's not gonna be easy. Your brothers
can possess people. So they probably
won't look like themselves. You have to
be suspicious of everyone.
Nicky looks at Beefy warily for a beat.
NICKY
Okay, "bro," this jig is up...
(pulling out the flask)
Just get in the bottle. Just slide
right on in there.
BEEFY
It's not me, moron.
NICKY
Oh. Sorry.
EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY
A BLIND PREACHER rants outside the entrance. People put
money in his pot.
PREACHER
Oh how the Lord loves you. All his
children.
(passerby puts in money)
He thanks you for your kindness.
(another woman puts in money)
God bless, Ma'am. The Lord loves you...
The Lord loves you...
We see Nicky and Beefy walk up from behind. The PREACHER
sniffs.
PREACHER (CONT'D)
The Lord does not love you. I
sense...pure evil.
(thrusts his cross in Nicky's
face)
You make the Lord very nervous.
(feeling hot)
I'm burning...ahhh.
(running away)
The Devil walks among us!
He runs off screaming, wildly bumping into people.
PREACHER (CONT'D)
Oh Lord, save us from Hell's beast!
He gets off course and runs right into a subway entrance. He
disappears. Beefy turns to Nicky.
BEEFY
Makin' friends already.
NICKY
(shivering a little)
It's freezing up here, Beefy.
BEEFY
You're on Earth now, kid. Gonna have
the same physical needs and limitations
a human has. We'll stop by K-mart. Get
you some warm clothes.
NICKY
I also have this odd pain in my mid
section. Kind of a hollow feeling...
BEEFY
That pain is hunger.
EXT. BENCH - DAY
K-mart bag is next to a bench. PAN UP to see Nicky wearing
an extra warm SKI OUTFIT. Sitting next to him on the bench
is Beefy. Between them is a big bucket of POPEYE'S FRIED
CHICKEN. Nicky takes out a drumstick.
NICKY
So far, so good. Now what?
BEEFY
Put it in your mouth.
Nicky puts it in his mouth. Holds it there.
BEEFY (CONT'D)
Move your teeth up and down.
Nicky does. He chews for a long time.
BEEFY (CONT'D)
Now you gotta swallow it. Tilt your
head back and let the meat slide down
your throat-hole.
Nicky does. He gets a looks of complete joy on his face.
NICKY
Hey...Popeye's chicken is ass kickin'!
BEEFY
It sure is. Now eat it up. You're
gonna need your energy.
NICKY
I got energy up the ying-ying. Let's
get cracking!
NICKY stands with a drumstick and jogs off the curb right
into the path of a moving bus.
INT. GATES OF HELL - MOMENTS LATER
The Monster is rubbing the gatekeeper's boobs. The
gatekeeper is wearing a modified bra. He seems to be
enjoying it. We hear a THUD. They look down to see Nicky on
the ground. (We didn't see him flying through this time.)
The Monster and Gatekeeper immediately stop. Kind of
embarrassed.
GATEKEEPER
Hey.
NICKY
That's a pretty brassiere.
GATEKEEPER
Thanks.
NICKY
Could you maybe not tell anyone about
this?
GATEKEEPER
You got it. Could you maybe not tell
anyone about this?
NICKY
You got it.
Nicky turns and walks toward the firewall. As soon as his
back is turned, the monster pantomimes to the Gatekeeper, "I
love your boobs." The Gatekeeper gives a flirtatious laugh
(we don't see him morph back through the wall here.).
EXT. VILLAGE STREET - DAY
Beefy is walking with him down the street. Nicky is crazy
cautious.
NICKY
From now on. I'm just going to avoid
all moving metal objects.
BEEFY
Great. Now your father gave me some
deposit money for a nice pad on the
Upper East Side. But I misplaced it.
FLASHBACK DISSOLVE TO:
INT. STRIP CLUB - NIGHT
Beefy is sitting on a bench/booth at a strip club. Champagne
is on the table. Bills in his mouth. We see THREE DANCERS
dancing for him.
FLASHBACK DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. VILLAGE STREET
Nicky and Beefy.
BEEFY
So I found this other joint for you.
But you're gonna have a roommate.
INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT
A scruffy, thirtyish buy, TODD (Allen Covert), is on the
phone in his small, bohemian apartment in the Village.
TODD
(on phone)
I know exactly how you feel... The night
Reagan was elected, I said to my mother,
"Is this man going to blow up the world,
Mommy?" Then we both cried for like an
hour.
(knock at the door)
Somebody's here. Call you later.
Todd gets up and opens the door. It's Nicky, with Beefy by
his side. Nicky is nervous, and his speech sounds practiced.
NICKY
Hello, friend, my name is Nicky. I
understand you're seeking a roommate, as
per your advertisement in the Village
Voice. Would it be possible for me to
fill the slot?
TODD
Uh, don't you want to know what the rent
is?
Nicky looks down at Beefy. Beefy looks up at Nicky. Both
nod imperceptibly.
NICKY
Yes. What is rent?
TODD
Eight-hundred, split down the middle.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I rehearse with
my scene partner so the living room will
be off limits.
NICKY
Off limits.
TODD
Right. And as far as household items:
we can share the soap, but we'll split
the cost 60/40.
Cause the person who physically goes out
and buys the soap shouldn't have to pay
as much as the other guy.
(looks at Nicky)
Aren't you boiling in that outfit?
NICKY
No.
TODD
It's like eighty degrees in this
hallway. You from the South?
NICKY
Yeah. The deep South.
Nicky laughs a little too hard.
TODD
Why is that funny?
NICKY
I don't know.
TODD
And sorry, man, but no dogs allowed.
Todd turns and goes into the apartment.
BEEFY
You'll be alright. Go on. Big day
tomorrow. Don't forget to do that sleep
thing I told you about.
NICKY
Got ya.
(to Todd)
Is it okay if I do the sleep thing?
TODD
Yeah, your bedroom is right over there.
The door closes. Beefy looks down at the welcome mat. It
reads: I "heart" METHOD ACTING. Beefy raises his leg over
it.
INT. NICKY'S ROOM
Nicky is sleeping on top of the hissing radiator, fully
clothed. When he inhales through his nose, we hear that
familiar snoring/snorting sound. But when he exhales, we
hear disturbing "speaking-in-tongues", Exorcist-style voices.
SLOW PAN across the room to the doorway where Todd stands,
looking concerned.
EXT. CATHEDRAL - MORNING
We HEAR the bells toll. We see the beautiful exterior of a
large church.
INT. CATHEDRAL
CLOSE ON an ELDERLY, kind looking CARDINAL. He ascends the
steps to the pulpit and looks out on his large congregation.
We see that TV cameras are covering the SUNDAY service. He
gins his homily.
CARDINAL
In today's gospel, the Lord tells us who
we are to live if we wish to attain the
splendor of Heaven... or something like
that. Jesus sure says a lot of stuff in
the Bible. Moses this. Moses that.
Abraham hit me with a whiffle ball bat.
The crowd stares dumbfounded. We see that the Cardinal is
standing on a steaming hot pizza which is still in the box
with the top open.
CARDINAL (CONT'D)
Yep, the Lord sure did say a bunch of
hibbity-jibbity. But has he ever really
done anything for us? Has he ever put a
Jaguar XJR in my driveway? Has he ever
given any of my enemies the herpes? No.
He hasn't done a damn thing for any of
us.
A MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN stands up.
MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN
The Lord gave my son the strength to get
off drugs.
CARDINAL
Ma'am, I know your son, and believe me,
he was better off on drugs. He's a
bore. At least when he was smoking
hashish, he made me laugh occasionally.
A YOUNG MAN and his PREGNANT WIFE stand up.
YOUNG MAN
After we tried for many years, the Lord
finally helped my wife conceive a baby.
CARDINAL
No, your best friend Fitzie helped your
wife conceive a baby. He helped her
conceive it all night long.
Fitzie, who's sitting on the other side of the Wife, starts
to "raise the roof." Then thinks better of it. The Cardinal
points to a well-dressed man in the front pew.
CARDINAL (CONT'D)
How about you, Mr. Mayor? The Lord ever
do anything for you?
The Mayor has tinfoil on his feet.
MAYOR
(standing)
Well, I wish I could think of something,
Cardinal, but to be honest with you, I
can't. Kind of makes you wonder if
there even is a Lord. If there is any
ultimate punishment for our so-called
"sins." Maybe we should all just have
fun and do whatever the hell we want.
A hubbub is raised by the crowd. Fitzie raises the roof
again, this time energetically.
CARDINAL
Amen to that. Let the sin begin!
The hubbub grows to a roar. Several PEOPLE start fighting
over the money in the collection plate.
The Cardinal smiles knowingly at the Mayor. We hear the
Cardinal's thoughts - in Adrian's voice.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
Oh, this is delicious.
ON MAYOR
He's smirking. WE HEAR his telepathic response.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
(laughing)
"Let the sin begins" - that was a good
one.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
Well, we must get people sinning if we
want to fill up our New Hell. How are
things going down at City Hall?
CASSIUS (O.S.)
I lowered the drinking age to ten.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
Brilliant. This is so much fun. I
never want it to end.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
Why should it end? Who's gonna stop us?
The Mayor/Cassius laughs. As he does, his eyes slowly cross.
EXT. STREET - DAY
Beefy is taking a dump on the sidewalk. PAN OVER TO:
Nicky, his pants around his ankles. He's trying to do the
same.
NICKY
This is intense! And it happens every
day? Sometimes twice? I gotta tip my
hat to you people!
BEEFY
Look, it's okay for me to shit the
street. But you gotta use a toilet.
NICKY
(pulling up pants)
Okay, just point me in the right
direction next time.
BEEFY
Come on, there's like ten million people
in this city and the clock is ticking.
NICKY
Well, let's rock and roll.
Nicky looks at the next person walking by. It's a CHINESE
DELIVERY GUY on a bicycle. Nicky clotheslines him, taking
him off the bike in a sleeperhold/headlock.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Get in the bottle. Dad's falling apart.
You froze the gate and you're killing
him. Drink!
Nicky puts the flask to the Chinese Guy's lips.
CHINESE DELIVERY GUY
I'm not thirsty! I'm not thirsty!
NICKY
just get in the flask!
The Chinese Guy breaks loose, gives Nicky a roundhouse kick
to the head and runs away. Nicky gets up.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Adrian and Cassius! You think a kick to
the head is gonna make me throw in the
towel? Well, in the immortal words of
Judas Priest, "You got another thing
comin'."
Beefy shakes his dog head and sighs as we see Nicky hold the
bottle up to a few more PEDESTRIANS.
EXT. STREET - DAY
Nicky approaches various people as they pass. (To be shot
long lense, real people, real reactions.)
INT. POPEYE'S - DAY
Nicky gets to the front of the line and tries to get the
Cashier to drink. The Cashier yanks his head away and gives
Nicky a dirty look. Nicky shrugs and points to the menu,
ordering some chicken.
EXT. STREET - DAY
nicky walks up to a homeless man. He thrusts the bottle in
his face. To Nicky's surprise, the homeless man gladly takes
it and drinks. Nothing happens. Nicky is baffled. He tries
to take the flask back, but the man won't let go. Finally he
grabs it away from him. The man starts throwing garbage at
Nicky as he walks away.
INT. CENTRAL PARK ZOO - DAY
Beefy is looking around for Nicky. He spots him - inside the
polar bear cage. Nicky approaches the bear holding the
flask.
INT. HELL - MOMENTS LATER
Nicky shoots through the firewall, having been killed again.
The Gatekeeper is wearing tassels on his boobs.
GATEKEEPER
Bus?
NICKY
Beast.
The Monster laughs.
GATEKEEPER
(to Monster)
You like that? You think that's funny?
The Gatekeeper swirls his tassels.
GATEKEEPER (CONT'D)
How about that? You like that?
The Monster howls with delight.
EXT. CENTRAL PARK - DAY
Nicky sits on the rocks, beaten and exhausted, eating a
Popeye's drumstick.
NICKY
All that running and chasing is making
the sleep thing want to come early.
BEEFY
I think we have to work on narrowing
down our list of suspects. Now I'm
going to go check in with some of my
contacts uptown.
Beefy hears Nicky's strange terrible snores. He's asleep.
Beefy sighs.
BEEFY (CONT'D)
Kid's got a lot of evil in him, just
begging to come out...
Beefy walks away.
EXT. VARIOUS CENTRAL PARK LOCATIONS - DAY
Nicky snores. Masses of birds fly out of the trees. Nicky
snores. Squirrels run out of trees. Nicky snores.
ON WORRIED PEOPLE
Staring at Nicky who continues to snore. Two HEAVY-METAL
GUYS, JOHN AND PETER, are listening to Danzig and doing a
goofy dance. They hear something and turn the music down:
it's the distant sound of Nicky's snore.
PETER
Sounds like our devil dance actually
worked this time.
JOHN
'Bout time...
Nicky snores. It sounds like "I will eat your hearts." The
worried people run away. Nicky snores. Children on the
Carousel, going real fast, upset. Nicky snores.
Peter and John walk over to a position near Nicky's bench.
JOHN (CONT'D)
There's our man.
PETER
Mr. Sleepyhead must have some major ties
to the dark side.
A sleazy STREET VENDOR shuffles over towards Nicky. He eyes
the flask which is half hanging out of Nicky's pocket.
JOHN
What's with that guy?
PETER
Gotta be one of his disciples or
something.
Suddenly, the Vendor grabs the flask (and Nicky's half-eaten
drumstick) and runs off.
JOHN
Yo, man, I think that devil guy just got
ripped off.
PETER
Should we wake him up?
JOHN
Yeah. You do it.
Peter gets up and shakes Nicky who comes to with a loud
SNORT.
PETER
Rise and shine, devil guy. Some dude
just stole your shit.
Nicky feels for the flask. It's gone.
NICKY
Oh nooooo....
Fire shoots out of Nicky's mouth.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Which way did he go?
JOHN
That way.
Nicky is about to run off. Looks at John's shirt.
NICKY
Iron Maiden live double disc is simply
phenomenal.
He runs off.
PETER
Did you check out the dragon mouth?
JOHN
The Dark Prince is here.
EXT. SIDE STREET - DAY
Nicky is searching the street for his flask. He walks past
several STREET VENDORS who have set up their wares on the
sidewalk. PAUSE. Nicky comes walking back into frame as he
sees his flask (and half-eaten drumstick) laying on the
blanket of the VENDOR.
NICKY
Hey...
STREET VENDOR
See something you like, my man?
NICKY
Yes. I would like my flask back.
The street vendor stands, very angry.
STREET VENDOR
You callin' me a thief, my man?
NICKY
No, I'm just calling you... a guy who
has my flask.
STREET VENDOR
And if that is your so-called "flask,"
how would I have it unless I was, in
fact, a thief?
NICKY
(not sure what the answer is)
I don't know?
A YUPPIE JOGGER is checking out the flask.
MAN
Yeah, how much for the silver flask
there?
STREET VENDOR
Well, that's a very special item. The
cap itself is one hundred percent
plappium. It's a value is over three
thousand dollars.
MAN
Really. Where's it from?
NICKY
It was handcrafted in hell by Satan
himself and is only to be used for the
capture and containment of my blood
brothers so that the firefall of Hades
will burn brightly once again.
MAN
Really. I think we'll let you keep it
then.
He walks away.
STREET VENDOR
Okay, now you gone and done it. You
done messed with my business bitch!
NICKY
Sir, I would prefer if you didn't raise
your voice. It's making my muscles
tighten.
We see that Nicky's eyes are starting to glow red.
STREET VENDOR
Oh, you gonna go all crazy eyes on me?
I'll show you some crazy eyes. Let's
get busy.
The vendor makes an even crazier face at Nicky and starts
swinging his fists around.
Nearby, VALERIE, an unsure, sweetly unstylish young woman, is
selling clothes off a spread out blanket. She notices what's
going on.
Nicky's eyes widen in panic. Just then, Valerie steps in.
VALERIE
Excuse me, does that flask belong to
this man?
STREET VENDOR
(frustrated)
Now you callin' me a thief? Damn.
VALERIE
Look, I know you come out here and sell
stolen stuff all the time. But today,
the guy you stole from just happened to
walk by and bust you. So why don't you
admit today's not your day and give him
his flask back?
STREET VENDOR
Or what're you gonna do about it? Ugly
me to death?
VALERIE
No, but maybe that cop over there might
have something to say.
Valerie points to a cop across the street. The Street Vendor
ponders this for a second, then...
STREET VENDOR
Aw, take your dumb-ass canteen, goofy.
(looking at Valerie)
And you, take your raggedy-ass clothes
and find a new corner. Before I show
you what real crazy is.
The vendor does crazy eyes again.
VALERIE
Fine. I will.
Nicky picks up the flask and the drumstick.
NICKY
Hey, mister. I'll be seeing you in a
few years.
Valerie gathers her blanket, starts walking away and Nicky
follows her.
NICKY (CONT'D)
That was amazing. Thanks so much. You
didn't have to do that.
VALERIE
That's okay. I get messed with all the
time and when I saw him doing that to
you I just lost it. I hate when people
take advantage of tourists. It ruins it
for the rest of us.
NICKY
You think I'm a tourist?
VALERIE
I'm sorry. I just assumed. Your accent
maybe. Where are you from?
NICKY
The South.
VALERIE
Really?
NICKY
Yeah. Deep south.
(laughs hard)
She laughs along with him, not sure why.
VALERIE
Why are you laughing?
NICKY
I don't know, but I like it. Say. Your
glasses are nice. They make your eyes
look sparkly and big. It's fun to look
at them.
VALERIE
My dad's an optometrist.
NICKY
My dad's in hell, and he's falling
apart.
VALERIE
I'm sorry. It's really tough when your
parents get older.
NICKY
If I don't save him, I don't know what
I'm gonna do.
VALERIE
Well, I'm sure a nice southern boy like
you will figure something out.
Nicky is experiencing new sensations as he looks at her. He
hands her the half-eaten drumstick.
NICKY
Here, have a Popeye's. This drumstick
ain't for beatin' it's for eatin'.
VALERIE
That's alright. I already ate lunch. I
actually wouldn't mind getting a Gelati.
NICKY
Could I come with you to getting a
Gelati?
VALERIE
If you want to.
NICKY
Want to? A million angry octopus people
couldn't hold me back!
VALERIE
"Octopus people?"
NICKY
Uh, it's a deep south expression.
Nicky laughs.
EXT. STREET - MOMENTS LATER
They exit the ice cream store, eating Gelati.
NICKY
It's freezing my hands.
VALERIE
It's not that cold. Here, let me wrap
it.
Valerie takes a few napkins and wraps it for Nicky. Just
then the PREACHER walks by. He quickly turns his head,
sensing Nicky.
PREACHER
Why do you taunt me with your darkness?!
Your evil is stinking up our streets!
We're all gonna die!
He takes off running right into a lamp post.
VALERIE
This town is really going to hell
lately.
(Nicky nods)
So what part of the city do you live in?
NICKY
I have an apartment. I don't remember
exactly where. My dog knows, though.
VALERIE
(laughs)
You have a dog? What kind?
NICKY
I'm not sure. I'd ask him, but he's
uptown talking to his contacts.
EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET - DAY
Beefy is screwing a female dog from behind.
BEEFY
Remember, it's not the size of the boat,
it's the motion of the ocean.
GIRL DOG
Just finish.
EXT. STREET - VALERIE & NICKY CONTINUOUS - DAY
VALERIE
I'd love to have a dog. But I go to
school full time. It wouldn't be fair
to the dog.
NICKY
School?
VALERIE
Parsons School of Design. I knew
growing up I wasn't much to look at, so
I put my energy into making things that
are pretty.
NICKY
What's that pleasant smell coming from,
your skin?
VALERIE
My perfume?
He takes her wrist to his nose. He stares at it, licks it.
VALERIE (CONT'D)
(laughs)
It's called "Comptoir Sud Pacific."
Which I think is the French word for
coconuts.
Nicky stops and looks at her.
NICKY
Valerie, it feels like there's a bunch
of butterflies flapping around in my
stomach. Is that normal?
VALERIE
Sometimes, sure.
NICKY
Good. I was concerned.
EXT. GATES OF HELL - DAY
The Gatekeeper is near the frozen fall. We hear loud
wailing, moaning, etc., coming from the other side.
GATEKEEPER
Doesn't sound very good behind there. I
hope Nicky's kicking some ass on Earth.
The Monster is smoking a cigarette and wearing a leather
biker's hat. He nods along in agreement.
PAN TO LUCIFER
Who's sitting over by a rock fishing in a small pool of
fire/pond.
LUCIFER
You know, I was the one who created
Hell.
GATEKEEPER
I know, your wickedness.
LUCIFER
I started slow, though. For years, I
was just giving people hot foots.
Actually, you can give all the credit
for Hell to my first wife; she was the
inspiration. She was an ugly one, too.
One day, she asked me if I wanted super
sex. I said I'll take the soup.
The Monster laughs really hard.
LUCIFER (CONT'D)
Take it easy there, Chewbacca. In fact,
you look like her mother, except she had
more hair.
The Monster laughs even harder.
LUCIFER (CONT'D)
You know what was in Hell when I came
down here, Cassius?
GATEKEEPER
It's Stanley, sir.
LUCIFER
Nothing. No mountains. No castles.
Looked like a giant parking lot. It
wasn't even called Hell.
GATEKEEPER
What was it called, sir.
LUCIFER
Boogerland!
GATEKEEPER
That's nice, Grandpa. Why don't you
just enjoy the fishing?
LUCIFER
I can't enjoy anything. I go fishing.
I catch nothing. I go to orgies, I
catch everything...
We hear the Monster laughing again as we PAN DOWN Grandpa's
fishing line to:
EXT. UNDERWATER - DAY
We SEE a MINIATURE PEEPER squirming on the fish hook. A
giant fanged fish engulfs the Peeper's body. Only his head
is sticking out.
PEEPER
I deserve this!
EXT. BAR - DOWN THE STREET - DAY
Several ELEVEN YEAR-OLDS stumble out, drunk.
KID
I just stole twenty-five bucks off the
bar.
KID #2
How many beers did you have?
KID # 3
Eight sips.
KID
I had five! I'm so wasted.
They both high five, throw up and fall. PAN over to ADRIAN
sitting on top of a mailbox laughing as he sips from a bottle
of PEPPERMINT SCHNAPPS.
ADRIAN
When an adult goes to Hell, that's
terrific. But when a child goes...
that's why I'm in this business.
Adrian looks across the street and sees Nicky walking with
Valerie. He's shocked.
Valerie is holding up a pair of drawstring pants from her
collection.
NICKY
So you're saying, make all pants with a
drawstring, then heavier set gals don't
have to feel humiliated by telling their
waist size in front of the whole store?
VALERIE
Basically, yeah.
NICKY
Wow. Maybe you should make drawstring
socks for gals with fat ankles.
Valerie laughs.
VALERIE
You know what's nice about you? You
just seem happy being yourself. You
don't try to act cool.
NICKY
Thanks much. You know what's nice about
you, Valerie?
VALERIE
What?
Up the street, Adrian's eyes redden. NICKY looks like he's
been stunned by something.
NICKY
Your juicy, heart-shaped ass.
VALERIE
What was that?
NICKY
(shocked and confused)
I...I don't know why I just said that.
I meant to say that...
QUICK CUT TO:
Adrian's eyes flashing.
NICKY (CONT'D)
...I've always wanted to have sex with a
gross pig. What do you say we go behind
that dumpster, pull our pants down and
see what happens?
Valerie's very hurt.
VALERIE
You're a jerk.
She turns and walks away. Nicky looks over and sees Adrian.
His inner voice speaks to him.
NICKY (O.S.)
ADRIAN!
ADRIAN (O.S.)
You shouldn't have come here.
NICKY (O.S.)
Please, get out of my mind!
Adrian's eyes flash.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Hey, Valerie!
She stops and turns. Nicky RAISES his fist to resist
Adrian's force. It's too much. His middle finger comes up,
giving her the "finger."
VALERIE
What the hell's your problem?
She runs away crying. Nicky turns to Adrian who's still
across the street.
NICKY (O.S.)
Adrian, you gotta come back to Hell.
Dad's sick.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
He's sick?
NICKY (O.S.)
Yeah, he needs souls to live. When you
guys left, you broke the gates. We
gotta get the gates burning again before
he dies.
Adrian processes this.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
He should have thought of that before he
denied me my birthright.
NICKY (O.S.)
Well maybe you should go back and talk
it over with him.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
How about this? I stay here enjoying my
Schnapps and you go back.
Nicky's body jerks around.
NICKY (O.S.)
Adrian, please...
Nicky, fighting control over his body, walks slowly and
crazily into the middle of the street where he sees a large
truck bearing down on him.
JOHN and PETER get blood splattered on them. Peter looks
down to see the "666" forms in blood on their clothes.
PETER
Check this out. The number of the
beast.
They laugh and hi-five.
ON THE TV - DAY
INT. CBS EVENING NEWS PROGRAM
Dan Rather speaks to the camera. Over his shoulder we see a
graphic of the Arch-Decon's face. NOTE (Arch-Decon is a made
up religious figure that appeared earlier in the script.)
DAN RATHER
Reverberations from Arch-Decon
Donnelly's shocking speech are still
being felt throughout the city. Today,
some disgruntled cast members of the
play CATS broke the fourth wall in a
most hostile manner.
VIDEO FOOTAGE
A few CATS are down in the aisle physically pushing around
shocked audience members.
BACK ON DAN RATHER
DAN RATHER
...But even that does not come close to
what happened today on Live with Regis
and Kathy Lee.
VIDEO FOOTAGE
The set of Regis and Kathy Lee.
REGIS
So I was driving to work today, and some
bozo in a Cadillac cut me off...
KATHY LEE
Oh, that's terrible, Reege...
REGIS
So I followed him...
KATHY LEE
You followed him?
REGIS
I followed him all the way downtown, and
when he gets out of the car, I reach
under my seat and pull out an aluminum
bat.
KATHY LEE
You keep a bat under your seat?
REGIS
Recently, yes! So I run up behind this
guy, and start bashing his brains in
with this bat, and it made me feel
happy! Did you ever see THE
UNTOUCHABLES?
KATHY LEE
Yes, great movie...
REGIS
I was DeNiro!
The blue haired lady AUDIENCE is crying. The TV turns off.
We PULL BACK to see that we are in.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - DAY
Beefy turns to Nicky.
BEEFY
Your brothers are upsetting the balance
of good and evil.
NICKY
What can I do about it?
BEEFY
You can't do jack shit... unless you
learn your evil powers.
NICKY
Nobody's as evil as my brothers. Those
dudes put the wick in wicked.
BEEFY
Go get a soda out of the fridge.
NICKY
But those are my roommate's sodas...
BEEFY
(high-pitched mocking)
"But those are my roommate's sodas..."
Does that sound like a statement the son
of the devil would make?
Nicky, ashamed, gets a Coke out of the fridge and places it
on the coffee table. He and Beefy sit on the couch and stare
at the Coke.
BEEFY (CONT'D)
You have the power to change the cola in
that can into any other liquid - engine
oil, bat's blood, moose piss. You just
have to release the evil within you.
NICKY
Release the evil?
BEEFY
I'm just saying, there's wickedness in
you... I can tell from your snores.
Nicky stares at the can.
BEEFY (CONT'D)
Release your evil...
Nicky frowns and bites his lip. The can rattles a little.
TODD
What are you doing?
Todd is standing in the doorway. Beefy runs to the fire
escape.
*******************
TODD (CONT'D)
I know it's your living room night. But
can I finish watching the Globetrotters'
game out here? To me it's classic
Comedia Dellarte.
CUT TO:
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - MOMENTS LATER
The TV clicks on. We see TODD sit down and look at the TV.
Nicky's behind him.
ON TV
INT. BASKETBALL ARENA - DAY
BILL WALTON
What an odd game, folks. The powerhouse
85-0 Harlem Globetrotters, who normal
run circles around the 0-85 Nationals,
seem to be struggling to find their
groove in front of their hometown fans.
A Globetrotter makes a fancy pass to another player, who
makes a fancy pass to CORNROWS who starts doing some VINTAGE
GLOBETROTTERS FANCY DRIBBLING. The REF blows the whistle and
makes the travelling signal.
REF
He's walking, get him a bus!
BILL WALTON
Oh, another awful call. There is no way
that was travelling.
Ref takes ball from Cornrows, who gets in the Ref's face.
CORNROWS
What's with all these crazy calls? You
gotta watch that shit, we haven't lost a
game in 53 years.
REF
Technical foul!
Ref snaps just like Cassius in the players' face.
ON TODD AND NICKY
NICKY
That guy in the striped shirt snaps his
fingers like someone I know...
ON TV
The ref mind wrestles four globetrotters to simultaneously
slam their heads on the scorers table again and again.
ON TODD AND NICKY
NICKY (CONT'D)
It looks like the work of a brother...
TODD
A black guy?
NICKY
If it's Cassius, yes.
Nicky races for the door.
INT. BASKETBALL ARENA - DAY
As the ref taunts the crowd, a fan wearing a Globetrotter's
shirt yells out.
GLOBETROTTER FAN
Get your head out your ass, ref! The
kids came to see the Globetrotters win.
REF
Oh, so you wanna lip off to me?
Unsportsmanlike conduct on the big mouth
in the Globetrotter's shirt. Take ten
points off for the Globetrotters.
The Globetrotter's score on the board goes from 46 to 36.
ON STANDS
The KIDS are crying.
ON COURT
The halftime buzzer sounds. The Globetrotters walk off the
court. The crowd BOOS.
BILL WALTON
In all my years of basketball, I was
never so happy to hear a halftime
buzzer. Folk, I'm afraid if the second
half doesn't get any better, I expect a
full scale riot.
A spotlight points to an announcer at mid-court.
COURT ANNOUNCER
It's time for the Globetrotter's
halftime half-court heave throw, where
one lucky fan will have a shot at ten
thousand dollars!
A brick lands at the announcer's feet.
COURT ANNOUNCER (CONT'D)
And if he makes it, everyone in
attendance today will receive a free
pizza.
INT. ARENA TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS
MIGUEL, wearing a big basketball jersey, looks nervous. He
has a pass on.
MIGUEL
I ain't goin' out there and taking the
shot. These people have gone crazy.
NICKY
I'll take the shot.
INT. BASKETBALL ARENA STANDS - CONTINUOUS
As Nicky runs out on the court, Peter turns to John.
PETER
Look who's back from the dead.
JOHN
Six, six, six, pick up sticks.
They high-five. The only happy fans in their section.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS
Todd's baffled, looking at his roommate on TV. Beefy is
watching from the fire escape.
TODD
What's Nicky doing down there?
BEEFY
Trying to capture his brother in a flask
and preserve the balance of good and
evil on Earth.
Todd looks over, suspicious.
TODD
Did you just talk?
BEEFY
No.
INT. BASKETBALL ARENA - CONTINUOUS
The court announcer covers his mic and whispers to Nicky.
COURT ANNOUNCER
You better win these people some free
pizza. Looks like they're about to
start killing each other.
STANDS
A BUSINESSMAN pushes a very old SODA GUY down an aisle of
stairs.
COURTSIDE
The court announcer hands Nicky the ball. He looks at it.
NICKY
Release the evil.
His eyes get red. Staring at the ball, it explodes.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Okay, too much evil..
Bill Walton's hair is on fire.
BILL WALTON
I think that ball just blew up. And
yes, my hair is aflame.
NICKY
(turning to sideline)
Could I get another ball?
The court announcer throws out another ball. Nicky stares at
it again with red eyes.
NICKY (CONT'D)
I command you not to blow up and go into
that metal circle.
Nicky throws an underhand shot. The ball arcs through the
air and is about to go in when the ref comes out of nowhere
and swats it away.
REF
Get that crap outta here!
The crowd BOOS! Nicky and the ref stare at each other.
NICKY (O.S.)
I know you're having fun, Cassius, but
you gotta come back to Hell.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
Look around you, Nicky. We're in Hell.
The New Hell.
STANDS
We see FITZIE, sitting between TWO PREGNANT WOMEN, raising
the roof.
COURTSIDE
As the crowd BOOS, Nicky runs over and grabs the microphone.
NICKY
Listen up, New York. Your souls are in
great danger...
Nicky gets hit by a hot dog.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Alright, how about this? I get one more
shot. The ref will cover me. I miss
it, the Globetrotters forfeit the game.
I make it, he doesn't ref the second
half and we all start conducting
ourselves like decent human beings
again.
The crowd is silent.
NICKY (CONT'D)
And we get free pizza.
The crowd roars.
INT. ANNOUNCING BOOTH - CONTINUOUS
Bill Walton's hair is now burnt looking.
BILL WALTON
I think it's safe to say we're all
rooting for this bizarre and hideous
looking man.
Bill Walton reaches over to an old lady sitting near him. He
takes off her wig, leaving behind her bald head, and puts her
wig on his head in order to cover his burnt hair.
The crowd starts YELLING.
CROWD
Nicky! Nicky! Nicky!
STANDS
John and Peter are yelling the loudest.
COURTSIDE
The ref walks to half-court and hands Nicky the ball.
NICKY
You know, Dad got very sick when you
left.
REF
I heard. I'm glad he's dying. It's my
turn now.
Nicky's eyes get red, he starts dribbling.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS
Beefy is watching, transfixed.
BEEFY
Take him to the hole, Nicky.
(Todd stares)
I mean, woof! Woof!
Todd looks at Beefy, terrified.
INT. TUNNEL
We see CORNROWS and some other Globetrotters are coming back
from the locker room. They stop to watch.
INT. BASKETBALL COURT - MIDCOURT - CONTINUOUS
Nicky pushes the ball up the court while the ref plays
extremely tight defense. Nicky fakes one way, then heads
toward the basket. The ref stays tight. Nicky's eyes are
redder than ever. He fakes left, he fakes right. He
dribbles behind the back, dribbles between the legs, then
takes his momentum up toward the basket. He jumps from the
foul line and flies through the air. He emits a crazy, blood
curdling, devil yell.
CUT AWAY DURING DEVIL YELL TO:
SHOT CLOCK
It reads: 666.
Popcorn and sodas EXPLODE.
Cornrow's cornrows POP open into a GIANT AFRO.
BACK ON NICKY
Nicky's head starts turning and does a 360 (like the
Exorcist). He ends his flight by slamming down a thunderous
dunk, cracking the backboard's glass into pieces. He hits
the ref on the way down. The crowd CHEERS, finally happy
again.
NICKY
Never doubt my skills.
INT. TUNNEL - CONTINUOUS
CORNROWS
Damn, I gotta learn how to do that.
MID-COURT
Nicky sees the ref is lying on the basketball arena floor,
covered in glass. He gets up slowly
REF
That's nuts. When'd you learn that
shit?
NICKY
Sorry, Cassius. Maybe it was the super
devil juice Dad gave me. HE thought I
might need it for just such an occasion.
REGIS
Super devil juice? Give it over. Let's
go best two out of three.
NICKY
(pulls out the flask)
No. No way. Dad said it was only for
me.
The ref rips the flask from Nicky and drinks.
Cassius screams like bloody hell as he is sucked out of the
ref's mouth and into the bottle. WHOOSH! The ref slumps to
the floor.
STANDS
Still quiet until John and Peter rush to Nicky and bow.
COURTSIDE
Nicky peers into the flask.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
Damn you, Nicky! There ain't no super
devil juice in here!
Nicky caps the flask. Nicky waves to the stunned, but
appreciative crowd.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
A homemade cake is laid out. It reads: CONGRATULATIONS,
NICKY. JOHN, TODD, PETER AND BEEFY are there.
TODD
So your father's the devil, you're a
talking dog sent from Hell, and you guys
are who?
PEEPER
Just a couple of big fans of Nicky and
the work his Dad does.
JOHN
By the way, Nicky. Check this out.
He spins his Black Sabbath backwards.
JOHN (CONT'D)
What's Ozzy trying to say there?
NICKY
Absolutely nothing. The Blizzard always
came straight with his messages. But
wrap your minds around this one.
Nicky gets up and we see his is sitting on a hibachi. He pus
on a James Taylor album and plays it backwards.
VOICE
I command you in the name of the Lucifer
to spread the blood of the innocent.
John and Peter look at each other, shocked.
JOHN
No wonder your uncle's so weird...
TODD
I gotta say this cake tastes a little
funny.
PETER
Oh, I dumped a fat sack of reefer in the
mix. Tried to spice up the bash.
Nicky takes a big bite of cake.
NICKY
What's reefer?
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. APARTMENT - LATER
PAN UP from Popeye's laying everywhere. Everyone's laughing
hard.
JOHN
Come on. One more time.
NICKY
Not again, fellas. It kind of hurts.
PETER
Please. You got to.
NICKY
(resigned)
All right...
Nicky loosens up his neck and makes his head go around 360
degrees. Everyone cracks up, high fives. Even Todd LAUGHS.
PAN OVER to Beefy, who has bloodshot eyes.
BEEFY
I used to get baked like this with my
first girlfriend, Heather. We'd get so
stoned she would forget I was a dog.
JOHN
She was human?
BEEFY
Actually, she was a sewer rat. Man,
that pissed my parents off.
JOHN
I dated a Japanese girl once. My
parents disapproved. Not cause she's
Japanese, but cause she was only
fifteen.
NICKY
I'm only fifteen...thousand years old.
Everyone cracks up.
TODD
I was in love one time but she said I
wasn't financially reliable enough. And
she needed that.
JOHN
By she, do you mean he?
TODD
No.
BEEFY
Busted.
(laughs)
PETER
How you feelin' over there, Satan Abdul
Jabar?
NICKY
A little strange. I can't stop thinking
about this girl, Valerie.
TODD
Why? Did she hurt you? Do you miss
her? Need a shoulder to cry on?
JOHN
Easy, Liberace.
TODD
Oh, would you grow up.
NICKY
We had the greatest afternoon of my life
until Adrian made me tell her she had a
heart-shaped ass.
BEEFY
Maybe you love her. But what do I know?
I'm baked out of my mind.
PETER
Me, too. We're gonna get going.
TODD
You guys want to stay? I have a futon
in my bedroom.
JOHN
That's a big pass, Elton John.
PETER
We're going to see Ozzy play at the
Meadowlands, right now. Wanna come,
Nicky?
NICKY
No thanks. I'm afraid I wouldn't be
able to give Ozzy the focus he deserves.
JOHN
Whoa, that chick must be the real deal,
then. Later on.
NICKY
See ya, fellas.
They leave.
BEEFY (O.S.)
You better snap out of it soon, kid.
Cause we're going after Adrian tomorrow.
Seven AM. Nighty, night.
He falls asleep and starts snoring. We hear the SOUND of
THREE LITTLE GIRLS singing "Ring Around The Rosie" as he
exhales.
TODD
That is the most frightening thing I
have ever seen.
Nicky stands and moves to the window. He looks out longingly
over the sleeping city... achingly. RACK FOCUS behind him,
we see Todd nodding encouragingly in the reflection.
NICKY
Todd. Which way to the Parson's School
of Design?
EXT. PARSON'S SCHOOL OF DESIGN - NIGHT
Nicky walks around the corner.
SIGN READS: "Parson's School - Student Housing"
Nicky is standing in front of the dorm rooms. He looks up.
Scanning the windows, he picks up a scent.
NICKY
(he sniffs)
Coconuts...
Nicky goes to the fire escape and starts to climb. His nose
leads him. He reaches the window, sniffing heavily.
INT. DORM ROOM WINDOW - CONTINUOUS
A STUDENT is standing in the window draped in silks, feeling
his nipples with his legs crossed like the guy in "Silence of
the Lambs." The student is startled.
STUDENT
Hello.
NICKY
You smell like coconuts.
STUDENT
It's "Comptoir Sud Pacific." Makes me
feel like a hula girl. Which is kinda
what I'm going for. Wanna come in?
NICKY
No thanks. I'm looking for a girl named
Valerie who also smells like coconuts.
STUDENT
Valerie Doran? Two floors up, one
window over.
NICKY
Thanks, much. Good luck with the
genital tucking.
STUDENT
I don't need luck. I'm good.
Nicky floats away. A few seconds later, he floats back,
holding up the flask.
NICKY
Adrian?
STUDENT
Andrew.
Nicky nods and floats off.
EXT. VALERIE'S WINDOW - MOMENTS LATER
Nicky crouches outside her window and peers in.
INT. VALERIE'S ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Cool music. She is up late. Working by candlelight on a
fantastic design. Something's not working. She drapes a
beautiful fabric over another. She smiles at the
combination. She is happy being creative. Nicky feels his
heart swell as he watches her.
ON NICKY
He's so enraptured he leans forward trying to kiss her. His
head bumps the window. She turns, startled. She sees the
beaming Nicky.
NICKY
Hey.
VALERIE
Nicky? Oh my G-d. Stay right there.
Pause. Valerie opens the window and sprays a can of mace
right in Nicky's face.
NICKY
Oh that stings! My eyes are on fire!
Nicky stands up and stumbles around.
VALERIE
What were you thinking coming here?
NICKY
I'm not sure, but it didn't involve
getting blinded with poison.
He bounces off the front rail, stumbles backward and goes
flying over the back rail.
EXT. VALERIE'S STREET - NIGHT
We see Nicky hurtling toward the street. Holding his eyes.
VALERIE
Oh my G-d, I'm so sorry!
Suddenly he stops. Suspended above ground. Valerie doesn't
hear the expected thud.
VALERIE (CONT'D)
Nicky?
He floats up, but he can't see.
NICKY
Valerie?
VALERIE
Are you dead?
NICKY
No.
VALERIE
What are you doing?
NICKY
I think I'm floating.
VALERIE
Why would you be floating?
NICKY
I don't know. Maybe it's because of
your sweet voice.
VALERIE
Am I supposed to not be freaked out
right now? Because I am.
He's floating up. He slows down.
NICKY
I can't see you but I can smell you.
And you make me feel alive in a way I've
never felt before.
CUT TO REVEAL he's floating outside the student's window.
The student's dripping candle wax on his belly.
STUDENT
You got the wrong window again, man.
NICKY
Oh. Sorry, Andrew. Valerie?
Nicky resumes floating up.
VALERIE
I'm over here, Nicky! To the left.
Nicky is parallel with her. He hovers in front of her, eyes
still watering. She punches Nicky in the face, and he flies
back ten feet.
VALERIE (CONT'D)
Look, just because you're floating
doesn't mean I'm gonna forget about you
giving me the finger.
NICKY
That wasn't me. I was being possessed
by my brother, Adrian. He's the one who
call you a gross pig.
VALERIE
What do you mean, "possessed?"
NICKY
Remember when I told you my Dad was in
Hell?
VALERIE
Yes...
NICKY
Well, that's because he's the Devil.
And he wants to keep his throne for
another ten-thousand years. Which is
fine with me, but not with my brothers,
so they broke out of Hell, causing my
dad...
VALERIE
... "The Devil?"...
NICKY
...to decompose. And I love my Dad
very much. So I came to Earth to save
him but then crazy eyes stole my flask
and I met you and...well, my dog tells
me I just might be in love with you.
His vision is clearing and he can start to see her. She is
totally in shock but still here.
VALERIE
Okay, now I get that "deep south" joke.
Nicky laughs. Valerie joins in.
VALERIE (CONT'D)
I don't know if I should believe you.
Nicky starts to drop.
NICKY
You gotta believe me. You gotta believe
in the butterflies.
VALERIE
Okay, I do. Get back up here.
He floats up to her holding out his hand. Nervously, she
takes his hand and suddenly she is lifting off and they are
flying.
EXT. MANHATTAN - SKY - NIGHT
They fly past the EMPIRE STATE BUILDING.
VALERIE
This is amazing.
They soar past some more buildings.
EXT. STREET - NIGHT
The preacher sense something. He looks to the sky, then
holds the cross from around his neck as high as he can.
PREACHER
The hellbeast is above us. He's
invading our skies! We're all gonna
die! We're all gonna die!
EXT. SKY - NIGHT
VALERIE
He's kind of ruining the mood.
NICKY
Let me take care of that.
EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS
The preacher is still angrily shouting towards the sky.
PREACHER
We're all gonna die!
A fire hydrant cap turns and comes off. A powerful blast of
water shoots out and hits the preacher, KNOCKING him across
the street into a plate glass window.
EXT. NYC SKY - CONTINUOUS
VALERIE
Can we go fly over Central Park?
NICKY
Next time. Tonight, I want to share the
most beautiful thing I could possibly
imagine.
EXT. OVER THE HUDSON RIVER - NIGHT
They fly over it, away from NYC.
VALERIE
We're going to Jersey?
NICKY
East Rutherford.
EXT. MEADOWLANDS - NIGHT
They float high above the Meadowlands. There is an outdoor
concert going on. OZZFEST.
We hear the Ozz on stage in his encore. He is singing "Mr.
Crowley." Nicky turns to Valerie.
NICKY
I never thought I'd ever see Ozzy live
until he was dead.
(he looks at her)
Please tell me you like metal.
VALERIE
(sings along to song)
"Mister Crowley, what's inside of your
head..."
Nicky's jaw drops as he stares at her.
NICKY
My dog was right. I'm in love with you.
They slow dance tighter. The music swells. John and Peter
look up from their seats far below. Nicky sees them while
he's holding her tight. They give thumbs up.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. CITY STREET - MORNING
Feeling great. Spring in his step, we see Nicky walking down
the street.
He stops and smells some flowers at a Korean Tommet. The
KOREANS point and seem agitated by him. Nicky gives them a
friendly wave.
NICKY
(in Korean)
Moo ya san jie bay!
The Koreans just glare. Nicky's confused.
MUSIC CUE:
A dissonant, nervous score accompanies the rest of the
sequence.
EXT. STREET - DAY
A NUT VENDOR leaves his cart and starts following. Nicky
looks back a little, unnerved. A TAXI screeches in front of
him. The DRIVER gets out and goes after him.
EXT. STREET - DAY
A group of school girls in uniform break loose from their
teacher and start chasing Nicky.
EXT. BROWNSTONE STOOP - DAY
A gigantically fat guy sees Nicky run by. He thinks about
going after him but decides not to and takes a big bite of a
candy bar instead.
EXT. BASKETBALL COURT - DAY
Ten guys playing wheelchair basketball see Nicky. They point
and start wheeling after him.
EXT. HILLY STREET - DAY
Nicky is putting some distance between him and the mob.
NICKY
What's going on here?
But when he heads downhill, the GUYS IN WHEELCHAIRS start to
catch up. They get closer and closer until... Nicky makes a
last second right turn into an alley. The wheelchairs can't
slow down and crash into a double decker tourist BUS at the
bottom of the street. The TOURIST on the top level look over
the edge to see the crash.
EXT. ALLEY - DAY
Nicky is panicking, out of breath. A BUM (RADIOMAN) rises up
out of his cardboard box. The bum raises his bottle and
thunks Nicky on the head. It doesn't break.
NICKY
Ow...what was that for?
BUM
Fifty million dollars.
The bum holds up a NEW YORK POST. It reads "MONSTER WANTED!"
And has a picture of Nicky. Nicky is shocked.
Nicky turns to run out of the alley, but the mob is there
blocking the entrance. He's trapped. They start running
right at him. He closes his eyes.
NICKY
Release the evil.
Nicky's body splits into about five-hundred horrifying
insects, all with a miniature NICKY HEAD.
The Nickysects run right at the crowd, and the crows
immediately starts running the other way, completely freaked
out.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - DAY
Beefy and Todd are watching TV. They look over to see the
insects scurry under the front door and morph back into one
exhausted Nicky.
NICKY
I seem to be in trouble, Beefy.
BEEFY
The shit has hit the fan, kid. Take a
look.
TODD
Been breaking all morning.
ON THE TV - DAY
We see Dan Rather addressing the camera.
DAN RATHER
At a news conference earlier today,
Chief of Police Andy Shaifer gave this
beleaguered city its latest dose of bad
news. He revealed that the man who
caused a sensation at basketball arena
last night is no hero... he is, in fact,
a mass murderer.
We see the chief of police behind a bunch of mics. He's
holding up a picture of Nicky taken at the Basketball arena.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS
Nicky's outraged.
NICKY
I didn't murder anybody
BEEFY
Look. You were really high. Things
happen.
NICKY
I was with Valerie, I swear. This is
Adrian's work. I've got to find him.
BEEFY
I think you're looking at him.
ON THE TV - DAY
We reveal that the chief is standing on a grilled-cheese
press to keep him warm.
CHIEF OF POLICE
(on TV)
This video shows what he did after he
left the basketball arena yesterday...
ON THE VIDEOTAPE - DAY
Scarface shooting his AK-47. Nicky's face has been crudely
superimposed over his.
GUY
(Adrian's voice)
My name's Nicky, and I'm gonna kill all
you suckers for no reason!
CUT TO FOOTAGE on "SCARFACE"
ON TV - DAY
The Chief shakes his head.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Difficult to watch, I know. In response
to this vicious crime, I am authorizing
the largest reward in law enforcement
history: fifty million dollars to the
person or persons who bring this man to
me.
INT. TODD'S APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS
Nicky stands outraged.
NICKY
This is baloney!
BEEFY
He superimposed your head onto
"Scarface."
TODD
...which is by far DePalma's best
work...
A LOUD KNOCKING AT THE DOOR
The pounding increases.
NICKY
I'm not Nicky. I'm not home! I don't
live here!
PETER
Dude, it's us. Let us in.
Nicky opens the door. Peter and John stumble in.
JOHN
There's like a total mob scene coming
this way.
We hear VOICES of an approaching crowd coming outside.
NICKY
I thought for sure I gave 'em the slip.
Todd i s looking out the window.
TODD
Looks like they're following a giant
trail of bug shit.
PETER
What'll we do now, Beefy?
BEEFY
I don't know, this is a little out of my
league.
VOICES GROW LOUDER.
VOICES (O.S.)
Come on. Let's get 'em.
JOHN
What would your dad do, Nicky?
NICKY
Good idea...kill me.
PETER
Dude. Seriously?
NICKY
Yes. I'll meet you at Grand Central at
noon. Okay. Do me. I command you.
JOHN AND PETER
(psyched)
Alright!
John takes Nicky's head and slams it hard into the kitchen
counter. Nicky is dazed.
NICKY
That just hurt a lot.
TODD
I've always wanted to kill someone. Can
I do it?
JOHN
Look at Queen Latifah steppin' up.
INT. BATHROOM - DAY
Nicky is in the bathtub being angrily drowned by Todd. John
and Peter watch happily.
TODD
Die, Grandma, die!
Nicky's arm comes out with a thumbs up. Pause. The hand
drops back in. He's dead.
INT. THRONE ROOM - LATER
Start on a CLOSE UP of Lucifer. He's holding cards, looking
at his hand.
LUCIFER
Royal flush, you lose. Off with the
bra.
The Demons and Gatekeeper are sitting around playing strip
poker. The Gatekeeper takes off his bra. From behind, we
see his breasts flop out.
LUCIFER (CONT'D)
Last time I saw a pair of jugs that big,
two hillbillies were blowing on them.
The Gatekeeper throws his hand down and storms out. The
Monster laughs uproariously. Nicky enters and moves to
what's left of his dad. Arms, torso, and a head (with one
ear).
NICKY
Dad, Adrian's got the whole city after
me. He's always a step ahead. What am
I gonna do?
DAD
What are you gonna do? Look at me,
Nicky! I got no legs, I got no hips, I
got one ear...
Dad's remaining ear falls out.
DAD (CONT'D)
I got no ears! I can't hear!
JIMMY THE DEMON
Now he's got no ears! You happy, Nicky?
Your father's got no ears!
NICKY
Uh, I'll do my best, Dad. Do you have
any advice at all for me?
DAD
I can't hear you, Nicky. I can't hear
anything!
Jimmy picks up the ear. Jimmy speaks into it.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Check one-two. Check one-two.
DAD
Put it back on my head. I'm falling
apart here.
JIMMY THE DEMON
He's got 'til midnight tonight, Nicky.
(putting ear back on Dad)
You get your ass back up there. You
save your father!
Nicky looks very upset.
EXT. POLICE STATION - DAY
We see John and Peter enter frame. Looking very nervous.
PETER
You sure you're down with this?
JOHN
Little nervous. Wanna puke.
They approach the cops guarding the door.
JOHN (CONT'D)
Looking for the chief.
PETER
We know where to find Nicky.
COPS grab John & Peter and drag them inside.
INT. CHIEF'S OFFICE - DAY
Surrounded by prostitutes and criminals in a very hot room,
the chief of police puts down his bottle of PEPPERMINT
SCHNAPPS, stands up and looks at the two idiots.
CHIEF OF POLICE
You have what I want?
JOHN
Sure do. You got what we want?
PETER
Fifty million bones, bro.
He nods to a DEPUTY who gives them a briefcase of money.
CHIEF OF POLICE
That's half of it. You get the rest
when I get Nicky.
PETER
Excellent. But I gotta warn you, man.
He's not human.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Really?
JOHN
We think he's the son of Satan.
PAUSE. The chief LAUGHS, then everyone else does. He walks
over and picks them up by their throats.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Well, then I guess I'll have to be extra
careful. Now where is he?
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY
We see the BIG CLOCK on the wall. FIVE minutes til NOON. We
see JOHN and PETER (with the briefcase) walking into GRAND
CENTRAL with the chief and twenty-five NYC cops. The chief
bumps into a filthy bag lady drinking out of paper sack.
BAG LADY
Hey, watch it! Who do you think you
are?
CHIEF OF POLICE
(never stopping)
Emperor of the New Hell.
They march through onto the platform for Track 33.
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION PLATFORM - DAY
We see Beefy and Todd waiting by the place where Nicky
usually comes up. It is hot down there. Steam and smoke
comes out of the tunnels. Todd is nervous.
TODD
Where is he? He's late.
BEEFY
He'll be here. Just keep your cool,
kid.
They hear FOOTSTEPS. They turn and see the chief of police
backed up by the huge police force.
BEEFY (CONT'D)
We've been ratted out.
Beefy and Todd turn to see John and Peter looking sheepish.
TODD
You guys. That was so uncool.
PETER
We thought the son of Satan would
understand a move like this.
Peter and John high-five.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Okay, take these two outside. I can
handle this.
The police grab Todd and put a leash on Beefy. The cops lead
their prisoners away down the tunnel, leaving John and Peter
alone with the chief.
CHIEF OF POLICE (CONT'D)
Wanna see something cool?
The chief inserts a finger into his nostril. Then he fits
his hand up there. Soon his whole arm is up his nostril as
he searches for something. John and Peter are impressed.
The chief grabs something and starts to pull. Then out of
his nose comes Adrian, who fully forms as the shell of the
chief's body slumps to the ground.
ADRIAN
Ta-da. So what time is my brother
expected back?
JOHN
Noon...
They look at the clock. It's noon.
JOHN (CONT'D)
...ish.
Peter is sweating, kinda nervous.
PETER
So even though you're not really the
chief, we still get the rest of the
cash, right bro?
ADRIAN
You know what you'll get? An
indescribably horrific torture
administered by demons for the rest of
eternity.
JOHN
But what about the cash? Can we keep it
or what?
ADRIAN
Sure, why not?
They high five. Adrian smiles and waits. It is real hot
down there. We hear a train coming in the distance. A fan
circles slowly. They all wait for him.
LADY
(mumbling to herself)
Food stamps?
They should call 'em "dude stamps."
Cause ever time I get one, some dude
takes it away...
We see the HOMELESS LADY down the platform stumbling her way
towards them, drunk. Adrian scowls at her.
LADY (CONT'D)
Hey, studs. I'll let you make out with
me for a dollar!
JOHN
No thanks...but we'll take that bottle
of booze.
(grabs the bottle, laughs)
LADY
Hey...that's mine.
Peter pushes her away.
PETER
Beat it, ya freak.
John and Peter high five and John swigs from the bag.
JOHN
Schnapps...
PETER
(takes the bag, swigs)
Peppermint...alright.
Adrian raises his eyebrows. We see that the homeless lady is
actually VALERIE in disguise. She looks back, tense. John
offers Adrian the flask.
JOHN
Wanna hit?
Hands it to him. He takes it.
PETER
Drink up. Here's to fifty million
clams.
ADRIAN
To the defilement of Earth and the
corruption of its people.
PETER
Whatever. Knock it back, grab Nicky and
let's get outta this hell-hole.
Adrian smiles at John, then raises the bag. He stops just
before it hits his lips. He looks at John curiously.
ADRIAN
It is awfully hot down here. How do you
manage to stay so cool?
JOHN
Weed lowers the body temperature.
(stuttering)
I read that...in, uh...er, science
magazine.
Adrian stares at John. He raises the bag again.
ADRIAN
This liquid will probably quench my
thirst. Cool me off.
PETER
Definitely.
JOHN
And give you a good buzz.
ADRIAN
Or maybe it will trap me inside for all
eternity.
JOHN
Uh. No it won't?
John starts to tremble a bit.
ADRIAN
Oh, Nicky, I've missed you. Come on out
and say hello...
JOHN
Urr...uggg...errr...
ADRIAN
(eyes getting red)
I'm calling you out, brother...
Adrian is mentally pulling Nicky out of John. Nicky/John
wages an epic battle with himself as Adrian smiles.
JOHN/NICKY
Urrr...uggh...
(as Nicky)
Oww. Adrian, this is very painful.
Nicky comes flying out. John's body slumps to the floor next
to the chief's. Adrian looks in the "Schnapps bottle" to see
the flask wrapped in paper. He peeks inside.
ADRIAN
Hello, Cassius.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
All right. Let me out.
ADRIAN
You know, New Hell really only needs one
new Satan.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
You mother...
Adrian hands Nicky the flask.
ADRIAN
But Cassius could use some company for
the rest of eternity. So get in the
flask.
He puts the Flask in Nicky's hands.
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - PAVILLION - MOMENTS LATER
The police are escorting Beefy and Todd through the terminal.
Beefy starts whining and stops. The cops look down. Beefy
raises his leg.
COP
Oh, he's gotta pee.
A thick, yellow smoke shoots out of Beefy, enveloping the
group. Beefy escapes and bolts back down stairs.
TODD
Run, Beefy! Run!
INT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION PLATFORM - CONTINUOUS
Adrian stares down Nicky.
NICKY
I won't drink. You can't make me.
Adrian looks over at Valerie. Suddenly she comes flying over
to him. He grabs her by the throat.
We hear a train coming in the distance.
ADRIAN
Of course I can. Drink or she dies.
(Nicky is scared)
Unlike you, she won't come back from
where she's going.
NICKY
Let her go.
ADRIAN
I hear a train coming. Drink.
The train sound is coming CLOSER. Valerie looks at Nicky.
Nicky raises the flash to drink.
VALERIE
Don't do it.
NICKY
I have to, Valerie.
We see Beefy skid to a stop, raise his leg and a full size
archery arrow shoots out of his penis and tracks right into
ADRIAN'S LEG.
ADRIAN
Ahhh!
BEEFY
Now that hurt the both of us.
Valerie is able to escape momentarily. Adrian reaches for
her, grabbing her. They both spin and fall down onto the
tracks. Right into the oncoming train.
NICKY
Valerie!!!
Nicky leaps down onto the tracks, wrestles Valerie away from
Adrian and tosses her off the tracks. Adrian looks at Nicky.
ADRIAN
See you in Hell!
WHAMM! The train comes by, hitting both Adrian and Nicky.
INT. HELL GATES - CONTINUOUS
Adrian comes flying through the solid firefall into Hell. He
looks around. Confused, there's no Nicky.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. BEAUTIFUL FIELD - DAY
Nicky is lying in a huge field of tall, very green grass. He
sits up, and feels his face to make sure it's all there.
Nicky looks around, alarmed. He seems to be in a mountain
vale, maybe in the foothills of the Alps. It's gorgeous.
Off in the distance, floating in the air, is a giant birthday
cake. Nicky stands up and the cottage seems to be floating
down to him.
EXT. BIRTHDAY CAKE - DAY
The cake lands softly in front of him, the door ajar. After
a moment's hesitation, Nicky goes in.
INT. BIRTHDAY CAKE - CONTINUOUS
Nicky enters the cake to find ANGEL and two friends: JENNA
and CHRISTA. They are doing arts and crafts sort of things
on a glass table in front of them. They stare at him. Angel
rises.
ANGEL
Oh. My. G-d. I can't believe you're
here. Welcome. Can I just tell you, I
am so excited right now.
CHRISTA
So excited.
JENNA
She really is.
NICKY
That's terrific. Now could you ladies
point me to the Black Palace? I should
check in with my dad...
Nicky trails off as he sees the Angels laughing at him.
ANGEL
I'm sorry, you're just so cute.
JENNA
Do you have any idea where you are right
now?
NICKY
The home of eternal damnation, house of
Hades, H.E. double toothpicks...
ANGEL
Maybe try the opposite of that.
The Angel and two friends laugh and high-five. Nicky's
confused.
ANGEL (CONT'D)
Okay, can I just ask you something?
What do you know about your mom?
NICKY
My brothers told me my mother was a
mountain goat. Which would explain my
chronic halitosis.
ANGEL
(annoyed)
A mountain goat? That's really sweet.
NICKY
My mom wasn't a goat?
ANGEL
Try an angel.
NICKY
An angel?
ANGEL
Unh-huh. Which would make you half
angel.
Nicky is floored.
NICKY
Wow. What...what did she look like?
ANGEL
Well, she was about six-three, only
spoke Portuguese and had really long
grey hair.
The GIRLS start laughing.
ANGEL (CONT'D)
I'm sorry, I'm totally busting on you.
I'm your mom.
Nicky is even more floored. FLASH. Jenna has taken a
picture of Nicky.
JENNA
I'm sorry, but you just had the sweetest
look on your face.
CHRISTA
You're gonna be so happy she did that.
NICKY
(stunned)
How come you're not older?
ANGEL
Angels don't get any older, son.
JENNA
I can't believe you just called him
"son."
ANGEL
Oh my G-d. This is so wild.
They laugh. Nicky is quite baffled.
INT. THRONE ROOM - DAY
Dad is just a pair of lips, with ears on either side held up
by two forearms with hands attached, lying on the throne.
Gatekeeper, Lucifer, Jimmy and a few other demons stand
around.
DAD
I can't see shit. You're all still
here, right?
Adrian enters. They all cheer.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Adrian's here. You'll be back to normal
in a jiffy, sir.
DAD LIPS
Yea! I can't believe little Nicky came
through.
ADRIAN
Where's Nicky?
JIMMY THE DEMON
He came with you and Cassius, right?
ADRIAN
I came through that gate alone.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Sorry, sir, false alarm.
DAD
Boooo.
ADRIAN
Somebody explain what's going on.
Puts the Gatekeeper in a headlock.
GATEKEEPER
You'll get nothing out of me.
ADRIAN
Perhaps a titty twister will loosen your
lips.
He twists a breast. The Gatekeeper babbles out the
information immediately.
GATEKEEPER
The only way to save your dad is for you
and your brothers to pass through the
gates at the same time before he
deteriorates completely.
ADRIAN
How much time does Dad have before that
happens?
Adrian twists hard.
GATEKEEPER
Thirty minutes. And then whoever claims
his throne will have unimaginable power.
Adrian throws him down.
LUCIFER
All boobs and no balls.
ADRIAN
Thirty minutes. Hmmm. I hope you don't
mind if I take a seat while I wait for
you.
He moves to the throne and throws the lips off.
DAD LIPS
Ahhh!
He pushes Lucifer out of the way.
LUCIFER
I don't get no respect.
ADRIAN
Ten thousand years. And I never once
got to sit here.
He sits on the throne and it starts to shake a little. He
grins as two horns grow out of his forehead.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
Wow. And this is just a little taste of
my power.
DAD
Hell's gonna bust wide open. Demons,
get him out of the chair!
The demons approach.
ADRIAN
Ah-ah. Not so fast, demons. There are
a couple of million evil souls on Earth
ready to be harvested. Anyone
interested?
The demons stop. Now loyal to Adrian. All except Jimmy.
INT. BIRTHDAY CAKE - DAY
Everyone is sitting around drinking Diet Cokes.
NICKY
Are you Adrian and Cassius' mom, too?
CHRISTA
No, their mother's weren't angels.
ANGEL
I think they were hookers or strippers
or something really porno like...
There's a knock on the door. It opens and in comes Carl
Weathers dressed as Chubbs from Happy Gilmore.
CHUBBS
Holly, Jenna, Christa. Time for your
Mambo lesson.
ANGEL
Oh, Chubbs. I totally spaced. I'm so
sorry. I have company. It's my son,
Nicky. My son. Can you believe it?
CHUBBS
Wow, that's terrific.
ANGEL
Nicky, this is Chubbs. He used to be a
golf pro, but up here he's the dopest
dance instructor.
CHUBBS
You mambo?
NICKY
I don't think so.
CHUBBS
Remember, it's all in the hips. It's
all in the hips.
Chubbs dances as he leaves.
NICKY
Where did you meet my father?
ANGEL
It was a long time ago, at some Heaven
and Hell mixer.
CHRISTA
I remember that night, you had like four
daiquiris.
ANGEL
Try four and a half. At first I totally
didn't like him.
JENNA
He was really conceited.
ANGEL
But I don't know, he was funny, he made
me laugh, and I hate to say it but he
had a really nice body.
NICKY
And that made you want to make a baby
with him?
The Angels laugh.
ANGEL
Well, I really wasn't thinking about
making a baby at the time!
Her cell-phone rings. She answers it.
ANGEL (CONT'D)
Hello....yes, he's here with me now... I
don't know if he's hot, he's my son, you
perv! I'll call you back...
(laughs)
Oh my G-d, I will call you back,
goodbye.
(hangs up)
That was my friend, Michelle, she says
"hi."
NICKY
Well tell her I said "hi" back.
Angel makes a motion towards the phone, then stops.
ANGEL
I'll call her later.
CHRISTA
You know, we saw you save your
girlfriend's life.
JENNA
That was so cool.
ANGEL
That's why you came up to Heaven instead
of Hell. Self-sacrifice automatically
gets you here.
NICKY
How did you see me?
ANGEL
We can see what's going on anywhere on
Earth. Look.
Angel and the girls clear the junk from the glass table in
front of them. Angel touches the glass and it turns into a
reflection of Earth below.
EXT. TIME'S SQUARE - NIGHT
People are rioting in the streets. Looting appliance
stores...
ANGEL (O.S.)
All these good people have totally been
led astray.
CHRISTA (O.S.)
Show him Central Park.
EXT. CENTRAL PARK LAWN - NIGHT
People are drinking and smoking and burning things. A large
circle has formed around two old ladies who are fist
fighting. One old lady knocks the other to the ground, then
jumps on her and starts wailing away. The spectators
exchange money.
ANGEL (O.S.)
There's like a three day rave goin' on
down there. No on is going to work
anymore.
Then suddenly we see the ground start to break up and Adrian
on his throne start to be thrust upwards. Demons swarm
around him.
ADRIAN
Welcome to the party. It's so nice to
see all of you here.
NICKY (O.S.)
Hey, that's Dad's throne! How did
Adrian get that? Is Dad okay?
ANGEL (O.S.)
Let's see...
RIPPLE DISSOLVE TO:
INT. THRONE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
DAD LIPS are morosely talking to the Gatekeeper and Jimmy.
DAD LIPS
I was a good Devil, wasn't I?
JIMMY THE DEMON
You were the best Devil, boss, the best
Devil!
GATEKEEPER
Absolutely.
DAD LIPS
I tried to do some interesting stuff...
JIMMY THE DEMON
You did amazing stuff!
GATEKEEPER
I don't know how you came up with some
of it.
DAD LIPS
Really? That means a lot to me.
JENNA (O.S.)
Oh my G-d. He looks gross.
ANGEL (O.S.)
I can't believe I did it with him.
She touches the pool again and the reflection changes to:
EXT. NEW HELL THRONE - NIGHT
Adrian steps off his throne onto a small stage flanked by SIX
HERO DEMONS. He begins addressing the crowd.
ADRIAN
I'm very proud of you. You've taken to
sin with minimal prompting.
The crowd cheers.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
You're acting as if there is no Heaven
or Hell.
The crowd cheers.
EXT. NEW HELL STAGE - NIGHT
We see John, Peter, Beefy, Valerie and Todd hanging on
flagpoles by their underwear. Beefy is in a special fitted
harness that looks like underwear.
ADRIAN
Well, I have some news.
Adrian morphs into the Cardinal from earlier.
CARDINAL
There is most definitely a Hell! And
you're all going there when you die!
Which will happen in about fifteen
minutes.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - NIGHT
The BAD PEOPLE realize they've been tricked into being bad
and they get scared.
The Preacher, who is now more battered from his fall through
the plate glass window (ask Steve), yells out.
PREACHER
We really are gonna die!
This kicks off a frenzy of the Scared Bad People trying to
run away. But they are stopped and herded back by DEMONS.
EXT. FLAGPOLES - CONTINUOUS
PETER
This don't look good.
JOHN
Can't Beefy use his penis powers to get
us out of this?
TODD
They castrated him. He can't shoot
arrows, he can't piss smoke.
BEEFY
I can't screw.
(whimpers)
I can't screw.
Valerie's crying.
INT. REFLECTION POOL - CONTINUOUS
Nicky is shocked.
NICKY
Valerie's crying!
ANGEL
She's so nice.
CHRISTA
She goes to Parson's, right?
ANGEL
I would totally love to go there. But I
hear it's really hard to get in.
NICKY
I gotta help her. I gotta help Dad. I
gotta help everybody.
ANGEL
Yeah, you do...
INT. REFLECTION POOL - CONTINUOUS
Adrian is looking at a clock tower that reads 11:45.
ADRIAN (V.O.)
At the stroke of midnight, my father
will be completely deteriorated. And
all of your souls will be mine.
EXT. NEW HELL STAGE - CONTINUOUS
ADRIAN
Soon you will see things more horrible
than you can even imagine.
Adrian scans the crowd. He sees...
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - CONTINUOUS
The Parsons STUDENT in the kimono dancing sexily. Adrian is
thrown.
EXT. NEW HELL STAGE - CONTINUOUS
ADRIAN
Not that horrible, but still pretty bad.
Adrian motions to some of his guards. They nod.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
So while we wait, for your enjoyment, I
bring you a dear sweet man and an
international icon...Henry Winkler!
A frightened HENRY WINKLER is lead onto the stage prodded by
two DEMONS.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - CONTINUOUS
The scared bad people finally smile.
EXT. NEW HELL STAGE - CONTINUOUS
ADRIAN
Covered in bees!
We see Henry Winkler is suddenly covered head to in a swarm
of bees.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - CONTINUOUS
The crowd gasps.
INT. REFLECTION POOL - CONTINUOUS
Nicky is starting to panic.
NICKY
But how can I win? Adrian is stronger
and smarter than me.
ANGEL
Stronger, yes. Smarter, definitely.
But you have something he doesn't have.
NICKY
A speech impediment?
The girls laugh.
ANGEL
No, you have the inner light. You can
totally use it. It's the best power of
all.
(he smiles)
And in case you get in real bad trouble,
G-d told me to give you this.
She gives him an ornate, jewelled ball.
NICKY
What is it?
ANGEL
I'm not a hundred percent on that. G-d
said when the time comes, you'll know
what to do.
CHRISTA
G-d's so smart.
JENNA
The smartest.
ANGEL
Well, goodbye...for now.
(looks at his face)
Can I just do this?
She licks her finger and wipes some dirt off his forehead.
ANGEL (CONT'D)
That was such a Mom thing, wasn't it?
FRIEND
Totally.
NICKY
Well, nice meeting you, Jenna, Christa.
(to Angel)
Would it be okay if I called you Mommy?
ANGEL
It would be so okay.
Nicky hugs his Mom.
NICKY
Well, Mommy, get me to the big apple
cause I'm gonna rock that town like a
hurricane.
ANGEL (O.S.)
You're already there...
EXT. CENTRAL PARK POND SHORE - NIGHT
Nicky dissolves into walking. He checks his pocket to see
the ball. He looks up to see fifteen Demons marching towards
him, ready to attack. Nicky closes his eyes and
concentrates.
NICKY
Release...the good.
When he opens them, BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES are floating around
the head of five of the DEMONS. They stop approaching.
THEIR EYES TURN FROM WHITE BACK TO NORMAL. And their facial
expression changes to happiness. They wave at the
butterflies.
ANGLE ON
MORE DEMONS keep closing.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Release the good...
Five more are stopped by something. They look down and see
fluffy white BUNNY RABBITS at their feet. They start petting
them.
The REMAINING DEMONS advance on Nicky.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Release the awesome.
...then stop, their path blocked by a very large bucket of
POPEYE'S FRIED CHICKEN. The Demons consider the bucket of
chicken. One Demon takes out a piece.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Put it in your mouth and let it slide
down your throat-hole.
The Demon bites into it. He can't help but grin a little.
DEMON
Popeye's chicken is ass kickin'!
The OTHER SOULS dig into the bucket.
EXT. CLOCK TOWER - CONTINUOUS
Only ten minutes left.
EXT. FLAGPOLES - CONTINUOUS
The dudes on the flagpoles are chatting nervously.
TODD
One thing I really regret is never
having experimented sexually.
PETER
You mean, like, experiment with a Bunsen
Burner? What are you talking about?
JOHN
He means getting it on with someone like
that freak.
ANGLE ON:
The student dancing for a mesmerized Demon.
BACK ON PETER, TODD and JOHN
TODD
His name is Andrew. I know that guy.
JOHN
Of course you do, Tommy Tune.
EXT. CENTRAL PARK PATH - NIGHT
Nicky leads his small army of reformed Demons (followed by
butterflies & bunnies and carrying the chicken bucket) down
the path toward the rally. We see they have a golden
light/haze of good around them.
EXT. FLAGPOLES - CONTINUOUS
Adrian is underneath Valerie.
ADRIAN
You know, from this angle, you're kind
of cute.
VALERIE
You think so? Why don't you come a
little closer and I'll show you a better
angle.
He moves a little closer, and she spits on him. He smiles.
Opens his mouth and catches her spit. He swallows.
ADRIAN
Yummy.
Everyone is grossed out.
TODD
Oh my G-d, he just opened his mouth and
swallowed that spit.
BEEFY
That turn you on there, RuPaul?
ADRIAN
Keep it up and I just might make you my
Queen for a night or two.
JOHN
You want a queen? Got one right here.
John points at Todd. They laugh. Adrian gets closer to
Valerie. Just then a big butterfly appears on his shoulder.
He looks down to see:
Nicky standing there with his army.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
Little Nicky.
NICKY
Adrian, I'm asking you nicely, in the
name of all that is good: release my
friends and get in the flask.
ADRIAN
Is this a joke?
NICKY
No. It's the inner light. And with it
we can defeat anything you've got.
REFORMED DEMON
(eating Popeye's chicken)
It's true!
Adrian glares down at the REFORMED DEMON. His eyes shoot out
an evil ray.
The Reformed Demon explodes into a million pieces. His
golden insides splatter on the crowd.
The Army of Good is shaken. Another Demon lowers his
chicken.
ANOTHER REFORMED DEMON
It's not true?
The BUCKET OF CHICKEN sprouts legs and runs away. Nicky
steps forward bravely.
NICKY
Okay, Adrian, you've left me with no
choice.
Nicky leaves frame and he flies up towards Adrian.
EXT. NEW HELL STAGE - CONTINUOUS
Nicky lands on both feet standing before Adrian.
NICKY
Love lifts me up where I belong.
ANGLE ON
Crowd reacts.
ON HELL STAGE
Demons are ready to attack. Adrian waves them off.
ADRIAN
Not bad, little brother. Let's see what
you've got.
Nicky thinks, holds out his hands. A rainbow shoots out onto
the stage between them. PAUSE. We see that a cute little
chipmunk is standing on it's hindlegs eating a nut.
ON CROWD
The army of good and scared bad people applaud as they see
this.
BACK ON HELL STAGE
Adrian nods, holds out his arms and a red stream shoots out.
He has made a terrible PYTHON that comes over and eats the
baffled chipmunk in one bite.
Nicky raises his hand and: turns the snake into a row of
flowers.
Adrian raises his hand and a crazed MEXICAN GARDNER with a
lawn mower comes by and mows them down.
Nicky turns the Gardner and his lawn mower into a MOTHER
pushing a NEW BORN BABY in a carriage.
Adrian turns the baby in the carriage into an EVIL DWARF who
leaps out and starts beating up on the mother.
Nicky turns the Mother into a HOT GIRL DWARF. The evil Dwarf
stops beating her up and holds her hand.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
Enough. I'm going to kill you with my
bare hands.
Adrian punches Nicky hard in the jaw. He goes flying off the
platform.
Nicky's body falls towards the ground. It's about to hit,
when a soft bed of posts and fluffy pillows break his fall.
INT. HEAVEN - CONTINUOUS
We now see Angel, Jenna, Christa and SEVEN OTHER GIRLS
watching the action on the table.
ANGEL
I totally had to do that.
ALL THE GIRLS
Yah you did.
CHUBBS is there, too.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - NIGHT
Nicky looks up to see Adrian flying down towards him. Nicky
rolls away at the last second. Adrian hits the bed hard and
bounces up. Nicky grabs him mid-bounce and slams him back
down into the golden/brass headboard of the bed. Nicky holds
out the flask.
NICKY
Now I'm asking you nicely, get in the
flas...
Adrian grabs a pillow and hits Nicky hard in the face,
sending him flying off the bed.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Oh, you wanna a pillow fight, do you?!
Nicky is an expert pillow fighter. He lands a series of
awesome, almost Matrix-like pillow moves. Adrian is dazed.
Nicky finishes him off by tossing the pillow high in the air
to him. Adrian looks up to catch it and just before it
lands, Nicky steps up and pops him in the face. Adrian goes
down hard. Nicky towers over him.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Now will you get in the flask?
ADRIAN
Absolutely not.
Adrian turns to his demons.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
A little help over here.
A bunch of Demons advance.
ON FLAGPOLE
We see Henry Winkler, swollen with bee stings, valiantly run
over and lowers the five from the flagpoles.
ON ADRIAN
He looks up and glares at Henry.
ADRIAN (CONT'D)
Henry!
ON FLAGPOLE
Henry's eyes widen.
HENRY WINKLER
Oh no.
He is covered in bees again.
BACK ON ADRIAN
He turns his attention back to Nicky who is grabbed by
demons. Adrian brings the flask to his lips, but he won't
open his mouth.
Adrian pinches Nicky's nose closed so he has to open his
mouth.
ADRIAN
Goodbye, Nicky.
We hear CASSIUS banging against the walls.
CASSIUS (O.S.)
Come on in, bro.
Nicky can't hold his breath and opens his mouth. Adrian jams
the flask in his mouth and Nicky starts to get sucked in.
Adrian smiles. But just before Nicky is gone, he manages to
grab Adrian's coat tail and yank him into the flask with him.
As the flask hits the ground, we HEAR:
CASSIUS (O.S.) (CONT'D)
Thank you, Nicky. Cause now I'm gonna
bust Adrian's head wide open.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
I was going to let you out, eventually,
Cassius. I swear.
NICKY (O.S.)
Sole ruler of Hell and Earth is what I
heard him keep saying.
We HEAR the sounds of a struggle.
All the Demons and all the people of NEW YORK form a large
circle around the flask. Valerie and the gang make it down
off the stage.
We HEAR crazy sounds as the FLASK starts to jump. The crowd
REACTS. A big dent pops out from the inside, followed by a
horrible thud.
VALERIE
Nicky!
NICKY (O.S.)
That was Cassius!
The FLASK starts rolling over and over on the road. People
get out of the way as if it were real people fighting in the
street. They root for their side.
DEMON
Kill him, Adrian.
John and Peter start beating up the Demon.
INT. REFLECTION POOL - CONTINUOUS
The Angel and the Friend are praying.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - CONTINUOUS
We HEAR banging and beating and yelling from inside and then
the flask stops bouncing. SILENCE. Everybody outside holds
their breath. Slowly out of the spout crawls NICKY.
HOORAY. Valerie, John, Todd and Beefy and all the living
people CHEER. The student, very happy, opens his kimono.
The people and demons near him are grossed out.
Valerie goes tot he very beaten up Nicky and hugs him.
VALERIE
Where'd a sweet Southern boy learn to
fight like that?
NICKY
From my dad's side of the family.
She laughs and kisses him on the mouth. The crowd CHEERS.
But Nicky won't stop kissing her. She starts to struggle for
air. Nicky presses harder and starts to laugh.
The crowd stops CHEERING. Valerie is waving her arms for
help. Nicky turns into Adrian during the kiss. Adrian lets
her go. And we hear ADRIAN'S familiar laugh.
ADRIAN
What? No tongue?
Adrian pulls his head back, his tongue is huge and he turns
into a GIANT BAT. He lets out a huge roar, then flies
around, laughing, scaring people.
Valerie runs over and picks up the flask. She looks inside.
VALERIE
(whispering)
Nicky. Nicky.
No response.
VALERIE (CONT'D)
You gotta fly out...I know you can do
it.
(still no response)
Do it for the butterflies.
A long beat, then:
NICKY (O.S.)
Butterflies...
And Nicky shoots right out of the top of the flask and lands
on his feet. Adrian lands and stares down Nicky. The clock
is one minute from midnight.
Adrian swoops down. Nicky thinks quick and pulls out the
BALL his Mom gave him and smashes it on the ground. Out of
it forms metal G-d: OZZY OSBORNE.
OZZY
Hello, New York.
JOHN AND PETER
Ozzy.
They faint.
The Bat's eyes go wide in fear. Ozzy grabs the bat, his
mouth grows big, and he bites the bat's head off. Valerie
hands Ozzy the flask.
VALERIE
Put him in, Ozzy.
Ozzy spits the bat head into the flask.
EXT. CLOCK TOWER
The clock reads: 00:23 seconds left.
INT. THRONE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Dad is just a very thin pair of lips and one finger. The
FINGER is going up and down on the lips, making silly sounds.
The Gatekeeper, the Monster, Jimmy the Demon and Lucifer are
on their backs crying like babies.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - NIGHT
VALERIE
Grand Central, Nicky. Start running.
JOHN
He'll never make it.
PETER
You gotta kill yourself.
NICKY
I'll just go to Heaven.
BEEFY
No if you do something bad right before
you die.
PAUSE. Everyone looks around. Nicky spots Henry Winkler.
HENRY WINKLER
Aw, man, not again.
NICKY
Sorry, Henry.
(focuses)
Release the Evil.
Henry is covered in bees once again.
ON NICKY AND VALERIE
Nicky picks up a big rock and hands it to Valerie.
NICKY (CONT'D)
Do me.
VALERIE
I love you.
NICKY
I love you.
Valerie smashes the rock on Nicky's head, killing him.
ON CLOCK TOWER
Six seconds left.
INT. THRONE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
The lips and finger are slowing down.
INT. GATES OF HELL - DAY
Nicky triumphantly passes through the wall of fire and it
starts burning again behind him. And now all the BACKED UP
SOULS fall out on top of Nicky.
The Gatekeeper APPLAUDS.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - NIGHT
The STAGE, the DEMONS and everything that raised from Hell
now descends quickly into the ground.
INT. THRONE ROOM - NIGHT
Dad's lips form a body around it. Dad FILLS IN.
EXT. NEW HELL RALLY - NIGHT
The good people of New York cheer. We see John, Peter, Todd,
Valerie, Beefy and the Student, who of course is dancing
seductively.
EXT. REFLECTION POOL - CONTINUOUS
Angel is so proud.
ANGEL
Okay, you just saw my son save the
universe. Right?!
Everyone cheers.
INT. THRONE ROOM - SHORTLY AFTER
Dad and Nicky are hugging.
DAD
You came through, Nicky.
NICKY
I came through for you, Mom and the
butterflies, Dad.
DAD
You're back in Hell now, kid. There's
no butterflies here. If you want
butterflies, you need to be on Earth.
NICKY
What about you and Grandpa and everyone
in Hell?
DAD
Nicky, I let my butterflies die once
upon a time and it's never stopped
hurting.
(Dad looks up)
That's right, you heard me, Holly. I'm
still in love with you.
INT. BIRTHDAY CAKE - CONTINUOUS
Angel is shocked.
ANGEL
Oh my G-d. He's totally talking about
me.
INT. THRONE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
DAD
And don't think I forgot about how crazy
you get after a few daiquiris.
INT. BIRTHDAY CAKE - CONTINUOUS
FRIEND
That guy is still a horn dog.
INT. THRONE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Dad turns to Nicky.
DAD
Listen, I got down low. Your mom's got
up high. You take care of the middle.
NICKY
I will, Dad. But in the words of Motley
Crue, this will always be my...home
sweet home...
He pats him on the back.
JIMMY THE DEMON
Sorry to interrupt guys, but it's time
for Hitler's punishment.
LUCIFER
Let me handle that.
Lucifer walks over to the closet.
LUCIFER (CONT'D)
And I'm not using a pineapple this time.
He pulls out the flask.
ADRIAN (O.S.)
No!
CASSIUS (O.S.)
Don't do it!
He shoves the flask up Hitler's ass. Hitler's face tightens.
HITLER
Holy Schnit!
FREEZE FRAME, then:
DISSOLVE TO:
ONE YEAR LATER
Over the skyline of Manhattan.
EXT. STREET - CENTRAL PARK WEST
PAN UP from a moving baby stroller to reveal Nicky and
Valerie both pushing it. We see Beefy walking with them.
Unbelievably happy.
A nice OLD LADY bends down to the stroller.
LADY
Oh...what an uncommonly beautiful baby.
VALERIE
Thank yo.
LADY
Such a little angel.
BEEFY
Only a quarter, ma'am.
She tickles the baby. It giggles and a small stream of fire
shoots out of his mouth and singes the Old Lady's eyebrows.
NICKY
Zachariah, say you're sorry.
BABY ZACHARIAH
(sounds like Nicky)
Sorry.
The Lady scurries away. Nicky and Valerie laugh and continue
walking in absolute bliss. They pass the Preacher who runs
towards us.
PREACHER
He has spilled his seed! He is
multiplying! Beware the progeny of the
unholy union! We're all gonna die!
The Preacher runs straight into the camera. BLACK.
THE END.
| screenplays |
Bateshwar Stahn from where the bridge will build across river Ganga.
Bridge hope for clearing jam-packed Bhagalpur's streets
BJP's MP from neighbouring Godda seat in Jharkhand, Nishi Kant Dubey's approach for a bridge across river Ganga near Bateshwar Sthan under Kahalgaon sub-division in Bhagalpur has given much relief to Bhagalpur administration and ruling parties in Bihar. The administration virtually is in panic here following the announcement of RJD's proposed agitation over road jam. Bhagalpur RJD MP, Bullo Mandal warned the district administration to counter the jam otherwise the party would implement no entry (read roads blockades) on the streets at Bhagalpur.
Dubey said that National Institute for Transforming India (NITY Aayog) has given green signal for a rail-cum-road bridge across river Ganga at Bateshwar and installation of railway tracks from Vikramshila to Kataria station in Naugachia via the proposed bridge. According to him over estimated cost of Rs 2500 crore, the project would be completed. Dubey also claimed that after completing of the rail-cum-road bridge, traffic chaos at Bhagalpur areas would automatically reduce.
Dubey said that after passing from NITY Aayog, the project would be sent for the approval of union cabinet. After passing from the union cabinet, works for the rail-cum-road bridge would be started. He said within three years, the bridge will start operating.
"A big even has happened for the entire areas with the proposed bridge," Dubey claimed. According to him the bridge would not only solve the problem of heavy traffic flow at Bhagalpur but also would give a better transportation facility for the tourists visiting the half-excavated site of ancient Vikramshila Buddha Mahavihara, the ancient world University. "Presently due to jam and dilapidated roads, tourists generally use to avoid the place and who visit the ancient seat of learning, have to face immense difficulties. But with construction of the bridge, such problems would automatically vanished," the BJP MP claimed.
He also pointed out the possible prosperity of that areas after having railway networks. "Entire Kahalgaon still considered as a backward place but with the arrival of trains, tourism for Vikramshila will be increased and local people have income generating opportunities," he emphasized.
Dubey also said that a road parallel of MGR tracks (merry go round railway tracks through which coal is transported to NTPC's Kahalgaon super thermal power station at Kahalgaon) would soon build and work will be started on March 1 after putting foundation stone. He said that the road will connect Kahalgaon-Godda directly. According to him required funds for completing the road had released on 2016-17 but due to some technical reasons, works could not be started and was delayed. He promised for fixing the day for foundation of stone of the road on March 1 next.
"Some political parties have been gearing up for creating nuisances at Bhagalpur in the name of road jam and traffic problems but the government has already sanctioned two major projects, a new proposed bridge across Ganga at Bhagalpur (parallel to Vikramshila bridge) and the proposed rail-cum-road bridge near Bateshwar Sthan at Kahalgaon," said a local BJP leader at Bhagalpur. | slim_pajama |
The Greenburgh Police report that the driver of a Westchester Taxi cab driver was robbed on the night of January 5th when he arrived for a pick up on Canterbury Road. When the driver pulled up, two men got into the back seat of the cab, and one pulled out what appeared to be a gun and demanded cash. The driver turned over money, his cell phone and the car keys and the two men got out of the cab and fled in a dark-colored car that was parked nearby. The driver was not harmed.
This incident is similar to two more cab robberies that occurred on Sunday night January 3rd, one in the vicinity of Prospect Avenue and the other near the intersection of Stadium Road and Hartsdale Road.
In all three incidents the suspects displayed what appeared to be a handgun.
1. Black male, age 18-22, short in stature, thin build wearing a dark jacket, blue jeans, a black knit cap and gloves.
2. Black male, age 18-22, tall in stature, thin build wearing dark clothing, a black knit hat and gloves.
If you have any information, please contact the Greenburgh Police at 914-682-5325 or 914-682-5300. All calls will be kept confidential.
Backyard Sports is pleased to once again sponsor a weekend pick up soccer game to offer boys and girls the opportunity to play competitive soccer with both travel and recreational players from across the area. The program will begin on Sunday January 10th and will now include 4th through 10th graders.
In lieu of a registration fee, generous donations of any amount will be accepted for Amazing Afternoons, Inc, a non profit organization dedicated to providing after school enrichment and athletic activities to children at the Edward Williams School in Mt. Vernon.
Scarsdale police had a very busy holiday season marked by burglaries, unwanted guests and calls from unhappy residents. Check out what happened while you were celebrating….
Burglaries and Intruders: On the morning of 12/17, a Post Road woman spotted a man looking into the back windows of her home. She described him as a Hispanic male with a medium build, short black hair, age 20-30. When the man realized he was being watched from inside the house, he ran into a waiting car and left the area. The woman could not describe the car. The incident was reported to the Westchester County Police Intelligence Unit.
A Catherine Road home was burglarized sometime between December 18th and 20th while the residents were out of town. They returned home to find the rear glass door shattered and the master bedroom and dining room tossed. Missing were jewelry from the master bedroom and a silver set from the dining room.
Around noon on Saturday December 19th, Ross Road residents returned home to find an unwanted visitor in their home. The resident was out briefly and entered his home through the garage. He heard someone walking in the bedroom and then found a man walking down the steps with shopping bags. He asked the man was he was doing, and the intruder said "nothing, nothing… I will be back." He then fled outside. As there was no sign of a forced entry, the residents may have left the house unlocked. The intruder was described as a Hispanic male of medium build, six feet tall wearing a dark jacket. The residents later realized that a Movado watch and a Louis Vuitton wallet were missing.
Car Break-ins: A series of three car break-ins took place on the night of December 21 between 8 and 11 p.m. The first car, a 2008 Subaru was parked at St. James the Less on Rochambeau Road. The owner is from Tarrytown. The second car, a Dodge owned by a Mamaroneck resident, was vandalized at the same location and reported minutes later. Subsequently police received a report from a Pleasantville resident, that her 2009 GMC had been broken into while parked at Hoff Barthelson. Car windows were broken and items were removed from the cars. It appeared that all three cars were vandalized by the same offender.
Homeless: At 12:30 am on 12/16, Ferncliff Road residents found a homeless man asleep on their front porch. Though he was alert and conscious he did not appear to speak English. Police drove him to headquarters and called several shelters to see if they had room for the man. As Open Arms had no room, they contacted Sharing Community in Yonkers. The Police drove the man to the shelter and he went inside…but when he saw people sleeping on the floor he ran away. Police did not pursue him.
And Penniless: A broke Mamaroneck woman requested a ride from police around 1 am on 12/23. The woman asked police to take her to the Mamaroneck Metro North station, as she had no means to get there herself. Police complied and gave her a ride.
Smokin: Just after midnight on 12/28/09 an alert River Road woman summoned police to report a minivan parked in front of her house; – she added that she had seen this same van several times before. When police checked the van, the occupants rolled down the window and a cloud of smoke emerged. Recognizing the smell of marijuana, police charged the three occupants with unlawful possession. The three smokers were Gabriel and William Carballo and Fidel Ortiz, all from White Plains.
Pedestrian Struck: A 47 year-old Olmstead Road woman was out walking her dog on Morris Lane on the morning of 12/15. A White Plains woman was driving her Honda south on Morris Lane and claims she attempted to go around the dog-walker, but instead she heard a thump and realized she had hit the pedestrian instead. The pedestrian had been knocked down and she was taken to White Plains hospital.
Not So Happy Holidays: A resident at a Popham Road apartment came to the police station around 7 pm on 12/16 to complain that she was bothered by a neighbor in her building. The man walked towards her in an aggressive manner and got too close in an attempt to frighten her. There have been previous incidents involving the two residents so she wanted to file a report.
Overstayed His Welcome: A Dickel Road woman asked the police for help in getting her drunk brother to leave her house on 12/23. After speaking to the police she decided that she could drive him home herself and declined any further assistance.
Locked Out: At 1 a.m. on 12/26 a Walworth Avenue woman called from her neighbor's house to say that her husband had locked her out of her house. Police drove over and learned that the couple had a disagreement and the husband went into his room and locked the door to prevent a continuation of the fight. He had not locked her out of the house – just locked himself in a room inside.
Uninvited: A Popham Road resident complained of unwanted calls and an unexpected visit from an ex-girlfriend on 12/26. The man asked for police to be on the scene to make sure she cooperated when he took her to a local hotel.
Mischief: A burned bicycle was found in the parking lot of Scarsdale Synagogue on December 14th. The temple administrator had no idea about why it was placed there and did not believe that the bike was targeted for the temple.
Stolen Gifts: A package was stolen from the door of an Ogden Road woman's house on 12/14. She realized it was gone when the person who called to give her the gift called to ask if she liked it.
Hoax at the High School: Police received a call to report that a crowd had gathered at SHS to witness a possible UFL sighting on December 15th around 7 P.M. The call came from News12. However, when police arrived there was no crowd and no UFO.
Graffiti at Quaker Ridge School: an Old Lyme Road resident came upon two kids, spray painting a door at the Quaker Ridge School with the letters "ABI" on the afternoon of 12/27. The kids were between the ages of 11 and 13 and one was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and the other was wearing a black coat with a fur collar. When he approached them, one of the kids handed over the can of spray paint and both ran off.
Death: A Gatehouse Road woman called police on Saturday December 19th to report the passing of her mother-in-law at home.
The Scarsdale Planning Board met on December 16th to reconsider plans to build a two story retail building at the Heathcote Five Corners, in place of the current Citgo Station. The meeting focused on the reconfiguration of Secor Road and the Balducci's parking lot to allow access to the new retail building and underground parking from Secor Road, which is a one-way residential street adjacent to the current Balducci's lot.
Plans call for a 10,900 square foot building on two levels which will be built over an underground parking lot. The owners of the property, Doug Brout and Brad Perkins went before the Board to seek permission to move ahead with the site plan. They stated that the building would have no negative impact on the environment, that they have revised the plans to meet the Board's concerns and contended that it is difficult to be specific about what tenant(s) would occupy the building without having an approved building plan.
On the Secor Road side of the lot, developers will build access for delivery trucks to Balducci's and a cul de sac to allow large vehicles to turn around. This was a big cause for concern among the few residents who attended the meeting. They questioned what would occur if several trucks arrived at once for deliveries - where would they wait? The also questioned the width of the access road and were assured that the road would have mountable curbs to allow trucks to ride on top of the curbing. The owner of a home on Secor Road , Joseph Menton, asserted that the parking lot setbacks to Secor Road had been reduced to only 4 feet, and that the new lot would "take away the value of his property" as his home would no longer be shielded from commercial traffic.
He also stated that the current plan was not specific enough about the siting of the new lot in comparison to the present site and asked for clarity. He also requested that the Board require a ten foot screen between Secor Road and the parking lot. He vowed to go to the Board of Appeals if the Planning Board gave the go ahead to the developers.
Martin Kaufman of Heathcote Road said they he found the plan "disturbing" and said that the Board did not have sufficient information on the environmental and noise impact of converting Secor Road, a residential street, into an access road for the parking lot.
Chris Corrini, also of Heathcote Road voiced his concern about the possibility of a high-volume store, such as CVS coming to the Five Corners. David Karp, the Chairman of the Planning Board assured him that two traffic studies had been done and that both showed minimal impact. He asked the community to bring evidence to the contrary to the Board. In addition, Elizabeth Marrinan, Village Planner, told the group that large drug chains, like CVS, require more square footage on one level than will be available at the new building.
Following the public hearing, the Board met in a closed session and approved a "negative declaration" which will allow the developers to proceed with a site plan.
Please tell our readers about your background: I am originally from the Buffalo, NY area. I went to Hamilton College, and while there, spent a semester abroad in Ecuador. After college, I received my master's degree in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin. I had my first professional librarian job at the Jackson Heights Branch of the Queens Borough Public Library. Then, the San Antonio Public Library was recruiting librarians to work in their new Central Library. I started there as an entry-level librarian in the Reference Department and worked my way up through the library system. I became an assistant manager at a small branch library, then the manager, then moved to a larger branch, and eventually became the Central Library Administrator. After 12 years in San Antonio, I started investigating other possibilities. A friend of mine sent me the job description for the Ossining Public Library Director position in late 2006 and one thing led to another, and I took that job in May 2007 and moved to Westchester.
Why did you decide to make the move to the Scarsdale Library? I am always looking for ways to vary my experience. I have never served a community like Scarsdale and when the opportunity arose, I took it.
What is working well at the library now? I would say most things are working well, and a lot of that has to do with the staff. Their sense of teamwork is uncanny. I am very fortunate to have inherited employees who work so cooperatively. They are responsive to the community, appreciate the public and are professionals. They really know library services.
What could be improved? What changes would you like to make? I am talking one-on-one with the staff to get an idea of the changes they would like to see. Many of them have been here a long time and know our patrons very well. I see a need for some technological advancement and they are very open to that. I would like to update our website and try some of the latest trends in public libraries. I also see a need for more programs for adults, so we will work on that too. One change that is in the planning stages that I need to see through is the remodeling of the Teen Space. I want to make sure that we are giving Scarsdale teens what they want from the library and that we create a space just for them, in which they want to spend time.
What challenges do you face in your new role? Learning a new community and new processes are the most immediate challenges. I am also getting ready to create next year's budget, so there is a lot to learn in a short time. Of course, this isn't the best time budget-wise. I would also like to get the community involved in a strategic plan, so we can continue to meet the needs of the residents of Scarsdale.
Is library usage up in Westchester County due to the recession? Yes, library usage is up countywide as well as nationwide. You've probably seen a lot in the press lately about people turning to libraries for job searching and computer use, plus people are being thriftier about buying books and DVDs. They are also turning to the library for free programs for all ages.
How will the advent of digital publishing affect library operations? I think libraries cannot ignore the importance of digital publishing. Right now, our options are limited due to licensing, but I think that will change. In Westchester, we are fortunate that the IT department of the Westchester Library System (a consortium to which the Scarsdale Library belongs) is keeping track of these trends. In addition, I am the chair of a Technology Committee made up of several Westchester Library directors. We discuss ways the libraries can improve technologically and what trends we think we should follow.
What is happening with the Library Express book machine at the Scarsdale Train station? We hope that all the technological issues we were having have been solved. We are testing the equipment now, and hope to add the inventory to the online catalog and to the machine very soon. It is our hope to have it functioning by December 1st. Stay tuned--we will add information to our website soon. That will include a list of what's available in Library Express and some Frequently Asked Questions. Many people have asked us if it is a book drop. It is not--just materials that have been checked out from Library Express can be returned there. We will give people the opportunity to provide feedback on what kind of books they'd like to have available to them at the train station.
Anything else you would like to add? I would like the Scarsdale community to know that I am very excited to be working here. I think the Scarsdale Library has the good fortune to have supportive patrons who really appreciate their library. The staff and I look forward to working closely with our patrons to make sure we are giving them what they want and need from us. | slim_pajama |
it was demonstrated that optical near - field effects can be utilised to augment surface enhanced raman scattering ( sers ) intensity when light is traveling from the substrate ( usually glass ) into air or solution from where analyte molecules can attach to nano - islands of gold or other plasmonic metal @xcite .
this sers excitation geometry is usually referred to as back - side whereas the standard retro - reflection setup with laser beam irradiating a substrate with metal nanoparticles from the air / solution side is the front - side .
metal films nanometers in thickness deposited on different substrates have distinct formation morphologies defined by surface energy and deposition conditions .
percolation of individual islands takes place to form a film when thickness is typically exceeds 10 nm .
since back - side raman excitation can increase sers sensitivity by a factor of @xmath4 where @xmath5 is the refractive index of the substrate ( in reference to air or solution ) , it is of interest to explore properties of gold metal films at the percolation threshold , where interconnected metal islands produce the largest nano - groove openings .
the possible polarisation effects on light transmission through a random pattern of nano - grooves , its coupling into surface plasmon polaritons , as well as plasmon localization effects are all very relevant for control of sers performance .
recently , it was demonstrated that patterns of nanoparticles forming a metamaterial which can support a traveling surface wave are better suited for sers @xcite . also , randomness of a nanoparticle pattern in terms of their size and separation is advantageous for the spectrally broad - band performance and increased intensity in sers @xcite .
the percolation metal films studied here exhibit both randomness and surface interconnectivity .
when @xmath6 waveplates are made out of dielectric layers deposited on a flat surface , it should be possible to achieve effective back - side irradiation field enhancement conditions using standard front - side illumination . for the @xmath6 waveplate the phase shift of @xmath7 occurs for light which experiences reflection and a double pass in the film . by engineering reflectivity of the substrate and waveplate material with deposited gold films
, sers substrates can be realised with the added benefit of back - side augmentation of the local e - field of light .
such substrates can be straightforwardly used in upright raman microscopy tools , whilst making use of an increased sensitivity .
complex 3d columnar coatings acting as waveplates have nano - rough surfaces when grown by glanced angle deposition .
this feature has potential to be used for sers after plasmonic metal coating . here
, we report on the optical properties of gold films at the percolation threshold deposited on nanostructured sio@xmath1 , tio@xmath1 and mgf@xmath1 coatings formed by glanced angle deposition and under low vacuum conditions for their use as sers substrates .
such sensor surfaces are compatible with a practical fiber platform @xcite .
for experimental investigation six different samples were produced using a thin film deposition machine vera 1100 ( vtd , germany ) .
all the films were prepared on a silica substrate by first coating dielectrics as the base layer and subsequently depositing gold on top of them .
the inner structures and materials used for dielectric layers are summarized in table [ table : samples ] .
porosity in the dielectric films was due to intense gas - phase collisions in low @xmath8 pa vacuum during transport from the source to the substrates @xcite .
the tilted columnar thin film ( ctf ) structure was formed by using the the glancing angle deposition @xcite technique which is used to make ctf and chiral films with controlled porosity and birefringence ( fig .
[ f - intro](a , b ) ) .
the substrates were placed stationary above the evaporation source . by manipulating the substrate with dual step motors exceptional variety of achievable 3d film structures can be realized ( fig .
[ f - intro](c , d ) ) . as part of this work the angle between the vapour flux and the substrates was maintained at 60 or 70 degrees , depending on sample .
for the * t60*_tio@xmath1 and * t70*_tio@xmath1 samples the evaporation source was ti@xmath9o@xmath10 material heated using an electron beam .
a 300 nm thickness was coated at the evaporation rate of 2 / s . in order to achieve complete oxidation ,
an additional oxygen flow of 20 sccm was introduced into the chamber . for the * v*_mgf@xmath1 sample
the evaporation source was mgf@xmath11 material placed in a resistively heated tungsten boat .
for the production of vertical ctfs , the substrate was rotated about its axis at 1 rev / s .
the remainder of the substrate geometry was kept the same . in ctf manufacturing cases
the distance between the substrate and the evaporation source was maintained at 30 cm to ensure a collimated flux of vapour .
.summary of the materials used for dielectric layers and their inner structure .
the layers are porous ( p ) , columnar tilted ( t ) and vertical ( v ) .
ctf = columnar thin film . [ cols="^,^,^",options="header " , ] the top gold layer was evaporated in a separate process at the rate of 0.5 / s for all the samples simultaneously . a thickness between 10 and 20 nm was formed using a resistive evaporator .
a flat witness glass was used to control the process by monitoring the transmission at the wavelength of 600 nm . the evaporation process was stopped when the transmission reached the first minimum due to the percolation effect ( fig .
[ f - trans ] ) . and retardance @xmath12 .
( b ) retardance , @xmath13 , spectra presented in wavelength fractions @xmath14 for different samples with porous and columnar films ( table [ table : samples ] ) ; 1-mm - thick silica was used as a control sample .
inset shows schematics of the front - side sers measurements and a ccd image of a @xmath15m - diameter area on the sample which was integrated in order to determine the stokes parameters .
error bars are @xmath16 .
the dashed line is prediction of a linear dependence @xmath17 .
, width=321 ] polariscopy measurements were used to characterise the polarisation changes of light propagating through the columnar film and au coating .
the intensity of the transmitted light , @xmath18 , was measured using a @xmath19 waveplate and an analyser at different orientational angles @xmath20 and @xmath21 , respectively , according to @xcite : @xmath22 , \end{aligned}\ ] ] where @xmath21 and @xmath20 are the rotation angles of the fast axis of the polarizer and the waveplate with respect to the @xmath23-axis ( horizontal ) .
the four stokes parameters , @xmath24 , that define an arbitrary state of light polarisation , are determined by separate measurements with the waveplate and analyser at fixed angles of @xmath21 and @xmath20 , given by : @xmath25 it is usual to present stokes parameters as the poincar sphere with the retardation given by @xmath26 .
filters of 10 nm spectral bandwidth were used to select different central wavelengths from a white - light super - continuum laser ( superk compact , nkt photonics ) in the range from 400 to 800 nm and focused to a @xmath27 m spot on the sample .
the incident linearly polarised light was set at 45 degree polarization using a glan - taylor polarizer and was focused onto a region of the sample via an objective lens of numerical aperture @xmath28 ( @xmath29 , mitutoyo ) .
after the sample , an @xmath30 objective lens ( @xmath31 , mitutoyo ) was used to collect and collimate the transmitted light for polarisation analysis . the sample and the two objectives
were mounted on 2d positioning stages .
polarisation analysis was carried out after the second objective with an achromatic @xmath19-waveplate and a second glan - taylor polarizer .
phase retardation , @xmath13 , of the @xmath32 linear polarized beam ( i.e. the phase delay between the @xmath33 and @xmath34polarized light ) was measured as @xmath35 , where @xmath36 is the birefringence , @xmath37 is the thickness of the structure ( a film with au coating ) , and @xmath38 is the wavelength of light .
a tube lens and a @xmath39 pixel ccd were used for imaging and transmission measurements .
typical lateral resolution was @xmath40 m .
the setup was tested by measuring retardance of a commercial @xmath41-plate .
raman scattering spectra were acquired using an streamline raman microscope ( renishaw , uk ) under @xmath42 nm continuous wave laser excitation at @xmath43 mw total power , focused with an objective lens of numerical aperture @xmath44 .
the au layer was functionalized by immersing the substrates for 30 min in a 10 mm ethanolic thiophenol solution .
substrates where subsequently rinsed in ethanol , to remove thiophenol molecules not bound to au , and blow - dried with n@xmath11 .
near - field enhancement effects were probed by performing raman spectra acquisitions , both , with laser incidence from the thin - film deposition side ( front - side ) and by focusing on the au layer through the @xmath45 mm - thick glass substrate ( back - side ) .
for sers functionality nano - particles and nano - gaps are essential for light field enhancement at nanoscale - the generation of `` hot - spots '' .
gold films at the percolation threshold have a random pattern of openings , hence , nano - gaps which can be used as hot - spots in sers .
figure [ f - trans](a ) shows a typical au film coated over a sio@xmath1 porous layer ( sample @xmath46_sio@xmath1 ) .
this surface morphology corresponds to the local minimum in the transmission observed during deposition ( fig .
[ f - trans](b ) ) and is also observed when tio@xmath1 and mgf@xmath1 underlying dielectric coatings are used .
thickness of the gold film was 10 - 20 nm as could be estimated from sem images .
gold was evaporated directly onto the porous or ctfs and was loosely attached to the substrate .
a local transmission minimum occurs when transmission , @xmath47 , is approximately at a @xmath48-level ( for the normalised transmission ) .
the refractive index of gold at @xmath49 nm is @xmath50 , hence , the transmission through a thickness of @xmath51 nm is @xmath52 . for longer gold deposition durations
there is at first a slight increase in transmission , most probably due to an augmented forward scattering through the openings as result of fresnel reflection , before @xmath47 starts to continuously decrease once the openings are closed and the gold film grows in thickness .
columnar coatings deposited at large glancing angles exhibit nanoscale surface roughness and by applying a thin au coating they were prepared for sers .
polariscopy measurements were carried out to characterise the retardance of the coating with au film at the percolation threshold .
figure [ f - retar ] shows that an effective retardance measured in transmission was only 0.2 - 0.5% of the corresponding wavelength over the entire visible spectrum .
this is a very small number and the porous and columnar films served only as nano - rough substrates for sers .
it is noteworthy , that coatings corresponding to @xmath41 retardance would realise phase matching for constructive interference on the au surface ( inset in fig .
[ f - retar ] ) and can be used to augment sers intensity ( planned as a next step of this study ) .
the light reflected from the boundary ( inset in fig .
[ f - retar ] ) can be considered as a back - side sers excitation component , since it is propagating from the high to the low refractive index region , hence , the fresnel enhancement takes place @xcite .
thickness of the coating , @xmath37 , was measured from sem cross sectional images and was @xmath53 nm , which defines the birefringence @xmath54 for the measured @xmath55 at @xmath56 nm used in sers .
intriguingly , a very small birefringence was observed in the case of porous and vertical columnar structures ( fig .
[ f - retar ] ) for which isotropic , hence non - birefringent , film performance is expected . however , film deposition is a complex process governed by local temperature and material delivery peculiarities , hence
, local symmetry braking and anisotropy can be expected and related to the material flux .
for example , surface of the vertical columnar film ( fig .
[ f - intro](d ) ) clearly shows an anisotropy of nano - grain orientation on the top of the film .
thicker dielectric films will be made for experimental measurements of birefringence and will be related to the cross sectional morphology and porosity in a following study .
low sers signals were observed from thiophenol reporter molecule coated samples ( fig .
[ f - sers ] ) .
the back - side irradiation mode showed a strong fluorescence background ( fig .
[ f - sers](a ) ) .
the region - of - interest for thiophenol peaks on porous silica @xmath46_sio@xmath1 for the front- and back - side sers collection modes is shown in ( fig .
[ f - sers](b ) ) .
there was a recognisable difference between sers intensity for the two acquisition modes .
the sers intensity is normalised only to the transmission through the microscope and a front - side reflection is not taken into account for the data shown in fig .
[ f - sers ] for the back - side mode ( reflectivity of the air - surface is @xmath57 for intensity ) .
a slightly larger sers signal by a factor of 1.2 - 1.6 was observed for the back - side irradiation .
the reason of the enhancement is due to the local e - field amplitudes being different in the surface for the air - substrate and substrate - air cases @xcite .
for example , in the case of glass substrate for a back - side mode the amplitude of the transmitted light depends on the refractive index ratio between media of incidence and transmission ( @xmath58 vs @xmath59 ) as @xmath60 .
since sers enhancement factor depends on the local e - field intensity at the wavelength of excitation and scattering - the electromagnetic enhancement factor , @xmath61 - one can expect an augmented sers intensity by a factor of @xmath62 .
the strongest back - side enhancement was observed for a silica porous film which has a slightly larger refractive index than porous mgf@xmath1 : for a solid film it would correspond to 1.4 vs 1.2 .
interestingly , tilted column tio@xmath1 films ( deposition at 60 and 70 degrees ) showed almost identical sers intensity for both modes of excitation , most likely due to the negligible difference in retardance in both cases over the 300 nm thickness .
however , for the ctf structures , there is a possibility to control the local light field intensity on the interface where sers is measured by the phase control through film thickness and exploiting the zero phase shift for light traversing form the higher to lower refractive index region ( @xmath63 ) . earlier studies showed that sers intensity is proportional to the thickness of gold @xcite for measurements in reflection ( front - side mode ) .
formation of hot - spots in sers occurs when 3d morphology of the surface develops in thicker gold films .
if gold is coated over existing 3d nano - textured surfaces the hot - spots are formed in the crevices as demonstrated for well controlled 3d surface patterns @xcite . in this regard
the percolation nano - gaps are not as directly applicable for sers since they are mostly planar and formed on a flat substrate .
sers is typically measured on 100-nm - thick au coatings and up to 6 - 8 fold decrease in sers intensity is expected on 16 nm gold films .
sers intensity is also scales linearly with the solid collection angle and a low numerical aperture @xmath64 ( cone angle @xmath65 ) used in back - side sers measurements contributes to the lower signal @xcite
. the observed sers rate of 30 counts/(mw@xmath3s ) would be 3 times stronger for the popular @xmath66 ( cone angle @xmath67 ) acquisition mode .
this shows that the layer system of nanostructured dielectric and thin gold films used in this study can perform at the level of @xmath68 counts/(mw@xmath3s ) for the commonly used @xmath66 lens which is typical for many reported sers substrates .
further sers enhancement is achievable with formation of deep nano - grooves usually obtained on nano - rough substrates using thick ( @xmath69 nm ) metal coatings .
it has been demonstrated that thin @xmath0 nm gold coatings at the percolation threshold can be used as sers substrates .
re - scaled for acquisition with a typical @xmath66 objective lens , the sers intensity could reach @xmath68 counts/(mw@xmath3s ) , which is typical in the sers field .
the presence of the back - side sers intensity augmentation is confirmed for percolation films for the first time .
future work is required for fabricating sers substrates which are optimised for maximum e - field enhancement factors on the surface via the use of birefringent ctf @xmath41 plates and percolation coatings .
phase control via the thickness of the phase plate could bring a new means of sers control @xcite and can be implemented to improve the signal - to - noise ratio using sers signals from two different ctf regions .
such control would inherently require a percolation property of films for light transmission .
porosity and gas permeability of ctf could also find use in practical sers applications .
g. j. lee , y. p. lee , b. y. jung , s. g. jung , c. k. hwangbo , j. h. kim , and c. k. yoon , `` microstructural and nonlinear optical properties of thin silver films near the optical percolation threshold , '' _ j. korean phys
_ * 51*(4 ) , pp .
1555 1559 , 2007 .
a. v. kabashin , p. evans , s. pastkovsky , w. hendren , g. a. wurtz , r. atkinson , r. pollard , v. a. podolskiy , and a. v. zayats , `` plasmonic nanorod metamaterials for biosensing , '' _ nature materials _
* 8 * , pp . 867 871 , 2009 .
a. balytis , m. ryu , g. seniutinas , j. juodkazyt , b. c. c. cowie , p. r. stoddart , j. morikawa , and s. juodkazis , `` black - cuo : surface - enhanced raman scattering and infrared properties , '' _ nanoscale _ * 7*(43 ) , pp . 1829918304 , 2015 .
s. dinda , v. suresha , p. thoniyot , a. balytis , s. juodkazis , and s. krishnamoorthy , `` engineering 3d nanoplasmonic assemblies for high performance in spectroscopic sensing , '' _ acs appl .
interf . _ * 7*(50 ) , pp .
27661 27666 , 2015 . | arxiv |
vz cephei ( also known as bd + 70 1199 and gsc 04470 - 01334 ; @xmath9 , @xmath10 , j2000.0 ; @xmath11 ) was discovered photographically as a variable star by @xcite , who classified it to be of type `` is ? '' , a rapid irregular variable .
@xcite made the first spectral type assignment as g0 .
its discovery as an eclipsing binary is due to @xcite , who determined a period of 1.18336 days and showed it to have unequal minima .
the system was included by @xcite in his photometric surveys of eclipsing binary stars .
because of its relatively late spectral class , @xcite had it as a target in his program to search for late - type ( f k ) eclipsing binary stars .
he concluded on the basis of 4 spectrograms that both stellar components were likely hotter than g0 .
no determinations have been made of the physical properties of the stars , and the system has generally been neglected except for measurements of the times of eclipse made by a number of investigators since 1994 .
we began our investigation for the same reason popper did : to test theoretical predictions of the properties of low - mass stars .
we and other authors have previously found that in some of these binary systems the absolute properties are not well described by standard stellar evolution theory ( see , e.g. , * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
we find below that vz cep also shows some anomalies compared to standard models , even though its components are both more massive than the sun .
photometric times of minimum light of vz cep available from the literature are collected in table [ tab : minima ] .
eclipse ephemerides determined by weighted least squares separately from the 15 primary minima and the 13 secondary minima gave the same period within the errors .
a joint fit of all the measurements was then performed enforcing a common period but allowing the primary and secondary epochs to be free parameters .
scale factors for the internal errors were determined by iterations separately for the two types of measurements in order to achieve reduced @xmath12 values near unity .
this solution resulted in a phase difference between the two epochs of @xmath13 , not significantly different from 0.5 . for our final ephemeris
we imposed a circular orbit , and obtained @xmath14 the uncertainties of the fitted quantities in terms of the least significant digit are shown in parentheses .
the final scale factors for the published internal errors were similar to those in the previous fit , and were 1.38 for the primary and 2.42 for the secondary .
we adopt this ephemeris for the spectroscopic and photometric analyses below .
vz cep was placed on the observing list at the harvard - smithsonian center for astrophysics ( cfa ) in 2003 january , and was observed until 2007 june with an echelle spectrograph on the 1.5-m tillinghast reflector at the f. l. whipple observatory ( mount hopkins , az ) . a single echelle order 45 wide centered at 5188.5
was recorded with an intensified reticon photon - counting diode array , at a resolving power of @xmath15 .
the strongest lines in this window are those of the @xmath16 triplet .
a total of 39 spectra were obtained with signal - to - noise ratios ranging from 19 to 47 per resolution element of 8.5 kms@xmath17 .
radial velocities were measured with the two - dimensional cross - correlation technique todcor @xcite .
templates for the primary and secondary were selected from a large library of synthetic spectra based on model atmospheres by r. l.kurucz ( see also * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
these calculated spectra cover a wide range of effective temperatures ( @xmath18 ) , rotational broadenings ( @xmath19 when seen in projection ) , surface gravities ( @xmath20 ) , and metallicities .
solar metallicity was assumed throughout , along with initial values of @xmath21 for both components .
the temperatures and rotational velocities for the templates were determined by running extensive grids of two - dimensional cross - correlations and seeking the best correlation value averaged over all exposures , as described in more detail by @xcite .
the secondary component in vz cep is some 5 times fainter than the primary , and we were unable to determine its temperature independently .
we therefore adopted the results from other estimates described below , and chose the nearest value in our library , which is 5750 k. due to the narrow wavelength range of our spectra the derived temperatures are strongly correlated with the assumed surface gravities .
the secondary @xmath20 presented in [ sec : dimensions ] is very close to the value we assumed , but the primary @xmath20 is intermediate between 4.0 and 4.5 , so we repeated the calculations above using the lower value , and interpolated .
the results for the primary are @xmath22 k and @xmath23 kms@xmath17 , and for the secondary we obtain @xmath24 kms@xmath17 .
radial velocities were derived with template parameters near these values .
the stability of the zero - point of the cfa velocity system was monitored by means of exposures of the dusk and dawn sky , and small run - to - run corrections were applied in the manner described by @xcite .
possible systematics in the radial velocities that may result from residual line blending in our narrow spectral window , or from shifts of the spectral lines in and out of this window as a function of orbital phase , were investigated by performing numerical simulations as described by @xcite .
briefly , we generated artificial composite spectra by adding together copies of the two templates with scale factors in accordance with the light ratio reported below , and with doppler shifts for each star appropriate for each actual time of observation , computed from a preliminary orbital solution .
these simulated spectra were then processed with todcor in the same manner as the real spectra , and the input and output velocities were compared .
experience has shown that the magnitude of these effects is difficult to predict , and must be studied on a case - by - case basis .
corrections were determined for vz cep based on these simulations and were applied to the raw velocities .
the corrections for the primary star are small ( under 1 kms@xmath17 ) , but for the secondary they are as large as 11 kms@xmath17 , and as expected they vary systematically with orbital phase or radial velocity ( see figure [ fig : rvcorr ] ) .
similarly large corrections have been found occasionally for other systems using the same instrumentation ( e.g. , ad boo , gx gem ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
the impact of these corrections is quite significant for vz cep : the minimum masses increase by 4% for the primary and 1.9% for the secondary , and the mass ratio decreases by 2.1% .
the final velocities in the heliocentric frame , including the corrections for systematics , are listed in table [ tab : rvs ] and have typical uncertainties of 1.3 kms@xmath17 for the primary and 3.8 kms@xmath17 for the fainter secondary .
-0.5 in -0.25 in -0.7 in preliminary single - lined orbital solutions using the primary and secondary velocities separately indicated a zero - point difference between the two data sets ( i.e. , a difference in the systemic velocity @xmath25 ) , which is often seen by many investigators in cases where there is a slight mismatch between the templates used for the cross - correlations and the spectra of the real stars ( see , e.g. , * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
numerous tests with other templates did not remove the offset .
this most likely arises in our case because of stellar parameters ( particularly the rotation ) that fall in between the template parameters available in our library of synthetic spectra , which come in rather coarse steps of 10 kms@xmath17 at the high rotation rates of vz cep .
we therefore included this velocity offset as an additional free parameter in the double - lined orbital fit , and we verified that when doing so the velocity semi - amplitudes ( which determine the masses ) are insensitive to the exact template parameters within reasonable limits , and are essentially identical to those resulting from separate single - lined solutions .
our final orbital fit is presented in table [ tab : specorbit ] .
no indication of eccentricity was found , as expected for such a short period , so only a circular orbit was considered in the following .
a graphical representation of the observations and our best fit , along with the residuals , is shown in figure [ fig : rvorbit ] .
-0.1 in -0.2 in -0.1 in the light ratio between the primary and secondary was determined from our spectra following @xcite , accounting for the difference in line blocking between the primary and the much cooler secondary .
after corrections for systematics analogous to those described above , we obtained @xmath26 at the mean wavelength of our observations . a further adjustment to the visual band taking into account the temperature difference between vz
cep a and b was determined from synthetic spectra integrated over the @xmath0 passband and the spectral window of our observations , and resulted in @xmath27 .
differential photometry of vz cep was obtained at the ursa observatory on the university of arkansas campus at fayetteville , ar .
the ursa observatory sits atop kimpel hall and consists of a meade f/6.3 , 10-inch schmidt - cassegrain telescope with a santa barbara instruments group st8en ccd camera inside a technical innovations robodome , all controlled by a macintosh g4 computer in an adjacent control room inside the building .
the field of view is 20@xmath28 .
images of vz cep ( @xmath29 ) and the two comparison stars gsc 04470 - 01497 ( @xmath30 ) and gsc 04470 - 01622 ( @xmath31 ) , both of which are within 6 of the target , were taken with typical integration times of 60 seconds through a bessell @xmath0 filter . with an overhead of about 30 seconds to download the images from the camera ,
the observing cadence was typically 90 seconds per image .
a `` virtual measuring engine '' application written by lacy was used to determine the brightness of the variable and comparison stars , to subtract off the sky brightness , and to correct for differences in airmass .
a total of 5473 images were gathered between 2001 march 5 and 2003
september 7 .
differential magnitudes were formed between the variable star and the magnitude corresponding to the sum of the fluxes of the two comparison stars . these are listed in table [ tab : photometry ] , and shown graphically in figure [ fig : photometry ] along with our modeling described below .
expanded views of the primary and secondary eclipse are given in figure [ fig : photometry1 ] and figure [ fig : photometry2 ] .
the typical precision of these measurements is about 0.007 mag , which is comparable to that expected from photon statistics ( @xmath80.006 mag ) .
the comparison stars are not known to be variable .
the mean magnitude difference between the two was constant with a standard deviation of 0.0095 mag over 67 nights , which is what would be expected for individual magnitudes with a typical error of 0.007 mag .
a lomb - scargle periodogram analysis of the individual differences was performed to search for periodic signals in either star , but none were detected .
-0.6 in -0.1 in -0.75 in -0.6 in -0.1 in -0.75 in -0.6 in -0.1 in -0.75 in we have previously found @xcite that the ursa photometry is significantly improved by removal of small nightly zero - point variations .
thus 67 nightly corrections were made to the original magnitudes based on a preliminary photometric orbital fit .
this procedure reduced the residual standard deviation by about 15% , a small but significant amount .
examination of these offsets , which are typically smaller than 0.01 mag , revealed no detectable pattern as a function of orbital phase .
such a pattern might be expected , for instance , if there were perturbations in the light curve due to spots on either star ( assuming synchronous rotation ) .
we thus consider the nightly offsets to be instrumental in nature .
the corrected photometry was fitted with the nde model @xcite , with all observations being assigned equal weight . in this model
the stars are represented as biaxial ellipsoids , and despite the relatively large radius of the primary of vz cep relative to the separation ( see below ) , its ellipticity of 0.016 , as defined by @xcite , is still well below the maximum tolerance of 0.04 @xcite , and thus the model is expected to be adequate for this case .
we return to this below .
we used the jktebop implementation of @xcite with a linear limb - darkening law , consistent with our findings @xcite that with the amount and precision of our data , non - linear limb - darkening laws do not improve the accuracy of the fits significantly .
the following quantities were allowed to vary in this unconstrained solution : the central surface brightness @xmath32 of the secondary ( cooler ) star relative to the primary , the sum of relative radii @xmath33 , the ratio of radii @xmath34 , the orbital inclination @xmath35 , the limb - darkening coefficients @xmath36 and @xmath37 , a phase offset , and the magnitude at quadrature .
the following quantities were kept fixed : the orbital eccentricity @xmath38 , the mass ratio from the spectroscopic solution @xmath39 , and the gravity brightening exponents @xmath40 and @xmath41 , set by the temperatures and surface gravities following @xcite .
the uncertainties of the adjustable parameters were estimated with a monte carlo technique in which we generated 500 synthetic light curves , solved for the parameters , and calculated the standard error of each parameter .
this process yielded uncertainty estimates accurate to two significant digits , which is sufficient for our purposes .
these `` unconstrained '' results are given in table [ tab : ebopfits ] .
tests allowing for non - zero eccentricity and third light gave statistically insignificant values for those quantities .
-0.05 in -0.15 in 0.2 in the @xmath0-band light ratio @xmath42 from this fit is consistent with our spectroscopic value from [ sec : spectroscopy ] , but formally less precise . in similar systems with partial
eclipses , the _ accuracy _ of the parameters ( more than their precision ) is sometimes compromised because of strong correlations among variables and the relatively flat bottom of the @xmath12 surface in the least - squares problem ( see , e.g. , * ? ? ?
in such systems it is often the case that more accurate results are obtained by applying the spectroscopic light ratio as an external constraint .
we have done this here by first computing a grid of solutions for a range of fixed values of @xmath43 .
we then interpolated in the smooth relation obtained between the light ratio and @xmath43 to our value of @xmath44 , and derived @xmath45 .
interpolations of all other quantities to this value of @xmath43 were then carried out .
this is illustrated in figure [ fig : constraint ] for some of the key light - curve parameters .
note that @xmath46 , the rms residual of the fit , changes very little for @xmath43 between 0.65 and 0.75 , demonstrating that the radius ratio can not be determined accurately from photometry alone without an external constraint .
the results for the light curve parameters from this constrained fit are listed in table [ tab : ebopfits ] , and are adopted for further use .
the uncertainties have been propagated directly from the error in the spectroscopic light ratio ( see figure [ fig : constraint ] ) , and include also a contribution from the statistical uncertainties derived from a separate solution in which @xmath43 was fixed at the best - fit value and all other parameters were left free .
the fitted linear limb - darkening coefficients from this constrained solution tend to be somewhat smaller than predicted by theory .
we find , for example , marginal differences of 0.10 ( @xmath81.3@xmath46 ) for both stars compared to the calculations by @xcite , and more significant differences of 0.19 ( 2.5@xmath46 ) compared to the coefficients by @xcite .
these differences are similar in magnitude ( and in this particular case , of the same sign ) as those reported , e.g. , by @xcite , and may be due to shortcomings in the theoretical model atmospheres although observational errors can not be ruled out . for further comparisons between theory and observations
the reader is referred to the recent work of @xcite .
adopting coefficients from the tables by @xcite leads to values of the relative radii that are larger by 1.1% for the primary and 1.7% for the secondary ( 1.6@xmath46 and 0.5@xmath46 , respectively ) . as a test of the reliability of the geometric parameters
, we carried out solutions with two other light - curve modeling programs that are more sophisticated than the one we have used .
one is the wink program @xcite , which adopts a better approximation to the stellar shapes as triaxial ellipsoids , rather than the simpler biaxial ellipsoids in ebop , and includes a more detailed treatment of reflection effects .
the version we used has been modified and extended as described by @xcite , @xcite , and @xcite .
the other program is the wilson - devinney code ( wd ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ) in its most recent ( 2007 ) release , which uses roche geometry .
light curve solutions with these two codes were performed for a fixed value of @xmath47 ( as closely as allowed by the different input quantities ) to permit a direct comparison with our constrained jktebop fit , and with the same limb - darkening law and coefficients as used earlier .
the wink fit delivered marginally smaller relative radii that differ from our jktebop results by @xmath48 and @xmath49 ( i.e. , less than 0.4% ) , and an inclination angle that was only @xmath50 larger .
the wd fit gave @xmath51 , @xmath49 , and @xmath52 .
these results are thus not significantly different from those of the simpler model we have used , as expected from the relatively small ellipticity of the stars mentioned earlier . the individual temperatures were determined from the central surface brightness parameter @xmath32 slightly adjusted for limb darkening to correspond to the disk average ( see , e.g. , * ? ? ?
* ) , the absolute visual flux scale of @xcite , and an estimate of the mean system temperature used as the initial value for the primary .
the latter was then improved by iteration until convergence .
the mean system temperature is based on accurate strmgren photometry for vz cep reported by @xcite .
interstellar reddening was estimated using the calibration of @xcite and the method of @xcite , which resulted in @xmath53 and an intrinsic color index of @xmath54 .
the calibration by @xcite was then used to derive a mean system temperature of @xmath55 k , assuming solar metallicity .
the individual temperatures derived in this way are @xmath56 k and @xmath57 k for the primary and secondary , respectively , which correspond to spectral types of approximately f3 and g4 @xcite .
the primary @xmath18 is identical to our spectroscopic estimate in
[ sec : spectroscopy ] .
the temperature difference based the light curve is of course better determined than the absolute values : @xmath58 k. use of a different color / temperature calibration for inferring the mean system temperature , such as that by @xcite , yields results only @xmath830 k hotter .
the spectroscopic and photometric solutions above lead to the masses and radii given in table [ tab : absolute ] .
also included are the predicted projected rotational velocities , calculated under the assumption of synchronism with the orbital motion .
the secondary value is consistent with our measured @xmath19 from [ sec : spectroscopy ] , but the expected value of @xmath59 kms@xmath17 for the primary seems somewhat larger than our spectroscopic estimate of @xmath23 kms@xmath17 . at face value
this would indicate sub - synchronous rotation of that component , which is unexpected in a short - period binary such as vz cep . since the primary star dominates the light of the system , we investigated the possibility that there might be a photometric signal produced , for instance , by rotational modulation from surface features on that component .
for this we examined the residuals from our adopted light curve solution .
a lomb - scargle power spectrum did not indicate any significant periodicities within a factor of two of the orbital frequency , although the primary star is likely to be too hot for spots to be important ( see [ sec : discussion ] ) .
there are no measurements of the chemical abundance of vz cep .
our own spectroscopy is inadequate for this , and the combined - light strmgren indices along with the calibration by @xcite indicate [ fe / h ] @xmath60 , in which the uncertainties include photometric errors as well as the scatter of the calibration .
the _ hipparcos _
catalog @xcite has no entry for vz cep and no trigonometric parallax is available . from its radiative properties
as measured here we find the distance to the system to be @xmath61 pc ( similar distances are obtained separately for each component , indicating the consistency of the measured properties ) .
discrepancies described in the next section between our effective temperature estimates and the @xmath18 values predicted by stellar evolution models prompted us to attempt a deconvolution of the combined - light photometry of vz cep , as a check on both the color excess and the temperature difference between the components .
we used tables of standard strmgren indices by @xcite and @xcite , and synthesized binary stars for a range of primary indices and a fixed @xmath0-band light ratio given by our spectroscopic estimate of @xmath27 .
we explored a wide range of @xmath62 values . at each reddening we determined the intrinsic indices for the primary and secondary that provide the best match to the system values of @xmath63 , @xmath64 , @xmath65 , and @xmath66 as measured by @xcite , in the @xmath12 sense .
we found the best agreement for @xmath67 , in excellent accord with our earlier determination based on the combined light .
the measured @xmath63 , @xmath65 , and @xmath66 indices are reproduced to well within their uncertainties , and @xmath64 is within 1.8@xmath46 .
making use of the same color / temperature calibration by @xcite invoked earlier , the intrinsic indices for each star from this photometric deconvolution yield temperatures of 6670 k and 5690 k , once again in very good agreement with the light curve results .
the temperature difference from this exercise is @xmath68 k.
the absolute masses of vz cep have formal relative errors of 1% or better .
the radius of the primary is similarly well determined , while that of the faint secondary is good to about 3.7% .
these values along with the temperatures are compared here with stellar evolution models from the yonsei - yale series @xcite . in figure
[ fig : radteff ] the measurements are shown in the @xmath69 vs.@xmath18 plane against evolutionary tracks computed for the measured masses and for solar metallicity ( @xmath70 in these models , indicated with solid lines ) .
the shaded areas represent the uncertainty in the location of each track due to the measurement errors in the masses @xmath71 and @xmath72 .
while the primary track is in good agreement with our temperature determination for that star , the secondary track is too hot .
adjustment of the chemical composition of the models to @xmath73 ( corresponding to [ fe / h ] @xmath74 ) provides the fit shown with the dotted lines .
this fit is marginally consistent with our temperature error bars in the figure , but the agreement is misleading since the temperature _ difference _ is much better determined than the error bars appear to indicate .
the best - fit age for this metallicity is 1.6 gyr , and the corresponding isochrone is indicated with a dashed curve .
-0.4 in -0.35 in -0.3 in figure [ fig : massrad ] shows the measurements in the mass - radius diagram against the same set of models .
the dashed line represents the same isochrone shown before , and the solid line is an isochrone for solar metallicity that provides the best fit , in this case for a slightly younger age of 1.4 gyr . both are seen to represent the measurements equally well .
-0.4 in -0.35 in -0.3 in these comparisons suggest that the models correctly predict the radii of the stars at the measured masses , but that the temperature of the secondary is underestimated by a significant amount .
tests with a different series of models by @xcite gave similar results .
vz cep stands out among the f stars as one of the eclipsing binaries with the largest difference in mass between the components ( @xmath75 ) , which provides extra leverage for testing stellar evolution models .
there are no less than five other systems with well determined properties ( bw aqr b , v1143 cyg a , bp vul b , v442 cyg b , and ad boo a ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
* ) that have at least one component nearly identical in mass to the primary of vz cep ( i.e. , within 1% )
. however , these stars are all in very different evolutionary states so that their radii span a range of 33% and their effective temperatures differ by up to 360 k. they are therefore of little help in understanding the discrepancies with theory noted above for vz cep .
only one other well measured binary has one component with a mass similar to that of the secondary of vz cep , but that star ( ek cep b ) is considered to be in the pre - main sequence stage @xcite .
figure [ fig : radteff ] highlights the main disagreement between the models and the measurements for vz cep , which is that the temperature difference predicted from theory for the measured masses and surface gravities is much smaller than all of our estimates .
solar metallicity models , which appear to fit the properties of the primary well , indicate @xmath76 k , and this is reduced further to 660 k when considering the higher metallicity of @xmath73 .
the uncertainty in these determinations is difficult to quantify , but a useful measure may be obtained by propagating the uncertainty in the measured masses , which results in @xmath7750 k. uncertainties from physical inputs to the models are unlikely to add much to this due to the differential nature of the comparison . in this paper
we have made three empirical determinations of @xmath78 , as follows : 1 ) @xmath79 k , based on the @xmath32 value from our light - curve analysis along with the visual flux scale of @xcite and our spectroscopic brightness ratio ( used as an external constraint ) ; 2 ) @xmath80 k , from photometric deconvolution based on the measured strmgren indices and the spectroscopic brightness ratio ( [ sec : dimensions ] ) , along with the color / temperature calibrations of @xcite ; 3 ) @xmath81 k , directly from a primary temperature estimate based on spectroscopy ( [ sec : spectroscopy ] ) and an assumed temperature for the secondary similar to estimates for that star from the other two methods .
while these three determinations are not completely independent , their consistency despite the widely different ingredients reinforces our conclusion that the model @xmath82 is at least @xmath8250 k too small .
stellar evolution models have been shown previously to overestimate the effective temperatures of low - mass stars in eclipsing binaries by up to @xmath8200 k ( e.g. , * ? ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
the study of v1061 cyg by @xcite suggested that the problem is not confined to m dwarfs , but extends up to masses almost as large as that of the sun ( 0.93 m@xmath2 in the case of v1061 cyg b ) . at the same time , the radii of these stars appear too large compared to theory , and both discrepancies are generally attributed to the effects of stellar activity in these short - period , tidally synchronized and rapidly rotating systems .
there is little doubt that the vz cep system is active , judging by its strong x - ray emission as recorded by rosat @xcite .
we estimate its x - ray luminosity to be @xmath83 ( where @xmath84 is in cgs units ) , and @xmath85 .
for the sun ranges between 26.4 and 27.7 during the activity cycle @xcite , and @xmath86 ranges between @xmath87 and @xmath88 . ]
the mass of vz cep b is slightly larger than that of the sun , but it still has a thin convective envelope representing about 1.3% of the total mass , which suggests that star may in fact be responsible for most of the x - ray emission given that the primary has no convective envelope .
another indication is given by the rossby numbers of the stars ( ratio @xmath89 between the convective turnover time and the rotational period ) .
for the primary we estimate @xmath90 , which according to ( * ? ?
* fig . 6 ) clearly places it among the inactive stars .
the secondary , on the other hand , has @xmath91 .
stars in this regime tend to be very active and have photometric variability due to spots with amplitudes as large as @xmath80.4 mag .
detection of this expected variability is difficult in vz cep because of the faintness of the secondary .
nevertheless , we examined the nightly residuals from our adopted solution near the primary minimum , where the contrast is more favorable , and we see only occasional systematic deviations on one or two nights .
however , similar deviations are seen at the secondary eclipse , and also outside of eclipse , which leads us to believe these are residual instrumental errors rather than real changes in the light level caused by spottedness on the secondary ( see [ sec : photometry ] ) .
if we consider the properties of the primary of vz cep to be relatively well described by theory for a metallicity near solar , then the secondary shows a temperature difference compared to models in the same direction as mentioned above for other active stars ( i.e. , lower than predicted ) .
however , we see no indication that its radius is larger than predicted ( figure [ fig : massrad ] ) , which we would have expected not only from the evidence displayed by other systems but also from recent theoretical studies of the effects of chromospheric activity ( e.g. , * ? ?
* ; * ? ? ?
as described in previous sections , we have carried out a variety of tests to explore the possibility of systematic errors in our mass , radius , or temperature determinations , including a careful examination of biases in our velocity measurements , and sanity checks of our light - curve analysis with results from more sophisticated modeling programs .
we were unable to demonstrate any significant errors that would explain the discrepancies in the preceding paragraph .
for example , matching the model @xmath78 with the @xmath82 measured from the light curve would require a change in the mass ratio to @xmath92 , much lower than allowed by the spectroscopy , regardless of the choice of cross - correlation templates ( see [ sec : spectroscopy ] ) .
conversely , deriving a smaller temperature difference from the light curve to match the models would require an increase in @xmath32 to values that are unrealistic and would bring strong disagreement with the light ratio from spectroscopy .
additionally , this would leave the other two empirical estimates of @xmath78 unchanged , and a discrepancy would remain .
as indicated earlier , we see no evidence for third light at a level that would make much difference .
the adjustments required in each of the quantities mentioned above , and others we experimented with , are so large compared to the uncertainties that a combination of effects is unlikely to resolve the issue either . at the suggestion of the referee ,
we show in figure [ fig : baraffe ] a comparison with an alternate set of models by @xcite , which allows us to explore the effect of differences in the mixing length parameter @xmath93 .
previous studies of the radius and temperature discrepancies for active low - mass stars have indicated that a value of @xmath93 lower than appropriate for the sun , representing a reduced overall convective efficiency , provides a much better match to the observations of these objects .
consequently , we show a solar - metallicity evolutionary track for a solar - like mixing length parameter for the radiative primary ( @xmath94 in these models ) , and tracks for three values of the mixing length parameter for the secondary star ( @xmath94 , 1.5 , and 1.0 ) , which , as mentioned earlier , we believe to be the more active member of the system . for reference , triangles on each track mark the age of 1.4 gyr , which we found in figure [ fig : radteff ] to provide the best match for @xmath95 using the yonsei - yale models . the @xcite model for the primary
is seen to be similar to the corresponding solar - metallicity yonsei - yale model ( dashed line , reproduced from figure [ fig : radteff ] ) . a reduction of the mixing length parameter for the secondary star leads to the expected systematic decrease in effective temperature , and an increase in radius .
a secondary model with @xmath93 between 1.0 and 1.5 , when paired with the standard @xmath94 model for the primary , would appear to give approximately the correct temperature difference for the system .
however , the measured radius of vz cep b is somewhat smaller than predicted , in agreement with our earlier conclusion that this star appears normal in size ( compared to standard models ) .
the 13% difference between our measured @xmath19 for the primary and the predicted synchronous velocity is somewhat puzzling , and is significant at the 2.5-@xmath46 confidence level .
we do not believe errors in the spectroscopic measurements are to blame since all 39 of our individual spectra consistently give values smaller than predicted .
a reduction in the predicted value could be accomplished with an increase in @xmath43 , but it would have to be much larger than allowed by our photometric solutions , and would once again bring disagreement between the photometric and spectroscopic light ratios . at the moment we are unable to offer an explanation for the differences noted above , and based on the tests just described we are inclined to believe that the measurements are accurate and that the system is affected in some way that the models do not account for , most likely having to do with chromospheric activity .
it would also appear that our understanding of the effects of chromospheric activity ( reduced convective efficiency , spot coverage ) on the global properties of stars is still incomplete , since we see here only the effect on the temperature predicted by recent models that account for these phenomena @xcite , but not the effect on the radius .
vz cep thus presents a challenge to theory .
further progress in understanding these differences may be made by obtaining complete light curves in multiple passbands , which would give a better handle on the temperature issue .
higher signal - to - noise ratio spectroscopy would also help in refining the @xmath19 measurements for the primary and secondary , in constraining the abundance , and perhaps also in providing a more direct determination of the effective temperatures and revealing whether emission is present .
the spectroscopic observations of vz cep used in this paper were obtained with the expert assistance of p. berlind , m. calkins , d.w .
latham , and r. p. stefanik .
r. j. davis is thanked for maintaining the cfa echelle database .
we are grateful to the referee , j. v. clausen , for a prompt , detailed , and very helpful report .
gt acknowledges partial support for this work from nsf grant ast-0708229 .
chsl would like to thank university of arkansas graduate student kathryn d. hicks for a preliminary analysis of the photometry and radial velocities of vz cep .
this research has made use of the simbad database , operated at cds , strasbourg , france , and of nasa s astrophysics data system abstract service .
lcccc 49567.42210 & 1 & 0.0003 & @xmath960.00067 & 1 + 51608.72370 & 1 & 0.0003 & @xmath970.00023 & 2 + 52038.87680 & 2 & 0.0005 & @xmath970.00012 & 3 + 52044.79410 & 2 & 0.0005 & @xmath960.00036 & 3 + 52051.89410 & 2 & 0.0005 & @xmath960.00018 & 3 + 52054.85215 & 1 & 0.00011 & @xmath960.00008 & 3 + 52073.78570 & 1 & 0.0002 & @xmath970.00019 & 3 + 52076.74440 & 2 & 0.0003 & @xmath970.00016 & 3 + 52079.70300 & 1 & 0.0003 & @xmath960.00029 & 3 + 52080.88604 & 1 & 0.00019 & @xmath970.00003 & 3 + 52093.90270 & 1 & 0.0005 & @xmath970.00038 & 3 + 52108.69630 & 2 & 0.0003 & @xmath960.00092 & 3 + 52111.65270 & 1 & 0.0006 & @xmath970.00083 & 3 + 52112.83709 & 1 & 0.00014 & @xmath960.00019 & 3 + 52114.61500 & 2 & 0.0006 & @xmath960.00280 & 3 + 52154.84470 & 2 & 0.0004 & @xmath970.00187 & 3 + 52159.58000 & 2 & 0.0010 & @xmath970.00002 & 3 + 52166.67970 & 2 & 0.0003 & @xmath970.00051 & 3 + 52179.69710 & 2 & 0.0003 & @xmath970.00011 & 3 + 52233.54070 & 1 & 0.0004 & @xmath960.00070 & 3 + 52277.32429 & 1 & 0.00007 & @xmath970.00017 & 4 + 52463.70530 & 2 & 0.0003 & @xmath960.00079 & 5 + 52464.88810 & 2 & 0.0003 & @xmath960.00022 & 5 + 52482.63870 & 2 & 0.0005 & @xmath960.00037 & 5 + 52518.73064 & 1 & 0.00019 & @xmath970.00003 & 5 + 53366.01950 & 1 & 0.0002 & @xmath960.00037 & 6 + 53658.30900 & 1 & 0.0006 & @xmath970.00098 & 7 + 54009.76910 & 1 & 0.0001 & @xmath960.00008 & 8 + [ -1.5ex ] lccccc 52661.5709 & @xmath96106.35 & @xmath97149.88 & @xmath961.69 & @xmath962.71 & 0.707 + 52808.9615 & @xmath97127.46 & @xmath96139.25 & @xmath961.12 & @xmath973.40 & 0.259 + 52828.9269 & @xmath9796.88 & @xmath96102.39 & @xmath960.15 & @xmath970.32 & 0.131 + 52834.9798 & @xmath97127.64 & @xmath96147.21 & @xmath961.10 & @xmath964.36 & 0.246 + 52885.8243 & @xmath97126.22 & @xmath96134.87 & @xmath970.81 & @xmath973.76 & 0.212 + 52894.8309 & @xmath9696.39 & @xmath97136.82 & @xmath970.31 & @xmath965.69 & 0.823 + 52924.7873 & @xmath97100.02 & @xmath96112.30 & @xmath960.34 & @xmath965.38 & 0.138 + 52951.7261 & @xmath9657.66 & @xmath97102.06 & @xmath970.97 & @xmath977.73 & 0.902 + 52958.6957 & @xmath96105.49 & @xmath97155.58 & @xmath960.59 & @xmath972.69 & 0.792 + 53013.5806 & @xmath97114.11 & @xmath96129.47 & @xmath960.78 & @xmath964.16 & 0.172 + 53182.9448 & @xmath97125.76 & @xmath96138.43 & @xmath971.35 & @xmath961.06 & 0.293 + 53185.9637 & @xmath9688.37 & @xmath97131.20 & @xmath970.31 & @xmath961.16 & 0.845 + 53186.9164 & @xmath9688.42 & @xmath97133.24 & @xmath962.37 & @xmath974.21 & 0.650 + 53189.9839 & @xmath97129.03 & @xmath96137.70 & @xmath970.41 & @xmath974.99 & 0.242 + 53191.8776 & @xmath9689.70 & @xmath97128.04 & 0.00 & @xmath965.61 & 0.842 + 53192.9211 & @xmath96106.23 & @xmath97154.75 & @xmath971.14 & @xmath961.27 & 0.724 + 53215.9246 & @xmath97112.11 & @xmath96119.86 & @xmath970.73 & @xmath971.02 & 0.163 + 53218.8991 & @xmath9694.48 & @xmath97137.57 & @xmath972.02 & @xmath964.69 & 0.677 + 53271.6999 & @xmath97122.28 & @xmath96137.26 & @xmath961.64 & @xmath960.51 & 0.296 + 53272.7658 & @xmath97122.11 & @xmath96134.75 & @xmath970.01 & @xmath960.31 & 0.197 + 53274.6998 & @xmath9694.19 & @xmath97144.23 & @xmath960.17 & @xmath975.11 & 0.831 + 53275.7597 & @xmath96104.75 & @xmath97162.66 & @xmath972.93 & @xmath976.25 & 0.727 + 53281.7191 & @xmath96107.50 & @xmath97158.17 & @xmath971.13 & @xmath970.56 & 0.763 + 53282.8175 & @xmath96100.85 & @xmath97144.52 & @xmath960.05 & @xmath963.18 & 0.691 + 53301.7530 & @xmath96100.90 & @xmath97147.17 & @xmath970.28 & @xmath961.01 & 0.692 + 53333.7365 & @xmath96106.56 & @xmath97150.44 & @xmath970.27 & @xmath964.89 & 0.720 + 53335.6589 & @xmath97109.05 & @xmath96117.57 & @xmath970.46 & @xmath960.23 & 0.344 + 53336.6417 & @xmath97116.21 & @xmath96124.74 & @xmath970.51 & @xmath971.60 & 0.175 + 53339.6764 & @xmath96108.41 & @xmath97157.55 & @xmath970.30 & @xmath960.16 & 0.739 + 53630.7663 & @xmath96106.36 & @xmath97156.85 & @xmath971.07 & @xmath970.75 & 0.724 + 53636.7401 & @xmath96108.74 & @xmath97160.82 & @xmath960.93 & @xmath974.24 & 0.773 + 53690.6534 & @xmath97112.94 & @xmath96127.71 & @xmath960.49 & @xmath964.24 & 0.332 + 53691.7072 & @xmath97127.60 & @xmath96134.58 & @xmath970.62 & @xmath976.04 & 0.222 + 54042.6132 & @xmath96111.73 & @xmath97160.65 & @xmath962.80 & @xmath972.66 & 0.755 + 54043.7068 & @xmath9698.06 & @xmath97145.42 & @xmath960.68 & @xmath972.05 & 0.679 + 54074.5790 & @xmath96106.66 & @xmath97154.30 & @xmath971.60 & @xmath962.85 & 0.768 + 54103.5713 & @xmath97127.62 & @xmath96139.12 & @xmath960.44 & @xmath972.87 & 0.268 + 54279.9427 & @xmath97121.65 & @xmath96138.43 & @xmath971.19 & @xmath966.07 & 0.310 + 54282.8950 & @xmath96105.11 & @xmath97148.54 & @xmath963.09 & @xmath960.71 & 0.805 + [ -1.5ex ] lc + @xmath98 ( days ) & 1.18336377 + @xmath99 ( hjd@xmath972,400,000 ) & 52,277.32446 + @xmath100 ( kms@xmath17 ) & 118.88 @xmath77 0.22 + @xmath101 ( kms@xmath17 ) & 150.48 @xmath77 0.67 + @xmath25 ( kms@xmath17 ) & @xmath102 @xmath77 0.21 + @xmath103 ( kms@xmath17 ) & @xmath104 @xmath77 0.65 + + @xmath105 ( m@xmath2 ) & 1.339 @xmath77 0.013 + @xmath106 ( m@xmath2 ) & 1.0577 @xmath77 0.0064 + @xmath107 & 0.7900 @xmath77 0.0038 + @xmath108 ( 10@xmath109 km ) & 1.9345 @xmath77 0.0036 + @xmath110 ( 10@xmath109 km ) & 2.4487 @xmath77 0.0109 + @xmath111 ( r@xmath2 ) & 6.298 @xmath77
0.016 + + @xmath112 & 39 + time span ( days ) & 1621.3 + @xmath113 ( kms@xmath17 ) & 1.27 + @xmath114 ( kms@xmath17 ) & 3.82 + [ -1.0ex ] lcc @xmath32 & 0.495 @xmath77 0.010 & 0.4920 @xmath77 0.0013 + @xmath115 & 0.717 @xmath77 0.041 & 0.680 @xmath77 0.030 + @xmath33 & 0.4077 @xmath77 0.0043 & 0.4028 @xmath77 0.0077 + @xmath116 & 0.2374 @xmath77 0.0033 & 0.2398 @xmath77 0.0017 + @xmath117 & 0.1703 @xmath77 0.0073 & 0.1630 @xmath77
0.0061 + @xmath36 & 0.499 @xmath77 0.075 & 0.420 @xmath77 0.076 + @xmath37 & 0.581 @xmath77 0.059 & 0.500 @xmath77 0.076 + @xmath35 ( deg ) & 79.47 @xmath77 0.44 & 79.97 @xmath77 0.45 + @xmath118 & 0.802 @xmath77 0.022 & 0.820 @xmath77 0.014 + @xmath42 & 0.246 @xmath77 0.033 & 0.220 @xmath77 0.020 + @xmath119 ( mmag ) & 7.4400 & 7.4365 + @xmath112 & 5473 & 5473 + [ -1.0ex ] lcc mass ( m@xmath2 ) & 1.402 @xmath77 0.015 & 1.1077 @xmath77 0.0083 + radius ( r@xmath2 ) & 1.534 @xmath77 0.012 & 1.042 @xmath77 0.039 + @xmath20 ( cgs ) & 4.2130 @xmath77 0.0080 & 4.446 @xmath77 0.033 + temperature ( k ) & 6670 @xmath77 160 & 5720 @xmath77 120 + @xmath120 ( l@xmath2 ) & 0.634 @xmath77 0.041 & 0.026 @xmath77 0.050 + @xmath19 ( kms@xmath17 ) & 57 @xmath77 3 & 50 @xmath77 10 + @xmath121 ( kms@xmath17 ) & 64.6 @xmath77 0.5 & 43.9 @xmath77 1.6 + @xmath122 ( r@xmath2 ) & + distance ( pc ) & + @xmath123 ( mag ) & 3.18 @xmath77 0.10 & 4.68 @xmath77 0.12 + @xmath124 ( mag ) & 3.16 @xmath77 0.11 & 4.77 @xmath77 0.12 + [ -1.5ex ] | arxiv |
How can velocity and momentum be in opposite direction for antiparticles as given in the solutions of Klein-Gordon Equation?
This is given in Greiner, Relativistic Quantum Mechanics
>
> For a free particle solution and antiparticle solution with momentum $\vec{p}$ the current is given by $e\frac{c^2\vec{p}}{E\_p}$. The current is same for both particles and antiparticles.
> But why are the currents for particle and antiparticle with energy $E\_p$ and momentum $\vec{p}$ equal although the charges are different? The reason is that for antiparticles with momentum $\vec{p}$ the velocity operator is $-c^2\vec{p}/E\_p$, i.e. velocity and momentum have opposite directions. One says that the antiparticles move "backwards in time".
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My question is:
How can velocity and momentum of antiparticles be opposite in direction as given in the paragraph? $\vec{p}=\gamma m\_0\vec{v}$ where the symbols have their usual meanings. So velocity and momentum should be in the same direction. It also states that the antiparticles move "backward in time". What does it mean? I thought it might be related to Time Reversal but couldn't find anything.
In Klein-Gordon a free particle, for either positive or negative energies, has probability current density $\vec j = \vec p / E\_p$ ($\hbar = c = 1$, natural units). With a normalization that imposes positive and negative charges on positive- and negative-energy solutions, respectively, this is quite surprising. The charge current density is the same regardless of the sign of the charge and energy.
Another difficulty is that while the positive-energy solution is written as $\Psi\_+ \sim exp (-i E\_p t + i \vec p \cdot \vec x)$ for $E = +E\_p$, the negative-energy solution is written as $\Psi\_- \sim exp (i E\_p t + i \vec p \cdot \vec x)$ for $E = -E\_p$. The latter expression is not Lorentz invariant.
A way to fix these inconsistencies is to say that the negative-energy particles move backward in time. This not only reverses the sign of $\vec p$, but also lets the energy be positive in the exponent of the negative-energy solution.
We can associate the positive-energy solution to a particle and the negative-energy solution to an antiparticle with charges of opposite sign.
Note: If you assume that the antiparticle moves backward in time, velocity and momentum have the same sign.
Just applying Noether's theorem to the Klein-Gordon lagrangian for a plane wave gives E=$\omega^2$, p=$\omega$k, q=$\omega$ and j=k, apart from a common normalization factor. So E>0 while j and k are parallel for positive and antiparallel for negative charge. Likely, the omission of the factor $\omega$ in the Noether momentum is the root cause of the misunderstanding. The issues referred to by the OP do not exist.
I have not read the textbook you describe, but it does seem to have presented this in an unclear way. One thing to note, for example, is that the phrase "moving backwards in time" is rather meaningless, unless of course a text spells out what is meant by it. This is because in spacetime what you have is a worldline. The worldline is a worldline. It is neither "moving forwards in time" nor "moving backwards in time." (I'll return to this, and the arrows on Feynman diagrams, in a moment.) The next reason for the muddle is that historically the Klein-Gordan equation had two incarnations. First it was thought to be a replacement for the Schrodinger equation, before this area became properly understood. But when quantum field theory was developed it turned out that the Schrodinger equation is fine as it stands.
When you look at a vertex on a Feynman diagram, describing, for example, particle--anti-particle annihilation, the lines themselves represent the velocity, via their slope. Regarding momentum, the best advice is to keep clear in your mind that it is conserved at such a vertex, and so is energy, and so is charge. The arrow on the worldline in these diagrams is to help track the conservation of one these quantities: charge. Thus it tells you the charge of that entity, and thus whether we call it a particle or an antiparticle. The momentum is in the same direction as the velocity for both types of particle; the electric current is aligned with the velocity for one type and anti-aligned for the other. The energy is positive for both.
When people talk about negative energy (i.e. negative rest energy) in this context, it seems to be a throw-back to the 'Dirac sea' picture. That picture can remain handy as an alternative way of looking at things, but you don't have to adopt it, and with hindsight perhaps it is better to avoid it in the first instance.
I suspect that if a text is saying that momentum and velocity are in opposite directions for anti-particles they are using the word "velocity" in a non-standard way, trying to make it align with the transport of the conserved quantity (e.g. electric charge, or perhaps baryon number of something like that). If that is what is happening then they should say "current" not "velocity".
The velocity of the antiparticle solution is not in opposite direction to the momentum !!
Take, for instance, the Dirac equation for antiparticles:
$\gamma^{\mu}p\_{\mu} + mc = 0 = i\hslash\gamma^{\mu}\partial\_{\mu} + mc $
or, by simply multiplying all by -1:
$-\gamma^{\mu}p\_{\mu} - mc = 0 = -i\hslash\gamma^{\mu}\partial\_{\mu} - mc$
In fact this last equation is an equation for a positive mass and energy particle in the backwards in time moving universe, since, in the time reversed universe, the total energy and momentum Quantum Mechanical operators are respectively:
$E\_{backInTimeUniverse} = -i\hslash \frac{\partial}{\partial{t}}$
$p\_{backInTimeUniverse} = i\hslash\nabla$
Which are symmetrical to the operators in the forward in time moving universe, due to the fact that positive velocities and total energies transform to negative when seen from the perspective of t' = -t, where t is the time parameter for our forward in time universe.
The Dirac equation for antiparticles is exactly like the first equation for particles, when it's seen from the perspective of this backwards in time moving universe.
But then you have the freedom to switch thee sign of this positive mass in the backwards in time universe. When you do that, you have to change the momentum and energy signs in the complex exponential and then change the sign of the momentum again if you want to see the complex exponential from the perspective of the forwards in time moving universe (because momentum operator will switch its sign but the momentum of the observed particle not !, because invariant mass/total energy and velocities will switch signs at the same time when reversing time again!). You don't have to switch the momenta signs in the Dirac spinors, because momenta won't change directions. But you'll have to switch the signs of the invariant mass and total energy in them if you want to express this spinor w.r.t their positive quantities counterparts in our world.
So the momentum of a antiparticle solution is in the same direction of it's velocity because the solution to the second Dirac equation is about a positive energy/invariant mass particle in the backwards in time moving universe. The hability to invert the invariant mass sign gives us the opportunity to have a positive mass and energy object in our universe. The change in sign of the invariant mass and energy and the reversal of time coordinate (changing velocity and invariant mass/total energy signs at the same time) is what gives us velocity and momentum in the same direction when seen from our world.
The same sort of reasoning can be applied to the Klein-Gordon equation for antiparticles, which has as its solution a backwards in time positive mass/total energy particle that can, as well, change its sign of invariant mass and total energy still fulfilling the equation.
I hope I can help you with my answer.
| stackexchange/physics |
Sons of Anarchy Charred
Content note : Violence, potty mouth, references to sex and drugs; as expected. Spoilers for 5x01.
A/N:
I'm not sure if I like this at all. Just a short little thing I needed to write after crying like a baby during the season 5 premiere.
-o-0-o-
Dear god the sky's as blue
As a gunshot wound
Dear god if you were alive
You know we'd kill you
- Marilyn Manson
-o-0-o-
Tig Trager deserves to die. This isn't a maudlin thought that a guy has after one shot too many; no, this is just the naked truth. With the shit he's done, another man - a man with any decency - would die, or turn himself in and rot in jail. Except that's not how it works for the Sons. He's the Terminator, and he cannot self-terminate. He does the killing; that's how it's always worked. At the end of the day, he's got responsibilities to other people - the club, his girls...to his boys; to Clay.
Clay. Oh, that one hurts. All the hardest things he's done, he's done for Clay.
He's in the Clay's new place. Clay sits on the couch, surrounded by cardboard boxes and emptiness. Tig sits down, and tells him that he's murdered an innocent again. _You made me do this...For what? _It's getting hard to believe, after Donna, that it was to protect anyone but Clay. The story he told at the clubhouse sounds fake and plastic, cliches upon cliches. But Clay deserves the benefit of the doubt. There is so much history that can't be thrown away.
"I was with you in the hospital every day, for three weeks. You should have told me the truth, Clay."
Clay looks old and broken, wheezing like an old man. Perversely, he looks a lot like Piney with the oxygen tank. Much less like the man in the old photo on the table. But then, Tig isn't getting any younger either. Wrecking that forlorn gray face won't solve any problems.
He will find a beautiful slut and fuck it all away, like he always does.
-o-0-o-
He thinks of the time he and Gemma almost fucked the pain away. The time he sat in a field, high as a kite. Best shrooms he's had, but the trip was so good it was bad. Fucking Donna, pretty little Donna, the picture of innocence, had to show up and ruin everything, haunting him with her big eyes and all he could do was throw himself at her feet. _I'm sorry I put a hole in your head._ Somehow it sounds hollow.
He's pressed against the car door again, getting his face pounded into a raw bloody pulp, looking into a pair of rage-filled eyes. It almost feels right, and for a second he's light as a feather, until he realizes that this doesn't begin to atone for any of it.
-o-0-o-
He's out in the garage parking lot, watching Gemma get out of the car. Her face is bruised to shit; her lip is cut. He's trying to...he doesn't know what he's trying to do.
"Gemma...Did Clay do this..?" He asks softly, like he might scare her away
He doesn't have to ask . He saw Clay with his change of clothes and the cuts on his face, and he gave him the benefit of the doubt. No, he asked Clay if he was alright. All he could think about was Clay shutting him out. All he could do was scratch at the door like a sad mutt. But Gemma...If only he could ever put her first.
"Not now, Tiggy," She says, tired. She's got no time for this. She's got her wounds to lick and business to take care of.
_She doesn't need you to take care of her, or to tell her how sorry you are. No, that would be you._
He can do many things, awful depraved things for his best friend and for his president, but not this. Not now. He can't give his loyalty to the man who hurts the woman he loves.
The universe must have a twisted sense of humor, because this is the decision on which it all hinges. This is what turns the tide, what turns everything inside out. If only he had swallowed his anger. If only he'd stayed.
He knows there was no way he could have ever stayed. This was meant to be.
-o-0-o-
He's in none of those places, actually. No, Tig is standing in chains, tied to a pipe in a train yard. A shiny black car pulls up. Inside is an angry man with a dead daughter. This time he's done it. This time, he's so fucked, because he's fucked himself good. Wounded animals are dangerous, and this one is out for blood.
The bells ring like the heartbeat of an anxiety-ridden animal and he feels the blood rushing to his head, exploding every with every beat. He knows, with a steely cold clarity, that this is where he dies.
Damon Pope asks him if he knows what will happen, and he answers with calm certainty and a belligerent smirk.
The blood drains from his face like cold fire, when the man says it would be too easy.
The gates of hell -metal doors in the ground - open, but there are no demons inside. Just filthy corpses lying in a deep pool of blood...and Dawn, who doesn't belong there.
-o-0-o-
"No...oh no...Dawn...Dawny...Baby? Oh, baby...Wake up..."
He's babbling broken strings of words, but she's breathing.
She slurs drunkenly as the gasoline splashes over her, and he can't make sense of it. Something, possibly words but more likely screaming, is torn from his throat as the sight hits him like a sledgehammer. _I'm so sorry, baby._ The words he yells are hollow, and sorry doesn't cut it. He's reduced to pleading for her life but his heart is sinking with the knowledge that there's no room for mercy here.
Dawn is burning alive. The flames devour her and the air is saturated with the horrifying sound. The fire consumes as she tries to claw her way out, and the nausea rises. Someone else screams, and it must be him, or some macabre parody. The sounds that come from him are sickening. Dead with futility.
-o-0-o-
He's sitting with his legs hanging over the corpse pit. The smoke is still rising.
He puts the barrel of the pistol in his mouth. The cold metal tastes like blood. The feeling of his lips around it is disturbingly sensual. Some people flirt with death. Leave it to him to take it a step further.
No, he doesn't deserve to die. That would be too good for him.
It's easy to blame Clay. The man's got his faults and loving him doesn't change that. He's a ruthless bastard and a liar, and yes, he's asked too much of Tig. There's probably a special place in hell for people like him.
It's one thing to destroy innocent, clueless creatures. It's another to send someone else to get their hands dirty, to see the wide fearful eyes and the cracked, bleeding skulls. But what's another cut on this numb, tar-black soul? Tar-black like a charred corpse. It shouldn't be anyone else, he realizes.
No one asked him to put a bullet in the back of Donna's head. All he had to do was get a look at the face. No one put a gun to his head and made him run a man's daughter over without even being sure of what he did or didn't do. He should have asked questions before shooting. He should have kept his family close. He should have kept her real close. All of this...it's on him.
He won't let this happen again.
End file.
| fanfiction |
cloning : the c - terminal strep - tagged wild - type agao gene was pcr amplified from pago2 and subcloned into pet28c . prior to constructing pet28c_y382f , the pet28c_wtagao construct was altered to remove an internal ncoi site by a single base mutation at base pair 1377 ( cg ) ; this maintained the same codon using the following primers : reverse primer : 5-gtggt ccggc aaacg atggg cccgg gc-3 , forward primer : 5-gcccg ggccc atcgt ttgcc ggacc ac-3. pet28c_y382f was constructed by using site - directed mutagenesis with the following primers in which the mutated nucleotide is shown in bold , underlined ; forward primer : 5-cacca ctatc ggcaa cttcg actac ggctt ctact gg-3 and reverse primer : 5-gtggt gatag ccgtt gaagc tgatg ccgaa gatga cc-3. the y382f and wt agao coding genes were subcloned into the coexpression vector , petduet-1 .
the strep - tagged wtagao coding region was amplified by pcr with the following primers : 5-catgc catgg gcacg ccctc cacta tccaa acagc-3 and 5-cccaa gcttg ggtca tttct caaac tgcgg-3 which introduced unique restriction sites , ncoi and hindiii ( bold , underlined ) respectively .
the y382f coding gene was amplified by pcr using the following primers : forward primer : 5-ggaat tccat atgac gccct ccact atcca aacag c-3 and reverse primer : 5-ccgct cgagc ggtca gtgat gatga tgatg atgcc gtggc agtgg gagcc-3 which introduced unique restriction sites ndei and xhoi ( bold , underlined ) , respectively .
the reverse primer also introduced a his - tag site that replaced the strep - tag site .
the fragment was subcloned into multiple cloning site-2 ( msc2 ) of coexpression vector petduet-1 .
the strep - tagged wt agao and his6-tagged y382f coding regions were subcloned both separately and together into petduet-1 to form petduet - wt , petduet - y382f and petduet - wt / y382f .
each construct was confirmed by diagnostic restriction enzyme digests followed by dna sequencing . protein expression and purification :
post - lysis , cuso4 ( 50 m ) was added to the lysates , and they were incubated at 30 c for 1 h with shaking at 100 rpm .
excess cuso4 was removed by dialysing the lysate against binding buffer phosphate - buffered saline ( pbs , 140 mm nacl , 2.68 mm kcl , 10 mm na2-hpo4 , 2 mm kh2po4 , ph 7.4 ) or sodium phosphate ( 20 mm containing 300 mm nacl , ph 7.4 ) .
wild - type agao ( wt / wt ) was purified by using strep - tactin chromatography .
the column was prepared according to the manufacturer 's protocol ( strep - tactin sepharose 50 % suspension , iba , gttingen , germany ) .
the protein - bound column was washed with binding buffer to remove unbound and non - specific binding proteins .
homogeneous fractions were pooled and dialysed against hepes ( 50 mm , ph 7 ) .
the inactive mutant ( y382f / y382f ) was purified by using cu - immobilised metal affinity chromatography .
the dialysed lysate was filtered through a 0.2 m syringe filter to remove any remaining cell debris .
prior to sample loading , the column was charged with niso4 ( 0.1 m ) and equilibrated with sodium phosphate ( 20 mm containing 300 mm nacl , ph 7.4 ) .
after the sample had been loaded , the column was washed with sodium phosphate ( 20 mm containing 300 mm nacl , 40 mm imidazole , ph 7.4 ) .
bound protein was eluted with sodium phosphate ( 20 mm containing 300 mm nacl , 250 mm imidazole , ph 7.4).homogenous fractions were then pooled and dialysed against hepes ( 50 mm , ph 7 ) .
the heterodimer ( wt / y382f ) was isolated according to a two - step affinity purification procedure that involved both cu - immobilised affinity chromatography and strep - tactin affinity chromatography .
the column was charged with cuso4 ( 0.1 m ) , washed to remove unbound cu and equilibrated with sodium phosphate ( 20 mm ) , nacl ( 300 mm ) ph 7.4 .
the protein - bound column was washed with sodium phosphate ( 20 mm containing 500 mm nacl , 40 mm imidazole , ph 7.4 ) .
elution was carried out using sodium phosphate ( 20 mm containing 500 mm nacl , 50 mm edta , ph 7.4 ) .
one fraction was collected , analysed by sds - page and dialysed against pbs in preparation for strep - tactin chromatography .
the purification procedure was similar to that used for wt / wt . the purity and homogeneity of the eluted protein was assessed by sds - page , and the protein was dialysed overnight against hepes ( 50 mm , ph 7 ) .
western blot : after being separated on a sds - page ( 15 % ) gel , the proteins were transferred to two identical polyvinylidene fluoride ( pvdf ) membranes ( immobilon , millipore ) by using an xcell ii module apparatus ( invitrogen ) .
following transfer , the membranes were blocked in dried skimmed milk ( marvel , 5 % , w / v ) in tris - buffered saline ( 150 mm nacl , 50 mm trishcl , ph 7.5 ) containing tween-20 ( tbs - t , 0.1 % ) and bovine serum albumin ( bsa , 5 % , w / v ) in tbs - t for 1 h. one membrane was then incubated overnight at 4 c in tbs - t with dried skimmed milk ( 5 % , w / v ) and supplemented with the monoclonal anti - polyhistidine peroxidise conjugate antibody ( sigma ) ; the other membrane was incubated in bsa ( 5 % , w / v ) and tbs - t containing the primary anti - strep tag ii antibody ( novagen ) .
the second membrane was then incubated for 1 h in bsa ( 5 % , w / v ) and tbs - t supplemented with a horseradish peroxidase - conjugated secondary antibody ( sigma ) for 1 h. the unbound secondary antibody was washed off with tbs - t .
native page : the traditional tris glycine system was used ; the proteins were separated by using a native polyacrylamide gel ( 12 % ) .
electrophoresis was carried out at 4 c and 200 v for 12 h , and the proteins were detected by staining with coomassie brilliant blue r. kinetic assays : agao activity was assessed by use of the peroxidase - coupled assay described by chiu et al .
briefly , enzyme activity was assayed at 30 c in hepes buffer ( 100 mm , ph 7 ) with various concentrations of -phenylethylamine ( 0.5160 m ) .
the reactions were followed by monitoring h2o2 production , which oxidises 2,2-azinobis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid ) ( abts ; 2 mm ; 414=24 600 m cm ) using horseradish peroxidase ( hrp ; 10 units ml ) .
the data were fitted to equation 1 by using origin pro 7.5 ( microcal , ma , usa ) [ eq .
( 1 ) uv visible spectroscopic studies and tpq titrations : uv visible spectra were obtained on a shimadzu uv2401 pc spectrophotometer equipped with a temperature - controlled cell holder .
the proteins were treated with a 20-fold molar excess of 2-hp in hepes ( 100 mm , ph 7 ) .
spectral changes associated with this addition of 2-hp to wt / wt , y382f / y382f and wt / y382f agao were monitored over time , typically 510 min , until there were no further changes .
changes in absorbance were accounted for by correcting for the dilution ( 1 % ) at each addition of 2-hp .
following addition of 2-hp , the reactions were allowed to proceed until no detectable change in absorbance was observed . | pubmed |
medullary thyroid carcinoma ( mtc ) is a neuroendocrine tumour originating from the parafollicular cells ( c cells ) of the thyroid , which is derived from the neural crest and secretes calcitonin as well as other polypeptides such as carcinoembryonic antigen ( cea ) .
high serum calcitonin and cea levels that had previously been low following total thyroidectomy are the indicators of residual tumour or recurrence .
[ in]pentetreotide localizes to somatostatin receptors found on the cell membranes of neuroendocrine tumours and is used to evaluate mtc .
the expression of somatostatin receptors is not specific for neuroendocrine tumoral pathologies and may lead to the visualization of the various infectious and inflammatory processes due to the presence of somatostatin receptors on the surface membranes of white blood cells .
a number of studies show that 2-deoxy-2-[f]fluoro - d - glucose positron emission tomography ( fdg - pet ) is a sensitive method for the detection of metastases or recurrence of mtc .
a wide range of infectious or inflammatory processes can cause diffuse or focal fdg uptake in the lungs .
we present the case of a 57-year - old female patient with mtc who had a false positive [ in]pentetreotide(octreoscan ) scintigraphy result in the lung which was likely related to acute exacervation of chronic bronchitis .
a 57-year - old female patient who had total thyroidectomy and bilateral modified cervical lymph node dissection because of mtc was referred to our clinic with coughing and dyspnoea ongoing for the last 10 days .
elevated plasma calcitonin and cea levels were found but without abnormalities in the leukocyte count .
[ in]pentetreotide ( octreoscan ) scintigraphy was performed for 424 h after intravenous administration of 3 mci of radionuclide .
the anterior posterior scan of the whole body at 4 h ( fig .
1a , b ) and anterior posterior static thorax images at 24 h ( fig .
1c , d ) ( clearer on the posterior images ) revealed mild increased uptake corresponding to the upper lobe of the right lung ( arrow ) .
one week later , a positron emission tomography ( pet)/computed tomography ( ct ) scan was performed an hour after 15 mci of fdg were injected intravenously .
the composite pet / ct scan ( sequence : pet ( figure 2a ) , ct ( figure 2b ) , fused pet / ct in coronal , sagittal and axial view ( fig .
2c ) ) revealed mild increased uptake of fdg corresponding to a consolidation zone in the upper lobe of the right lung ( black and white arrows , standardized uptake value ( suv ) 3.5 ) compatible with pathologic uptake of [ in]pentetreotide ( octreoscan ) .
three months later , [ in]pentetreotide(octreoscan ) scintigraphy was performed for 424 h after intravenous administration of 3 mci of the radionuclide .
there was no pathological uptake on either the anterior posterior scan of the whole body at 4 h ( fig .
3a , b ) and the anterior posterior static thorax images at 24 h ( fig .
the false positive result on [ in]pentetreotide(octreoscan ) scintigraphy in the lung was likely related to acute exacervation of the chronic bronchitis .
figure 1[in]pentetreotide ( octreoscan ) scintigraphy . the anterior posterior whole body scans at 4 h ( a , b ) and the anterior posterior static thorax images at 24 h ( c , d ) ( clearer in the posterior images ) revealed mild increased uptake corresponding to the upper lobe of the right lung ( arrow ) .
figure 2composite pet / ct scan ( sequence : ( a ) pet , ( b ) ct , ( c ) fused pet / ct in coronal , sagittal , axial view ) revealed mild increased uptake of fdg corresponding to a consolidation zone in the upper lobe of the right lung ( black and white arrow , suv 3.5 ) .
there was no pathological uptake on both anterior posterior scan of the whole body at 4 h ( a , b ) and the anterior posterior static thorax images at 24 h ( c , d ) .
the anterior posterior whole body scans at 4 h ( a , b ) and the anterior posterior static thorax images at 24 h ( c , d ) ( clearer in the posterior images ) revealed mild increased uptake corresponding to the upper lobe of the right lung ( arrow ) .
composite pet / ct scan ( sequence : ( a ) pet , ( b ) ct , ( c ) fused pet / ct in coronal , sagittal , axial view ) revealed mild increased uptake of fdg corresponding to a consolidation zone in the upper lobe of the right lung ( black and white arrow , suv 3.5 ) .
there was no pathological uptake on both anterior posterior scan of the whole body at 4 h ( a , b ) and the anterior posterior static thorax images at 24 h ( c , d ) .
somatostatin receptors are expressed by many neuroendocrine and non - neuroendocrine cells of the body . in patients with mtc ,
the sensitivity of somatostatin receptor scintigraphy to detect tumour localizations is 5070% . comparing fdg - pet results with somatostatin receptor scintigraphy in mtc patients in the literature ,
the sensitivity of fdg - pet was found to be superior to somatostatin receptor scintigraphy .
patients with respiratory infections ( e.g. various pneumonias , lung abscess ) and non - neuroendocrine lung tumours ( e.g. pulmonary hamartoma ) show accumulation most probably due to radiopharmaceutical accumulation in the lymphocytes .
these cells express a specific somatostatin membrane receptor which is recognized and specifically bound by the radiotracer .
false positive [ in]pentetreotide ( octreoscan ) scintigraphy results due to respiratory infections and inflammatory processes like chronic bronchitis must be considered in the diagnosis and follow up of mtc patients . | pubmed |
Force moments and angular momentum
Suppose we have two thrusters on a satellite. The [thrust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrust), given by the velocity of exhaust multiplied by its mass flow, produces a force on the satellite.
Thus, if we use a given amount of propellant, we can think of those thrusters as source of forces during a given time.
Now consider we place the thrusters that way and turn them on simultaneously:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/peRkB.png)
In the case where $l\_2$ is higher, the resulting torque will also be higher. If we adjust the other satellite masses so that moment of inertia is the same for both, it will result in a higher final angular velocity (arbitrarily higher if we increase $l$).
Since we use the same amount of propellant, I would except the final energy to be the same
Thus, what is going wrong here ?
You need to be careful, there is no energy conservation. The exhaust ejection can be seen as a reversed perfectly inelastic collision. Energy is therefore needed to the combined system rocket and exhaust.
Mathematically, let $v$ the velocity of a rocket of mass $m$ with exhaust velocity $v\_0$, then:
$$
\frac{dE}{dt} = -\frac{\dot m}{2}v\_0^2 >0
$$
Now you can still argue that if both thrusters use up the same amount of fuel, then they require the same energy. Your problem would still remain.
Remember that that while the total energy used is the same, not all of it goes to speeding up the rocket. Part of it goes to speeding up the propellant. This, it is not obvious that the final energy of the two rockets be the same or different, you need to do the math.
It is not even so obvious that the final angular velocity increases with $l$. While it is true that the torque increases, so does the moment of inertia. The reasoning works for small $l$ where the effect on moment of inertia is negligible.
Mathematically, writing $\omega$ the angular velocity and $I$ the moment of inertia of the rocket:
$$
(I+2l^2m)\dot\omega=-2l\dot m v\_0
$$
As you can see, you’d naively expect the inertia contribution to dominate for large $l$ and expect the scaling $\Delta\omega \propto l^{-1}$ (this will turn out to be false). Using the dimensionless mass:
$$
x=\frac{2ml^2}{I}
$$
You get:
$$
\Delta\omega = \frac{v\_0}{l}(x+\ln(1+x))
$$
From the formula is not obvious that $\Delta\omega$ increases with $l$ due to the second term, but if you do the math it will turn out to be true.
Thus, it is true that final angular velocity increases with length. While the input energy is the same, more of the energy is transferred to the propellant as $l$ decreases.
Hope this helps.
| stackexchange/physics |
For the first time this year, returning and incoming 2019 Tulsa Artist Fellows will open their studios to share their contemporary arts practices with the community.
Join us at both our Archer (109 N. MLK, Jr. Blvd. E.) and Cameron (303 N. Main St.) Studio locations for open studios, a group exhibition, pop up performances and more. | slim_pajama |
Mario Giro born 29 July 1958, in Rome is an Italian trade-unionist, and since 1990 a mediator for peace in the Community of Sant'Egidio.
Biography
Born in Rome on 29 July 1958, he earned his degree in mathematics and in 1984 graduated in to Sapienza .
In 1975 he became a member of the Community of SantEgidio and participated in the activities of school support for the poor children of the Roman periphery and since 1979 he became responsible for adolescent and young people of Sant'Egidio in different neighborhoods of the Roman periphery. In the mid -1980s, he began to engage in interreligious dialogue, especially with the Muslim world, and participated in the organization of international annual prayer encounters for peace.
Since 1989 he has been working in Africa for the development of the community of Sant'Egidio, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon. In 1996 he attended preliminary meetings in Rome to resolve the crisis in Burundi.
In 1996 participates in Rome in the pact negotiations for the future of Albania. In Kosovo, he helped implement the agreement of 1 September 1996 between Serbian President Milosevic and Kosovar leader Rugova, who guaranteed access to Kosovar Albanian schools in 1997-1998. Since 1998 he has been responsible for the international relations of the community of Sant'Egidio .
In 2006 he participated in several missions as a mediator in South Sudan. In 2012, he was adviser to the Minister for International Cooperation and Integration Andrea Riccardi.
Political activity
At the 2013 political elections he was nominated for the Senate of the Republic, in Campania, in the center list with Monti For Italy third position, but he is the first of the non-elected.
On 2 May 2013, he was appointed Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs.
As undersecretary, he has exercised delegations on Latin America, Africa and the promotion of Italian language and culture; also organized the VI Latin American Conference on December 2012.
On December 2013, he left Civic Choice to join the Popular For Italy and on 28 February 2014 he was confirmed as Foreign Undersecretary to the Renzi government; on 4 July 2014, the Popular Forces leave Italy to join Solidarity Democracy.
In 2014 he is among the promoters of the first general terms of the Italian language in the world, held in October of the same year in Florence and from that moment repeated on a two-yearly basis.
On 29 January 2016, the occasion of the government reshuffle, he became deputy minister of foreign affairs, leaving the former position as undersecretary. Charge confirmed 12 December 2016 also from the subsequent government led by Paolo Gentiloni.
He was awarded, on 5 November 2010, the Fondation Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention.
References
External links
Mario Giro, laureate of the Fondation Chirac Prize for Conflict Prevention
A Discussion with Mario Giro, Director for International Affairs, Community of SantEgidio. Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs
Community of Sant'Egidio
Category:1958 births
Category:20th-century Italian politicians
Category:Civic Choice politicians
Category:Populars for Italy politicians
Category:21st-century Italian politicians
Category:Italian trade unionists
Category:Living people
Category:Solidary Democracy politicians | wikipedia |
Selection Trilogy, Kiera Cass 1. Chapter 1
**This is my second fan fiction, but I absolutely loved the Selection when I read it. I really wanted to post a fanfic for this series, so my friend said I should do this one. I really hope you enjoy.**
**DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Selection or any of the characters.**
"Please, baby," Maxon pleaded. "I want to move in with you." Yep. Maxon, as in Maxon Schreave, the dean's son. Maxon was a junior and we've been together for three years. . His new mission is to get me to move into an apartment with him.
"Max, I want to, but this is a huge step. I just turned 18." We were sitting in the campus coffee shop. Since I started school here a few months ago, Marlee, my best friend, and I are sharing a dorm while Maxon was living in a house close to campus, with his parents, Clarkson and Amberly Schreave.
"I know it is, America, but I love you. I want to take this step with you," he replied. I thought for a moment._ It is probably going to happen one day anyway._
"Can I think about it?" I asked.
"Of course. I want you to be sure you want to do this if you say yes," he said. _God, I don't deserve him. _ When we finished our drinks, Maxon grabbed my hand, and we started walking back to my dorm in the cool March air. As we neared my room, Maxon grabbed my hands. "I'll see you tomorrow," he whispered.
"I'll try to give you an answer by then. I love you," I said.
"I love you too, Ames," he said. He leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss. Maxon placed his hands on my hips and I wrapped mine around his neck. A group of girls walked by and went "aww."
People considered us the 'it' couple of the school. Probably because of Maxon's rank in the social pyramid. Being the dean's son bumped him up, and dating him bumped me up. I wasn't really comfortable with all the attention, but Maxon made it all worth it. I was quite popular in my grade, but a lot of girls hated me as well. Like Kriss Ambers.
She has had a crush on Maxon as long as I can remember. We were sophomores in high school and Maxon was a senior. Every girl in school had a crush on him. Every girl except me, that is. When he asked me out, I went, but just to satisfy him. He had been asking me out since I was a freshman, but I always thought he was stuck up and selfish. I couldn't have been further from the truth. He was amazing and after a few dates, I was in love. We've been together since.
We pulled apart after a while, and I walked into my room. Marlee was sitting on her bed, on her laptop, doing homework. "Well, you're back late. Spending time with Maxon?" she asked, waggling her eyebrows up and down. We had been best friends since we were five. We were neighbors and just became really close friends. She was dating one of Maxon's best friends, Carter who we set her up with a couple of years ago.
"Maybe," I replied, placing my bag on my bed and collapsing onto it. "I'm surprised you weren't with Carter. You usually are."
"He has an exam tomorrow and he needed to study. So, what's new?" she asked. I contemplated telling her about Maxon's offer. She should know, but I don't want to hurt her feelings. I chose to just tell her.
"Maxon wants me to move into an apartment with him over spring break next month," I said. "I don't know if I should." She looked at me shocked. Was she shocked that I might leave her or that I wasn't sure if I should?
"Do you love him?" she asked.
"What kind of question is that? I love him more than anything," I replied.
"Then what's the problem?" she asked.
"It's a huge step in our relationship," I said. "And, what about you?" She stared at me.
"Why are you worrying about me? If you love him, you should do this," she said. "Maybe Kriss would finally shut up if she knew you were living together. Don't you always complain that you don't see Maxon enough? Now you would see him every night. Why are you so on the fence about this?"
"I don't know. You really think I should say yes?" I only response I got was a simple nod. "Okay, I'll tell him tomorrow. Wait! How is his father going to react? He doesn't necessarily like me. I almost didn't make it into the university because he hates my guts."
"I'm sure Maxon would have figured something out by now. Why would he ask you if he knew his father would freak," she said.
"I hope you're right."
\- Maxon's POV-
I walked into my house, to find my mother in the kitchen, making dinner, and father at the kitchen table, reading papers. "Maxon, how was your day?" my mother asked, looking up from the vegetables she was chopping.
"Fine, nothing extraordinary," I said. She gave me a sideways glance, clearly saying that she wanted to talk to me later. . I gave her a small nod, before grabbing an apple and heading up to my room to start my homework.
After dinner, my mother asked me to do the dishes. As I washed them, my father walked out of the room and she walked over to me. "Did you ask her?" she whispered.
"Yeah, she needs to think about it," I replied. I had asked my mother about moving in with America. I didn't want to ask my dad until I knew her answer. _No use in getting a beating if she ends up saying no._ He had been whipping me since I was young and it had gotten a lot worse since America and I started dating. My father really hated her, but my mother thought of her as her daughter. But, really, it didn't matter to me, because, at the end of the day, I got to have her, and that was good enough for me.
"I'm sure she'll say yes, but if she doesn't, don't worry. It's a big step in a relationship, and she just became old enough to live on her own," my mother explained.
"That's what she said," I explained. "I don't want her to feel like she has to if she doesn't want to. I just really love her."
"I know you do, Maxon. I can see it when you look at her," my mother stated in that motherly know-it-all kind of way. "I can tell she loves you too." I finished the dishes and went up to my room. When I closed the door, my eyes immediately traveled to my wall filled with pictures. Most of them were of America over the last few years. The greatest years of my life. In one of them, we were at the university's Halloween party. Although the picture was taken 5 months ago, I still remembered that night perfectly. Her in her butterfly costume and me in my pirate one. My eyes wandered to another one of us in my backyard garden. My father was on a trip, visiting family, so I invited America over. I had taken a picture of her by the bench; looking back on it now, I had taken almost every picture on the wall. _God, I hope she says yes. Nothing would make me happier than to get out of this house with my father. _
I heard my phone buzz and lunged at it, not wanting to risk missing the call from the one person in the world I wanted to talk to: America. "Hey, Ames. What's up?"
"Can we talk? It's important and I want to do it in person. And don't worry, I'm not breaking up with you," she said.
"Yeah, sure, baby. I'll be there in twenty minutes. You okay?"
"Never been better," she said. I could practically hear the smile in her voice. I hung up and headed to the door.
"I'm going to see America, mom," I said before walking out and walking to my girlfriend's dorm room. I knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. Longest few seconds of my life. "I'm just heading out, but America's in here," she said opening the door all the way to reveal America sitting on her bed, typing away on her laptop. I stepped in as Marlee stepped out and closed the door. America looked up from her laptop and smiled at me.
"Hey, Max. I was going to wait until tomorrow to tell you this, but I just can't wait," she said moving over so I could sit next to her.
"Okay, shoot," I said sitting down.
"Yes," she said. I looked at her confused.
"Mer, I pride myself on being able to read you like a book, but I'm gonna need a little more information."
She rolled her eyes, but she still had a huge smile on her face. "Yes, I want to move in with you." I pulled her in for a hug.
"You're absolutely sure you want to," I asked, pulling away slightly to look in her eyes. The best thing about America is that her eyes always show what she is feeling. It's also her worst feature when she is trying to hide her true feelings.
"Yes, I love you and I. Want. To. Do. This," she said, annunciating each word with a little peck to my cheek. I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my face. I pulled her in for a passionate kiss. She wrapped her arms around my neck as we continued to make out. I realized that now I'm going to have to tell my father. I slowly pulled away. She looked hurt. "Max?"
"I just realized now I have to tell my father," I said.
"You haven't asked?" she questioned, shocked. She likes tease me about my need to always be prepared. The only time I takes risks is when it is something between my father and America.
"I asked my mom. Oh, God. Something tells me this beating is going to be the worst." She pulled me in for a hug and I buried my face in her neck. She's known about the beatings since our six month anniversary. He had showed me just how much he hated me spending so much time with America. Up until that point, I had done a pretty good job of hiding the scars on my back. I took precaution to always wear a shirt, even when we went in the pool. We hadn't done anything...else. We were watching a movie, when my back started hurting. We were cuddling so she had an arm across my back. She moved it a little and I groaned in pain. She looked at me, terrified. I couldn't help it, I spilled. I told her about everything. When she saw my back, she nearly started crying. She said it was because she felt bad that some of them were her fault and that I had to suffer like this. She was the only person besides my father and me who knew. My mother had no idea what her husband had been doing to her son for years.
"Just think, in a month, hopefully you won't have to deal with beatings because you'll be living with me. I'll be right here," she said, wrapping her arms tightly around me, careful to avoid my back. . We stayed like that for a few minutes, before I realized I had to leave. "I love you, Maxon."
"I love you too, America," I said standing at her door. I gave her a kiss and then left. Time to face my father.
\- America's POV-
I sat at the boring school assembly about this year's pep rally. I tried to pay attention, I really did, but I couldn't help but look around for Maxon. When I found him, he was slouching and avoiding the back of his chair. Oh no. I waited until he looked at me. I tugged my ear – a thing we had come up with that meant we need to talk. He returned the gesture before we both turned our attention to his father.
When everyone was released, I waited by the water fountain, until he came out. When he finally found me, we walked to an alcove rarely anyone spends time in. "He did it, didn't he?" He nodded. "How bad?" I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
"Ten hits, probably the deepest he's ever hit. They were impossible to bandage," he said.
"What's your next class?" I asked.
"Study hall," he replied. I pulled him to my dorm, on the other side of campus and locked the door. He took off his shirt, knowing exactly what I was doing. It's sad to think that this has become routine for us. I grabbed a wooden box from under my bed while he got as comfortable as possible on my bed I placed the box on the edge of the bed and opened it. I tore off the bandages on his back and nearly fainted at the sight.
"Maxon," I said. I had never seen his back so bad. There was dried blood everywhere and ten deep gashes covering his back.
"I know," was all he said. I reached in the box for the disinfectant. I poured it on a wash cloth and handed Maxon a small pillow to muffle his scream. I started rubbing his back with the cloth. I heard him cry out in pain into the pillow.
"I'm sorry, baby," I said as I finished rubbing his back. I reached for the bandages and started covering his back.
"Don't be," he whispered. "Last night, he was actually going to come to your dorm and do it to you. I told him to do it to me. I didn't want anything to happen to you."
"Maxon, why do you put up with this?" I said finishing his back and letting him sit up. "I hate seeing you in pain."
"I put up with it because I love you," he said. I sat on his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. He wrapped his around my waist and nuzzled his head into my neck. "But, he said yes. He gave me two extra gashes just for that, but he said yes. As long as he doesn't have to see you too much, he's fine with it."
"That's great, Max. A little rude, and cruel on his part, but great," I said kissing him._ I mean, how could I resist? This man is willing to suffer for me._ Maxon grabbed his t shirt and put it on.
"I love you," he said wrapping his arms around my waist as we stood at my door. I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my head on his chest.
"I love you too," I replied without the least bit of hesitation. I looked up and kissed him before unlocking the door and heading off to my next class. I couldn't focus though. All I could think about was Maxon's back. I had never seen it so bad. He seemed to be in more pain than I had ever seen him in. There was a knock on the door, and Gavril, Dean Schreave's assistant, walked in. He handed a note to our teacher, Silvia.
"America Singer, you are needed in the dean's office," she announced. Great. I picked up my books and bag and walked out the door. I headed down the main office. _Like I have a choice_. Maxon's father was standing in the hall waiting for me when I arrived.
"Miss Singer, just the girl I wanted to see."
**So, there's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Please review and let me know what you thought. I will try to update as soon as I can, but I'm a freshman in high school and I'm still adjusting. Thanks to ForeverEverdeen for editing this for me. Check out her story for the Hunger Games, it's amazing. **
2. Author's Note- More is Coming ASAP
**I AM SO SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T UPDATED! The person who edits the story for me has a really busy schedule and is till working on chapter 2. I promise I will try to get the next part up as soon as she sends it back to me. I really am sorry for the wait. More of this story is coming. I haven't completely forgotten about it. **
3. Chapter 2
**I AM SO SORRY THAT IT HAS TAKEN ME SO LONG TO UPDATE! My friend just got it back to me yesterday and then I went to see Pitch Perfect 2 and I was watching Star-Crossed (which I can't believe they left at a cliff-hanger - like, no). It's been a crazy 24 hours so I finally have a chance to share the next chapter with you. I'm kind of being a hypocrite because I basically just dissed cliff-hangers and this has one, but at least i'm continuing this. Sorry, still upset about Star-Crossed being canceled, but that's not The Selection so i'll move on. **
**Pretty sure nobody read that but oh well^**
**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Selection or any of the characters**
At lunch, America seemed very distant. I tried to wrap my arm around her but she just dismissed me. I nudged her to look at me. When she did, I tugged my ear. She nodded and returned to pushing her salad around the plate. I'm not going to lie, it really hurt. She was my everything, the woman I hoped to make my wife. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was really wrong. When we had finished eating, I pulled her into the hallway. "America, what's wrong?" I asked.
"While I was in my last class, your father called me into his office," she said. My eyes widened. That could not have been anything good.
"How bad?" I questioned, already knowing what he did. She looked like she was about to cry.
"Three," was all she could choke out. I pulled her in for a hug, careful not to hurt her back.
"He promised he wouldn't hurt you," I said. I felt her start to shake with the tears she tried desperately to hold in. I looked around to try and find someplace more private and my eyes landed on the janitor's closet. I hurried her over to it, knowing she didn't want the whole campus to see her crying. I got her in before anyone could see her tear-stained face. "I'm so sorry," I said, pulling her in for another hug. I knew that my apology could not fix the past, but I still felt I needed to say it.
"It's not your fault your father hates my guts," she sobbed.
"Did you bandage them?" I was already moving to check her wounds.
"Not very well," she said. When I asked, she told me her next class was gym, so I took her hand and led her back to her dorm. She locked the door and grabbed the box we kept underneath her bed. She took off her t shirt and laid down, already knowing what to do. She seemed very self-conscious, which was understandable. I had only ever seen her in her bra once – when my dad spilled his drink on her (probably purposely) and she had to borrow one of my shirts. I personally thought she had nothing to be ashamed of, but I couldn't actually tell her because I wasn't supposed to be looking in the first place.
I grabbed the disinfectant and towel. She took her pillow, preparing for the stinging that always accompanied the process. I tore off the bandages, knowing this was the best way to get them off without too much pain and my heart sank when I saw how bad it was. On her back were three gashes, deeper than the ones he usually gave to me. I started dabbing the wash cloth on her back, trying to get done in as little time as possible. I knew from experience that the longer you prolonged it, the more painful it could be. I could hear her muffled screams as the medicine started working. It broke my heart to see her like this, knowing there was nothing I could do to prevent it. There was no way to stop the wrath of my father, just ways to lessen it. Now I know what has be causing the distance. Once I had finished cleaning the cuts, I added the gauze that would make the pain less severe when she sat back. She then grabbed her shirt and quickly put it on while trying to avoid contact with the bandages.
"I never thought I would be the one patching you up," I voiced, holding her in my arms. We laid down on her bed and curled up together until we would eventually have to go. "Now I see why you always end up crying when you have to bandage my back."
"It's not easy, but I do it because I love you." She rested her head against my chest and I kissed her head. It was moments like these when I felt like everything would be okay if I could just hold her in my arms. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time.
"We should head to class," I stated reluctantly. I could feel more than hear her groan into my neck. "Come on. Do you want to do homework together later?"
"Yeah," she said. We got up and grabbed our stuff. I grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers and we walked to the hall where we would have to go our separate ways. "I'll see you later," she mumbled weakly.
"Remember," I whispered, "try to avoid touching your back to the back of a chair. It will hurt. And don't forget that I love you."
"Never," she said. "I love you too." She leaned in and gave me a quick kiss. She walked down the hall to her class and I walked the opposite way to mine.
-America's POV-
I sat on my bed and waited for Maxon to come. I heard my phone beep, signaling I had a text. I looked at my phone and saw it was from Maxon. **Be there in ten ****J**
**Kk 3**was my reply. I checked some of my unopened messages and read them while I was waiting. Then, I heard a knock on the door. I got up and opened it, revealing Maxon standing there. I smiled at him and stepped aside to let him in. We sat on my bed and started our homework. "How's your back?"
"It still hurts," I replied. "Yours?"
"Same," he replied. We did our homework for a couple hours, joking around to break up the monotony of doing advanced calc and environmental law. Marlee walked in at around 5.
"Hey, America, where were you during free period and gym?" she asked as she placed her bag on the floor by her bed, giving me a knowing look. I looked at Maxon.
"I needed to talk to Maxon about something," I replied. It wasn't a total lie. She raised an eyebrow at me.
"Sure," she said, extending the u too long for my liking. "You guys were just _talking."_ I glared at her. She casually flopped onto her bed and took out her phone, pretending to be nonchalant about the whole ordeal.
"I should head home," Maxon said as he got up to put his books away.
"I'll walk you out," I said, giving my roommate the side eye. We got up and walked into the hall. "I love you." He put his hands around my waist and pulled me in for a loving kiss.
"I love you too. I will see you tomorrow and probably text you tonight," he said. "Who am I trying to kid? We both know I'll text you tonight."
"You better," I said with mock seriousness. We both laughed. He kissed my forehead before walking away. I stepped back in my room. Marlee gave me a look. "We didn't do anything earlier if that's what you're thinking. Get your mind out of the gutter"
"Okay," she said putting her hands up defensively. She smiled and I returned the gesture. I laid down on my bed, taking care to lie flat on my stomach. I thought about Maxon and just how amazing he was, something that was almost always on my mind. My phone buzzed. It was Maxon. **Missing you already 3. **
My speedy reply came not ten seconds later. I replied. **Missing you more 3. **We ended up texting until ten o'clock at night.
-Maxon's POV-
I was walking to class, when I ran into my ex-girlfriend, Daphne. "Hi, Max. Long time no see," she said rubbing her hand up and down my arm. I yanked it away from her. We dated for a while until I met Mer. It was when I realized my true feelings for her that I broke things off with Daphne and started pursuing America. It was also that I found out Daphne had cheated on me. "Oh, I see. You don't want America to see us together," she whispered, giggling to herself.
"No, I just don't want to be near you," I stated, walking right past her. She grabbed my arm and spun me around. God, this girl is persistent, you have to give her that.
"Maxy, we were so good together. Why can't it be like that again?" she pouted, in her own attempt to be cute.
"Because I'm in love with America," I said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world (which it was). "I still remember what you did to me. I still remember how you cheated on me with Clark." Clark was my best friend, but we haven't spoken in four years.
"I know, but that ended last week," she said. "And I miss you, Maxy." I shuddered at her nickname for me. I never liked it, not even when we were together, but she always insisted we have a pet name because "it was what couples did." I hurried into my classroom and sat in my seat. Daphne sat behind me. Perfect, just add onto the great day I'm having. I then proceeded to sit through the most boring lesson ever. When the bell finally rang for lunch, I rushed out to avoid Daphne. I was at my locker putting some books away, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I tensed up and turned around. I relaxed when I saw America.
"Thank God, it's you," I said pulling her in for a hug.
"Max, are you okay?" she said with a giggle. She pulled away and looked me in the eyes. Her face became serious. "Maxon?"
"Daphne and Clark broke up and now she's after me again," I said. She looked down. I placed my fingers below her chin and urged her face up so she was looking me in the eye. "You have nothing to worry about. I'm not leaving you." She gave me a peck on the lips and we headed off to the cafe right off campus. Once we had our lunches, we sat at our usual table. I looked over and saw someone new at the next table. The seniors usually sat there, but today, it was Daphne and a girl, I think her name is Kriss. America noticed them too and moved a little closer to me. It wasn't necessary, but I loved protective, PDA America and I wasn't about to complain. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. Kriss looked over and waved and winked flirtatiously. I looked at America. She was looking at me. I leaned in and kissed her.
"So, when are you guys going to move in together?" Carter asked.
"Spring break," I replied. "We have to find a good apartment. My dad said he'll only pay $400 a month. If it's anymore, we have to come up with the money."
"I thought you would have tried to pay for the whole thing with your allowance. I mean, doesn't your father give you, like, a thousand bucks a month?" Marlee questioned with a perplexed look on her face.
"He took that away as part of the whole moving in with America thing," I replied. "But it's worth it. My mom actually got mad at my dad because he was surprised that I chose love over money and didn't support my decision. I felt bad for my mom, but it was kind of funny how mad she got."
"Can't your parents help a little bit, America?" Marlee asked.
"No, they're trying to put May through a private high school, so they're struggling a little," she replied. "All I get is $20 a week." I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I took it out and looked at the caller ID. "Who is it?"
"My mother," I replied hitting the answer button. "Mom?"
"I need to talk to you, Maxon. I didn't want to say this in front of your father because I know he would get really mad if I did this. I can help you and America," she said in a low voice.
"What do you mean?" I asked, curious to hear what she was going to say next. Everyone at the table was looking at me, especially America.
"I can't explain much now, and I want to tell you while you are with America. After classes, meet me at the café down the road from our house. Your father has a staff meeting so we shouldn't run into him," she replied. "Please come."
"We'll be there," I replied. "See you then." I hung up. "My mom wants to talk to you and me after classes. We have to meet her at the café near my house."
"Okay, what's this about?" she asked. I put my phone back in my pocket.
"She says she can help us," I replied. America looked at me confused and I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know much, but I knew my mom would help. We finished eating and headed to class.
-America's POV-
I walked over to Maxon, who was waiting for me on the other side of the hall after my last class. He grabbed my waist and pulled me in for a kiss. "Ready?" he asked, taking a deep breath. I nodded and grabbed his hand. We walked to the café, which was only a few blocks away. When we walked in, his mother was already sitting down, drinking her coffee.
"Maxon, America, thank you. I really wanted to tell you this in person," she said hugging both of us. She was always affectionate where Mr. Schreave was cold.
"I'll get us some drinks, Ames. Be right back," Maxon said walking over to the counter. I sat down.
"So how were your classes?" Amberly asked me.
"They were pretty boring, but that's normal," I said. Amberly let out a small laugh.
"How's your family? I haven't spoken to them in a while," she said, genuinely interested.
"They're fine. They are having a little trouble putting May through high school, but they're pushing through," I replied.
"Well, you come from a family of fighters. I can see that quality in you. Especially with the way you act around my husband. I really am sorry he doesn't like you. You really are a lovely girl, and I happy you're dating Maxon. You're good for him," she said.
"Thank you, that really means a lot," I responded. Maxon walked over and handed me my coffee. Extra milk and extra sugar. I can't stand the bitterness, but the flavor isn't half bad.
"So, what's up, mom?" Maxon asked. I took a sip from my coffee.
"I know your father is only willing to pay $400 a month and I know he took away your allowance. I've been looking at rates for renting good apartments around here and they can reach up to $1300 a month. I want to help you," she said.
"How do you mean?" I asked.
"My cousin, Ashley owns an apartment building, not far from here," she said. Maxon and I exchanged a confused glance.
"Are you saying, you found us an apartment?" Maxon asked. She nodded. "Are you serious?" he asked surprised.
"Well, I set up an appointment for you to see the apartment and if you like it, you can get it for free," she said.
"Thank you, Mom," Maxon said getting up and hugging her. I embraced her as soon as he let go.
"Here's the address and a time to see it," she said handing us a piece of paper. Maxon took it and looked at it.
"Mom, we couldn't thank you enough. And I promise we won't tell dad," he said with noticeable relief in his voice. I could practically see some of the weight coming off his shoulders. We stayed and talked for a little longer before we decided we should do our homework. We rode with Amberly back to their house.
"Your father said he won't be back until late tonight. Would you like to stay for dinner, America?" she asked.
"Sure," I replied, texting Marlee to tell her to get dinner without me. Maxon pulled me up to his room almost as soon as I stepped in the door. When he shut the door, he lifted me up and spun me around.
"I can't believe we might have an apartment soon," he said. He leaned in and gave me a passionate kiss.
"Max, I love you, but I have a lot of homework. Can we start?" I asked, trying to avoid starting anything with his mom downstairs. He nodded and we sat on his bed. "When can we go check out the apartment?" He pulled the sheet out of his pocket and unfolded it.
"Saturday at one," he said. He put the sheet on his books and pulled me close to him. "I love you and can't wait to live with you."
"Same here," I replied, giving him a peck on the lips. We had nearly finished our homework when his mother called us down for dinner.
"I wish we could spend more time together, but I don't want my father to come near you," Maxon said as we stood in front of my dorm. He gave my hands a small squeeze.
"I know. In less than a month we won't have to say goodbye every night," I said. Maxon gave me his award winning smile. That smile could end wars, I swear. Every time I see it, my heart flutters in my chest. He kissed me before he walked away.
-Maxon's POV-
I walked back home and saw my father standing in the hallway with his arms crossed.
"Hello, Maxon."
**Oh no! Hope you enjoyed. Please review, favorite, follow, and all that stuff. **
**Who's read the heir. I loved it but I hate that there is a cliff-hanger (there I go with the cliff-hangers again. I'm going to stop now. Bye)**
4. Chapter 3
**Chapter 3 is here! A lot happened in this chapter and I was getting feels reading it as I saw what my friend had edited. SO WARNING: YOU MAY GET A LOT OF FEELS FROM THIS CHAPTER BECAUSE THE MAXERICA MOMENTS ARE ADORABLE. At least in my opinion. **
**I put this at the end note of my first chapter but I just want to say a major thank you to ForeverEverdeen who has been editing this and making it sound amazing. If you like The Hunger Games, you should go check out her story.**
**DISCLAIMER: I only own the storyline for this fan fiction. All rights belong to Kiera Cass.**
"Have you seen Maxon today?" I asked Carter at lunch. I hadn't seen Maxon anywhere and he wasn't here now. It was already halfway through lunch and having known Maxon for so long, it was unlike him to miss a meal unless it was an emergency. TO say the least, I was starting to get worried.
"No, he wasn't in any of his classes today," Carter replied. I felt my phone vibrate. My hope skyrocketed…Maxon.
"Max, where are you?" I asked the second I pressed the phone to my ear.
"Is there any chance you could skip this afternoon's classes?" he mumbled weakly into the phone. It was rare that I heard Maxon sound so…broken.
"Why?" I questioned worriedly.
"I'm at the hospital," he said. My heart sunk to the pit of my chest and a lump formed in my throat. It took all my efforts not to cry. "Just, if you can come, I'm in room 121. Please. I need to talk to you."
"I'll be there as soon as I can," I said, hanging up. I turned to my right without hesitation. "Carter, can you drive me to the hospital?"
"What, now? Is Maxon okay?" he asked.
"I don't know. Please. I need to see him. He said he needs to talk to me. Carter, do this for Maxon," I begged.
He gave in, saying, "Fine."
"Can I come?" Marlee pleaded. I nodded. If Maxon needed someone to be strong for him, I would be that person. But I need someone to be strong for me too. We packed the remainder of our lunches and headed out. "I can't believe we're ditching. This is so exhilarating. Do you know why Maxon is in the hospital?"
"I might, but I hope I'm wrong," I replied. The entire car ride, Marlee tried to get me to tell what I thought it might be. I had sworn to Maxon that I would never tell anyone about his father so I refused to answer. I felt guilty for hiding out on my best friend, but what else could I do? There were more important things than not telling someone a secret that has nothing to do with them. If I was his father, what would I do to put my son in the hospital? He's never told anyone but me. Did his mother find out? Did something else happen? Was it worse than his father? Everything that could have happened was running through my head.
When we got to the hospital, I bolted to the stairs and started climbing. I've been here before, multiple times. It's pretty sad that I know my way around the building. When I walked in, he was lying on his stomach, his back covered in bandages. "Max," I whispered walking over to him. He tried to look at me, but cried out in pain when he made the slightest movement. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I was in pain just seeing his pain. I grabbed his hand and felt him squeeze it lightly, letting me know that he knew I was here.
"What happened, man?" Carter asked. I could tell Maxon wanted to tell them, but didn't know how.
"Please tell us, Maxon. I can see it in Ames's face that she knows. Can't you tell us?" Marlee urged. Maxon looked at me.
"Max, you might as well. You know we can trust them," I said. With one last glance into my eyes, he told them everything. His abusive father, his loving mother. Me. His father's hatred of our relationship.
"How long has it been going on?" Carter asked.
"Seven years," he replied. _Too long._
"So that's why you never came to my pool parties." Maxon just nodded.
"What happened this time, Max," I asked as a sob escaped my mouth. Maxon squeezed my hand before explaining.
"I came home from dropping you off and my father was waiting for me. He pulled me down to the basement. He said he had found the paper with the address of the apartment building on the floor by my room. I must have dropped it on my way out. God, I should've been more careful. I guess he recognized my mother's handwriting and knew I was getting her help. He said that was against our agreement so I deserved to be punished. In all his rage, he must have forgotten to lock the basement door and gag me because my mother heard me screaming and came down to see what was going on," he responded weakly, tears welling up in his eyes. "She told him to stop and called the ambulance. He must have been too shocked to do anything because he just froze."
"Maxon, I'm so sorry," I cried.
"Don't be. The cops took my father and he won't ever do it again. He has to stand trial in a month. The police were in here earlier. I told them about yours too. I'm sorry. They asked if I knew whether he had done it to anyone else," he said.
"He did it to you?" Marlee asked. I turned around and lifted my shirt slightly. Carter gasped and Marlee let out a sob. "Does it hurt?"
"Yeah, a little. The first time is the worst. It stung more after it happened," I replied, re-adjusting my shirt and grabbing Maxon's hand again. "Max, how long are you going to be here?"
"A week, and I'm stuck in bed for a week after that. It was a lot of stitches to fix these. Probably his worst yet," he replied, attempting to chuckle as his last comment, but it came out more pained than intended.
"Does that mean that us moving in is going to take a little longer?" I asked with sadness in my voice. My gaze traveled down to my feet.
"Nope," he said popping the p. My head snapped up and I met his eyes with my shocked ones. "My mom came up with an idea. She can send us a video of the apartment and then we can decide if we want it. She really is the best."
"Perfect," I said. I kissed his cheek.
"So, Dean Schreave got arrested? Who's going to take over?" Marlee questioned.
"My mom. She'll be in charge of the school," Maxon replied. We stayed to keep Maxon company for a little longer until we realized that there were some important classes we were missing. "My mom says she can do the apartment tour on Saturday and she'll send me the video. We can watch it together and decide."
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, Max. I love you," I said.
"I love you too," he replied. I gave him a small kiss before we left. On our way out, we bumped into Amberly who gave us a stern look and crossed her arms.
"Shouldn't you three be getting out of your last classes right now?" she asked. We exchanged worried glances. Her face softened and she let out a small laugh. "Don't worry. I was there when Maxon called you. I knew you would be here. I guess you asked these two to come for support?" I nodded. If I were to be anyone's daughter-in-law, I would want to be Amberly's. She has always been like a mom to me.
"I'm sorry you had to find out what was going on like that. I always told him to trust you," I apologized. "And I'm really sorry I couldn't tell you. I promised Max and I couldn't go against him like that."
"It's okay. I'm glad I found out now so I could stop it before it went too far. And I'm glad Maxon has someone like you who he can trust. He needs that. How's your back doing?"
"Max told you?" I asked. She nodded solemnly. "Better, but it still hurts. Your son has had some practice patching up the cuts, so he did a good job." It was not something to be proud of, nut it was morbidly true.
"Oh," she said, with a hint of regret. It was obvious what the regret was for, but I wish she didn't have to feel that way. "Just so you are aware, the police are going to have Maxon show his back for evidence and they might ask you to do so as well. They will probably just take some pictures, nothing too in-depth, but definitely necessary for the case. And I haven't told Maxon this, but I'm filing for a divorce."
"Okay, We should go." I gave Amberly a hug before we said goodbye and headed for Carter's car. I could still feel her gaze as I walked away.
-Maxon's POV-
"Divorce?" I asked not as surprised as you would think. I was actually kind of happy to be honest. Their marriage was always rocky at best, the two of them staying together mostly for my sake.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"I'm sorry you had to find out that way. I wish you had known from the beginning, but dad said if I had told you, he would do a lot worse to me or even you," I said.
"I know. I just wish you felt like you could come to me. I would have stopped him sooner. I'm always on your side, Max," she said. "When did it start getting worse?"
"When I started dating America," I told her. "He hated when I spent time with her. He hated her, I guess. He actually almost did it to her a few times, but I told him to do it to me. He still did it to her though. I couldn't stop him when he did it during class. I felt so helpless. I couldn't even defend my girlfriend from my own _father_."
"Why did you put up with that? Why did you take all those hits for her? I know you didn't want her to get hurt, but why didn't you just tell someone to stop him?" she asked. _Why didn't I?_
"Because I love her," I said. "And I _needed_ to protect her. And I didn't want to hurt you by telling you. All I wanted to do was protect the most important people in my life and I feel like I failed. America still got beaten and you still found out because of my stupid actions. I thought I could handle it on my own, and now I know that I can't…I just want him to feel the pain that I felt everytime I saw the marks on her back, all the times I failed to protect her."
"Maxon, stop it. You did what you thought was best," she said. "America loves you and so do I. Nothing changed. America still wants to live with you. She still wants to spend every day with you in a place that is for the two of you. You did not fail either of us. It shows how strong you are and how far you would go to protect America and prove how much you love her."
"Thanks, mom," I said.
The next day, I woke up to America sitting in the chair near my bed, crying silently. "Ames, why are you crying?" I asked squeezing her hand.
"I just hate seeing you in pain and knowing it's my fault," she explained, hastily wiping the tears dripping down her cheeks.
"It is not your fault. I should have made sure I had the paper. Don't worry about me," I said.
"Max, I'm not going to stop worrying about the man I love just because he tells me to. You know how stubborn I am," she stated with a sly grin on her face. I laughed lightly.
"God, I hate not being able to hold you," I said. "I miss having you in my arms. I feel like that's the only place I can keep you safe."
"Imagine how I feel," she cried. "I'm upset because I feel like this is my fault, but the one person who could actually comfort me, can't even sit up!"
"I love you too," I said smiling. She kissed my forehead.
"I have homework, I should go," she mumbled. I could tell she didn't want to but she knew she had to. It sucks being on bedrest when your girlfriend has Business and Finance homework to do. She squeezed my hand.
"I love you," I said. She leaned down and kissed me lightly.
"I love you more," she said. She ran her hand through my hair.
-America's POV-
I walked into the waiting room, where Marlee and Carter were waiting. They had stepped out to give Maxon and me some time alone. We walked to the car to head back to the university in relative silence until Carter decided to break it. "So, how's Maxon?"
"You saw him," I pointed out. I knew he was trying to make small talk but that was not the right time. The rest of the car ride was filled with a tension that nobody dared to break. When we pulled up to our dorm building, we noticed a car packed with stuff at the building next door. Marlee and I walked in and headed for our dorm.
"Who's moving into the next building?" she wondered entering our room.
"I have no idea. Maxon mentioned that somebody a couple years older than us was joining the university, but he didn't mention any names," I responded.
"I just hope it's not Aspen," she commented. Aspen was my ex. We had dated for two years before I started going out with Maxon. We broke up because he was moving and didn't want to "go through the hassle of doing the long-distance thing." At least that was what he said. My theory was that he was too broken-hearted with everything he was losing, that he didn't want to lose me too, so he let me go. His father had passed away and his mother couldn't afford their house anymore. They had to move to another part of the country where she had managed to get a fair-paying job.
"I hope not," I said looking out the window. I caught a glimpse of the guy. He was tall and had a muscular build. The same build as Aspen. _It can't be, America. You're just freaking yourself out about this. Don't worry. And anyway, you're with Maxon. Nothing will happen. You love Maxon too much to let anything happen between the two of you._
I was walking to the campus coffee shop before I headed for the hospital to watch the apartment tour with Maxon. I walked up to the counter and ordered my usual, a hot chocolate and a strawberry tart. While I was waiting, the new person walked in. His hood was covering his face so I couldn't get a good glimpse of who it was, but I recognized his build. I pulled out my phone and texted Maxon: **I'll be there in about twenty minutes.** **Just getting some coffee **
He replied immediately: **Ok. Can't wait to see you**. I texted Marlee and told her to meet me outside the coffee shop with Carter. Immediately.
I heard the cashier asked for the new guy's name. "Aspen," the guy stated, his voice the same as it was when I last saw him. He pulled his hood off. _Oh no._
"America," the cashier said. I noticed Aspen begin looking around out of the corner of my eye. I grabbed my coffee, hoping Aspen wouldn't see me and started to rush to the door when…
"Mer?" I turned around to look at Aspen standing right behind me, just as I remembered him.
"Hi, Aspen," I muttered.
"I didn't know you went here," he said. "My mom got a job around here and we moved back."
"Cool," I said awkwardly, looking for Marlee or Carter or _anyone_ who could give me an out.
"We need to catch up sometime, Mer. It's been too long," he suggested coming closer to me, almost as if to give me a hug.
"Sure," I agreed questionably, taking a step back, making my intentions as clear as day. "Well, I have to go meet my boyfriend. Bye, Aspen." I hurried out before he could react or say anything else. Marlee and Carter were standing outside waiting for me when I rushed out of the coffee shop.
"America, are you okay?" Marlee asked walking up to me and placing her hands on my shoulders. I frantically looked around. When I met her gaze, she looked worried and panicked, mirroring my own expression.
"Aspen's here."
\- Maxon's POV-
America, Marlee, and Carter walked in. "Hey, Maxon. How you doing?" Carter greeted.
"Fine," I replied. I noticed America seemed quiet and reserved. She took a sip of her coffee. "Ames, are you okay?" She looked at her feet. "Ames, you're scaring me. What's going on?"
"Do you remember me telling you about my ex-boyfriend Aspen?" she asked.
"The one who broke up with you before we started going out? Yeah," I said nervously.
"He's the new student at the university," she said cautiously. "And he wants to catch up with me." My entire body froze and my mind went blank. I said the first thing that came to mind.
"Did you tell him you have a boyfriend?" I asked quickly.
"My exact words were, 'I have to go meet my boyfriend,' so I think I covered the whole taken part. I left right after I said that because I didn't want to know his reaction," she answered. "Don't worry, Max. I won't let him come between us."
"I know you won't," I said. Just then, my phone started ringing. I looked at the screen that showed my mother's caller ID. "It's my mom. Are you ready?" America nodded. She walked over to my bed and sat beside me. I clicked answer and my mom's face appeared.
"Hi, you two. I'm in the apartment with Ashley. We're going to take you through the apartment and then she'll answer any questions you have," she told us. We went through the apartment and once the tour was over, my mom hung up so we could decide.
"I love it, Max," America said simply.
"I do too," I agreed. "So you definitely want it?"
"Yes, it's perfect," she praised. I looked at her to see she was smiling ear to ear. I couldn't wait to spend every single day with the woman I love.
"I think so too," I agreed. "We have an apartment. We're going to live together."
"I can't wait," she said, leaning down and kissing me on the lips. "I love you so much."
"I love you too." Marlee and Carter walked back in, each holding a coffee.
"Did you guys decide?" Marlee asked.
"Yep, we're going to take it," I said. Marlee and America hugged. Things were finally falling into place.
**So I ended it at a happier place because my other two cut-offs have been a little morbid and suspenseful. I'm now on summer vacation but my editor does get busy so I will try to update as much as possible during the summer. I am not promising a chapter every week, but I will do my best to give you as many chapters as possible over the next couple of months. **
**If you are going through finals, I just want to say good luck and I know you'll do amazing **
**Review, Follow, Favorite please. I love you! **
5. AUTHOR'S NOTE
**I'M SOOOOO SORRY THAT I'VE BEEN M.I.A. FOR 3 MONTHS AND HAVEN'T UPDATED! I've been writing fan fiction but it was personal fan fictions that aren't about book characters and that I don't share on the internet. I will do my best to get the next chapter up as soon as I can but I just started sophomore year of high school and I'm already swamped with work. I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN THIS FAN FICTION! I know I said this a while ago, but as I've said, I also have to send it to my friend to get it edited and she also gets busy so updating can be very difficult at times. I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW SORRY I AM THAT I'M MAKING YOU GUYS WAIT. **
**thank you for waiting. I love you guys so much. **
**BYEEEEE :)**
6. Chapter 4
**IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: I AM SO SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG! I used to have my friend edit the chapters but both of us got really busy with school and other stuff so I think the rest of the story will be my own writing. This chapter is going to sound different when it comes to the writing style because I am nowhere near as good a writer as my friend. Also, I'm going to try and update more, but I can't promise. Hopefully with summer coming up, that will give me an opportunity to post more of the story. **
**DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Selection or any of the characters. **
"This is the last box," Maxon said, putting the box down. He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me. "I still can't believe I live with the most beautiful girl in the world." I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck.
"You don't have to flirt anymore, I'm already your girlfriend," I giggled. He chuckled, tightening his grip on me – if that was even possible.
"I wasn't flirting, I was being honest," he corrected. "But, yes, I do have to keep flirting, because I don't want to lose you."
"You're never going to lose me. You're stuck with me," I said, causing Maxon to laugh. He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.
"I'm perfectly fine with that," he mumbled against my lips, resting his forehead on mine. It amazed me to this day how I found someone so perfect and managed to make him mine.
-Maxon's POV-
It had been a month since America and I moved in together and things were going great. "Yeah, it's still kind of weird to wake up to her, but it's a good weird," I explained to Carter as we grabbed our coffees. We walked over to a table and sat down.
"I was with Marlee yesterday at the library and I heard Daphne and that girl, Kriss, talking about you and America. Both of them have feelings for you and are pretty upset that you and America moved in together," he said.
"Good," I muttered, bringing the piping hot coffee to my lips.
"Did you hear Clark wants Daphne back?" he suddenly remembered.
"What? Seriously? I still can't believe he even likes her," I said, shaking my head. "I don't even know why I did. I think I just went out with her because we were expected to go out. The whole popular boy/popular girl thing. Worst years of my life."
"She flirted with every guy when you weren't around. Even me," he cried.
"She did it even when I was around. I'm not surprised she cheated on me. I was actually kind of waiting to see how long until she did."
"Hey, isn't that America's ex-boyfriend, Aspen?" Carter asked, pointing to someone behind me. I turned around and saw the tall guy that once had my girlfriend's heart.
"Yeah, ever since he got here, I can feel him watching America. I'm glad she lives with me off campus. I heard his building is right near her old one," I replied.
"Don't you trust America?"
"Of course I trust her. I would be stupid not to. It's him I don't trust," I replied, looking back at him with disgust. I heard the door open and heard two girls giggling. I turned around to see America and Marlee. America smiled when she saw me, but I noticed Aspen watching her. They made their way over to us. I stood up and pulled her in for a loving kiss. She seemed shocked by my action, but kissed me back after the initial shock wore off.
When we pulled apart, she questioned, "Max, I love you, but what was with that? That was a little more than a 'hello' kiss."
"Ex-boyfriend, 5 o'clock." She turned and noticed Aspen looking at us. She gave me a knowing look. We sat down and she grabbed my coffee, taking a sip. I kept my arm loosely around her shoulders to make sure Aspen knew that she was my girl.
"I heard Aspen talking to his friends yesterday about how he really wishes he could get you back," Marlee said, stealing a sip of Carter's drink.
"I heard that rumor too," she grumbled. "That's all anyone is talking about. I don't want him back though. I already have the best boyfriend ever." She kissed my cheek. I tightened my arm around her and pulled her closer into my chest.
"America?" We all looked up to see Aspen standing there. "Can we talk?"
"Um, sure," she replied nervously. She squeezed my thigh reassuringly, but the look on her face made me wonder if it was for her or me. She got up and they walked outside. I didn't realize I was staring until Carter pointed it out.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I don't know. He's known her a lot longer than I have. That's a lot to compete with," I said taking a sip from my coffee. _I trust her. I trust her. I trust her._
-America's POV-
"So, what do you want to talk about?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I didn't want to speak to him alone, but I know he won't stop bothering me until I do. _Just get it out of the way, America._
"I heard you moved in with him," he said out of the blue.
"Yeah, we just-," I began, only to be cut off.
"Does he make you happy?" he blurted out.
"What?"
"Does he make you happy?" he repeated.
"Yes, of course he does. Why would you ask that? Do you think I would move in with him if I was miserable?" I asked getting mad. I did not want to have this conversation right now, let alone with him.
"Mer, I just want to know if he treats you right. If he makes you feel like the princess you are," he said moving closer to me, and moving his hand up as if going to stroke my cheek. I took a step back, making it clear that any contact was unacceptable.
"Yes, he does. He does a better job at that than you did. I love Maxon more than anything and you have no idea what he has done for me," I responded. "And you have no right to say that about me anymore."
"I didn't mean to upset you. I guess I just realized I never stopped loving you when I saw you. Breaking up with you was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I just wish we could just pick up where we left off." He made another attempt to touch me, going for my hip this time. I backed away quickly, just barely avoiding his hand.
"Well, we can't. I'm in love with Maxon and nothing will ever change that. You lost your chance," I fired. I stormed back into the coffee shop and sat down.
"You okay, Ames?" Maxon asked, wrapping one arm around my shoulder and using his other hand to urge me to look at him.
"Well, he wants me back, I can tell you that much," I said. Maxon turned and looked outside. I could tell he was fuming. When he was like this and you were on his bad side, there's no telling what he'll do. This is the one trait he inherited from his father that he hates. "I have a headache, can we head home, Max?"
"Yeah. I'll feel better when he can't get to you," he agreed standing up. I got up and he wrapped his arm around me. "See you two later," he muttered to Marlee and Carter. I waved to them as Maxon pulled me to the entrance. We walked outside to find Aspen and his friends talking and laughing. Maxon's grip tightened. I rested my hand on his shoulder in attempt to calm him down. He led me to his car and we headed back to our apartment in silence.
When we got into our apartment, Maxon walked to the small balcony that was connected to the kitchen. I walked out after him and placed my hands on his shoulders. "Max, are you okay?" I worried.
"I don't know," he sighed. Is he having trouble trusting me? Would he think I would leave him for the past? "I know what you're thinking. You're wondering if I trust you. It's not that I don't trust you," he assured me, turning and pulling me into his arms, "I do. It's that ex-boyfriend of yours I don't trust. He's known you a lot longer than I have. He was your first love. That's a lot to go against."
"Max," I mumbled, "you're getting worked up over nothing. I don't care how long he's known me; all that matters to me is you. I love you so much more than I ever loved him. To be honest, I don't think I even loved him. I was in love with the idea of love. But you, I do love and I will until the day I die."
"You took the words right out of my mouth," he whispered. He leaned in and kissed me. When we pulled apart, he rested his forehead on mine. We stayed like that for a few minutes. Then, Maxon's phone went off. He groaned as he grabbed it from his pocket. I giggled as he rolled his eyes. When he looked at the caller ID, his face softened and I knew instantly that it was his mother. "Hi, mom," he greeted putting it to his ear. "Sunday? Okay… Yeah, I can make it… Thanks, mom. Bye." He hung up and said, "My dad's trial is Sunday."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Yea, I think so. He's finally getting what he deserves," Maxon said.
"Maxon, just remember, if this goes the way we hope, your father can never hurt you or me again," I reassured him. I placed my hand on his cheek and stroked it with my thumb.
"I know. That's what's getting me through this. The thought that he'll never be able to hurt you again," he sighed, moving a strand of my hair behind my ear. My heart fluttered at what he said. For him, me getting hurt once was more painful than all the times his father hurt him. I knew that my pain had been difficult for him to watch, but the fact that he is putting it ahead of his own just shows me how much he loves me. I pulled him down for another kiss and he pushed me against the wall, deepening the kiss. We pulled away panting. "Can we have a movie night?"
"Sure, I'll get the popcorn," I giggled. I walked into our kitchen and grabbed the popcorn. I stuck it in the microwave and made my way to the fridge to grab a drink.
"Ames, can you get me a soda from the fridge?"
"Can't you get it yourself?" I asked.
"You're closer," he whined. I let out a giggle and agreed. When the popcorn was done, I walked into the living room with two sodas and the bowl of popcorn. "Thank you, love," Maxon said kissing me on the cheek. We sat on the couch. Maxon pressed play on the movie and wrapped his arm around me. I snuggled into him and grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bowl that was now resting on his lap.
"What are we watching?" I asked.
"The Lego Movie," he replied. I cheered causing Maxon to laugh.
I must have fallen asleep during the movie because the next thing I knew, I was in our bed. Maxon was snoring lightly beside me. I checked my phone and saw that it was 8:17 am. I heard Maxon stir next to me. He groggily opened his eyes enough to see that I was awake. My God, he is adorable when he's tired.
"What time is it?" he asked covering his eyes with his arm.
"Quarter after eight," I replied. He groaned. He moved his arm and leaned over to kiss me. "Morning, sleepyhead."
"Morning, darling," he sighed plopping back down on his pillow.
"When did I fall asleep?"
"About halfway through the movie," he said. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me close, burying his face in my neck. My phone buzzed. Maxon loosened his grip on me, allowing me to check my phone. I checked to see who was calling. Unknown.
"Hello?" I said answering my phone.
"America, I'm so glad I reached you. I need to talk to you about yesterday," the unknown person rambled into the phone.
"Who is this?"
"It's Aspen," he stated. I froze. Maxon looked at me worried. "America? Are you still there?"
"How did you get my number?" I asked.
"A girl named Kriss got it for me," he replied. "Can we please talk?"
"No, I never want to see or speak to you again. Lose this number," I cried hanging up. Maxon looked at me confused. "It was Aspen. He wanted to talk to me about yesterday." Maxon's grip on me tightened and I buried my face in his neck.
"How did he get your number?" he asked.
"Kriss. Somehow she got my number," I replied. "I wish he would just accept that I'm happy and leave me alone."
-Maxon's POV-
America and I walked into the diner near the university. We sat at a booth and looked at the menu. My eyes traveled to other tables. They landed on a table across the room, occupied by Aspen, Daphne, and Kriss.
"Max?" I heard America say. I turned to look at her.
"What?" I blurted out.
"I asked if you know what you're getting. What are you looking at?" she asked looking around. Her eyes stopped when they reached the table I had been watching not even a minute ago. "Oh," was all she said. I looked over and noticed Aspen look at us. He smiled at America. I looked at her and saw she was looking at me.
The waitress walked over to us and asked what we were going to have. After we had ordered, I couldn't stop glancing at my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend. "Max, are you okay?"
"I just really hate him. And why are they sitting with him?"
"It seems like the two girls who like you and the guy who wants me back are plotting how to split us up," she said. I watched Aspen put his arm around Daphne and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Are they dating?"
"If they are, why are they still going after us?" I asked. "What if they're doing this to make us jealous? What if they think we'll come running back to them just because we see them with someone else?"
"Probably. How about we just ignore them? We're kind of giving them what they want by watching them," she said. I grabbed her hand and stroked it with my thumb.
"You're right. So, are you sure you want to come to the trial tomorrow?" I asked.
"Yeah, I want to be there for you. Also, your mom told me the judge may also ask to see my back as evidence that he did it to someone besides you," she said.
"How does it feel?"
"A lot better," she replied. I squeezed her hand just as the waitress walked up with our food. I stole a few glances at them while we ate, but did my best to ignore them.
-America's POV-
I was sitting in the kitchen on my laptop. I was finishing an essay that's due on Monday, when Maxon walked in the room. "Hey, baby. What are you working on?"
"History essay due Monday," I said. He kissed my head and walked over to the fridge. "I meant to ask you, what time is the trial?"
"One o'clock," he replied leaning over my shoulder, reading what I was doing. "Oh, I remember this essay. Silvia is really tough about this one. It determines your semester grade. I nearly failed it."
"Which is why I want to get it done, so I can just make corrections," I explained. "How long was yours supposed to be?"
"A thousand words, I think," he recalled. "I heard last year they had two thousand. How long does yours have to be?"
"Three thousand or more," I groaned. "I have 2,787 so far. For every extra 500 words we do, she'll give us extra credit."
"Really? Mine was every extra thousand words," he complained.
"Well mine is supposed to be longer," I pointed out. "What did you get?"
"A D. My dad gave me two gashes for it," he said. "Of course I only made mine 1,305 words or around there."
"I'm going for at least 3,500. This way I'll get some extra credit," I said, as I continued typing.
"I doubt you'll need it," he stated. "You're brilliant." He kissed my cheek and sat next to me.
"I appreciate the complement, but I think I will need it," I said. "You said yourself that she is tough when she grades this. I really want to pass this semester."
"You will, don't worry. Her complaint on mine was that I didn't have enough detail. With the length yours has to be, I'm sure you have that covered," he laughed.
"I can't blame her. You are very unspecific when it comes to descriptions," I said with a giggle.
"Hey," he said with mock insult. "I'm very descriptive."
"Sure you are," I said. I stole a sip of the soda he was drinking.
"How many words do you have now?"
"2,809" I replied.
"Okay, I'm going to go take a quick shower," he said standing up. "You better be done when I get out."
"No promises," I said. He laughed, kissed my head, and walked out.
About twenty minutes later, he walked back in the kitchen, in a pair of shorts. He was drying his hair with a towel, but my eyes were stuck on his shirtless chest. He may not like to be shirtless because of his back, but I loved it when he was. He was pretty muscular, if I say so myself.
"Like the view?" he asked. I snapped back into reality.
"What? No, um, uh," I stuttered. Maxon just laughed. "Hey, it's your fault."
"What? My fault?"
"Yeah, you just had to have a great body," I said. He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me. "I'm just glad I'm the only who gets to see it."
"Yes, you are. You always will be the only one," he replied. "Although, Marlee may have gotten a slight peek in the hospital."
"Whatever," I said. He leaned down and pecked me on the lips.
"So did you finish?" he asked.
"Nearly," I replied. "I just have to add a few words here and there and then proofread, but pretty much."
"How many words did you get?"
"3,568. I just finished a minute ago," I stated proudly. He kissed my cheek and pulled me in for a hug. "I'm torn."
"Why?"
"I want you to stay shirtless, but at the same time, I want you to put a shirt on because your muscles are too distracting." All he did was chuckle and kiss my head.
**Sorry this chapter sucked. I wrote it so long ago and I didn't really have much time to edit too much of it now because I wanted to give you guys a bit more of the story. Especially since The Crown is coming out next week! I don't know who I'm rooting for because it's been so long since I read The Heir, so I might reread it over the weekend. I won't say anything about it incase you haven't read it because I don't want to spoil it. **
**Review, follow, favorite! Love you guys and once again, sorry for the wait!**
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| fanfiction |
Howard Erwin Stange March 3, 1924 December 4, 1990 was an American musician, singer and pianist who played Rockabilly and Country music, possessing a distinctive vocal and playing style. Howie was a musical virtuoso who had the ability to pick up any instrument and play with a high degree of technical proficiency, despite the fact that he never learned how to read music. Howie was born of four sisters and two brothers who include: Gertrude 'Kiki' Stange, Doris Stange, Frank Anthony Stange, Raymond Christopher Stange, Esther Madelyn Stange and Kathleen Leona Stange. Among the six siblings, only his youngest sister, Kathleen, lives to date, age 85. Howie achieved both national and international fame recognition, for his hit 45 record, Real Gone Daddy/This Old Bomb of Mine, released in 1957. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential Rockabilly musicians of his era, Howie's music currently resides on over 100 record compilations of the best rockabilly music ever produced. Howie's song Real Gone Daddy has achieved Maybelline status among fans. Additionally, in 1958 he went on to record Are You Lonesome To-Night? which was subsequently picked up by Elvis Presley Are You Lonesome Tonight? song who later went on to chart this song at number 1 on the Billboard Charts in 1960. Howie Stange did not achieve significant fame or fortune during his lifetime: however, his music left a lasting impression on a generation of young listeners who were first being introduced to rock and roll music in the 1950s.
Life and Career Childhood 19241938
Born in Meriden, Connecticut, Howie Stange grew up and lived his entire life in his home town. His family lived a hard-scrabble life; very little to eat, no indoor plumbing, and no money for medical care. Howard suffered from severe asthma, and the family always lived in fear of an asthma attack, for they did not have the $3.00 it cost for a doctor to make a house call. The family survived the Great Depression by hard work and frugality. Howie's father, Thomas Anthony Stange, worked during the 1930s at the Works Progress Administration as a laborer. Prior to this, Thomas spent much of his younger days working the Vaudeville circuit. Thomas started in New York City as a theater foreman, and was able to land himself a stage role, ultimately working alongside Al Jolson's troupe playing the 'end-man' minstrel role. Howie's father was multi-talented, being able to sing, tap, and play a variety of instruments. Thomas also performed Are You Lonesome Tonight? with spoken part, as part of his Vaudeville performance. Howie would later find his father's sheet music for Are You Lonesome Tonight? while cleaning out the attic and bring it to the next studio session in NYC and convince Jim Flaherty to record the song. Thomas would move to Connecticut in 1916 where he continued to perform in Vaudeville at the Meriden Jacques Opera House and the Leows Poli Palace Theater. Thomas Anthony also appeared on the Major Bowes amateur Hour Edward Bowes as a singer, performing his favorite tune 'I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen'. Music was part of the fabric of the household, with a piano set up in the front room, and dad spending evenings and weekends singing and entertaining his family. His musical talents certainly were passed down to his children, and at a very early age the boys; Frank, Howie, and Raymond, all began to play music. At a very young age, Howie learned the rudiments of playing the guitar from a neighbor, Herbert LaMontagne. Howie attended school at St. Stanislaus School in Meriden for elementary and grammar school. Born a left-hander, the school nuns felt that writing with the left hand was improper, so they would bind Howie's left hand so he couldn't use it, and forced him to write with his right hand. Howie would spend the rest of his life writing with his right hand, and performing all other tasks with his left. Howie's mother, Mary Stange, would work at New Departure , and remained a dutiful wife, mother, and homemaker her entire life. Howie's father died in 1938 when Howie was at the young and impressionable age of 14. His father's death would have a profound impact on young Howie, and shape his life in many ways, from his personal relationships to his love of music.
Life and Career Youth 19381948
After Thomas died in 1938, Howie left school in pursuit of work after completing eighth grade in order to help support the family. Brothers Frank and Raymond did the same. Howie and his family moved into a fourth floor apartment on top of a grocery store in downtown Meriden. This spot became the neighborhood hangout, as each weekend, the Stange siblings and friends would play music at jam sessions. During these early years, Howie was already expressing exceptionally rare musical talent, and excelled at playing the piano. During the summer of 1940, and free piano was offered to Howie, with the caveat 'if you can get it into the apartment, it's yours.' The boys spent the better part of the afternoon with the window frame removed, hoisting this piano up to the fourth floor apartment on the corner of Cook Ave and Summer Street, above an Italian Restaurant. This musical collaboration amongst the brothers would remain for a lifetime; Frank and Raymond would often join Howie up on stage as well as in the studio. The Stange family musicians had an inauspicious start: Warren Sattler relates a story from 1939, where he competed at a local talent show hosted at a Meriden movie theater, resulted in pitting four-year-old Warren performing yodeling against the three teenage Stange boys performing country music. The young yodeler won out over the Stange family band. The local kids played the usual boyhood activities, such as playing football as part of the 'Acorn' gang, hanging out at Spencer's garage on Main Street, and attending events at the Meriden Boys Club. It was at the Boys Club that Howie took up boxing, a sport he would pursue in earnest after World War II. The start of World War II disrupted Howie's life and propelled him, like many in his generation, to enlist when he turned eighteen. He chose to sign up for the Coast Guard, the same service as his brother Frank. Stationed for two years on Long Island, New York, Howie's time was spent with beach patrols, inspections, training, and drills. It was during this period that Howie married his first love, Jane Webster, on July 15, 1943. Howie and the other men of his unit would let off steam by participating in Coast Guard boxing matches. Howie received a medical discharge from the Coast Guard on January 5, 1944 for chronic asthma. In 1944, Howie settled down with his new family, wife and soon to be two children. During the day Howie worked at New Departure in the guard shack, but his passion at the time was with boxing. Howie was a promising you bantamweight fighter with a strong left punch. He earned the nickname of 'Lefty' during this time which stuck with him for the remainder of his life. Howie was good friends and sparring partner to Joe Coffee. In late 1947 Joe broke his left hand in 2 places in a fight, ending his career. Howie took this as a sign that he too should find other pursuits, as Howie knew that an injury such as Joe suffered would end his musical aspirations.
Village Playboys 19491955
It was during the late 1940s and early 1950s that Howie ventured forth and began his solo act playing at clubs and small venues. His strong vocals and aggressive piano playing style really took the local community by surprise. As his popularity grew, offers of playing in a band soon arrived. Howie's break would come in 1952, when Andy Calabrese, Harold 'Slim' Huntley and Gus French, came looking for a vocalist. The trio had heard of a singer and piano player named Howie Stange. Slim and Gus went in search of Howie to see if they could interest him in joining the band. The two went to visit Howie while he was living in a trailer behind the Greenwood Lodge. Howie did not need much convincing, as he desperately wanted to get out and play his music for the public. Shortly thereafter, Andy left to form his own very successful group, The Top Hatters, and Bob Guyette was recruited, and the Village Playboys were born. Gus played on the big bass, Slim on the rhythm guitar, Bob on the lead guitar, and Howie on the piano, mandolin, rhythm guitar, banjo, fiddle, or vocals, or a combination thereof. Over the next four years, the group would play constantly, mainly in Connecticut and Massachusetts, at any venue they could get booked in. Clubs, diners, halls, auditoriums, restaurants, and family gatherings all became home away from home for the Playboys. The band kept a grueling schedule, with Howie earning $12.00 a show and each of the bandmates $10.00. They would play hour and a half sets, and then help move off all the tables and chairs for dancing the rest of the evening. Over time Robert Kowalczyk, aka Bob 'Cat' Gibson Bob would go on to play lead guitar for Bill Flagg, came in to replace Bob Guyette.
At this point in time, the type of music being played by the group was very traditional country ballads in the vein of George Jones, Hank Snow and Roy Acuff. The talents Howie possessed were an extremely rare phenomena, especially considering he did not have any formal music training. Howie had perfect pitch, and he could pick up any music by hearing it only once. Howie could play the piano, the Gibson flattop guitar, the fiddle, Gibson mandolin, the five string banjo, harmonica, and provide vocals. Howie was technically proficient, and played his instruments with clean, crisp breaks and a fast play style. He modeled his piano play after Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, and his tenor voice was a beautiful cross of George Jones and Elvis Presley. Howie's rendition of Are You Lonesome To-Night? is perhaps the finest example of Howie's vocal talents, and his play on the piano is unsurpassed on This Old Bomb of Mine. Playing at the Mountain View Lodge in 1956 to a packed house, the band performed What Would You Do If Jesus Came to Your House for the finale, and when done, the audience was completely silent, in awe of how strong the vocal performance was. Howie then turned back towards the bass player, Gus French, and said, that is the biggest tribute they [the audience] could ever pay you. Upon hearing this, the audience burst into applause. During this time, Howie struck up a friendship with the Sycz family in Newington, Connecticut. The Sycz's had built a sound studio in their basement, and Howie spent time recording in the studio, often being accompanied by a then teenage Jean Syck whose later married name was Jean Perron. The Sycz family gave Howie a portable record cutting machine, which from now on accompanied Howie most places, and would serve as the vehicle that created the Howie Stange Music Catalogue. This catalogue is being hosted online at www.realgonedaddyrecords.com.
Many of the venues where rough and tumble joints; for example, the Lake Besek Grill of Middlefield was also known as the 'Bucket of Blood.' It was at one such event that Howie showed just how feisty he could be. A bar patron stood up out of the audience while Howie was playing the piano and began shouting you knocked out two of my brothers in the boxing ring, and now I'm going to kick your a**! And with that, the patron came up onto the stage and up and over the piano, and took a mighty swing at Howie, who, without skipping a musical note, raised his left hand off the ivories and gave him a stout left hook right to the head, knocking him off the stage and into the floor speakers, leaving him unconscious. Howie continued right on playing. Another such memorable night happened at the Long Lane Farm School for Girls in Middletown. Being an all-girls school, and one with strict curfews, the students did not have much exposure to neither the opposite sex, nor the new type of music being played, rock and roll. The band played to a packed house, and by the end of the evening it had turned into a riot of screaming girls running to and fro. The Band barely escaped, fleeing in a Cadillac as dawn broke. Howie also possessed a great sense of humor, in one instance, as the set was winding down, an obviously drunk bar patron pulled a gun out and confronted one of the band members. Howie shouted from behind the piano go ahead and take a swing at 'em, don't worry, he's too chicken to use it. At this point, the patron swung the gun around and pointed it right at Gus French. This distraction enabled others to jump in and subdue the man. In 1955 there was more transition with band members, with Slim Huntley joining the Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan, and Richard N. 'Moon' Burgess Sr. joining up with Howie. Others musicians joined: Pete Hazelwood, Leroy 'Shadow' Dontigney, and Maurice Corely. This new group called themselves the Valley Playboys. Rita Burgess recalled the good times: it does bring back some good memory's Saturday night at the Shamrock Howie on the piano, Corley on lead guitar Moon on guitar and Shadow on drums. One night there was a fight and they took Leroy Dontigney, Shadow, drums and all, right out the door and he never stopped playing. The Shadow would earn his moniker as one minute he would be there, and the next moment gone. The advent of Moon and the other musicians allowed for a new style of music to emerge, with Moon playing his signature Martin guitar. This new combination of talent brought an entirely different sound to the group. The group was also being influenced by popular culture of the times, with rock and roll splashing all over new radio stations and television stations. A brand of music called Rockabilly was just starting to take off in popularity, and the group began to adopt these sounds. This type of music was being performed by the likes of such artists as Chuck Berry, Bill Flagg, and Elvis Presley.
Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan 19561960
As the Playboys' popularity grew, in 1956 the group was offered a Saturday morning radio show at WMMW 1470 AM. Howie hosted the show and would invite the Village Playboys and other local musicians to come in and play. This exposure at WMMW brought Howie to come into contact with Jim Flaherty. In 1956, Howie was invited to join the Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan, and Howie brought with him Gus French. This group, with manager and lead guitar player
Jim Flaherty, would be a significant step-up for Howie from his previous band. Jim was a very popular DJ at WHAY in New Britain, Connecticut, a successful concert promoter, and manager of the popular Belmont Record Shop located on Washington Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Howie played with the Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan, providing lead vocals, and playing instruments as needed, with a particular emphasis on the banjo, piano, and fiddle. The group would tour tirelessly throughout New England during these years and became quite popular. This time in Howie's life was certainly the pinnacle of his commercial and musical career. A dedicated self-promoter, Jim Flaherty secured multiple recording contracts with A&R man Morty Craft in New York City from 1957 through 1960. The band began at Bell Studios as a studio band for other larger acts managed by Morty at the time. Morty was a hard-taskmaster, Gus French recalls Morty would have us play for 12 hours plus, one day my fingers were bleeding we stayed at it for so long, we asked if we could take a break, Morty replied put some tape on 'em and keep playing.. The working relationship however soon evolved into actual productions by the band on the Indie labels of MELL, JENN, & Frankie. The band would go on to record at the Bell Sound Studios in New York City, with Morty Craft acting as producer. These recordings, beginning with Real Gone Daddy began to get much radio airtime throughout New England and put Howie and the band on the map. A total of 4 commercially produced 45's were released during this time. There was even a Howie Stange Fan Club, according to past President Mary Jane Papallo, who fell in love with the music after seeing Howie open for the Everly Brothers. On September 1, 1958 the band opened for the Wilburn Brothers and Johnny Cash at Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut.
As was typical of the practices in the music industry in those days, a song produced by a lesser known band would start to gain air time on the radio, the A&R men would promote that song up to the bigger artists. This was the case with the bands rendition of Are You Lonesome To-Night? with vocals by Howie Stange. Howie's version of that song was passed along to Chet Atkins, RCA A&R man, by Jim Flaherty at a DJ Convention in Nashville in November 1959. Chet was the A&R man for Elvis at the time and passed this song along to Elvis for recording. Jim Flaherty had a close working relationship with Elvis's record labels, as letters, in the possession of Jim Flaherty's family, written by the labels in the 1950s attest to. Elvis would go on to send this song to the number 1 spot on the Billboard charts in 1960. Also, producers would 'doctor' the recordings to give them more of a 'commercial' appeal. This can be seen by the Morty Craft produced Baby I'm Sorry and You Never Had It So Good with vocals by Howie Stange. These two songs were unlike anything produced by the band, and were entirely pop music productions, designed to draw in a larger audience. Dubbed over the original takes were harmonies by the Ray Charles Singers. Morty passed up Howie's particular version of Baby I'm Sorry to Ricky Nelson, who then charted the song into Billboar's top 10 Morty also 'sped up' the song of 'Real Gone Daddy' giving it a very up-tempo beat. During 1959, the group's popularity really began to take off. The band appeared twice in 1959 on The Connecticut Bandstand. The Bandstand was a daily TV show that was the forerunner of American Bandstand. Aired by WNHC-TV Channel 8 out of New Haven, it was hosted by Jim Gallant, and featured teenagers dancing while bands performed. Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan performed twice in 1959 to promote their first two recordings, Real Gone Daddy/This Old Bomb Of Mine, and Are You Lonesome To-Night?/My Foolish Heart. During this time, Howie was invited to perform at the Hayloft Jamboree in Boston, Massachusetts as well as the Hayloft Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia. He worked side-by-side with such notables as Harkshaw Hawkins, Web Pierce, and Lefty Frizzell. The band also opened for distiniguished acts like Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. Ultimately, hard work and a hard life, coupled with a new wife and big family, finally took their toll, and in 1960, Howie left the band. The Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan would continue to enjoy much success in the 1960s with two notable lead men, Maury Dubois, who recorded Am I Losing You which cracked the Billboard's top 10, and Lou 'Dee' Demaria.
Personal life
Howie married his first wife, as he was leaving the Coast Guard in 1943. They had two children together. Howie earned a living as a buffer and later an engraver with the International Silver Company in Meriden. After that, Howie turned to sales, and worked for the Fuller Brush Company as a door-to-door salesman. He also picked up where he left off with boxing, and became a local boxing champion, http://www.myrecordjournal.com/community/frontporchnews/4100803-129/local-boxing-champions.html fighting in the welterweight division from 19451948. He was quite the dancer, and known for his fancy footwork in the ring. He was a lefty, and consistently gave his opponents difficult fights. Howie boxed under the name Howie 'Lefty' Stange, and continued to carry the nickname 'Lefty' for the rest of his life. The fights were staged mainly at an outdoor arena on Colony Street, and later Howie would fight at the Meriden City Hall Auditorium and at the Meriden Armory. His marriage unraveled in 1954, as the relationship could not survive the temptations of the road. Howie was known for hard living, and women and booze were easy to come by. Howie married his second wife in 1954. This marriage produced one child. It was during this time that Howie and his family lost many of their personal belongings in a terrible apartment fire, Howie lost many of his musical instruments. Slim Coxx hosted a benefit at an old dance hall in Farmington, Connecticut. Howie had a terrific sense of humor and a story told by Gertrude French illustrates this. in 1959, as a salesman for the Fuller Brush Company, Howie was out driving one day down a long, steep hill, and at the last moment as car turned out in front of him and a fender bender ensued. Howie got out, and checked on the elderly driver of the second car, and the driver exclaimed I thought I could make it!. Howie would tell this story over and over again and just laugh out loud at what the old man had said. Howie's second marriage did not survive either, and he and his wife divorced in 1959. In 1960, Howie married his third wife, Marion Dickerman, whom he had three children with: Howard Erwin Stange Jr., born November 26, 1961: Stephen Dickerman Stange, born July 24, 1964: and Raymond Enos Stange, born on September 1, 1965. The obligations of three marriages and six children finally caught up to Howie, and in 1960, he left the Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan to focus on his family life. He would turn his energies to becoming a car salesman. Howie was quite successful at this, winning multiple awards and earning the title of 'New England Car Salesman of the Year' and a large celebration up in Boston. Howie retired from his job in 1985. Howie continued to play music in his leisure time, but his music was limited to weekends at a local Meriden venues or in the summers out at Lake Beseck in Middletown, Connecticut, joining on-stage such performers like Slim Coxx. Howie's third marriage would also end in divorce in 1970. Howie married his fourth and final wife in 1970. They would have one child together. Howie also adopted the daughter of his fourth wife. This marriage would be the one that lasted, and Howie remained married to her until his death in 1990. Howie Stange left a positive, long-lasting impression on men and women across America. Two men in particular owe much in their life to Howie: Dave Cook and Warren Cyr http://www.acousticguitarcommunity.com/profile/WarrenCyr. Dave Cook played with Howie during the WMMW radio show throughout the 1950s and Howie provided the inspiration that led Dave to a life of music and playing in his own bands for over twenty five years, 'Big John & The Western Ramblers.' Howie, Dave once said, He was a hero, a wonderful man, and a man who inspired me for the remainder of my life. And Warren Cyr, who said Howie was a real country gentleman. I never heard a cuss word from him. Your dad and Dave Cook introduced me to Johnny Cash and inspired me to learn to play the guitar, teach guitar for many years, and as a result succeed in life. I was influenced by Howie: may he be blessed. Howie Stange was also quick to praise, as country music performer Warren Sattler relates an incident in his early career, when Howie ran into Warren at the Oyster Bay restaurant in Meriden, Warren, said Howie, what the he** are you still doing here. I thought you would be in Nashville by now.
Recordings
Record Labels MELL, JENN, Frankie, Horizons Unlimited, & Dee Jay. Affiliation Labels included Village Playboys & Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan & Howie and the Gang.
Howie Stange's discography includes 5 releases:
JENN Records released 1957
Side 1 Real Gone Daddy J101 J1001, vocals Howie Stange
Side 2 This Old Bomb Of Mine J101 J1002J-101 & 102, vocals Howie Stange
Frankie Records released 1958
Side 1 Are You Lonesome To-Night? FR-7 HB-276, vocals Howie Stange
Side 2 My Foolish Heart FR-7 HB-277, vocals Morey Dubois
MELL Records released 1959
Side 1 You Never Had It So Good 120 1039, vocals Howie Stange
Side 2 Baby I'm Sorry 120 1040, vocals Howie Stange
MELL Records released 1959
Side 1 Am I Losing You 121 1041, vocals Morey Dubois
Side 2 If You Can Spare The Time 121 1042, vocals Morey Dubois
Horizons Unlimited Records released 1964
Side 1 The Girl I Loved For A Time U1030, vocals Lou Dee
Side 2 This Honky Tonk Is Home Sweet Home U1030, vocals Lou Dee
Dee Jay Records DJ-45-215-A & B re-release on a West German record label Real Gone Daddy/This Old Bomb of Mine 1982
Typical Playlist would include the following:
Davey Crocket, Beware, It's Love,Instrumental selections,What Would You Do If Jesus Came To Your House,I've Lived A Lot In My Time,Wait Of A Woman,Born To Be Happy,Sag, Drag, And Fall,Let Me Love You,Where Does A Broken Heart Go,How's The World Treating You,Am I The One,
Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling, Rose Of El Paso, John Henry, Precious Jewel, When I Go To Heaven Mamma, Flame In My Heart, Two Different Worlds, Loose Talk, Real Gone Daddy, This Old Bomb Of Mine,Baby I'm Sorry, You Never Had It So Good, Are You Lonesome To-Night? Fraulin, Winner, Alabama Jubilee, and his signature song Keep A Light In Your Window Tonight.
Howie Stange opened for the following artists: Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Elton Britt, Everly Brothers, Rusty & Doug Kershaw, Faron Young, Hank Snow, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Patsy Cline, Little Jimmie Dickens, Loretta Lynn, Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, Porter Wagoner, Gordon Terry, Marvin Rainwater, The Wilburn Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Buck Owens, Jimmy Stevens, & Jimmy Brown.
Association
Howie performed with many country music artists, such as, Robert Kowalczyk aka Bob Cat Gibson; Bob Guyette; Leroy aka Shadow Dontigney; Robert McCarthy, aka Moose Roberts; Gus French; Billy Brittany; Harold Slim Huntley; Don Johnson; Dave Cook; Andy Calabrese; Jimmy Stephens; Lou Dee Demaria; Maury DuBois; Smokey Joe Tyler; Maurice Corley; Pete Hazelwood; Charlie Shefcyk; Patti Martin; Richard Moon Burgess; Rocky Chase; Smilin Jim Flaherty; Don & Sibil Richard; Jean Perron; Slim Coxx; Dave Cooke; Paul McCoy; Frank & Raymond Stange; & Bill Flagg.
Later years and death 19601990
After leaving the Jim Flaherty's Western Caravan, Howie worked in the 1960s with various artists under the Howie Stange & the Gang, later just Howie Stange, a one-man show. Howie remained a very popular performer in central Connecticut. He would say that he would rather be a big fish in a small pond. Fame eluded Howie, and certainly his life-style did not help. Howie said once that fame is just a matter of timing, This comment can be interpreted that he came so very close to reaching new heights in the music industry. Howie spent his remaining years in pursuit of his other passions, in particular, fishing. He also enjoyed playing the piano regularly out at restaurants and bars in Meriden, enjoying his family, as well as entertaining at home. Howie Stange died on December 4, 1990 at the age 66 surrounded by his family.
Legacy
Howie's legacy endures as a Rockabilly music artist and as a performer. Howie Stange's music is more popular now than in his lifetime, played on oldies record stations throughout the country and in much of Europe. Howie performed music his entire life. In local venues such as clubs, restaurants, bars, and pubs, he sang to local crowds that loved to hear him play. His song, Real Gone Daddy is perhaps the finest piece of Rockabilly music of all time, and has led to Howie's recent induction into the Rockabilly Hall Of Fame on March 1, 2014, http://www.rockabillyhall.org/. An accomplished musician, Howie's talent exceeded many of those more famous than he: He would bang those piano keys that would make Jerry Lee Lewis look sad, recounted Pete Hazelwood. Those who knew him best in the music industry would call him 'Godfather' or just 'Dad' in respect for his many years of music contribution in the state of Connecticut. Recently, a treasure trove of studio out-takes and demo records have been discovered, and the Howie Stange Music Catalogue now exists. The project of professionally restoring this music, some of which was in a very poor state, was overseen by Cristian Coban, Ph.D., CVC Productions, at http://www.lp2cd.com. Coupled with the five commercially released singles of Howie, over 100 songs are now featured in the Catalogue.
When Howie opened for Johnny Cash on May 30, 1964 at the Massachusetts Arena, Boston, Warren Cyr is quoted as saying that, Howie stole the show. Howie's legacy has been memorialized by those who knew him best, his country music fans. Howie was inducted into the Connecticut County Music Association Hall of Fame, in December 2004. In modern culture, the song Real Gone Daddy has been featured by NASCAR in a biography of Junior Johnson and also in Hot Rod magazine feature of a 1949 Cadillac.
Discography of 45 RecordsStudio albums'''Real Gone Daddy/This Old Bomb Of Mine 1957Real Gone Daddy vocals Howie Stange, guitar intro Jim Flaherty, guitar break 'Moose' Roberts, lead guitar Jim Flaherty, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Maury Dubois, piano Howie StangeThis Old Bomb Of Mine vocals Howie Stange, guitar intro Jim Flaherty, harmony Gus French, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Maury Dubois, 'Moose' Roberts & Jim Flaherty, piano Howie Stange Are You Lonesome To-Night?/My Foolish Heart 1958Are You Lonesome Tonight? vocals Howie Stange, melody Jim Flaherty, guitar intro 'Moose' Roberts, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Howie Stange, control room Maury DuboisMy Foolish Heart vocals Maury Dubois, melody Jim Flaherty, guitar break 'Moose' Roberts, lead guitar Jim Flaherty, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Howie Stange & Maury DuboisBaby I'm Sorry/You Never Had It So Good 1959Baby I'm Sorry vocals Howie Stange, melody Jim Flaherty, guitar intro Jim Flaherty, guitar break 'Moose' Roberts, lead guitar Jim Flaherty, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Maury DuboisYou Never Had It So Good vocals Howie Stange, harmony Ray Charles Singers, guitar break 'Moose' Roberts, lead guitar Jim Flaherty, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Maury Dubois, brushes Maury DuboisAm I Losing You/If You Can Spare The Time 1959Am I Losing You vocals Maury Dubois, harmony Ray Charles Singers, guitar break 'Moose' Roberts, lead guitar Jim Flaherty, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Maury Dubois, piano Howie StangeIf You Can Spare The Time vocals Maury Dubois, guitar intro Jim Flaherty, brushes Howie Stange, guitar break 'Moose' Roberts, lead guitar Jim Flaherty, bass guitar Gus French, rhythm guitar Howie Stange & Maury DuboisThe Girl I Loved For A Time/This Honky Tonk Is Home Sweet Home 1964The Girl I Loved For A Time vocals Lou Dee, piano Howie StangeThis Honky Tonk Is Home Sweet Home vocals Lou Dee, piano Howie StangeReal Gone Daddy/This Old Bomb of Mine'' 1982 re-release Dee Jay Records
References
Category:1924 births
Category:1990 deaths
Category:American tenors
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American rockabilly musicians
Category:American rock singers
Category:Singers from Connecticut
Category:People from Meriden, Connecticut
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:Songwriters from New York state
Category:Songwriters from Connecticut
Category:Country musicians from Connecticut
Category:20th-century male singers | wikipedia |
What is residual interaction physically?
In any nuclei, if it is even-even or odd-even we can determine ground state spin and parity just by single particle shell model. But if in a odd-odd nuclei, we consider residual interaction to determine ground state.How can one define this residual interaction physically?
In this [reference](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/physics-and-astronomy/odd-odd-nuclei) a residual interaction hamiltonian between proton and neutron is used, and the form is "chosen" for simplicity in order to fit the $Tm\_{168}^\*$ nucleus properties.
In general one expects that the strong force that holds nuclei together, is a spill-over or [residual force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_force) from the quantum chromodynamics strong force (QCD) between the quarks that make up the nucleons. The shell model has been successful in modeling the energy levels of nuclei, where it fails a residual potential is fitted to the data, as far as I can see.
| stackexchange/physics |
THE SONG OF NAMES
Screenplay by
Jeffrey Caine
Adapted from the novel by Norman Lebrecht
Serendipity Point Films
9 Price Street
Toronto, ON CanadaM4W 1Z1+1 (416) 960 0030
Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.1FADE IN
EXT. A CONCERT HALL, LONDON. 7:25 P.M. (NOVEMBER 3, 1951) 1 1
As we look down a gentle rain is falling steadily on a
carapace of umbrellas, moving like the scales of some
gigantic mythical reptile. The reptile turns out to be a well-
dressed crowd swirling around the entrance to the hall and
funnelling slowly into it; the same rain rolling down posters
advertising the event they’ve all come to see: the debut
concert of David Eli Rapoport, 21 year-old virtuoso
violinist.
BBC RADIO PRESENTER (V.O.)
It is sometimes said that both the
shortest and the longest distance
in art is that between the very
good and the truly great. It may
well be that tonight David Eli
Rapoport will cross that divide.
Those of us who have been
privileged to hear his promotional
recording are unanimous in
declaring the extraordinary playing
of this 21-year-old Polish
immigrant music from the gods, the
voice of possibly the most
naturally gifted violinist of his
generation...
Cars are passing, Festival of Britain flags flying from the
building. Pasted across its facade are monochrome publicity
blow-ups of the lean and Byronic Rapoport and, plastered
diagonally across the posters, strip banners reading:
“INTERNATIONAL DEBUT PERFORMANCE 7:30 P.M. NOVEMBER 3RD,
1951, with another, smaller strip overplastered: “SOLD OUT -
RETURNS ONLY”.
Touts are busy in the crowd, selling outrageously priced
tickets to those who have come without one; there’s a police
presence for crowd control - bobbies in glistening rain capes
- a phalanx of damp press photographers, a St John’s
ambulance crew on stand-by.
Limousines are delivering DIGNITARIES to the front steps,
chauffeurs and assistants shepherding them inside under
umbrellas.
Big event.
CAMERA FINDS 21 YEAR-OLD MARTIN SIMMONDS
standing at the open stage door, anxiously scanning the wet
street and checking his watch. After a few moments he goes
back inside.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.1Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.2INT. LONDON CONCERT HALL, NIGHT (CONTINUOUS) (A’51) 2 2
Here there’s every shade of anxiety. The capacity audience is
buzzing with restlessness; the orchestra waits in silence,
having long ago finished tuning up.
The BBC RADIO PRESENTER whose voice we’ve been hearing can be
seen in the recording booth, holding on to his audience
during the delay in the relaxed filibuster style we associate
with Richard Dimbleby at the Coronation [still two years in
the future].
BBC RADIO PRESENTER
So great has been the impact of
Rapoport’s recording on the world
of classical music that one tends
to forget how little known his name
still is, and that tonight’s
concert will be his first on an
international stage...
BACKSTAGE there’s a frenzy of activity and a sliding scale of
panic: from the irritation of those mildly inconvenienced by
the soloist’s lateness to the near hysteria of those most
affected, chief among them
GILBERT SIMMONDS
Gilbert, the concert’s promoter, is a 56 year-old English
gentleman-impresario. He’s standing with his wife, ENID (52)
and Martin’s fiancée, 21 year-old HELEN. Their son, Martin,
rejoins them as we watch, shaking his head. All are wearing
evening dress and all are agitated, though none as much as
Gilbert.
GILBERT
He’s had an accident. There’s no
other explanation-
ENID
We don’t know that.
GILBERT
Martin, I’d like you to phone the
hospitals.
MARTIN
I already did, Father. Mr
Sanderson’s doing it again now.
ANGLE ON SANDERSON, the theatre manager, talking urgently on
the backstage phone.
GILBERT
Has anyone informed the police?
MARTIN
Too soon for that.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.2Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.3GILBERT
How was he this afternoon? Was he
all right at rehearsal?
MARTIN
He was fine.
GILBERT
Did he take his violin with him?
MARTIN
He takes it everywhere. He takes it
to the loo.
Gilbert shoots his son a disapproving look. Offended by the
indelicacy of the comment or by Martin’s attitude?
ENID
Gilbert, stop working yourself up
into a froth. Perhaps his watch
stopped.
GILBERT
A self-winding wristwatch does not
stop.
ENID
It does if you drop it.
HELEN
He might’ve got stuck in traffic.
GILBERT
(to Martin)
Where did he say was he going after
the rehearsal?
MARTIN
He didn’t.
HELEN
Dovidl does things his own way, Mr
Simmonds. He’s probably walking. He
likes walking in the rain.
GILBERT
With a Gagliano under his arm?
(crossing to stage
entrance)
Have you seen who’s out there?
ANGLE ON THE AUDIENCE
Several distinguished-looking men and women waiting.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.3Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.4GILBERT
Peers of the realm, members of
Parliament, The Times music critic.
Such people are not kept waiting-
MARTIN
He’ll be here. This means as much
to him as it does to you.
GILBERT
Does it really?
MARTIN
I know-
GILBERT
You don’t know. I’m not talking
about money.
MARTIN
I know what you’re talking about.
GILBERT
He could be lying in a gutter
somewhere - hurt, dead...
ANGE ON AUDITORIUM CLOCK: showing 7:50
BACK TO GILBERT- by now on the edge of tears.
The orchestra conductor is looking his way, tapping his
watch, tilting his head enquiringly. Time to cancel.
GILBERT
They’ll have to be told.
MARTIN
Want me to do it?
Gilbert shakes his head. Steps through on to the stage.
GILBERT
My Lords, ladies and gentlemen...
(voice quivering)
It is with great regret that I have
to tell you... the performer you
have come to see is unable to be
here this evening...
(gestures helplessly)
Refunds may be claimed at the box
office.
He hurries offstage, holding back his tears.
EXT. SIMMONDS HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD, LONDON. DAY (SUMMER, 1986) 3 3
TITLE: “35 YEARS LATER”Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.4Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.5A black cab pulls up outside the house and sounds its horn.
Imposing and costly when it was built in the 1920’s and owned
by the Simmonds family ever since, the house is now run down
and in need of repair and repainting. In the double drive
sits a single ten-year-old car: an anomaly in this affluent
two-car neighbourhood.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. DAY (S’86) 4 4
The style inside the house is cultured, if a little shabby:
floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the drawing room, full of
mostly hardback volumes; a baby grand loaded with classical
sheet music; somewhat old-fashioned furniture; soft
furnishings in muted colours.
A suitcase stands in the hall, an overcoat and umbrella
draped across it, a briefcase leaning against it.
ANGLE ON KITCHEN
MARTIN SIMMONDS is now in his mid-fifties, his body slim and
well kept. HELEN, whose cheek he is kissing in valediction,
is still, at the same age, handsome.
HELEN
(a ritual, this)
Take your pills, don’t wear the
same shirt twice, sell music.
MARTIN
Kiss Emily for me. The minute the
baby’s born, stick it in front of
the piano. You can’t start too
soon.
HELEN
‘It’ is a girl, Martin. The scan’s
showing a girl. Granddaughter, not
grand piano. I’ll call you if I’m
not asleep.
MARTIN
And if the estimate for the roof
comes, let me know straight away.
HELEN
Why?
MARTIN
I might have to walk home. Save the
train fare.
The taxi’s horn sounds again.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.5Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.6EXT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. DAY (S’86) 5 5
Martin emerges, coated, carrying suitcase and briefcase,
umbrella hooked over his arm. He climbs into the waiting
taxi.
EXT. GATESHEAD RAILWAY STATION - PLATFORM. DAY (S’86) 6 6
Exiting the station, Martin is taken aback to find at the
barrier the city’s Lord Mayor, CHARLIE FROGGATT (60+), in
full regalia, and his driver.
MARTIN
Charlie Froggatt, look at you in
your gold chain. Didn’t know this
was a civic reception, I’d have
worn my ermine underwear.
The driver takes Martin’s suitcase. As they walk towards the
station exit:
FROGGATT
(Tyneside accent)
Just come from opening a DIY
superstore. You’d think they’d do
it themselves, wouldn’t you?
INT. DAIMLER (TRAVELLING). DAY (S’86) 7 7
FROGGATT
So you’re still peddling sheet
music, I see.
MARTIN
It’s a living. Libraries and
schools buy it.
FROGGATT
How long you staying?
MARTIN
Just ‘til Friday.
FROGGATT
What are you doing tonight?
MARTIN
Hanging myself, I expect.
FROGGATT
How about doing an old friend a
favour first?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.6(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.7MARTIN
This old friend got any pull with
the Libraries Committee?
FROGGATT
You do one for me, I’ll do one for
you.
MARTIN
That’s how the Great War started.
(a beat)
What’s the favour?
FROGGATT
Jury service.
(off Martin’s reaction)
Competition jury. Tyneside Young
Musician of the Year. It’s world
famous.
MARTIN
Not the world I live in.
FROGGATT
Under-18’s who’ve slipped through
the music education net - they
actually play an instrument. You’d
be non-playing Chairman.
MARTIN
You’ve got to be joking.
FROGGATT
I never joke about Tyneside. You’d
just be a figurehead. Like me.
You’re still a name in the music
world, man. Your dad knew
Paderewski, for Chrissake.
MARTIN
I’m not my father, Charlie. And he
didn’t judge Paderewski’s
musicianship.
FROGGATT
We’ve got a couple of long-hairs in
for that - Tom Noble and Jenny
Burrows, you know Jenny. You get
the casting vote if they hang.
MARTIN
Forget it, Charlie. I’m here to
sell, not buy.
FROGGATT
These kids are next year’s
customers.
(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.7FROGGATT (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.8Chairman of the Libraries Committee
happens to be my grandson’s
girlfriend’s uncle.
MARTIN
Talk about connected!
EXT. GATESHEAD - DAY (S‘86) 8 8
The limo crossing the Tyne Bridge.
FROGGATT (V.O.)
Pick you up at eight.
INT. COMMUNITY HALL,GATESHEAD. NIGHT (S’86) 9 9
A packed hall, an old Steinway grand onstage. Below the
stage, seated at a trestle table, the panel of five
COMPETITION JUDGES: Martin at their centre, JENNY BURROWS
(50) on his left, TOM NOBLE (68) on his right. CHARLIE
FROGGATT onstage in his mayoral regalia.
FROGGATT
...and I have every confidence this
year’s finalists will maintain the
high musical standard for which
Tyneside is justly famous....
Shouts of approval from the audience.
TOM
(to Martin)
Vienna of the north-east.
FROGGATT
So without further ado, let
competition commence, and may music
speak louder than words.
He sits down to modest applause.
A MONTAGE FOLLOWS, WITH CUTS BETWEEN THE PERFORMERS AND THE
JUDGES COMPLETING THEIR MARK SHEETS
The first finalist is a 10 YEAR-OLD GIRL playing the Bach
Chaconne for clarinet.
PANNING THE FIVE MARK SHEETS
Home-made, on council-headed notepaper, the mark sheets are
divided into three hand-drawn columns headed “TECHNIQUE”,
“INTERPRETATION” and “MUSICALITY”, with a fourth column for
totals. The girl’s scores out of ten are uniformly in the
four-five range. She scores lowest on interpretation.FROGGATT (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.8Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.9- AN 11 YEAR-OLD BOY CELLIST playing Kreisler’s Liebesleid
with piano accompaniment. He’s good for his age but in no way
outstanding. Fives and the odd six.
- THE ADJUDICATORS, starting to look glazed. Jenny glancing
at her watch.
- 16 year-old MARIA KORVINSKY, rippling off Beethoven’s
Bagatelle in G Minor as though warming up.
The audience applause is appropriately mighty.
The judges are smiling now, lavishing nines and tens. Gold
found in a midden. Barring a further miracle, they’ve got
their winner.
JENNY
(through applause)
Can we go home now?
MARTIN
One genius, Jenny. Might be two.
JENNY
Aye, well, it is Gateshead.
FROGGATT has come back onstage.
FROGGATT
Our final Young Musician hails from
South Shields. He’s 14 years old
and has already toured
internationally with the Tyneside
Youth Orchestra...
TOM
(aside)
Wales and the Isle of Man.
FROGGATT
...so please put your hands
together for Peter Stemp.
PETER STEMP, a bad acne case, steps onstage and readies
himself to play his three-year-old Japanese fiddle.
ANGLE ON ELLEN STEMP (40), his proud mother, in the front row
of the audience.
Then Peter does something very odd. Prior to playing his
competition piece the boy reaches into his pocket, pulls out
a block of rosin and ritualistically swipes his bow strings
with it - first a broad upward sweep, then a matching
downward sweep. Finally, before putting the rosin away and
tucking the violin back under his chin-
HE TOUCHES THE ROSIN TO HIS LIPSBlue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.9Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.10There are some titters from the audience at the gesture.
CLOSE ON MARTIN
He isn’t tittering. His reaction is out of all keeping with
what has occurred. It’s a reaction of such shock and emotion,
so sudden and overwhelming, that it has drained the colour
from his face.
TOM
(to Martin)
You all right, man?
Martin doesn’t answer. Too stunned to speak.
Peter begins to play the second movement of Tartini’s
“Devil’s Trill” Sonata for solo violin - a difficult piece
beyond his skill level, and it shows. But though his
musicianship is far from exceptional it’s clear that someone,
at some time, has taught him some old-fashioned Kreislerian
slides and a particular treatment of the rosin that very few
teachers would countenance and no violinist in the history of
solo performance would ever exhibit in public... save only
one.
ANGLE ON PETER STEMP as he plays, sliding inexpertly...
ANGLE ON MARTIN as he listens...
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. DAY (A’39) 10 10
...and the playing changes, as the Tartini fades and we hear
an exuberant Wieniawski violin piece, played by an
immeasurably superior violinist.
ANGLE ON DAVID ELI RAPOPORT (DOVIDL), aged 9, as he plays,
sliding with arrogant Kreislerian exuberance...
ANGLE ON THE OPEN DOORWAY
where 9 YEAR-OLD MARTIN is watching and listening from the
hallway. The emotions on his young face: jealousy and
resentment.
The small drawing room audience is composed of GILBERT(44
here); ENID (39); PROFESSOR CARL FLESCH (58) - Hungarian-born
soloist and London’s most celebrated pre-war violin teacher;
and ZYGMUNT RAPOPORT (40), Dovidl’s prematurely balding
Polish-Jewish father, a Warsaw costume jeweller: not a
refugee but with the abandoned worn-down look of one.
Dovidl - black hair shiny as jet, legs stick-thin in calf-
length shorts - is playing with the flashy show-off style of
a child genius who knows that only time and practice stand
between him and his birthright: world-renown as a virtuoso.
Flesch and Gilbert are listening pleasurably, nodding,
knowing it too.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.10(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.11Martin is two months older than Dovidl. His grey flannel
shorts are the right length for London juvenile fashion of
the day - the only edge it seems he has on this exotic
interloper.
Dovidl finishes the piece. He looks up, awaiting requests for
an encore; spots Martin in the doorway, meets his eye
briefly, looks away.
GILBERT
Professor Flesch? What do you
think?
FLESCH
Too many flourishes.
(to Dovidl)
You are not Kreisler, young man.
DOVIDL
Kreisler is not Rapoport.
A statement of calculated precocity. It brings chuckles.
ZYGMUNT
(to Flesch)
You will teach him? He is genius.
FLESCH
I am sent ten geniuses a month, Pan
Rapoport. If your son accepts that
he has still something to learn,
perhaps I can teach him something.
You are staying in London?
ZYGMUNT
No, I go back to Warsaw, to my wife
and daughters.... If I can find
somebody to take David... I leave
him here.
FLESCH
Safer. Given the situation in
Poland.
GILBERT
(thoughtful)
Very much so.
ZYGMUNT
Do you know of Jewish family, Mr
Simmonds? I can pay a little...
GILBERT
As it happens I do have a family in
mind, Mr Rapoport. It isn’t Jewish,
but it is musical, and will cost
you nothing.
(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.11GILBERT (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.12I can promise you the tenets of
your religion would be fully
respected, its requirements met in
every regard.
Gilbert looks across at his wife. He almost certainly hasn’t
consulted her about this considerable commitment, an
autocratic decision typical of the man. ENID gives nothing
back - neither consent nor refusal, approval nor disapproval.
Zygmunt is aware how great a commitment this is. It entails,
among other things, kosher food, Hebrew lessons, Sabbath
observance. If he appears to hesitate, consider where he has
come from. Zygmunt cannot conceive of a Gentile Polish
paterfamilias making such an offer.
ZYGMUNT
This is English family?
GILBERT
It is.
(a beat)
My own son is David’s age. They
would share a bedroom.
ANGLE ON MARTIN
Outrage on his face. The brilliant interloper is to be
admitted to residence, it seems, without any family
consultation at all.
Zygmunt’s eyes are sparkling with tears. He embraces Gilbert,
who stands stiffly to receive the embrace, embarrassed by
this un-English gesture, not knowing where to put his hands.
Stepping back, Zygmunt reaches into his pocket and pulls from
it a velvet-covered ring box. Ceremoniously he presents it to
his son, the tears overflowing now. The boy opens the box.
CLOSE ON RING BOX
The inside lid is stamped, in gold leaf lettering: “RAPOPORT
WARSZAWA”. But there is no ring inside. Only a small amber
block of rosin, pristine and gleaming.
Everybody smiles as Dovidl removes the rosin and swipes it
experimentally along his bow strings: first with a stylish
upward flourish, then with a downward. He touches the rosin
to his lips.
Gilbert and Zygmunt applaud. It’s a subtle little ritual
whose meaning seems to have eluded ENID, the giving of this
box: partly a jeweller’s joke, partly an expression of hope,
partly a father’s farewell blessing. GILBERT (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.12Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.13With his ritualistic stroking of the bow Dovidl has
improvised a witty variation: taking the rosin for a run, as
it were, as though the gift had been a Stradivarius. The kiss
on the rosin is for his father, whom he is aware he may never
see again. [For Peter Stemp 47 years later it will be a
magical ritual entirely without meaning.]
EXT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. DAY (A’39) 11 11
His cardboard suitcase at his feet, Zygmunt is about to leave
for the bus stop, first leg of his journey back to Poland -
to what we now know will be invasion, occupation, ghetto and
death camp - and though he doesn’t know what he’s returning
to, Zygmunt seems to intuit it. Hence the passion he puts
into his last tearful embrace of the son he may never see
again.
To Martin and his parents, watching from the doorstep, this
is yet another public display of emotion that makes them
uncomfortable. It isn’t anti-Semitism, it isn’t coldness;
it’s English reserve.
INT. HOTEL DINING ROOM, GATESHEAD. DAY (S’86) 12 12
The day following the competition Martin is lunching with
Peter Stemp and his mother, ELLEN (46): a woman of modest
means, wearing her best two-piece for the occasion.
On the table is The Northern Echo: international and local
news with a Tyneside flavour; several column inches given to
last night’s music competition: picturing a toothy Maria
Korvinsky accepting her prize from Mayor Froggatt.
ELLEN
So what’s this about? You didn’t
give Peter the prize, now we’re
having this posh lunch. Why?
MARTIN
That wasn’t my decision.
ELLEN
You’d have made him the winner,
then? If it was up to you.
MARTIN
The girl’s already there, Mrs
Stemp. Peter needs more time...
better tuition.
(attempting the casual)
Who’s been teaching him?
ELLEN
He gets lessons in school. I can’t
afford fancy teachers.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.13Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.14MARTIN
We could discuss that.
ELLEN
Know a good cheap one, do you?
MARTIN
Several good, none cheap.
ELLEN
In South Shields?
MARTIN
London.
ELLEN
Just have to sell the yacht, then,
won’t I?
MARTIN
I’ll find a way to cover Peter’s
tuition during his school holidays.
And a family in London he can stay
with.
Ellen looks to Peter. He’s nodding. Wants it.
ELLEN
(indicates newspaper)
Why him? Why not what’s-her-face?
MARTIN
Her too.
ELLEN
You think Pete’s that good, then?
MARTIN
He’ll never be a Heifetz. But he
could make a living with an
orchestra. Or teaching.
(to Peter)
Who’s been teaching you, Peter?
PETER
School.
MARTIN
And who else? You’ve had a few tips
off someone.
Peter shrugs.
MARTIN
That thing you do with the
rosin....Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.14Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.15PETER
That’s for good luck. I can stop.
MARTIN
What’s his name? Maybe I know him.
A moment of hesitation, then-
PETER
You don’t know him.
MARTIN
I think I might. He used to be a
virtuoso. Did he tell you that?
Peter smiling now.
PETER
I don’t think so.
MARTIN
DSark hair, about my age?
ELLEN
It’s not Pete you want, is it?
A harshness has entered her voice. She’s worked it out. The
bursary, the promise of a management contract - they’re about
something other than Peter Stemp.
ELLEN
Come on, Pete. We’re going.
(to Martin)
Thanks for the dinner.
Taking Peter by the hand, she pulls him to his feet. They
leave the dining room without looking back.
INT. MARTIN’S HOTEL ROOM, GATESHEAD. NIGHT (S’86) 13 13
Martin is perched on his bed, on the phone to Helen.
MARTIN
(to phone)
What are they calling it? Sorry,
her.
(winces)
Lovely name. Kiss little Cressida
for me, I’ll see her Sunday.
(a pause)
Helen...? I think I might have
found him.
There’s no response. No request to identify the “him”. Just
silence.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.15Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.16MARTIN
Did you hear what I said?
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (SIMULTANEOUS) (S’86) 14 14
Helen’s in bed, her book set aside to take Martin’s call.
HELEN
(to phone, tonelessly)
I heard. Goodnight, Martin.
INT. MARTIN’S BEDROOM, SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (A’39) 15 15
This is the first time Martin and Dovidl have been left alone
together. Dovidl is in the bedroom doorway with his cheap
suitcase between his feet, waiting to be invited in.
DOVIDL
(heavily accented)
I sleep here, yes?
MARTIN
No. I don’t want you in my room. I
like being on my own.
DOVIDL
Is not your choose.
MARTIN
Wrong, clever. It is my “choose”. I
have to say if it’s all right and
if it isn’t you go back to Poland,
and the Germans are going to invade
Poland. You’ll have to wear a
yellow star and get bashed up by
brownshirts.
DOVIDL
What is “bashed up”, please?
A pause.
MARTIN
You better not snore, that’s all.
DOVIDL
What is snore?
Martin does the sound for him. Dovidl pulls a small notebook
and pencil from his pocket and records the word.
DOVIDL
If I snore I snore in tune. I am
musician. You play?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.16Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.17MARTIN
Piano, a bit.
DOVIDL
Is good for accompanist. Chess?
MARTIN
A bit.
DOVIDL
(grins)
Everything for you is bit. I am
genius. I help you, you will be bit
genius.
MARTIN
Bet I could get you down.
Dovidl’s pencil gets busy a second time. Another new word.
DOVIDL
What is “get down”, please?
Martin jumps him. Operative definition.
The boys wrestle, grunting and snorting. But eventually it’s
the wiry Dovidl who wrestles Martin to the ground and sits
on his chest, pinning his arms.
DOVIDL
Also fight a bit.
MARTIN
(terminal frustration)
Bloody foreigner! You can’t even
talk proper English!
DOVIDL
You speak Polish? Russian? Yiddish?
German? Hebrew?
MARTIN
I don’t have to. I’m not one of
your lot.
DOVIDL
What is “lot”?
MARTIN
Foreigners. We’re in England,
stupid.
Dovidl climbs off him, retrieves his notebook; wags it.
DOVIDL
Wait six months.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.17Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.18MARTIN
What’s your name, anyway?
DOVIDL
Dovid Eli Rapoport. My family call
me Dovidl. You?
MARTIN
Martin L. Simmonds.
DOVIDL
I call you Mottl.
INT. GATESHEAD HOTEL BEDROOM. MORNING (S’86) 16 16
Martin is eating a room-service breakfast at a small wheeled
table when there’s a tentative knock at the door. He opens
to:
PETER STEMP
MARTIN
Peter. Where’s your mother?
He checks the corridor. No Ellen. Came alone.
PETER
I’ll take you to him.
EXT. GATESHEAD. DAY (S’86) 17 17
They’ve come by taxi to an underpass entrance: a pedestrian
tunnel beneath a busy urban road.
EXT/INT. SUBWAY. DAY (S’86) 18 18
As Martin and Peter descend the steps we’ll hear a distant
violin playing - with only moderate competence - The Rolling
Stones’ “Paint it Black”.
Martin’s face falls. Whoever is playing, it isn’t Dovidl.
As they get closer, so does the music. A turn in the tunnel
reveals...
A BUSKER
The busker is BILLY, an unkempt grizzly-bearded man in his
seventies, wearing a stained raincoat, football socks and
dirty plimsolls. He’s playing on a cheap fiddle - complete
with unwanted echoes off the tiled walls. On the floor at his
feet, among the crisp packets and banana skins, is his cap:
dotted with a handful of low-value coins.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.18Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.19Though he’d known from the first bow-stroke that this could
not be Dovidl, Martin wilts with disappointment.
Billy nods an acknowledgement at Peter but barely glances at
Martin as he finishes the piece with a flourish of poorly
executed Kreisleresque slides. Then out comes the rosin,
followed by that ritualistic up-and-down stroking of the
bowstrings with which we’re becoming familiar, and the
valedictory kiss to the rosin, a magical ritual as
meaningless to Billy as it is to Peter.
PETER
This is Mr Simmonds, Billy. He’s
gonna pay for me to have lessons.
In London.
BILLY
(London accent)
What did I tell you?
(to Martin)
Told him he’d get discovered.
MARTIN
He says you’ve been helping him.
BILLY
(laughs)
Showed him a couple of things.
MARTIN
Where did you learn to play?
BILLY
Taught meself.
Martin takes out his wallet. Extracts a fiver, drops it in
the hat.
BILLY
That’s very kind of you, sir.
MARTIN
Teach yourself those Kreisler
slides, did you, Billy?
Billy’s face sets.
BILLY
Who wants to know?
MARTIN
Your best customer.
INT. CAFE, GATESHEAD. DAY (S’86) 19 19
Billy, Peter and Martin are drinking thick tea from thick,
white mugs at a formica-topped table. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.19Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.20BILLY
He never told me his name. It was
years ago.
MARTIN
Where did you meet him?
BILLY
London. I used to work the cinema
queues up west - when they had
cinema queues. I wasn’t bad then-
MARTIN
What year?
BILLY
(thinks)
High Noon. When was that?
MARTIN
‘52, I think. Go on.
BILLY
So I’m outside the Odeon, yeah,
playing the theme music - you know,
from the film - and this cheeky
little bugger comes up, tells me I
could do with some lessons. ‘Oh,
yeah,’ I says. ‘Who from?’ ‘I don’t
normally give lessons,’ he says,
only he’s saving up for this trip
he wants to go on, so how much can
I afford to pay him? I told him to
get knotted. Don’t even know he can
play, do I?
MARTIN
I assume he demonstrated.
BILLY
Takes me violin right out me hand.
You never heard nothing like it in
your life. Magic. Like something
off the wireless.
(shakes his head in wonder)
Crowd starts chucking half crowns,
ten-bob notes. I give him half.
Fair’s fair, right?
MARTIN
What did he look like?
BILLY
Like he could do with a square
meal.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.20Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.21MARTIN
When was the last time you saw him?
BILLY
Important, is it?
Martin deposits another fiver on the sticky table top.
BILLY
He give me a few lessons. Twice a
week for a bit. One day he didn’t
turn up. Never saw him again.
Must’ve gone on his trip.
MARTIN
Did he say where?
BILLY
Didn’t make much sense, like, but
that’s why I remember it.
Martin waits. Billy waits. Another fiver goes down.
BILLY
Said he was going home to play for
the Ashes. That’s cricket, innit?
When England plays Australia.
(Martin nods)
Didn’t make sense ‘cos he didn’t
sound like an Aussie. ‘Who’re you,
then?’ I says. ‘Don bleeding
Bradman?’
MARTIN
His exact words?
Billy’s brow furrows with the effort of recall.
BILLY
Something about a song. Going home -
to play a song.
(a beat)
For the ashes.
ON MARTIN
This doesn’t mean anything to us but it contains a world of
meaning for Martin.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (A’39) 20 20
A family dinner is being eaten in silence as everybody
listens to the evening news on the wireless. It’s a Friday
night and for Dovidl’s benefit there are Sabbath candles on
the table and a loaf of chala wrapped in a white cloth.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.21Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.22We should note that Dovidl’s dinner plate contains different
food from the others’, mostly vegetables.
The news is all about the German Blitzkrieg of Poland: the
bombing of Warsaw, the collapse of the Polish army. The
Phoney War is a few days old.
Dovidl’s face reflects his struggle to contain his emotion.
He’s learning to be English.
GILBERT
I’m sure your family will be all
right, David.
ENID
Have you written home, David?
DOVIDL
I am writing letter.
GILBERT
Good lad.
DOVIDL
You permit I make more letter now?
GILBERT
Permission granted, old chap.
As Dovidl prepares to leave the table-
MARTIN
He hasn’t finished his dinner.
GILBERT
Special dispensation. Go and finish
your letter, David.
Dovidl slides off his seat and leaves the room.
MARTIN
It’s not fair.
GILBERT
What isn’t?
MARTIN
All this. No bacon allowed in the
house, no milk puddings, special
food for the genius, and he doesn’t
even have to eat it.
ENID
If you’d like to take over
preparing David’s food you may have
a say in whether he eats it.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.22Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.23MARTIN
And he’s a liar. He stopped writing
two weeks ago.
ENID
It isn’t very nice, Martin, to tell
tales on a friend.
MARTIN
My friends don’t wet the bed.
The Simmonds adults exchange a look.
GILBERT
Considering the position his family
is in, I’d say wetting the bed is
the least we can expect from him.
ENID
(to Martin)
Why don’t you go and see if you can
cheer him up.
MARTIN
Didn’t look all that down to me.
GILBERT
That’s a wicked thing to say! Go to
your room!
MARTIN
Not my room, is it.
He goes.
INT. LANDING/THE BOYS’ BEDROOM. NIGHT (A’39) 21 21
Through the partly open door we catch Dovidl looking at a
photograph and crying. It’s a sepia studio portrait of the
Rapoport family taken in Warsaw in 1937: Dovidl’s father and
mother standing side by side; in front of them, Dovidl aged
seven between his two sisters: Pessia (9) and Malkeh (5).
Pessia has her arm around Dovidl’s shoulders; Dovidl’s arm is
around Malkeh’s. All five are solemn and unsmiling, in the
portrait style of the time.
As Martin enters Dovidl slides the photo under his pillow.
Martin doesn’t see it. Trying to recover his equilibrium,
Dovidl blows his nose.
DOVIDL
I have cold.
A sudden unexpected shaft of compassion pierces Martin’s
juvenile soul.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.23Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.24MARTIN
They’ll be all right. We’ll smash
the Jerries up for you. No-one
stands up to the British Army.
DOVIDL
You are child.
MARTIN
Play you a game of chess if you
want.
DOVIDL
Chess with you takes my mind two
minutes.
MARTIN
(a grin)
Three. I feel lucky.
EXT. HAMPSTEAD. DAY (A’39) 22 22
The two boys are freewheeling down a hill on their bikes,
playing “chicken”.
Martin is the first to swerve - avoiding a horse-drawn milk
float. Dovidl sails on, misses the float by inches, and in
passing swipes a pint. Riding no-hands, he pierces the top
with his finger while still on the move and swigs from the
bottle.
It’s Martin who gets nabbed by the milkman - momentarily
caught by his coat - before he breaks away and pedals madly
down the hill after Dovidl, who has disappeared from view.
MILKMAN
Thieving little bleeders!
EXT. HAMPSTEAD HEATH. DAY (A’39) 23 23
Martin finds Dovidl waiting in their private spot on the
Heath: beneath a large tree, overlooking the Ponds. Eating a
Kit Kat [N.B. Wartime issue: blue wrapper, dark chocolate,
price 3d].
Grinning in triumph, Dovidl offers Martin a finger of Kit
Kat.
MARTIN
Thought you said these weren’t
kosher.
DOVIDL
You rabbi now?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.24Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.25MARTIN
Where’d you get it?
DOVIDL
Your pocket.
He proffers the milk bottle. Martin takes a swig.
DOVIDL
We make good team, yes?
Embarrassed by Dovidl’s open acknowledgement of what in a
London boy’s world should remain implicit, Martin sprays him
with milk. Dovidl responds by jumping on him playfully. They
wrestle standing up for a few moments, then both boys step
back to face one another and go by tacit agreement into their
slow motion boxers routine.
This consists of each delivering in turn a slo-mo punch which
the other has the option either to dodge in slow motion or to
receive as a simulated blow, rocking back under the pretended
impact with appropriate facial grimaces.
INT. HALLWAY, PROFESSOR FLESCH’S STUDIO. DAY (WINTER 1940) 24 24
Dovidl has come for his violin lesson, accompanied by
GILBERT. On the landing outside Flesch’s studio they meet
JOZEF WECHSLER (18) about to descend. He’s carrying a very
old violin case, housing the virtuoso’s badge of office: a
very old violin.
JOZEF
Professor Flesch isn’t here. I’ve
been waiting an hour.
GILBERT
Do you know where he is?
JOZEF
Back in Hungary, probably. He
thinks the Waffen SS are coming
over London Bridge.
His glance, finding Dovidl, takes in his leatherette-covered
violin case, doubtless containing a cheap violin.
JOZEF
(to Gilbert, with an
inclination of the head)
Jozef Wechsler. Of Warsaw. You will
have heard of me.
GILBERT
Gilbert Simmonds. I believe
Professor Flesch has mentioned you.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.25Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.26Dovidl’s look is one of undisguised envy. Wechsler, already
an international name at eighteen and with the arrogance of a
young god, is who he wants to be - preferably tomorrow.
DOVIDL
(to Jozef)
Dovid Eli Rapoport. Also of Warsaw.
Professor Flesch has spoken of you
to me also.
JOZEF
He hasn’t spoken of you.
(to Gilbert)
Your boy will need to find a new
teacher. You know Dr Steiner of
Leipzig?
GILBERT
I know of him.
JOZEF
He has played Mozart with Einstein.
He is in London now.
DOVIDL
I learn physics, I go Einstein.
GILBERT
Mr Wechsler isn’t recommending
Einstein as a violin teacher,
David.
DOVIDL
I practise alone.
JOZEF
And from whom will you learn
humility?
DOVIDL
Not from you.
With a sad shake of the head, Jozef leaves.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. DAY (W’40) 25 25
Having returned home, Gilbert and Dovidl enter the living
room to find Martin practising at the piano.
GILBERT
(to Dovidl)
Actually, Steiner’s not a bad idea. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.26Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.27DOVIDL
I do not need teacher. Only to
practise.
GILBERT
Who will make sure you don’t skip
the tricky bits when your fingers
are hurting?
Martin swings around on the piano stool.
MARTIN
How about me?
DOVIDL
Hah. Boy of ten.
MARTIN
Older than you.
DOVIDL
Fifty-five days older...
(calculating)
...one point five-one percent. One-
and-six out of a fiver. Small
change.
MARTIN
That’s six Kit Kats-
GILBERT
Boys! Please. It’s a very mature
undertaking.
MARTIN
I’m more mature than he is.
DOVIDL
Hah.
This initiates another ritual. Momentarily forgetting his
father’s presence, Martin jumps off the stool and launches
into the slow motion boxers routine.
GILBERT
Boys, if you’ve finished
demonstrating your maturity -
They stop.
GILBERT(CONT’D)
(to Martin)
Suppose some difficulty were to
arise that I needed to know about,
and your friend asked you to keep
it from me. Wouldn’t that be a
conflict of loyalties?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.27Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.28MARTIN
My loyalty’s to you, Father.
Gilbert puts his arms around both boys’ shoulders.
GILBERT
We’ll give it a go.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. DAY (S’86) 26 26
Returning from Gateshead, Martin lugs his suitcase into the
house. He finds Helen in the living room, marking school
essays and too absorbed to hear him enter. He crosses to her,
kisses the nape of her neck.
MARTIN
I might’ve been a burglar.
HELEN
With his own key?
MARTIN
Locksmith by trade.
How’s Emily?
HELEN
Blooming.
MARTIN
And little Isolde? What was it?
HELEN
Cressida. Can’t read, write or play
a note but she knows her name.
You’ll see her tomorrow.
A pause. Silence.
HELEN
How was your trip?
MARTIN
I made back the train fare.
A longer pause.
HELEN
So? What did you find?
MARTIN
Dovidl was still in London in 1952.
HELEN
There’s a hot trail for you.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.28Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.29MARTIN
It means whatever his reason for
not turning up, it wasn’t because
he was dead. We never knew that for
sure before.
HELEN
Just because he was alive thirty-
odd years ago doesn’t mean he is
now.
MARTIN
He’s our age. Why wouldn’t he be?
HELEN
This going to be your new hobby,
Martin? Finding David after half a
lifetime so he can spit in your eye
again?
MARTIN
If you’d lost a brother-
HELEN
(cutting in)
He wasn’t your brother.
MARTIN
He felt like a brother.
HELEN
And what do I feel like?
MARTIN
What?
HELEN
To you.
MARTIN
This isn’t a competition.
HELEN
Everything’s a competition. Read
your Darwin.
MARTIN
Helen, I’m tired, I’m hungry, I
need a bath and I don’t want to
have this conversation.
HELEN
Then we’ll have it later, when
you’re fed and rested.
MARTIN
No, you can do it solo - both
parts. I’ll be the audience.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.29Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.30He turns to leave.
HELEN
Where did he go in 1952?
MARTIN
I thought you weren’t interested.
HELEN
(shrugs)
Historical curiosity.
MARTIN
Poland. He went to Poland.
He goes out and closes the door behind him. Helen remains in
her chair but does not resume her marking.
EXT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. EARLY EVENING (A’40) 26A 26A
Blast tape on the windows of houses. A car passes with its
headlights shaded. A military lorry drops Gilbert at the
house.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. EARLY EVENING (CONTINUOUS) (A’40) 27 27
Same room as Scenes 25 and 26, same piano, but with the
furnishings of the period; complete with taped windows and
not-yet-drawn blackout curtains. No lights are on and the
room is gloomy.
Barely able to see his music, Martin is at the piano,
accompanying Dovidl; playing chords to which Dovidl is
practising his staccato technique.
Suddenly Dovidl stops playing. Martin carries on for a moment
or two before he registers this. Then he, too, stops; swivels
on the stool to face Dovidl.
MARTIN
I didn’t say you could stop.
DOVIDL
My neck is hurting.
[N.B. Dovidl’s English is already far less heavily accented.]
MARTIN
It’s supposed to.
He swivels back to the keyboard.
DOVIDL
I have done enough.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.30Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.31Martin swivels back to Dovidl.
MARTIN
I decide when you’ve done enough.
Dovidl picks up his violin case.
MARTIN
I’ll tell him, Dov. I mean it.
DOVIDL
Tittle-tattle.
MARTIN
Baby.
Gilbert enters the room, wearing an ARP armband (Air Raid
Precaution - a warden).
GILBERT
Sorry to interrupt, boys.
He crosses to the window, closes the blackout curtains,
switches on the light.
GILBERT (CONT'D)
Now you can see what you’re doing.
Silence from the boys.
GILBERT (CONT'D)
How are your Hebrew lessons going
David? Happy with Mr Rosenthal’s
teaching? I know you were getting
along well with Mr. Cohen.
DOVIDL
(proudly)
He joined up. R.A.F.
GILBERT
Yes, I know. Important that you
keep on with your religious
studies. I promised your father.
As Gilbert turns away;
DOVIDL
They do not say Hebrew words same
as in Poland, Mr. Simmonds
GILBERT
Then...
He’s about to recommend that Dovidl learn the British style
of pronunciation, but in that instant realises that the
European style may soon cease to exist.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.31Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.31AGILBERT
Say them the way you were taught in
Poland.
DOVIDL
Thank you, Mr Simmonds.
GILBERT
(to Martin)
How’s the violin coming along?
Martin exchanges a look with Dovidl. If he’s going to rat him
out, this is the moment. It’s a long moment.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.31ABlue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.32MARTIN
All right.
GILBERT
What’s he working on?
DOVIDL
Staccato, Mr Simmonds.
GILBERT
Good, good.
(indicating window)
Well, you may as well keep at it
till Herr Hitler’s Götterdammerung
starts up.
He goes out.
MARTIN
You owe me one.
DOVIDL
How you make that out?
MARTIN
I could’ve told him. I didn’t.
DOVIDL
View from the piano stool. Here is
standing view: I know you should
tell him. I know you did not. He
does not know it.
But as Martin begins to play THE AIR RAID SIREN starts up. A
moment later the electricity fails and the lights go off.
EXT. AIR RAID SHELTER ENTRANCE. SAME NIGHT (A’40) 28 28
The promised Götterdammerung. Bombs falling, the flash of
incendiaries, searchlights and tracer illuminating the sky.
Gilbert, Enid, Martin and Dovidl are descending the steps
into the shelter: Enid and Martin lugging blankets, thermos
flasks, sandwiches; Dovidl carrying only his violin case.
Dovidl stops to look up at the light show in the sky.
MARTIN
You want to get killed?
DOVIDL
Is not my destiny. It would have
been like this - Warsaw would have
been like this.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.32Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.33MARTIN
Couldn’t have been worse. Come on.
Dovidl doesn’t move.
MARTIN (CONT'D)
Look, if we’re okay they probably
are too. Your mum and dad, your
sisters. They’d have had the sense
to go to the shelters.
DOVIDL
Look how beautiful it is.
MARTIN
It’s not art, Dovidl. It’s bloody
life and death.
DOVIDL
So is art.
A lone figure approaches, also heading for shelter: JOZEF
WECHSLER (now nearly 20), carrying only his cased violin.
Martin nudges Dovidl. Look who it is.
DOVIDL
(to Martin)
So what? You want plaque? “Jozef
Wechsler cowered here, 1940.”?
Jozef passes without acknowledging them.
DOVIDL
(to Jozef: attempting
inclusiveness)
Hampstead Shelter Orchestra.
JOZEF
What instrument do you play?
Having delivered this majestic put-down, Wechsler surges
regally past a Dovidl too stunned to reply.
INT. AIR RAID SHELTER. NIGHT (A’40) 29 29
Jozef has settled among the crowd, camped as far as possible
from the Simmondses.
As Martin, Gilbert and Enid busy themselves spreading
blankets and pillows, Dovidl removes his modest little violin
from its case. He strokes the bowstrings with his block of
Warsaw rosin, kisses the rosin, then casually begins to play
a jaunty classical piece.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.33Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.34-34AGilbert’s face displays pride; Jozef is trying to show amused
indifference. But it seems there’s only so much a genius can
stand. Unable to resist, Jozef at last takes up his own
venerable instrument and joins in, merging seamlessly with
Dovidl. There is no apparent disparity in skill between these
two performers and what at first seems a co-operative
exercise soon grows savagely competitive-
-as Jozef switches suddenly to a more demanding piece-
-and Dovidl matches him effortlessly, bar for bar, finesse
for finesse-
-and Dovidl switches to a notoriously tricky Paganini caprice-
-and Jozef meets the challenge unerringly.
Both of them smiling.
Jozef thinking: ‘This kid’s not half bad.’
EXT WARSAW AIRPORT. DAY (S’86) 30 30
A British Airways plane is about to land...
...Martin exits the terminal and climbs into a taxi
EXT. WARSAW. DAY (S’86) 31 31
Martin’s taxi on its way from the airport to the city centre.
ANGLE FROM TAXI - MARTIN’S POV: 1986 WARSAW CITYSCAPE
This is a Warsaw far removed from the pre-war city Dovidl
would have known as a boy but not much different from the one
he visited in 1953, except that Solidarnosc flags and
hoardings proliferate along the roadside and on the facades
of buildings.
The TAXI DRIVER is a man in his seventies. The car radio is *
playing softly in the background. *
MARTIN *
Does Warsaw have a Musicians’ *
Union? *
WARSAW TAXI DRIVER *
No English. *
MARTIN *
Un-i-on. Music? *
WARSAW TAXI DRIVER *
Nie rozumiem. *
The driver turns up the volume on his radio. *Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.34-34AYellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.34-34AAON MARTIN *
The search isn’t going to be as easy as he thought. *Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.34-34AAYellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.35*EXT. HAMPSTEAD STREET. DAY (S’43) 32 32
More than two years after the Blitz, London has taken an
unexpected overnight pasting from the Luftwaffe. The boys are
standing on the rim of a smoking bombsite, holding their
bikes, peering into the rubble.
MARTIN
Thought we had the Blitz two years
ago.
DOVIDL
This is a footnote.
(a beat)
Look, there’s a body.
ANGLE - an arm protruding from behind a half-demolished wall.Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.35Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.36Martin follows Dovidl as he picks his way over the rubble
towards it. He stoops to retrieve something shiny. He holds
it up for Martin to see. A silver bracelet.
MARTIN
Has it got a name on it?
Dovidl shakes his head. Pockets the bracelet.
He moves out of sight behind the wall, which has a carpeted
staircase still intact against it.
Martin pulls a Kit Kat bar from his pocket; unwraps it and
takes a bite, surveying the wreckage as he munches. A moment
or two passes, then Dovidl reappears, a purse in his hand.
MARTIN
(horrified)
What are you doing!?
DOVIDL
It’s Mrs Harris. She’s on my paper
round. The face is gone but I
recognise the purse.
He opens the purse, and with a triumphant yell extracts a
pound note.
DOVIDL
Treasure of the Mummy’s Tomb!
MARTIN
(appalled)
Do you know what you get for
robbing the dead?
DOVIDL
Pound notes.
MARTIN
A firing squad.
Dovidl makes his way over to where Martin is standing and
passes him without pausing, flapping the banknote.
DOVIDL
Eighty Kit Kats, Mott.
MARTIN
(calling after him)
It isn’t yours!
DOVIDL
I don’t mind sharing.
Reaching the street, he mounts his bike and pedals away.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.36Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.37EXT. HAMPSTEAD HEATH. DAY (LATER) (S’43) 33 33
They’ve repaired to their private spot on the Heath to smoke
cigarettes and drink brown ale from bottles. Dovidl is
setting out on the grass an array of raunchy playing cards,
each depicting a nude woman in a saucy pose.
DOVIDL
Who do you fancy? The ace of clubs
has the best tits, the four of
diamonds is the best bum.
MARTIN
Your bar mitzvah’s in ten days,
Dov. You’re supposed to be a man.
Looking at pictures of naked women
doesn’t make you a man.
DOVIDL
Neither does watching Shirley Smith
undress through binoculars.
MARTIN
That was a scientific experiment.
DOVIDL
In what? Team wanking? Anyway, you
don’t look like a man.
MARTIN
Neither do you.
DOVIDL
More than you.
MARTIN
Bollocks.
DOVIDL
That too.
MARTIN
Being a man doesn’t mean that, does
it?
DOVIDL
What are you now, a Talmud scholar?
What does it mean, O wise one?
MARTIN
Among other things, respecting the
dead.
DOVIDL
Why? Because they’re dead? Out of
interest, are they supposed to know
they’re being respected?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.37Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.38MARTIN
Their loved ones know.
DOVIDL
Mrs Harris didn’t have any loved
ones. No-one’s going to miss her.
Mind you, she made good fishcakes.
I’ll miss her fishcakes.
MARTIN
(truly appalled)
Is that all she meant to you?
DOVIDL
What else?
MARTIN
This was a human person, Dov. She
probably went to bed last night
planning to... I don’t know, make
fishcakes, and she ends up dead in
the rubble of her house. Don’t you
feel anything?
Dovidl turns to look at him.
DOVIDL
Do you know how many people died
last night, Mottl? I don’t just
mean in London. Across Occupied
Europe. Shot, bayonetted, blown up,
starved, burnt alive, hung-
MARTIN
That’s not the point.
DOVIDL
Tens of thousands. And no-one even
knows their names. So tell me,
little man from NW3, which ones do
I have to “feel” for? All of them
or just the ones I trip over the
morning after?
INT. SYNAGOGUE. DAY (S’43) 34 34
DISCOVER GILBERT AND MARTIN
Sitting together at the back, wearing skullcaps for respect
but as out of place as Hottentots at a Greek wedding. They’re
attracting curious looks from the regular congregation (this
being the synagogue Dovidl regularly attends), none of whom
have seen them here before.
CAMERA FINDS ENID, alone in the women’s section, even more
isolated.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.38Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.39ON DOVIDL
Wearing a dark blue suit and embroidered silk kippah, the bar
mitzvah boy is at the bimah, fluently reciting his Hebrew
Torah portion.
DOVIDL
(...)Lay yisyatzev ish
bifneychem: pakhd’khem
umayraakhem yiten Adonay
Elaykhekhem al penay khol
hooretz asher tidrekhi vah,
kaasher diber lokhem.DOVIDL
(...) No man shall stand up
to you: the LORD your God
will put the dread and the
fear of you over the whole
land in which you set foot,
as He promised you.
The Torah is covered.
DOVIDL
Borikh atoh Adonay, Elayheyni
melekh hoaylom, asher nosan
loni tayras emes v’khayei
aylom nota b’saykheni.
Borikh ato Adonai nayseyn
hatayroh.DOVIDL
We praise You, Eternal God,
Sovereign of the Universe:
You have given us a Torah of
truth, implanting within us
eternal life.
We praise You, O God, Giver
of the Torah.
CONGREGATION
Shekoyach!CONGREGATION
May your force grow!
EXT. FRYDERYK CHOPIN UNIVERSITY OF MUSIC. DAY (S’86) 35 35
A ‘modern’ concrete structure in central Warsaw, built in the
sixties.
INT. FRYDERYK CHOPIN UNIVERSITY OF MUSIC. DAY (S’86) 36 36
Photographs of prominent Polish musicians decorate the walls,
several violinists among them. Away down the corridor a
chamber orchestra can be heard practising.
Martin arrives at the door to an administrative office.
Inside he finds a middle-aged female RECEPTIONIST.
MARTIN
Dobry dzien, Pani.
No response. Obviously doesn’t speak her own language.
MARTIN
Do you speak English?
The receptionist tilts her head. A tentative yes, possibly.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.39Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.40MARTIN
I’m looking for a violinist - David
Eli Rapoport. He isn’t one of your
graduates but he might have
performed here in the ‘fifties...
INT. ARCHIVE, F. CHOPIN UNIVERSITY OF MUSIC. DAY (S’86) 36A 36A
A secretary produces a heavy bound volume and plops it down
in front of Martin.
INSERT LIST OF NAMES as Martin scans it.
Hundreds of names and dates of graduation. Many names ending
in -SKI and -ISCZ. Radivicz... Rakowicz... Razinsky. No
Rapoports.
MARTIN
These are all graduates of the
school. Isn’t there a record of
musicians who’ve played here?
SECRETARY
For record store you go
Sródmiescie.
MARTIN
I don’t mean a recording. A written
record.
He taps the book sharply in demonstration. The secretary
responds by closing the book with a snap. His tap seen as a
violation.
ON MARTIN
Although he didn’t expect instant success, his expression
shows his disappointment. He realizes it’s a hopeless task
without at least a working knowledge of Polish.
MARTIN
Thank you. Dziekuje Ci.
He turns and leaves.
INT./EXT. BAILEY’S OF BROADWICK STREET. NIGHT (S’43) 37 37
Gilbert arrives by taxi with the two boys outside one of
London’s most venerable musical instrument sellers.
INT. BAILEY’S. NIGHT (S’43) 38 38
He is greeted warmly by ADRIAN BAILEY (57) as a valued
customer of long standing. Dismissing Martin with a glance,
Bailey contemplates Dovidl appraisingly.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.40Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.41BAILEY
How old is the boy ?
DOVIDL
The boy’s thirteen.
GILBERT
A man, Mr Bailey - in David’s
culture.
Taking Dovidl’s left hand in both his own, Bailey flexes
Dovidl’s fingers.
BAILEY
Good fingers.
(to Gilbert)
Do you have a luthier in mind?
GILBERT
Nothing outrageously expensive, Mr
Bailey. But a good one.
BAILEY
Let’s leave the Strads to the
millionaires. I have something
special for him.
Bailey smiles, then disappears into a back room.
Martin is scowling.
A few moments of awkward silence pass before Bailey returns
holding a worn violin case and a bow. He sets the case down
and extracts the instrument.
At the sight of it Dovidl’s eyes gleam with avarice.
BAILEY
This is a Nicolo Gagliano filio.
He hands bow and violin to Dovidl, who receives them with the
reverence due a holy relic.
BAILEY (CONT.)
The son of Alessandro Gagliano made
this instrument in 1735, the year
of his father’s death. Many think
it was a tribute violin.
(to Dovidl)
And your father-
MARTIN
Foster father.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.41Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.42Gilbert glares at his son.
BAILEY
...does not have to be Rothschild
to afford it.
GILBERT
Happy bar mitzvah, David.
DOVIDL
Thank you, sir.
MARTIN
Where’s mine?
Forced laughter from the two men. If Gilbert is aware how
cruel he’s being to his natural son he isn’t showing it.
But Dovidl is too distracted to spare a thought for Martin.
He’s examining the instrument with a lustful eye.
Taking the ring box from his pocket, he extracts his block of
rosin, swipes the bowstrings with it - once up, once down -
then kisses the rosin. Bailey shoots Gilbert an enquiring
look but no explanation is offered.
Dovidl has tucked the Gagliano under his chin and is testing
its range and resonance, playing short snatches of music in
various styles and in rapid succession.
A smile of pleasure extends across Bailey’s face.
BAILEY
(to Gilbert)
See how she responds. It will be a
happy marriage.
INT. WARSAW HOTEL ROOM. NIGHT (S’86) 39 39
Martin is working the Warsaw phone book, calling any possible
source he can think of. It’s another hopeless task, limited
by his rudimentary Polish, the poor English of his
interlocutors and scratchy phone connections.
MARTIN
(to phone)
Rapoport. R-A-P-O-P-O-R-T. He would
have been here from about the early
1950’s. I don’t know how long-
(interrupted)
Of course. Thank you anyway, Pani.
TIME CUT
SAME SCENE, PERHAPS AN HOUR LATER
Another phone call.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.42Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.43MARTIN
(to phone, frustrated)
No, I’m asking for your enquiry
rates...
(listens)
Money. Pieniadze. Do you charge by
the assignment or by the hour?
(listens in frustration)
I’m sorry to have troubled you. I’m
afraid I need someone who speaks
fluent English.
Fluent Polish comes down the line.
MARTIN
(to himself)
Q.E.D.
Putting down the phone, he crosses to the window and stands
looking out at the city.
A train passing in the near distance triggers a memory...
INT. LONDON RAILWAY TERMINUS. DAY (W’47) 40 40
GILBERT descends from the boat train with an ENSEMBLE OF
MUSICIANS, their luggage and instrument cases plastered with
Polish and other European travel stickers. Returning from a
two-week cultural tour of post-war Russian-occupied Poland.
Waiting at the platform entrance are MARTIN and DOVIDL, both
now seventeen. Martin is still a pink-faced adolescent;
Dovidl, already man-shaped, has a pronounced beard shadow and
the stricken, grief-rimmed eyes of an unconfirmed orphan.
Those eyes searching Gilbert for news.
GILBERT
I’m sorry, David. I tried very
hard, you must believe me.
DOVIDL
Are you sure you went to the right
address? Dzielna 21?
GILBERT
Your apartment - the tenement your
family lived in... no longer
exists, I’m afraid.
Dovidl’s face. Gilbert places a sympathetic hand on his
shoulder.
GILBERT (CONT'D)
Not the worst news, David.
Definitely not the worst.
(to Martin)
Can you manage the cases?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.43(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.44ANGLE ON WARSAW STICKER ON SUITCASE as Martin lifts it.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (W’47) 41 41
Same day. At dinner: Gilbert, Enid, Martin, Dovidl.
GILBERT
(to Enid)
David’s family definitely survived
the Ghetto. We know that much. They
were deported before the Uprising
in ‘43.
ENID
Deported where?
A pause. He hates even the word.
GILBERT
Treblinka.
Dovidl has already been told this but the terrible name
shocks him anew.
DOVIDL
They’re dead, Mrs Simmonds.
GILBERT
No, David! That is not something we
may assume. There was a mass
revolt. Hundreds escaped. Hundreds.
I will not give up the search and
you must not give up hope. There
are any number of places they could
be - one of the DP camps, Russia,
possibly-
DOVIDL
Why did you take Jozef Wechsler to
Poland and not me? I play as well
as he does.
GILBERT
You’re not ready yet.
DOVIDL
I could’ve looked for myself. I
speak Polish.
GILBERT
So does Jozef, and what it got him
was the worst news - confirmed by
the Polish authorities. The other
reason I didn’t take you is that
I’m responsible for you in a way I
am not for Jozef.
(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.44GILBERT (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.45You’re both Polish citizens -
something we must rectify, by the
way. They could have kept you
there. Witness what happened to
poor Jozef.
ENID
What happened to him?
GILBERT
His entire family’s gone. The Poles
have kept him.
(a beat)
In an asylum.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (SAME EVENING)(W’47) 42 42
A search is underway for Dovidl. Gilbert comes in from the
garden, his face fretted with concern.
GILBERT
He’s not in the shed. Did he say
anything?
MARTIN
Just said he wanted to be alone.
(a beat)
He took his violin.
ENID
Is he likely to do anything silly?
MARTIN
Yes, Mother. Run away and join a
band.
GILBERT
For God’s sake, Martin! His entire
family’s almost certainly been
wiped out! Show some compassion.
MARTIN
You mean the way he would, in my
position?
GILBERT
I don’t doubt it for a moment. He’s
been like a brother to you.
MARTIN
And a son to you.GILBERT (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.45Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.46GILBERT
If there’s some secret place you
boys have I’ve no need to know
where it is. Just go there and find
him.
Martin goes out without a word.
ENID
David isn’t the suicidal type.
GILBERT
All artists are the suicidal type.
EXT. HAMPSTEAD HEATH. NIGHT (SAME NIGHT)(W’47) 43 43
We find Martin and Dovidl sitting under a tree in their
private place on the margin of Hampstead Ponds: Martin
smoking a cigarette, Dovidl a pipe.
The sepia family portrait we saw in Scene 21 is lying beside
Dovidl on the grass. The Gagliano, out of its case, hangs
bizarrely from a branch by the loose end of one its strings.
MARTIN
My father thinks you’ve topped
yourself.
Dovidl smiles.
DOVIDL
Against my religion.
MARTIN (CONT’D)
Prodigal quasi-son wanted home,
Dov.
DOVIDL
Goody. Quasi-fatted calf for din-
dins.
MARTIN
You really are a cold bastard, you
know that?
He flops down beside his friend.
DOVIDL
(indicating the violin)
It’s that thing I’m killing: the
varnished tyrant. I’m glad you
came. Murder needs witnesses.
Noticing the photograph, Martin picks it up and studies it.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.46(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.47INSERT PHOTOGRAPH
MARTIN
(of the photo)
Why haven’t I seen this?
DOVIDL
It’s how I’ve kept them safe.
Hiding them. From everyone.
MARTIN
I’m not everyone.
Martin picks it up, studies it.
MARTIN
Which one’s Malkeh?
Dovidl points.
DOVIDL
She’s five there. Pessia was nine.
MARTIN
What was it like? That life?
DOVIDL
Still Life with Jews. Boys playing
football, old men praying, ritual
baths for the women. Malkeh was too
young for that so she would stay
home - I’d play her a lullaby at
bedtime. My father would wander the
streets - every day, Mottl, imagine
- every evening except the sabbath -
selling his jewellery, pieces he
made while the rest of us were
asleep. Just so we could eat.
Sometimes we didn’t...
Emotion catches him by the throat.
MARTIN
It’s only presumption of death. Why
your rabbi won’t let you say
kiddish, right?
Dovidl manages a smile.
DOVIDL
Kiddush is the blessing over wine.
I can still say that. This is the
Kaddish:
(closes his eyes)
(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.47DOVIDL (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.48Yisgadal v’yisqadash sh’mai
rabah...
MARTIN
Don’t, Dov. Not if you’re not
supposed to.
DOVIDL
Do you think I’d go mad if I knew
for certain? Strip off and run
naked through the streets like
Wechsler, waving my violin.
“Israelites to your bows! The
Philistines are upon us!”
MARTIN
I don’t think he did that.
DOVIDL
Can’t see it working in Hampstead.
MARTIN
Wechsler started out half barmy.
DOVIDL
And I’m not?
MARTIN
You’ve got me.
DOVIDL
A stabilising influence.
MARTIN
Ordinary and boring.
DOVIDL
Good for leaning on. Like this
tree.
MARTIN
Nice to know I’m good for
something.
DOVIDL
Stop fishing for compliments,
Mottl. This is my life crisis, not
yours.
MARTIN
Hey, how about a joint life crisis?
Joint suicide note. We don’t have
to do it, just drive my father
nuts.
Dovidl laughs.DOVIDL (cont'd)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.48(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.49DOVIDL
Do you think he’ll ever recover?
MARTIN
Who?
DOVIDL
Wechsler. Will he stay mad for
ever, do you think? What do they do
to lunatics in Poland, I wonder?
Ice cold baths? Heap ashes on your
head? It’s a place of ashes, Mottl.
It’d be exactly the right
treatment.
INT. ASYLUM, WARSAW. DAY (S’86) 44 44
Nothing much has changed here since the place was built in
the 1920s. Martin makes his way along a corridor of glossy
brown tiled walls and shiny linoleum floors to a
receptionist’s window, where he shows a piece of paper
bearing Jozef Wechsler’s name to a MALE RECEPTIONIST. After
staring at the name for long seconds the receptionist points
along the corridor.
INT. ASYLUM VISITING ROOM. DAY (S’86) 45 45
Martin has been directed to a small, bare room with an iron
grille over its single high window and walls covered in
faded, yellowed paint more than sixty years old.
JOZEF WECHSLER (now 65) is wheeled in by a NURSE almost as
old as the asylum itself. She positions him under the window.
Haggard and sallow, looking nearer eighty, Jozef is rocking
rhythmically to and fro in his wheelchair, as though in
mockery of Jewish prayer; his long, once-nimble fingers
fiddling compulsively with the buttons of his striped
pyjamas. Nobody here has thought to avoid the cruel irony of
those stripes upon a Jewish patient bereaved into madness by
the Holocaust.
Martin has brought grapes. Handing them to the nurse, he
pulls up a hard, upright chair and seats himself by Jozef.
The nurse remains standing.
MARTIN
Jozef? Do you remember me?
Martin Simmonds? From London?
No response from Jozef.
MARTIN (CONT'D)
David Rapoport was my foster
brother.
(MORE)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.49MARTIN (CONT'D)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.50You and he played together during
an air raid - in Hampstead.
(no reaction from Jozef)
You came here with my father on a
concert tour after the war.
Jozef seems entirely unaware of his presence.
Martin appeals silently to the nurse for help.
NURSE
You are friend from Pan Wechsler?
MARTIN
I knew him in London, before...
Before. Does he understand me?
NURSE
Sometimes he remembers.
(to Jozef)
Your friend has come far for to see
you, Jozef.
Jozef, still rocking back and forth, says nothing.
MARTIN
(to nurse)
Don’t you have any pyjamas that
aren’t striped?
NURSE
Pyjamas...?
MARTIN
They look like... Never mind.
NURSE
You are good friend?
MARTIN
Friend of a friend. I was
wondering... if someone we knew in
London ever visited him. Another
violinist.
(a beat)
David Rapoport?
NURSE
Jozef has not much visitor. His
family is dead.
(a beat)
Just only the woman.
MARTIN
Woman?MARTIN (CONT'D)Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.50Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.51NURSE
June 15 woman. She comes one day
every year. June 15.
(disapprovingly)
Not his wife.
EXT. WARSAW APARTMENT BLOCKS. DAY (S’86) 46 46
We’re in an area of post-war apartment blocks in pale
colours, with a few green verges. Could be anywhere.
INT. ANNA’S APARTMENT BUILDING. DAY (S’86) 47 47
Entering one of the buildings, Martin climbs five flights of
iron-banistered stairs to the fifth floor. This time we might
think he’s close, the elusive Dovidl perhaps only a few steps
away...
He rings a doorbell. Waits.
The door is opened - though only partially - by a tall,
slender woman with high cheekbones, blue eyes, a small,
straight nose and short blonde hair: recruiting poster for
the mature Aryan matron. ANNA WOZNIAK, 50 but looking
younger.
MARTIN
Pani Wozniak? Anna Wozniak?
A nod, slightly suspicious. Despite Solidarnosc and the thaw
it has already begun to bring, the secret police are still
active in 1986; they come in all guises.
MARTIN
Do you speak English?
Another nod.
MARTIN (CONT’D)
I’m told you might be able to help
me...
INT. ANNA’S APARTMENT. DAY (S’86) 48 48
Like the Simmonds house, this is the living space of a
cultured person on a strict budget: many books, few
furnishings.
ANNA
I hardly know Pan Wechsler. I visit
him as a duty.
MARTIN
One day a year. June 15th.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.51Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.52ANNA
Yes.
MARTIN
Mind if I ask why?
ANNA
Why do you want to know?
MARTIN
I’m trying to find someone who knew
him in London. Another violinist.
David Rapoport.
Anna’s reaction tells Martin he’s struck gold.
MARTIN
You know him?
ANNA
(realization)
You are Martin!
INT. ANNA’S APARTMENT. DAY - LATER (S’86) 48A 48A
CLOSE ON a framed portrait of Pope John Paul II hanging on a
wall and a simple wooden crucifix fixed above it.
Martin is looking at them as Anna returns to the room with a
coffee tray.
ANNA
David came the year your queen was
coronated. I lived then on Dzielna,
where he grew up. It is how we met.
MARTIN
How long did he stay in Warsaw?
ANNA
A few months. He was not allowed a
visa for very long.
MARTIN
Any idea where he went after that?
ANNA
This he did not tell me.
Though Anna is more forthcoming now that she knows who Martin
is, we sense that she’s not yet entirely trusting.
She sees that he’s looking at the crucifix.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.52Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.53ANNA
They are allowed in private homes.
I took them down when David was
with me.
There’s an implication of intimacy in “with me” that Martin
doesn’t acknowledge.
ANNA (CONT'D)
It would not have pleased him to
see them, I think.
MARTIN
No, he’s not a big fan of religion.
ANNA
Your friend is a soul... on pause.
Is there a word for that?
Martin shakes his head, unsure what she means.
ANNA (CONT’D)
Believing one thing, another thing,
nothing - all at the same time?
MARTIN
Agnostic?
She shakes her head.
MARTIN (CONT’D)
Ambivalent?
ANNA
Yes. David was ambivalent.
EXT. NORTH LONDON STREETS. EARLY MORNING (S’47) 49 49
The boys are walking to the synagogue early on a summer’s
morning. Dovidl carrying a velvet prayer bag.
MARTIN
What’s this thing I’m supposed to
witness?
DOVIDL
A ceremony.
MARTIN
Not another bar mitzvah!?
DOVIDL
Not quite.
MARTIN
Bit early to raise one of those
quorum thingies. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.53Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.54DOVIDL
This doesn’t need a minyan. Just a
witness.
MARTIN
Nice to count for once.
DOVIDL
Probably not to God, Mottl. Only to
me.
MARTIN
Do you think He knows where your
family is? God.
DOVIDL
Oh, He knows, He just won’t say.
Would Jesus if you asked him?
Martin smiles.
MARTIN
Why? Thinking of converting?
DOVIDL
Jews can’t convert.
MARTIN
Disraeli did.
DOVIDL
Disraeli was baptised. Wetting his
head didn’t wash the Jew out of
him. Or out of Jesus. Ethnicity
isn’t soluble in water, Mottl.
Religion - well, that’s a coat.
When it gets too hot you can take
it off.
They arrive at the synagogue and enter.
INT. SYNAGOGUE. EARLY MORNING (S’47) 50 50
Empty pews, unoccupied bimah, a few stragglers leaving after
the Shacharit service. The red glow of the Eternal Light over
the Ark signifies the continuing presence of God.
MARTIN
You just lost your minyan.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.54Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.55DOVIDL
No, this is perfect.
(indicating the Eternal
Light)
He’s here. The ceremony’s for Him.
He pulls from his prayer bag a striped silk tallith, which he
drapes about his neck, and the embroidered kippah he wore at
his bar mitzvah, which he places on his head.
DOVIDL (CONT’D)
(to Martin)
Listen and don’t interrupt.
(intoning, to the Eternal
Light)
Hear, O Israel and the God of
Israel. On this nineteenth day of
Sivan in the year 5707, in London,
in the presence of Martin Simmonds,
also of London I, David Eli
Rapoport, son of Zygmunt and Esther
Rapoport of Warsaw, do freely and
of my own will renounce the faith
of my forefathers...
MARTIN
What are you doing?
DOVIDL
Converting. Be quiet.
MARTIN
To what?
DOVIDL
Nothing.
(continuing his ceremony)
I do most solemnly renounce and
repudiate, now and for ever, in the
name of the surviving, the reviled
and discredited faith of the
perished: the faith of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob...
MARTIN
This isn’t funny, Dov-
DOVIDL
... the accursed faith of the
despised, the mocked, the
persecuted, the slaughtered; the
faith abandoned by Jesus. Thus do I
renounce the Torah and Talmud. Thus
do I divorce myself from the
community of Israel...
Dipping into his bag, he extracts a knife. With the prayer
shawl still around his neck, he begins to cut it into pieces.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.55Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.56Martin has stepped back in horror. Though not himself a
practising Christian, he knows the momentousness of self-
excommunication.
MARTIN
YOU CAN’T DO THIS!
DOVIDL
...And, as I separate this garment,
so do I separate myself, now and
for all time, from the beliefs,
practices, traditions, rituals and
obligations of Zion.
The tallith has drifted from his neck in tatters. Pulling the
skull cap from his head, Dovidl cuts it in half and drops the
pieces at his feet.
DOVIDL (CONT’D)
Amen.
His footsteps resonate on the tiled floor as he leaves.
Martin stares silently after him.
EXT. BALCONY OF ANNA’S APARTMENT, WARSAW. DUSK (S’86) 51 51
Anna has brought Martin on to the balcony of her apartment.
ANGLE: THE SURROUNDING NEIGHBOURHOOD
A reconstructed square of post-war apartment blocks built on
the site of the razed ghetto: a site as displaced in time as
that of any ancient battlefield, this one echoless by design.
MARTIN
If this is where the Ghetto was,
where are the ruins?
ANNA
Where the past belongs. Under the
ground.
MARTIN
So he just left, didn’t say where
he was going?
ANNA
Must we have these interrogations,
Martin, like a Sherlock Holmes
story?
MARTIN
It’s why I’m here.
(a beat)
Where was he staying? Didn’t he
come to say goodbye?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.56Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.56ALong pause.
ANNA
For his first days, in a pension -
not a very good one.
MARTIN
Where after that?
ANNA
With me.
INT. WARSAW BISTRO. NIGHT (S’86) 52 52
Over dinner, vodka flowing freely-Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.56ABlue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.57MARTIN
He used you. You know that.
ANNA
Martin, I loved your friend. It’s
how you live with people you don’t
always like. By loving them.
MARTIN
Loving Dovidl’s a mistake.
ANNA
We don’t choose who to love.
MARTIN
(anger building)
Trusting him’s a mistake. You can’t
trust them.
ANNA
Them?
MARTIN
Artists. They die, they disappear,
they leave you. They don’t
understand love or loyalty.
ANNA
You must stop looking for him,
Martin. It would not be good to
find him.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.57Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.58MARTIN
For him or me?
ANNA
Both. If he wanted to be found
don’t you think he would have come
to you long ago?
The anger that has been building in Martin bursts out.
MARTIN
We thought he was dead! My father
gave up on life when he
disappeared! Had a stroke two
months later. It killed him.
ANNA
David told me of your friendship.
Not how it ended.
Reaching across the table, Anna covers Martin’s hand with her
own.
ANNA (CONT’D)
He is the soloist. We are the
accompanists. He took our light. We
have none of our own.
MARTIN
I don’t accept that.
ANNA
Yes. You do.
(a beat)
We use each other.
EXT. ANNA’S APARTMENT BLOCK. NIGHT (S’86) 53 53
Re-establishing.
INT. ANNA’S APARTMENT. NIGHT (S’86) 54 54
DISCOVER MARTIN in bed with Anna. Post-coital. For him it’s
as though he has performed the act under some irresistible
compulsion. Anna senses it.
ANNA
You have never done this before?
Been unfaithful to your wife?
MARTIN
No.
ANNA
How does it feel?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.58Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.59MARTIN
Like betrayal.
He turns his head to look at her. Is this why she lured him
into her bed? To show him the obverse face of betrayal? She
reads the question in his eyes.
MARTIN
Where did he go when he left
Poland, Anna?
ANNA
Again this? I told you, he did not
say.
MARTIN
I don’t believe you.
He points at a crucifix over the bed.
MARTIN (CONT’D)
Swear on that.
ANNA
Oh, Martin, that cross has heard
more lies than... Goebbels’
bathroom mirror.
MARTIN
Swear anyway.
ANNA
I swear on the holy cross he did
not tell me where he went.
MARTIN
Why do you visit Wechsler?
ANNA
I told you this also. I go in place
of David.
MARTIN
How often did he go?
ANNA
Once only. To play for him the
Song. June 15th, 1953. He never
went again.
MARTIN
What song?
ANNA
Martin, it’s why David came to
Poland. To play the music where the
ashes are. It was his obsession.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.59Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.60MARTIN
Tell me.
ANNA
There is nothing to tell. I was not
permitted to hear it. He sent me
from the room when he played for
Jozef. The only other time I was
made to wait in the car... when I
took him to Treblinka.
INT./EXT. ANNA’S CAR/TREBLINKA. DAY (S’86) 55 55
Anna’s Polski Fiat passes a small roadside kapliczka
[Catholic monument] as they approach Treblinka.
EXT. TREBLINKA - SYMBOLIC CEMETERY ENTRANCE. DAY (S’86) 56 56
Anna drives in and stops by a sculpture representing railway
tracks at the entrance to the symbolic cemetery. Beyond the
memorials the forest can be seen encroaching at the
perimeter: still raw, undressed, startled by discovery.
Anna shuts off the engine.
ANNA
This is where I waited. None of
this was here. Only fields, some
railway tracks.
MARTIN
Did he tell you about his family?
Pessia would have been fifteen,
Malkeh ten or eleven. They never
appeared on any lists. We
encouraged him to keep hoping.
Maybe we shouldn’t have.
ANNA
He never spoke of them. To David
Jews were not Poles. I am a Pole, I
live where he lived, I stole his
life. To him I am one of the
persecutors.
MARTIN
You were just a child then.
ANNA
You don’t have to be guilty to feel
guilty.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.60Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.61EXT. TREBLINKA - THE SYMBOLIC CEMETERY. DAY (S’86) 56A 56A
DISCOVER MARTIN AND ANNA walking through the symbolic
cemetery: a garden of stone slabs of various sizes, each one
representing an annihilated Jewish community.
Neither Anna nor Martin speaks as they wander among the
stones, reading the names of villages, towns, cities; here
only the dead do the talking. Martin stops by the largest
stone of all, inscribed “WARSZAWA”, contemplates it in
silence...
INT. AIRPORT TERMINAL. DAY (S’86) 57 57
As they approach the airport terminal in Anna’s Fiat Polski-
ANNA
The morning after, he was gone. He
left behind everything.
MARTIN
What’s everything?
ANNA
Me. Poland. His past. You.
(a beat)
The violin.
MARTIN
Wait a minute. He left the
Gagliano?
Anna’s Polski pulls up outside the terminal.
ANNA
I found it after he went - I
couldn’t believe he did that on
purpose. Something so precious. I
went in a taxi to the airport to
return it.
(a beat)
He told me to sell it.
MARTIN
And send him the money?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.61Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.62ANNA
The money I was to keep.
MARTIN
Did you?
ANNA
It was not mine to sell.
MARTIN
His either.
ANNA
That is why he took it back.
Retrieving his bag from the back seat, Martin opens the
passenger door. Unsure how to conduct the valediction.
MARTIN
So... I suppose this is goodbye.
ANNA
I never lied to you, Martin. He
never told me where he was going.
(moment of decision)
When I was giving him the violin a
flight was called. Suddenly he was
in a hurry.
(a beat)
The flight was to New York.
ON MARTIN: a surge of excitement pulsing through him; a trail
thirty-three years cold but still a trail.
MARTIN
(kissing her)
Thank you.
ANNA
God bless you, Martin. I would say
I hope you find him... but I hope
you do not.
Martin closes the car door, heads into the terminal.
OMITTED 57A 57A
OMITTED 58 58
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (S’86) 59 59
Martin returns from his travels to a house in semi-darkness.
The hall light is on but Helen isn’t in the living room, nor
in the kitchen...Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.62Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.63MARTIN
(calling)
Helen?
No answer.
He climbs the stairs and enters the bedroom, where he finds
Helen in bed, reading. Her eyes flick up, then back to the
book.
MARTIN
What’re you reading?
She shows him the cover. Making a Difference: Feminist
Literary Criticism by Kahn and Green [published 1985].
MARTIN
Don’t tell me the ending.
Ignored by Helen, Martin busies himself unpacking his
suitcase, removing his jacket etc.
MARTIN
No, I didn’t find him. Thanks for
asking.
No response.
MARTIN
I know where he went after Poland.
Still nothing back from Helen.
MARTIN (CONTD.)
New York.
HELEN
Next stage of the ‘Great Quest’?
Martin seats himself on the bed.
MARTIN
You don’t care if I find him, do
you?
Helen shrugs.
MARTIN
Why? You used to like him.
HELEN
(raising the book)
I used to like pony stories.
MARTIN
He was fun to be around. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.63Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.64HELEN
Oh, yes. Charismatic genius and all
that. Except geniuses aren’t very
good at being human.
MARTIN
I know his faults, okay. I’ve known
them a lot longer than you have.
HELEN
Then why waste your time on him?
Our time.
MARTIN
I may be all he’s got.
HELEN
I’m all you’ve got.
It takes a moment for the import of this to register.
MARTIN
He’s not a fucking rival, love.
Now she looks up, meets his eye.
HELEN
He was from the day I met him.
JAUNTY JEWISH BAND MUSIC OVER - the Hora Nayeem, played with
some unusual strings riffs-
INT. DANCE HALL, LONDON. NIGHT (MAY, 1948) 60 60
ON DOVIDL the source of the riffs.
Having joined the band for the length of the song, he is
seated cross-legged on the floor in front of the cellist,
bowing the strings while the cellist does the fingering: a
party trick which is drawing loud applause from everyone in
the hall.
HELEN and MARTIN (both 18 here) are watching this: Helen with
fascination. She hasn’t met Dovidl yet.
The occasion is a celebratory dance: the hall hung with
Israeli flags, portraits of Ben-Gurion, a banner declaring
the date (May 14th, 1948) and proclaiming the birth of the
State of Israel.
In one corner a recruitment stand has been set up, a couple
of tanned sabras in khaki shirts enjoining North Londoners to
enlist in the new army, to fight the massed Arab hordes
preparing to destroy their infant nation. “ISRAEL NEEDS YOU!”
reads the sign.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.64Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.65The song ends and Dovidl makes his way through the crowd to
Martin, the band now playing Bublitschki.
DOVIDL
Thanks for coming, Mottl.
(eyeing Helen)
Ah, the much-advertised Helen. No
interest in Israel, I assume, but
Mottl’s here for me, so you’re here
for him, yes?
HELEN
A dance is a dance.
MARTIN
(to Helen)
My brother: Dov the Apostate. Not
soluble in water.
DOVIDL
(indicating recruiters)
Shall I join up and shed blood for
Israel, Mottl? The baby’s one day
old and already bashing up its
neighbours, keyneynahora.
MARTIN
I think they’re only taking Jews,
Dov.
DOVIDL
There goes our reputation for draft-
dodging.
(to Helen)
But they do take women. One up on
God.
HELEN
If you’re an apostate how come
you’re celebrating a Jewish state?
DOVIDL
They give great parties. Never
missed one yet.
HELEN
When was the last one?
DOVIDL
516 B.C.
Dovidl offers his hand. Helen takes it, allows herself to be
led onto the dance floor.
Martin is left abandoned.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.65Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.66INT. TAXI. NIGHT (MAY, 1948) 61 61
Dovidl is lolling drunkenly against Helen in the back seat,
eyes closed.
MARTIN
Sorry about this. We can dump him
and go back if you want.
HELEN
No, it’s okay. Drop me off first.
(a beat)
I haven’t seen him at lectures. Is
he in our year?
MARTIN
He isn’t at UCL. Trinity,
Cambridge, reading Maths.
HELEN
(pulls a face)
Maths!
MARTIN
Music plus chess equals maths.
Simmonds’ Equation.
Helen’s eyebrows go up. Dovidl’s being a science major makes
him doubly exotic. She brushes a stray lock of hair out of
Dovidl’s eyes, which open at her touch.
DOVIDL
Dead and gone to heaven. “L'amor
che muove il sole e l'altre
stelle.”
HELEN
Am I supposed to be impressed?
DOVIDL
You kidding? Maths and Dante?
Helen laughs.
The taxi pulls up outside a terraced house.
Helen climbs out.
HELEN
Nice meeting you, Dovidl.
She closes the taxi door and is gone.
As the taxi moves off-
MARTIN
What do you think?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.66Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.67DOVIDL
(eyes still closed)
Impregnable fortress. Best of
British luck with that one,
brother.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE, DINING ROOM. NIGHT (S’86) 61A 61A
Alone in the house, Helen is working her way through a box of
memorabilia.
We’ll see, among other things: the programme for Dovidl’s
aborted 1951 debut concert; a faded newspaper clipping from
the following day, headlined: “VIOLINIST MISSING”, 21-year-
old Dovidl pictured; and, most prominent, the sleeve to the
promotional recording referred to in Scene 1: featuring
Dovidl’s rendering of the BACH PARTITAS, which we’ll hear
playing over.
Helen’s face is registering a complex emotional cocktail
that’s tricky to read: transportation, nostalgia, dislike,
regret... and something else...
INT. LONDON CONCERT HALL. AFTERNOON (A’51) 62 62
The orchestra is packing up its instruments, preparing to
leave after the final acoustic rehearsal. Dovidl casing his
Gagliano.
MARTIN
You should lock that in the
dressing room. It’ll be safe there.
DOVIDL
Did Ulysses lock away his bow?
MARTIN
If it was pissing down in Ithaca,
absolutely.
(nervous)
How do you feel? Are you nervous
about tonight? I’m not nervous. How
do you think the rehearsal went?
Dovidl grins. “Nervous” isn’t in his lexicon.
DOVIDL
How did it sound?
MARTIN
Great. Terrific. Magic.
DOVIDL
It was crap.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.67Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.68MARTIN
Good crap, though.
DOVIDL
Great rehearsal, crap performance.
Crap rehearsal, great performance.
MARTIN
What are you going to do now?
(checks watch)
You’ve got... four and a half
hours.
DOVIDL
Get drunk.
MARTIN
Oh, so droll. International debut
of David Eli Rapoport: tiddly
fiddly-comedian. Isaac Stern meets
Vic Oliver. Know what you ought to
do? Seriously? Relax. I mean
totally.
(as Edward G. Robinson)
Take my advice, kid. Get yourself
laid.
DOVIDL
That what you’re going to do?
MARTIN
Me? I’m doing haircut and manicure.
Pull out my hair in handfuls, bite
my nails to the quick.
DOVIDL
(a smile)
See you in the trenches.
He wanders off. Martin watches him go.
INT. YELLOW CAB, MANHATTAN. DAY (S’86) 63 63
A yellow cab in traffic. Martin in the back seat, studying a
list of auction houses and specialist dealers in classical
stringed instruments. Several names have already been crossed
off. The next on the list is “FEINMAN BROTHERS”.
EXT. FEINMAN BROTHERS, MANHATTAN. DAY (S’86) 64 64
Martin enters a shop in a lower Manhattan side street:
”FEINMAN BROTHERS: STRING INSTRUMENT SALES, RESTORATIONS,
VALUATIONS”.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.68Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.69INT. FEINMAN BROTHERS. CONTINUOUS (S’86) 65 65
The old man who emerges at the sound of the shop’s bell is a
Manhattan counterpart of Mr Bailey, only at least 20 years
older.
FEINMAN
Can I help you?
MARTIN
I’m looking for a Gagliano violin.
Feinman smiles.
FEINMAN
Father, son or grandson? Alessandro
or one of the Nicolos?
MARTIN
Nicolo Filio. Made in 1735.
FEINMAN
(another smile)
Ah, my English-sounding friend, you
are hunting dodos. I know of only
two listed Nicolo Filios made in
‘35. Neither has changed hands in
living memory...
MARTIN
This one may not be listed.
FEINMAN
Then it’s a fake.
MARTIN
It was bought in London. Bailey’s
of Broadwick Street.
FEINMAN
My father - olav hasholem - used to
do business with Adrian Bailey.
Fakes he didn’t sell.
MARTIN
Has anyone ever tried to sell you a
1735 Gagliano?
FEINMAN
You’re looking for the instrument
or the owner?
MARTIN
Both.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.69Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.70FEINMAN
When they come up for sale they go
to the larger auction houses.
MARTIN
This one hasn’t.
Feinman examines his memory.
FEINMAN
Maybe four or five years back a
woman phoned, wanted a valuation.
But that might have been a Nicolo
II - I’m not sure. She spoke to my
brother Herschel.
MARTIN
Did she give a name?
FEINMAN
An address. Herschel told her,
“Bring it in, we’ll look.”
MARTIN
Did she?
FEINMAN
She wanted he should schlep out to
Brooklyn with it. Had to be this
particular day, this particular
time - I don’t think the husband
knew she was selling.
MARTIN
So he didn’t go?
FEINMAN
To a man my age, Herschel’s age,
time also is a Gagliano.
MARTIN
Would your brother remember where
in Brooklyn?
FEINMAN
Herschel passed away last year,
olav hasholem.
MARTIN
My sympathies.
FEINMAN
Crown Heights somewhere. If it’s
important, I could maybe find the
address....Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.70Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.71INT. YELLOW CAB (TRAVELLING), CROWN HEIGHTS. DUSK (S’86) 66 66
A strengthening gale is blowing as Martin rides through the
suburban streets of Crown Heights in a yellow cab, past shops
bearing Hebrew and Yiddish lettering, bearded, long-coated
men clutching their wide-brimmed hats and fedoras against the
wind as they go to and from the yeshiva on Eastern Parkway.
It’s the last place in America Martin would expect to find
the apostate Dovidl. Plainly it’s the wrong Gagliano, unless
its owner bought it from Dovidl...
The cab pulls up outside a house.
EXT. CROWN HEIGHTS HOUSE. DUSK (S’86) 67 67
Martin waits in the wind until the door is opened by a *
prematurely worn-out-looking woman in her early forties *
(BROCHE). A seven year-old boy, ZYGMUNT (JUNIOR), dressed in *
ultra-orthodox style, peeps from behind her legs. *
The light thrown from the interior reveals a mezuzah on the *
doorpost. *
MARTIN
Sorry to bother you but I was given *
this address... *
Taking in Martin’s appearance - not ultra-orthodox, therefore *
someone to be suspicious of - she manoeuvres the boy *
protectively behind her. *
MARTIN (CONT'D) *
I’m looking for a violin... *
BROCHE
Gay holen deyn tate.BROCHE
Go fetch your father.
The boy dashes back into the house, calling- *
ZYGMUNT (JR.)
Tatti!
MARTIN
...a Gagliano-
He breaks off as the man of the house appears, the boy behind
him, clutching his legs. Following them are a girl of six and
another a year younger, crowding to see who the stranger is
at the door. Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.71Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.72The man is Martin’s age, his hair and beard still thick and
black, the beard framing a face still handsome, a jawline not
in the least jowly. He wears the long black coat of an ultra-
orthodox Jew and, beneath it, a collarless white shirt. But
he’s instantly recognisable.
DOVIDL
You took your time, Mottl.
MARTIN’S REACTION
He’s hardly able to believe that this is Dovidl, yet so
constrained is he by the circumstances of the encounter that
he’s unable to react freely. All he can do is shake his head
in wonder.
DOVIDL
As you see: I took off the coat, I
put it back on.
So saying, he pulls a long black coat from a hook by the door
and shrugs into it as he steps outside, closing the door
behind him, shutting Martin away from his life.
INT. DOVIDL’S CAMPER (TRAVELLING). NIGHT (S’86) 68 68
It’s a battered old camper and there’s silence inside it,
disturbed only by engine and wind noise as, driven by Dovidl
with Martin beside him, it rattles through the streets of
Brooklyn.
In Martin’s face we’ll see thirty-five years of pent-up
anger, perplexity and frustration waiting for expression; in
Dovidl’s face as he drives there is nothing readable.
Eventually Dovidl pulls in at a lonely parking spot
overlooking the East River.
EXT. EAST RIVER OVERLOOK. NIGHT (S’86) 69 69
On a night like this Dovidl’s is the only vehicle in the
parking area.
INT. DOVIDL’S CAMPER. NIGHT (S’86) 70 70
Dovidl sets the hand brake and cuts the motor. The silence is
disturbed now only by the wind and the ticking of the cooling
engine. Dovidl turns finally to face Martin...
...and receives, full force in his face, A FLURRY OF REPEATED
HARD BLOWS which split his lip and draw blood from his mouth
and nose.
Dovidl makes no attempt to dodge the blows or shield himself
from them. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.72(MORE)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.73He just sits there and receives them as his due. Though this
is a far cry from their old slow-motion boxers ritual, the
moment should echo it darkly.
Breathing hard, Martin finally sinks back in the passenger
seat. Dovidl dabs at his bleeding face with his sleeve.
With a shake of the head Martin pulls from his pocket a
neatly folded clean pocket handkerchief. Brushing Dovidl’s
hand aside, he takes over the dabbing with this.
After a few moments Dovidl appropriates the handkerchief and
continues wiping his own blood, but in doing so notices that
Martin’s knuckles are bleeding too. Abandoning his own
injuries, he wraps the handkerchief around Martin’s hand
instead. Blood brotherhood. No words spoken. Until-
DOVIDL
Say it, Mottl. Say what’s on your *
mind. It’ll make you feel better. *
MARTIN
You’ve no fucking idea. Do you? Why *
did you do it?
DOVIDL
I’m not sure you’d understand. *
MARTIN
I didn’t expect it to be you.
Tonight, when I came about the
violin. You were the last person in
the world I expected to find.
DOVIDL
When I abandoned the Holy One it
took Him four years to find me.
It’s taken you thirty-five.
(a smile)
Not bad. *
MARTIN
God didn’t punish you. I will.
DOVIDL
So will He, in time, blessed be His
name.
MARTIN
My father put everything he had
into you, you ungrateful bastard.
Hebrew lessons, bacon-less
breakfasts, pudding-less dinners,
bar mitzvah, fucking Gagliano...
(MORE)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.73MARTIN (cont'd)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.74and that concert - he didn’t even
insure it, didn’t think he needed
to. He treated you like his
favourite fucking son - for twelve *
years - and you buggered off
without a word. He thought you were
dead! He lost everything that
night. Two months later, he died *
with your name on his lips.
This revelation shocks Dovidl into silence. He opens the
driver’s door and steps out into the gale to process it.
MARTIN’S POV - DOVIDL BATTERED BY THE WIND, COAT TAILS FLYING
Dovidl re-enters.
DOVIDL
Do you remember what you said the
last time I saw you? “Get laid,”
you said.
OVER SCENE 71 *
DOVIDL (V.O.) *
So I did. But in my eagerness I’d *
come out without cab fare. I had to *
go back by bus... *
EXT. TERRACED HOUSE, NORTH LONDON. DAY (A’51) 71 71
Carrying his violin case, Dovidl waits by a suburban bus stop
in a leafy street of terraced houses. Rain still falling.
DOVIDL (V.O.)
So I did. But in my eagerness I’d
come out without cab fare. I had to
go back by bus...
A bus arrives. Dovidl boards. The bus moves off.
INT. LONDON BUS. DAY (A’51) 72 72
Dovidl climbs to the upper deck. He slumps into a seat,
cradles the violin case in his lap, closes his eyes...
EXT./INT. BUS. DAY (A’51) 73 73
The driver leaves the bus, thinking all his passengers have
departed. It’s one of several buses lined up empty in the
street where their route terminates.
Dovidl wakes on the top deck of the empty bus. He makes his
way down the winding staircase and into the street, where
it’s raining heavily.MARTIN (cont'd)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.74Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.75EXT. STOKE NEWINGTON HIGH STREET. DAY (A’51) 74 74
The street is adjacent to Stoke Newington Market.
Stallholders are covering their goods and packing up early,
all too busy to be approached for directions. Dovidl wanders
past in the rain, carrying his cased Gagliano, no idea where
he is, except that it’s a Jewish neighbourhood - past barrels
of pickled cucumbers, marble slabs of herring - transported
by sights, sounds and smells reminiscent of the Warsaw of his
childhood.
He turns a corner... and finds himself at a dead end: a
railway embankment. Hopelessly lost.
But there’s a shop on a corner: Frumkin’s.
INT. FRUMKIN’S. DAY (A’51) 75 75
One either side of a marble counter the shop’s proprietor,
FRUMKIN (55) - a tubular man in a soiled apron - is deep in
argument with KATZENBERG (60), a black-bearded, black-coated
customer. Their argument, Talmudic in character, is being
conducted in Yiddish (subtitled).
KATZENBERG
Nisht dus meynt di Gemore.KATZENBERG
That isn’t what the text
means-
FRUMKIN
Oh, ihr hat gehat a
perzenlekhe taytsh fin
Eybishter?FRUMKIN
Oh, you’ve had a personal
reading from the Holy One?
Dovidl addresses them in Yiddish.
DOVIDL
Entshuldigtz az ikh brekh
inter-DOVIDL
I’m sorry to interrupt-
The two men glance up at him. White shirt and tie, three-
piece suit. Lost goy, obviously. But how come he speaks their
language?
DOVIDL
Ihr kent efsher zugn wi bin
ikh…DOVIDL
If you could tell me where I
am...
FRUMKIN
Fin wi zeynt ihr?FRUMKIN
Where are you from?
DOVIDL
Hampstead..
KATZENBERG
Fin der heym?KATZENBERG
Originally.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.75Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.76DOVIDL
Warshe.DOVIDL
Warsaw.
KATZENBERG
Ayer mishpokhe?KATZENBERG
Your family?
DOVIDL
Oykh fin Warshe.DOVIDL
Also Warsaw.
KATZENBERG
Ikh bin fin Siedlice.KATZENBERG
I’m from Siedlice.
DOVILD
Farn krig?DOVIDL
Before the war?
KATZENBERG
Far dem, in mitn, nokh dem.
Der Ghetto, Treblinka, yetzt
doo.KATZENBERG
Before, during, after. The
Ghetto, Treblinka, now here.
Dovidl’s face is registering wonder and disbelief.
DOVIDL
Ihr hat Treblinka ibergelebt!DOVIDL
You survived Treblinka!
KATZENBERG
Eynige habn ibergelebt. Eyer
mishpokhe zeynen geharget
geworn?KATZENBERG
Some did. Your family
perished?
DOVIDL
Ya. Ikh meyn … ikh weiss
nisht …ikh weiss az zey
zeynen geven in Treblinka
ober inz keynmohl nisht…
()
Ihr hat zey gekent? Zygmunt
Rapoport? Esther? Pessia?
Malkeh? Hat ihr gekent eynem
fin zey?DOVIDL
Yes. I mean... I don’t
know... I know they were in
Treblinka but we never...
(eagerly)
Did you know them? Zygmunt
Rapoport? Esther? Pessia?
Malkeh? Did you know any of
them?
KATZENBERG
Nein, tit mir leyd,
yinguerman.
()
Ihr wilt wissn?KATZENBERG
No. I’m sorry, my young
friend.
(a long beat)
Do you want to know?
Dovidl nods. Above all things it’s what he wants. But how...?
FRUMKIN
(to Katzenberg)
Nemtz ehm.FRUMKIN
(to Katzenberg)
Take him.
Dovidl frowns. Take him where?
KATZENBERG
Kimtz.KATZENBERG
Come.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.76Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.77Dovidl glances at his watch. He has a concert to prepare for.
Has he time for this, whatever it is? But the decision is
made for him. Stretching his arm around Dovidl’s shoulders,
Katzenberg leads him out into the street.
EXT. YOUNG REBBE’S SYNAGOGUE. DAY (A’51) 76 76
An alley leads them to what appears from the outside to be an
ordinary residential house, somewhat run-down; but as
Katzenberg and Dovidl enter, both saturated from the rain-
INT. YOUNG REBBE’S SYNAGOGUE. DAY (A’51) 77 77
-we see that the ground-floor partition walls have been
removed to create a large, low-ceilinged prayer hall,
furnished like a synagogue and consecrated as one, supported
by steel beams and pillars. Around twenty men and youths (no
women) are swaying in prayer.
Katzenberg strides to the bimah and slaps his hand loudly on
the lectern.
KATZENBERG
Inz habmir do a Rapoport fin
Warshe!KATZENBERG
We have a Rapoport from
Warsaw!
Instantly the praying stops. A smooth-cheeked BOY of thirteen
slips out of the room.
ON DOVIDL, understanding none of this. He looks to Katzenberg
for an explanation but receives none.
Almost immediately the boy returns. With him is a bearded man
in his thirties: THE YOUNG REBBE.
Though twice this man’s age, Katzenberg inclines his head
respectfully in his presence.
KATZENBERG
Rebbe, dus iz Dovid Eli
Rapoport. Fin Warshe. Er
willt wissn.KATZENBERG
Rebbe, this is Dovid Eli
Rapoport. From Warsaw. He
wants to know.
The Young Rebbe nods. Shaking Dovidl’s hand-
YOUNG REBBE
Sholem aleikhem, Dovid.YOUNG REBBE
Shalom aleikhem, Dovid.
DOVILD
Ikh will nisht stern eynker
davenen.DOVIDL
I don’t want to disturb
your...
YOUNG REBBE
Bitte, zetzt aykh.YOUNG REBBE
Please, take a seat. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.77Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.78He gestures. Dovidl and Katzenberg seat themselves. The
entire congregation now strikes an attitude of attention.
Prayer books are closed, backs straightened.
The Young Rebbe climbs the steps to an elevated bimah, on
which there is a lectern, and on the lectern, alongside the
Torah, a large privately-bound book the size of a ledger.
Katzenberg speaks softly to Dovidl in Yiddish while the Rebbe
opens the ledger and reverently begins turning its pages....
KATZENBERG
Dovid, in inzer kehilah siz
inzer shpetzieler tafkid, wus
der Alter Rebbe hat inz
gegeben, tzi haltn, di
Memorbukh far Treblinka.
S’zeynen nisht geven
shriftliche zichroynos, di
nemen fin di toyte nor
gehalten gevorn dorkh di
mentshen. In wayl s’zeynen
gewen azoyfil toyte, in dos
leben fin di wus woltn
gedarft denken is gewen azoy
shwakh, tzen eltere zeynen
geworn oysgeklibn als a
Minyan fin Zikorn, in
beoyftragt tzi oyfhaltn di
nemen far eybig. Nor drey fin
di tzen habn ibergelebt.KATZENBERG
David, among our community it
is our special duty, given to
us by the Alte Rebbe in
Treblinka, to keep the Book
of Remembrance. No exact
records survive of the camp’s
dead and this the Alte REbbe
predicted; so he had their
names committed to memory.
And since there were so many,
and the lives of those tasked
to remember were so fragile,
ten elders were chosen as a
Minyan of Remembrance. Only
three of the ten survived.
Having found his place, the Young Rebbe is smoothing down a
double page of the Book of Remembrance.
KATZENBERG
Shpeter m’hat upgeshribn di
nemen. Ober, natirlekh, di
liste is
nisht a complete. Oyb di
nemen fin ayer tayere
keroyvim zeynen nishtu, dus
maynt nisht az zey hobn
ibergelebt.KATZENBERG
Later the names were written
down. But the record is
incomplete. If the names of
your loved ones are not found
here it will not necessarily
mean they survived.
David nods, impatient now for the mere chance of knowing
after a decade of ignorance and speculation.
The Rebbe begins to chant a recitation.
What he chants - a musical theme based on traditional laments
- is The Song of Names, in Yiddish, as it was originally
remembered: a partial list of the dead of Treblinka.
The melody should be so soulful, so powerful, so immediately
arresting that at first audition it will burn itself
indelibly into the memory of all who hear it. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.78Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.79YOUNG REBBE
Rapoport ay Rapoport ay Rapoport...
CONGREGATION
Ay Rapoport.
YOUNG REBBE
Rapoport Avrum, fin Varsheh;
Rapoport Berel un Chayeh-Soroh, fin
Kutne, mit kinder Yossl, Yechiel un
Leah...
CONGREGATION
(in Hebrew)
Yehi zikhrom borikh!
YOUNG REBBE
Rapoport, Chaim-Dovid, Rapoport
Shua-Chaim, fin Zychlin; Rapoport
Yerachmiel, mizinke Elke, mit
kleyner Shloime, mit Shneyur-Zalmen
un mit Rivke...
CONGREGATION
(in Hebrew)
Yehi zikhrom borikh!
YOUNG REBBE
Rapoport Anya, fin Varsheh;
Rapoport Bella, mit kinder, mit
Reuben un Rifke; fin Varsheh:
Rapoport Zygmunt, wayb Esther, mit
tochter Pessia, mit tochter
Malkeh...
CONGREGATION
(in Hebrew)
Yehi zikhrom borikh!
Looking up, seeing Dovidl’s face, the Rebbe halts his song.
ON DOVIDL
his eyes awash. Here, for the first time, in this most
unlikely of settings, a place to which he has come seemingly
by accident, he has heard at last the names of his family
included in the roll of the dead; confirmed what until now
was only a supposition. He has closure. Nothing in his life
will ever be the same again.
Katzenberg’s arm once more enfolds the grieving Dovidl as he
weeps, unashamed, among these strangers of his tribe.
INT. DOVIDL’S CAMPER. NIGHT (S’86) 78 78
Here it’s Martin’s eyes that have filled. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.79Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.80Lashed by gusts of wind, the camper rocks on its springs,
back and forth as though itself dovening. A week-old
newspaper flies against the windscreen and briefly plasters
itself across it before taking wing again, the past
momentarily obliterating the present.
DOVIDL
They set the names to music to make
them easier to remember. This is
oral tradition, Mottl. It gave us
the Torah, passed down mouth to ear
for a hundred generations. It’s the
chain I cannot break.
(a beat)
The two little girls you saw at my
house were named for my sisters:
Malkeh and Pessia. My son I named
for his grandfather, Zygmunt. On
Yom HaShoah each year I say Kaddish
for them.
(a pause)
Do you know what one of the worst
fears was for those in the camps?
It wasn’t dying. It was dying with
their entire family. Leaving no-one
behind to say Kaddish for their
souls.
A long silence follows.
MARTIN
I’m glad it brought you peace. It *
doesn’t explain why you never *
wrote, never phoned, never sent a *
message... Why did you cut us out *
of your life? In all those years
did you ever give any of us a
thought?
DOVIDL
Often.
MARTIN
Then I don’t understand.
DOVIDL
I wouldn’t expect you to.
More silence.
MARTIN
How long did this Song take?Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.80Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.81DOVIDL
The complete version? Five days.
They do it in shifts - five rabbis -
once a year. I’ve only heard that
done once. So many names, Mottl....
(a beat)
Afterwards I sat shiva...
OVER SCENE 79 *
DOVIDL (V.O.) *
...the full week - no half measures *
among the ultra-orthodox. No *
washing, no shaving, no diversions. *
Just prayers. *
INT. YOUNG REBBE’S SYNAGOGUE. DAY (A’51) 79 79
First the Young Rebbe leans over Dovidl and with a knife cuts
the lapel of his jacket.
DOVIDL (V.O.)
...the full week - no half measures
among the ultra-orthodox. No
washing, no shaving, no diversions.
Just prayers.
Then Dovidl receives a blessing from the congregation.
CONGREGATION
Ha mokaym yenakhem eskhem
besokh shar avaleh Tzion
virusholayim.CONGREGATION
May the Eternal console you
among all the mourners of
Zion and Jerusalem.
INT. DOVIDL’S CAMPER. NIGHT (S’86) 80 80
MARTIN
You could have deferred that. I
would have sat with you.
Dovidl turns his head to look at Martin. Another wild gust
rocks the vehicle.
DOVIDL
A concert no longer seemed
important.
*
ANGLE - THE CAMPER, relentlessly assaulted by the gale.
MARTIN (CONT'D)
(his tone has softened)
You were still in London a year *
later.Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.81(MORE)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.81ADOVIDL
My life had changed. The Almighty
had remembered my family. I’d
abandoned Him, He hadn’t abandoned
me.
(MORE)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.81ADOVIDL (cont'd)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.82In return I made Him a promise: I
would compose a violin version of
the Song of Names and play it at
Treblinka. Then I would devote the
rest of my life to His worship. *
(smiles)
If I had come back - what would you
have done?
MARTIN
I don’t know... *
DOVIDL
(nods)
Of course. I owe you a violin.
MARTIN
You owe me a concert. *
DOVIDL
I’m not a bright new discovery any
more, Mottl. I doubt anybody
remembers me. When I play now it’s
always in an empty room. No
audience but God.
MARTIN
People still remember your
recording.
DOVIDL
Then let that be my memorial.
MARTIN
Not enough for me. *
DOVIDL
It’ll have to be.
MARTIN
That’s not enough. You owe me a *
concert. If you disappear again *
I’ll find you. *
DOVIDL
Good luck with that.
Dovidl restarts the engine and backs out of the parking area.*DOVIDL (cont'd)Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.82Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.83ANGLE - The camper drives off.
INT. CROWN HEIGHTS HOUSE. NIGHT (S’86) 80A 80A
We find Dovidl alone, sitting silent and motionless in a
darkened room in the middle of the night: the Gagliano in his
lap. Thinking. Remembering. Calculating his moral obligation
as once he calculated the number of Kit Kats in a fiver.
He walks off camera... *
DOVIDL’S VOICE *
Martin Simmonds. *
...and comes back, the phone in his hand. *
DOVIDL *
I have two conditions... *
INT. MANHATTAN HOTEL ROOM. NIGHT (S’86) 80B 80B
Early hours of the morning and still dark. The shrill ringing
of the beside phone wakes Martin from sleep. Blindly he
stretches out his hand, pulls the receiver off its cradle and
presses it to his ear. He hears:
DOVIDL’S VOICE
(from phone)
I have two conditions...
FADE TO BLACK
EXT. LONDON ESTABLISHING SHOT. MORNING (A’86) 81 81
NOT Big Ben, NOT Westminster Bridge, NOT Tower Bridge!
EXT. LONDON HOTEL. MORNING (A’86) 81A 81A
A black cab deposits Dovidl outside the hotel.
INT. LONDON HOTEL. MORNING (A’86) 81B 81B
Dovidl registering at the desk.
DESK CLERK
Welcome to London, sir.
TITLE: “MONTHS LATER”
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (A’86) 81C 81C
Helen and Martin are dressing to go out to dinner. Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.83Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.83AHELEN
How do you know he’ll be there?
MARTIN
He’s changed, Helen.
HELEN
Nobody changes. Least of all him.Yellow - SoN D9.3 (11/15/2018) p.83ABlue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.84MARTIN
He’s got his religion back.
HELEN
He’s the same selfish arsehole he
always was. In a black coat.
(a beat)
Can he still play?
MARTIN
He says so. That’s his risk.
HELEN
What’s he risking?
No reply from Martin.
HELEN
This is exactly what your father
did. You’ll spend every penny we’ve
got, he won’t turn up, you’ll have
a stroke, you’ll die, he won’t even
come to the funeral.
Again Martin declines to respond.
EXT. KOSHER RESTAURANT, LONDON. NIGHT (A’86) 82 82
TO ESTABLISH
INT. KOSHER RESTAURANT. NIGHT (CONTINUOUS)(A’86) 83 83
CAMERA FINDS Martin and Helen at a table set for three,
eating breadsticks and drinking mineral water. Waiting. Helen
seems distinctly nervous, looking at her watch.
HELEN
It’s now ten to eight.
MARTIN
In artistic circles that isn’t even
late for lunch.
HELEN
Has he told you the programme yet?
Martin shakes his head.
MARTIN
One of his conditions.
HELEN
Probably show tunes. Rusty virtuoso
plays the best of Broadway. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.84Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.85MARTIN
For that he wouldn’t need to
rehearse.
HELEN
You’ve seen him rehearsing?
MARTIN
He won’t let me in the room.
That was his other condition. He
knows my father’s watching. He
thinks God’s watching.
HELEN
Same old audience. Everyone he’s
let down before.
MARTIN
It gives him the illusion of
control-
HELEN
Newsflash, Martin. If the
illusion’s good enough only the
magician can tell it isn’t the real
thing.
MARTIN
I can tell.
DOVIDL has entered. As always now, in ultra-orthodox dress.
DOVIDL
Martin. Helen. You’ve aged well.
Under strict orthodox rules he may not touch a woman who is
not his wife, so there’s no kiss, no handshake. Helen’s look
is unwelcoming, guarded. She doesn’t answer. Dovidl smiles.
He seats himself, picks up the menu, starts to peruse it.
MARTIN
That’s it? After 35 years? Hello-
Helen-what’s-for-dinner?
HELEN
He’s hungry. He’s been rehearsing
silence all day.
Dovidl smiles at her over the menu.
MARTIN
Everything okay? Hotel all right?
DOVIDL
Adequate.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.85Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.86MARTIN
Dov, I know we agreed you select
the programme, but as the organizer
of this concert I need to confirm
some things.
DOVIDL
Such as?
HELEN
That it won’t include “Doh a deer,
a female deer.”
DOVIDL
That isn’t in the programme.
No response from Dovidl. Helen’s look to Martin says: “What
did I tell you?”
MARTIN
Dovidl, if you make a fool of me
I’ll kill you.
HELEN
(to Dovidl)
Or I will. That’s not an idle
threat, by the way.
Dovidl smiles again. Taps the menu.
DOVIDL
None of this is kosher.
HELEN
It’s a kosher restaurant.
DOVIDL
To them, not to me.
MARTIN
Okay, just tell me how long it’ll
be. The programme.
Dovidl sets down the menu, picks up the wine list.
DOVIDL
How long was the original?
MARTIN
That what you’re doing? The ‘51
programme? The Bruch and the
Partitas?
DOVIDL
Isn’t it what you wanted?Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.86Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.87MARTIN
(surprised but delighted)
Well, yes, but... No, no, that’s
great.
HELEN
Does it matter? Look at him. He
isn’t going to be there. Are you,
David?
Now Dovidl produces from his pocket and unfolds the 1951
concert programme. Slides it across the table to Martin.
Helen cranes to see.
INSERT 1951 PROGRAMME
BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 1 IN G MINOR
INTERVAL
BACH: VIOLIN PARTITAS NUMBERS 1 AND 2
MARTIN
This is the ‘51 programme!
DOVIDL
(without looking up)
The wines aren’t kosher either.
EXT. CONCERT HALL, LONDON. DAY (A’86) 84 84
The same concert hall we saw in earlier scenes. Martin
approaching the building on foot.
INT. CONCERT HALL. DAY (A’86) 85 85
In the dark interior he finds the doors to the rehearsal room
closed, guarded by a SECURITY MAN. A notice on the door
reads: “REHEARSAL IN PROGRESS. STRICTLY NO ADMITTANCE”.
Recognising Martin from previous attempts, the security guy
shakes his head.
SECURITY MAN
Sorry, Mr Simmonds.
MARTIN
Can’t I just put my ear to the
door?
SECURITY MAN
Won’t help. It’s soundproof.
Martin puts his ear to the door. Shrugs. Nothing audible.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.87Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.88MARTIN
Have you heard him playing?
SECURITY MAN
Like I said, soundproof.
The door opens. Dovidl comes out carrying his violin case.
DOVIDL
(to Martin)
Still warm. Want to feel?
As he passes Martin-
MARTIN
(emotional)
Dov...
Dovidl turns.
MARTIN (CONT’D)
You won’t let me down, will you?
DOVIDL
No, Mottl. I won’t let you down.
EXT. CONCERT HALL. NIGHT (A’86) 86 86
Outside crowds swarm and jostle on the sidewalk, as they did
thirty-six years ago. History in the remaking. This concert,
too, according to the posted notices, is a sell-out.
INT. CONCERT HALL. NIGHT (A’86) 87 87
The hallways are so thronged they’re almost impassable as the
audience makes its way into the hall’s auditorium. As in
1951, notables can be seen in the balcony, anticipating the
long-delayed debut of David Eli Rapoport.
ON MARTIN AND HELEN
waiting out the last minutes backstage. Martin, like his
father before him, is in a state of mounting anxiety verging
on panic. Helen seems almost to be relishing what is looking
increasingly like another Dovidl no-show.
MARTIN
I told him half-six.
HELEN
And I told you to put a guard on
him.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.88Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.89MARTIN
Virtuoso violinist handcuffed to
thug. Make a great cartoon.
INT. DOVIDL’S HOUSE, CROWN HEIGHTS. DAY (A’86) 88 88
BROCHE packing, among other things, Dovidl’s Warsaw family
photograph into a suitcase; the three children of his new
family packing smaller suitcases of their own. Cardboard
boxes are strewn around the floor and on surfaces.
INT. DOVIDL’S LONDON HOTEL ROOM. NIGHT (A’1986) 88A 88A
Here Dovidl’s suitcase is already packed and waiting. He’s
sitting at the desk, writing a letter...
INT. CONCERT HALL. NIGHT (CONTINUATION OF SC.87)(A’86) 89 89
VARIOUS ANGLES:
THE AUDITORIUM - buzzing with expectation-
THE ORCHESTRA TUNING UP, not for the first time-
THE STAGE MANAGER - checking his watch against the hall clock-
MARTIN
It’s the same fucking nightmare!
Where the hell is he?
HELEN
If I had to guess? Thirty thousand
feet over our heads. On his way to
join a Tibetan monastery.
MARTIN
I made him swear on the Torah.
Helen rolls her eyes, as if to say “What do Jews do instead
of crossing their fingers?”
MARTIN is wiping the sweat from his face with an already
sodden handkerchief, tears of frustration starting to gleam
in his eyes. How could he have been such a fool?
And then, like an apparition...
...DOVIDL is there, in the wings with them.
Tonight he’s wearing a dark suit, a discreet skullcap on the
back of his head, Gagliano and bow in his hand. Comme il
faut.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.89Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.90DOVIDL
Did you think I wasn’t coming?
He doesn’t wait for a response but strides on to the stage to
clamorous applause. He bows to the audience.
DOVIDL
Good evening. I’m sorry to be late.
I hope you didn’t mind waiting
thirty-five years.
Relieved audience laughter.
Dovidl nods to the conductor. The orchestra begins its
introduction...
ON MARTIN: with the programme in his hand, holding his
breath. Nightmare visions of disaster are crowding his brain -
visions of some popular tin-ear monstrosity being played for
ironical effect.
But then his eyes close, his breath is expelled with relief
as he hears the opening notes of the Bruch, as advertised.
MARTIN
Thank you, God.
INT. 1951 LONDON CONCERT HALL. NIGHT (A’51) 90 90
ON GILBERT after his cancellation announcement, shamed and
broken; a ruined man financially, professionally and
emotionally; the auditorium empty.
INT. 1986 CONCERT HALL. NIGHT (CONTINUATION OF SC.89)(A’86) 91 91
ON DOVIDL
playing the final notes of the Bruch. He has performed to a
high professional standard... yet there’s something missing
in his playing, and that something is feeling, the personal
engagement of the artist’s soul which distinguishes the very
good from the truly great.
HELEN
(grudgingly)
He can still play. I’ll give him
that.
MARTIN
Yeah, he was good.
Dovidl is bowing to the audience, leaving the stage to
appreciative but not overwhelming applause. The audience
begins to flow out in the direction of the lobby.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.90Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.91DOVIDL
(to Martin)
Well?
MARTIN
Good. It was good.
DOVIDL
It was crap.
MARTIN
Good crap, though.
Dovidl smiles.
DOVIDL
Wait fifteen minutes.
He disappears to his dressing room.
HELEN
Is it me, or isn’t he being just a
little too compliant?
Martin nods his agreement. A similar sense of foreboding has
gripped him too: a fear that Dovidl’s uncharacteristic
compliance so far may have been a magician’s misdirection,
presaging some outrageous act of rebellion still to come. And
since the concert’s second half is scheduled to be a solo
performance without orchestra, Dovidl will have all the
latitude he needs to go rogue.
ANGLE ON THE STAGE - being cleared of chairs and music
stands.
ANGLE ON BACKSTAGE CORRIDORS AND DRESSING ROOMS
The orchestra musicians leaving for the night, packing away
their instruments, putting on their coats...
INT. CONCERT HALL AUDITORIUM. NIGHT (A’86) 92 92
The second half of the concert is about to commence. The
audience has returned and is waiting expectantly, clearing
its collective throat. Unaccompanied solo performances are
the acid test: nobody to cover the violinist’s mistakes.
ANGLE ON MARTIN AND HELEN
standing now at the back of the hall. All the tension we saw
in them before the concert has returned in the last fifteen
minutes.
Now Dovidl makes his second entrance. Wearing this time, to
the amusement of all, the long black coat and fedora of ultra-
orthodox uniform.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.91Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.92Something’s coming, and it isn’t Bach. We know what it is,
what it has to be. We’ve known it for some while.
As Dovidl waits for the embarrassed titters to die away we’ll
witness for the last time that now-familiar ritual: the long
upward sweep of the rosin, the long downward sweep, and
finally the blessing of his lips.
Setting his bow gently to the Gagliano - the gesture of a
lover - Dovidl opens with a single note so pure and mournful,
so protracted, so tender, that even in this initial stroking
of the instrument we realize that the first half of the
concert wasn’t misdirection at all, it was foreplay. This,
though they don’t know it yet, is what the audience came for.
Many of them are checking their programmes, puzzled, as is
Martin, not to be hearing Bach.
ON MARTIN AND HELEN
They exchange a look. Uh-oh.
And now, for the first time, we’ll hear David Eli Rapoport’s
solo violin version of The Song of Names, composed in 1952 in
London in fidelity to his vow: a complex, exquisitely
harmonized arrangement of the simple sung melody that changed
his life.
It should be at once unbearably soulful, immediately
memorable and technically stunning; a masterwork of nuance
and colour and shadow; a description in music of a People’s
suffering, delivered via the ear to the blood.
At first we’ll hear only the single voice of the Gagliano,
playing the original sung melody...
INT. WARSAW ASYLUM. DAY (S’53) 93 93
...and then a second violin enters in harmony - playing a
variation on the melody - as we see DOVIDL (23) play The Song
of Names for JOZEF WECHSLER (32 here but looking fifty).
Outside the room Anna can be seen listening to Dovidl’s
playing.
EXT. TREBLINKA. DAY (S’53) 94 94
Yet another variation as the voice of a third violin joins
the other two while Dovidl “plays for the ashes” in the
barren field that covers his family’s bones.
IN SHOT, in the background, by the original railway tracks as
yet devoid of symbolic representation, Anna waits in her car
[not the Polski; probably a Trabant].Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.92Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.93INT. YOUNG REBBE’S SYNAGOGUE (SYNAGOGUE). DAY (S’51) 95 95
Finally the trio of violins come together, now heard to choir
accompaniment as they merge into a single piece, in perfect
harmony with the sung melody in the Stoke Newington
synagogue.
Here we reprise the scene of Dovidl’s epiphany - the Young
Rebbe chanting the names to the same melody, the congregation
responding.
INT. CONCERT HALL. NIGHT (A’86) 96 96
BACK TO SCENE
CU DOVIDL
as he finishes playing The Song of Names in public for the
first and only time.
He draws out the final perfect melancholy note as long as
possible, before fading slowly to silence.
Then nothing.
THE AUDIENCE - stunned into a silence of their own.
MARTIN - moved beyond the capacity to move.
When, seconds later, the audience recovers itself, their
applause lifts the roof.
Dovidl bows low. Then leaves the stage. There will be no
encore. There will be no return.
The rest is coda.
INT. DRESSING ROOM. NIGHT (A’86) 97 97
Martin has come with Helen to Dovidl’s dressing room, the
door of which stands ajar.
They step inside. Nobody here, no sign of occupancy. Just a
discarded suit over the back of a chair, on its seat the
cased Gagliano, and on the violin case-
AN ENVELOPE ADDRESSED TO MARTIN.
Glittering on the floor inside the threshold are THE
SHATTERED REMAINS OF A BLOCK OF ROSIN.
Helen’s eyes go to the envelope, Martin’s to the scattering
of bright yellow shards.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.93Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.94DOVIDL’S VOICE (V.O.)
My dearest Mottl, you’ll remember
how I was forbidden to say Kaddish
for my family until their deaths
were confirmed and the anguish this
caused me. It saddened me more than
I can say to learn from you that my
disappearance had caused that same
anguish in your father. Above all
things I want you to be spared
it...
INT. HOTEL LOBBY. NIGHT (A’86) 98 98
Martin has come to the hotel to confirm that Dovidl is no
longer there. The receptionist is confirming it, showing
Martin the duplicate of Dovidl’s check-out invoice.
DOVIDL’S VOICE (V.O.)
...Two months ago, when you found
me, I told you I no longer lived a
life you would recognise. I no
longer thought of myself as an
individual, which an artist is
required to be. I chose instead to
submerge myself within a community
of faith...
EXT. DOVIDL’S HOUSE, BROOKLYN. MORNING (A’86) 99 99
We’ll recognise it from Sc. 67. A phone is ringing inside.
DOVIDL’S VOICE (V.O.)
...It’s a social organism we borrow
from nature: a body sharing a
common history, common values and a
common memory, to which the price
of admission is the surrender of
self...
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE, MARTIN’S HOME OFFICE. DAY (’86) 100 100
Martin is phoning from his home office. The single American
ring tone in his ears.
DOVIDL’S VOICE (V.O.)
...It’s the most enduring of
families, impossible to extinguish.
We take care of one another in ways
that natural families cannot...Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.94Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.95INT. CROWN HEIGHTS HOUSE. MORNING (A’86) 101 101
The phone is on the floor, ringing out in an empty house.
Dovidl’s family has moved out.
INTERCUT WITH
Martin hanging up the phone.
DOVIDL’S VOICE
...What you did, Mottl, was return
to me my individuality. You thrust
it back into my hands like an
unwanted gift. I consider all debts
paid today. You have made me free
and for that I thank you. But from
the depths of my soul I must ask
you not to find me again. You must
think of me now as dead and act
accordingly...
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE, LIVING ROOM. NIGHT (A’86) 102 102
Martin is re-reading Dovidl’s letter, probably for the tenth
time; Helen is looking out of the window.
DOVIDL’S VOICE (V.O.)
...May the Holy One bless you and
keep you and your family always in
His sight. Your affectionate
brother, Dovidl.
HELEN
Let him go, Martin.
MARTIN
How am I supposed to think of him
as dead when I know he isn’t?
HELEN
Trust the text. He’s given you
permission. Probably the only
selfless thing he’s ever done.
Martin shaking his head. Refusing to accept it.
HELEN
That prayer Jews say for the dead?
MARTIN
Kaddish.
HELEN
Say that.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.95Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.95AMARTIN
I can’t. I’m not Jewish, I’m not
his brother, and he isn’t dead. Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.95ABlue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.96A long silence follows. Helen has only one card left to play.
HELEN
That day he didn’t show up?
He turns to look at her. She remains staring out of the
window.
HELEN (CONT'D)
When you left him, after the
rehearsal? Nobody knew where he
went?
Martin makes no response but recalls it clearly.
HELEN
I’m where he went.
MARTIN’S REACTION
There isn’t one; at least nothing discernible. He never knew
of a romantic liaison between Helen and Dovidl; but neither
has he told Helen that he slept with Anna in Poland. This
revelation balances the scales. It assuages both his guilt
and hers and it’s enough to dispel the myth of Dovidl.
Helen reaches out and takes his hand.
HELEN
You’re a better man than he was,
Martin. You always were.
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE. NIGHT (A’86) 103 103
Hours later, Helen is sleeping as Martin climbs out of bed.
MARTIN (V.O.)
Yitgadal v’yitqadash sh’mai
rabah...
WIDENING TO:
INT. SIMMONDS HOUSE, MARTIN’S HOME OFFICE. NIGHT (A’86) 104 104
CAMERA FINDS THE CASED GAGLIANO...
...PANS TO MARTIN
Wearing a dressing gown over his pyjamas, he has come here
from his bed in the small hours. From a copy of Brewer’s
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable he extracts a postcard-sized
card printed with transliterated characters of the mourner’s
Kaddish - the kind Reform synagogues issue to congregation
members who have no Hebrew.Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.96Blue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.97From it he reads aloud the ancient Aramaic prayer. His
reading, marked by mispronunciations and mistaken cadences,
is coloured by a spectrum of emotions: love, anger, above all
overwhelming sadness; his voice breaks as he assigns Dovidl
his desired place among the dead, laying him finally to rest.
[THOUGH WE WON’T HEAR ALL OF IT, THE FULL PRAYER READS:
MARTIN
Yitgadal v'yitkadash sh'mei raba.
B'alma di v'ra chirutei,
v'yamlich malchutei, b'chayeichon
uv'yomeichon uv'chayei d'chol beit
Yisrael,baagala uviz'man kariv.
V'im'ru: Amen.
Y'hei sh'mei raba m'varach
l'alam ul'almei almaya.
Yitbarach v'yishtabach v'yitpaar
v'yitromam v'yitnasei,
v'yit'hadar v'yitaleh v'yit'halal
sh'mei d'kud'sha b'rich hu,
l'eila min kol birchata v'shirata,
tushb'chata v'nechemata,
daamiran b'alma. V'imru: Amen.
Y'hei sh'lama raba min sh'maya,
v'chayim aleinu v'al kol Yisrael.
V'imru: Amen.
Oseh shalom bimromav,
Hu yaaseh shalom aleinu,
v'al kol Yisrael. V'imru: Amen.MARTIN
Magnified and sanctified be God’s
great name throughout the world
that God created and governs by
divine will. May the Kingdom of
God be established during your
lifetime, and during your days,
and during the days of all the
house of Israel, yea speedily and
in the near future, and let us
say, Amen.
Exalted, glorified and honored be
the name of the blessed Holy One
whose glory is beyond all
blessings, hymns and praises that
people render, and let us say,
Amen.
May great peace emanate from
Heaven with good life for us and
for all Israel, and let us say,
Amen.
May the One who makes peace in the
heavens, make peace for us and for
all Israel, and let us say, Amen.]
SLOW FADE TO BLACK
On the sound track, initially overlapping Martin’s prayer,
then gradually displacing it, we’ll hear the fully
orchestrated version of The Song of Names, which will
continue to play until
CREDITS ENDBlue - SoN D9.1 (09/20/2018) p.97 | screenplays |
bacteria and their products play an important role in the initiation and perpetuation of pulpal and periapical pathology .
elimination of bacteria from root canal is normally accomplished by mechanical instrumentation in adjunct with irrigating solutions and anti - bacterial agents . among these anti - bacterial agents ,
calcium hydroxide is the most commonly used and recommended for inter appointment intra - canal endodontic dressing .
there are 3 main types of vehicles used : ( 1 ) water - soluble substances like water , saline , local anesthetic agent , and ringers solutions ; ( 2 ) viscous vehicles like glycerin , polyethylene glycol , and propylene glycol ; and ( 3 ) oil - based vehicles like olive oil , silicone oil , camphor , eugenol , metacresylate , etc .
residual calcium hydroxide on the root canal wall influences dentine bond strength and penetration of sealers into dentinal tubules .
the remnants of calcium hydroxide could also react chemically with the sealer , reducing the efficiency of its properties like flow and working time .
this can be achieved by irrigating with irrigants like sodium hypochlorite , saline or ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid and combining the usage of hand instruments along with irrigants .
few studies have used passive ultrasonic irrigation to remove calcium hydroxide from root canal walls and were found to be effective.[58 ] maleic acid , which has been used as an acid conditioner in adhesive system , is reported to have removed smear layer , which was present in cavities prepared for adhesive dentistry .
maleic acid with concentrations of 5% and 7% can be an alternative for 17% edta for smear layer removal .
it has anti - microbial activity against e. faecalis , is less cytotoxic than edta , and is effective in smear layer removal.[911 ] in most of the studies done to analyze the removal of calcium hydroxide from the root canal , where it has been placed as intra - canal medicament , the technique involved sectioning the teeth longitudinally and analysis of photos of specimens with digital image processor to measure the surface area covered with calcium hydroxide .
calcium hydroxide may be lost during sectioning , which may not help in the correct evaluation of the technique .
three - dimensional volume analysis with spiral ct is used in the field of medicine in various applications ( thoracic and abdominal aneurysm , intracranial aneurysm etc ) .
spiral ct volumetric analysis gives a more accurate measurement of pre - and post - removal calcium hydroxide from root canals .
till now , no study has been done using maleic acid and ultrasonic passive agitation to remove calcium hydroxide from root canals .
the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of 17% edta and 7% maleic acid combined with sodium hypochlorite and ultrasonic agitation in removal of calcium hydroxide placed as intra - canal medicament using 3 vehicles , distilled water , polyethylene glycol , and silicone oil .
metapex is a commercially available product composed of calcium hydroxide , silicone oil , and iodoform ( meta dental corp ltd . ,
apexcal contains calcium hydroxide and bismuth carbonate in a mixture of water , glycerin , polyethylene glycol , and auxiliary materials ( viola , ivoclar vivadent ag ) . the chemically pure 95% calcium hydroxide powder ( merck india ltd .
mumbai ) was mixed with distilled water in the ratio of 1:1 by weight , and barium sulfate was added for radio opacity .
teeth were stored in normal saline solution that was changed daily till sufficient numbers of teeth were collected .
all canals were prepared by the same operator to a size 50 k file ( mani files , mani , inc tochigi japan ) at working length using a step back technique .
irrigation was done with 5.25% sodium hypochlorite and 17% edta ( pulpdent corporation 80 okland street watertown ma , usa ) using 5 ml disposable plastic syringe with 27 gauge needle ( endo eze ; ultradent products inc .
after root canal preparation , a size 20 k file was passed 1 mm beyond the apex to remove any dentinal plug . a final rinse with 10 ml normal
the teeth were divided into 3 groups consisting of 20 teeth each as a , b , and c. group a : pure calcium hydroxide mixture withdistilled water . in each group ,
the medicament was placed in the canal using lentulo spiral ( mani files , mani , inc tochigi japan ) ensuring extrusion through the apex .
access cavities were temporarily sealed with cotton pellets and irm ( dentsply int mill ford de , usa ) .
the teeth were mounted in a plastic stand using modeling wax for taking spiral ct .
after ct imaging , volume of the filling material in each tooth were estimated using siemens emotion duo model of spiral ct with the aid of syngo software [ figure 1 ] .
spiral ct images of teeth filled with calcium hydroxide medicaments before and after retrieval using two reagents the teeth in each group were further divided into 2 sub - groups based on the material used for removal of medicament from the root canal .
17% edta was used for the first sub - group ( a1 , b1 , and c1 ) , and 7% maleic acid ( sd fine - chem ltd . , mumbai , india . )
was used for the second sub - group ( a2 , b2 , and c2 ) .
protocol for removing the intra - canal medicaments was step 1 : master apical file 6 -7 vertical motions + 5 ml of 5.25% naocl .
step 2 : 5 ml of 17% edta/7% maleic acid + ultrasonic agitation step 3 : 5 ml of naocl + ultrasonic agitation step 4 : irrigation with saline .
ultrasonic agitation was done using 25 k ultrasonic file ( mani files , mani , inc tochigi japan ) , which was mounted on a piezoelectric handpiece ( electro medical systems , sa ) at a power setting of 5 and was passively activated for 1 minute at 2 mm short of working length .
a second spiral ct was done , and the volume of remaining material in each tooth was estimated [ figure 1 ] .
the removal efficacy was estimated as { ( a - b ) 100/a } , where a was volume of material packed in the root canal and b was volume remaining after retrieval .
the data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences ( spss , version 10.5 ) .
as per bonferroni correction for 3 group comparison , p value of less than or equal to 0.016 considered to be significant to adjust for type i error . the removal efficiency for various groups was 94.89% ( a1 ) , 92.12% ( a2 ) , 84.55% ( b1 ) , 90.14% ( b2 ) , 65.99% ( c1 ) , and 88.65% ( c2 ) [ table 1 ] [ figure 2 ] .
comparison of all the groups were done using kruskal - wallis test , and p value < 0.5 was considered significant for this .
there was significant difference in retrievability among the groups ( p = 0.001 ) when 17% edta was used , and no statistically significant difference among the groups ( p = 0.818 ) when 7% maleic acid used .
mann - whitney u test with bonferroni corrections was carried out for pair - wise comparison between the groups , and it was evident that there was a statistically significant difference in retrievability between calcium hydroxide and metapex group when 17% edta was used ( p < 0.001 ) , and there was no statistically significant difference in retrievability among the groups when 7% maleic acid was used .
comparison of removal efficiency of 17% ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid and 7% maleic acid in 3 groups spiral ct images of teeth filled with calcium hydroxide medicaments before and after retrieval using two reagents 17% edta and 7% ma showed almost equal removal efficiency for calcium hydroxide ( p = 0.218 ) and apexcal group ( p = 0.684 ) .
7% ma showed better removal efficiency than 17% edta for metapex group ( p = 0.002 ) .
17% edta could remove the intra - canal medicament in group a better than in group b and c. group b showed intermediate values ( p = 0.001 ) .
the vehicle used to mix calcium hydroxide paste has an influencing factor in the complete retrieval of it .
the differences in velocity of ionic dissolution is directly related to the vehicle ; the lower the viscosity , higher the ionic dissolution .
the aqueous vehicles promote a high degree of solubility when in contact with tissue and tissue fluids .
viscous vehicles like polyethylene glycol , propylene glycol , glycerin promote a lower solubility of the paste when compared with aqueous vehicles , probably because of their high molecular weight , which minimizes the dispersion of calcium hydroxide into the tissues .
oily vehicles are non - water soluble substances that promote the lowest solubility of the paste within the tissues , and pastes containing this kind of vehicle may remain within the root canal for a longer period than the pastes containing aqueous or viscous vehicles . the removal of calcium hydroxide has been investigated using a range of products and techniques .
the most frequently described method was instrumentation of root canals with a master apical file and copious irrigation .
canal irregularities may be inaccessible for conventional irrigation procedures , and calcium hydroxide may remain in these extensions .
passive ultrasonic irrigation is more effective in dentine debris removal from root canal walls than syringe delivery of irrigant .
very few studies have been done combining manual and passive ultrasonic irrigation to remove calcium hydroxide from root canals .
the calcium hydroxide removal efficacy of the intra - medicament can be calculated efficiently only if the amount removed can be compared with the amount filled or packed in the canal .
when retrievability of the medicaments with 17% edta was evaluated , the silicone oil - based medicament resisted the removal to the maximum followed by polyethylene glycol and calcium hydroxide distilled water mixture ( p = 0.001 ) .
the above findings were in agreement with the studies of lambrianidis et al . , and nandini s et al . , who stated that methyl cellulose and silicone oil vehicle resisted removal from root canal because of interaction of methyl cellulose and edta .
the surface tension of the vehicle used in the medicament should be low to allow better penetration into inaccessible areas .
water has surface tension of 70.5 dynes / cm , which decreased to 66.5 dynes / cm with addition of calcium hydroxide .
silicone oil is hydrophobic as it contains many methyl groups and has surface tension of 19 dynes / cm , which will provide better wetting and water - resistant properties .
thus , in the present study , the medicament with distilled water would have been easy to remove .
the surface tension value of polyethylene glycol is 43.50 dynes / cm , which is in between the values of distilled water and silicone oil .
the hygroscopic nature , water adsorption properties , and the surface tension values may account for the intermediate retrieval values for polyethylene glycol - based medicament in this study . when the retrievability of the medicaments with 7% maleic acid was evaluated , the difference was not significant ( p = 0.818 ) . in the groups where distilled water and propylene glycol were used as vehicle , 17% edta and 7% maleic acid showed almost same retrievable capability ( p = 0.218 and p = 0.684 ) . in the group where silicone oil was used as vehicle , 7% maleic acid showed better retrieval capability of medicaments than 17% edta .
maleic acid has lesser surface tension than edta . in this study , during initial root canal preparation , 17% edta and 5.25% sodium hypochlorite were used in combination for irrigation so as to remove smear layer .
it is known that edta and sodium hypochlorite have similar surface tension levels , which are important for wetting capability and effectiveness in smear layer removal .
the low surface tension and acidic nature of maleic acid may have also resulted in better penetration into the dentinal tubules .
within the limitations of this study , it could be concluded that :
silicone oil - based vehicles were more difficult to remove than polyethylene glycol and distilled water - based mixtures when 17% edta was used for its retrieval.both 17% edta and 7% maleic acid were found to remove the aqueous - based and polyethylene glycol based - calcium hydroxide efficiently , whereas 7% maleic acid was found to perform better than 17% edta in removing silicone oil - based calcium hydroxide preparations .
silicone oil - based vehicles were more difficult to remove than polyethylene glycol and distilled water - based mixtures when 17% edta was used for its retrieval .
both 17% edta and 7% maleic acid were found to remove the aqueous - based and polyethylene glycol based - calcium hydroxide efficiently , whereas 7% maleic acid was found to perform better than 17% edta in removing silicone oil - based calcium hydroxide preparations . | pubmed |
WRC publishes 2018 Annual Report
by Lisa Devanny | May 29th 2019
The Workplace Relations Commission (the "WRC") has recently published its 2018 Annual Report, which highlights a significant increase in activity compared to previous years. Some key highlights are set out below.
Pre-Adjudication Mediations
In 2018, the WRC witnessed a significant increase in the uptake of pre-adjudication mediation with 1,844 interventions taking place. Face-to-face mediations increased by 206% compared to 2017, while mediations dealt with by telephone increased by 70% compared to 2017.
15,451 complaints were received by the WRC in 2018, an increase of over 10% compared to 2017. The main types of complaints were as follows:
pay issues (27%);
unfair dismissal (14%);
discrimination / equality (14%);
working time (13%);
trade disputes / industrial relations issues (9%); and
terms and conditions (8%).
In 2018, there were 1,449 equality complaints made, which represents a 116% increase compared to 2017. A considerable increase was witnessed in the number of complaints in relation to age (+343%), religion (+244%) and disability (+43%), while a fall occurred in relation to civil status (33%) and gender (11%).
A total of 5,312 adjudication hearings were held in 2018. This represented an increase of 22% compared to 2017 and an increase of 34% compared to 2016.
The report notes that over 90% of complaints received are processed from receipt of complaint to hearing and decision within six months where there are no requests for postponements, where all parties are available, and where submissions are received in a timely manner.
A total of 2,964 decisions were issued in 2018, which is an increase of 32% compared to 2017 and an increase of 60% compared to 2016.
The report notes that approximately 10% of adjudication decisions are appealed annually to the Labour Court. In 2018, the Labour Court issued 372 appeal decisions.
The WRC carried out 5,753 inspections in 2018 (of which 60% were unannounced). This represented an increase of 20% compared to 2017. Failure to keep adequate employment records continues to be the most common breach of employment legislation.
Notable decisions
A number of notable WRC decisions are highlighted in the report. One such decision, A Banker v A Bank (ADJ-00001266), demonstrates the fact that reinstatement may be ordered where the Adjudication Officer finds that a dismissal is unfair, including dismissals for behaviour which the employer perceives as gross misconduct. This decision highlights the fact that an employer will not be able to avoid an order for reinstatement simply by arguing that trust and confidence has broken down from its perspective.
Another notable decision, A Driver v A Furniture Business (ADJ-00010961), found that where a worker earns distinctly more than the national minimum wage, an employer is not obliged to provide a statement of the employee's hourly rate of pay under Section 23 of the National Minimum Wage Acts 2000 and 2015, and is instead entitled to refer to the employee's payslips. In this decision, the Adjudication Officer found that bringing the complaint was frivolous and vexatious and therefore the complaint was dismissed.
The full WRC report can be viewed here.
Please feel free to contact Leman Solicitors, should you need any employment law advice.
Lisa Devanny | slim_pajama |
What are the chemical reactions behind fire?
I've always wondered what the chemistry behind fire is. What are the basic chemical reactions behind a simple wood fire, and how do they manifest into this phenomenon?
Even though fire is one of the [Greek classical elements](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element#Classical_elements_in_Greece), it is the only one that is not matter in our current understanding. What we experience as fire is the energy (in the form of light and heat) given off by the exothermic combustion of (usually) organic materials, like wood. The large amounts of thermal energy released by combustion often cause the gases in the fire to [incandesce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescence), that is, some of the kinetic energy produced by the fire is converted into electromagnetic radiation that we see (visible) and feel (infrared).
The chemical reaction for combustion is pretty simple. Take, for example, the combustion of n-octane $\ce{C8H18}$, which produces more than 5 MJ of energy per mole during combustion (from [webbook.nist.gov](http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?ID=C111659&Units=SI&Mask=2#Thermo-Condensed)).
$$\ce{2C8H18 +25O2->16CO2 +18H2O} \space\space \Delta\_cH^o=-5430 \text{ kJ/mol} $$
The combustion of wood is more complex. The majority of the organic mass of dry dead wood is lignin and cellulose. [Lignin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignin) is a highly-cross-linked copolymer of p-coumaryl alcohol, $\ce{C9H10O2}$, [coniferyl alcohol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coniferyl_alcohol), $\ce{C10H12O3}$, and [sinapyl alcohol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinapyl_alcohol), $\ce{C11H14O4}$. [Cellulose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose) is a linear polymer of [glucose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose), with formula $\ce{(C6H10O5)}\_n$.
Different species will have different ratios of lignin to cellulose, different cross-link densities in the lignin, and different ratios of coumaryl to coniferyl to sinapyl alcohols. The formula for lignin could be expressed then as $\ce{(C9H10O2)}\_x \cdot \ce{(C10H12O3)}\_y \cdot \ce{(C11H14O4)}\_z$.
The equation for the combustion reaction for cellulose is:
$$\ce{(C6H10O5)}\_n +6n\ce{O2->}+6n\ce{CO2}+5n\ce{H2O} $$
Since lignin is more complex, its combustion equation is more complex:
$$2[\ce{(C9H10O2)}\_x \cdot \ce{(C10H12O3)}\_y \cdot \ce{(C11H14O4)}\_z]+(21x+23y+25z)\ce{O2}\\ \ce{->}(18x+20y+22z)\ce{CO2}+(10x+12y+14z)\ce{H2O}$$
And assuming the variable composition of wood as a ratio (A:B) of cellulose to lignin, the overall combustion reaction becomes the following monstrosity:
$$A\ce{(C6H10O5)}\_n +2B[\ce{(C9H10O2)}\_x \cdot \ce{(C10H12O3)}\_y \cdot \ce{(C11H14O4)}\_z]+[6An+B(21x+23y+25z)]\ce{O2}\\ \ce{->}[6An+B (18x+20y+22z)]\ce{CO2}+[5An+B(10x+12y+14z)]\ce{H2O}$$
Given the number of variables ($A, B, n, x, y, z$), the $\Delta\_cH^o$ for this reaction is difficult to determine (but not impossible, assuming we know some thermochemical reference data). Whatever its value, it is exothermic enough to induce incandescence.
The chemical reactions of a "typical fire" using wood as the inflammable matter are extremely complex and not known to their full extend. The wood isn't actually burning but gasified (mostly superficial) components of the wood, which yield a plasma in an environment that provides sufficient excitation energy. Accelerants are often used to this end.
The situation is aggravated by the many radical species which are produced in chain reactions and the temperature gradient of the flame which favors different species.
The form of fire depends on many parameters, gravity included...
A search for "*estimating the number of chemical species in a wood fire*" brings up interesting literature which may serve you as a starting point, in addition to Ben Norris's answer.
Ben's answer covers it well. There is another aspect which affects the products of fire; that is the temperature of the fire, which varies according to the phase of the fire, among other things.
I found the following list in some educational materials for fire fighters:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Temperature Reaction
3920F Production of water vapor, carbon dioxide, formic and (2000C) acetic acids
3920-5360F Less water vapor - some carbon monoxide - still primarily an
(2000-2800C) endothermic reaction (absorbing heat)
5360-9320F Exothermic reaction (giving off heat) with flammable vapors
(2800-5000C) and particulates; some secondary reaction from charcoal formed
Over 9320F Residue primarily charcoal with notable catalytic action
(5000C)
---
Fire is fascinating. As already noted in answers above, fire is a mixture of matter and energy. Fire consists of fuel, oxygen (or another oxidizer) and heat interacting in a chain reaction yielding more heat and oxidized byproducts.
| stackexchange/chemistry |
I've been so busy preparing for my first Card Club meeting this Friday, that I missed my Monday post and I almost forgot today's post. I definitely need to be better organized going forward.
Today's card is a reject from my March Card Club selection.
I do like the Bermuda Bay and Basic Gray color combo and it is a quick and easy card to make so maybe I'll add it later. | slim_pajama |
Karl-Erik Åström 18 April 1924 - 9 December 1993 was a Swedish cross-country skier who competed in the 1950s. He won two gold medals at the 1950 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in the 18 km and the 4 x 10 km.
External links
Category:Swedish male cross-country skiers
Category:1924 births
Category:1993 deaths
Category:FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing | wikipedia |
Is there a name for this algorithm to calculate the concentration of a mixture of two solutions containing the same solute?
There is an algorithm called "Mischungskreuz" (German for "x of mixing") that is sometimes taught as a shortcut to figure out the following problem:
You have two solutions that contain a solute at different concentrations $c\_1$ and $c\_2$. At what ratio $V\_1/V\_2$ do you have to mix them so that the mixture has the desired concentration $c\_m$?
For example, let's say you want to make a 22% solution from a 35% and a 15% solution. You write the desired concentration in the center and the available concentrations at the left ends of the "x", and get the ratio of volumes on the right side of the "x" as shown below:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/F0MIC.jpg)
So in this case, mix 7 parts of 35% with 13 parts of 15% solution to get the desired 22%.
Source: <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischungskreuz>
My questions are: Is this method taught outside of Germany, and is there a non-German (maybe English?) name for it?
This is a so-called "*Pearson's square*" or "*Box method*" of balancing ratios, originally used extensively in dairy industry (at least since 1920s judging from Google Books search).
Earlier the similar approach has been used in sugar industry by using "*Cobenz diagrams*" aka spider diagrams.
Widely popularized in Soviet books for analytical chemistry at least since 1940s (probably adapted from the German literature as many other tech novelties of that time were), also used in current Russian literature by the names "*Метод креста*" ("*Cross method*"); "*Конверт Пирсона*" ("*Pearson's envelope*") or "*Диагональная схема правила смешения*" ("*Diagonal mixing rule scheme*").
| stackexchange/chemistry |
since the beginning of the year 2004 , the pierre auger observatory has achieved a long period of stable data acquisition which has allowed systematic data analysis .
one of the main scientific goals of the experiment is the study of the arrival directions of cosmic rays .
statistically significant deviations from isotropy would give valuable information on cosmic rays sources .
the agasa @xcite and sugar @xcite experiments have reported excesses in directions close to the galactic center within a limited energy range . in this article
, we will focus on a blind search over the whole sky and on targeted searches as defined in the prescription presented at the icrc in 2003 ( see @xcite ) . to detect an excess of events coming from any particular region of the sky
, we have to compare the observed number of events with that expected from an isotropic flux of cosmic rays , taking into account the relative exposure of the different sky directions .
the significance of the resulting excess and deficit map has to be determined and the distribution of significances has to be compared with that obtained for a large number of isotropic simulations .
we are considering the surface detector data only , without making use of fluorescence data and without using a constant intensity cut as it is done in the spectrum paper ( see @xcite ) and in the galactic center studies paper ( see @xcite ) . in the prescription ,
the data period is defined as the time interval between 8 august 2003 to 16 may 2004 . in this work , because of some trigger instability , we use actually data from 1 january 2004 to 16 may 2004 .
this represents 6046 events with zenith angles within 60@xmath2 of vertical and that have passed all quality reconstruction cuts .
the angular accuracy is always smaller than 2.2@xmath2 ( see @xcite ) allowing us to search for fluctuations on scales of a few degrees . for the blind search
, we use the data from 1 january 2004 to 11 may 2005 with the same cuts on zenith angle and quality criteria .
we have @xmath3 events , @xmath4 in the range @xmath5 eev and @xmath6 above 5 eev .
the energy of 5 eev corresponds approximately to the ankle in the cosmic ray spectrum , which may represent the transition from a galactic to extragalactic component .
we choose to explore the data in angular scales of 5@xmath2 and 15@xmath2 radius since excess events from point sources may have arrival directions spread by intervening magnetic fields and because the statistics is still not that large to justify a blind search at the scale of our angular resolution .
the coverage map gives the relative number of expected events arriving to the detector from any direction in the sky for an isotropic incoming cr flux .
various methods exist to estimate it , such as the shuffling method consisting of exchanging arrival times and azimuths of real events to generate fake data sets that are averaged on the sky to obtain the coverage map .
there is the semi - analytic one based on a smooth fit of the zenith angle distribution of the real events .
the semi - analytic method takes into account the geometrical acceptance modulation , the zenith angle cutoff and the right - ascension modulation due to the non uniformity of the surface detector deployment and running .
these methods are discussed in @xcite .
note that for small angular scales both methods lead to comparable results since the error induced is always smaller than the poisson noise of the event sample . in fig .
[ coveragefig ] we present the sky coverage map ( left ) and the actual events map ( right ) for the energy range [ 1 - 5 ] eev smoothed with a top - hat where @xmath7 is the direction of the center of the window and @xmath8 is the direction of the data and @xmath9 is the radius of the window . ] beam of radius 5@xmath2 .
we use the healpix @xcite pixellisation of the sphere .
right : real event map .
the two sky maps are in galactic coordinates.,title="fig : " ] eev . right : real event map .
the two sky maps are in galactic coordinates.,title="fig : " ] the coverage map depends on the energy range .
the appropriate map is used for each particular search , either blind search for a particular energy range or prescription search . for each pixel of the sky , we compute the number of expected events integrating the semi - analytical coverage map in a given window ( top - hat , gaussian ... ) centered on this pixel . then the signal is obtained by applying the same filtering but on the event map .
the significance of the signal with respect to the expected background is computed following @xcite in the case of a top - hat window and will be referred hereafter by the expression : li - ma significance .
in order to see if the largest overdensities found are compatible with those expected from an isotropic cr flux , we compare the distribution of the significances obtained with those obtained for a large number of isotropic monte carlo simulations .
these distributions are shown in fig .
[ limadistribs1 ] .
the shaded areas correspond to the 1 @xmath10 dispersion of the isotropic simulations . in all the cases
the distribution is consistent with isotropic expectations . and 15@xmath2 for @xmath11 eev and @xmath1 eev .
the number of density fluctuations at a given significance level is compatible with what we expect from isotropic simulated sky ( shaded region).,title="fig : " ] and 15@xmath2 for @xmath11 eev and @xmath1 eev .
the number of density fluctuations at a given significance level is compatible with what we expect from isotropic simulated sky ( shaded region).,title="fig : " ] and 15@xmath2 for @xmath11 eev and @xmath1 eev .
the number of density fluctuations at a given significance level is compatible with what we expect from isotropic simulated sky ( shaded region).,title="fig : " ] and 15@xmath2 for @xmath11 eev and @xmath1 eev .
the number of density fluctuations at a given significance level is compatible with what we expect from isotropic simulated sky ( shaded region).,title="fig : " ]
at the 2003 icrc , the pierre auger collaboration presented a prescription in order to properly compute the probability for a local anisotropy to be compatible with isotropic expectations .
please refer to @xcite for the detail .
this procedure avoids uncertainties coming from the `` penalty factors '' due to * a posteriori * probability estimations , which can overestimate the significance of a source candidate .
the prescription targets are the galactic center and the agasa - sugar location for the low energy data . for the highest energy events , targets are three nearby violent extragalactic objects : ngc0253 , ngc3256 and centaurus a. the properties of the prescription targets and the results
are shown in table [ prescriptions_results ] . [ cols="^,^,^,^,^,^,^,^,^,^",options="header " , ] it can be seen that none of the prescription targets leads to a positive detection .
no excess is found from the galactic center region ( see @xcite for a complete analysis ) .
we have presented searches for localized excesses in the first auger sky maps , with an unprecedented accumulated statistics at ultra - high energies in the southern hemisphere .
blind source searches did not reveal any remarkable excess in any of the two energy bands @xmath11 eev and @xmath1 eev .
we presented the results of the prescription which had been set in 2003 for the first auger dataset .
none of the prescribed targets leads to a significant excess .
studies are underway on larger datasets . | arxiv |
Determine moles of limiting reagent
In the reaction involving 0.1 g of calcium nitrate and 1.5 g of sodium phosphate, what is the number of moles of the limiting reagent?
Here is what I have so far:
Balanced equation:
$$\ce{3Ca(NO3)2 + 2Na3(PO4) -> Ca3(PO4)2 + 6NaNO3}$$
$\ce{Ca(NO3)2}$ has MW = 164, mass = 0.1 g and determined moles using n=mass/MW = 0.000609
$\ce{Na3PO4}$ has MW = 164, mass = 1.5 g and determined moles using n=mass/MW = 0.0091496
I was able to identify limiting reagent by:
g $\ce{Ca(NO3)2}$ --> n $\ce{Ca(NO3)2}$ -->n $\ce{Na3(PO4)}$--> g $\ce{Na3(PO4)}$
0.1 g --s1-> 0.000609 --s2--> 0.000406 -s3--> 0.06658 g
S1 = n = 0.1/164 = 0.000609
S2 = want/have x $\ce{Ca(NO3)2}$ = 2/3 x 0.000609 = 0.000406
S3 = m = nxMW = 0.000406 x 164 = 0.06658g
Therefore as all $\ce{Ca(NO3)2}$ did not use all the $\ce{Na3(PO4)2}$ that means the $\ce{Ca(NO3)2}$ is the limiting reagent.
Now to answer the question. What is the number of moles of the limiting reagent. I am not sure if it is **0.000609** OR **0.001828** (which is moles multiplied by the stoichiometric coefficient, which is 3).
It's just adding up to the existing answer since I don't have enough rep to comment. 0.000609 is the no. of moles of limiting reagent. You don't multiply it by it's stoichiometric co-efficient because it is the no. of moles you were given. Stoichiometric equations just signify the proportions in which compounds react.
| stackexchange/chemistry |
this has led to alarming increase in physical , social and economic burden , which is preventable to a greater extent with early identification of disease and treatment .
female population constitutes a big strength with the advancement of age and is more prone to the onslaught of various chronic diseases .
few studies have documented that females are suffering more of musculoskeletal and rheumatic complaints especially with the advancement of age .
however , to the best of our knowledge no such study exists from this part of the country .
hence , an attempt was made to evaluate rheumatological profile among women above 40 years of age .
a cross - sectional survey was carried out for a period of one year in all the women above 40 years of age attending internal medicine department of a tertiary care teaching institute of north india .
those who had pain , tenderness , stiffness , swelling or other similar complaints were subjected to clinical evaluation and diagnosis was established using the acr 's criteria for various rds . wherever necessary , based on clinical evaluation and preliminary screening the patients were subjected to the relevant investigations for the confirmation of diagnosis after getting due clearance from iec vide no .
the demographic profiles of all the enrolled patients were recorded along with a detailed history and examination as per the pre - validated proforma / questionnaire designed by who - ilar ( world health organization - international league against rheumatism ) that is , copcord ( community - oriented program for the control of rheumatic diseases ) .
data was entered in microsoft excel and analyzed using spss ( statistical package for social sciences software ) version 18 .
the association between the age of the women , age at menopause , time since menopause , type of menopause , co - morbid conditions , type of work and haq - di ( health assessment questionnaire disability index ) with rd was analyzed using pearson correlation test .
data was entered in microsoft excel and analyzed using spss ( statistical package for social sciences software ) version 18 .
the association between the age of the women , age at menopause , time since menopause , type of menopause , co - morbid conditions , type of work and haq - di ( health assessment questionnaire disability index ) with rd was analyzed using pearson correlation test .
the current study was conducted on 130 women above 40 years of age ; mean age of the patients was 55.06 6.82 years , mean age at menopause was 47.30 2.50 years and mean time since menopause was 9.077 5.43 years .
out of 130 women , 116 women had reached menopause ; 109 women had natural menopause and 7 had surgical menopause .
it was found that the age at menopause , time since menopause and the type of menopause had no relationship with the onset of rd .
total 76 women were educated , out of which 45 had gone to middle school , 20 to a high school and 11 were graduates , while 54 women were illiterate .
total 97 women were hindus , 25 were muslims and 8 were sikhs . in all , 26 women were earning , whereas 104 women had no source of income .
total 109 women were non - smokers , 19 ex - smokers and 2 women were currently smokers . among total population evaluated ( n = 130 ) , 49 ( 37.69% ) women presented with rd and while undertaking subgroup analysis 43 ( 37.06% ) women among the menopausal group had rd with the most common being low backache ( 16.92% ) , followed by osteoarthritis ( 12.30% ) , fibromyalgia ( 3.84% ) , rheumatoid arthritis ( 2.30% ) with one patient each of sle , gout and sciatica .
the most common site involved was knee ( 9.23% ) followed by lumbar spine ( 8.46% ) , hip ( 3.07% ) and other sites ( 16.92% ) such as neck , upper back , hand joints , shoulder , thighs , etc .
in all 54 women had some co - morbid condition present , with hypertension being the commonest followed by anemia , diabetes mellitus and other conditions .
total 76 women were engaged in mild work , 40 in moderate while 14 engaged in heavy work .
the haq - di among 49 patients affected with rd was found to be < 1 in 31 patients while 18 women had haq - di score between 1 and 3 . in all , 29 women were receiving allopathic treatment , 12 were receiving homeopathy treatment while 8 women were under no treatment [ tables 15 ] . showing the presence or absence of rheumatological disorder in all the women studied showing prevalence of sub - classification of rheumatological disorders prevalence of the most common site involved in women with rheumatological disorder socio - demographical parameters in women with rheumatological disorder socio - demographical and other parameters of interest with statistical correlation in women with rheumatological disorder
the prevalence of rd noted in the current study is in accordance with the findings of an indian study carried out in the past .
shah et al . , from mumbai reported muscle and joint pain to be as high as 37.4% while sharma et al .
, reported rheumatic pains to be 48.13% , which is equivalent to our study . similarly , in a study carried out among american women ( bagga , 2004),53.8% women presented with ache in back of neck and skull region .
the findings of the current study are in contradiction with other indian studies . in a study conducted by kaur et al . ,
2004 , diminished acuity of vision , and in a study conducted by singh and arora , 2005 , diminished acuity of vision and hot flushes were the most frequent symptoms encountered .
the possible reasons for contradiction with these may be due to the varied perception of rheumatological problems .
moreover , diversities in region , community , ethnic variations , genetic and environmental factors , variation in age at menopause and time since menopause are some of the reasons responsible for these variations .
the most common rd reported in the current study was low backache ( 16.92% ) followed by osteoarthritis ( 12.30% ) , fibromyalgia ( 10.20% ) and rheumatoid arthritis ( 2.30% ) . in the first report by chopra et al .
, 2001,18.5% of the patients had rheumatological complaints with osteoarthritis being the most common ( 5.8% ) followed by soft tissue rheumatism ( 5.1% ) , rheumatoid arthritis ( 0.5% ) and unclassifiable inflammatory arthritis ( 0.9% ) .
similarly , mahajan et al . , 2003 in their study from jammu region of urban population reported 23.9% patients to have rheumatological problems with low backache ( 34.7% ) being the most common followed by osteoarthritis ( 24.9% ) , unclassified rheumatic diseases ( 18.7% ) , soft tissue rheumatism ( 17.9% ) and rheumatoid arthritis ( 0.8% ) . in a study by tandon and mahajan ( 2007 )
osteoarthritis was the common disorder followed by symptom - related ill - defined rheumatic symptoms , vague symptoms and rheumatoid arthritis .
low backache , myalgia , frozen shoulder , sero - positive rheumatoid arthritis and gout were some of the common rds .
2005 in bangladesh reported rd to be the common cause of morbidity , disability and work loss in rural and urban communities and found that women were affected more commonly than men , and point prevalence of rd was found to be 24.0% with the most common rd being osteoarthritis followed by low backache , lumbar spondylosis , fibromyalgia and soft tissue rheumatism .
2003 in their study conducted in china , reported that rheumatic symptoms were more common in women than men . in all , 21.2% presented with knee osteoarthritis and str in 3.4% .
crude prevalence rate for ra in total population was 0.47% and for gout was 0.33% .
the wide variation seen from the current study in the prevalence of various rds in different studies can be explained on the basis that all these studies were generalized epidemiological surveys taking both men and women into account .
but one very interesting fact among these studies is that woman were most commonly affected than men by rd .
the possible linkage to high prevalence of rd with advancing age in women is the hormonal depletion corresponding with their menopause and variations among the prevalence of rd may be because of inter - individual differences in estrogen depletion among women of different ethnicity and different countries .
the findings of the current study underscore another very important and interesting thing that rheumatic complaints , age at menopause , time since menopause and type of menopause failed to show any statistical correlation with rd thereby indicating that these factors , in view of the current study failed to influence the pattern and prevalence of rd .
however , the number of women included in the current study is too small to truly conclude non - correlation of rd with these parameters . in our study the most common site involved in women with rd was knee . in a study conducted by chopra et al . , 2002
the most common sites involved were knee ( 13.2% ) , lumbar ( 11.4% ) , shoulder ( 7.4% ) , calf ( 6.6% ) , ankle and elbow ( 6.5% ) , wrist ( 6.4% ) , hand ( 6.1% ) .
chopra et al . , 2001 reported back pain and painful neck in 17.3% and 9.5% of women , respectively . in an australian study by minaur et al .
, 2004 the most common sites were low back ( 12.5% ) , knee ( 11.2% ) and shoulder ( 8.9% ) .
2003 in china reported knee to be the most common site seen in 7.0% followed by lower back ( 5.6% ) , shoulder ( 4.7% ) and neck ( 2.4% ) .
, 2005 reported the most commonly affected sites to be low back , knees , hips and shoulders . in a study by minn hoa et al .
, 2003 the most common sites involved were knee ( 18.2% ) , low back pain ( 11.2% ) and soft tissue disorder in 15.4% patients .
the current study failed to show any statistical correlation with any of the socio - demographic and other parameters of interest with rd in women . in our study hypertension , anemia and diabetes
similarly , the study conducted by minaur et al . , 2004 reported co - morbid conditions as 58% overweight , 27% obese , 24% hypertensives , 12.5% diabetics and 2% dyslipidemia .
similarly , in a study conducted by mahajan et al . , 2003 hypertension , diabetes mellitus obesity and anemia were the most common co - morbid conditions among the population affected by osteoarthritis . in a study conducted by mahajan and tandon , 2007 to study rd among rural population hypertension , diabetes mellitus , dyslipidemia , anxiety , acid peptic disease and anemia were the most common co - morbid conditions .
it is well established that various cardiovascular risk factors are reportedly seen more commonly in men than in women until 55 years of age but thereafter women supersedes men .
thus , the current study highlights the fact that rd should get their due importance by primary physicians . in our study
the haq - di was found to be highly significant in 13.84% women when correlated with rd statically .
similar trends in accordance with our study were observed in a study conducted by chopra et al . , 2001 in which haq - di was found to be 21% but many more patients reported significant difficulty in the individual items of walking , hygiene ( squatting ) , arising from sitting cross - legged , reaching and occupational / household activities , which corresponded to the dominant pain sites in lower back and lower limbs . in another study by al - awadhi et al .
, 2004 females were more affected in comparison to males and the functional disability was reported among 39.1% of patients .
the prevalence of rheumatic disorders is substantially high among indian menopausal women demanding attention of health care providers .
low backache followed by osteoarthritis , fibromyalgias and rheumatoid arthritis were the most common rds affecting women above 40 years of age . | pubmed |
Suppose a light wave with wavelength 3m. What happens if one tries to contain that wave within a 1m container?
Suppose a light wave with wavelength 3m. What happens if one tries to contain that wave within a 1m container? If I'm going about this entirely the wrong way or have wrong conceptions about light (which might be the case because I'm not a professional physicist), please tell me that instead.
Here is another hypothetical (*i.e.* extremely impracticable) answer to your question that is rather interesting (althgough [Aksakal's Answer](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/101355/26076) is likely to be a bit more practical!).
You have to imagine yourself to be a very deft light-catcher with mirrors (I can't help thinking here of [Mozart the Light Catcher](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXfKBByOiRE)).
You trap light in the box by suddenly (within picoseconds!) putting your mirrors very deftly on nodes of the wave and so that their planes are aligned with the wavefronts. Then you squash the mirrors so that you end up with your light in the 1m long box.
What happens here is that the light will be blueshifted as you squash your mirrors together: it will be Doppler shifted by the moving mirror surface. So when you stop squashing, you can indeed prove that the nodes will still be at the mirrors and the light's frequency will have increased so that the nodes can be at the mirrors! Indeed, you can prove that the light's energy must increase (through the work you do squashing the mirrors together) by the same scale factor as the Doppler blueshifting factor. In other words, if you construe the light as being made up by a fixed number of photons, the photon energy *must be proportional to the light's frequency*. As such, this is a classical thought experiment that *motivates the form (though not the constant $h$) of Planck's Law*. [See my answer here where I do the full calculation for "Squashing Light Into a Box"](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/78644/26076).
[Aksakal's answer](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/101355/26076) is almost correct if you're talking about trying to contain light of *a fixed frequency* in a box smaller than the wavelength at that frequency. Otherwise put: modes of such a container are *cut off* at that frequency and are [evanescent waves](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evanescent_wave). So if you have a 100MHz source at the edge of a 1m square box, there will be a steady state field distribution in the box, but it will dwindle exponentially with distance from the source. Working out the full field in the box in this case is actually quite complicated: I believe it would be done in something like:
[R. Collin, "Field Theory of Guided Waves"](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0879422378)
The light will die out quickly. Think of playing B tone on a string tuned to A. It's pretty much the same thing.
Also, 3m wave is not light, it's VHF used in TV
UPDATE:
In the sound analogy, if you attach B tone generator to A-tuned string, as @WetSavannaAnimal suggested, there will be a B tone wave on a string, but it will be only at and around the point where the generator is attached. It will quickly die out along the string. The same is with your 3m wave generator, its wave will not full the box, it'll be localized around the source
| stackexchange/physics |
Sailor Moon 1. Ch 1 Ami's First Crush
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 1 – AMI'S FIRST CRUSH_**
_~Makoto's Apartment~_
Makoto looked at the clock on the wall as it shown 3.20 in the evening. "Damn, where are they? They are late 20 minutes!!" Makoto questioned as she put her head on the table.
"They will be here soon, Mako-chan. Stop worrying." Ami smiled.
The brunette frowned. Her eyes looked at her dark blue haired friend. "I'm not worry about them; I just think it's not fair." Makoto pouted.
"Not fair?" The short haired girl confused.
"Ah…nothing." Makoto rubbed her back head nervously. She put her chin against the table. "It's not fair cause I have to study longer than them." Makoto said in whispered voice.
Ami turned to Makoto. "Did you say something?"
Sweat dropped. "No, no. I didn't say anything." Makoto smiled fake. Ami looked at Makoto who is acting weird. Makoto covered her face with History textbook while Ami continued doing her Math. The place covered with silence before Makoto peeking at Ami. "Ami-chan." She broke the silent.
"Yeah?" Ami turned to Makoto.
"Have you ever think about to find a boyfriend?" Makoto asked.
Ami started to blush. "Why you asked that question?"
Makoto closed her History textbook and looked at the ceiling. "Well cause I have been wondering about it earlier. I really want to have a boyfriend. I want his arms hugging me all time; he makes me blush and makes me happy all of time." Makoto started fantasized.
"Mako-chan, it's not time to think about love. Study is more important than love, you know?" Ami protested. _'I don't want a boyfriend, but I want you, baka. You are my first crush, Mako-chan. Since the first time I saw you at the arcade, I already fall in love with you.'_
The brunette glared at Ami. "You are boring, Ami-chan. Other than study, we need love to spice up our life." Makoto grinned.
'_Am I too boring for you, Mako-chan?' _Ami wondering. "I know I'm a boring girl. That's why no one guy fall in love with me." Ami said in low voice.
Makoto blinked. "No, it's not what I mean, Ami-chan. I mean you are boring if you think about study all time. But really you are not a boring girl. I'm so happy to have an intelligent girl like you as my best friend. And you are wrong about no one guy fall in love with you. You just too picky or you just too shy." Makoto reassured her best friend. "You are beautiful, Ami-chan. Any guy who didn't fall in love with you is the dumbest guy in this world."
Ami smiled in blush when she heard praised words from Makoto. "Thanks, Mako-chan."
Makoto smiled. "Oh, how the guy named Urawa? Have you two out for date yet?" Makoto asked.
"I'm not dating him between, we both just a friend." Ami shakes her both hands.
"Haha!! You're blushing. You look so cute when you blushing." Makoto teased Ami. Makoto's eyes found a half seen novel in Ami's bag. "What is this?" Makoto snatched the novel off from Ami's bag.
"Ah?! Give me back, Mako-chan!!" Ami yelled.
Makoto quickly stood as she read the title of the novel. "Forever Love?" She looked at Ami. "Ami-chan, since when you like to read love story novel?" Makoto grinned.
Ami stood as she tried to catch her novel from her tall friend. "Mako-chan, give me back!!"
Makoto raised the book to the air. With her height, Ami can't catch the book off from her. "Well tell me when you love to read this kind of story?" Makoto grinned evil.
Ami looked at Makoto with serious face and makes Makoto blinked. "Looks like I have to use violence way to get it back right?" Ami smirked as she pushed Makoto hardly into the couch. Those two falls on the couch with Ami was on Makoto's top as their head so close to each other. Ami and Makoto gazed at each other. The brunette's hands were on Ami's waist while Ami's hands were on Makoto's chest. The blue haired girl's heart beats run fast. _'Should I kiss her? I mean, I had a crush on her for a long time and now her so close to me.'_ Ami asked herself. She moves her head closer to Makoto before the doorbell ringing.
Makoto broke the gaze as she laughed. Ami started to blush again. "You won now. But I will still ask you when you started reading love novel." Makoto smiled and handed back Ami's love novel. Ami grabbed her novel.
"Mako-chan!! Open the door!!" Usagi yelled from outside as she continued press the doorbell.
"I'm coming!!" Makoto yelled back as she turned to Ami who still on her top. "Err, Ami-chan, would you mind to get off from me?" Makoto asked in soft tone and raised her eyebrows.
"Oh, gomen." Ami quickly get off from Makoto as she back to her seat while Makoto headed herself to the door and opened the door before Usagi jumped to hug the tall girl.
"Mako-chan!! I love you!!" Usagi shouted and grinned to Makoto. Usagi's hand wrapped her arms around Makoto. Makoto just laughed with her clumsy princess's reaction. The jealousy can be seen from the two dark blue eyes who just watching at the rest from living room.
"Haha!! Yeah I know what you mean Usagi-chan, your favorite cookies at the kitchen. You can have it as much as you want." Makoto smiled.
"Yay!! I love you more, Mako-chan." Usagi gave a quick kiss on Makoto's cheek as it makes Makoto blushed lightly.
"She loves everyone who can make her tummy full with food." Rei rolled her eyes while Minako laughed lightly.
"Haha!! You can't love me more, Usagi-chan cause Mamoru will kill me." Makoto turned to Ami. A smile on her face gone when she saw something is wrong with Ami's reaction. Her face looked mad. _'Is she still mad at me cause of that book?' _Makoto wondered.
"Ami-chan. Did Mako-chan still lazy to study?" Minako winked at Ami as she sat beside the dark blue haired girl.
Ami turned to Minako. "Err, she always like that." Ami forced a smile.
Minako realized something is wrong with Ami. "Are you ok, Ami-chan?" Minako asked in worried.
"Err. I'm ok." Ami smiled lightly. Her eyes gazed at Makoto who had a laugh with Usagi and Rei at the kitchen. _'Mako-chan, do you feel the way I feel?'_ Ami questioned.
_**To be continued soon...**_
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_**I started to write this story at 1 am and fixing it until 3 am O.o**_
2. Ch 2 In The Fitting Room With Minako
Note: I do not own Sailor Moon characters
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 2 – IN THE FITTING ROOM WITH MINAKO_**
Makoto sat at the park chair, waiting for her blond best friend, Minako. Makoto laid her back on the chair as remembered about earlier today
_**~Flashback~**_
_Phone's ringing as Makoto answered it. "Hello, Kino's Resident. Kino Makoto is speaking."_
"_Mako-chan!!!" Minako yelled as Makoto put the phone away from her for a while before she answered it back._
"_Yes, Minako-chan?"_
"_There have a sale at the mall right now!! Let's go for shopping!!" Minako continued yelling._
"_Huh? But I…" Makoto refused to go but she didn't have a chance to do it._
"_I'll meet you at the park in one hour from now, ok. See ya!!" Minako hung up the phone leaving Makoto speechless. _
_**~End Flashback~ **_
Makoto smiled as she put her head on the back seat. She looked at the blue sky before someone suddenly appeared in front of her face makes she was surprised as she hits her forehead with the blond girl's nose. "Ouch!!" Makoto held her head as she turned to Minako who was sitting on the ground. "Minako-chan!!" Makoto quickly get Minako who has bleeding nose. "Baka. Why you suddenly appear in front of me like that?"
Makoto wrapped her hands around Minako's waist and headed her to the seat. "I just wondering what am you doing. I didn't know you will react like that." Minako still hold her bleeding nose.
"Well I'm sorry." Makoto apologized as she took out the packet of tissue out from her pocket. "Let me see it." Makoto left hand held Minako's both hands while her right hand wiped the blood on her blond friend's nose.
"Ouch!!" Minako yelled.
"I know its hurt. Hold on." Makoto continued wiping the blood as she moves her head closely to Minako.
Minako eyes gazed at the brunette. _'Why suddenly I felt so weird when she's closer to me?'_ Minako asked herself. She lost in dream when she looked at Makoto.
"Done." Makoto smiled as she looked at Minako's eyes. "How you feel?" Makoto asked but no answered coming from Minako. "Minako-chan?" Makoto waves in front of Minako's eyes. "Minako-chan!!" Makoto yelled.
"Huh?!" Minako awake from dreaming as she facing Makoto who frown her face. "What you ask again?" Minako blinked.
Makoto smiled. "How you feel?" She asked.
"Much better." Minako smiled back. _'She looks so pretty when she smile.'_
"Let me company you home." Makoto stood.
Minako shook her head. "No, I want go for shopping!!" Minako said as she stood.
"But…"
"No buts!! Don't you see I'm a strong girl?!!" Minako said in full energy as she accidently punched Makoto's face. Makoto kneed on the ground covered her nose. "Mako-chan!! Gomen!!"
Minako and Makoto walked side by side at the mall with a small plaster on their nose. "Mako-chan. Are you mad at me?" Minako asked in low voice.
"No. I just feel a bit dizzy." Makoto answered as she looked at above. Suddenly Makoto laughed alone.
Minako turned to Makoto and confused. "Why you laugh?"
"I just think it's quite funny. I accidently hit your nose and then you accidently punched my nose and now we looks like completely in pain." Makoto continued to laugh.
Minako join the laugh. "Haha!! You're right." Minako looked at one shop which full with new clothes. She grabbed Makoto's arm. "Mako-chan, let's go inside!!" Minako pulled Makoto into the shop.
Minako grabbed two gowns and handed to Makoto. "Try this two." Minako grinned.
Makoto puzzled. "Huh? Why?" Makoto questioned.
"Cause I want to see you in this two gowns." Minako winked.
"It's not the strong reason for me to try these clothes." Makoto stuck out tongue to Minako. The brunette girl handed back all gowns to Minako.
"No!! I don't need a strong reason for you to try it." Minako grabbed Makoto's hand and headed her to fitting room. Those two enter the small room together. "Now try it!!" Minako commanded her tall friend.
Makoto pouted. "Fine." Makoto snatched the clothes from Minako as she takes off her top and her denim bottom in front of Minako. Minako's started to blush when she saw Makoto have a change in front of her without shy. "Can you zip this outfit?" Makoto turned as Minako zipped the gown. Makoto was done wearing the new gown. "What you think?" Makoto asked.
Minako's eyes stared at her tall friend who is wearing a black evening dress. "You-you look so beautiful." Minako amazed.
Makoto smiled and blushed lightly. "Thanks." Makoto said as she looked at her blond friend's face. "You look so cute with plaster on your nose." Makoto teased Minako as she gave a quick kiss on Minako's nose. Minako paused as her eyes and Makoto's gazed at each other. Slowly they move their head closer. They leaned their lips against each other. Makoto's eyes wide opened as she with rush pushed Minako backwards. "What was that?!!" Makoto yelled.
"Err…we're kissing?" Minako shrugged.
Makoto paused as she looked at Minako's frustrated face. "It's just a mistake, right?" Makoto asked.
"Yeah." Minako forced a fake smile.
"Good." Makoto nervously change back her clothes in front of Minako who still blushing. Makoto can't balance well when she tried to wear back her bottom denim as she fell on the floor. Minako laughed at Makoto. "Can you help me?" Makoto asked.
"Of course." Minako offered her hand to Makoto and Makoto grabbed it. Minako tried to pull Makoto up but it was her to fall on Makoto's lap. "Gomen." Minako looked at Makoto's green eyes. She lost herself for three times today when she looked at Makoto's eyes. Makoto's heartbeat started beats fast as she moves her head closer to Minako's. They leaned their lips against each other for second time but this time with more passionate.
Makoto broke the kiss as she gazed at Minako's blue eyes. "I think we should back home, Mina." Makoto said with her face still blushing. Minako nodded as them both stood. As Makoto done change back her clothes, they headed home. Makoto companied Minako back home. She walked behind her blond friend. _'What just happened to us?'_ Makoto wondered alone.
Finally they arrived at the front of Aino Resident. "Mako-chan. Thanks for everything." Minako gave a quick kiss on Makoto's cheek as she made her walk to her house. Makoto's face turned red.
'_Makoto, you can't fall in love with your best friend. This is so wrong.'_ Makoto shrugged as she continued her walk.
**To be continued...**
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**What you guys think? R&R pwease. I took like 2 hours to write every chapter O.o**
3. Ch 3 A Kiss From Rei
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 3 – A KISS FROM REI
_**
_~Hikawa Shrine~_
"Rei-chan!!" Makoto yelled at the front of Rei's house. Rei opened the sliding door as she looked at her tomboy friend standing at front her. Rei's face started blushing.
"Mako-chan. You arrive too soon." Rei smiled with her eyes looked at the girl who is wearing a baggy long sleeve shirt and a baggy bottom.
Makoto rubbed back of her head with her hand and laughed. "Haha!! I need to borrow your kitchen to bake cake cause Usagi blown up my microwave yesterday."
Rei laughed. "Yeah, I almost forgot about what just happened yesterday. Come in." Rei invited her brunette friend in as she help Makoto carried a basket to the kitchen. She put the basket on the small table at the kitchen. "Mako-chan, you need some help?" The raven haired girl asked.
"Yes, I will be happy if you help me." Makoto smiled as she prepared to make cake for her best friends.
While them two busy preparing ingredient for making a cake, Makoto asked Rei, "How's Yuuchirou? I haven't seen him like forever." Suddenly silent covered the place. "Rei?" Makoto turned her face to Rei to see why Rei so quiet.
Rei's hand shook badly; looks like she holding her anger. "I broke up with him already." Rei answered in angry voice.
Makoto blinked. She knew she just asked the wrong question. She tried to not talking about Yuuchirou in front of Rei again. She walked to Rei and gave Rei a hug. Rei's eyes wide opened as she felt an electrical just shoot her heart when the brunette girl hugging her. _'I felt so warm when she hug me and peaceful' _Rei told to herself.
Makoto broke the hug as she looked at Rei's dark eyes. "Don't be sad or angry about it, ok? If you need someone to talk to, I will always be with you." Makoto smiled warmly. Rei gazed deeply into Makoto's green eyes.
"Yeah." Rei smiled back. They two continued their job.
"Rei-chan?" Makoto called Rei.
"Yeah?" Rei turned.
"What will you do if your best friend kissed you and you never expect that kiss will come from him? I mean a kiss on lips. Passionate kissed." Makoto asked as she remembered a kiss of her and Minako a few days ago.
Rei blinked several times before she finally gave an answer. "It's mean them two fall in love to each other without they realize it. If me, I will reply my best friend's love." Rei said in blushing as she thinking about her and Makoto kissing each other.
"Oh, thanks Rei." Makoto smiled. "Oh yeah Rei, can you hand me that packet of flour?" Makoto pointed her finger to a packet of flour in front of Rei.
"Sure." Rei grabbed the packet of flour and with rush walked to Makoto but she was so unlucky that night. She slipped on the floor as Makoto catch her and makes them two fell on the floor together while a packet of flour broken and makes whole kitchen covered with smokes of flour. Makoto and Rei coughed. As the smoke vanished little by little, Rei and Makoto can be seen hugging each other with Rei on Makoto's top. Rei looked at Makoto's white face which covered by flour. She laughed hysterically. "Hahaha!! You look so cute!!" Rei continued laughing.
Makoto smiled. "It's all your fault." Makoto rolled her and Rei's body and makes she was on Rei's top. The tall girl grabbed the packet of balance flour as she pour a little on Rei's face. "Revenge!!"
"Mako-chan!!" Rei yelled.
Makoto laughed when she looked at Rei's white face which covered with flour. "That's for laughing at me." Makoto continued laughing at Rei. She looked at Rei's eyes. "You look so cute, Rei-chan." Makoto whispered.
Rei smiled in blush when she heard it. She crossed her arms around Makoto's shoulder and pulled Makoto's head closer to her. Makoto's eyes wide opened as she felt soft lips just kissed her lips. Makoto broke the kissed as she moves backwards. She sat beside the table and looked at Rei's frustrated face. "Rei?" Makoto looked confused.
"I'm sorry about that kiss." Rei moves her position to sit in front of Makoto. She stood as she left the confused brunette at the kitchen alone.
'_Why Minako and Rei suddenly kiss me? It's not just them but I also feel like I enjoy those kisses. And Ami looked so different lately. What just happened to them? Makoto, what was wrong with you?'_
"Mako-chan?" Usagi looked at Makoto.
Makoto was surprised to see Usagi was there. "Did you…?" Makoto tried to ask but she was speechless.
Usagi nodded. Makoto shrugged as she put her head on her hands. "What is going on, Usagi-chan?" Makoto asked. She was really clueless about what just happened to her lately.
_**To be continued...**_
*****
**Thanks for reviews. I will continue it tomorrow. After this we will back on MakoXAmi ^_^**
4. Ch 4 Ami Confess The Truth
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 4 – AMI CONFESS THE TRUTH_**
Makoto walked home alone from school. Her left hand carried her bag at her back. She remembered about her and Usagi conversation last night.
_**~Flashback~**_
_Makoto and Usagi walked together. "I'm sorry, Usagi-chan about I call off our study group." Makoto apologized. _
_Usagi smiled. "It's ok Mako-chan. Between, you know I don't like to study, right. So it's not a big deal for me." Usagi laughed._
_Makoto forced a smile. "Usagi-chan, you saw that kiss right?" Makoto asked in depressed voice. Her eyes keep looking at the ground._
"_Mako-chan, if you don't feel comfortable I will not say anything about it." Usagi looked at Makoto's face. _
_Makoto shook her head slowly. "No, I really need to talk with someone about this." Makoto stopped her walk as she sat at the sidewalk. Usagi without asking much sat beside her brunette friend. "Actually, it's not only Rei had kissed me."_
_Usagi eyes wide opened when she heard it. "What you mean not only Rei had kissed you?" Usagi asked in shocked._
_Makoto sighed long. "Do you remember our last study group at my place?" Makoto asked without looking at Usagi. Usagi nodded as Makoto continued her story. "Well before you, Minako and Rei arrived, Ami and I had a little conversation and then I teased her about her romance novel book. We ended up with she was on top of me and I felt like she nearly kiss me but then you guys arrived. If you guys not arrived yet, I think me and her will probably kissing each other."_
_Usagi paused. She tried to believe Makoto's story between Makoto hates to lie about something so she probably told the truth. "And did you and her talk about it later?" Usagi asked._
_Makoto shook her head. "No. She always tried to avoid herself from me after that day." Makoto sighed. _
_Usagi rubbed Makoto's back softly. "I think you should try to talk with her about it, Mako-chan and to Rei-chan too."_
_Makoto looked at Usagi. "Well, it's not just them two." Makoto put her chin on her knee. "Minako and I kissed each other a few days ago while we go for shopping."_
"_What?!!" Usagi shouted in surprised. "How that happened?" _
"_I don't know, Usagi-chan. Minako companied me in the fitting room and I changed my clothes right in front of her. Then suddenly when we're realized that we are too close in that small fitting room, we're ended up with kissing each other." Makoto explained as she blushed. "I thought we both just confused but I kissed her again for second time with more passionate."_
"_Mako-chan!! Are you crazy?!!" Usagi yelled._
"_I am!! They make me crazy!!" Makoto scratched her head. "Usagi-chan, what should I do?" The brunette asked her blond friend._
"_You should talk to them. I don't mind if you and one of them are dating each other. I still can accept it. But it's three of them and they are our best friends. I don't want cause of it, we all fall out." Usagi said._
_Makoto looked at her princess. "You are right, Usagi-chan. I will think about it and talk to them all this confusing situation." Makoto smiled._
_Usagi smiled back. "Good. Let's go home now." Usagi said as she stood. _
_Makoto followed her. "Yeah."_
_Usagi turned her face to Makoto. "But Mako-chan. If you have to choose one of them three, who will you choose to be your girlfriend?" Usagi teased her brunette friend._
"_Usagi-chan." Makoto frowned._
"_Haha!! Just joking." Usagi laughed as they continued walked home._
_**~End Flashback~**_
Makoto arrived at the corridor of her apartment. She was surprised when she saw a dark blue haired girl with school uniform standing at front of her apartment door. "Ami-chan?" Makoto spoke to Ami. Ami didn't say anything; only gave her a light smile. Makoto invited her into her apartment. "Make yourself home." Makoto said as she walked to the kitchen.
Ami sat on Makoto's comfy couch. Her eyes wildly looked around the living room. Makoto walked to the living room with carrying a tray of tea. "You no need to make tea for me, Mako-chan."
Makoto smiled. "You are my guest; I must make a tea for my guest." Makoto put the tray of tea on the small table in front of Ami. She poured the tea while Ami just glanced at her. "Have a drink." Makoto smiled as she sat next to Ami.
Ami blushed when Makoto smiled at her. "Thanks." She sipped little by little the cup of tea.
"Ami-chan…" Makoto looked at the floor with a serious face. Ami put the cup of tea back on the table. She turned to Makoto and ready to listening to her. "If you are mad at me about last week, I just want to say I'm sorry."
Ami smiled lightly. "Baka. I'm not mad at you about it."
Makoto blinked. "Then why you always kept distance from me?" Makoto asked.
"It's because…" Ami moves closer to her brunette friend. Her lips leaned against Makoto's soft lips.
Makoto's eyes wide opened as she quickly pushed Ami away from her. Ami's face turned red while Makoto breathe fast. "Ami-chan, don't tell me…"
Ami lowered her head. "Yes, I fall in love with you, Mako-chan." She began to cry. "I'm so stupid. I don't know how it happened but when I saw you I can't think well. I try to keep it as a secret but since that day, I can't do it anymore. It so hurt when I saw you are too close to other girls even Usagi-chan."
Makoto paused when she heard Ami's confession. "Ami-chan?"
"I'm sorry for telling you this." Ami wiped her tears as she grabbed her school back. She opened the door but Makoto pushed to close the door. Ami looked up at Makoto. "Mako-chan?"
Makoto wrapped her right arm around Ami's shoulder and pushed her closer while her left hand held Ami's waist. She kissed Ami as Ami reply her kiss with more passionate.
_**To be continued...**_
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**I will back with MakoXMina and MakoXRei soon. Thanks for reviews and continue reading ^_^**
5. Ch 5 I Hate That I Love You
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 5 – I HATE THAT I LOVE YOU_**
_~Aino Resident~
_
Makoto stood at the front of Minako's house. Her mind thinking about what just happened between her and Ami at her house.
_**~Flashback~**_
_Makoto broke the kiss and they gazed at each other. "Look, Ami-chan. I have to deal with something first." Makoto said as she took some breath._
_Ami just smiled as she let go Makoto's waist. "Ok, Mako-chan." Ami opened the door. She turned to Makoto and gave her a quick kiss on her lips before she left. Makoto blushed. "Bye, Love." Ami waved her hand while Makoto still blushing._
"_Bye, Ami-chan." Makoto waved back._
_**~End flashback~**_
Makoto looked at the windows of Minako's room. '_Sorry Mina. Even though I really enjoy our kiss but I already decided. I already choose Ami.' _Makoto took a deep breathe as she ring the bell. "Hello. Is anyone home?!" Makoto yelled at the front door.
The door was opened as she saw the blond girl stood at her front. "Mako-chan?" Minako blinked. "Why you didn't tell me you want to come?" Minako asked.
"Err…I just feel like I want to see you." Makoto explained in nervous.
Minako smiled. "Come in." Minako grabbed Makoto's hand and headed to her room. Makoto blushed and Minako's touch makes her speechless. In Minako's room, Makoto sat on her blond friend's bed. She struggled with her feeling to tell Minako about those kisses that they had a few days ago. Minako locked the door as she walked to Makoto. "What's on your mind? You seem scared about something." Minako asked in soft voice like she's whispering.
"Minako, about that kiss…" Makoto lowered her head. "…it just a mistake, right?" Makoto asked as she turned to Minako who sat next to her.
Minako's face changed. She looked upset. "Yeah, it just a mistake." Minako said in low tone.
Makoto tried to not say anything more. "Good. I want back home now." Makoto stood.
"I'm so stupid right?" Minako questioned the brunette girl.
Makoto turned to Minako as she saw Minako cried. "Minako-chan?" Makoto puzzled. Minako stood and walked to Makoto and tried to punched Makoto as Makoto dodged it. "Minako-chan?! What's wrong with you?!" Makoto puzzled.
"I hate you, Mako-chan!!" Minako yelled back as she continued her attempted to punch Makoto.
"You hate me for what? For that kiss?" Makoto avoided the blonds' punched.
"I hate you cause you makes me fall in love with you!!" Minako stopped to punch as she kneed on the floor; crying. "I hate this feeling, Mako-chan. I hate that I love you." Minako sobbed.
"Mina…" Makoto kneed in front of her blond friend and hugged her tight. "I'm sorry, Minako." Makoto carried Minako to her bed. She put Minako with gently on her bed. "Get some rest, ok?" The brunette girl smiled as she brushed Minako's blond hair softly.
Makoto stood but Minako stopped her with held her hand. "Mako-chan, I love you. Please don't leave me."
Makoto so confused with her feeling now. She sat on the bed and her head moves closer to Minako's as they ended up with kissing each other. "I love you too." Makoto whispered and continued kissing Minako on the bed.
An hour later, Makoto awake from her sleep as she found that she was holding Minako who slept beside her. Slowly she moves her hands off from Minako as she gently jumped out from sleeping Minako's bed. She sat on the floor; facing Minako's sleeping body. _'Makoto, what wrong with you? Earlier today you just accepted Ami's love but now you seem confused when Minako told you that she loves you.' _Makoto asked herself. She put her head on her hands. _'Makoto, you should decide how!!' _Makoto unlocked the door and left the sleeping blond alone.
_**To be continued...**_
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**I'm sorry, this chapter a bit short and I still don't have a clue to ending up Makoto pairing with who between 3 of them. MakoXRei after this ^_^**
**Thanks for reviews ^_^**
6. Ch 6 Thunder And Fire Collaboration
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
* * *
**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
_**CHAPTER 6 – THUNDER AND FIRE COLLABORATION**_
_~Hikawa Shrine~__**
**_
Rei looked at the clock at side of her bed. It's shown 12.14 in the morning. She looked at the ceiling and remembered about the kiss of her and Makoto the other night. 'I'm so stupid. She probably hates me now.' Rei sighed. She heard someone voice from outside. "Huh? Who was that?" Rei looked at the window as she jumped out from her bed. She opened the sliding door and looking from where the voice was coming. She saw the brunette girl is punching the tree with angry face. "Mako-chan?" Rei spoke to Makoto.
Makoto ignored Rei as she continued punch and kick the tree. "Heyah!!"
"Mako-chan, you will kill that tree." Rei walked closer to her tall friend. Makoto stopped but she didn't turn to the raven haired girl. "Mako-chan, I don't know what's wrong with you but you look mad. If you want to talk about it, I'm ready to hear." Rei patted Makoto's shoulder softly.
"Why you kissed me yesterday?" Makoto asked in serious tone.
Rei pulled back her hand from Makoto with her eyes wide opened. "Err…I don't know, Mako-chan." Rei tried to hide the truth especially Makoto seem angry to her. Makoto turned as she is facing Rei.
"Don't lie to me, Rei-chan!!" Makoto yelled. "I know you're hiding something from me!!"
Rei looked at her brunette friend's eyes. "Yes!! I lied to you!! I lied myself too!! I lied about that I fall in love with you!!"
The brunette girl's eyes wide opened when her friend told the truth. "Rei…" A pool of tears can be seen in her green eyes. "Why this is had happened to me?!" Makoto punched the tree with hard. Her right hand is bleeding. Rei grabbed Makoto's bleeding hand as she takes off the ribbon that binds her long hair. Gently she binds the brunette's bleeding hand with that ribbon. Makoto was speechless.
"It's done. Please don't hurt yourself anymore." Rei looked at Makoto's green eyes. They gazed at each other and slowly move their head closer. As they nearly kiss the other they heard someone screamed for help. "Damn!! Can they leave us alone sometimes?!"
Makoto laughed as she grabbed Rei's hand. "Let's go and see what happen." Makoto lead the run as Rei followed her from back. Makoto stopped running as she blocked Rei from passing her. Them two peeking from behind the tree.
"Youma?" Rei whispered as she put her hands on Makoto's shoulder. They saw a yellow woman youma with axe hands attacked a woman at the sidewalk. "Let's transform." Rei said as Makoto nodded. "Mars Star Power!! Make-up!!" Rei yelled as fire circles surrounding her naked body before her red Mars outfit covered her body.
Makoto blinked several times when she saw Rei transformed right in front of her. She started blushing but she quickly slapped her own face. _'Makoto, you can't think dirty thing now!!'_ Makoto reminded herself.
Sailor Mars turned to Makoto. "Why you not transform yet?" Mars asked.
"Oh, hold on." Makoto's face turned red. _'I have to be naked in front of her?' _Makoto thought alone.
"Mako-chan!!" Rei yelled.
"Ok!!" Makoto bring out her Jupiter transform pen. "Jupiter Star Power!! Make-up!!" Makoto yelled as lighting surrounding her naked body. In a few second her body covered by her green Jupiter outfit. Mars giggled naughty and makes Jupiter blushed more. "That's for what?" Jupiter asked.
"Nothing." Mars turned around as she jumped in front of the youma.
Jupiter sighed. "Focus, Jupiter!!" Jupiter yelled to herself. She jumped behind the youma. "Too bad cause you met us tonight." The thunder senshi grinned. "Sparkling Wide Pressure!!" Jupiter shot a ball of lightning to the enemy's direction. The enemy dodged the attack before it appeared behind Jupiter as it swung her axe hand to Jupiter's back.
"Don't you dare touch her!!" Mars yelled as she kicked the youma. The youma hits the wall. "Are you okay, Jupiter?" Mars asked.
The youma stood. "I'm okay. Thanks." Jupiter smiled. She saw flying axes coming to her and Mars' direction. "Watch out!!" Jupiter yelled as she hugged Mars and those two rolling together on the ground; dodging all axes that coming to them. Jupiter and Mars ended the rolling with Mars on Jupiter's top while Jupiter hugging Mars on her waist really tight. Those two started blushing.
Mars gave a quick kiss on Jupiter's lips. "Thanks for saving me." Mars giggled as she stood to face the youma. Jupiter still blushing while lay on the ground. She kneed and looked up at Mars and the youma. "This is for interrupted my night with Makoto!! Burning…Mandala!!!" Mars shot a few fire circles to the youma. Her shoot hits the youma as she turned weak.
"Supreme Thunder!!" Jupiter gave a final attack as it hits the youma. The youma turned to be the dust. "It's over." Jupiter looked at the dust before it's gone. "Mars, it was a great…" Jupiter turned to Mars as Mars locked the brunette's lips with her kiss. Mars broke the kiss and blushing lightly. "…collaboration." Jupiter continued her unfinished words. She was speechless again when Rei transform back as Rei. 'Damn, she's naked in front of me again.' Jupiter holds her nose.
"Why you hold your nose?" Rei asked as she giggled.
"Ah, nothing." Jupiter rubbed her back head. She also re-transformed herself to Makoto.
Rei and Makoto sat on the Hikawa Shrine stairs. The raven haired girl was waiting for Makoto to start the discussing about their relationship after she told Makoto the truth earlier. They nearly kiss each other earlier but the youma attacked human not too far from Hikawa Shrine. _'Damn youma!! You ruined everything!!' _Rei cursed the previous youma. Even she kissed Makoto during fighting with the youma but Makoto never replied those kisses. Rei sighed as she stood. "It's pretty late now, Mako-chan. I want back home, sleeping." Rei said in upset. "Night."
As Rei climbed the stairs, Makoto stood and finally she said something. "Rei-chan." Makoto called Rei in shaking voice.
Rei turned. "Yeah?"
Makoto grabbed Rei's hand and pulled her friend to her laps. Rei's head leaned against Makoto's chest as she can hear Makoto's fast heartbeat. She knew Makoto is nervous. "Stay with me tonight?" Makoto asked.
Rei smiled in blush. She looked at Makoto's green eyes. "Your place or my place?" Rei giggled.
"My place. I don't want your grandfather kill me tomorrow's morning." Makoto makes a joke and it makes Rei laughed lightly.
"Ok, wait for me cause I need to get my uniform for tomorrow." Rei said as she climbed the stairs. The brunette grabbed Rei's hand and pulled her back again. She leaned her lips on Rei's lips. The raven haired girl felt like in heaven when Makoto kissed her. It's first time Makoto kissed her. She replied the passionate kisses to Makoto as she broke the kiss. "I will be back in a few minutes, okay?" Rei slowly pushed Makoto off from her.
"Okay. I'll wait for you here." Makoto smiled and watched Rei running to her house. _'Makoto, you are such a player.'_ Makoto told herself.
_**To be continued...**_
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**I'm off from work today so I spent much time in front of my computer. Too many things I do today, writing, drawing, shopping and I got this idea of MakoXRei while had a shopping with my family xD**
**SilverTiger_2008, thanks. I hope you enjoy this chapter too ^_^**
**Priss_Asagiri15, I hope you like this chapter of MakoXRei**
**Continue reading. I will try to update my story tomorrow ^_^**
**P/s: Sorry for my bad English **
7. Ch 7 Guilty
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
* * *
**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 7 – GUILTY_**
Rei slowly opened her eyes as she found out that she was sleeping on Makoto's bed with Makoto sleeping and hugging her from behind. Rei giggled. Even nothing serious happened last night, she felt so happy to wake up on Makoto's laps. She looked at the clock at the wall. "Ahhhhhh!!" Rei screamed as she jumped out from the bed and makes Makoto awake from her sleep.
"Huh? What happen?" Makoto asked as she grabbed tennis racket.
"It's 8.00 am now!! We are late for school!!" Rei yelled. "Why are you holding that thing?" Rei pointed to tennis racket on Makoto's hand.
"Err...I thought someone want to harm you." The brunette girl looked at the clock. "Oh no!!" Makoto with rush jumped out from her bed. "You go for a shower first." Makoto pushed Rei to the bathroom as she handed a towel.
Rei turned to Makoto. "You want have a shower together?" Rei giggled naughty.
Makoto's face turned red. "I would love too, but not now!!" Makoto quickly leave Rei at the bathroom. Rei laughed when she saw Makoto blushed hard.
In a few minutes later, Rei walked out from the bathroom with a towel covered her wet body. Makoto jaws dropped while her eyes stared at Rei's body. "Mako-chan, what are you looking at?" Rei asked.
"Err...err...nothing." Makoto answered in nervous. _'Damn, she so hot. If not cause I'm late for school I will drag her to my bed now.' _Makoto told to herself with her eyes still stared at Rei's body.
"Mako-chan, you still dreaming huh?" Rei asked as she giggled.
"Err...I want get a shower now." Makoto walked passing raven haired girl with red face. Before Makoto shut bathroom door, she's peeking Rei who was in her room. Rei dropped the towel which covered her naked body. _'Damn!! Makoto behave yourself!!'_ Makoto just noticed her nose is bleeding when she saw Rei's naked body.
"Are you peeking on me?" Rei asked as she turned to Makoto who watched her from the bathroom door.
"Err...gomen!!" Makoto quickly shut the door while Rei laughed lightly.
Ami stood at the corner of building where Makoto's apartment located. '_I hope she not gone for school yet.'_ Ami hopes. She was surprised when she saw Rei ran out from the building. _'What she's doing at Makoto's place in this early morning?' _Ami wondered as she walked to the building. She nearly collided with Makoto at the stairs.
"Ami?" Makoto's eyes wide opened. '_Oh God, I hope she didn't see Rei earlier.'_ Makoto said to herself.
"Morning." Ami grinned. "I saw Rei here. Did she come to meet you?" Ami asked.
Sweat dropped. _'Oh no, she saw Rei.'_ Makoto smiled fake. "Yeah, I borrowed her book yesterday and she came to take her book back." Makoto lied. _'Makoto you are a bad liar!!'_
"I see." Ami smiled. "Let's go to school together." Ami grabbed Makoto's arm.
"Sure." Makoto smiled back.
Makoto and Ami walked together to school. "Mako-chan, are you free this Sunday?" Ami asked.
"Hmm…" Makoto was thinking for a while. "Yeah, I'm free I guess." Makoto answered.
"Let's go to Lake Garden this Sunday." Ami asked in blushed.
"Err…sure." Makoto nodded. "So this is our first date then?" Makoto grinned while Ami nodded.
"Mako-chan!! Ami-chan!!" Someone screamed their names as Makoto and Ami turned.
"Usagi-chan." Ami smiled to Usagi.
"Minako-chan?" Makoto feels nervous when Minako looked at her.
"Mako-chan." Minako smiled warmly.
"Let's go to school together!!" Usagi said in happy voice.
The clumsy girl walked at the front while Makoto walked in between of Minako and Ami. She started sweating. _'Damn!! I hate it this feeling. Standing in between those two makes me feel guilty. If they knew the truth I will be dead.' _
Usagi turned to Makoto, Minako and Ami who walked behind her. She noticed Makoto's face change especially when Ami and Minako walked besides her.
_~At school garden~_
"What?!! You kissed those three?!!" Usagi yelled.
Makoto quickly covered Usagi's mouth with her both hands. "Shh…don't yell baka." Makoto whispered as she looked around. "Promise me you won't yell."
Usagi nodded. Slowly the brunette removed her hands off from Usagi. "Mako-chan, do you realize what you're doing?" Usagi asked in whispered.
Makoto nodded. "I know, Usagi-chan. I tried to tell them but I can't." Makoto sat on the small chair at the garden.
"What you mean?" Usagi confused.
"When I told them this is all wrong, they cried and make me hard to think except to accept their love." Makoto put her head on her hands.
"Mako-chan, you make this problem turns more complicated. You will break their hearts when they found out soon." Usagi patted Makoto's shoulder softly.
The brunette girl shrugged. "I know, Usagi-chan. I felt so guilty now."
"You must tell them before it's too late." The blond girl looked at her friend.
"Yeah but I will do it with my way." Makoto smiled lightly.
"Good. Remember, if you really serious about them you only can choose one of them." Usagi gave a warning.
Makoto looked at Usagi. "Can I choose them all? They all pretty hot girls." Makoto grinned.
Mako-chan!!" Usagi yelled.
"Just joking." Makoto laughed. _'I can't deny it Usagi-chan, they are really hot.'_
_**To be continued...**_
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**Sorry this chapter didn't change much except I put a little bit MakoXRei funny scene there. At least I already mention there that Mako and Ami will go out for thier first date *grins*
**
**Priss-Asagiri15 - Haha not really. Rei was my 3rd fave character in Sailor Moon. Since you said MakoXRei so cute, I think you will love that chapter :p Thanks anyway ^_^**
**changmin88 - I don't have any idea who will she choose. Thanks for reading ^_^**
**SilverTiger_2008 - I know she's lucky for 3 pretty girls have a crush on her xD Thanks**
**DavisJes - Thanks for correcting me. I'm too sleepy while writing that story. I can't think well. I will edit it tomorrow ^_^**
**angelnaughty - I still don't know who will Makoto choose. I love all girls, it's hard for me to choose .**
**I will be back with new chapter tomorrow. I drew Makoto kissing with those 3 girls earlier but I don't know how to put picture or at least a link here .**
**Can someone help me?**
8. Ch 8 Makoto's Triple Dates
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
* * *
**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 8 – MAKOTO'S TRIPLE DATES_**
Makoto lowered her face while Ami grabbed her left arm tightly. She seem didn't care what public will say about them. Ami looked up at the brunette's face. "Mako-chan, are you ok? Why you look so nervous?" The blue haired girl asked.
Makoto smiled fake. "Well, this is my first date with you. Of course I'm nervous." Makoto answered. _'I'm wondering where are they now?'_ Makoto wondered as her eyes wildly looked around the garden. She's wearing a light brown sweater with a tight denim thinking about what just happened an hour ago.
_**~Flashback - An hour earlier-~**_
_Makoto get ready to have a date with Ami before the phone ringing. "Hello, Kino Makoto speaking." Makoto answered the phone._
"_Mako-chan!!" Minako yelled on the phone in happy voice._
"_Hi, love." Makoto smiled. "You sound so happy today."_
"_Hehe. Hun, let's have a date. I'll wait for you at the lake garden in an hour from now." Minako said with rush._
"_Lake garden?!!" Makoto yelled._
"_Yeah, what's wrong?"Minako questioned Makoto. "You don't want to have a date with me?" Minako pouted._
"_No, no." Makoto slapped her forehead. "Ok, I will see you there in an hour from now. Meet me at our usual place nearby the lake." Makoto said._
"_Promise me you will be there?" Minako asked._
"_Yes, I promise." Makoto nodded._
"_Yay!! Ok. I'll see you later. Love you so much. Mwah." Minako said in happy voice._
"_I love you too, Mina." Makoto giggled as she hung up the phone. 'Damn, I have two dates at the same place. I will be dead.' Makoto hits her head with her hand. Before Makoto can think how she will handle the situation her phone is ringing again. 'Why I felt something bad will happen soon?' Makoto frowned as she answered the call. "Hello, Kino Makoto is speaking."_
"_Hello Mako-chan…" Rei greeted Makoto._
"_Oh, Rei love. Why you call me?" Makoto asked._
"_Err…let's go out now." Rei said._
"_Now? But…" Makoto tried to give excuses._
"_Please, Mako-chan. I felt so lonely now. All people here have their lovers with them it makes me jealous." Rei begged Makoto with soft voice._
_Makoto sighed. She doesn't want to break Rei's heart. "Ok, love. Wait for me. I will go there. Between, where are you now?" Makoto asked as she hit her head to the wall. _
"_Yay!! I'm at the lake garden. I'll wait for you at the end of the garden. There we can have our private time without any interrupter." Rei giggled._
"_Lake garden?" Makoto hit her head to the wall again. She was speechless for a while._
"_Yeah. I will wait for you. Love you." Rei said as she hung up the phone. _
_**~End the flashback~**_
'_I will be dead at the end of today. I should enjoy myself with them then.' _Makoto sighed.
Ami smiled lightly as they arrived at one small hill which there a bit private place for lover. Makoto spread out the mat on the grassy field as Ami put their food on the mat. "Excuse me, Ami-chan. I want go to toilet for a while. I will be back in a few minutes." Makoto makes an excuse.
"Ok." Ami nodded and smiled.
Makoto gave a quick kiss on blue haired girl's cheek. "I will be back!!" Makoto yelled as she ran leaving Ami alone at that place.
Minako sat on the chair near the lake and looked at her watch. "She's late!!" Minako sighed. Suddenly someone crossed arms around her shoulder and hugged her tight.
"Gomen, love." Makoto apologized in breathless.
"I won't forgive you this time." The blond girl pouted as she crossed her arms.
Makoto smiled. "You look so cute when you are mad." Makoto grinned as Minako blushed.
"Your old trick is not working this time." Minako still sulked with turned her face to other place.
Makoto sat besides Minako and smiled. "Even with this trick?" Makoto wrapped her arm around Minako's shoulder and pulled her closer. She leaned her lips on Minako's. Makoto broke the kiss and they gazed at each other's eyes. "I'm sorry." Makoto begged.
**PICTURE -- **yfrog .com /5smakotominakoj (combine it as one website address)
"Well, that kiss trick is work." Minako stuck out tongue to the brunette girl.
Makoto laughed. Suddenly she remembered about Rei. "Err…Mina-chan. I forgot about something. I will back in a few minutes." Makoto gave a quick kiss on the blonds' lips and leaving Minako speechless.
Rei laid her body next to the tree while her eyes looking at the lake with frustrated. _'Did she lie to me?'_ Rei asked to herself. _'Sometimes I felt like she's hiding something from me.' _Rei threw a small rock into the lake.
"Hello, sexy girl, did you waiting for someone?" Makoto asked as Rei turned to face her. "If that person didn't come, can I company you? Are you still available?" Makoto teased Rei.
"No. I'm not available anymore cause I'm belong to someone baka named Makoto." Rei stuck out her tongue to the brunette girl.
"Well you are dating with baka head person. That's amazing." Makoto smiled as she sat beside Rei. "Why you love your baka lover?" Makoto asked.
"Cause she's baka." Rei giggled.
"Hey, stop saying me baka." Makoto protested.
Rei laughed. "I'm not talking about you; I'm talking about my baka lover." Rei grinned as she sat on Makoto's laps. She hugged Makoto's waist and giggled. "Are you mad?" Rei asked with raised her eyebrows.
"I don't mind if people call me baka as long as I have you as my lover." Makoto wrapped her left arm around Rei's shoulder and pulled her closer. Those two young girls kissed each other passionately. "I love you, Rei-chan." Makoto said in between kisses.
"I love you too, Mako-chan." Rei continued kissed the brunette girl.
**PICTURE --** yfrog .com /60makotoreij (combine it as one website address)
Ami lay on the ground waiting for Makoto who disappeared since a half hour ago. _'She said she only go for a few minutes.'_
Makoto stood beside Ami and looked down to her. "Sorry, I'm late. I'm lost to find this place again." Makoto rubbed the back of her head.
Ami laughed. "It's ok." Ami said as she grabbed Makoto's hand. "Come here, Mako-chan." Ami pulled Makoto as Makoto lay on the mat beside Ami.
Makoto held Ami's hand as she plays her fingers with Ami's. "You look so beautiful today, Ami-chan." Makoto smiled.
"Err...thanks. You looks great as usual." Ami said in blush.
"Thanks, dear." Makoto kissed Ami's forehead. "Ami-chan, what makes you love me?" Makoto asked.
Ami turned to the brunette girl. "I don't know. I just found out that you are the first person who makes my heart beats fast." Ami switched her position from lying on the mat to sit. Makoto still grabbed her hand. "I can't explain it Mako-chan, but I know that I fall in love with you." Ami slimed while blushing. She looked at Makoto as she moves her head closer to the tall girl. Makoto put her hand on Ami's back head and they are kissing each other passionately. "I love you, Mako-chan."
The brunette girl smiled. "I love you more, Ami-chan."
**PICTURE -- **yfrog .com /60makotoamij (combine it as one website address)
Makoto slowly broke the kiss. "Ami-chan, I want buy ice-cream. You want have some?" Makoto asked.
"Yes." Ami nodded and smiled to Makoto.
"Ok, I will be back in a few minutes. Don't go anyway." Makoto stood as she kissed Ami for the last one before leave the blue haired girl again. Makoto headed herself to where Minako are waiting for her. _'Makoto, you should stop doing this. This is crazy.'_ Makoto told herself. _'Ok, I must decide now. But damn, I love them all. And I'm exhausted now.'_
Ami looked at the wallet on the mat. _'She said she wants to buy ice cream but she forgot her money.'_ Ami smiled lightly. She grabbed Makoto's wallet and walked leaving that place to find Makoto. On the way to find Makoto, coinciding met Rei who seem looking for someone. 'Oh no!! If she know about me and Mako-chan…' Ami tried to hide herself from Rei's sight but she was too late.
"Ami-chan?" Rei patted Ami's shoulder.
"Oh, Rei-chan. What are you doing here?" Ami force a smile.
Rei started blushing. _'I can't tell her that I'm on date with Mako-chan.' _Rei thought alone. "I just walk around. And what are you doing here, Ami-chan?" Rei asked the blue haired girl.
Ami speechless for a while trying to find the good reason to answer Rei's question. "Err…I just came to release my mind."
Minako sat next to the lake waiting for the brunette to come back again. '_Why she act so weird today?'_ Minako wondered about Makoto.
"Are you thinking about me?" Makoto suddenly appeared from behind.
"Where have you been?" Minako pouted.
"I'm sorry. I forgot to do something." Makoto tried to console the blond girl but Minako didn't turn to her. Makoto took out a rose from her back and handed it to Minako. "This is what I forgot earlier."
Minako giggled as she hugged Makoto tightly. She took the rose from Makoto's hand. "Thanks." Minako kissed the tall girl.
"You are welcome, my love." Makoto giggled as she sat beside Minako. She wrapped Minako's waist with her hand while the blond girl lay her head on Makoto's shoulder.
Makoto's other hand grabbed Minako's hand. "Mako-chan…" Minako tried to start a conversation.
"Yeah, Mina?" Makoto turned to Minako.
"While waiting for you, I'm thinking about to have one soccer team kids with you." Minako giggled.
Makoto's eyes wide opened as a fake smiled can be seen on her face. "One soccer team kids? It's mean 11 kids?" Makoto tried to count.
Minako nodded. "Yeah. You have to giving birth 6 kids while me, I will giving birth 5 kids. How was that?" Minako looked at her lover's face.
"Mina…that's…too many…" Makoto said in nervous.
The blond girl laughed hysterically when she saw Makoto's nervous face. "I'm joking, Mako-chan." Minako kissed Makoto's cheek.
"You are naughty." Makoto pinched Minako's nose. They gazed at each other. "I love you, Mina-chan." Makoto leaned her lips on Minako's.
"I love you with all my life, Mako-chan." Minako replied the kiss passionately.
"Mako-chan!!!" Makoto quickly broke the kiss when she heard some voices screamed her name. She saw Ami and Rei were standing not too far from her and Minako.
"Oh, crap!!" Makoto bites her finger nails. "I'm so dead."
Minako grabbed Makoto's hand. "It's ok, Mako-chan. I'm ready to take everything that they will say to us as long as you with me." Minako smiled.
"Mina…it's not something like that." Makoto shook her head with pity face. "Please don't mad at me." Makoto begged while Minako still confused with what Makoto just said.
"Mako-chan!! How could you cheated on me?!!" Rei asked in yell.
Ami and Minako looked at Rei; confused. "What you mean she's cheating you, Rei-chan. I'm the one who should say it." Ami frowned.
Rei looked at her blue haired best friend. "You mean she's cheating on you?" Rei turned to Makoto. "What was this mean, Mako-chan?" Rei asked Makoto. Makoto was speechless.
"Hold on!! Hold on!! What is going on here, guys?!! I'm lost." Minako stood.
Ami turned to the blond girl. "Minako-chan, actually the girl who you just kissed is currently dating me." Ami told Minako.
"Hold on!! Mako-chan is dating you? She's dating me too!!" Rei added.
Minako turned to Makoto. "Mako-chan, it's that true?" Minako asked.
"I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to do this…" Makoto tried to explain.
"So what you told me was all lies?" Minako questioned Makoto.
"Not only you, Minako-chan. She lied to me too." Rei said.
"And me." Ami added.
"No!! Not all!! I really mean about that I love you all." Makoto tried to control the situation. "I love you Ami, Rei, Mina."
"Stop talking nonsense, Mako-chan!!" Rei, Ami and Minako yelled to her in the same time.
"Beep!!" Their communicator suddenly makes a sound as Sailor Moon appeared on the screen.
"Guys!! Come and help me. New youma just appeared!!" Sailor Moon told her friends.
"You shut up, Sailor Moon!!" Rei, Ami and Minako yelled to their princess in the same time.
"Huh?!! Why you guys yelled at me?!!" Sailor Moon was confused.
**To be continued soon...**
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**I had put my drawings of MakoXAmi, MakoXRei and MakoXMina's kissing pics. I tried to paste the link here but it's disappeared and I don't know what to do anymore except separate the link . Give me feedback if you can see those pics or not**
**Paula de Roma, haha!! Great idea. But I will decide soon **
**SilverTiger, cause anime is unreal story so does my story xD**
**Priss-Asagiri15, thanks for your help. I have photobucket account but it still didn't allowed me to paste the links to this place. Thanks once again**
**Anyway, thanks for reading this and sorry for my bad English **
9. Ch 9 Thunder Vs Ice, Fire & Love Senshi
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 9 – THUNDER SENSHI VS ICE, FIRE AND LOVE SENSHI_**
Sailor Moon has a hard time to fight against new youma named Bobo. Bobo the youma who wear cowgirl outfit with two big pistols on her both hands. "Bobo!! Bobo!! Bobo!!" The youma yelled and shoots Sailor Moon at the same time.
"Ahhh!!" Sailor Moon screamed as she avoided all shots. "Hey, don't use dangerous weapon to me!!" The clumsy warrior yelled.
"Bobo!! Bobo!!" Bobo continued yelling as she shoots Sailor Moon again.
"Supreme Thunder!!" yelled Jupiter as her attack hits Bobo's hands and makes she lose her two big pistols.
"Guys!!" Sailor Moon turned to all her friends.
Jupiter stood at the front of inner senshi group. "Sailor Moon, are you ok?" Jupiter asked.
Sailor Moon nodded happily. "Bobo!! Bobo!!" The youma tried to get back her weapons.
"I can't forgive a cheater!!" Yelled Mercury. "Shabon, Spray!!" The ice senshi aimed her attack to Bobo's pistols.
"Bobo Bobo?" Bobo was mad when she saw her pistols got froze by Mercury.
"I will not forgive a liar!!" Venus got ready to make her move. "Venus Love-Me Chain!!" The Beauty and Love Senshi shoots her love chain to bind the enemy.
Bobo the youma can't move anymore. "And I can't forgive the person who broke my heart!" Mars added and prepared to launch her attack. "Burning Mandala!!" A few fire circles hits the youma as it turned weak.
Jupiter just stayed back; watching her three girlfriends attacked the enemy. '_Huh? Cheater? Liar? Broke their hearts? Are they means me?'_ Jupiter wondered. Jupiter turned to Sailor Moon. "Sailor Moon, now!!"
"Got it." Sailor Moon nodded. She gets ready to attack the youma. "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!!" Sailor Moon yelled as a big pink heart hits the youma.
"Bobo!! Bobo!!" The youma yelled before it's disappeared.
"We did it!!" Jupiter and Sailor Moon were hugging each other.
"Fire Soul!!" Mars aimed her attacks to Jupiter and Sailor Moon.
Jupiter and Sailor Moon's eyes widely open. "Watch out!!" Jupiter shouted as she hugs the princess and jumped to other place.
Sailor Moon turned to Mars who was standing at front of Mercury and Venus. "Mars!! What are you doing? You want to kill me and Jupiter?"
"I'm sorry, Sailor Moon. My attack not for you..." Mars apologized. Her eyes full with anger. She looked at Jupiter who was holding Sailor Moon by her arms. "…but it's for Jupiter."
Jupiter's green eyes widely opened. She smiled silly. "Are you trying to kill me? You must be joking right?" The green senshi looked at her hot tempered girlfriend.
"No, Jupiter. It's not a joke." Venus smirked. She pointed her finger to Jupiter. "Crescent Beam!!" The orange senshi shoots a beam attack to the tall senshi.
Jupiter grabbed Sailor Moon and those two dodges Venus's beam attack. Sailor Moon looked at Mars, Mercury and Venus. "Stop it, guys!! Are you out of your mind?!" Sailor Moon yelled. "What is going on between you guys and Jupiter. Can we have a talk instead of attacking her?" Sailor Moon asked in confused. She doesn't know what happened between her best friends.
"Should we talk about it, Sailor Moon? She currently out for date with us in the same time. What hurts the most is she told us she loves us and its all lies." Mercury's explained to the clumsy princess.
Sailor Moon looked at Jupiter. "Jupiter, I told you before. You must choose one of them or you will get troubles. And you already in trouble now." Sailor Moon gave an angry look to Jupiter.
Jupiter lowered her head and turned to other place; trying to not facing Sailor Moon and the rest. "But it's not a lie. I do love you all. I want to be with three of you. You guys complete my life. I want spend my life with you guys." Jupiter confessed her true feelings towards Mars, Mercury and Venus.
Time like froze for a few seconds. Mars broke the silent. "Stop talking nonsense!!" Mars yelled. She pointed her fingers to Jupiter. With teary eyes she and Jupiter gazed at each other. "Mars…" A fire bow and arrow appeared on her hands.
Mercury and Venus tried to stop the fire senshi from attacking Jupiter. "Mars!!" Venus and Mercury yelled but they were too late.
"Flame Snipper!!" Mars released her fire arrow to Jupiter without thinking much. The thunder senshi smiled and glanced at Mars before she pushed Sailor Moon hard to the side. Mars eyes wide opened when she saw her thunder girlfriend smiling at her with peaceful face. She knows what Jupiter thinking. "Damn!! Dodge it!!" Mars yelled as she run to Jupiter.
Sailor Moon fell on the ground. An arrow of fire pierced the brunette's stomach. "Argh!" Jupiter shouted in pain.
"Jupiter!!" Sailor Moon and the rest screamed when they saw Jupiter got hit with Mars' fire arrow.
Slowly Jupiter fall on the ground; didn't move. Mars teary eyes wide opened. She kneed on the ground full with regret, while the other ran to get Jupiter. Venus grabbed the tall senshi's weak body and shook her hard. Jupiter re-transformed to Makoto. "Mako-chan!! Stay awake!!" Venus yelled in nervous. She saw more blood coming out from Makoto's belly.
"Mako-chan!!" Mercury and Moon cried. Mercury put her hands on Makoto's bleeding belly.
Makoto didn't give any responds. "She's still alive. Let's bring her home." Mercury commanded.
"I can carry her." Venus volunteered. Sailor Moon and Mercury put Makoto on Venus' back.
Makoto got serious wound. Venus and Mercury left the place with rush while Sailor Moon patted Mars' shoulder softly. "I killed her…" Mars exclaimed in shaky voice.
"She will not die in this way." Sailor Moon tried to console her best friend.
"But I attack her. I saw her smile and I know she rather die in my hand and lose us all." Mars cried. "I can't forgive myself, Usagi-chan."
Sailor Moon hugged her raven haired friend. "Cause she love you." Sailor Moon broke the hug and had eyes contact with Mars. "Let's go home, ok?" Sailor Moon smiled warmly. Mars just nodded. Together they headed themselves to Makoto's apartment.
_**To be continued...**_
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**Thanks for all comments. I'm so happy you guys can see my drawings. In real life I have to hide it from my family and friends cause they might think I'm les xD**
**Actually I don't really like to write fighting part with youma but I still need to do it cause I want those 3 girls fighting with Makoto as a senshi. I'm sorry if I make a mistake in fighting scene especially their attacks. Thanks for reading and commenting my story even I'm not good in writing especially in English. I prefer to draw than writing but I don't have much time to draw (work etc) so I put my imagination in writing ^^**
**Thanks for reading once again *bows***
10. Ch 10 The True Girl In Makoto's Heart
Note: I do not own any of Sailor Moon characters.
Summary: Without Makoto realize, her tomboyish attitude makes a few girls have a crush on her. What she will do when she knew the girls who had a crush on her is all her best friends? MakoXAmi, MakoXMina and MakoXRei. Just read it ^_^ R&R please
Last chapter ^_^
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**_~SQUARE LOVE~_**
**_CHAPTER 10 – THE TRUE GIRL IN MAKOTO'S HEART_**
Rei, Usagi, Mamoru, Minako, Artemis and Luna are waiting at the living room. They are waiting with nervous to hear Makoto's condition from Ami. Minako glared at Rei who are hugged by Usagi. Rei's dark eyes looked at Minako's. "That's it!!" Minako suddenly stood and broke the silent. "It's all your fault, Rei!! Look what you have done to her!!" Minako yelled to Rei and tried to catch the black haired girl.
Mamoru and Usagi tried to separate Minako from Rei. "Please stay calm, Minako-chan." Usagi said to her blond friend.
Minako glared to Rei before she walked to the kitchen to get some drink. Ami walked out from Makoto's room. Rei and the rest quickly stood around Ami. "How is she?" Minako asked.
"She lost too many bloods but she is fine. She needs a few days to rest." Ami smiled lightly.
Everyone feels relief with what Ami just said. Rei walked to the door of Makoto's room. She stared at Makoto's body as tear dropped from her dark eyes. "Can I take care of her?" Rei asked.
The rest turned to her. "No!! You will kill her next!!" Minako objected.
"I will take care of her, Rei-chan." Ami said.
"But…" Rei tried to object but Usagi stopped her.
"You need to get some rest, Rei-chan." Usagi smiled with her arms wrapped Rei's shoulder.
Rei lowered her head; didn't say anything.
Time shown 12.53 in the morning, Ami and Minako took care of Makoto while the rest left Makoto's house since an hour ago. Those two looked at Makoto sleeping face. "Poor her. Even she is guilty, Rei shouldn't attack her." Minako said in angry voice.
Ami nodded. "Minako-chan, I really do love her." Ami revealed in front of Minako.
"Me too, Ami-chan." Minako smiled lightly. "I think we should go to sleep now."
Ami nodded and smiled to her friend. As Ami and Minako heading out from Makoto's room, they heard Makoto's voice. "Rei-chan…" Makoto whispered in pain. Minako and Ami looked at each other before turned to Makoto again.
A few days later, Usagi and Rei came to visit Makoto while Minako and Ami took care of their injured brunette friend. Ami brings four cups of tea to the living room where Rei, Usagi and Minako are waiting. "How is she?" Usagi asked Minako.
"She is doing fine but still weak. Last night she was awake but she seem had a nightmare." Minako told Usagi.
"Yeah and she keep call someone's name." Ami added as she looked at Rei who didn't pay attention to their conversation.
Usagi knew who Makoto keep calling. The clumsy girl grabbed Rei's hand. "Huh? What you guys talking about?" Rei asked.
"Nothing much, Rei. You don't want to see her?" Usagi asked raven haired girl.
"Err…" Rei lost her words to say when Usagi asked her that question. She looked at Ami and Minako. "I want." Rei nodded as she headed to Makoto's room to see Makoto. The black haired girl stood beside Makoto's bed. Her teary eyes stare at Makoto's sleeping face. "I'm sorry, Mako-chan. I didn't mean to do this to you." Rei started to cry. She moves her head closer to Makoto and kissed her lips gently. Rei's tears dropped on Makoto's cheek. "I love you, Mako-cahn. I love you so much." Rei said. She wiped her tears on cheek. "Wake up soon. Ami or Minako deserve to have you." Rei smiled in force. "I'll see you next time." Rei lowered her head as she headed out.
The sun shines Makoto's room in the morning. Interrupted by sunshine that shined her room, Makoto slowly opened her eyes. She turned to her side and saw a dark blue haired girl laid her head on the side of her bed. "Ami-chan?" Makoto tired to move but she still can feel the pain on her stomach. "Ouch!!" Makoto groaned.
Ami was awake and looked at Makoto. "Mako-chan, don't move!!" Amie yelled worried.
"I'm ok, Ami." Makoto slowly switched her position to sit while Ami helped her. Makoto looked at Ami and smiled to her. "Thanks for take care of me."
Ami started blushing. "It's nothing. I attack you the other night. I'm sorry about that." Ami lowered her head. She is ashamed with her act to Makoto a few days ago.
Makoto smiled. "It's not your fault. I was the one who should be blamed." Makoto remembered about that night. "Ami-chan…" Ami looked at Makoto and waited for her to continue her words. "…I really mean that I love you."
Ami looked at Makoto's face with wide opened eyes. Suddenly she laughed lightly and makes Makoto blinked several times. She grabbed Makoto's hand. "Mako-chan, you no need to lie to us anymore. I know you are trying to not hurting me or Minako that's why you said like that." Ami smiled. "When you are passed out, you keep call Rei's name. It's already show that she is the only girl in your heart, Mako-chan."
Makoto lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Ami-chan. I don't know how to explain it but I felt different when I'm with her. It's started when she told me her true feeling on me." The brunette girl was afraid to look at Ami's face.
"It's ok, Mako-chan, everything is clear now. You no need to lie to us anymore." Ami squeezed Makoto's hand softly. "Any I have to go now. I had been here since 5 days ago. My mom was really worrying about me stay here." Ami said.
"Ok. Thanks once again, Ami-chan." Makoto finally can face Ami.
"Oh, before I go can you kiss me for the last time? I want to remember our last kiss as sweet memories." Ami asked. Without say anything, Makoto moves her head closer to Ami and gave her a final sweet kiss. They broke the kiss and looked at each other. "Thanks, Mako-chan. Rei so lucky to have you." Ami giggled as she stood and headed to the door. "Minako slept at the living room. Maybe you want have a private time with her. I'll see you later." Ami winked as she left Makoto's room with waving to Makoto.
"Bye." Makoto smiled as she slowly moves out from her bed with her right hand is holding her pain belly. She walked to the living room. She smiled alone when she saw Minako sleeping on the couch, hugging her teddy bear. Makoto sat on the floor and stared at Minako's sleeping face. "You look so cute when you are sleeping." Makoto said. Minako slowly opened her blue eyes.
"Mako-chan?" Minako looked at the brunette girl in surprised. "You should stay on your bed." The blond girl moves her body and sat beside Makoto on the floor.
Makoto smiled weak. "I'm ok, Minako-chan. No need to worry."
"Ok. Where's Ami?" Minako looked around.
"She left cause she want give us a private time to discuss." Makoto said with serious face.
Minako stared at Makoto's pale face. She can read from her face what she wants to say. "You love her more than us two, right?" Minako smiled lightly.
"Sorry, Mina." Makoto closed her eyes.
Minako grabbed Makoto's hand. "Mako-chan, if you already decide I can't stop you." Minako smiled with teary eyes. She tried to hold her tears from bursting out.
Makoto gave a warm hug to Minako as tears dropped on her cheek. The brunette girl broke the hug and looked at Minako's face. "Don't cry. You deserve to have better person than me, Minako-chan." Makoto tried to console the blond girl. With gently, she wiped Minako's tears on her cheek.
"You are a great person to me, Mako-chan. But Rei deserve to have you." Minako smiled bitter. Makoto didn't say anything. With red eyes, Minako looked at Makoto. "I should go now, Mako-chan. And you should go find her soon. She in miserable since you got bad injured cause of her." Minako stood.
"Let me company you to the door." Makoto slowly stood with Minako's help. The tall girl opened the door for the blond girl who just wear her jacket. "Minako-chan, thanks for everything." Makoto said while leaning her body next to the door.
"It's nothing. We're friend right?" Minako smiled fake. Makoto smiled back to her. "Mako-chan…" Minako stood on tiptoe and moves her head closer to Makoto's as she leaned her lips softly on Makoto's. The blond short girl broke the kiss as they heard something dropped on the floor.
Makoto and Minako turned to where the sound is coming from. They were surprised when they saw Rei was standing at the corridor; watching they kissing each other with wide opened eyes. "Rei-chan?" Makoto's eyes wide opens.
"Gomen. I should interrupt you two." Rei started to blush as she quickly left the place.
Minako turned to Makoto. "You should go and find her." Minako patted softly on Makoto's shoulder.
Makoto eyes still looked at the last place where she saw Rei. She saw a bunch of flowers on the floor. "You are right." Makoto smiled and gave a final hug to Minako. Makoto took the flowers and walked back to Minako.
Minako laughed when she saw at Makoto giggling face. "She knew you well." Minako looked at Makoto's happy face. "I have to go now." Makoto nodded. She watched Minako walking through the corridor. "Gambatte, Mako-chan!!" Minako yelled and gave her a thumb up.
Makoto just smiled to herself as she brings the flowers in to her apartment.
_~The next day at Hikawa Shrine~ _
Rei was cleaning her room. Someone knocked her door room. "Grandpa, I told you to not disturb me!!" Rei yelled but Rei's door room still got knocked. Those knocks sound really pissed Rei off. "Granpa!!" Rei opened the sliding door while yelling. She was surprised when she saw Makoto was the one who knocked the door.
PICTURE -- yfrog .com /enmakoxrei1j
PICTURE -- yfrog .com /6cmakoxrei1copyj
"Hi, Rei-chan." Makoto greeted her raven haired friend who was freeze and looking at her with wide opened eyes.
They gazed at each other for a few seconds. Makoto smiled to Rei while Rei broke the gaze and tried to close back the door but Makoto stopped with her left hand. Rei knew she can't fight with Makoto strength. She gave up in a few second later. "What are you doing here?!" Rei asked in yell voice. "It's over between us, Mako-chan and Minako is not here."
Makoto just smiled while watching at Rei's reaction. "You are jealous." Makoto teased.
Rei's face turned red. "No I'm not. Rei lied. "For what should I be jealous?!"
"For Minako kissed me yesterday." Makoto smirked.
Rei paused. Yeah, that kiss really hurt her but she still didn't want to claim that she really jealous with that kiss. "What you want Mako-chan?" Rei turned to Makoto and stared at her green eyes, asking her true objective.
"I love you, Rei-chan." The brunette confessed.
Rei laughed when she heard Makoto's confession. "Haha!! You told that to the other girls too right?" Rei's face changed. She looks mad.
"No. I already broke up with them." Makoto said.
"They dumped you and now you came to me?" Rei smirked.
"It's not true. We're broke up cause I want to be with you." Makoto moves one step closer to Rei.
Rei gazed at Makoto's green eyes. She can read from her eyes that Makoto didn't lie this time. The raven haired girl broke the gaze as she lowered her head. "Mako-chan, please leave. It's over between us." Rei lied. She felt like she want to slap her self for said those words.
Makoto freeze for a while. Rei's room became silent. "If you said so, I understand." Makoto turned and headed to the door.
Suddenly the brunette girl collapsed on the floor. Rei turned as she saw Makoto's body laid on the floor; unmoved. "Mako-chan!!" Rei yelled. She grabbed Makoto's weak body. "Mako-chan, please wake up!! What's wrong with you?!" Rei wrapped her arms around Makoto's body and shook her to wake her up. She really nervous and was afraid seeing Makoto fainted right in front of her. "Mako-chan, don't do this to me." A pool of her tears nearly bursts out from her black eyes. "I love you, Mako-chan."
PICTURE -- yfrog .com /9emakoxrei4j
Makoto's eyes suddenly opened and it makes Rei speechless. "I love you too, Rei-chan." Makoto grinned naughty.
Rei knows that she is being fooled by Makoto. "I hate you!!" Rei yelled to Makoto. She pushed Makoto from her laps and accidently slaps Makoto's unrecovered wound yet.
"Ouch!!" Makoto shouted in pain.
"Huh? I'm sorry, Mako-chan." Rei apologized with worried.
Makoto's wound started bleeding a little. She raised her shirt a little to see her wound which still covered by lint. "It's ok. Just a little blood came out." Makoto said with her eyes looking at Rei's face. Rei turned to Makoto. Their heads really close to each other. Rei started to blush as she helped Makoto to wake.
"Stay here, I want to get medicine." Rei just looked on the floor and headed to the door but Makoto held her hand and makes her stop walking.
"I no need medicine." Makoto said in whispered. "I just need you." Slowly Makoto pulled Rei to her arms.
Rei refused to fight this time. She just let her feeling lead her move. She and Makoto gazed at each other. "Don't lie to me again this time." Rei said.
Makoto smiled as she shook her head. She leaned her head on Rei's. "I will not." Makoto moves her lips closer to Rei's as she leaned her lips on Rei's soft lips. Rei reply the kissed more passionately. But she pushed Makoto after a few seconds. "What's wrong?" The tall girl asked.
"We can't do this here. My grandpa is here. If he caught us kissing…" Rei's words were cut off by Makoto's kiss.
Makoto smiled at Rei. "No worries. I gave your grandpa a ticket for Miss Japan competition. He left before I can tell him that the show will be start until 8 pm." Makoto said and it makes Rei laughed lightly.
"I can't believe you gave him that ticket." Rei smiled. She stared at Makoto's eyes. "I love you, Mako-chan." Rei said in giggling.
"I love you too." They continued kissing each other.
PICTURE -- yfrog .com /5smakoxrei3j
_**~The end~**_
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**I hope you guys enjoy my story ^_^ I put 4 pictures of MakoXRei. Hope you will like it. I drew those pictures in rush so it's not really good. Too lazy xD
**
**Thanks for reading and reviews **
**Haha Paula, I would love to make it too but doing comic needs more time and attention while my life really busy
**
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| fanfiction |
the cytoskeleton @xcite is a dense multicomponent meshwork of semiflexible polymers which interact sterically as well as through active @xcite processes . while the blending of polymers industrially requires special effort , the active environment of the living cell provides a setting in which polymers which differ substantially in their stiffness are naturally mixed and interact .
moreover , active processes such as polymerization and the working of molecular motors lead to the generation of stresses without the external imposition of flow fields .
these two mechanisms combine to yield a rich range of novel physical phenomena .
the role of activity in cytoskeletal mechanics is receiving increasing attention , as seen from many recent theoretical and experimental studies of the rheology of cells and cell extracts @xcite .
it is clear in particular @xcite that interactions between different species of filaments are crucial for cell motility , cell division , vesicular transport and organelle positioning and integrity .
axis , are described by small transverse fluctuations @xmath1 .
the active medium can either be contractile or tensile .
the orientation of f - actin along the microtubule can either be parallel or normal to it.,width=283 ] in this paper , we make a study of the effect of these interactions by modeling the dynamics of a stiff filament , which we will call a `` microtubule '' , immersed in an active medium ( fig.[fig1 ] ) with orientational degrees of freedom , which we will call `` f - actin '' .
we emphasize here that the names `` microtubule '' and `` f - actin '' are introduced for convenience : we consider both contractile and tensile activity , although only the former applies to actomyosin .
our treatment applies more generally to semiflexible polymers under tension in a wide variety of active media .
we describe the medium by the active generalization of liquid - crystal hydrodynamics @xcite . for the purposes of this paper ,
an active medium is one whose constituent particles possess the ability to extract energy from an ambient nutrient bath and dissipate it , executing some kind of systematic motion in the process .
this endows each such particle with a permanent uniaxial stress .
the other central ingredient of this work is _ anchoring _ , on which we now elaborate . in general , the interfacial energy of a liquid - crystalline medium at a wall depends on the relative orientation @xmath2 of the molecules of the medium and the normal @xmath3 to the wall . in the simplest cases , it is lowest for @xmath2 parallel , or perpendicular , to @xmath3 .
this interaction is known as anchoring . in the present work , anchoring enters through the favoured orientation of the f - actin when confronted with the surface of the microtubule .
we believe that steric or pair - potential effects should lead to the anchoring of the f - actin normal or parallel to the microtubule .
the interplay of the types of anchoring and activity contractile or tensile are fundamental to our theory .
the filament in our study can be viewed as a _ spatially extended _ probe of the active medium , generalizing the microrheometry of @xcite by simultaneous access to a wide range of scales .
we make contact with earlier work on oscillatory filaments @xcite , and test our results against observations on microtubules in a background of contractile actin in neuronal growth cones ( see fig.[fig2 ] )
. here are our main results : ( i ) in the absence of activity , the microtubule will _ always _ buckle at large anchoring strength , regardless of the type of anchoring .
( ii ) an active medium , by contrast , can stiffen _ or _ buckle the filament , depending on the relative signs of activity and anchoring .
a contractile active medium with parallel anchoring always _ stiffens _ the filament , as does a tensile active medium with normal anchoring , while a contractile ( tensile ) medium with normal ( parallel ) anchoring produces buckling if the strength @xmath4 of the active stresses is large enough ( see fig.[fig3 ] )
. when the nematic correlation length of the f - actin medium is large compared to the linear dimension @xmath5 of the sample transverse to the microtubule , the buckling wavelength decreases with @xmath5 as @xmath6 and @xmath7 respectively in two and three dimensions .
( iii ) our observations of the conformations of microtubules in the growth cone of neurons are in qualitative accord with these predictions .
( iv ) activity leads to a breakdown of the fluctuation - dissipation relation : most dramatically , in the regime of strong stiffening , we predict that the effective dissipation turns negative when the frequency crosses a threshold .
this is consistent with the observations of @xcite on auditory hair cells and @xcite on axons , and suggests that a negative force - velocity relation at finite frequency should be a generic feature of actively stiffening systems .
indeed , the phenomenological model of @xcite emerges as a limiting case of our fundamental theory .
consider a stiff , locally inextensible filament of total contour length @xmath5 , coinciding on average with the @xmath8 axis ( fig.[fig1 ] ) , with unit tangent vector @xmath9 where @xmath1 are small transverse fluctuations , and @xmath10 , immersed in a @xmath11-dimensional active medium characterized by @xmath12 , a symmetric traceless nematic order parameter @xcite .
the effects of contractile or tensile active stresses enter the equations of motion _ -_(x , = , t)&= & - 1 f/+ _ , [ ueqn ] + _ t & = & -1 f/ + , [ qeqn ] for @xmath13 and @xmath12 through the hydrodynamic velocity field @xmath14 whose dynamics is governed by eq.[veqn ] below .
the gaussian , spatiotemporally white noises @xmath15 , in eqs.[ueqn],[qeqn ] have strengths @xmath16 , @xmath17 , reducing respectively to @xmath18 , @xmath19 for the equilibrium case . in eqs.[ueqn],[qeqn ] , @xmath13 and @xmath12 are coupled only through the free - energy functional @xmath20= f_f[\up]+f_{ld}[\q]+f_{anc}[\up,\q]$ ] . the filament free energy @xmath21=\int_0^l\!\!dx[({\sigma}/{2})\,(\partial_x \up)^2 + ( { \kappa}/{2})(\partial_x^2 \up)^{2}]$ ] contains bending energy with rigidity @xmath22 and an imposed tension @xmath23 .
@xcite to leading order in @xmath24 .
the landau - de gennes free energy @xmath25=\int\!\!dx\!\!\int\!\!d^2r_{\!\perp}[({a}/{2}){\q}{}^2+({k}/{2 } ) { ( \nabla\q)}{}^2]$ ] describes incipient orientational ordering in the medium @xcite .
we work here in the isotropic phase with correlation length @xmath26 ; a study of the nematic phase by generalising @xcite to include activity will be presented elsewhere @xcite .
the filament anchors the orientational degrees of freedom of the medium through & f_anc [ , ] = _ 0^l dx ( x,_= ) & + & + a_0^ldx [ _ x _ x ( x,_= ) + o(_x)^2 ] & with negative and positive @xmath27 corresponding respectively to parallel and normal anchoring .
note that eq.[ueqn ] generalises @xcite to include anchoring and hydrodynamic flow . in eq.[qeqn ] , we ignore flow - orientation coupling terms @xcite .. ] for thin - film samples at large f - actin concentration , as in the case of the lamellipodium of adhering cells , it is appropriate to treat the hydrodynamic velocity field in a local - friction approximation .
we therefore write @xmath28 , with @xmath29 where @xmath30 is the cytoplasmic viscosity , and the screening length @xcite @xmath31 is no larger than the film thickness .
we ignore pressure gradients on the assumption that the film thickness adjusts to accommodate these . the crucial piece of the stress @xmath32 is the active contribution @xmath33 @xcite , where @xmath34 and @xmath35 respectively correspond to contractile and tensile stresses , and @xmath36 is the mean f - actin concentration . to leading order in gradients and linear order in filament undulations , the velocity transverse to the microtubule is [ veqn ] _ ( x,,t)=-(wc_0/)_x_x(x,,t ) .
from eqs.[ueqn]-[veqn ] , the effective fourier - transformed equation of motion for @xmath37 is [ ueqnft ] ( -i+q_x^2+q_x^4 ) = iq_x_x(= ) + _ , where @xmath13 is coupled to @xmath12 only at @xmath38 .
[ qeqnft ] _
x(=)= iq_x k _
( q_x , , ) , where @xmath39 and @xmath40 , and @xmath41 , with ultraviolet cutoff @xmath42 ( filament thickness)@xmath43 . the signs of @xmath44 and @xmath45 decide the fate of the filament ( stiffening _ or _ buckling ) in the following analysis .
since @xmath46 in @xmath47d and @xmath48 in @xmath49d , we obtain the dispersion relations for @xmath50 for the case of an unbounded medium : -i=\ { cl -q_x^2 + o(q_x^4 ) , & d=3 + -q_x^2 + o(q_x^4 ) , & d=2 .[disprel ] .
the case of a confined medium is discussed towards the end of the paper .
we are now in a position to investigate the ( in)stability of the filament . at thermal equilibrium ( @xmath51 )
sgn@xmath52 = - $ ] sgn@xmath53 $ ] ; indeed , @xmath54 irrespective of the sign of @xmath27 .
this implies a buckling instability of the filament as the anchoring strength is increased , regardless of whether the anchoring is parallel or perpendicular .
this is consistent with observations @xcite of buckling of filaments in isotropic solutions of _ fd _ virus ( see their fig .
when activity @xmath4 is switched on , the signs of @xmath55 and @xmath56 become independent .
for large enough @xmath57 , @xmath58 for contractile ( @xmath59 ) activity and @xmath60 for tensile ( @xmath61 ) activity , while @xmath56 is separately controlled by the nature of the anchoring ( fig.[fig3 ] ) . defining the correlation length @xmath62 of the f - actin medium
, we focus on two limiting cases : ( i ) deep in the isotropic phase ; ( ii ) close to the transition to a nematic phase . in ( i ) ,
@xmath63 , so eq.[disprel ] holds with @xmath64 for small @xmath65 .
thus , for a filament in a strongly active medium , contractile ( tensile ) activity with parallel ( normal ) anchoring ( @xmath66 ) leads to enhanced tension , i.e. , stiffening . on the other hand , for strong contractile ( tensile ) activity with normal ( parallel ) anchoring ( @xmath67 )
the filament becomes unstable to buckling .
this is explained graphically in ( fig.[fig3 ] ) . in ( ii ) , @xmath68 ( which should be accessible in f - actin , see @xcite ) so that a wide range of modes of @xmath12 contribute in eq.[qeqnft ] . in dimension @xmath693 ,
eq.[disprel ] applies with @xmath70 , so that the dispersion relation differs from case ( i ) only by a logarithmic factor . in @xmath71 , however , solving the resulting cubic equation we find -i= y(||/4)^2/3(/k)^1/3q_x^4/3 [ disprelin ] where @xmath72 for @xmath73 and @xmath74 for @xmath75 .
thus , in @xmath49d , close to the ordering transition of the f - actin , while stability is determined by the sign of @xmath76 as before , the stable stiffening case @xmath73 , which can arise only for an active system , shows a damped _
oscillatory _ response , which should appear as dispersive propagating waves on the filament , with speed @xmath77 . in the unstable case
, the buckling wavelength can be found by comparing the negative tension and bending elasticity terms .
for an f - actin medium of finite lateral extent @xmath5 , scaling arguments applied to eqs.[disprel],[disprelin ] lead to a buckling wavelength varying as @xmath6 ( @xmath71 ) and @xmath7 ( @xmath78 ) as claimed earlier in the paper .
the ideas presented above are best tested in a model system in which both parallel and normal alignment of f - actin on microtubules are naturally realised .
the growth cones of neurons provide a convenient system for this purpose , and allow a demonstration of activity - induced stiffening as well as buckling .
our observations on this system are qualitative but in clear accord with the predictions of this paper . as seen in fig.[fig2 ] microtubules are strongly buckled in the wide central region known as the lamellipodium and show a stabilized straight shape in the spiky protrusions called the filopodia .
as we have remarked , purely equilibrium effects in most systems generally lead to buckling .
it seems , however , that the dynamic activity within the lamella may contribute to microtubule stiffening in the periphery , as well as buckling in the central region .
we suggest the following mechanism : when the growing microtubule enters the lamellipodium , it meets the actomyosin network , with actin filaments pointing in a variety of directions .
the typical encounter will have a substantial angle between microtubule and actin filament .
the analysis above would then predict that the microtubule should buckle , as it does . upon entering a filopodial region
, the microtubule meets actin aligned parallel to it and is stiffened , which again is consistent with our mechanism .
however , whether the relevant activity is entirely non - specific and based on contractility , or whether specialized proteins are involved remains an open question . in another relevant study , brangwynne _
et al_. @xcite observed significant bending fluctuations of microtubules in reconstituted actomyosin networks ( see fig.1 in @xcite ) .
since the actomyosin is contractile , our theory would predict that the contacts between actin and microtubule are at near - normal alignment , and we look forward to independent tests of this . indeed , our work provides a theoretical justification for the pointlike normal force that @xcite suggest is responsible for the buckling .
if @xmath79 is the displacement of a degree of freedom of a system at time @xmath80 in response to an impulsive force at time @xmath81 , and @xmath82 is the time - correlation of spontaneous fluctuations in that degree of freedom , the fluctuation - dissipation theorem ( fdt ) @xcite , which applies to systems _ at thermal equilibrium _ , says @xmath83 , where @xmath84 is boltzmann s constant and @xmath85 is the temperature .
this profound and universal connection can be understood in the familiar context of a particle undergoing brownian motion in a fluid , where both the damping of an initially imposed velocity and the random motion of the particle when no velocity is imposed arise from the same microscopic collisions with molecules . for equilibrium systems , this allows one to obtain transport quantities such as conductivity without drawing a current . in systems far from equilibrium , but where the bath producing the fluctuations is still thermal , a judicious definition of variables @xcite can resurrect the fdt . for more general nonequilibrium systems too , a comparison of correlation and response can sometimes offer a useful notion @xcite of an effective temperature . our model system shows radical departures from such benign behaviour .
we restrict attention to parameter ranges where there is no instability , so a steady state exists .
let @xmath86 be the correlation function and @xmath87 the imaginary part of the response to an external force @xmath88 coupled to @xmath13 via a term @xmath89 in the free - energy functional @xmath90 in eq.[ueqn ] .
the departure from unity of the fluctuation - dissipation ( fd ) ratio @xmath91 is a quantitative measure of nonequilibrium behaviour .
we find not only that @xmath92 depends on its arguments but that it can turn negative for the stable stiffening case @xmath73 .
the calculation , from eqs.[ueqnft],[qeqnft ] , is straightforward .
we find [ respimag ] ( q_x,)= , where @xmath93 and @xmath94^{\!-\!1}$]are strictly positive and even in @xmath65 , and the fd ratio r_q_x = n_1 k_bt .
[ noneqfdt ] at thermal equilibrium ( @xmath95 ) @xmath96 , @xmath97 , @xmath98 , and @xmath99 , so that @xmath100 .
hence , the second term in the bracket in eq.[noneqfdt ] vanishes and the fluctuation - dissipation ratio becomes unity as expected . with activity the ratio becomes a strong function of frequency and wavenumber , through the quantity @xmath101 . in the stiffening case @xmath102 ,
if the strength @xmath4 of activity is large enough , as @xmath65 crosses a threshold which depends on @xmath103 and @xmath4 , we see from eqs.[respimag],[noneqfdt ] , @xmath104 can pass through zero , and hence @xmath105 can diverge .
past this threshold , both turn negative .
thus one obtains a giant or even a negative fd ratio as a result of suppressed dissipation rather than enhanced noise .
the fd ratio eq.[noneqfdt ] is sometimes referred to @xcite as the ratio of an `` effective temperature '' @xmath106 to the thermodynamic temperature @xmath85 , and a negative @xmath106 in this sense has been observed in experiments on hair cells @xcite .
our theory eqs.[ueqn]-[veqn ] , rooted in the active - hydrodynamic approach of @xcite , provides a fundamental basis for the model presented in @xcite and suggests that the phenomenon of negative dissipation should be widely observed in active systems . to apply our treatment directly to axons @xcite and hair cells @xcite
, we consider a filament confined to a tube of radius @xmath5 in the @xmath107 directions and unbounded along @xmath8 , and assume the correlation length @xmath62 of the active medium is of order @xmath5 .
the integrals over @xmath108 in eq.[qeqnft ] are replaced by sums dominated by a single mode with wavenumber of order @xmath109 .
this yields an effective equation of motion [ ueqnsinglemode ] ( -i+q_x^2+q_x^4 ) = -q_x^2k1 1 - i l^2 k + q_x^2l^2 plus noise . for strong active
stiffening , @xmath110 large and positive , this leads to oscillatory modes with @xmath111 .
these correspond to the hair cell oscillations of @xcite , generalized to allow a continuum of modes labelled by @xmath103 .
we have presented a general theory for a single , long semiflexible filament interacting with an active medium .
the medium consists of orientable elements , endowed with built - in uniaxial stresses whose axes are correlated with those of their neighbours .
the model thus describes , in particular , a single microtubule interacting with an actively contractile actomyosin environment , but has broader applicability .
whereas the various components of the cytoskeleton are usually investigated separately , our paper lays the physical groundwork for a treatment of the interaction of these different elements , in particular the contractile actin , and microtubules as active transport highways .
this is essential to an understanding of cell motility and active ribosomal transport .
the key ingredients of the model are anchoring the preferred orientation imposed on the filaments of the medium when confronted with the surface of the long filament and the contractile or tensile activity of the medium .
we find that the interplay between anchoring and activity radically affects the filament s dynamics , leading to a range of possible behaviours including active stiffening , negative dissipation , oscillations , and buckling .
our theory also applies to the dynamics of axons and auditory hair cells , and provides an important link between existing phenomenological models for these systems and the general framework of active matter .
our experiments on the shapes of microtubules in the growth cone of a neuron show both stiffening and buckling , in broad accord with our theory .
we look forward to more quantitative tests , on filaments suspended in cell extracts as well as suspensions of swimming organisms , to see if the scenarii we propose are observed .
nk was supported by the iisc centenary postdoctoral fellowship .
sr acknowledges support from the department of science and technology , india through the centre for condensed matter theory and dst math - bio centre grant sr / s4/ms:419/07 .
mr thanks the hfsp , and sr and mr thank cefipra project 3504 - 2 .
we thank p.
a. pullarkat , j .- f .
joanny , j. prost , n. uchida , h. ogawa and t. kawakatsu for stimulating discussions .
martin p , hudspeth aj and jlicher f ( 2001 ) comparison of a hair bundle s spontaneous oscillations with its response to mechanical stimulation reveals the underlying active process .
_ pnas _ * 98*:14380 - 14385 . | arxiv |
electron - spin - polarized hydrogen ( h@xmath0 ) was proposed long time ago as the system in which a bose - einstein condensate state ( bec ) could be obtained .
@xcite intensive theoretical and experimental work was made in the eighties and nineties of the past century to devise experimental setups able to reach the predicted density and temperature regimes for bec .
@xcite the high recombination rate in the walls of the containers hindered this achievement for a long time , and only after working with a wall - free confinement , fried _
et al . _
@xcite were able to realize its bec in 1998 .
however , this was not the first bec because three years before the bec state was impressively obtained working with cold metastable alkali gases .
@xcite the same year bec of h@xmath0 was obtained , safonov _ et al . _
@xcite observed for the first time a quasi - condensate of nearly two - dimensional h@xmath0 adsorbed on the surface of superfluid @xmath1he . in spite of hydrogen losing the race against alkali gases to be the first bec system
, it still deserves interest for both theory and experiment .
hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant element of the universe and , when it is spin polarized with the use of a proper magnetic field , it is the only system that remains in the gas state down to the limit of zero temperature .
h@xmath0 is therefore extremely quantum matter .
a standard measure of the quantum nature of a system is the de boer parameter @xcite @xmath2 with @xmath3 and @xmath4 the well depth and core radius of the pair interaction , respectively . according to this definition , @xmath5 for h@xmath0 which is the largest value for @xmath6 among all the quantum fluids ( for instance , @xmath7 for @xmath1he ) .
this large value for @xmath6 results from the shallow minimum ( @xmath8 k ) of the triplet potential @xmath9 @xmath10 between spin - polarized hydrogen atoms and their small mass .
@xcite adsorption of h@xmath0 on the surface of liquid @xmath1he has been extensively used because of its optimal properties .
@xcite on one hand , the interaction of any adsorbant with the @xmath1he surface is the smallest known , and on the other , at temperatures @xmath11 mk the @xmath1he vapor pressure is negligible and thereby above the free surface one can reasonably assume vacuum .
in fact , liquid @xmath1he was also extensively used in the search of the three - dimensional h@xmath0 bec state when the cells were coated with helium films to avoid adsorption of h@xmath0 on the walls and the subsequent recombination to form molecular hydrogen h@xmath12 .
@xcite helium is chemically inert and only a small fraction of @xmath13he ( @xmath14 % ) is soluble in bulk @xmath1he ; spin - polarized hydrogen , and its isotopes deuterium and tritium , are expelled to the surface where they have a single bound state .
for instance , in the case of h@xmath0 , the chemical potential of a single atom in bulk @xmath1he is @xcite @xmath15 k to be compared with the negative value on the surface , @xmath16 k. @xcite the quantum degeneracy of h@xmath0 adsorbed on @xmath1he is quantified by defining the quantum parameter @xmath17 , with @xmath4 the surface density and @xmath18 the thermal de broglie wave length .
@xcite experiments try to increase this parameter as much as possible by increasing the surface density and lowering the temperature of the film . to this end ,
two methods for local compression have been used .
the first one , that relies on the application of a high magnetic field , is able to attain large quantum parameter values , @xmath19 .
@xcite however , to measure the main properties of the quasi - two dimensional gas becomes difficult due to the large magnetic field .
@xcite an alternative to this method is to work with thermal compression , in which a small spot on the sample cell is cooled down to a temperature below the one of the cell .
@xcite this second method achieves lower values for quantum degeneracy @xmath20 but allows for direct observation of the sample . up to now , it has not been possible to arrive to the value @xmath21 where the berezinskii - kosterlitz - thouless superfluid transition is expected to set in .
nevertheless , the quantum degeneracy of the gas has been observed as a decrease of the three - body recombination rate at temperatures @xmath22-@xmath23 mk and densities @xmath24 @xmath25 .
@xcite the zero - temperature equations of state of bulk gas @xcite h@xmath0and liquid @xcite t@xmath0 have been recently calculated using accurate quantum monte carlo methods .
properties like the condensate fraction , distribution functions and localization of the gas(liquid)-solid phase transitions have been established with the help of the ab initio h@xmath0-h@xmath0 interatomic potential .
@xcite from the theoretical side , much less is known about the ground - state properties of two - dimensional h@xmath0 or h@xmath0 adsorbed on a free @xmath1he surface . in a pioneering work , mantz and edwards
@xcite used the variational feynman - lekner approximation to calculate the effective potential felt by a hydrogen atom on the @xmath1he surface . solving the schrdinger equation for the atom in this effective potential they concluded that h@xmath0 , d@xmath0 , and t@xmath0 have a single bound state and calculated the respective binding energies .
the main drawback of this treatment is that the adsorbent is substituted by an effective field representing a static and undisturbed surface . in fact , a quantitatively accurate approach to this problem requires a good model for the @xmath1he surface .
@xcite the use of accurate he - he potentials and ground - state quantum monte carlo methods has proved to be able to reproduce experimental data directly related to the surface , like the surface tension and the surface width .
@xcite in the present work , we rely on a similar methodology to the one previously used in the study of the free @xmath1he surface @xcite in order to microscopically characterize the ground - state of h@xmath0 adsorbed on its surface .
our study is complemented by a purely two - dimensional simulation of h@xmath0 in order to establish the degree of two - dimensionality of the adsorbed film .
the rest of the paper is organized as follows .
the quantum monte carlo method used for this study is described in sec .
the results obtained for h@xmath0 adsorbed on the @xmath1he surface within a slab geometry are presented in sec .
iii together with the comparison with the strictly two - dimensional case .
finally , sec .
iv comprises a brief summary and the main conclusions of the work .
we have studied the ground - state ( zero temperature ) properties of a thin layer of h@xmath0 adsorbed on the free surface of a @xmath1he slab and also the limiting case of a strictly two - dimensional ( 2d ) h@xmath0 gas .
focusing first on the slab geometry , the hamiltonian of the system composed by @xmath26 @xmath1he and @xmath27 h@xmath0 atoms is @xmath28 with capital and normal indices standing for @xmath1he and h@xmath0 atoms , respectively .
the pair potential between he atoms is the aziz hfd - b(he ) model @xcite used extensively in microscopic studies of liquid and solid helium .
the h@xmath0-h@xmath0 interaction ( @xmath29 triplet potential ) was calculated with high accuracy by kolos and wolniewicz ( kw ) .
@xcite more recently , this potential has been recalculated up to larger interatomic distances by jamieson , dalgarno , and wolniewicz ( jdw ) .
@xcite we have used the jdw data smoothly connected with the long - range behavior of the h@xmath0-h@xmath0 potential as calculated by yan _ et al . _
@xcite the jdw potential has a core diameter of @xmath30 and a minimum @xmath31 k ( slightly deeper than kw ) at a distance @xmath32 .
finally , we take the h - he pair potential from das _
et al . _ ; @xcite this model has been used in the past in the study of a single h@xmath0 impurity @xcite in liquid @xmath1he and in mixed t@xmath0-@xmath1he clusters .
@xcite the das potential @xcite has a minimum @xmath33 k at a distance @xmath34 .
the quantum @xmath35-body problem is solved stochastically using the diffusion monte carlo ( dmc ) method .
@xcite dmc is nowadays one of the most accurate tools for the study of quantum fluids and gases , providing exact results for boson systems within some statistical errors . in brief
, dmc solves the imaginary - time ( @xmath36 ) @xmath35-body schrdinger equation for the function @xmath37 , with @xmath38 the exact ground - state wave function .
the auxiliary wave function @xmath39 acts as a guiding wave function in the diffusion process towards the ground state when @xmath40 .
the direct statistical sampling with @xmath41 , called mixed estimator , is unbiased for the energy but not completely for operators which do not commute with the hamiltonian . in these cases , we rely on the use of pure estimators based on the forward walking strategy . @xcite the influence of the finite time step used in the iterative process is reduced by working with a second - order expansion for the imaginary - time green s function .
@xcite the last systematic error that one has to deal with is the finite number of walkers @xmath42 which represent the wave function @xmath43 . as usual , we analyze which is the number of walkers required to reduce any bias coming from it to the level of the statistical uncertainties .
the @xmath1he surface is simulated using a slab which grows symmetrically in the @xmath44 direction and with periodic boundary conditions in the @xmath45 plane .
@xcite the guiding wave function is then the product of two terms @xmath46 the first one accounting for dynamical correlations induced by the interatomic potentials and the second for the finite size of the liquid in the @xmath44 direction .
explicitly , @xmath47 is built as a product of two - body jastrow factors between the different particles , @xmath48 the one - body correlations that confine the system to a slab geometry are introduced in @xmath49 , @xmath50 the @xmath1he-@xmath1he ( @xmath51 ) and @xmath1he - h@xmath0 ( @xmath52 ) two - body correlation factors ( [ jastrow ] ) are chosen of schiff - verlet type , @xmath53 \ , \label{sverlet}\ ] ] whereas the h@xmath0-h@xmath0 one is taken as @xmath54 \ , \label{fhydro}\ ] ] because it has been shown to be variationally better for describing the hydrogen correlations .
@xcite the parameters entering eqs .
( [ sverlet],[fhydro ] ) have been optimized using the variational monte carlo method .
we have used @xmath55 , @xmath56 , and @xmath57 @xmath58 , neglecting their slight dependence on density .
the one - body functions in eq .
( [ hslab ] ) are of fermi type , @xmath59 \right\}^{-1 } \ , \label{fermi}\ ] ] with variational parameters @xmath60 and @xmath61 related to the width and location of the interface , respectively .
the main goal of these one - body terms is to avoid eventual evaporation of particles by introducing a restoring drift force only when particles want to escape to unreasonable distances .
any spurious kinetic energy contribution due to the movement of the center of mass of the full system ( @xmath1he+h@xmath0 ) is removed by subtracting @xmath62 from each particle coordinate @xmath44 , either of @xmath1he or h@xmath0 , in eq .
( [ fermi ] ) .
the optimal values used in the dmc simulations are @xmath61(@xmath1he)@xmath63 , @xmath61(h@xmath0)@xmath64 , and @xmath60(@xmath1he)@xmath65(h@xmath0)@xmath66 @xmath58 .
our study of the thin layer of h@xmath0 adsorbed on @xmath1he is complemented with some calculations of a strictly 2d h@xmath0 gas with the hamiltonian @xmath67 using as a guiding wave function a jastrow factor with the same two - body correlation factors as in the slab ( [ fhydro ] ) .
the @xmath1he surface where h@xmath0 is adsorbed is simulated with the dmc method using a slab geometry .
we use a square cell in the @xmath45 plane that is made continuous by considering periodic boundary conditions in both directions . in the transverse direction @xmath44 the system is finite , with two symmetric free surfaces at the same distance from the center @xmath68 .
the surface of the basic simulation cell is @xmath69 @xmath70 and @xmath71 . with these conditions we guarantee an accurate model for the free surface of @xmath1he , as shown in ref . .
he slab ( dashed line ) and of the h@xmath0 adsorbed gas ( solid line ) corresponding to a surface density @xmath72 @xmath73 . ] on top of one of the slab surfaces we introduce a variable number @xmath74 of h@xmath0 atoms that form a thin layer of surface densities @xmath75 . in order to reach lower densities than @xmath76 we have replicated the basic slab cell the required number of times . in fig .
[ fig1 ] , we show the density profiles of the @xmath1he slab and of the h@xmath0 layer for a surface density @xmath72 @xmath73 . this layer has an approximate width of 8 and virtually _ floats _ on the helium surface : the center of the h@xmath0 layer is located out of the surface , where the @xmath1he density is extremely small .
the picture is similar to the one obtained previously by mantz and edwards @xcite in a variational description of the adsorption of a single h@xmath0 atom .
however , contrarily to the exponential tail of the density profile derived by krotschek and zillich @xcite in a thorough description of the impurity problem , we observe a faster decay to zero and a rather isotropic profile .
we attribute this difference to the residual bias of the one - body factor @xmath77 ( [ fermi ] ) used to avoid spurious evaporation of particles . on the other hand ,
the more well studied case of @xmath13he adsorbed on the @xmath1he surface shows a similar density profile , @xcite located on the surface , but in this case centered not so far from the bulk . on top of the @xmath1he surface ( points with error bars ) .
the energy at the zero - dilution limit is subtracted in such a way that the energy is zero in the limit @xmath78 .
the line on top of the dmc data corresponds to the polynomial fit of eq .
( [ fitslab ] ) . ]
adsorbed on the @xmath1he slab ( full circles ) and the energy of purely two - dimensional h@xmath0 ( open squares ) .
the solid line is the polynomial fit ( [ fitslab ] ) and the dashed line is a fit of the 2d energies ( [ fit2d ] ) . ]
one of the most relevant magnitudes that characterize the h@xmath0 film is its energy per particle at different coverages . in fig .
[ fig2 ] , we plot the dmc energy per particle of h@xmath0 as a function of the surface density @xmath4 . in order to better visualize the energy of the adsorbed gas , we have subtracted from the computed energies the energy in the infinite dilution limit @xmath79 .
the energy increases monotonously with the density and its behavior is well accounted for by the simple polynomial law @xmath80 with optimal parameters @xmath81 k@xmath70 and @xmath82 k@xmath1 , the figures in parenthesis being the statistical uncertainties .
floating on top of the @xmath1he free surface has been currently considered as a nice representation of a quasi - two - dimensional quantum gas . in order to be quantitatively accurate in this comparison ,
we have carried out dmc simulations of strictly 2d h@xmath0 gas without any adsorbing surface .
@xcite the results obtained for the energy per particle of the 2d gas at different densities are shown in fig . [ fig3 ] .
the energies are well reproduced by a polynomial law @xmath83 with @xmath84 k@xmath70 and @xmath85 k@xmath1 .
in the same figure , we plot the energies for the adsorbed gas at the same coverage . as one can see , the agreement between the strictly 2d gas and the film is good for densities @xmath86 @xmath73 . at higher densities ,
the additional degree of freedom in the @xmath44 direction makes the growth of the energy with the surface density in the layer nearly linear up to the shown density , in contrast with the significant quadratic increase observed in the 2d gas ( @xmath87 ) .
adsorbed on the @xmath1he slab and the energy of bulk h@xmath0 ( solid line ) from ref . .
full squares , full circles , and full diamonds correspond to the layer where we have considered a width in @xmath44 of 9 , 8 , and 7 , respectively . ]
a possible scenario when the density increases and the equation of state of the layer departs from the 2d law is the existence of a nearly three - dimensional ( 3d ) gas .
we have analyzed this possibility by considering a width in @xmath44 given by the density profile ( fig .
[ fig1 ] ) and by estimating the 3d density of the adsorbed gas as the coverage divided by the layer width . in fig .
[ fig4 ] , we show the energy per particle of adsorbed h@xmath0 as a function of the density considering our best estimation for the layer width , @xmath88 , and also @xmath89 and 7 . the possible 3d behavior of the energy is analyzed by comparing the results of the layer with the ones of the bulk 3d gas . at low densities ,
the energies of the adsorbed phase are higher than the 3d gas and , when the density increases , both results tend to cross .
as one can see , the energies of adsorbed h@xmath0 are not well described by a 3d equation of state at any density within the regime studied . the structure and
the distribution functions of h@xmath0 atoms in the layer can be studied by doing slices of small width ( @xmath90 ) and , within a given slice , as a function of the radial distance between particles in the plane @xmath91 . in fig .
[ fig5 ] , we report results of the two - body radial distribution function @xmath92 where @xmath44 is the distance to the center of the @xmath1he slab at a coverage @xmath93 @xmath73 . around the center of the h@xmath0 density profile , @xmath94 is nearly independent of @xmath44 with a main peak of a height smaller than 1.2 . in the wings of @xmath95 , where the local density is smaller , @xmath94 shows less structure and the noise of the dmc data also increases due to low statistics .
@xmath73 ( solid line ) with the one corresponding to a purely 2d h@xmath0 gas at the same surface density ( dotted line ) . ]
it is interesting to know if the spatial structure of h@xmath0 atoms on the @xmath1he surface is similar to the one in a strictly 2d geometry . to this end
, we show in fig .
[ fig6 ] results of the radial distribution function for both systems at the same surface density ( @xmath96 @xmath73 ) .
the result corresponding to the layer is taken from a slice @xmath97 in the center of the density profile .
as one can see , both functions do not show any significant peak because the density is rather small .
however , the behavior at small interparticle distances is appreciably different . in the layer
, atoms can be closer ( in the in - plane distance @xmath91 ) than in 2d because of the small but nonzero width of the slice used for its calculation .
in fact , we have shown previously in fig .
[ fig2 ] that , at the density @xmath96 @xmath73 used in fig .
[ fig6 ] , the energies per particle of the layer and the strictly 2d gas start to be significantly different , in agreement with the differences observed here in the distribution function @xmath94 .
a key magnitude in the study of any quantum bose gas is the one - body distribution function @xmath98 since it furnishes evidence of the presence of off - diagonal long - range order in the system .
as it is well known , its asymptotic behavior in a homogeneous system @xmath99 gives the fraction of particles occupying the zero - momentum state , that is the condensate fraction @xmath100 . in fig .
[ fig7 ] , we show a surface plot containing results of @xmath101 at density @xmath93 @xmath73 obtained following the same method as in the grid of @xmath92 shown in fig .
[ fig5 ] . in the outer part of the density profile
the condensate fraction approaches one because the density is very small .
when @xmath44 decreases the condensate fraction also decreases and reaches a plateau in the central part of @xmath102 .
if @xmath44 is reduced even more and @xmath103 starts to increase , the h@xmath0 condensate fraction decreases again due to the small but nonzero @xmath1he density ; the low statistics in this part makes the signal very noisy and therefore we do not plot data for @xmath104 in fig .
[ fig7 ] .
@xmath73 ( solid line ) with the one corresponding to a purely 2d h@xmath0 gas at the same surface density ( dotted line ) . ]
a relevant issue in the study of the off - diagonal long - range order in the adsorbed gas is the _ dimensionality _ of the results achieved . as we have made before for the two - body distribution functions , we compare @xmath98 for a 2d gas and for a slice in the center of the adsorbed layer at the same density in fig .
the results show that in this case the behavior in the layer is significantly different from the one observed in strictly 2d .
the difference is larger than the one we have observed at the same density for @xmath94 ( fig .
[ fig6 ] ) , with values for the condensate fraction that differs in @xmath105 % .
the condensate fraction of the 2d gas is clearly smaller than the one of the layer due to the transverse degree of freedom @xmath44 that translates into an effective surface density smaller than the one of the full layer . .
solid circles correspond to h@xmath0 on @xmath1he and open squares to a 2d gas .
the lines on top of the dmc data are fits to guide the eye . ]
the density dependence of the condensate fraction of adsorbed h@xmath0 is shown in fig .
the values reported have been obtained from the asymptotic value of the one - body distribution function in the central part of the density profile .
as expected , the condensate fraction is nearly 1 at very low densities and then decreases when @xmath4 increases .
however , the decrease is quite slow in such a way that even at densities as large as @xmath106 @xmath73 the condensate fraction is still @xmath107 . at the same density
, the condensate fraction of the 2d gas is half this value , @xmath108 .
the dependence of @xmath100 with the density for the 2d geometry , shown in fig .
[ fig9 ] for comparison , is significantly stronger with a larger depletion of the condensate fraction for all densities .
the experimental realization of an extremely thin layer of h@xmath0 adsorbed on the surface of superfluid @xmath1he provides a unique opportunity for the study of nearly two - dimensional quantum gases .
the system is stable and the influence of the liquid substrate is nearly negligible , without the corrugation effects that a solid surface like graphite provides .
moreover , spin - polarized hydrogen is a specially appealing system from the theoretical side because it is the best example of quantum matter ( it remains gas even in the zero temperature limit ) and its interatomic interaction is known with high accuracy . in the present work , we have addressed its study from a microscopic approach relying on the use of quantum monte carlo methods by means of a simulation that incorporates the full hamiltonian of the system , composed by a realistic @xmath1he surface and the layer of h@xmath0 adsorbed on it . from very low coverages up to relatively high surface densities , we have reported results of the main properties of adsorbed h@xmath0 : energy , density profile , two- and one - body distribution functions , and the condensate fraction .
our results point to a @xmath109 thick layer that virtually _ floats _ on top of @xmath1he .
we have calculated the energy as a function of the surface density @xmath4 and compared these energies with the results obtained in a purely 2d h@xmath0 gas in order to establish the degree of two - dimensionality of the layer .
the agreement between both simulations is only satisfactory for small densities @xmath86 @xmath73 and , from then on , the additional degree of freedom in the @xmath44 direction of the layer causes its energy to grow slower than in strictly 2d .
significant departures of strictly 2d behavior are also observed in the two - body radial distribution function and mainly in the condensate fraction values .
our dmc results show that the condensate fraction for the layer is appreciably higher than in 2d , with values as large as @xmath110 at the largest coverages studied .
if we convert this coverage to volume density by using the layer width of 8 , we see that the condensate fraction is quite close to published 3d values in ref . .
from these results we can be certain that a bkt phase transition would be a realistic scenario at low surface densities .
for higher densities , further study using intensive path - integral monte carlo simulations at finite temperatures would be needed .
the authors acknowledge partial financial support from the dgi ( spain ) grant no .
fis2011 - 25275 , generalitat de catalunya grant no . 2009sgr-1003 , qatar national research fund nprp 5 - 674 - 1 - 114 as well as the support from mses ( croatia ) under grant no .
177 - 1770508 - 0493 .
m. h. anderson , j. r. ensher , m. r. matthews , c. e. wieman , and e. a. cornell , science * 269 * , 198 ( 1995 ) ; k. b. davis , m. o. mewes , m. r. andrews , n. j. van druten , d. s. durfee , d. m. kurn , and w. ketterle , phys .
. lett . * 75 * , 3969 ( 1995 ) ; c. c. bradley , c. a. sackett , j. j. tollet , and r. g. hulet , _ ibid _ * 75 * , 1687 ( 1995 ) . | arxiv |
the aggregation processes of small particles have attracted a great theoretical interest in the last decade @xcite , due to their wide range of applications . on can distinguish particle - cluster aggregation , whose prototype is the witten - sander model @xcite , and cluster - cluster aggregation @xcite . while the former model applies to field - induced growth processes , such as electrodeposition @xcite , dielectric breakdown @xcite , viscous fingering @xcite , etc ... , the latter explains true aggregation processes such as polymerisation @xcite , oil in water emulsions @xcite , soot particles in flames @xcite , flocculation of colloidal particles @xcite . among
cluster - cluster aggregation processes one distinguishes diffusion - limited cluster - cluster aggregation ( dlca ) @xcite and chemically - limited ( also called reaction - limited ) aggregation ( rlca ) @xcite which correspond respectively to fast ( fully screened ) and slow ( partially screened ) aggregation of colloids @xcite .
the cca processes leads to a flocculation regime when the concentration is smaller than a characteristic gel concentration @xmath8 , and to a gelation regime otherwise . in flocculation regime
it remains a single fractal cluster at the end of the aggregation process with a fractal dimension @xmath9 equal to 1.45 in dlca case ( and 1.65 in rlca case ) . in the gelation regime
it appears an `` infinite '' cluster at a given time @xmath0 ( hereafter refered as the gelling cluster ) .
when working with a finite ( but large ) box , such a cluster is usually defined as touching the box from edge to edge as in the percolation theory @xcite . since both physical problems are quite similar , it is tempting to explain the infinite cluster formation in dlca by the percolation theory which excludes all dynamical phenomena and this has been done by several authors @xcite .
the fractal dimension of the infinite cluster of dlca has been found to be different than the one of percolation @xcite and it has been argued that this discrepancy is due to dynamical effects .
however , recent aggregation experiments @xcite on attractive coagulated particles suggest that percolation transition occurs at the particle concentration 0.42 . therefore the question is still open :
are cca models and percolation theory compatible ? in this paper
we show that the infinite cluster obtained at @xmath0 in cca models exhibits a crossover length @xmath1 between percolation and aggregation , for concentration values @xmath4 larger than the gel concentration @xmath8 .
furthermore , we show that @xmath1 vanishes when increasing @xmath4 , and for @xmath10 the percolation regime shows up at all length scales in the infinite cluster .
these results suggest that cca processes can be viewed as an irreversible percolation phenomenom , as the invasion percolation model without trapping @xcite and the model for a diffusion front@xcite .
the two - dimensional diffusion - limited cluster - cluster aggregation model consists in a monte carlo algorithm which builds clusters on a lattice within a square box of edge length @xmath11 .
initially particles are distributed randomly ( but uniformily in the space ) on the lattice sites up to volume fraction ( concentration ) @xmath4 . in order to insure that the diffusion coefficient of the clusters varies as the inverse of their radius @xmath12 , a particle ( or a cluster )
is chosen randomly according to a probability : @xmath13 where @xmath14 ( = @xmath15 ) is the kinetical exponent .
then the cluster performs a translational motion by one unit ( taking account periodic boundary conditions , pbc ) in any of the four directions @xmath16 chosen at random .
if the cluster does not collide with another , the displacement is performed and the algorithm goes on by choosing again another cluster . if a collision occurs between two clusters they stick together forming a new large cluster . in our simulation
we have considered that collision occurs when a particle of a cluster tries to occupy a particle of another cluster . in that case
the cluster is not displaced but a bond is established between the two contacting particles . if there are more than one collision at a given motion , only one bond is chosen at random .
this trick has used by kolb in a reversible diffusion - limited cluster aggregation model @xcite .
this important variant implies that there are no loops ( as in off - lattice dlca @xcite ) and that there is no intrinsic percolation at the begining of the process : the intitial concentration can be varied up to unity . for concentrations larger than @xmath8
there exists a gel time @xmath0 where a cluster becomes infinite .
this gelling cluster is stored for a numerical analysis , and to compare , we leave the aggregation process continuing up to the time where it remains only one cluster ( hereafter refered as the final cluster ) . in the case of reaction
limited cluster - cluster aggregation @xcite , in addition to the algorithm described above , it is introduced a sticking probabilty @xmath17 . after a collision a new bond is created only if a random number ( uniformly distributed between zero and one ) is smaller than @xmath18 . here ,
we have performed two - dimensional simulations in boxes of different sizes up to @xmath19 240 .
typical results that compare qualitatevely the resulting morphologies of the gelling cluster ( g ) and the final cluster ( f ) in dlca are are illustrated in figure 1 . in the case of the gelling cluster
the other remaining clusters have been discarded and therefore are not shown .
note that the morphology of the cluster shown in figure 1a is strongly reminiscent of that of a percolating cluster as obtained in standard percolation theory @xcite when occupying randomly the sites of a square lattice with the percolation probability @xmath20 . to make quantitative comparaisons between g and f , we have calculated the mass @xmath21 dependent box size @xmath22 using the mass - counting algorithm @xcite . in figure 2
we show the log - log plot of @xmath21 versus @xmath22 for the same concentration than those considered in figure 1 .
the resulting slope indicates that m scales as @xmath23 and @xmath24 , for g ( open circles ) and f ( black squares ) , respectively .
@xmath25 ( = 1.89 ) is close to the fractal dimension of the percolating cluster in two dimensions , and @xmath26(=2 ) is the spatial dimension .
if the mass of the gelling cluster g or the mass of the final cluster f scales as @xmath27 we might be tempted to conclude that the quantity @xmath28 should not depend on @xmath22 . to test this we show , in figure 3 , the curves giving @xmath29 as a function of @xmath22 . figures 3a and 3c corresponds to g for @xmath30 and d = d , respectively and figures 3b and 3d correspond to f for @xmath30 and d = d , respectively .
one observes on these figures that @xmath29 is independent on @xmath22 only in cases 3a and 3d and for sufficiently large concentrations , confirming our first guess of different fractal dimensions , 1.89 and 2.00 , for g and f respectively .
figures 3b and 3c are shown here as conter - examples to illustrate the high precisions on these estimates for the fractal dimensions .
in general , i.e. for not too large concentrations , one can define a @xmath4-dependent crossover length @xmath1 such that @xmath29 becomes independent on @xmath22 only for @xmath2 . for @xmath3 , another linear regime
is observed , which is better extended at very low concentration , with a slope of about -0.4 and -0.5 in cases 3a and 3d , respectively , corresponding to the fractal dimension @xmath31 , close to the one of dlca clusters .
therefore @xmath1 defines a change of scaling regime between dlca for short lengths and either percolation ( g ) or homogeneity ( f ) for large lengths .
in fact , @xmath1 should be proportional to the characteristic length correlation @xmath32 ( or average size ) of dlca fractal aggregates @xcite .
note that in all cases @xmath1 vanishes for @xmath10 , and this is the reason of the absence of crossover in the curves reported in figure 2 .
when estimating the fractal dimension of the aggregates @xmath33 in the range of lengths corresponding to the aggregation regime ( @xmath3 ) , we found , in both cases g and f , that it increases significantly with concentration ( the data are reported in figure 4 ) .
those results confirm previous conclusions in two dimensions @xcite as well as in three dimensions @xcite . as a consequence
the @xmath4-dependence of @xmath1 can not be annalysed as a simple scaling relation .
moreover , the discrete values of @xmath22 that require mass - counting calculations , and finite size effects , impedes us to determine @xmath1 within a sufficiently small range of error . anyway , all the results depicted in figs . 2 and 3 suggest that , at least for @xmath2 the mass of the gelling cluster g scales with @xmath22 as a standard percolation cluster .
however such results are not sufficient to insure that their morphologies are the same .
it is well known that there exist additional quantities ( different and independent on the fractal dimension ) to characterize a percolating cluster . in principle , the morphology is entirely characterized by an infinite set of exponents @xcite , but here we shall focuse on two particular exponents : the fractal dimensions of the `` backbone '' @xmath34 and the fractal dimension of the `` links '' @xcite . the backbone of a cluster is the ensemble which remains after removing dead - ends ( or dangling - ends ) . for a percolating cluster in two dimension the fractal dimension of the backbone @xmath35 is @xmath36 .
the links ( also called red bonds ) are the sites of the cluster that are singly connected , that is , if we take out a link the connection between the entire cluster is broken . for a percolating cluster in two dimensions the fractal dimension of links
@xmath37 is equal to 0.75 . in order to identify the backbone and the links of a given cluster ,
we have been obliged ( due to the pbc considered in the cca simulations ) to span the cluster out of the box , taking account of pbc .
then , we have applied to the new cluster configuration ( with size larger than the box size @xmath11 , in almost all situations ) a procedure suggested by hermann et al .
@xcite to identify the backbone and the links . finally , the resulting backbone ( and links ) is unspanned and returned inside the original box . in figures 1 ,
the sites depicted with strong grey and black colors denotes the backbone and the links , repectively .
we have calculated the fractal dimension of the backbone @xmath35 for both g and f clusters and different concentration values .
the results are depicted in figure 5 for two box sizes length @xmath11 = 90 ( black symbols ) and 120 ( open symbols ) .
note that for small concentration values the @xmath35 values , for both g and f clusters , are quite similar .
this can be understood , since , as mentioned above , the fractal dimension in the aggregation regime is almost the same in both cases .
this conclusion is more convincing for @xmath38 , but for larger @xmath4 values , @xmath35 of the gelling cluster g becomes smaller than @xmath35 of the final cluster f. furthermore , in the g case , @xmath35 reaches the value 1.61 ( the same value than for a percolating cluster ) for @xmath10 . for @xmath39 , @xmath35 saturates to 1.89 ( the value of the fractal dimension of a percolating cluster ) . in the f case ,
the same kind of saturation phenomenon occurs but , for @xmath39 , @xmath35 saturates to the spatial dimension @xmath26 .
the increasing value of @xmath35 suggests that the backbone structure is mainly reflecting the fractal aggregate structure ( which also increases with concentration as shown in figure 4 ) .
it is only when the crossover length @xmath1 vanishes that the backbone structure becomes characteristic of the one of a percolating cluster , since @xmath35 varies from 1.61 to 1.89 as shown in figure 5 .
in figure 6 it is shown that for @xmath4 smaller than about 0.5 , the fractal dimension @xmath37 of the links is approximately equal to 1 , suggesting that the mass of the links scales with @xmath22 in a trivial manner . however , for @xmath10 , @xmath37 reaches the value 0.75 as in a percolating cluster .
the @xmath37 undependence on the box size @xmath11 suggests that there exist a threshold concentration , close to @xmath40 where the entire g cluster scales exactly as a percolating cluster .
when @xmath4 is increased above this threshold , @xmath37 vanishes , similarly to the percolation theory when the occupation probability @xmath18 is increased above @xmath41 @xcite .
the vanishing links in the gelling cluster for large @xmath4 values suggest that , at very small scales , the system becomes homogeneous , even if , at large distances , the system scales as a percolating cluster as shown in figure 3 . in order to appreciate the degree of generality of our results , we have also performed some calculations in the reaction - limited case ( rlca ) . in figure 7
we have reported the @xmath42 curves and it can be shown that they exhibit the same qualitative behavior than in the dlca case ( figure 3 ) .
these results suggest that the percolation scaling could exist in other kinds of cca processes such as the ballistic - limited @xcite , the convection - limited @xcite and the fluctuating bond @xcite aggregation models .
in this paper we have shown that the infinite cluster obtained at the gel time @xmath0 in cca models exhibits a crossover length @xmath1 between aggregation and percolation .
moreover , @xmath1 vanishes at a critical concentration @xmath43 where the mass of the entire system ( and its backbone and links ) scales as for a percolating cluster obtained at @xmath41 . for @xmath7
the percolation regime persists at least at large scales , because the vanishing links suggest that an homogeneous regime apperas at small scales .
the value obtained here for @xmath5 is close to the value reported in the above mentioned experimental work @xcite ( @xmath44 ) , but typical statistical fluctuations to determine a critical value impedes us to insure if there are some relation between these two critical probabilities .
it might also be worth finding a relation between @xmath5 and the critical probability of the site percolation threshold ( @xmath20 ) on a square lattice .
on the other hand , the fact that close to @xmath5 the fractal dimension of the links @xmath37 becomes equal to that of the percolating clusters suggests that the critical behavior in both cases are the same , since the correlation lenght exponent @xmath45 is given by @xmath46 @xcite .
preliminary calculations on a cubic lattice suggest that the results reported here are quite general and extend in three dimensions .
one of us ( a. h. ) would like to acknowledge support from conicit ( venezuela ) .
the numerical calculations where done on the computers of the cnusc ( centre universitaire sud de calcul ) , montpellier , france , with support from cnrs . | arxiv |
James M. Fahey born May 11, 1979 is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played in the National Hockey League NHL with the San Jose Sharks and the New Jersey Devils. He last played for the Krefeld Pinguine of the DEL. He now has two sons and a wife living in East Walpole, Massachusetts.
Playing career
Fahey was drafted in the 8th round, 212th overall, by the San Jose Sharks in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. Before becoming a professional hockey player, Jim was a member of the Dorchester, MA Greater Boston Youth Hockey League, Tier 2 National Championship Midget Team in 1996, and subsequently a standout at Catholic Memorial High School, winning MVP awards while leading his school to four straight state championships. He went on to become a star at Northeastern University, where he finished his career with the single season defense scoring record for the Huskies as a First Team All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist. During his draft year, he was featured in a segment with his idol, Raymond Bourque, in a feature for NHL on Fox.
Following his college career, in the 2003 season, after spending some time with San Jose's AHL farm team in Cleveland, Fahey was recalled to the Sharks and was selected San Jose's rookie of the year. Despite spending nearly half the season in the minor leagues, he led all rookie NHL defenseman in scoring.
In the 2004 season, Fahey battled with pneumonia, and after recording only two points in fifteen games, was sent down to Cleveland, where he played for the remainder of that season, and has seen only sporadic NHL duty since.
Fahey has also played in international competitions, like the 2003 IIHF Men's World Championships. He has been named to the PlanetUSA AHL All-Star team.
Fahey re-signed to a one-year contract worth US$500,000; on July 15, 2006. Prior to the 200607 NHL season, Fahey was traded with Alexander Korolyuk to the New Jersey Devils for Vladimir Malakhov and a conditional first round pick.
On July 27, 2007, Fahey signed with the Chicago Blackhawks and spent the full year with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. On March 26, 2008, Fahey signed with German team, the Krefeld Pinguine of the DEL.
On July 6, 2010, after two seasons with Krefeld, Fahey signed a one-year contract with fellow DEL team, Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers. However, only three weeks later on July 24, Fahey terminated his agreement with the Ice Tigers due to personal reasons and remained in America.
Fahey also has a degree in real estate development from Northeastern University.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
Awards and honors
References
External links
Category:1979 births
Category:American men's ice hockey defensemen
Category:Cleveland Barons 20012006 players
Category:Ice hockey people from Massachusetts
Category:Krefeld Pinguine players
Category:Living people
Category:Lowell Devils players
Category:New Jersey Devils players
Category:Northeastern Huskies men's ice hockey players
Category:People from Milton, Massachusetts
Category:Rockford IceHogs AHL players
Category:San Jose Sharks draft picks
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Category:Sportspeople from Boston | wikipedia |
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despite its potential importance to individuals and society , the cost - effectiveness of antidementia therapy remains controversial .
the origins of the controversy lie in difficulties with both measuring cost and assigning value to benefit .
a key issue in measuring cost is the perspective of who is conducting or interpreting the measurement . from the viewpoint of an economist , treatment impact on all costs including things like potential losses of workforce productivity might be appropriate for inclusion in assessment of the therapy . for a payer of healthcare , whether private insurer or public agency , consideration of only those costs covered by the insured s policy is most important . for informal care costs , individual family members of the person with dementia may value their time differently and have different thresholds of willingness to expend monetary assets .
a common example of these differences is the retired spouse of a patient being more willing to invest his or her own time in care ( rather than paying for outside services ) compared with the employed adult child who is more likely to purchase services in order to preserve employment for reasons of income , noncash tangible benefits like health insurance , and intangibles like self - esteem .
variability in monetary valuation of caregiver time is a crucial , and often ignored , aspect of estimates of cost - effectiveness of ad treatments .
they may perceive time invested in caring as given not taken , view time in post - retirement life as lacking monetary value , or especially in the case of life - long homemakers , view care provision as part of an ongoing and never - compensated task .
in contrast , adult children providing care to ad patients may lose work hours and forego higher income employment opportunities to provide care .
these potential losses correlate with the patient s disease severity , and might be reduced by interventions that maintain independence longer ( small et al 2002 ) . since each of these interested parties
society , insurers , and family members measure cost differently , it should not be surprising that interpretations of cost - effectiveness vary considerably across the published studies .
while epidemiologic studies predict large numbers of dementia cases in the population , insurance claims data suggested that a significant proportion
perhaps 70%90% of dementia cases was not being recognized by health insurers because they were not being assigned appropriate diagnostic codes by medical practitioners ( gutterman et al 1999 ) .
the historic magnitude of the underrecognition and undercoding problem in the us is illustrated by the study of callahan and colleagues ( 1995 ) , which noted that at a university - based family medicine clinic only 25% of patients found to express moderate and severe levels of cognitive impairment had any notation of the deficits in the medical chart .
these figures suggest that many older estimates of the economic burden of dementia care may be falsely low .
more recent medicare claims data identify diagnostic coding rates for dementia that more closely approximate epidemiologic predictions ( hill et al 2002 ) .
the availability of approved therapeutic options for ad is likely to contribute to the improve rates of diagnosis .
the second crucial problem in defining cost - effectiveness in dementia is a lack of consensus on what constitutes an appropriate level of benefit from treatment . to comply with the requirements of regulatory authorities , most early clinical trials focused on cognitive measures and clinicians global impressions to define efficacy and did not collect direct economic measures .
even so , ad clinical trials have been criticized for enrolling populations of pure ad patients that do not reflect the typical comorbidities associated with an older population . as a result ,
it is also justifiable to assume that families who enroll their loved ones in clinical trials are not representative of the caregiving population as a whole .
other problems with adapting trials results on cognition to economic outcomes are the relatively short duration of clinical trials in comparison to the course of disease , nonlinear progression of ad severity within and across individuals , and limitations in testing cognition in more severely demented individuals
. one of the biggest difficulties in assessing the potential impact of dementia treatments is the determination of benefit in quality of life .
anosognosia ( organic unawareness of deficits ) is a common symptom in ad , such that many patients become unreliable reporters of their own quality of life .
they may literally not know that they are impaired , and report their self - perceived quality of life as quite high .
this is in distinct contrast their family members proxy attributions of their quality of life ( naglie et al 2006 ) and very likely different from their premorbid predictions of quality of life in dementia .
also , the impact of dementia on overall family quality of life is generally not well addressed in dementia , though this is measured in other populations like pediatrics and adults with developmental disabilities . as a result
, there has been no well - validated or uniformly accepted measure of quality of life in dementia through most of the modern therapeutic era .
assignment of quality of life is especially important in economic analyses of treatment effectiveness because of the use of cost - utility
analyses by payer agencies like the uk s national health service ( green et al 2005 ) .
the basis of cost - utility analysis is a unit known as the quality adjusted life years ( qalys ) .
the qaly allows incorporation of both patient preferences for different outcomes and reduced long term morbidity and mortality associated with treatment ( neumann et al 2000 ) .
it is based on a scale of 1.0 ( perfect ) to 0.0 ( dead ) .
the qaly scale assumes that there is nothing worse than death , but since ad is ranked as one of the most feared illnesses among older adults , this may not be a valid assumption in dementia .
there are relatively few data available on the meaningfulness of current qaly estimates for dementia , and even those have been subject to widely different interpretations ( neumann , 2005 ) .
although economists often employ statistical and inferential models to assess costs and benefit , clinical medicine is generally more comfortable with directly collected data as evidence .
unfortunately , relatively few studies have collected prospective data on cost - related issues in ad .
it is important to note that , even among those that have , many of the cost assignments are estimates based on investigator - assigned valuation of services rather than actual expenditures .
secondary economic analyses were conducted as part of a standard efficacy trial of donepezil vs placebo of 1-year duration which enrolled mild to moderately impaired ad patients ( mean mmse = 19 ) .
accounting for patient costs alone , there was a net increase in costs of care estimated at us$291 per patient .
reduced use of social services was observed and valued at us$1158 , but this was more than offset by the cost of drug and increased use of medical services .
caregiver costs were reduced in all domains except caregiver use of emergency department services , resulting in an average annualized savings of us$1388 . the large majority of these savings were attributable to reduced time in direct patient care .
the authors concluded that the total cost of care for patients with mild to moderate ad and their caregivers was $ 1,097 less per patient among the donepezil - treated group ( wimo et al 2003a ) .
obviously , minor differences in the valuation of caregiver time could exaggerate or eliminate this margin of benefit .
economic outcomes were also prospectively collected as part of a long - term double - blind placebo controlled trial of donepezil vs placebo among mild and moderately impaired ad patients in the uk ( mean mmse = 19 ) .
this is commonly referred to as the ad2000 study ( ad2000 , 2004 ) . despite statistically significant effects in favor of donepezil on cognitive and functional measures
, the investigators identified that donepezil treatment was associated with a gb 498 increase in overall costs relative to placebo ( exclusive of costs attributable to donepezil and institutionalization ) .
no differences in rates of nursing home placement , behavioral symptoms , or caregiver health outcomes were identified .
donepezil is not cost - effective with effectiveness defined as cost neutrality or better , or , as prolonged time to disability .
caregiver time was not included as a variable in the economic analysis because measures of caregiver time input did not differ between treatment groups .
the validity of this exclusion is questionable , however , since numerous other economic measures also did not differ by group and were included in the analysis for cost - effectiveness .
several other factors also limit the interpretation and generalizability of the ad2000 findings . though intended to provide a closer reflection of typical clinical practice than most trials , this study used an unconventional and complicated methodology that makes comparison to other studies infeasible ( birks 2006 ) .
the trial suffered from serious levels of under - enrollment , with less than one - tenth of its intended sample completing one year of treatment .
finally , the study was conducted in a restricted geographical area , the west midlands of england .
it is unknown whether dementia - related health care practices there are representative of other regions or countries .
this issue is important because , differences in baseline care practices have influenced other economic analyses ( feldman et al 2004 ) .
overall costs increase with worsening dementia severity ( langa et al 2001 ; small et al 2002 ; zhu et al 2006 ) .
therefore , studies of cost - effectiveness in samples with more advanced dementia are justified .
a randomized double - blind , placebo controlled trial of donepezil in moderate to severe ad patients conducted at 32 sites ( 22 canadian , 6 australian , 4 french ) included prospectively - collected cost data using a utilization of services questionnaire and estimates of time spent in caregiving ( feldman et al 2004 ) . as with studies in milder patients ,
direct patient care costs were not reduced by donepezil therapy , but reductions in caregiver time investment were calculated to provide a societal cost benefit of us$224 over a six month period .
the diversity of centers involved in this study proved to be important since baseline cost estimates ( and therefore relative value of the intervention ) differed significantly by country , which reinforces the possibility that the ad2000 conclusions may not prove generalizable .
memantine was approved for use in the european union in 2002 and in us in 2003 ; it is indicated for use in moderate and severe stages of dementia .
cost data regarding its usage were prospectively collected at 30 us trial sites , using the resource utilization in dementia instrument , as part of a 7-month double - blind placebo - controlled trial of moderate - to - severely impaired ad patients ( mean mmse = 11 ) ( wimo et al 2003b ) . as with studies of donepezil ,
individual patient costs were not reduced by treatment , but the valuation assigned to caregiver time led the authors to conclude that memantine therapy was associated with a reduction in societal costs of ~us$1090 per month .
the difference is attributable to using bureau of labor statistics that provide for hourly rates of us$9.18$23.65 depending on factors like age and gender of the caregiver .
in contrast , the caregiver time was valued at only us$4.36/hour in the study of donepezil in moderate and severe patients ( feldman et al 2004 ) .
only a few studies have examined the impact of antidementia drugs on healthcare costs in clinical practice settings . in an early study of this type ,
a longitudinal survey of caregivers of patients with ad reported direct medical expenses in 108 patients receiving donepezil over 6 months of care and compared them with costs of care among 268 control patients matched on demographic and clinical variables ( small et al 1998 ) .
no significant differences were found in mean direct medical expenses between groups . although patients receiving donepezil had higher expenditures for prescription drugs , a nonsignificant trend toward a reduced rate of institutionalization ( 10% placebo vs 5% donepezil ) offset the effects increased drug costs .
subsequently , the effects of donepezil on the costs of ad in a managed care organization were examined in a two - year study ( fillit et al 1999 ) .
costs attributable to medical care and prescriptions were assessed in 70 individuals with dementia before and after they were prescribed donepezil .
although treatment was associated with decreased costs of medical care , overall costs were increased by ~us$2.11/day , attributable to the cost of prescription medications .
hill and colleagues ( 2002 ) examined health care costs in 204 patients with ad and related dementias who were receiving donepezil and 204 matched controls .
after controlling for age , sex , comorbid conditions , pharmacy benefit status , and complications of dementia , mean costs per year of medical services and prescription drugs were found to be ~us$3900 lower in the donepezil group .
reduced expenditures were most apparent in lower use of inpatient hospital and postacute skilled nursing facility ( snf ) services , but were partially offset by the higher prescription - drug costs in donepezil - treated patients .
briefer treatment duration ( < 9 months ) was associated with lesser benefit ( ~us$3600 ) .
another managed care study examined costs in 1366 patients with ad and related disorders and 13660 controls ( fillit et al 2002 ) . among more mildly impaired ad patients ,
unfortunately , no statistical analysis of this figure is reported , so its meaningfulness can not be interpreted .
more recently , healthcare costs in association with donepezil were assessed in a managed medicare setting ( lu et al 2005 ) .
cost data from 229 donepezil - treated patients were compared with data from 458 dementia patients who had never been treated using a regression analysis to estimate the impact of donepezil treatment on healthcare costs and utilization over one year of follow up .
the groups were matched for age , sex , number of comorbid conditions , and complications of severe dementia .
the mean costs of medical services per year in the donepezil group were ~us$2500 less than those in the control group . significantly lower
hospital and skilled nursing facility costs in the treated group were partially offset by us$1241 higher costs associated with higher prescription medication , physician office and outpatient hospital expenditures .
patients receiving donepezil had less use of much more expensive inpatient services and a higher number of physician s office visits ( 11 vs 8 visits ) compared with controls , suggesting a more cost - effective use of healthcare resources in the treated group .
caution is warranted in interpreting these case - control findings , however , since the social and family environment of patients receiving prescription medication for dementia is likely to differ from those not being similarly treated , and the cost effects may simply be correlates of overall family function .
space precludes a detailed review of all claims of cost - benefit related to treatment with antidementia drugs based on economic modeling , but there are common themes among them .
most have been sponsored by manufacturers of therapeutic agents and most have reported positive results , which raises the possibility of publication bias in the available studies .
prior to the emergence of prospective pharmacoeconomic data since 2003 , economic implications of ad therapies were typically imputed on the basis increased direct costs of care associated with higher levels of severity
. some older economic models did not identify higher total costs of care in more severely affected patients , as it appeared that costs shifted from being informal and caregiver - borne , to formal and institutionally - borne .
however , more recent data suggests dramatic increases in both direct and indirect costs with disease progression ( langa et al 2001 ; zhu et al 2006 ) .
assumptions about costs of care as they relate to measures of severity have been generated by analysis of caregiver reported service use in small samples . among the most commonly cited
is the study by ernst and colleagues ( 1997 ) , which used a cohort of 64 patients to estimate costs associated with specific cognitive test scores and used that information to predict the economic consequences of maintaining or improving cognition .
the predicted economic impact of a theoretical treatment was greatest in the moderately impaired patients , rather than mild or end - stage patients .
the report provides an example of a person with a mmse of 7 ; if treatment could prevent cognitive decline for 1 year , cost savings would be ~us$3700 ( in 1997 dollars ) . sustaining a two point increase in mmse in
the same patient would predict an annual cost savings of ~us$7100 ( ernst et al 1997 ) .
subsequent studies have mapped cognitive results from double - blind placebo - controlled trials of anti - dementia drugs onto this model to estimate cost - savings with available therapeutic agents ( hauber et al 2000 ) .
more recent studies suggest that daily function is a better predictor of costs than cognition ( wolstenholme et al 2002 ; zhu 2006 ) .
numerous studies of cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine have shown relative preservation of functional capacity in comparison to placebo , which might be predicted to reduce costs . however , among studies with statistically significant advantages on functional ratings among the treated cohort , prospectively collected pharmacoeconomic data have not shown predicted levels of direct cost savings ( wimo et al 2003a , 2003b ; ad2000 2004 ; feldman et al 2004 ) .
another common approach to modeling cost savings with treatment is the use of statistical models that estimate costs avoided by delaying transition to more severe levels of impairment or dependency ( stewart et al 1998 ; ward et al 2003 ; jones et al 2004 ) .
these approaches are supported by a double - blind placebo controlled trial of donepezil that showed a higher likelihood of maintaining daily function in the treated group over one year ( mohs et al 2000 ) , but is not supported by the ad2000 trial , which showed no effect of donepezil treatment on time to increased disability ( ad2000 2004 ) . a key issue in the interpretation of the economics associated with
delayed - transition models is whether the patient is dependent , ie , requires full time care , while residing in community settings . if all patients residing in community settings are considered
nondependent , as was done in formulating policy on payment for antidementia drugs in the uk , then the potential to discern economic effects of treatment is minimized ( neumann et al 2005 ) .
clearly , better consensus on defining dependency in dementia and associated health utility estimates that influence the calculation of qalys is required .
a relatively understudied component of the economic consequences of the antidementia drugs is their impact on behavioral disturbances intrinsic to the disease .
behavioral symptoms like agitation , aggression , and psychosis are major drivers of cost in community dwelling dementia patients ( herrmann et al 2006 ) , as well as a critical factor in the economically important decision to institutionalize . while there are indications that cholinesterase inhibitors can reduce , or delay the emergence of behavioral symptoms , either alone ( trinh et al 2003 ) or in conjunction with memantine ( cummings et al 2006 ) , no cost - benefit analyses of this effect appear to have been published . in summary ,
more research is required to understand how they can be effectively and objectively applied , and whether they will better map onto prospectively observed outcomes .
numerous studies employing different methodologies have been undertaken to explore the potential value of antidementia therapies . despite their common use in many countries , definitive evidence of cost benefits
the calculation of health utilities , which determine cost - effectiveness , remains fraught with lack of consensus and idiosyncratic interpretations of existing data ( neumann 2005 ) .
furthermore , in the absence of a better understanding of how to measure quality of life issues among people with dementia and their caregivers , the theoretical basis of qaly - based measurements is doubtful in this patient population .
prospective trials suggest but do not confirm benefits at the family and societal levels and argue against direct individual cost benefits to the patient .
in contrast , population based studies suggest reduced costs of care to insurers among patients treated with cholinesterase inhibitors .
it is likely that family and social factors predisposing to better overall care contribute to positive outcomes observed in the managed care settings .
published studies that model costs and savings tend to appear the most favorable toward antidementia treatments , but are subject to several levels of bias in design , interpretation , and publication .
the current state of the available data is perhaps best summarized by the cochrane library review of cholinesterase inhibitors for dementia , which states that , it would be inappropriate for any provider of healthcare to make a decision regarding the availability of ( antidementia drugs ) for patients based on these economic models ( birks 2006 ) .
there is a troubling undertone in discussions about cost and effectiveness regarding treatments for ad .
advocates and critics alike seem to ignore the roles of the patient / family unit and the physician in the decision - making process regarding whether treatment is providing a meaningful benefit .
treat none ( clarke 2004 ) dichotomy implied by the question , are antidementia therapies cost - effective ?
existing data indicate that families are able to identify and report individualized goals for dementia intervention ( rockwood et al 2002 ) and that physicians acknowledge that there are treatment outcomes not detected by standard instruments ( rockwood et al 2004 ) . in light of this , and the fact that most patients seek care for symptomatic illnesses to relieve suffering rather than reduce costs , it seems appropriate to make individualized treatment decisions based on the patient / family s needs and goals , and monitor the success of treatment in achieving them . if treatment creates intolerable adverse effects , or fails to deliver satisfactory levels of efficacy , discontinuation would be warranted ( and likely cost - effective ) .
in contrast , if the patient is doing discernibly well , relative to expectation , and the family is satisfied with the situation , then continuing the therapy would seem appropriate on clinical grounds alone .
ad is a devastating and depersonalizing illness , and there is reasonable evidence available that treatment can blunt its effects in many patients . at the current state of knowledge , careful clinical decision - making in collaboration with the patient and family rather than isolated consideration of murky economic factors appears to be the most prudent and compassionate course of action to determine treatment strategies for the patient with dementia . | pubmed |
Does potential difference or current drive electrolysis?
Would a high voltage ( of the order of a few score kV ) drive electrolysis?
Or, does it require a large current and low voltage? Alternatively, does electrolysis require both large voltage & large current?
For any electrochemcial reaction, electrons are transfer from the oxidant to the reductant. By definition, any flow of charge per unit time period is an electric current.
However, in the case of electrolysis, the electron transfer is not spontaneous. An external energy source is required for the reaction to take place. The energy (work) provided per unit charge is called the voltage.
For any electrolysis reaction to occur therefore requires a supply of electrical energy which means both a voltage and electric current are needed.
Specifically, the amount of work (energy) resulting from a voltage, $V$ and a current, $I$ applied for a time $t$ is given by:
Work produced by electrical energy, $W = V\cdot I\cdot t$
For a given electrolytic reaction to proceed, the required minimum voltage which must be applied is determined from the Gibb's function,
$E^\circ\_\text{cell}=\frac{-\Delta G^\circ}{nF}$
Where $E^\circ\_\text{cell}$ is the minimum voltage needed for the electrolysis reaction to occur, $\Delta G^\circ$ is the change in Gibb's free energy under standard conditions, $n$ is the number of electrons transferred and $F$ is Faraday's constant (96,485 coulombs per mole).
For example, if pure water is placed in an 'electrolytic cell' with two non-reactive electrodes (eg: platinum), electrons forced into the 'cell' by an electrical source (eg: battery) will react with water molecules at the cathode forcing them to lyze (split) into hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions.
$\ce{H2O(aq) ->[\text{elect}] H+(aq) + OH- (aq)}$
At the surface of the 'anode', hydroxide ion will be oxidised (dontate electrons) to form oxygen gas.
$\ce{4OH- (aq) -> 2H2O + O2 + 4e- }$ (anode half-cell reaction)
Meanwhile, at the surface of the 'cathode', hydrogen ions will accept electrons to form hydrogen gas.
$\ce{2H+(aq) + 2e- -> H2(g)}$ (cathode half-cell reaction)
The overall cell reaction is therefore:
$\ce{2H2O(aq) -> 2H2(g) + O2(g)}$ ; $\Delta G^\circ=237.2\ \mathrm{kJ/mol}$
The positive Gibb's function for this reaction indicates that the reaction will not occur sponteneously but requires an external energy source (eg: electrical energy), which is reflected in the negative cell potential.
The minimum (theoretical) voltage required is:
$E^\circ\_\text{cell}=\frac{-\Delta G^\circ}{nF}=\frac{-237.2 \times 10^{3}}{2\times 96485}=-1.23\ \mathrm{V}$
However, in practice, a slightly larger voltage of 1.48 V is required since the enthalpy (heating) of the products results in slightly lower efficiency which is manifested as an overpotential of about 0.25 V.
Once this critical voltage level is exceeded, the electrolysis reaction proceeds at a rate determined largely by the the current, since the current represents the rate at which charge is delivered to the system. Basically, the higher the current, the more molecules will react (electrolyze) and the more products (hydrogen gas) will form per unit time.
Current is, by definition, a flow of charged particles, so it doesn't drive anything. Electrical potential is a store of energy (you can think of a voltage source as an ideal "battery" of sorts).
One volt can produce $\pu{1 A}$ of current through a $\pu{1 \Omega}$ resistor. One ampere of current is equal to a coulomb per second. One [coulomb](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb) is $6.24150965(16)×10^{18}$ electrons. Were you to use enough voltage that oxidation at the anode released enough electrons to produce a massive current, you'd likely deplete your anode material before you ever achieved it.
**Want to improve this post?** Add citations from reputable sources by [editing the post](/posts/18920/edit). Posts with unsourced content may be edited or deleted.
High voltage and low current is more efficient but must be oscillated at specific frequencies to be effective low cost electrolysis. it is the oscillation that breaks the bond of hydrogen and oxygen not the current or voltage. Current can be below .5 amp at millions of volts and still be non life threatening like a stun gun. But you need to experiment with the frequency of oscillation to find the most efficient electrolysis.
| stackexchange/chemistry |
Do Maxwell's Equations depend upon an orientation of space?
Even when we cast Maxwell's Equations in as coordinate-independent form as possible, $dF=0$ and $d \star F = J$, we still have to make use of the Hodge star $\star$ which is defined relative to an orientation. It doesn't look like the equations are preserved under orientation-reversal.
But does space have an orientation, or is it just an artefact? It seems unphysical. I thought all classical theories were invariant under parity.
Thanks.
>
> It doesn't look like the equations are preserved under orientation-reversal.
>
>
>
Short answer: Maxwell’s equations are preserved under a parity transformation, but you have to be careful to transform quantities correctly.
We have to address two questions.
1. What happens to the quantities involved in Maxwell’s equations upon a parity transformation?
The normal vector quantities: positions, velocities, forces, and $J$ (vector current density) transform in the usual way, they all flip sign. The electric field is also defined to change sign, but the magnetic field is an odd duck, it is defined to keep its sign (and is called a "pseudovector" for that reason).
In the covariant formulation, you can deduce how both fields (and $F$) transform from just one rule: the four-potential $A$ is defined to transform as a normal four-vector (i.e. the time component stays the same, the spacial components change sign).
Finally, in the language of differential forms, $F$ is a two-form, which is invariant under the parity transformation, and $J$ is a twisted three-form, which changes sign under parity.
2. Do Maxwell’s equations still hold if we perform a parity transformation?
Yes, if we follow the rules in the previous paragraph the equations still hold. In fact that's why we define the magnetic field (or $A$ in the covariant formulation) to transform in this way.
In the language of differential forms, $\mathrm{d}\star F = J$ stays true under parity, because both sides change sign.
At the freshman level, we can visualize why we define the magnetic field to not change sign with a simple example. Imagine a long wire with a current going through it, and the magnetic field curling around it according to the right hand rule. What happens if you reflect everything about the origin? The current will of course change direction, but now you have to decide what you will do with the magnetic field. If you decide to transform it the way normal vectors transform, by changing its sign, then the resulting picture will become unphysical, the magnetic field will stop following the right hand rule. But if you follow the "odd duck" prescription for the magnetic field, then after the transformation everything will still look great.
It is only necessary that the space of solutions is preserved. (And, after all, elementary particle reactions do not preserve parity.) But the physical solutions to Maxwell's equations are unchanged if you choose a different orientation.
| stackexchange/physics |
FAKE Remembering Old Friends
**Title:** Remembering Old Friends
**Fandom:** FAKE
**Author:** badly-knitted
**Characters:** Dee, Ryo, mentions Jess Latener, Tommy, Barry, and Arnon.
**Rating:** PG
**Setting:** Vol. 6 Act 18
**Summary:** Dee visits Jess's grave and thinks about his childhood friends.
**Word Count:** 583
**Written For:** Challenge #93: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge #19: Old Friends
**Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
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OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
.
More than ten years had passed since Jess died, but Dee still visited his grave every year on October 15th, without fail. He'd been an important part of Dee's life growing up, almost as important as Mother, and that hadn't changed with his death. A lot had happened in Dee's life since that day, but he still felt a need to touch base with Jess, even if it was just once a year. It gave him the opportunity to reminisce, think about old times and old friends.
Later, he'd visit Arnon's grave too; his friend's life had been cruelly cut short and those responsible had never paid for the crime, but Dee lived in hope that one day he could bring them to justice. Maybe. It wouldn't be for Arnon's death, true, but just getting them off the street would be a victory. They were Mob though; pinning anything on them was never going to be straightforward.
In the early years, he'd had company on his annual visits, meeting up with Tommy and Barry at the orphanage and heading out to the cemetery together, but gradually the other two had drifted away. Tommy had joined the army when he turned eighteen, Dee didn't know where he was stationed now; they'd kept in touch at first, but he hadn't heard from him in over five years. Life takes people in different directions. Barry had been full of big ambitions when they'd been kids, but the last time Dee had seen him he'd been tending bar in a trendy nightclub. He'd seemed happy enough then, he'd always been an optimistic guy, but the place had closed a couple of years back and Dee had lost track of him after that. He should have tried harder to keep in touch with them both.
So now here he sat, smoking and drinking, telling Jess what had been going on in his own life since his last visit and feeling oddly melancholy. Ryo couldn't have picked a better time to show up; just having company made the day seem a little brighter, and it was Ryo's company he craved more than any other person's these days.
It felt good to tell someone about how it had been back then, and Dee found himself remembering things he'd almost forgotten. For a while it was as if he was a kid again, hanging out with the guys and getting yelled at by Jess. Ryo was always a good listener.
Dee smiled to himself, leaning into Ryo's embrace. Jess would have liked Ryo, it was a shame they'd never meet. Maybe tomorrow he'd see if he could track Barry down. His mom still lived in the same apartment; she'd have his phone number and know where he was working these days. If Barry had heard from Tommy, perhaps they could get together sometime soon, kind of a mini reunion. He'd invite Ryo too of course, introduce his oldest friends to his newest, his partner…
With that in mind, and feeling better than he had all day, Dee scrambled to his feet and turned to Ryo.
"I'm gonna go visit Arnon's grave now. If you're not in any hurry, you could come with."
"Sure, I've got time. Maybe you could tell me how the four of you met."
"Oh, now that's a great story!" Dee glanced back at Jess's grave as they moved away.
"Bye, Dad. See ya next year."
He hoped that wherever he was now, Jess was proud of him.
.
The End
End file.
| fanfiction |
Are you an Engineering or Business student? Looking for a full-time job this Fall with career potential? Come learn with an industry leader!
Ocean Concrete & Rempel Bros. Concrete, divisions of Lehigh Hanson Materials Limited, are looking for a Student for relief work in their Vancouver Customer Service and Dispatch office. During the 4 months (September through December) term the Student gets valuable insight into how we build strong relationships with customers by providing them with solutions based on product expertise. This position will reside in our Vancouver location.
Reporting to the Customer Service Representative Supervisor, this position is a relief to our Customer Service Representatives and responds to customer inquiries, advises customers on technical merit of various mixes and products, receives and inputs concrete orders, determines schedule of deliveries, processes order information and other duties as required. | slim_pajama |
Janet Evanovich 1. Chapter 1
Authors note: This is the first time I've ever written anything thats not for school so PLEASE PLEASE review and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Janet Evanovich. I make no money from this, its all in good fun, and all will be returned when i'm done, except maybe Ranger...and Tank...and...
Thirteen Steps
My name is Stephanie Plum and my life is a roller coaster. Not one of the little ones at the county fair that only have 2 cars and go like 20 miles an hour. My life is more like the ones at Great Adventure theme park. It goes about 100 miles an hour with sudden drops and unexpected turns, and don't forget the loops. My life has lots and lots of loops.
Why is this my life you ask? Simple. Men. Two men in particular, Joseph Anthony Morelli and Ricardo Carlos Manoso. Joe Morelli and I go way back, all the way back to a game of choo choo in his garage when I was six. If you think this sets a bad precedent for the rest of our relationship, well, you'd be right. Joe is Italian, a cop, and extremely hot. We currently exist in a state of off again on again that im told is an unhealthy pattern of behavior. My mother thinks I should hurry up, marry him and have children. I don't see that happening anytime soon. Carlos Manoso is known as Ranger and he's a more recent addition to my life. He started off as my mentor when I started my old job of Bond Enforcement Agent or bounty hunter. Ranger is Cuban American and hot doesn't even begin to describe him. We flirt a lot and we've had one incredible night. All this along with getting each other shot a few times and saving each others asses. Although I have to note that Rangers' been more helpful to me than I am to him but that's neither here nor there.
You might have noticed that I said my old job as a bounty hunter. I didn't quit to get married or go work in the button factory as Joe or my mother would like. I also didn't leave to work in another of the minimum wage dead end jobs that I've had when I got sick of being shot at, kidnaped or firebombed. Nope not me, why do the easy more acceptable thing. I did what any respectable Jersey girl who was sick of rolling around in garbage and sick of not being able to take care of herself would do. I went back to work for Ranger at his company Rangeman. Oh boy, talk about unexpected twists.
"Im sorry what did you say? Cause for a second there Cupcake I thought you said you're going to work at Rangeman" Joe said this while rubbing his forehead, but he wasn't yelling and I was still Cupcake so its not that serious. "I mean besides the fact that hes a crazed mercenary with no morals. Forget that he looks at you like you're dinner. What about the fact that anytime you get involved with him someone gets shot?!? Huh Stephanie? Have you lost your mind?!!"
By this point Joe was screaming and id had enough. "Excuse you Joseph Morelli I'll have you know that Rangers been shot more than I have and one of the times I was shot I was helping you!"
"Christ, I cant believe im having this conversation. I think im getting an ulcer."
"Relax Joe, im working in an office building for crying out loud. Nothing will ever happen to me at Rangeman. Especially with Ranger looking out for me."
"That's what im worried about Stephanie."
"Cut the crap Joe, I don't say anything about you going off and working with Terry Gilman."
"Here we go again. Just trust me."
"Do the same for me Joe and stop throwing a fit every time I mention Ranger!" Joe's pager beeped, he looked at it and turned to walk away. "I cant do this now I have to go meet an informant." Ugh! Stupid Morelli men who need 'em. I started walking to my Mini which has lasted far longer than anyone thought it would. Money was being passed by the cops in the parking lot who came out to see the commotion. Im glad someone gets enjoyment out of my life cause at the moment im not.
_RING RING _"What!?" "Is that any way to answer your phone? People will think I raised you without any manners. What's this I hear about you screaming at that nice Morelli boy in front of the police station? You know he wont want to marry you if you keep acting like this. Why my? Pam Wyzinski's daughter doesn't yell on street corners. Carol Fiorello's daughter doesn't go off and start working for some strange colored man. I hear the button factory is hiring..." " Mom? I cant talk now, gotta go, bye."
A black Porsche 911 Turbo pulled up to the curb. The tinted windows powered don and Ranger looked out. "Babe" The car drove off into traffic. I need a donut. I need therapy. I need to go to Macys.
2. Chapter 2
Disclamer: it's not mine and i'll give it all back when im done...
Thirteen Steps
Four Boston cremes, two pairs of shoes, and three beers later im lying on my bed flat on my back in my thinking position. I can hear Rex running in his cage like the good little son he is. Soon it'll be me running but I figure if a hamster can do it and not drop dead of exhaustion then so can I.
The locks on my front door tumble open. I reach for the gun under my pillow even though I know I wont need it. A tingle that starts at the base of my spine lets me know who is at my door before I see his face. Ranger leans against the door fame with his arms crossed. Seeing his face so relaxed reminds me of a few weeks ago. His face wasn't relaxed when he entered my apartment coming to save his daughter Julie and I from a lunatic who wanted to be Ranger. The horror of watching Ranger being shot has haunted my dreams almost every night since. Yet another reason for Morelli to dislike him, me waking up at night screaming Ranger's name. Looking at him makes me think of Julie. We had bonded over our short time together in captivity with Scrog. We send each other emails every week and she's a great kid. You can definitely tell that she's her fathers daughter.
"Babe, there's smoke coming out of your ears." Damn I love this man. And he loves me too, in his own way, whatever the hell that means. Of course this isn't a good thing considering that i'm in a relationship with another man, one that I also love.
"Just wanted to check on you. Don't forget we start running tomorrow morning at 6."
"I will be there with bells on."
Ranger gives me that almost smile but it quicky morphs back into blank face. "Are you sure you want to work for Rangeman? I don't wanna rock the boat with you and Morelli."
"Its fine, he'll either get over it or he wont. You need a business manger and I have a degree in business. Thanks to you I also have a working knowledge of the security field. As long as this isn't a pity position I still want the job."
Ranger give me the full 200 watt smile now, "Definitely no pity positions in the office. The bedroom maybe, but not the office." The last time Ranger made a zing at my sex life with Joe I laughed. This time the thought of Ranger and I in the bedroom sent a shot of desire straight to my doodah.
"You're poaching."
"That's not poaching Babe. Trust me when im poaching you'll know. That was me applying a little pressure." I blink as I digest this and he's gone. Sometimes I swear he really is smoke.
Authors Note: Thanks to all who reviewed. I was not sure if I should continue, but thanx to u guys I will continue posting. I know this was a short chapter but it was the only place that a cutoff made sense.
3. Chapter 3
_Author's note:_ S_orry about the wait, FF was having some issues.I hope to update at least once a week from now on. **PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW** any and all thoughts are appreciated. _
Disclaimer: I dont own it and all that jazz...
_**13 Steps**_
I woke to a loud pounding on my door. When the heck did I fall asleep? The pounding gets louder as I walk to open the door.
"Hey white girl. What's your skinny ass doing sleep this time of day? Recovering from your new job with Batman? Of course if it was me, we'd still be working in the bedroom ya know?"
"Hey Lula, I thought you and Tank had a thing."
"We do but I aint blind. I think Rangers hot just like every other chick. Tank is definitely more than enough man for me. I tell you he big? Girl, let me tell you..."
"Lula! Lula!"
"Yeah girl"
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, well see here, I got this great case from Vinnie and I thought to myself, lets go get Steph. This is just the kinda thing she likes. Besides we wouldn't want your skills to get rusty now would we?"
"Im not a bounty hunter anymore Lula. If you need help why didn't you call Tank?"
"I never mix business with pleasure and you know you miss it."
" Miss it? I I've been gone for 2 days. I didn't have a chance to miss it."
" You know you don't wanna let Lula go after this guy alone. Its only his first offense how bad can it be?"
"Fine, lets go." Somehow I knew that this wasnt a good idea.
I grabbed my keys and followed Lula out. She started her red Firebird and Ludacris blasted out of the speakers, "_Shake your money maker like somebody's bout to pay ya"_
"Hold on Lula, let me take my car. I need to go to my parents house after this."
Following Lula through the Burg I couldn't help but wonder what this guy got arrested for. The fact that Lula didn't give me the barest of details was starting to leave a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I walked to the back of the house on the assumption that the perp would run out the back door. I knew that if I opened my door to a 200 pound plus black woman in electric blue tiger print spandex, i'd run through the back too. Five minutes later and I was starting to get worried.
"Hey get away from that car! What are you doing?", I heard Lula shout. An explosion sounded and I ran to the front of the house. My Mini was a fireball.
"Lula!!What the hell happened to my car?"
"The FTA ran past me and threw a stick of dynamite at your car and it exploded." We could hear sirens approaching in the background.
"What the hell was he doing with dynamite Lula?"
"Well he was a demolitions expert for a construction company. He got arrested for blowing up his ex- wife's house after he got drunk. He lost his job with the company, but I guess he kept a few supplies for himself."
A Trenton P.D. car pulled up to the curb and Carl Constanza and Big Dog got out.
"I love you Plum. Thanks for destroying that car today. I won big money since its lasted as long as it had", Constanza grinned as he said this. Fire trucks and squad cars pulled up and I knew it would only be a matter of minutes before someone called Morelli. I hoped that for once no one told him of my latest disaster but that was a wasted wish as his POS Crown Victoria screeched to the curb.
Lula said, "I think i'll be on my way now, you know its almost dinner time and i'm not really needed here." She speed walked to the Firebird and peeled out like the devil was after her.
"Cupcake, I thought you said you'd be working in an office building. No explosions you said. What the hell Stephanie?"
"It wasnt my fault. It wasnt even my skip. Lula asked me to help her with an FTA. I didn't know he was a demolitions expert."
"Its never your fault Stephanie. Im surprised Ranger isn't here like a knight in shining armor to check on you. Of course then he'll present you with a car that's worth six figures which you will destroy. Then the cycle starts all over again. Damnit Steph!"
"Get over yourself Morelli!"
The words had barely past my lips when a black Bronco stopped across the street. Ranger exited dressed in his normal attire of SWAT black.
"Babe."
He gave me the once over with those piercing brown eyes as only he could. He nodded at Joe and walked back to the waiting SUV which left as soon as he closed the door.
Morelli sighed. "Relax Joe, Im sure he's just making sure his employee will be able to start work tomorrow."
He sighed again. "Since you're here why don't you take me to my parents house. If we leave now we just might make it on time to dinner."
End file.
| fanfiction |
crohn s disease ( cd ) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract of unknown etiology .
are common features , and nutritional deficiencies occur in cd patients in both active and remission phases .
emaciation is found in 2075% of patients with cd [ 1 , 2 ] , and approximately 75% of hospitalized cd patients are undernourished [ 3 , 4 ] .
malnutrition in cd patients is associated with decreased dietary intake , malabsorption , and protein - losing enteropathy .
furthermore , micronutrient deficiencies including vitamin d , vitamin b12 , folic acid , zinc and selenium are frequent in these patients [ 58 ] .
nutritional support is essential for cd patients , and nutritional therapy such as enteral nutrition ( en ) or total parenteral nutrition ( tpn ) has been established as primary therapy for cd as well as infliximab therapy and steroid therapy . especially , elemental diet therapies are effective in both induction and maintenance therapies [ 911 ] , although their therapeutic mechanisms are still unknown .
. however , melchior et al . reported that measured ree ( mree ) was approximately 33 kcal / kg / day in patients with cd , which was lower than the ree observed in other diseases .
furthermore , schneeweiss et al . reported that mree was not significantly different between cd patients and healthy subjects .
in japan , nutritional therapies such as en or tpn therapies are widely accepted , but energy metabolism in japanese patients with cd remains unclear .
total energy of en or tpn is usually determined by using predicted resting energy expenditure ( pree ) calculated by the harris - benedict equation , and total energy requirements are calculated by pree active factor stress factor . on the other hand , mree can be determined by indirect calorimetry .
theoretically , pree is equal to mree in healthy humans , and mree / pbee ratios are markers of hyper - metabolic status . in this study
, we evaluated energy metabolism in japanese patients with cd and suggested optimal energy requirements for nutritional therapies .
sixteen patients with cd ( 5 women and 11 men , median age 36 years old ) and 8 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study .
all patients had the diagnosis of cd established by radiological , histological , and clinical criteria . among these patients , two patients had colitic disease , six patients had ileal disease and eight patients had ileocolitic disease .
infliximab therapy has just been started in four patients , and ( oral ) prednisone ( 1030 mg / day ) was taken by five patients .
mrees and respiratory quotients ( rq ) were measured by computed open - circuit indirect calorimetery ( ae-300s ; minato medical science co. , osaka , japan ) .
indirect calorimetry ( ic ) was performed in the hospital room the morning after a 10-h overnight fasting , but infusion of total parenteral nutrition solution were kept on going .
period flow and gas calibration were performed prior to measurements . after resting for a minimum of 30 min ,
after equilibrium was reached for 10 min , respiratory exchange was performed continuously over 30 min .
mree was calculated from oxygen consumption ( vo2 ) and carbon dioxide production ( vco2 ) by the weir equation .
mree = ( 3.94 vo2 + 1.11 vco2 ) 1.44 measurement of the rq was calculated as rq = vco2/vo2 .
man ; pree = 66.47 + 13.75 w + 5.0 h 6.75 a woman ; pree = 665.09 + 9.56 w + 1.84 h 4.67 a where pree stands for resting energy expenditure ( kcal / day ) , w for weight ( kg ) , h for height ( cm ) and a for age ( years ) . differences between groups were analyzed with kruskal - wallis tests . a p value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant .
sixteen patients with cd ( 5 women and 11 men , median age 36 years old ) and 8 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study .
all patients had the diagnosis of cd established by radiological , histological , and clinical criteria . among these patients , two patients had colitic disease , six patients had ileal disease and eight patients had ileocolitic disease .
infliximab therapy has just been started in four patients , and ( oral ) prednisone ( 1030 mg / day ) was taken by five patients .
mrees and respiratory quotients ( rq ) were measured by computed open - circuit indirect calorimetery ( ae-300s ; minato medical science co. , osaka , japan ) .
indirect calorimetry ( ic ) was performed in the hospital room the morning after a 10-h overnight fasting , but infusion of total parenteral nutrition solution were kept on going . period flow and gas calibration were performed prior to measurements . after resting for a minimum of 30 min , patients were assessed in a supine position with a facemask .
after equilibrium was reached for 10 min , respiratory exchange was performed continuously over 30 min .
mree was calculated from oxygen consumption ( vo2 ) and carbon dioxide production ( vco2 ) by the weir equation .
mree = ( 3.94 vo2 + 1.11 vco2 ) 1.44 measurement of the rq was calculated as rq = vco2/vo2 .
man ; pree = 66.47 + 13.75 w + 5.0 h 6.75 a woman ; pree = 665.09 + 9.56 w + 1.84 h
4.67 a where pree stands for resting energy expenditure ( kcal / day ) , w for weight ( kg ) , h for height ( cm ) and a for age ( years ) .
differences between groups were analyzed with kruskal - wallis tests . a p value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant .
patients were not significantly different from control subjects in age and height , but had significantly lower body weights , and thus lower bmis ( table 1 ) .
crohn s disease activity index from these patients was 231.3 84.8 , and c - reactive protein was 3.24 4.6 mg / dl .
average hemoglobin , red blood cell count , white blood cell count and platelet count were 10.64 2.1 g / dl , 400.8 62.6 10/mm , 7540 3490/mm , 35.4 12.2 10/mm respectively .
serum albumin and total - cholesterol is 3.46 0.44 g / dl and 127.9 47.6 mg / dl . in cd patients , mree determined by indirect calorimetry was 1271 181.7 kcal / day and pree calculated by the harris - benedict equation was 1372.7 143.7 kcal / day , respectively . as shown in fig . 1
, there were significant correlations between mree and pree in cd patients ( p<0.001 ) as well as in healthy controls ( p<0.05 ) .
both mree and pree in cd patients were slightly lower than those of healthy controls , but there was no significant difference . on the other hand ,
mree / body weight of cd patients ( 24.4 2.4 kcal / kg / day ) was significantly higher than that of healthy control subjects ( 21.3 1.7 kcal / kg / day ) ( table 1 ) .
similarly , pree / body weight of cd patients ( 26.4 2.6 kcal
/ kg / day ) was also significantly higher than that of healthy control subjects ( 22.9 2.6 kcal / kg / day ) ( table 1 ) . in cd patients ,
mree / body weight was significantly lower than pree / body weight ( 26.4 2.5 kcal / kg / day ) ( fig . 2 ) .
in only two patients , mree / body weight was higher than pbee / body weight , and one of them developed complications including an abdominal abscess with fever .
rq in these patients was 0.94 0.14 , and there were significant positive correlations between mree and rq ( fig .
3 ) , whereas there were no significant correlations between mree and rq in healthy controls ( p = 0.075 ) . however , there were no significant correlations between mree and bmi , or between rq and bmi in cd patients .
subjects were also categorized into two groups based on body mass index ( group a ; < 18.5 vs group b ; > 18.5 ) .
there were no significant differences in height , body weight , pree , mree and between groups , but there were significant differences in pree / body weight ( p<0.021 ) .
the mree / body weight in group a ( 24.7 1.2 kcal / kg / day ) was almost same as that of group b ( 24.1 3.0 kcal / kg / day ) .
this study showed that measured ree by ic in hospitalized cd patients was 24.4 2.4 kcal / kg / day , and this was significantly higher than that in healthy controls .
this result suggests that cd patients apparently have a hyper - metabolic status , and supports observations from previous studies [ 1216 ] .
however , mree was significantly lower than pree calculated by the harris - benedict equation in cd patients . usually , energy requirements in hospitalized patients are calculated by pree active factor stress factor .
stress factor in patients with inflammatory bowel disease is recommended as 1.11.3 as well as in patients with cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease .
this adjustment may result in the actual energy expenditure as approximately 45 kcal / kg / day .
however , barot et al . reported that the pbee was equivalent to mree in non - septic cd patients .
they decided that energy requirement were often not greater than the predicted requirement by pree active factor stress factor .
the inflammatory bowel disease study group of the japanese ministry of health , labor and welfare also recommends that total energy of tpn or en should be 4045 kcal / ideal body weight / day in active cd patients .
kcal / kg / day ( 2530 kcal / ideal body weight ) may be ideal as total energy for en or tpn therapies for cd patients by calculating ree 1.21.3 as the active factor .
cd patients certainly have hyper - metabolic statuses , and but high - energy intakes during en or tpn therapies may have a risk of overfeeding .
european guidelines recommend that 2530 kcal / ideal body weight / day is optimal for active crohn s disease .
a previous study showed that rq in active cd is significant lower than in health controls ( cd patients ; 0.78 0.05 versus healthy controls ; 0.86 0.05 ) and energy metabolism in active cd resembled starvation patterns . in this study
, there is a positive correlation between mree / body weight and rq , and this finding shows that fat is mainly oxidated in low metabolic patients .
however , the present results revealed that ( the mean ) rq in hospitalized cd patients was 0.93 0.14 , and there was no significant difference from that found in controls . furthermore , there was no significant difference between rq and bmi , and rq was lower than 0.8 in only a few subjects ( 12.5% ) .
the aforementioned result may be explained by the fact that our patients had already received nutritional therapy .
based on these observations , our results did not support a previous report that energy metabolism of active cd patients mimic starvation patterns .
it has long been hypothesized that increased energy expenditure contributes to weight loss in patients with cd .
however , vaisman et al . reported that mree / pree was higher in a well - nourished cd group than in an undernourished cd group . in this study , mree / body weight in the undernourished group
was found to be equivalent to that in well - nourished group , and mree / pree was slightly higher in the well - nourished group than the undernourished group .
these observations support that increased energy expenditure is not a contributor to the underweight status of cd patients .
however , patients receiving this oral steroid were few in this study ( 31.2% ) .
reported that ree did not change after infliximab therapy , whereas rq increased after infliximab therapy .
their result revealed that lipolysis decreased and starvation improved in cd patients receiving infliximab therapy .
infliximab therapy is now going to be a main therapeutic tool in active cd patients , but nutritional management is necessary in these patients .
ree and rq determinations by indirect calorimetry are useful for cd patients receiving infliximab therapy as well as nutritional therapies . in conclusion
nutritional therapies consisting of 2530 kcal / ideal body weight / day are recommended as optimal for active cd patients . | pubmed |
Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries 1. Chapter 1
**Preface**
Note added in October 2009:
In the four months since this story and this preface were written, one of the things that has come to this writer's attention was that some of her readers have been really unpleasant to Charlaine Harris. I would hope that her readers and her fans would frankly just cut the woman some slack. I've edited this original preface to try to remove any suggestion that somehow, Ms. Harris just doesn't give a damn about reader reactions, because it's clearly not true for any writer. _Dead and Gone_ was not a very good book, but that's not a reason to be mean or intrusive in her life and work.
* * *
**Older Preface**
So you know there are a lot of frustrated Eric and Sookie fans out there when they start emailing fanfic authors about their disappointment after the most recent book. Quite a few people have asked me to continue writing E&S fanfiction, but it's been a real challenge, since I can't say I even like Sookie as a character after _Dead and Gone_, and to be perfectly frank, I don't even really think she _deserves_ Eric based on how she behaves with him.
But before you all get all sad and even more frustrated, here's a much requested Eric and Sookie story that follows _Dead and Gone_. The challenges included:
- Making the reader think that Sookie was just slammed with the effects of the harried pace and the many terrible things that happened to her, and to people she knew, in _DAG_. She was just too numb to react properly with anyone about anything. Like you know, Crystal and Claudine dying horrible deaths while pregnant, or the real reason to go to Tray Dawson's funeral is for TRAY not for Amelia, since Tray died defending Sookie, after all.
- Make the reason that Eric didn't come to rescue Sookie from the fairies plausible in the context of Eric's world.
- Make sense of the hanging threads, like the FBI plot thread.
- Redeem Sookie as a character, by starting to make her not just grow up, but grow a heart where the Viking is concerned.
- Develop more general life experience for Sookie so that she can put her telepathic gift and her ability to use it in a work capacity in better, _much_ less whiny perspective.
- And maybe make some love scenes that don't sound _cold hearted_.
- Oh, yeah, and my personal holy grail: remember when they actually used to laugh and have fun together? Hmmmmm. That was so far back.... maybe in _Club Dead_? Oh yeah, they used to like each other a bit. Hmmmm.
So I tried.
Some people out there may get testy about a certain aspect of this story. Hey, it's just a point of view, and really, given that Harris's original message appeared to be about tolerance and trying to make a better, broader world, cut me some slack, okay? It was pretty hard to find an angle to take Sookie that made me like writing her. She's so unpleasant in Book 9 that it's hard to write from her perspective. One aspect of the story has its origin in a very personal connection and was totally apropos for Memorial Day time. Plus, I can honestly say that in recent weeks, it's sadly not looking too far-fetched on the foreign front
This story is for Judy, Holly, Sinead, Margie, Aishe, Ange, and Fran, and the many other people who PM'd me about their intense disappointment about or frustration with _Dead and Gone _or telling me how much they enjoyed the other stories I've written and won't I please write more. You ladies are all so sweet. Thanks!
And this story is dedicated to the memory of Danny, who died in Kandahar in 2004. Your friends will never forget your message about how to create an _enduring_ better and more peaceful world. Properly educating children is the key to a better world.
So Dear Reader, I hope you find something to enjoy here and that if you hate it, you're not too bruising on the comments. (I'm trembling in my flats considering some of the stuff you guys have said about _Dead and Gone_ and stalled on publishing this because of that fact...)
And when you're done, if you liked the story, go check out the Central Asia Institute or read Greg Mortensen's _Three Cups of Tea_. The best antidote to unhappiness with your favorite series' latest outing is to read other books. _Three Cups of Tea_ is a good place to start. There's more to this world than vampires, ya know.
**Note to Readers: **Some brief passages in this story are in Swedish and you're meant to feel much as Sookie does in not understanding what's being said. No translations are provided in the text. If you want some sort of brief translation, you can go to: _translate_ dot _google_ dot _com _(Just put . for dot for that URL.) And remember internet translators aren't perfect. It should give you a feel for what's being said, though.
2. Chapter 1 for real
**I.**
**Early February 2006**
I looked at the caller ID before answering the call. Bill.
"Hello," I said quietly. I was sitting in their dark family room, watching a movie with Tara and JB.
"Sookie, how are you?" Bill said, sounding rather tense.
"Fine. I'm watching the movie 'V for Vendetta' with Tara and JB. Can I call you later?' I said softly.
In the background I heard Eric say, "Give me the phone. Leave me."
I cringed and suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to hang up. I resisted it.
"Sookie?" Eric's voice sounded tense, but it was softer than when he had been speaking to Bill.
I was silent for several seconds as I rose, gesturing to Tara that she shouldn't stop the DVD. I went outside on the back porch, into the chill night air.
"Eric?" I said in a cautious reply.
"I am under the impression that you are avoiding speaking to me. I have left you six messages, including one with the shifter and you have not returned my calls. You have not even returned a message from Pam. And yet you answer a call from Bill."
I was silent. As I'd gotten farther removed from the sheer terror phase of what I had been through, I'd made it through the shell-shocked phase and now I'd arrived at the anger phase. I was pretty much stuck in the anger phase. What could I say? Fuck you all for sending sweet but mindless Bubba to take care of me, and for everything that happened as a result of the half-assed protection I was supposed to be so grateful for? Your King's gratitude for my saving his life and yours is completely underwhelming me? You didn't come to rescue me when I was being tortured by sadistic fairies and Bill did and almost died, so I'll take his calls even if I'm avoiding anything but the ordinary at present because I'm so sick of all the supernatural savagery in the world? How about the simple and straightforward I don't want to deal with any of you and just want to be left alone? But I was my grandmother's well-brought up child…
"Well, I was expecting a call from someone and just had the phone right near me," I said quietly. It was true. I had asked Amelia to call me when she got back to New Orleans tonight. I was hoping she would. Because then it might mean that she wasn't totally blaming me for Tray's death and that our friendship wasn't at a terrible endpoint. That our friendship wasn't one more thing that was lost to me or that Neave and Lochlan and Breandan had managed to cut out of my life with their knives and razors and swords. My eyes smarted with tears I was too angry and too weary to cry.
Eric was silent on the other end of the line. Finally, he said,
"I'd like to see you, Lover. I'd like to speak with you in person. I can be at your house shortly. When will you be coming home?"
Why did it sound to me like that meant he was at Bill's house, using Bill's cell phone because he had checked out my house and found that I was not at home and figured that I might answer a call from Bill? I didn't want to talk. About what had happened, about us, about… anything. I wanted space. Distance. Silence.
"I can't tonight. I'm watching a movie with friends. I'm working tomorrow night. You can go to Merlotte's if you want. But tonight I'm busy. Actually, I need to go back inside. I'm missing the movie. I don't think I'll be going home tonight. I'm staying with my friends. So tomorrow's better."
Eric was silent on the other end, as if not quite sure what to say. Well, that was certainly a new experience. For both of us. I was sure he could tell I wasn't exactly being up front with him.
"Eric, I really need to go back inside because I'm getting cold. Tomorrow, then, right? Good night. Tell Bill I said good night, too," and then I simply hung up without waiting for an answer.
Time. Maybe I just needed more time. But would time really make things better? It had been a week since all of the dreadful events that had left my world in a shambles. Tomorrow I was starting back to work, since I really needed the money to stay within my budget, now that Amelia had moved out. As I sat back down on the couch, I got a text message from Amelia.
_Arrived. Take care._
I felt utterly hollow inside. My grandfather's enemies had almost killed me, and Bill, and they _had_ killed Claudine, Tray and Clancy, who were all dead because they had the misfortune of protecting me. They had probably ruined my friendship with Amelia. Plus, in one fell swoop I had lost three fifths of my family- Niall and Claude, who were returning forever to Faery, and Claudine, who was lost to the Summerlands. Jason and Hunter were all the family I had left. Jason was still not exactly over the fact that I had not told him about Niall for several months and that Niall wanted to know me and not him. And Hunter was a secret. I even felt bad about Crystal, who had been a victim first of my brother's friend Mel, but then ultimately of the sick fairy duo. I had never liked her, but she had been seven months pregnant with my brother's child. Claudine had probably been around five or six months pregnant. I so wanted children myself and couldn't imagine them dying with theirs. It was all simply horrifying. This was my life. And it was… horrifying.
I tried to get back into the movie, which was about making yourself immune to any type of fear, terror and abuse, whether psychological or physical, so that you could emerged unscathed from anything and be truly free. But it was just a movie. Whereas my life was too painful both emotionally and physically at present to even think about any kind of freedom. Since I had rescued Bill from being tortured by Lorena and now he'd, rather ironically, rescued me in the same sort of circumstance, I had to ask him sometime about the whole unscathed business. Because I really wasn't seeing how that was going to be possible. I was still healing, and between Eric's blood and my grandfather's healing kiss at our parting, there was at least some chance that I would not be permanently disfigured. I could firmly say that my bikini days appeared to be in the past unless I really wanted to flaunt my scars or have plastic surgery or something. But healing mentally, emotionally? That was going to be much harder. There were no kisses and no manner of blood that could fix those memories. Even if the physical scars actually faded, I was going to be left with those other ones for keeps.
Five minutes after I sat down I received a text message from Bill's cell phone number. I opened it with trepidation.
_I didn't have a choice. He told me to call you. He is very upset that you are not returning his calls._
I felt conflicted but texted back,
_I really can't deal with any of you right now. I want to be left alone. Sorry._
I didn't even care if Eric was the one who had sent the message from Bill's phone to see more of what my current mindset was. I was just too worn down by everything to care about bruised feelings. I had too many very real bruises of my own.
I still didn't understand why Eric hadn't come to help me when Neave and Lochlan were in the process of slicing me with knives and razors and biting flesh out of my thighs and hips and breasts. While they beat me, but just not senseless enough so I couldn't see and feel what they were doing to me. He had not come. Eric's blood had healed the bitten out parts to a large extent and most of the slashes and gouges. But it hadn't healed my mind. Even my great-grandfather's parting kiss hadn't. As the days passed, rather than feeling better mentally, I felt worse as I saw the grim looks of Sam, Bill, and even Claude when he came to say goodbye to me. Eric called me several times the first few nights, but did not visit after that second night when he gave me a bit more blood. After that second night I just stopped picking up, or returning, his calls. I was too depressed, I guess. Amelia left for New Orleans the day after Tray's funeral. She stopped in Lafayette to visit friends before returning home tonight. We had hardly spoken since Tray's death. I knew that even if she didn't directly blame me for what happened to him, that she thought that I had been the source of her sorrow. I could not disagree with her. Tray and Claudine had died because of me, had died protecting me. Even Clancy had. Bill had almost died. I couldn't deal with the fact that it just seemed like the cost of it all had been so high. Maybe too high. People talk about survivor's guilt. Well, it crushes you. I felt as if I had been in a fog those few days after Crystal's death and now, in retrospect, I questioned virtually everything I had done leading up to the fateful night when I had ultimately been the cause of three people's deaths. I had a feeling I would question for a long time to come. And I still wondered if Bill would survive, since he looked so very ill when I had seen him the day before yesterday.
I thought about talking to Eric about what had happened and the hollowness I felt inside just echoed even more. He hadn't come. I thought of that hour in that shack in Arkansas and all I could think of was that I would never forget two things. That it was possible to survive such horror, whether you even wanted to survive anymore or not, and that Eric hadn't come to save me when I was being bitten and practically flayed alive by two beings that could only be described as fiends.
"Tara, could I stay in your guestroom tonight? Would that be okay?"
She glanced over at me, almost puzzled.
"Are you okay? You look kind of upset." She looked at me more closely, with concern. I didn't reply. She reached over and stroked my arm. "Sure, you can stay with us, Sook. Don't you bother yourself. That accident really seems to have shaken you up, eh? You know you can stay with us as long as you want. You're gonna be fine."
Then she turned and went back to watching the movie. JB was holding her hand.
I envied her.
**
* * *
**
I didn't even notice exactly when Eric entered the bar. There was a 9 o'clock rush and we were packed. I was busy serving tables and I barely had enough strength back to be doing what I was doing. Sam had almost sent me home by 8 pm but I pleaded with him, pointing out that I really needed the money after missing a week of work and losing Amelia's contribution to the monthly expenses. He helped me by carrying my heavier trays.
I also didn't notice Eric entering because I didn't feel that usual warm and balmy verve through the bond. It was almost like it had been damaged ever since Neave and Lochlan had had their fun with me. Like it was worn out or worn down. Frayed at the edges. But at least it was clear they hadn't sliced up the bond entirely, since I felt an icy tension that was not just my own.
After speaking briefly with Sam and eyeing me as I worked delivering pitchers of beer and baskets of burgers, Eric sat at the bar rather than at my already packed station. I felt so edgy, as I felt him watching me carefully. He seemed to be talking to Sam, who finally called me over. After looking rather darkly at Eric, Sam said tersely that we could talk in his office. Eric rose and put his arm around my shoulders. Without even understanding why, I just tensed up.
"What about my tables Sam? Are you going to cover my tables _and_ the bar?"
Sam looked at me and without even needing to catch Eric's eye said,
"Sure," he said with a smile. "What do you think I did while you were out, cher? I can get by just fine. Don't you worry. You go talk as long as you need to."
Eric guided me back to Sam's office for the talk I didn't want to be having. After closing the door, he pulled me gently into his arms and held me. I felt weak. After several moments he bent his head lower and tipped my chin up and kissed me for a long time. He combed his fingers through my ponytail and then cupped the back of my head in his hand. His head hung down, chin almost touching his chest, eyes closed. Then he kissed my forehead and rested his chin on the top of my head. I felt like I was numb.
After a few more minutes like that, he took my hand and walked toward Sam's desk and sat down, pulling me into his lap. Then he looked me in the eyes.
"I missed you, Lover."
"Well, you've only seen me a few times in the past three months. So it must not have been too bad." I internally chastised myself as the words left my lips. I was already so on edge and now I was acting like a word that rhymed with witch when it seemed he was trying, on some level, to act comforting. I was, it seemed, beyond comforting. Or maybe I just wouldn't _let_ anyone comfort me.
I observed an ever so slight stiffening in his back.
"I would like to to talk to you about the night you were attacked. I told you I wanted to explain, once you were safe, why I was delayed. I wanted to be sure you understood why I couldn't come…"
I realized that I simply couldn't have this conversation. I couldn't bear it. There were things that I just didn't want to hear, didn't want to face. Eric's reasons were just one of the many. I had cost three people their lives, no matter how I looked at it. Almost four, considering Bill looked basically gray when I'd seen him three days before. And how did it all come about? I was supposed to be protected. But somehow it just seemed like that protection was little more than smoke and mirrors. The consequences of trusting that protection? People I knew had died for me_. Died because of me_. And I'd been carved up and bitten within an inch of my life. I was alive and three people were dead and gone. Eric's reasons didn't even matter. And I didn't want to hear some pack of excuses or regrets or apologies. Maybe too, no amount of protection could cover the cost of bad judgment. But still, I was angry about having received poor protection and at myself for trusting it.
"Look Eric, you guys are under no _real_ obligation to take care of me, okay? Clancy said it. I'm not your kind. He was right. I still can't believe he died fighting for something he didn't even agree with. But anyway, I know it sounds all dramatic and nice, Vampire Kings granting their protection, being so 'yours' and all that shit, but really in the end, it was all just platitudes and dramatic gesture on Felipe's part. I get it. I can be grown up about it. I don't need you to come and hug me and try to make it all better. Because really, it's not something that you can fix other than what you've already tried to do, after the fact. The blood was fine. Generous even. You didn't let Breandan get me. And I'm square with Bill. I saved him from Lorena and he saved me from the fairy fiends. Other than everybody that died, we're all square. Okay?"
I tried to rise from his lap, but he held me in place and looked even tenser.
"Would you settle down. I want to explain some things to you. I want you to understand…"
"Understand what? Bubba was the best you could do when I asked for protection? Look, just… forget it." I somehow managed to extricate myself from his hold and rose. I guess he wasn't going to hold onto me too hard because I still had some sutures, and bruises. "But for the record, Tray was more useful than Bubba was, even if he got tricked, too. At least he had some_ sense _he'd been tricked and compelled and poisoned. He left after telling me. At least I knew I wasn't really safe. Maybe the next time you guys think about offering to protect people, you should just hire Weres and not send Bubba. That way you don't even have to get put out at all or risk your people if it all goes south. And they're totally expendable to you right? Powerful, but not your kind. If they get killed you probably don't even have to pay up. Sounds like a plan. Better still, you guys should just skip the offers of protection. It's false security."
He looked at me as if stunned.
"Sookie, would you just sit and listen to me…"
"I don't want to talk. I don't want to listen. What I want is to get back to work. My area is packed. And I really need the tips."
I started to open the office door and faster than a lightening strike, he was at the door slamming it closed again and looking down at me. The look on his face was twisted with anger and with something that I just couldn't quite understand.
"I know you are angry, Sookie. I know you feel like I didn't take care of you. You don't have _any _idea what I did just to go fight and to keep you safe. I defied orders and had to put down something of a rebellion with my own people to go and fight for you. Bill went with Niall, then I came to defend you. I lost Clancy defending you. I felt everything. _Everything_ that you endured. I tried to give you strength. And when I told you that you were killing me by saying that you didn't understand why I didn't come to you, I meant every word of it. You are mine. You have been grievously harmed and I understand your anger. And I am proud that you survived but I am not happy that you _had_ to survive anything. I _wanted_ to protect you. I…"
I cut him off with a wave of my hand in front of his face.
"Just stop. Stop. Listen, I'm sorry if I have caused you a lot of problems. You know, you told me once a year ago that I was so much trouble. Well, maybe I'm _too much_ trouble, Eric. Maybe I should take a leaf from Niall's book and just say 'let's call it a day', okay? Maybe we should just call it quits. Whatever protection you guys all feel you owe me, you, Felipe, whoever, just forget it. The whole vampire marriage thing? The one I took being tricked into for the so-called added protection? Forget about it, Eric. Because _I_ am. Just quit trying to help me. You've done quite enough. Just… leave me alone. What I really want is for all of you to just leave me alone. Frankly, the more I get protected, the more hurt I get. Claudine is the only one who ever managed to protect me for any length of time without getting me in even more trouble and I got her _killed_. Really… _leave me alone._"
His arm suddenly went slack on holding the door shut and without looking up to meet his eyes I opened the door and walked back out into the bar to serve my tables. I had the impression of his standing near the bar looking at me for several minutes and I felt twisted internal conflict from him and even from myself, but it faded away. I didn't see him leave. I would have cried if I'd had the luxury of the time to do so. But we were packed and I had no such luxury.
There were several Weres in my station but Sam wouldn't let me serve them. I caught them looking at me darkly. I vaguely knew that they were friends of Tray Dawson's. Clearly, they knew something about the truth of his passing from the dark and guarded looks that they gave me. I told Sam that I should be serving them but he just deflected me,
"I'll handle them, cher. Just keep on working the other tables. And if you need any help lifting trays just ask me. Just… take it easy."
Yep, I'd gotten Tray killed and they knew it. Sam was just trying to shield me from my new reality. I glanced back at the table with the Weres and wondered if I would ever be able to live and work the same way here in Bon Temps again. Even the local Weres disliked or distrusted me now? Really, I wondered what else could go possibly wrong in my life? I recounted, as I served my tables, all the many things that had happened to me in my twenty-six and a half years here. I had been molested as a child by my uncle, my parents had been murdered, my grandmother murdered, my cat killed, I had almost been murdered, plus I'd been beaten up multiple times, shot, staked, betrayed by my first lover in multiple ways, basically raped in the trunk of a car by the same betraying lover who was out of control, my house had been set on fire, I'd been attacked by an revenge-seeking vampire, attacked by a newly turned vampire, kidnapped, not once but twice, forced into a blood bond with a very old vampire, almost blown up, a vampire takeover had ended up on my own doorstep, and most recently I had been tortured by sadistic fairies. I was sure there was more I was forgetting but frankly, it was enough of a list just with all those things. I had almost been killed several times over, but this last time, with the fairies, well… it was just the limit of what I could take. My body had been beaten and sliced and bitten and flayed and I doubted any amount of vampire blood, fae magic and plastic surgery could put me completely right. And that wasn't even putting me right again in my heart and mind. Was this rock bottom? What if it _wasn't_? What if my life could get even worse?
I was reminded of something Eric had said to me a year ago, after I got shot. 'You must be living wrong.' Maybe he was right.
That night I went home to my empty house and sat in the dark in the living room. I fell asleep on the couch, wrapped up in my grandmother's old quilt.
The following morning, before even showering, I pulled a card down from the refrigerator door as I drank my coffee. I picked up the phone and dialed.
"Good morning, Agent Weiss? This is Sookie Stackhouse…"
3. Chapter 2
**II.**
**May 2009**
I sang along with the new Neko Case album on the drive back from Quantico to Alexandria. Tonight was my Irish Book Club night. We were still slogging our way through _Finnegans_ _Wake_. I was trying hard to enjoy it but it was an effort. The club, however, was a delight. I was looking forward to heading to Thistle and Shamrock Booksellers and chatting with some of the people I'd grown to enjoy casual conversation with, have an Irish meal in their company and talk about books. I'd learned a lot about Irish, Scottish and Welsh history and culture. I had Irish roots, on my paternal grandfather's side of the family and of course my paternal grandmother's family was Welsh. But my actual roots had been lost in the past three years. Or more accurately, they had been buried away. _Red Tide_ was interrupted by my cell phone ringing through Bluetooth in the car audio system, cutting off the music.
"Gordon," I said, not even able to really see the number on the caller ID on my phone as I answered, because of the late afternoon glare.
"Sasha, it's Calum. Listen we're calling everyone to let them know that we're canceling Book Club for tonight. Catriona's feeling a bit under the weather and I'm staying in to tend her. So I'm closing the bookshop for the night. But we'll hopefully be on for next week."
I sighed, disappointed. But Catriona was very ill and, of course, she should be Calum's number one priority.
"Tell Catriona I hope she feels better. I'll keep her in my thoughts, okay? Maybe I'll try to bring you an apple pie on Sunday. She loves my Gran's pie recipes."
"Sure thing, mo chuisle. Take care and see you next week if not sooner."
I guessed that it would be another quiet night, and I hadn't even left anything defrosting in the fridge, so it was likely going to be lean pickings for dinner. Oh well, I could just read further in my annotated _Finnegans Wake_ and snack, I told myself. _Finnegan_ was a challenging read. Ahmed, a colleague of mine, had given me the annotated version. He certainly knew what _he_ was doing, I thought with a smile. I'd felt like I was reading so far above my head in that book I thought I'd drown. I had been reading serious literature for the past few years. I was continually aware of the fact that I lacked a formal education, but was trying to get one as I read. The same was true of my broader world experience.
Traffic was heavier than usual on the Beltway. I probably would have been late to the meeting if it had gone forward, anyway. If I'd known about the meeting being canceled just a bit earlier I'd have stayed on the 395 instead. I sighed as I saw the sun setting in my rearview mirror. I listened to the Dixie Chicks when Neko Case was finished. 'The Long Way Around' was certainly an appropriate sentiment not just for my life, but my present options for getting home. Traffic just wasn't moving at all. Finally, I got off the Beltway and just drove side streets.
I got to my apartment building at 8:40 pm. After parking my car in the garage, I buzzed into the building and caught site of Wallace, our building manager. I called out 'Good evening, Wallace' but he seemed as if he didn't hear me and just lumbered on his way toward his apartment. It seemed odd, since he was usually almost disturbingly talkative, but I could savor the silence this once. It had been a long day. I opened my mailbox and took out the two envelopes addressed to Sasha Gordon, and my new issue of _The Economist_, to which I had been subscribing for the past two years. Excellent foreign affairs analysis that I could actually understand. And some interesting stuff about politics and business to boot. I flipped through it. It usually took me the full week to get through a single issue. I took the stairs, instead of the elevator, up the five flights of carpeted stairs and headed down the hallway to my apartment, 5C. When I hit the fifth floor landing, I had the oddest sensation. First, I thought that I caught just a trace of a familiar scent. But it was so faint that I couldn't quite place it, though it seemed so familiar to me. And then I felt an odd sensation, like a stirring some place deep inside. It was like a sudden welling of anticipation, but also of apprehension. I just blew it off and pressed on toward my apartment. I was tired. I'd been up since 6 am.
I unlocked and opened the door and entered, locking the two locks behind me and then silencing the alarm. I tossed the mail on the table near the door. Without even bothering to put on the lights in the living room, I strode toward the open kitchen area.
"Rosie… Rosie-Cat. Elsa Rose, where _are_ you?" It was pretty unusual not to have Rosie greeting me at the door. I joked with her all the time, telling her she was not a proper cat at all because she was so very friendly. She was really like a small dog, not at all reserved like your usual kitty.
The entire wall, from the living room to kitchen, in front of me was floor to ceiling plate glass windows. The view of the Potomac, Arlington Cemetery and the District with all its memorials, in the distance was unobstructed and totally spectacular from here in the Arlandria. It was what I loved best about my apartment, the reason why I'd chosen it of the three they'd shown me, even though it was a longer drive from Quantico. A lot of times I'd leave the lights off and spend time just looking at the view, thinking it was hard to believe that I really lived here, so close to the Capitol and to so much history.
As I moved toward the kitchen, with my back to the living room space, I suddenly became aware that something was very wrong. Someone else was in the apartment. There was actually a void spot. The someone was a vampire. The scent on the landing of the fifth floor… vampire. Following all my training, I moved no differently but when I got to the counter I dropped my purse and was able to whip my Glock 22 our of my shoulder holster and unlatch it's safety and chamber a bullet all in one move as I spun around toward the living room. My heart was already pounding but that was nothing compared to what it did when I met his glowing eyes. He was seated on the leather couch, one long leg casually crossed over the other and he appeared to have been reading a magazine in the darkness. He was dressed all in black, leather jacket, t-shirt and dark jeans, black boots. His hair was loose around his shoulders. Rosie was sitting next to him, on the quilt, kneading her paws happily as if she had been petted. A low voice broke the silent tension.
"You're early, Lover. I didn't think you'd be here until well after 10 pm. No Book Club meeting?"
I trembled as I futilely kept the gun pointed toward him and involuntarily let out a long shuddery breath. But I couldn't shoot him. Even though it might give me some chance to get out that double-locked door. I simply… couldn't. That was the realization to make me tremble. Fifteen rounds and I simply could not fire a one.
He rose and quickly covered the distance from the couch to where I stood at the kitchen entry. He loomed over me, and took gentle hold of my hand, the only part of me that was steady, and pointed my gun away toward the wall. He bent down and kissed my cheek and then looked at the gun in a mildly interested fashion.
"A Glock. Are you any good with it? I seem to remember your being a fairly good shot with a shotgun."
I looked straight at his chest and continued shaking almost uncontrollably.
"How did you get in? How did you get into my apartment uninvited?" my voice shuddered.
"I glamoured the building manager and asked him to invite me inside. Quite simple. He disarmed and then reset the alarm for me. I didn't want to chance that you'd be afraid to enter after finding it off."
I just nodded silently. Well, it was ironic that after going to all the trouble of the scar revision surgeries on my few remaining scars, I would be a reasonable looking corpse. Assuming I was ever found and that whatever was done to me wasn't too gruesome. I hoped it wouldn't be too hard on Jason. He hadn't seen me in more than three years so maybe it would be okay. He had a bit of psychological distance now. I thought all this because in those minutes I was really sure that Eric had finally come to kill me for my having walked out not just of my own life, but out of whatever the vampire marriage thing was that he had made with me. He had lost control of the situation with me and I was sure there was a price for me to pay for that fact. I continued to shake, pretty much uncontrollably. Still holding the gun in my right hand away from us with his left hand, he put his right hand at the back of my head and let it slide from the nape of my neck down to my shoulder. We probably looked as if we could be dancing I thought oddly to myself, but I audibly shivered at his touch. He leaned closer to me.
"Sookie… or should I say Sasha? _Relax_," he said in a low whisper above my ear, "There's no reason to be afraid. I came to talk to you. I would never harm you. Relax." He leaned back slightly. "Let me look at you… You're a feast for my eyes, Lover. I was just enjoying your scent while sitting there. What a gift to find you home a full hour and a half early. Look at you, so fair. I've never seen you so fair. And the green contacts and auburn hair." He chuckled. "So Irish looking. Niall would be very amused. You're much more slender than you were. Personally, I always enjoyed the curves."
I gasped. Omigod. What was he going to do to me? I shuddered to think about it. I felt his eyes on me, mostly on my face but also on my breasts or more accurately, my absolutely shuddering chest. I was trying to stay calm, while everything in my brain was screaming that I had to run. A ludicrous thought. There was no way, obviously, to run from Eric. Not even with the FBI helping you, evidently.
"Eric, what do you want? Why are you here? What do you want with me?" I managed to say, swallowing hard. I couldn't even look up to meet his eyes and I couldn't stop shaking. What would he do to me? I felt this jolt of panic thinking that even worse than killing me, he could turn me... My heartbeat accelerated even more at that thought.
"Lover, _relax_, you have absolutely no reason to be afraid" he said again, almost chuckling softly. He stroked my neck gently. "Just _relax_. Really, I'm just here to talk to you. I wanted to see you. See how you are doing for myself. To talk with you." He hesitated and then said quietly, "I actually want to talk to you about visiting home."
I snorted softly. "I am home. If you know my schedule so well then you must know I work for the FBI in counterterrorism, right? And it's not like if I go missing they won't go looking for me. A telepath is rather high on the list of important things not to lose now that torture is supposed to be off the table with the new administration."
As if ignoring what I was saying he gently took the Glock out of my hand and put it on the kitchen counter and then gathered me into his arms, and I could hear him inhaling the scent of my hair. He let out a soft sighing sound. I felt a rising warmth that just seemed to shimmer with happiness. I was puzzled. It was 'good' happiness, as opposed to the kind felt by someone who was planning to 'have fun with me' by cutting me up bit by bit, or even planning on just killing me outright. It wasn't happiness born of anger. He was genuinely happy. So Eric was happy in a good way, to see me three years after I took off leaving only a note on my refrigerator door that said "Live better"? With another shuddering breath and in complete defiance of everything my mind was screaming, I just relaxed into his embrace.
"How did you find me?" I whispered into his sternum.
I had been in the Federal Witness Protection Program, even though I wasn't really a witness for anything, for three years and three months. Basically, I had an entirely new identity and a new life. I was now officially Alexandra "Sasha" Marie Gordon, supposedly a graduate of William and Mary College, and a counterterrorism special agent based out of the FBI's Quantico office. After an initial interview in the New Orleans office, the FBI had wanted me so badly they waived the four year degree requirement, created my new identity and spent a year training me to work on screening suspected terrorists with interpreters that I helped select to work with. For anyone who had known me in my former life, my appearance was rather drastically changed. I had lost more than twenty pounds, at first from depression but then I'd kept it off with regular workouts and Krav Maga training. My hair was dyed dark auburn, cut into a shoulder length pageboy, and my eyes were green with the help of contact lenses. I was very fair. Even after the last of the scar revisions and some corrective surgery on my left breast, I still couldn't bear the idea of wearing a bikini to get a tan. It was easier to look like a convincing redhead if I was very fair anyway. And the paler skin made all the residual scars less apparent. They were finally fading. Even the revised ones. The mental and emotional scars… well they hadn't faded nearly as fast. Yeah, I'd have to say that they were still evident at times. What you feel is so much harder to revise.
"Bill found you. We knew you were with the FBI almost from the beginning. Bill and I went through your phone records and found that you had called an FBI agent in New Orleans right before you disappeared. We thought maybe they just took you at first. Then he talked to the agent you'd called and found out you left willingly to work for them. It took a while to find where you were since they kept moving you all over in Virginia. Bill was fairly sure he had located you in Falls Church two years ago this spring, but then I guess they sent you overseas somewhere because the trail went totally cold and Bill could find no trace of you. But after you came back, he found you again. I've known for more than a year that you worked at Quantico, that you lived here in Alexandria. I know a lot about your everyday life. You go to the gym three days a week at 6:30 am in the morning and go to an Irish book club on Thursday nights. You go to a Latin dance club most Tuesday and Saturday nights. Your dance partner, Sammy, is gay. On Saturday mornings you usually go to the National Gallery of Art or one of the other DC museums on the mall. You go sailing with friends in Chesapeake Bay every other Sunday. You attend a Quaker church on the other Sundays at 11 am. You live alone, date no one. You rent foreign films. You read a lot. You wear size six clothes and size seven shoes. And you specialize in interrogating people without hurting them. Soft interrogation, they call it? Really, I guess I know pretty much all the _facts_ there are to know about your life now, Lover. But I was missing seeing the real thing."
The rational part of my mind still thought that Eric was here for payback. That whatever feelings he'd had for me, they were probably superseded by anger over whatever hit to his pride losing control of me had been. I had left my entire world, all my friends, what remained of my family, everyone and literally _everything_ except my grandmother's quilt behind. Without so much as a goodbye. I hadn't even had contact with anyone supernatural, other than a few Weres at work, and my neighbor, for the past three years and three months. And those Weres? I simply pretended not to notice they were Weres. In return I had not been beaten, bitten, shot, staked, sliced with razors, raped or threatened in any way. About the most stressful thing I had to deal with was spurning the attentions of one of my colleagues at work, who seemed determined to date me, even in spite of FBI policies. He'd gotten written up for it and now he really disliked me. Yeah, that was it on the stressful front, other than my job itself and where it took me. Until I ignored my senses on the fifth floor landing telling me that I faintly smelled a vampire, a vampire I knew so well, and that sensation of a spark of life in the bond I'd tried so hard to forget. Like a fool, I'd just forged ahead, ignoring what my senses told me. And here I was. Very stressed.
"Why? Why bother? Why go to all this trouble?" I asked. I finally looked up at him in the dimly lit room and was reminded, as I met those softly glowing eyes, of everything I had ever felt about Eric. Fear mingled with happiness mingled with lust mingled with… love.
It had taken me the better part of six months after I left Louisiana to come to terms with the fact that I really loved Eric, and that my grandfather had meant that Eric, not Bill, loved me when he had commented on the vampire loving me as he departed our world for his that final time. But by then it was too late. I was a very expensive investment for the FBI. And besides, I figured that I had blown whatever I'd had with Eric by taking off as I had the day after that night he'd gone to Merlotte's to talk to me and I'd basically refused to listen to him. _I felt everything you endured_. His words had echoed in my mind for months after I left. I had felt abandoned by him that night I was tortured… and in return I had abandoned my entire life. Of course I had already been pushing Eric away from me for many months. And then, finally, I had just walked away from everyone. The damage of that night had swept through my life and the lives of everyone I had cared about. It was like a tidal wave that swept away everything in its path. Finally, after more than a year of beating myself up about it, I decided that if I had lived through being tortured by Neave and Lochlan that I shouldn't waste my time mourning what had been lost. Because then they would have won in the end. They would have destroyed me after all, even if I had lived. I still had my life. I had a good job, using my 'gift' for a good purpose, preventing suffering that, even though it may not have been what I had endured, was still most certainly torture in my eyes. Morally, I could deal with using my telepathy to get into the mind of a suspected terrorist, especially if it was going to spare them some far nastier and possibly less accurate methods to figure them out. And it had been a great move since so many of the suspects were clearly not exactly terrorists by design as much as by circumstance or association. Knowing that difference made a huge improvement in the outcome for everyone. Like not creating new terrorists because of mistreatment that could be advertised far and wide to recruit more terrorists. More importantly I hoped, eventually preventing the circumstances that led to terrorism being so prevalent. Poverty, hunger, and lack of a real education.
"Why did I find you? I wanted to know if you were happy. I wanted to see what your life was now. I wanted to assure you that it would be quite safe for you to come home. And I want you to come home."
I just stared up at him and shook my head in disbelief. "Still high-handed, I see. What makes you think that I would _want _to go back to Louisiana, Eric? Why would you think that I would give up my nice, safe life to go back there, where so many bad things happened to me?"
"Because other than your job, you have no real life here, Lover. You are totally alone. By choice, it seems. You don't even appear to have close friends other than the two people you work with, that you go sailing with sometimes. Your life may seem safe, but it really isn't if you're not even living it."
I sort of gasped at his words. "What are you implying? I'm not living my life because I'm not _dating_ anyone? Are you actually saying that to me? I guess I'd forgotten how unsurpassably arrogant you can be, Eric. Two good friends are more than many people have and it's more than enough for me."
He had shown up, tricked his way into my apartment, in order to totally piss me off? What a long way to come and a lot of trouble to go to, just to insult me. Wow. I pulled away from him and turned on the lights in the kitchen. I picked up my Glock and put the safety back on and put it in my purse. Really, I was now more pissed off than I was scared.
"So are you any good with that thing?" Eric asked again, nodding toward the gun as I put it my purse.
I fished around in my purse and tossed out my FBI badge, which also had the card certifying my Distinguished Pistol Marksmanship Gold Badge under the photo ID.
"Under the ID."
He took out the four cards and which also included the Rifle Marksmanship Silver Badge along with my federal carry permit below that.
"Impressive, Special Agent Gordon," he said with amusement looking at the Pistol Marksmanship badge. "I guess I should be glad you didn't shoot me a few times when you had the chance. You could have made a run for it. I'm really touched. How many rounds does that thing have?"
I ignored his remarks and leaned against the counter while he examined the rifle badge.
"Rifle, too, eh?"
"I'm much better with the pistol. My shoulder's never been the same after Neave cut it with a knife. The rifle recoil hurts it a lot after about five shots. I guess there's too much scarring in the tendons or something. About the same with a Benelli when I go skeet shooting."
Eric reacted ever so slightly at the mention of Neave but said nothing. The great unspoken explanation hung in the air between us just as it had three years before.
"Do interrogators need to be marksmen?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"No. But since maybe one of these days I'll open my door to find Dermot, I figure being a great shot might give me a slight advantage. If he doesn't zap me first, I'm hoping I can just shoot him. _Him_, I'll definitely shoot."
I turned away without waiting for a response and walked over to a corner cabinet and drew out bottles of Bombay Sapphire and Seagrams tonic water. I poured myself a generous gin and tonic. I hardly ever drank. But this drink was going to be a very generous drink. I opened the freezer and added ice to the glass and I turned back to Eric.
"I don't have any True Blood. Sorry. I don't know any vampires anymore. One of my neighbors is a Were, though. I just pretend not to notice."
"5A across the hall. His name is Ben Stephens? Pet sits the cat? Not bad for a Were."
I froze, mid-sip. "Did you even talk to my neighbors?"
"Many times. He keeps an eye on you. He'll even keep you safe in a pinch. You said Weres were good for that," he said with a wry tone.
"Please tell me you're joking, Eric." How he could have someone watching me when I was in the WPP was beyond me. People living in these buildings were screened very carefully and many worked for other agencies or the bureau. Ben actually worked for the State Department.
"I promised you I wouldn't lie to you, remember?" he said while fiddling around with my ID and the marksmanship certifications, to put them back in place. He folded the case closed and handing it back to me with a smile. "He's been on the watch for the past eleven months."
"You'd _better_ be lying. He's got federal clearance and if he's two timing on it to give out information on a federal agent, he better have a mighty interesting explanation."
As I angrily took the badge from him and I dropped it back into my purse, I noticed the skin on his right hand looked odd. It was a slightly different color than the rest of his skin. I moved closer and in an almost absurdly proprietary fashion took up his hand and turned it over and then back. Then I reached for his left hand and put them side by side and then turned both palm side up then back to look at the skin on the top of the hands. The left hand had the same smooth skin as the rest of him. I looked up at him.
"What happened to your hand? The skin is different… it's like it's kind of pinker, almost like…" I tried to think of what it reminded me of. "It's like a baby's skin, like new or something. Why?" I looked up at him and his eyes, blue as cornflowers, gazed down with a very remote look. He didn't reply and he looked as if he was ever so slightly uncomfortable.
I looked more closely at the right hand and noticed the fingernails looked a little odd. And his right wrist had a clean line around it separating his smooth light skin and the tauter, pinker skin on his hand, almost as if… I dropped his hand and pulled back with a small gasp. His hand had been cut off and had regrown. I knew this as surely as if he'd said it, as surely as if I'd pulled the information out of his head the way I did with people every day. My hand flew to my mouth and I felt queasy.
"Was it in a fight?" I asked, remembering Eric wielding his short sword.
"No." He hesitated as if thinking cautiously about something for a full minute. "Well, you have managed to catch me off guard as much as I caught you. I should have known... you were always so observant. I guess it is better to just tell you straight out rather than risk having you come home and hearing it from someone else. The hand was a penalty. The skin will be back to normal soon. Probably another few months. But the hand is fine." He moved his fingers nimbly as if to reassure me on that point.
I dropped my hand from my face. My eyes were riveted to his hand for a moment and then I looked up and met his eyes.
"A _penalty_? A penalty for _what_?" I asked in a whisper. I cringed inwardly.
"A discussion for another time, Lover. I'm glad to finally visit you. To be able to spend time talking with you. We have all missed you. I have missed you. And I'm serious when I say that I'd like to persuade you to take some of your vacation time to visit home. I promise you the highest level of security that I can possibly offer you. I would just like to spend time with you."
I looked down at his hand, which was back at his side. I was not dissuaded.
"A penalty for _what_, Eric?" There was only one person I could think of that would have the authority to penalize Eric for anything and that would have been his King, Felipe.
His jaw gnashed a bit. I glanced back up at his face. He seemed to stall in responding. I'd never seen Eric behave so oddly. He really didn't want to tell me, whatever it was. I could feel his… Resistance? Distaste? Finally,
"For disobedience," was his quiet reply. He said the words with a slight accent, which I knew from before meant he was talking about it was something that really affected him.
I swallowed hard looking down at his hand. I suddenly felt quite nauseated.
"For disobedience," I whispered, repeating his words. My mind flashed back to that night in Merlotte's and Eric saying that he had defied orders to go after me and defend me against Breandan and his people. It took a long time to regrow appendages for a vampire. And for something delicate and extensively jointed like a hand? It was more than just the length, it was the complexity of the appendage. How long would that take? Perhaps a year or two? Or three. I clapped my hand over my mouth, again.
"Omigod. I… I think I'm going to be sick…" I turned quickly and made it to my bathroom before vomiting up gin and tonic, and the remnants of my late lunch. Afterwards, I sat on the bathroom floor, hand clapped over my mouth, half heaving, half breathing heavily. Tears started slowly running down my cheeks. It couldn't be. It couldn't be. It could not be.
Eric appeared next to me, squatting down with one knee bent toward the floor. He brushed the auburn hair away from my face, and stroked the tears off my cheeks. But the tears kept flowing. I knew the truth. _His hand…_
"Really Lover, it was nothing in comparison to what it felt like knowing what was happening to you that night." As his words confirmed it, I sobbed out loud. He continued softly "Absolutely no comparison. I'd have taken it a thousand times over having lost you… Bill and I never hesitated to do what we needed to do to keep you safe. I'd do it again. So would he."
I turned to him wide-eyed. "He did this to Bill, too?" I squeaked.
Eric met my gaze and just nodded silently.
"Omigod. Omigod…"
I gripped the edge of the toilet to steady myself. I closed my eyes and just rocked, crying softly. I envisioned that night like a train wreck, where it seemed my life had derailed and the consequences just seemed to pile up one after another like cars off the tracks, long after I had stopped moving. Would the fallout of that night _ever_ end? Finally, some minutes later, I could compose myself enough to say,
"How could you even defend yourself if you would need to afterwards? And Bill, he was so injured already. Felipe didn't do anything to Pam or to Maxwell, too, did he?" I asked, looking up at him with dread.
"No. Pam and Maxwell merely followed my orders. Pam took care of me. Bill was home for sometime recovering from the silver poisoning. We sent several people to help take care of him. He has recovered very well. He found you after all. Several times."
"But why were you punished for protecting someone that Felipe had conferred protection upon? Why? What did you or Bill do wrong? It's totally unfair that he punished you both for trying to protect me. You were _supposed_ to protect me. He had decreed it. I don't understand…" I was fighting more waves of nausea.
"Bill acted of his own accord after Victor Madden directly forbad him doing it. I told Bill where to meet Niall and he did. I was told I could not act to defend you because it would be getting involved in a Fae internal problem. That it could draw vampires into their war. It was strictly a political decision on Felipe's part. He still didn't know that you were Niall Brigant's great-granddaughter but even had he known, I doubt it would have made a difference because Breandan could have won and gone after us. I was charged with inciting insurrection because I recruited Pam, Clancy and Maxwell to go against his decree. I was extremely lucky to remain Sheriff. Although I think he rather enjoyed the aspect of my obvious state of punishment. And of course, if someone did go after me and kill me, it removed the difficulty of his having something to do with it directly. In a way, it is perhaps better that you were gone, because he might have tried to claim you as part of the punishment as well, though that is seldom done in present times. But still, it was better you weren't there, all the way around."
"_Insurrection_? Insurrections go directly against leadership. You were fighting fairies. You defended your _wife_!" I felt so sick at the thought that someone had harmed him, harmed Bill, and all because of me.
I had the sense that something in his entire aspect changed subtly when I said the word 'wife', but he just responded to my comments.
"There was the matter of incapacitating Victor Madden and Sandy Sechrest in silver mesh nets. I ordered Clancy, Pam and Maxwell to help me do it. Some of the others in my service were balky and that further delayed my departure. Felipe took it all as a direct and violent challenge to his authority. Of course, Madden and Sechrest recovered. No lasting harm. But we were made example of, Bill and I. I cannot say I would have done any different had I been King. Although, perhaps… too much division of loyalties is never a good thing. There were better ways to handle the problem at its inception."
I reached out and took up his right hand and turned it over in my hands looking at it. I felt so deeply ashamed to think that he had literally been mutilated because of me, and I couldn't imagine the pain of it growing back. I knew what it felt like to regrow flesh and couldn't imagine what it would be like to regrow bone and sinew. Three years ago I hadn't understood what it had cost him to do what he _had_ done, because I was so upset about what he hadn't. The tears started flowing again. I put his hand against my chest, just crying quietly again, rocking.
"I'm so sorry Eric. I'm just…" I shuddered. "It just horrifies me. I can hardly stand the thought." I kept seeing a horrible image of it in my mind and imagining his pain. I cringed, feeling so sick at the idea. Really, I could hardly bear it.
He withdrew his hand and sat down on the floor next to me, putting his arm around me and stroking my shoulder and finally pulling my head to his lips.
"It's over, Lover. Over and in the past. It can't hurt either one of us further unless we let it."
Over or not, he'd been punished for helping me and I'd taken off, not even realizing what he'd sacrificed. About the best I could see was that unlike Claudine, Tray and Clancy, Eric wasn't dead for helping protect me. He continued to stroke my shoulder and even tried to make soothing sounds while I just cried for quite some time. After a while I said,
"I don't understand how you don't hate me and blame me. You and Bill both…" I gasped, "I just can't believe anyone could do something so despicable to you." I whispered, grinding my teeth. If I hadn't much liked him before, I now hated Felipe de Castro with every fiber of my being. But maybe part of it was that I felt so despicable myself for having left them the way I did.
"We are both fine now, Lover. Bill helped me find you, when I couldn't really get away to look for you myself. I didn't come here to make you feel bad about what happened. I came here because I wanted to see you, because I want you to come home."
Part of me just couldn't believe the savagery of the supernatural world. Although, I'd have to say that at various points in the past two years, I'd not been too impressed with human world, either. Stints questioning 'enemy combatants' in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, and a slew of places had not left me with an especially great feeling about humanity at times. But still, the supernatural world could be so incredibly savage. And Eric had come here to ask me to come back to that world to 'visit'? He was actually suggesting that I 'come home' to it? Could he really mean that? And… _why_?
He had come all this way to speak to me. Had evidently used all kinds of resources to find out information about me, keep tabs on me. The effort he put into finding info about me seemed nothing short of amazing if he wasn't interested in getting back at me for what had happened to him. He wanted me to come _home_? He went to all this trouble to get a _human_ to come back 'home'? _Why_?
"I don't understand why I would be important enough for you to go to all this trouble, Eric. Really. I just don't get it. And won't it just cause more trouble with Felipe if I come back? Won't it just irk him that I'm there, even to visit? I don't want to cause you or Bill or any of you any more problems. It seems like it would be better to just stay away from you both. Far away."
He stood up and pulled me to my feet. He picked up a hand towel and wet it and wiped my face. He filled my glass that I kept by the sink with water and handed it to me. I rinsed my mouth several times and then rinsed out the cup. I placed it back on the bathroom counter and looked up at him, meeting his eyes in the bathroom mirror.
"Why?" I asked again. "Why are you really here?"
"Why? You are mine. You will always be mine," he said in the voice that just resonated somewhere inside me as he looked at me intently, his eyes glowed as he looked at my reflection.
I shook my head looking at his reflection. I couldn't help chortling.
"Because I'm _yours_? That's the explanation? Did you ever see _The Princess Bride?_"
Still looking at our reflection, he silently shook his head as if puzzled by the question.
"It's a movie. No? 'Cause there's this character that keeps repeating a phrase again and again to himself and well… eventually he actually gets what he wants, but I guess the point is that the whole _mine_ thing is a little like that to me. You keep saying again and again, for years at this point, that I'm yours. Even if you can set aside the fact that something totally horrible was done to you because of me, what's the deal, Eric? We haven't seen each other in a longer time than we actually knew each other. We were friends, in a way. Sure, we really cared for each other. We had sex a few times. Really great sex, I'm more than willing to admit. We definitely had fun for a while, when you weren't having to keep me from getting killed. You were usually very nice to me. We could even say I took care of you once or twice. But that was all years ago. So now, what is the deal with the _mine_ thing? What does that mean to you? What is that supposed to mean to me at this point, after years apart? What does it translate into in 'human'? _Yours_. Your happy meal? Your friend? Your wife? Your highly useful telepathic asset? You waltz into my new life and want me to go back, even if only to visit, to a life in which all kinds of terrible things happened to me. And apparently also happened to you, _because of me_. You're here because I'm 'yours'? Well, excuse the language, but what the fuck? Surely you can get pretty much anyone you want who will be 'yours'. Why me? What do you really want Eric? Why are you _really_ here?"
I felt so guarded. Did he need a telepath? Did he want to make a statement to his minions or to Felipe that he could get me back as an asset, or that he still had control of the situation? His eyes met mine in the reflection and he smiled and the smile grew broader and broader over the course of a minute and his eyes began to sparkle merrily as he looked at me. Then he turned and practically picked me up as he hugged me.
"Well, you really haven't changed much at all, Lover," he said with a rumbling laugh. He grasped my hair at the back of my head gently and pulled my head back and kissed me, literally taking my breath away. I felt dizzy from it, as all the warm and fuzzy feelings that I remembered from three and a half years before just seemed to percolate throughout my consciousness. He paused and said,
"Brush your teeth and I'll kiss you some more. What ever you had to eat earlier had an absolutely inordinate amount of garlic in it," he said laughing. "You could knock over a horse, Lover."
"Middle Eastern food. Kind of a passion of mine now," I said softly, thinking of the garlic hummus and kibbeh that I'd had at 4 pm.
I pointedly did not reach for my toothbrush. So Eric picked it up and handed it to me. I squirmed slightly. Kissing Eric was swell but I wasn't so sure that I thought it was such a great idea. In my experience with Eric, kissing, with rare exception led to much more than kissing. I wanted answers, not kisses. What was he doing here? _Really_.
Reading my hesitation Eric said,
"Not interested? You certainly seemed interested moments ago…"
"I just don't know that I think that's such a good idea," I said quietly. It might be a very tempting idea, but it probably was not a good one. Answers on the other hand were a very good idea.
He raised an eyebrow.
"Afraid you won't be able to stop yourself, eh? Don't worry Lover. I have you, I won't let you get too carried away," he said with wink and an amused smile. He handed me the toothpaste.
"You didn't answer my question," I said firmly, looking at his reflection without smiling.
He moved to stand behind me and, reaching around me, tugged the toothbrush out of my right hand and placed it in my left hand. Then he opened the toothpaste in my right hand. He smiled mischievously at my reflection. He waited. Finally, with a sigh, he guided my right hand to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush. Then he recapped the toothpaste, put it back where it had been and switched the toothbrush back to my right hand. He rested his chin on the top of my head and placed his hands at my waist. He looked at me, waiting expectantly. He was so tall. Had I forgotten how tall he was? How blue his eyes were? Rubbing his chin on my head for a moment he locked his eyes onto my eyes in the reflection. I felt like I had been plugged into an electrical outlet. He sighed again and said,
"Why am I really here? You are mine. Mine alone. I still love you. You, yourself, pointed out that you are my wife. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that I want you back. And I can assure you, you will be safe if you come home, Sookie. I am here because I want you to come home. I want you with me. I realize that will take time. But it's what I want and why I'm here."
_Still_… I was stuck on _still _and the part that followed it.
I didn't even breathe. The silence was deafening. It felt like hours passed with us just standing there, staring into each other's eyes in reflection.
Finally, I wet my toothbrush and started brushing.
4. Chapter 3
**III.**
**June 2009**
I had accrued 42 days of PTO in three years of working for the Bureau. After mulling it over for two weeks after Eric had visited me, I requested vacation time. When I told him I was taking 18 PTO days with only three weeks notice, Manny, my boss, was certainly not thrilled. But there weren't as many cases in the pipeline these days. I had screened over 300 US declared enemy combatants all over the globe in the past eighteen months. I had also interviewed countless suspected terrorists in the field before they had even been ruled enemy combatants. I had interviewed every single suspected terrorist in custody in the US and Canada. I had questioned war crimes suspects at The Hague, and terror suspects in Berlin, London and Madrid. Really, I had earned a vacation. And besides, my Arabic, Farsi, Dari and Pashto interpreter, Alla, would be out on maternity leave. That would leave Ahmed, who was fluent in Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish and Urdu. But he didn't do Farsi or Pashto, which were the hot areas currently because of the tense situation with the Iranian-backed Shi'a in Iraq and with the growing Taliban presence in Pakistan. The Bureau was trying to find another Farsi, Dari and Pashto interpreter but I was pretty picky about who I'd work with. Alla and Ahmed were my gold standard. Keen minds, trustworthy and careful. Alla was a very kind and dynamic person. She was also brave and fiery and great at eliciting information. I thought Ahmed was one of the brightest people I'd ever met and a extremely skillful interpreter. He was sarcastic and ironic and could see the finer shadings of almost anything. Between the two of them, especially with their differing styles in Arabic, they could lead someone to think about almost anything useful in our screenings. They were the best, and pretty much the only interpreters I wanted to work with. There was no point in trying to read some terror suspect's thoughts if you were worried about your interpreter's thoughts on top of it. It was always a challenge to shift to a different interpreter for say, Serbian. Sometimes when I questioned domestic terror suspects in English, I actually even missed Ahmed and Alla's viewpoints.
Eric left my apartment that May night shortly before midnight, because I had to be up at 6 am. We'd spent most of the time talking, with only a bit of affection mixed in. I felt awkward and reserved and wouldn't even sit on the couch with him. So we mostly just talked while he sat on the couch petting Rosie and I sat in a straight-backed chair. He seemed very interested in my job and how a telepath worked with suspects who spoke a foreign language. I explained the many months of training that I had been through with Alla and Ahmed. I asked questions and they translated for the suspect. We worked in synchrony and I read the interpreter's mind as well as the suspect's. Some of the information I got from the suspects was largely visual, at the prompting of a skilled interpreter asking questions for me. We worked in the Counterterrorism Analytical Branch, supporting Operations I and II, which involved monitoring multiple terrorist groups, their access to WMDs and trying to prevent foreign terror groups from harming US interests and acting acting in concert with within terror cells within the US. We were one of the only units of the FBI with standing clearance to work outside the US. Eric pointed out, with a broad smile, that _he_ had thought of using a telepath to interrogate people instead of torturing them at least two years before the federal government had. He came back the following evening and we talked some more. He had to go back to Louisiana later that night but stayed until almost 1 am before departing for the airport. I felt sad when he left. Even several hours after he left I felt as if I could still feel his lips on mine or his arms around me. I was dismayed to think that time really hadn't changed my feelings in the least. How could that be? And I could hardly stand to think about what had happened to him, and to Bill, because of me. I didn't know what to think about what Eric said his feelings for me were. My nice, neat world had been turned on its end.
After insisting on getting my private email address, Eric and I talked by Skype internet calling almost daily after he left Alexandria. We didn't really discuss much of our day to day lives, other than whether it had been a good day or a bad day. We mostly talked about generalities. The occasional book, a movie or two, politics. Sometimes it seemed like we talked about nothing. But I found myself looking forward to talking to him every night, or early in the morning, as the days and weeks rolled by. I'd find myself fussing over how I looked before logging into Skype. Once in a while he'd try to talk about serious things, like the blood bond, or my resistance to going back to Louisiana. He always seemed very in control whenever we talked, immediately diffusing things if I seemed to respond too negatively. As soon as I'd start to get uncomfortable discussing something, he found a way to redirect it. It was like he could still feel how I felt even after all that time apart and even though he was so far away. The room from which he spoke was dim and I didn't recognize it. There were never any interruptions at his end, even when I'd have to chat at odd times because of my traveling, rather than the usual right after sunset on Central time or 6 am Eastern time conversations. He kept up the steady but quiet pressure to come to visit. Finally at the very end of May I told him that I'd go to Louisiana to visit him in June when I got back from a work-related trip I'd be taking in a few days. I'd actually already requested the vacation days almost a week before, but was just stressing over whether I'd actually go back to Louisiana. Going to Iraq? Fine. A hard day's work, occasionally scary, but fine. Going back to Louisiana? Frightening.
I could tell that my travel for work made Eric edgy. I hadn't told him much about where I went and what I did there, but he knew I traveled a fair amount. He knew little about what I did. Mostly he just knew about how I worked with my interpreters. He said he was worried when he found out that I was going to 'somewhere in the Middle East,' (Nasiriyah, though I couldn't tell him) for a few days for work the first week of June and would be unavailable for chatting. Some of the places I'd been to 'listen' to people in the past eighteen months, as US policies began to change in response to international pressure, were _very_ scary places, and although certainly Nasiriyah was a bit up there in the tinderbox category, it was not currently that bad. Much better than say Afghanistan or Pakistan currently. But I couldn't tell him where I was going. When I got back home, Eric looked like he was extremely relieved to have me Skype him that night. I wondered what Alla's husband must have thought of his eight months pregnant wife going to Nasiriyah with Ahmed and me. Alla was simply fearless. But Mercan, her husband, wasn't fearless. He worked for the CIA so he was in a position to know what he was still fearful about in Iraq. They'd been married for four years and he wanted her to quit and I thought that after having her baby she probably would at least stop doing work outside of the US. It made me worry about finding another interpreter as wonderful as she was.
Sometimes, as much as I enjoyed traveling and as important as I felt the work to be, I wished I could just stay home and talk to domestic terror suspects. It was so much easier. The illusory 'excitement' and 'intrigue' of traveling to war zones to work had worn off about a millisecond after the first time a vehicle blew up in front of us because of a landmine. Seeing snipers shoot children pretty much sealed the deal for me. Some of the places I'd been had been very, very scary. And we were the lucky ones, since we were often flown in and out the same day when we worked some of those locations. Ahmed, Alla and I seldom talked about work among ourselves anymore. The work just left you too numb. Occasionally, in the beginning, we had soberly discussed how trapped in a dreadful cycle some of the different regions plagued by terrorism were. We had interviewed people who had done truly terrible things, sometimes without even having a clear idea of why their 'enemy' was their enemy. We had even interviewed people who were basically little more than children. After the first few very intense months, we tried to talk about other things.
Ahmed was incredibly well read. He was the one who directed me to Thistle and Shamrock. Ahmed was the kind of person who didn't need an annotated _Finnegan's Wake_. We'd watch movies on DVDs during our long flights, play board games or cards, and read or sleep. After the first year, many times it was just the three of us traveling to remote locations and being met by military personnel. Occasionally Manny or his associate head of the unit, Bruce, would go with us. But Ahmed, Alla and I were like a little clique. I knew so much about them because of how I did what I did. In spite of the fact that it could have gone the other way, they found me the very opposite of intrusive. They never had to explain things like the need for silence or for space. I was so much less educated than the two of them and yet one time when Ahmed had sensed the fact that I felt that disparity keenly he'd said quietly to me that a diamond in the rough was still, after all, really a diamond. He was never condescending, which I thought was quite surprising considering I was a high school educated small town Southerner who'd hardly traveled anywhere before. He'd been raised in Britain, gone to topnotch universities and had a PhD. Ahmed liked the fact that I was an avid reader and that I looked at different cultures with an open mind. Alla, whose father was in the diplomatic service for Iran, left Iran as a child with her family, had been raised in France and then the US. She had a dual Masters degree in Persian Languages and Literature. Although it was never openly mentioned, they knew that something terrible had happened to me. Once, early on, when Alla took me to visit a hammam in DC for fun, she had seen my scars when I was starting the scar revision surgery. She was upset but said nothing. I could tell a short time later that she had told Ahmed that _I_ had been tortured. They were both inordinately kind. They never asked. They talked about how alone I seemed and that I seldom went out anywhere. That was when Ahmed came up with the plan of teaching Alla and me how to sail. He'd seen me reading _Pride and Prejudice_ and said I would find sailing excessively diverting. He was right. I really loved it. He also started inviting me to gatherings he had in his rather chic apartment. We had been friendly before but it marked kind of a turning point in friendship. Ahmed was very protective of those he cared about. Alla was pretty fierce, too.
So here it was, the end of the second week of June and I found myself in New Orleans for the first time in four years. I still wasn't clear why Eric was living in New Orleans now. Frankly, after the whole thing with his hand, I was really afraid to ask. I worried that Felipe had taken Eric's businesses away or done some other horrible thing, although in comparison to cutting off someone's hand, it was hard to think of losing your business as being in quite the same league. But I knew Eric had loved his businesses. It all made me very afraid just thinking about it. But I was too cowardly to ask why the address he gave me was in New Orleans instead of Shreveport. He didn't offer any info, either. I was already so consumed with guilt over what Eric and Bill had gone through because of me. If there was even more to it, I didn't want to find out over the internet or phone. I wanted to be able to say I was sorry and feel horribly guilty in person. I asked no questions. It was most likely that he was just the Sheriff of Area 1 now. Felipe probably spent only part of the time in Louisiana. In spite of whatever grievance Felipe de Castro had with Eric, Felipe wasn't stupid. Eric was an extremely efficient business person. Since Felipe was really based in another state, having Eric in the most important business area would likely make sense.
I had shown up and asked for a room for two weeks in the Iberville Suites, which is at the edge of the French Quarter. It cost a small fortune. I had plenty of savings though, since other than rent and odds and ends, the only other expenses I had were taxes and insurance on my sealed up house in Bon Temps, which were all paid through the Bureau. Besides, I told myself, I'd never had a real vacation in my entire life. I planned on using the fitness center of the Iberville Suites sister hotel, the Ritz-Carlton, with which it shared the building. I got a manicure and pedicure in the Ritz-Carlton spa at 7 pm. I felt deliciously indulgent.
Eric hadn't been happy that I wouldn't stay with him, but I figured he ought to be satisfied that I was even setting foot in the state. I'd told him more than once that I had seriously bad memories of Louisiana. He'd pointed out that bad things had actually happened to me in Rhodes, Dallas, Jackson and Arkansas, not just Louisiana. He didn't know about things like getting shot at by snipers or seeing vehicles bearing people I personally knew destroyed by landmines right in front of me. That had happened to me in Najaf or in Miran Shah. I didn't look forward to going back to any of them, either. Frequently, in the month since we'd reconnected, Eric would try to convince me that I'd enjoy being home. Only then it turned out that 'home' wasn't even Shreveport and Bon Temps in his mind. It was where _he_ was in New Orleans, as I found out several days before I was leaving. I managed to bite my tongue and not say what I thought, which was that it was rather amazing that he seemed to consider _himself_ home for me. I tried to remind myself that touch of arrogance was part of Eric's 'charm'. Maybe not literally going back to Bon Temps and Shreveport would be easier. It would certainly be safer from the standpoint of not being recognized. Up to that point, I'd seriously been trying to figure out how I would make the whole thing work. But this was easier.
I thought if I heard the word 'safe' from Eric one more time that I'd throw something at my laptop camera. He seemed determined to assure me that he could keep me safe. Whereas my main concern was actually what the FBI reaction would be to my just visiting Louisiana. I had told them I wanted to leave the state and cover my tracks completely. Now I was going back? I'd had to do all sorts of pussy footing around with my boss Manny about where I was going on vacation. I didn't even tell Ahmed and Alla. Since they were well used to my evasiveness on some things, it wasn't even an issue for them. 'Visiting friends' I'd say obliquely when asked where I was going. And then I'd change the subject by asking my own questions. Of course, it legitimately turned out that even _I _wasn't sure where I was going. I flew standby from DC to New Orleans. I figured as soon as he found out I was in Louisiana, which would take him all of about a minute after my first credit card swipe, Manny would start having fits, thinking that I was going to blow my carefully crafted WPP identity and create all sorts of problems for him. While I could have used difficult to trace Visa cash cards and a disposable cell phone and call forwarding tricks to make the trip ('thinking like the Agency' as they said in the Bureau) I just didn't feel motivated to go sneaking around to that extent. I was not a sneaky person. He would have found me anyway. The FBI could find anyone if they want to. They were like vampires, but with more technological tracking skills. When Manny called me to tell me off about being in Louisiana, I planned to just take it and try to reassure him that I was carefully traveling as Sasha and had been in the mood for beignets.
When I arrived, it was still early afternoon. I thought about looking up Amelia but scrubbed the idea. I was really worried that it would be awkward and that she wouldn't even want to see me. Eric had told me that Pam was still in touch with Amelia. I figured that if Pam told Amelia I was in New Orleans that if Amelia wanted to see me, Pam would arrange it. Only a few people were going to be privy to the information that I was there, and that Sasha Gordon was really Sookie Stackhouse. It was odd walking around in the Quarter, realizing that probably, even if I had run into Amelia, in all likelihood she would not even recognize me. Octavia and her beau Louis still lived here, too. Of course, so did Sara Weiss, still an agent with the Bureau. And I was sure Sara would be keeping track of me as soon as Manny realized where I was. She'd probably track me with the GPS chip in my phone and I wouldn't even be surprised if she put me under surveillance. I was sure the Bureau was not going to be thrilled with my travel plan.
That afternoon I just sat by myself at the Café du Monde, finishing _The Great Gatsby_, eating beignets and drinking a hot café au lait with coffee and chicory and tried to steel myself for visiting Eric in the evening. He'd told me that Pam was very excited and looking forward to seeing me. I was glad Pam was still with him and looking forward to seeing her, too. But I was still very nervous about the whole visit. Sometimes I wondered what I was even doing here. Kissing someone passionately a few times and chatting for two evenings was not a natural prelude to a two weeks long visit in my book. Not even with all the time we'd spent chatting on Skype calls and all the previous history. I didn't know what to expect and thought I was half-crazy for agreeing to such a long visit. But Eric had been by turns playful, cajoling and extremely flirtatious. He was like the old Eric, the one I first knew, back in Dallas or Jackson days. He was happier and freer than I had remembered him for many months before I'd left. In some ways he acted as if the visit was a first step to my moving back to Louisiana, although he had quickly backed off when he sensed I was getting very upset with that implication. His expression had made it obvious he was not too thrilled that I was staying in a hotel, but he didn't push it after two offers of having me stay with him were firmly refused. He seemed concerned about my safety if I didn't stay with him, but I pointed out that hardly anyone knew what I looked like now and I was armed. He seemed as if he let it slide. I almost got the feeling when I told him I was flying standby I thought he wasn't even really convinced that I was going to show. I'd sent him a text message when I arrived so he'd see right away when he awakened that I had really come, just as I promised.
The sun was setting around 8 pm these days. I figured that I'd show up around 10 pm. The address Eric had given me seemed familiar. In fact, I had to say it seemed like it was in the same building that had been Sophie-Ann's old residence and court. That point was confirmed when I Google-mapped it on my phone as I sat in Café du Monde. It was definitely in the same flank of buildings, a huge chunk of real estate, but I was being directed to a different entrance from the one I knew though, on a side street, not the side nearest the French Quarter, where the crowds of tourists usually built up. Since I really wasn't up on vampire politics at all anymore, I had no idea how often Felipe was here or if tourists still gathered around hoping to see some wealthy and beautiful vampires as they had in the elegant Sophie-Anne's time. I began to nervously wonder again what Eric was doing there. Was he really the Area 1 Sheriff? A crazy thought crossed my mind that he was going to hand me over to Felipe but I managed to get that one under control. I kept thinking about what had happened to him but I just couldn't see Eric doing something like that, no matter how paranoid I allowed myself to be. He was too honorable, at least in my mind, to do something so underhanded. And his talking to me both in person and by Skype felt genuine, if I could trust that what I still felt through the bond was real. I tried to focus on trusting Eric. But still, I was cautious and I went prepared in case there were problems. Of course I had my service weapon, which really technically I was supposed to carry at all times anyway, my badge and well… I was just prepared. Of course, realistically, the likelihood of getting out of that building if they didn't want me to leave was slim. I wore black boot-cut jeans, an emerald green silk shirt and my black leather jacket. I took only minimal ID and no purse, my cell phone in my jacket pocket. It was amazing what you could conceal, though, even wearing such a simple outfit.
When I approached the door to which I'd been directed, a young vampire who looked East Indian greeted me. He was dressed in street clothes but it looked like he had a very pricey lightweight Kevlar vest on under his oxford shirt and jacket. His badge declared his name was Pradep. He was very tall, dark and thin with luminous brown eyes. From his looking me over, I got the feeling that he'd been told to expect me specifically. However, he got totally bent out of shape when he saw me put down my Glock on the table near the metal detector then pick it right back up to put it back in the shoulder holster once I had crossed through. He had evidently planned to put the gun into some sort of locker, which he had already opened, near the door. He started arguing with me and so I flashed my FBI badge and told him "Can't leave it, sorry. Besides, these would hardly even slow you down for more than a minute or two, so why the fuss?" I made sure to show him the magazine so he could see the bullets were definitely not silver. He still wasn't buying it. He made a phone call from his cell phone and got into a heated discussion with whoever was on the other end. I waited, leaning against the wall, tapping my foot. About five minutes later, Rasul showed up, looking at me cautiously. I greeted him in my best Arabic and with a broad smile.
"Masaa el kheer, Rasul." Good evening in proper Arabic. Then I switched to English. "It seems that this guy has a serious problem with my gun."
Rasul looked at me with surprise at the well-inflected Arabic. I didn't speak a lot, but what I did sounded pretty good thanks to Alla and Ahmed. He drew closer, looking at me carefully while sniffing the air. He turned his head at an angle and stared.
"Sookie? Is that really you?" he asked quietly, looking me up and down. Finally he leaned closer and looked me in the eyes and in spite, of the green contacts, with another deep inhalation he smiled broadly and seemed satisfied that it was truly me.
"Sasha, Rasul. The name is Sasha," I said firmly, nodding with a smile to him.
"Pradep was concerned that you are armed, _Sasha_." he looked at me as if he was immensely amused by the idea I was calling myself Sasha.
I took my Glock out of the shoulder holster under my jacket, and removed the magazine. I showed him my badge.
"I'm required to carry the gun. Standard bullets. Nothing that could harm anyone here permanently." I took one out and offered it to him so he could see it wasn't silver. Meanwhile, Pradep leaned over and said something to him.
"FBI? You're kidding? Wow. And you really know how to shoot that thing?" he shook his head as if very surprised.
I replaced the bullet in the magazine, the magazine in the G22 and reholstered the gun.
"Yes, I do Rasul. In fact, I know how to shoot it very, very well."
"I've always figured there's a reason why Eric finds you so enchanting. So many unexpected qualities. Shall we, _Sasha_?" he said with a chuckle.
He took my arm and led me toward the stairs after nodding to Pradep, who looked quite chagrined that I'd gotten to keep my gun. He didn't know the half of it.
Rasul smiled as we walked up the stairs to the second floor.
"I am glad to see you. I had wondered how long it would be before we would have the pleasure of your visiting us. I trust you have been well?"
"Well, yes. Thanks Rasul. I hope you have been well, too? It's a pleasure to see a familiar face. Especially here, after that November, a few years back," I said referring to the Nevada takeover in which Rasul had been the sole survivor of Sophie-Anne's entourage. "By the way," I said quietly putting my other hand on his arm for emphasis, "you have to remember to call me Sasha, now. Please."
"Certainly," he said, looking a bit puzzled but taking it right in stride. "And here we are, _Sasha_. I will look forward to seeing you later," he said nodding with a slight bow and pushing me gently through the doorway, after opening the door.
I entered Sophie-Anne's old audience chamber and was caught off-guard by first seeing Eric sitting at the same ornate table at which I remembered Sophie-Anne sitting and then being practically tackled in an embrace by Pam.
She kissed me on the cheek after hugging me and then stood back slightly to look me over, still holding onto my hand. She looked beautiful in a periwinkle shantung silk dress.
"Mmmm, Sasha, you look delicious as always. I am so pleased to see you, my friend." She smiled broadly at me.
It seemed like an almost overwhelming display of affection from Pam. The way she smiled at me, and the look in her eyes... She was really pleased to see me, just as Eric had told me. I squeezed her hand. I'd missed her.
"Pam, I'd almost think you missed me or something? Careful or you'll slip up and look gushingly sentimental about a human. It's so wonderful to see you," I said softly, squeezing her hand a bit. Then leaning toward her discreetly I asked "Um, can you sort of brief me about what the deal is here? What is going on and what is Eric actually doing here? I was afraid to ask him before and now I'm totally confused…I don't know what to do. Like protocol stuff. It all looks so much more formal than before. Is he the Sheriff of Area 1 now?"
Pam looked at me open mouthed, with frank amusement. "He really wasn't kidding then? He _really_ didn't tell you? Oh my, that is _so_ rich. He is truly devious. I am _so_ impressed." She erupted in open laughter with a huge grin and glanced in Eric's direction. In a low voice, and still smiling broadly, she said, "Well Sasha, it is a pleasure to inform you that Eric is now the King of Louisiana. Stan and Russell helped him overthrow Felipe de Castro late last year. Russell got Arkansas and Stan got Nevada. But Joseph is running Nevada because Stan said it was foolish to try to maintain multiple states separated by large geographic distances. It certainly didn't work out well for Felipe, did it? Welcome home, Sasha. As rigorously instructed, I can firmly assure you that you are very safe in Louisiana. You're married to the King of your state. Anyone laying a hand on you would have to be out-of-their-mind stupid. Oh, I can't wait to have fun with both of you. I'm going to have a wonderful time at both your expenses. I plan to tread the fine line between indiscretion and sheer annoyance," she said with a chuckle. Then she shook her head again and said, "I really have to give Eric more credit for artfulness."
As she spoke a shiver ran up my spine. Eric had staged a takeover of three states with the help of Russell Edgington and Stan Davis? My mind flew back to that night in Alexandria when Eric had said something about assuring things would be safe at home for me to visit there. Well, I guess he was in a pretty good position to assure me of that, at least in terms of being safe from vampires in Louisiana. Not that vampires had ever done me much harm. But I was guessing he meant Weres or any remaining fairies would think twice about going after me, too.
"When did you say all this happened, Pam?" I asked in a low voice.
"Oh, about six months ago. They'd been planning it for almost a year, though. After Victor Madden had Maxwell brined for something totally inconsequential, Eric was totally done with both Victor and Felipe. First the problems with you, then the penalties for him and for Bill, then Maxwell. Maxwell was the absolute last straw because he hadn't really done anything. He's Sheriff in Area 5 now but I think his skin is permanently damaged. Anyway, it was quite an interesting takeover. It was a real, ehem, bloodbath. Even that stupid tiger ex of yours fought with them because Eric and Stan guaranteed him that Stan would release him from service after taking over Nevada and would leave his family alone. But the tiger still can't set foot in our state without permission. Eric _really _enjoyed killing Victor Madden. It took several nights. It's really such a shame you weren't… although no, perhaps not. You never did seem to enjoy that sort of thing much, did you? Oh well. I believe Bill will be arriving tomorrow or the next day. He is really looking forward to seeing you. He is the lead investigator for the state of Louisiana now. He handles much of the security for the state, too. He has recovered fairly well from when you last saw him, although he was sick from silver poisoning for almost six months." She hesitated then for a moment and then said, "Eric said you were very upset about what happened to them. When you found out, I mean, about what happened to them?"
My eyes were still fixed on Eric, who was talking with several people. He was dressed in a charcoal gray suit, with a robin's egg blue shirt and a sharp looking tie. His hair was neatly tied back. He really looked like he belonged in GQ in his beautifully cut suit. Two of those standing and talking to him were vampires and the other was a Were. They were discussing business it seemed. The Were looked very nervous and had an agitated thought signature. He was trying to look calm and professional, though. He wanted to make a good impression. He was the only person in the entire room that I could read at all. A tall, blond male vampire standing next to Eric, shifted papers on the table. He was obviously some sort of an assistant. Eric, after a brief glance my way and a faint smile, started shifting through the documents, reading them and then signing things. My heart felt warm when he smiled that ever so slight smile. He was happy.
Pam shifted restlessly.
"Sookie? I mean Sasha… Do I really have to call you Sasha?" she said in a whisper.
I glanced back at Pam. "Yes, you really do. When we're alone you can call me which ever you want but if we're around other people, I have to keep up the identity thing," I said in a low voice. "That was the whole purpose of going to all the trouble. To pull away from this world, Pam. Right now I'm just Special Agent Sasha Gordon, okay? And yes, I was very upset. How could I _not_ be upset? They tried to protect me, providing protection Felipe said he had conferred on me, and they were punished for it in an absolutely gruesome fashion. How could I not be upset with that? It still makes me sick just to think about it." Really.
"Some day Sook… Sasha, I will tell you about that night when the fairies had you. I… really don't think you could imagine how Eric was that night. But then you were…" She looked over at me and suddenly let go of my hand and brushed the hair away from my face. "I am so sorry, my friend. I am so sorry for what happened to you and that it took so long to help you. I was so sorry that you left before I could see you, talk to you and express my sympathy for what happened to you. But perhaps it was better that you were not here in the weeks that followed. I think it would have been just as bad on you, albeit in a different way. I don't know that Bill and Eric understood how bad it would have been for you. I was sad that you left us. But perhaps it was better you did. Three years is only a short time to us. Perhaps it seems a lifetime to you. We three never stopped thinking about you, Sasha. We never did. Bill and Eric had their revenge for what was done to them. Rich revenge. But some of it was also revenge for what happened to you because Eric couldn't get to you fast enough. And then for Maxwell. In any case, things are much better now. And now I am Eric's second, which has been quite pleasant. Everyone has to put up with my sarcasm and irony. Few are in a position to complain. It is all immense fun." She smiled at me.
This was about the warmest and most amiable that Pam had ever been with me. She must have seriously pitied me for what had happened to me to be so warm, I thought to myself. Well, no matter what the eventual outcome (another takeover) was, I couldn't stand the thought of what had been done to Eric and Bill, all because of me, for another minute. It was literally still making me nauseated whenever I thought about it. My eyes started to tear up. I let out a tiny gasp and changed the subject.
"Eric says that you are still in contact with Amelia. How is she?" my voice sounded so uneven. Eric glanced over at us as if suddenly sensing I was upset.
Pam took up my hand again. I knew she saw I was about to cry. She held my hand then in both of hers and stroked it soothingly.
"She is doing alright," she said briskly. "She is dating someone. He's some sort of witch or sorcerer person. I haven't met him yet. I haven't talked to her in several weeks. I wasn't sure whether or not you would wish to see her. I was not even sure you would really come since you had no advance reservatons. She actually mentions you often. I think she knows that we knew where you were. She would no doubt like to see you, to see that you are really okay. Everyone was very shocked when you disappeared. She felt very bad about having left you alone in Bon Temps. At first everyone was worried that that stupid half-fairy uncle of yours had gotten you. Even your brother was. Especially since your car was still there. Eric was quite upset. He actually broke things, which for Eric is rather unusual. He is not usually inclined to such displays of emotion. They found that note on your refrigerator door that said 'Live Better' but we weren't sure what it meant. Although Eric was quite odd about it. It had a fresh scent on it, according to the shifter, when he got into your house. Eric said the bond between you was so worn down. He couldn't sense exactly where you had gone, but knew it was not close. A day later Bill got your phone company records. They were worried that the FBI might have stolen you. Bill came down here and glamoured that FBI agent you'd called into telling him what she had done, where you had gone. Eric charged Bill with finding you. It was their secret project- to find you. Of course, when that Dermot person showed up skulking around, they still killed him just as if he'd been responsible for your disappearance."
I pulled back in shock. "Wait a minute. _What?_ Who killed Dermot?" I said trying really hard not to raise my voice.
Pam winced ever so slightly as if realizing that she'd potentially made a misstep in her enthusiasm for talking to me. She glanced quickly across the room at Eric who was signing things and talking to several additional people now. I glanced casually around the room while waiting for Pam to explain and noticed that relatively few people in the room were armed. One tall dark vampire had a sword, which he leaned on slightly. There was another tall blond vampire, not the assistant, who stood at the back of the room, not far from Pam and me. He had no apparent weapons but he was even bigger than Eric and frankly reminded me of the Berts in terms of the sense of an overwheliming presence. He looked much sharper however. As soon as my glance fell on him, within an instant, he regarded me coolly, as if assessing something about me. Then he quickly looked back in Eric's direction, watchfully. So these two guys were it for the protection? Awfully trusting, I thought. I noticed the nice long sword resting against the empty chair at Eric's right. I looked at him and wondered if he was further armed. He'd always made it sound like being a King was so dangerous, as if you were a target. His security seemed really light from my perspective. Sophie-Anne always had far more security in evidence. I wondered if there was security I just couldn't see or if they were relying on the security at their entrance. If the front entrance security was like the side entrance security, I was extremely unimpressed.
Pam continued,
"Didn't Eric tell you _anything_ when he saw you in Virginia? And you two talk virtually every night? Sometimes even twice in a night? My goodness, whatever do the two of you talk about? Is it only 'phone sex'? He made it sound like you actually discussed things. Eric and Bill killed Dermot two years ago. I think Eric had promised Niall that he would kill him if they found him. Niall was worried for your welfare. It wasn't some gruesome, prolonged thing in case you're worried. They decided you'd get upset if they did anything really gross, although they really wanted to, let me tell you. But it was quick. They didn't even 'enjoy' him if you take my meaning and he was big enough to have been quite a meal. You know, they don't go to dust when they're only half fairy…"
I tuned her out a bit and glanced back over at Eric, who was on what looked to be the last stack of papers on his desk. Yes, I _was_ rather amazed at all the stuff that Eric hadn't told me. We'd talked for at least ten and often as long as twenty minutes a day, almost every day, for more than a month. Of course, I could compare notes and think of all the stuff I didn't tell _him_… Islamabad, Nasiriyah, that I was totally scared about coming here and risking pulverizing my heart all over again and hadn't told him for more than a week that I had already requested the vacation time or that I had even considered going to Europe instead... Still, I'd specifically told him that one of the reasons that I'd gotten into the marksmanship was to better defend myself _against_ _Dermot_, if necessary. And he'd said nothing about the fact that he and Bill had killed him two whole years ago? Then, thinking about it all, I realized that knowing Eric, he was likely so focused on my coming to Louisiana that he thought if he told me that, by the way, he was King of Louisiana now and he'd killed my great-uncle perhaps I might get upset about either of those two things and just not come. I remembered his clearly telling me that night three and a half years ago in Bon Temps that he would not lie to me but he might not always tell me everything. Back then I would have been outraged. Three years with the FBI made it seem like a standard operating procedure in the real world, however. I never knew all the specifics of what I was dealing with and frequently had to glean what was really going on from people on site. Basically, he just hadn't told me anything that he thought would deter me from coming. Well, I decided, I didn't care that Eric hadn't told me. It didn't matter. Caring that he hadn't wouldn't change anything anyway. It was irrelevant to the facts. The fact was, now I didn't have to worry about Dermot coming after me anymore and I should be _grateful_. And if Eric wanted to be King of Louisiana, it was his business and I was sure he'd do a smashing job of it because he'd always been a good boss from what I knew from vampires who'd worked for him. The stuff I hadn't been told was all irrelevant detail. The only things that really mattered were that we were _all_ safe. Especially them, since I had caused a couple of them considerable harm.
"Sook… _Sasha_. You know, I'm not having an easy time with you being a Sasha. You don't look Russian. Although you look… quite fetching as a redhead." She touched my cheek gently and looked into my eyes. I smiled at her, puzzled at her being so affectionate. "Yes, really it quite suits you. You're thinner but you still have curves in all the best places," she said in a sultry voice while her eyes roved up and down over me and she leaned closer. She still had her hand on my cheek.
Eric cleared his throat very loudly and Pam broke into the most mischievous smile.
"Forgive me, my friend. I'm afraid I have rather overstepped." She immediately lowered her hand but continued to smile like the Cheshire Cat, displaying a lovely set of fangs.
She was baiting Eric by flirting with me? It was too funny. I glanced over at Eric and he kind of glowered a bit at what he was signing and appeared to be pressing that pen into the paper as if he was signing into the wood below.
"Pam, you just _never_ change," I said breaking into laughter. At least Pam had gotten me to laugh and had jostled me out of my somber mood. "You're shameless."
"It's too much fun for me to _want_ to change," Pam said in a low voice, still grinning. "I'm going to have a great deal of fun with the two of you. I'm going to be very bad. I expect your unqualified support."
I ignored her on that point.
"So you were telling me about Amelia…"
"Yes, Amelia. She still mentions you. Do you wish to see her?"
"If you think it wouldn't upset her, yes, I would love to see her."
"Pam," Eric's voice called sharply. She moved quickly over to where Eric was sitting, bowed slightly and they conferred for a few minutes. The guests were gone. He handed Pam several documents. I noticed how odd it was that the remaining vampires around him appeared to call him by his first name, rather than Master or Your Majesty. They still bowed and scraped but it didn't have the feel of being servile. The Were had called him Mr. Northman. It was all respectful, but not slavishly so.
Finally Pam called out, "Sasha," and beckoned to me.
I walked over to the table and nodded politely to Eric, but couldn't quite contain my amusement from leaking into my expression. He was still cross with Pam over the flirtation bit, I could tell. The vampire assistant standing behind Eric looked at me in frank disapproval because of my irreverent smile. I guess I was supposed to look considerably more awed? I was having a hard time with capturing the right manner.
"Stefan," Eric said, "this is Sasha Gordon. Please make sure everyone knows that she is my personal guest." This was apparently some sort of heavily loaded, coded directive.
Stefan murmured his understanding. He regarded me with cool appraisal. He looked Scandinavian, just like Eric. He could almost be a sibling because of the similarity in looks. He wasn't quite as tall as Eric though, and his eyes were cold ice blue and seemed, I thought, to lack Eric's sparkling humor. Maybe it was just I got the feeling from his frosty manner that he didn't quite approve of me, though.
Eric rose, picked up his sword and walked around his desk. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he led me toward another door in the room. I glanced back at Pam and she smiled at me.
After we exited the audience room, Eric took up my hand and led me through some sort of sitting room filled with sofas, and a huge flat screen TV, through a narrow corridor and then down a long hall. We passed Rasul, who greeted me cordially in Arabic to which I replied in Arabic, earning an odd look at the two of us from Eric. Finally, we arrived at the doorway of a spacious office, and Eric closed and locked the door and hung the sword up on the wall, took of his dark charcoal gray jacket, and after taking a rather nasty looking stake out of his jacket's inside pocket, hung the jacket on a coatrack and tossed the stake onto his desk. Then he spun around, looked at me smiling and swept me into his arms and kissed me on the lips.
"Forgive the cool greeting, Lover. Business. And it's safer not to draw too much attention to you in front of strangers." He drew me to the long, deep couch along one wall and I sat down near him. He smiled, looking satifisfied, but was silent. He had teased me repeatedly by Skype that he expected me to be brave enough to sit next to him again or that it would be a very boring two weeks.
I looked down at my hand in his. I actually still felt so nervous. Weeks of talking still wasn't the same as being alone with him again. I wondered what he thought about how nervous I was because of course he was feeling it. He seemed completely unconcerned.
Actually, he seemed to be waiting for something but I couldn't figure out what it was. Congratulations on staking, ripping and probably slicing Felipe and his minions to shreds? Nice digs? Since I didn't know what to say, I started with,
"Rasul knew right away it was me," I said with a smile.
Eric looked a bit caught off-guard by the statement but replied, "When Pradep called Stefan from downstairs, I sent Rasul down telling him I had a guest who he would very much enjoy seeing. Rasul always had a great nose and remember he tracked you before. He could tell in an instant, I'm sure. Well, I have to say that you certainly seem to be taking everything very much in stride Lover..." he said with a curious look on his face.
"You mean about your takeover thing, yeah. It was a surprise. But I was actually more stuck on the Dermot thing, really. Pam told me that you and Bill killed Dermot two years ago? That one really kind of got me. Especially since I told you I was still worried about his finding me and maybe wanting some revenge or something."
He seemed to want to _appear_ unperturbed that I'd found out. I had the feeling he wasn't too pleased, though.
"Your grandfather wanted me to get rid of him, in case Dermot came looking for you or Jason. Since Claude went back, there was no one he trusted to protect you from Dermot. Other than me, of course. And frankly, I'm not too sure he'd have trusted Claude to do it even if Claude had stayed."
"You saw Niall before he left and sealed away Faery?" Now that was another surprise.
Eric was careful as he replied. "Yes, we spoke." There were clearly _other _things he was not prepared to tell me at present.
"About Dermot or about other things, too."
"We spoke about Dermot, and about you and Jason."
"What about Jason and me?"
"Just general things, his concerns for your welfare and such."
"What concerns?"
"We will talk about it all later. On Tuesday. Mr. Cataliades will be coming to see you about some business matters."
"What business matters?"
"It relates to your grandfather's businesses. Mr. Cataliades will explain it all to you on Tuesday, Lover. I figured that it was better to tell you, together with Bill, about Dermot. I'm sorry if you were upset to find out from Pam. You have little family, so I didn't exactly relish the idea of being the one telling you that we'd gotten rid of some more of it even if I knew you didn't like Dermot. Bill on the other hand will tell you that he enjoyed it as much as he did getting rid of that other uncle of yours. I had not known about that… other uncle." From the way he said it, clearly he had learned not just that Bill had killed Uncle Bartlett but _why_ Bill had killed Uncle Bartlett. It looked as if he wholeheartedly approved, too. Since I said nothing, he didn't comment further on Uncle Bartlett, for which I was grateful.
I didn't say anything and there was a moment of awkward silence.
He reached over and touched my face gently. "I've really missed you, Lover."
He slid closer to me on the couch and bent his head to kiss me, sliding his arm under my jacket and around the back of my waist. He pulled me closer to him and then chuckling, he jiggled my gun in its holster. It did make things a little awkward. I laughed and took it out of the holster and put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Actually, I felt I really had better come clean on a few other things. Especially since I was getting uncomfortable with the idea of being on the couch and having those things become more apparent on their own.
"Eric, you know," I said, leaning away slightly, "I really think you need better security for coming into the building. At least at that side entrance."
"What do you mean?" he said puzzled, pulling back a bit. "Pradep said you had the gun, right?"
"Well, yeah, he stopped me because of the Glock but of course I took it off before going through the metal detector. But the problem is he didn't catch all the other stuff."
He was very still as he looked at me with narrowed eyes. "What other stuff?"
I proceeded to show him my M4 ceramic pistol, which I had strapped to my left calf right above the ankle and the two shielded aluminum clips, which had made it past the metal detector without a hitch. The two clips had silver bullets and the metal hadn't registered them because metal detectors generally don't register aluminum or silver, they just register iron and ferromagnetic metals like steel. I hardly ever used this gun before other than twice at a range but it was useful to have a weapon that could get around metal detectors. Eric looked rather taken aback at the little detail of the silver bullets and aluminum not triggering the metal detectors. But when I pulled the silver knife and the wooden knife saturated with iron sulfide salts from my right calf, he was even more impressed, though in the end, he frowned.
"Point taken on the security issue. I guess a good question would be why you felt you needed to be so well armed to come to visit me. I'm not sure I'll like the answer."
"I have to carry my gun. That's a given. For the rest of the stuff, well, I didn't know what was going on. 'Be prepared' seems to be a pretty good philosophy at this point in my life after everything that's happened to me, Eric." I shrugged my shoulders.
He looked at me intently and was very still.
"Sookie, do you honestly still think I'm going to hurt you?"
"In what sense?" I countered.
"In the sense that I'm going to go after you and exact some kind of revenge for your having taken off after I protected you and paid a heavy price for it? In the sense that I've already told you quite clearly I'm _not_ going after you, since I'm interested in going after you in an entirely different fashion, Lover." He said that last part with something of a leer.
"Yeah. That _last_ one has me really worried" I said rolling my eyes. "Eric, I just didn't know what I was walking into here and damned if I'm ever going to be caught flat-footed in the supe world again, unable to defend myself to the best of my ability. No one is ever gonna get a hold of me again the way Neave and Lochlan did if I can possibly help it. No human, fairy, vampire, Were, no anything or anyone."
He looked so very pained whenever I said Neave and Lochlan's names. He looked about the way I felt whenever anyone mentioned his hand.
"Fine," was his only comment. "Let me assure you again that while you're here, you're going to be safe on _my_ watch."
Safe. His new favorite word to use with me.
Eric slid closer again and put his arm around me again. I felt edgy and awkward. I made nervous conversation.
"Is Pam still into jazz as much as she was? I saw in my hotel that Nnenna Freelon is at the Preservation and I was thinking of going to see her."
"I like jazz, too. We could all go if you wish. I'll have Stefan make the arrangements."
"Okay, but I'd be pretending to be with Pam."
He leaned back slightly. He looked displeased at _that_ idea. "And the reason for that is?"
"The taxpayer money invested in my new identity and keeping me in the Witness Protection Program? It's a pretty good reason. If I hang out with you all the time, especially in public, it's going to be more likely someone might figure me out, right? I need to be able to creep back to my world and just disappear again, Eric. The FBI is not going to be thrilled I'm here in Louisiana and even less so if I start hanging out in a very public way that's going to get me recognized. Frankly, I'm thinking I've got all of about another minute before my boss calls me after figuring out that not only am I in New Orleans but that I'm presently in a vampire compound. They know I wanted to get away from the supernatural world and they're not going to be happy to see me go for a dip in it for old time's sake, so to speak."
"They will track you? You have a GPS chip in your phone? Why did you even bring it with you, then? What if you don't answer? Perhaps they would think the phone was lost?" Eric said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I have to be reachable. It's part of my job requirement. It's a special kind of Blackberry with worldwide service. It's not the kind of thing you lose and don't report right away. And considering the fact that I think it would be extremely poor taste on my part to have the FBI raid your compound and start shooting at people with silver bullets, yeah, I'm really thinking I'll answer and just tell him I'm fine and take his wrath. They seem to have a lot of interest in keeping their only telepath nice and safe. _That's_ why I flew standby instead of booking ahead of time. So I wouldn't have to listen to the wrath ahead of time and chance they'd cook up an 'emergency' I'd be needed for. But anyway, if I go out with any of you, I'm with Pam, okay?"
"Well, I do not like the idea," he said looking at me coolly.
"Is this more of the _mine_ stuff?" I said rolling my eyes.
"No, it's more of the stuff that messing with someone who is mine has very different implications from messing with someone who is Pam's. If we go out socially, you will be with me."
"Has the situation in Preservation Hall deteriorated to the extent that I should be worried about people messing with me? Is there sniper fire or anything? Vampires in a rush of bloodlust go after people right there in the club? Is it so dangerous to listen to jazz in New Orleans these days? I didn't think to bring much of my other gear beyond what you see on the table. I only have three handguns and the knives with me. I hope that's going to be enough? To think I thought it was overkill and paranoia to have brought this stuff. I could always apply for a loan of additional weapons from the Armory if you think it's too risky to just go with the Pam plan."
He looked at me stonily and ignored the jibe. He shifted his arm away from me and leaned forward examining my stash.
"Wooden knives are standard gear for the FBI?" he said in an ironic tone as he picked up the wooden blade and examined it.
"Well… yes actually. You can take them on regular airline carriers without a lot of fuss. There's kind of a mandate that if you fly and there are any 'problems' that you're supposed to neutralize any threats you can to civilians. They can actually be surprisingly nasty even against humans. See, it's serrated to make it harder to pull out. And of course after declaring to the TSA I get to have my Glock. But all this stuff" I said gesturing to the pile on the table, "is nothing in terms of weapons against supes. My friend Alla's husband works at the Agency. You know, the CIA? The stuff they have is just incredible. All kinds of stuff for fighting anything you can think of. And you know, I really think they must know about the fairies, even though most probably left with Niall. They have all this iron and lemon-based stuff. That's where I got the idea of that knife soaked with iron sulfide salts. It makes it multipurpose against vampires and fairies. I had to leach some of the salt out of the blade though, because I thought it would trigger the metal detector. Guess I got it about right... The stuff the CIA has for fighting vampires is seriously scary. Aerosolized silver colloids and stuff like that. It's supposed to be really lethal."
"Should you even be telling me that?" Eric said with a chortle. "Are you going to have to 'kill' me for telling me classified secrets? You're always so secretive about your work." He flashed an amused smile.
"That's not my work stuff. _I_ don't work for the Agency. I work for the Bureau. We don't have stuff like that. We have _other_ stuff. But I can tell you about Agency stuff. It's not _our_ stuff. A good question is whether Mercan should be telling _me_ information like that." I said with a laugh. "After all, there's a long and entrenched history of the Agency not telling the Bureau anything and vice versa. Even in spite of all of the mandates for cooperation post 9/11. Anyway, somehow I think you wouldn't be surprised that they have some nasty stuff to use against vampires. Something tells me you guys might have figured that."
We chatted on for another twenty minutes about how much the FBI and other government agencies might really know about vampires. I told him that really I didn't know for sure, since I'd tried to diligently avoid anything supernatural for the past three years. Then my phone vibrated with a call. I looked at my watch. It was 12 am, exactly midnight and an hour later back in Virginia. I was sure it was the moment of truth, since virtually everyone knew that I was away on vacation and few people, other than maybe Ahmed, would think of calling me that late. I took out my Blackberry and saw that it was indeed Manny. I nodded to Eric with a grimace, and answered. Eric shifted ever so slightly closer no doubt so he could hear whatever Manny said with those bat ears of his.
"Manny? You're up late. What's up? Everything okay?" I said, trying to sound chipper and vacation-y.
"Sasha, are you in New Orleans?"
"Yes, I'm with my phone, which is definitely in New Orleans. Any problems?"
"Are you in that vampire compound there, for the past two hours?"
"Um, well actually, yes. I'm on vacation, though. Do you call Terry and ask him what he's doing in Bangkok or am I the only special one? What I'm doing is a lot less questionable than the stuff Terry does, I assure you. I'm just talking."
"Let's stick to you, Sasha. Seriously, _what_ are you doing there? Why, of all places, did you choose to go to New Orleans?"
I sighed. I had planned to tell him about longings for beignets, jazz and coffee with chicory. But I didn't have the heart to play hardball. Manny was a nice man and he'd never tried to push me to do anything with my telepathy that I thought I shouldn't do. He'd had me pulled from any situation that seemed very likely to go south after a very scary experience in Khartoum more than a year before. He'd treated me with kid gloves and kindness from the get-go. As people go, Manny was a _very _decent human being and a very nice boss. He didn't deserve anything less than the truth.
"Manny, I'm really fine. I'm just visiting. If you get worried, I'll be happy to meet up with Sara Weiss and she can tell you I'm fine, okay? Everything is hunky-dory.
"We pulled you out of there because you wanted to get away from these people, Sasha. _Who_ are you visiting?"
I leaned my face into my hand and rubbed my forehead. If there was any chance I'd be coming back to visit Eric again then they'd know sooner or later that there was more to the situation than a simple vacation. Maybe sooner was better. It was definitely way better on my conscience. There was only one really convincing reason I could come up with for making such a visit, though. At least in terms of justifying things. And I wasn't above using it to try to smooth things over.
"Manny, I'm going to tell you the truth. Something that you and the Bureau didn't know. I'm kind of… married. To a vampire."
I felt a rush of surprise and pleasure from Eric. He had seemed rather pleased in the past month whenever I made any reference to the marriage thing. Here I was acknowledging it to my boss. But I hope he understood that I was using it as a way to justify my presence here. It was a way to parlay my stay in New Orleans into something more reasonable in Manny's eyes. I had to say that I really just didn't get Eric's thoughts on the marriage thing. He'd gotten very ruffled a week before when I called it a marriage of convenience, as in conveniently keeping me out of Felipe's clutches. The look on Eric's face at present, in combination with what I was feeling from him, kind of caught me off-guard, however.
The other side of the line on the other hand was, excuse the expression, dead quiet. Finally Manny said,
"You've got to be kidding me, Sasha. And you went _back_ to him? Is he the bastard that did that shit to you? _You went back to him_? What the hell are you thinking? I want you out of there!" He sounded paternalistic, angry and incredulous. Manny really had always been pretty protective of me and knew that I had been a victim of something horrible. In fact, he was a large part of the reason why the majority of my remaining scars were now barely visible.
I let out a gasp, "_No_ Manny_!_ He is _not_ the one that did that to me… Jesus Christ!" Eric stiffened and I felt rising anger on his part as he looked away. It amazed me that Manny's automatic assumption was that a _vampire_ had harmed me. Years after the whole vampire revelation thing and prejudice was still alive and kicking. I put my hand on Eric's arm and shook my head, continuing to Manny, "No, he tried to… Look, what happened to me was not his fault. He actually took care of me afterwards, as much as I'd let him. What happened to me had absolutely nothing to do with him. I'm really safe here. I promise you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you any of this before. I just barely even know what to say about any of it, even to myself. I'd been through so much in a short time and I did want to leave when I left. I wasn't trying to be duplicitous. What happened to me was a nightmare, Manny, and I really can't tell you any more than that. I wanted to leave everything and everyone, and so I did. But I miss him. So I came to visit him. I'm being very careful and I'm here as Sasha. Few people would recognize me and of those few who would, they will keep me safe." It was all the truth.
"What's his name? What's this husband's name, Sasha?"
I looked up at Eric. I didn't know whether it was okay to tell. He just nodded, though he still looked more than a bit offended at Manny's suggestion that he had been the one who did what had been done to me.
"You need to understand this is like a vampire thing, Manny. If you're going to go looking for a marriage license in a Louisiana Clerk's Office, you're not going to find one. It's not a marriage sanctioned by Louisiana state law." I bit my lip a bit and then offered quietly, "Eric Northman."
Manny was silent a moment on the other line, except for the sound of his keyboard clacking and then said,
"Geez, Sasha. He's _1100_ years old? He lives in Shreveport? Are you both just visiting in New Orleans? How can he keep you so safe if it isn't even his home turf? Aren't they very territorial?"
Well, this definitely confirmed that the FBI had Bill's database. And that Manny knew much more about vampires than I would have thought…
"I think your database is out of date. You have to get regular updates online. He lives in New Orleans now. And besides, in terms of vampire stuff, no one is allowed to touch me on like pain of final death or something because of the marriage thing. I really don't think anything will happen to me here, Manny. I really am safe. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before but we both know how it would have gone over. My vacation, my plans, my private life."
I could hear Manny typing more on his computer. And then he let out a soft 'whoa'.
"So he's now what the vampires call a King? King of the state of Louisiana? He lives in that compound, then?"
"Yes, Manny. So, um, is there like a classified file on him or something? How did you get that little tidbit of info? Are there files on high profile vampires?"
"You have heard nothing from me on that topic." _Omigod,_ I thought... The Bureau has classified files on vampires… "And are you _sure_ you're safe there, Sasha?" He meant we had fail-safe terms for communicating that I was definitely not safe at a location and that I had to be extracted asap.
"I'm sure I'm safe, Manny. Really. If you want, have Sara Weiss meet me tomorrow for coffee. I have the cell on. You can track me. What me to send you a picture? I'm really fine. I promise you."
"When you get back, we'll have to have a talk about this. You realize that, right, Sasha? Chuck is not going to be happy with this. Not at _all_."
I quavered internally. Chuck was seldom happy with anything where I was concerned. This would be one more strike. In spite of scary moments from time to time, I'd have to say that this was, without question, a pretty good job if you were going to work as a telepath. What if Chuck didn't like this whole vampire business? Because I was pretty sure he wouldn't like it. For the first time I wondered if the FBI wasn't all that different from vampires like Felipe or Andre? Or even, glancing over at the one next to me, like Eric? The FBI clearly thought I was _theirs_. Suddenly, I felt a moment of genuine panic. It was one of those moments when I realized that I was still an asset. I'd just thrown in with a different sort of master.
"Yes, sir. I do."
After a brief goodbye, I ended the call. Eric wrapped me in his arms. Either he had stopped listening, or else he didn't get the subtext of what Manny was really saying. Eric was happy. I was just plain worried.
5. Chapter 4
**IV.**
After a couple of minutes of noticing that I was still not all relaxed and happy, Eric let go.
"You're upset," he said quietly.
"MmmmHmmm," I said, just nodding. Well, that was a bit of an understatement.
I was lost in thought. Could they fire me for 'consorting' with vampires? That would just be unfair, I thought to myself. The Bureau was not always fair, however, as I'd seen first hand. Sometimes in order to be secure you _had_ to be unfair. Maybe all I had to do was prove I couldn't be glamoured for information. Because I could already see that would be Chuck's big issue here. Vampires glamoured humans and a glamoured FBI agent was a serious security risk. Look at what a glamoured Sara Weiss had done? She'd let Bill know that I'd gone to work for the FBI willingly and put him on the fast track to finding me in Virginia. And the information that I was privy to was much more on the order of national security than anything Sara Weiss could have given out. Surely some vampire somewhere worked for the FBI, CIA or NSA and they could get he or she to try to glamour me? There were several Weres I'd met at the Bureau. I had even heard a rumor that the NSA had a telepath. Didn't one of the agencies have vampires?
But firing me was the least of my concerns. Would the Bureau do _anything_ to pull me away from Eric? _Could they try to go after Eric?_ Manny had basically confirmed they had an entire active file on him. My mind reeled at that thought. It was probably because of his business activities or because of tracking vampire politics. Maybe both. Well, the days for really dark intrigue were thankfully over under new administration, but I still wasn't feeling resoundingly confident about the situation that I'd gotten myself, _and Eric_, into. Even two years ago it would have been wholly possible that they would have gone after Eric just for shakes. The IRS, DHS/Immigration. You name it. Well, if the Bureau didn't like it, one option would be to simply can me and try more diligently to find Barry. But they had a huge investment in me, and in my team. _What if they went after Eric?_ I thought again to myself. Maybe I hadn't thought this out clearly enough. Had I been hopelessly naïve? My heart raced. I was worried about coming here for how it could impact Eric and Bill under the assumption that Felipe de Castro was still undead alive and could cause problems. It hadn't crossed my mind that the FBI could cause Eric problems. Maybe I never should have told Manny about the relationship. I was totally confused about whether I might have made things worse. I trusted Manny, though. Maybe he wouldn't tell Chuck that little detail if it wasn't a good idea.
"What is wrong?" he asked quietly, stroking my forearm.
I tried to snap my attention back to present reality.
"I'm just getting the idea that I was so worried about coming back here from the supe end that I didn't think it through very clearly from the FBI end. I don't want to lose my job. I like my job. I really do. I don't want to be fired or to be 'asked' to quit," I said, gesturing those quotations. I didn't exactly want to give voice to the thought that they could do anything to harm Eric in order to keep me. "Plus, I guess I worry about what they could do to try to secure my services by…"
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "By what?"
"I get worried that they could go after you to make you leave me alone. I guess I was really in denial about how badly this all might be taken. I don't think they would do something like that, but really… I don't know. It's more than just my boss's take on something like this. I guess they'd get worried that I could be glamoured for information. I'm going to have to think of how to prove I'm not a security risk."
I looked up at Eric, who was now looking rather distant. Distant, except for the clenched jaw part and the sense that he was thinking my leaving my job wasn't at all bad in his eyes. I could just quit and move back home as far as he was concerned. For a second I really thought I could almost read that from him, which always shook me up when it happened. Could he actually think I'd just quit my job and move back here? Even if the FBI would _let _me do that, could he actually think I _would_ do that?
"Eric, please tell me that you don't think that I'm just going quit doing whatever and come back to Louisiana and just sit around all day waiting for you to wake up and entertain me and then dine on me. That is so totally _never_ going to happen. How could anyone knowing me even want something like that to happen? You knew my thoughts on this kind of thing from before. We had already covered at least that much of it more than three years ago, and I can tell you it's even _less_ likely to happen now than it was then. Giving up a really good job that I'm good at, with great benefits, is even more unlikely than giving up working at Merlotte's was. And I really liked working for Sam. I am here _visiting you_. You remember that, right? Just try to wrap your head around that one really, really well."
I shook my head thinking about what a mess I might have made. "I have to find a way to fix this, to make sure that things will be okay all the way around. So that they won't come bothering you. No IRS or Homeland Security and INS bullshit raining down on you. I was so fucking stupid not realizing that Manny was _not_ going to be my problem," I muttered to myself.
He seemed as if trying to absorb that bit of information vis a vis my job was rather difficult for him. He looked at me with a cold displeasure.
"You say you wouldn't quit your job. That you don't want to move back home. But still, you came here, Lover. If you aren't interested, why come?"
"If I'm not interested in what? I care about you. I missed you and so I came to _visit _you. You _asked_ me to visit you, remember that? You contacted _me_. Maybe you and I have a very different idea of what a visit entails, Eric. A visit is not moving back to Louisiana. We're just spending time together. I wanted to spend time with you. And even if I were someday to move back here, what… am I supposed to just drop my entire life if I want to be around you? I would no more give up my entire life to be with you than I would expect you to give up your entire life here to go live in DC. Did you think I was just kidding you three years ago? Are you really even seeing me as I am or are you still seeing every other woman you've known? Between all the trouble I've caused you and your seeming inability to accept the fact that I don't want to just laze around for the rest of my life, I seriously wonder what we're even doing here," I said with quite an edge to my voice.
I was getting upset. Really upset. Part of me really did wonder what I was doing here. What were we even thinking about? What did I think coming here meant? To me? To him? Basically, if I had to be honest, I hadn't thought of anything beyond just enjoying these two weeks. I hadn't thought of anything beyond just being with him again, however briefly, because the thought of anything lay beyond that was just too unsettling. But that was the personal end of it. The work end? I'd felt so conflicted about being here and now I wondered whether it was just one great big mistake. I'd gone from worrying about really getting hurt emotionally again to getting really mad at him and being worried that I was putting him into a risky situation just by virtue of my being there. What a mess.
He sighed, and looked away.
"Just _relax_. I _get_ it, alright? Without intending to make you even angrier, would the FBI let you work from here?" he asked looking at me sideways. He had an edge to his voice that suggested that things were already not quite going as he had planned.
"I don't know. It's ridiculous to even contemplate since I've been here for all of a few hours, Eric. I'm on vacation. A much needed vacation. You need to seriously rein it in, okay? I don't want to spend time angsting over all of this. I came to see you, spend time with you, and _to relax_. I was also looking forward to seeing Pam. I wanted some downtime with quiet minds. We're seriously not talking about any future plans until well after I leave. I'm on vacation. Let me enjoy it. And in my free time, I'll try to figure out just how Machiavellian my employer could go on us."
He looked at me and smiled. I felt a smooth blanket of warmth from him. He was definitely trying to diffuse my anxiety and frustration. I felt as if he was trying to soothe me somehow.
"Oh, you'll enjoy your vacation. My goal is to make you want to come back, to stay. So you are going to have a very enjoyable time. I assure you of that, Lover."
"Fine, Eric. Bring it on." I tried not to roll my eyes. And to get my heart rate to go down as I thought about Chuck Powell, my boss's boss, who had never liked me and never liked 'soft' interrogation even as a concept.
"The last time I heard you say that we were having a _lot_ more fun at the time," he said with a sexy voice.
I puzzled over that for a moment and then remembered and felt myself, amazingly for an almost 30 year old woman, blush with pleasure at that memory.
"Yeah, I remember that time. It was definitely more fun than fielding phone calls from my boss. And I recall we dealt with the 'I'm not going to make any drastic changes to my life' stuff too, right? But afterwards."
"Well, I reserve the right to make you _want_ to make drastic changes, Lover. I will tell you up front that it is precisely my goal."
He pulled me up onto his lap and began kissing me. When I got to come up for air I found I was just trembling. A flood of memories, of desire, just filled my mind. He went on kissing me for a while but when his hand slid down to my breast I flinched slightly. I was so unused to being touched other than for dancing and hugs from friends now. He stopped and pulled back to look at me and then brushed some of my hair back behind my ear. With his hand gently cupping my cheek he looked at me with those intense blue eyes and said softly,
"Have you been with anyone else since you were with me, Sookie?"
He knew. I didn't know how he knew, but he did.
Without meeting his eyes, I just silently shook my head. No one. I was back to where I was before I met Bill. How could I ever have a relationship with a human man? It simply wasn't possible for me given their ceaseless inner voices. And I had avoided supes as if they were landmines.
I was surprised to feel no huge swell of pride or happiness from him at that little revelation. I looked up at him and he looked almost sad although there was something else to it that I couldn't quite understand . He massaged my shoulder a bit with his hand. Finally he asked soberly,
"I never had the chance to ask you anything more… personal after that night. I knew some of what they did. But you were in so much pain, I… Beyond the very obvious injuries, they didn't… rape you, did they?" He was practically gritting his teeth as he waited for my answer.
I shook my head. "No," I said softly. "They didn't go that far. They seemed to think I was disgusting. They were too busy dining on me and then having sex with each other at that point." It was still so gross to think about that, since they were siblings and all.
He looked pained at my words but I felt through the bond that he was very relieved. Frankly, the thought of Neave and Lochlan raping me, given what they were already doing to me, had been so potently horrifying that I had hoped they would just slip up and kill me before they got to that one, because they probably _would_ have thought of it eventually.
"I am relieved, although certainly they had done enough already. You were so bloody everywhere according to Bill that he wasn't sure and Ludwig was so busy evacuating people by the time I got there… I didn't want to ask you then. But I have wondered all this time, especially after Bill said that you didn't date anyone, that your friend for dancing was gay." He paused for a moment and then said as if choosing his words carefully, "Are you still very scarred from your injuries, in spite of all the blood I gave you? It would not bother me. My concern is that it bothers you."
"I've had surgery on the remaining scars, Eric. Scar revision surgery. They just cut out the scar and resealed it with surgical glue or very fine sutures. Manny arranged for me to have some of the work done at Walter Reed in Bethesda. They do really great things with scars. And my left breast didn't heal well. I had that fixed. The breast I had done in New York by a fancy plastic surgeon who does breast reconstruction. It's all probably worse in my eyes than it would be to anybody else, because I look at the scars that remain and I… I remember. I can't forget how I got them. How they _enjoyed_ what they did to me." He really winced at that comment. "I just can't forget it, that there are beings that can think that way. Really delighting in the pain they cause. I look at the scars and remember. It's why I don't get tan, although actually they said that it might make the scarring worse to get sun exposure. But I just don't even want to lie out and look at myself. It still makes me feel sick to think about it all. I still can't get away from remembering it. Anyway, it is what it is."
"You were afraid to be with anyone because of the scars?" he asked quietly, brushing more hair away from my neck and stroking it gently.
"No. I just… I wasn't afraid, Eric. I just didn't want to be with anyone. I just wanted to be alone." It wasn't just my not wanting to deal with a human mind, or the faint scars that still remained. Basically, I didn't want to be having sex with anyone I didn't love anymore. Maybe, too, because I still loved him. No matter how much that realization frightened me, I couldn't escape it. I loved him. And even though he'd told me he loved me a month ago, and even several times since that time, I was just too afraid of all the implications of my loving him to deal with it. A large part of me just didn't believe that Eric was serious, anyway. And yet here I was, in Louisiana, with him, even sitting in his lap. Risking… everything. Sookie is such a fool, I thought to myself. I needed to be more like my alter ego, Sasha. Tougher, smarter. Safer.
He leaned back against the couch and looked at me oddly. He seemed almost to be examining me, my thoughts.
"What?" I asked softly.
"You love me, Sookie. I _know_ you love me. Sooner or later you are going to have to break down and say it. Because I told you and if I'm willing to say I love you, then the very least I'd expect is for you to admit it back. Things are going nowhere until you can say it, Lover."
"Things are going nowhere? What, is that your way of saying that you're not going to touch me for two whole weeks unless I say I love you? Great bargaining chip. That'll make me _really_ receptive, right?" I was seriously hoping he was kidding. Three years was a long, long time. He had been almost impossibly flirtatious with me for the past month when we had Skyped regularly. Pam's description hadn't been too far off the mark for some of our phone calls , especially for the past two weeks. He seriously had better be kidding.
"Oh, I'll touch you, sure. I'm touching you now right? You mean sex? No. No sex. And you might want to think about the fact that what you're saying _you_ want, sex, is what you said was only the result of the bond and of having had my blood and all of the other bullshit that you could come up with. That somehow it's always me, influencing you, controlling you. I can get sex easily. What I want from you is more than sex, Lover. I hope you're listening carefully. _I'm_ saying no. You're the one asking. I can say what _I_ feel. I told you what _I _want. You give me nothing in return. That bond is just controlling your every move, isn't it? What a vampire's success story." he said in a mordant tone.
I wouldn't look in his eyes then, and just tugged his shirt collar back into its proper alignment. I finally looked up at him again and saw that he had the most triumphant grin on his face and his eyes were positively sparkling. One of the only serious things that Eric had talked about over the past month, other than the whole safety thing, was the fact that he was very sick of my saying that whatever I felt or was motivated to do was solely because of the bond between us. The only time I'd seen him really close to totally losing his cool during our conversations was one time I'd said my that I thought that much of whatever we felt was artificial because of the blood bond. He thought that was absolutely ludicrous and pointed out that we had known each other and enjoyed each other's company for quite sometime before the bond was made. The rational part of my mind told me he was right. Unfortunately, that part of my mind had rarely ever been on display where Eric was concerned.
"Would you be willing to accept that I missed you a great deal?"
"_No._ No, I wouldn't. That would be wholly inadequate and total bullshit. In fact, it would be insulting. Do you usually have sex with people just because you missed them? I'd really want to know something like that at the outset. What a red flag to any serious relationship, right? Who else do you miss, may I ask?" He paused and shook his head. "You're really the most stubborn woman I've ever known. And I have known a _lot_ of women."
I smiled and said caustically, "I'm already getting over missing you. And gosh, I feel so special. The most stubborn ever? You always make me feel so…"
He grabbed me started kissing me ardently and then he pulled off my jacket, as he shifted me to face him with my legs straddling his thighs. He started kissing my throat. I felt his fangs press flat against my neck and I drew a sharp breath as I felt an overwhelming desire to be bitten. But he didn't bite. His hands caressed my breasts and I moaned.
"So that _was_ enough, then? You were always so easy, Eric," I murmured sarcastically while he nuzzled around my ear.
He pulled away from my neck and looked at me shaking his head again.
"You better not start teasing me, Sookie," he said with a leer. "Or Sasha or whatever your name of the moment is."
Then he groaned and lifted me off his lap, set me down on the couch and got up and sat in a nearby chair, arms crossed across his chest. His trousers looked as if they were now seriously and uncomfortably tight. I bit my lips trying not to laugh. I was in only slightly less stirred up shape.
"Well, I would never do anything in your office, anyway, Eric. Perhaps you should call me Alexandra. Since Sasha is really short for Alexandra. Keep things formal so that you take it down a notch. You know Alexandra means 'defender of mankind'? I wanted a strong name."
"I'm just enthralled," he said sarcastically, glaring at me a bit. He looked a bit frustrated.
"Wow, I really thought that was supposed to work the _other_ way around? No wonder you're so put out," I said in a playfully sarcastic tone. "Why that's even worse than not being able to enthrall _me_, now isn't it? What shall I have you do while you're enthralled? I'll have to choose carefully because I'm betting that this doesn't happen often… If you'll give me a minute I'll go down the short list of my favorite things for Eric to do."
I could tell he was really enjoying himself at that comment. He looked at me open mouthed, fangs run down, eyes now with a reddish glow. He truly looked like mischief. His tongue danced around his fangs and then he licked his lips. He looked me up and down in a suggestive fashion.
"I'll tell you what _I'm_ going to do, Lover. I going to tell you everything I _would be_ doing with you right now, if only you were a _braver_ and more forthright partner…"
At that remark, I took out my Blackberry of out my tossed aside jacket and started scrolling through email with a sigh. I shook my head. Was he saying I was a lying coward?
"Well Eric, insults will get you nowhere. Few women like to be insulted. I'd really have thought after a thousand years you'd have picked up on that by now. And I really find office settings to be very unromantic, actually. They make you take all these anti-sexual harassment courses at the FBI. No one who's been through more than two or three would ever feel an office is a romantic setting. They've practically traumatized us on the topic. The mere thought is stressful. So if you were thinking you could seduce me here, in your office, I'm just giving you the heads up that I think your plan is going to fail miserably. Besides, I can just sit here envisioning every other woman that's been on this couch and it's a massive turn-off. Now, a bedroom might be a more realistic temptation. But whatever your plan, it had better be more creative than your office couch with whomever you have guarding outside listening at the door." I paused, looking absently at my phone, thinking of something from three and a half years before. Something I hadn't been willing or able to put into words until now. "You know, I've often wished that I'd gone to stay with you in Shreveport when you asked me to. Maybe what happened to me wouldn't have happened. Maybe what happened to you and Bill and to Clancy wouldn't have happened. Maybe Tray and even Claudine would still be alive. Although on the other hand, maybe the fairy fiends would have come during the day and killed you in your sleep, to get me, and it would be much worse that it was." I snorted ruefully, "Maybe it's stupid to waste time thinking of what might have been. Eventually, I hope to be able to quit doing that. Still not making much progress with that goal, though."
I saw him shift in the chair and lean forward as if he was going to reach out to me as I said all this. I looked away. His emotions seemed to shift quickly and suddenly I felt such sorrow from him that I ached inside. He probably had no idea how much I had tormented myself in the first year after I'd left. I guess he was starting to see the edge of it. And that was before I'd found out about what Felipe had done to him and to Bill, all because of me. I didn't really know what he'd been through either, though. But, maybe in some odd way, through the bond, I had known that it was so very bad for him. After all, the first year had been so horrible. Was it really only _my_ feeling that way? Had part of the awfulness that I felt been _his_ awful? In any case, over the course of three years I hadn't even tried to contact him, to see if he was okay. I didn't do anything to try to fix things between us or make amends. Until now. I didn't look over to see his face. I really didn't want to. That was about as unguardedly honest as I planned on getting. I could barely even stand to think about it at times. What if my stubborn resistance to accepting his offer to take care of me had resulted in so much loss? Had I cost the lives of people I cared about or he cared about because of my choices? I was just silent and so was he.
I went back to my email and opened an email from Alla and saw the picture of her newly born son, Alexander. He was so beautiful. She was lucky. I didn't think I'd ever have children. After the horror of what had befallen Crystal and Claudine, I just couldn't see risking bringing a child into the world. Even removed from the supernatural world, I had all those lovely genes to pass on to some poor unfortunate child. Fae blood and a chance to suffer with telepathy? No, thank you. My four extra vacation days were part of a plan to go see Hunter and Remy, who still lived in Red Ditch. Hunter was as close as I thought I'd ever get to having a child in my life after Jason's unborn child was murdered along with Crystal by Neave and Lochlan. Eric had told me that Jason still had no children so far as he knew from Bill, who still lived in Bon Temps. Anyway, I wanted to go and see if Hunter was doing okay. I wanted to get to know him a bit, if Remy would let me after my big disappearing act.
"Is everything okay?" Eric asked, clearly picking up on my brooding.
Another wistful moment. They seemed to be piling up. I blinked my eyes which were slightly teary still from moments before. Tonight's visit was getting harder, not easier. I was thinking about saying it was time to call it a night.
"Yeah. A friend of mine, one of the interpreters I work with, just had her baby. A boy. They've named him Alexander. He's named after me. She sent me pictures."
"You are sad."
"No, I'm… happy for her. Of course. I think she may stop working overseas though, because of the baby and all.I can't imagine going to Afghanistan without her. I love her mind. She speaks Arabic, Farsi, Pashto and a language called Dari. It's like Persian, sort of like Farsi, but they speak it in Afghanistan. She's a wonderful person to work with, very engaging. I just can't imagine not having her with me if I go there." Then I murmured, almost to myself, "I can't believe she really named him Alexander… It's so sweet, really."
"So you've been to Afghanistan, then?" He seemed interested. I'd been rather evasive about where I'd traveled.
"Several times. Actually, I guess… eight times in the past eighteen months," I said absently.
"Eight times? Where did you go at the beginning of this month? If you can you tell me now, that is."
I suddenly focused more clearly. Eric hadn't had a security clearance, so he was still only a significant other rather than a spouse in the FBI's eyes after what I'd told Manny. By policy, I could still tell him a few things post hoc. But still not a lot. Really you couldn't tell even the person you were closest to much at all. I knew you could infer certain things. That's what Alla and Mercan did. But you had to be careful not to infer too much.
"Well, considering you're basically my significant other as far as my boss would be concerned, I can tell you some things after the fact. I was in Iraq. In a city called Nasiriyah."
At that statement he sat bolt upright and looked at me as if quite shocked. "They send you to work in places like that? I thought there were still all kinds of bombings and attacks there? That's in the South right? I thought maybe you just went to the capitals, to the embassies, someplace safe. They send you to interview people in such unstable places?"
Uh oh... Hmmm. In retrospect, I probably really shouldn't have told him anything. But I guess he'd have known I was lying if I told him I couldn't tell him anything at all. He wanted to talk about my work. I wondered how much he really wanted to know.
Shaking my head, I said "Eric, you don't have any idea what unstable really means in the world I work in. Nasiriyah is _not_ unstable anymore. It's much better than when I first went there, for instance. I've been to Iraq at least two dozen times. I've stopped counting. And embassies don't make you safe. They're actually a great target. A whole bunch of Americans work there, after all, so you can save yourself a lot of trouble by targeting an embassy. Besides, they can't hold foreign nationals for questioning on embassy soil. It's a violation of international law and one of the Protocols of the Geneva Convention. So you have to go outside the Embassy to interview the people. And Nasiriyah is fine, it's much better than it was. Not all that bad, really. Najaf was always way scarier to me. Besides, some of the places that look calm are very deceptive and much more dangerous for the work I do. The most dangerous place I've ever been wasn't even in a war zone."
"Where else have you been recently? You said when I went to see you in Virginia that you had just returned from a trip. Where did you go then?"
Well, that one was worse than Nasiriyah, but not for any obvious reason. I hesitated and I guess he could even tell from the expression on my face that it wasn't a very safe trip at all.
"I really want to know, Sookie. I realize I was evasive with you about things here, but now you know. You've been very vague about what you do, or at least where you do it. I realize that you can't tell me some things, but I want to know what you _can_ tell me. I want to know the truth about what it is that you're really doing. It sounds much riskier than what I had thought it was. I envisioned you in a nice safe room, talking to suspected terrorists with guards and your interpreters. I didn't think about _where_ you were doing these things. I want to know where you go."
_A nice safe room_? Was he for _real_? Maybe at The Hague or a Federal prison facility! Tents on military bases like Guantánamo or much worse was a bit more what I was used to. Or scary prisons in various Central Asian or Iraqi cities. Or there was that time in Waziristan… I groaned internally. If he cared for me even a bit, he was not going to be happy. And he had been claiming to care much more than a bit. He was also looking at me like he wasn't going to give up on finding out more info and clearly white lies were not going to cut it.
"Okay, but I can already see you are not going to like a lot of where I go. And you really can't tell anyone the stuff I tell you, okay? Right before you came to Alexandria, I was in Islamabad. The FBI frequently loans our services to the Army. I was screening some guy that was a captured Taliban leader. That's not info you can share with _anyone_. Islamabad isn't supposed to be a bad place to go. But sometimes, like I said, the 'safer' places are not really safe at all if you really shouldn't be there, doing what you're doing, in the first place. We were there questioning the guy pretty much illegally, at least so far as I could tell. I normally hate shit like that. I had a bad scare with something like that when I was in Khartoum over a year ago, screening some Al Qaeda guys. That turned out to be some freaky CIA operation and the Sudanese government got wind of the whole thing and it was a real mess. I was there for less than eight hours but it was really scary. You can't tell anyone about that either. Sometimes they don't tell me anything until I get there and even then what I know is from what I figure out by reading the people I'm actually supposed to be working for. I told Manny when I got back that time from Khartoum that I wouldn't to go places illegally anymore unless they told me about what the deal really was and let me decide for myself. I mean, if you get caught, they could do anything they wanted with you. The US would probably deny everything, just like they do for CIA operatives."
"So they send you out to some of these dangerous places to 'screen' people they've captured. _That's _your job?" He really looked wide-eyed and Eric was not exactly a person I would think of as being wide-eyed at much.
"Well, you're not too likely to capture terrorists in nice, safe places these days, Eric. I interviewed a couple of war criminals in The Hague once. That was a nice safe office job. Or some jihadi suspects in Berlin, London, or Madrid. Or I get to screen domestic terror subjects here or in Canada. But those are the exceptions. My team does _field work_. That's what we specialize in and the bulk of what I do. Interviewing people on site is better because you stand a better chance of being able to preemptively intervene, or nab more cohorts or grab their weapons or supplies. In counterterrorism, field work is paramount and it's much better than all the rendition stuff that they were doing five years ago. The counterterrorism units are a frontline for protecting American interests domestically and even abroad. The goal is to preemptively prevent anyone from entering the US for the purpose of terrorist activities, to analyze suspects connections to known US cell suspects, and to safeguard our interests overseas. We do the Arab world, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They'd also like to get an interpreter I can work with that speaks Indonesian and Malay. But I haven't found one I can work with yet. I'm very picky about who I work with. We go out to military installations, prisons, local military bases to do analyses, or to camps holding enemy combatants. And yeah, I have been to some seriously scary places to screen people. After I was in Khartoum, six weeks later they sent me, legally of course, to Waziristan, in western Pakistan, with Alla and Ahmed, to interview people. _That's_ a pretty lawless area. I saw a jeep of people I knew blown up by a landmine. That was bad. And the only support we had was a small contingent and mostly Pakistani Army. You really cannot imagine some of the people I've screened. Some are almost as frightening as fairies, let me tell you. Of course, sometimes you find someone who's innocent, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, though. But some, just a few… really you wouldn't want to know. Thinking _any_ price to achieve your goal was just fine because heaven awaited you no matter what you did in the name of what you believe in. Being inside the head of a person like that is a frightening thing. But most of the people I screen have just been exploited, indoctrinated and manipulated. They are following their own leadership's propaganda just like I guess you could say we were following ours, although definitely their methods or plans are a lot more questionable than our stated agenda of freedom and democracy. But still, to me, one could hardly be in a position to judge or tell them to find a better way to survive without giving them the means to make different choices. Especially in Afghanistan. I guess if I've taken one thing home in my work, it's my conclusion that the problems that _create_ the circumstances where people become terrorists really aren't being addressed sufficiently. I've interviewed terror suspects as young as twelve. Imagine interviewing a _child _terror suspect, Eric," I said shaking my head sadly. "One kid went to this school, where he learned to hate all Westerners, because he wanted to _eat_. It was where he was getting his food. Food, prayers and hatred. What can you say to a child who wants to eat and is willing to shoot people or set bombs as the suggested way of showing thanks? What do you do with that child after you have him? Send him back home to be hungry again? About the only way I can do what I do is the thought that I'm sparing these people some very unpleasant treatment by someone else. For every person I screen, it's one less person who gets those 'enhanced' interrogation methods. That's a pretty inadequate feeling at times, though," I said softly.
He looked at me silently for a minute then said almost bitterly,
"And you think it would be dangerous moving back to Louisiana?"
"No, I think, for now at least, it would be a poorer use of my ability. Plus, I guess I think if I were living here, the way you keep trying to suggest… I'd just end up brokenhearted and you would end up feeling guilty when it all ends badly. So I might as well just do this because at least I'm being very useful. In fact, it's probably the most useful I've ever felt. I guess I just don't know how long I can continue doing it before losing a sense of empathy for mankind because we have such capacity for indifference or harm. Because I have seen some seriously horrible things in other people's heads. Or before it becomes so unsafe that I just can't do it without feeling like I have a death wish or something. That's another factor. No reason to have survived Neave and Lochlan to get myself killed over there, right?"
Well, if I was going for unguarded, I had certainly arrived in a big way.
He looked away and was quiet for a minute. Finally, he turned back to me and said,
"If you told them you didn't want to go on those risky jobs, why did they send you to Pakistan this recent time? You said you didn't want to go anywhere unless it was legal, right? But you thought what they were doing was kind of illegal."
Well, that was a tricky question to answer.
"Well, I volunteered to go that time. I knew it wasn't quite on the up and up. Part of the counterterrorism team I work with at Quantico was going on loan to the Army, so I volunteered to go, to help them. They knew I'd end up going with them. Besides if I go, then I just talk to the person instead of… well you get the picture. Accuracy of information was an important issue on that job. Personally, I don't really think you get much accurate information from hurting people or terrorizing them back. Plus, it just creates a whole other range of problems. Let's just say there are others who don't quite agree with that take."
He studied me thoughtfully and then said,
"Why would the US need to be in Pakistan illegally anyway? They're a US ally, right?"
I looked at him and shook my head again. "Couldn't tell you. But I'm sure you're more than bright enough to figure out why a superpower might go into another sovereign state and start interrogating suspected terrorists under the auspices of their military rather than their actual government."
"I guess when you think they think the government won't really do the right thing? But why even care about somebody in Pakistani custody? He was already captured, right?"
"I should get you a subscription to _The Economist _as a present. Not just great business and political news. Great foreign affairs analysis in a really accessible format. Basically, I'd say this: some people believe that the Taliban are still quite well connected with Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is a small group of people compared to the numbers you see with the Taliban, who definitely have an army. I'm sure you heard on the news that the Taliban were only about fifty miles outside of Islamabad right? There's a lot of interesting stuff in Islamabad," I said, nodding. "You know, like the entire government. A lot of access to things."
He raised his eyebrow. He was silent for less than a minute and then said soberly, "Pakistan has nuclear weapons." He'd quickly grasped what I clearly wasn't going to be spelling out for him.
"Hey, even _vampires_ might be affected by those," I said with a smile.
Eric stared at me for some time, silently. I figured he was now probably _really_ sorry he had asked me about my work.
I glanced at my watch. It was almost 1 am and felt an hour later for me. "I think I'm going to go back to the hotel and get some sleep. I've been up since 6 am Eastern time."
Eric leaned forward and extended his hand to me. I smiled and took it. We rose and he looked down at me for a moment silently and then he said,
"I want to show you around upstairs," he said, holding my hand firmly in his.
"What's upstairs?" I asked.
"I said I'll show you," he said with a playful smile. "Maybe you could try to act like you're glamoured as we go out? It will make a much better impression. I have a reputation to maintain."
"Yeah, well really I don't think that's gonna happen, Eric," I said with a rueful shake of my head.
I gathered up my gear, and balancing carefully, put my M4, its clips and the knives back where they were. I rotated my feet back and forth at to make sure the items were secure. I carried my Glock in its holster since I was just carrying my leather jacket. Eric stood, holding his jacket and shook his head while watching at me putting all the hardware back in place. Next time, a purse, and less gear, I thought to myself. Now I almost felt silly for having brought all the stuff.
We exited his office and headed toward the stairs. I noted the two very big guys standing guard outside in the hall. Now that I had to walk by them, I could see their names. One, the dark haired vampire, had a nametag that said Markus and the other, the huge blonde vampire, was Andor. They looked at me curiously. I had my leather jacket draped over my arm, and my gun in hand, and I still looked pretty proper. Plus, I guess it had been pretty obvious to their ears that we'd only been talking. We went up the old stairs. The building, even in Sophie-Anne's heyday, had been little more than a glorified office building. The third floor, where she had resided when not in another of her residences, had been decorated much more nicely, with wooden floors and oriental carpets. These were largely still in place. Eric led me down a very long hallway and around a corner and then came to a stop in front of a door that looked like all the other doors. It had a keypad and he entered a code and the door opened.
We entered the dark room and the door closed behind us. I could hardly see anything at all. I don't think I would even have seen my hand six inches in front of my face. The only thing I could see was the faint glow from Eric's head and hands, the only exposed areas of his skin. It wasn't enough of a glow to illuminate much. Eric touched my arm as if to tell me to stay put and then walked away and turned on a light on a desk. We were in a large room, with many bookcases, a large desk with a laptop on it and a beautifully upholstered armchair. I realized this was where he had been skyping me all those nights. The room had blacked out windows that his laptop camera would face. Swords, daggers and several interesting shields were displayed along a long wall. I walked over and started looking at the swords with fascination. One, which looked like an old broadsword, had nicks in the metal and looked quite old. It was at least three feet long and looked quite heavy. There were many other swords and two long daggers and several smaller ones that appeared to be the iron ones that Eric had used the night he fought Breandan and his people. While I looked at the swords and daggers, Eric came and stood behind me and massaged my shoulders. I reached up to touch the sword with the nicks and he quickly stopped me, grasping my hand.
"It's really sharp. Especially where the metal has been chipped away. "
"Have you fought with all of these?" I asked quietly.
"Yes," he responded. He glanced up and down the wall. "All of them."
"I remember those," I said pointing to the iron daggers. I shivered.
I turned and looked around at the bookcases. There were easily several thousand books in the room. I took in the sheer numbers wondering if he had really read all of them. Books from all periods, and many in different languages. I pulled out a slim volume of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and found it opened readily to _The Rime of the Ancient Mariner_. I smiled, remembering a night long ago in Jackson when I quoted the poem, meaning something quite different from the intended passage and Eric… just got me. He leaned down to look at what I was reading and chuckled. He kissed my temple. I closed the book and replaced it on the shelf. It seemed the books were organized according to genre, like poetry or fiction, but within that genre, it looked like anything goes, authors, languages, all mixed, no order. Although, all the Dickens was together, which seemed random considering the rest was so disorganized.
"I haven't had time to organize them again," Eric said as if catching my thoughts. "They were packed badly, from my house in Shreveport, when I moved. Someone did them according to size rather than how I had them organized. I do a little at a time occasionally. If I read an author, I try to gather up all of that author. I haven't had much time to read lately, though."
I started to think about the difficulty of trying to read a book with only one hand and forced myself, drawing a sharp breath at the thought, to stop.
"Which Dickens?" I asked softly to inquire what book he'd read to lead him to organize all his Dickens books.
"_A Tale of Two Cities_," he said.
"Really? I just read it over Christmas. I liked it much better than some of his other books. I liked the history and social issues in it."
"You should talk to Pam about it. She loves Dickens. Dickens certainly isn't my favorite writer. But I enjoyed the book, too."
"Who's your favorite writer?" I asked, glancing up at him.
"At the moment? Mann? No… Probably Dostoyevsky."
"Hmm. Never read any Dostoyevsky. I like Tolstoy, though. _Anna Karenina_, especially. I've been doing more reading in the past three years than in my whole life before. It's the first time I've read real literature. One of my friends recommends books to me and we discuss them."
Leaving his hand on my shoulder he leaned closer to the shelves and looked carefully around in the dim light. Finally, he pulled out a book and handed it to me.
"_Crime and Punishment_. Such a charming title," I said with an ironic smile. "It sounds like a really happy tale."
"You can borrow it, but you have to give it back. I hardly ever loan books."
I tried to hand it back to him, saying "I can get it at the library. Really."
He pushed it back. "Read mine."
"Okay. I'll make it my 'light' vacation read… No Jane Austen or the Brontës for you, eh?"
I held the book to my chest with my jacket and gun laden arm and continued to examine the books, pulling out an occasional one while chatting.
"They're too optimistic for my taste," he said wryly, which made me laugh. (The Brontës _optimistic_?) "I probably have all of them down here, though," he said as he leaned down to glance at one of the lower shelves. "Yes, Pam put them in order. Pam likes Austen and Charlotte. She does not like Ann or Emily. She likes George Eliot quite a bit, too. Pam is the only other person who has been in here since we moved in. But Pam," he took up my hand and pulled me along the wall toward another door, "never comes in here."
We entered a room that again was so dark after he briskly closed the door behind us that I probably could have walked into a wall and not seen it coming. I hadn't had a chance to look around before the door closed and now was standing stock-still, just as before, in total darkness with only a very faint illumination from Eric himself. I heard the sound of a match being struck and Eric lit several candles. My heart rate about doubled. The illuminated room was dominated by a king size bed with black silk bedding. It was a sleigh bed. It and the other furniture in the room appeared to be mahogany. The room was fairly spartan, however.
"No coffin?" I joked.
"Only for travel, if necessary, Lover. There's a collection downstairs, first floor."
I touched the wood of the footboard. The bed was huge and high off the ground. He walked over to me and removed my gun and holster, the leather jacket and the book from my hands and placed them on a long table in front of the blacked out windows. Then he walked back, lifted me up and sat me on edge of the bed. He carefully took off all my gear from my ankles, gingerly grasping the leather wrapped handle of the small silver knife, and put them onto the table next to my gun. He walked purposefully back over to me and stood close to me, with his thighs pressing against my knees. He tipped my chin upward. He stared down at me, his eyes glowing softly, and said with the slightest accent,
"Tell me."
My heart was pounding so hard. I cast my eyes downward for a moment, to look at my hands in my lap, and then just closed them. Then I looked back up at him, at how expectant he was. I let out a long quiet breath and finally said so softly it was almost a whisper,
"I love you. I always loved you."
6. Chapter 5
**V.**
It's surprising, sometimes, how just giving in can be kind of liberating. Lying there after we had just returned to the bed, I had the feeling of not having just thrown caution to the wind, but having probably set it on fire for good measure, right before tossing it aside. After ten minutes of more relaxed silence, during which I really fought the urge to fall asleep, Eric rolled over toward me and smiled mischievously, kissing my hand. With my other hand, I pulled my watch back out from under a pillow and noted that it was 4:03 am. Eric took the watch out of my hand and put it over on the nightstand. He nuzzled against my cheek and then his tongue licked a bit of salty perspiration away from my throat, down to the notch of my collarbone, and out onto my shoulder. I shivered and smiled. I had been bitten and made love to for the past two and a half hours. But he could still raise goose bumps.
"Are you sore?" he asked in a whisper near my left ear.
"Why do you need this information?" I countered in a playful whisper unable to keep myself from smiling.
"Because I'm not done with you yet, Agent Gordon," he said in husky whisper into my ear.
I pressed my face against his cool, dry shoulder and just said, "MmmmHmmm. _Really_?" still with a smile but shaking my head. He had to be kidding.
He took up my hand and demonstrated the need for his question. He was _not_ kidding_._ As my hand kept busy, he bit his index finger and set to work. My breath became all shuddery. After a minute of what felt like I was living a Marvin Gaye song, Eric kissed me, and sat up, shifting me in order to put my legs around his waist. Then he entered me again. After a few minutes he pulled me up so that I was sitting in his lap. We rocked in a slow rhythm, and I rested my cheek and nose against his throat.
"Sookie, look at me," he said in a low whisper. "Look at me."
My eyes opened slowly and I leaned back to look up at him. Everything felt dreamlike, hypnotic. My eyes locked onto his for a moment. Then I leaned forward and kissed the spot on his throat where I'd nipped him earlier. But he rocked me back so that we could see each other again.
"Two things," he said softly. "I want you to stay with me. Now, during the day. I want to wake up next to you. And... before you go back to Virginia, I want to marry you according to Louisiana state law. I'm telling you straight out tonight so you have a good two weeks to get used to the idea. I want to marry you legally."
Between feeling more than a bit sleepy, and my overall present situation… which was _highly_ distracting… it was very difficult to concentrate. But still… was I getting that right? Did he seriously just ask me to _marry_ him? Marry him for real, as in legal marriage? After three years apart and seeing each other three times in the past five weeks? _Before I went back home to Virginia?_ Even in my haze, I wondered what in God's name he was thinking. Was he _crazy_?
"Stay here today," he reiterated softly. "Stay with me."
My brain fog suddenly seemed to clear all at once. Well that one definitely wasn't possible, either. The other one was just plain crazy, but the first one? I couldn't do that, at least not today. I shook my head.
"No, I can't stay here, Eric. I need to go to my hotel. I have to be able to meet with Sara Weiss this morning. I promised my boss."
He stopped our rocking motion and looked down at me intently. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was willing me to stay with him with that look.
"I want to wake up next to you," he said again, much more firmly this time, in the manner of someone totally used to getting whatever he wanted. I remembered how autocratic he had been as a Sheriff and saw things had not changed one bit. Given his present situation, I was guessing things might have gotten a bit worse, actually.
"Well, not _today_ Eric. Not today. I'm sorry, I just can't. Manny will get totally freaked out if Sara can't connect with me in person. It's not safe to change the plan like that. He may not trust things are really okay until Sara's seen I'm fine. It's not safe for you and your people if Manny gets antsy. You have to remember that I'm a huge investment to them. The FBI doesn't _have_ another telepath. This isn't a game to them, my being here. Manny may sound all light and nice, but if he gets concerned about my safety, it could be a serious problem for you and everyone living here."
"So call them and tell them you're staying here today. They can see you tonight. After sunset. I want you to stay here with me, Sookie."
I swear his eyes could have bored holes into sheet metal.
"No, I can't. I said no. I really meant _no_. I have to be able to connect with her easily tomorrow in a place she's going to feel comfortable going to. She's not going to feel comfortable making sure I'm fine by coming here. Especially since that wasn't the plan I gave Manny. How about I promise I'll stay with you tonight and tomorrow during the day, okay? Today is totally non-negotiable."
His face now looked like a mask of tightly controlled calm. It wasn't fooling me one bit since I could feel just how _not _happy he was that I wouldn't do what he wanted. He really wasn't happy hearing 'no'. It did not look like he had heard 'no' often in recent times. At least not from someone he wasn't going to eventually force into doing what he wanted anyway. But he looked like he was taking my refusal. For now. Of course, part of me couldn't believe that after making it seem like he was accepting that I was going to stay in a hotel, he was now _still_ trying to get me to stay with him. Really, it was classic Eric. Always determined to get his way. I should have known, I thought to myself.
Finally he said softly,
"You heard the other part, right?" His eyes looked calmer now.
"Yes, I'm and I'm not dealing with that one at all right now…" I sighed as I rocked my hips forward against him. "Right now I'm on vacation, remember. I'm really enjoying my vacation. It's spectacular so far. I'm busy with other things. Very, very busy," I said in a playful tone.
I smiled up at him and then leaned forward and rubbed my cheek on his neck and kissed his collarbone. Even with the disagreement about where I was spending the day, I still very happy. This was all even better than I remembered. Much better.
He rocked me back away from his chest and then held my face firmly, pulling my lips almost roughly to his, kissing me passionately. Then he shifted so us that he was back on top of me, pinning my hands with his. He thrust into me while staring down at me, his eyes glowing. His hair was hanging partly loose now, a mess and all tangled. I just looked up at him. I freed my hand to stroke his cheek and pull the band from his hair to completely loosen it. I just looked at him. He was really quite beautiful.
Eric paused and looked at me as if he was puzzled.
"Are you too tired? Upset? You are so quiet. I'm not hurting you?"
I shook my head. In the flickering candlelight, looking up at the soft glow in his eyes, I felt a swell in my heart. In that one moment, in spite of the many things that had gone so wrong in my former life, I felt that he was one thing that had been so right. And I'd simply turned my back and walked away from him. And now? I really felt happy being here with him. I knew in my heart it wasn't any bond or blood or vampire magic. It was really just… him. My eyes suddenly just welled with tears. How hard would it be to remember that feeling later, I wondered? The feeling that it was so right? I knew I could lose hold of that feeling in the blink of an eye. Because I just didn't trust it.
He released my other hand and held my face in his hands just as the tears overflowed. He just looked at me silently, not even asking. I closed my eyes.
"I love you," I whispered. Just saying it felt overwhelming. What am I _doing_? I thought to myself. Here I am, on a total collision course with a fucking emotional disaster...
"Look at me," he commanded. I opened my eyes again. He looked down at me with his jaw clenched. "I love you back," he finally said, somewhat hoarsely, after a minute. "And you had better be back here at sunset, Lover. No disappearing, no running away. I am _done_ with losing you."
I met his eyes but felt puzzled by what I felt from him, which was so intense and complex. I couldn't begin to unravel it. I just nodded and kissed him. He looked as if he was restraining himself from saying more. I understood part of why he was insistent on the business of my staying with him. No freaking out and running away was what he meant. I guess he could feel how overwhelmed I'd felt only moments before? Or maybe even that I'd felt that way since I had finally admitted what he wanted to hear? I wanted to just stop thinking. He shifted us onto our sides and we moved slowly, just looking into each other's eyes. Finally, I closed my eyes and pressed my face into his shoulder, drifting away on a wave of pleasure.
Afterwards, I dressed wearily, and glanced at my watch after retrieving it from the bed. 4:58 am. From checking online in the afternoon I knew that sunrise was around 6:00 am here, about 15 minutes later than at home in Alexandria. I put my holster back on and then my jacket. I shifted my ankle and rotated my foot several times to get the knives into a more comfortable position before slipping back into my heels.
Eric had changed into jeans and a t-shirt. After making sure all of the bite wounds were healed up and completely gone, then hooking my bra, he'd watched me dress, leaning against the bare wall near the door. But only after he'd sniffed at it mischievously with a playful, knowing look. When I was finished dressing he blew out the candles and then took my hand and led me out of the room, and out of his library room. I carried the book in my other hand. As we walked in the hall to the stairs he said in a low voice,
"Don't be bothered by any reactions you get about being upstairs with me. There may be a lot of curiosity."
I gave him a puzzled look. He stroked my hand with his thumb.
"I really wasn't kidding when I say I don't take anyone to my houses, my rooms, anyplace private that's mine. Even Pam may be surprised."
"She won't be upset will she? I mean, she won't be jealous or anything, right?" I asked in a slightly worried tone, slowing down as we walked.
He paused before we started down the stairs and kissed my forehead.
"She'll be fine, Lover. She'll probably be totally unbearable, in fact" he said with a chuckle.
We went downstairs to the sitting room area where five vampires, including Rasul and Stefan, were lounging around watching a really gross vampire porno movie. All five rose immediately when Eric entered. I turned away, thinking I'd really seen enough in the millisecond that I'd just seen. There are certain places fangs just don't belong, in my opinion. And you'd think that guys would think so even more than I did.
"Rasul, Stefan, you will see Miss Gordon safely back to her hotel. Rasul, check her room thoroughly."
Then he turned back to me and said, "Your daytime security is provided by Bennett Tucker. He's a Were police sergeant with the New Orleans Police Department. He will contact you tomorrow morning, and give you a list of people you may see watching you." He handed me a card with Sgt. Tucker's name and contact info.
I stared up at him in utter disbelief. In a low tone of voice, leaning toward him with my back turned to the five vampires in the room, I said,
"Eric, I'm an armed federal agent. Are you _kidding _me? And I'm going to be under surveillance by Sara's crew without question, as soon as I meet up with Sara tomorrow morning, maybe even before. I won't be able to turn on a dime without someone knowing it. Why are you going to have the police watching me, too?"
He looked down at me coolly with his hands clasped behind his back. He worked his jaw a bit before practically hissing in a low voice, "Because I _wish _it." His eyes looked _really_ angry however, and what I felt flash across the bond matched what I saw in his eyes. He was angry that I was resisting him in public. Very angry. I'd already pushed his buttons earlier with refusing to stay. Clearly, questioning him in front of anyone else, other than maybe Pam, was a serious no-no. I blushed and said no more.
Rasul and Stefan were ready and waiting. I just waited for Eric to 'dismiss' us, which he did promptly, waving us toward the stairs. I checked my watch and saw that it was 5:11 am so I guessed we really should get moving so that Rasul and Stefan would be back with time to spare. Eric walked with us to the second floor landing with his hand heavy on my shoulder. As we got ready to descend he stroked his fingers down my back as if to soothe the earlier situation. I turned back up to look at him to nod good night. He still didn't look happy with me but the feeling I had was more that he didn't want me to be leaving at all not that he was still angry about the other bit. I felt bad but there was nothing I could really do about it. When we got to the landing halfway to the ground floor, he was still standing there looking down at me. My heart felt an odd twist as we descended out of his sight.
After bypassing Pradep, who met us at the side entryway after Stefan had called down to him, we walked briskly down St. Ann and turned onto Dauphine, toward the southwest side of the Quarter and Iberville. There were still people milling around in the streets at this hour as we cut cross the Quarter, avoiding Bourbon St. In contrast to the cordial way that Rasul had greeted me at the start of the evening, he didn't offer me his arm; in fact he seemed eager to leave a bit of distance between us. I wondered if it was because Stefan was there. Since it was drawing closer to dawn, I tried to move as quickly as I could, though I figured that they could certainly make it back to the compound much more quickly than they were moving with me at present. We got to the hotel in less than ten minutes. We went up to the 4th floor and I handed Rasul my keycard so he could go into the room and check it out, as per Eric's instructions. He entered and after a few minutes came back out and handed me the card with a smile.
"Good night, … _Sasha_."
"Shukran, Rasul. Thank you, Stefan." I nodded to them both.
Rasul said "Tasħarrafnaa," and bowed deeply to me, even staying down for a moment.
I blanched. I was caught very off-guard by his formal response in Arabic, which usually just meant nice to meet you, but in its strict interpretation meant they were both honored, further suggested by his bowing so dramatically to me. Stefan then also bowed, though perhaps not as grandly as Rasul and then they waited for me to close and lock my door. I seriously wondered what Pam had told them, because their manner was now totally different with me. It definitely wasn't the manner that I'd learned to expect from a vampire to a human. Could she have told them that Eric was kind of married to me? It would certainly explain Rasul's being more distant. And their deference. I felt embarrassed by it, actually. I had to find a nice way to tell them to cut it out.
I got undressed, washed my face, took out my contact lenses and took a quick warm shower. After toweling myself off, I looked at myself in the full length mirror and saw that Eric hadn't left so much as a mark on me. It was almost 6 am when I crawled into the bed. I left my cell phone charging on the nightstand with the volume way up so that if Sara Weiss called me, I'd be sure to wake. After turning out the light in the room I noticed how much light there was in the hotel room compared to Eric's room when it was dark. Eric had walked as sure-footedly through the darkness as if he had a headlight on. I felt a sudden crashing wave of missing him. It was dawn and I was sure he was in his bed. I turned onto my side and hugged a pillow. It was cool against my cheek. It only made my longing worse. This was the downside of visiting Eric. I would end up missing Eric. In spite of the acuteness of that thought, it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. I was utterly spent physically and emotionally.
I tried to talk myself into being sorry about my late night when Sara Weiss called me at 7:30 am. But I couldn't.
I sleepily answered the phone.
"Good Morning, Sasha."
"Sara? Good morning, how are you?"
"Fine, thank you. Sasha, Manny Diaz asked me to contact you. I'm sorry to call a bit early, I know you're on vacation. Manny says that he would like me to meet with you. Would 9 am be alright with you?"
I rolled onto my back after disconnecting the phone from the charger. Ugh, I thought to myself. 9 am would likely find me still wholly incapacitated.
"Sara, honestly, I got in shortly before 6 am. I'm totally toasted. If you want to come to my hotel room at 9 am, I'd be more than happy to let you visit me here. But for going out, into the streets where I have to be alert, no way. Maybe noon."
I was kind of ticked because I knew that if Manny had given her my GPS info, she probably _knew_ that I hadn't gotten back to the hotel until close to 6 am because they'd probably been tracking me ever since Manny spoke to me last night and all the data was probably being archived.
"Well, alright. I'll let you sleep. Where would you like to meet at noon? Café du Monde?"
I paused before responding. So they had been tracking me well before Manny even called me to ask why I was in the compound then… This was her quiet way of letting me know they had been tracking me ever since I arrived. And probably her reason for calling me so early. She wanted to be clear that they had been watching my every move and would continue to do so. Wow, I thought to myself. How had Manny managed to go all day, and two hours of waiting while I stayed put in the compound before calling? Talk about forebearance…
I tried to do a quick assessment of how I felt. In spite of several little doses of Eric's blood, I could honestly say I ached all over everywhere. Between the lingering effects of my all-out nervous tension about the entire visit itself, the emotional revelations involved and not having had sex in more than three years, it was not a pretty picture. Eric was, after all, extremely... energetic. Even another four hours of sleep was not going to make _me_ energetic. Had I actually thought the previous day about working out in a _gym_ on this trip? I didn't even want to walk all the way down to the Decatur Street riverfront at present. I tried to think of places closer to my hotel that I knew from previous trips to New Orleans.
"Did Brennan's reopen?" I asked, hopefully.
"You mean after Katrina? Sure. They're right there, same place on Royal. A few blocks from where you're staying. You want to meet there?"
"Yeah, that would be better. So noon then, right?"
She agreed. I reconnected the phone to the charger and I set my phone's alarm for 11:30 am. I went back to sleep in short order and slept like the dead.
7. Chapter 6
**VI.**
As I sat having my third cup of coffee and the rest of my po'boy, I tried not to be offended by Sara Weiss's poor opinion of my judgment. She was really torn by which was more foolish, the fact that I'd come to New Orleans at all or that once I was in New Orleans I was spending all hours of the night in a vampire compound. She was further puzzled because I had said I wanted to get away from 'these people' which in her mind was a generic term comprising all supes. She was trying to size me up and thought that I really didn't seem like a fangbanger type at all. I certainly didn't dress like one. Not even when I walked into that compound. She knew because she'd seen the photos of me walking in and walking out accompanied by two men who were probably vampires. I'd been under surveillance since the moment I landed in New Orleans. Manny had flagged my accounts to see exactly where I was and knew from the moment the standby ticket was paid where I'd been heading. She had the general impression that he was pretty upset, or at least worried, even though he had seemed very matter of fact about having me watched while in New Orleans. It was very clear, however, that Manny had not told her that I was 'married' and visiting my 'husband' and so she had decided that I must be into some seriously kinky stuff in my free time. Really, what I was into was more coffee, and coffee with chicory was simply _not _cutting it for me. I would have made jokes about feeling like death warmed over after spending the night in the vampire compound but I really didn't think she'd get it the way Pam or Amelia would.
"Is there a Starbucks or a Peet's near here? Someplace with regular coffee?" I asked her with a yawn.
"There's a Starbucks right over on Canal," she said.
I nodded gratefully. It would be my new favorite place if I continued to keep these hours on my vacation. In my everyday life I was usually a total morning person when I was at home in Virginia. I'd gone to sleep at the time I normally woke up and I was definitely feeling it.
"So Sara, is Manny going to just have you set up surveillance on me, or am I supposed to report in to you at regular intervals to prove I'm okay, or… what's the plan here?"
"I'm not at liberty to say right now. I guess that staying in contact would be a good idea. Did you know that there's a tall guy over there that's been watching us ever since you got here. He followed you in here, actually." She said the last casually, without looking up at me or over at her target.
I glanced over and saw a fairly tall, lean African-American man dressed in a t-shirt and khakis. When I stared at him he nodded to me and smiled. Likely Bennett Tucker, I thought to myself.
"I think he's watching me for one of my friends, Sara. Don't worry about it."
She glanced over at him furtively by using her camera on her phone. I heard her snap a picture of him.
"Why are your friends having you watched if they are your friends, Sasha?"
"Because one of my friends is a royal pain in the ass," I said with a grimace. Now there was a definite truth.
"So this guy is watching you for the _vampires_?"
"No he's watching me for _a_ vampire. He's a police officer so don't worry about it. It's a long story that I don't have time to get into. So I'm just going to assume that I'm under your surveillance, okay? Sometimes I'm going to be in that compound and sometimes I'm going to be out doing stuff, like I want to go to Preservation to hear Nnenna Freelon, and go visit my former roommate and stuff like that. And at the end of my trip, I'm driving up to Red Ditch, in the north part of the state to see my deceased cousin's little boy."
"I don't think visiting more friends or family is wise. Your identity has been kept closely guarded and it has kept you safe, from the people that did… what they did to you. I think you should avoid people you know. I think you should be more cautious."
"I will be cautious, but I am going to Red Ditch to see my cousin's son at the end of my trip and I'm going to see a few friends I really trust. And I'm going to continue visiting to the vampire compound. I'm giving you the heads up that I'm probably going to spend the day there tomorrow, okay? Just so that you don't get caught off guard. I'll go around sunset and stay through tomorrow. I'll have the phone so if you get concerned you can just text me or email me. I'll keep you posted so that you know my plans."
"Who are you staying with there?"
"Manny knows. He'll tell you if he thinks you need the information." Clearly Manny was being very careful with the info about Eric. I felt a bit more comforted with that thought. I trusted Manny.
After a few more minutes of mutual cloak-and-dagger information hoarding she seemed to be satisfied that I really was fine. She said she'd be on her way, and I treated her to lunch. While I was waiting to pay, the gentleman who'd been watching me came over and introduced himself as Bennett Tucker. He showed me his badge and ID and asked if he could sit. I gestured that he could help himself to the seat vacated by Sara.
"Mr. Northman said that I should give you the list of people we're using. I'm not sure who's gonna be working at what hours yet but until sundown and maybe some evenings we'll be watching over you as needed, ma'am." He handed me a list of six other names with corresponding photos and cell phone numbers. I looked up at him shaking my head.
"Um, what exactly did Mr. Northman tell you about me, and about watching me, Sgt. Tucker?"
"Well, he told me we were to keep you safe from harm and he implied that you were… important to him."
I shook my head in amazement as I looked at the sheet he'd handed me. "Six people. You have _six_ people assigned to watch me?"
"Well at any given time, it's likely to only be one or two. I make the seventh, if I'm available. I'm covering today because it's my day off. Mr. Northman said we had to keep a bit of a distance because you don't like people crowding you, and that we shouldn't be too obvious. But when you get in elevators and such, you should wait for at least one of us. You can call me when you're getting ready going to go out of the hotel."
"Did Mr. Northman inform you that I'm an FBI agent and that I'm armed?"
"Yes, ma'am, he did. He also told me that you wouldn't even ask for help if you needed it and so we should keep a pretty sharp eye on you."
"Did he tell you my FBI colleagues were keeping an eye on me, too?"
"Yes, ma'am. He sent me an email early this morning to that effect. Agent Weiss is one of them? I know her from a local investigation although I could see she didn't know me, or at least she didn't recognize me out of the uniform. But I'm following Mr. Northman's instructions to the letter. I'm sure their agenda is very different from mine."
"Do you have to report back to Mr. Northman?"
"Yes, ma'am. Yes I do." He looked a bit apprehensive about further questions on that point. So maybe there was more to it than Eric just wanting me to be safe, I wondered? Did he want to know what I was up to during the day? Where I went and whom I saw? Well, considering the previous night, I would be too tired to go anywhere or see anyone if we continued on the same tack. I'd have to say though, that it was a sacrifice I would be willing to make. I smiled to myself.
"Fine, Sgt. Tucker. I'm going to pay my bill and go back to my hotel and take a nap in my room, okay?"
He looked relieved that I was going to quit questioning him. I folded up the paper that he'd given me and put it in my purse. I reminded myself that the Eric everybody else was dealing with was the same one that had been furious with me early this morning because I questioned his decisions in public. It wasn't the Eric I was now used to, the one that could be gentle with me or playful or even tolerant of an argument. I was quite sure that Eric could be downright scary when you crossed him. I could imagine Bennett Tucker wouldn't be happy having to explain he lost me, or that I got hurt or that I was too difficult to keep up with.
I thought about walking over to Canal St. to get a coffee but decided what I really should do was go back and take a nap. It was a crowded Saturday in the Quarter. I was glad I was staying on the fringe of it.
I walked back toward Iberville St and saw Tucker casually following me. I didn't see anybody that looked like an agent but I knew few people from the New Orleans office. They could just follow my phone anyway. I turned on Iberville and walked a few blocks to the hotel. I let Tucker get into the elevator with me and we walked toward my room then thanked him and waved him away when we got to the door, which was open because the maid was cleaning the room. He refused to leave right away and got a good look at the maid and her ID, and the room to make sure it was all safe. I just sat in the armchair, wearily waiting for the maid to finish making the bed. I started reading _Crime and Punishment_ and formed an immediate dislike for Raskolnikov, the main character. I thanked and tipped the maid when she indicated she was done, and locked the door after she left. I tried to read for a while but fell back to sleep after about an hour.
I awoke around 6 pm and took a quick shower and dressed. I packed my smaller bag with a change of clothes, makeup, toiletries and my toothbrush and toothpaste. And my gun, of course. Couldn't forego that… I locked the rest of the gear in the room's safe. I wrapped Eric's book in a scarf, to make sure I didn't damage the binding and cover. I went downstairs and over to Galatoire's to get something to eat at 7 pm. The streets were packed, although the restaurant wasn't too crowded yet. I got a few looks asking for a table on my own, but I ignored the maître d' and his sour attitude. I ordered a steak medium rare and grilled vegetables. Then I unwrapped my book and kept reading.
I really disliked Raskolnikov. Basically though, I was afraid there was a Raskolnikov in all of us. Justifying whatever we wanted to do with some skewed logic and sense of entitlement. It worried me that Eric liked this book. Or maybe it comforted me. I couldn't quite decide.
Around about 7:45 pm, before it was actually even sunset, I received a text message from Eric.
_You are not in my bed._
I smiled, reading it. Well, I would be the next time he woke up. I texted that thought back to him.
I was drinking an espresso (thankfully a real one, without having been cut with chicory) while waiting for my check, when I received another.
_I really meant the second thing._
I knew which thing he was saying he meant, but was still amazed at the mere suggestion. I texted back to him:
_You hardly even know me. You haven't seen me for more than three years. That second thing is just plain crazy. Get a grip._
I reflected after I sent the text message that it probably wasn't exactly the most polished reply to a proposal of marriage. Either time. But, seriously, _what_ on earth was the man thinking? He had to be kidding himself if he thought I could possibly take him seriously. But he replied...
_I know you quite well. I know what I want. Not interested in wasting more time, frankly. I'm getting a grip and will not let go again. I assure you._
He knew me quite well? Did he ever reflect on the fact that I didn't know _him_ all that well and might not cotton to making huge commitments to a man I might love but hadn't seen for years and knew only a bit about? We didn't even know if we could get along when spending a lot of time together. Sure he'd lived with me when he'd had amnesia but it was one week, years ago and half his entire personality was gone at the time. And I was an even more independent person now. I read the message a second time. _He knew what he wanted?_ Well, I wasn't so sure he knew what he'd get. I didn't even know what to respond. That last bit in his message sounded a little unsettling, too. Moments later he texted to me,
_Where are you? I thought you would be here soon. Tucker says you are not in the hotel room. He asked me for your number? You were not to go out without his people guarding you._
Oh my gosh! Tucker! I texted back that I was just down the street at Galatoire's and had forgotten to call Tucker. I hadn't even given Tucker a second thought when I'd left the hotel. I'd frankly completely forgotten about them. I just wasn't used to thinking that way. I started digging through my purse looking for the card Eric had given me before I left in the early morning and realized I'd left it in the hotel room.
Eric replied with a stern sounding message,
_Do NOT leave where you are until he arrives. He will bring you here._
A few minutes later, Sgt. Tucker and another Were entered Galatoire's and made their way to my table. I felt really bad. I didn't want to imagine what telling Eric he'd already "lost me" was like, even if it was really my fault for not having called him. Bennett Tucker looked less than pleased with me. He introduced the other Were as Jamie. He looked familiar from the list I'd received at lunchtime. Sgt. Tucker appeared to send Eric a message as soon as they sat down. I was extremely apologetic and gave him my cell phone number, so that next time he could just call me and ask me where I was. I felt bad that I hadn't offered it to him before. Jamie looked at me quite curiously but was silent other than saying he was pleased to meet me. Tucker, however, still looked seriously chafed with me.
With a sigh, I finished my espresso, paid for my dinner and let them walk me toward the compound. I stopped and bought some fruit at a corner market, along with an energy bar, some peanut butter crackers and a bottle of water.
I said good night to Sgt. Tucker and Jamie at the side door to the compound and this evening Pradep would have let me enter with hand grenades and a small thermonuclear device. He waved me _around_ the metal detector after greeting me with a bow. Pam had obviously gotten to him, too, I thought rather ruefully to myself, or at least someone had. After I passed by, I was met by Stefan, who also bowed, the side door was bolted and Pradep disappeared down the hall toward what I thought was likely the front entrance. Clearly no one else was expected to enter through the side entrance for the evening. Stefan led me toward the stairs, after taking my bags. Before we ascended I was puzzled to see several people shuttling around further down the hall. Human people, who did not look like visiting tourists. Did they live here? Were they live-in donors? I wasn't going to ask. At least I wasn't going to ask Stefan, anyway.
Stefan did not speak much as we walked up the stairs and led me up to the third floor rather than the second. I glanced at him and thought fleetingly to myself that it was uncanny how much he looked like Eric. It was 8:10 pm according to my watch, still pretty early in a vampire's evening. But he looked totally alert and ready for work. I wondered how old he was. When I mentioned as we got to the third floor landing that he really didn't have to do the bowing thing and that it made me uncomfortable he gave me an odd look but said nothing. He walked me around to the area where Eric's rooms were, knocked on the door and then merely nodded to me and left after putting down the bags.
Eric opened the door to the library room and smiled. I was so relieved he wasn't upset about the business with Tucker. He was dressed in a black robe and smelled like he had just showered. He took my bags hand and silently guided me back to the bedroom, which unlike the library, was totally dark. Putting down the luggage on the floor and the bag with food on the table, he quickly undressed me, scooped me up and lifted me onto his bed, took off his robe and crawled back into the bed and wrapped himself around me. I relaxed against him with a sigh. It was so still and dark. It sounded like it had started to rain outside. I closed my eyes and promptly fell asleep in his arms.
About 45 minutes later, Eric woke me up and said that we should get dressed because he had to work. He mentioned Bill would be arriving later. Before he finished dressing, I asked him if he wanted blood. He turned to me with a smile but no fangs. He seemed very pleased that I would offer.
"Later tonight. Just a taste perhaps. After all I had a fair amount yesterday. You ate well before you came? Can I have anything else prepared for you?"
I just shook my head. I thought about the number of vampires that probably lived in the compound and about how many people they might keep on hand living here to feed on. Those people downstairs for instance. The thought of it kind of creeped me out, in spite of knowing that it was just the simple reality. Any humans living here were, probably for the most part, food. The American Vampire League still maintained that vampires could live on True Blood, but I seriously doubted that any vampires did. I wondered if there was someone who prepared food for the donors who likely lived here downstairs. Seemed so, from Eric's offer. It was kind of chilling to think that on some level, I too, was food. I guess somehow Eric had managed to never make me feel that way.
Eric straightened out my blue blouse and kissed me. He was wearing a really nicely cut black suit with a pale green shirt and a dark tie with an asymmetric pattern. He started to tie his hair back as we spoke. I reached up and finished wrapping the band around his ponytail and then brushed the shoulders of his jacket smooth. He looked breathtakingly handsome to me.
"You look really nice. It's a very nice suit. Very well tailored. Do you always get so dressed up to see people now?" I asked. Eric had been the master of casual before. He smiled at the compliment.
"I'm talking business again this evening, so it makes a more serious impression. Some days it is more casual. Tonight is all business. Pam and Bill will keep you busy until I'm done. Probably not before 2 am, though. Do you have any clothes you wish to have washed or dry cleaned? You can put your things with mine while you're here visiting."
I shook my head no. Eric picked up his laundry basket and took it out of the room. I heard him open the door out to the hall and drop the basket outside. He came back into the room.
I brushed my hair and rifled through my cosmetics bag, looking for lipstick. When I put the bag down, Eric pounced on it and removed a bottle of medication. He looked at it and then said,
"What's this for?"
I glanced at it and frowned.
"They're sleeping pills. Sometimes I've had trouble sleeping and I was worried it could happen because I was back here," I said matter of factly.
He looked at me carefully and handed me back the bottle.
"Why do you have trouble sleeping?"
I just sort of stared at him for a second or two. Was he kidding?
"Um, first it was because of what happened, then because of what happened plus the depression about what happened, then all the anxiety about adjusting to my new life, the depression and the memories of what happened, and then all the shit I was reading from people's minds. Sometimes I still get bad episodes with Neave and Lochlan. I haven't in a while though."
Eric just stood looking at me but I felt this ache of sorrow from him, though he said nothing.
"I'm fine, Eric. Really, I'm fine."
"I thought these medications could be addictive."
"I haven't taken any in a long time. See the date on the bottle? And it's almost full." I handed the bottle back to him but he put it down without even really looking at it. "I just brought it in case being back in Louisiana caused... problems. I didn't even have any problems after you visited Virginia last month, so I guess things are finally getting better.
"You know, I thought of asking you, before you took off, if you would let me to glamour you into not remembering what happened so... intensely."
"I'd never do that," I said, looking him in the eye. He knew me better than that didn't he?
He looked down and nodded. "I thought you wouldn't. That's why I didn't ask. But I _wanted _to ask."
You didn't have much of a chance to ask, I thought to myself.
He was silent for a minute and then finally said,
"So it's what they did that was keeping you from sleeping?"
"In the beginning yes, it was just Neave and Lochlan and what they did to me. But then, over time it got to be other things too, like what they did to Tray or Breandan and his people killing Claudine and Clancy. And sometimes I'd have nightmares that they killed you, or that Bill died. It just got all rolled up into one. But I haven't had one in a long time. Probably not since Christmas. The holidays tend to be really hard, I guess because I feel more alone then or something. Rosie, you know my cat? she's a comfort. And usually when I travel I share with Alla, so if I have a really bad day, which means she had a bad one too, of course, it's not so likely to make me vulnerable because I have someone around. Alla's really great for that. She's very funny and can really help lift me when I feel low. It's hard though, because it's not like I could explain to anyone what happened. They, the FBI that is, wanted me to see a psychologist but it was impossible because of the telepathy. But I couldn't really talk about it anyway, after all. The telepathy was a really convenient excuse."
But suddenly I realized that I was talking about it all. Chattering almost. And Eric was sitting on the edge of the table, holding my hand while I did so. I realized that it had been three and half years and this was the most I had ever said to anyone about what had happened to me, other than perhaps my grandfather.
"You said you had to work and I'm keeping you," I said abruptly.
Eric stood up, nodding. He kissed my forehead but said nothing. I felt this faint, odd twisting of emotion and glanced over at him. He wasn't looking at me but I could see that what I'd said had really hit him somehow. But it was almost as if he wouldn't let me feel him or something. I didn't know what to make of it.
I took a deep breath as I bent down and grabbed the book out of my bag and unwound it from my scarf. Then I turned and smiled up at him.
"I was actually thinking I could just sit and read for a while. I'm almost a third of the way through the book. I'm afraid of Raskolnikov. At best, I'm telling myself that he's mentally ill. But I'm actually afraid everyone is like him in some way or another. It's a very scary book actually. It makes you think about how we justify our actions."
He smiled sadly as he looked down at me. But then the moment seemed to pass and his face lightened again.
He nodded. "That is the crux of why I like this book. The lies we tell ourselves and others to get what we want. Even the most evil person may lie to himself, and think he's doing right. Even in the face of much evidence to the contrary."
"Well, you certainly don' t have to sell me on the idea. Truth can be pretty relative in the world I work in."
"Truth is a little too relative everywhere, Lover."
He took my hand and we walked out into the library. Before he opened the door to go out, he turned to me and put his hand on my cheek and bent to kiss me gently. Then he said, "Time to be the big, mean vampire, Lover," he said with rueful smile. He straightened up and I actually felt this surge of focus in him.
We walked downstairs and he directed me toward another side of the building, in the general direction his office was in. We walked to the corner in the hall and he opened a door for me and ushered me inside. I found myself in a large office with butter yellow walls and elegant office furniture with rich tourmaline green and sapphire blue upholstery. The large window in the office was not blacked out and across a long sofa table in front of it were more than a dozen blooming orchids. Pam looked up from her computer and smiled at me. She was wearing a pink linen blouse and black linen slacks. She looked really lovely.
"What? I can finally have a Sookie moment? I am _so_ fortunate. Finally, my friend. Some individuals are just so disinclined to let me share your company. It isn't prudent to name names, however."
"She's in your care Pam, and I will be busy until at least 2 am. Keep her on this side. I'll make sure they send Bill over here," Eric said soberly, ignoring her comments.
"You are certain you will not need assistance?" Pam said looking up and for a moment looking quite serious.
I sat down in an armchair with my book and glanced from Eric to Pam and back to Eric. Assistance? Assistance with what? I thought it was just a business meeting?
"It will be fine. Cadel is back. With Andor, Markus and Stefan that makes five of us. By the way Pam, she _likes_ the Dostoyevsky. She _gets_ the Dostoyevsky." He said this with a rather sardonic look on his face.
"She's finally had too much of your blood or something. You've probably instilled thoughts about what a great writer _you_ think he is. Really, Sookie, you should be more cautious. Eric could glamour a rock," she said with a smile. "But I really thought you could resist him better. You're so adept at telling him no for all kinds of things, why not this?"
"Well, I'm not sure I'd say I _like_ Dostoyevsky. That's kind of like saying that I like being slapped. At least with _Crime and Punishment_."
Eric laughed, then leaned over and kissed the top of my head. "Later, Lover. Pam… try to be reasonable. Make an effort."
She nodded, smiling quaintly with fangs down.
After Eric left, I asked "What's the deal with needing assistance with the meeting? I thought it was a business meeting? You made it sound like a fight."
"Well, it probably will be a fight. It is a business meeting with several vampires who have resisted paying their taxes in Area 2. There is still a bit of resistance to the new regime and we may need more corrective action. But it will all work out. You will meet Cadel. I guess you saw Stefan, Andor and Markus last night. Between five of them, only a fool would think they could start a fight and stand much chance of winning it. And of course, Eric so enjoys wielding a stake or a sword again. Now, that I don't have to be his right hand anymore, I have to say I almost miss…" she stopped suddenly and cringed.
I'd gasped and stiffened up in the chair. I looked away. This was the topic of my newest nightmares, only I didn't think I'd dump that on Eric. At least I'd had only two in five weeks. It was more than enough though.
She rose and walked swiftly over to me.
"I'm so sorry, Sookie. I didn't mean to be so flippant. I shouldn't have made mention of it again. You couldn't have known what happened. But really, it was, as things go, perhaps less radical than what might have happened. Eric and Bill were lucky they were so valuable. Few of us could have gotten away with what they did. They were lucky Felipe didn't kill them."
I looked up at her, almost in disbelief. This was her idea of comforting me? "That's just making me feel so much better Pam. I can't thank you enough. Would you like to slap me or maybe just open a vein?"
She looked at me quizzically and then said,
"Eric said you were very worried that Felipe would have punished Maxwell and me for having gone with him, too. That you even felt bad about Clancy. You and Clancy didn't even like each other."
"Well, I like Clancy even _less_ being permanently dead, okay? He died because of me, Pam and how can I not feel bad about that? He didn't even want to be there fighting. I still feel bad about the whole thing. All of it. Everyone that died protecting me. People who got punished for protecting me. I'm glad you were okay. But I still just can't stand what happened. I really don't want to talk about it." My eyes started tearing up. At this rate my contact lenses were going to be unwearable soon.
Pam put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently.
"I still have some correspondence to work through. You can read while we await Bill. That book is just awful."
"But you can't dislike Sonya?" I said to Pam.
"Sonya would have made a great vampire," she replied with a smile, as she sat back down at her desk. "She's exactly the sort of person who ought to be turned. A good heart and a difficult life. She'd make a great vampire. She'd really appreciate the improvement in circumstances." She leaned around her computer monitor. "Not that I'm suggesting anything, mind you," she said with a chuckle. She started playing some classical music at low volume and I read as we awaited Bill's arrival.
Bill arrived around 11:30 pm and silently entered the room. I saw Pam look up and he smiled as soon as I turned to look at him. I rose and we each just stood looking at each other.
Pam asked Bill if he'd heard anything about what was going on over on 'the other side', a clear reference to Eric's little business meeting/fight.
"Well, according to Rasul two of them are already flaking." Bill saw the look on my face and laughed. "Don't worry, sweetheart. Not anyone you know."
Pam rose, and said,
"I'll leave you two here chatting and go see how things are. I really thought we should have started with a clean slate. There was simply nothing worth keeping in Baton Rouge."
Pam left and I walked over closer to Bill but not close enough to touch. He finally moved forward and kissed my cheek and patted my shoulder. Warm but slightly distant.
Finally, I said,
"I want to see it." I held out my hands.
His eyes softened. He placed his right hand in mine. I felt as if my whole face was imploding except for the tear that had already started streaking down my cheek. I swallowed hard and looked at his hand. He was shorter than Eric. About half a foot. So his hand was smaller. His skin looked less mottled than Eric's did. But I guessed that Bill as a human farmer had had much more sun exposure and skin that wasn't as pale as Eric's must have been as a human. Only something about his fingernails looked different. Not quite finished, I thought to myself. But subtle. Subtler than Eric's hand, with its pinker skin and nails and finger tips that were ever so slightly, to my eyes at least, shorter than those on the left hand.
I felt Bill's eyes on me and finally looked at him.
"There's really nothing that I can say Bill. No apologies or condolences or regrets that I can express that would convey how sorry I am. There are just no words." Tears ran down my cheeks then. I bit my lips hard as I looked at his hand.
"Sookie, it was the right thing to do. Never a question in my mind, no matter what the consequence. Eric told me how upset you were, but you never should doubt that I would have done it all over again. I'd have died to save you from those creatures.
I just nodded silently. He brushed the tears off my cheeks. And then motioned that we should sit down. I guessed I was looking kind of shaky.
"It's good to finally see you up close again, Sookie. You look well. You look like you healed very well. I am very glad.
"Eric told me that you were sometimes there in Alexandria for up to a week at a time. You never spoke to me, never tried come to see me? Why?"
"In the beginning because I was healing. It would have been difficult to explain the healing wound. It was not my place to contact you. You belong to someone else."
Belonged to someone else? Not his place? He'd risked his life for mine. I looked at him and shook my head.
"So Eric made you find me but told you to stay away from me?" In a way I guess it was better because I really might have taken off yet again, with the FBI's help. But still, it seemed... controlling to say the least.
"He told me you married him, Sookie. I _offered_ to look for you. His position was… tenuous, making it difficult for him to go look for you at that point. Plus, we didn't want to put you in more danger when I actually found you. He didn't have to tell me to stay away from you. It wasn't appropriate for me to contact you. You're his. He was the one that should speak to you about returning, not me."
"Did he tell you that we were married before or after you almost got yourself killed for keeps by saving my skin and losing your hand a result. Did he tell you before Bill?" I left out the part about my not knowing I was agreed to be married.
"It wouldn't have mattered. I'd have done the same thing either way, Sookie. It was one of the few things I've done right since I'd met you. It was my fault I couldn't win you back. Not yours. Not Eric's. I can admit it. I did everything wrong. Both in getting you and losing you. Can you actually think I wouldn't have gone with Niall to rescue you just because you loved someone else? Do you think that you could rescue me from Lorena after I betrayed your affection for me but I wouldn't do the same for you when you were free to be with whomever you pleased? Am I really sunk so low in your opinion, even now?"
I cringed a bit at that thought. "No. Of course not, Bill. Of course not."
We were silent for several minutes and then finally I said,
"So tell me about home, about Bon Temps. How are you, how is Sam. How is everyone?"
His face relaxed and he began to tell me all about the current goings on in Bon Temps. About Sam, Calvin and Tanya, who'd married two years ago, and Tara and JB who had two children now, a little girl and a newborn baby boy. Sam was well and seeing a were. The restaurant was doing well, Bill said. Caroline Bellefleur had finally passed and Portia was now mistress of the Bellefleur mansion, which looked better than ever thanks to Bill's covert assistance. Bud Dearborn had retired. Andy Bellefleur and Halleigh had a little boy. Holly and Hoyt were married.
"How is Jason?" I asked finally.
Bill looked down as if thinking carefully about how much to tell me.
"He is not well, Sookie. I think he was very affected by your abrupt departure. I realize that you may not be ready to see him on this trip but it might be a good idea to plan to see him the next time you come. I have assured him I know for a fact that you are still alive. That improved things a bit. But, of course, I could give him no real information. Sometimes I think he's basically an alcoholic, Sookie. He's an unhappy man. That's not your fault but I think he would be improved by seeing you, having contact with you. Maybe the next time you come, I can come down with Jason and with Sam, too. If that is alright with you, of course. Sam asked Eric directly if he knew where you were, and Eric finally told him that we did but wouldn't be able to provide him with any information. That was about nine months ago. I think he would like to see for himself that you are alright. Sam was very, very concerned when you disappeared. We all were, until I talked to that agent."
I hesitated. "Bill, did you really glamour her? Pam said you did. Is that how you found out where I was?"
"I did glamour her, yes I did. She didn't know exactly where you were, only in Virginia. There aren't a lot of FBI facilities in Virginia so it was just a matter of narrowing them down and passing around your photo. Although the change in your appearance slowed down my progress for a while, since I wasn't able to watch you directly myself during the day. I kept describing you as the curvy blonde and no one I hired ever saw a blonde who met the description. You lost weight, changed your hair. Even your eyes looked wrong. It was only by chance that I saw you myself in Falls Church, out at night with that Arab guy. I recognized you right away. But then I was worried I'd have to tell Eric that you were dating someone," he said shaking his head.
"You mean Ahmed? Yeah, he and I would go out for dinner sometimes after Alla had gone home for the night. She's married and would go home to Springfield every night. That must have been right before we left for Guantánamo. The unit was still based in Falls Church then."
Bill chuckled. "I followed him for a while before I caught on. He's extremely discreet. The same with the dance partner, though he was less discreet. I kept thinking that I'd have to give Eric bad news." He shook his head and looked at me with a sad smile.
I didn't say anything. Ahmed was very discreet. His business was his alone in my book. Even though Alla and I did girl stuff together, she had less time because of her family. Ahmed was probably the best friend I had in Virginia. And certainly my business was my own, as well.
Bill seemed curious about my lack of response. I shrugged at his questioning expression. We were quiet for a while. Then, completely out of the blue, Bill said,
"I never should have taken you to Fangtasia. Of course, he would have gotten you anyway. Sophie-Anne would still have been displaying you like the prized asset that you were but Eric still would have gotten you. You would have intrigued him no matter what." He was quiet again, as if mulling something over. Finally he said, "I should have told you the truth, Sookie. About Sophie-Anne and about Lorena. I didn't know how to make things right. I should have just told you the truth."
I looked away, remembering those days. I didn't really care about Bill's revelations of his mistakes. And I was not crazy about being a prized asset. It was ancient history and he'd never really been happy with me. There were things about my being human that Bill hadn't liked. It was odd actually, since he was so much closer, time-wise, to his having lived a human life. Yet Eric, so many centuries older, seemed not to be bothered by so many things about my being human that had bothered Bill. Bill hadn't really wanted me badly until I was long gone, I thought to myself. But he wasn't a bad man, and I was sure he was in a difficult position because of his secret job for Sophie-Anne and doing that job right under Eric's nose. Sophie-Anne had been clever working around Eric where I was concerned. I looked back and remembered elegant Sophie-Anne and her sad fate after a millennium of surviving. I had always liked her, in spite of her little mission for Bill. Done in by the Fellowship, and her own kind. I was glad Felipe was gone. Between what he'd done to Sophie-Anne, and to Eric, Bill and Maxwell, I had no qualms in thinking that he deserved to be permanently dead, at least in my mind. But I worried about Eric and how safe he was from a similar fate.
"Bill, Pam says that you do security stuff for Louisiana, right?"
He looked surprised at the question.
"Yes, I do. Why?"
"It isn't safe here. No matter what there is behind the scenes- magic, spies, whatever. It isn't safe. Really, you need to get Eric to do something to improve the security in the building, both at the entrances and within the office section. I'm sure he can afford to be more secure."
He looked puzzled.
"I got in with all kinds of silver weaponry. Bullets, knives. It isn't safe here. For any of them."
Bill nodded and said, "I'll look into it."
I wasn't convinced he would. Or that he'd be forceful enough about it to convince Eric.
We were interrupted from talking about the matter further by Pam, who came back in bristling, shutting the door behind her a little too loudly.
Bill looked up and said, "Problems?"
Pam glanced at me, but went ahead and said a bit obliquely,
"Eric is entirely too tolerant of dissent. He only killed three of them. Or at least Markus and Andor did. Andor has just gone to change his clothes. I really think Eric needs a heavier hand."
Bill, cautious because of my presence, said only,
"He may earn more loyalty this way. Give it a chance."
She took out a thick file from a drawer and slammed it down on her desk.
"Chance, my eye. I'd get rid of the whole lot of them. It's a waste of time."
Moments later, Eric waltzed in. His tie was loosened around his neck but he looked unruffled, otherwise. No bloodstains on the suit, either. He came to where I was sitting and bent to kiss me, then stood with his hand on my shoulder.
"Bill Compton, how are you? How do you find, Sookie?"
Bill had risen and bowed his head low.
"I am fine, thank you, Eric. Thank you for allowing me to visit."
Geeeeeeez, I thought to myself. Nice that he's _allowed _to visit me. Sometimes I really thought I didn't quite comprehend the amount of power that Eric held over those around him, even now when it should be obvious to me. I felt his hand on my shoulder, clearly signifying to whom I belonged. I realized however that even if Eric was stating that I was his, very unsubtly, I didn't feel like I was chattel, as if I was an asset. I reached up and put my hand on his hand.
With a quick glance at Pam, Bill said with a wink at Eric, "Pam is so wrong. I agree with you."
Pam started slamming stuff on her desk and said,
"I hope she makes it black next. And I hope she makes her eyes brown. It would be richly deserved."
I looked at Pam's petulant expression and just laughed. What was the deal with my hair and eyes? Eric gave her a dark look and she resumed typing furiously. Bill laughed at her.
Eric offered me his hand and then pulled me to my feet, directing me to sit with him on the couch. Bill sat down in the chair I'd left and the four of us chatted late into the night. He was heading back to Bon Temps the next evening at sunset, but we had a great time chatting and reminiscing. It was good to know that we had finally arrived at a point where Bill and I could be friends. I was glad of it. I owed him my life, so the least I could give him was my friendship.
8. Chapter 7
VII.
"No. That is not going to work for me."
I looked up at him from my perch on the edge of the bed. "What do you mean?"
Eric stared down at my cranberry red lace bra and panty set and shook his head with disapproval.
"That," he said pointing his finger with an up and down swish at my midsection, "was unfair. You should have worn it yesterday when you arrived. But you put it on tonight and I have to talk to someone at 10 pm and now I'm going to end up being late. And it's all going to be your fault, Lover." He had a very mischievous look on his face.
"You could just take them off _later_, you know."
Later. Right… I couldn't even meet his eyes because I was almost quaking with silent laughter as I tried hurriedly to pull on my black denims. This was my _third_ attempt to get moving since sunset and it was now well after 9 pm. I'd barely gotten to go kiss Bill goodbye between the first and second attempt to get going for the evening. Saying goodbye in the hall, wearing a bathrobe three sizes too big was rather improper, I'd thought. It had certainly seemed rather heavy-handed on Eric's part by having me walk out into the hallway in his huge robe to say goodbye to Bill. (Just in case there had been any residual doubts about the nature of my relationship to Eric or just how _his_ I was?) And now I was seriously doubting I was getting out of the room this time either. First there was the problem getting out of the bed, then the problem getting out of the shower, and now? Problems with getting dressed? A hand belonging to the 'problem' grabbed my denims and prevented me from working them up beyond mid-thigh. I was beginning to think there was more to Eric's desire to have me there when he woke up than just being sure I didn't get all freaked out and run away again or to have the pleasure of waking up next to someone. Waking up with Eric appeared to be a long and involved, a very involved, process.
"No, these are coming off now, Lover. But those may be staying on for another few minutes so that I can fully enjoy them on you."
He pulled the jeans off my legs and tossed them over his shoulder with a chuckle. Then he started pulling off his shirt as he kicked off his shoes. It was a more casual night tonight. Black jeans and a red polo shirt. But the shirt was already off and was now somewhere in the vicinity of my jeans. He picked me up from the edge of the bed and after kissing me roughly, playfully tossed me into the middle of the bed. He left the remainder of his clothes on the floor and climbed onto the bed after me, with an evil grin and fangs that would have been positively frightening if I didn't know who they were attached to. I burst out laughing and tried to slip off the bed but he caught my right ankle and dragged me, while I laughed, along the smooth silk comforter back toward him.
"No escape, Agent Gordon. I'm thinking surrender is your best option here."
"Well, I'm just not the surrendering type."
"Oh _really_?" An eyebrow raised with doubt. It looked like he thought that was a direct challenge. He pulled my legs around his waist and pulled my hips upward then bent forward and kissed my abdomen. And then he tickled me until I thought I would never catch my breath. He was laughing almost as much as I was, though. He played with the lace straps on my bra as he kissed me and then flipped me over, unhooked the bra and started kissing the space in between my shoulder blades while his hands cupped and played with my breasts. "Any progress on surrendering?" he murmured as I gasped with pleasure. The bra disappeared just like the jeans had.
"MmmNnnnn," I murmered back, as I shook my head 'no' and then I couldn't stop laughing, in anticipation of who knows what he was planning next.
"So damn stubborn," was the chuckling reply as he moved lower down my back kissing me. "I'm thinking about what to say about being late… Luckily, I really don't have to provide much explanation for such things anymore. Everyone has to wait for _me_ now. But still, it should be on your conscience, since she's _your_ friend."
"What do you mean? You're meeting with Amelia?" I kind of froze.
"She's meeting with me about warding all our other properties and businesses. The wards on this building seem to be a success. We're going to expand use of Amelia's services. But, Lover, now she's going to have to wait. And I may have to tell her why we're so late. That it was all your fault. Maybe even hint at details of why it was your fault," he said playfully, running his finger under the edge of my hipster panty well below the small of my back.
"I'm sure Amelia is clever enough to figure out why we're late, Eric. Trust me," I said shivering.
I was apprehensive about seeing her. It was a bit of a mood killer, actually. But somehow, Eric just had a special talent for distracting me. He slid his arm under my hips and lifted me up higher and started removing my panties.
"Does the word _insatiable_ have your picture next to it in the Illustrated Webster's Dictionary, Eric?"
He paused for a moment and replied,
"No. I thought you knew? It has a scandalous photo of the _two_ of us. I'm surprised you haven't seen it yet. You had concerns about certain consequences for such racy photos, as I recall. It appears you were so right to worry."
Then he literally bit my ass.
Afterwards, while I was lying there with my head on his shoulder, trying to remember which direction I thought I'd seen my panties fly, Eric murmured,
"Lover, would you please check out of the hotel? We should stay together while you're here. Just tell your boss you're staying here. That agent can safely come here to check on you. We will be gracious with her as your guest. Or you can see her outside the compound at night. I'll send Rasul and Cadel with you but they can give you space. Or if you prefer in the afternoon, with Tucker's people. I want you here, with me. There's no reason for the hotel for the daytime when you could rest here and it's wasting your hard-earned money."
I sighed. The truth was that if I went with how I was feeling right now, and not with the nagging voices in my head, I'd check out of the hotel and stay with Eric. But part of me wanted the safety of at least the _idea_ of that room. Eric seemed to sense my hesitation.
"How about I continue to pay for the room, but you stay here."
"No. No, absolutely not, Eric. That's just wrong. I couldn't do that." I was not having him pay for my vacation, and especially not for my empty room. But then I sighed heavily. I really wanted to stay with Eric. I'd liked waking up next to him. That was something I'd had precious little of in my life. Maybe I should just stop fighting what I felt, and what he wanted, and just try it. It wasn't like I was anticipating that we were going to abruptly stop getting along or anything. The worst that could happen would be that I'd have to get another room. Actually, no, the worst that could happen would be that I would be sorry I hadn't spent more time with him when I went back home to Alexandria. I'd already spent enough time being sorry I hadn't stayed with Eric when he last offered. But of course, it all came at a price. How much worse would it feel when I left and went back to my everyday life?
"Stay with me, Lover," he said softly in my ear. "I like waking next to you. Stay, min älskade... my Lover.
My heart literally fluttered. For once, I ignored the voice in my head, and went with my heart.
"Okay," I said quietly. I felt an internal quaver as I said, "I'll check out of the hotel and stay here with you."
I felt a swell of warmth from him. Then I immediately felt a moment of panic. I was giving in. Giving in to _Eric_. Giving in to my _feelings_. My heart promptly started pounding. He raised himself onto his elbow in the bed and turned to look at me, surprised.
"You're afraid, Lover," he whispered to me, looking puzzled. He stroked his hand through my hair. "What are you so afraid of?"
My eyes suddenly just brimmed with tears. What _was_ I so afraid of?
"I don't know. I just…" I breathed in deeply. "Just forget it, Eric. I'm fine." I just closed my eyes and couldn't look at him. How badly had it hurt when Bill left me for Lorena? But the real issue was how badly had it hurt when Bill's interest appeared to wane even before Lorena. And I hadn't really even been sure I loved Bill at the time. But I was very sure I loved Eric. I was not sure at all that he felt the same, no matter what he said. And I had already had a taste of what it was like when he had left to go back to his life after I had taken care of him when he had been cursed by Hallow. Back then I hadn't understood that I was falling in love with him. I'd been unhappy, when he'd left and remembered nothing of those days. And then there was the past three long years of not even looking at another person because there was simply no point. In another week and a half I'd go back to my regular life and yes, it would be much, much worse this time. I was setting myself up for being really unhappy. I didn't want to be unhappy. My heart just pounded.
"You're really afraid of staying here with me, aren't you?" he said. "But why?"
I still had my eyes closed and could hardly breathe because my heart and my head were in such turmoil. Eric put his cool hand on my sternum and was just silent, for several minutes, his thumb gently stroking my chest. Finally he said,
"I never got to choose to be with someone I loved. I never had someone choose to be with me because they loved me. When I was human I married my brother's wife when he died. I liked her. But I didn't love her, at least not in the beginning. For sure, never _in_ love with her. And we had no choice in the matter. It was an alliance of families. When Aude died, I looked around for the most practical match. That was right before I was turned. Then in all this time, after I was free from my sire, I chose… but not for love. And no one ever really chose to be with me because they couldn't really choose. When you have almost total control over someone, what kind of choice can she make?"
I lay there with my eyes still closed and said,
"So you 'love me' basically because you can't glamour me?" It was a hollow sense of vindication that Eric just liked that part of me because of the way it affected him. Because I was a challenge and it was flattering to him. But then it wasn't really love that he felt for me at all. No, he didn't really love me, I told myself. Not really.
"No. Well, maybe that is a part of it, yes, but really… No. I love you because you are smart, and you are brave. You have a real sense of honor, of loyalty and you are very brave. I enjoy your humor. Your feistiness. You are beautiful, but many women are beautiful. Beauty does not last, unless you are turned, but even then it is… different, maybe harder edged. Character lasts no matter what. You have character. I like you and that has made it easy to love you. I like few people. But I do also like it that you cannot be glamoured. That is true. If you are with me, it is because you choose to be with me. It is a compliment to have someone truly choose to be with you. But it is more than that. You are interesting and I have never known anyone quite like you. The more I have made you mine, the more I wanted you. I enjoy you. I love you. I _want_ to be with you." He paused, then said quietly, "So I do not understand why you are afraid or how it is that you think I will hurt you."
I wanted to get away from this conversation.
"We should really get up Eric. It's probably after 10. We'll be really late."
"No. We should stay here and work this out now. I asked you long ago if you had a tendency to walk away when things get rocky and I've seen that answer, although I really can't hold leaving Louisiana against you considering what had happened to you. There are other times when you have shown more loyalty and kindness than I could ever have reasonably expected. You have stuck by me many, many times. But you've also wanted to run away from every serious conversation I've ever tried to have with you about us. That habit has caused a lot of problems and I really think we're not going to continue with it." His hand was still on my chest, cool and firm, making it very, very clear that I was not getting up out of this bed. "So tell me, Lover, what is it that you're really afraid of?"
"I told you I don't know," I said with an irritated edge that I couldn't help.
"Sookie, I can tell you do know. What is it? I insist that you tell me what the problem is. Whatever it is. Even if you think it will offend me."
I opened my eyes and saw that he was right above me, eyes glowing and his face looking cool and serious. I looked away, wanting psychological space but he reached up and turned my face back toward him and held it there firmly in his hand so that I could only escape his gaze by closing my eyes or shifting them away from him.
"You're being foolish, Sookie. This is beyond being stubborn. You said the other day that you had thought many times about how things might have been different if you had come to stay with me in Shreveport when Breandan's people were after you. What if you had? What if you had told me you were afraid and you wanted me to protect you? What if you had really talked to me? What if you trusted me? _What if, now, you actually tried to make this work?_"
I swallowed hard and cast my eyes downward, not meeting his.
"What would you have done if I was with someone else when Bill found me in Alexandria, Eric?"
He jutted his chin out slightly and paused a moment then said,
"If I thought you were happy, I would have left you alone."
"How could you even have known I was happy without talking to me? The bond?"
"The question is pointless. I knew you were not with anyone. Because of the neighbor and because of what Bill learned. And yes, I could feel you were not with anyone because of the bond. I could feel you. I watched you. After Bill had found you, one night I came to Virginia and I watched you through the windows of your apartment. You were so alone. _Felt_ so alone. I went away and thought carefully about what to do. I tried to prevent you from feeling me then, and when I returned, in May. You never trusted the bond. Which is ironic, since if you can't read my mind, it was the surest way to know how I felt about you. But you have always thought it was artificial. Some vampire magic trick. Or just, in general, a trick. You have such serious trust issues, Lover."
"Are you saying you do think it's my fault that I was kidnapped and tortured because I wouldn't go stay with you?" I said crossing back to what he had said moments before.
"No. Of _course_ not. It was your grandfather's fault for not making sure that I knew how serious the situation was when he knew you were mine. And ultimately his fault for not protecting you better himself. Why he left you alone in that house I will never understand. He could have left Dillon with you. Or Claude. He could have moved you elsewhere to safeguard you. It was my fault for not insisting you stay with me, although I did not want to do anything to coerce you since you were so resistant to almost anything I suggested. It was, perhaps, my fault for not having told you then, that night I was with you, that I loved you. Clearly. _In English_. Perhaps then you would have come with me. But I wanted you to say you loved me and you would not admit it, even though I knew you did. You, with your _appreciation_," he said acidly. He shook his head and snorted. "I thought perhaps you hated loving me. You were resentful of me, of the bond. You were so cold. So defensive that night. I was confused by your manner, which was so different from what I had remembered. I thought we would have time to work things out, but everything fell apart. Well, we are two proud and stubborn people and we have paid a heavy price for our pride and stubbornness. You especially so. And then you threw away almost everything. What if I hadn't found you? Hmm? What then, Lover? Were you so happy on your own, totally alone? You were merely getting by. Only half alive inside, so shut down to your emotions. And if you were really honest, you would admit it. Neither one of us has been happy with our choices made in those days. So let's work it out now, once and for all."
I was just silent.
"Tell me, Lover. Tell me what you are afraid of or what it is that bothers you. What is the problem?"
His hand still held my face. His eyes seemed to rivet mine to his. I felt him almost trying to mentally pull it out of me. I looked up at him and ground my teeth softly as he continued pulling on my mind, even though he knew I hated that and that it really wouldn't work. He was just showing me that he wouldn't let it drop. Finally, I just gave in and said,
"Bill got bored with me, Eric. He was already bored well before he returned to Lorena. You're so exotic and old. You've already seen everything there is to see. And I see myself as just an amusement to you. A challenge and an amusement. I don't even have to worry about the growing old part or any of the rational concerns of such a relationship if it were real. You say you love me. But you'll get tired of me soon enough. I just don't see any chance, really any chance at all, that this will end happily. At least not for me. I meant what I said the other day. I'll just end up brokenhearted. I never loved Bill. At least not the way I love you. You want to talk about someone who's bound becoming a stupid fucking Renfield? Well, I don't even need the bond. I already remember how bad I felt _before_ the bond when you left. There'll be nothing left of me if I let myself stay with you. I was ruined for humans long before I met any of you because of my telepathy. But loving you will just ruin me for everyone and everything else when it's over. It will just bleed the colors and the life away from me. I already have three years of proof that I'll end up totally alone and it will be so much worse if I stay for any extended time with you. I don't even want to know how long this time is going to leave me sad when I go home. And part of me just _hates_ myself for coming here at all, because I really don't want to be unhappy. But that's exactly what I think I'm going to be."
He waited to see if I was done. When I said no more, he nodded his head, looking at me with a faint smile. He kissed me gently. He released his hold on my face, stroking my cheek as he did so, and sat up.
"This is better," he said, still nodding. "_This_ I can deal with." His smile broadened.
He bounced off the bed and tossed me my panties and then walked around the bed to hand me my bra and jeans. He picked up his clothes from the floor and started dressing. Then he pulled me to the edge of the bed and turned me around to hook my bra. He knew I used the middle hook on this bra not the inner one the way I did on the other one, I noticed, surprised. He brushed aside my hair and kissed the nape of my neck. Then he handed me the top I had left on top of my bag. I pulled it over my head and then pulled on my jeans as I jumped down from the bed. He was already dressed again. I slipped on my flats. I walked around the bed and brushed quickly through my hair as I glanced at my makeup in the full-length mirror on the bathroom door. It wasn't looking so fresh anymore but I looked okay and fairly unsmudged. Thank goodness I hadn't used mascara. Eric stood next to me and took my brush from my hand and brushed through his hair briefly. Finally, I couldn't resist any longer. I turned to look at him.
"So how are you planning to 'deal' with it?"
He turned to me with a twitching smile.
"I am going to prove you spectacularly wrong. And Lover, I am going to marry you legally. I know what want. I will not change my mind. But I will change yours. If I don't talk you into it now, I will the next time, or the time after that. You _will_ believe me. If I waited three years just to see you again, you ought to have a better estimate of my determination. But no matter. You _will_ see. Just try not to lose us too much more time together. That would be something you really should regret. Shall we? We're really approaching embarrassingly late. It's almost 11 pm. On the bright side, all of your worries about seeing Amelia ought to look like, what is the expression… small potatoes? after this little discussion, right?" He winked at me.
He seemed pretty happy as we walked out into his library. Just before we got to the door to go out into the hall, he swooped down and picked me up. He kissed me then said, with a merry smile,
"So delightfully wrong."
He kissed me again. Then he laughed, put me back down on my feet and took up my hand as we went downstairs to see Amelia.
Amelia and Pam were chatting in Pam's office while they watered and tended to Pam's orchids near the window that was no longer blacked out. As we entered they turned to look at us, then back to each other and erupted into laughter.
"We were thinking of calling for help soon. It's good to see that you are both still viable," said Pam wryly.
Amelia stood looking at me. She still looked the same, with her short, chestnut hair, bright blue eyes and tall, graceful frame. But she looked at me and shook her head.
"I really might not have recognized you. Pam's right."
I stood there for a moment feeling awkward and then she strode across the room and hugged me.
I met her eyes and said,
"I'm glad to see you, Amelia."
Then I had to turn my face away. All I could see in my mind's eye was Tray as he died. Protecting me, fighting because of me. Someone she'd grown to love, that good man, dead because of me. I still felt so guilty about it all.
Amelia stroked my arm gently and said, "I'm really glad to see you, too. I've missed you." Her eyes teared up and then she hugged me again.
"My goodness, now they are both leaking. Honestly, it's enough having Sookie crying all the time, but if you're going to start Amelia, I may actually have to send someone out to purchase tissues, which is simply ridiculous for a vampire's office. You both are so much trouble."
Pam walked over and took Eric's arm and led him out of the office, murmuring "I really can't fathom the need for such emotional displays but let's leave them to it for a while. Stefan has business for you and that Area 2 moron Henderson is back with apologies, fear and trembling."
Amelia and I sat down on Pam's couch and had a heart to heart talk. About everything that had happened that awful night three and a half years before and all the things we couldn't say then. About broken hearts and spirits and friendship that survives great heartache. We were still friends. She had never really blamed me for Tray's death as I had blamed, and still blamed, myself. She told me that he had wanted to protect me. That he had died a good death, and that in spite of her immense sorrow over it, that he would have been proud to die fighting for someone he held in high regard. I tried to fight the feeling that I was held in far higher regard by everyone than I deserved to be. I looked back on that time and did not like myself. I didn't like the choices I had made and the consequences of those choices. I would always feel that I had put Tray in harm's way without his fully understanding what he had agreed to do in guarding me. And that I should have forced him to see Dr. Ludwig for treatment of his poisoning. There were so many things I felt I should have done differently about those days. Amelia told me that I needed to let it go. As I sat there holding her hand, I suddenly realized that after my conversation with Eric the previous night, in which I talked about Tray, that he must have asked for her to come to meet with him in part so that she and I would talk, as well. Talking to her, talking about that time, just seemed to release something in me. I still felt terrible about Tray's death, but it felt less sharp.
After an hour we went looking for Eric and Pam. Amelia stayed talking business with Eric while Pam and I sat discussing books, music, fashion. As if she could see that I was very on the edge emotionally, Pam tried to cheer me up in her very dry humored way. She got me to laugh a bit in the end with her cutting comments about the various vampire reality TV style shows.
When Amelia left around 3 am, Eric sent an escort with her. We'd made plans to get together after I'd seen Nnenna Freelon the following night together with Pam and Eric. She was eager to have me meet her beau, Bertram. Pam said she'd join us because she was curious to meet him, too.
After Amelia left I sat reading in Eric's office while he worked. I started sensing that he was increasingly edgy about something. Finally, around 4 am, he told me I really should go check out of my hotel since it would be dawn in less than two hours. The way he sat there, waiting for my response, he looked as if he was poised for an argument, if necessary. I bit my lip. I had told him I'd stay here. I reminded myself that at the moment I'd agreed, I'd felt that it would make me happy to stay with Eric. It would be hard to take back my agreement to leave the hotel without hurting his feelings I realized.
Eric sent Stefan with me to the hotel. The hotel staff looked at me pretty oddly about my checking out, days early, at 4:30 am in the morning, in the company of the tall vampire, but asked few questions. Somehow, I managed to avoid any cancellation charges. Stefan dealt with most of it and had a very wry look on his face as we left. I got the definite feeling that he had glamoured the desk clerk into something but when I asked he just chuckled and took all my bags.
As we walked I asked Stefan where he was from. He was Swedish, he told me, and was about 300 years old. He had known Eric since the early 1700's and had been pleased to come and work for him. It was interesting to me that Eric appeared to have gathered together a collection of vampires who were largely, until very recently, European. I knew that Markus, Cadel and Andor had all recently come from Europe, as well. I commented that it surprised me that so many European vampires would want to move to Louisiana. He quipped that America was famous for fast food. Dining in Europe was much more formal. I laughed and asked him if that meant Americans were 'easy'. He turned to me laughing out loud and nodded with a playful grin, saying that I got his humor. Then he said that he was glad for the chance to work in the US. He enjoyed working for Eric and it was putting his skills to better use since the job situation in Europe was always a frustration for vampires. There was a lot of unemployment in Europe he said, and few guaranteed rights for vampires in the European Union. He said Scandinavia was more liberal but that it was really difficult to live there year round because of the short nights in the summer. Moving to the US, and the South, was ideal to him. Now that I was a bit more used to Stefan I could see why Eric probably liked him. Stefan had a sense of humor much like Eric's, and he clearly had a practical, business-oriented mind. I had an odd feeling from him, though, as if there was something more to it all. While he was considerably friendlier to me now, he still seemed reserved. I understood that and didn't ask more.
After we got back to the compound I sat in Eric's office again and sent Sara Weiss a text message telling her I had shifted accommodations and that she could come and check on me in the evening if she wished or that I could go out to meet with her and that I was going to see Nnenna Freelon at 9:30 pm the following evening. I told her if she was worried that she should run it by Manny.
Eric was low-key about my staying with him. I guess he could sense that the less fuss he made, the calmer I'd be about it. He told me that he had notified Bennett Tucker that the protection he'd arranged was being switched to a sort of on call status. He didn't say much else but I'd felt a pleased warmth from him when Stefan told him he'd left my bags outside Eric's rooms and then departed for the night. I suddenly kind of wondered what the other vampires had thought that I _wasn't_ staying with him before. I wasn't going to ask, though. Pam came in discussed the plans for the following night. She was in rare form after finding out that I was now officially staying in the compound. Eric glared at her when she made a very ribald remark about the benefits of having the feisty redhead locked into his bedroom at long last. She promptly said goodnight and left but made a funny face at me when he wasn't looking. I continued to read while Eric continued to work.
In bed later, I leaned back against his chest as he wrapped himself around me. It was already close to dawn when we'd come back up to the room and I could hardly even keep my eyes open. His arm hung heavily across my side and his hand rested on my arm. We were quiet for a while and then I broke the silence.
"What did you think I was going to tell you earlier tonight?" I murmured.
"That you wanted children. That you hated the fact that I'm a vampire. Something that I couldn't fix. More about how you hate the bond. Or that you hate the all political bullshit in my life."
I chuckled softly. "That I hated the fact that you're a vampire? You have got to be kidding, Eric. It would be a little late for _that_ one, wouldn't it?"
"Considering all the bullshit I have heard come out of your lovely mouth about the bond, frankly, nothing would have surprised me. If I had more sense, I'd be insulted by your doubting my feelings for you, considering our history. But luckily for you I'm not taking it personally. It says volumes about what you've been through is the way I'm looking at that one," he murmured. Then he paused and said quietly, "Maybe I was afraid you would never forgive me for not having been able to rescue you from the fairies."
I was silent for a while and then said,
"You did what you could do, Eric. You paid a terrible price for what you _were_ able to do, too. What happened to me was not your fault. You protected me plenty of other times. I guess... It took a while to understand things. I won't lie and say that I wasn't blaming you back then for somehow having let me down or something. But it was unfair. Totally unfair. Then I switched to blaming myself for so many things. I guess that one isn't quite right either. But you had offered to protect me by having me stay with you. I didn't want what you offered because I wasn't ready to admit I needed more protection, or what it implied about you and me. Anyway, I do hate the politics. I really do. It frightens me. But that's just you. It's who you are." I was silent for a while and then said, "So my thinking that you're going to get bored with me and totally break my heart is just an easy fix to you?"
He kissed the back of my head then I felt him start to go limp in that odd way before he stiffened up a bit.
"Ja… min älskade… du har så fel..." he murmured softly. And then he was gone.
What he was saying? Was it Swedish? Norse? Part of it I recognized from earlier... My Lover... His arm was heavy around me. For some reason, in spite of my qualms about staying with him, in spite of my fears about what I would feel like when I left in a week and a half, I felt happy. Maybe I needed my head examined. After more than three years on my own, in only five weeks time I had gotten myself in deeper than I'd ever been with Eric. It was like he was an unstoppable force. And yet I was happy. Lying here, basically almost locked into his arms. And if I was honest with myself, when Eric was literally out cold as he right now, the happiness I felt was mine alone. When he was dead, or resting, or however you wanted to consider it, I couldn't feel anything from him. What I felt was really just what _I_ felt, what I felt for him. No bond and I was still happy.
I thought about his text message from the day before. Getting a grip on me, indeed, I thought to myself. He'd gotten what he'd wanted with his grip on me. Me, staying here, with him. What else did Eric want? I wondered. I thought about what he had said earlier that night. That I was so wrong. Was I? One part of me wanted to trust his words, his reassurance. The other part, well... I was too sleepy to think or worry about any of it.
I finally fell asleep and didn't wake up until a bit after 4 pm in the afternoon. The room was pitch black, but Eric had moved a lamp to the nightstand on my side of the bed so I could turn on the light when I awoke, to make it easier to move around the room. In spite of the fact that he had 'fallen asleep' on his side, with his arm around me, I guess I had managed to move out from under his arm while I slept. He wasn't really rigid or anything. I picked up his hand and looked at it. The ends of his long fingers, and his fingernails, looked almost as they should be. The skin tone had evened out a bit more, too. I could still see the line demarking old skin from new skin but it was much less distinct than it had been even five weeks ago. But I guess it was pretty hard to tell now what had happened unless you really knew. I didn't feel like I was any closer to getting over what had happened to him because of me, though. I looked at his face and combed my fingers through his hair, pushing it back off his face. His skin was so white, and cool to the touch. I kissed him, and got up out of the bed. I put on my pajamas and then, after gauging the distance, turned off the light and went out into the library.
I had some fruit, checked my email, called my answering machine and talked to Rosie by leaving a message. I made plans to see Sara at 9 pm, read for a while and then spent some time organizing the poetry shelves in Eric's library. At 7:30 pm, I went back into the bedroom, stumbled to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth. Then I climbed back into bed, snuggled up to Eric and dozed until sunset.
9. Chapter 8
A/N- Many thanks to the lovely Miravisu for the Swedish translations. :-)
* * *
**VIII.**
Nnenna Freelon was a wonderful live performer. Pam had never heard her before and really enjoyed it. We split up after hearing Freelon perform because Eric had to go back to meet with people from Lafayette. Stefan, Markus and various other bodyguards who'd come out for the evening stayed with him, but Rasul and Pam stayed with me, along with Andor and Cadel. We were meeting up with Amelia and her man, Bertram, at The Dungeon at 1 am. We got there early and the vampires all had True Blood while I had a gin and tonic. Pam was having a lot of fun comparing The Dungeon to Fangtasia, which Eric and Pam still owned and from which Sheriff Maxwell operated his Area 5 base. The Dungeon was substantially more tourist oriented and the tourists appeared quite taken with staring at the four vampires in my company. Cadel, who was Welsh, was particularly playful, hissing and snarling in full fang at people coming near the table to a chorus of 'Oooohs' and 'Aaaaah' and jumpy reactions. Then he'd burst into laughter if he got someone really scared. He had deep dimples, which looked very amusing in combination with long, sharp fangs.
After more than a day in the total quiet of the Eric's compound, the rush of minds, first in Preservation Hall, and now in The Dungeon was really something. Even twenty-four to thirty six hours away required an adjustment in my ability to filter things out. The only humans I'd been around since spending the past two days with Eric were Amelia and Sara Weiss, who'd come to check on me right before the jazz performance. But I decided in the end that it was actually as if I felt a bit refreshed and more energetic for having had the break. Other than time spent alone in my apartment, where really, I cold potentially still pick up neighbors thoughts, I hadn't had a real break from the thoughts and minds of others for years.
While we sat in our little booth area I became aware of a really strong and anxious female mind and glanced over at the bar, at a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties. She was upset because her friend might not be able to come after all. She was thinking about leaving because she felt nervous being in the bar alone. That feeling was borne out when a former boyfriend of hers came into the club started giving her menacing looks. She was afraid of him. Now that she had seen him though, she seemed afraid to leave because she was worried he'd follow her out. She was sitting at the bar waiting for him to get distracted so she could make her exit. I'd noted that there were at least three police officers around the club, along with two FBI agents, so I figured she was safe and went back to listening to Pam and Andor arguing about jazz. Andor seemed to speak with an accent similar to Eric's, but more obvious, I guess because he hadn't lived here very long. I really wondered where he was from. He wasn't as talkative as Cadel or Stefan. Andor seemed to spend a lot of time just watching others and taking everything in.
Ten minutes passed and the ex-boyfriend had walked over to the woman at the bar and soon she was on the verge of tears, telling him to just leave her alone. The guy was a serious creep in my book. He was thinking of ways to try to make her feel bad, including her weight, her occasional stuttering and even the recent death of her father, with whom she'd had a strained relationship. He was still angry because she had broken up with him. She definitely knew where to draw the line for her mental health by getting rid of this guy, I thought to myself. When the guy refused to leave her alone the third time she asked and she started crying, I found myself muttering under my breath,
"Fucking asshole…" which briefly caught Pam's attention.
But then the guy grabbed a hold of the woman's arm and she was really scared. That was when I saw that he'd hit her before. In fact, he'd beaten her up once. Badly enough so that she had missed her college classes, embarrassed to go out with bruises. All the other people at the bar were ignoring the escalating problem.
I bounced out of my seat without a word of explanation to the others and walked over to them and said,
"Samantha, I'm so sorry I was late. Who's this guy? He looks familiar. Why are you crying, sweetie? Are you okay?" all with my very best Louisiana drawl.
The creep looked at me and focused mainly on my breasts. He was really so offensive. Samantha, who had never seen me before in her life, looked at me as if I was her long lost guardian angel.
"He's just leaving," she said, stuttering slightly from both stress and, as far as I was concerned, legitimate fear. He was thinking about trying to get her out of the club and 'show her a good time' after all. The guy was really a piece of work.
"Well, good. Because if he made you cry, I really think he _should_ leave." I stared at him with my arms crossed.
"The only person who's leaving is you, bitch," he snarled. Then he grabbed my uppermost arm to push me back and away from her, but he grabbed it hard. Hard enough to probably leave marks.
I looked down at his hand and said in a low but very clear voice,
"Take your hand off me. Right now."
He didn't remove his hand or lessen his grip, so I swept my arm upward. He pretty much snarled at me and took a swing at slapping me. What the hell would he do in private if this was his _public_ persona? Well, I guess I'd already seen that in her memories. Anyway, it was his second and final mistake. This was the stuff of my Krav Maga trainer Uri's dreams. I managed to pretty much dodge his open handed hit although he still just caught my cheekbone. It stung but I was far too pissed off to care. I jabbed him in the throat, kneed him in the groin and then grabbed his wrist and spun him to the side as I twisted his arm up behind him and kicked his knees out from under him. He was down in much less than five seconds. When he looked up, all the other people at the bar had moved away while four snarling vampires and two FBI agents with handguns drawn were staring down at him. Samantha looked like she didn't know whether to be freaked out or applaud. She seemed to be coming down on the applause side, clasping her hands together and thinking that he'd had it coming for years.
"Who the fuck are you?" he said in a hoarse and painful voice. The throat jab was really a painful hit. You had to be careful with that one because you could really harm someone with it.
"Someone who doesn't appreciate being hit. Like most of the rest of the people I know, including Samantha. I'm an FBI agent. And so are they," I said pointing to the two guys with the guns.
I looked over at the two agents, one of whom looked vaguely familiar from Sara's office. I had the idea that his name was Norm. Yeah, it was Norm, I saw, reading him. He was quite amused that I'd taken the guy down so fast. He remembered me from several years back when I had been pretty fragile, at least in his eyes.
"Norm, can you guys deal with this? I'm on vacation. Samantha, why don't you come sit with me for a while. Norm, the guy watching, over there in the blue shirt, is NOLA PD. The guy hit me," I pointed to my cheek, "so maybe I'm gonna think about charges." I looked down at the creep, Howie? and read him carefully. "You know, I really think he needs a drug test. I'm thinking he's under the influence of something. Who the heck hits a woman in a public place with tons of witnesses? He's on something. You can give them my contact info," I said, nodding to the police officer who was walking our way.
Norm, who obviously seemed in the know from Sara, just nodded without asking any questions about how I knew what I knew and signaled that I could let the guy go. I released him, and he promptly toppled over with a moan. I glanced at him for a minute wondering if maybe I'd hit him, or twisted his arm, a little too hard. After all, I'd been having doses of Eric's blood and could be stronger than I realized. He was rubbing his wrist. It didn't look too bad, since he could move it gingerly and I didn't see any bruising. Well, I thought to myself, he hit me first. Only a fool in a town like this would hit a stranger. What if I had been a Were or were and _really_ lost my temper?
Samantha looked apprehensive as I walked back to our table and was followed by Pam, Rasul and Andor. Cadel waited near her and held out his arm as if to direct her. Pam was all a-fuss over my cheek. It tingled a bit but really wasn't that bad. My arm was little tender, though.
"Eric is going to kill us. Absolutely _kill _us. We are going to be in _so_ much trouble. Honestly, Sookie" she hissed in a very low voice so it was not likely that anyone would hear my real name, "Why the hell did you have to pick a fight with him yourself? Couldn't you have had one of us go over and set him straight? What were you thinking?" She stood over me looking at my cheek and pressing around on it as if to make sure nothing was broken or something.
"He just slapped me. It's not like he punched me or anything. One of you would have scared her too, and she would have left with him and he's beaten her up before. I was thinking that getting him to leave alone was a better bet, Pam. Ow… It's fine. Geez Louise, Pam, cut it out! _You're _going to bruise it if you keep poking it." I didn't want to tell her that what really hurt was my arm, where he had grabbed it. I was pretty sure it was bruised.
Samantha sat down diffidently in a chair that Cadel had pulled up for her next to me.
"Lady, I don't know who you are, but thanks," she said to me.
"You're welcome. You should really avoid him. He's a very nasty man, Samantha."
Rasul was just taking the whole thing in with sparkling eyes and then he finally burst into laughter. "He was what? 6' 2"? You had him on the floor whining like girl in the blink of an eye. It was a _riot_. It's good to know that at least with humans you can take good care of yourself, Sasha."
Pam was indignant. "Eric is _not_ going to think it's a riot, Rasul. Eric is going to be furious."
"Eric needs to lighten up, Pam. Nothing is going to happen to her and that doesn't even look as if it will bruise if you leave it alone." He snapped his fingers for a barmaid and asked for a glass of ice water and napkins. "Good thing for him you didn't have your gun, Sasha," he said with a chuckle and a wink.
I crossed my left leg over my right knee and pulled up my pants leg and showed him my subcompact G26 on my lower calf.
"I _have_ to wear a weapon. I'm required to. But why on earth would you think I'd shoot him, Rasul? He was unarmed. Especially, if I can have him the floor 'like a girl' as you put it, it would be excessive force. He was just a bully. It was the perfect Krav Maga-lite scenario. He had no weapon. I actually train to incapacitate a person _with_ a weapon. So this was easy."
Rasul laughed again and smiled at me.
"You're really my favorite human, Sasha. Eric was way ahead of the curve, as usual, finding you. You're always an adventure."
I noticed that Andor was just silent as usual, as if taking the whole situation in and taking notes. I wondered if he'd tell Eric.
Pam frowned.
"What's wrong now, Pam?" I asked her.
"You've got so many guns and you never showed me how to shoot any, not even the shotgun. And I asked _years_ ago. You've never shown me how to shoot anything at all. You _knew_ I wanted to learn to shoot." She actually pouted, which looked pretty silly with fangs slightly run down. Clearly the thought of using a gun was stirring to Pam.
"Pam, if there's a local range that's open at night, I'll let you shoot my gun. We can go whenever you want. The G26 is a good one for you to try because your hands are small."
"I'll find one as soon as we get back and we can go one night this week."
I laughed. The idea of a vampire wanting to use a gun was rather comical, but whatever made her happy… Still, it really seemed like overkill. Who knew, though. Pam was pretty tiny at about five foot three. All of the other vampires in Eric's immediate circle were men and, with the exception of Rasul, were all well over six feet tall. Even if she was strong, there would always be vampires that were larger, older and stronger still. And she was Eric's second. I wondered if she felt at a disadvantage. Maybe learning to shoot and getting a carry permit, if it was legal in Louisiana, was a good plan after all. She could use silver bullets and be quite lethal that way. I was sure she could easily kill anyone she slowed down with silver.
I bought Samantha a drink and she talked shyly to Cadel for a while. She was pretty and buxom. In a vague way she reminded me of myself at that same age. Tentative, but curious. She was a little afraid of the vampires, but she didn't dislike them at all. She was happy talking to Cadel and thought he was nice in a slightly dangerous kind of way.
When Amelia and Bertram arrived, I still had the icepack that Rasul had put together on my cheek. Amelia took one look at me and shook her head.
"_Some_ things never change…"
She eyed Samantha and then with a knowing look at Bertram, introduced me to him as Sasha Gordon. He was tall, dark haired, with deep set blue eyes. He looked as if he was in his forties and there was something about him that just exuded power. He shook my hand. More chairs were pulled up to the table so that Amelia, Bertram and I could chat.
Samantha said that she was going to go home, and seemed considerably happier than when she had been sitting at the bar earlier. It seemed that Cadel had asked for her phone number. He offered to walk her to her car. I gave him a dark look.
"I'll be a model of gentlemanly behavior, I assure you," he said nodding to me, with a dimpled smile.
"Good, because really, she's had enough go wrong already," I said quietly.
Samantha looked at me oddly, as if wondering how I could know that. She hadn't even really figured out how I knew her name was Samantha. I shook her hand and wished her luck.
After she left, Amelia turned to me and said in a low voice,
"What the heck did you do to get smacked in the face, Sookie? Pam's going to catch it if you get hurt."
"I'm fine. Please, don't get Pam started again, Amelia. That woman's ex-boyfriend was being mean to her. A real jerk. But that's over. So, Bertram… it's really a pleasure to meet you."
I'd never met a sorcerer before, but that was, apparently, what he was. Sorcerers were more powerful than witches according to Amelia and you could really _feel _his power. He was good humored, and full of wit. I liked him. I could tell that Pam liked him, too. When I found out he was really 60 years old, I began to get the picture that Amelia had found herself a very, very unusual man. He actually had a very odd thought signature. If I didn't know better, I'd really think he was part-fairy. And a bigger part than me, for sure. But the vampires didn't seem to be affected by him, so I wasn't sure it was really being a fairy at all that I caught in his thought pattern. Well, I definitely wasn't going to start getting into it in a public place. I'd have to ask her the next time I saw her. All I knew was that Bertram was assuredly not all human. I really liked him very much and Amelia seemed very happy with him.
After talking for a while, I got Pam to dance with me, and eventually Amelia danced with us as well. The three of us had fun laughing and dancing to Laura Branigan's _Self Control _before finally sitting down_. _Then Rasul asked me to dance. I said thanks but I told him I thought it was probably _really_ a bad idea. Pam, Andor and even Cadel burst out laughing at that one. Rasul let the subject drop, after sensing that maybe I had a point there from the look Pam gave him. Amelia and I made plans to get together for lunch later in the week or the following week. She wanted me to see how she had renovated her place.
When we got back to the compound around 3:45 am Eric was waiting in his office for the five of us according to Stefan, who looked as if he thought we were in dire straits. Andor glanced over at Markus, who shrugged as if to say what did we expect. When we entered his office after knocking, Eric regarded us soberly for a moment then rose from his desk and walked over to me. Andor, Cadel and Rasul stood silently, looking grim, while Eric held my chin and turned my face to the side, looking at my cheek. His nostrils flared slightly as he looked down at me and my heartrate accelerated a bit. He was mad... Then he spun me around and took my jacket off and looked at my arms. Pam, who stood nearest to me, looked ever so slightly agitated when she saw my forearm. When Eric was done looking at me he directed me to a chair opposite his desk and then positively growled at Pam, Andor, Cadel and Rasul. I thought there couldn't possibly still be a mark on my face but Eric clearly seemed to know I'd been hit in the face and which cheek it was. There were a few bruises from where the guy had grabbed my arm. He stood mere inches away from Andor and asked him what had taken place. I sank my head into my hands and listened to Andor tell him that I'd gotten into a fight with a guy at the bar we went to, because the guy was being nasty to some woman. That I'd left their group without a word, had gotten hit but that I had beaten the guy up and that he was probably going to be arrested. He just had to mention that the guy was a lot bigger than I was, too. Eric didn't even look at me. After a moment of silence, in which I had the clear feeling that he was trying to be calm about the whole thing, he reamed them out for the fact that they couldn't even be trusted to keep control over a situation involving a five foot six inch tall human. He was particularly mad at Pam, whom he said should have known better, given how long she'd known me. He stood over her speaking to her harshly. I started to open my mouth to tell him it was really my fault but before I could even get a sound out he wheeled around and pointed his finger at me and glared with a look so cold that it would have frozen hot lava. I held my tongue. The four of them looked chastened as they left.
Once we were back upstairs I said to him,
"Eric, you need to stop with the overkill on the safety stuff okay? I _can_ take care of myself. Nothing's happened to me in more than three years, remember? I had that guy on the floor in less than five seconds after he hit me. I've been trained by the FBI with one of the best Krav Maga instructors in the country. Krav Maga is very 'him or me' and not all nice and pretty and sense of honor like martial arts. They train you how to incapacitate people and even how to kill them if you have to. He barely left a mark on me and I could have dislocated his shoulder, broken his wrist or crushed his larynx with what I did to him. When it comes to humans, for the most part, I have it well covered, okay? Especially if it's only one at a time and there are no weapons. Nothing really happened."
He just stared down at me angrily, his eyes flashing like lightning. Then he said with a steely, accented voice,
"I really don't think there is another person I know of who can piss me off the way you can."
He threw his shirt into his laundry basket and stamped out of the bedroom, back into the library. He was really, really mad. I waited a few minutes and then finally walked to the doorway and saw that he was sitting at his desk with his feet up, using his laptop.
"Eric?"
"I am still mad," he said with a sharp edge to his voice, his back to me.
"But nothing happened. It was fine."
He turned to me and gave me a very dark look.
"Omöjliga kvinna, gå till sängs," he said harshly, with a wave of his hand. "_Just go to bed_." He shook his head. "Otroligt!"
"I'm not a child, Eric. I'm not a child to be sent to bed." I knew he was mad, but now he was making me mad.
"Well, sometimes you _act_ like one. En fara för dig själv är vad du är."
"It's not fair to tell me off in a language I don't understand."
"Liksom det inte är rättvist att den enda person som du vill knulla hamnar i trubbel och hon lyckas skada sig själv hela tiden? Ja, you should be glad I'm mad in another language because you wouldn't like what I have to say to you at all. And you shouldn't be eager to be around angry vampires, either. Just go to bed and when I'm no longer so angry, I'll join you." He turned away and kicked at something on the desk with one of his feet.
Finally, about half an hour later, he came back into the bedroom and quietly closed the door. The room was totally dark but I wasn't asleep. I heard his jeans zipper unzip, the clothes come off and the sound of them being tossed into the laundry basket. He got into the bed and slid over next to me.
"How did you know? I looked in the mirror and it didn't leave a mark. How did you know?" I asked softly.
"In the middle of a business call, I felt your growing edginess and then finally anger. Then I could tell you had been hurt or hit or both. When you returned I could still see something slight on your face. A flush on one cheek. Your cheek was slightly swollen, actually. But clearly, you were edgy and trying cover something up. You stood with your arms behind your back, which isn't even the way you usually stand. So I look at the arms and find one bruised. And then, of course, there is Andor's description of what happened. You pursued the situation, Lover and you were proud of yourself for it. For a _complete stranger_, when you had plenty of help at hand. You had to do it on your own. You still always think you can handle things but I'm always going to remember the time you couldn't and you didn't ask for the help you really needed."
I sighed heavily.
"I can't live the entire rest of my life based on that one time, Eric."
"You're lucky to still be living it at all after that one time. We're both lucky you are. You have an uncanny knack for finding trouble, or for it finding you. And you're so quick to take risks. For people you don't even know. Just like you did in Jackson. In all this time nothing has changed and you have no more sense now than you did then. You're so resistant to asking for or accepting help. I said you would be safe here and you still find a way to get yourself hurt. It's infuriating. Just… don't get me started again." The accent was finding its way back into his speech and I could tell he was still mad even if he had come to bed.
I was silent for a while. Finally I said quietly,
"You actually felt what _I_ felt that night?" He knew what night I meant. The one we still avoided mentioning, or at least he did.
"Yes, I did. I felt your pain, your fear, your desperation. And I tried to send you strength, as much as I could spare it, to get you to survive until Bill and Niall could find you. But I guess the current was too strong the other way for you to even realize it. It was excruciating. I will never forget that night."
"So if I get myself hurt, it hurts you, is that what you're saying? It could potentially be incapacitating?"
"For a smart woman you are so dense at times, Sookie. The worst part to me is _not_ the pain. I can take pain. Pain is always temporary. It is my _knowing_ that something is happening to you and being unable to do anything to _help_ you that is my problem, the very worst part of the bond. You have to remember what the bond is, why it is used. It creates a servant, a slave, someone to do your bidding. Such a person is expendable. The feelings of pain or suffering would serve only as a warning to the vampire who controlled such a servant. You can just cut yourself off from them and be indifferent if you wish. You usually never allow yourself to actually feel what a bound servant feels. Why would you want to? But if you love the person to whom you are bound? Sure, who in their right mind would want to feel the suffering of someone they loved? But who could just tune it out? It is bad enough without the bond to know someone you love is harmed. But to _feel_ the emotions of that harm to them and not be able to do anything? It was more excruciating than if they had been doing what they did to you, to me." He shook his head and I felt him stiffen as if he still remembered it all too well.
I couldn't wrap my head around it. He said he loved me and that it had been worse than if they had been doing what they did to me, to him. Part of me just couldn't take it in. Was it just the bond itself that made him feel what he said he felt for me? Why had he even agreed to it? Why not just tune it out if he could feel the pain? Why even agree to do something that had the capacity to make him more vulnerable? It seemed very _un_-Eric.
"Why did you even offer to be bound to me, Eric? Agreeing to do it made you more vulnerable. You didn't even remember being with me, my taking care of you, or any of it. Why did you offer yourself as Andre's proxy? I just don't get it."
"I couldn't stand the thought of your being bound to him, of what he could have done to you. The idea was deeply offensive to me. I didn't need to remember. I felt the way I felt, whether I remembered why or not. You were _mine_. I didn't want to lose you. Certainly not to him, not in such a way. Even though I knew he'd make me pay for crossing him, it was worth the risk. Both the risk with Andre and the long-term risk of having the bond at all. It would be great if you didn't try to compound that risk with every choice you make, however," he said with an unpleasant edge to his voice.
It was finally my turn to flinch. It was one of the moments when you see something with a broader view than just looking out for yourself. So Eric was saying I was rather cavalier about my choices and how they impacted _him_. What were the consequences of my choices for people that might love me, who had really lavished care on me? My grandmother had asked me that once, long ago. Really, since my grandmother had died, I hadn't had any cause to think or feel that I had to consider carefully how my choices or risks impacted anyone who cared about me. Until, it seemed, now. I was silent for a long time and then I said softly,
"I will try. I'll really try to be more considerate, Eric. But just remember, if I change too much about me because of what happened with Neave and Lochlan, they will have won, even if they're dead. They will have cut something essential out of my being _me_."
He just sighed, and pulled me closer.
"It's not always about winning, Sookie. Sometimes it's just about surviving," he said in a low voice in my ear.
I lay there in his arms thinking it was rather ironic that he was telling me off for helping a stranger when he told me he'd been turned by a man who had been pretending to be an injured traveler. _He'd_ stopped to help a stranger.
Then suddenly, in an embarrassingly late flash of insight, I got it.
10. Chapter 9
**IX.**
"So how about the fidelity issue?"
Eric was talking about his terms for 'our committed relationship'.
I looked at him and shrugged. It was really almost unbearably hot in here. I'd never been in a sauna before but it was _intense_. It was different from the Turkish hammam that I went to sometimes with Alla. It was hotter right away, no slow warm up. The heat was much drier at times, too. And because it was a much smaller space, it just felt overwhelming. He'd been thrilled that they'd completed the installation. It was in a separate room right across the hall from his rooms, complete with a separate shower for cooling off. Evidently he'd had a sauna in Shreveport and had been missing it. He had explained they were really Finnish, not Swedish, but they were very popular all throughout Scandinavia. Basically, I was thinking this proved that Scandinavia was either far too cold, or that Scandinavians were a seriously troubled people. It was almost unbearable and I was born and raised in a hot and humid state with bayous.
"What about it? We talked about all that before. You know, I really don't know how much more of this I can take…"
"Of what? The conversation, being faithful to me, the relationship?" he said with a smirk on his face.
"No, Eric, the sauna. Geeeeez. I feel like I'm just going to melt."
He poured more water on the rocks and the room filled with steam again. I really wasn't sure that was an improvement. Plus, it made it harder to see him, which seemed kind of relevant if you were having a serious conversation. But it was probably better than the dry heat. I was glad I had taken my contact lenses out earlier. Eric didn't say much about that but I could tell he really liked it better when it was just my natural eye color. I was sure that if I went back to being blonde he'd be even happier, although he'd been very careful about not saying anything about my hair. But he glared at Pam whenever she said I looked great as a redhead, which she did at least once a night within his earshot. I had decided she must be doing it deliberately to needle him.
"What about it, Lover? Fidelity."
"Eric, we already discussed that long ago. If you still have any questions on the matter, I'm referring you back to the mental transcript you have of our conversation three and a half years ago. Just edit out the part about "if the bond is the only thing," okay? Get rid of that and keep the rest because this sauna thing is going to take every last ounce of energy I have left, which is really sad because I've only been up for a little over an hour."
"It's good for you. Saunas are really good for you. So that's it? That's all you have to say on the subject?"
"When do we get to the cold part? Soon? I thought vampires didn't like heat? You guys always go around in t-shirts when it's snowing. How can you take this? I personally think I'm going to have heat exhaustion. Can I _please_ get out?"
He shook his head disapprovingly and sighed. But he stood up, pulling me to my feet.
"Do you want me to shower with you or stay warm?"
I was puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"Do you want me to be warm? I'll retain the heat for a bit. Maybe you'd like that?"
I still didn't get it. Then suddenly I got it.
"You mean warm, like for _sex_?" I gave him an odd look. What the heck? "Really you're fine the way you are, Eric. Besides, you'll be warm for what, like about two minutes? What's the point? And I'd be afraid to leave you in here, frankly. I feel like I'll come out of the shower and find that you melted or something."
He laughed out loud at me, shaking his head. Okay, he thought I was really a complainer. I thought I was being entirely reasonable after almost ten minutes in the thing.
We got out of the sauna (and what a relief just regular air was) and he turned it off while I ran the water for the shower. I checked to make sure my hair was still firmly clipped up.
"So that's still all you have to say on the subject then?" he asked, following me into the shower and putting his arms around me.
The shock of the cold water was incredible. After a couple of seconds my teeth were chattering. I wasn't sure why this was much more intense than going to a hammam, but it really was.
I looked up at him. "What more do you _want_?" I said, shivering.
"The other half of the conversation. You seem to have absolutely no interest or questions about whether I'd be faithful to you."
"What I don't ask about, I don't get upset about."
He bent his head down toward me and shook it disapprovingly.
"Sookie, you're supposed to be jumping up and down insisting that I be faithful to you. Really."
"Well, my insisting won't make it so, Eric. I'm sure you're going to do whatever you want to do no matter what I insist on or say, so there's really no reason to discuss it."
"So you don't care if I am faithful to you?"
"I didn't say that. I said that I don't think what _I_ want is going to be the deciding factor there."
"Why not? Are you really suggesting that your feelings on the matter would be of no importance to me? That I'd expect you to be faithful to me even if I was unfaithful to you, if we are in a relationship?"
"Okay, now I'm getting really cold. And I think that your attitude is just amazing for a Viking. Did you think this way a thousand years ago?"
He reached around me and turned off the shower.
"Those were different times with different social mores. I'm trying to be modern, Lover. If you want me to act like a Viking, I'm really not so sure you'll enjoy it."
Eric grabbed me at the waist and pulled me to him, grinning down at me in a rather scary fashion. But then he made a silly face, laughed and opened the glass door to the shower. He stepped out offering me his hand. I was shivering and my teeth were still chattering. Amazingly, the sauna now looked somewhat more inviting. I took his hand and stepped out. He picked up a big white towel and toweled me dry. Then he opened the sauna and took out the now warm robe he'd loaned me. He wrapped me in it and hugged me.
I stood there with my head against his damp, silent chest, his arms around me and said,
"Okay, how about this Eric. Follow your heart. With the exception of the few times that I can think of that you've been a sneaky bullshitter with me, I think you're a good person. You say you love me? So just… follow your heart. I haven't agreed to any greater commitment than what we have right now, anyway. You're so into the _mine_ thing. But I'm definitely not deluding myself into thinking the reverse holds true. You choose what you do. I'm not interested in telling you how to be. It seems to me like it might be a mistake given your long life experience for me to start telling you how to live anyway. Just do what your heart tells you is right, okay?"
He pulled away from me and looked at me as if somehow very surprised. Finally, after a full minute of looking at me as if I was utterly inscrutable to him he said with an almost puzzled smile,
"I'll be faithful to you. I just want you to visit regularly, Lover. Maybe every other week? Your living here would be ideal, if they would let you work from here. Perhaps if we get mar…"
I cut him off before he could get any farther carried away.
"Oh no. No you don't. Not that discussion. Not again. I'm not talking anymore about moving anywhere right now, Eric. We already covered that earlier. And the second thing, just… you really need to chill on that one. I've still got 24 days of paid time off. That's one week a month for a few months. Assuming I still have a job when I go back, I can come once a month for a week."
I couldn't even believe this conversation. He had been badgering me about how we were going to make this work for real since the moment the sun set. Probably close to an hour of incessant talk about 'us', about my 'trust issues,' about when I might be able to ask if it was possible to live outside of Virginia for my work, about fidelity. After many years of hearing about all the men in the world who didn't want to talk about anything serious in a relationship sense, it was my good fortune, and I said that to myself rather sarcastically, to have fallen for a guy who not only wanted to talk about our relationship, but wasn't going to _quit_ talking until he had it _exactly the way he wanted it_.
"What about when you run out of vacation days? That's only three months."
I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him. Geez, the man was so damn relentless! How the hell did I know what I'd do when I ran out of vacation days? Perhaps a downside of loving someone who was practically immortal was that to them, three months was evidently little more than the blink of an eye? Maybe he'd be tired of 'us' by then. Or maybe it was irrelevant if I didn't even really have a job anymore. Just thinking about that possibility started stressing me further. Which was more likely? They'd decide I was too big a risk and fire me? Or they'd piss me off about Eric and I'd have to quit? And what an unbelievable problem it might be to extricate myself from the Bureau if I realized I _did_ have to quit and they didn't _want_ me to quit. After several days of thinking about it I had come to the conclusion that it was most likely that I was simply not the type of asset that they were going to want to let go of unless I was just plain unmanageable. This whole topic was just getting me upset.
"I'm getting stressed out. Cut it out," I said with a definite edge of warning. "Just… quit badgering me already."
He looked down at me. He was so still he looked like he'd been carved in stone. He was totally cool and calm across the bond but it felt totally artificial as if he was forcing himself to be so, purely for the sake of cajoling me into agreeing to everything he wanted. Sometimes I felt as if I had peeled back that layer of cool calm I'd find molten steel that would just harden into whatever tool was needed to get what Eric wanted. I couldn't believe there was ever a time when I hadn't been sure what my feelings were versus what his feelings were. Right now they could be summed up neatly. Me, getting totally stressed out and pissed off. Him, hell-bent on massaging every fiber of the situation into the exact position he wanted it and thinking that he'd just sweet talk me into it. I felt like I was on the verge. And not the verge of giving in.
"We do not have to talk about every fucking detail of everything right _now_, do we? You said that you would give me time, Eric. You _said_ you could be patient. That was what, all of about twenty minutes ago? I don't even know what I'm going to be doing in two weeks. I may be out of a job, or have problems if the FBI gets all weirded out about us and tries to stash me somewhere to convince me to give you up to stay with the Bureau on their terms. They're going to be sure that you're glamouring the hell out of me to get information or some stupid shit like that. You can't even begin to imagine how these people think, especially my boss's boss. It's going to take my convincing them that I can't be glamoured and that I'm not a big risk and that neither are you. And in the meantime I get to worry that they're going to get all nasty with you and that you'll get all kinds of IRS or Homeland Security shit thrown at you because you made the major mistake of thinking you had some prior claim on me or my life." I buried my face in my hands and took a deep breath. I looked up at him, shaking my head. "Let me just try to deal with it all my way, okay? And please, just let me have some peace right now. Peace, with you. A _simple_ concept, Eric."
I was kidding myself if I thought that was going to happen. He was like a dog with a bone. His jaw was tense, his eyes were starting up with that angry glow and he pursed his lips.
"I know what you do is important, Sookie. You have every right to be proud of your work. I know it's important work and that you are probably quite good at it. But I wish you were still a barmaid. I _hate_ your job, I _hate_ its risks. I _hate_ it that they may pressure you not to be involved with me. _I hate the whole thing_."
His voice practically vibrated inside me as his eyes just bored into me like lasers. He was rapidly losing his grip on the calm façade. At least he was being totally honest instead of giving me the phony calm bullshit when I could see full well that he was getting mad that I wasn't agreeing to _what_ he wanted exactly _as_ he wanted it. But his honest opinion still pissed me off.
"Gee, really? Yeah, I think I've noticed that, Eric. It's my job, though. And I'm not quitting it just because _you_ have qualms. I'm sorry if my job is an impediment to your plans. No matter what goes on between us, or what _your_ plans are, I'm going to continue to work. At this job or at whatever the hell job I want to work at. Period, end of story. And I hope you can sense that I am getting totally and completely pissed off with your attitude about my desire to work. If you think I don't know what you really think or what you'd really like, you're kidding yourself. You're not sweet talking me into a damn thing or fooling me with the oh, so calm and cool, _relentless_ discussion. And for the record, pissing me off about my work is not a good plan if you want me visiting you or if you want any serious relationship with me at all. So you had better cut it out. This is _not_ a negotiation. My decision is already made." At this point, I was really totally in his face, glaring up at him.
He looked sort of frozen at my words. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster ride, careening from happiness when we first got up to being utterly infuriated at the moment. He, on the other hand, was looking a lot like he'd fallen off the ride after that last part of my take on my work. Not being able to control me was clearly a double-edged sword. He seemed to be almost palpably struggling with the fact that I was not swayed one bit by his displeasure with my job. His face looked like a rapidly changing series of emotions, not so calm and controlled now.
"And if they pressure you to make a choice, what will you do?" he asked quietly. He looked remote as he asked me this.
I looked at him, surprised by the change in the tone of his voice and the sudden remoteness. What was the deal? He'd gone from angry to remote in no time. Then, finally, I could see that under the remains of his calm façade, he was actually looking… and feeling… worried? But like me, he was far too proud to admit it. Maybe he was pushing for more commitment because he was worried I'd leave and it would all be unresolved, just like before? Before had been a disaster. Worried, perhaps, that the job meant more to me than he'd realized… I flashed on the thought that three years before, when the chips were down, I had meant more to him that his job as Sheriff, possibly risking even his life considering what Felipe might have done to him. What a surprising realization that was to me. It simply wasn't how I envisioned Eric at all, even if I was sure he had had some backup plan in case Felipe really fired him. But that was the choice he had made, the risk he'd taken. Maybe he was worried I didn't feel the same? I shivered because I wasn't sure that I wasn't actually reading Eric's thoughts. Maybe it was just simply getting to know him better? I couldn't tell- it was all mingled with feelings and strong emotions. I realized that in some ways, Eric and I were not too different after all. We were both so proud. He was right when he'd said that the other day. Most of all, it finally began to occur to me that maybe he really did love me. Because he was genuinely worried about what I'd choose to do if pressed to choose. It really mattered to him. A lot. Well, it was an easy enough thing to allay whatever worries he had with the simple truth.
"What would I do? Let's just say that if they are intrusive into my private life, I'm not going to be very receptive to the idea, okay? But it's more than that. You already know how I'd react to the idea of your asking me to quit my job. Think about how I'd feel about them asking me to give up someone I love just because they say so, Eric. It's kind of a no-brainer, if you ask me. If that were the deal, you have nothing to worry about, okay? I promise you."
He didn't reply and his eyes still glowed as he looked down at me. But something almost imperceptible in his face relaxed. He didn't say anything but I felt him gradually relax. I kept hanging on the thought that maybe he really meant it. Could he really actually love me? The thought just kind of stunned me.
He dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his waist and picked up his jeans. We crossed from the sauna room back to his rooms. After padding through the library I climbed up on the bed still wrapped in the huge robe.
He dropped the towel and just stood leaning with his hands on the footboard, looking at me.
"What?" I asked softly, meeting his eyes. I swallowed hard and seriously hoped there was no _new_ avenue of stress to explore because I'd had enough and was now lost in my pondering what this powerful man could actually see in me.
He just shook his head. His eyes glowed still as he looked at me.
"_What?_" I asked again, almost in a whisper.
"You continue to surprise me. I do know you well. Quite well. But you still surprise me. I've never known anyone like you." He looked away for a moment and shook his head and then laughed softly. "I will never be able to thank Bill Compton sufficiently for bringing you into my bar. And for being such a damn fool." He smiled mischievously at those words.
Then he vaulted over the footboard and onto bed and did some playful pillaging.
**
* * *
**
"Okay, just for the sake of clarity, pretend I'm an idiot and explain this to me again, Mr. C."
I was really sure I was misunderstanding things. What he was telling me just seemed impossible.
"My dear, it's so simple. Everything. He left it to you lock, stock and barrel as they say. All his assets. I really don't know how else to explain it_. All of it."_
This was the third time going over the details of my great grandfather's wishes. He had left me all his assets before returning to Faery and sealing it off. In Faery they didn't need money. They just used magic. Their magic was weaker in our world. Money supplied many of the things that they couldn't magic into existence here. But if he wasn't going to live here any longer, he didn't need his money, and so he left everything to me. Claude had sold Hooligans and pooled the funds into Niall's accounts, too.
I looked through the papers again. Then I looked up at him and said,
"Well, why?"
Mr. Cataliades simply shrugged.
"He wanted to provide for you. He had to do something with it. It was of no use to him, as he said, and could be of great use to you."
"But, surely he left half to Jason, or…" Eric sank his head into his hand and then rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger. Then he glanced over at Mr. Cataliades and shook his head.
"What?" I asked Eric.
"Sookie," Eric said firmly, finally taking over to explain what the half-demon lawyer seemed reluctant to express in bald-faced terms, "Your grandfather didn't leave Jason a dime. He didn't _like_ Jason. Jason reminded him of Dermot. In more ways than one. So he left it all to you. He didn't wish Jason any harm but he wasn't doing him any favors. He liked you. He _loved_ you. He left it _all _to you. End of story."
I looked at the papers again and blinked at the eight figure total at the end.
"That's a serious hunk of change." I looked over at Mr. Cataliades again. "You're for real? He really left all this money to me?"
Mr. C. just nodded.
"Well, I think that's just plain stupid," I said with a snort.
Eric looked at me with an eyebrow raised. Mr. C., however, looked like he was beginning to think he concurred with me, but probably not for the same reason.
"Seriously. No one person really needs that kind of money, in my opinion. I guess he left in too big a hurry to think about that the fact that no amount of money would make up for what had happened to me and that the money would be better off left to benefit of a greater number of people. Which is exactly where most of it is going to be going."
"But Lover, he wanted to allow you to have the financial freedom not to work and to be truly independent."
_Not to work?_ Did he _actually_ say that? I turned slowly to look at him with my chin jutting out a bit and let out a long slow breath instead of speaking my mind in front of Mr. C. I was seriously starting to think that, on the subject of my working, Eric was thicker than a two by four. He picked up on my immense annoyance.
"Of course, I mean if you don't _wish_ to work," he said correcting himself. "Financial independence was what he had in mind." He smiled a very wry smile. Now he was just having fun with the whole work thing, I could see. Pushing my buttons.
Mr. C. then looked askance at Eric, who nodded. He drew out another file folder from his briefcase and presented me with a document, which I looked over.
"What is this? A prenuptial agreement?" I chortled. "Well, nice idea Mr. C. but it's either too late or too early, depending upon what kind of marriage you'd be looking at, right?"
"It would be prudent to have an agreement for the present degree of attachment."
"Well, I'm not signing anything, sorry. Do I have to pay inheritance tax on this or…" I looked at the account records notes that he'd given me. "Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judea. You're telling me that this is _after_ the tax came out of the inheritance? How much did he have originally? Well, considering the entire amount is going to be reduced by about say, ninety percent, I still really don't see the need for any agreement."
Mr. C. looked at me with both eyebrows raised. "What are you going to do with the funds?" he asked apprehensively.
"Well, after I give some of it to Jason to pay off his mortgage and set aside a portion so he'll have some savings… I think it's just plain mean that he'd treat me so differently from Jason- no wonder there were so many problems between Dermot, Dillon and Fintan, right? Jason can't help what he looks like and those were Niall's genes that made him look that way, after all." I said looking at Eric. "Actually, I guess I'll need help doing this because Jason's not supposed to know where I am right now… I'm also going to help Sam pay off whatever loan he still has for his bar, set up a trust for Hadley's son, set aside a portion for myself and then the rest is going to go to non-profit aid organizations. I'll have to look into which ones, but a healthy chunk is going to Amnesty International. And there are several groups building schools and clinics in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Plus, women's groups. Maybe some microloan agencies. Doctors Without Borders. This stuff should be put to good use. It's a lot of money. And it's enough to really make a difference in some places."
Mr. C. looked appalled and glanced at Eric.
Eric just threw up his hands and said, "It's her money."
"Do you have a will? Eric says that your work now involves some risk?" asked Mr. Cataliades.
Like working for Sophie-Anne wasn't risky? I thought to myself.
"I don't but I guess I will try to pursue getting one." I looked at Eric and squinted a bit. "If anything happens to me, can Eric access the money?"
Eric turned to me looking shocked. I reached out under the table and took his hand to reassure him and waited to hear Mr. C.'s answer.
"Legally, as things stand right now, it would be difficult. It would be possible with the proper account information but there might be tax issues involved because of the lack of formal legal status."
"Then I'll send you an email with what I'd like to do for a will and for the trust for Hadley's son. If you can have something before I leave New Orleans on the 26th it would be great."
Mr. Cataliades had me sign the account signature cards and told me the accounts would just be accessed by number and not by name so whichever name I was going by wouldn't matter. The bank was Swiss. He rose to leave a short time later, shaking my hand and giving me a look that showed he clearly thought I was off my rocker.
After he was out the door, Eric turned to me and said sharply,
"What was that about, Sookie? Can I get the money if something happens to you? What was that?" He looked very upset. Offended even.
"Because I have to make sure that Hadley's son gets some of that money, Eric. Mr. C. is right. I..." I stopped and hesitated. Maybe admitting that my job had even a remote potential to get me killed was probably not a wise thing where Eric was concerned after the discussion in the sauna room. I had to be careful in how I explained it... "I just know that if something happened to me that you'd make sure what I wanted was done, that's all. I'd trust you to make sure that Hunter got the money I wanted him to get. I'm not so sure, frankly, that I'd trust Jason to do that. He's not a bad person but sometimes he just doesn't do the right thing. I'll have to trust someone to do it so I'd rather trust you. I hope you don't mind? I'm not planning to have anything happen to me anytime soon, but just in case, I hope you'd be okay with that?"
I'd clearly caught him totally off-guard with my reply. He got an odd look on his face. Then I got the feeling he was quite touched, actually.
"Of course, Lover. Of course."
I collected all the papers and put them back into the envelope Mr. C. had left me and looked at his business card with his contact info. I'd have to think of what I wanted to put in a will, and what to do for the trust for Hunter, how much to set aside for Jason, and for myself. I'd have to think about how to contact Sam about his business loan. I didn't want it to seem like it was my apology for taking off without saying goodbye. It was more like a thank you for more than five years of working for him and being able to give something back.
After several moments of being seemingly lost in thought himself, Eric rose and said,
"I have work to do, Lover. You know your way around. I assume you are fine amusing yourself? Pam will be back in a while. Please remember to eat. You're already too thin." He bent down and kissed me, then went off toward his office.
I went off to the sitting room and called Ahmed. Ahmed contributed to a couple of organizations in Waziristan, including the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan which was operating out of Waziristan. But I knew there were other organizations that he followed. He was out for a late dinner with friends, in Adams Morgan, at an Ethiopian place we'd been to several times, Meskerem. He excused himself to his friends and walked outside on 18th Street while talking to me for a few minutes. We had a brief, humorous conversation in which he made me laugh about how truly dismal things were at work without Alla and me and said he'd call me back later to make me feel _really_ guilty about it. I told him I'd wait for him to call me back.
I read for a while and then went downstairs to the kitchen on the ground floor and managed to make myself a grilled cheese sandwich. Tonight the kitchen was empty, but I found my way around, made my sandwich and cleaned up. I really wasn't eating much these days. Between the odd hours and the fact that there was no one to eat with, it was easy to skip meals, which wasn't a very good idea if you were supplying blood to a vampire, even an old one. I saw a stack of protein bars on the counter and pocketed two. I went back upstairs and worked on finishing _Crime and Punishment_. I had reframed Raskolnikov in my mind. He was me. He was… anyone and everyone, really. He was an allegory for anyone who could do bad things and claim it was for the right reason or that they were above the law because they were special. Justifying choices and claiming to be righteous. It was so easy to do wrong and say you felt bad about it later, too. He was my everyday work life in terms of so many people I met, in all the different facets of my world. I tried to reflect on whether his immense inner turmoil over his crimes was really punishment at all. Because he kept on thinking that what he had done wasn't all that bad because he was a special person. He was… delusional, at least in my mind. But maybe we are all deluded in some way about why we make the choices we do. I played it all against my own self-torment over the deaths of Tray, Clancy and Claudine. _I_ hadn't harmed them, but I felt as guilty as if I had. It had certainly felt like punishment at times, I had to admit. It felt very ironic to be reading a book in which one ended up debating one's capacity for self-delusion, considering a lot of questions I had internally about my present situation. When Ahmed texted me around 2:15 am to see if I was awake, I had just finished the book.
I called him back and asked him if he'd read _Crime and Punishment._ I figured he must have, since Ahmed was pretty much the best read person I'd ever met other than maybe a few of my vampire friends like Eric and Pam, and they'd had a lot more reading time on their hands than Ahmed, who was my same age.
"Sasha, tell me you are not reading depressing shite on holiday. You have to go for humor. Vacation read, not mind fuck? Why read Dostoyevsky on holiday when you can read Wilde or Twain or something light? Rereading Austen or even _Bridget Jones_ would suit you better for holiday. Light, happy, diverting. I hate thinking about you reading something depressing when many days are so depressing at work."
I was stretched out on the couch in the sitting room, looking at the ceiling. I closed my eyes.
"Um, it's a long story as to how I started reading it. My… friend gave it me to read. Now I'm kind of seeing a Raskolnikov in everyone. Everyone justifies their decisions and choices that way, really, at least to some extent. Everyone fears the repercussions of their bad choices. Even when we make honorable choices, they can torment us when the turn out badly, right? But is the torment he feels his worst punishment? Because he isn't really sorry that he did it. To me, he's sorry that he's going to be _judged_ for doing it. And I don't understand the end. I still think he doesn't even understand Sonya. He doesn't see that she is so much better than he is, that she's still a good person in spite of what she had to do and that he isn't, not even when he confesses and at least says he is sorry for what he did. Not even when he realizes he loves her. Do you think he can really be redeemed? The epilogue makes it sound like he is. I just don't see it. Although I don't know, maybe he really was mentally ill. I just can't decide."
Ahmed paused for a moment on the other end.
"Tell your friend I dislike him, or her, intensely for giving you depressing books on holiday, okay? You were _supposed_ to relax. So… Yes and no. I guess I think he is redeemed by Sonya's love, made more human by accepting the love and returning that love, but he is never really absolved of what he has done. There are some things for which you can never have absolution and I guess killing the sisters is an example. Maybe that's what you see that bothers you. That's part of the whole schism. You know 'raskolnik' means schismatic in Russian. I guess you can look at him as a symbolic representation of the dichotomy of good versus evil in all of us. And in the end, I guess you could say he's improved by Sonya but not absolved of the sins of what he's done."
"No, I didn't know about the 'raskolnik' thing. It wasn't the _annotated_ version," I said snidely. "Hmmmm. I'll have to think on that one. Redemption versus absolution. Love redeeming you but not really absolving you. On another note," I said with a sigh, "you still give to RAWA, right?"
"Sure," he said.
"When I get back I need to talk to you about that. They seem a bit militant these days. But they have done a lot of good things. I'm looking into different non-profits to support."
"If you are casting about, you should look into Central Asia Institute, Sasha. They're very much your mindset. They build schools and clinics. I support them, too. I can't believe you're thinking of this stuff on holiday. You're really a mess, you know? So, are you having a pleasant vacation, even if you won't disengage yourself from our charming work atmosphere?"
"Yes. Yes, I am." I sighed. I held my Blackberry to my ear with my shoulder and rubbed my closed eyelids. "Quite pleasant. It's good thing I left Rosie, or you might not even get me back."
"Between you and Alla being gone, it's serious drag at work. I've got a load of shite on my desk from some wiretap of these Pakistani guys in the Bronx. Hours and hours and hours of tape of practically illiterate speakers of Urdu. It hurts my mind to listen. I have to keep my espresso machine running so I don't fall asleep and miss some heinous plot. You know, Manny is acting odd. Quite odd. He asked me yesterday if I knew where you'd gone as if I was in on some secret. I told him ClubMed. He seemed hacked off. Chuck is on some weird rampage, acting like a real wanker. But you're having fun wherever, yes? Just... don't tell me where... in case you're in trouble with them. I prefer to think of you having fun. Tell me you're having fun, Sasha, darling."
I laughed at the ClubMed comment. Yeah, I was sure Manny was 'hacked off' at that one. Chuck always complained that Ahmed was too flippant and Ahmed had never done a thing to change Chuck's viewpoint.
"MmmmHmmm. Having fun. Really. Lots actually. I promise. You know, I saw Nnenna Freelon perform live last night. She was fabulous. I wish you could have seen her, too." I paused wondering if he'd figure out that I was in New Orleans. No doubt he could, but Ahmed was the master of compartmentalization, so if he didn't want to know where I was, he wouldn't check on that. "If you go see Alla, Mercan and the baby, tell them I send my love. I'm afraid to call and wake them, even during the day." I yawned.
"Love to them. Right. Not my thing, babies. But I suppose I have to go. As long as you don't expect me to learn Farsi or Pashto, I'll do your bidding. Oh, don't yawn! Listen, I should get some sleep. It's terribly late. I really don't know what I was thinking…" I could hear him yawning now. "Cheerio, then."
"Good night, sweet prince," I said with a chuckle.
"Gag me, Sasha."
"Oh, you'll have to get someone else to do that," I said with another yawn of my own. "Sounds kinky, and I'm not even your type."
He laughed.
"Good night for real," I said.
"Ciao, Bella."
I ended the call and just lay there on the couch for several minutes, smiling with my eyes still closed. I missed Ahmed and his abundant sarcasm. I missed Alla's fiery arguments with him. I missed going to sleep at a reasonable hour. Like, by now, for instance. Finally, I decided if I didn't sit up and do _something_ that I'd really fall asleep. I opened my eyes and started to sit up, only to find Eric staring down at me, all of about two inches away from my face. I jerked and gasped and said,
"Shit, Eric! You really scared me!" My heart just about came out of my chest. "Geez. You know I get freaked when you sneak up on me. How long were you there like that?" It had been quite a while since I'd had the preternatural stealth of a vampire freak me out.
"Sasha, darling? Good night, sweet prince? Ciao bella? Who the hell was that?"
I squeezed away from him, sat up and looked at him with a grimace, my hand still pressed to my chest and my still pounding heart. "Ahmed. You know, Ahmed? I work with him? He's an interpreter and analyst? Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Kurdish, etc. It's an inside joke, that's all. Geez, you really scared me, Eric."
I wasn't going to get into the whole thing that Ahmed was a somewhat disgraced member of the Saudi royal family both because of what they thought of as his 'lifestyle choice' and because he'd become a US citizen, in part to get away from the social constraints of his family and their elitist lifestyle. And to top it all off, he'd been working for the FBI for the past three years. He really _was_ a prince, but there were literally hundreds in the Saudi royal family.
"Well, you seem awfully cozy with him. And I'm just a _friend_, eh?"
His eyes looked quite fiery and there was a not so subtle edge to Eric's voice. It was obvious that he had been listening for quite a while and he didn't like the fact that I was clearly _very_ fond of Ahmed, let alone my demoting his status to that of friend when talking to Ahmed.
"I don't know how to explain you to him. I have to consider it carefully, since he's from an entirely different culture, Eric. One that isn't exactly well known for tolerance of vampires. I'll tell him about you. Ahmed is pretty much my closest friend in Virginia. But what am I supposed to come up with on the spur of the moment to explain us? I can barely explain 'us' to me. But I _am_ cozy with him. Ahmed's managed the incredible feat of never making me feel like a stupid American freak in spite of the fact that he's so much smarter and better educated than I am and in spite of the fact that you could say he comes from a culture not exactly renowned for holding independent women in high regard. I enjoy his company. Just like I enjoy Alla's company. Ahmed and I just spend more time together than Alla and I do because he's single. We go sailing, with Alla and her husband, remember? It's Ahmed's boat. _Very cozy_. But certainly no threat to you. Besides, remember that we have that no office romance policy at the Bureau? You'd never have a reason to ever worry about anyone I work with."
Eric put his arms on either side of me and leaned toward me and softly began to nuzzle my neck. He spoke as if he was completely disinterested in my explanation.
"I'm almost done for the night. And I'm… hungry for you," he said with a voice that seemed to pull at me almost physically. I felt as if something was pulling softly on my mind. _Mine, _I felt echoing inside me. What the hell? I shook my head slightly. He was jealous. _Really_ jealous. Jealous enough to somehow have slipped into a mode where he was, consciously or not, trying to control me. I could feel it. It was almost as if... I could hear it. _You're mine._ I pressed my hand to my temple. This was more than a little freaky I thought to myself. It was really like I was hearing him. I pushed it all away. I didn't _want_ to hear Eric. It was one of the things I liked. Not hearing Eric. And he was jealous of _Ahmed_? Clearly, Bill hadn't told him some rather pertinent information. But that wasn't even the point. I had been on my own for three years and not even looked at another man. Jealous of Ahmed? Jealous of _anyone _was incredible to me.
I leaned forward slightly into him while he was still at my neck and put my hands on his broad shoulders and said in a sultry voice near his ear,
"Eric, cut the glamour crap. I hate it when you do that. And it's totally _pointless_ because it just pisses me off. So," I kissed his neck, and nibbled on his earlobe, "stop it already."
He made a soft sound and then pushed me against the back of the couch and kissed me hard, while kneeling over me on the couch.
Cadel and someone else started to enter the room and pulled back after seeing us,
"Sorry!"
I jumped because I was startled yet again and one of Eric's fangs cut my lip, by accident. I hissed softly as I tasted the blood in my mouth and winced with the discomfort of the cut.
Pam peered around the door and shook her head but backed away and quietly closed the door to the room.
Eric pulled my hand away from my lip and looked at it with a sigh. He sat down on the couch next to me and punctured his fingertip and put a drop of blood on my lip, which felt like it sealed up almost immediately. He sat silently, not moving, with his finger still touching my lip, looking at me. I took his hand.
"Eric," I said softly, "I'm not interested in anyone else. I am not going to sleep with anyone else. I think it's amazing if you'd even think otherwise considering what you already know about my life for the past three years. But I give you my word. You have no reason to feel jealous of anyone, okay?"
He looked me in the eyes and was silent, as if absorbing my words. The words made him... satisfied.
"Neither do you. I give you my word," he said quietly, his eyes meeting mine with intensity.
After another few minutes of silence, where he almost seemed as if he was on the brink of saying something else, he rose and said,
"I should speak with Cadel. It won't take long." He leaned down and kissed my forehead.
I looked up at him and it was if he had transformed himself back into that serious vampire king in a flash. I shivered slightly. Eric's ability to go from vulnerable to seemingly invulnerable took my breath away.
"I'm going to go let Pam tease me for a while," I said with a smile. I rose, pocketed my phone and picked up the book and my papers to go off to Pam's office.
She was pleased to have the opportunity to tease me, and tease she did. 'Rent a room, oh wait a minute, you two already _have_ one.' and all the usual fare. Later she told me she had made plans for us to go to a shooting range on Thursday evening. She hoped that Eric would 'release me' by 8:30 pm so that we could get to the range before 9 pm, since they closed at 10:30 pm, she said. I asked if I was his captive and she replied that it was probably an accurate way of looking at my reality, but not to tell Eric _she_ said so. When Eric joined us, she struck up a wonderful conversation about how well my sea green top complimented my auburn hair and that now, of course, I really couldn't wear _reds _at all.
11. Chapter 10
**X.**
When I came to, I was being carried up the stairs by Stefan while somewhere behind us I heard shouting, wailing and then finally a woman's screams. I was confused about everything except the fact that my head was absolutely killing me and my ribs on my left side hurt like all get out. He was being really careful carrying me. I leaned my head back against Stefan's shoulder and groaned. I was really pretty sure I had a couple of cracked ribs.
"You're safe," he said softly. "I am _so_ sorry, Sookie."
Stefan carried me into Pam's office and she made some kind of exclamation but I couldn't make sense of it. As he set me down on the couch and propped me upright, I felt very dizzy. My head felt horrible.
Pam sat down next to me and took my face in her hands. I tried to focus on her. But it was hard.
"Sookie? Talk to me?"
I wanted to but just couldn't. My head hurt too much. They went on talking but it was like I was fading in and out. My scalp started stinging and I was aware of Pam fussing over it and then suddenly it felt better. Stefan was answering his cell phone and then I heard him saying,
"Eric said he was already on his way back. To say he's upset would be quite an understatement. Let me go see that Cadel and Rasul are taking care of it. I just can't believe Char did this." He looked at me with a grave face.
"I don't know what Eric was thinking allowing that one to live here. She's been nothing but trouble. Ever since she latched onto Cadel she's been trying to work her way up to Eric. I told you she was just using you, Stefan. You were one rung further up the ladder. She's mental, that one, like a stalker. Sookie? Sookie! _Shit!_"
I seemed to just fade at that point, losing the sense of her words.
I awoke again, resting back against Eric's chest with his chin pressing on the top of my head to steady it, his right arm was around my waist and his legs hugged my hips and thighs. With the taste of his blood still on my lips, the gash on his rapidly healing wrist seemed to have just pulled away from my mouth. I slowly started to come around to lucidity and then felt much better, clearer headed. We were alone in Pam's office, still on the couch. He seemed to sense my increased alertness and kissed my temple.
"How do you feel? Your head is better? That should be enough. You had some of Pam's, too."
I leaned my head down toward my chest a bit and then raised it nodding. He probed my ribs on my left side and seemed satisfied. They didn't hurt anymore.
"MmmHmm. Better. What… what happened? The last thing I remember was going downstairs to get something to eat and…" I groaned slightly and put my hand at the back of my head. It didn't hurt there anymore. But it had. "Someone hit me in the head. Hard. I realized too late that she was going to hit me. It was like the idea just popped into her head on the spur of the moment. Freaky. It was such a spontaneous thing. Who is she?"
"Charlotte. A resident. A resident donor. You must have sensed it enough to move out of her way a bit because Rasul said she had to hit you a second time before you went down. He got to her then, but she kicked you in the ribs as he pulled her away. She had on heavy shoes. But I think you are healed."
Eric spoke with distaste and his voice sounded strained.
"Is it really okay that I had even more of your blood, Eric? I had Pam's blood, too? I mean isn't there a point where it just gets to be too much and…"
"You hadn't had any in three years, Lover. You've only had a bit since you've been here. And you haven't lost your own blood this time, so it's not like it was when you were injured that time and needed so much. It will be fine. You'll just have to trust me. I can feel how much would be too much. And you were really injured by the woman. Pam gave you a bit to slow down whatever was going on because you lost consciousness. She was very worried."
I really was afraid to ask but had to.
"What are you going to do with her, this Charlotte person? She's a human, right? What are you going to do with her, Eric?"
"I believe that Rasul and Cadel have already taken care of things."
I cringed.
"What does 'taken care of things' mean, Eric?"
He inclined his head around to look at me and said,
"I'm not sure, but since Rasul really likes you, I'm not thinking it means anything particularly good for her. And considering that you were knocked out and beaten up in my own compound, I really don't give a damn what they do with her, Sookie. They could string her up and have a feast for all I care. It would probably be better than what I'd do to her, I assure you. You should be glad I wasn't here. As soon as Pam is back, I'm going downstairs to have a little conversation with the rest of the residents to make a few things abundantly clear. No one is ever going to touch you here again."
Now that it was evident I was okay, I could feel his anger. But I felt uneasy. Unless the attack was totally random there was only one reason that I could see that someone would go after me. Jealousy. And I had felt just a snippet of something like jealousy right before that spur of the moment idea of hitting me crystallized in the woman's mind. She'd been a strong broadcaster and her thoughts were... jealous.
"Eric, you weren't sleeping with her, were you? You wouldn't… you wouldn't let them kill someone you'd slept with if she was jealous and attacked me, right? Because she was jealous." He didn't answer right away. "Eric?" I tried to turn to look back at him. Frankly, the very idea that Rasul and Cadel might be killing this woman was so upsetting I could hardly stand it.
Eric was silent for another minute and then said,
"She was Cadel's. And then Stefan's. I had never even fed from her, Lover. I was not interested. I have not been interested in anyone for some time."
Before I could ask what he meant by that, Pam came in after knocking once and looked at me cautiously.
"She's fine," said Eric, effortlessly lifting me up over his leg so that he could get up. "I'm going to go and have a little chat with people downstairs."
"How many humans live here? " I asked quietly before he rose.
"About twenty-five, at any given point. Sometimes more when we have guests. Pam keep an eye on her."
I grabbed his hand, looked up at him and said, "Eric, if she's still there, you can't let them kill her, okay? I mean you just can't. Make her leave, or let me call the police and press charges against her, but you guys can't just kill her. She did it to _me_, and I'm telling you, it's wrong. It's just wrong."
He stared down at me and a chill ran up my spine. She was less than nothing in his eyes, I could see. I wasn't sure whether it was because she had attacked me or because she was just food in his eyes, food that had gone bad. Food, I reminded myself. The people downstairs are food in the eyes of most people here. You get more food when you have company. You get rid of food when it goes bad or you decide you don't like it anymore. I looked down and away and didn't comment further. He reached out to turn my face back to him and stroked my cheek, then left the room without a word. But I could feel what I'd said had made absolutely no difference in his mind. I thought about the living areas downstairs, which I'd not even seen, and realized it was like one great big pantry for vampires. I really wondered in a way what had made me so different in all their minds. It wasn't just that I was Eric's. It predated that, really. Was it the telepathy? Luck? The fact that I would never go offering myself as a live-in snack to a vampire? The way I saw vampires, that is a more human side to them? Well, I could be sure I'd never get a straight answer on the topic. And as bad as things might have ever gotten from being _around_ vampires, I certainly couldn't say they'd ever done much to directly harm me. But I wasn't so sure about the food downstairs getting harmed. They were obviously rather expendable.
I looked over at Pam.
"Pam, did they already kill her? Will they kill her? Tell me the truth."
She pursed her lips and looked at me with disapproval.
"Rasul apparently started to drain her and then thought better of it out of respect for what he believes are your… 'principles'. He healed her wounds and glamoured her heavily and then he and Cadel dumped her off at a hospital where they assume she will be cared for. Eric is going to be furious. I know I am. If she comes back, I will personally drain her dry and have her discarded to the nearest crematorium. She's after Eric, trying to get involved somehow with him. She's like a stalker, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not too fond of her for going after you with a cast iron skillet, either."
I must have visibly relaxed, because she continued, saying
"You have such a deleterious effect on us at times, Sookie. Honestly, as much as I enjoy you, you really have a very bad effect on our judgment. Rasul should have just had done with her."
"Pam, you simply cannot tell me that the woman deserved to die because she hit me, okay? I mean, really, you just can't."
"She could have killed you, Sookie. You clearly are still not thinking straight at present. She could have _killed you._ Because she was after Eric. I told Stefan that. She was working her way up in her mind. First Cadel, then Stefan. It was obvious. Not that Eric would have shown interest since he's been so…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "In any case, if she comes back, I'll personally drain her dry. If you want, I'll say I'm doing it in the name of protecting Eric and not because she went after you, okay? Lie to yourself. Just think to yourself 'Pam won't do anything to anyone who tries to kill me'. You know, Eric told me you let him glamour you once. When you were injured, in Jackson? I'd be happy to fix things here for you. How about you let me glamour some sense into your stubborn head? Because really, Sookie, you need to get a better grip on reality at times."
"Pam, my grip on reality is quite fine thank you but it doesn't extend to people seeking retribution on my behalf. If what she did was wrong we can get a police report and I can press charges against her for assault. Personally, given how spur of the moment it was, I'm really thinking she's kind of unbalanced. Forgive me if I think that killing the mentally ill is rather medieval and I want no part of it, okay?"
I couldn't think of a single time when I'd really argued with Pam before. But what she thought about the situation was just plain wrong in my book.
We had sort of a tense silence for a while and then finally I said,
"Eric said you gave me some of your blood, Pam. Thank you. I appreciate it."
"Now I'm stuck with having to _feel _you until it wears off. You're such a pain in the ass, Sookie. I really don't know why I like you so much. You're as stubborn as a mule. And as for all your qualms about Charlotte, just remember, we're vampires. No matter what the publicists for the American Vampire League will tell you, we're not exactly sweet. Get over it."
"I love you too, Pam. But really, thanks."
Eric came back in with Stefan. Stefan stood in front of me and bowed his head and apologized to me yet again. I felt myself blush and couldn't meet his eyes at all. Why on earth was he apologizing to me when _he_ hadn't done anything wrong in?
"Stefan, you cannot possibly be held responsible for the actions of another, independent person. There is nothing to apologize for, so I can't accept your apology."
I finally looked up at him and he looked at me as if puzzled.
"Thank you for bringing me back upstairs," I reiterated.
He just stared at me. Finally, Eric just waved him away.
After he left the room, Eric said,
"Because she was his, he _is_ held responsible according to custom. He believes that you do not forgive him for the offense."
"Well, I guess you're going to have to explain my pathetic human rationale to him Eric, because I'm not forgiving him for something he had absolutely nothing to do with, okay? To me that would be insulting him. I'm supposed to be yours, right? _You_ fix it."
Eric and Pam looked at me and then at each other as if I was being petulant.
I rose and said,
"I'm going downstairs to get something to eat."
Eric hesitated and then said,
"Let me have whatever you wish brought up to you."
"I'm fine. I really feel fine. And I'm hungry. Pam said that the woman isn't even in the compound anymore, so it should be fine."
"I would prefer to have something brought up for you. At least for tonight. We're all getting ready for the rest of the work for tonight. I would prefer to have you accompanied in future."
He had to be kidding. I stood there with my arms crossed.
"So then it's not even safe for me to go downstairs on my own and get something to eat? Geez, my instincts were right all along. Iraq _is_ safer than Louisiana. Who knew?"
He looked at me as if I'd struck him. I just winced as soon as the words were out of my mouth. Pam looked away, biting her lip.
Okay, what was _wrong_ with me? I asked myself. I didn't blame Stefan for the fact that his girlfriend, or whatever she was, went after me but I was going to take it out on Eric? Clearly Eric felt bad about the whole thing. He had said again and again that he would keep me safe and now I had been knocked out cold, gotten head trauma, and had been kicked hard enough to crack a few ribs. In his own compound. He could keep me safe from vampires and maybe even other supes, but the humans here might be another story, I thought. Of course, I'd blithely assured him only two days before that _I_ could handle humans. Crazy women swinging skillets at my head clearly didn't enter my thoughts. To make it even better, I realized he must have known that I was getting hurt, yet again. Not even forty-eight hours since the last time. And hurt much worse this time. Did I really have to be such a jerk about it? At least Rasul had stopped before anything happened that I wouldn't want to live with, so why did I have to be so nasty?
I made good on my promise to be more considerate. I sat back down on the couch and said,
"Okay. I'll let you get something sent up. And I apologize for what I said." I paused for a moment and then clarified further, "I am actually ashamed of what I said. It was mean. The Iraq comment was totally uncalled for. I shouldn't be making light of Iraq because I know better. And I shouldn't be slamming you. If it's not Stefan's fault, it's even less your fault, Eric. It just happened. There was a crazy lady living here and what she did was no one's fault."
I sat there and checked out the really good manicure I'd gotten on Friday evening. Still no chips. And I reflected on the fact that sometimes my temper was more caustic than lye.
"What would you like to eat?" said Pam finally, since Eric was just silent.
"I guess whatever they're having downstairs. I remember smelling cooking food."
"You have no preferences?"
I hesitated. "Is it really safe to eat the food?" I asked her, biting my lip. I mean, if I wasn't even safe _going_ downstairs, then…
And then even Pam hesitated and tipped her head at a slight angle, thoughtfully. A wrinkle she clearly hadn't considered until now. Well, that did it. I was going to solve the problem for myself.
"This is just silly. I'm going to call Amelia and ask her if she can meet me somewhere. I'll just go out to get something. It's only what? 9 or 9:30 pm? If Amelia can't go then we can get one of Bennett Tucker's Weres, right?" I rose and looked at Eric. "Can I get my phone? And my purse?"
Eric seemed to be lost in what looked like very troubled thought. Instead of the very calm expression that he usually tried to project, for a change he looked about like what he appeared to feel, which seemed to be a rarified blend of frustrated and full fanged really, really angry. He scowled, glanced at his watch and then said to Pam tersely,
"I'll be a few minutes late." It was then that I realized he was in yet another suit and clearly dressed for a business meeting. Of course, I'd seen him dress but somehow the earlier part of the evening was a little jumbled after getting hit in the head. He'd gone to a Regional Planning Commission meeting with Markus and Andor accompanying him, and then had come back to the compound for further meetings.
He extended his hand to me and when I took it he latched on firmly and led me toward the stairs. But instead of going up, we went down. He drew me through the corridors away from the kitchens and we passed a series of mostly open doors to what appeared to be something akin to college dorm rooms. He came to one that was closed and summarily opened it without even knocking, disturbing Andor, who was feeding from the neck of a topless woman sitting on his lap with her back against his chest. Eric growled something at him in a language which sounded to my ears like it was vaguely Scandinavian but not exactly what he usually spoke, either.
Andor sealed up the woman's neck, lifted her off his lap and tossed her shirt to her. He looked up at Eric and nodded his head toward me and replied to Eric. They had a brief verbal exchange punctuated by Andor making a sweeping gesture, waving toward Eric and me. His manner seemed to suggest agreeing with whatever it was that Eric was suggesting. Andor rose from the woman's bed, telling her "You must come."
Eric pulled me off toward the kitchen and a dining area. He drew me into the long dining area, which was empty, pulled out a chair at the far end of the room and turned it back toward the doorway. He nodded that I was to sit.
"Where is Andor from, Eric?"
He paced while we waited but said,
"Stavanger. In Norway. We had the same sire. He is about ten years younger."
Well, that was a shock.
"What, one big, tall blond guy just wasn't enough for him? Geez."
Eric turned to me with a dark look and snorted with a bitter laugh. "You have no idea."
But his expression only darkened further as people began to enter the room. He stood behind me and put his hand on the back of my chair. The room filled with people and all of them just stared at me. I only knew Ruben, who was the cook or chef. He looked pretty wide-eyed and nervous. Andor filled the doorway at the back after having pushed the last two into the room.
Eric crossed his arms and said in a voice so cold and hard that I didn't think I'd ever have recognized it as his,
"This is my wife. And just to drive home the point of what I told you earlier, let me make things even simpler for you. If a single one of you is responsible for any harm to her, I'll kill the whole lot of you. Every single one of you. And I won't be quick about it, either. So you should have a vested interest in making sure she is safe and keeping me, and those who serve me, happy. If you don't like it, leave. There are plenty to replace you. Now all of you get out. Except for Ruben."
I could hardly breathe. Officially saying I was his wife in the same undead breath as threatening to kill _everyone_? A lot to absorb there... I swallowed hard as I looked straight ahead. Andor looked me directly in the eyes and looked calm.
You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. I felt a sea of eyes on me and heard a flurry of inner voices. Some were thrilled by the 'exciting' vampire threats, others unsettled by the idea that a mistake by one could be taken against all of them. Many of them looked at me and wondered why Eric was even making such a big fuss over plain old me. I didn't look all that young or pretty or anything. Andor started to hustle people back out the door. He wasn't particularly gentle about it either, as I saw him literally push some people out. He was nicer to the woman he'd been with, who was one of the last in the room to exit. I was glad to see them go. I just didn't get it that so many humans seemed to be fascinated by the vampire dominant and scary manner. And frankly, even though I couldn't see Eric's face, since he was still standing behind me, he was sounding pretty scary. I didn't think that I'd ever heard Eric sound quite like that, not even when he was looking to find Bill a number of years before and _trying _to scare me.
Ruben, the cook, stood off on the other side of the long table in the dining area. Andor took him by the arm and pulled him over to Eric. Ruben looked shaken and now fearful.
Eric just loomed over the man, who was only a little taller than I was, and who was presently trembling. I guess the fact that I had been banged up in his kitchen in tandem with Eric's threats did not instill a lot of comfort.
"Ruben," said Eric in a softer voice, "you will make whatever the lady wants for meals at least twice a day. If there is anything wrong with her food, I will hold _you _personally responsible. Do you understand?"
Ruben blanched. "Yes, Mr. Northman."
Well, I thought to myself, I wonder how long before he quits?
Eric signaled that Ruben should return to the kitchen and then turned to Andor and said something in whatever language, I guess Norse, that they shared. Then he turned to me and said, as he helped me rise from the seat,
"Andor will stay with you while you eat and then take you back upstairs to wait in Pam's office. We'll be busy for a while, perhaps another hour or two for Pam. I'll send Pam to get you something to read while you wait. Just rest while you wait for us, Lover."
He looked at me as if to assess how upset I was with what he'd said to the other humans. I was unsettled and I guess he could clearly tell. Yes, it was kind of unsettling to think the person I was having sex with and sleeping next to every day had just threatened to kill an entire room full of people. Slowly.
He stroked the nape of my neck and said in a soft voice,
"We'll talk later, Lover."
Then he kissed my forehead before leaving to go upstairs.
Andor turned to me and gestured that I should go head into the kitchen, then followed after me after pushing the chair back under the table.
Ruben looked at me nervously and asked me what I'd like to eat. I said I'd just have leftovers from whatever he'd made earlier. He offered to make me something fresh but I insisted leftovers were fine. He had some roasted chicken and vegetables that he took out of the refrigerator. I told him I'd serve myself and he left the kitchen. I pulled up a stool to the kitchen island counter and sat down to eat. Andor pulled up another stool and sat next to me. He didn't seem bothered by watching me eat. His manner was relaxed. I tried to relax, too. While we sat, I asked him how long he had been living in the US.
"Only since this year basically. I arrived in late December to help."
I quickly calculated and realized he meant he arrived in time to help take out Felipe and Felipe's people.
"Eric said you had the same sire."
He nodded with a bitter look on his face.
Without meeting his eyes, and while cutting my chicken breast into bite sized pieces, I asked,
"Was it very bad, Andor? Was Ocella very bad?"
He recoiled ever so slightly at the name and I glanced up and met his eyes. I had never really been close enough to get a good look at him. He was easily a foot taller than I was. I knew that he, and Markus, were kind of Eric's enforcers. But now, sitting at the counter almost next to him, in the bright kitchen light, I realized that he must have been much younger than Eric when he was turned. Still a teenager. His eyes were light blue and he had freckles. His hair was very light blond, almost white, and he had it tied in a pony tail that was wrapped with a criss-crossing leather cord. In spite of the fact that he was slightly taller, heavier and even more muscular than Eric, he had a sensitive face. He had been so very young. He seemed to grasp my thoughts.
"I was in my seventeenth summer when he caught me. I had never even been to fight. I had never been away from my family and had just married. Ocella was a hard man. He had been in the Legion. I had never seen such things. If Eric had not still been with him, I would have found a way to meet the sun. Eric kept him distracted, tried to give me more time to adjust. Ocella would get angry and sometimes punish him for it. Eric was much stronger than I was. More resilient. After a long time he released us. But after Stefan, we put an end to him. He was cruel to Stefan. Stefan was more like Eric. Resistant, and always trying to fight being compelled. But Ocella was even worse by then. It was many hundreds of years later. He would summon us all sometimes." He seemed to dwell on that thought for a moment and looked totally repelled. "Being with Ocella was more than bad. He taught you many things. Most of which you would rather not know," he said shaking his head as he glanced over at me.
I nodded and said quietly, "Eric told me some things. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry if my asking bothered you. I am glad you are all free of him, Andor."
Internally, I just shuddered to think of it. At least Ocella was dead, I thought, which I had wondered about. The revelation that he had also turned Andor and Stefan was just chilling. He obviously had had a thing for tall, blond haired and blue-eyed men. It was really kind of sick. Imagine having your entire human life ruined because of an accident of your genes, I thought to myself. But I guessed that attraction was attraction. Clearly Eric liked blue-eyed blondes himself, since he'd turned Pam and wanted me. But Eric's manner of 'ownership' if that's what you could call it, was so benevolent compared to what Andor seemed to hint at. It made me understand something of why Eric was the way he was, both with Pam and with those who owed him fealty. The idea of Eric being compelled, cowed and forced to do things, sexual or otherwise, that he found offensive really chilled me. It put his comments about my surviving Neave and Lochlan in a slightly different light. Going through hell and still being yourself was obviously something that held great personal meaning for Eric. Only I guess his hell had lasted a lot longer than an hour or two. He said Andor was about ten years younger than he was, and Andor said that Ocella hadn't released them for a long time. I shivered at the thought.
My appetite was gone thinking about it all, so I rose and started cleaning up after myself. As soon as I ran the faucet, Ruben came running, looking all concerned.
"I can clean up after myself, thanks," I said quietly. He stood watching me, hovering, hoping that I would just leave him to it and go away. He was very worried about how to keep everyone safe. I felt bad and stopped reading his thoughts. "Thank you, Ruben. I'm very sorry for all the fuss. Do you prefer to send something upstairs for me from now on? I want to do what will cause you the least amount of trouble. I don't want you to feel you should quit."
He hung his head. "I can't quit. I am ill and I need the blood. I get a bit of blood every week. It keeps me healthy. I will arrange something. Sending things upstairs would be easier. I can do three meals or more if you wish it. I will deliver them to you. Although Miss Pam said that tomorrow I have to pack food for you, because you will go out with her before eating." He looked over at me. "Thank you, Mrs. Northman. Thank you for your kindness."
I wasn't so sure that I was comfortable being called Mrs. Northman. Especially considering Mr. Northman's threats.
Andor gestured that we should go back upstairs. As we went back up I said,
"In a way I guess you and Eric are almost like siblings, then. In a vampire sense."
Andor looked down at me and nodded. He smiled slightly, but said no more.
Pam had left several books on her desk for me to choose from. _Middlemarch_, _Daniel Deronda _and _Little Dorrit _were all so long I didn't think I'd be able to finish the book before the end of my stay and I didn't want to take one of Eric's books back to Virginia and chance losing it or having something happen to it. I settled on _Emma_ and started reading. Emma was a rather annoying character in some ways. She was bright but so stubborn and infuriating. I hadn't read the book in a long time, but remembered thinking that Mr. Knightley had the patience of a glacier to have dealt with her. As I started reading the book, I glanced over and looked at the two very thick George Eliot novels and then wondered if selecting them along with the several hundreds of pages shorter _Emma_ was deliberate on Pam's part. Perhaps Pam thought that I, too, was stubborn and infuriating. If she had intended the analogy, it was hard to take it any further currently, at least in my mind, because I had a very hard time envisioning the older and very patient Mr. Knightley threatening to kill more than twenty people if even one of them did anything to Emma. I thought of Eric making such a threat and told myself that surely he didn't mean it. Another part of me was not quite sure he didn't. The vision of the Eric that Andor described seemed incongruous with the Eric who had promised collateral damage if any one of the downstairs 'food' harmed me again. And this was the same Eric who was so gentle and affectionate with me, who worried that he could hurt me? The look on his face when I had talked about Charlotte just chilled me. I thought of what he had said several nights before, that he thought that maybe what had bothered me was that I had fallen for a vampire. I had scoffed at the idea, but I guess that I hadn't had many opportunities in recent times to reacquaint myself with what vampires were really like. It made me realize that Eric was insulating me from a lot of things. His takeover, the problems with the Area 2 vampires, some of whom had been rendered finally dead that second night that I was here, when Pam had been instructed to keep me nicely and safely on the other side of the building. Violence was just a slap of supernatural reality.
I was already on page 126 when Pam came back to her office shortly after 2 am. She seemed amused that I had selected _Emma_.
"I figured it was more likely I'd be able to finish it before I leave, but it's going pretty quickly."
"Yes, it's a quick read. Emma is so endearing, isn't she? I just want to drain her, turn her and compel her to behave herself." She smiled with her fangs down ever so slightly.
"I wondered if you were trying to send a subtle message with the choice of _Emma_, Pam."
"What message? A book about a stubborn, headstrong, and difficult young woman? I don't know what you could possibly mean, Sookie."
She sat down at her desk and started working, typing at lightning speed on her keyboard. After a few moments she said,
"We're still on for the shooting range tomorrow evening? I don't have anything on my schedule for tomorrow until after 11 pm."
"That's fine," I said quietly.
After a long pause, I said,
"Pam, do you resent me?"
She craned her head around her computer monitor and looked at me with narrow eyes.
"I have no interest in conversations loaded with emotional revelations, Sookie. I'm working here."
Geez, I guess that's a yes, I thought to myself. I went back to reading and tried not to ruminate on that point. Finally, almost fifteen minutes later, Pam said from behind her monitor,
"I do not resent you. I wish you were kinder to my sire. But I have told you this before and it made no difference in your manner. While I don't believe that you are as callous as your manner makes you seem, I do think that you fail to see that your distrust is so often misplaced and your manner hurtful."
I stared at her and blushed.
"You think I'm callous? Why? Because of what I said earlier tonight? I apologized. And I felt bad that I said what I did."
"That was just the latest example. You do it all the time, Sookie, all the time. Unchanged for years. Your manner, more than what you say. I really don't know what you want from Eric. You're bound to him. You should be able to know how he feels and that he just doesn't deserve what you throw at him. I know you're damaged but honestly, Sookie, you need to wise up. No one is an infinite well of patience and forgiveness."
"You think I'm bad with Eric, then?" Damaged. Pam says I'm _damaged_? I thought to myself.
"No. I think you are distrustful and deliberately distant. Not 'bad'. Although occasionally, like tonight, you are so cutting that it makes even me shrink. But I am hardly one to chide you for sarcasm. Why show up, however, just to be distant? Why bother? If you're really so reticent about the relationship, tell him to get lost so he can get over it already. But don't jerk him around again, Sookie. He really doesn't deserve it. And to be distracted by you at this particular juncture would be more dangerous than ever. The consequences were already heavy enough in the past."
She then went back to typing rapidly on her keyboard. Could she feel my present sense of distance or reserve because I was worried about what Eric had said downstairs? But still, Pam calling me distant was the pot calling the kettle black.
"I really think it's something, you're talking to me about being cool or distant, Pam."
"Trust me Sookie, I know of whence I speak."
"Is this from Dear Abby? Lizzie Bennet's advice to her sister Jane?"
"No, my friend, it is from real life observation. Of you. And knowing what it's like not to trust easily myself. There's a reason why I'm still here a hundred and fifty years later. There's a reason why people who have known Eric for a thousand years are here."
"I know why Andor is here. He told me. And, I guess, the same for Stefan."
"And don't forget Cadel," she said.
"Cadel? Cadel, too? But Cadel's dark-haired…" I said, surprised. "Not Markus, as well?"
Pam erupted into laughter.
"They tell jokes about it. Evidently there really aren't a lot of blonds in Wales. No, Markus is actually Andor's child. He was part of their plan to get rid of their sire. I'm not sure of the all details. Andor evidently had to turn him or he would have died, or something. But it's not just the sibling survivors of Eric's sire. Look at Rasul, at Maxwell, even Bill. Everyone in Area 5 that helped us. There has to be a reason for all our loyalty, after so long for some of us. Certainly mine is the only one that could be compelled. And Eric has rarely compelled me to do anything. Other than perhaps being quiet. No, Eric is very decent, Sookie. He likes people to be happy. He, himself, tends to be very happy. He is not a dark and tortured vampire. Unless of course, it comes to you. So think about how he got that way. There's a mirror over there if you need assistance," she said acerbically giving me a sharp look.
She suddenly resumed typing and looked busy referring to a couple of documents on her desk, just in time for Eric to enter the office. He looked tired and somewhat annoyed. He eyed Pam as he sat down on the couch, but said nothing. Then he looked at me and tapped the space to his left on the couch. I rose and sat next to him. He wrapped his arm around me, pulled me closer and kissed me.
"Your head continues to feel better, Lover?" he murmured to me.
I nodded. I felt odd, confused about what I felt and thought about Eric.
"And you ate well?"
I nodded again, thinking about what Pam had been saying, while looking up at Eric's face. He seemed so very complex in my eyes, now. More so than he ever had before.
He looked at the spine of the book I was holding, with my index finger keeping my place.
"_Emma_? She gave you _Emma_?" He made a face. "That's such a silly Austen book." He glanced over at Pam and shook his head. "A frivolous Austen heroine. I only finished it so that I could argue with Pam about her incredibly bad taste. She'll tell you some garbage about social constraints." He looked back at me. "You like Tolstoy. What about Flaubert? James? Thackeray? Galsworthy? Or Wharton. Fitzgerald? More Dickens? So many choices better than _Emma_. Maybe go more modern. Kundera? Ondaatje? Pamuk?" He shook his head as he looked darkly back over at Pam. He sat up slightly to see what else was on her desk and groaned. "She's going to make you read _Middlemarch_, Sookie. If you keep coming back, she'll eventually make you read it, one way or another. She'll just look for any excuse. Any slight. Watch yourself, Lover. She discussed _Middlemarch_ for the better part of a decade back in the 20's."
Pam went on typing faster than I could even think or speak. Steadfastly ignoring Eric. And Eric looked... tired. If that was possible for a vampire.
"You look tired," I said softly.
He seemed hesitant and then finally said,
"If I asked you to do me a favor, would you _not_ take it the wrong way? Not think I was trying to use you or something? Just consider it my asking you for help?"
"Well, without knowing what it is, I can't say if I'll take it the wrong way. What's the favor?"
"I would like you to listen at a meeting with someone. A project manager who is a holdover from the previous regime. I have a feeling the person isn't honest but I haven't been able to put my finger on it. A lot of people are invested in the project and I have concerns but we haven't been able to turn up anything to confirm my intuition. Cadel has been looking into it for weeks but found nothing concrete... I think the man is very clever. But I'm sure there is something wrong there. Would you mind doing this for me? I meet with him tomorrow night."
"I wouldn't mind as long as my same old rules apply. If the guy is robbing you blind, you call the police or handle it by legal means."
"Of course, Lover. Of course."
"And you have to promise me that if anyone downstairs goes for me, you won't kill everyone living there. Then we have a deal. I'll read people for you _any_ time I'm here if you need me to, if you agree to those two things."
"But I could glamour them all into thinking I did in everyone else and that each is the sole survivor of a bloodbath and then have them dumped in the Quarter with the thought they barely escaped with their lives?"
"No. Of course not! How much better is it to have everyone _think_ that you did that, Eric?"
He laughed at me. "I think it's certainly much better to the people who aren't dead, first of all," he said wryly. "And I have my really evil reputation to maintain, Lover."
It had never occurred to me that Eric would glamour people into thinking he was _worse_ than he really was.
"I'm serious Eric. What if they went to the police? How do you explain it then?"
"And so am I, Lover. If you glamour them well enough, they'll be afraid to go to the police. They'll just stay away from vampires for good," he said with a slight smile. "My way is better. But no matter what, if any person here harms you, that person is done for and there's nothing that you're going to tell any of us to make us do otherwise. I've already talked to Rasul. That mistake will not be made again. It sets an unacceptable precedent of tolerance for something I will _not_ tolerate. So you better get over that idea. It's _non-negotiable_, as you like to say." He said this with a real edge to his voice.
From behind the desk, Pam said "You've got dibs but we're taking turns, okay?"
"I think not. But I have already told them all that if I am unavailable that you are in charge and that no decision is to be made without consulting you. Rasul overstepped. And he has been reminded that he did."
I guess I had to be seriously vigilant if I went downstairs. I hoped that Ruben's arrangements would work out. I changed the subject.
"What time is your meeting tomorrow? I promised to go to the shooting range with Pam so she can learn how to handle a gun."
I could almost see Pam smiling behind her computer monitor over the fact that I was honoring my plan with her.
"We can switch it to 11 pm, if that will work for you both. Pushing it back for my convenience lets him remember who is in charge, anyway. I'll have Stefan contact him through our day person."
I tried to shift my thoughts away from the whole situation with the people downstairs. I was lost in thought for a while and then finally said,
"Could I use a phone here tomorrow in the early evening to call someone? I don't want to use my cell phone to make the call."
Eric turned to me and frowned. "Of course you can." He shook his head as if amazed I'd even ask such a question. He didn't ask whom I wanted to call but I could tell he was curious.
I looked away and said, "I want to call Jason. I keep thinking about how Bill described him on Saturday. He said he's not doing well. He must feel very alone. It's making me feel very guilty the more I think about it. Maybe when I come back next month, he can drive down with Bill and Sam. I could put him up in a hotel for the night. But first I want to just talk to him and… apologize."
"Use my cell phone to call him, Lover." Eric said as he massaged my shoulder.
Pam looked at me from across the room and smiled with an amused look on her face. "So you are already coming back next month? So soon? Careful. We might think you like it here."
I was actually planning for more than next month. In fact, I had already set the plans in motion in the afternoon, before all the commotion. Pam seemed to think that I was so 'reticent' but I had tried to set the next two months of vacation, in accordance with my discussion with Eric the previous day. Now I was a bit uneasy with the plans. I tried to focus on the idea that Eric's statements to the people downstairs were just bluffing. That he was being clever. That the Eric I loved wouldn't _really _do anything so horrifying as what he had suggested. It would be fine, I told myself.
"I emailed personnel late this afternoon and asked for the third week of July and the third week of August and copied my boss. I think I can still hear _his_ boss's explosive response all the way here in Louisiana. As Ahmed would say, he was probably seriously hacked off."
Eric seemed surprised.
"I thought you were so concerned about whether they would even let you keep working. Now you're telling them you want more vacation without resolving things first? It's the opposite of what you said you'd do."
"I know. I also wrote to my boss suggesting that they just find a vampire in one of the intelligence branches and try to get him or her to glamour me. I mean, it's the simplest and most straightforward way to address what their real concern is. I've really been thinking about it. Somebody has to have vampires working intelligence. Glamouring people is a great way to get information or make people forget they gave the information or make them even forget they had the information in the first place. And vampires would be terrific at surveillance. They're so stealthy and quiet. If you have one that can fly, you don't even have to worry about dropping them too close to a target. Maybe even for assassination purposes. I'm betting that both the CIA and NSA have vampires working for them at this point. The FBI has Weres. That I know for certain. Anyway, maybe that will just do it for them. If I can prove I can't be glamoured, they have nothing to complain about unless they just don't like vampires, right? That's the only reason they can possibly have to be concerned. That I could be used for access to classified information."
I felt like I was almost convincing myself on the point. The person I needed to convince the most was Manny's boss, Chuck Powell. Chuck had never really exactly liked me. He thought 'soft' interrogation had only limited use. And Chuck had absolutely no problem with the idea of using whatever 'enhanced' means were necessary to get information out of people. Of course the quality of the information was the issue to me. We had little respect, and something even bordering on active dislike, for one another.
I guess because Eric was so pleased I'd already requested the weeks in July and August, he didn't say anything further about the situation or start questioning if I could move or what was going to happen when I ran out of PTO, or really any of the stuff that got me stressed. Which was fine with me because I really didn't want more stress. He just pulled me closer. I leaned my head on his shoulder and we sat on Pam's couch, while Pam explained to Eric why even _Emma_ was a better read than the 'vile' _Crime and Punishment._ She could barely keep a straight face, but I genuinely admired her efforts. As we rose to leave her office, she mentioned that she thought my hair looked lovely in spite of my having been smacked in the head several times. I just laughed at her shaking my head.
Eric went to speak to Stefan before we went upstairs. I found Rasul watching TV with Andor. They were watching soccer. He looked up at me, a bit edgily. I wondered what Pam, and then Eric, had said to him after he'd let Charlotte live. I sat next to him and just took his arm in mine. We didn't talk. I was sure the gesture was enough to convey my gratitude for his understanding me so well and sympathy for it having gotten him in trouble. I knew he wouldn't ever be able to do something like that again, but I could be grateful for what he had done. Five minutes later Eric entered the room with Stefan. He looked rather stonily at Rasul but said nothing. I rose and as I passed Stefan, I smiled at him. I guess Eric had tried to explain something about my thoughts on Charlotte to him because he smiled back and seemed more at ease. I said good night to the three of them and we headed upstairs.
As I started to undress, Eric came over to help me, undoing my bra and then wrapping his arms around me from behind. He bent his head lower and pressed his face against the side of my head. I shivered.
"You are still unsettled," he said in a low voice that rumbled through me.
"What you said frightened me. It frightened me from a moral standpoint and it frightens me because I work for the Justice Department, Eric. You threatened to commit murder. Mass murder. Because of me."
"To protect you."
"Well, I'm not comfortable with that. Not at all."
"I already told you exactly what I'd do Sookie. And I can assure you that I'm one of the most reasonable of my kind that you are ever going to meet. I care about what's mine, about my people, and only secondarily about some rather sketchily designed laws. If someone has intended to harm you, _seriously_ harm you, they are open fare. What I said is a guarantee for your safety. You should be pragmatic enough to realize that by now. My way of doing business has been successful for centuries. I think you should trust me to know what I'm doing and how I do it."
I felt so tense. He turned me around and tipped my chin so that I would look up at him. I could see his eyes glowing softly. The only real light in the room came from the lamp out in the library. He pulled me closer to the nightstand and turned on the light so that I could see his face more clearly. He took hold of my jaw this time, firmly but gently, to make me look up at him. I swallowed hard looking at his face, which looked like a frightening blend of masculine beauty and predatory power, with his fangs fully down and his eyes boring into me.
"So in the end, there _is_ an issue with my being a vampire, isn't there? I frighten you? Repel you? Do you think I would do what I said to those people downstairs? Yes or no?" he asked in a voice that was edgy enough to make me slightly scared.
My pulse accelerated and I struggled to get it better under control, breathing deeply. I looked him directly in the eyes.
"Do I think you have the ability to do that? Yes. Of course, you're a vampire. Do I think you'd really _do_ something like that?" I paused and glanced down, swaying slightly in his grasp as I took a deep breath. "No. I just...No, Eric. I just can't believe that the same person I know, who can be so gentle would be capable of doing that. It would be so wrong and totally unfair and unjust. I... " I shook my head in his hand. I really just couldn't see it. I couldn't even see him getting anyone else to do it on his orders, either. "No," I said finally and firmly looking back into his eyes. I trusted him. The Eric I knew was a good person, just as I had said the night before to him. "I meant what I said yesterday. And I still think it's true. You're a good person. Being a vampire doesn't make you bad person." I actually wondered how much harder it must be to be good when you had a kind of power that could so easily be abused.
I reached up and touched his cheek. He caught my hand with his and kissed the palm of my hand. His face softened and his fangs began to retract somewhat. He gazed at me, wearily.
"Du är så mycket problem, min älskade. A _lot_ of trouble," he chuckled softly. "But I've always loved trouble." He kissed me. "Let's go to bed. It's late."
We got undressed and I got into bed, and I thought again to myself that Eric seemed genuinely tired. I'd never exactly seen him tired before like he was tonight. I guess it was really like an emotional or mental thing, since physically it seemed vampires never tired unless they lost a lot of blood. We lay propped up in bed, reading until close to dawn. He picked up my hand and just held it, until he needed to turn a page, or until I did.
I read slowly, somewhat lost in thought. I was reflecting on my conversation with Pam. Distrustful, damaged, deliberately distant. _Callous_. Such harsh words. Were all these qualities really mine? Even though I'd disagreed with Pam about handling Charlotte, no one could argue about Pam being a shrewd judge of character. Pam would have seen Arlene's turnabout after the Were revelation coming a mile away. She had warned me months before that Arlene was not my friend. She had seen through Charlotte's scheming. Long ago she had told Eric to tell me the flat out truth about Bill as they knew it at the time. What Pam said she saw in me was unsettling to me. I thought about what she said about all the people who trusted Eric. It didn't matter to me that they were vampires who trusted Eric. If anything, it was almost more telling because it didn't seem to me that vampires were too trusting of anyone, even each other.
I looked back over what I knew of Eric's behavior with respect to me and had to say that he was always pretty protective of me, even if conveniently mutually so. Going back to the beginning, when he had staked Long Shadow for attacking me. He certainly hadn't always been as nice as he was at present with me, but I couldn't really pinpoint a time when I thought he done me any real harm. Even his threatening long ago to torture me to get the info about what Bill was up to had a different spin in my mind after hearing his thoughts about what he'd do with the people downstairs if anyone hurt me. I remembered his saying at the time, after telling Pam and Chow to leave, that he was just saying that for Chow's benefit and maintaining his reputation… I hadn't known what to believe at the time. Now I thought he'd probably really meant just that. He'd almost apologized for scaring me and had gone far out of his way to protect me in Jackson. I'd trusted him enough to even let him glamour me then, the only time I'd ever let anyone do so. There was that time he'd tried to really scare me, after I'd taken care of him, when I'd been shot. He had scared me, but then he ended up trying to protect me from Mickey only moments later. And really, in the months that followed, he hadn't even stuck to his words that his interest in safeguarding me would only continue until there was a conflict with his own safety or those of his people. Clancy had died protecting me. Eric put himself at great risk protecting me. Eric talked hard, and I knew he could probably really be hard, but it seemed like he was very careful about meting that hardness out. I remember Pam telling me when I arrived that Victor Madden's unfair treatment of Maxwell had tipped Eric over some edge. I gathered Eric had been quite hard on Victor. I didn't even want to imagine what they'd done to him. It seemed that Eric followed some internal code, just as I'd sort of recognized in our conversation about fidelity. He _did_ have a sense of justice and fairness even if, for the sake of expedience, he was willing to make it _seem_ otherwise. I thought about what Pam had implied about trusting Eric more. Why would I even be in a relationship at all with someone I couldn't trust? The answer was that, really, I wouldn't be. I had _always_ trusted him in so many ways, even almost foolishly so. And yet I was still so guarded about being able to trust his feelings for me in return.
I glanced over at Eric and saw that it must be past dawn already because he was just out, with the book still in his hand. I took the book out of his hand, noting the page. It was something in German by Thomas Mann, an author I'd never read. I looked at the German text and wondered exactly how many languages Eric spoke. I even found myself wondering when Eric had learned to read, as in what century, and thinking about his collection of books. I knew that books had only been available within the past few centuries for people outside of universities, churches and for the wealthy. He seemed to really treasure his books. After so many centuries of wandering, I guessed it was a luxury to own so many books and to have a nice place to keep them. He must have been delighted to find that Pam liked to read, I thought to myself with a smile. It still amazed me that Pam seemed to harbor no ill will toward Eric for his having turned her. Personally, I'd have a hard time not holding a grudge against someone killing me and turning me vampire for, um, 'companionship'. It was after all, exactly what had happened to Eric himself. But Pam seemed to think it all worked out swell. Of course, my own 'companionship' experience with Eric was very pleasurable, so maybe that was part of it. But still... I also thought about her saying when she had told me about her being turned that she did not love Eric. I wondered if vampires just existed in a world with no love, or very little of it. That thought just made me sad. Possessiveness wasn't love. Eric had said once to me that he didn't like having feelings. None of them seemed to want to have feelings. To me, you loved your closest friends, at the least. I couldn't imagine living centuries without loving or being loved. It seemed that Eric did have vampire friends, if Andor, Stefan and Cadel were an indication. I wondered at Pam's comments. She had gone off on her own and lived in Minnesota for a time but then returned at what she had characterized as Eric's request, to help with Fangtasia. Could she really not love him in _some_ sense? Where were the emotions in the vampire world I wondered?
I was finally getting sleepy as I thought about the fact that my visit was almost halfway over. In spite of having been hit in the head, and having spent a few hours being scared about what the other side of Eric might really be like, I was glad I'd come. I sighed heavily and thought to myself that I wasn't sure where things were headed but found that Eric was right. I felt more alive inside than I had in a long time. I had become a stronger, more experienced and certainly more worldly person in the past three years. But I had brushed aside some emotional inner life that, somehow, being here had managed to reconnect. Was it just the bond? Was it something in me? Would I feel dead inside when I went away? Had being here and being able to finally unburden myself even a bit about that horrible night finally released something inside me? I tried not to think about how it would feel to leave and go back home. Instead, I thought about how ironic it was that here I was thinking about how unemotional vampires seemed to be or seemed to _want_ to be, while it was a vampire who had managed to make me feel so alive again.
I set aside _Emma_ with Eric's book, rolled over and pressed my face into Eric's shoulder and drifted off into sleep.
12. Chapter 11
**XI.**
Eric startled me by coming out almost half an hour before sunset. I was listening to music on my iPod and, when he strolled out of the bedroom, I jumped. He laughed at all my stacks of books and I guess the way I'd been moving to the music while sorting.
"You speak too many languages." I said as I removed my headphones. "I don't even know what to do with some of these. I guess they're fiction because there in here but really, who knows. Well, I mean, _you_ know. But I'm totally lost from here on," I said pointing.
"Is there a reason why you're doing this?" he asked with a chuckle.
"It was fun, until I started feeling ignorant because I don't speak German or Swedish or French or gosh knows what this one is- there are so many vowels I can't even imagine what it must sound like." I showed him a slender volume with an incomprehensible, to me, long title.
He looked at the spine and said, "Suomi. That's Finnish and I barely can read any of it myself. An experiment. A partial success. Norwegian is much easier."
He handed the book back to me and went back inside. He put on his robe and then came back out and sat next to me on the floor. He looked over at me and then laughed because I was wearing one of his t-shirts and it might a well have been a dress it was so huge on me. He kissed me and then started rapidly sorting the books in other languages.
He nodded toward my iPod.
"Spanish music?"
"Yeah. I'm missing dancing a bit. Sammy sent me an email yesterday saying his temporary partner is horrible. He's such a card. We've danced together for about a year and it's hard to adjust to a new partner. He's trying to make me feel guilty for dumping him for a vacation instead of work. But it didn't work," I said with a chuckle.
"So you like Latin dancing now, right? Like the tango?"
"MmmHmm. Do you tango?" I asked with a smile. Eric was so tall, I couldn't quite envision being able to tango with him. You really did best with a partner close to your own height. Sammy was five foot ten and when I was in two inch heels he was a perfect height for tango, rumba, salsa or whatever type of dancing I could envision.
"I haven't done much of that kind of dancing," Eric said with a snort. "Not quite my style."
"I don't think I could tango with you, anyway. I'm too short. I'd have to wear massive heels. The rumba might be too hard with the height difference, too. It doesn't have to be Latin. I just like to dance. I liked dancing with you. We haven't danced together in a long time. Not since Rhodes, if I recall. You got so mad in Rhodes," I said with a chuckle. "I wouldn't even dance with Rasul the other day, remembering how you were that night in Rhodes when I danced with Barry."
Eric seemed to want to ignore that little reminiscence.
"Where did you meet your partner? At the club you dance at?" he asked while tossing a book over near the bookcase where it was mostly nonfiction and what I guessed was philosophy.
"Oh, gosh no. I'd never just go to a club not knowing anyone and start dancing with someone. Especially not with a human because then I'd _really_ hear them, you know, from touching them. No, I met Sammy at Ahmed's parties. He's a friend of Ahmed's so I knew he was an okay guy. Ahmed is really picky about his friends. We danced at the parties and he finally convinced me to try the club and taught me how to tango, salsa and rumba. In the beginning it was a group of us was going. But eventually we were the only ones still going regularly. Sammy works at Treasury. He's a nice guy. It's good exercise and it's fun."
Eric smiled and nodded nonchalantly as he put a few books into the bookcase. I kind of got the feeling he liked it that I wouldn't just go to a club and start dancing with someone I didn't know. In some ways Eric was still pretty old fashioned where women were concerned, I thought. I still remembered with great mirth when he had stayed with me when he had amnesia and he'd basically told Jason he was a bad brother for not totally supporting me financially and saying that it wasn't safe for me to go out to work at night. Even when I thought about Eric's attitude about my work now... I just smiled.
"You don't seem to count him as a close friend, however?" he asked, about Sammy.
"No, not really" I said, shaking my head. It was odd but I was far closer to Ahmed and Alla. "I can't explain it. I like him and all. I mean certainly so, if I'm going to spend four or five hours a week dancing with the guy. But we really don't share many common interests other than music and dancing. We dance but we don't really talk about things. He's not like Ahmed or Alla, for instance."
"You're closer to them because you have to read their minds all the time for work, I suppose?"
I was actually kind of surprised that Eric was even asking about my friends. It was the first time I could recall his really being interested in other people in my life at all. Let alone _why_ I chose to be close to someone. I thought back about the fact that he hadn't been too fond of Tara when Mickey had been after her. But really, that was pretty much it.
"No. It's that I really like them. I chose them to work with them because I liked them and liked the way they think about the world. It would be very difficult to interrogate someone through the minds of an interpreter I didn't feel really comfortable with. I mean, I can do it. I can think of two times I have done it, but it's _much_ harder. Sometimes reading people's minds is extremely unpleasant and unsettling. If you don't like the interpreter's mind either then it's twice as hard. But Alla, Ahmed and I share a lot of common interests. I like their philosophy. They are not harsh in their judgments. They are patient and good listeners. We understand each other. We talk about all kinds of things. And I guess that I identify with them. Especially Ahmed. He's sort of estranged from his family. Except for his younger brother. He doesn't fit in Saudi culture, or Western culture either, exactly. The same for Alla although she's much closer to her family. Both of them have encountered prejudice in the West because of their ethnicity. And bias from their family or others for working for the US government. What they are doing is very risky in terms of perceptions in the Muslim world. Even though our work prevents torture as well as terrorism, the perception can be that they're traitors for working for the US. They are acting from very deeply principled beliefs about what is right. But still, they don't fit in either world, really. Feeling like you don't quite fit anywhere is something I guess I relate to on a very deep level."
Eric was silent, as if thoughtful about that. He looked through the remaining books.
"Do they know what happened to you?" he asked after a while.
"They know something bad happened to me. Alla saw my remaining scars, before the surgeries. She was very upset by it but said nothing. I knew from reading Ahmed that Alla told him I'd been tortured. He was very deeply shocked. They can tell I don't want to talk about it and they've never asked. I guess it was meaningful for both of them as to why I was willing to do what we're doing. Not that I know of any US interrogation treatment that was that bad, okay? Anyway, it seems like Ahmed specifically told Sammy not to ask me any personal questions about anything physical. Sammy used to ask why I stay covered so much, you know, the way I dress. Ahmed was all over him for it."
"Sookie, the scars hardly show at all. You realize that, don't you? If _I_ can hardly see most of them, to everyone else they would be…"
"My worst scars don't show at all, Eric. And lately, I'm thinking a few of those may even have been self-inflicted. But anyway, I don't want to talk about that. We should go dancing sometime. Or maybe just dance here."
He turned to look at me while I spoke, regarding me soberly. He didn't comment on the first part although I got the sense he wanted to. Instead he said,
"Speaking of Rhodes and dancing, Sean and Layla O'Rourke are going to stay here in August. I think they'll be here when you're here. They are doing a series of appearances and taking some vacation time," he said.
"They are _really_ great dancers," I said, remembering dancing with Sean in Rhodes. Layla was so beautiful. I'd thought her last name was different, though. "Did they marry? I thought she had a different last name?"
Eric nodded, while putting more of the books back onto the shelves and handing me a slender volume of Ibsen that I had mis-sorted. I squeezed it in with the two others after some rearranging.
"They did. Several years ago. Ibsen's Norwegian, not Swedish. I'm glad you have made plans to come back for the next few months, Lover. Any reply from your boss?" he said casually. His tone was very different from what it had been in the previous days. I felt as if he was consciously making the effort to sound less hostile about my job.
"Gee, don't know how I missed that on the Norwegian thing," I said with a wry look. So Ibsen was Norwegian, I thought to myself. There was really so much stuff I didn't know. "Well, about the glamouring issue, Manny said he would speak to me in person rather than in writing, so I guess that's a go. He must have found someone or know of someone. Maybe they already had planned it or something. Probably NSA. The CIA wouldn't be too helpful unless Chuck was asking. I don't think that Manny wants Chuck too involved at this point. Chuck is… difficult. And personnel hasn't commented on the vacation request, which means it's pretty much approved I guess. They'd say no right away if it was no. It's paid time off, so really they can't do too much about it. So anyway, I guess it's set."
Eric kept sorting through my stacks and tossed a few things out of the piles over to the philosophy bookcase.
"Yesterday evening has not put you off coming back, then?"
"No," I said softly.
"So you are happy," he said, without looking at me.
I glanced over at him. Happy about the vacation days? Happy in general? Happy this evening? I smiled because I wasn't sure which he meant.
"Yeah, I guess I'm happy. Why?" I could hear the sound of Enrique Morente through my headphones, which were on the floor. I hit pause on the iPod and turned it off.
Still, without looking at me he said softly,
"I want you to be happy." He paused and then said, "There is a way to lessen the bond. If it still is objectionable to you, I would do it if you wish it."
He sounded solemn as he said it. Something about how he said it put me slightly on edge, making me feel uneasy.
"What do you mean, lessen it. How?"
"Lessen the intensity of it. If I had Andor drain me, and then…"
I gasped and looked at him with my eyes wide. Drain? Did he say _drain? _Was he _insane_?
"What? _No_," I said, cutting him off before he could go any further. "No, absolutely _no_. Are you _nuts_? Enough with the frigging bond already, Eric. Leave it alone. I'm fine. I don't give a damn about the bond." I was incredulous. "How could you even _consider_ such a thing?"
He finally turned to me with softly glowing eyes and fangs ever so slightly run down.
"You don't like the bond. You never did. This would weaken it."
"And weaken _you_! No matter how much I disliked it I would never want you to do something like that. Geez, Eric."
"I don't want to give you any reason to…"
I looked him straight in the eyes and cut him off again, saying,
"Look, I'm _over _it, okay? It's _fine_. We are fine the way we are. And even if Andor is your most trusted friend for the past millennium, he's not getting a fang into you on my account, are we clear, Eric? Absolutely _no_."
"I would be recovered just by taking sufficient blood in return, along with perhaps some of Stefan's or Cadel's. Just not from anyone who has had my blood in the past. I trust Andor completely," he said, trying to sound reassuring about it. "He's had my blood many times, and I his."
"I don't _care._ I don't care to hear about it. It would make you weaker for having lost the blood at all. So _no_. I'm almost used to it at this point, anyway. Leave the bond the way it is. Unless you want to get rid of it or weaken it for some personal reason, like what you described before, the problem _you_ have with the bond. Then it's your business alone. But you don't you dare do anything on account of me, Eric. Especially not anything that sounds so damn crazy. Geez, I swear I don't even know why Pam doesn't want to kill me herself behind your back. Because I'm beginning to see exactly what she means," I commented under my breath, shaking my head with my eyes closed.
Then I looked him in the eyes and said,
"Promise me, Eric. _Promise me_."
He glanced away as a smile formed on his lips. As he put another few books on the shelf, his eyes literally glowed red, like warm coals. He felt pleasure at my words. Suddenly I was aware that he was probably the happiest I'd felt him since I had arrived. _A carefully calculated risk that paid off... _I seemed to feel him think. Was I _reading_ or _feeling_ his thoughts? I simply couldn't tell anymore.
"Of course, my Lover. As you wish," he said quietly.
I had a flash of feeling that _I _had given in to something significant, but allowed it to fade. He was so _very_ happy. In that same flash I also understood that he had waited until he was sure, absolutely sure… He had offered to diminish the bond only once he knew I would never agree to it. _Because he didn't want to give it up or alter it in any way._ He knew that I could feel that, too. There was not even an attempt to cover it up. He made the offer, but already knew I would never say yes. I would never have agreed to let him do something so risky. He was quite sure of that. By getting me to refuse any risk to him in diminishing it, he had gotten me, in a very skillful fashion, _to accept it_. I'd even admitted that I was almost used to it. Perhaps I was learning to like being this way, just as he had predicted long ago? Furthermore, was it wrong for him to want to keep something that let him so clearly _feel_ he was loved? What kind of person would I be to ask him to give that up, even if the way to do it had been simpler, or safer? Whatever else the bond was, or represented, I knew that Eric had told me from the moment it was made that he felt the way I felt about him and that he had liked it. Who wouldn't like feeling loved, especially if they lived in a cautious, contained and seemingly loveless society for a thousand years? Instead of trying to play mind games with myself, I realized I could feel, no matter what I had been telling myself before, that he really did love me back. It might not be fairy tale love, but it was real love. He glanced over at me sharply as I thought just that, took a book from my hand and smiled. I said nothing more.
I swayed slightly as if dizzy. Acceptance. Even as my heart felt this odd lurch, I knew that the more than three year struggle over the bond was at a quiet end. In that moment something had shifted in me. Eric had won, or gotten his way, but somehow, it didn't matter to me. Before I would have thought he was just trying to control me but now what I saw was that Eric's pleasure at his attachment to me, his desire to keep the bond, was probably the most human thing about him. I understood what Pam had tried to explain to me, that it was my fighting that side of Eric, a human side, that had made him vulnerable. Because it _hurt_ him. The shift I felt in me was also a shift in him. A greater sense of ease. He would no longer be hurt by my rejection of something that was obviously so fundamental to his enjoyment of his attachment to me. And looking back, I knew what he had said so many times was true. That attachment was there long before the bond was. For both of us.
We let the moment pass without comment and reshelved the remaining books. He shifted to my other side and put away the other various odd books. After a few quiet minutes looking at the reordered shelves, I leaned over and put my head onto his shoulder. He lowered his head and kissed my forehead. I pulled him lower and we kissed. He picked me up and effortlessly rose and carried me back to the bed.
Pam was not pleased when we came down at 8:45 pm.
"You're _late_," she said crossly, directly to me, as if it was entirely my fault. She had the bag with my sandwich in her hand and looked as if she was quite put out with having to hold human food for someone who was _late_.
I shrugged apologetically and tried to look remorseful.
"We'll have to go more than once anyway, Pam. I'd say at least three or four times, really. We need to get practice ammunition so let's skedaddle."
I had my Glocks, the 22 and 26, in my purse and showed them to her.
"He took _my_ time," she said looking petulantly at Eric's receding figure as he made his way toward his office waving to us with his back to us.
"Pam, we're wasting more time by talking about lost time," I said with a frown.
She looked at me with an arch smile, nodded curtly and off we went.
**
* * *
**
"Look at this," said Pam, presenting several sheets to Eric.
He picked one up and looked at the hole in the center of the target.
"Good shooting, Pam." He looked mildly impressed.
She frowned.
"Those are Sookie's, Eric. And it's not just one shot. See that, how it's not perfectly round? That's _five_ shots through the same small hole. It's just so unfair. She says it's because of your blood but I don't even believe her. These," she plunked down a sheet with several holes more obviously overlapping, and then another and another "are mine. _I'm _the vampire. And she's a better shot."
Then Eric just erupted into laughter and turned to look up at her.
"Pam, it was the first time." He held up her sheets to look at the holes. "I think she's had rather more practice. She's got all sorts of marksmanship medals and things like that. Really. I've seen them myself."
"This is _very_ upsetting, Eric. I shouldn't need to practice. Vampires are supposed to be perfect, are we not? We should be better than humans, practice or no, at everything. _Look _at this!" she said tapping my target sheets.
I plopped down in the chair next to the desk, and sighed, trying really hard not to laugh at Pam. She had been fuming the entire ride home. It had made for a frighteningly fast drive.
"She really enjoys it. She's a _great_ shot," I said. "Such a steady hand. Is it legal in Louisiana for vampires to have a carry permit? In Virginia it is, but in some states it isn't. And Pam, you have to remember not to shoot anyone who isn't already dead. It could really cause a lot of problems."
She sat down next to me and took my guns out of my purse as if they were already hers. She looked at them as if she admired them greatly and placed them on Eric's desk. She had finally been able to get a handle on the G22, because she liked the fact that it held more rounds. She took apart the G22 as I had shown her, and examined it with great interest, then reassembled it.
"Remember," I told her, "You have to _really _keep them clean Pam. Especially if you're going to try to use only silver. The silver is much softer, it forms oxides and if there's any debris at all in the chamber it could really be quite dangerous. You could really get injured."
"I'm going to get a gun," she said with a smile. "Carrying it's legal, I already checked. You have to get a background check and take a course for the permit. It will be very clean and loaded at all times. Don't worry."
"You know, you might want to look at the Glock 19. It's a compact version, so it's easier for someone with smaller hands. But it's still got the full magazine. I'd use a 19 if the FBI would let me. They require the 22 and let you use the 26 as backup. The Swedish Army uses the G19 as standard issue. It's a 9 mm caliber weapon. And you can get silver bullets in 9 mm just like the 0.40 and 0.45 caliber."
Pam turned to me and said with gravity,
"I'm glad you're finally treating me properly, Sookie. Keep it up and I may finally start liking you."
I turned away, shaking my head.
Shortly thereafter, I sat near Eric while he talked to his debt ridden, pyramid scheming project manager, who was switching funds accrued for building projects from one job to the next. He was very skillful. After the meeting was over, I handed Eric my stenographer's pad with names of three banks and some account information for various projects and several other people's projects that were also apparently being bilked. Stefan and Cadel were so impressed. I was always amazed anyone would have the gall to try to steal from vampires. Eric called Mr. Cataliades, who said he could call the District Attorney's office and ask them to investigate it with the NOPD. I told Eric that if the DA's office didn't proceed with the police findings that I could always mention it to Sara Weiss, since the FBI did, after all, handle racketeering investigations. At least one of the projects the guy was involved in was in Tunica, which meant he was crossing state lines and the case, if there was one, could be federal. Eric seemed so pleased. It was such a simple thing to do to help him, I thought. I remembered when I first did telepathic work for him long ago. This was all so simple, I thought, in contrast to what I did now, every day that I screened people for the FBI. That work was so intense and I felt the need to be so cautious in everything I said and did. Literally, it could mean the difference between freedom and living in prison for many years. Or making a mistake that could cost innocent people their lives. I looked back on the days when I had worked for Eric or for Sophie-Anne and felt that they were simple times.
Since Eric was done for the night and it was still so early, we watched a movie on the big TV in the sitting area, _Underworld: Rise of the Lycans_, with Stefan, Pam and Rasul. It was pretty funny to watch a movie about vampires and werewolves with a bunch of vampires, I had to say. I was glad to be snuggled up to my vampire. Andor, Cadel and two other vampires I didn't know came in for the last hour. I guess it felt kind of odd to be the only human in the room with eight vampires. After years of thinking vampires were exotic or the minority, here in this compound, I was. I remembered Eric watching _Buffy_ in my house long ago and how amused he was by it. Glancing around, I felt as if my present reality was surreal. I tried to envision living here among vampires. The idea seemed quite odd.
Lying in bed, later that night, I finally said something to Eric about the business with the bond. He was lying on his side next to me. I looked up and blew at his loose hair.
"So what would you have done if you'd been wrong and I said it was fine to go ahead with your crazy plan, Eric?"
"Do you want to hear me say that I knew you would refuse? I _knew_ you would refuse. There you go. Come closer, Agent Gordon. Much closer," he said, draping a leg over mine, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. "But you can't say I didn't offer, now, can you?"
"Well, it seems like a helluva risk to have taken, Eric. It would have been awkward if I'd said, yeah, sure, fine, go right ahead."
"I _know_ you. You're just going to have to make all these risks worth my while, Lover." His faintly glowing face leered at me with a mischievous grin in the dark.
"Really." I was pretty tired so I hoped he was not serious, especially considering earlier in the evening.
His face seemed to float above me in the darkness. I sighed heavily. I contemplated the possibility that it really was possible to have too much of a good thing.
"Tell me you're mine," he said.
Okay, I was totally caught off guard. Definitely not where I thought he was headed. I paused for a moment before replying.
"If I say it, do I still get to have my own life, my own choices, and all my rights and opinions."
"Of course, Lover."
I hesitated.
"That's still really a hard one for me, Eric."
"You told me once that you were Bill's."
"Yes, and look how well that turned out. A smashing success. I'm a different person now. Besides, when I said it, it wasn't with the same intent. It was just Bill trying to keep you away from me. Somehow, I get the feeling that my saying it now has a different meaning."
"It does. Because you _are _mine."
"Why do I keep getting the feeling that there is more to this whole thing of being bound to you than I understand, Eric?"
"We are bound to _each other_. The bond has worked both ways. It has worked in ways I could not have envisioned."
I felt his eyes on my face in the dark, as if he could scan me like a microscope, looking for the smallest thing. I thought of the past three and a half years and my realization from the previous night that I hadn't even felt alive emotionally. I felt as if I was on the edge of grasping something that I was almost afraid to take hold of.
"So it's important to you. My acknowledging that I'm yours?"
He just stared down at me, silently.
"You realize I'm still going back to Virginia at the end of the month, right Eric?"
He went on staring down at me, waiting.
"Okay. I'm yours in the sense that you have my heart. I'm keeping my mind for myself."
"Could I just have the short version?"
I groaned internally.
"Fine, Eric. Fine. I'm yours." I sighed, just tired of resisting. "I rea…"
His lips were on mine. After a minute he sank back into the pillows with a sigh and pulled me closer still, and rested his chin near my ear. If it was possible to _feel_ someone smile, I felt him smiling.
"Och jag är din," he said softly near my ear.
"Oh, really?" I said wearily. "You're really obnoxious, Eric. Who goes on _deliberately_ saying something to their lover in a language the person doesn't understand? It's really totally obnoxious."
"Ja, mitt hjärta, verkligen?" he said with a teasing chuckle.
"Aren't you the one who wants to talk about every damn thing?" I murmured. "Well, exactly what is the point of saying stuff in a language I don't understand? And before you did it when you were mad. What's the deal this time?"
"If that's the most grief I give you for everything I have put up with, you're a lucky woman, Lover. You could always learn some Swedish, you know." He laughed softly, kissed my temple and whispered, "Sleep, my Lover. Sov, min älskade."
That last one I wasn't going to argue about.
13. Chapter 12
**XII.**
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost, _The Road Not Taken_, 1920
* * *
The first week in Louisiana had passed and the second seemed to go even more swiftly. I went out during the day in the second week. Eric seemed to want to really counter Pam's jibes that I was like a virtual captive in his grasp. He seemed very determined to make me feel that I had a sense of freedom. At his insistence, I went out to spent time with Amelia and Bertram (who was part fae but not part fairy, something I'd yet to quite absorb), and on another occasion went to Octavia and Louis's home, with Amelia and Bertram, for the afternoon and then dinner. The day security staff at the compound was at least inspiring a bit more confidence in me. They were pretty careful and some of them were kind of frightening. I met Diantha's father, for instance. I felt safer going in and out of the compound knowing that the security was tight. Bennett Tucker's Weres would escort me around and stay nearby while I visited. Sara Weiss was not thrilled with my contact with people from my former life but I was sure that my identity was safe with vampires, witches and sorcerers. And really, who was left of the people I'd be afraid to find me? Felipe, Victor and Dermot were dead and gone. Actually, I was most concerned about the gravity of trust that Eric placed in me. I was the only person with the codes to enter his rooms other than Pam. Eric said that because he'd sired Pam and was bound to me that if something happened to us to try to get us to force us to gain entry into his quarters he'd likely know it. But to me, there was the huge difference in that I was out during the day. I knew firsthand how hard it was to rouse him during the day. He said firmly that he didn't think there would ever be reason to be concerned.
We went to hear more jazz, went out with friends on a riverboat, and the days just seemed to roll by. On the 26th I met with Mr. Cataliades and signed a will and a trust for Hunter, with Eric as executor of the trust. I'd paid off the mortgage that Jason had taken out on our parents' home. I'd set aside money for capital improvements to the Stackhouse home and for Jason's as well, in addition to a nest egg for Jason. Bill was going to help me make arrangements to have repair work, fresh painting and other renovation work done on my home. Then I bought out Sam's business loan though he refused it as a gift. I'd offered him a much lower rate or just owning a share of Merlotte's. He surprised me, deciding after he told me he had finally forgiven me for taking off without a word, that he wanted me to be a part owner in Merlotte's. It was less than a fifth share, but it left him pretty much debt free other than his revolving expenses. He was just thrilled and said he hoped I'd visit regularly to check on my investment. The afternoon I spoke to him, he told me that he had seen Jason at lunch and that Jason was happier than he had been in years. He attributed it to the fact that, after apologizing profusely to him for my having taken off the way I did, I'd told Jason that I'd be in New Orleans again July 17th through the 26th and that I wanted to have him visit on that first weekend, my treat for the hotel. They were going to share the room, while Bill stayed in the compound with us. I'd promised Jason I'd try to stay in touch more.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cataliades was aghast at a six figure stock donation to Amnesty International that I made as an anonymous donor. I could tell once he found out that I was really serious about giving away a good fraction of the inheritance to charitable organizations that he was ready to rip up any potential prenuptial agreement and tell Eric he ought to do something to better control me. Mr. C. clearly did not believe in giving money away, or think my grandfather would have either. However, it made no matter to me. I firmly told Mr. C. that I had plans for that money and that it was going to be put to good use. My great grandfather had left it to me and I'd do what I thought was best with it. I told Mr. C and Eric that I was going to talk to Ahmed, who did a lot of charitable giving in Afghanistan and Pakistan, before contributing there. In the end, as he was leaving, he remarked that I was a very odd human. I reminded him that I was an eighth fairy and that fairies could be mighty unpredictable. He smiled down at me and shook his head. I was pretty sure he thought I was crazy and fiscally irresponsible.
Eric was not certainly not happy that I was leaving at dawn on the morning of the 27th to drive up to Red Ditch to see Hunter and Remy. He'd originally thought I was going back to Virginia on the 27th, but I'd explained about my plans to visit Hunter a few days after I'd been staying with him. He didn't seem thrilled with the idea of sharing my available vacation time with someone who lived five hours away but kept it to himself since he know I was visiting Hadley's son. Maybe part of his unhappiness about my trip was also that, two days before I left for Red Ditch, he'd asked me again about getting married and I told him, more nicely this time, that I couldn't envision doing that right now. I frankly couldn't even believe that he was asking again. That he'd been _serious_. He didn't exactly seem surprised I said no, but he seemed firm when he told me that we really _were_ going to get legally married, no matter what I thought about the improbability of the idea and even if I wasn't ready to move back to Louisiana. I just held his hand, rested my head on his shoulder and didn't reply further. Frankly, after the whole thing with the bond, I really wasn't counting Eric out on the idea. Eric was almost frighteningly skillful at getting his way. But he wasn't going to get any more from me unless I was ready and willing. It was enough already just to be adjusting to the past seven weeks and be dealing with my job situation.
Eric asked Jamie, the Were who worked with Bennett Tucker at NOLA PD, to travel with me to Red Ditch. Jamie actually drove, since daytime travel was a pretty much a complete reversal of my waking schedule after two weeks with Eric. I'd stayed an extra half-day in New Orleans in order to be able to wake next to Eric that Friday night, and stay with him until dawn on Saturday morning. I was going to be back by the afternoon of the 29th, spend the night in the compound and then fly back to Virginia on the morning of the 30th. The drive to Red Ditch took about 5 hours from New Orleans. Jamie told me to just sleep, and I took him up on the offer. He seemed quite earnest in his determination to keep me safe after speaking privately with Eric about my trip. I didn't even want to imagine what Eric told him…
Remy Savoy had not been too friendly when I had called him the week before. I guess he thought I was every bit as flaky as Hadley had been. But he said that Hunter was waiting to see me and seemed to convey a sense to me that Hunter had in fact, even been expecting me. I thought it was a little odd, but just made my plans and showed up on Saturday afternoon. As the car was put into 'park' Hunter whipped open the front door and stood in the doorway beaming.
Hunter was now eight and a half years old. He looked mostly like a regular eight year old boy, unless you looked at him closely. His eyes looked guarded and old. I recalled the same guarded, 'seen too much' expression, from my own life at the same age, in the year that followed my parents' deaths. He was definitely Hadley's child, with his dark hair and dark eyes. He was really such a handsome child. That touch of fairy blood was evident in his graceful and attractive appearance. He looked with curiosity at Jamie and I could see that he could tell right away that he was a Were. He quickly hugged me and then took my hand, giving a long glance back at Remy who nodded hello. Hunter pulled me around to the back yard and sat in a swing. I pushed him, while he dangled his legs and seemed to enjoy the rush of air and the sunlight on his face.
_So, Aunt Sookie. I can call you Aunt Sookie, right? You're like an Aunt, really._
_Sure, you can._
_So things are almost all better now, right? You're almost better from when they hurt you?_
I froze. I had thought of Hunter that night, but had tried to rein it in and _not_ think about him. He was only four going on five then.
_They who, Hunter?_
_The mean fairy people. The bad ones that hurt you. The ones our grandfather killed with your friend? You're much better now, right?_
I stopped pushing him and walked around in front of him.
_Hunter, how do you know about this?_
_I… see things. I saw it. Not when it happened, but when Daddy couldn't talk to you he called your brother. That's when we found out you went away. I tried to see what happened to make you leave. Daddy said you ran away. But you just had to go away to get well again. They did very bad things to you. But now you're better. I can tell you are._
I crossed my arms across my chest and tried not to be too alarmed as I took a deep breath.
_You saw what happened? You saw I had to leave?_
_I hear things, like now. And I see things, too. I saw what they did to you. They hurt you with knives and with their shiny teeth. I'm glad they are dead. They were very bad. I had nightmares about it sometimes, but not so much anymore._
I swallowed hard and tried to stay calm as I absorbed this information. He had _nightmares_ about it but not anymore? I was really hoping I was misunderstanding him somehow.
_What do you see? You see past things? Things going on now?_
He stopped himself by dragging his feet on the ground beneath him and looked at me.
_I see all kinds of things. Past things. Things now, like you and Eric. Future things. Sometimes I don't like the things I see. Like when you got so hurt. But at least I knew you were okay now. But you have to be careful. You have to be really careful so that you come back okay from your work._ _Your work is getting dangerous now._
He looked very serious as he said this last part to me.
I swallowed hard. He knew about Eric? He knew about the fairies? He was telling me to be careful at work…
_But I think it will be okay. Because I can see things from when you come back._
_When I come back from where?_
_When you move back home. Things will be okay when you move back home._
He smiled.
Finally I was just on overload. I started talking the regular way.
"Hunter, are you saying that you can see things from the future? Are you sure? Not just wishful thinking things, or hopes, or plans. But things that then really happen? Not things _you_ can make happen, but things that have nothing to do with you, that you see and then have happened?"
_Like car accidents or people getting hurt on the monkey bars at school the week before it happens? Or me coming to live with you? Yeah. I see those kinds of things. _
I tried to guard my thoughts while I thought about the last part, thinking that he must be so lonely. He didn't even have a sibling, like I'd had Jason. It had to be wishful thinking on his part that he would come to live with me.
_No. I really do. It doesn't happen for a while. Until I'm almost thirteen. That's when we all decide it's for the best. Daddy doesn't like my seeing things. It will be for the best. You understand me better._
I tried to be careful, as I asked,
_What's for the best?_
_Living with you in New Orleans. I saw it last year at Christmas. I saw it when I was looking at the ornament you sent me when I was little. I live with you in the big building and I go to a private school. Newman something. By then my seeing things will really be something Daddy doesn't like, but it will be really useful for us, Aunt Sookie._
I shook my head, worried.
_No, Hunter. A child is not 'useful'. It is not your place to be 'useful'. You're a child, and still will be a child, even when you're bigger and thirteen. You're not supposed be 'useful' other than doing chores around the house and getting good grades._
He smiled and said out loud,
"I like you, Aunt Sookie. I'll be really safe with you."
He got off the swing and, almost shyly, moved toward me and put his arms around my waist and rested his head against my chest. I tried to be very careful with my thoughts because he was so alone. I didn't want to do anything to make him feel that more keenly.
_How many people know about this, Hunter?_
_Only you and Daddy. Daddy says I am not supposed to tell anyone at all, but I told him you would know because you are almost like me._
_Almost like you because I can hear thoughts, you mean?_
_Yes, but you don't see things. Seeing things is bad sometimes. I see things I don't like. Like what happened to you. Or accidents. Or bad things I don't understand. Sometimes I see good things, though. Like living with you. But don't worry about it now. You will keep me safe. You can go ahead and pretend it isn't real for a while. That's what I do. I pretend. But it will all work out. I know it will. I saw it._
He paused for a second and said,
_You want a popsicle? It's really hot outside. I've got grape and it will turn your tongue purple._
We went inside and got popsicles and then sat out on the deck in back in case they dripped. Jamie was off in the shade in a lounge chair listening to an mp3 player and looking at some auto magazines. He'd glance up to keep an eye on me every once in a while.
Hunter's feet didn't even reach the ground from the chair and the plastic chair made a squeaking sound as he swung his legs back and forth. He slurped on his popsicle.
Remy sat next to him and looked at me with a cold stare.
"Who's the guy?" Remy asked me.
"A friend," I said simply.
"He's supposed to watch her for her boyfriend," said Hunter, glancing over at Jamie with narrow eyes. _Daddy won't understand about Eric. Daddy thinks vampires are bad because of my mom. Don't tell him too much. Don't tell him you are going to marry a vampire yet. Even though really, I guess you're already married, right? I don't understand that part. I mean are you __really __married? It's kind of confusing, Aunt Sookie._
Well, that made two of us being confused, and I wasn't just confused about how to describe my relationship to Eric to people. I paused trying to regroup. I hadn't known that many children, but I was very sure that Hunter was not like any eight year old that _I'd_ ever known, not even like me at that age. The complexity of what he perceived and understood seemed almost astonishing. Was he seeing future things and the overlay of my own confusion about where things were with Eric now? Did he really see me marrying Eric?
_Okay. I understand. _ I didn't really think I did, but...
"So?" Remy asked.
_I like Eric. I think he's very nice to you. He teases you. He's nice. For a vampire._
_Hunter, would you keep your nose out of my business, thank you._
Hunter giggled out loud. His lips and tongue were now totally purple. He grinned at me.
"So?" Remy asked again.
"What," I shrugged.
"What do you think?"
I hesitated.
"I think you need to be careful."
"Hell, yes, we need to be careful. I'd home school him if I didn't have to work."
"No, that would be a bad idea, Remy. If he wasn't with other people all day, when he did go out, it would be incapacitating. He needs to stay with people around him. He really needs to. He needs to learn how to show good judgment and when to filter people's thoughts out of his mind. I'll talk to him about it."
"What about the other stuff?"
_Daddy doesn't like it. He thinks it's freaky. That's what he says in his mind.
_
I shuddered. I remembered my parents thinking things like that. I shifted my gaze again over toward Jamie. He was moving slightly to the beat of music. He glanced up and nodded at me. I figured he probably couldn't hear anything we were saying at a distance, what with the music, even though Weres had superacute hearing. I scanned him. His mind was absorbed with engine performance. That was all I could read from him.
"What do you think about the other stuff?" I asked Remy. I was curious to see what his impression was. I didn't want to annoy Hunter by thinking of him as just a fanciful child, but I wondered if from Remy's perspective if what Hunter said he saw from the future came true. It occurred to me that it was just possible that Hunter could be reading what happened to me directly _from_ me, I told myself. And the same about Eric and my job. But Remy put an end to that little idea.
"I think it's some seriously scary shit, if you'll excuse my language. Whenever he gets like that I'm almost afraid to listen. And it happens just as he says it will. Is your brother like this, too? Like you? Like Hunter? I didn't know, so I didn't want to ask him any questions."
"No, Jason is not. You were right to say nothing. I think you need to be really careful, Remy. I think if you aren't, that things could go badly."
I tried to really rein in my thoughts on the subject, but it made no difference. Hunter was like a little roto-rooter.
_I know some people would think I could be really useful. They could steal me. But bad people won't get me if I'm with you. Maybe Eric will help you protect me. He protected you. Actually, I'm sure he will protect me too, for you. Plus, he'll think I'm useful. But, not in a bad way. _
Not in a bad way? What _good _way could there be, where a child was concerned? Currently, Aunt Sookie was feeling pretty damn shaky on the whole deal. I tried not to think of all the people that had been looking at me like an asset for the past five years and place that same mindset in the vicinity of an eight year old child. I tried even to push Eric to the very back of my mind so Hunter couldn't latch on to those thoughts, either. Because I seriously wondered if even Eric would be unable to resist the temptation of an eight year old psychic child being a very 'useful' asset.
In the late afternoon, I played Monopoly with Hunter, Remy and Jamie. We made spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread for dinner. I played some more with Hunter and then he went to bed. Hunter had become very skilled at covering his telepathy because Jamie hadn't noticed a thing during the afternoon and evening. Since Jamie had clearly been instructed not to leave me alone at all, it made it a little awkward for Remy and me to talk that night. Jamie went back to his mp3 player and magazines and I could hear the heavy metal sound leaking from his headphones. Remy and I sat in the kitchen and chatted over tea for a while, but it was really more of the same. He really thought that Stackhouse genes were disastrous. They made you hear things you shouldn't, sometimes see things you shouldn't, and evidently they increased your chances of taking off in a totally irresponsible fashion like Hadley and I did.
I slept in the top bunk bed above Hunter and Jamie slept on the living room couch. After so many days in New Orleans it felt odd to go to sleep when it was still so early, and odder still not to be next to Eric while I slept.
On Sunday morning we made cinnamon apple pancakes for breakfast. Hunter and I went for a walk while Jamie trailed behind. I talked to Hunter about school and about friends and the lack of them. Our experiences were fairly similar. He was a lonely child, though, without even a sibling to play with. Plus, I'd had Tara, who didn't care if I was weird because she was dealing with all her own life stuff and didn't have to explain a thing of it to me. He liked to read and was starting to read Harry Potter. He had seen the movies and thought it was funny that the Harry Potter story had a werewolf, but no vampires so far. He hated having to look up words he didn't know and there were a lot of those words in Harry Potter. I told him I could get him the books on CD so he could listen and maybe catch the meaning of the new words by their context and he seemed happy with that idea.
Then came the hard part. Walking along the old railroad tracks near Remy's home, I held his hand while he balanced on the rail. I told him I didn't think I should come to see him too often because I didn't want to attract attention to him. I wasn't sure an eight year old could really understand that, or understand why. Since Remy didn't have a computer, I had decided one of the first things I was going to do was get them one, and make sure that we could Skype if we changed email addresses frequently, since I didn't want Hunter calling me on my work cell phone and discussing stuff with me. I figured that Hunter and I could stay in touch once in a while that way. To my surprise he seemed to pretty much understand it.
_You know I'm not being mean, right?_
_It's only for a while, Aunt Sookie. You'll be back pretty soon. _
I decided I really didn't want to ask what he saw…
_How about another a popsicle? _ I asked him.
Since Hunter had school the next day, I decided it was better for him to settle back into his routine after my visit. Jamie and I drove back to New Orleans after dinner. Eric was really pleased that I came back earlier than I'd planned. But he easily picked up on the fact that there was something preoccupying me. Between worrying about Hunter and feeling so oddly conflicted about going back to Virginia and what might await me there, I was pretty distant and brooding. He somehow managed not to badger me on any of it. He was busy with his work but it seemed like he understood my melancholy. I knew he had his own.
On Monday night, after I was all packed to leave the following morning, I sat on the couch in Eric's office reading. I didn't know whether it was Hunter's words to me, or some sense of my own but I felt like I was moving toward a fork in the road. As I looked at Eric's head bent over a pile of documents on his desk, I knew which way I was going. Regardless of when I got there, and irrespective of all my worst internal fears. I couldn't envision _not_ having Eric in my life anymore. He'd managed to work some sort of magic on me and I didn't think it had anything to do with any bond. It had more to do with love and trust. Even though I hadn't asked Hunter when, and I knew it would be a while, part of me knew I was coming back to New Orleans for more than just weeklong visits. I was comforted by the idea that things would just work out. In the meantime, I felt like I still had work to do. Within myself, in part, but also with my actual job.
After an emotionally difficult departure from New Orleans at dawn on Tuesday, I was picked up by the 'Royal Transportation Service', as Ahmed's goofy sign said, at Reagan National, and was home with my Rosie Cat by 4:30 pm, in an apartment filled with four dozen red roses and birthday wishes from Eric and Pam for my thirtieth birthday, which was the following day, July 1. Ben left a note saying that he hoped I'd be more accepting about this little intrusion compared to the last ones, since I'd really told him off after Eric had left Virginia back in May. He was supposed to take care of Rosie and that was _it_, I'd told him in May. Meanwhile, as we drove back to Alexandria from the airport, I told Ahmed about Eric and my vacation. He helped me carry my things upstairs and sat listening to it all in complete silence. I didn't get into all of the details of how I had ended up in the FBI but he got the gist of it. He was simply incredulous. He asked me to see a photo of Eric and I showed him the only one I had currently, which was in my phone. I thought to myself with a chuckle that it was really a shame that his Mr. January outtake was somewhere back in my bedroom in Bon Temps, because Ahmed probably would have enjoyed it. He didn't comment much about any of it and when he left I had the impression I'd really given him a shock.
I was out dancing with Sammy by 8:30 pm and back at work in the morning by 8 am. I still seemed to have a job. The copy of _Teach Yourself Swedish_ waiting on my desk was not annotated, but was an inspired birthday gift, as I told Ahmed. It was also a sign of support. We went out for lunch and in the middle of talking about possible upcoming work, he asked me if being bitten hurt. Talk about non-sequitors. That night I was _not_ glamoured by two NSA vampires who told Chuck Powell that I was the famous Louisiana telepath who had talked back to a really ancient vampire at the Rhodes summit several years back and that lots of vampires knew of me and that oh yeah, by the way, I couldn't be glamoured. The NSA vampires were disguised so that I couldn't tell anyone who they really were. Manny was thrilled. Chuck Powell looked almost as if he was disappointed. He was not happy about my stint in Louisiana at all. He didn't like me and now thought I'd lied about my past and fleeced them to get away from a bad marriage or something. Chuck was not the same kind of guy that Manny was in my mind. Not at all. As I sat there at the table with him, I was more certain than ever that there were still enhanced interrogation techniques that were covertly in use. But he conceded to Manny that his predictions were not borne out. There appeared to be no direct risk of information leakage from my being emotionally involved with a vampire. I told Manny that I seriously hoped that they would leave Eric alone and further told him that I would quit if they didn't. Manny tried to reassure me on the topic of anyone going after Eric and told me that Chuck knew he'd be playing with fire on that one.
Work was brisk in July. Ahmed and I went to Iraq for two days after my birthday. The second week of July we interviewed a suspected Al Qaeda terrorist in Turkey who had been making calls to several people back in the US. Then we headed to Madrid and spent two days interviewing a couple of suspects for the Spanish government. After working, we had a great time in Madrid at night, although it was unbearably hot even at night. Around the middle of the month, Alla came in Quantico several times to look at transcripts and listen to some wiretap recordings that were in Farsi. I visited Alla and Mercan at home, with their darling Alexander. Ahmed and I went sailing without them since they were worried about taking the baby out too soon. I danced, and went to book club and adhered to all my usual routines when I was home. But just as I had predicted, I felt like I was living in a world that was in black and white and shades of gray. The rich colors of New Orleans and that other part of my life were just unmatched. Eric and I still skyped daily, many times twice a day, even when I was in Europe. I missed him terribly and often found myself brooding. I was glad when the third week of July arrived. We had a genuinely happy and relaxed visit this time. Eric joked that all the heavy lifting had been done in June. I had a happy visit with Jason and with Sam. Bill was on hand, too. I went out of the compound several afternoons to see Amelia, Bertram, Octavia and Louis. Going out made me realize how much I craved the daytime when I was with Eric, though. I wondered what it would be like for a human to really_ live_ in the compound on the third floor, which was so dark. Meanwhile, Eric wasn't very happy when, in spite of the fact that I would admit I missed him terribly when I was in Virginia, he asked again and I still said no. I told him I thought the idea of getting married when I lived in another state was just plain foolish. He was oversensitive about my continuing to refer to Virginia as 'home' when conversing with others.
In August I went to Pakistan and Afghanistan on longer trips. We were interviewing many captured Taliban fighters these days. The nine and a half to eleven hour time differences made skyping Eric a challenge. Eric was edgy the entire time I was gone because some days I had no internet access at all. He was not alone with the edginess. I had a temporary interpreter for Pashto but on one occasion he made a mistake translating something and there was a huge mess because I was absolutely sure he was wrong about what he told me. I had to end up using a local interpreter, which was always more dangerous for everyone involved, and told Manny that if they didn't find me someone I could work with in Pashto and Dari that I simply would refuse to work there. Making a mistake could be worse than not doing the work at all. Meanwhile, Pakistan was becoming more and more dangerous. The Taliban were getting more and more ensconced in Pakistan by the week. There was plenty of evidence that they really were still involved with Al Qaeda and there were no margins for error because of the instability in the government and what the Pakistani government had in its arsenal. I had to say that Pakistan was becoming a frightening place. And my standard of frightening was pretty different from the average person's view.
I was glad for the break of being in New Orleans again for the third week of August. I had fun dancing with Sean while Layla danced with Rasul one night. Eric did _not_ enjoy watching me dancing with Sean, however. Eric and I spent time dancing in the library but always ended up doing more than just dancing, which, I reflected, was probably why it was so hard for Eric to deal with my dancing with anyone else. I tried to soak up as much enjoyment as possible from my weeklong stay, dreading going back to Virginia because I knew more Pakistan awaited me. When Eric asked again, for the third time, close to dawn the day before I was leaving to go back to Virginia, I sighed and said I'd 'think about it' and just buried my head in his chest. I really missed him when I was away. I just didn't know that I believed things could work out in the long term, however. He seemed happy it wasn't a flat out 'no' anymore. We fell asleep happy. But later that evening we quarreled about when I was coming in September. It was perfectly obvious to both of us that the real quarrel was about what came after September, when I'd have no more PTO days. I had already told Manny that I wanted to take extra time in October and November unpaid, but it was pending approval. Words like 'pending' didn't go over well with Eric.
September, meanwhile, brought all kinds of problems. I had to change my travel dates, which upset Eric, in large part because I think he could sense that I was increasingly edgy about working in Pakistan. It was the bulk of my work currently and I still wasn't saying no to working there, even though I _was_ edgy about it. The work was too important in my eyes. Eric would look at me in stony silence sometimes and I'd feel the chill all the way through the internet connection when I'd simply say I couldn't discuss things with him. He could know where I was going but not much else. By early September I'd actually started thinking about whether I should just tell the Bureau I didn't want to go on working in Central Asia. Our visits were longer and our fallback position of the US Embassy was less than comforting. Ahmed had been unsettled from the start by the fact that neighboring structures were too close to the embassy building and that security, given what all appeared to be going on around us, looked marginal. Ahmed joked that if the embassy was the fallback, then we were off a cliff. By mid-September though, things were bad enough so that Alla had come back to work early, since Ahmed told her how badly things were going without her. The scare with the Pasto interpreter had been repeated yet again, this time with reports of materials for a dirty bomb having been obtained by Al Qaeda operatives but an inability to locate the cell or verify the information. Thankfully, as my gut instinct and ability to read the Taliban guy's visuals suggested, in the end, it was a resource wasting lie. Meanwhile, everyone we spoke to in the US or Pakistani military assured us that things were still stable. The problem was they were telling that to a telepath. I had started telling Ahmed back in August, after my last visit to New Orleans, that I was thinking about quitting. By mid-September, the three of us talked quietly among ourselves about how much longer we would stay. Because of the seriousness of the situation, we thought we could stick it out a while longer. We were still getting useful information about a mounting risk to the Pakistani government that could impact US interests in the entire region and maybe even back home in the US. Even if loved ones and family hated it, maybe we could stick it out until closer to the end of the year, was our thinking. But that was the longest I was willing to stay. I had come to the conclusion that my life seemed to gravitate toward danger no matter what I did. If I was going to be in danger, I would rather be in danger with Eric, at home, than in some far flung corner of the world. While I hadn't told anyone else, I told Ahmed and Alla that I was planning to quit in the late fall. I wanted to be home by mid-December, for the holidays.
Sometimes though, as Alla would say, fate seems to have a different plan.
14. Chapter 13
**XIII.**
**Late September 2009**
_I love you._
I pressed send, waited a few seconds to see it go and then tossed the phone away, out onto the tarmac at Risalpur PAFB. I could now legitimately say to Manny that I had misplaced my phone.
First Lieutenant Luke Birch of the 82nd Airborne Division, US Army, looked down at me, the extra gear in his hands. He shouted over the sound of the chopper blades,
"Are you absolutely _sure_, ma'am?"
I studied him. He'd just lost seven men an hour ago and he didn't want to be the one that allowed the FBI's prize interrogator to get killed. On the other hand, I'd be about the only chance of getting those people out of that building. And I was an extra pair of trained hands, since I'd demanded additional weapons and he knew I definitely had experience according to what he'd heard from the embassy staff. He'd seen me with my Glock at my back and I'd been in his face for more than twenty minutes insisting I would go back. I'd said the wound was only a flesh wound and batted away the medic after it had been cleaned up and bandaged. Well, if I was willing then he'd take me up on it. Because frankly, there was no point in going back if they didn't even know where they were looking.
I grabbed the submachine gun out of his hands and pocketed extra cartridges, pointed toward the chopper and we trotted forward and got in. The guy on the comm shouted over the rotor noise,
"We've got twenty minutes!"
We were at least eight minutes out from the embassy compound. I shuddered. Really, it was so little time…
**
* * *
**
[playlist suggestion: _Jigsaw Falling into Place_, Radiohead, followed by _Timeworm_, Kula Shaker]
Pam burst into the audience room.
"Eric, where is Sookie?" Eric looked up at her, startled. "Where is she? Tell me she isn't still in Islamabad?" She sounded so upset and looked almost wild-eyed.
He froze.
"Why?"
She beckoned and he rose, indicating to the guests that they should stay put with Markus. He, Andor and Stefan went into the sitting room where Rasul stood, looking at the TV, which was tuned to CNN. It was a gray morning in Islamabad. Smoke filled the air. At a distance there was a building in flames, its exterior pocked with what appeared to be extensive damage. He looked at the crawling captions in disbelief:
… _reportedly, a US counterterrorism team and some US Embassy personnel are still trapped… evacuation helicopter lost to anti-aircraft fire… Situation in Islamabad devolved over the past eight hours with Taliban forces overrunning the local Punjabi Army forces spread thin because of simultaneous assassination attempts on President __Asif Ali Zardari__ and General __Ashfaq Parvez Kayani__... Midnight attack on compound caught Embassy personnel off-guard in spite of heightened threat status…_
They broke away from the scene at the Embassy to show a downed helicopter, still in flames, in what appeared to be a nearby residential area.
With a sense of dread he took out his phone intending to scroll through his messages and stiffened. A new message. He opened it.
_I love you. _
_Sent 8:52 pm CDT_
Ten minutes ago? He stood there just staring at the phone. Thursday. She was coming on Thursday for a week. He looked up at the TV, at the US Embassy in Islamabad partially engulfed in flames, windows shot out. Portions of the exterior edifice were blasted away.
'_Embassies don't make you safe. They're actually a great target….' _she had said with a cool tone that night in June, he remembered.
Pam asked again, "Was she still in Islamabad? You said she had been staying in the Embassy, right?"
He silently nodded to them, staring back at the TV in utter disbelief.
"Maybe I can get more info if we try Al Jazeera," Rasul said to Pam. "Sometimes they won't show as much on a American news outlets because they don't want to scare people or get them riled up here in the States. I can translate."
Pam nodded. Stefan and Andor seemed rooted in place, glancing at one another with concern. But no one dared look at Eric at all.
Rasul flipped through the channels on the satellite finally arriving at one that had grainier video footage, but from a much closer vantage point. What it showed was even more frightening. The US Embassy compound was in flames, with spent artillery all over the garden areas and dead bodies strewn across the entry areas of the compound. The gates to the Embassy had been driven through by a massive truck that was now on fire in the front drive area. Half of the building was totally engulfed in flames. Scrolling Arabic captions appeared across the bottom of the screen. The narration was in rapid Arabic. The cameraman appeared to be on some structure close enough to allow a zoom lens to be used to capture much closer video footage than CNN. Then coverage cut away to footage of the Presidential Palace in the distance, with tanks rolling through the wide boulevard.
"Part of an FBI team is out they say. They saw someone in FBI gear get out on the first round of evacuations with the Ambassador. Maybe she's okay. They say that the helicopter that was shot down had no civilians. The Taliban have held the Embassy for more than an hour. Hold on… they say they see more incoming helicopters…"
The image on the screen shifted to five helicopters, Black Hawks, approaching and firing at the US Embassy building and a neighboring high-rise structure outside the compound walls. One helicopter landed on the pad on top of the Embassy building and a crew of nine heavily armed men got out. Then a smaller figure got out as well. Obviously a woman. As she turned her bulletproof vest could easily be seen even at the distance from the roof to be emblazoned 'FBI'.
"Tell me I'm not seeing this?" Pam said in alarm. "She got out and she went _back? _Is she _insane?_"
"You said part of the team was left behind?" Eric asked soberly.
Rasul nodded. They all turned to Eric.
"They're her team. I think there are two to three others that usually go. At least two are good friends, her interpreters. She wouldn't leave them if they were still there. One of them is Iranian and a woman. The other is a Saudi guy. I think he's gay on top of it. She would never leave them... considering what the Taliban might do to them, just even for collaborating with the US." He looked away, shaking his head.
The group spread out across the roof of the Embassy. She was lost for a time behind something obstructing the view, but then emerged pointing to a region of the building below her. It looked like she was signaling numbers and delineating locations. Suddenly she dodged back, yanking the nearest soldier back by his vest and started shooting with a handgun, appearing to hit two men with rifles coming out of a stairwell onto the roof directly in their heads.
"Whoa…" said Rasul. The shock of Sookie actually shooting people rocked the room. Pam gasped.
More men started coming out of the stairwell. She and a soldier at her side started shooting with what appeared to be submachine guns, while the eight others set up and rappelled down off the roof and in through the windows two floors below. The team still on the roof, including someone firing from the helicopter, started to take fire from some neighboring area and they started to shift position on the roof to gain more cover. Pam gasped again and walked to the screen and pointed at the small frame that was obviously Sookie. She wore light colored slacks that appeared to have a dark stain trailing down the back. It was hard to see clearly because of the distance and the graininess of the video. The firefight on the roof continued. One of the helicopters hovering nearby suddenly exploded into a fireball and two of the others hovering around shifted position and began to fire intensely at a neighboring building, collapsing an entire wall. Suddenly weapons fire seemed to erupt from within the stairwell leading to the roof and she and the other soldier near her fell back, closer to the waiting helicopter. They could see that she and the soldier nearest her appeared to be glancing at something as if agitated. It looked like the soldier next to her was shouting something. Four soldiers with what looked like civilians at their sides appeared began to emerge from the stairwell at a fast clip, and a second helicopter landed on the roof precariously. Civilians were literally jumping into the second helicopter, urged on by the soldiers. It departed and was replaced by another helicopter. The man at her side pointed back at their helicopter as if urging her to get in, but the she didn't budge and kept firing at a neighboring rooftop. Finally, a two more soldiers came out, one with a woman slung over his shoulder advancing toward the first helicopter. He was followed by a tall, slender man in blood spattered civilian clothes, to whom Sookie tossed another machine gun. He ducked down near her, firing as well, to give the others additional cover. Seven additional people came running out of the stairwell with the last two soldiers but then more of the rebel fighters appeared to be working their way up the stairs as well. On the roof, the teams held off the fighters' advance while the last civilians were loaded on the helicopters. One soldier was hit and had to be pulled into the third helicopter, which immediately took off. Finally the remaining soldier near her threw something toward the stairwell while the others kept shooting and then the three figures piled into their helicopter, which pulled off the roof at a very sharp angle as if to pull away from the structure as fast as possible, as soon as they were in. Explosions visibly rocked the upper part of the building. Seconds later the screen switched to show incoming two F-15 fighter jets overhead, pulling up sharply. The reporter began shouting in Arabic. Suddenly the camera shifted focus just in time to show missiles slamming into the Embassy compound, destroying the entire structure, collapsing it in flames and a cloud of debris The Al Jazeera cameraman was rocked backwards by the blast, his camera knocked out of focus and up toward the sky. After a moment, the reporter continued to speak in agitated Arabic and the camera was eventually refocused on the former United States Embassy in Islamabad.
Pam stood with her hand over her mouth. They were all just speechless just watching the burning rubble of the US Embassy. The last helicopter had barely gotten away.
Finally, Stefan spoke. "They were just going to blow up the whole compound, even if they still had people inside. Even if there were still people on the roof. They made her go _back_?"
Eric shook his head.
"They would never have risked sending her back. She's too valuable. She must have gone because she wanted to. To get them out."
Pam looked away from the TV. "It was like what she did in Rhodes, finding people. She told them where they all were… She saved her friends." she said in a whisper.
Rasul held up a hand for silence. "They say that another one of the helicopters may have been shot down by anti-aircraft fire." He shook his head soberly, not even looking at the screen as he listened to the reporter. "They don't have any information about which one."
The camera cut away to show smoke pluming into the air some distance away from the compound.
Pam looked at Eric questioningly. He shook his head tensely.
"I don't know. It's on the other side of the world, Pam. I don't feel anything. I didn't even know what was happening. I never have when she's gone on these trips." He shook his head. He sat silently, not joining further in the discussion, just looking almost vacantly at the TV. If she died, could he _not_ feel it?
Pam told Stefan and Andor all about Rhodes. How Sookie had saved their lives and the lives of a lot of other people. But not with people shooting at her and on a schedule limited by missile deployment. Andor was silent but looked over at Eric, shaking his head.
They sat watching the TV for another twenty minutes. There was little or no further information. Every once in a while Rasul would translate some of the reporters comments. It seemed that much of Pakistan had fallen into total chaos. There was no further information about the helicopter that had been shot down. Two of the five had been lost.
Eric's phone vibrated in his hand. He looked at the caller ID, which said _Restricted_. He answered in a strained voice.
"Hello?"
"Please hold for a satellite connection. You will hear clicking and then silence as the connections are made," said a male voice.
He waited for almost half a minute as a series of connections seemed to be made. Finally, a haggard sounding voice, with a great deal of static and background noise came across the phone.
"Eric?"
He closed his eyes. After a second he opened them and said, "Sookie, how are you, my Lover?" with his voice sounding ever so slightly tight. "It is good to hear your voice."
Pam whipped her head around, eyes wide. They all did.
"I'm fine. Right now I'm on my way to an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. Um, listen, things kind of went south in Islamabad. I didn't want you to be alarmed when you heard about it. I think that what you're going to see if you watch TV probably looks pretty… bad. But I'm fine."
"Really. Well, actually I was just watching Al Jazeera with Rasul, Stefan, Andor and Pam. Quite an adventure. It gives reality TV new meaning. We could see you. Pam actually thought it looked like you were injured."
"Well, I got shot earlier today but I'm fine. It went clean through, right between my hip and ribcage. Probably didn't hit anything important because I'm still moving just fine. I have a pressure bandage on it. It's really nothing serious. But I honestly don't think I can make it home on Thursday. Tomorrow I'll be at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. I'll be there a day or two. I should be in DC by Thursday. I'll come home on Friday or at the latest, Saturday. You'll be happy to know that I think I'm going to be fired. But if they don't fire me, I'm quitting. I _promise_ you. I'll quit and come home. I can't do this anymore. Not another day. I have to let you go, okay? We want to call Mercan and Ahmed needs to call his brother. I'll call you from Germany. I love you."
"The same," he said softly. The connection ended.
Home. She didn't think she could make it _home_ on Thursday. As bad as the past half-hour had been, he could almost smile. This was home in her mind. Finally. And it only took almost dying on a rooftop halfway around the world. But, however, she got there, that was fine. That was Sookie for you. Thankfully, the fucking FBI job hadn't gotten her killed… She had promised to quit and come home. And he would make _sure_ she kept her word to him. He was totally done with being patient. It was more than enough already. She would come home and do something much less likely to get her killed. Like work for him. Or whatever the hell she wanted to do that didn't involve her almost getting killed. But she _would _quit.
"Well?" said Pam, looking exasperated.
"She says that she is fine, she was shot but that it was nothing serious and that she'll be here on Friday or Saturday. She'll be in Germany tomorrow. She must have done it against orders. She said they're going to fire her or that she's quitting. Maybe she's finally had enough." He rose from the couch and signaled to Stefan and Andor that they should head back to business. He glanced back at Pam. "Let's hope so, right?"
Very shortly after sunset the following day he was at his desk in his private library to check his email and Skype account when after barely a knock on the door Pam and Stefan entered and handed him a cordless phone. Pam looked distraught.
"Talk to her," was all she said.
"Hello?" said Eric, with puzzlement as he spoke into the receiver.
"Mr. Northman? Mr. Eric Northman?" said a woman's voice. Her accent was unusual to his ear. She sounded very stressed.
"Yes," said Eric.
"This is Alla, a friend of your… wife's. We work together. I … I… " her voice cracked and then in the background a clipped British accented voice said "Give it to me. I'll talk to him, he's not going to care if it's proper or not, Alla."
"Eric? Eric Northman?" said the man with the British accent.
"Ahmed?" asked Eric cautiously.
"Yes. Look, Sasha got shot. We were in Islamabad... well you already know all that... of course... she told you when we got out. Well, she was badly shot and has had a lot of internal bleeding. She collapsed yesterday when we got to the aircraft carrier. We're calling you from Germany. She's going to be back in the States today if they can stabilize her after surgery she's just had. She's in very serious shape. Alla's husband got this number for us. We called as soon as I could figure the sun had set for you. We wanted you to know how she was and where she'll be. We'll stay with her when she's transported. I guess to Walter Reed. It may be later tonight your time. It's 2:30 am here and they're talking about leaving around 6 am if she's stable enough."
Eric was silent for a moment and then said coolly, "How serious is her condition?"
Ahmed paused and then actually sounded choked as he said, "Well, she's almost gone and died. She lost a huge amount of blood. She's got some kind of serious infection from the open wound. They say she'll likely lose her spleen and a kidney. They were trying to be conservative by just controlling the bleeding first. They've got that under control for now but she's listed as critical. They can't do more surgery until the infection is better controlled. Our boss wants her flown back to the States."
"Back to DC tonight, then. How can I reach you for further information?"
"We've lost our cell phones and I really don't trust the bloody wankers in Quantico to tell you a damn thing. We couldn't even get their cooperation to get your phone numbers. The only way we got a hold of you was because of Alla's husband's assistance. Do we call you at this number when we know more?"
Eric gave him his cell phone number and his day assistant's number.
"Thank you, Ahmed. And to Alla, too. Thank you."
"She wanted us to call you. She was so worried about _you_. The only time she was lucid, she made me promise to call you. We just can't believe what happened. She'd been talking about quitting for over a month. She said this rubbish that at least if she got killed at home, she'd be dying happy. I had teased her about it, that she thought of dying at all. We wouldn't be alive without her having gone back. And she went back shot. Now I wonder if she saw something like this would happen, even if she says she doesn't do that. We just hope…" his voice trailed off. He sounded little better than Alla at that point.
"She's very strong," said Eric firmly. "She's always been very strong…"
_She'd been talking about quitting for over a month?_ And the _rest_ of what he said? Better to be home, she'd said?
* * *
When I woke up in the hospital bed and saw Eric reading, I really thought I must be having a dream. Maybe it was a weird flashback dream from one of the times he'd been there when I'd been in a hospital before? But he hadn't been reading those other times. Besides the room didn't look right. As I blinked into more awareness he glanced up and smiled.
"Nice to see you awake again, Miss I'm Fine and It's Nothing Serious."
I felt disoriented. My last clear memory was holding Alla's hand as we arrived on the aircraft carrier. She was on a stretcher because she had been beaten and could not sit up easily. We landed and I stood up and… I'd heard Ahmed's voice, saying my name. I'd turned and looked up at him. Then I remembered hearing Lt. Birch talking to me, and an arm supporting me, cursing in Arabic and then… nothing. I blinked again, slowly, and looked around to see Markus leaning against the wall, evidently on downtime.
"Where am I?" I asked finally in a whisper.
"Bethesda. Walter Reed."
I shook my head as if to get some sense into it. "How long have I been here? What day is it?"
"It's Sunday night, around 9 pm. You've been here since Wednesday morning. Alla and Ahmed called me from Germany on Tuesday. To tell me how you were fine except for all the internal bleeding."
I tried to assess how I felt now. I didn't feel bad or in pain or anything.
"But I feel pretty much fine."
He put the book down in his lap and crossed his arms.
"I gave you blood."
"What?" I still felt slightly disoriented. I had definitely had some sort of opiate or something. I recognized the scrambled thinking from the time I'd had the surgery on my breast. And the headache. But I didn't see anything other than IV fluids hanging and something that looked like one of those smaller bags for antibiotics. No pump for pain medication. But I still felt out of it. Anyway, I looked over at Eric. I was happy just seeing him. I smiled at him. But then I grasped what he was saying: he had given me _still_ _more_ blood. "You're serious? More blood? Again?"
He looked at me levelly and said, "You're fine. It wasn't a lot. And now you're fine."
I took a moment to absorb his words and then felt a jolt as I absorbed what he was telling me. Was he basically saying that I'd almost died and he gave me his blood after promising me years before that he'd never turn me if I was dying? Well, I hadn't turned, but…
"Bill told me once that sometimes people turn later, with no warning, Eric," I said with alarm.
"Well, _I've_ never seen that happen with anyone, Lover. I gave you my word. They'd given you a lot of whole blood. It wasn't as if you were drained and I gave it to you. I keep telling you that you can trust me to know what I'm doing. I was thinking you might like hanging on to the spare kidney. You kept the kidney but lost the spleen. The first surgery was in Germany on Tuesday. You had the second surgery to remove the damaged spleen on Friday in the morning. You had a bad infection from the open wound. They thought they'd have to go back yesterday to take the kidney. That's when I finally just gave you blood, early in the morning yesterday. They took out the drains this afternoon. They finally cut the morphine after that. You really don't remember anything since you arrived?"
"How long have you been here?" I asked, kind of dazed.
"At night, since you arrived on Wednesday at 5 am. I only saw you briefly and then had to leave. Alla stays with you during the day. Or Ahmed. You really don't remember anything? You were sort of awake sometimes. You could talk a bit after they took out the tube for the respirator," he said shaking his head with an uncertain smile.
I shook my head. I really didn't remember anything. It was incredible to me that I'd been out of it for almost a week.
"Most unfortunate."
"Why? What should I remember?"
"Well, for one thing, you said you'd marry me. You were so very agreeable. You were really delightful. I really could have asked you for anything and you'd have agreed. I should have asked for a lot more," he said with a playful look, eyebrow raised. "But I do have witnesses," he said nodding toward Markus.
I just sniggered.
"We will talk about that when I'm fully lucid, thank you. I have a sense that an answer when I'm not high on morphine is probably more meaningful to you, anyway. Is Alla really okay? And Ahmed? They both weren't in good shape when we got them."
"They are both recovering just fine. They have been very worried about you. And Manny is still not recovered, Lover. It has been interesting to talk to him. You cannot imagine how upset he was with what happened."
"Well, excuse my crocodile tears. He had them pull me and leave Alla and Ahmed, Eric. Evidently our interpreters are just expendable. And all those other people left in that building? The army guys would have had to just give up and take off again without them. An empty gesture, futilely risking more people's lives by even trying to fly back there to rescue people they had no intention of helping them find? Well, _screw them_. It was obvious that the best way to rescue them was for me to go back. It was the only way it was worth the risk of asking them to fly back in there."
"You have to understand that from their perspective you are irreplaceable, Sookie."
"Yes, Eric, I'm a _very_ special asset. I get that. I've been somebody's asset for five fucking years and I'm done with being seen that way by anyone. And I'm not cut out to deal with people according to how much they're 'worth' to the FBI or our government. Am I worth more than a woman with an infant to raise? A man who is so highly educated? And all those other people that got left behind? They were just doing their job. How can one person be worth more than another? It's a shitty and disgusting concept. I won't be part of it."
Eric looked at me like he was siding with Manny on this one, but not going to argue with me at the moment.
"Well, you'll have your wish, one way or another, Lover. If they don't fire you, you've already given me your word you'll quit and I have every intention of holding you to your word. But perhaps you should talk to your boss before you condemn him. It was evident to me that he found the situation with respect to Ahmed and Alla very distasteful. It did not seem to me that it was his idea. But no matter what the source of the problem was, you have given me your word. I will not accept anything less that what you promised me. You're done here."
He looked at me with very cold eyes as he said it. I could definitely see that he was not kidding. I might be barely awake but I was awake enough to know that I was not changing my mind, anyway.
"Well, don't worry. I give you my word _again_, Eric_. _I'm done."
There was a knock on the open door and I glanced over to see, much to my surprise, Barry Horowitz.
"Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?" Barry asked.
Even Eric looked surprised and Markus moved to blocked Barry's path. Barry looked apprehensively at Markus and then at me.
"We know him, Markus. It's fine," said Eric.
Markus leaned back against the wall, but indicated that Barry should stand on the other side of the bed from where Eric was sitting.
_What are you doing here?_ I asked Barry.
_What are _you_ doing here? I heard you're in a bundle of trouble, as usual. Are you feeling better? Recovering?_
_What do you mean you 'heard'? How did you even know I was here? Why are you in the DC area?_
He smiled.
_You didn't figure out that I was your NSA counterpart, eh? Well, I guess I was more careful than I thought._
_You're kidding me. I heard a rumor that NSA had a telepath. I never thought it was _you.
He offered me his hand with a smile.
_Hi, I'm the NSA telepath, nice to meet you. You must be that Bureau telepath, right? You look mighty familiar. And you, my friend, never told the Bureau where to look for me. You never even told them where I had lived or who I'd worked for in the past. No matter how they cajoled you, you kept my information away from them. You were a loyal friend, Sookie._
_I thought you didn't want to be found if they couldn't find you. How long have you been NSA?_
_I started a few months before you signed with the Bureau. But it seems like you've logged a lot more hours in the field than I have._
Eric continued to look back and forth between the two of us as if he was at a tennis match. Suddenly I realized how rude we were being.
"Eric, I'm so sorry… We got carried away. Eric, I'm sure you remember Barry from Rhodes. Barry, you remember Eric, my… husband."
I figured since the last time that Eric had seen Barry he was very angry about how I was dancing with him that I could clearly define things for Barry in a way that would make Eric quite happy. Plus, if Barry was here on some little fact finding mission, maybe thinking I was securely attached to my vampire was safer.
Barry looked stunned. Eric looked more than a little pleased.
"You're _married_? Wow. I didn't know you were married at all? That's a real lapse on my part. Actually, I always figured you'd end up with a Were or were or something. My girlfriend is a Were. I can read her a bit. I know you could read Weres and weres before. Can you read vampires at all now?" he asked, looking quite interested.
"Very seldom. Maybe once in a great while, I get a flash or something but it's fleeting and it gets me so freaked out that it's pretty much useless." Then I immediately regretted saying it. Opiates could really erode your judgment.
Eric turned slowly and looked at me with a surprised, dark look. I tried to brush the whole thing off and continued,
"Being with a vampire is more like things are for everyone else in that I have to figure things out the old fashioned way. You know talking and reading body language. I'm really bad at it though, aren't I?" I chuckled at Eric.
"Only bad about discussing the important things, Lover…" he said, glowering a bit.
"So, I heard through the grapevine that you might be leaving the Bureau. Is that true?"
I looked at Barry circumspectly, puzzled. If I'd been out for days, then only Eric, Ahmed, Alla and the soldiers on that helicopter knew I was planning to leave unless I'd been talking about it when I was delirious or something.
"Where did you hear that, Barry?"
"Um, the transmission recordings of your calls when you were out over the Arabian Sea. You know, we hear everything to be heard. I think you said you were either going to be fired or that you'd quit? I hear the Bureau _is_ rather ticked, in spite of the fact that you basically helped save fourteen people. State's certainly happy with you. And I think Ahmed said he was going to quit, too? He's your Urdu guy, right? Can't see him going to the private sector, frankly."
I didn't like where this was going.
"Um, Barry, just so we're clear, if I'm leaving, I'm leaving, period. Not making a lateral move. I can't speak for Ahmed, or for Alla, but if I leave, I'm gone. And Ahmed is not 'my Urdu guy'. He's a linguist. He speaks five languages and he's probably the best-educated person I've ever met. Oxford and Harvard and he has a whole library in his head. Reading his mind is like accessing an encyclopedia. So don't you dare call Ahmed 'my Urdu guy'. It's totally insulting. Plus, if you'd done your research, you'd know that he's Al Saud and can pretty much write his own ticket to do whatever the hell he wants to do." I was really offended by his offhand manner about Ahmed, as if he was my minion or something.
Barry seemed a little bit chastened by my attitude. He had also planned to ask about Alla but decided quickly to hold off based on my reaction to his little misstep with Ahmed. He knew that Alla and I were friends, too. He had come on a little recruiting mission. He wanted to put together an intelligence team that relied on telepathic abilities. And I had field experience he couldn't even begin to dream of.
"I wasn't thinking about a lateral move for you. It would definitely be a promotion."
"I'm really not interested. I appreciate the thought, your confidence in my abilities, everything. But really, I just don't feel I can do this type of work any longer."
Then I tried to be very careful to empty my mind of every thought so that he would have nothing to latch onto. Just to be on the safe side. He could tell. Repeating 'empty, empty, empty' is a kind of telling to a telepath. He stared at me as if surprised that I wasn't interested and that wouldn't let him hear my thoughts any longer. Just before he me cut off his, I heard him wondering if I'd suffered PTSD from the whole thing in Islamabad. I could have laughed at him at that point. He thought I was afraid of the Taliban and the terrorists. I was really afraid of not being able to make my own decisions and choices.
"Well, I'll leave you my card. You know, you could work pretty much from anywhere but of course you would have to come into Fort Meade for meetings and such. Just… keep us in mind. And if your people ask about me, put in a good word. Both your interpreters seem to have been excellent selections. I hope you recover well, okay? And thanks again for the privacy stuff." He nodded to Eric. "Mr. Northman. Good night."
Eric waited until Barry was well out the door and then turned to me and said in a low voice,
"Since _when_ do you get flashes into vampire minds, Lover? Since when?"
"Occasionally. It's totally unpredictable."
"Have you ever read me?"
"That I'm really sure of, only a couple of times in the entire time I've known you," I said quietly.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "_When_?"
"I don't know Eric. I guess the one I remember most is the first time, in Fangtasia when you had me come to interview people because Long Shadow had stolen your money."
"You read me back _then_?" He looked genuinely shocked.
"Yeah. It was the first time I've gotten anything from a vampire, actually. I was really afraid of you back then. I thought your mind was all cold and slithery. It scared me. But I was already afraid of you. It wasn't your thoughts that scared me."
"And now?"
"Now I'm only scared of you when you say we need to talk." I said with a chuckle.
"But what about now? Do you still get these 'flashes' now?" he pressed.
I thought about it. I really wasn't sure what to say. And I wasn't too sure I wanted to be talking about it in front of Markus. There were so many times recently where I thought I might have been hearing his thoughts. But we'd become so much closer that I really couldn't say for certain that it was that I was telepathically reading him. Maybe it was just knowing him or feeling him through the bond? I frankly couldn't tell sometimes. Some of it felt more subtle than the way I normally read people.
"To be perfectly honest, sometimes I don't even know, Eric. Maybe we can talk about it later," said casting my eyes in Markus' direction for Eric's benefit. "Did they say anything about when I can be discharged?"
He raised an eyebrow as if he didn't quite buy it that I didn't know, but he got my point about Markus. At least he didn't really look or feel upset from what I could see.
"Maybe in a day or two, Lover."
"Where are you staying?" I asked warily. I didn't want to think about him in some vampire hotel room, especially if only Markus was with him. I had no idea who the King of Maryland might be or if he was friendly. "Is Markus the only one with you?"
"Someplace safe. Don't worry. And Andor is here, too. He's outside. There are only supposed to be two people in the room at a time, so they have been alternating. The hospital has been interesting in response to having vampires in your room. After you lived through the first few nights, however, they have been a little more... gracious," he said with a sour expression on his face.
"You've really been here since _Wednesday_?" I asked kind of incredulous. That was a long time for him to be away from Louisiana. And a long time to put up with people being unpleasant and acting like you were going to drain their patient.
"You almost died, Sookie. I really think it would be better if we could have a long period of time where nothing happens to you. Maybe a few decades. Would that be possible?"
I wanted to have a long period of quiet, too. I would be happy to move back to Louisiana and have just that. Although…
"Eric, when I move back, would you mind if I lived on my own?" I said quietly.
His expression darkened. He snapped his fingers and signaled to Markus to leave and waited until he did so.
"Why would you suggest such a thing to me? Especially in front of Markus?"
"You just discussed asking me to marry you in front of Markus. You asked me about reading you. In front of Markus. _That's_ all okay but my asking a question isn't? What's the deal?"
He stared at me with ice cold eyes. His face looked like it could have been carved from marble or alabaster, cold as stone. Finally he spit out his reply.
"I have been here for five nights watching over you and you're telling me that you want to move back to Louisiana to live on your own? You are trying my patience and tolerance to an extreme. I let you have your way, the freedom to do your horrible job, take all the crap you have put me, put _us_, through while you try to figure things out. I have turned my life inside out for you for years now, while you slapped me with attitude and coldness time and again. I thought we finally were past that. And now you'll try it in front of subordinates? Well, there _is_ a limit to what I'll take from you and you're rapidly approaching it," he said in a low but very cutting voice. He looked, and acted, very angry but what I felt was his being hurt again. My heart lurched. He didn't understand me. I struggled to think of how to explain it.
He looked away from me and said after a moment, "We shouldn't even be having this discussion now. You haven't been well. Just forget it. But no more discussion in front of Markus or even in front of Andor."
"Eric, I don't mean it the way you think I mean it. It came out wrong. I just… I need the daylight, okay? To look out the windows and see the blue sky or the sunsets. I'll come back home. I'll marry you, if you want to get married. I will. I do see what you've done to be with me. And what you've been through because of me, some of which is so God awful that I still can't stomach it. But how much am _I_ supposed to concede to in order to be with you? Do you ever think about what I'm giving up? Is it even on the radar for you? I'll never be able to talk to you except during the nighttime when there are already all these other demands on your attention and time. Nighttime for other people is family time but it's never going to be that way for me. Ever. There's a whole long list of things that I grew up thinking were just part of a normal everyday relationship that I'm _never_ going to have if I'm with you. That's fine. I can accept it. All the political bullshit that I always just hated, that I'm even afraid of, fine. It's you and it's what you want and who you are. Well, this is me: I want daylight. And I want Rosie. And I have to work. Or I'll literally go insane. I need to live somewhere where I can have those things. I'll give up all the rest. But not those." My eyes just filled with tears. I was mad I'd hurt his feelings and wondered if I'd ever be anything other than inept at handling things in relationships. Maybe Pam was right and I was just damaged.
Eric listened to my whole speech, then finally rose and came over to sit on the edge of the bed, next to me. I had had this sense that he was holding himself apart from me since I awoke and I worried that he was also angry with me for having gone back to help rescue all those people and my friends. He stroked my hair back behind my ear and wiped away a tear that streaked down my cheek. Then the floodgate seemed to break and I was crying and mad that I was crying. My head hurt and I didn't know why I was having an argument when I just woke up and had been so injured. After a minute he said,
"Honestly Sookie, sometimes your communication skills just leave me in disbelief. Had it ever occurred to you to tell me any of this, other than the job issue, before? Of course, I took it the wrong way. I thought it was just more of the usual. In front of Markus, no less. Sunlight? Your problem is _sunlight_? I can provide sunlight for Pam's orchids but not for you? And how much of my time would you have if you lived elsewhere? I don't even understand how you think of this stuff sometimes."
I just leaned over and cried on him. Cried because I'd been so scared. Cried because I'd been afraid he'd never forgive me for going back to the embassy. Cried because I just wanted to go home.
"I thought you'd hate me for going back… And I was so worried you could feel it." I said, sniffling and shaking my head. Eric just stroked my hair. I felt so soothed by his touch.
After a while, when I was calmer, he said,
"It will all be fine, Lover. I understand your need to work. But remember, if they don't fire you, you promised me you would quit. Whatever the work is, it will be a different job and in New Orleans." He shifted closer to me and kissed the top of my head. He just held me. "As for the rest, we'll find a way to make it work. You will have your sunlight, and the cat. Just…" he sighed heavily, "_rest_." I leaned my head against his chest and put my arm around his waist. I could feel him shaking his head and feel more than a bit of frustration on his part. But not anger anymore. He just held me for a while and we were silent.
Andor came in and leaned against the wall where Markus had been standing. I glanced over at him and he nodded his head at a bit of an angle and smiled to say hello to me.
"Var försiktig när du kämpar med den modiga flickan," Andor said to Eric in a low voice, with a wry smile.
"Dra åt helvete," Eric said in a harsh tone, shaking his head as if in disgust.
I lifted my head and looked over at Andor who looked quite amused and then up to Eric and asked, "What exactly was the comment?" All I knew was that 'flicka' was girl. Stefan had been teaching me some Swedish on each of my visits since June. And of course I was learning more from my birthday present from Ahmed, too. Andor spoke Norse, Norwegian, Swedish, German and a smattering of other things like Dutch and French. But he was using Swedish, so I could only assume that if he was teasing Eric in Swedish, he wanted me to _know_ he was teasing him because they usually just fell back into Norse.
"Andor's just looking for his one way ticket to Svalbard, Lover," said Eric acerbically.
I looked back at Andor. Andor crossed his arms over his chest and looked very pleased with himself. He was clearly teasing Eric. He met my eye and nodded, saying,
"I told him to be careful fighting with the brave girl," with a snort. "He could get injured."
I stifled a laugh. I seriously wondered whether even Pam would have been able to get away with that one.
"Skitstövel," was Eric's reply. I had the feeling that he really wasn't paying Andor a compliment. Andor just cracked up.
Markus entered the room with a sack that contained a six pack of True Blood and the three of them drank several and appeared to bandy about insults in various languages. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Eric stayed sitting on the bed with me. A nurse came to check on me and looked as if she thought about asking one of them to leave but appeared to think better of it.
I was discharged the following evening, with my doctors proclaiming that it was a miracle that I'd kept my left kidney and that I had recovered so quickly. Even the scarring looked like it would be minimal. The scars were already mostly healed from Eric's having me ingest his blood. The attending physician looked puzzled but said little. Even the bullet entry and exit wounds looked like they wouldn't scar badly at this point. On the other hand, I had achieved a soft glow in the dark that had me totally worried. Eric told me again that it was fine and that he knew what he was doing. Since the daylight didn't seem to bother me, I figured he was right.
When Eric came back that evening to collect me he paused as he entered the room to look at Ahmed, Alla and me, playing Hokm on my hospital bed. The three of us were erupting in laughter over the game as Eric entered the room. Ahmed had just returned that afternoon from NYU, where had accepted a lecturer position in the Linguistics Department. He was going to teach for a year. Alla had tendered her resignation that morning to Manny, after confirming with me that I was really leaving the Bureau. She was going to take a break and was considering interviewing at the State Department or NSA. Mercan wanted her to teach Farsi. A nice safe job, she said. The sparkle in her eyes made it clear that was far too boring a prospect for her.
Early in the morning I got a delivery from a courier with my new cell phone, new passport, various documents lost in the embassy and my badge and a notice that my service weapon was with my unit in Quantico. As I had checked my email with my new phone that morning I was amused by the collection in my Inbox. First, I was informed by personnel that I was being docked five days of salary for insubordination. I requested an explanation and was told they would forward the documentation. The personnel email was followed by an email copy of an official letter received in my office, stating that I was receiving an award from the State Department for valor, along with the info from our unit's secretary that I had received a handwritten note of thanks from the US Ambassador to Pakistan. While the State Department seemed to appreciate me, my employer, the Justice Department, didn't seem to feel the same way. But that seemed to change because several hours later, I received a phone call from the Assistant Attorney General's office informing me that I was receiving an award for heroism. Ironically, at the time I received that call I was reading a faxed copy of the letter Manny's boss, Chuck Powell, the head of the FBI's Counterterrorism Unit, had written assailing my unprofessionalism and insubordination. That letter led to my salary being docked and was now in my permanent personnel file, along with the award letters from the State and Justice Departments. I had to laugh at the absurdity of it. I emailed my resignation a short time later to Manny and copied Chuck, since it appeared that even defying orders wasn't going to be enough to make them fire their only telepath. Manny called me right away. He asked me what I was going to do. I said I was going home and planning to rest for a while. I'd think about long term plans later. I got this really odd feeling that he was relieved that I was leaving. Not because he didn't like me or like working with me, but precisely because he did like me. It was hard to read a person over the phone, but I really thought that he hadn't argued about Powell's letter precisely because it paved the way for me to leave, and for the Bureau not to fuss as much about my leaving. The perception left by Chuck's letter was that I was just too difficult and could be unmanageable. I was grateful. He was making it easy for me with his silence. Before he said he'd talk to me later, he told me my vampire was a very interesting guy.
In the afternoon I sat watching the limited TV news coverage I could find of the total chaos in Pakistan. It really looked like just as the US was pulling out of Iraq that we were going to be entering a far more dangerous and frightening war. It was, thinking of everything I knew about the region, a very auspicious moment to leave the fray. I was glad that Alla, Ahmed and I were getting out when we were. We had served a good purpose, we all agreed while we visited that evening. But we were done. I was haunted by the ten minutes that I had spent on that embassy rooftop. I wondered how many people I'd killed. People's sons, fathers, husbands, brothers. Of course, I realized that I'd have to let it go. They had attacked us. Self-defense was justifiable, I told myself. Perhaps I'd finally learn to be at peace with that concept. But I hadn't. Not quite yet… I knew what it was to lose people you loved.
In the evening I called Remy and Hunter from Eric's cell phone. Hunter sounded very happy when we spoke. He was excited that I was going back to New Orleans and that I was moving back home. I promised to come and see him when I was more settled. But we could Skype until then. He enjoyed that. Then I called Jason. Eric had called him several times, to keep him posted about me. Jason sounded relieved to hear my voice and told me that he was getting pretty sick of my getting so injured all the time. I had to agree with him. I asked him to tell Sam I said hi. I wanted to go up and visit my house in Bon Temps in a few weeks.
After signing my discharge papers I sat waiting while Eric and Andor made arrangements for us to depart. Markus was arranging the flight, which Eric said was a private one from Dulles. Eric had Ben packing up Rosie's things and we were going to stop by my apartment so that I could pick her up and collect enough belongings for an extended stay in New Orleans. I'd come back to Alexandria and pack up in a few weeks when I was fully recovered.
I had hugged Alla and Ahmed goodbye for now. After they left, I remembered how I felt when I was pulled from the Embassy and they were left behind, to be beaten and possibly much worse. The look on Ahmed's face when he came out of that stairwell and saw me would stay with me forever. And the tears in Alla's eyes as she grasped my hand and whispered her raspy thanks for coming back for them. I reflected on how it felt during that long hour while I argued my way back to the embassy. The utter anguish of knowing that my friends were trapped in that place and there was so little I could do to help them as the minutes ticked by. As I wondered what was happening to them and if they would even be alive when I got back there. I remembered the relief I felt, up on that rooftop, when I caught their thought signatures as I locked on to that familiar sarcastic voice in Ahmed's head and felt the chill of the first time I had ever heard real fear in Alla's mind. It couldn't help but lead me to imagine Eric, and what he might have thought and felt when I was with Neave and Lochlan. It was bad enough thinking about that but I tried to imagine _feeling_ it, knowing something unspeakably horrible was happening to the person you were in love with, feeling the terror and pain of it. All while having to deal with political bullshit and the people who work for you possibly rebelling because of your choices. I quickly came to the conclusion that I really _couldn't_ imagine it. As I listened to him on the phone talking to Stefan in Swedish, I thought about how much he must have loved me to put up with all the stuff he'd had to take not just from me, but from the people around him for his loving me. And I'd questioned his saying he loved me after everything he went through?
He really deserved a better me.
15. Chapter 14
**XIV.**
**December 2009**
I sat in the window seat petting Rosie and looking out at the gray winter sky. I was reading _Middlemarch_, because I'd promised Pam I'd read it. It was part of what I 'owed her for the stress my friendship had imposed upon her'. Basically, it was her favorite book and she was thrilled to have another victim to discuss it with, as Eric saw it. It was a really good book but quite long. I sighed and closed the book on my finger for a minute. I played with my hair trying to decide if the color was really back to the right shade of blonde. I guessed it was pretty close.
Today was Sunday and tomorrow, in spite of all the busy last minute planning going on, Amelia and I would be looking at office space for our business. We had formed a security consulting service in October. Wards, security installations for entry and egress, all the usual stuff. The need for better security for various supernatural groups was still a big issue, but even New Orleans human clientele were interested. We were already inundated with appointments and paid jobs. Some of it wasn't even just Louisiana business. Running things from Amelia's house wasn't giving us enough space. We were going to need a real office. Eric wanted us to use office space in the compound but I longed to be able to have an excuse to go outside during the day and I needed to be with some humming human minds. We had a list of properties to explore.
The inception of our business had been my completely revamping (and how I loved that pun) the security in Eric's compound. After the cool October evening on which Pam had pumped 15 rounds of silver bullets into three vampires from Area 2 who went after Stefan and Eric with silver knives while Andor was out of the room, I was really done with tolerating the laid back security attitude and told Eric and Bill off. Pam was relieved to have gotten rid of the last of Felipe's Area 2 crew as she had said they should have from the beginning. I shuddered to think of what might have happened if Pam hadn't been there. Stefan recovered slowly from the silver poisoning, although he was able to at least resume working after a week in darkness and an absolutely inordinate amount of fresh blood on the advice of Dr. Ludwig. His color was finally looking better, less gray. Eric was not seriously injured because Stefan had dodged in front of the blades. Eric and Markus had sliced up the three vampires with their swords, but I really thought that it was Pam's handiwork that did the three of them in, slowing them down appreciably the moment she saw them draw their knives. Following that night, Eric was more than willing to concede that an upgrade of the existing system was really needed. Within a week we had installed SecureScan imaging detectors that could even detect cell phones, let alone knives and other objects. I had the detectors running with a backup power source in case the electricity went out. All the locks on doors to the private areas of the Compound were changed to a system that scanned your entire hand and still required a passcode. I was still trying to decide whether retinal scans for very secure areas, like the bedrooms, were overkill and if they would work with vampire eyes. My source of information about the best systems was none other than Manny, who was happy to offer his expert advice or put me in touch with someone who could. Manny and I had also talked about the possibility of my doing consulting work for the FBI. But I was hesitant. I wasn't sure I wanted to be drawn back into any potentially dangerous situations. He mentioned the possibility of interviewing mobsters or kidnapping suspects. I told him I'd think about it. I didn't want to do anything that would upset Eric. Of course, I was working regularly for Eric, too. Sitting in on meetings with him or talking with people who worked around the compound during the day, keeping an eye on things.
In the meantime, Eric had shifted the room assignment of the private rooms neighboring his rooms on the library side and had the space completely renovated to provide a daytime area for me. By beginning of November I had a long bow window with a window seat, set in a spacious room, with a daybed, bookcases, a desk and my own bathroom and closet space. In an adjacent room, a small kitchen and dining area were set up, so that I could cook for myself. Ruben was politely relieved. I still slept in the bedroom with Eric, of course but it was easy to cross the dark library during the day and go sit on my side and work. Or I'd just go out of the compound entirely to meet with Amelia. Rosie had free rein throughout our rooms, which took up almost the entire west side of the building.
I sighed and picked up the engraved card that I was using to mark my place in _Middlemarch_. I was thinking a late afternoon nap was in order. It would be getting dark soon, anyway. I glanced at the card as I slipped it inside to mark my page. It had been altered with Eric's fancy script and my own handwriting.
-
The honor of your company is requested
at the marriage of
Miss Sookie "Sasha" Stackhouse
to
Mr. Eric Northman
Friday, December 25th 2009
At 9:00 pm
In New Orleans, Louisiana
Private transportation to a secured location to be provided
-
My name had been crossed out and replaced above it by the name 'Miss I'm Fine, Nothing Serious, Forget About It' in Eric's hand writing. In response I'd scratched out his full line and replaced it with 'Min Älskade, aka As You Wish, As Long As It's My Way'. Eric had recently been saying that our song at the reception was going to be Sinatra's "My Way". To which I replied that, clearly, he was marrying someone _else_, in which case I was going to be extremely offended. Eric enjoyed it when I called him my beloved in Swedish. As long as I wasn't arguing too much when I said it.
Eric liked the idea of marrying on Christmas day. Pam actually came up with the idea. Since I celebrated Christmas but he wasn't even a Christian, it made my holiday into our mutual day to celebrate something. He was going to be so shocked when he saw my dark red Vera Wang wedding dress instead of traditional white. Pam and Amelia, my bridesmaids, were sworn to secrecy. The lady who owned the bridal store was so scandalized it made me laugh. I was calling it my Scarlett O'Hara moment.
It was going to be an understated wedding. I didn't feel comfortable asking people to come to a lavish celebration given what was going on in Pakistan. The ongoing US involvement in the war against the Taliban was a serious and frightening one. It had made strange alliances between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the US, and strife with India and Russia. I had been steadily contributing to non-governmental aid organizations- those providing medical care like Doctors Without Borders, and to groups building schools and clinics in Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan like the Central Asia Institute. Really, I couldn't see spending a fortune on a one time event when that same money could vaccinate several villages or build an entire school and buy every child textbooks. But it still had to be fancy enough to suit Eric, though. Vampires really love pomp and spectacle.
I closed my book on the invitation, kissed a purring Rosie and walked back across to the bedroom. I brushed my teeth and brushed my hair. After undressing, I climbed up into the big bed and snuggled up to my vampire. I sighed happily as I wrapped my arm around his waist and closed my eyes, with my cheek on his cool shoulder.
I had to admit, sometimes it's really a good thing to be spectacularly wrong.
End file.
| fanfiction |
subfield of algebraic coding dominated the field of channel coding theory for the first couple of decades . in the @xmath0s ,
the objective of most of the research in channel coding was the development of algebraic block codes , particularly cyclic codes .
the main focus of algebraic coding theory is the design of @xmath1$]-codes that maximize the minimum distance @xmath2 for a given @xmath3 over a finite field @xmath4 .
the algebraic coding paradigm used the structure of finite fields to design efficient encoding and error - correction procedures for linear block codes operating on a hard - decision channel .
cyclic codes are codes that are invariant under cyclic shifts of @xmath5-tuple codewords
. they were first investigated by prange in @xmath6 @xcite and became the primary focus of research after the publication of peterson s pioneering text in @xmath7 @xcite .
cyclic codes have a nice algebraic theory and attractive simple encoding and decoding procedures based on cyclic shift - register implementations .
hamming , golay , and shortened reed - muller ( rm ) codes can be put into cyclic form .
the main achievement in this field was the invention of bch and reed - solomon ( rs ) codes in @xmath8 and @xmath0 @xcite .
even though , binary algebraic block codes can be used on the additive white gaussian noise ( awgn ) channel , they have not proved to be the way to approach channel capacity on this channel .
approaching the shannon limit on the awgn channel for an error - correction paradigm requires the operation of the decoder on the vector of _ soft decisions _ and minimizing the euclidean distance , rather than working on _ hard decisions _ and minimizing the hamming distance .
it can be shown that using hard decisions generally costs @xmath9 to @xmath10db loss in the decoding performance .
thus , in order to approach the shannon limit on the awgn channel , the error - correction paradigm of the algebraic coding must be modified to accommodate soft decisions .
_ probabilistic coding _ is an alternative line of development , that was more directly inspired by shannon s probabilistic approach to coding . whereas the algebraic coding theory aims to find specific codes that maximize the minimum distance @xmath2 for a given @xmath3 , probabilistic coding is more concerned with finding the codes that optimize the average performance as a function of coding and decoding complexities .
s doctoral thesis @xcite on low - density parity - check ( ldpc ) codes was motivated by the problem of finding a class of _ random - like _ codes that could be decoded near capacity with quasi - optimal performance and feasible complexity .
gallager s ldpc codes and his iterative _ a posteriori probability _ ( app )
decoding algorithm , which seems to have been the first appearance of the now - ubiquitous _ sum - product algorithm _
( spa ) or _ belief propagation _ , were long before their time .
ldpc codes were forgotten for more than @xmath11 years due to their high complexity for the technology of that time . in @xmath12 , mackay @xcite showed empirically that near - shannon - limit performance could be obtained with long ldpc codes and iterative decoding .
however , even though ldpc codes have a good error performance in the awgn channel , their encoding complexity was a drawback for their implementation until the recent two decades and the invention of the _ quasi - cyclic _ ldpc ( qc - ldpc ) codes .
it has been shown that qc - ldpc codes can perform as well as other types of ldpc codes in most of the applications @xcite .
they have also been applied in the design of efficient multidimensional signal constellations for the awgn channels @xcite .
qc - ldpc codes have advantages over other types of ldpc codes in hardware implementation of encoding @xcite and decoding @xcite , @xcite .
thus , most of the ldpc codes adopted as standard codes for various next - generation communication and storage systems , are quasi - cyclic . in @xcite ,
the authors proposed a method for encoding qc - ldpc codes with linear time and space complexities in the length of the code .
these features have made the design of qc - ldpc codes an attractive research area and lots of methods , including algebraic methods , are proposed for constructing qc - ldpc codes . among these methods ,
the methods based on finite fields are the most related ones to this paper @xcite .
looking at the evolution of channel coding theory , which can be found in the brilliant survey of costello and forney @xcite , reveals a trade off between the complexity of encoding in the transmitter and error performance of decoding in the receiver .
indeed , if we want to have a low complexity encoding , the structure of the code must be close to the structure of the algebraic codes ( like cyclic codes ) and if we want to have a code with good error performance in the awgn channel , the structure of the code should be close to the structure of the capacity - approaching codes ( like ldpc codes ) . in this paper , we propose a family of codes that have both advantages at the same time .
this family of codes can be obtained by group ring encodings , which are called _ group ring based codes _ through this paper .
the codes from group ring encodings , which are presented in @xcite , are submodules ( sometimes ideals ) in a group ring .
an isomorphism between a group ring and a certain subring of the matrices can be used to obtain the parity - check and the generator matrices of the codes directly from the elements of the group ring @xcite .
the properties of the group ring based codes , such as the self - duality or owning a low density parity - check matrix , have simple algebraic descriptions .
examples of ldpc and self - dual group ring based codes are presented in @xcite . in this paper
, we present a new method for constructing and encoding qc - ldpc codes from group rings .
we exploit the available implementations of the fast fourier transform ( fft ) over group rings @xcite to increase the efficiency of the proposed encoding method , compared to the existent encoding methods for qc - ldpc codes @xcite .
the rest of this paper is organized as follows : section [ sec2 ] gives a brief introduction to group rings and their matrix representation . in section [ sec3 ] ,
we present the design criteria for constructing the parity - check matrix of the qc - ldpc codes based on finite fields . in section [ sec4 ] , we present the design criteria for constructing the parity - check matrix of the qc - ldpc codes from an element of a group algebra . in section [ sec5 ]
, we present a new method for constructing qc - ldpc codes based on group rings with a cyclic underlying group . in section [ abelian groups ] , we present the construction of qc - ldpc codes based on group rings with a non - cyclic abelian underlying group . a new encoding method for the proposed qc - ldpc codes based on group ring
is presented in section [ sec5_2 ] .
the implementation and complexity analysis of the proposed encoding method is given in section [ implementation ] .
section [ simulation ] is concerned with numerical and simulation results .
section [ conclusion ] contains concluding remarks .
* notation * : matrices and vectors are denoted by bold upper and lower case letters .
we denote the groups and rings by upper case letters .
the @xmath13 element of a vector @xmath14 is denoted by @xmath15 and the entry @xmath16 of a matrix @xmath17 is denoted by @xmath18 ; @xmath19^t$ ] denotes the transposition for vectors and matrices .
let @xmath20 be a multiplicative group and let @xmath21 be a ring .
the _ group ring _ of @xmath20 over @xmath21 , which is denoted by @xmath22 $ ] ( or simply @xmath23 ) , is the set of mappings @xmath24 of finite support be an arbitrary set and @xmath21 be a ring with zero @xmath25 .
suppose that @xmath26 is a function whose domain is @xmath27 .
the support of @xmath28 , which is denoted by @xmath29 , is the set of points in @xmath27 in which @xmath28 is non - zero , i.e. , @xmath30 . ] .
a group ring is a free module and at the same time a ring . as a free module ,
its ring of scalars is the given ring @xmath21 , and its basis is correspondence with the given group @xmath20 .
the module scalar product @xmath31 of a scalar @xmath32 in @xmath21 and a vector ( or mapping ) @xmath28 is defined as the vector @xmath33 , where @xmath34 and the dot operation @xmath35 represents the multiplication in @xmath21 .
the module group sum of two vectors @xmath28 and @xmath36 is defined as the vector @xmath37 . to turn the additive group @xmath23 into a ring
, we define the product of @xmath28 and @xmath36 to be the vector @xmath38 the summation is admissible because @xmath28 and @xmath36 are of finite support .
if the given ring @xmath21 is commutative , a group ring is also referred to as a _ group algebra _
, for it is indeed an algebra over the given ring .
the mappings such as @xmath39 are _ formal linear combinations _ of the elements of @xmath20 , with coefficients in @xmath21 , i.e. , @xmath40 , or simply @xmath41 .
thus , the group ring @xmath23 is a ring consisting of the set of all summations @xmath42 , where @xmath43 . if @xmath44 , then the addition is defined term - by - term , @xmath45 while the multiplication is a convolution - like operation , @xmath46 the group @xmath20 acts as a basis for the module @xmath23 over the ring @xmath21 . indeed , by considering an order over the elements of @xmath20 ,
every element of @xmath23 is a vector composed of elements of @xmath21 , where the @xmath13 component is associated with the group element @xmath47 . treating a group ring as the space of functions mapping a group to a ring , the multiplication in the group ring is the convolution of two functions therein .
more details about group rings and their properties can be found in @xcite .
consider @xmath4 to be the finite field with @xmath48 elements .
let @xmath49 be the cyclic group of three elements with generator @xmath50 and identity element @xmath51 .
an element @xmath52 of @xmath53 may be written as @xmath54 , where @xmath55 , @xmath56 and @xmath57 are in @xmath4 . writing a different element @xmath58 as @xmath59 ,
their sum is @xmath60 , and their product is @xmath61 .
the identity element @xmath51 of @xmath20 induces a canonical embedding of the coefficient ring @xmath4 into @xmath53 and the multiplicative identity element of @xmath53 is @xmath62 where the first @xmath63 comes from @xmath4 and the second from @xmath20 .
the additive identity element is zero .
@xmath64 from now on , we only consider group algebras over a finite group , which are denoted by @xmath20 and @xmath65 in most cases .
let @xmath66 be a fixed listing of the elements of @xmath20 .
we have the following definition from @xcite .
the @xmath23-matrix of an element @xmath67 in the group ring @xmath23 is an element in @xmath68 , the ring of @xmath69 matrices over @xmath21 , defined as @xmath70.\ ] ] it is obvious that each row and each column is a permutation , determined by the group multiplication , of the initial row .
given a listing of the elements of a group @xmath20 of order @xmath5 , there is a bijective ring homomorphism @xmath71 between @xmath23 and the @xmath23-matrices over @xmath21 .
let @xmath72 and @xmath73 be two positive integers .
a @xmath74 _ circulant _ is a @xmath74 matrix for which each row is a right cyclic - shift of the row above it and the first row is the right cyclic - shift of the last row .
the top row ( or the leftmost column ) of a circulant is called the _ generator _ of the circulant .
a binary qc code @xmath75 is commonly specified by a parity - check matrix , which is a @xmath76 array of @xmath74 circulants over @xmath77 .
consider the galois field @xmath4 , where @xmath48 is a power of a prime number @xmath78 .
let @xmath79 be a primitive element of @xmath4 .
then , @xmath80 form all the @xmath48 elements of @xmath4 .
for each nonzero element @xmath81 , with @xmath82 , we define a @xmath83-tuple over @xmath77 , @xmath84 , where the @xmath13 component @xmath85 is @xmath63 and all the other @xmath86 components are set to zero . the binary vector , @xmath87 ,
is referred to as the _ location - vector _ of @xmath81 , with respect to the multiplicative group of @xmath4 , or the @xmath88-location - vector of @xmath81 .
the location - vector of the @xmath89 element of @xmath4 is defined as the all - zero @xmath83-tuple , @xmath90 . for a given @xmath91
, we form a @xmath92 matrix @xmath17 over @xmath77 with the @xmath88-location - vectors of @xmath93 as the rows .
then , @xmath17 is a @xmath92 _ circulant permutation matrix _ ( cpm ) ,
i.e. , @xmath17 is a permutation matrix for which each row is the right cyclic - shift of the row above it and the first row is the right cyclic - shift of the last row .
the matrix @xmath17 is referred to as the @xmath83-_fold matrix dispersion _ ( or expansion ) of the field element @xmath94 over @xmath77 .
the construction of the parity - check matrices of the qc - ldpc codes starts with an @xmath95 matrix @xmath96 over @xmath4 given by rcl[eq2 ] & = & ^t + & = & , whose rows satisfy the following two constraints : 1 . for @xmath97 and @xmath98 , with @xmath99 , @xmath100 and @xmath101 have at most one position in which both of them have the same symbol from @xmath4 ( i.e. , they differ in at least @xmath102 positions ) ; 2
. for @xmath103 , and @xmath104 , with @xmath98 , @xmath100 and @xmath105 differ in at least @xmath106 positions . the above two constraints on the rows of the matrix @xmath96 are referred to as @xmath79-_multiplied row constraints _ @xmath63 and @xmath9 , respectively .
these conditions are the sufficient conditions or the design criteria @xcite for constructing the parity - check matrix of the qc - ldpc codes . in order to complete the construction ,
it is enough to replace each entry of @xmath96 by its @xmath83-fold matrix dispersion over @xmath77 . for an @xmath95 matrix @xmath96 over @xmath4 , in which the entries are written as the powers of the primitive element @xmath79 of @xmath4
, we define the _ base matrix _ or the _ exponent matrix _ as the @xmath95 matrix @xmath107 over @xmath108 , so that @xmath109 , for @xmath110 and @xmath111 , if and only if @xmath112 . to simplify the notation ,
the matrices @xmath107 and @xmath96 can be used interchangeably in the construction of codes .
in this section , we present our key theorem based on the notation used in the preceding sections .
[ theorem2 ] let @xmath113 be a finite group and @xmath4 be the finite field of order @xmath114 , with primitive element @xmath79 .
then , the @xmath53-matrix corresponding to the element @xmath115 gives an @xmath116 matrix @xmath96 that satisfies the @xmath79-multiplied constraints @xmath63 and @xmath9 .
replacing each component of @xmath96 by its corresponding @xmath117 cpm in @xmath4 gives the parity - check matrix of a qc - ldpc code .
let @xmath96 be the corresponding @xmath23-matrix of @xmath118 and let @xmath119 $ ] be its first row .
we can consider the other rows as permutations of the first row .
thus , if we check the constraint @xmath63 for @xmath120 , the other rows also fulfill the constraint @xmath63 .
let @xmath98 , be two integers , with @xmath99 , and consider the vectors @xmath121 and @xmath122 . then , having the same values in position @xmath123 is equivalent to @xmath124 that implies @xmath125 , which is a contradiction .
now , we check the second condition .
consider two different permutations of @xmath120 as follows @xmath126 \\
\mathbf{w}_j & = & \left [ \begin{array}{ccccc } \alpha^{2^{j_0 } } & \alpha^{2^{j_1 } } & \cdots & \alpha^{2^{j_m}}\\ \end{array } \right ] .
\end{aligned}\ ] ] without loss of generality , assume @xmath100 and @xmath105 have the same values in the first and second positions .
then , @xmath127 consequently , @xmath128 , where @xmath129 and @xmath130 .
we consider three different cases . 1 .
* case 1 * : if @xmath131 , then @xmath132 the first equation implies @xmath133 , which is a contradiction . using the second equation we conclude that @xmath134 and @xmath135 , which implies that @xmath136 .
thus , @xmath125 which is a contradiction .
now we consider the third equation . in the left side of this equation
we have a product of an even and an odd number and in the right side we have an even number .
the only possibility is to have @xmath137 and @xmath138 , that imply @xmath139 , which is a contradiction .
* case 2 * : if @xmath140 , we can show conveniently that @xmath141 and the equation @xmath142 leads to a contradiction .
* case 3 * : if @xmath143 , the proof is the same as the first case .
thus , @xmath96 fulfills the @xmath79-multiplied constraints @xmath63 and @xmath9 .
it follows from theorem [ theorem2 ] that the tanner graph associated with the matrix @xmath96 has girth at least @xmath144 .
theorem [ theorem2 ] is also valid for other prime numbers instead of @xmath9 .
now , we present some examples using the construction method of theorem [ theorem2 ] .
we consider the groups of order @xmath145 which give the codes of length @xmath146 .
the groups with @xmath145 elements are @xmath147 , @xmath148 , @xmath149 , @xmath150 and @xmath151 .
we represent the corresponding matrix of the element @xmath118 in theorem [ theorem2 ] by a matrix that contains the powers of @xmath79 , which is referred to as the _ exponent matrix_. for example , @xmath152 for @xmath153 , means @xmath154 , where @xmath79 is the primitive element of @xmath155 .
the @xmath156-matrix of @xmath118 in theorem [ theorem2 ] is as follows rcl[eq3 ] _ _ 2 ^ 8_8=. if we consider @xmath157 , the dihedral group of order @xmath145 , which is defined as @xmath158 then the @xmath159-matrix of @xmath118 is rcl[eq4 ] _ _ 2 ^ 8d_8=. the last example that we present here is the quaternion group .
the quaternion group is a non - abelian group of order eight which is denoted by @xmath160 or @xmath149 , and is given by the following group presentation @xmath161 where @xmath63 , the identity element of the group , and @xmath162 commute with the other elements of the group .
the @xmath163-matrix of @xmath118 is rcl[eq5 ] _ _ 2 ^ 8 q_8=. by replacing each element of the matrices given in ( [ eq3 ] ) , ( [ eq4 ] ) and ( [ eq5 ] ) , with their corresponding cpms and choosing some rows of the obtained binary matrices , we get regular qc - ldpc codes , as the null space of these matrices , with different rates and with girth at least @xmath144 . @xmath164 in order to increase the rate of the constructed codes based on group algebras , we replace the set of powers in theorem [ theorem2 ] , which is a set of the form @xmath165 for a group @xmath20 , by other sets that are introduced in the next section .
in this section , we generalize the construction of section [ sec4 ] and relate the design of a qc - ldpc code to the selection of two elements in two different group rings .
let @xmath20 be a group of order @xmath166 .
a @xmath167-subset @xmath168 of @xmath20 is a @xmath169-difference set if the list of differences @xmath170 , @xmath171 , contains each non - identity element of @xmath20 exactly @xmath172 times .
the number @xmath173 is the order of the difference set .
a difference set @xmath168 in @xmath20 is non - abelian , abelian or cyclic provided @xmath20 is non - abelian , abelian or cyclic , respectively .
the difference sets can be defined by using an algebraic approach .
let @xmath174 be a field and @xmath20 be a multiplicative group .
a subset @xmath175 is identified with an element @xmath176 .
moreover , @xmath177 .
[ theorem3 ] a @xmath167-subset @xmath178 of a group @xmath20 of order @xmath166 with identity element @xmath51 is a @xmath169-difference set of order @xmath179 , if and only if @xmath180 in @xmath181 . in the construction of qc - ldpc codes , we need difference sets with @xmath182 to avoid @xmath183-cycles in the tanner graph of the code .
let @xmath20 and @xmath65 be two finite abelian groups . in the sequel , we introduce a new ring @xmath21 , which is related to @xmath65 , and the construction of qc - ldpc codes using the elements of the group algebra @xmath23 .
let @xmath184 be an element satisfying theorem [ theorem3 ] .
consider @xmath185 as the set of indices that appear in @xmath2 , which is a subset of @xmath65 .
then , we define an element @xmath118 in @xmath23 and proceed like theorem [ theorem2 ] .
it should be noted that both @xmath20 and @xmath65 can affect the performance of the constructed code , as will be shown in the simulation results .
the structure of the group @xmath20 can also affect the encoding complexity .
the first and the obvious case is to consider both @xmath20 and @xmath65 as cyclic groups . the existence and the construction of the appropriate difference sets , in some classes of cyclic groups , is guarantied by using the following theorems .
[ theorem4 ] let @xmath79 be the generator of the multiplicative group of @xmath186 .
then , the set of integers @xmath187 modulo @xmath188 forms a ( cyclic ) difference set with parameters @xmath189 here , the @xmath190 denotes the usual trace function @xmath191 from @xmath186 onto @xmath4 .
these difference sets are _ singer difference sets_. [ theorem5 ] let @xmath192 be a primitive polynomial of degree @xmath193 in @xmath4 .
consider the recurrence relation @xmath194 and take arbitrary start values .
then the set of integers @xmath195 is a singer difference set . by using theorem [ theorem4 ] and [ theorem5 ]
, we can construct a @xmath196-difference set in the additive group @xmath197 , when @xmath48 is a power of a prime number .
the constructed codes in this case are just the same as the constructed codes in @xcite .
the authors of @xcite , have proposed the construction of @xmath183-cycle free qc - ldpc codes using the cyclic difference sets . for a given difference set @xmath198 in @xmath199 , with @xmath200 , they considered the finite field @xmath4 in @xmath10 different cases : @xmath201 , or @xmath202 or @xmath203 .
the table of the difference sets with small parameters , is available in @xcite , which can be used in the construction of qc - ldpc codes as above .
now , we consider the general case where the group @xmath65 is non - cyclic . as we saw in section [ sec4 ] , the structure of @xmath20 has no effect on our design procedure and our concentration here is on the structure of @xmath65 .
hence , to simplify , we assume that @xmath20 is a cyclic group . let @xmath65 be an abelian group . we have the following theorem for abelian groups .
[ theorem6 ] every finite abelian group @xmath65 is isomorphic to a direct product of cyclic groups of the form @xmath204 where @xmath205 s are primes ( not necessarily distinct ) and @xmath206 s are some positive integers .
we can see from the proof of theorem [ theorem2 ] that existence of a difference set in @xmath65 , is not necessary for constructing qc - ldpc codes and we can replace this assumption by a weaker condition . in the next section , we introduce a new method for constructing qc - ldpc codes using abelian groups .
in @xcite , qc - ldpc codes were constructed based on difference sets in cyclic groups .
difference sets do not exist in every cyclic group and furthermore , there is no efficient algorithm to find them .
thus , the rate and length of the constructed codes based on cyclic difference sets will be limited . in this section ,
we introduce some combinatorial structures in arbitrary abelian groups , which are close to difference sets and also enough for our application in the construction of qc - ldpc codes .
then , we propose a new method to construct qc - ldpc codes based on the proposed structures and the group algebras . as we see in the sequel ,
these structures give codes with the highest possible rate of a given length . in the construction of qc - ldpc codes based on abelian groups ,
the first candidates are difference sets in the abelian groups .
if instead of @xmath199 , we consider a group @xmath207 with @xmath166 elements , which is written multiplicatively , the condition for a set @xmath208 with @xmath167 distinct elements to be a difference set is exactly like the cyclic case .
while much is known about the difference sets in the cyclic groups , little systematic work has been done for non - cyclic groups . as in the cyclic case , we are interested in difference sets with @xmath182 .
we say that two difference sets @xmath168 and @xmath209 in @xmath207 are equivalent if there exists an automorphism @xmath210 of @xmath207 and an element @xmath211 such that @xmath212 .
non - cyclic difference sets for @xmath213 , are enumerated in @xcite .
we have summarized non - equivalent and non - cyclic difference sets , which are proper for the construction of qc - ldpc codes , in [ table1 ] .
.non - cyclic difference sets of size less than @xmath214 [ cols="^,^,^ " , ] [ table4 ] in the construction of our qc - ldpc codes , we use a subset of an @xmath215-set which has the maximum size and has the following additional condition .
let @xmath216 be an @xmath215-set in the abelian group @xmath65 .
a subset @xmath217 is called a _ modified @xmath215-set _ if @xmath218 , where @xmath219 and @xmath220 . from now on , by an @xmath215-set , we mean a _ modified @xmath215-set_. [ table4 ] contains all modified @xmath215-sets of order less than or equal to @xmath221 .
we have presented the results of the abelian groups which are the direct product of @xmath10 cyclic groups .
note that the cyclic groups of order @xmath222 , for some prime number @xmath78 and a positive integer @xmath94 , can only be used as the components of the direct product . in section [ simulation ] , some examples are given indicating the higher rates of the constructed codes based on abelian group algebras compared to the constructed codes based on cyclic difference sets .
the results of [ table4 ] are not optimized with respect to the group size , since we have considered only the groups which are direct product of three cyclic groups .
for example in the group @xmath223 of size @xmath224 there is a modified @xmath215-set of size @xmath221 , however , if we use the group @xmath225 of order @xmath224 , we have the following @xmath215-set @xmath216 of size @xmath226 rcl[s_2-set ] s & = & ( 3 , 4 , 1 , 4 ) , ( 3 , 4 , 1 , 3 ) , ( 3 , 4 , 2 , 4 ) , ( 3 , 4 , 4 , 1 ) , ( 3 , 3 , 1 , 4 ) , .
+ & & ( 3 , 1 , 2 , 1 ) , ( 1 , 3 , 1 , 3 ) , ( 1 , 1 , 4 , 4 ) , ( 4 , 4 , 1 , 4 ) , ( 4 , 3 , 2 , 4 ) , + & & ( 4 , 1 , 1 , 2 ) , ( 4 , 2 , 3 , 1 ) , ( 2 , 4 , 4 , 2 ) , ( 2 , 3 , 3 , 3 ) , ( 2 , 1 , 2 , 3 ) , + & & . ( 2 , 2 , 4 , 1 ) . now , we are ready to present the method of constructing qc - ldpc codes based on abelian @xmath215-sets and group rings .
let @xmath207 be an abelian group . by a result attributed to gauss (
theorem [ theorem6 ] ) , @xmath207 can be expressed as a direct product of a finite number of cyclic groups of prime power order .
let @xmath227 and consider @xmath228 as the galois field with @xmath229-elements and with the primitive element @xmath230 , where @xmath231 and @xmath232 .
we consider the abelian group @xmath233 of order @xmath234 .
let @xmath235 be an @xmath215-set with maximum size @xmath167 in @xmath65 . using the map @xmath236 that maps @xmath237 to @xmath238 , with @xmath239 , it can be checked that @xmath65 and @xmath240 are isomorphic as abelian groups .
we conclude that @xmath241 , for @xmath242 , if and only if @xmath243 .
now , we generalize the definition of cpm , which is used in the lifting of the finite field based qc - ldpc codes , to the group ring based qc - ldpc codes .
let @xmath230 be the primitive element of the galois field @xmath228 , where @xmath232 and let rcl[b_eq ] b= ( _ i=1^t(q_i-1 ) ) .
the _ quasi circulant permutation matrix _ of @xmath244 , which is denoted by the qcpm of @xmath245 , with @xmath246 and @xmath247 , is a @xmath74 matrix which is defined as @xmath248 in which @xmath249 denotes the the kronecker product is an @xmath95 matrix and @xmath107 is a @xmath250 matrix , then the kronecker product @xmath251 is the @xmath252 block matrix : @xmath253.\ ] ] ] of matrices , the matrix @xmath254 , for @xmath247 , is a @xmath255 circulant matrix and its first row is the location - vector of the element @xmath256 with respect to the multiplicative group of @xmath257 .
we denote the zero element of @xmath257 by @xmath258 .
if for some @xmath247 in ( [ qcpm ] ) , @xmath259 , then @xmath260 is defined as the @xmath261 zero matrix .
we want to obtain the qcpm of @xmath262 in @xmath263 , which is a @xmath264 matrix as follows rcl ( ^(1,3))&=&(_1,_4)(_2 ^ 3,_5 ) + & = & . by replacing each component @xmath265 of @xmath266 , with @xmath267
, we obtain the following matrix @xmath268.\end{aligned}\ ] ] @xmath164 in order to complete our construction method , we consider the ring @xmath21 which is formed by the @xmath269-linear combination of the basis elements of the form @xmath270 , where @xmath246 and @xmath247 . alike the previous cases , the construction of qc - ldpc codes from abelian group rings needs an @xmath95 matrix over @xmath21 , whose rows @xmath271 , satisfy the following two constraints : 1
. for @xmath272 and @xmath273 with @xmath274 and @xmath275 , the two vectors @xmath276 and @xmath277 have at most one position where both of them have the same symbol from @xmath21 , ( i.e. , they differ in at least @xmath102 positions ) .
2 . for @xmath278 ,
@xmath104 , and @xmath273 , the two vectors @xmath276 and @xmath279 differ in at least @xmath102 positions .
we call these conditions the @xmath280-multiplied constraints @xmath63 and @xmath9 , respectively . note that the multiplication of @xmath270 and @xmath281 is defined as @xmath282 , where @xmath283 , for @xmath284 .
we also denote @xmath270 by @xmath285 .
based on the aforementioned notations and definitions , we have the following theorem .
[ main_theorem ] let @xmath286 be an @xmath215-set in the abelian group @xmath287 , @xmath288 be a finite group of order @xmath5 and @xmath228 be the galois field of order @xmath229 with the primitive element @xmath230 .
let @xmath289 and consider the ring @xmath21 which is formed by @xmath269-linear combination of the basis elements of the form @xmath270 , where @xmath246 and @xmath247 .
if @xmath290 s , for @xmath232 , are odd numbers , then the @xmath23-matrix corresponding to the element of the form @xmath291 gives an @xmath292 matrix @xmath96 that satisfies the @xmath280-multiplied constraints @xmath63 and @xmath9 . by replacing each component of @xmath96 by its corresponding @xmath293 qcpm and choosing a subarray of @xmath96 , we obtain the parity - check matrix of a @xmath183-cycle free qc - ldpc code . since all the rows @xmath294 are obtained from the permutations of the first row @xmath120 , it is enough to show that the first @xmath280-multiplied constraint is fulfilled for @xmath295 .
let @xmath273 , with @xmath296 , be such that @xmath297 and @xmath298 have more than one position in common .
then , for some @xmath299 and @xmath300 , @xmath301 and @xmath302 which yield the following equations @xmath303 consequently , it follows that @xmath304 , which is a contradiction . for the second constraint ,
assume that @xmath297 and @xmath276 , where @xmath305 , have more than one position in common . then , for some @xmath306 and @xmath307 , @xmath308 and @xmath309 which imply the following equations @xmath310 thus , we have @xmath311 .
we also know that @xmath312 and @xmath313 . if @xmath314 and @xmath315 , we get a contradiction with the assumption that @xmath168 is an @xmath215-set .
note that @xmath296 implies that @xmath312 and @xmath313 .
if @xmath316 and @xmath315 or if @xmath317 and @xmath314 we conclude that @xmath318 or @xmath319 which is a contradiction , since @xmath168 is an @xmath215-set . if @xmath316 and @xmath320 , we have @xmath321 where , @xmath322 , @xmath323 and the @xmath324 operation is applied componentwise .
since @xmath290 is an odd number for @xmath232 , it follows that @xmath325 which is a contradiction .
thus , if we replace the components of @xmath96 with their corresponding qcpms , we obtain the parity - check matrix of a @xmath183-cycle free qc - ldpc code .
if we remove the repetitive members in the set @xmath326 , then we obtain an @xmath215-set which satisfies the conditions of theorem [ main_theorem ] without requiring that @xmath290 s should be odd numbers . similar to the cyclic case , we present the parity - check matrix of the code by an array which consists of the powers of qcpms . for example @xmath270 in the parity - check matrix is denoted by @xmath327 .
we present the steps of theorem [ main_theorem ] in the next example .
although , all the assumptions of theorem [ main_theorem ] are not fulfilled in this example , it is a useful example to see our method for constructing qc - ldpc codes .
consider the abelian @xmath215-set @xmath328 in @xmath329 .
there are two groups of order @xmath144 , namely @xmath330 and @xmath331 .
consider @xmath332 as the underling group .
the parity - check matrix of the qc - ldpc code based on theorem [ main_theorem ] , can be constructed by taking some rows of following matrix and replacing its components with their corresponding qcpms : @xmath333.\end{aligned}\ ] ] as an example , the qcpm of @xmath334 is @xmath335.\end{aligned}\ ] ] if we consider the first three rows of @xmath96 , then we obtain a qc - ldpc code of length @xmath336 and rate at least @xmath337 . @xmath164
using theorem [ main_theorem ] and the proposed method in @xcite , for constructing qc - ldpc codes from cyclic difference sets , we get the following theorem . [ main_theorem2 ] let @xmath286 be an @xmath215-set in the abelian group @xmath287 , @xmath288 be a finite group of order @xmath5 and @xmath228 be the galois field of order @xmath229 with the primitive element @xmath230 .
let @xmath289 and consider the ring @xmath21 which is formed by @xmath269-linear combination of the basis elements of the form @xmath270 , where @xmath246 and @xmath247 . if @xmath290 s , for @xmath232 are odd numbers , ( or @xmath326 contains no repetitive elements ) , and @xmath96 and @xmath338 are the @xmath23-matrices corresponding to the elements @xmath291 and @xmath339 , respectively , then @xmath340 $ ] gives an @xmath341 matrix that satisfies the @xmath280-multiplied constraints @xmath63 and @xmath9 . by replacing each component of @xmath342 with its corresponding @xmath293 qcpm and choosing a subarray of @xmath342 , we obtain the parity - check matrix of a @xmath183-cycle free qc - ldpc code .
since all the rows @xmath343 are obtained from the permutations of the first row @xmath344 , it is enough to show that the first @xmath280-multiplied constraint is fulfilled for @xmath345 .
let @xmath346 and @xmath347 in @xmath348 , with @xmath296 , be such that @xmath349 and @xmath350 have more than one position in common . based on theorem [ main_theorem ]
, both of these common positions can not be in the first @xmath5 positions or in the last @xmath5 positions .
for some @xmath299 and @xmath351 , let @xmath301 and @xmath352 which results in the following equations @xmath353 consequently , we have @xmath304 , which is a contradiction . for the second constraint ,
assume that @xmath349 and @xmath354 , where @xmath305 , have more than one position in common
. then , for some @xmath355 and @xmath356 , @xmath308 and @xmath357 which results in the following equations @xmath358 it follows that @xmath359 .
if @xmath314 and @xmath315 , we get a contradiction with the assumption that @xmath168 is an @xmath215-set . if @xmath360 and @xmath361 or if @xmath362 and @xmath104 we conclude that @xmath363 or @xmath364 which is a contradiction , since @xmath168 is an @xmath215-set .
if @xmath360 and @xmath362 , we have @xmath365 .
since @xmath290 is an odd number for @xmath232 , @xmath366 which is a contradiction .
to describe the construction of theorem [ main_theorem2 ] by group - rings representations , we can use the following theorem .
[ passman ] let @xmath20 and @xmath65 be two groups and let @xmath367 be a field .
then @xmath368\otimes_{\mathbb{k } } \mathbb{k}[h]\cong \mathbb{k}[g\times h].\ ] ] we can replace the field @xmath367 in theorem [ passman ] by any commutative ring with identity .
thus , the group ring that describes the construction of theorem [ main_theorem2 ] is @xmath369=r[c_2\times g]$ ] , where @xmath370 is a multiplicative group of order @xmath9 . in this case , we have considered the first @xmath5 rows of an @xmath371-matrix . here , we explain the important parameters of the obtained codes using abelian group rings .
these parameters are compared with the achievable parameters of the other construction methods , namely the ones based on finite fields .
the parameters that we have considered for our analysis are the length and the rate of the code .
we only consider the girth @xmath144 qc - ldpc codes for our comparisons .
first , we consider the construction methods based on finite fields .
we conclude the following result from ( * ? ? ?
* corollary 1 ) and we use it to estimate the values of rate and length that can be achieved by using the designed qc - ldpc codes based on the finite fields approaches . [ prop2 ] in constructing a qc - ldpc code with cyclic lifting degree @xmath73 using an @xmath95 exponent matrix @xmath107 , with @xmath372 , that does not contain @xmath373 in the components , a necessary condition for having a girth at least @xmath144 in the tanner graph is @xmath374 .
when we apply proposition [ prop2 ] to finite field based qc - ldpc codes , we reach the upper bound @xmath375 on the row weight of the code .
the construction of qc - ldpc codes based on latin squares over finite fields , which is proposed in @xcite , and the proposed construction methods in @xcite , achieve this upper bound .
thus , construction of qc - ldpc codes with lengths @xmath376 and rates @xmath377 is possible , in which @xmath48 is a prime power and @xmath378 . as explained above , by using the approaches based on finite fields ,
the lifting degree @xmath73 is of the form @xmath379 , for a prime number @xmath78 and a positive integer @xmath380 .
for example , the achievable values of @xmath73 , which are smaller than @xmath381 , are @xmath382 thus , only @xmath383 of the possible values for @xmath73 can be achieved by using the approaches based on finite fields . when we employ the abelian group rings ,
the lifting degree @xmath73 is of the form @xmath384 , in which @xmath205 s are distinct prime numbers and @xmath206 s and @xmath72 are positive integers . in this case , the achievable values for @xmath73 , which are smaller than @xmath381 , are @xmath385\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 9 $ } ; } & 10 & 12 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 14 $ } ; } & 15\\ 16 & 18 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 21 $ } ; } & 22 & 24 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 27 $ } ; } & 26 & 28 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 30 $ } ; } & 31 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 32$};}\\ 35 & 36 & 40 & 42 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 45 $ } ; } & 46 & 48 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 49 $ } ; } & 52 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 54 $ } ; } & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 56$};}\\ 58 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 60 $ } ; } & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 62 $ } ; } & 63 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 64 $ } ; } & 66 & 70 & 72 & 78 & 80 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 81$};}\\ 82 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 84 $ } ; } & 88 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 90 $ } ; } & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 92 $ } ; } & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 93 $ } ; } & 96 & { \tikz[baseline=(char.base)]\node[circle , draw , inner sep=2pt ] ( char ) { $ 98$};}\mbox{\large , } & & & \end{array}\ ] ] where the circled values are the ones that can not be obtained by using the approaches based on finite fields .
this indicates @xmath386 increase in the number of achievable values for @xmath73 , compared to the one for finite fields .
using theorem [ theorem7 ] , we find an upper bound on the row weight of the group ring based qc - ldpc codes .
let @xmath65 be an abelian group used in our construction .
let @xmath387 denote the cardinality of the largest @xmath215-set in @xmath65 , which gives @xmath388 as the maximum achievable row weight of the group ring based qc - ldpc codes based on @xmath65 .
then , by using theorem [ theorem7 ] , it follows that rcl[s_h_upper_bound ] s(h ) & & + & = & , where @xmath389 , for a real number @xmath390 , denotes the largest integer less than or equal to @xmath390 and @xmath391 finding the abelian groups that achieve this upper bound , is an interesting problem . when @xmath392 is large enough , we can assume @xmath393 and @xmath394 will be an upper bound in terms of @xmath392 .
consequently , construction of qc - ldpc codes with lengths @xmath395 and rates @xmath377 is possible , in which @xmath396 are integers with @xmath397 and @xmath398 , the @xmath205 s are distinct prime numbers and the @xmath206 s and @xmath72 are positive integers .
in general , the quasi - cyclic codes are encoded by multiplying a message vector @xmath399 of length @xmath400 by a @xmath401 generator matrix @xmath402 , where @xmath402 is usually in systematic form , i.e. , @xmath403 $ ] , where @xmath404 is the @xmath405 identity matrix .
there are two difficulties in the implementation of this encoding procedure .
first , the generator matrix @xmath402 is usually a dense matrix and requires a large number of memory units , i.e. , @xmath406 units , to store @xmath407 .
second , although the encoding of qc codes can be partially parallelized so that the computation units are reduced by a factor of @xmath73 , the total number of symbol operations is still @xmath406 , which is the same as that for general linear codes . in @xcite ,
an efficient encoding method has been proposed for qc - ldpc codes .
the authors of @xcite computed a generator matrix @xmath402 with quasi - cyclic structure benefiting from the quasi - cyclic structure of the parity - check matrix and the gaussian elimination method .
another method was proposed in @xcite that uses the structure of group algebras to obtain the generator matrix .
this method can be used for the unit elements of a group algebra .
let @xmath118 be a unit element in the group algebra @xmath23 .
let @xmath96 be its corresponding @xmath23-matrix .
then @xmath96 is an invertible matrix over @xmath21 . without loss of generality
, we consider the parity - check matrix @xmath408 of the code as the first @xmath409 rows of @xmath96 .
we divide the matrices @xmath96 and @xmath338 as follow @xmath410\left [ \begin{array}{cc } \mathbf{a}_{n\times(n - k ) } & \mathbf{b}_{n\times k } \\ \end{array } \right ] \\ & = & \left [ \begin{array}{cc } \mathbf{h}_{(n - k)\times n}\mathbf{a}_{n\times(n - k ) } & \mathbf{h}_{(n - k)\times n}\mathbf{b}_{n\times k } \\
\mathbf{j}_{k\times n}\mathbf{a}_{n\times(n - k ) } & \mathbf{j}_{k\times n}\mathbf{b}_{n\times k } \\ \end{array } \right].\end{aligned}\ ] ] the above equation gives @xmath411 and consequently , it follows that @xmath412 is a generator matrix for the given code .
although , we used the group rings to construct our qc - ldpc codes , our construction method is completely different from the presented method in @xcite .
we design our codes over a group ring @xmath23 , where @xmath413 .
then , based on the available connection between the @xmath23-matrices in @xmath68 and the elements of the group ring , we replace the components of the @xmath23-matrix by their corresponding qcpms . in both cases that we considered ,
i.e. , when @xmath21 is a finite field or when @xmath21 is the tensor product of multiple fields , the map that sends the elements of @xmath21 to their corresponding qcpms , is a multiplicative group isomorphism .
indeed , it preserves the multiplication but not necessarily the addition .
thus , we may have @xmath414 , for some @xmath415 .
in fact , an element @xmath416 in @xmath68 can be invertible in @xmath68 but after replacing its components with their corresponding qcpms , the obtained matrix can be a non - singular binary matrix ( i.e. , its determinant can be an even number ) .
the idea that we use here is replacing the matrix multiplication in @xmath417 , where @xmath418 , by a convolution like operation in the group ring @xmath419 , where @xmath420}{\left\langle x_1^{q_1 - 1}-1\right\rangle } \otimes \cdots\otimes \frac{\mathbb{f}_2[x_t]}{\left\langle x_t^{q_t-1}-1 \right\rangle},\ ] ] and @xmath421 are independent variables .
we define the qcpm of @xmath422 , where @xmath246 and @xmath247 , as @xmath423 , which is a @xmath74 matrix .
[ th_11 ] a matrix @xmath424 is a unit ( a zero - divisor ) if and only if the matrix which is obtained by replacing the components of @xmath425 with their corresponding qcpms , is a unit ( a zero - divisor ) in @xmath417 .
the proof follows from the fact that the map @xmath236 that sends @xmath426 to a circulant matrix @xmath427 of size @xmath428 and with the first row of the form @xmath429 , is an isomorphism between two rings @xmath430 and @xmath431 .
we define @xmath236 over other elements of @xmath432 naturally .
let @xmath118 be an element in the group algebra @xmath419 and @xmath96 be its corresponding @xmath419-matrix of size @xmath292 .
let @xmath408 be the @xmath433 parity - check matrix of a group ring based qc - ldpc code @xmath434 , with @xmath435 .
the matrix @xmath408 is obtained by choosing some rows from the array matrix @xmath96 , which is denoted by @xmath436 , and replacing the components of @xmath436 by their corresponding qcpms . the group ring @xmath419 is a finite ring with identity and @xmath118 is either a unit or a zero - divisor .
consequently , @xmath96 is either a unit matrix or a zero - divisor matrix in @xmath430 . to simplify our notation ,
we state the following theorem .
[ th_12 ] let @xmath20 be a finite abelian group and @xmath419 be the aforementioned group ring .
then , @xmath419 is isomorphic to the group algebra @xmath437 , where @xmath438 and @xmath439 is the multiplicative cyclic group of order @xmath440 , for @xmath441 .
the proof follows from the following isomorphisms @xmath442}{\langle x_i^{q_i-1}-1 \rangle}\cong \mathbb{f}_2c_{q_i-1},\quad i=1,\ldots , t.\ ] ] consequently , @xmath443 $ ] .
based on theorem [ passman ] , @xmath444 is isomorphic to @xmath445 $ ] .
let @xmath446 .
we show that @xmath447[g]$ ] is isomorphic to @xmath448 $ ] . to this end
, it can be checked easily that the map @xmath236 which is given by @xmath449 is an isomorphism between @xmath448 $ ] and @xmath447[g]$ ] , where @xmath450 $ ] .
now , we describe the encoding approach in both cases .
* case 1 * : let @xmath96 be the @xmath419-matrix of a unit element @xmath451 , @xmath436 be a subarray of @xmath96 and @xmath408 be its corresponding @xmath452 binary matrix after replacing the qcpms . consider @xmath416 and @xmath453 as the inverses of @xmath96 and @xmath118 in @xmath430 and @xmath419 , respectively .
we want to encode a binary vector @xmath454 , where @xmath455 .
we divide the input vector @xmath399 into @xmath456 sections of size @xmath73 as @xmath457 .
then , we map the following vector to @xmath399 @xmath458 where @xmath459 , @xmath460 and @xmath461 is a bijection map from @xmath462 to @xmath463 , such that @xmath464 let @xmath436 be the subarray of @xmath96 corresponding to the list @xmath465 in @xmath20 .
consider the list @xmath466 , and @xmath467 .
then , the encoding of @xmath399 can be done by using the flowing group ring multiplication @xmath468 and replacing the components of @xmath469 with their corresponding qcpm - generators .
the qcpm - generator of an element @xmath470 is the vector @xmath471 , where @xmath472 is a vector of length @xmath473 in which the @xmath474 position is @xmath63 and the other components are @xmath89 , for @xmath275 .
we check the validity of this statement in theorem [ unit_drive ] .
[ unit_drive ] let @xmath436 be the subarray of @xmath96 corresponding to a list @xmath465 in @xmath20 , ( i.e. , @xmath436 is formed by rows @xmath475 of @xmath96 ) . if we construct the parity - check matrix of the code @xmath434 from @xmath436 , based on ( * ? ? ?
* theorem 5.1 ) , the matrix @xmath476 formed by the rows of @xmath338 with indices given in @xmath477 , can be used to construct the generator matrix of @xmath434 .
replace the components of @xmath436 and @xmath476 with their corresponding qcpms and denote the obtained matrices by @xmath478 and @xmath479 , respectively .
the encoding of a vector @xmath399 of length @xmath400 , that means the calculation of @xmath480 , can be done by computing the group ring multiplication @xmath468 and replacing the components of @xmath469 with their corresponding qcpm - generators .
the encoding of @xmath481 , where @xmath482 and @xmath483 , means the calculation of @xmath484 . using block matrices
, we have @xmath485\left [ \begin{array}{ccc } \mathbf{w}'_{g_{j_1}^{-1}g_0 } & \cdots & \mathbf{w}'_{g_{j_1}^{-1}g_{n-1}}\\ \vdots & \ddots & \vdots\\ \mathbf{w}'_{g_{j_k}^{-1}g_0 } & \cdots & \mathbf{w}'_{g_{j_k}^{-1}g_{n-1 } } \end{array } \right],\end{aligned}\ ] ] where @xmath486 is the qcpm of the @xmath487 component of @xmath338 . for @xmath488 ,
the sub - block @xmath489 , which corresponds to the indices @xmath490 to @xmath491 of @xmath492 , is obtained by @xmath493 .
the group element @xmath494 in the right side of this equation indicates the location of the sub - vector @xmath495 in the given codeword @xmath492 . in our proposed encoding method , we compute the group ring multiplication @xmath496 using the properties of the group ring multiplication , the coefficient of @xmath494 in the above multiplication is @xmath497 , where @xmath498 , for @xmath499 . since @xmath20 is an abelian group , we have @xmath500 and the coefficient of @xmath494 is @xmath501 . after replacing the qcpm - generators , we reach the same result as the usual encoding . * case 2 * : let @xmath118 be a zero divisor in @xmath419 and @xmath502 be its corresponding @xmath419-matrix such that for a matrix @xmath503 and @xmath504 , @xmath505 and @xmath506 and a group ring @xmath23 , let @xmath507 be an element in @xmath23 .
then we define @xmath508 as @xmath509 . ] .
let @xmath436 be the subarray of @xmath96 corresponding to the list @xmath510 and @xmath408 be its corresponding @xmath452 binary matrix which is obtained by replacing the elements of @xmath436 with their corresponding qcpms .
let @xmath434 be a code with parity - check matrix @xmath408 .
then , the generator matrix of @xmath434 is a @xmath511 binary matrix such that @xmath512 , where @xmath513 .
if the matrix @xmath408 has full rank , then instead of finding the generator matrix of @xmath434 , we consider @xmath408 as the generator matrix of the code @xmath514 and we find its parity - check matrix .
similar to the method used in theorem [ unit_drive ] , every codeword @xmath515 in @xmath514 is obtained as follows : first , we have an element @xmath516 in @xmath419 of the form @xmath517 , where @xmath518 and @xmath519 is the @xmath432-submodule of @xmath419 generated by the list @xmath520 of @xmath20 .
then , the vector @xmath515 is obtained by replacing the components of @xmath516 with their corresponding qcpm - generators .
if @xmath521 is linearly independent , @xmath522 and @xmath523 , then we find @xmath524 independent rows of @xmath416 which are in accordance with a list in @xmath20 like @xmath525 .
we put these @xmath524 independent rows of @xmath416 in a matrix which is denoted by @xmath526 .
then , a necessary and sufficient condition to have a single check element , is obtaining the rank @xmath527 after replacing the elements of @xmath526 by their corresponding qcpms ( * ? ? ?
* theorem 4.9 ) .
hence , the encoding of a vector @xmath399 can be done by using the group ring multiplication @xmath468 , where @xmath528 , and replacing the components of @xmath469 with their corresponding qcpm - generators .
now , let both @xmath408 and @xmath436 have full rank , @xmath529 and @xmath530 , with @xmath531 .
in addition , let the substituting of qcpms in @xmath416 admit a matrix of rank @xmath532 . in this case , we obtain the generator matrix of @xmath434 by adding @xmath533 extra vectors to the independent rows of @xmath416 or @xmath526 .
moreover , the rows of @xmath96 corresponding to the list @xmath520 of @xmath20 , are independent and we can extend @xmath534 to a subset @xmath535 of @xmath20 , corresponding to the independent rows of @xmath96 , and put all these row vectors in a matrix @xmath536 . since , @xmath537 , there exists an @xmath538 matrix @xmath539 such that @xmath540 .
this implies @xmath541\left [ \begin{array}{cc } \mathbf{c}_1 & \mathbf{c}_2 \\
\end{array } \right]=\mathbf{i}_{\omega}.\ ] ] we conclude that @xmath542 .
let @xmath543 be a matrix formed by @xmath544 linearly independent columns of @xmath416 .
then , it can be shown @xcite , that the binary matrix @xmath545 that is obtained by replacing the components of @xmath546^t$ ] with their corresponding qcpms , is the generator matrix of @xmath434 . in remark
[ rem1 ] , we have explained the details of our encoding method based on multiplication of group rings .
[ rem1 ] using the aforementioned notation , let the binary matrix @xmath545 of size @xmath547 be the generator matrix of @xmath434 obtained from @xmath548^t$ ] by replacing its components with their corresponding qcpms .
let @xmath549 be the subarray of @xmath419-matrix @xmath416 corresponding to the list @xmath550 .
let @xmath551 and @xmath552 be the matrices obtained by replacing the qcpms in @xmath543 and @xmath553 , respectively .
the encoding of @xmath481 , with @xmath482 , @xmath483 and @xmath455 , can be done as @xmath554 , which is equivalent to @xmath555 where @xmath556 and @xmath557 .
since @xmath543 is a subarray of the @xmath419-matrix @xmath416 , by using the same method in the proof of theorem [ unit_drive ] , we can prove that the term @xmath558 can be obtained by performing the following group ring multiplication @xmath559 where @xmath560 is the first column of @xmath416 .
it is enough to show that the term @xmath561 can also be obtained by using a group ring multiplication . to this end
, @xmath553 must be a subarray of an @xmath419-matrix .
let us consider @xmath540 and let @xmath562 be the first column of @xmath539 .
let @xmath563 be the first row of the @xmath419-matrix @xmath96 .
since all other rows of @xmath96 can be written as a permutation of the first row , @xmath536 will be of the following form @xmath564,\end{aligned}\ ] ] where @xmath565 , for @xmath566 , is the @xmath474 row of @xmath96 .
note that @xmath540 implies @xmath567 , for @xmath568 , in which @xmath569 , @xmath570 is the keronecker s delta and @xmath571 denotes the inner product in @xmath572 .
we also have the following trivial result . [ permute ]
let @xmath174 be an arbitrary field and let @xmath571 denote the inner product over @xmath573 , for a positive integer @xmath5 .
then , for every @xmath574 , and every permutation @xmath575 on @xmath576 , @xmath577 .
if there exists a set @xmath578 such that @xmath579 , for @xmath580 , then based on lemma [ permute ] , there exists a reordering on @xmath581 , like @xmath582 , that gives an @xmath419-matrix @xmath583 as @xmath584,\ ] ] such that @xmath585 .
thus , instead of @xmath553 , we can consider a submatrix of @xmath583 which is an @xmath419 matrix .
consequently , the second part of encoding , i.e. , @xmath586 , can be obtained by substituting the qcpm - generators in the components of the following group ring multiplication @xmath587 where @xmath588 and @xmath589 is the first column of @xmath583 . in this case , the codewords of @xmath434 can not be obtained by using a single generator .
removing each one of the aforementioned conditions makes the encoding highly complicated .
@xmath164 due to the mathematical complexity of the encoding method proposed in case @xmath9 , finding an elements @xmath118 in @xmath419 that satisfy the assumptions of case @xmath63 is our desire . in proposition
[ inv_prop ] , we specify some conditions under which the obtained array matrix @xmath96 , remains an invertible matrix over @xmath77 after replacing the components of @xmath96 with their corresponding qcpms .
we need the following results and definitions to establish this result .
let @xmath590 denote the @xmath292 cyclic shift matrix whose entries are @xmath591 if @xmath592 , and @xmath89 , otherwise .
an @xmath292 circulant matrix @xmath17 over the ring of integers modulo @xmath193 , which is denoted by @xmath593 for a positive integer @xmath193 , can be written as @xmath594 , where @xmath595 and @xmath596 .
we associate with the circulant matrix @xmath17 the polynomial @xmath597 in the ring @xmath598 $ ] .
the following theorem states the necessary and sufficient conditions for @xmath17 being an invertible matrix over @xmath599 .
[ inv_circ ] let @xmath600 denote the prime powers factorization of @xmath193 and let @xmath28 denote the polynomial over @xmath593 associated to a circulant matrix @xmath17 .
the matrix @xmath17 is invertible over @xmath593 if and only if , for @xmath601 , we have @xmath602.\end{aligned}\ ] ] let @xmath48 be a power of an odd prime @xmath78 and let @xmath603 denote a primitive @xmath604 root of unity .
the @xmath604 cyclotomic polynomial @xmath605 is @xmath606 [ cyc_th ] if @xmath607 , then @xmath605 factors into @xmath608 distinct monic irreducible polynomials in @xmath609 $ ] of the same degree @xmath2 , where @xmath2 is the least positive integer such that @xmath610 .
a number @xmath611 is a primitive root modulo @xmath5 if every number coprime to @xmath5 is congruent to a power of @xmath611 modulo @xmath5 . in other words
, @xmath611 is a generator of the multiplicative group of integers modulo @xmath5 @xcite .
let us denote the inverse of @xmath612 by @xmath613_b$ ] .
based on these statements , we have the following proposition . [ inv_prop ]
let @xmath614 and @xmath615 be a cyclic group of order @xmath5 , where @xmath5 and @xmath616 are distinct odd prime numbers .
consider @xmath617 as a modified @xmath215-set such that @xmath618 , where @xmath619 and @xmath620_{q-1}+i(q-1)[(q-1)^{-1}]_{n } \pmod{n(q-1)}$ ] .
let @xmath79 be the primitive element of @xmath4 , @xmath621 and @xmath96 be its corresponding @xmath622-matrix . if @xmath9 is the primitive root modulo @xmath623 and @xmath624 over @xmath625 $ ] , where @xmath626 , then , the matrix obtained from @xmath96 by replacing the components with their corresponding cpms , is an invertible matrix over @xmath77 .
we use theorem [ th_11 ] in the case @xmath627 and @xmath628=\mathbb{f}_2 c_{q-1}[g]$ ] . instead of considering @xmath629 and replacing the components of @xmath96 by their corresponding cpms
, we consider the image of @xmath118 as an element @xmath630 in @xmath631 $ ] .
it is enough to show that @xmath630 is an invertible element .
based on theorem [ th_12 ] , @xmath632 $ ] and since @xmath633 , @xmath419 and @xmath634 $ ] are isomorphic via an isomorphism , namely @xmath635 .
it should be noted that the support of @xmath630 is the subset @xmath636 of @xmath637 .
consider an element @xmath36 to be the generator of @xmath20 , then @xmath638 is the generator of the cyclic group @xmath637 , which is isomorphic to @xmath639 . we show that @xmath209 is the support of @xmath640 . to this end
, we find an element @xmath206 in @xmath641 such that @xmath642 , for @xmath643 .
this implies the following system of congruent equations rcl rcl _ i & d_i & ( ( q-1 ) ) , + _ i & i & ( n ) . based on chinese remainder theorem (
* section 31.5 ) , the solution of this system of equations is @xmath644_{q-1}+i(q-1)[(q-1)^{-1}]_{n}\pmod{n(q-1)}$ ] .
thus , the @xmath634$]-matrix of @xmath640 is an @xmath645 cyclic matrix and its corresponding polynomial is @xmath646 .
it is enough to show that @xmath647 in @xmath625 $ ] .
we know that @xmath648 , @xcite .
the degree of @xmath649 is @xmath650 and it has @xmath89 as a root with multiplicity @xmath651 . since , @xmath652 and @xmath9 is the primitive root modulo @xmath623 , based on theorem [ cyc_th ] , @xmath653 is an irreducible polynomial .
the condition @xmath618 implies @xmath654 .
based on the assumptions , @xmath624 and since @xmath655 , we have @xmath647 and the result holds .
based on theorem [ inv_circ ] and theorem [ cyc_th ] , construction of invertible circulant matrices over @xmath4 is an straightforward job , but when we replace the cpms , finding the sufficient conditions for remaining invertible over @xmath77 is a complicated task and results in the conditions of theorem [ inv_prop ] .
consider the group @xmath656 as the cyclic group of order @xmath10 and @xmath657 .
let @xmath658 , in which @xmath390 is generator of the multiplicative cyclic group of order @xmath659 , @xmath660 .
then , the @xmath419-matrix of @xmath118 is @xmath661.\ ] ] choose the first row of @xmath96 as @xmath436 , replace @xmath662 by their corresponding cpms and denote the obtained binary matrix by @xmath408 .
we use this matrix as the parity - check matrix of the qc - ldpc code @xmath434 .
the element @xmath118 is a zero divisor in @xmath419 and we can find @xmath504 such that @xmath663 . we find @xmath453 as follows .
it is easy to check that @xmath664 .
dividing @xmath665 by @xmath666 gives @xmath667 .
it is also easy to check that the adjoint matrix of @xmath96 is @xmath668,\ ] ] and @xmath669 , where @xmath670 .
then , put @xmath671 which is the following matrix after simplifications @xmath672.\ ] ] it is clear that @xmath673 . we can check that @xmath674 and @xmath675 , over @xmath77 .
thus , @xmath96 does not have the conditions of remark [ rem1 ] , but we explain the encoding method by using these matrices with some modifications .
replace the cpms in @xmath96 , and denote the obtained matrix by @xmath676 .
then , the rows in the list @xmath677 of @xmath676 are linearly independent over @xmath77 .
let @xmath678 be the submatrix of @xmath96 corresponding to @xmath520 .
there is a @xmath679 binary matrix @xmath539 such that @xmath680 @xmath681.\ ] ] replace the cpms in @xmath416 and choose the first @xmath10 columns of the obtained matrix and denote it by @xmath682 .
since @xmath408 is corresponding to the first @xmath659 rows of @xmath96 , we choose the columns @xmath683 of @xmath539 and denote the obtained matrix by @xmath684 .
the generator matrix of @xmath434 is a @xmath685 binary matrix like @xmath402 such that @xmath686 and @xmath687 .
put @xmath688^t$ ] which is of rank @xmath689 .
we only consider the message vectors with @xmath89 in the last two coordinates .
then , @xmath479 can be used for encoding the messages of this form . note that @xmath690 is a submatrix of @xmath691 which is the following matrix @xmath692.\ ] ]
let @xmath693 , where @xmath694 , for @xmath695 .
then , @xmath696 , where @xmath697 .
for example , the encoding of the vector @xmath698 $ ] , with @xmath699 $ ] and @xmath700 $ ] , can be done as @xmath701 .
we have @xmath702.\ ] ] this multiplication can also be done as follows @xmath703 now , replace the generator of cpms in @xmath704 which gives the following binary vector @xmath705.\ ] ] @xmath164
to make a better understanding about the encoding method proposed in section [ sec5_2 ] , we present its naive implementation in the case that a unit group ring element is used in the construction of code .
let @xmath706 be the group ring element that generates the code , in which @xmath461 is defined in ( [ psi_def ] ) . as explained in section [ sec5_2 ] , the encoding of a vector @xmath707 , with @xmath708 and @xmath709 ,
can be done by viewing @xmath399 as a group ring element of the form @xmath710 and computing @xmath711 . in [ enc_diagram ] , we present the encoder circuit that implements this procedure . the inputs of this encoder are loaded from @xmath456 input registers ( ris ) of size @xmath73 and the outputs are stored in @xmath5 output registers ( ros ) of size @xmath73 .
this circuit is composed of @xmath5 _ partial multiplier circuits _ ( pmcs ) and each one multiplies @xmath712 by one @xmath713 , for @xmath714 .
the encoding operation is performed in @xmath400 clocks , after @xmath73 clocks delay in the beginning . in this circuit ,
the sub - block denoted by ps , is a programable switch which is composed of @xmath5 @xmath63-to-@xmath5 demultiplexers that depending on @xmath715 , ( i.e. , when the encoder is processing the @xmath716 sub - vector @xmath717 of the input vector @xmath399 ) it routs the inputs to their correct positions in the output registers . after routing and choosing the appropriate register ,
the new value of the register is the xor of its previous value and the new routed value . each pmc itself is composed of @xmath73 monomial multipliers ( mms ) , which are denoted by @xmath718 for @xmath719 and @xmath714 .
the structure of @xmath719 , for @xmath714 , is depicted in [ pmcs ] . in @xmath719 , the monomial @xmath720
is multiplied by @xmath712 in @xmath400 clocks . in the implementation of this circuit
, we use a lookup table ( lut ) that preserves the input - output relation of the map @xmath461 , which is defined in ( [ psi_def ] ) .
the ports re and we in pmcs and mms denote the read enable and write enable terminals , respectively , which are used to enable the reading and writing operations on the appropriate rams . the implementation circuit of @xmath721 , for @xmath722 , is presented in [ mmsl ] that takes @xmath723 in clock @xmath724 , for @xmath725 , @xmath726 , and multiplies it by @xmath727 in the group ring @xmath419 .
the ports ra and wa are used to specify the read address and write address in the rams . after each @xmath73 clocks ,
the writing operation in one of the provided rams in @xmath721 , for all @xmath728 and @xmath729 , is finished and the reading process in @xmath721 starts from the beginning address of this ram . at the same time , the reading operation from the other ram of each @xmath721 is finished and the writing on it will be started .
thus , a rectangular waveform with @xmath730 duty cycle and the pulse width of @xmath731 clocks can be used for controlling the read and write operations .
the implementation of this naive encoder can be improved in many aspects .
it is presented to make the understanding of the encoding procedure easier for the one who is not familiar with group ring operations . however , the proposed encoder have some good properties like using rams instead of shift registers that decreases the implementation cost and also the power required for encoder circuit .
the implementation of this circuit requires @xmath732 @xmath9-to-@xmath63 multiplexers , @xmath732 @xmath63-to-@xmath9 and @xmath5 @xmath63-to-@xmath5 demultiplexers , @xmath733 lut ( which itself is composed of multiplexers ) with @xmath73 inputs and @xmath72 outputs , @xmath734 and gates , @xmath5 xor gates with @xmath73 inputs and @xmath5 xor gates with two inputs .
in addition , we require @xmath735 full adders ( fas ) with @xmath736 bits , @xmath735 fas with @xmath737 bits , ... and @xmath735 fas with @xmath738 bits , which is equivalent to have @xmath735 fas with @xmath739 bits .
the memory requirements include a ram with @xmath740 bits and @xmath741 flip - flops , ( the terms @xmath739 in the number of registers and @xmath742 in the number of and gates are due to the implementation of a counter in the encoder circuit that counts from @xmath89 to @xmath743 continuously ) . since the encoding is performed in @xmath400 clocks , all the space complexity , the time complexity and the memory requirements of this encoder remain linear in the code length @xmath732 .
considering the encoder described above , does not motivate us for implementing the encoding of group ring based qc - ldpc codes , because another encoder with linear time - space complexities is proposed in @xcite for qc - ldpc codes . in the sequel ,
we analyze the complexity of encoding over group rings theoretically , that indicates the existence of a faster encoder , compared to the one in @xcite , for group ring based qc - ldpc codes .
our analysis requires some backgrounds about generalizing fft convolution over group rings .
mathematically looking , our encoding is the multiplication of two group ring elements @xmath712 and @xmath453 in @xmath419 , where @xmath20 is an abelian group of order @xmath5 and @xmath744 , with @xmath745}{\left\langle x_i^{q_i-1}-1\right\rangle},\quad i=1,\ldots , n.\ ] ] treating a group ring as the space of functions mapping a group to a ring , the multiplication in a group ring is the convolution of two functions therein .
due to the recent advances in signal processing and computer algebra @xcite , discrete fourier transform ( dft ) has been generalized to finite rings which model quantized sequences .
the widespread use of the dft is mostly caused by the great efficiency of the fast fourier transform ( fft ) algorithm for its computation .
thus , convolutions can be computed over finite rings using fft techniques .
the fft algorithm itself is independent of the ring which is used , but depends only on the sequence length ( in our case the group order of @xmath20 ) @xcite . following the general case that is considered in @xcite ,
let @xmath21 be a commutative ring with identity and @xmath20 be a finite abelian group of order @xmath5 .
it is said that @xmath21 supports a discrete fourier transform over @xmath20 if @xmath23 is isomorphic to @xmath746 , which is the pointwise product algebra of @xmath5-tuples from @xmath21 .
an isomorphism @xmath747 is called a ( generalized ) discrete fourier transform which is not necessarily unique .
the usual cyclic convolution of sequences with length @xmath5 fits into this framework by choosing @xmath20 as @xmath748 , which is the cyclic group of order @xmath5 .
the necessary and sufficient conditions on @xmath21 to make @xmath23 isomorphic to @xmath746 were determined in @xcite .
consider @xmath21 as a finite commutative ring with identity .
then , @xmath21 can be written as a direct sum of local rings , i.e. , @xmath749 , where @xmath750 s are commutative local rings with identity ( * ? ? ?
* theorem vi.2 ) .
a local ring is a commutative ring which has exactly one maximal ideal @xmath88 .
it is proved that @xmath21 supports a fourier transform over @xmath20 if and only if each @xmath750 supports a fourier transform over @xmath20 ( * ? ? ?
* theorem 1 ) .
[ fft1 ] let @xmath21 be a local ring and @xmath20 be a finite abelian group of order @xmath5 and exponent @xmath193 , which is the maximum of the orders of the elements of @xmath20 .
then , @xmath21 supports a discrete fourier transform over @xmath20 if and only if 1 .
@xmath21 contains a primitive @xmath751 root of unity be a commutative ring with identity .
an element @xmath752 is a primitive @xmath751 root of unity if @xmath753 and @xmath754 for @xmath755 . ]
@xmath193 is a unit in @xmath21 .
if @xmath88 is the maximal ideal of a local ring @xmath21 , then @xmath756 is a finite field which is called the
_ residue field_. let @xmath21 be a finite ring with decomposition @xmath757 , where @xmath750 s , are finite local rings with residue fields @xmath758 of order @xmath759 , @xmath760 .
then , we have the following theorem . [ fft2 ]
let @xmath757 , where @xmath750 s are finite local rings and define @xmath761 . if @xmath20 is a finite abelian group of exponent @xmath193 , then @xmath21 supports a discrete fourier transform over @xmath20 if and only if @xmath762 . for any finite ring
, @xmath763 determines exactly the sequence lengths ( or the group exponents ) for which a discrete fourier transform can be defined , namely the divisors of @xmath763 @xcite . after giving the necessary and sufficient conditions on the finite ring @xmath21 for supporting dft over @xmath20 ,
the authors of @xcite have introduced some conditions for implementing the fft and the fast convolution methods over finite rings . due to above discussions , by choosing an appropriate size @xmath5 for the group @xmath20 ,
the convolution of @xmath712 and @xmath453 can be done by using an fft algorithm that involves @xmath764 multiplication over @xmath21 .
now , we analyze the complexity of multiplication over @xmath21 .
our goal is to find an upper bound for the cost of multiplying two polynomials in @xmath765 $ ] of degree less than @xmath58 . for a given ring @xmath21 ,
one of the best currently known bounds that indicates the computational cost of multiplying two single variable polynomial over @xmath21 was obtained by cantor and kaltofen in @xcite .
their algorithm performs @xmath766 additions and subtractions and @xmath767 multiplications in @xmath21 and it relies on suitable incarnations of the fft . in our case ,
the multiplication of two elements in the ring of @xmath72-variates polynomials , @xmath768 $ ] , is required , where the maximum degree of the @xmath13 variable @xmath426 is @xmath440 , for @xmath769 .
we consider @xmath768 $ ] as @xmath770 $ ] , where @xmath771 $ ] .
thus , the multiplication of two elements in @xmath768 $ ] involves @xmath772 multiplications in @xmath773 .
similarly , @xmath773 can be written as @xmath774 $ ] , where @xmath775 $ ] , and every multiplication in @xmath773 is equivalent to @xmath776 multiplications in @xmath777 .
consequently , the multiplication in @xmath768 $ ] involves @xmath778 multiplications in @xmath777 . using the same procedure for other @xmath426 s yields the multiplication complexity in @xmath768 $ ] .
thus , the number of binary operations required for multiplying two elements in @xmath768 $ ] is @xmath779 , which is simplified to @xmath780 .
hence , we reach an upper bound for the cost of multiplying two elements in @xmath419 that counts the total required number of and gates as @xmath781 .
it is significantly lower than @xmath782 binary multiplications involved in the regular multiplication of two elements in @xmath419 .
dividing @xmath781 operations into @xmath732 time intervals admits an encoder with linear time complexity in the code length @xmath732 and logarithmic space complexity @xmath783 , which is a significant reduction in the space complexity compared to the proposed encoder in @xcite .
we can also implement an encoder with space complexity @xmath784 and time complexity @xmath783 that indicates a faster implementation of encoding for group ring based qc - ldpc codes compared to the other families .
for example , if we consider @xmath627 , the time complexity of the proposed encoding for group ring based qc - ldpc codes is determined as @xmath785 . due to the given lower bounds in @xcite , for a @xmath183-cycle free qc - ldpc code
we have @xmath786 .
thus , using the encoder of group ring based qc - ldpc codes gives the time complexity of @xmath787 while using the encoder of @xcite gives the time complexity of @xmath788 that indicates a significant reduction in the time complexity of encoding .
in this section , we present the numerical results that verify the efficiency of group ring based qc - ldpc codes . bit error rate ( ber ) and word error rate ( wer ) performances of the codes constructed based on groups of order @xmath145 and the structure of theorem [ theorem2 ] are presented in [ figsim3 ] . for @xmath157 , we use the rows @xmath789 of the @xmath790-matrix @xmath96 as the parity - check matrix . for @xmath791
, we use the rows @xmath792 and for @xmath793 we use the first three rows of @xmath96 as the parity - check matrix . thus , the row and the column weights of these codes are @xmath10 and @xmath145 , respectively . the null space of these matrices are @xmath794-regular qc - ldpc codes and their error performance using the spa ( @xmath11 iterations ) over the awgn channel with bpsk modulation , is illustrated in [ figsim3 ] .
the rate of these codes is @xmath795 . due to these numerical results , the error performance of the code based on @xmath793 is better than the error performance of the codes based on other groups with the same order .
thus , in all codes constructed in the sequel , the group @xmath20 is considered to be a cyclic group . our simulation results also indicate that in the case of using non - cyclic groups as the underlying group @xmath20 , the error performance of the obtained code is related to the subarray of @xmath96 which is used as the parity - check matrix of the code . in the rest of this section
, the parity - check matrix of the given codes are corresponding to the subarrays of the form @xmath796 at the upper left corner of @xmath96 , where @xmath797 and @xmath635 , for @xmath798 , denote the number of blocks in the rows and in the columns , respectively .
.,width=480 ] in [ figsim1 ] , we present the simulation results of the qc - ldpc codes obtained from theorem [ main_theorem ] and the codes constructed in @xcite .
the addressed codes in @xcite can also be obtained from theorem [ main_theorem2 ] by choosing the group @xmath20 as a cyclic group and @xmath168 as a difference set in @xmath799 .
we also compared our codes with the random mackay ldpc codes @xcite .
the codes with lengths @xmath800 and @xmath801 are chosen from @xcite for comparing the results .
simulation results show that the performance of the code with length @xmath801 is @xmath802db away from the performance of a random mackay ldpc code with the same rate and length and average column degree @xmath803 .
the code with length @xmath804 and dimension @xmath805 is obtained from the modified @xmath215-set found in @xmath806 .
the group @xmath20 is considered to be the cyclic group of order @xmath226 .
we consider the first @xmath183 rows of the corresponding @xmath419 matrices in both of these cases .
the row and the column degrees of both codes are @xmath183 and @xmath226 , respectively .
both of these codes have the rate @xmath807 and nearly the same error performance .
the code of length @xmath808 and dimension @xmath809 is obtained from the modified @xmath215-set found in @xmath223 , which is given in [ table4 ] . the row and the column degrees of this code are @xmath183 and @xmath221 , respectively .
another mackay ldpc code with these parameters and the average column degree @xmath183 is constructed .
the error performance of all these codes using the spa ( @xmath810 iterations ) over the awgn channel , with bpsk modulation , is illustrated in [ figsim1 ] . in this figure
, it can be seen that our code and the mackay ldpc code both have the same error performance .
a performance comparison has already been done between the binary qc - ldpc codes of @xcite and their random - like binary girth @xmath144 non - qc and qc counterparts .
these non - qc and qc codes were generated by software @xcite and using the method given in @xcite , respectively . according to the results of @xcite , the qc - ldpc codes based on difference sets have a considerably better performance than the random - like qc and non - qc girth @xmath144 ldpc codes .
due to the similar performance of group ring based qc - ldpc codes and the qc - ldpc codes of @xcite , the group ring based qc - ldpc codes of theorem [ main_theorem ] outperform the ldpc codes of @xcite and @xcite .
-sets over the awgn channel.,width=480 ] we use the given @xmath215-set in ( [ s_2-set ] ) and the construction method of theorem [ main_theorem2 ] to generate another group ring based code as follows .
considering the subarray @xmath811 in our base matrix gives a qc - ldpc code with rate @xmath812 and length @xmath813 that can be compared with the constructed code in ( * ? ? ?
* example 11.9 ) .
both of these codes have the row degree @xmath183 and the column degree @xmath814 and the rate @xmath812 . in [ figsim2 ] , we present the simulation results of these two codes .
another code that is presented in [ figsim2 ] , is a random mackay ldpc code @xcite with length @xmath813 and rate @xmath812 and average column degree @xmath183 .
it can be seen that all these codes have nearly the same error performance . at the ber of @xmath815
, these codes perform within @xmath816db from their corresponding shannon limits . in [ figsim5 ] , the error performance of the codes obtained from @xmath811 and @xmath817 are compared with the codes constructed in ( * ? ? ?
* example 2 ) and ( * ? ? ?
* example 2 ) , respectively .
the group ring based code with length @xmath813 has the same error performance as the one based on finite fields in ( * ? ? ?
* example 2 ) , but the constructed code in ( * ? ? ?
* example 2 ) outperforms the group ring based code with length @xmath818 about @xmath819db at the ber of @xmath820 .
the error performance of the other group ring based ldpc codes can be found in @xcite .
it is shown that the performance of these codes can be compared with random mackay ldpc codes . and a random mackay code @xcite over the awgn channel.,width=480 ] over the awgn channel .
, width=480 ]
in this paper , a new method has been proposed for constructing qc - ldpc codes from group rings .
simulation results show that the error performance of the group ring based codes outperforms the error performance of the random - like qc and non - qc ldpc codes .
it has been shown that the error performance of group ring based qc - ldpc codes is as good as recently designed qc - ldpc codes based of finite fields .
in addition , an algebraic framework has been proposed that describes the group ring based qc - ldpc codes as specific submodules in group rings .
the relations between the parameters of the underlying group ring and the error performance of the obtained code have been illustrated using the simulation results . applying the proposed algebraic framework , that authorizes the application of fast fourier transform in computations ,
a new encoding method with faster implementation capability , compared to the available encoding methods , has been proposed .
the complexity of the proposed encoding method for group ring based qc - ldpc codes has been analyzed mathematically .
the proposed qc - ldpc codes in this paper together with the proposed encoding method , enable the exploiting of the benefits of algebraic codes ( simple encoding ) and modern codes ( acceptable error performance in the awgn channel ) at the same time .
the authors would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on the earlier versions of this paper .
the authors also acknowledge the financial support of the institute for research in fundamental sciences ( ipm ) .
the research of the second author was in part supported by a grant from ipm ( no .
@xmath821 ) .
we would like to thank prof .
daniel panario and dr .
sara saeedi madani for proofreading the paper .
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fanfiction |
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Naruto Our Fault
Our Fault
Prologue
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto he belongs Masashi Kishimoto. I only intend to write this story for the amusement of the readers.
Summery: His heart and mind hardened in a way that sill left him vulnerable, Naruto could only watch as his life fell apart around him.
* * *
"_We were so cruel to him back then, we would jeer at him merely because we were expected to, plus he never acted like it hurt him to hear our words or to see the looks on our faces. I was part of that crowd, the crowd whose glares spoke volumes at what they felt towards him. I always showed how much I hated him even when I thought it wasn't right. I just kept thinking 'if my parents hate him so much shouldn't I?' That thought was shared by many children my age, in various amounts depending on how passionately their parents hated Naruto. When I sit down and think about it, everything that happened was entirely all our fault"_
_-From the diary of Sakura Haruno age: 25 Village: Konohagakure_
The morning started like any other in Konoha, tense and nerve wrecking, at least for Naruto. Every day started like this, he was used to it and it didn't bother him that few people cared for him. What did bother him was why they didn't care. They seemed to hate his very essence and it took nearly all of the effort he could muster to be able to smile and pull himself out of bed every morning. Even when he wasn't happy he smiled, it seemed to him they were less cruel with their comments and glares when he smiled. Maybe, he thought, maybe it made them feel guilty.
Today he started his routine of getting out of bed, getting dressed, washing his hair, eating breakfast and leaving after he brushed his teeth. He liked to wash his hair, it helped him clear his head so he could think clearly. They never hurt him in the past but he could tell they wanted to. Washing his hair also had a calming effect on him, he felt at peace when washed his hair.
The walk to the academy was quiet and nothing happened, Naruto was relived, sometimes when there were villagers around the killing intent they sent alongside with their glares gave him chilling images of what they wished to do to him. He always saw terrible things, things that would make any average person want to hurl. The worse images were from the ninjas, theirs made the ones from the civilians look tame and docile. That's why he left early for the academy so he could lessen his chances of running into someone.
When he entered the academy, no one was there and that cheered him up a bit. He didn't like to explain himself to any teachers who asked him why he was there so early. He sat himself in the middle of the front row. He liked it there because if you sat there it was easy to be seen and heard, which was what Naruto wanted.
It didn't take long for students to arrive and pretty soon the room was filled up except for a few people. Sasuke was sitting on the left side of the room up by the wall in the front row. Naruto thought of Sasuke as someone whose situation was similar to his except Sasuke was loved unlike Naruto. There was also social status to remember. Sasuke was an Uchiha, one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha. Naruto was an Uzumaki, a clan of nobodies as far as Naruto knew. The village records he found in the library never said anything about the Uzumaki clan so Naruto figured they were either not important or he was born from foreign civilian parents who died the day he was born. Either way Naruto thought him and Sasuke would never see eye to eye in anything. Sometimes Naruto was jealous of Sasuke who seemed to excel in everything with little to no effort while it took all of Naruto's effort to barely get by.
Soon after Shikamaru and Chouji came in, Sakura and Ino rushed down the hallways to claim an empty spot next to Sasuke. For a moment they were wedged in the doorway before they fell down with a loud thump. The two of them ran over to Sasuke, who at this point still hadn't looked up, and asked the same question they asked every day which led to the same argument every time.
"Hey, Sasuke do you want me to sit next to you?" Sakura said in a sugar sweet voice that she probably thought was irresistible but wasn't.
"Move Sakura I was here first and Sasuke wants to sit next to me not you" said Ino in a tone she thought would scare off Sakura. It never did.
"You're lying! Sasuke obviously wants me to sit me by him Ino!" Sakura said in a much harsher tone that did scare Ino a little.
This argument kept up this pattern until Ino was scared enough to give it up for the day. Meanwhile, during the whole argument Sasuke said nothing even though Sakura and Ino were putting words in his mouth. After a while Iruka came in and settled the class down.
The day continued on like usual without a single abnormality, Naruto not understanding much from the lesson, Sasuke knowing all the answers to Iruka's questions and Sakura adoring him for it. Naruto hated this pattern, he wanted it to break; he wanted something different to happen. It did, but not in the way he wanted.
"I have something I want to tell you all before you go," Iruka said, "Two days from now I'm going to be gone for two months to recover from surgery" the look on his face told everyone that he was not going to answer any questions.
'Ah heck' Naruto thought 'a substitute? The person who is going to be his temporary replacement will probably hate me'. The sheer possibility of his thoughts weighed on him, he felt like a giant weight was thrown on his back and was somehow stuck there.
The news interested some of the students but most didn't care, like Sasuke. This upset Iruka, but only for a moment since he had better things to worry about then why his students were being unusually disconnected, like his surgery in two days. He was about to leave when Naruto walked up to him and murmured something.
"Don't go," softly and breathlessly he rushed his next words, "don't leave me here with a stranger who'll probably hate me like all the others!"
It was a close guarded secret that Iruka cared for Naruto like a son and although he wished he could protect Naruto from all the world's evils he knew he couldn't. Nonetheless, he tried his best to secretly make Naruto's life easier. He bought Naruto food and clothes, he paid his rent, and every now and then came over to clean Naruto's apartment. But what Naruto really needed was love and Iruka couldn't give him that, at least not publicly.
"Sorry," Iruka said, "I can't pick who replaces me and this surgery can't wait," He lowered his head solemnly and said his next words slowly and carefully, "you're just going to have to deal with it, just keep smiling like you always do". He walked away, half expecting Naruto to say something and half expecting him to say nothing. He was not surprised when Naruto was silent as he walked out the room.
By now all of the students were gone and it was just Naruto. Naruto was silent when Iruka left; there was nothing to say. After a moment he gathered his wits and walked out the door hoping that the new substitute would not hate him and that for the next two months he would not have to deal with an insurmountable enemy.
End file.
| fanfiction |
the most distant absorption - line system with observable ly-@xmath4 and ly-@xmath3 lines is the lyman limit system discovered by tytler et al .
( 1996 , hereafter tfb ) at @xmath2 toward the quasar q 1937 - 1009 ( @xmath14 ) . in tfb , high resolution ( fwhm = 9 km s@xmath15 ) and high signal - to - noise ( s / n @xmath16 per pixel at the position of the ly-@xmath4 line ) keck spectra of q 1937 - 1009 revealed hydrogen absorption throughout the entire lyman series as well as a few metal absorption lines with asymmetric profiles . their first measurements of d / h based on a two - component microturbulent model ( voigt profile deconvolution analysis ) gave a low value of d / h = @xmath17 ( @xmath18 statistical and systematic errors ) .
this result caused a lively discussion since the low d / h value would imply a high universal density of baryons @xmath19 ( tfb ) , where @xmath20 is the fraction of the critical density in form of baryons and @xmath21 is the hubble parameter scaled to 100 km s@xmath15 mpc@xmath15 .
note that the total sbbn baryon density compatible with the abundances of d and @xmath22he observed in the solar system and the interstellar medium , has been estimated to be @xmath23 ( hata et al .
1996 ) , which is slightly larger than earlier bbn estimates @xmath24 ( walker et al .
1991 ) .
the lack of uniqueness in the voigt deconvolution procedure was employed by wampler ( 1996 ) to show that other microturbulent models could give d / h ratios that are about 3 times higher than the tfb s value and still are compatible with their fit .
wampler also suggested that the total hydrogen column density may not be well determined by tfb because of either incorrect sky subtraction or improper modeling the ly-@xmath4 forest structure above and below the lyman continuum break .
the latter is problematical for distant qsos exhibiting a high density ly-@xmath4 forest , and different methods of analysis have yielded by now different values for n ( ) : @xmath25 @xmath7 by songaila et al .
( 1997 ) ; @xmath26 @xmath7 by burles & tytler ( 1997 ) .
a value of n ( ) @xmath27 @xmath7 which `` produces a smooth forest opacity above and below the break '' was recently presented by songaila ( 1998 ) .
using new constraints on n()@xmath28 , bt re - considered the d / h measurements from the @xmath2 system . in this new approach ,
the metal absorption lines are not used to constrain d / h .
the absorbers are separated into two groups with low and high column densities [ n ( ) @xmath29 @xmath7 and n ( ) @xmath30 @xmath7 , respectively ] .
the first group does not show and was utilized to fit the ly-@xmath4 forest features in the vicinity of the lyman series lines from the @xmath2 system .
the second ( main ) group of lines were described by five free physical parameters : n ( ) , n ( ) , @xmath31 , @xmath32 , and @xmath33 . the best fitting model with 3 main components ( model 4 ) allows for additional free parameters characterizing the local continuum to improve the fit .
bt conclude , however , that `` the model fit to ly@xmath3 is not as good as ly@xmath4 , there is under - absorption in two places near d - ly@xmath3 ''
. the present letter is primarily aimed at the inverse problem in the analysis of the h+d ly-@xmath4 and ly-@xmath3 absorption observed by tfb .
it is shown that the mesoturbulent model based on only 5 physical parameters and an appropriate velocity field configuration is a sufficient description of the d ly-@xmath4 and ly-@xmath3 lines with no free parameters in the continuum .
it is generally believed that the lyman limit systems arise in the outer regions of intervening galactic halos .
we assume that the background ionizing radiation at @xmath34 is hard enough to keep the absorbing gas photoionized with @xmath35 k. a galaxy halo is considered to be a continuous medium exhibiting a mixture of bulk motions such as infall and outflows , rotation , tidal flows etc .
the motion along the line of sight is then characterized by a fluctuating velocity field which we consider as random . for the sake of simplicity , we assume a homogeneous ( - ) density and temperature @xmath36 .
the model closely follows the papers by levshakov & kegel ( 1997 ; paper i ) , levshakov , kegel & mazets ( 1997 ; paper ii ) and levshakov , kegel & takahara ( 1997 ; paper iii ) ; the reader is referred to these papers for more details .
here we only note that although the distribution function for the fluctuating velocity field is assumed to be gaussian _ on average _ , the resulting velocity distribution along a _ given _ line of sight may deviate significantly from this . to estimate physical parameters and an appropriate velocity field structure along the sightline , we used a reverse monte carlo [ rmc ] technique described in paper iii .
the algorithm requires to define a simulation box for the 5 physical parameters : n ( ) , d / h , @xmath36 , @xmath37 , and @xmath38 [ here @xmath39 denotes the _ rms _ velocity , @xmath40 the thermal width of the hydrogen lines , @xmath41 the correlation length , and @xmath42 the typical thickness of the absorbing region ] .
the continuous random function @xmath43 is represented by its sampled values at equal space intervals @xmath44 , i.e. by the vector @xmath45 of the velocity components parallel to the line of sight at the spatial points @xmath46 ( see paper ii ) . in the present study
we adopt for the physical parameters the following boundaries : n ( ) ranges from @xmath47 to @xmath48 @xmath7 ; d / h from @xmath49 to @xmath50 ; @xmath36 from @xmath51 to @xmath52 k. for @xmath37 the boundaries were set from 1.0 to 4.0 to cover the @xmath39-range estimated from the kinematic structure of the galactic halos observed at @xmath53 [ @xmath54 km s@xmath15 , van ojik et al .
( 1997 ) ] . since for @xmath55
the meso- and microturbulent profiles tend to be identical ( paper i ) , we consider here only moderate @xmath38 ratios in the range 1.0 5.0 .
similar to bt , we assume that the d and h lines are not required to have the identical velocities as the metal lines from the same system , and that only the higher order lyman series lines can trace the neutral hydrogen distribution .
but we fix @xmath56 = 3.5723145 ( the mean @xmath31 between the blue and the red components of the metal lines observed by tfb ) as a more or less arbitrary reference radial velocity at which @xmath57 .
having specified the parameter space , we construct the objective function ( similar to that in paper iii ) to calculate @xmath58 .
the objective function includes the following portions of the lyman series lines which after preliminary analysis were chosen as most appropriate to the simultaneous rmc fitting : for h+d ly-@xmath4 and ly-@xmath3 , @xmath59 ranges from @xmath60 to @xmath61 km s@xmath15 ( see fig .
1*a , b * ) ; for ly-14 , 18 km s@xmath62 km s@xmath15 ( fig .
1*i * ) ; for ly-15 , @xmath63 ( fig . 1*j
* ) . in the q 1937 - 1009 spectrum
, there are many additional absorbers blending the lyman series lines .
we do not fit these additional absorptions since they do not affect significantly the d / h measurement in this system as shown by bt .
the strongest absorption feature seen at @xmath64 ( @xmath65 km s@xmath15 in fig .
1*a - i * ) has , according to bt , n ( ) = @xmath66 @xmath7 , which is less than 1% of the total n ( ) at @xmath67 .
the estimated parameters for a few adequate rmc profile fits are listed in table 1 .
we tried to find a satisfactory result with the reduced @xmath68 per degree of freedom of @xmath69 ( where @xmath70 is the expected @xmath68 value for @xmath71 degrees of freedom at the credible probability of 95% ) . in table 1 , the @xmath58 values are shown for the blue wings of the h+d ly-@xmath4 and ly-@xmath3 lines ( @xmath72 , @xmath60 km s@xmath73 km s@xmath15 , and @xmath74 ) , which are the only lines with the observable d - absorption .
moreover , these pairs are more sensitive to the fitting procedure due to the highest s / n data obtained .
slightly lower @xmath68 values were found in the combination with the ly-14 and ly-15 lines which , however , have smaller weights since their data are noisy . to illustrate our results ,
we show in fig . 1 the best rmc solution with the lowest @xmath58 value ( model * d * ) . to check the rmc solutions , we calculated hydrogen profiles up to ly-23 for each model and then superposed them to the corresponding parts of the q 1937 - 1009 spectrum .
for all models from table 1 the results are similar to that shown in fig . 1 .
we do not find any pronounced discordance of calculated and real spectra .
the derived @xmath43-configurations are not unique .
table 1 demonstrates the spread of the rms turbulent velocities from @xmath75 km s@xmath15 to @xmath76 km s@xmath15 .
the projected velocity distribution functions @xmath77 differ considerably from a gaussian .
2 shows as an example for such a distorted distribution ( solid line histogram ) the case of model * d*. by dotted lines we show three @xmath77 for bt s best fit model with three components ( model 4 ) .
both the rmc @xmath77 and the combined bt @xmath77 distributions are asymmetric .
however , the rmc solution shows a stronger blue gradient as compared with bt .
this is the main reason why the absorption in the blue wing of the ly-@xmath3 line is enhanced without any additional interloper(s ) .
we have shown that the interpretation of the q 1937 - 1009 spectrum obtained by tfb is not unique .
the data can be modeled with a higher d / h ratio if one accounts for spatial correlations in the large scale velocity field .
the most accurate and robust rmc solution ( model * d * ) was obtained with a total hydrogen column density outside the range found by burles & tytler ( 1997 ) but in good agreement with the songaila ( 1998 ) estimate .
of course , our analysis gives a certain _ range _ for n()@xmath28 and d / h ( see table 1 ) .
however , this range narrows if we require the d / h value to be compatible with the results of our previous analyses of the absorption toward q 1009 + 2956 ( @xmath8 ) ( paper iii ) and toward q 1718 + 4807 ( @xmath9 ) ( levshakov et al . , 1998 ) .
the range common to all three analyses is d / h @xmath10 .
this implies for q 1937 - 1009 n ( ) @xmath78 @xmath7 , showing that model * d * is well within this range . from sbbn
it follows that d / h @xmath10 implies for the baryon - to - photon ratio , @xmath11 , a value in the interval @xmath79 . with the present - day photon density determined from the cosmic microwave background ( e.g. fixen et al . 1996 ) , one then estimates the present - day baryon density to be in the range @xmath80 .
the authors are grateful to david tytler for making available the calibrated keck / hires echelle spectra of q 1937 - 1009 before their first publication and acknowledge helpful correspondence and comments by him , xiao - ming fan and scott burles .
this work was supported in part by the rfbr grant no .
96 - 02 - 16905a .
ccccccc ( * a * ) & 5.60 & 4.78 & 1.16 & 20.1 & 3.6 & 1.24 ( * b * ) & 5.94 & 4.41 & 1.43 & 22.3 & 3.5 & 1.29 ( * c * ) & 6.04 & 4.10 & 1.09 & 20.8 & 2.8 & 1.40 ( * d * ) & 6.15 & 4.23 & 1.15 & 20.0 & 3.6 & 1.18 ( * e * ) & 6.85 & 3.74 & 1.38 & 18.5 & 2.0 & 1.39 ( * f * ) & 7.00 & 3.20 & 1.54 & 18.3 & 2.1 & 1.45 | arxiv |
right sided aortic arch ( raa ) is an uncommon congenital anomaly with an incidence of 0.1% , and aortic dissection involving raa is rare . the surgical approach for a raa aneurysm remains a complicated problem entity because of its anatomical characteristics .
we present a case of type b dissecting aneurysm involving a raa with kommerell 's diverticulum , in which a successful graft replacement was performed via right posterolateral thoracotomy .
a 47-year - old male with a history of hypertension requiring medication was admitted to our hospital due to chest pain , which is a dull ache and is radiated to the back .
electrocardiography showed no evidence of myocardial ischemia , and transthoracic echocardiography showed a normal left ventricular ejection fraction and no regional wall motion abnormalities .
however , a chest x - ray showed mediastinal widening with a right - sided convex - shaped shadow ( fig .
1 ) . subsequent chest computed tomography revealed a dissecting aneurysm involving a right - sided aorta with kommerell 's diverticulum .
the dissection started just distal to the left subclavian artery and propagated to the level of the renal artery , forming an aneurysm with a maximal diameter of 10.5 cm ( fig .
an entry tear was detected at the lower thoracic aorta , with two reentry tears at the celiac and renal arterial levels ( fig .
the superior mesenteric artery and right renal artery originated from the true lumen , while the celiac trunk and left renal artery originated from the false lumen .
surgical intervention was indicated due to signs of impending rupture , periaortic fluid collection , and an increase in size .
a right posterolateral thoracotomy was performed , which adequately exposed the right aortic arch and right descending aorta .
a cardiopulmonary bypass was started after cannulation of the right common femoral artery and vein .
the patient was cooled to 20. during circulatory arrest , a 28-mm tube graft with a 10-mm side arm was anastomosed proximally at the distal aberrant left subclavian artery .
next , the circulation was started with the graft - side arm cannulation . during the rewarming period
the postoperative course was uneventful , and the patient remained well during the 6-month follow - up period .
embryologically , the aortic arch is formed from the left aortic arch as the right aortic arch degenerates . however ,
if the left instead of the right aortic arch degenerates , the aortic arch will be formed from the right aortic arch .
the result can be classified into three types , depending on the pattern of degeneration of the left aortic arch and the branching pattern of the great vessels .
the so - called mirror image pattern is an uncommon type in which the great vessels originate from the arch in the following order : left innominate artery , right common carotid artery , and right subclavian artery . a mirror image - type right aortic arch was shown to be associated with major congenital heart disease in 98% of patients , including tetralogy of fallot , truncus arteriosus , and tricuspid atresia .
the most common type occurs when the great vessels originate from the arch in the following order : left common carotid artery , right common carotid artery , right subclavian artery , and left subclavian artery originating from kommerell 's diverticulum .
this type is less frequently associated with major cardiac anomalies ( 5 to 10% ) [ 2,4 - 6 ] .
the only cardiac anomaly in the present case was an aberrant left subclavian artery originating from kommerell 's diverticulum .
the third and rarest type occurs when the left common carotid artery , right common carotid artery , and right subclavian artery originate in order from the right aorta , and the left subclavian artery is not connected .
most patients with an raa are asymptomatic ; however , tracheoesophageal compression may occur due to a vascular ring that develops from the ductus arteriosus , which connects the left pulmonary artery to the left subclavian artery or kommerell 's diverticulum [ 5 - 7 ] .
the true incidence of a right - sided aortic aneurysm or dissection is unknown , but aortic dissection does not appear to be increased in frequency in individuals with a right aortic arch .
however , bodine et al . suggested that a type b dissection developed more frequently than other types of dissection in patients with an raa .
patients with an raa have a shorter radius and more acute curvature of the arch compared with the usual gentle curve of the left aortic arch .
this change in direction of blood flow from the cephalic to the caudal represents an additional stress to the tissues in the vessel wall , which could predispose affected individuals to a type b dissection in the raa . in our case ,
the dissection was of stanford type b ; thus , it did not involve the ascending aorta and it extended to the renal arterial level distally . for treatment ,
a surgical approach is the most important consideration because the anatomical features of a right - sided aorta present specific technical problems compared with a normal left - sided aorta .
commonly used surgical approaches in such cases include a midline sternotomy , right thoracotomy , left thoracotomy , and bilateral thoracotomy ; however , these approaches may not be appropriate for a complete repair .
the surgical intervention in our case was performed successfully by right posterolateral thoracotomy , and the patient 's postoperative course was uneventful . in conclusion ,
aortic dissection involving a right - sided aorta is a rare condition , and right posterolateral thoracotomy may be a good method to adequately expose an raa . | pubmed |
the past decades have seen an accelerating miniaturization of both mechanical and electrical devices , so that a better understanding of properties of ultrasmall systems is required in increasing detail .
the first measurements of conductance quantization in the late 1980s @xcite in constrictions of two - dimensional electron gases formed by means of gates , have demonstrated the importance of quantum confinement effects in these systems and opened a wide field of research .
a major step has been the discovery of conductance quantization in metallic nanocontacts @xcite : the conductance measured during the elongation of a metal nanowire is a steplike function where the typical step height is frequently near a multiple of the conductance quantum @xmath0 , where @xmath1 is the electron charge and @xmath2 planck s constant .
surprisingly , this was initially not interpreted as a quantum effect but rather as a consequence of abrupt atomic rearrangements and elastic deformation stages .
this interpretation , supported by a series of molecular dynamics simulations @xcite , was claimed to be confirmed by another pioneering experiment @xcite measuring simultaneously the conductance and the cohesive force of gold nanowires with diameters ranging from several ngstroms to several nanometers .
as the contact was pulled apart , oscillations in the force of order 1nn were observed in perfect correlation with the conductance steps .
it came as a surprise when stafford _
et al . _ ( 1997 ) introduced the free - electron model of a nanocontact referred to as the _ nanoscale free - electron model _ ( nfem ) henceforth and showed that this comparatively simple model , which emphasizes the quantum confinement effects of the metallic electrons , is able to reproduce quantitatively the main features of the experimental observations . in this approach
, the nanowire is understood to act as a quantum waveguide for the conduction electrons ( which are responsible for both conduction and cohesion in simple metals ) : each quantized mode transmitted through the contact contributes @xmath3 to the conductance and a force of order @xmath4 to the cohesion , where @xmath5 and @xmath6 are the fermi energy and wavelength , respectively .
conductance channels act as delocalized bonds whose stretching and breaking is responsible for the observed force oscillations , thus explaining straightforwardly their correlations with the conductance steps . since then , free - standing metal nanowires , suspended from electrical contacts at their ends , have been fabricated by a number of different techniques .
metal wires down to a single atom thick were extruded using a scanning - tunneling microscope tip @xcite .
metal nanobridges were shown to `` self - assemble '' under electron - beam irradiation of thin metal films ( kondo _ et al . _
1997 , 2000 , rodrigues _
et al . _ 2000
) , leading to nearly perfect cylinders down to four atoms in diameter , with lengths up to fifteen nanometers .
in particular , the mechanically - controllable break junction technique , introduced by moreland and ekin ( 1985 ) and refined by ruitenbeek and coworkers @xcite , has allowed for systematic studies of nanowire properties for a variety of materials . for a survey see the review by agrat _
et al . _ ( 2003 ) .
a remarkable feature of metal nanowires is that they are stable at all .
most atoms in such a thin wire are at the surface , with small coordination numbers , so that _ surface effects _ play a key role in their energetics .
indeed , macroscopic arguments comparing the surface - induced stress to the yield strength indicate a minimum radius for solidity of order ten nanometers @xcite . below this critical radius and absent some other stabilizing mechanism , plastic flow would lead to a rayleigh instability @xcite breaking the wire apart into clusters . already in the 19th century plateau ( 1873 )
realized that this surface - tension - driven instability is unavoidable if cohesion is due solely to classical pairwise interactions between atoms .
the experimental evidence accumulated over the past decade on the remarkable stability of nanowires considerably thinner than the above estimate clearly shows that electronic effects emphasized by the nfem dominate over atomistic effects for sufficiently small radii . a series of experiments on alkali metal nanocontacts ( yanson _ et al . _ 1999 , 2001 ) identified _ electron - shell effects _ , which represent the semiclassical limit of the quantum - size effects discussed above , as a key mechanism influencing nanowire stability .
energetically - favorable structures were revealed as peaks in conductance histograms , periodic in the nanowire radius , analogous to the electron - shell structure previously observed in metal clusters @xcite .
a supershell structure was also observed @xcite , in the form of a periodic modulation of the peak heights .
more recently , such electron - shell effects have also been observed , even at room temperature , for the noble metals gold , copper , and silver ( diaz _ et al .
_ 2003 , mares _
et al . _
2004 , 2005 ) as well as for aluminum @xcite .
soon after the first experimental evidence for electron shell effects in metal nanowires , a theoretical analysis using the nfem found that nanowire stability can be explained by a competition of the two key factors , surface tension and electron - shell effects @xcite .
both linear @xcite and nonlinear ( brki _ et al . _
2003 , 2005a ) stability analyses of axially symmetric nanowires found that the surface - tension driven instability can be completely suppressed in the vicinity of certain `` magic radii . ''
however , the restriction to axial symmetry implies characteristic gaps in the sequence of stable nanowires , which is not fully consistent with the experimentally observed nearly perfect periodicity of the conductance peak positions . a jahn - teller deformation breaking the symmetry can lead to more stable deformed configurations .
recently , the linear stability analysis was extended to wires with arbitrary cross - section ( urban _ et al . _ 2004a , 2006 ) .
this general analysis confirms the existence of a sequence of magic cylindrical wires of exceptional stability which represent roughly 75% of the main structures observed in conductance histograms .
the remaining 25% are deformed and predominantly of elliptical or quadrupolar shapes .
this result allows for a consistent interpretation of experimental conductance histograms for alkali and noble metals , including both the electronic shell and supershell structures @xcite .
this chapter is intended to give an introduction to the nfem .
section [ sec : model ] summarizes the assumptions and features of the model while the general formalism is described in sec.[sec : formalism ] . in the following sections ,
two applications of the nfem will be discussed : first , we give a unified explanation of electrical transport and cohesion in metal nanocontacts ( sec . [
sec : forcecond ] ) and second , the linear stability analysis for straight metal nanowires will be presented ( sec .
[ sec : stabana ] ) .
the latter will include cylindrical wires as well as wires with broken axial symmetry , thereby discussing the jahn - teller - effect .
guided by the importance of conduction electrons in the cohesion of metals , and by the success of the jellium model in describing metal clusters @xcite , the nfem replaces the metal ions by a uniform , positively charged background that provides a confining potential for the electrons .
the electron motion is free along the wire , and confined in the transverse directions .
usually an infinite confinement potential ( hard - wall boundary conditions ) for the electrons is chosen .
this is motivated by the fact that the effective potential confining the electrons to the wire will be short ranged due to the strong screening in good metals . in a first approximation
electron - electron interactions are neglected , which is reasonable due to the excellent screening @xcite in metal wires with @xmath7 .
it is known from cluster physics that a free electron model gives qualitative agreement and certainly describes the essential physics involved .
interaction , exchange and correlation effects as well as a realistic confinement potential have to be taken into account , however , for quantitative agreement . from this
we infer that the same is true for metal nanowires , where similar confinement effects are important .
remarkably , the electron - shell effects crucial to the stabilization of long wires are described with quantitative accuracy by the simple free - electron model , as discussed below .
in addition , the nfem assumes that the positive background behaves like an incompressible fluid when deforming the nanowire .
this takes into account , to lowest order , the hard - core repulsion of core electrons as well as the exchange energy of conduction electrons .
when using a hard - wall confinement , the fermi energy @xmath5 ( or equivalently the fermi wavelength @xmath6 ) is the only parameter entering the nfem .
as @xmath5 is material dependent and experimentally accessible , there is no adjustable parameter .
this pleasant feature needs to be abandoned in order to model different materials more realistically .
different kinds of appropriate surface boundary conditions are imaginable in order to model the behaviour of an incompressible fluid and to fit the surface properties of various metals .
this will be discussed in detail in sec .
[ sec : generalconstraint ] . a more refined model of a nanocontact would consider effects of scattering from disorder ( brki _ et al . _ 1999a ,
b ) and electron - electron interaction via a hartree approximation @xcite .
the inclusion of disorder in particular leads to a better quantitative agreement with transport measurements , but does not change the cohesive properties qualitatively in any significant way , while electron - electron interactions are found to be a small correction in most cases . as a result ,
efforts to make the nfem more realistic do not improve it significantly , while removing one of its main strengths , the absence of any adjustable parameters .
the major shortcoming of the nfem is that its applicability is limited to good metals having a nearly spherical fermi surface .
it is best suited for the ( highly reactive ) s - orbital alkali metals , providing a theoretical understanding of the important physics in nanowires .
the nfem has also been proven to qualitatively ( and often semi - quantitatively ) describe noble metal nanowires , and in particular , gold .
lately , it has been shown that the nfem can even be applied ( within a certain parameter range ) to describe the multivalent metal aluminum , since al shows an almost spherical fermi surface in the extended - zone scheme .
the nfem is especially suitable to describe shell effects due to the conduction - band s - electrons , and the experimental observation of a crossover from atomic - shell to electron - shell effects with decreasing radius in both metal clusters @xcite and nanowires @xcite justifies _ a posteriori _ the use of the nfem in the later regime .
naturally , the nfem does not capture effects originating from the directionality of bonding , such as the effect of surface reconstruction observed for au .
for this reason it can not be used to model atomic chains of au atoms , which are currently extensively studied experimentally . keeping these limitations in mind ,
the nfem is applicable within a certain range of radius , capturing nanowires with only very few atoms in cross - section up to wires of several nanometers in thickness , depending on the material under consideration .
a metal nanowire represents an open system connected to metallic electrodes at each end .
these macroscopic electrodes act as ideal electron reservoirs in thermal equilibrium with a well - defined temperature and chemical potential . when treating an open system , the schrdinger equation is most naturally formulated as a scattering problem .
the basic idea of the scattering approach is to relate physical properties of the wire with transmission and reflection amplitudes for electrons being injected from the leads .
the fundamental quantity describing the properties of the system is the energy - dependent unitary scattering matrix @xmath8 connecting incoming and outgoing asymptotic states of conduction electrons in the electrodes . for a quantum wire , @xmath8
can be decomposed into four submatrices @xmath9 , @xmath10 , @xmath11 , where 1 ( 2 ) indicates the left ( right ) lead .
each submatrix @xmath12 determines how an incoming eigenmode of lead @xmath13 is scattered into a linear combination of outgoing eigenmodes of lead @xmath10 .
the eigenmodes of the leads are also referred to as scattering channels .
the formulation of electrical transport in terms of the scattering matrix was developed by landauer and bttiker : the ( linear response ) electrical conductance @xmath14 can be expressed as a function of the submatrix @xmath15 which describes transmission from the source electrode 1 to the drain electrode 2 and is given by @xcite @xmath16 here @xmath17 + 1\}^{-1}$ ] is the fermi distribution function for electrons in the reservoirs , @xmath18 is the inverse temperature and @xmath19 is the electron chemical potential , specified by the macroscopic electrodes .
the trace @xmath20 sums over all eigenmodes of the source .
the appropriate thermodynamic potential to describe the energetics of an open system is the grand canonical potential @xmath21,\ ] ] where @xmath22 is the electronic density of states ( dos ) of the nanowire .
notably , the dos of an open system may also be expressed in terms of the scattering matrix as @xcite @xmath23 where tr sums over the states of both electrodes .
this formula is also known as wigner delay .
note that eqs .
( [ condformula ] ) , ( [ eq : omegavond ] ) , and ( [ eq : dauss ] ) include a factor of 2 for spin degeneracy .
thus , once the electronic scattering problem for the nanowire is solved , both transport and energetic quantities can be readily calculated . ) ] .
lower - left part : sketch of transverse energies for different transverse channels @xmath24 , @xmath25 , and @xmath26 as a function of the @xmath27-coordinate .
channel @xmath24 is transmitted through the constriction as its maximum transverse energy is smaller than the fermi energy , channel @xmath25 is partly transmitted , and channel @xmath26 is almost totally reflected .
right part : density plots of @xmath28 for the three eigenmodes depicted on the lower - left part , corresponding to five states due to degeneracies of energies @xmath29 and @xmath30 . ] for an axially symmetric constriction aligned along the @xmath27-axis , as depicted in fig .
[ fig : sketchwkb ] , its geometry is characterized by the @xmath27-dependent radius @xmath31 . outside the constriction
, the solutions of the schrdinger equation decompose into plane waves along the wire and discrete eigenmodes of a circular billiard in transverse direction .
the eigenenergies @xmath32 of a circular billiard are given by @xmath33 where the quantum number @xmath34 is the @xmath35-th root of the bessel function @xmath36 of order @xmath19 and @xmath37 is the radius of the wire outside the constriction . in cylindrical coordinates
@xmath38 , @xmath39 , and @xmath27 , the asymptotic scattering states read @xmath40 where @xmath41 is the longitudinal wavevector . in the following ,
we use multi - indices @xmath42 in order to simplify the notation .
if the constriction is smooth , i.e. @xmath43 , one may use an adiabatic approximation . in the adiabatic limit , the transverse motion is separable from the motion parallel to the @xmath27-axis even in the region of the constriction , and the channel index @xmath44 of an incoming electron is preserved throughout the wire .
accordingly , eqs .
( [ e.nu ] ) and ( [ inoutstates ] ) remain valid in the region of the constriction , with @xmath37 replaced by @xmath31 .
the channel energies become functions of @xmath27 , @xmath45 , as is sketched in the lower part of fig .
[ fig : sketchwkb ] , and act as a potential barrier for the effective one - dimensional scattering problem in channel @xmath44 .
the corresponding schrdinger equation for the longitudinal part @xmath46 of the wave function reads @xmath47\phi_n(z)&=&0\;,\end{aligned}\ ] ] and is solved within the wkb approximation ( see , e.g. ,
@xcite ) by @xmath48\;.\end{aligned}\ ] ] for a constriction of length @xmath49 the transmission amplitude in channel @xmath44 is then given by the familiar wkb barrier transmission factor @xmath50 \;\equiv\ ; \sqrt{{{\cal t}}_n(e)}\,e^{i \theta_n(e)}\,.\end{aligned}\ ] ] here @xmath51 is the transmission coefficient of channel @xmath44 and @xmath52 is the corresponding phase shift .
the transmission amplitude gets exponentially damped in regions where the transverse energy is larger than the state total energy .
the full s - matrix is now found to be of the form @xmath53 where for simplicity of notation we have suppressed the channel indices and each of the entries is understood to be a diagonal matrix in the channels . using the formulas of sec .
[ sec : smatrix ] , we may proceed to determine physical quantities . from eq .
( [ condformula ] ) we deduce that the electrical conductance at zero temperature reads , @xmath54,\nonumber\end{aligned}\ ] ] where the second line is obtained by using eq .
( [ eq : tn ] ) . here
@xmath55 denotes the heaviside step function ( @xmath56 for @xmath57 , @xmath58 otherwise . )
the density of states is found to be connected with the phase shift @xmath52 , @xmath59 from the dos , one gets the grand canonical potential in the limit of zero temperature as @xmath60 which can then be used to calculate the tensile force and stability of the nanowire , as discussed in the following sections .
the formalism presented in the previous subsection can be readily extended to non - axisymmetric wires . in general
, the surface of the wire is given by the radius function @xmath61 , which may be decomposed into a multipole expansion @xmath62\right\},\ ] ] where the sums run over positive integers .
the parameterization is chosen in such a way that @xmath63 is the cross - sectional area at position @xmath27 .
the parameter functions @xmath64 and @xmath65 compose a vector @xmath66 , characterizing the cross - sectional shape of the wire .
the transverse problem at fixed longitudinal position @xmath27 now takes the form @xmath67 with boundary condition @xmath68 for all @xmath69 $ ] .
this determines the transverse eigenenergies @xmath70 which now depend on the cross - sectional shape through the boundary condition . with the cross - section parametrization ( [ eq : deformation ] )
, their dependence on geometry can be written as @xmath71 where the shape - dependent functions @xmath72 remain to be determined . in general , and in particular for non - integrable cross - sections , this has to be done by solving eq.([eq : seq : transverse ] ) numerically @xcite .
the adiabatic approximation ( long - wavelength limit ) implies the decoupling of transverse and longitudinal motions .
one starts with the ansatz @xmath73 and neglects all @xmath27-derivatives of the transverse wavefunction @xmath74 .
again one is left with a series of effective one - dimensional scattering problems ( eq.[eq : wkb : schroedingerc ] ) for the longitudinal wave functions @xmath75 , in which the transverse eigenenergies @xmath76 act as additional potentials for the motion along the wire .
these scattering problems can again be solved using the wkb approximation and eqs .
( [ eq : dos : wkb ] ) and ( [ eq : omegawkb ] ) apply .
semiclassical approximations often give an intuitive picture of the important physics and , due to their simplicity , allow for a better understanding of some general features . a very early analysis of the density of eigenmodes of a cavity with reflecting walls goes back to weyl ( 1911 ) who proposed an expression in terms of the volume and surface area of the cavity .
his formula was later rigorously proved and further terms in the expansion were calculated .
quite generally , we can express any extensive thermodynamic quantity as the sum of such a semiclassical weyl expansion , which depends on geometrical quantities such as the system volume @xmath77 , surface area @xmath78 , and integrated mean curvature @xmath79 , as well as an oscillatory shell - correction due to quantum - size effects @xcite .
in particular , the grand - canonical potential ( [ eq : omegavond ] ) can be written as @xmath80 where the energy density @xmath81 , surface tension coefficient @xmath82 , and curvature energy @xmath83 are , in general , material- and temperature - dependent coefficients .
on the other hand , the shell correction @xmath84 can be shown , based on very general arguments @xcite , to be a single - particle effect , which is well described by the nfem . within the nfem
there is only one parameter entering the calculation apart from the contact geometry : the fermi energy @xmath5 , which is material dependent and in general well known ( see tab . [
tab : sigma.gamma ] ) .
nevertheless , the energy cost of a deformation due to surface and curvature energy , which can vary significantly for different materials , plays a crucial role when determining the stability of a nanowire .
obviously , when working with a free - electron model , contributions of correlation and exchange energy are not included , while they are known to play an essential role in a correct treatment of the surface energy @xcite .
using the nfem _ a priori _ implies the macroscopic free energy density @xmath85 , the macroscopic surface energy @xmath86 , and the macroscopic curvature energy @xmath87 .
when drawing conclusions for metals having surface tensions and curvature energies that are rather different from these values , one has to think of an appropriate way to include these material - specific properties in the calculation .
a convenient way of modeling the material properties without losing the pleasant features of the nfem is via the implementation of an appropriate surface boundary condition .
any atom - conserving deformation of the structure is subject to a constraint of the form @xmath88 this constraint on deformations of the nanowire interpolates between incompressibility and electroneutrality as side conditions , that is between volume conservation ( @xmath89 ) and treating the semiclassical expectation value for the charge @xmath90 @xcite as an invariant ( @xmath91 , @xmath92 ) .
.material parameters @xcite of several monovalent metals : fermi energy @xmath5 , fermi wavevector @xmath93 , surface tension @xmath82 , and curvature energy @xmath83 , along with the corresponding values of @xmath94 and @xmath95 .
the last column gives the corresponding values for the multivalent metal al ( see discussion in sec .
[ sec : materialdependence ] . ) adapted from @xcite . [
cols="<,^,^,^,^,^,^,^",options="header " , ] table [ tab : deformedwires ] lists the most stable deformed sodium wires with quadrupolar cross section , obtained by the procedure described above .
the deformation of the stable structures is characterized by the parameter @xmath96 or equivalently by the aspect ratio @xmath97 clearly , nanowires with highly - deformed cross sections are only stable at small conductance .
the maximum temperature up to which the wires remain stable , given in the last column of tab.[tab : deformedwires ] , is expressed in units of @xmath98 .
the use of this characteristic temperature reflects the temperature dependence of the shell correction to the wire energy @xcite .
deformations with higher @xmath99 cost more and more surface energy .
compared to the quadrupolar wires , the number of stable configurations with 3- , 4- , 5- , and 6-fold symmetry , their maximum temperature of stability , and their size of the deformations involved , all decrease rapidly with increasing order @xmath99 of the deformation . for @xmath100
no stable geometries are known .
all this reflects the increase in surface energy with increasing order @xmath99 of the deformation .
it is possible to derive the complete stability diagram for cylinders , i.e. , to determine the radii of cylindrical wires that are stable with respect to _ arbitrary _ small , long - wavelength deformations @xcite . at first sight , considering arbitrary deformations , and therefore theoretically an infinite number of perturbation parameters seems a formidable task .
fortunately , the stability matrix @xmath101 for cylinders is found to be diagonal , and therefore the different fourier contributions of the deformation decouple .
this simplifies the problem considerably , since it allows to determine the stability of cylindrical wires with respect to arbitrary deformations through the study of a set of pure @xmath99-deformations , i.e. deformations as given by eq.([eq : deformation ] ) with only one non - zero @xmath102 .
figure [ fig : stabcylinders ] shows the stable cylindrical wires in dark gray as a function of temperature .
the surface tension was fixed at the value for na , see tab .
[ tab : sigma.gamma ] .
the stability diagram was obtained by intersecting a set of individual stability diagrams allowing @xmath103-deformations with @xmath104 .
this analysis confirms the extraordinary stability of a set of wires with so called `` magic radii '' .
they exhibit conductance values @xmath105 1 , 3 , 6 , 12 , 17 , 23 , 34 , 42 , 51 , ... it is noteworthy that some wires that are stable at low temperatures when considering only axisymmetric perturbations , e.g. , @xmath105 5 , 10 , 14 , are found to be unstable when allowing more general , symmetry - breaking deformations .
the heights of the dominant stability peaks in fig.[fig : stabcylinders ] exhibit a periodic modulation , with minima occurring near @xmath105 9 , 29 , 59 , 117 , ... the positions of these minima are in perfect agreement with the observed supershell structure in conductance histograms of alkali metal nanowires @xcite .
interestingly , the nodes of the supershell structure , where the shell effect for a cylinder is suppressed , are precisely where the most stable deformed nanowires are predicted to occur ( see discussion above ) .
thus symmetry breaking distortions and the supershell effect are inextricably linked .
linear stability is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a nanostructure to be observed experimentally .
the linearly stable nanocylinders revealed in the above analysis are in fact _
metastable _ structures , and an analysis of their lifetime has been carried out within an axisymmetric stochastic field theory by brki _
et al . _ ( 2005a ) .
there is a strong correlation between the height of the stable fingers in the linear stability analysis and the size of the activation barriers @xmath106 , which determines the nanowire lifetime @xmath107 through the kramers formula @xmath108 .
this suggests that the linear stability analysis , with temperature expressed in units of @xmath109 , provides a good measure of the total stability of metal nanowires . in particular , the `` universal '' stability of the most stable cylinders
is reproduced , wherein the absolute stability of the magic cylinders is essentially independent of radius ( aside from the small supershell oscillations ) .
a detailed comparison between the theoretically most stable structures and experimental data for sodium is provided in fig.[fig : compare ] . for each stable finger in the linear stability analysis its mean conductance is extracted and plotted as a function of its index number , together with experimental data by yanson _
et al . _ ( 1999 ) .
this comparison shows that there is a one - to - one relation between observed conductance peaks and theoretically stable geometries which in particular allows for a prediction of the cross - sectional shape of the wires .
this striking fit is only possible when including non - axisymmetric wires , which represent roughly 25% of the most stable structures and which are labeled by the corresponding aspect ratios @xmath110 in fig .
[ fig : compare ] .
the remaining @xmath111 of the principal structures correspond to the magic cylinders .
the role of symmetry in the stability of metal nanowires is thus fundamentally different from the case of atomic nuclei or metal clusters , where the vast majority of stable structures have broken symmetry .
the crucial difference between the stability of metal nanowires and metal clusters is not the shell effect , which is similar in both cases , but rather the surface energy , which favors the sphere , but abhors the cylinder .
besides the geometries entering the comparison above , the stability analysis also reveals two highly deformed quadrupolar nanowires with conductance values of @xmath112 and @xmath113 , cf.tab .
[ tab : deformedwires ] .
they are expected to appear more rarely due to their reduced stability relative to the neighboring peaks , and their large aspect ratio @xmath110 that renders them rather isolated in configuration space .
nevertheless they can be identified by a detailed analysis of conductance histograms of the alkali metals @xcite .
results for different metals are similar in respect to the number of stable configurations and the conductance of the wires . on the other hand , the deviations from axial symmetry and the relative stability of jahn - teller deformed wires is sensitive to the material - specific surface tension and fermi temperature .
the relative stability of the highly deformed wires decreases with increasing surface tension @xmath114 , measured in intrinsic units , and this decrease becomes stronger with increasing order @xmath99 of the deformation .
therefore , for the simple s - orbital metals under consideration ( tab.[tab : sigma.gamma ] ) , deformed li wires have the highest , and au wires have the lowest relative stability compared to cylinders of `` magic radii . ''
notable in this respect is aluminum with @xmath115 , some five times smaller than the value for au .
aluminum is a trivalent metal , but the fermi surface of bulk al resembles a free - electron fermi sphere in the extended - zone scheme .
this suggests the applicability of the nfem to al nanowires , although the continuum approximation is more severe than for monovalent metals . .
thick lines mark stable wires in the configuration space of rms radius @xmath116 and deformation parameter @xmath96 .
the dashed box emphasizes a series of very stable superdeformed wires , whose peanut - shaped cross section is shown as an inset .
this sequence was recently identified experimentally @xcite .
[ fig : alstabdia],scaledwidth=70.0% ] recent experiments @xcite have found evidence for the fact that the stability of aluminum nanowires also is governed by shell filling effects .
two magic series of stable structures have been observed with a crossover at @xmath117 and the exceptionally stable structures have been related to electronic and atomic shell effects , respectively . concerning the former
, the nfem can quantitatively explain the conductance and geometry of the stable structures for wires with @xmath118 and there is a perfect one - to - one correspondence of the predicted stable al nanowires and the experimental electron - shell structure .
moreover , an experimentally observed third sequence of stable structures with conductance @xmath119 provides intriguing evidence for the existence of `` superdeformed '' nanowires whose cross sections have an aspect ratio near 2:1 .
theoretically , these wires are quite stable compared to other highly deformed structures and , more importantly , are very isolated in configuration space , as illustrated in the stability diagram shown in fig.[fig : alstabdia ] .
this favors their experimental detection if the initial structure of the nanocontact formed in the break junction is rather planar with a large aspect ratio since then it is likely that the aspect ratio is maintained as the wire necks down elastically .
aluminum is unique in this respect and evidence of superdeformation has not been reported in any of the previous experiments on alkali and noble metals , presumably because highly - deformed structures are intrinsically less stable than nearly axisymmetric structures , due to their larger surface energy .
in this chapter we have given an overview on the nanoscale free - electron model , treating a metal nanowire as a non - interacting electron gas confined to a given geometry by hard - wall boundary conditions . at first sight
, the nfem seems to be an overly simple model , but closer study reveals that it contains very rich and complex features . since its first introduction in 1997 , it has repeatedly shown that it captures the important physics and is able to explain qualitatively , when not quantitatively , many of the experimentally observed properties of alkali and noble metal nanowires .
its strengths compared to other approaches are , in particular , the absence of any free parameters and the treatment of electrical and mechanical properties on an equal footing .
moreover , the advantage of obtaining analytical results allows the possibility to gain some detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms governing the stability and structural dynamics of metal nanowires .
the nfem correctly describes electronic quantum size effects , which play an essential role in the stability of nanowires .
a linear stability analysis shows that the classical rayleigh instability of a long wire under surface tension can be completely suppressed by electronic shell effects , leading to a sequence of certain stable `` magic '' wire geometries .
the derived sequence of stable cylindrical and quadrupolar wires explains the experimentally observed shell and supershell structures for the alkali and noble metals as well as for aluminum .
the most stable wires with broken axial symmetry are found at the nodes of the supershell structure , indicating that the jahn - teller distortions and the supershell effect are inextricably linked .
in addition , a series of superdeformed aluminum nanowires with an aspect ratio near 2:1 is found which has lately been identified experimentally . a more elaborate fully quantum mechanical analysis within the nfem reveals an interplay between the rayleigh and a peierls - type instability .
the latter is length - dependent and limits the maximal length of stable nanowires but other than that confirms the results obtained by the long wavelength expansion discussed above .
remarkably , certain gold nanowires are predicted to remain stable even at room temperature up to a maximal length in the micrometer range , sufficient for future nanotechnological applications .
the nfem can be expanded by including the structural dynamics of the wire in terms of a continuum model of the surface diffusion of the ions .
furthermore , defects and structural fluctuations may also be accounted for .
these extensions improve the agreement with experiments but do not alter the main conclusions .
however , the nfem does not address the discrete atomic structure of metal nanowires . with increasing thickness of the wire the effects of surface tension decrease and
there is a crossover from plastic flow of ions to crystalline order , the latter implying atomic shell effects observed for thicker nanowires .
therefore , the nfem applies to a window of conductance values between a few @xmath3 and about @xmath120 , depending on the material under consideration .
promising extensions of the nfem in view of current research activities are directed , e.g. , towards the study of metal nanowires in nanoelectromechanical systems ( nems ) which couple nanoscale mechanical resonators to electronic devices of similar dimensions .
the nfem is ideally suited for the investigation of such systems since it naturally comprises electrical as well as mechanical properties .
it is hoped that the generic behaviour of metal nanostructures elucidated by the nfem can guide the exploration of more elaborate , material - specific models , in the same way that the free - electron model provides an important theoretical reference point from which to understand the complex properties of real bulk metals . | arxiv |
thin film samples of ptse@xmath0 were grown in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber with a base pressure of @xmath20 torr .
the bilayer graphene substrates were prepared by flash annealing of the 6h - sic(0001 ) to 1350 @xmath6c .
the growth process was monitored by rheed and the growth rate was @xmath530 minutes per monolayer . during the growth process
the substrate temperature was kept at 270 @xmath6c .
after the growth , the sample was transferred to an arpes chamber for measurements of the electronic band structure .
arpes measurements were taken with a scienta r8000 electron analyzer using uv lamp ( 21.2 ev ) at the temperature of 80 k in a vacuum higher than 1@xmath310@xmath4 torr .
xps spectra of the pt 4f and se 3d core - levels were recorded under ultra - high - vacuum conditions better than 1@xmath310@xmath21 mbar on a vg scientific escalab mkii system using al k@xmath22 x - rays and an analyzer pass energy of 30 ev .
raman spectra were measured on a horiba raman system with an excitation wavelength of 633 nm and a 1800 lines / mm grating .
spin - arpes measurements were performed at espresso endstation of hiroshima synchrotron radiation center under the temperature of 20 k , using photon energies of 21.2 ev ( uv lamp ) and 21 ev ( synchrotron radiation ) .
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Teen Wolf 1. The Bite
**A/N: Hey all! It's I am in Loki's Army here! OMG new story. Again. Though you probably wouldn't know, since half of my stories aren't even posted. Literally, I have eleven stories started on my computer, and another eleven **_**thousand**_ **in my head. Anyway, I have three other **_**Teen Wolf**_ **fics on my computer, but I can't help it. This is probably the first **_**Teen Wolf**_ **fic that I've posted but what can I say? Dallison is my guilty pleasure. Also, almost every other Dallison fic (which is not many. There needs to be more) is not rated T or under. So more people can read it if they're not allowed to read M rated stories for some reason. Your welcome. ;) This pairing has been in my head **_**forever**_**. It has been bugging me to no end. I **_**have**_ **to start it.**
**There will be changes in this fic, like how the Hale pack is still intact, and Derek is now (again) an Alpha. Without further ado, enjoy!**
**Disclaimer: I do not own the **_**Teen Wolf**_ **franchise and am not trying to make money from writing spinoffs from the series. All rights reserved.**
_**THIS STORY IS UN'BETAED! ALL MISTAKES MADE ARE MY OWN. FEEL FREE TO NOTIFY ME OF ANY ERRORS!**_
* * *
"You have to do it." Chris Argent cried, desperate. "There's no way she can survive, not this. Give her the bite. It might save her." Scott looked at him helplessly.
"B-but she's a hunter." He stuttered. "Isn't this exactly what Gerard wanted? This is what he would've killed even _you_ for."
"Do you think I don't realize that?" Chris demanded. Allison lay limp in his arms, breaths getting shallower and shallower. "She's the only family I have left. You have to give her the bite."
"If it doesn't change her, it'll kill her." Scott protested weakly.
"If you don't bite her, she'll die anyway." Chris growled. Allison's heartbeat was becoming fainter by the second.
"I can't." Scott murmured.
"Please." The veteran hunter's voice broke. "Please."
Scott looked down at Allison's body, tears streaming down his face. He slowly raised her arm to his mouth, teeth elongating into fangs. Opening his jaw, he sank them into her soft flesh. A few moments later, her heart stopped.
* * *
When Allison woke up staring at her beige ceiling, she thought that it was all just a dream. The words had been loud and clear through the murky haze of near death. She didn't remember where she had been last, but she was quite certain that it was not in her room, on her bed.
That was when she noticed the large, white bandage wrapped carefully around her forearm. It was stained red. Allison froze. She quickly undid the bandage, fearing what was underneath it.
A bite. It was only then that she realized that the colors around her were a bit too vivid, the smallest of details too defined, her hearing too sharp, her eyesight too clear.
The bite was still fresh, oozing droplets of blood. The young Argent covered her mouth in horror before a sound could come out. Her heart raced as a knock on her door alerted her of her father's presence. "A-Allison?" She looked up at him, fear and disgust at what she was turning into mingling in her hazel eyes.
"Why? Why did you allow this?" Running past her dad, she immediately entered the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it. Gripping the edges of the porcelain sink, she dared herself to look into the mirror. Her eyes flashed, glowing bright gold, before returning to the familiar green-brown hue they normally were. Allison's heartbeat escalated. Her eyes flashed a few more times before staying bright gold. Gripping the sink tighter, she gasped for air. Her canines grew into fangs and black claws protruded from her fingers. She didn't notice then that they were much more clean feminine than other werewolves' claws, even the women's, but she would speculate about that later. The brunette finally snapped out of her daze when spindly cracks spiderwebbed across the sink from around her fingers.
"Allison?" It was Chris. "Are you alright?" Said girl shut her eyes tightly. Allison's eyes flashed from gold to hazel over and over again. She ran out of the bathroom door, brushing past her father again. She wrapped her hair up into a haphazard bun, shimmied into some leggings, grabbed a pair of old sneakers, and pulled on an off white waterfall cardigan over her gray racerback tanktop.
"Allison!" Chris called. "Wait!" She ignored him. Throwing open her window, she jumped, grabbing onto the closest thing she could find. She continued this pattern until she reached the ground outside. "Allison!" Tears were falling down the girls face. Suddenly, she was bombarded by her senses. She could _smell_ the garbage from the taco shop almost halfway across town, she could _hear_ the frustrated drivers yelling obscenities through their windows, she could _see_ the sweat trickling out of the jogger's pores down the street, she could practically _feel_ the normalcy of everyday life going on around her. Except _her_ life wasn't normal. Far from it. Especially now.
Allison ran. She ran four miles to Beacon Hills Hospital. She ran five miles to the animal clinic where Scott worked. She ran seven miles to her school. She ran nine miles to the middle of nowhere in the heart of town. Finally, the Argent collapsed, sobbing. Sitting on the curb, she buried her head in her arms. Her head throbbed from the too-loud sounds echoing in her ears, the too-strong scents wafting through the air, the too-bright sights around her. The tears came quickly and freely. People stared at the poor, broken looking girl bawling her eyes out on the side of the street as they went through their everyday routines. Probably went through a bad breakup, the majority of them think.
"Allison?" Her heart sank. The all too familiar voice reached her hypersensitive ears. Isaac.
He stepped closer, and Allison tensed, standing up. "Isaac." She swallowed thickly. She really didn't know where she stood with Isaac now. Or Scott. Or her own father. Or herself, for that matter. "Please. Just-just stay away from me." Tears were still flowing down Allison's face. "Just stay away." She didn't miss the hurt look that flashed through Isaac's eyes, but she really couldn't find it in herself to care at the moment. The hurt look immediately morphed into one of sympathetic understanding, which only fueled Allison's anger. Because no one understood. No werewolf, no banshee, no kitsune, no one. How could they? She was a hunter. Raised to kill the thing that she now was.
"Just please, please, _please_ stay away from me right now." Allison shut her eyes briefly. "I-I don't know what's happening to me, and I don't know the extent of my control, and I-I… just please stay away from me." She backed away from Isaac slowly. "An-and please tell Scott the same thing." With that, she turned and ran. Again.
Allison didn't have any conscious idea about where she was going. But her feet seemed to know exactly where they were to take her. She only slowed when she arrived at a warehouse apartment complex. Breaths came in ragged gasps, but that was more due to her hysteria. Allison cocked her head, a completely wolf like motion that she had previously never consciously realized she'd done before.
Allison hesitated in front of the building, knowing full well that if her target was here, he knew she was standing right outside his loft. _She_ damn sure knew he was inside the loft. His strong, steady heartbeat was a sure sign that he was standing by his window, next to his patio of sorts, waiting for Allison to do something. His scent was strong, surrounding the building, mixed with other scents. The most distinct were that of a female and two males, including Isaac's.
"Derek." Allison called, her voice slightly scratchy from crying. She cleared her throat and tried again, brushing a brunette curl from her face. "Derek. I know you're here... I-I can-" she swallowed again. "I can hear you, I can smell you." He finally opened his window and stood over the edge of his 'patio'. Allison's breath caught in her throat. She had always been hyper-aware that Derek Hale was attractive. Extremely attractive. But now that her senses were more acute, she realized _just_ how handsome he really was.
Derek's lips curled slightly, hearing Allison's heartbeat stutter and her breathing hitch. He had forgotten how lustful she-wolves were. Even if they were Argents, she-wolves were always preening to mate. "So I've heard. What do you need?"
"Y-you know what I need." Allison answered. "I need you to teach me. _Everything_."
"Why not Scott? Or even Isaac? They've both got enough knowledge to teach you. Better yet, why don't you take the route your mother did?" Derek asked, voice hard. Allison's hazel orbs narrowed, gaze turning flinty as she stared into Derek's pale green ones, before softening again in defeat. It was then that Derek realized just how lost the young Argent really was. In the time he'd known her, Allison Argent _never_ admitted defeat.
"I'll answer honestly." She sighed. "I don't know where I stand with Scott or Isaac. And my mother took the cowards way out. She decided to take her own life in favor of living as… what I am now." Allison swallowed. She hated talking about her mother that way, but it was the truth. And she refused to say _the word_ out loud. It seemed too final and she wasn't ready to accept what she was. Not yet.
"No. She didn't decide that." Derek said. "Gerard decided for her. You know first hand what he can do. As can I." He still remembered the arrows embedding themselves in his and his pack's skin.
"I already said I was sorry." Allison growled, her usually long fuse burning up in an instant.
Suddenly, Derek launched himself off of the patio, eyes red. Allison felt her primal instincts take over. Immediately, her own eyes flashed bright gold, claws and fangs coming out. She ducked quickly as Derek somersaulted over her, landing on the concrete ground. He obviously had no intention of catching her, or he already would have. "You trust your instincts enough to keep you alive." Derek nodded approvingly. "Your reflexes are fast, and you react quickly. Hunter's training has at least done you _some_ good." Allison felt a flutter of pride and satisfaction at the praise. With a start, she realized that it was the first emotion she had felt other than fear and disgust since that morning.
"When does training start?" She asked, though she already had a good guess.
"Now."
* * *
"Allison." A soft voice came from behind her door.
"Come in."The girl said distractedly. She was on her laptop, researching things on wolfsbane after her first training session with Derek. Her father walked in, shutting the door quietly behind him.
"How're you feeling?" Chris murmured. Allison sighed slightly.
"Honestly? I really don't know." She buried her face in her bedspread, sighing again.
"You've a lot of people around you that you can ask for help, you know." Her father said quietly. Allison tensed.
"I, um, I may or may not have asked someone for help already." She muttered uneasily. Chris frowned slightly.
"Who?"
"D-Derek." His eyes widened fractionally.
"Derek." He said, just to confirm it. Allison nodded. "Derek _Hale_?"
"Yeah." Allison played with a strand of her hair uncomfortably. "Derek Hale." he frowned. "How many Derek's do you know?" Chris just sighed.
"I just want you to stay safe." Allison nodded before pulling a face.
"That sounded wrong. Like, terribly, really, very, very wrong." Allison muttered, cracking a small smile. Chris smiled back, relieved to see some of his daughter's normal spark.
"Really, stay safe." He stood up, reaching for the door. "I love you." He paused for a moment as if waiting for an answer, before sighing and walking out of his daughter's room. Allison swallowed slightly, a few seconds after her father left.
"I love you too, dad."
* * *
Allison hit the concrete ground of the Iron Works. Again. And again. And again. Everytime, she became more and more frustrated. Everytime, she became more and more tired. Everytime, she became more and more determined. Everytime, Derek helped her up. And everytime, Allison got better.
For the first time, Allison caught a punch. For the first time, she dodged a swipe. For the first time, she blocked a kick. And for the first time, Allison felt accomplished.
She managed to evade Scott whenever he came over. The same went with Isaac. The only other friends she saw were Lydia (of course), Kira, Malia, and Derek. Whenever Allison thought this, she surprised herself. She didn't know when it started, but she began to view Derek as a friend.
Derek tossed Allison towards an iron post, but she caught herself quickly, using a maneuver she had seen Derek use many times. Running against the iron work, she flipped herself over, launching over Derek's head. He took her down again after a few blows, but Allison landed smiling. She had improved.
Derek leaned down, giving the brunette a hand as she picked herself up. "You're getting better." He grudgingly said. Allison grinned, pride flitting through her eyes.
"I know I am." She smirked, not caring about being modest at the moment.
"I see you've picked up a few moves."
"I have." Allison smirked again. Derek sighed.
"You're gonna have to meet the rest of the pack sooner or later." He said quietly. Allison's smile melted off of her face. She was starting to come to terms with what she was, but thinking about meeting the others still made her antsy. "They're starting to wonder why I smell so much like you all the time."
"Well obviously they aren't the brightest crayons in the box." Allison smiled again, albeit more softly.
"That they aren't." Derek agreed, chuckling slightly. Allison started. Did she just make Derek Hale _laugh_? Okay, so it wasn't a full blown _laugh_, but it was a start.
Allison's happiness faded slightly. "When?"
"Tomorrow." Derek sighed. Allison nodded reluctantly.
"Tomorrow, then."
Allison ran home and quickly got into the shower. She scrubbed all of the sweat and grime away, using her favorite rose-and-raspberry body wash and honey shampoo. After she got out, she pulled on a pair of midcalf yoga pants and a sports bra. Pre-bite Allison would've been more self conscious, but post-bite Allison was more bold and confident. Plus, it _was_ her house.
She sat on her bed, propping open her laptop. Pulling up a chart of the moon's cycle, she printed them out for the next three months. As she was tacking them up to a board above her desk, there was a soft knock on her door.
"Come in." Allison called, distracted as she pulled out a few more thumbtacks from her desk. The door opened slowly and Allison tensed.
"I-I'm so sorry!" Scott sputtered, seeing Allison's clothing. She couldn't help herself and smirked, slowly reaching down to pick up a chart. Like any other she-wolf, she enjoyed watching men squirm the way Scott was. Immediately, however, the smirk faded. "Your dad, uh, let me in." Scott murmured, his face coloring as Allison made no move to cover up.
"Did he now?" Allison growled softly. Scott stared at her, shocked at the animalistic sound she emitted. She sighed. "I thought I told Isaac to relay a message: stay away from me. I-I'm just trying to take it in." Allison's ex-boyfriend looked at her sympathetically, which just served to piss her off. Her hesitance and confusion melted away into anger. Her wolf's _extremely_ short temper overrode her human's usually nonexistent temper.
"I just wanted to tell you that… I understand, Allison. I went through the same thing." It was the wrong thing to say.
"No, you _don't_ understand, Scott!" Allison growled. She went from quiet and soft spoken to angry and out of control in a split second. Her wolf was starting to take over, eyes flashing gold. "You don't understand _anything_ that's going on with me right now. I'm supposed to be a _hunter_, Scott. I'm supposed to _kill_ werewolves. Werewolves like _me_." There. She said it. Werewolf.
"Allison, calm down." Scott said, tapping into his Alpha voice. His eyes flashed red. Allison got even angrier.
"No. I _won't_ calm down." Allison snarled. "You're not my _Alpha_, Scott. You may have bit me, but I'm not part of your pack." Something broke free from her consciousness at those words, like a weight was being lifted from her shoulders. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm an Omega now. I'm-
Scott froze. He started sniffing the air. Allison trailed off, confused. "Why do you smell like Derek?" He growled. Allison scoffed.
"Really, Scott? That's the first thing that comes to mind?" Allison made a sound of disbelief, voice drawling and derisive. "I'm not your property, Scott. I'm not your girlfriend, I'm not your pack member. Scott, I'm not your mate."
"Why. Do. You. Smell. Like. Derek?" Scott ground out. Allison laughed coldly.
"That's not _any_ of your business. We could be fucking each other, and that would _still_ be none of your business." Scott growled, shocked. "But hey, can you blame me? He's attractive. Undeniably hot. I'm not your mate, Scott." Allison repeated, snarling furiously. "Damn men and their jealous protectiveness." Her black claws grew. She was seeing red as her eyes glowed bright gold. It felt good to completely release the animal inside her for the first time. It felt relaxing, calming. Her hand reared back as Scott stared, completely horrified.
"Allison!" A new voice roared. She froze, head snapping towards her window across from her balcony. Derek was climbing in through the window, eyes flashing to match Scott's. Allison's chest heaved. She stood, frozen, her hand still in the air. "Allison." Derek said more quietly. "Calm down." Her eyes faded back to hazel, her claws shortened again, and her fangs retracted. Allison dropped her hand, horrified. Derek put his hand on her shoulder, guiding her towards the window. Her eyes were unfocused, unable to comprehend what had just happened. "Go." He murmured, uncharacteristically gentle. His hand gave Allison's shoulder a light squeeze before nudging her out the window. Derek's eyes faded back to their normal celadon hue.
Allison jumped down to the ledge directly below her. This route was becoming familiar now. She could probably follow it in her sleep. She paused, listening to the conversation taking place in her room. "-pack anymore, Scott. She broke away the moment she shot down your status as her Alpha." Was that a hint of smugness in his voice? Scott already lost his newest pack member to another Alpha.
"So she's yours now, isn't she? She listened to-" Allison had heard enough. There Scott went again, talking like she was property. And her slowly growing acceptance of being what she is crumbled back to near nothing. She skipped the rest of the ledges in the wall in favor of just jumping to the ground a few stories below her. And she ran.
* * *
Allison arrived at the train depot at four o'clock. They had started using it again, after the packs deemed it unnecessary to hide any longer. When she walked in slowly, everyone was busy sparring. Boyd and Cora were sitting on a step, absorbed in watching Isaac and Erica spar against Liam, two-on-one, while Derek and Scott barked orders. Lydia and Kira stood to the side, watching every move critically as the jotted down notes to give to the wolves. Allison stood behind them on the top step.
Cora looked up suddenly, sniffing the air. Immediately, she turned, eyes flashing gold as she fell into a defensive position, snarling loudly. Boyd followed her example, before realizing it was Allison. Before she could stop herself, she felt her own eyes shift and she growled back. The sparring had long since stopped as . And suddenly, something strange happened.
Cora and Boyd immediately stepped down, eyes and fangs and claws returning to normal. They both turned their heads slightly, baring their necks. Immediately after, Cora stopped herself, frowning in confusion as to why she reacted this way to a Beta, or possibly an Omega.
"So… that's why you smell like her?"
* * *
**A/N: Okay, so this is like, the longest thing I've ever written. Ever. Which is pretty sad, since it probably isn't very long at all, lol. This is eleven pages on Google Drive with size 13 font. My normal is around like, seven. I had to make myself stop. The words just kept coming. ****Please review, follow, and favorite! Constructive criticism is much appreciated, but flames mean as little as mint does to me. And I hate mint. XD**
2. Pack Meetings, Arrows and School, Oh My!
**A/N: I just can't seem to stop writing, lol. I started this on the same day as the first chapter on every following day until this update, which is pretty freaking crazy for me. Second chapter!**
**Replies:**
**aaronhotchnerlove: Thanks so much! Here's the next chapter!**
**Shout out to:**
**hoech-yeah: OMG I've read every single one of your stories! Your pen name seemed familiar so I looked at your profile, and sure thing, there was **_**Daydreamin'**_**, **_**Demons**_**, and **_**Take Care**_**. Is it weird that I remember the names of every single one of you stories? Lol. Thanks for following and favoriting!**
**boredwaywarddragon: Thanks for following!**
**Nessie1029: Thanks for following and favoriting! One question: how did you choose your pen name? Is it from Renesmee in **_**Twilight**_**? Or the actual monster of Loch Ness? Of course, asking that question made me go on a thirty minute exploration of the internet for the Loch Ness Monster. I swear, I have ADD.**
* * *
"Allison, pack. Pack, Allison." Derek said in way of introduction. A shadowy figure stepped out of the rusting subway car.
"And Peter." He added. "Great introduction there, Derek. Very elaborate. Really." Peter smirked at Allison, clearly not surprised with her new werewolf status. "Hello again, Allison." The young huntress growled, not bothering to hide her dislike for the older wolf. Peter's eyes flashed electrifying blue in warning. Allison dropped her fangs, not backing down. He looked scrutinizingly at her for a few moments as her amber eyes held his gaze steadily, unflinchingly. Suddenly, he barked out a laugh, smirking again.
"Feisty one you picked up here, Derek." Peter grinned like the cat-that-got-the-cream (ironically), showing off his own razor canines. "I like her." Derek grit his teeth as Scott growled low in his chest at Peter. This only served to make his smile wider.
"And I liked you dead." Derek deadpanned. "Now shut up and go away." Peter feigned a hurt expression but made no move to 'go away', as his nephew so childishly put it. Erica smiled, her past qualms with Allison completely forgotten as she grabbed the Argent's hand and dragged her down the steps.
"Finally. It get's lonely being the only girl around here." Lydia, Kira, and Cora made sounds of protest as Allison looked at her questioningly. She hung around them _all_ the time. "Girl _werewolf_." Cora made another indignant protest. "_You_, sweetheart, don't count. You grew up with like, six hundred older brothers. It rubs off."
"Yeah. Six hundred older brothers _and_ a sister!" Cora argued. Erica shrugged indifferently. Allison couldn't help but crack a small smile at the two bickering wolves. Feeling eyes on her, she looked up to see Derek looking at her with an unreadable expression. When Allison questioningly met his gaze, he immediately turned his attention back to the rest of the pack, (was it just Allison's imagination?) his face coloring slightly. This moment of interaction didn't go unnoticed by Scott, who growled. Allison glared at him and bared her canines.
"Touchy." Peter snarked. Allison turned her icy gaze on him. Holding his hands up mock surrender, he looked back at Erica and Cora, who were currently wrestling on the ground.
"Welcome, officially, to the pack." Boyd said with a small smile.
"Thanks, I guess." Allison murmured quietly, still not sure if she had a pack _at all_. Liam was watching her in awe. It wasn't everyday that someone stared down Peter Hale. Even if he was a complete and utter arrogant asshole. She also seemed to be able to hold her own against Scott _and_ Derek. Both of them Alphas. Both of them intimidating in their own ways.
Isaac approached Allison. "You okay?" He asked softly. His fingers twitched, longing to reach out and hold his… female friend's hand. Isaac wasn't quite sure exactly _what_ they were anymore.
"Yeah." Allison nodded. "I guess so." She stood with her arms carefully wrapped around her torso, hands gripping at her shirt. She looked at Erica and Cora, who were helping each other off of the floor, only to pull the other down to the floor and resume wrestling again. The rest of the pack, as childish as it was, were placing bets on one of the two she-wolves. Making sure there was enough distance between them, Allison turned towards Isaac.
"Thank you." He looked at her with a look of confusion so puppy-like that she was tempted to reach out and ruffle his hair. "For keeping your distance, even if you probably really wanted to check up on me. For staying away just because I told you to." Allison's gaze wandered over to where Scott was standing, watching them. They stared at each other until Scott looked away. Isaac looked at him, even more confused. It was unusual for an Alpha to give in to a Beta's stare. Actually, not unusual- it was unheard of.
The two wolves on the floor were finally getting up. Cash was swapping hands as Cora came out victorious. "I have a proposal." Lydia spoke up for the first time. She picked up a large black bag, holding it out to Allison.
The Argent's eyes widened. "Seriously?"
"Yup." Never underestimate Lydia Martin. She had managed to nick every _single_ one of Allison's bows from right under her werewolf nose. Allison gingerly pulled out her bows, spreading them out neatly on the floor. They ranged from longbows to recurves, crossbows to compounds. A sack landed next to her kneeling form. From the tell tale clinking in the bag, the brunette knew they were her military-grade, armor piercing, titanium tipped arrows.
Liam and Jackson whistled lowly, eyeing Allison's arsenal. "Remind me to _never_ get on your bad side."
"Remind yourself to never get on _any_ she-wolf's bad side." Erica smirked.
Allison touched her bows lovingly. Pulling her quiver from the sack, she produced an arrow, running her fingers down it's shaft, almost caressing it. "Show us something." Scott said. "_Impress us_." Allison smirked. He knew full well what she could do with a bow and arrow.
She chose carefully. She picked up every bow on the floor, plucking their strings lightly. Allison finally decided on one of her favorites, a wicked, red longbow with one hell of a kick. In one fluid movement, in true Argent fashion, the brunette knocked an arrow and released it, shooting down a paperclip Jackson had thrown into the air. Continuing, Allison shot through the chain of a punching bag set up in the opposite corner of the depot, then a penny tossed by Kira, and proceeded to pierce through a bottlecap. Why anyone had a _bottlecap_ of all things in their pocket was beyond Allison. She released an arrow at the door as Stiles walked in, flailing as it whizzed past his ear. Spinning around, she knocked another arrow and turned on the pack, grinning. It felt nice to release her anger via bow and arrow, something she hadn't been able to do in a long time.
The entire pack stood, hands up, as Allison pointed her arrow at them. Laughing, she relaxed the string. "I see you haven't gotten rusty after your three day coma." Stiles commented, walking towards the pack. Allison nodded slightly. Derek stepped forward, gently taking the bow out of her hands.
"And we're done with that now." He said, propping the bow up against the wall. The memory of the arrows in his flesh was still fresh in his mind. Allison smirked. She had some leverage against the Big, Bad Alpha now, however slight it was.
Erica sobered up a little. "So. When's the next full moon?" She asked. Scott sighed, looking at Allison worriedly.
"This friday." Allison tensed. Today was sunday.
"But first, we've got to get through five _torturous_ days of school." Lydia added, squeezing Allison's shoulder. "And you, my dear, are getting some one-on-one time with me and my closet tonight."
* * *
"Neutral or bright?" Lydia questioned her friend, holding up two tubes of lipstick. "Personally, I'm leaning towards the cherry red. You should get a grand entrance, like Erica did."
"Knock yourself out." Allison muttered. She wasn't ready to go to school yet, much less pick out an outfit. Staring at the ceiling as Lydia pulled article after article of clothing out of her closet, Allison sighed sighed and picked at the still-scabbed-over bite. The petite redhead was going for a more 'badass in leather' type look.
"Here." Lydia pulled out a few cuffs and chains for her ears. "These'll have to do for now." She held the earrings up. "Soon, we'll be getting these babies pierced." Patting Allison's ears, she went back to her closet.
"They're already pierced." Allison said.
"You're gonna need more." Lydia smiled. "It'll match the new wardrobe I'll be buying for you. More leather, sweetheart. It's fitting." Allison sighed. There was no dissuading Lydia Martin when it came to using her credit card for clothes.
Almost an hour later, Lydia was finally pleased with an outfit. The top definitely would have been more of her Aunt Kate's style, but she actually liked it. She wasn't sure if it was a wolf thing, but ever since the bite, Allison had been much more comfortable in her own skin, more confident about showing off. On top of that went a studded, black leather jacket. It went with a black miniskirt with a few chains attached, black fishnet tights, lace up heels, and a backpack that matched her jacket. Several rings, necklaces and chokers, earrings, and bracelets were also laid out on the bed. A single, black, fingerless glove that went on her left hand completed the outfit as Lydia did Allison's nails. Lydia did her friend's hair up quickly and adorned it with a silver band as an example of what it would look like the next day.
"Um, don't you think that this is overdoing it?" Allison asked skeptically. It was true. There were so many individual pieces of clothing that she feared she would lose them. Allison didn't even know that Lydia would own clothes like the ones that were currently laying on the bed. They were undoubtedly nice clothes, but it just wasn't _Lydia_.
"'Course not." Lydia frowned. "This is like your first day of school! Except that it's in the middle of the semester. But still! You need to look your best." Allison sighed but knew better than to argue. Lydia disappeared for a few moments. When she returned, she was pulling a blowup mattress in after her.
"You're staying the night." She explained.
"But my dad…" Allison protested weakly. "Is your mom okay with it?" Lydia rolled her eyes in a 'She's fine' gesture. Allison smiled slightly. That was Lydia for you. Screw everything else. When she wanted something, she got it. Allison called her father and chatted with Lydia until she got tired. Then they went to sleep. At least, Lydia did.
Consciousness just wouldn't release its grip on Allison. She tossed and turned, checking the time periodically. 1:53 AM.
Allison's eyes shifted to gold and suddenly, she could see in the dark. 2:42 AM.
Allison counted the stars outside Lydia's window until she lost count and started again. 3:57 AM.
Allison's forearm became increasingly irritating. The bite was turning itchy, uncomfortable. Finally, when she couldn't stand it anymore, she ran to the bathroom. The young brunette tore off the bloodstained bandage. She watched in shock as it neatly stitched itself together again, right in front of her eyes. Balling up the white bandage, she tossed it in the trash bin, covering it up with toilet paper so no one would see it. Allison kicked the bin for good measure before returning to her mattress. 4:58 AM.
She stayed awake for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Lydia greeted her with a sleepy yawn. "Sleep much?" Allison shook her head ruefully.
"The bite's healed though." She said feebly. "That's a good thing, right?" Lydia nodded slightly too cheerfully. They immediately got ready for school. The redhead did Allison's makeup and hair after she got dressed and went downstairs as the brunette brushed her teeth.
When she walked down the stairs herself, Lydia was already waiting, scrolling through her phone with two smoothies already made. Mrs. Martin smiled at Allison kindly. She was a nice woman, never one to pry and always there to give a helping hand. "Let's go." Lydia said, grabbing her bag as Allison did the same. They climbed into Lydia's blue hybrid and drove to school.
The moment Allison stepped out of the Hyundai, students stared. The Argent had already missed almost two week of school already, taking her own time to heal and mentally pull herself together. Everyone had already heard some rumor about a mugging or physical attack- some attack or the other- that happened almost a fortnight ago. The rest of Allison's clique had survived virtually unscathed and had returned to school after a day or two. The Argent, however, had not been so lucky. According to the rumors, Allison had been stabbed in the shoulder and made a miraculous, extremely quick recovery. No one knew that she had been sliced clean through her abdomen by an Oni and had her life changed by being bitten by a werewolf then healed in less than two weeks. That was too much explaining to do.
Whispers surrounded Allison as her sensitive ears picked up on a few words.
"... back? … hurt."
"-style….. different."
"... bitch…. stealing boyfriends…."
Her steps faltered until Lydia came up next to her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and gave a reassuring squeeze. The Queen Bee gave the entire parking lot a glare and walked into the school, steering Allison along. It was like they hit replay. Inside, they received same reaction. Whispers followed in their wake.
By the time lunch rolled around, Allison had a migraine. Her nose was burning with all the new scents it was being bombarded with. Her ears were ringing with shrill sounds, especially the lunch bell. Her eyes pounded from the sharpness and clarity of her surroundings. Allison realized with a groan that her money was still at her house. The smoothie that morning hadn't done much to fill her up, but she decided to sit by her locker and wait for Lydia. Hopefully she had a spare granola bar in her bag.
Allison screwed her eyes shut, trying to block out the oppressive sights, sounds, and smells. "Hey, sleepyhead." Lydia murmured. "Let's get lunch."
"I don't have money." Allison sighed, opening her eyes.
Lydia pulled out some cash. "On me."
As they sat down, Allison took bites of salad as neatly as she could for a starving person. Looking up, she saw a girl named Carly approaching. She growled. "Hey, bitch. Finally showing your face again?" She wore an ugly smirk. "How was the attack? Was it a gang? A theft? Or maybe… a rape? Hmm?" Allison grit her teeth and closed her eyes, feeling them flash golden.
"Attempted murder." Lydia said sweetly, and stabbed another forkful of fruit. "_And she survived_. Move along." Carly pulled another ugly face but walked off. Allison finally peeled open her eyes. Her heart rate, however, refused to cooperate as it increased in speed. Hazel orbs flashed amber before returning to their normal color. Scott suddenly appeared, trying to placate her, which only spiked her irrational anger.
"Allison." Scott murmured. "Calm down."
"I can't." Allison gasped, eyes flashing again. Lydia looked around to make sure no one was watching.
"Allison! Just breathe." Scott tried again. Shaking her head frantically, Allison released air out her nose harshly. She shot up from her chair and ran out of the cafeteria doors, Scott calling after her the whole time. The teenage Argent slammed into the door, opening it with a bang before running past the parking lot. How she managed it in heels was beyond her.
Suddenly, she collided with another body. "Miss Argent?" It was Ms. Morrell. "Miss Argent. I believe that was the bell." Papers were scattered all over the pavement, but Allison couldn't bring it upon herself to help and pick them up as she peeled herself of of the rough pavement. "Miss Argent?" And she ran. Like the first day of waking up after she got bitten, she ran all the way to the preserve.
Allison released all of her pent up energy, rage, anger, sadness, and stress with every step she took. She ran uninhibitedly and didn't stop, not when she got cut up by brambles, not when she almost tripped on tree roots, not when her skirt hiked up her legs. And then she slammed on her brakes.
Derek was standing directly in front of her. His hands were hidden in leather pockets and his stance was deceptively casual. Derek looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be in school?"
Allison shrugged. "I decided to cut class." He inhaled deeply through his nose and smelled the sharp, metallic scent of blood. Stepping towards the young Argent quickly, he grabbed her upper arms and turned her every which way. When he didn't see any obvious wounds, her turned his attention to the smeared red splotches on her hands.
"Scott called. He said that you had run off during lunch." Derek finally spoke again. Allison growled.
"Of course he did."
Derek's lips curled slightly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's supposed to mean that he doesn't have to go off and butt his ass into other people's business." Allison clenched her hands. "He's not my Alpha, he's not my boyfriend, he's not my goddamned mate." She seemed to be saying that a lot, lately.
"You okay?" Derek asked, switching the topic back to the blood on Allison's hands.
"I guess. Had a brief encounter with Ms. Morrell in the parking lot."
"Just run it off." Derek suggested. "Blow off some steam." Allison smiled slightly, relieved that she didn't have to return to the dreaded place of _learning_. "But you're going to school _and_ staying there tomorrow." Yet.
* * *
**A/N: Drop a review, leave a favorite, or maybe a follow! What'd you think about this chapter? A little shorter than the first one, but eh, whatever.**
3. Follower or Leader?
**A/N: Third chapter! Sorry for the late update- I was ready to post this literally a week ago but my computers (my laptop _and_ my desktop) decided to be dicks and not let me save the document. I'm not sure if it was a problem on 's part, or if it was my wi-fi, or crap. Though I'm betting on the wi-fi since it's still being a bitch as we speak. I promise this isn't an excuse- it's all true! I've already started (a very small portion) of the next chapter! Yay me!**
**And, don't hate me for this **_**pleeaase**_**: I've gone back and edited the first chapter. I've decided not to put Jackson in this story. That's just too many characters to acknowledge. And Liam isn't a werewolf yet. I may, however, mention Ethan and **_**possibly**_ **make Aiden not-dead later on. I also decided that Derek isn't a True Alpha- he's just a normal Alpha.**
**Replies:**
**aaronhotchner: Thanks for the review! I already PM'ed you about it, but thanks anyway.**
* * *
The next day of school wasn't much better. Neither was the next. Or the one after that. Or the the one following. Allison was irritable all Friday. It was her first full moon, and it was not a good one. It was like having her period all over again. She had gone through that last week already. Paying attention to anything was laughable with the constant itch under her skin. It was a good thing that school had nearly just started, so she could catch up on things she had missed that day without any other make up work she had to do.
Her sentences were snappish, her moods were unpredictable, and she was angry ninety-nine percent of the day. Lydia was one of the only people who had the guts to approach her.
Lunch was a pain again. So was every one of her classes. But Allison had made a promise to Derek, and for whatever reason, she wanted to keep it. Which was totally bizarre.
"It's food, Lydia." Allison growled. "Just food. Deep fried or not, it's edible. So take it, or leave it." Her redheaded friend looked at her.
"Deep fried is not _edible_, sweetheart. Salad? That's edible." Lydia picked up the last bowl of greens available. "Fruit, veggies, maybe even some nuts, all edible." She picked up a plate of chicken strips and placed it on Allison's tray. "But, since you're being so insistent, you can have deep fried." Allison couldn't help herself and wrinkled her nose in distaste. She was not in the mood for all that grease. "Help yourself." Lydia smiled triumphantly. Martin: 1. Argent: 0.
"Fine." Allison snapped. Paying for their food, the two teenagers walked towards a table. It was too late when the brunette realized just which table it was. Scott's table.
"Hey, Allison." Malia spoke up quietly, picking at her water bottle. It was Erica who asked the all-important question.
"You ready for your first full moon?" Erica smirked, but looked genuinely concerned. "The first is one of the worst. So is the second. Possibly the third. _Maybe_-"
"And we're done with that." Boyd cut in.
"All I'm saying is, it's different for every person." Something dawned on Erica. "When's your period?"
"And we're definitely done with that." Isaac said loudly.
"Really though." Scott interrupted. "Do you- do you have any plans?" Allison shot him a glare.
"Yes, I do." She snapped.
"No, you don't." Kira deadpanned.
"No I don't." Allison admitted, grumbling slightly.
"I can, you know, help you out." Scott said feebly.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll-I'll figure something out myself." Allison replied tightly.
"You mean go to Derek?" He asked, looking slightly upset.
"Yes, I mean go to Derek?" The Argent growled. "I've said this before, and I'll say it a million more times. You're not my Alpha, you're not my boyfriend, you're not my mate." Yep. Definitely saying that a lot lately.
Allison stood up, throwing her uneaten lunch in the trash. Her eyes flashed at Scott and it would've seemed impressive if it wasn't just because her fuse was burning up. She stormed out of the cafeteria. Again, for the second time in less than a week. Behind her, she heard Stiles whistle. "_That_ just happened."
"It sure did escalate quickly." Liam muttered.
"Yes it did." Lydia sighed.
Allison reached for the door before she pulled back as if she'd been burned. She snarled angrily. She had a promise to uphold. Storming to her locker, she slammed her fist into the locker beside her own. The last thing Allison needed was no place to put her stuff. The door dented severely and her eyes flashed in annoyance as she walked away. Better leave the scene before anyone caught her red handed.
Allison wandered aimlessly for what seemed like _hours_ before the bell rang again. Time for French.
* * *
The chest opened with a thud. A black triskele stood out on the inside of the lid. Inside, chains looped together and metal clanked. "This," Derek held up a headband covered in spikes. "is what you're gonna wear." Allison swallowed as Isaac placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Normally, it's only ever used for especially rabid werewolves." Derek explained. "But first full moons can be exceptions. Erica wore it when I locked her up with Isaac and Boyd. Laura wore it on a blue moon."
"Why just Erica and Laura?" Allison asked hesitantly, knowing that Laura was still a sore subject.
"Because females have more pain tolerance than the males." Isaac answered, remembering what Derek had told him.
"Good to know." Allison sighed, making a face. Derek sat her on a seat in the rusted subway car. Chaining her hands to the metal supports, he looked at her.
"You ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
Derek fitted the headband around the brunette's forehead. The cool metal spikes dug into Allison's temples. Screwing her eyes shut and gritting her teeth, she nodded. Isaac tightened his grip around her shoulders, restraining her.
The Alpha slowly tightened the screw on the front of the band. For the first few seconds, the only sign of Allison' pain was the tenseness of her body. As the screw dug deeper and deeper into her skin, Allison started trembling. Finally, she let out a bloodcurdling scream. All the werewolves in the town flinched. Some of them had locked themselves in cellars or basements as well. Allison's eyes flew open, glowing gold as she struggled against the bonds holding her down, including Isaac, as she writhed in pain.
"Do you think it's tight enough yet?" Isaac grunted, tightening his grip on Allison.
"Not yet." Derek snapped back. "Now shut up and _hold her_!" He turned the screw a few more times before finally stepping back. "Get out." He murmured. Isaac stepped down to the floor of the train depot outside of the subway car as Derek rested his hand on Allison's shoulder where Isaac's had been. Her screams had long since subsided as the screw sat still, cold in her forehead.
"Good luck." He sighed. "You'll need it." Allison nodded slightly, despite the pain shooting through her head at the movement. As Derek followed Isaac's footsteps, the moon rose to it's peak. The itching in her veins turned into an unbearable burn. It felt like the she-wolf was falling into an ocean during a hurricane. The tides pulled her under the waves before she broke through the sea foam again, kicking to keep her head from becoming submerged. The shift was instinctual, especially on a wolf's _first_ full moon. Her eyes flashed. She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted the coppery tang of blood. The pain cleared Allison's mind for all of two seconds before she went under again. She curled her fingers into her palms until blood pooled on the floor below them. She prayed to any heavenly deity that still pitied her that she wouldn't break out of the chains because she knew, just _knew_, that if she got loose, the golden warmth of her eyes would harden into a murderous, steely blue. Allison fought the pull, her eyes flickering from hazel to amber and back again. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes tightly. Her fangs dropped and she caved.
Releasing a wild roar, she jerked, her body straining against the shackles on her wrists, ankles, and waist. Derek closed his eyes briefly. "Go home." He said, looking at Isaac. "_Some_one might as well get some sleep. It's gonna be a long night." The Beta nodded, walking up the steps of the depot and jogging home. Allison howled, a loose, guttural, purely animalistic sound.
"A really long night." He stepped back inside, something that he knew was a complete mistake, but Derek was full of mistakes, so why not? The moment Allison set her amber gaze on him, she started snarling like a, well, caged wolf. The chains groaned under the strain. The Alpha flashed his eyes but it had no effect on the she-wolf. Her body tensed for a few long moments. The bonds snapped.
Allison lunged at Derek. She raked her claws towards his face but he easily dodged. In a quick movement, Derek was pinned on the wall and even an Alpha's strength was no match for a wolf on their first moon. Allison wrapped her hands around his neck and snarled, legs like a vice around his waist. She could do anything: rip his throat out, rip his head off, rip anything.
And she crushed her lips against Derek's. It was purely aggressive, possessive, and hungry. Allison felt his canines sharpen and their fangs tangled, clashing as her hands abandoned his neck and fisted in his hair instead. Her mouth filled with the taste of blood from both parties, and this only excited her further. She dragged her teeth across his bottom lip, not bothering to be gentle. Derek responded just as passionately, moaning against her lips. Allison took advantage of this and thrust her tongue into his mouth, fighting for dominance when suddenly, she was thrown onto the floor outside of the train car. She rolled once before landing neatly with her feet splayed out behind her and one hand planted firmly on the ground, a move that distinctly reminded Derek of Kali that it was frightening. Righting herself, she released a bark that signaled intense anger and fury. Allison came at Derek again, but this time, he was ready, grabbing her throat and pinning her to the ground on her stomach, one hand wrapped around her wrists. He used his own body to keep her down. Another big mistake.
"Not like this." He snarled. She smirked maliciously.
"Like what?" Allison growled. "Like this?" She bucked her hips, grinding against him. "Come on Derek, I _know_ you want this, sweetheart. Just give in. I can give you a release." She rubbed against him, grinning when she felt his body react like any other male's body would. "_Just. Give. In_." She whispered, voice sultry yet commanding. Derek shut his blood red eyes tightly. Opening them he snarled.
"No."
When the sun started to rise, Allison's eyes returned to their normal hazel hue. Her fangs retracted and any facial hair that had grown disappeared. The searing pain in her forehead had reduced to dull ache. She breathed out harshly through her nose. "Care to let me _go_?" Allison snapped, mortified. She was royally pissed by the fact that, while she was snapping at imaginary bunny rabbits and trying to _fuck him_, Derek was right on top of her, perfectly fine, aside from being assaulted, not affected by the moon's pull. At all. Not fair. Not fucking fair.
The moment she was released, Allison bolted out the door.
* * *
"How was it?" Lydia asked the next day. Allison, Malia, Cora, and Kira were over at the Martin house studying, chatting about boys, who was dating who, and sharing fashion tips. Allison's heart fluttered. Did they know? How?
"What?" She frowned.
"The full moon, dummy." Malia laughed. "How was your first full moon?"
"Fine." The Argent answered too quickly. "Fine."
"_Just_ fine?" Kira asked.
"I was wondering the same thing." Cora smirked, a slightly evil look overcoming her face. "_Just_ fine, Allison? Are you _sure_ that the full moon, the _only_ thing that happened, was '_just_ fine'? Because the full moon was the _only_ big occasion, right?"
"Yeah. 'Course." She answered, heart fluttering in her chest. "_Just_ fine."
"Spill." Lydia commanded.
"Spill what?" The brunette being interrogated asked, faking ignorance.
"Come on, Ally." Cora laughed loudly, pushing Allison's shoulder. "He _reeked_ of you. In a way that only mates should. Which is slightly disturbing, considering he's my brother." She added the last part as an after thought. "You _still_ smell like him."
"What happened, Allison?" Kira asked, demanding answers.
"Nothing happened." Allison defended herself.
"What was that?" Malia asked cocking her head.
"I think that was the sound of a heartbeat stuttering. I think that was the sound of a _lie_." Cora answered grinning like the cheshire cat.
"You kissed him, didn't you?" Lydia gasped, giddy with excitement. Allison stayed silent. "You _kissed_ Derek Hale!" Allison bit her lip.
"Say it Allison." A smirk graced Kira's face. "You kissed Derek."
"Come on Ally. You kissed Derek!" Malia's laugh bordered on madness.
"Say it!" Cora joined Malia in laughing. "You kissed my brother! You kissed my _brother_!" She was hysterical, cackling like a witch.
"Okay!" Allison caved, blushing bright red. "I kissed your brother! And it might have been a little more than just a _kiss_." She added the last part in a mutter. The peals of laughter intensified tenfold. "Does it really matter?"
"Of course it does, sweetheart." Lydia patted her mortified friend's knee affectionately. "You kissed Derek Hale. The guy that every girl in our school wants to hook up with. And I mean _every_. And did you say that _it might have been a little more than a just a kiss_?"
"That's beside the point." Cora sobered up. "I really hope that you're not into murdering. Half of my brother's girlfriends have been into murdering. And his little stone cold heart can't take much more of that."
"Okay, I am not your brother's girlfriend." Allison's interjection went unnoticed.
"I knew something was off with him." Malia said, chuckling. "The moment he walked into the loft, something was different about him."
"You're not a virgin, so stop acting like one, Ally." Kira laughed. "You're like our little delicate flower who's petals aren't intact anymore just because she kissed one on this town's notorious bad boys. Wait, you're not a virgin, right?"
"Maybe I am your 'little delicate flower'!" Allison cried, her face flushing. "And whether or not _my_ little delicate flower has it's petals intact is for me to know and you to never, _ever_ find out!" Her friends shrieked with laughter.
"Oh sweetheart, you're not a virgin." Lydia snickered. "I don't need werewolf smelling to smell the sex on you every time you came back from hanging out with Scott and then with Isaac."
Allison spun a Chinese Ring Dagger on her finger. She grabbed a whetting stone, sharpening the blade and the other girls wisely shut up for a few seconds before hysterically laughing again. "Why do I surround myself with these people?" She muttered to herself, smiling.
The cackling started up with renewed vigor. Martin: 2. Argent: 0.
* * *
Sunday came with pack training. Allison could barely look at Derek, much less spar with him. In turn Derek didn't look at her either. She didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Scott, ever the perceptive one, noted the lack of interaction. As did Peter and Isaac. Allison guessed that it was because of the fact that Derek was Peter's nephew so he was bound to notice. Allison was Isaac's girlfriend, so of course, he noticed as well. Scott… Scott still loved Allison. Despite already having Kira, he still loved her. And he already knew that Allison and Derek spent a lot of time together. Too much, in his mind.
Even if Derek wouldn't look Allison in the eye, he pushed her. Much harder than normal. Much harder than necessary. The sixth time she hit the ground, he snapped. "Will someone at least _try_ to be competent enough to maybe _possibly_, oh, I don't know, _push me over_? Or is that too much work for _anyone_ to do?" Derek snarled, his mood much more sour than usual.
"I'm trying." Allison half gasped half hissed, gaining back the oxygen that she had lost from the impact of hitting the concrete ground.
"As much as your psychotic aunt tried to kill my family?" Derek growled. He knew it was a complete dick move, but he was feeling particularly… resentful that day. He finally looked Allison in the eye, celadon swirling into blood red. Isaac stiffened but didn't do anything to intervene, smart enough to know that that would only serve as fuel to both his Alpha and his girlfriend's anger. Scott, however, lacked that intelligence. He stepped forward, growling and flashing his eyes.
"Don't you think you're being just a _little_ too harsh?" Derek and Allison both turned on him.
"Scott…." Stiles said, giving him a warning glance. Malia grabbed his hand to make sure that he didn't pull Scott back. Sometimes, problems just needed to be addressed in one of the most primal of ways: violence.
"I don't need your _protection_, Scott!" Allison growled. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"I'm just trying to help, Allison." Scott murmured soothingly. "What happened between you two anyway?"
"That's for us to know and you to never find out." Allison said quietly, attempting to calm herself down. Scott mistook the quietness as guilt. Kira rested a hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off and a flash of hurt flew across the Asian girl's face.
"You kissed him, didn't you?" He said as realization dawned on the young Alpha. "How could you? Why'd you kiss him?"
Allison laughed spitefully. "You shouldn't even care, Scott." She shot a surprisingly gentle look at Kira. "You already have yourself a girlfriend. It's not in your place to ask how I could kiss someone else."
"Allison, you kissed-" She snapped. Lunging, the she-wolf wrapped a hand around Scott's neck. Allison threw him across the depot before launching herself at him again. Liam stepped forward, eyes glowing amber as he got ready to defend his Alpha. It took Lydia, Stiles, and Kira to hold him back for a few seconds. He broke free and Cora, Isaac, Erica, and Boyd lunged at him, pinning the wolf down. A werewolf with a threatened Alpha was bad enough. A werewolf with a threatened Alpha _and_ Intermittent Explosive Disorder was even worse.
With a knee on his chest, Allison roared in his face, fangs dropping and eyes flashing. Scott hesitated.
It was his mistake.
His ex-girlfriend through him across the depot again, this time grabbing his arm to fling him. Allison's claws had grown and Scott's face went full on wolf. He snarled. The Alpha threw his wrist forward and Allison ducked easily. She caught his leg and hurled him into the punching bag in the corner. Stalking up to his prone form, she slammed her knee into Scott's chest.
A hand landed on Allison's shoulder. Her head snapped up. It was Derek. He tossed her off like a ragdoll and she rolled along the floor, hitting a stack of wooden pallets. She snarled, crouching on her knees and baring her fangs. He did the same right back.
Derek roared. Loud. Every wolf in the room let out involuntary whimpers while Stiles, Kira, and Lydia flinched. They each backed up a few steps, eyes glowing for a few milliseconds before the Betas turned their heads away. Allison hissed, an almost feline sound, gnashing her sharp teeth together. She averted her gaze. The wolf inside, the follower, wanted to follow the other Betas' lead and bare her own neck, but the human inside, the leader, struggled against the force trying to pull her head down. Derek, for once, looked uncertain as he growled, a low rumble in his chest. Allison screwed her eyes shut, before they flew open and glared straight up at Derek, looking him dead in the eyes. Suddenly, as if she had been immersed underwater and finally been pulled out, she gasped, her head dropping slightly as she fought to catch her breath. Her amber orbs returned to hazel as her fangs and claws disappeared. She lost control. Again. That seemed like all Allison could do these days. She couldn't control her sense of hearing, she couldn't control her sense of smell, she couldn't flash her eyes, she couldn't extend her claws, she couldn't grow her fangs, she just lost her temper.
Without another word, Allison stood up and ran. She was getting tired of this thing called _running_. Running from her fears, running from her problems. Running, running, running. From _everything_.
* * *
"You don't have to go to school if you don't want to." Chris told his daughter he next day. "The full moon must have taken its toll on you. You haven't talked about it much. Or the pack training. Or much of anything lately." Allison shook her head vehemently.
"No, it's okay." She said, purposefully ignoring the last part. "I'll go." Allison hated making her father worry about anything. Her grades, the amount of sleep she's gotten in a week, whether she's hungry or not, anything. "I'll go." She repeated. She wasn't feeling very fancy that day, so she pulled on a simple, loose crop top, a pair of tribal print leggings, a waterfall cardigan, and a pair of Toms. Allison was sure that Lydia would have something to say about the lack of accessories, so she pulled on a few bracelets (including the charm bracelet Lydia had given her for her first day of school after the bite), some rings, and a necklace. She pulled her hair into a messy bun and grabbed a messenger bag.
"Did something happen on the full moon?" Argent asked suspiciously.
"Nope. Nothing." Allison answered too quickly. "I gotta run. Bye, dad."
"You know you can always talk to me, right?" He said softly. "No secrets, right?"
"Yeah." His daughter answered, just a quietly. "I know." She walked towards the door and opened it. Allison hesitated, still holding the doorknob.
She opened her mouth to say something before closing it again. She shut the door and walked to the elevator. Argent looked at the closed door sadly. That's what everything seemed to be these days with Allison and life in general. Closed doors. All closed doors.
* * *
**A/N: Just FYI, this story has no definite plot yet. I just needed some Dallison in my life. I also went back and edited this chapter about three thousand times because I really wanted to highlight what it feels like during one's first full moon. I felt like not many fanfics really did the shift justice when it comes to details. I'm positive I didn't either, but tell me what you think anyway. Also, if you didn't catch on, the plot in the TV world is completely warped, as you might have picked up when I mentioned Kali already, though Allison was supposed to have died in season 3 so she shouldn't even know Kali yet. But fuck that.**
**Also, I've put up Allison's first day of school (after the bite) outfit as well as her outfit for today on my Polyvore! Go to Polyvore and click on the little down-arrow button in the search bar on the top right corner. Change the category from _Products_ to _Members_. Then just search _mo-02_ Or, just go to my profile. I've put a link up there.**
**Please review, follow, and favorite! Constructive criticism is much appreciated, but flames mean as little as mint does to me. And I hate mint. XD**
4. AN: Hoechlin's Leaving!
**A/N: No, this is not a new chapter. Yes, I hate when authors do this. I was literally talking to another author two or three days ago about how I hate when authors do A/Ns as chapters. But I felt the need to do this one. For those of you who don't know yet, (though you probably do) Tyler Hoechlin will not be a series regular in **_**Teen Wolf**_'**s season 5. I know, I cried too when I found out last night. Mr. Hoechlin's gorgeous face will not be making a weekly appearance on TV anymore. Jeff Davis did say that we have most likely not seen the last of Derek Hale, but still, I was so freaking sad. Tumblr exploded. It literally died last night. In the exact words of Jeff Davis:**
**"Tyler Hoechlin decided he wanted more time to pursue movies. We talked and creatively agreed that maybe this was a good season to refocus on the teens of 'Teen Wolf,'" He has also said that "We have not seen the last of Derek Hale," and that "they love him and miss him". At PaleyFest (I think), he said "****Only a few weeks ago, Tyler came by the stages to discuss possible storylines for Derek. While Tyler may no longer be a series regular, don't count Derek Hale out just yet. It's never easy to lose a series regular on the show, but it always comes from a place of respecting an artist — because all artists need to try new things. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the new characters that Tyler Hoechlin creates, and can't wait to have him back on our set as well."**
**I have also heard from a little bird that Hoechlin will have a role in a movie called **_**That's What I'm Talking About**_ **that's supposed to be released some time this year or next year in 2016. It's about college freshmen in the 1980s (I think) who play baseball, which is perfect for him since he used to play all the time. I wish him the best of luck on that movie and any other roles that he lands in any other movies that he so deserves.**
**Anyway, if you're still with me and reading through my sadness, I'm sure that you understand my feelings. Hoechlin was my favorite actor on set and Derek was my favorite character ever. I am so **_**very**_ **sad that he will not be a series regular anymore. But, as any true fan would wish, I hope that he gets as far as Scarlett Johansson (except for the fact that she's female) in his acting career. Hopefully, he will get more roles in more movies in his future. Good luck Tyler!**
5. Hiatus
**Soo…. Hey, guys. I'm sorry for leaving you guys hanging in the dust. I don't know any other way to say this than… I just don't know where to go with this. I guess Hoechlin leaving really killed my muse. So I will officially be putting this story on hiatus after literally forever of trying to start back up with this. I'm not sure if I'll come back to this. I really am sorry guys. I know that a select few of you guys actually enjoy this, but I just feel like I should take a break instead of put out half-assed chapters that I forced myself to write. I hope you understand. School has started back up (and I'm in a new one, at that), and my personal life has just become so stressed. I get hit with inspiration for different stories all the time, but I never really stay with them for long. So from now on, I'll try to only publish a story when I actually finish them. Again, I'm really sorry, but I hope you guys understand. Until next time.**
_**Lies of a Silver Tongue**_
End file.
| fanfiction |
T H E W O R L D I S N O T E N O U G H
(BOND 19)
--------------------------------------------------------------
GUN BARREL LOGO OPENS ON
GENEVA SWITZERLAND, an unnaturally clean city that melds old
Europe with new money of both dubious and legitimate source.
INT. HALLWAY OFFICE BUILDING - DAY
An engraved brass plaque announcing the name of the "private
banking institute" within.
INT. PENTHOUSE BANK OFFICE - GENEVA - DAY
JAMES BOND, dressed impeccably as ever, is being FRISKED by
three THUGS in Armani suits. They remove A GUN from inside
his jacket, a well-concealed knife, a metal case, laying them
on the desk that separates Bond and...
LACHAISE...an extremely well-groomed gentleman. Behind him,
three floor-to-ceiling windows lead out to a rooftop garden.
LACHAISE
Not the usual Swiss procedure, Mr. Bond,
but you understand, a man in my
position..
BOND
Which is neutral, no doubt.
Lachaise takes the joke a little tight-lipped. Gestures for
Bond to sit.
A GIRL ENTERS, a gorgeous Swiss bombshell in a pin-striped
suit. She pushes a cart. On it are a BRIEFCASE and a box of
EXPENSIVE CIGARS, which she offers to Lachaise and Bond.
LACHAISE
It wasn't easy, but I retrieved the
money. No doubt Sir Robert will be
pleased to see it again.
The efficient Cigar Girl brings the briefcase to Bond,
setting it in his lap and opening it up...inside is a good
deal of CASH in pound sterling.
LACHAISE
In the current exchange rate, minus the
fees, of course, and certain
unforeseeable expenses. Here is the
receipt...
The CIGAR GIRL offers Bond a RECEIPT...
CIGAR GIRL
Would you like to check my figures?
BOND
Perhaps later.
She steps back. Bond reaches for the metal case on the
desk...the THUGS TENSE...
BOND
My glasses.
Lachaise nods. Bond can have his glasses.
He puts them on, gives a cursory look at the receipt...an odd
number in pound sterling, calculated down to the penny:
3,030,303.03.
LACHAISE
It's all there.
Bond folds the receipt, slips it into his WALLET...then, he
removes the glasses, slowly, deliberately, eyeing Lachaise.
BOND
I didn't come for the money. The report
you sold him was stolen from an MI-6
agent, who was killed for it.
He takes a photo from his jacket and lays it on the desk.
LACHAISE
I did not get the report from an MI-6
agent.
BOND
Who did you get it from?
LACHAISE
I am just a middle man. I am doing the
honourable thing and returning the money
to its rightful owner...
BOND
And we know how difficult that can be for
the Swiss.
LACHAISE
(controlled fury)
Your last chance. Take the money.
BOND
Your last chance. Give me the name.
LACHAISE
Stripped of all your weaponry, you still
threaten me?
He nods. An Armani thug steps up and takes out a gun...
BOND
Perhaps you failed to take into account
my...hidden assets.
Bond's mouth edges into a smile. A flicker of doubt on
Lachaise's face -- as Bond's finger finds a protrusion on the
tiny arm of his glasses and...
KABOOM! The pistol on the table FLASHES...blinding those
around, they cover their eyes, stagger back...it is a brief
effect, just enough to disorient the thugs and give Bond his
opening...
He KARATE-CHOPS HENCHMAN #1 unconscious, taking his gun.
Kicks HENCHMEN #2 in the face and throws #3 OUT THE WINDOW
just as they're getting their bearings. Now he nestles the
barrel of his borrowed hand gun into the hollow of Lachaise's
cheek.
BOND
The name?
LACHAISE
I can't tell you...
(Bond cocks the gun)
Alright, alright! But you must protect
me!
And he freezes. The handle of a THROWING KNIFE is sticking
out of his neck. Bond looks up, catches sight of the CIGAR
GIRL as she vaults out the broken window and onto THE ROOF.
Bond rushes to the window...
EXT. VERANDAH - ROOFS - GENEVA - DAY
She swings on a WIRE across to another roof, quickly
disappearing into shadows.
Bond can hear sirens approaching. He returns to...
THE OFFICE...he grabs the money and moves fast for the door,
casually slipping that cigar into his pocket...
Except Henchman #1 has recovered, blocks his way, gun in
hand. He starts to squeeze the trigger -- when a RED DOT
appears on his chest...another window SHATTERS as a bullet
zings through and pierces the henchman in the heart.
Bond looks back once at the shattered window, then heads out.
INT. BANK - GENEVA - DAY
Bond appears on the top floor of the grand old building, by
the elevator. Looks over the balcony, sees figures on the
stairs. Hears the elevator cage start from below.
Thinking fast, he wrenches open the steel gate, leans into
the lift shaft, watches the elevator COUNTERWEIGHT as it
comes down. Almost nonchalant, he steps out...
INT. STAIRWELL/ELEVATOR SHAFT - DAY
As the cageful of police rises, Bond is now standing on the
counterweight, DESCENDING.
EXT. STREET - GENEVA
Lunchtime. Faceless business crowds heading for their brief
moment of freedom, among them we spot BOND...one of them,
with a briefcase and a suit and tie...HOLD on his face,
troubled.
INT. HOTEL - GENEVA - DAY
The Cigar Girl enters a huge, high-ceilinged room. Edgy, she
approaches a BIG MAN standing on a balcony overlooking the
city. Propped against the doorframe, an assassin's RIFLE
with LASER-SIGHT attached. BINOCULARS are on a tripod,
trained on the rooftop below where we can see cops examining
the shattered office windows.
The man turns. Powerful, deadly, with a military haircut.
There is a raised, red scar of an ENTRY WOUND at his temple.
It throbs and shifts with the slightest facial expression,
like an insect living just beneath his skin. One EYE seems
slightly drooping, deadened. The other eye is sharp and black
as anthracite. It is a frightening face. This is RENARD.
RENARD
What's his name? Our friend from MI-6?
CIGAR GIRL
James Bond.
RENARD
One of M's more accomplished tin
soldiers.
CIGAR GIRL
He could identify me.
RENARD
If it concerns you...kill him.
He touches her cheek and moves into the room, pouring two
glasses of wine.
RENARD
Let's toast this James Bond. We're in
his hands now...
CUT TO:
EXT. RIVER THAMES - LONDON - DAY
A SEAPLANE swoops over the Millennium Dome, banks along the
snaking river.
EXT. MI-6 - LONDON - DAY
Tate Gallery in background, the seaplane moors beneath the
vast stepped cake that is MI-6. Bond exits with the
suitcase.
INT. SECURITY, MI-6 - DAY
CAMERA MOVES with Bond as he enters this secret, hi-tech
world. He passes through countless security procedures,
watched by an attentive staff.
Bond scoops the money out of the suitcase. Three million
sterling in tightly bundled hundreds makes quite a sight. He
flicks his finger through the last wad, tosses it down
wistfully. A blue light scans it on three axis.
The money is bundled into a clear plastic bag, put on a tray
and wheeled through a series of barred enclosures into the
SECURE ROOM. Bond hands the suitcase to a STAFF MEMBER.
BOND
Have this checked, see what you can get
off it.
INT. MONEYPENNY'S OFFICE, MI-6 - DAY
Bond appears, hiding something behind his back. Moneypenny
brightens.
MONEYPENNY
James. Brought me a souvenir from
Geneva?
He produces the cigar, now in a large phallic TUBE. Stands
it end up on the desk.
BOND
Thought you might want one of these.
MONEYPENNY
(beat, deadpan)
I gave up a long time ago.
(nods to M's door)
She's in with Sir Robert.
INT. M'S OFFICE, MI-6 - DAY
Bond enters. SIR ROBERT KING is perched on the edge of M's
desk. Two glasses, a bottle of scotch open.
M
Sir Robert King, James Bond.
King moves toward Bond with an easy, patrician smile. Bond
notes a TINY BADGE in his lapel -- like the glass eye of a
stuffed snake.
SIR ROBERT
Thanks for getting my money back --never
expected to see it again. You're the
kind of man I could use. Though I won't
offend certain parties by asking you to
join King Industries.
King looks to M, smiling.
BOND
Construction's not exactly my line.
M
Quite the opposite, in fact.
She couldn't resist. King smiles at Bond. As he goes, he
gives M a respectful kiss on the cheek. The door closes. M
turns.
BOND
Old friend?
M
Since Oxford. I knew him when he had
nothing but a brilliant mind and enough
guts to conquer the world. He's a man of
great integrity.
BOND
Who buys classified reports for three
million pounds.
M picks up the report from her desk. Bond notices it is in
Russian, with a SEAL from a Russian military agency in the
corner: MIRATOM.
M
It's a report on weapons security in the
former Soviet Union, which, as you know,
is shaky at best. He's had several
instances of sabotage at the pipeline,
and he's understandably concerned. He
called me the moment he realized its
sensitive nature.
She pours a scotch for Bond. He drops some ice in,
thoughtful.
BOND
Someone was watching over me in Geneva.
A guardian angel with a laser sight.
He stops, rubs his thumb and forefinger together -- a strange
SIZZLING where he touched the ice. Realization sinks in.
BOND
King.
M sees the seriousness in his eyes -- stabs at the intercom:
INT. MONEYPENNY'S OFFICE, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
Moneypenny's eyes shoot to the intercom console:
M
(filtered)
Moneypenny, stop King leaving.
MONEYPENNY
(flicking switch)
Security --
INT. CORRIDORS, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
Sir Robert King and an MI-6 AIDE walk toward SECURITY.
INT. Q DIVISION, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
Q and his men are working on a strange half-built BOAT
suspended over a water tank.
Q
..the hydro boat can operate in three
inches of water...
He looks up as Bond runs through...
INT. SECURITY, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
THE MONEY lies on the tray, wrapped in plastic.
Sir Robert approaches, two rows of security bars between him
and the cash. An official produces a bag and moves toward
it:
SIR ROBERT
Thanks, but I'll count it myself.
(apologetic, smiles)
Lifetime habit. I'm Scottish.
INT. LOWER CORRIDORS/SECURITY AREA, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
Bond shoots around the corner just in time to see Sir Robert
disappearing past the THICK STEEL DOOR of the secure room.
BOND
Stop! King!
INT. SECURITY, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
The shout is muffled, Sir Robert's more interested in the
money.
He continues toward camera, that PIN on his lapel emits a
serene HUM and we
CUT TO:
CLOSE ON THE METAL STRIP IN ONE NOTE AS IT CRACKLES AND --
KABOOM! A MASSIVE EXPLOSION.
INT. LOWER CORRIDORS/SECURITY AREA, MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
MAYHEM. FIRE blasts out of the open doorway just as Bond
reaches it. The STEEL DOOR flies toward him. He dives --
EXT. MI-6/RIVER - CONTINUOUS
The building rocks. SMOKE is pouring from a HOLE that's
appeared in a lower tier. A wall and a section of roof gone.
EXT. MI-6/RIVER - CONTINUOUS
A figure staggers out, shaken. Catching his breath. BOND.
CUT TO:
ECU CIGAR GIRL
Lining up Bond with her infra-red telescopic sight.
ANGLE ON BOND
In the swirling dust and smoke, he suddenly sees a wand of
red light, pointing at his chest.
All instinct, he dives for cover. Powerful, high velocity
bullet hits blanket the area. Bond prepares to return fire,
scanning around for the source. Through the debris he spots
an unusual, hi-tech BOAT on the river -- long and narrow and
low. A figure on board. THE CIGAR GIRL.
ANGLE ON CIGAR GIRL
She FIRES OFF A ROUND OF SHOTS, forcing Bond back into cover.
Then she guns the engines and SPEEDS OFF down the Thames.
EXT. MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
Determined, Bond races back into the wreckage...
INT. MI-6 - CONTINUOUS
Bond races through the chaos that is MI-6 and into...
Q DIVISION
Where he leaps into the prototype BOAT. Q protests...
Q
It's not finished!
Bond looks at the mystifying number of buttons and gadgets
...presses something red and...THE BOAT LEAPS OUT, ENGINE
ROARING...
EXT. SLIPWAY - RIVER - DAY
THE 007 THEME KICKS IN AS:
JAMES BOND, in the Q boat, SHOOTS OUT of the MI-6 rubble and
onto the Thames.
EXT. RIVER THAMES - DAY
Bond can see the Cigar Girl up ahead...he is closing the
distance. She catches sight of him in pursuit...
EXT. CIGAR GIRL - BOAT - DAY
She pushes the boat to its limit, it roars to a new level of
speed...the chase is on.
EXT. THAMES - DAY
Police speedboats, alerted by the commotion, trail Bond.
ON THE EMBANKMENT
Police cars scream alongside, sirens wailing.
ON THE THAMES
Bond is losing ground as he and the Cigar Girl weave through
traffic on the Thames. In a gutsy bid to keep pace, he
corrals the Q boat into a hair-raising SHORT-CUT, shooting
off...
UNDERNEATH A PIER
He maneuvers the boat under the low pier and emerges EVEN
CLOSER to his prey...
EXT. CIGAR GIRL - BOAT - DAY
The Cigar Girl stops her boat, moving to the back, manning
her large, rear-mountain MACHINE GUN and taking aim at
Bond...
EXT. RIVER THAMES - DAY
Bond continues at full speed, fearless in the hail of bullets
ricocheting off the vessel.
THE CIGAR GIRL Remains calm and cool, shooting with
precision.
BOND closes in...
CIGAR GIRL'S eyes widen as...
BOND STEERS HIS BOAT RIGHT OVER THE MACHINE GUN AND TURRET...
Cigar Girl dives out of the way, as her boat becomes a RAMP,
LAUNCHING the Q boat INTO THE AIR before it dives, nose-
first, into the Thames.
EXT. - CIGAR GIRL BOAT - CONTINUOUS
CIGAR GIRL gets up from the deck and sees BOND, turning his
boat to close in for the kill...
She scrambles to the helm and SPEEDS OFF, seeing ahead of
her...
TOWER BRIDGE
Just beginning to open, to allow for passage of a small
tanker.
EXT. CIGAR GIRL BOAT
She streaks toward the bridge, Bond lagging behind...
ON BOND
As he looses her boat in the distance, he makes a DESPERATE
MOVE...he cranks the wheel of his boat and veers off, UP A
SLIPWAY and into...
EXT. FISH MARKET
Where the boat hydroplanes on masses of surface water and
propels him into
EXT. LONDON STREET
The hurtling boat causes mayhem and panic as he wrestles with
the controls, jetting off the street and straight toward...
EXT. RIVERSIDE RESTAURANT
Bond's boat crashes right through it, sending diners LEAPING
in every direction. The Q boat SHOOTS OUT over the balcony
and splashes down once more into...
EXT. THAMES - DAY
Cigar Girl is now clearly in his sights. She is amazed to
see that Bond has managed to overtake her.
The racing boats dice through an armada of lazy, over-loaded
BARGES, nearly crashing into the much larger vessels.
AT EVEN PACE NOW...Cigar Girl attempts to force her way past
him, but Bond, punching buttons on the console of the Q-boat,
releases a set of catapulting FLAME CANNISTERS which create a
massive WALL OF FIRE ahead of them...
CIGAR GIRL is forced toward the very edge of the river...the
jig is almost up, and then...
HER P.O.V. She spots the launching of a HOT AIR BALLOON from
the base of the massive MILLENNIUM DOME.
She skids her vessel to a stop at a nearby pier and quickly
scrambles out of her boat.
EXT. MILLENNIUM DOME - DAY
...A crowd around a RICHARD BRANSON-like figure about to
climb into his HOT AIR BALLOON.
The Cigar Girl, brandishing her gun, forces her way through
the crowd and LEAPS INTO THE BALLOON CARRIAGE, just ready to
lift off. She cranks open the gas nozzles and the balloon
rises with surprising speed.
EXT. BOND'S BOAT - DAY
Bond steers his craft toward a slipway adjacent to the pier
and SHOOTS UP INTO THE AIR...
EXT. MILLENNIUM DOME
An amazing sight...Bond's boat sailing through the air just
beneath the balloon. With split second precision he reaches
up and GRABS ONE OF THE ROPES dangling down from the balloon.
Bond finds himself being CARRIED THROUGH THE AIR as his boat
falls away from him, hitting the ground and ERUPTING into a
ball of flame.
EXT. HOT AIR BALLOON - CONTINUOUS
As Bond is carried higher and higher, the Cigar Girl begins
FIRING AT HIM over the edge of the carriage.
Bond, with ONE HAND, returns fire.
CIGAR GIRL then leans over the edge of the carriage and
begins to SLICE THE ROPE that Bond is hanging from.
The fibers split and fray away from each other as...
BOND FALLS, heading straight toward...
THE MILLENNIUM DOME, which the balloon has drifted over.
AS HE PLUMMETS DOWNWARD...Bond, never surrendering, still
FIRES HIS WEAPON up at the balloon. A bullet hits the gas
tank...
EXT. BALLOON - DAY
The BALLOON EXPLODES IN A MASSIVE FIREBALL taking the Cigar
Girl with it...
EXT. MILLENNIUM DOME - DAY
Bond lands with a spectacular thudding bounce, the roof of
the Millennium Dome breaking his fall.
EXT. MILLENNIUM DOME ROOF - DAY
He slides uncontrollably down the slope of the Dome as scraps
of burning balloon rain down all around, before he FALLS OFF
THE EDGE of the Dome and lands with a THUD ON...
THE GROUND BELOW
He struggles up, wincing in SEARING PAIN as his hand goes to
his INJURED SHOULDER. He hold it, and looks up, into the sky
as we zero in on the iris of...
HIS EYE
reflecting the massive smoke cloud from the explosion as the
screen transforms into...
THE MAIN TITLES
CUT TO:
EXT. COUNTRY ESTATE, LOCH LOMOND - DAY
BAGPIPES. A chapel atop a green slope overlooking the waters
of Loch Lomond.
A long line of mourners files out at the end of a memorial
service. They mill about on the lawn, among them, M, grim-
faced, BILL TANNER, CHIEF OF STAFF and JAMES BOND, his arm in
a black sling.
Bond, ever vigilant, scans the crowd...
HIS P.O.V. It's like a state funeral. Rich and powerful
people, government ministers, chief executives from around
the world...and then...
FAR OFF, on a DISTANT RISE, he sees a BIG MAN, not one of the
mourners but an isolated observer, standing alone, wearing
sunglasses and a military haircut.
The man seems to see Bond looking at him...
M
Bond, we'll meet you inside.
Bond looks at her for a brief second...when he turns back,
the man is gone, like an APPARITION.
Bond walks off, up the grassy slope, toward the rise.
CUT TO:
THE VIEW ACROSS THE VALLEY
Bond stands on the hill, looking below. He sees nothing but
a green carpet, not a tree to hide behind.
He hears a crunch of leaves...turns...
HIS P.O.V. A WOMAN, in mourning black, coming up the hill.
Her china doll face is both fragile and proud.
WOMAN
Beautiful, isn't it?
BOND
Yes.
She steps up to the ridge with him. A breeze blows her hair.
They stare out. The sun's rays have broken the clouds and
strafe the valley.
WOMAN
Today, of all days, the sun decides to
shine.
BOND
Perhaps Sir Robert had a word with the
Man Upstairs.
WOMAN
A word? I'm sure by now he's engineered a
hostile takeover.
BOND
You knew him well?
The sun glints off her bejewelled earlobe.
WOMAN
He was my father.
BOND
I'm sorry.
WOMAN
He died before he could complete his
lifelong dream.
(beat)
I intend to finish it for him.
A voice interrupts them, calling from the estate...
OLDER MAN
Elektra!
ELEKTRA
Excuse me.
She walks away, the wind pressing her dress against her
delicate figure. She looks brave and vulnerable as she walks
back toward her father's grand house.
CUT TO:
INT. LIMOUSINE - TRAVELING - DAY
M, Bond and Tanner in the rear of a limousine. The vehicle
swoops through the epic countryside of the Scottish
Highlands.
M
Elektra? Running King Industries?
(she broods)
I've known that girl all her life. I'm
not sure she knows what she's walking
into.
BOND
She's not a girl anymore.
M looks at Bond. Eyes his sling.
M
I've scheduled a medical for you.
BOND
It's barely a scratch. The Dome broke my
fall.
M
Well, at least it turned out to have some
purpose.
Bond gives her a look.
M
No-one goes into the field on this unless
they're 100%. Dr. Greatrex is waiting.
EXT. CASTLE THANE - HIGHLANDS - DAY
The limousine swoops under the portcullis, into a courtyard.
ADJUST ANGLE to reveal huge antennae and satellite dishes
within.
SUPER: MI-6 REMOTE OPERATIONS CENTRE, SCOTLAND
EXT. CORRIDOR - CASTLE THANE - CONTINUOUS
Bond walks through the corridors. Just before he enters the
medical room, he removes his sling and casually drapes it on
a suit of armor.
INT. MEDICAL ROOM - CASTLE THANE - DAY
Bond sits on the couch, shirt off, awaits the results of his
medical.
The very attractive DOCTOR GREATREX looks at her notes.
DOCTOR GREATREX
Dislocated collar bone. If any more
tendons snap...
(looks up)
It won't just be two weeks out of action.
BOND
I need you to pass me fit now, Molly.
She moves to him, touches the scarred and bruised bone.
BOND
It's just a scratch.
DOCTOR GREATREX
James. It wouldn't really be...
His hand comes up, rests on her waist.
BOND
Ethical? Can't we just skirt the issue?
And he pulls down the zip on her skirt. Flicks the clasp and
it drops to the floor. She shakes her head -- as he starts
undoing the buttons on her shirt. She's very business-like,
despite what's happening.
DOCTOR GREATREX
...if you showed sufficient...willpower.
Promised to slow down. Cut out running,
jumping...shooting. All kinds of...
And he pulls her toward him, they kiss.
BOND
Strenuous activity?
Her shirt drops to the floor. She pushes him back, lies on
him. Just wearing knickers now. Between kisses:
DOCTOR GREATREX
Then maybe I'd be... open to that.
BOND
(smiles)
Perhaps after this ... test?
DOCTOR GREATREX
...yes?...
BOND
I could come for a second opinion?
INT. BRIEFING ROOM, CASTLE THANE (MI-6 HQ)- LATER
A huge chandelier dominates the vast stone room. SEVERAL
AGENTS listen to the debriefing. ROBINSON and M watch TANNER
explain things; he holds a FIFTY POUND NOTE and KING'S LAPEL
PIN (now blackened, fused, melted to expose electronics
beneath).
TANNER
...The money was dipped in urea, dried,
and packed tight. In one note the metal
strip had been replaced with a
combustible magnesium circuit -- in
effect a tiny detonator. King always wore
a pin in his lapel, an heirloom called
'the Eye of the Glens'; but someone
switched it for a copy, a ceramic micro-
circuit emitting an electronic signature.
ANGLE
on BOND as he enters the room. He hangs back in the shadows,
watches Tanner mime the pin moving to the note:
TANNER
When he came within range of the money --
boom. Ingenious.
M steps forward. Her fury controlled.
M
We've been pawns in someone's game. They
tricked us into bringing the money to
King. Not just elaborate. Cock-sure.
TANNER
And expensive. Cost three million plus.
Suddenly the chandelier darkens, the floor brightens into a
VAST SCREEN, showing a satellite image of Central Asia and
the Mediterranean. M and Robinson walk onto the screen.
M
Cheap, if it achieves your aim of de-
stabilizing the Western World.
She causes the desired stir. Bond steps forward from the
shadows to get a better view. M sees the sling has gone.
M
007. What do you know of the Caspian Sea?
BOND
Caviar capital of the world. Matchless
beluga. Firm, yet subtle.
(M looks askance)
Largest landlocked body of water on
Earth. Oil-rich. Hitler wanted it.
Stalin beat him to it.
M
And now it's up for grabs, a goldrush.
Far more oil than anyone thought.
ROBINSON
Latest estimates, six trillion dollars.
It'll make the Gulf look like a puddle,
see us right through the new century.
The problem is getting the oil out of
there.
M
There are four pipelines in the works.
Three to the Black Sea, shipping out
through the Bosphorus. All vulnerable to
unstable governments or Russian blockade.
BOND
So Sir Robert's goes through Turkey,
direct to the Med...?
ROBINSON
A huge project. The most expensive of the
pipelines, but the one supported by every
Western leader. None of the American oil
companies were willing to take it on.
But King has connections to the region.
He married into the Vavra family, rich
local industrialists. He used those
connections to hold it all together.
BOND
Kill the man, kill the pipeline.
M
Not necessarily. Not with Elektra taking
over.
Tanner notices a RED LIGHT start pulsing. He moves to M:
TANNER
Your call to the PM.
M nods grimly. As Robinson distributes sealed envelopes:
M
Our credibility has been hit hard. We
have to hit back harder. Your
assignments.
They open their envelopes, but Bond received nothing.
M
(to Bond)
I'm waiting for the report on your
medical.
She leaves. Bond is brooding.
CUT TO:
INT. RESEARCH ROOM, CASTLE THANE (MI-6 HQ) - NIGHT
An ancient nook chock full of hi-tech equipment. Bond
concentrates on a screen displaying PHOTOGRAPHS, NEWSPAPER
AND TELEVISION CLIPS -- all to do with King's life and times.
Bond touches the screen on a photo of...ELEKTRA.
INT. SCREEN
One story dominates -- the KIDNAPPING OF ELEKTRA KING. A
Polaroid of Elektra savagely beaten, ear bandaged, holding a
newspaper: beneath the photo is scrawled "$5,000,000."
NEWSCASTER
...somehow managed to shoot two of her
captors and escape...
POLICE VIDEO: Elektra interviewed; bruised, emotional.
VOICE
... the leader, the one who escaped. Can
you describe him?
ELEKTRA
He shouted. He shouted all the time --
Bond touches Elektra's face, freezing her tears.
His eyes wander to the photo with the ransom demand:
$5,000,000. A thought forms. He takes out his wallet,
opening it and removing:
THE RECEIPT FROM LACHAISE.
E.C.U. The strange figure, in pounds: 3,030,303.03.
Bond taps some keys. The words EXCHANGE RATE appear on the
screen...pounds to dollars.
He enters '3,030,303.03 POUNDS STERLING' and through
multiplication by the exchange rate this becomes:
'5,000,000 US DOLLARS.' He stares at it.
CUT TO:
INT. PASSAGEWAY - CASTLE THANE (MI-6 HQ) - DUSK
Bond paces the flagstones, FOOTSTEPS ECHOING.
INT. BRIEFING ROOM - CASTLE THANE (MI-6 HQ) - CONTINUOUS
Bond opens the door on M who stands alone by the window,
looking out at the long shadows on the moors.
BOND
Tell me about the kidnapping of Elektra
King.
She turns, her brow furrowing.
M
Who told you to look at Elektra's files?
BOND
I took the initiative.
M
You haven't been given an assignment in
this case.
BOND
I was the one who brought that money
in...
M
I'm well aware of your stake in this,
007.
If you have a point, get to it.
BOND
The amount of money that killed Robert
King is the same amount as the ransom
demand for Elektra.
He hands her a slip of paper.
BOND
Whoever kidnapped Elektra is the same man
who killed her father.
M looks at the paper, a long time.
M
It's a message. He wants us to know he's
back.
BOND
Who?
M
Claude Serrault. A.K.A...
BOND
(this is serious)
Renard.
CUT TO:
INT. BRIEFING ROOM, CASTLE THANE (MI-6 HQ)- NIGHT
A HUGE, TRANSPARENT 3-D IMAGE OF RENARD'S SKULL floats in the
centre of the room. Other images of him on wall screens.
M
Sir Robert tried to deal with the
kidnapping with his own...resources, at
first. When Elektra's ear was delivered
to him in the post, he came to me.
(measured)
I advised against paying the ransom. I
knew it was Renard. I played it out as
long as possible to get a fix on him.
BOND
Sacrifice the girl to take out the
terrorist?
M
How many deaths is he responsible for?
How many innocent people? You may only
get one shot at a man like Renard. Same
circumstances, I'd do the same again.
She turns to the hologram.
M
We sent 009 down to kill him. Before he
could, Elektra escaped. A week later our
man caught up with the target. Put a
bullet in his head.
(beat)
That bullet is still there.
Bond moves toward the ghostly Renard. We now see THE BULLET
INSIDE HIS SKULL.
BOND
He survived?
M
The doctor who saved him couldn't get it
out, so Renard killed him. When Interpol
found the x-rays, there was mild
jubilation. Effectively, he's a dead man.
She presses a button, the hologram turns...
M
The bullet is moving through the medulla
oblongata, killing off his sense of
touch. He feels no pain. He can push
himself harder, longer than any normal
man.
BOND
'That which does not kill me makes me
stronger.'
M
Now Robert is dead. He got his revenge.
BOND
He's not through yet. Renard doesn't blow
up five million dollars unless he knows
there's more coming in. He's working for
someone. Someone who wants to stop the
pipeline. And they hired the perfect
killer. One with a vendetta against
King...and you.
MONEYPENNY ENTERS with a file, which she hands to M.
M looks over the file: his medical report.
M
I see the good doctor gave you glowing
testimonials. 'Exceptional stamina'...
MONEYPENNY
He's always been good at oral exams.
Moneypenny disappears out the door. M is all business.
M
Get out to the pipeline. Find the insider
who switched the pin. If your instincts
are right, Renard will be back. He hasn't
completed the job. The pipeline is still
going forward, and we have Elektra to
thank for that.
BOND
The worm on the hook again.
They exchange a look. A look of recognition between two
professionals, who know the terrible price of what they do.
INT. Q'S LAB - NIGHT
A Scot in a kilt plays the bagpipes -- badly. He spins
round, drops the pipe from his mouth, simultaneously fires
bullets from one pipe and a jet of flame from another. The
target is a realistic dummy -- now a molten, bullet-ridden
mess.
We're in Q's laboratory. He's walking Bond through.
BOND
Scottish heavy metal, Q?
Q
Oh pipe down, 007.
(irritated, hands over a WATCH)
Your 29th. Try not to lose this one. It
has dual lasers and a miniature grappling
hook with fifty feet of high-tensile
micro-filament, able to support 800
pounds.
In the background, we see a man in a sleek black jacket. The
man PULLS A STRING...the jacket becomes AN AIRBAG...it
envelopes him, he gets impossibly tangled in it.
Q ignores it, handing Bond a new pair of GLASSES.
Q
New refinement. Sort of X-ray vision.
For checking concealed weapons.
BOND
And other uses, no doubt.
Q
Abuses in your case. You destroyed my
hydro-boat in less than seven minutes, as
no doubt will be the case with this...
He presses a button and a section of ceiling lowers to reveal
a BMW Z7.
A MAN in a white coat is loading A MISSILE into one of the
headlamps, then steps off the platform. Q gestures to him.
Q
007, my Deputy Assistant. I'm grooming
him to follow me.
BOND
(to Man)
That would make you..."R"?
R
Ahh, the rampant 007 wit. I, of course,
am laughing inside. But I dare say
you've met your match in this machine.
(touring the car)
The absolute latest in intercepts,
surveillance and countermeasures.
Titanium plating and armor, a multi-
tasking heads-up display. Completely
indestructible. All in all, rather
stocked.
Q
'Fully loaded' I think is the term.
"R" pats the fender, he's pretty damned fond of his machine.
R
Do take good care of her.
CUT TO:
EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE, NEAR CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS - DAY
A hot day. CAMERA soars over tall trees. We can just make out
the sleek muscular car, beetle-black and far below, bouncing
over rough terrain. Bond "taking care" of his new BMW Z7.
INT. BOND'S CAR - NR CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS - DAY
We join Bond at the wheel, driving hard, loving it, pushing
up extreme inclines, smashing through overhanging limbs.
EXT. PERIMETER FENCE, CONSTRUCTION SITE, NEAR CAUCASUS
MOUNTAINS - DAY
Bond reaches a PERIMETER FENCE, manned by a GUARD. The guard
examines Bond's PASS and waves him through.
EXT. AIRSTRIP AREA NEAR CONSTRUCTION SITE, NEAR CAUCASUS
MOUNTAINS - DAY (OLD SC. 69)
As Bond drives on he passes an area where HELICOPTERS
trailing GIANT SAWS are trimming back trees. Felled trees
are being dragged away, being replaced by huge metal sheets.
An incredibly fast and well-oiled operation -- but why?
EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE, NEAR CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS - DAY
Bond pulls up at the CONSTRUCTION SITE, teeming with ultra-
modern robotic construction machines and vehicles.
He gets out, and is immediately surrounded by men with guns.
A man in a suit steps forward. DAVIDOV is tall, blonde, with
a dangerous charm Bond instantly recognizes as ex-KGB.
He turns Bond around, hands on the car. Pats him down.
Pulls out an ID, checks it:
DAVIDOV
(excellent English)
Bond. A government man. I'm afraid since
you English got the boss killed we've
been a little...jumpy.
Bond stares ahead, watches a PRIVATE JET swoops past...
OMITTED
EXT. AIRSTRIP AREA NEAR CONSTRUCTION SITE, NEAR CAUCASUS
MOUNTAINS - DAY
The jet lands on a runway of the metal sheets Bond saw being
laid as he passed...
EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE, NEAR CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS - DAY
Davidov pulls out Bond's gun.
BOND
(re: gun)
I'd rather you didn't play with that.
Davidov ignores him, looking the gun over.
DAVIDOV
Nice.
BOND
Quite stunning.
Bond turns to watch a LIFTING HELICOPTER swoop in and drop
down an air-conditioned office. Military precision.
Davidov's radio crackles out a message and he tosses the gun
back to Bond. They start walking:
DAVIDOV
(pleasant)
Sorry about all that, comrade. Old habits
die hard. I am Head of Security.
Davidov.
Bond eyes him, but is distracted by a jet coming to a halt
ahead of them.
Stairs swing down and out steps ELEKTRA KING. Beautiful,
elegant. So out of place in this world of men. She surveys
the worksite.
Impressed, Bond takes his ID back from Davidov.
INT. OFFICE, CONSTRUCTION SITE - CONTINUOUS
Bond and Davidov step into a fully functioning office.
Everything Elektra requires is here. Computer, phones, drinks
cabinet. She is in the middle of a group of workmen and
secretaries, looking at plans, talking, pouring herself a cup
of coffee.
ELEKTRA
(to Foreman)
...they should have been in place two
days ago. That is the target my father
set.
FOREMAN
We've had some trouble with the villagers
at Ruan. Some sacred burial plot...
DAVIDOV
Miss King...James Bond here to see you.
She looks up...a brief moment of RECOGNITION...then back to
business.
ELEKTRA
Find me the research on the limestone
deposits, go ahead and place these
orders, and get the jeep ready. I will go
to Ruan myself...
DAVIDOV
Miss King, I wouldn't recommend...
ELEKTRA
I said, I will go.
She signs some documents and the men file out. She gets up,
turning her back to Bond, hands on her hips.
ELEKTRA
Would you excuse us, Davidov?
Davidov nods and leaves. Elektra still keeps her back turned,
but he can see her physically change, her shoulders sag, her
arms cross in front of her. When she finds her voice, it has
a gravelly sound of emotion.
ELEKTRA
I met you at my father's funeral.
BOND
Yes.
ELEKTRA
I haven't been able to recall a single
moment of that day...until now.
BOND
Funerals aren't exactly memorable.
ELEKTRA
God no. All those horrible loved ones and
relatives. I don't want to talk to those
people. I just want to...talk to my
father.
(beat)
I loved him. I'm not sure he knew that.
BOND
Is that why you want to finish the
pipeline?
ELEKTRA
Partially, yes.
Her muscleman BODY GUARD appears, says briefly:
GABOR
The jeep is ready, Ma'am. Will I be
driving with you?
ELEKTRA
No, Gabor. We have a guest.
Gabor glares at Bond before he leaves.
BOND
Who is he?
ELEKTRA
My bodyguard. He follows me everywhere.
He's decisive, vigilant. And he makes an
excellent omelette.
BOND
How long has he been with you?
ELEKTRA
Since the kidnapping. Why do you ask?
Bond takes something out of his pocket, he opens his palm,
shows it to her.
BOND
Does this look familiar to you?
ELEKTRA
It's my father's pin. He wore it everyday
of his life.
She swallows back emotion. Looks in his eyes, with a sad half-
smile that unsettles him.
ELEKTRA
Are you trying to break my heart? Or is
it just your way with women?
BOND
It's not the pin your father wore. It's
an exact duplicate. Inside is a tiny
electrical detonator. We have reason to
believe the assassin had an inside
accomplice, someone who worked at this
company.
ELEKTRA
If you've come here to look after me, Mr.
Bond, thank you, but no thank you. I
have two bodyguards, I don't need a
third...
She starts to walk out. He follows her...
EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE - CONTINUOUS
BOND
The killer doesn't want to see this
pipeline continue, doesn't want to see
you take over...
ELEKTRA
That's every man within a five mile
radius. Including you.
(off his look)
That's why you're here, isn't it? You
think I can't do it. You think I'm going
to screw up. Or get myself killed.
BOND
I think running this pipeline would be a
difficult job for anyone. Especially
King's daughter.
ELEKTRA
You are wrong, Mr. Bond. In fact, I am
the only person who can do it.
CUT TO:
EXT. JEEP, TRAVELING - OILFIELDS - DAY
Elektra drives the all-terrain jeep with casual assurance.
Bond is beside her, cold-weather gear in the back. They're
following a huge pipeline, passing a blighted petrified
forest of twisted iron: derelict oil derricks.
Elektra gestures at the oil fields they're now leaving
behind. Receding into the distance, a DELTA OF ROADWAYS
perched on rusting stilts juts out into the sea.
ELEKTRA
My mother's people discovered oil here
ninety years ago. The Bolsheviks
slaughtered them for it.
(beat)
Some say oil is in my family's blood. I
say our blood is in the oil. This is the
very heart of the planet. Up here in the
hills was Eden, literally. Look what the
Russians did to it. Now we have a second
chance and this time we'll do it right.
When the other wells have all dried up,
she'll still be pumping her lifeblood to
the world. And this
(proudly, of pipeline)
Will be one of the main arteries...
OMITTED 75-
EXT. POV FROM HELICOPTER - DAY
Bond and Elektra travel beside the vast pipe through
dramatic, beautiful, scenery...
INT. HELICOPTER - DAY
Davidov and Gabor, in the helicopter, watch the jeep below.
EXT. CONSTRUCTION CAMP, FOOTHILLS OF THE CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS
(CAPPADOCIA, THE VILLAGE OF ZELVE) - DAY
The jeep reaches a break in the pipe: a SURVEY CAMP, flags,
strings. The SURVEY CREW cower behind a 4WD, local tribesman
are stoning them from a village carved into the rock. A lot
of SHOUTING.
Before Bond can stop her, Elektra gets out, moves toward the
tribesmen. The stoning ceases. They know who she is. She
begins to speak quietly -- in their own tongue.
INT. CHAPEL, ZELVE - DAY
A stunning pre-Byzantine chapel hewn from the rock. Flames
illuminate beautiful mosaics and paintings on the cavern
wall. A COPTIC PRIEST proudly shows Elektra about, jabbering
in his mother tongue. She answers in his language.
Bond watches her, impressed.
EXT. CONSTRUCTION CAMP - DISTORTED ELECTRONIC POV, FROM
ABOVE:
We hear the click of high-powered electronic binoculars,
zeroing in on Bond and Elektra as they return to the survey
team. This can't be Davidov's view, as the helicopter has
settled down below.
EXT. CONSTRUCTION CAMP, FOOTHILLS OF MOUNTAINS - DAY
Bond is edgy. Someone is out there. He's sure of it. He
sees Davidov and Gabor scanning the area as well. Elektra
speaks to the foreman.
ELEKTRA
Send the pipe around.
FOREMAN
It will take weeks, cost millions.
Your father approved this route.
ELEKTRA
Then my father was wrong.
The first time Elektra has asserted her own authority. The
foreman is surprised, angry. But he doesn't question her.
She moves toward the helicopter, says to Bond:
ELEKTRA
I have to check the upper lines. Gabor
will drive you back.
BOND
Always wanted to see the upper lines.
ELEKTRA
You don't take no for an answer, do you?
BOND
No.
She shrugs, mischief in her eyes.
ELEKTRA
Alright then. Do you ski?
Bond just smiles.
BOND
I've been known to.
INT/EXT. HELICOPTER - DAY
The chopper swoops over SNOWY WASTES. It reaches a mountain
peak, hovers. The wind is strong, buffeting.
Elektra and Bond are both now in ski suits, Bond wearing a
sleek black jacket.
PILOT
Can't land. Wind's too strong!
ELEKTRA
Just hold her steady.
(to Bond)
You wanted to see it.
She steps into her skis, opens the door. Wind rushes in.
EXT. MOUNTAIN TOP - DAY
Without a moment's hesitation, Elektra leaps out of the
chopper and falls fifteen feet, landing on the move.
INT/EXT. HELICOPTER - DAY
Unbelieving, Bond quickly dons skis and leaps after her.
EXT. MOUNTAINS - DAY
Below him on the mountain, she is already a way ahead. Her
skiing is fearless. Bond likes a challenge...
They wind down the slope, competitive, testing one another,
enjoying it.
EXT. MOUNTAINSIDE - DAY
After an exhilarating run, she stops on the edge of a huge
drop. Bond joins her. They look down at the snowy valley
below. A line of survey FLAGS visible through the middle.
ELEKTRA
We're building from both ends. This is
where they'll meet. Fifteen hundred
miles from the Caspian to the
Mediterranean.
Bond and Elektra stand on the mountainside, feeling like the
only two people in the world, when they hear: THE DISTANT HUM
OF A PLANE.
EXT. SKY - DAY
They see FOUR OBJECTS falling out the back of the aircraft.
As the objects plummet silently toward the earth, they POP
PARACHUTES, their fall slows and then, as Bond and Elektra
watch in disbelief...
GUNFIRE echoes out from the black shapes, now visible as
PARASKIS, low-flying, sleek, deadly snow vehicles.
EXT. MOUNTAIN TOP - DAY
Bond turns to Elektra, he has to yell over the sound of the
approaching machines.
BOND
Head for that gully, I'll lure them into
the trees!
He points her off to one side, where a shallow gully offers
cover...she skis off to shelter and he skis OUT...INTO THE
OPEN...where the paraskis trail after him...
He streaks toward the trees as the vehicles gain on him,
firing...
EXT. FOREST
He makes it to the woods, finding cover in the trees,
whipping in and out of sight as PARASKI #1 tries to follow,
sinking lower and lower until...
HIS SKIDS catch on some over hanging branches...the Paraski
is CATAPULTED into a tree and EXPLODES...
EXT. WOODS - CONTINUOUS
Coming in to pick up the pursuit of Bond is Paraski #2,
firing down at Bond, dropping bombs which explode just behind
him in the snow. The other two paraskis LAND and eject their
chutes, now RACING THROUGH THE WOODS on the ground.
Bond looks behind him, sees them gaining...he zigzags through
the trees and suckers Paraski #3 to glance off one tree, hit
another and wipe out behind.
But the remaining predator on the ground, Paraski #4, is
gaining on him...Bond bursts out of the trees and finds
himself heading toward...
THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE...
He cranks himself right, narrowly avoiding a tumble over the
edge. Paraski #4 isn't so lucky and SAILS OFF THE CLIFF to a
hundred and fifty foot drop.
BOND
(smiling)
Should have stuck to snowboarding.
But the smile is wiped off his face as...AN EMERGENCY
PARACHUTE deploys from the back...
The Paraski does a climbing turn and heads straight back for
him...
Bond skis for his life, away from Paraski #4 when PARASKI #2
appears in front of him...guns blazing...
One ahead and one behind, Bond turns back...he has nowhere to
go but...
OVER THE EDGE
He sails through the air and lands on the Paraski #4,
slashing the parachute with his ski pole before bouncing off
and doing an amazing tumbling hundred foot fall to the snow,
where he lands on his skis... Paraski four, the chute
tangling in the rotors of its propeller, struggles to
maintain control, his vehicle inexorably hurtling toward
PARASKI #2: both of them having set their course for Bond,
they are now on a collision course with EACH OTHER...
IN THE GULLY BELOW
Bond meets up with Elektra as above them...
The two Paraskis collide, crashing into the snowy hill above
and tumbling down, end over end.
Bond and Elektra huddle together as shards and debris rain
down on them.
Then...silence. An eerie silence.
ELEKTRA
Are they gone? All of them?
Bond nods, ripping from his pole a PIECE OF THE PARACHUTE he
slashed and wiping his face with it...he looks at the piece
of fabric in his hand. He sees:
CYRILLIC LETTERS...undecipherable to us...but there is a look
on his face, a look of recognition as...
AN EARTH RATTLING RUMBLE grows above them.
Bond stuffs the parachute fragment in his ski-suit as he
turns...
The exploding Paraskis have triggered AN AVALANCHE on the
slope above.
EXT. MOUNTAINSIDE/AVALANCHE AREA - DAY
They try to outrun it -- riding the sliding hill -- but they
haven't a hope... the rest of the snow is catching them,
they're going to get swallowed.
EXT. MOUNTAINSIDE/AVALANCHE AREA - DAY
The ground shudders, the THUNDER CLOSING... Their ankles are
soon covered, Elektra falls. Bond stops, pulls her up.
They're about to die. He pulls her to him.
BOND
Hold on to me.
She's confused and frightened but does as she's told.
They hold one another tight as -- here it comes -- the white
fury hurtles over them, burying them... At the last moment,
just as their heads vanish from view...
CLOSE ON BOND PULLING THE Q GADGET ON THE JACKET.
The AIRBAG slams open. The snow covers it and them. More
and more snow slides over...
CUT TO:
INT. SNOW HOLE - MOMENTS LATER
Darkness. The RUMBLING CEASES...
Light emanates from Bond's watch. In the shadows he pulls a
knife, punctures the air bag. It deflates, leaving them
cocooned in an icy tomb. Elektra looks around, staring,
unbelieving.
ELEKTRA
Oh my God...we're buried alive...
BOND
We're alright.
But her breath is coming in short, irregular bursts.
ELEKTRA
I can't stay here.
BOND
You're not going to.
Bond takes a knife from a sheath around his ankle. Flicks
open the small blade. He starts to cut a hole in the snow
above their heads. She stops him.
ELEKTRA
No! It will cave in!
BOND
It's the only way out...
The snow CREAKS eerily, she gasps, terror mounting.
ELEKTRA
I can't breathe, I can't breathe...
Bond grabs her, holds her tight. She resists, bucks.
BOND
Elektra, look at me, look in my eyes!
(she does)
You're alright. Everything will be
alright. Trust me.
Finally, arrested by the strength in his eyes, she calms...
EXT. MOUNTAINS - MOMENTS LATER
A beautiful expanse of smooth virgin snow. All is quiet.
CLOSER
Bond's fist PUNCHES through the white. He pulls the snow
away, climbs out. Leans in, lifts Elektra out.
Bond and Elektra stand, lone figures in the perfect white.
They hear a sound...HELICOPTER ROTORS. Rescue on its way.
CUT TO:
EXT. ELEKTRA'S VILLA - DAY
An establishing shot of Bond's BMW parked outside the ornate
villa on the shore of the golden Caspian.
INT. ENTRANCE HALL, ELEKTRA'S VILLA - DAY
Palatial. Hallway dominated by a LARGE PAINTING of a bearded
man in traditional Turkish garb, sitting proudly on a horse.
Davidov, Gabor, waiting, pacing.
Bond is sits in a chair, ON EDGE, writing something over and
over on a small pad of paper...THE CYRILLIC LETTERS on the
parachute fragment.
A DOCTOR comes down the grand staircase. The men stand.
DOCTOR
She's fine. Contusions. A slight strain
to her ankle, but otherwise, fine.
(to Bond)
She wants to see you.
INT. ELEKTRA'S BEDROOM - SUNSET
Bond enters. Elektra is standing by the window watching the
golden ball of the sun sink into the sea. She wears nothing
but a silk embroidered robe; the sun shows through it,
outlining her naked body in soft, shadowy curves.
ELEKTRA
Are you alright?
He nods. He is wound tight, she senses it.
BOND
I can't stay.
ELEKTRA
I know.
A moment.
ELEKTRA
I need to ask you something. And I need
you to tell me the truth.
He waits.
ELEKTRA
Who is it? Who is trying to kill me?
Bond looks at her; vulnerable, fragile, trying to be strong.
He cannot tell her the truth.
BOND
I don't know. But I will find him.
She stares at him, sensing he is withholding something. She
turns back to the window.
He approaches behind her.
ELEKTRA
After the kidnapping...I was afraid to go
outside, to be alone, to be in a crowd,
to do anything at all, until I
realized...
(pause)
There's no point in living if you
can't...feel alive.
She looks out at the fading sun.
ELEKTRA
I can't huddle in the shadows. I can't
let fear run my life. I won't.
She turns to him.
ELEKTRA
The way I acted, in the snow...you must
think I'm a coward.
BOND
I think you're one of the bravest people
I've ever met.
She looks up at him, into his eyes; they are so close. All
she has to do is tilt her mouth upward...she kisses him. His
hands come up across her back, pressing her toward him, her
body melting into his, and then...
He pulls back. Has to physically step away from her.
ELEKTRA
What is it?
BOND
...you should rest.
That was exactly the wrong thing to say. He sees the
rebellion flair in her eyes.
ELEKTRA
James...
BOND
I have to go.
ELEKTRA
Then take me with you.
BOND
No. You'll be safe here.
ELEKTRA
I don't want to be safe!
BOND
I have to go to work.
He starts toward the door.
ELEKTRA
Now who's the coward?
He stops, his back up...then heads out the door.
IN THE HALLWAY
He passes Gabor, standing faithfully outside.
CUT TO:
EST. SHOT - EXT. CASINO NOIR D'OR, BAKU - NIGHT
Elegant, mysterious. A modern day Casablanca.
INT. CASINO NOIR D'OR, BAKU - NIGHT
Bond in evening dress in the sumptuous casino. He takes out
the Q glasses, slips them on, surveys the room --
HIS X-RAY POV
He can see all the WEAPONS carried by the players. All sizes
of pistol, even the odd grenade. The obvious side-effect of
this view -- he can see through clothes.
His eyes alight on two girls walking away from him. One of
them turns to look back, unaware that she is on display. She
returns Bond's smile. Her friend turns to look. Bond's
smile grows: she has a small pistol concealed over one
breast.
INT. CASINO NOIR D'OR, BAKU - NIGHT
He looks over the lenses -- and spies someone on the fringes.
His old adversary, ex-KGB, VALENTIN ZUKOVSKY, talking to some
suspicious types. Zukovsky looks across. Bond walks toward
him.
BOND
Valentin Zukovsky.
ZUKOVSKY
BondJamesBond. What brings you here?
BOND
You, of course. I need some information.
ZUKOVSKY
Bond, I'm a civilian. This is my place.
Used to be the royal family's, now it's
mine. I run my little business, I stay
out of trouble...
BOND
(looking about)
Mafia warlords, Diplomats and spies,
consortiums from every country in the
world. A nice little rat's nest.
ZUKOVSKY
(offering hors d'ouevres)
Have some of the rat's nest caviar. From
my own fishery. They buy my caviar,
drink my champagne, lose to my House.
He turns to a suspicious-looking Heavy.
ZUKOVSKY
Let me introduce you to a former
colleague of mine at the KGB. Dmitri
Palov, you may know him as...the Boa.
The Boa is completely bald, muscular; huge, deadly hands.
BOA
The great 007. For years I have dreamed
of closing my hands around your neck.
BOND
Boa. Have you had any therapy since
Perestroika?
ZUKOVSKY
Why am I suddenly worried I'm not
carrying enough insurance?
The Boa leaves, glaring all the while.
ZUKOVSKY
See? You're upsetting my customers.
What do you want?
BOND
How does a terrorist like Renard supply
his men with state-of-the-art Russian
Army weapons?
ZUKOVSKY
What? This is not possible.
Bond takes from his pocket the fragment of the PARACHUTE.
Zukovsky examines the letters.
BOND
If I remember my Cyrillic that says 101st
airborne division.
ZUKOVSKY
Where did you get this?
BOND
Off a high-powered Paraski that was
trying to kill me.
Zukovsky shakes his head. Sighs.
ZUKOVSKY
The Russian Army, they spend millions on
flying skis, but they cannot afford to
pay the soldiers. The men, they do what
they have to do to feed their families.
In this country, for the right price and
a pack of cigarettes, you can get
anything you want.
He notices Bond watching THE HOSTESS BAR...a dark alcove of
the casino, where slinky HOOKERS flatter the guests.
ZUKOVSKY
That too. Everyone does what they can to
survive.
BOND
How high up does this...arms dealing go?
ZUKOVSKY
Bond. If someone wants you dead, it is
Renard. Our government has nothing to
gain by killing you.
BOND
But you would have something to gain by
killing Robert King. And stopping his
pipeline.
This hits Zukovsky. He closes down. A chill between them.
ZUKOVSKY
Poor Bond. The cold war is over. What
have you got left? Economic espionage.
Murder in the boardroom. So dull.
Bond's eyes catch something, someone entering the casino.
HIS POV: ELEKTRA...more vibrant than we have ever seen her,
living up to her name. She is impossibly glamorous in a
sparkling dress that fits like second skin. Her hair is full
and tumbling, her eyes are fiery and wild.
BOND
Oh, you'd be surprised.
Bond starts toward her, but she tosses her head, defiant, and
turns away, making her way to the Roulette tables.
Bond follows her across the casino. They are like two cats,
moving through this neon jungle, their energy dangerous and
sexy, all eyes on them. He takes note as she passes...MINIMUM
$100, then $500, $1000...
She finally stops at the 'No limit' table. Crowded with the
nastiest and richest of the high rollers, Armenians, Turks,
South Americans, a computer nerd American and a Russian
industrialist's wife, heavy with jewelry and drink.
ZUKOVSKY is suddenly there, pulling out a seat for her in the
center.
ZUKOVSKY
We've kept your father's chair free.
ELEKTRA
And his account?
ZUKOVSKY
You have a credit line of a million and a
half.
He gestures to the Dealer, who pushes ten towering stacks of
CHIPS toward her. A WAITRESS is right there to take her
order.
ELEKTRA
Vodka martini.
BOND
Two. Shaken not stirred.
He leans in, smiling his charming smile as he says:
BOND
What the hell are you doing here?
ELEKTRA
(smiling right back)
Someone wants to kill me, I'd rather die
looking him straight in the eye.
(lightly)
What are you doing here? Looking for a
woman a little more your type? How about
that one?
She points to a SHOW GIRL in a feather headdress and pasties.
BOND
If this little show is for my benefit,
I'll take you home right now.
ELEKTRA
You had your chance, James. Now I'm
looking for a bigger thrill.
She pushes half her chips back onto the table, letting them
stand on her bet. The whole table exhales. Then, it starts:
bets are placed, gamblers energized by her arrival.
Bond scans the room, vigilant, nervous...
HIS P.O.V. He zeroes in on Davidov, sidling off, away from
the table, trying to look nonchalant, his eyes shifting this
way and that...he looks suspicious as hell.
Bond watches, his blood running, and then...
Davidov slips into the HOSTESS BAR. A HOOKER is soon
wrapping herself around him. After a few words, she leads him
off toward the back.
Bond returns to the game, shaking his head. He watches as
THE DEALER DEALS FROM THE SHOE.
CUT TO:
INT. SALON PRIV� - NIGHT
A small room. Lit by sconces that sport LIVE FLAMES. Tacky-
luxurious, a refracted Eastern reflection on an old west
whore house.
Davidov undresses in the little bathroom alcove. He faces a
small ornate mirror over the sink, in which he can see THE
HOOKER behind him, on the bed.
HOOKER
You want to be...on top, or not on top?
DAVIDOV
On top.
She slowly pulls a pair of SILK ROPES out from her bra and
DANGLES THEM.
HOOKER
Tied up, or not tied up?
Davidov smiles, struggling with his belt. He looks down,
gets it, looks up...his heart stops...it is not the hooker in
the mirror but...
RENARD'S FRIGHTENING FACE.
Davidov spins.
HIS P.O.V. Renard's henchman stands by the door, an
automatic rifle cocked at Davidov.
RENARD
Dead, or not dead?
CUT TO:
INT. CASINO - THE BLACK JACK TABLE
Elektra with black king showing. A seven beneath.
BOND
I understand it's normally good practice
to get the feel of the cards before going
off the deep end.
ELEKTRA
Really?
And with a smile she scratches her cards on the table for a
hit. The Dealer gives her an eight. She reveals her cards.
DEALER
Bust.
He rakes in her chips. But Elektra is undeterred. She pushes
another pile forward as the next deal commences.
ELEKTRA
I like the deep end, James.
CUT TO:
INT. SALON PRIVE
The HENCHMAN holds Davidov against the wall with his huge
fist around his neck. Near his head, the live flame of a
SCONCE hisses, burning blue and yellow, drawing their fuel
from the glass basin of hot oil attached beneath it.
The HOOKER, obviously one of Renard's gang, has finished
donning her khaki pants and combat boots and straps a gun
onto her shoulder.
Renard looks distastefully at the room.
RENARD
Is this how you spend the money I pay
you? And with the rest you hire fools who
shoot like blind men?
DAVIDOV
(croaks out)
Bond...
RENARD
Should be dead as well. Your failure
today is astonishing. It is a disgrace.
He approaches close to him, stopping at the flaming SCONCE
near his head.
RENARD
Do you know why the color is blue at the
wick?
Davidov starts to sweat.
RENARD
Because that is where the flame is the
hottest.
Renard touches the glass well of oil.
RENARD
The temperature is close to five hundred
degrees.
Renard uses his knife and POPS the seal from the lamp,
removing the well of oil...a DROP of the hot oil FALLS ON HIS
HAND and SINGES IT BLACK in an instant...
Renard does not even flinch. Davidov starts talking, trying
to placate...
DAVIDOV
The plane...it's all been arranged...
RENARD
Then you are completely unnecessary...
Renard raises the container of oil over Davidov's head:
DAVIDOV
I have the documents, the landing
authorizations, the security passes...
Renard stops, the oil tilted, just ready to pour...
His dead eye...has it drooped further since we last saw
him?...seems to glitter in the light...
RENARD
Bond is suspicious. We are moving sooner,
tonight. We understand each other?
DAVIDOV
Yes...yes...
Renard lets a TRICKLE OF OIL drop onto Davidov's head...
HE SCREAMS as his hair smokes and singes...
Renard makes a motion, the THUG releases Davidov, who falls
to the floor, clutching his head.
CUT TO:
INT. CASINO - THE BLACK JACK TABLE
Another deal. ZUKOVSKY and others watch, as Elektra stakes
even more. People move closer for a view. The Dealer shows
a five. Elektra shows Bond her cards.
Elektra is holding two eights. Dealer's up-card is a six.
BOND
Stand or split them.
She smiles. He holds her gaze.
ELEKTRA
Surely you believe in living dangerously.
BOND
Not at that price. Time to surrender.
They eye one another a long while -- sex firmly in the air.
She smiles. She moves ALL HER CHIPS forward.
Bond catches a look between the Dealer and Zukovsky:
DEALER
The House has no limit.
General kerfuffle. Bond looks back toward THE HOSTESS
BAR...no sign of Davidov's return...
ELEKTRA
(to Dealer)
Hit me.
The Dealer scoops a card from the shoe. Tension. Everyone
holds their breath...as he turns over... -- a six. Bust.
The audience inhale as one AS THE DEALER TAKES ALL HER CHIPS
AWAY.
Elektra stands. She has dignity in defeat. She turns to
Bond, holding out a hand.
ELEKTRA
Time to surrender.
EXT. CASINO - NIGHT
Bond, Elektra, Gabor outside, Davidov soon joining them,
trying to look like he hasn't been through hell. Bond
notices the burn on his head. Davidov touches it self-
consciously.
DAVIDOV
A little accident.
BOND
A night of burning passion?
Davidov scowls at him. Bond leads Elektra away...
CUT TO:
A DISTANT P.O.V. FROM HIGH ABOVE.
Someone watches Bond and Elektra move toward his BMW.
HENCHMAN (V.O.)
What about Bond?
EXT. CASINO ROOF
RENARD and his henchmen, watching. Renard seems mesmerized by
the sight of Bond's HAND on the small of Elektra's back,
their easy sensuality as they both get into the car.
HENCHMAN
Sir? Sir?
RENARD
(seething)
I will take care of Mister Bond.
CUT TO:
EXT. ELEKTRA'S VILLA - NIGHT
Bond and Elektra emerge from the BMW. Behind them, Gabor and
Davidov get out of her car. Bond watches as Davidov slams his
door and marches off, angry, toward the SECURITY QUARTERS at
the side of the house.
Bond and Elektra walk to the front door, anticipation thick
in the air. Gabor opens the door. Elektra sweeps through...
INT. ENTRANCE HALL, ELEKTRA'S VILLA - NIGHT
Bond pauses just inside the open doorway.
HIS P.O.V. Two figures in the cavernous entrance hall,
Elektra having a brief word with Gabor, before he turns and
exits, leaving only...
ELEKTRA AND BOND.
She starts upstairs, Bond's eyes locked on her body, and
then:
SHE LOOKS BACK...just once. But it says everything. She
continues upward.
Bond taps the front door closed with his foot.
INT. BEDROOM, ELEKTRA'S VILLA - NIGHT
Half-light. They're entwined between the sheets. This is
something slow, languorous, not to be rushed. We can't make
out the mechanics, but they're beaded with sweat.
Her fingers trace the contours of his torso. Linger on his
bruised collar-bone.
ELEKTRA
You knew when you first saw me. You knew
it would be like this.
BOND
Shush.
Her hand dips in an ice bucket beside the bed. She rubs a
slither of ice down her chest, shudders with pleasure. It's
a move Bond hasn't seen before.
Now she brings the ice to his shoulder.
ELEKTRA
Poor shoulder. Looks painful...
She kisses his purple flesh. Licks.
BOND
...needs constant attention...
She slides her tongue back and fore along the groove above
the tendon. And he pulls the ice from her hand:
BOND
Enough ice for one day.
Tosses it across the room as passion takes over...
INT. BEDROOM, ELEKTRA'S VILLA - LATER
A puddle of water where the ice fell.
Post-sex on the bed. He traces a hand down her naked back.
The sweat glistens off the curve of her spine. She turns.
The light glints off her jewelled earlobe...he touches it.
BOND
You never take this off?
Elektra looks at him.
ELEKTRA
Why do men always want to undress the one
part of a woman's body she doesn't want
to reveal?
She reaches to the large, diamond-encrusted earring and
gently plucks it away. Pulls her lush hair back...
The lower half of her ear is gone, reduced to a misshapen
clump of scar tissue. It is the only mark on her perfect
body. A physical reminder of her ordeal. It breaks his heart.
BOND
How did you survive?
ELEKTRA
I used my body on the guards. It gave me
control. I got to a gun and I took my
chance.
(beat)
I've never told anyone that.
They are looking at each other, both suddenly feeling
something dangerously close to real connection. It is not
what Bond expected.
ELEKTRA
Do you ever stop, James? Do you ever
think about...another kind of life?
He holds her gaze for a long time before he looks away.
BOND
I can't afford to.
She frowns, slightly. Settles into his chest.
ELEKTRA
Don't worry. I know who you are.
He holds her, eyes full of conflict, staring into the dark.
EXT. VILLA - NIGHT - LATER
The lights of a car pulling up at the security office by the
perimeter wall of the property.
EXT. SECURITY QUARTERS - SAME
Bond's car, several of Elektra's vehicles, all parked around
the security office. They have been joined by:
A WHITE ECONOMY CAR, a Russian make, with a familiar SEAL
painted on the door...we've seen it before, the seal on top
of the stolen report at the beginning...Miratom.
Out of the driver's seat steps...DAVIDOV. He carries a
briefcase from the car to the front door of the security
office. He looks around furtively before he disappears
inside.
The parking area is dark and silent and then:
JAMES BOND sits up in the driver's seat of his BMW.
INT. BMW - SAME
Bond sticks his key in the ignition and activates the car's
various systems.
HIS P.O.V. Davidov is a shadow in the office window.
Bond flicks a switch. A NEEDLE-THIN BEAM is directed from
the BMW to the window of the office. He can HEAR a synthesis
of Davidov's voice...
DAVIDOV (V.O.)
I'm running late...no, no, I'll make
it...how will they know I'm your
man?...romashka...romashka...alright.
Bond hears the click of a phone hanging up. He flicks
another switch in his car, an infra-red tracking system
activates in his WINDSCREEN...
He can now see Davidov perfectly as he comes out of the
security quarters, carrying a briefcase and a large DUFFLE
BAG which he carries to the car and loads into the TRUNK.
He goes back inside.
BOND gets out of the BMW. He moves stealthily to the Russian
vehicle and, using the laser beam on his watch, opens the
lock on the trunk. It pops open.
Bond sees the briefcase, and the dufflebag, and...SOMETHING
ELSE...something beneath them...he moves the objects aside:
A MAN is folded into the back of the trunk, his head slumped
forward, dark hair on the back of his head slightly wet
...blood? Bond tips the head back, revealing GLASSY DEAD
EYES.
Bond leans in and plucks a BADGE from his white shirt pocket.
It has a photo of the dead man and reads, in English and
Cyrillic: LEONID TASHKA - FIELD INSPECTOR. On the corner of
the badge...THE RUSSIAN SEAL...Miratom. The one from the
report. Bond touches it with his thumb, recognizing it.
AT THE OFFICE
Davidov is coming out...
Bond LOWERS THE TRUNK DOOR and crouches behind the car.
AT THE OFFICE ENTRANCE
Davidov pauses to lock the door. He walks toward the Russian
car...he is actually WHISTLING a happy tune and then...
HE STOPS. He has heard something. He draws his gun. He walks
AROUND the entire car. When he gets to the rear...
THE TRUNK IS CLOSED. Bond is not there. No evidence he ever
was.
Davidov gets in the driver's seat and starts the car.
CUT TO:
EXT. AIR STRIP - NIGHT
The Russian car drives onto the grounds of a small, deserted
AIRPORT consisting of one outbuilding and a crudely cleared
airstrip.
INT. CAR
Davidov pulls off the road and parks his car in a wooded
area.
EXT. CAR
Davidov's feet crunch in the dirt as he walks to the back and
opens the trunk.
He removes the briefcase. Then the duffle bag. He looks
down at the dead body, head slumped forward, as before...but
something is different, the clothes not quite right and then:
THE DEAD BODY MOVES, the head turns, Davidov gasps...
It IS JAMES BOND.
BOND
Problem, comrade?
Davidov pulls his HAND GUN from inside his coat, but Bond is
quicker. With a silenced pistol he shoots Davidov in the
head. One little red hole forms in his forehead as his eyes
go wide and he crumbles, dead.
Bond climbs out of the trunk. Crouches to examine Davidov.
BOND
Old habits die hard.
He straightens. Picks up the briefcase. It is locked. He
searches Davidov and finds a set of keys in his pocket. He
opens the lock.
INSIDE THE BRIEFCASE: FOUR STACKS OF MONEY. Documents
headed with the official crest of Miratom. A new security
tag, it looks just like the dead guy's, but has Davidov's
name and picture...some hologrammed (blank) security tags --
and a polaroid-type camera.
He picks up a blank security tag and inserts it in the
camera. Points at himself, takes a shot. Punches in
'Davidov' on the KEYPAD. Out comes a brand new pass.
Bond goes to look in the dufflebag but...
A PLANE is approaching...HE LOOKS UP.
HIS P.O.V. A Russian military jet appears over the trees,
flying low, its red landing lights blinking.
EXT. AIRSTRIP - NIGHT
A door opens on the sinister-looking plane. A hydraulic step
unit folds out of it. A BIG SOLDIER with a machine gun waits
in the doorway.
BOND, standing at the edge of the runway, clips on his badge
and picks up the briefcase. He has NO IDEA what he's walking
into.
BOND
Here goes nothing.
He hoists the dufflebag over his shoulder and walks out to
the plane. He starts up the steps:
THE SOLDIER POINTS HIS GUN DOWN AT HIM. Says something to him
IN RUSSIAN.
Bond pauses. And then, thinking, says:
BOND
Romashka.
The soldier looks at him, then lowers his weapon.
INT. PLANE
Four soldiers. The first guy and a moustachioed PILOT and two
young men, a nasty-looking private, cadaverously thin, and a
big, thick-necked tough.
They all look at Bond, expectantly, waiting for him to say or
do...what? He decides to take the lead. He opens the
briefcase and hands over the STACKS OF MONEY.
The Pilot passes it out. But that isn't the end. They still
stare at him. The Pilot says something IN RUSSIAN that
sounds like..."where's the rest?"
Bond swallows. Thinks, without showing it. He decides to
OPEN THE DUFFLE BAG. He looks inside. Pauses, then reaches
in and takes out...A BOX OF NIKE SHOES.
The thin soldier smiles. That's the ticket. Bond hands out
shoes to the rest of the guys.
CUT TO:
EXT. TEST FACILITY - KAZAKHSTAN - DAWN
A red dawn. Dominating the landscape, a valley of weirdly-
shaped rocks. To one side, an airstrip. The plane
approaching.
INT. PLANE - LANDING
The three soldiers wear their new shoes and smoke and chat
amongst themselves.
Bond sits in the rear of the plane, which is dominated by
heavily buffered receptacles, clearly awaiting some deadly
cargo. There is Russian writing everywhere, and one symbol he
clearly recognizes: DANGER - RADIOACTIVE.
Bond looks out of the window. Beneath a huge MESA, a huddle
of low buildings.
They come to a stop near the end of the runway. A SMALL JEEP
is driving out to them.
One of the soldiers throws something to Bond. An ORANGE
JUMPSUIT that says Miratom on the breast. He catches it.
PILOT
(subtitles)
You have fifteen minutes.
EXT. AIRSTRIP/VALLEY/TEST FACILITY - KAZAKHSTAN - DAWN
Bond, in the orange overalls and wearing his ID tag, is
driving with a Russian soldier through the weird rock valley -
-
KABOOM!
A cloud of dust from a detonation rises up on the other side
of the hill.
EXT. TEST FACILITY - KAZAKHSTAN - DAY
They turn the corner and see trucks marked IDA, several
Kazakhstan army personal carriers, soldiers dotted around,
IDA (International Decommissioning Agency) scientists and
personnel quietly going about their business. A vast
protective 'bubble' is inflated at the front of the building.
INT. 'BUBBLE' - TEST FACILITY - KAZAKHSTAN - DAY
(CHRISTMAS JONES') POV:
The sound of breathing LOUD, we're looking from inside the
visor of a protective suit. It's hard to tell what's going
on, but our hands are removing a sphere of cobalt blue
plutonium from inside a corroding WARHEAD...
EXT. FACILITY - SAME
An officer eyes Bond's pass.
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH
(subtitles)
You are late. The transport documents?
Bond shows him the case. Akakievich examines the documents.
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH
(subtitles)
They are waiting for you below. It
should be ready. Check with the IDA
physicist.
He points toward the "bubble."
Inside the transparent bubble, a protective-suited FIGURE
finishes placing a blue PLUTONIUM CORE into a box.
As Bond and the Colonel walks toward the bubble, the FIGURE
steps out, still enveloped in the white protective suit.
Moving fast, off comes the helmet to reveal a BEAUTIFUL
AMERICAN GIRL. CHRISTMAS JONES is mid-twenties, shortish
hair, hot right now. In one movement she unzips and steps
out of the suit, revealing a khaki sports bra, cut-off
shorts, heavy duty boots. A nasty-looking hunting knife
strapped around her hips. She has a deep tan and an
incredible figure.
She grabs a bottle of water, guzzles.
Bond tosses an arched brow to Akakievich, who nods bitterly,
also unable to take his eyes off her. He spits on the floor
and speaks in ENGLISH, so Christmas can hear.
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH
Not interested in men. Take my word for
it.
Akakievich isn't exactly what you'd call a looker. Bond
offers a disappointed tut as Akakievich walks away.
Christmas approaches. He notices her IDA tag -- and an
incongruous PEACE TATTOO just above her hip. She's checking
him out as well.
CHRISTMAS
You new?
BOND
(Russian accent)
Yes. Viktor Davidov, Miss...?
CHRISTMAS
Doctor. Jones. Christmas Jones.
No jokes, I've heard them all.
BOND
Don't know any doctor jokes.
She is wary. It's been a long time since a man this
attractive stepped onto her beat. They walk toward the
building.
CHRISTMAS
What happened to Len Tashka?
BOND
Couldn't make it. Splitting headache.
CHRISTMAS
The soldiers may give you a hard time.
Whatever. If we weren't around, they'd
have their whole nuclear arsenal lying by
the roadsides, rotting in the sun.
Bond looks at the ominous radiation WARNING SIGNS.
BOND
Will I need protection?
She squints at him, taken aback.
CHRISTMAS
There's no radiation danger down there.
Bond turns to go, knowing he misstepped. Christmas then
speaks to him, asking a question, IN RUSSIAN.
CHRISTMAS
(subtitles)
Where is this stockpile going?
Bond turns, answers IN PERFECT RUSSIAN.
BOND
(subtitles)
To the nuclear facility at Penza 19.
She nods. Watches him disappear into the building.
INT. TEST CHAMBER MAIN ELEVATOR - MOMENTS LATER
Bond descends, going down deep.
INT. TEST CHAMBER ELEVATOR/CORRIDOR - LATER
The elevator creaks to a halt. He slides the elevator doors
OPEN revealing...
TWO SOLDIERS waiting for the elevator. Bond shows them his
ID.
SOLDIER
(subtitles)
See the corporal, at the end of the
chamber.
The soldiers get into the elevator and disappear, leaving
Bond completely ALONE.
Dead silence in the shadows. Bond's in his element, that
alert glint in his eye as he takes in his surroundings.
HIS P.O.V. A long, dark corridor...leading off to a more
open circle in the distance, lights and an ominous humming
there.
Bond starts down the passageway.
INT. TEST CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
Ahead of Bond, like a deadly spider at the centre of a web, a
NUCLEAR BOMB suspended over a pit.
Blast openings range around to channel its fury to measuring
equipment.
Bond is alone with the bomb. An eerie moment. Then, he comes
to notice a figure, across the expanse of the pit, on the
opposite side of the catwalk, a man, with his back to him, in
Russian Army fatigues.
BOND
Corporal?
The man turns...
IT IS RENARD.
He smiles.
RENARD
I see my friend Davidov ran into some
difficulty.
BOND
Indeed.
Renard starts toward him. Bond draws his gun.
BOND
Don't come any closer.
MAN
You can't kill me. I'm already dead.
He and Bond face off, the malevolent bomb between them, a
ROBOT DEVICE beginning to lower it into the pit.
RENARD
Go ahead. Shoot. My men will still
steal the bomb, and the shot will bring
them directly to you.
Renard gestures into the pit.
BOND'S P.O.V. TWO OF RENARD'S MEN in the pit, unaware of
what is happening above, working directly with the bomb. One
of them is using a manual...IT IS JUST LIKE THE STOLEN
REPORT, the Miratom seal in the corner.
Bond aims his gun at Renard's head.
BOND
Who's paying you to destroy the pipeline?
Renard resumes walking, around the catwalk at the edge of the
pit, toward Bond, slowly, surely, totally fearless.
RENARD
To die by a man who can't even grasp what
he's caught up in...
Bond, out of the corner of his eye, sees Renard's man remove
a SMALL DEVICE from inside the bomb. It is the size and
shape of a credit card, black, with shiny transistors on
it...the man slips it into his pocket.
BOND
Revenge isn't so hard to fathom. What's
clever is getting someone else to pay for
it.
RENARD
Not many people in this world have that
kind of fortune.
Bond cocks the pistol.
BOND
Who is it?
RENARD
You think I fear death? I welcome it. I
get on my knees and pray for it. You, on
the other hand, you have something to
live for, no?
(closer now)
She's beautiful isn't she? You should
have seen her before. Flawless, and still
so innocent, not such a whore in bed...
Bond's eyes flare in fury. He shoves Renard into the wall
and presses the gun to his temple.
BOND
You will never touch her. You will never
get near her.
RENARD
Have you forgotten who saved your life in
Geneva?
BOND
Consider me ungrateful.
RENARD
It's I who should thank you -- for taking
that money back to MI-6. So distressing
for M. An explosion inside her lair.
BOND
She'll get over it.
RENARD
You even brought the plane for us. We
really couldn't have done it without you.
Bond strikes him across the temple with his pistol. Renard
drops to his knees. He touches his temple, looks at the
blood curiously, feeling no pain.
RENARD
A man tires of being executed.
As Bond screws a silencer onto the muzzle of his gun:
RENARD
But then again...There is no point in
living if you can't...feel alive.
Bond knows that, he's heard it somewhere before...IT FREEZES
HIM, just a beat, but it is enough...
SUDDENLY, the noise of footsteps -- CHRISTMAS JONES, with
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH and two armed soldiers.
We're with them as they turn the corner of the passageway and
see Bond with silenced pistol aimed at the kneeling Renard --
classic execution stance:
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH
(to Bond)
Drop your gun.
BOND
Keep away, Colonel.
The soldiers' guns are trained on Bond.
CHRISTMAS
He is an impostor.
(clutching a printout)
There's no Davidov at Miratom.
BOND
Here's your imposter. He's paid off the
men on the plane outside. They're not
taking the bomb to any Russian facility,
they're flying it wherever he tells them.
Christmas is listening, but Akakievich cocks his rifle.
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH
(to Bond)
I said drop it.
And he means business. Bond delays ... but has no choice.
He pulls the clip from his gun, tosses it down.
RENARD
(to Christmas)
Well done -- he would have killed us all.
I suppose you
(to Akakievich)
were you the one who allowed him down?
Colonel Akakievich looks suitably stung. But Renard is
looking past him now, as with a quiet WHIRR, the BOMB raises
into view on a trolley. Renard's team is ready to move.
RENARD
(to Akakievich)
Take him away, I don't want him around as
we move the bomb.
(whispered, to Bond)
You had me. I knew you couldn't shoulder
the responsibility...
And Renard jams his hand onto Bond's shoulder, squeezing his
collar-bone hard... Pain jolts through Bond, he drops to his
knees in agony. He shoves Bond down. Bond's hand goes to his
shoulder, his mind now racing -- how did he know to hurt him
there?
Renard's men start to maneuver the bomb toward the curving
passageway. It's all too much for Colonel Akakievich:
COLONEL AKAKIEVICH
No -- the bomb does not go anywhere until
I am satisfied. All of you to the
surface, now...
Renard stops and turns. Bond sees him nod to two of his men:
one quietly slopes off down the tunnel. The other innocently
opens a container...
INT. CONTAINER
Camera shows the INSIDE of the container's lid; the man
releases a false lining to reveal several MACHINE GUNS...
INT. TEST CHAMBER - DAY
RENARD
(urgent now)
Very well, Colonel. We will all go up.
One of Colonel Akakievich's men gestures with his gun that
Bond should get up. Knowing it's now or never, Bond PUSHES
him away, yanks a PISTOL from his holster, GRABS Christmas,
LEAPS down into the bomb PIT just as
RENARD'S MEN open fire... Akakievich dies straight away. So
do two of his men. The gunfire RICOCHETS around the chamber
and ceases.
Renard hangs back. His radio crackles a message:
RENARD
(nods, into radio)
Shut them.
THE GUY ON THE OTHER END OF THE RADIO
Right next to the ELEVATOR. He turns a switch that activates
two sets of red buttons and two sets of green.
He punches one green button...
INSIDE TEST CHAMBER
Heavy doors close all exits but that to the tunnel.
INT. THE PIT
Bond and Christmas know they are being sealed in.
CHRISTMAS
Melt-down doors. If he gets them closed,
they won't be opened again for forty-
eight years.
Bond peers over the edge -- sees Renard and his men working
the nuclear device into THE PASSAGEWAY.
INT. THE PIT
If Bond doesn't get through now, they're trapped forever. He
points his wrist watch toward the cat walk above and presses
a button...THE TINY GRAPPLING HOOK shoots out, Q's super
filament wire that can hold up to 800 pounds is
attached...Bond uses the rope to RAPPEL UP THE SIDES OF THE
PIT and into
INT. TEST CHAMBER
Where he LEAPS ON TOP OF Renard's last man. They fall
THROUGH THE IRIS, it SHUTS behind them. The man swings his
machine gun at Bond -- it hits the wall next to him, breaks
apart. Bond grabs a broken section and kills him with one
strike.
He pauses at his dead body and reaches into his jacket,
retrieving...THE CARD-LIKE DEVICE.
INT. PIT
Christmas looks around, desperate to help. Using Bond's
wire, she climbs up to the CLOSED IRIS DOOR. She pries open
a panel next to it and reveals complex WIRING...
INT. PASSAGEWAY
Up ahead of Bond, the bomb disappears down the passageway. He
can see it is attached to A PULLEY above, helping the men to
move quickly, Renard, pulling, the two men pushing
Renard signals one of them to drop back to cut off Bond...
Machine-gun fire turns the wall next to Bond to dust -- Bond
dives to a recess. An overhead LIGHT SHATTERS. His section
of the tunnel darkens.
INT. PASSAGEWAY - BOND'S END
Bond looks up at the broken LIGHT. Takes careful aim at the
next one along. BLAM. It disintegrates. Again...
INT. PASSAGEWAY - RENARD'S END
The other guy answers with another spray of bullets. Watches
uneasily as Bond takes out light after light. A funnel of
darkness coming to swallow him -- concealing Bond's approach.
Nervous, he fires, muzzle flash and sparks illuminating the
void. To keep it lit, he keeps firing...
INT. PASSAGEWAY
WITH BOND as the bullets cease with a loud CLICK... What
Bond was waiting for. He moves. The gunman frozen in the
light, grappling to fit another clip --
BLAM! He goes down. Bond not wasting bullets.
INT. OTHER END OF PASSAGEWAY
Renard is loading the bomb it into the ELEVATOR. He flicks a
switch on the panel by the elevator. The IRIS starts closing
on Bond...
INT. PASSAGEWAY
Bond rushes for the door -- but he's shocked as the man he
shot lunges. Clings to him.
Bond hits him away, he LEAPS for the cart blocking his way
and SHOVES IT INTO THE IRIS DOOR just as it almost closes...
Bond squeezes through...
INT. OTHER SIDE OF IRIS
Renard is getting in the ELEVATOR. Sees Bond made it, fires.
Bond rolls into a corner.
RENARD
We have our fireworks. Now you can have
yours.
And he machine-guns some barrels. Rocket fuel spills out.
He digs a finger into one of the holes, effortlessly rips the
metal so more fuel cascades out.
CUT TO:
INT. CATWALK ABOVE PIT
Christmas cuts some wires together and with a hum, her IRIS
DOOR OPENS...
AT THE ELEVATOR
Bond fires at Renard, hitting his shin...
WITH RENARD
looking down at his shin, noticing the blood. Inconvenienced
but not in pain. He shuts the cage doors. Pauses only to
fire off half a clip at the SWITCH PANEL. Shreds it.
Bond leaps to his feet, racing forward, firing -- gets to the
elevator as Renard disappears upwards with a smile. He POINTS
DOWN...underneath him...
Bond looks down.
HIS P.O.V. BENEATH THE ELEVATOR...A makeshift explosive
device...sticks of dynamite wrapped around a detonator, set
to explode
Eyes wide, Bond looks back to the doors -- then to the switch
panel -- now just a chaos of sparking wires.
INT. LIFT SHAFT
The pipe bomb ticking...
INT. PASSAGEWAY BY ELEVATOR
Bond is trapped. He looks up...
THE PULLEY HOOK HANGS DOWN...
He jumps up, grabbing it, just as...
KABOOM!
The bomb ignites the spilled oil, A FIREBALL shoots along,
scorching after Bond, who is SAILING THROUGH THE PASSAGE WAY,
the force of the blast sending him hurling down the
passageway ON THE PULLEY...heading straight for:
A CLOSED IRIS DOOR which miraculously begins to OPEN as he
SHOOTS THROUGH...
Ahead, the next door is OPEN as well. He sees CHRISTMAS on
the other side...
HER P.O.V. Bond hurtling toward her, ahead of a MASSIVE
FIREBALL...
BOND
Close the door! Close the door!
But before she can, two of the FUEL BARRELS HURTLE through
the closing iris, clattering into the pit, starting a fire
below.
Flames licking up the sides of the pit toward them.
Bond looks up, sees the ARM OF THE ROBOT LIFTER, stretching
upward toward an old SHAFT t the top of the ceiling...
He and Christmas scramble up the robot arm, walk along the
spider-like web that supported the bomb and find...
AN OLD ELEVATOR...powered by a hydraulic system...
They get in...hear the rumbling of the fire below...the old
elevator moves slowly...the rumbling grows louder...
BOND
Shame you had to spot I wasn't the real
thing.
CHRISTMAS
So who are you?
BOND
Bond --
Bond FIRES HIS GUN at the hissing hydraulic pulleys and...
THE ELEVATOR shoots through the shaft at breakneck speed as
BELOW THEM...THE PIT EXPLODES...
INT. ELEVATOR
Fire shoots up. Bond lunges to cover Christmas. As the smoke
clears:
BOND
(finishing)
James Bond.
CUT TO:
EXT. MESA - TEST FACILITY - KAZAKHSTAN - CONTINUOUS
Christmas and Bond climb out of the duct. Through a cloud of
dust he can see people running about, panicked. There's been
some shooting -- fresh corpses litter the ground.
Bond looks past them to a plane coming this way. The plane.
It roars past, level with them. He follows it with his eyes,
helpless as it gets smaller and smaller...
CHRISTMAS
They won't get far. Every warhead has a
locator card. A Miratom device. Emits a
high-pitched signal on Russian emergency
frequencies. We can track the bomb.
BOND
With this?
Bond removes the locator card from his jacket and shows it to
her. It flashes in the sun.
Christmas shakes her head, disgusted.
OMITTED 170 - 172
DISSOLVE:
INT. BRIEFING ROOM, CASTLE THANE (MI-6 HQ) - DAY
Busy. Analysts huddle over monitors showing satellite
images, trying to track the plane.
M
Do we have the range of Renard's plane?
TANNER
Anywhere in this circle. Iran, Iraq,
Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan...
M
Marvellous.
Moneypenny enters...
MONEYPENNY
Elektra King is calling from Baku.
M is surprised.
MONEYPENNY
It's a video line.
M
Put her on the wide screen.
The face of ELEKTRA materializes on a large WALL MONITOR.
ELEKTRA
I'm sorry. I would never call you
except...Bond's disappeared. He...he left
my villa, some time in the middle of the
night and...
M exchanges a look with Tanner.
ELEKTRA
My head of security has been found near a
local airstrip, murdered...
M leans on the console in front of her.
M
I'll send someone out.
ELEKTRA
Could...could you come?
M looks up.
ELEKTRA, on the monitor, looks about as lost as she ever has.
ELEKTRA
I just can't help thinking...I'm next.
M stares at the girl's face, her whole sordid history written
there. M turns away from the screen and says to Tanner...
M
Get me out there.
OMITTED:174 - 201
EXT. ELEKTRA'S VILLA, BAKU - STORM APPROACHING
Elektra's villa against blue-black storm clouds, the Caspian
choppy, wind blowing.
INT. ELEKTRA'S VILLA - BAKU - DAY
Elektra works in her father's STUDY, illuminated by a halo of
light from a single desk lamp. Pictures of her grandfather
and father stare down at her from the walls. The wind BLOWS A
WINDOW open.
She gets up, crosses the room, shutting the window. She
stands there, listening to the silence and then...
SHE HEARS A THUD. A strange, unsettling thud.
She listens, a long time, to the silence.
ELEKTRA
Gabor...?
She goes to the door, opens it...it whines on its hinges.
She steps into...
INT. LIBRARY
A big room lined with books. Three french doors lead out to a
balcony. She walks a few paces in...
THE DOOR SHUTS BEHIND HER, she whirls...
GABOR, propped up behind the door, stares, wide-eyed, before
he FALLS TO THE FLOOR.
Elektra gasps, she turns again...
A DARK FIGURE LOOMS, a shadow against the windows. He moves
forward, his face becoming visible...IT'S BOND.
ELEKTRA
James!
She stares at him, shocked, hesitant.
BOND
You look surprised.
She moves to Gabor, gets down to help him. He stirs, he is
alive, but unconscious. Elektra looks up at Bond.
ELEKTRA
What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?
BOND
A little. Does it matter? After all,
what's the point of living if you can't
feel alive? Isn't that right, Elektra?
Isn't that your motto?
ELEKTRA
What are you talking about?
BOND
Or did you steal it from your old friend
Renard?
ELEKTRA
...what?
BOND
We had a run-in, he and I. He knew about
us, he knew about my shoulder, he knew
exactly where to hurt me...
Elektra stands...she begins to tremble.
ELEKTRA
Are you saying...Renard is the man who's
trying to kill me?
BOND
You can drop the act, it's over.
ELEKTRA
I don't know what you're talking about!
BOND
I think you do.
He walks toward her, threatening...
BOND
At MI-6 we call it Stockholm Syndrome.
It's common in kidnappings. A young
impressionable victim. Sheltered,
sexually inexperienced. A powerful
kidnapper skilled in torture, in
manipulation. Something snaps in the
victim's mind. The captive falls in love
with her captor.
At the word "love," Elektra explodes. She SLAPS an
unsuspecting Bond hard across the face.
ELEKTRA
How dare you! How dare you! That
animal!? That monster!? He disgusts me!
You disgust me! So he knew where to hurt
you, is that it? You had a sling on your
arm at the funeral! I didn't have to
sleep with you to find that out.
BOND
He used your exact words.
ELEKTRA
You knew. You knew all the time, that he
was out there, that he was coming for me,
and you lied. You used me, you used me as
bait. You made love to me -- what, to
pass the time as you waited for him to
strike?
He has no answer. He can't deny what she says.
The phone rings, cuts through the tension. Bond and Elektra
staring at one another. She lets it ring... Then picks up.
Listens, looks to Bond.
ELEKTRA
He's struck again.
(beat)
Five men are dead at the pipeline.
He moves toward her.
BOND
I'm coming with you.
ELEKTRA
You do what you have to do, but I've
called in M. She's en route from London
even now.
CUT TO:
EXT. PIPELINE CONTROL CENTER, TURKEY - DAY
The MI-6 chopper lands. We can see M through the window.
Face set hard.
EXT. PIPELINE CONTROL CENTER, TURKEY - MOMENTS LATER
SCIENTIFIC, MILITARY and TURKISH POLICE VEHICLES parked
around a medium-sized industrial plant.
Bond accompanies M and Tanner toward a clutch of offices.
All around, SOLDIERS, IDA personnel, POLICE scour the area.
M
(to Bond)
Glad to see you've turned up.
He is moving fast, talking fast -- a sense of urgency.
BOND
They hit about 90 minutes ago. There's a
scientist here from the International
Decommissioning Agency, Dr. Jones. She
has ten crews combing the area.
They step out of the bright sunlight and into
EXT.\INT. CONTROL CENTRE - CONTINUOUS
FIVE BODY BAGS are being carried out by soldiers. M surveys
the scene; in an unlit corridor CHRISTMAS JONES and several
men sweep the area with CLICKING Geiger counters.
ELEKTRA is a distance away, listening to a Turkish policeman
explain what's happening. She nods acknowledgement to M.
Tanner senses that Bond wants to talk to M alone:
TANNER
I'll see how they're coming with the
power...
They watch him go. M turns to Bond:
M
You had your hand on the bomb and you let
Renard get away with it.
He draws her away, to a small alcove. Takes something out of
his jacket...THE LOCATOR CARD.
BOND
The report King bought. It's a manual.
Renard's men used it to remove this radio
tracking device from the warhead.
M
Then Robert was right about a Russian
connection.
BOND
They're getting their weapons from the
Russians, but where are they getting the
money to buy the weapons? I can't help
thinking...the person close to King, the
one who switched that pin...
M
The inside man?
BOND
Is maybe...the inside woman.
NOW THE LIGHTS POWER UP, disrupt the intimacy and intensity
of their exchange. The room is lined with MONITORS and a
huge SATELLITE MAP of the pipeline's meandering path.
M
A woman?
But before he can speak, ELEKTRA calls out, gesturing to A
DIM LIGHT flashing on a console in front of her.
ELEKTRA
That's not right.
A Technician comes over. Tanner too, followed by Bond and M.
TANNER
What is it?
ELEKTRA
It's an observation and repair rig.
Travels along the pipe, checks for broken
seals. But it's not supposed to be
there.
BOND
(thinks)
Stop it.
The Technician flicks two switches. The light continues to
flash. Confused, he tries others. No change.
TECHNICIAN
I don't understand...
M
Where is the rig?
Harried, the Technician activates the wall schematic of the
pipeline. A pulse of light travels along the line. And with
it, a sense of horror descends...
M
The parcel's in the post.
TANNER
It's heading for the oil terminal.
M
Where it can do the most damage.
ELEKTRA
My God.
(to one of her men)
Have the terminal evacuated.
The man gets on the phone...
BOND
(to Tech)
Speed?
TECHNICIAN
Full on. Seventy miles an hour.
He punches buttons. Christmas has come, stands next to Bond.
TECHNICIAN
One hundred and six miles from the
terminal.
BOND
(quick)
It'll reach the other end in seventy-
eight minutes.
(to Tech)
Any more of these rigs?
The Technician checks his records, looks up, nods.
TECHNICIAN
There's one parked in the passageway
ahead of it.
Decisive, Christmas heads for the door, turns to her team:
CHRISTMAS
I'll need some help...
Her IDA colleagues look sheepish. Bond moves to her.
BOND
Come on.
For just a moment, Christmas looks wary:
BOND
Unless you'd like to see my ID first.
She almost smiles.
M nods to Tanner to follow them. Bond doesn't look at
Elektra. But she watches him go...
CUT TO:
EXT. HELICOPTER - DAY
The MI-6 helicopter swoops along the pipeline...
Tanner is beside the pilot. Bond and Christmas in the back.
They look at one another, the danger ahead melting the frost
between them.
INT. PIPELINE - LATER
Bond and Christmas climb through an access hatch down onto
the electric RIG. Its lights blaze fifty yards into the
tunnel. Then darkness.
Christmas takes the driver's spot, Bond the rear, nearest to
the approaching BOMB. Tanner leans in:
TANNER
(sealing them in)
Good luck.
Bonds nods, checks his watch. Christmas looks nervously down
the pipe.
BOND
Be one along any minute.
And she starts the machine off...
INT. ELECTRIC RIG - PIPELINE (TRAVELLING)
It quickly picks up speed, its lights flooding the seemingly
endless pipe before them.
Christmas looks behind, apprehensive. Waiting for the lights
of the explosive rig.
It's tense. They travel along, expectant...
BOND
When this is over we should bury the
hatchet. Celebrate. A champagne dinner?
CHRISTMAS
When this is over our bodies may be blown
to smithereens.
BOND
Alright then, brunch.
His lightness relaxes her, she appreciates it.
INT. COMMAND ROOM - PIPELINE CONTROL CENTRE - CONTINUOUS
Elektra, M, and others. The room is crowded with concerned
personnel. M watches the two blips on the schematic getting
closer together. One of her MEN approaches, a radio in his
ear.
RADIO MAN
Tanner reports Bond is headed for the
rendezvous.
M
Excellent. Evacuate Miss King and the
others.
ELEKTRA
You can evacuate my workers, but I'm not
going anywhere.
M looks at her, then nods, impressed by her courage.
INT. PIPELINE (TRAVELLING) - DAY
Bond and Christmas waiting expectantly. Tense silence.
Finally, a WHOOSHING NOISE, GETTING LOUDER. Lights appear
behind, reflecting on a bend, then... here it comes, the rig
tearing through the pipe.
Bond looks over his shoulder at Christmas'
speedometer...she's only at fifty...
BOND
Faster! Get our speed up!
Christmas presses forward...Bond turns, his feet OUT toward
the approaching rig...the lights getting closer... closer...
Bond's rig jolts as the other makes contact. He cushions the
blow with his feet. Both rigs moving together now, he CLIMBS
ONTO THE BOMB RIG...Puts out a hand, helps Christmas across.
The bomb sits there, daunting, deadly.
CHRISTMAS
Tactical fission device. Low yield.
They look at one another, then set straight to work.
INT. COMMAND ROOM - PIPELINE CONTROL CENTRE - CONTINUOUS
The room is quiet, tense. M and her two men, Elektra, Gabor,
the King TECHNICIAN and three armed security guards at the
doors. They are the only ones left. Going down with the
ship...if it goes. M and Elektra watch the two lights now
together on the console. A tense silence. Everyone's edgy.
Elektra perhaps a little more than the rest. She exchanges a
glance with Gabor.
INT. ELECTRIC RIG - PIPELINE (TRAVELLING) - DAY
CLOSE INSIDE THE BOMB: the timer. 1:45 MINUTES.
Bond's face betrays the difficulty of what they're
attempting. The digital clock ticks down... 1:30, 1:29...
OMITTED 217-218
INT. PIPELINE - DAY
The rigs speed through the tunnel. Nothing to see. But
WHOOSH! As the rigs hurtle past...
INT. ELECTRIC RIG - PIPELINE (TRAVELLING) - DAY
The pipe suddenly dips. They cling on as the machine bucks
like a rollercoaster. Back on a straight...
Her brow furrows.
CHRISTMAS
The plutonium is missing. They've taken
the core!
BOND
Then it's no longer a bomb?
CHRISTMAS
(back to work, urgent)
It's a bomb alright. We're still dead if
the trigger charge goes off...
Bond's mind races in the ghostly light of the tunnel.
He stares at the timer: 0:44, 0:43... Makes a decision.
BOND
Let it blow.
Christmas shoots a look, astonished.
CHRISTMAS
But we can stop it.
Taking her arm...
BOND
Let it blow.
She can't believe what he's saying. His eyes shoot to an
INSPECTION HATCH the lights illuminate up ahead.
BOND
Trust me. Leave it.
He grabs her, wrenches her away from the bomb.
INT. PIPELINE - DAY
The rig zooms past the exit hatch -- Bond leaps off, taking
her with him. They tumble along the pipe. Agile, Bond
springs to his feet, pulls her up. They run like hell for
the hatch, into the darkness...
EXT. PIPELINE - DAY
The pipeline. A long beat, then...
KABOOM!! A section of the pipe explodes, debris rocketing in
every direction.
As the smoke clears we see a fifty yard section of pipe has
been destroyed.
OMIT 223
INT. PIPELINE CONTROL CENTER - SAME
On the consoles, red concentric circles pulse outward from
the point of impact, emitting one, monotone BEEP....
The watchers are frozen, stunned, shocked. Gabor, a radio
earpiece in his ear, reports information.
GABOR
It wasn't nuclear...the bomb was a dud.
The trigger charge blew out a fifty yard
section of pipeline...
M
And Bond?
An agonizing beat. The alarm beep sputters and dies.
GABOR
Nothing.
M and Elektra share a look.
ELEKTRA
Do you think he's dead?
M can't answer. She shakes her head.
M
We just have to wait.
M shifts. The hi-tech room is eerily lit by the pulsing red
lights on every screen, showing the explosion.
ELEKTRA
(to M)
I have a gift for you. Something that
belonged to my father. He would have
wanted you to have it.
M feels uneasy.
M
Perhaps this isn't the time...
ELEKTRA
Please.
She hands M a small box. M unties the ribbon.
ELEKTRA
He often spoke of how...compassionately
you advised him on the best course of
action during my kidnapping.
M opens the box. It is THE EYE OF THE GLENS...the heirloom
pin, the original.
ELEKTRA
It's very valuable, you know. I just
couldn't let it explode with the rest of
him.
M looks up, horrified, when:
GABOR AND ANOTHER SECURITY MAN SHOOT M'S TWO GUARDS IN THE
HEAD...point blank, cold blood. The men fall.
M looks back at Elektra, a blood-curdling glare.
ELEKTRA
(to her men)
Take her to the chopper.
EXT. PIPELINE - DAY
From on high we follow the snaking pipeline ... until it
disappears in a VAST, SMOULDERING BOMB CRATER. Beyond, the
pipeline continues unperturbed.
Two TINY FIGURES on the banks of the crater.
CLOSE ON THEM
Bond and Christmas, very much alive. She's angry.
CHRISTMAS
What the hell were you doing? You nearly
killed us!
BOND
I did kill us. She thinks we're dead.
And she thinks she got away with it.
CHRISTMAS
What the hell are you talking about?
BOND
It's part of some plan. She dresses it up
like a terrorist attack. The explosion
covers up the theft of the plutonium.
CHRISTMAS
Who's she?
BOND
Elektra King.
CHRISTMAS
Elektra King? Are you insane? This is
her pipeline.
BOND
Makes her look even more innocent.
CHRISTMAS
(skeptical)
What would she want with weapons grade
plutonium?
BOND
I was hoping you could tell me.
Christmas stares at him. Wheels turning.
CHRISTMAS
You steal an old bomb, small by today's
standards, about the size of the one that
destroyed Nagasaki, take the plutonium
core out of it, intending to use it...
(beat)
To make a bigger, better bomb.
They're both chilled by the thought.
CHRISTMAS
I have to get after that core. This is
my ass.
She starts fiddling with the radio. Suddenly there's a
CRACKLE.
TANNER
Tanner to 007, do you read?
Bond grabs the radio.
BOND
Loud and clear. I have to speak to M.
TANNER
She's gone.
BOND
What?
TANNER
She's disappeared. And two of our men
have been killed.
It impacts on Bond. His eyes harden.
CHRISTMAS
What is it?
BOND
She just upped the stakes. All her chips
are on the table now. And M's life is
part of the bet.
He looks out at the long stretch of pipeline, like a deadly
snake with the world for its bed.
BOND
I know I promised you champagne, but
would you settle for caviar?
CUT TO:
EXT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - ISTANBUL - TWILIGHT
A boat puts in at an ancient tower in the middle of a vast
body of water (in fact, the Bosphorus).
Renard disembarks with several of his retinue, heavily laden
with bags and cases. They enter the tower...
INT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - CONTINUOUS
A fantastic space: stained glass windows cast myriad
patterns over elaborate tile and marble surfaces. Pillars,
iron lattices, velvet drapes and flowers embroider the huge
room.
As they enter, Elektra swoops across the floor and into
Renard's arms. He holds her. She pushes him away.
ELEKTRA
You're hurting me.
He senses something different between them. She tries to
hide it.
ELEKTRA
Brought me something?
He smiles, grabs a case off one of his men, opens it up,
pulls out a sphere of cobalt blue metal.
She looks at it with wary fascination.
RENARD
Go on. It's safe. Touch your destiny.
She traces a finger along the metal. A flicker of wonder:
ELEKTRA
Warm.
RENARD
(pointed)
Is it?
She's sensitive to his buried frustration:
ELEKTRA
I've brought something for you as well.
INT. ROOM - MAIDEN'S TOWER - MOMENTS LATER
Elektra opens a heavy door, she and Renard past through to...
A SMALL ROOM...a window set in the stone on one side. The
other side is divided off by a WALL OF BARS, creating a cell
which now contains: M
The cell is bare, except for a camp bed in the corner. M
betrays no fear. A quiet defiance burns in her.
ELEKTRA
Just as I promised.
Renard steps forward. Bars separate him from M.
RENARD
My executioner.
M
Over-praise, I'm afraid. But my people
will finish the job.
ELEKTRA
Your people? Your people will leave you
here to rot just like you left me. You
and my father. He didn't think my life
was worth the chump change he spent on a
day at the stock market.
M
Your father...
ELEKTRA
Is nothing. His kingdom he stole from my
mother. The kingdom I will rightly take
back.
Elektra leaves. Renard is left alone with M.
M
She's insane. Is that what you did to
her?
RENARD
No. I'm afraid it is what you did.
He crosses close to the bars.
RENARD
When I took her she was...promise itself.
So clever, so vibrant, so...full of life
force. And you left her there, at the
mercy of a man like me. You ruined her.
For what? To get to me? She is worth
fifty of me.
M
For once, I agree with you.
He shakes his head, amused by her pluck.
M
So she used all that brilliance to get
revenge on her father, on me.
RENARD
No. I wanted you. I wanted you for
myself.
He takes something out of his pocket. A small TRAVEL CLOCK.
He sets it.
RENARD
Since you sent your man to kill me, I
have been watching time tick slowly away,
marching inevitably toward my own death.
Watch these hands, M. At noon tomorrow,
your time is up. And I guarantee you...I
will not miss. You will die. Along with
everyone in this city and the future of
the West.
He places the clock on a tall stool, just out of reach
through her bars. He leaves. We hold on the clock:
Eight p.m.
EXT. CITY OF WALKWAYS - BAKU - DUSK (OLD SC. 174)
Valentin Zukovsky in the back of his chauffeured Rolls
Royce... We PULL BACK, to take in an amazing sight: the car
is on a network of raised walkways and platforms that extends
as far as the eye can see. A decaying legacy of the Soviet
years.
EXT. CAVIAR FISHERY - CITY OF WALKWAYS - DUSK (OLD SC.175)
Zukovsky limps purposefully away from his Rolls along a
walkway leading to a Beluga fishery built over the water.
INT. CAVIAR FISHERY - CITY OF WALKWAYS - DUSK (OLD SC.176)
Nailed on the battered old door, the lid of a caviar jar, a
label illustrated with a LINE DRAWING OF ZUKOVSKY. Zukovsky
opens the door and finds himself...
Staring straight down Bond's pistol. Bond and Christmas are
silhouetted by the gold dusk light. At their feet lies one
of Zukovsky's workers.
ZUKOVSKY
What are doing, Bond? Trying to impress
this innocent thing?
BOND
She's no innocent. This is my nuclear
consultant.
ZUKOVSKY
Ah, I see. A purely...plutonic
relationship.
Hands held clear of his body, Zukovsky enters, his evening
dress decidedly out of place here.
ZUKOVSKY
Really Bond, couldn't you find a nice
Russian scientist with hair growing out
of his ears?
BOND
What's your business with Elektra King?
ZUKOVSKY
I thought you were the one in her
business.
BOND
She dropped a million and half dollars to
the House -- your House. And you didn't
even bat an eyelid. She was paying you
off. What for?
ZUKOVSKY
As ever you are the spy who has to see a
plot wherever he looks.
Bond SLAMS Zukovsky hard against a vat of caviar. Wood
splits, roe spills onto the floor. Zukovsky is appalled.
ZUKOVSKY
That is 5,000 dollars of Beluga ruined!
BOND
You are out of your league. She's
working with Renard.
Christmas moves in, intense but firm:
CHRISTMAS
They've stolen a nuclear device.
A subtle change in Zukovsky's countenance.
BOND
Tell us what you know, Zukovsky. Tell
us, before its too late.
But it may be already:
The SOUND OF A HELICOPTER. Zukovsky frowns, the SOUND
GETTING LOUDER --
Bond is the first to move as --
INT. CAVIAR FISHERY - NIGHT (OLD SC. 177)
-- wood suddenly splinters everywhere -- the wall and roof
tear open behind them - GIANT VERTICALLY-SUSPENDED SAWS RIP
THROUGH, just missing them.
THE SPINNING TEETH (OLD SC. 178)
The blades churn through the corrugated roof, spraying CAVIAR
everywhere.
EXT. CAVIAR FISHERY - CITY OF WALKWAYS (OLD SC. 179)
Bond BURSTS OUT OF THE BUILDING...Zukovsky and his guards and
even the chauffeur are firing at the chopper...
EXT. RAMP TO LOWER WALKWAY (OLD SC. 180)
Bond makes for his BMW, running down a flight of steps, onto
a lower walkway when...THE SECTION AHEAD OF HIM
EXPLODES...the second chopper above hitting its mark with a
thrown grenade. Bond is trapped by the fire and smoke, the
only way out is ALONG THE PIPELINES...he runs along a narrow
section of pipe and then JUMPS DOWN to another walkway. The
PIPES are now above him...the chopper's relentless saws CUT
THROUGH THE PIPE...GAS JETS OUT...Bond HURLS HIMSELF up a
stairway.
INT. CAVIAR FISHERY
Zukovsky and Christmas watch in horror as Chopper One blades
away more roof above them.
EXT. LOWER WALKWAY
Bond takes something out of his pocket, a remote control
device...he presses some buttons...HIS CAR COMES TO
LIFE...lights on, it drives toward him.
He rushes to meet it. Chopper Two follows behind Bond,
slicing up the walkway just behind him. Bond gets to the car
and JUMPS IN as the chopper veers away.
INT. CAR
Bond activates his missile device as he watches Chopper Two
pass behind the factory. Suddenly there's a huge roar behind
him as the blades from Chopper One RIP THROUGH THE ROOF,
SLICING HIS CAR IN HALF.
But Bond is undeterred. He sets off the missile toward the
disappearing Chopper One.
EXT. CHOPPER
A DIRECT HIT. Chopper One explodes and falls onto the walkway
setting the scene ablaze.
EXT. WALKWAYS - SAME
Zukovsky and Christmas see the explosion, then see Chopper
Two dropped FOUR ARMED MEN onto a nearby walkway. The men
make their way toward the factory, firing at the guards.
Zukovsky and Christmas are forced inside.
ANGLE ON BOND
Who sees the danger to the others and runs off along the
walkways back to the factory. The Chopper follows him,
shooting.
Bond outruns it, until, ahead of him A GRENADE EXPLODES,
destroying the walkway and hurling Bond into the water.
EXT. FACTORY
The gunfight continues as the armed men take out Zukovsky's
guards. Then, two of the assailants follow ZUKOVSKY and
CHRISTMAS into...
INT. FACTORY - NIGHT
The chauffeur is shot and killed. The gunmen then turn their
attention to Zukovsky and Christmas, when suddenly BOND
APPEARS through a trap door in the floor boards.
Bond shoots one of the gunmen, then fires on the other...
Zukovsky grabs Christmas and they make their escape Bond
sees a third gunman firing from the basement and takes him
out.
EXT. WALKWAYS - SAME
Zukovsky and Christmas make a dash for Zukovsky's Rolls.
They dive in...Zukovsky rams the car into reverse...behind
him, A CHOPPER SLICES the walkway to smithereens...Zukovsky
can't stop it as the car leaps backward and into THE WATER
BELOW....
INT. FACTORY
Bond finishes off the remaining two armed men in a furious
gunfight and exits.
EXT. WALKWAYS - SAME
Bond sees Zukovsky and Christmas swimming to safety. The
chopper bears down on him. He leaps back to what's left of
the building, picks up a flare gun. He jumps down to a
walkway at water level and cranks open a rusted GAS JET...he
then waits for the Chopper to line up over it as it
approaches Bond for the kill....
Bond fires the flare gun...
THE GAS EXPLODES!
The Chopper tries to pull away, but it's too late. The
flames engulf it, igniting a fireball.
IN THE WATER
Zukovsky pulls himself back onto a walkway and heads for the
factory, but speeding at him are to FREE-FLYING SAW BLADES
from the chopper that has just exploded!
OMITTED 231S to 231Z
EXT. WALKWAY
Zukovsky dives away -- into a CAVIAR PIT. The saws embed in
the cabin behind him.
The caviar pit is like sinking sand, deep -- he's going
under. Flounders, trying to cling to a crate blown in there
by the explosion. Then he looks in horror:
EXT. SIDE OF CAVIAR PIT (OLD SC. 199)
POV ZUKOVSKY:
Bond appearing at the edge of the caviar pit, dragging
himself up, soaking wet. He's holding another harpoon gun.
Points it directly at Zukovsky. This time he really means
business.
EXT. CAVIAR PIT/SIDE (OLD SC. 200)
Zukovsky, on the point of being swallowed by the caviar,
clawing at the crate. Bond, steely eyed, cold:
BOND
Now...where were we?
ZUKOVSKY
A rope!
BOND
No. The truth!
(beat)
She thought I was dead -- those blades
were meant for you. What do you know
that she would kill you for?
Zukovsky is sinking.
ZUKOVSKY
I don't know what you're talking --
Zukovsky sees Christmas appear beside Bond:
ZUKOVSKY
Help me, don't let me drown.
She looks to Bond -- sees he's serious.
BOND
(to Zukovsky)
You're in this thing up to your neck.
Zukovsky sinks alarmingly -- he talks rapidly, staccato:
ZUKOVSKY
Alright, alright! Sometimes I smuggle
machinery for her. Russian stuff.
BOND
And the payoff on the tables?
ZUKOVSKY
A special job. A...a...a submarine.
CHRISTMAS
What?
ZUKOVSKY
To haul some cargo. My nephew, he is
Captain of a sub in the Black Sea Fleet.
BOND
Where's the sub going?!
ZUKOVSKY
No! Get me out!
BOND
This is too big for even you. Where is
it?
ZUKOVSKY
This is a family matter! If my nephew is
in danger, we do it my way, or nothing!
Now get me out!
But he looks more worried than ever as Bond takes aim with
the harpoon gun -- squeezes the trigger.
ZUKOVSKY
No! Bond!
CHRISTMAS
(alarmed)
Bond!
Bond fires. Zukovsky YELLS as the HARPOON SHOOTS TOWARD HIM.
It takes him a moment to realize he hasn't been hit -- the
harpoon splintering the crate, just missing him. He clings
to the crate, exhausted, as Bond and Christmas drag him to
safety.
CHRISTMAS
Commander Bond, you are dangerous,
unpredictable, and a hothead.
He just looks at her.
CHRISTMAS
But then again, explosive devices are my
specialty.
Zukovsky scowls, wet, angry, looking from his ruined suit to
the devastation that was once his caviar factory as, behind
him, walkways CREAK, teeter, and CRASH into the sea.
ZUKOVSKY
So. My way. No MI-6, no Interpol. Just
you, me and my people.
BOND
Where?
ZUKOVSKY
Istanbul.
OMITTED:233
INT/EXT. BALCONY/MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - NIGHT
Beyond iron balustrades we see one of the most fabulous views
in the world -- on one side the still waters of the Golden
Horn, on the other, the dancing waves of the unsheltered
Bosphorus -- and in between, the tumbling roofs, soaring
minarets and crouching mosques of the Pera district.
RENARD scans the water with night-vision binoculars.
EXT. BOSPHORUS - NIGHT - HIS GREEN POV:
A SUPERTANKER churns along...
ADJUST ANGLE
The CAMERA SINKS BENEATH THE WAVES, steals through the gloom -
- eventually comes upon something sitting just beneath the
belly of the tanker. The silhouette of a SUBMARINE, hugging
the tanker's shadow, creeping undetected into the
Bosphorus...
INT. M'S CELL - NIGHT
M paces her cell. Looks out, at the clock:
It is MIDNIGHT. Twelve hours to go.
She crosses her arms. Returns to pacing. Puts her hands in
her coat pockets:
She feels something. Takes it out.
THE LOCATOR CARD. Black and shiny, with two copper terminals
on one end.
M taps it on her hand. She looks back out. TO THE CLOCK.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - NIGHT
Renard and Elektra. She is on the bed, Renard stroking her,
worshipping her skin.
RENARD
So beautiful. So smooth, so warm.
ELEKTRA
How would you know?
It stings him. Elektra sits up, pulling a robe around her.
RENARD
Why are you like this? Because Bond is
dead? It's what you wanted.
ELEKTRA
(beat)
Of course...
Renard gets up. Paces the floor.
RENARD
He was a...good lover?
ELEKTRA
What do you think?
Renard leans against her desk, closing his eyes, squeezing
out the images. After a moment, he SMASHES HIS FIST through
the hand-painted wood. Elektra looks up.
HER P.O.V. A huge splinter of wood juts out of Renard's
hand.
Renard looks at it, curious, unfazed.
RENARD
Nothing.
Elektra comes to him. Leads him to the bed. Sits. Gently
removes the splinter. Then, she takes an icecube from the
bucket. Runs it along his wound.
ELEKTRA
What about this?
And she runs the ice down his cheek. He shakes his head.
Tormented.
RENARD
Nothing.
Now she runs the ice down her neck...
ELEKTRA
But surely...
...her fingers becoming wet, she runs the ice down between
her breasts, leaving a trail. Teasing...
ELEKTRA
...You can feel this?
She's moving the ice lower on herself... We see her lips
open, enjoying the sensation. A beat, then his smile slowly
grows. As she does something else.
ELEKTRA
(sensual)
Remember ... pleasure?
DISSOLVE:
INT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - DEAD OF NIGHT
Eerily quiet. The calm before the storm, except:
INT. M'S CELL - SAME
M is at the door of her cell. Her arm is stretched out
through the bars. She is using her high-heeled shoe to try
to HOOK the leg of the stool and drag it toward her. She can
only jut tap the leg with the tip of the heel. She swipes
out at the little three-legged stool, tapping it, tapping
it...
It scoots toward her a little...she taps it again, gets her
shoe HOOKED on the leg of the stool and starts to drag it
when...
The rickety stool hits a bump on the ancient stone floor and
SPILLS OVER...the clock HITS THE GROUND and SKIDS across the
stones, coming to rest ACROSS THE ROOM, on the floor near the
window.
M leans against the bars. SHE HEARS HER THE OUTER DOOR
CLANKING OPEN...
She hurries to her cot and lies down.
GABOR ENTERS...a burly shadow in the light from the hall. He
walks in. Looks at M. Picks up the clock and sets it ON THE
WINDOW SILL.
He leaves, shutting the door behind him.
M sits up. Looks out to the clock, glowing in the dark.
IT READS TWO A.M.
She drops her head back on the wall. She will not sleep
tonight.
DISSOLVE TO:
OMITTED: 236 - 243
EXT. ISTANBUL - DAWN
ESTABLISH the vast city astride the Bosphorus.
EXT. ISTANBUL STREETS - SAME
The sun starting to rise. Street vendors are the only people
about, moving their carts into place, getting ready to place
out their wares. We hold on a BUILDING.
INT. DYE FACTORY - SAME
A multi-levelled, rickety old building full of colourful
fabrics drying high overhead; the light shafts through them
casting pools of different coloured light.
It is a working factory, bolts of fabric and vats of dye, but
it is also:
AN OLD KGB SURVEILLANCE CENTER
Pushed to one end of the large room are stacks of radio
equipment, old consoles, audio equipment and radar screens.
Once a high-tech surveillance center, it has gone to seed.
There are men and women here, smoking, using the equipment,
slightly dissolute, very sinister, where the only membership
card is an old KGB ID. Zukovsky is here, leaning behind a
RADIO OPERATOR.
ZUKOVSKY
Any luck reaching Yevgeny?
OPERATOR
Negative, comrade.
He moves to CHRISTMAS AND BOND, pouring over a large MAP OF
ISTANBUL spread out on a table.
CHRISTMAS
(to Zukovsky)
What is this place?
ZUKOVSKY
Former KGB surveillance post. The Dye
Factory was just a front; now it turns a
good profit.
Bond notices THE BOA in the corner with some others.
BOND
Your old friend Dmitri.
Zukovsky nods to his old friend.
ZUKOVSKY
Today, you are glad to have the Boa on
your side.
Zukovsky looks at the map.
ZUKOVSKY
In the good old days, the KGB had three
or four spots where our submarines could
surface without anyone knowing. But
Yevgeny is supposed to be loading cargo.
CHRISTMAS
What class sub does your nephew run?
ZUKOVSKY
C-class.
BOND
Nuclear.
CHRISTMAS
Not just nuclear. Powered by a nuclear
reactor.
(the penny drops)
He's not loading any cargo. They want the
sub. The sub itself.
Put weapons grade plutonium inside the
sub's reactor: Instant, catastrophic
meltdown.
BOND
Made to look just like an accident.
ZUKOVSKY
Mother of God.
BOND
The right kind of explosion in the right
spot -- it would block the Bosphorus, cut
off the Black Sea.
CHRISTMAS
But why? Eight million people would die,
the land irradiated for a hundred years.
A cloud of radiation the size of
Europe...
BOND
(chilled)
Because an explosion like that would kill
all the other pipelines. There would be
only one way to get the oil out of the
Caspian and pump it to the world...
CHRISTMAS
The King pipeline.
BOND
Elektra would control it all.
ZUKOVSKY
If what you say it true...it may be too
late for Yevgeny.
CUT TO:
INT. SECRET QUAY (MAIDEN'S TOWER) - ISTANBUL - DAY
The ancient arched underbelly of a waterside building.
Something is disturbing a large expanse of water. A black
shadow looms beneath the waves. A SUBMARINE SURFACES.
INT. SECRET QUAY (MAIDEN'S TOWER) - ISTANBUL - DAY
Waiting at the newly excavated quay: Renard and his men.
The submarine's hatch opens. A YOUTHFUL CAPTAIN EMERGES,
vaguely resembling his uncle, Zukovsky.
RENARD
Captain...
YEVGENY
Sir. We are ready to load your cargo.
We only have a few hours before we'll be
missed.
RENARD
You came with a skeleton crew?
YEVGENY
That's all we can afford these days.
RENARD
Of course. We are grateful for your
efforts.
One of his men comes forward with several bottles of brandy
and other food.
RENARD
We have brandy and other refreshments for
your men.
The Captain nods, pleased.
INT. DYE FACTORY
Bond and Christmas and Zukovsky watch as the radio operators
scan the airwaves.
ZUKOVSKY
If we're not in time and something has
happened to him... you must let me kill
them.
Bond stares hard at him. A long beat.
BOND
Whoever gets there first, Zukovsky. They
have M.
CUT TO:
INT. SUBMARINE - DAY
Eerie, dark, the lights inside green and sickly.
CLOSE ON
A half-eaten sandwich. An empty glass of brandy on the floor,
just near the hand it fell from...
PULL BACK TO SEE
The dead face of Yevgeny, poisoned. Others of his crew
around, also dead.
Renard and his men tour the grisly scene.
RENARD
Take them up and throw them in the sea.
As they drag Yevgeny away, his HAT falls on the ground.
Renard picks it up and PUTS IT ON HIS HEAD.
RENARD
We'll be underway in two hours. Use that
time to re-familiarize yourselves with
your stations. Then ponder how rich
you'll be. The re-breathers for the
escape are already on board.
A man appears holding a heavy lead box containing the
plutonium. Renard takes the box as if it weighs nothing.
Stronger then ever.
CUT TO:
INT. CELL - MAIDEN'S TOWER - MORNING
Elektra stands at the door looking in at M.
ELEKTRA
Now you know how it feels. To be locked
away, to wonder if they're coming for
you, if anyone will ever come for you.
M
Someone will come.
ELEKTRA
Who? Bond? Bond is dead.
Elektra walks to the window. She looks out.
ELEKTRA
Somehow, I find that strangely
...disappointing.
M watches her, her heart beating.
M
Elektra. What time is it?
Elektra picks up the little clock. Walks over to the cell
bars.
ELEKTRA
Time for you to die.
And she reaches through the bars and HANDS M THE CLOCK.
The two women's eyes meet.
RENARD
The reactor is secured.
She turns, sees RENARD in the doorway. She crosses to him
and SLAMS THE DOOR SHUT behind her.
INT. OUTSIDE DOOR - MAIDEN'S TOWER - DAY
Their eyes lock.
RENARD
This is the end.
ELEKTRA
No. It is the beginning. The world will
never be the same.
He lays the Captain's hat down. Tries to mask his sorrow.
RENARD
It will be yours, and yours alone. Have
fun with it.
Forces himself to leave, heads down the stairs.
INT. M'S CELL - SAME
M works quickly. She pops open the back of the clock and
takes out the batteries. She pries off the tops with a key
and connects the wires to the LOCATOR CARD...
CUT TO:
INT. DYE FACTORY - SAME
The Radio Operator touches his earpiece...
OPERATOR
Comrade, it's faint, but I'm getting
something. A signal. Transmitting at...37-
19 degrees north...
He writes the coordinates down. Bond picks them up.
BOND
The locator card. It's M.
He takes the coordinates over to the map and DRAWS A
CORRESPONDING LINE across it.
BOND
The rest?
Christmas reads them out as the Operator writes them down
CHRISTMAS
Forty, forty-three degrees East...
Bond draws another line across the map. At the point at which
the intersect...a small island in the Bosphorus.
ZUKOVSKY
The Maiden's Tower.
BOND
How appropriate.
ZUKOVSKY
I'd heard there were some renovations
there...no one would look for a sub in
that place in a million years.
Suddenly Bond's instinct are aroused. Out of the corner of
his eye, he sees THE BOA set something on the ground and move
slowly UP THE STAIRS.
Bond looks at the pack he left on the ground...
He grabs Christmas and HURLS HER TO THE FLOOR.
KABOOM!
A MASSIVE EXPLOSION rips the place apart. In half a second
the air is thick with coloured dust and drifting clumps of
burning silk.
Bond stands. Christmas is stunned, but okay. He looks
around at the others - few dead, all out for the count, among
them, Zukovsky.
Bond heads for the door after the Boa.
CHRISTMAS
Zukovsky...
BOND
If I don't get to the Boa before he gets
to Maiden's Tower, M is dead.
Bond runs out, into
EXT. STREET - DAY
Teeming with people, his eyes scanning, he spots...THE BOA
climbing a ladder alongside a building to A ROOF.
Bond chases after him, clambering up, but when he gets to the
top of the roof...
Boa has now been joined by THREE THUGS. One attacks Bond as
the Boa and the others move away...
Bond fights with the thug, they stumble across the roof,
gripping each other, until Bond gets the upper hand and
THROWS HIM DOWN through a thatched roof where he falls...
EXT. BAZAAR
Into the market below.
Christmas, just coming into the square, sees the body
falling...she runs to the thug, thinking it might be Bond...
But the thug raises up, smiling at her, blood on his teeth.
She turns and runs...the thug gives chase...
ON THE ROOFS ABOVE
Bond is following Boa and the other two men as they LEAP from
roof to roof. He sees them jump off onto the roof of...
EXT. MOVING BUS
Motoring rapidly away from him. He makes a spectacular leap
to a wobbly FLAG POLE that swings him toward the bus,
dropping him on the roof before it SNAPS BACK, into the
overhead TRAM WIRES ABOVE and setting off sparks.
ON THE BUS
Bond barely gets to his feet before Thug #2 is upon him.
They grapple, struggling to maintain their footing as the bus
speeds through the rickety old streets. He throws the guy
over...
The thug desperately CLINGS TO THE SIDE OF THE BUS...
Bond now takes on the third thug, unaware that number two has
climbed back on and is about to WHACK HIM ON THE HEAD with
his gun when...
THE BUS TURNS onto a new street...THE WIRES AGAIN...Thug
Two's gun is caught up in them...he is instantly
ELECTROCUTED.
Thug three watches his friend's horrible death, giving Bond
time to slug him hard across the face and THROW HIM FROM THE
BUS...
EXT. STREET
Thug two's body goes SLAMMING INTO THE WINDSHIELD of a fast
moving van...BURSTS OUT through the back doors of said van
and tumbles out onto the street where it is HIT BY A CAR.
ON THE BUS
Bond turns back toward...BOA. Now it is just the two of them.
The bus is hissing to a stop.
The Boa leaps on to the bed of a passing truck. Bond rushes
forward and leaps on to the top of a passing taxi. The taxi
jams on his breaks and Bond rolls across the bonnet and on to
the street. He springs to his feet.
Fifty yards ahead the truck carrying the Boa has stopped for
traffic. The Boa jumps out and darts into an alley.
EXT. ISTANBUL - ALLEY - DAY
The Alley leads into a small CAFE where PATRONS smoke water
pipes and drink coffee. The Boa is nowhere to be seen.
Bond slips out his gun holding it out of sight close to his
leg so as not to alarm the civilians. He steps into the
cafe.
EXT. ISTANBUL - CAFE - DAY
Bond makes his way through the tables to the doorway in the
back. He looks inside - just a few children at play. Bond
is suddenly blind-sided by a vicious kidney punch which
brings him to his knees. He struggles to bring up his gun -
but the Boa knocks it out of his hand.
The Boa locks Bond's head in an unbreakable choke hold from
behind. Bond pulls on the massive arms - but to no avail.
He glances down to his right - HIS GUN - just out of reach.
Bond reaches out for it - his fingers just graze it.
Suddenly the Boa's foot kicks out, knocking the gun across
the room. He tighten his grip and speaks in Bond's ear.
BOA
For years I was told I could never take
the great James Bond and his Walther PPK.
What good is your gun now, Bond?
Bond can't breathe, his eyes start to dim. He slumps
forward, his left hand touches something hot. It's the iron
basket of coals used to keep the water pipes lite. Bond's
fingers touch the wire handle that arches across the top. He
grabs it and with his last reserves -
Swings it at the back of his head hitting the Boa on the side
of the head with the SOUND OF RAW BACON HITTING A HOT
SKILLET.
The Boa drops Bond and leaps to his feet holding the side of
his face. Bond falls forward fighting for breath and trying
to clear his head.
The Boa runs out the back door. Bond finds his gun, holsters
it and follows.
EXT. ISTANBUL - SIDE STREET - DAY
Bond comes out into a side street crowded with VENDERS AND
SHOPPERS. Bond sees the Boa pushing his way through the
crowd to...
EXT. ISTANBUL - FERRY TERMINAL - DAY
RUSSIAN TRAMP STEAMER taking on cargo. Bond enters square in
time to see the Boa making a Bee line for the Russian
steamer.
As the Boa, much the worse-for-ware, starts up the gangway to
the top deck of the steamer, Bond hitches a ride on a cargo
net that is being hoisted aboard by the ship's boom.
EXT. RUSSIAN STEAMER - DAY
Boa, breathing hard gets to the deck. He lumbers across it
but before he can reach the other side he is tripped up by
Bond who has been waiting for him by the side of the deck
house. The Boa goes sprawling. As Bond comes for him he
scrambles to his feet, grabs a nearby bailing hook, and
swings at Bond. But Bond is ready for him. He wards off the
blow with a small wooden cover from a shipping crate. He
traps the Boa's arm and gives him two quick devastating kicks
in the solar plexus. He Boa stages back to the railing. A
final kick from Bond sends him over the side...
THE BOA FALLS, LANDING ON HIS BACK ON THE DECK BELOW WITH A
SICKENING THUD.
Bond looks down, sees the Boa's body at a horrible angle, his
neck broken.
Bond sighs, turns...
GABOR is there. Gun trained on him.
GABOR
Welcome aboard, Mr. Bond.
BOND'S P.O.V. A thug steps into sight below, holding
CHRISTMAS hostage as well.
EXT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - DAY
A magnificent ornate tower in the centre of the Bosphorus.
An innocent-looking launch coasts up to it. A tarp is raised
and Bond and Christmas are revealed, hands bound. They are
helped out, led inside by a number of henchmen.
INT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - DAY
Elektra crosses the hallway as the doors open. Kisses Bond
on the cheek as she eyes Christmas.
ELEKTRA
James Bond and his amazing resurrection.
If only you'd kept away, we might have
met again in a few years, become lovers
once more.
Christmas eyes Bond anew as Elektra leads him to an ornately
carved chair, covered in silk.
ELEKTRA
(to guards)
Take her to Renard.
Bond and Christmas exchange a look as the guards start her
towards some steps.
Elektra indicates for him to sit. Behind him, the whole of
Istanbul is visible through a large curved window.
ELEKTRA
Pretty thing. You had her too?
Bond ignores her.
ELEKTRA
I could have given you the world.
BOND
Not interested.
This cuts. She casually reaches behind his neck, flips up a
wooden arm to which is attached a metal collar. A GAROTTE.
ELEKTRA
They were digging near here and they
found some very pretty vases. They also
found this...
(meaning the garotte)
I think we ignore the old ways at our
peril, don't you?
Bond recoils as she fastens the collar... She steps back.
BOND
(ignoring her)
Where's M?
ELEKTRA
Soon she'll be everywhere.
Bond keeps his cool:
BOND
All this, because you fell for Renard?
ELEKTRA
Five more turns and your neck will break.
She moves to the back of the chair, twists the screw ONE
NOTCH. The effect on Bond is instantaneous as a bolt jolts
into the back of his neck, tilts his head back.
ELEKTRA
Since I was a child, I've always had a
power over men. When I realized my father
wouldn't rescue me from the kidnappers, I
knew I had to form a new alliance.
BOND
(realizing)
You turned Renard.
ELEKTRA
(smiling)
Just like you...only you were even
easier.
She pulls the jewel from her ear, reveals the ugly scar:
ELEKTRA
I told him he had to hurt me, he had to
make it look real. When he refused I told
him I would do it myself.
She turns the screw again.
BOND
So you killed your father.
ELEKTRA
He killed me! He killed me the day he
refused to pay my ransom.
A flicker of emotion. Bond is getting to her.
BOND
Was this all about the oil?
ELEKTRA
It is my oil! Mine and my family's!
Her eyes are shining. She moves toward the view, gazing out
at this spectacular cradle of civilization. Bond works his
wristbinds feverishly.
ELEKTRA
It runs in my veins, thicker than blood.
I'm going to redraw the map.
And when I am through the whole world
will know my name, my grandfather's name,
the glory of my people.
BOND
No-one will believe this melt-down was an
accident.
She eyes him, impressed that he's worked out her plan.
Tightens the screw again. Her confidence amazing.
ELEKTRA
They will believe. They will all
believe.
Tightening the screw again:
ELEKTRA
You understand? Nobody can resist me.
Now she straddles him. She puts the jewel back on her ear.
All the time, he's working that wristbind.
ELEKTRA
Know what happens when a man is
strangled?
BOND
Elektra, it's not too late. Eight
million people needn't die.
She smiles, twists the screw again. A nasty, grinding sound.
Sweat trickles from his brow. She licks it away.
ELEKTRA
You should have killed me when you had
the chance. But you couldn't. Not me. A
woman you've loved.
She pushes her hips into his. Turns the screw. The bolt is
jammed right into the back of his neck. His face is angled
upwards. Breathing is difficult. He glares up:
BOND
You meant ... nothing ... to me.
She fingers the bolt. Prepares to turn it the last
time...His hand strains at its binding...
BOND
One... last... screw?
ELEKTRA
(kissing his ear)
Oh James.
She begins to turn the screw...
... when SEVERAL GUNSHOTS are heard outside.
Bond is on the edge of consciousness.
Elektra freezes. Gets off him. Moves to a window.
EXT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - DAY
HER POV:
Big, battered and bloody, Valentin Zukovsky is leaving a
boat, moving over the rocks toward the entrance with three of
his men. Two bodies in his trail. He's on course for
Elektra and nothing is going to stop him, even as his
henchmen are cut down by ferocious fire.
INT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - DAY
Elektra moves to her gun. Just then, Gabor crashes through a
stained glass window, neck broken.
TWO ELEKTRA HENCHMEN appear from below stairs as the doors
burst open. Zukovsky stands there. A bloody giant.
They open up with machine guns, but two shots from Zukovsky
take them out, though he takes one in the shoulder. Right
now, he's unstoppable.
A shocked silence after the shooting. He eyes Bond in the
chair. To the room:
ZUKOVSKY
I'm looking for a submarine. It's big
and black, and the driver is a friend of
mine.
Then his eye falls on the HAT Renard had brought up from
below. He knows at once what it means.
ZUKOVSKY
Bring it to me.
She picks it up, walks to him (surreptitiously sliding a gun
beneath it). She proffers the hat...
ELEKTRA
What a shame. You just missed him.
BLAM BLAM BLAM -- she fires through the hat.
He staggers back. Stares. Slumps down. Lowers his head to
the ground.
She walks over, puts her heel on his gun arm, presses down,
smiling a half-psychotic smile. The gun is pinned.
Zukovsky is dying.
But he dredges up every last ounce of energy to raise his gun
a millimetre off the ground, his outstretched arm already
pointing at Bond. Elektra looks surprised, then amused as
Zukovsky's finger begins to squeeze the trigger: he's going
to shoot Bond!
Bond stares back. Zukovsky's eye narrows -- trying for
extreme accuracy...
BLAM! The SHOT hits the binding at Bond's wrist. Splinters
the wood there.
ELEKTRA stares at Zukovsky. She didn't see where the bullet
went, just that it missed Bond. She watches his head slump
further, staring at Bond...
A look passes between the two men. Comrades in arms. The
merest of smiles. Then the light fades from his eyes. Dead.
ELEKTRA
turns back to Bond. Smiles.
ELEKTRA
Excuse me.
She picks up a walkie-talkie, speaks into it:
ELEKTRA
Everything's under control up here. Are
you ready?
RENARD
(filtered)
Yes. Au revoir...
Lost for a moment, she breathes heavily. She glances at
Zukovsky's corpse. Slightly puzzled, to Bond:
ELEKTRA
Zukovsky really hated you.
(beat)
Time to say goodnight.
And she kisses him -- reaches behind to deliver the killer
twist...
One super-fast movement:
Bond's hand breaks free, grabs her throat, tight. He holds
her, their faces close together, disdain in his eyes -- hurls
her backwards, her hand scratching at his face.
Ripping the collar from his neck, he gets to his feet. Moves
to Zukovsky, checks his pulse, takes the bloody gun from his
fingers.
Turns back, to see Elektra disappearing upstairs. A moment's
dilemma: should he race below to the sub -- or up to
Elektra?
He takes off after Elektra, grabs the radio handset.
CUT TO:
EXT. SUBMARINE - SECRET QUAY (MAIDEN'S TOWER) - DAY
The submarine's engines roar to life.
INT. TOWER - CONTINUOUS
ELEKTRA rises up one of the triple spiral stairways leading
to the various balconies of the minaret tower.
INT. TOWER/M'S CELL - DAY
Bond stalks up after her. THEIR VOICES ECHO through the
intertwined stairs:
ELEKTRA
James. You can't kill me. Not in cold
blood.
But Bond isn't wavering. Clutches Zukovsky's bloody wet gun.
He heads up in the semi-darkness -- and suddenly swings to
his right, at an unexpected but familiar Voice:
M
Bond --
Bond kicks open a door and enters...
M'S PRISON ROOM
He fires at the lock on her cell door and frees her. Turns to
go, heading upward, after Elektra.
M
Go after the submarine, forget the girl.
Bond!
INT. BALCONY/MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - DAY
Elektra has reached a balcony. It affords a spectacular view
of Istanbul. Bond appears, has her cornered.
BOND
Call him off.
He holds the walkie-talkie to her mouth.
BOND
I won't ask again. Call him off!
She looks at him seriously. He's giving her a last chance,
willing her to save herself and the city.
ELEKTRA
(into walkie-talkie)
Renard.
Bond waits...
ELEKTRA
(to Bond)
You wouldn't kill me. You'd miss me.
And her face breaks into a perverted grin and --
ELEKTRA
(into walkie-talkie)
Dive! Bond --
BLAM! Bond shoots her.
She staggers back, shocked at her own mortality.
BOND
I never miss.
He looks out:
EXT. BOSPHORUS - DAY
Sees the nose of the sub heading into the Bosphorus, half
submerged. The hatch is still open.
INT. BALCONY/MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - DAY
He stares at her dead body a beat. And then, he crouches. He
touches her cheek, just once, before he goes.
Behind him, unbeknownst, M has seen it all.
EXT. MAIDEN'S TOWER - BOSPHORUS - DAY
He moves to the ledge. Composes himself -- and
DIVES ONE HUNDRED FEET to the water. Amazing.
EXT. SUBMARINE, BOSPHORUS - DAY
He surfaces close to the exiting sub. Grabs a ladder, pulls
himself up.
The hatch is closing... He splashes through the water
flooding over the sub, appears in front of the amazed sailor
shutting the hatch. WHACKS him with the hatch. Gets inside.
Closes it. Milliseconds before the hatch slides under the
water.
INT. SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Bond down below. Renard's crew are spread throughout the sub.
He creeps through...
Approaches one man working some levers, smoking. Bond holds
his gun to his head.
BOND
How do you want to die?
(re: cigarette)
That?
(re: gun)
Or this?
INT. CABIN, SUBMARINE - MOMENTS LATER
A few SOLID BANGS on the metal of Christmas' door. It opens
and Bond lets the now unconscious man hit the deck. That was
his head banging.
CHRISTMAS
(stunned)
James!...
He takes her by the hand, they move through the shadows of
the sub.
INT. SUBMARINE - MOMENTS LATER
A man is operating the tanks. Through the intercom:
RENARD
(filtered)
Flood tanks 4 and 5...
The man does as told. When he's finished -- Bond knocks him
out with the butt of his gun.
INT. SUBMARINE CONTROL ROOM - MOMENTS LATER
Several men occupy the central control room, Renard at their
centre. Beyond, on the other side, the outer chamber of the
reactor.
INT. OTHER END OF CONTROL ROOM - SUBMARINE - DAY
From the other end of the control room, Bond and Christmas,
so near and yet so far -- they can't get to the reactor
because there are so many men in there.
Keeping behind cover:
CHRISTMAS
Is there another way?
BOND
We go down to the torpedo bay.
INT. TANK CONTROLS ROOM, SUBMARINE LOWER DECK - MOMENTS LATER
Bond and Christmas get attacked. A vicious, silent fight...
Then the radio set sparks into life --
RENARD
Open the tanks.
Bond is throttling the man with the cable. Speaks into the
handset.
BOND
(disguising voice)
Tanks open.
But the man has stretched his hand to a fire alarm:
The KLAXON RESOUNDS.
INT. SUBMARINE CONTROL ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Renard looks up.
RENARD
(to self)
Bond...
He flicks a switch;
RENARD
(into mic)
Bond! You have decided to join me on this
historic voyage. Welcome to my nuclear
family.
INTERCUT:
BOND ON AN INTERCOM:
His voice fills the control room.
BOND
You're really going to commit suicide for
her?
Renard responds, into the microphone.
RENARD
In case you've forgotten. I'm dead
already.
BOND
Haven't you heard the news? So is she.
Renard's face screws up in pain more searing than any he
could feel in his skin...he SCREAMS...
INT. SUBMARINE...
The scream, like a wounded animal, echoes throughout the
doomed craft.
BACK ON RENARD, gasping, spent.
RENARD
You will die for this.
He strides through to the
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER
Jams shut the hatch behind him. Now moves through to the
INT. CHAMBER BEYOND REACTOR
Where he picks up the PLUTONIUM. Moves back into the
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER
Sealing the other door behind him. And now he opens up the
cover of the glaring REACTOR...
INT. TANK CONTROLS ROOM, SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Christmas sees a panel light up:
CHRISTMAS
The cover is off the reactor.
Bond reads off more lights...
BOND
He's sealed himself in.
CHRISTMAS
He's going to insert the plutonium.
Thinking fast, Bond moves to some controls. Hits switches.
CHRISTMAS
Do you know what you're doing?
BOND
Like riding a bike.
INT. AIR TANKS, SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
The air tanks immediately filling with water.
INT. TANK CONTROLS ROOM, SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Christmas and Bond shift to the side. Everything not screwed
down starts sliding...
EXT. SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS - LONG SHOT
The submarine is tilting, further and further, the nose
dropping down and down...
Pretty soon we have the strange and incredible sight of a
submarine hanging vertically, nose down.
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER, SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Renard hangs on, swings, until he can get a footing on the
nearest wall.
INT. TANK CONTROLS ROOM, SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Bond and Christmas hang on too, get a grip. He helps her up.
CHRISTMAS
What kind of bikes did you ride?
BOND
Just wanted to put him on edge...
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER, SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Renard is disturbed by the sub's position, but only
momentarily.
He moves to an intercom:
RENARD
Open the torpedo tubes.
INT. TORPEDO ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Bond hears a creak, turns to see the tubes open -- water
gushes up toward them at an incredible rate.
BOND
Climb!
He pulls Christmas up and they ascend to the next level. No
chance to seal the chamber though, the water is already
through the hatch.
BOND
Keep moving.
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
Renard now struggles back up to the reactor, stares into the
violet blue heat...
He hits a button. A ROD slowly rises out of the reactor.
INT. LOWER SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Bond and Christmas are ahead of the water. They have reached
a level where various systems are operated from.
BOND
There's one chance.
He punches buttons.
EXT. SUBMARINE, BOSPHORUS - CONTINUOUS
High up on the sub, a hatch opens. Water floods into an
escape hatch. An inner door stops it getting into the
submarine itself.
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
Renard slowly inserts the plutonium rod. Immediately the
light around him becomes a deeper blue, a horrible
luminescence. The staccato click of a distant Geiger counter
intensifies.
INT. SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
As Bond opens the inner door of an ESCAPE HATCH, he points
out a cabinet on the wall to Christmas.
BOND
Re-breathers.
She opens the box to find the RE-BREATHERS are ripped to
shreds. No-one was ever meant to get off the sub. She shows
Bond.
BOND
Never liked those things anyway.
He climbs into the escape chamber.
BOND
Count to twenty. When you get to twenty
open the hatch. It can only be opened
for a few seconds or we'll sink.
CHRISTMAS
But what if...
BOND
Count to twenty. I'll be there.
She moves over and seals the door, wrenches a lever which
immediately floods the chamber with water.
INT. ESCAPE HATCH - CONTINUOUS
Inside the chamber, Bond holds his breath as water seeps in.
The most claustrophobic thing you've ever seen.
INT. SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
A green light comes on and Christmas punches a button...
EXT. SUBMARINE, ESCAPE HATCH - CONTINUOUS
The OUTER DOOR opens... Bond burst out and starts the long
swim up the OUTSIDE OF THE SUBMARINE...
INT. SUBMARINE - SAME
Christmas is counting.
CHRISTMAS
One, one thousand, two, one thousand...
EXT. SUBMARINE - UNDERWATER
It's dark out here. It would be very easy for Bond to get
disoriented.
He peers around, trying to get his bearings against the vast
vertical whale he's swimming up.
Passes the conning tower.
INT. SUBMARINE
CHRISTMAS
Fourteen, one thousand, fifteen, one
thousand...
EXT. SUBMARINE - UNDERWATER
Bond is running out of air...
And then he sees it -- the open hatch of the rear escape
door.
He gets inside, yanks it closed...
INT. SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
Christmas, shivering in the rising water.
CHRISTMAS
Twenty.
She presses a button...
INT. CHAMBER BEYOND (NOW ABOVE) REACTOR - CONTINUOUS
The hatch opens and Bond collapses out in a gush of water.
The hatch closes.
The whole world is at a crazy angle here. Bond looks down at
the sealed door of the reactor chamber, curses.
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS
Bathed in the horrible light of the over-heating reactor,
Renard looks upwards, aware of sounds on the other side of
the door...
KER-BLAM! A BLINDING FLASH OF LIGHT.
The door shoots off its hinge, blasted by Bond.
Bond drops down into the chamber, takes one look at Renard,
now a crumpled heap in the corner.
Bond moves down to the next door, opens it:
BOND
Christmas!
And there she is, struggling, the water level way below still
rising...
He lowers an arm, pulls her up.
They clamber up to the reactor:
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER
BOND'S POV: in the intense glow inside -- the overheating
rod, protruding slightly.
CHRISTMAS
We have to get the rod out of the
reactor!
INT. REACTOR CHAMBER
Bond looks at the gauges from behind a thick GLASS SHIELD.
Christmas comes up level with him:
CHRISTMAS
Melting down. 4000 degrees, the
Zirconium casings on the rods crack.
5000, the plutonium melts. In ten
minutes, a hydrogen explosion.
THE TEMPERATURE GAUGE READS 4500 AND RISING...
He starts toward the reactor when suddenly
RENARD IS BEHIND BOND, THROTTLING HIM.
CHRISTMAS grabs at him, is flung back, nearly falls through
the hatch but manages to grab a pipe, hangs on for dear life.
THE GAUGE HITS 4700
BOND AND RENARD
struggle... Both slamming into switches and buttons.
CUT TO:
OMITTED 314-316
INT. SUBMARINE - CONTINUOUS
THE GAUGE IS PASSING 4900, EDGING TOWARDS THE NO-WAY-BACK
5000 MARK. Meltdown imminent...
He looks down the sub -- more water racing upward...
Back to the pile. Scans the scene, searching for an idea.
Sees a HOSE, compressed air escaping from a fissure. Thinks
fast. Grabs the hose, snaps it free...
RENARD
is recovering, has found a FLARE GUN near him. Raises it to
Bond...
BOND'S POV
in the reflection of the gauge (which is millimeters from
5000), we see Renard approaching from behind us...
BOND jams the hose into the reactor, ducks down -- as the air
blows the rod out - narrowly missing him as it shoots past --
impales Renard in the heart, just before he could shoot.
Renard stares at Bond in horror. Bond calmly takes the flare
gun off him.
BOND
She's waiting for you.
And he lets him fall past Christmas, through consecutive open
hatches of the sub, crashing into the rising water.
Christmas looks down at the floating corpse.
Bond watches the gauge -- as it edges DOWN from 5000.
The nuclear disaster looks like it's averted. But suddenly
water is gushing in from above, through splits in the sub's
shell; it's going to sink.
BOND
We're sinking.
But she won't come. As water courses over them:
CHRISTMAS
Help me. We have to seal it.
She moves to the reactor, closing the cover. Bond uses his
strength to push the heavy locking mechanism into place.
Bond climbs upwards, dragging Christmas with him.
BOND
We've got to get out.
CHRISTMAS
We can't.
INT. CHAMBER BEYOND REACTOR - CONTINUOUS
They clamber into the next chamber up...
EXT. SUBMARINE, BOSPHORUS - CONTINUOUS
The submarine is slowly sinking, nose down. Air is escaping
from the many seams that are creeping apart. We can hear the
metallic GROANS through the water.
INT. TORPEDO ROOM
Bond and Christmas crawl into TORPEDO CHAMBERS...
Bond reaches out, setting a timer to FIRE...
The clock ticks down...
EXT. SUBMARINE - UNDERWATER BOSPHORUS - DAY
The Torpedo doors open and Bond and Christmas are SHOT OUT
INTO THE WATER, streaking through, as behind them...
THE SUBMARINE EXPLODES in spectacular fashion.
EXT. SURFACE, BOSPHORUS - DAY
Bond and Christmas reach the surface... Look around them.
No boats coming to the rescue. They wave to a tourist boat
passing.
The boat heads over to pick them up...
DISSOLVE:
OMIT 324
EST. SHOT - MI-6 - NIGHT
The damaged wing is being repaired.
INT. BRIEFING ROOM - SAME
Tanner overseeing things, and then...
M walks in. Efficient and steely as ever. All eyes turn to
her. She looks at everyone...makes the briefest of nods.
That is all the sentiment allowed as business resumes.
She scans the machines:
M
Any word from him?
TANNER
Still no contact yet.
EXT. ROOF, ISTANBUL - NIGHT
A magnificent rooftop garden looking out over Istanbul.
Christmas and Bond alone with some Bollinger.
FIREWORKS explode above. They clink glasses. He looks out at
the cityscape.
BOND
I love Christmas in Turkey.
CHRISTMAS
So isn't it time you unwrapped your
present?
INT. BRIEFING ROOM - NIGHT
Tanner and Q look at a SATELLITE THERMAL IMAGE OF ISTANBUL.
TANNER
That's strange.
The satellite image zooms in one particular car parked in a
side street. We can just make out Bond's ASTON MARTIN.
TANNER
He must be nearby.
M comes over.
The image moves from the car, closes on the garden rooftop.
The thermal image is multi-coloured, difficult to decipher.
M
Where?
Q
This picks up body heat. Humans should
be orange.
(searching)
There.
And he points to ONE orange figure lying on the rooftop.
M
(to Tanner)
I thought you said he was with Doctor
Jones?
They all look back to the image. The figure is turning RED,
almost glowing.
M
It's getting redder.
Tanner, Q and M realize as one that this is an image of two
people, one atop the other. And getting hotter.
M
Bond.
Q switches the screen off, clears his throat.
Q
Could be a premature form of the
Millennium Bug.
EXT. ROOF, ISTANBUL - CONTINUOUS
It's dark, we can't really see them.
CHRISTMAS
You know James... I think Christmas is
coming early this year.
FADE OUT
THE END
--------------------------------------------------------------
World is not Enough, The
Writers : Neal Purvis Robert Wade Bruce Feirstein Ian Fleming
Genres : Action Thriller Adventure
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