Another idea rattling around inside my head that I needed to get out. For those wondering about my fic The Frozen Flame I had a problem with my computer and am having to start the chapter from scratch, so it may take a while, sorry.
There might be a few holes in the story line at first but bear with me; all will be explained in time.
There are a few things I will explain now because I'm not sure if I can fit them in or might forget.
First thing is that the Sasuke retrieval was a success, meaning he never went to Orochimaru.
When this starts Naruto and the other rookie 9 are 13 and team 9 are 14.
The others know about the fox, just because it makes things a little easier for me.
I will be making him strong, but not unbeatable and it will all be explained in flashbacks where needed. I will say now that I have decided to make him focus mainly on seals for this story, but there will be other things as well. Also, he will have a monster healing ability.
thus will be smart Naruto and will probilly be a little OC ( i think thats the right expression)
Enjoy :)
Summery- Betrayed by the people around him in way not even he thought was possible, Naruto leave. After realizing he is being chased Naruto tries to escape using a Jutsu only for a single wrong hand seal to send both him and those chasing him to another dimension.
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Disclaimer- I own nothing :(
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Beta'd by Sihv
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Chapter 1- New World
The first thing Naruto noticed, as he regained consciousness, was the noise. All around him, he could hear loud roaring sounds, over the top of what must have been thousands of people, mixed in with several odd noises he couldn't place. There was a terrible smell that was making his nose burn. Next was the realization that he was lying on the ground in what, he hoped, was a puddle. His clothes were drenched and he shivered as the cold was started to get to him. It was at this point that the pain hit, like someone had thrust a kunai into his head. Rubbing his head where it hurt, Naruto slowly sat up and opened his left eye to look at the blood on his hand from an already healed cut.
Shaking his head in an attempt to clear the fog that seemed to surround his mind, Naruto took a moment to look around.
He seemed to be in an alley of some kind, though it was several times bigger than any alleyway he had seen in Konoha. The buildings on either side of him seemed to stretch high into the night's sky, so much so that he could barely see the tops. He was surrounded by large metal boxes, the source of the foul smell, and, at the end of the alley, he could see countless people walking past without even a single glace in his direction. Not that they would be able to see him, as he was at the far end of the alley, hidden in the shadows.
Shuffling back a few feet so he could lean against the wall, Naruto let out a sigh and covered his eyes with his hand. He sat there for a few minutes, not moving an inch as he watched the people pass by outside the alley through his fingers.
He could hear the voice in his head arguing with each other, but didn't bother trying to listen to them. He was confused enough as it was without trying to understand what they were all saying all at once.
Then, out of nowhere, a chuckle escaped his lips. It wasn't an amused sound, nor was it a cruel one. More than anything, it sounded tired, like the world had collapsed around him and this was the first chance he had to stop and think about it.
Which is actually what happened.
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3 hours earlier
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Naruto was laying on his bed with a small frown on his face.
The sky outside his window was dark and no one was on the street. The room around him looked like it had been hit by a tornado; the dresser was tipped over on its side and all his clothes and random bits of paper were scattered on the floor, torn to pieces in a fit of rage.
It had been a year and a half since he had dragged Sasuke back to the village. Sasuke had been slung over his shoulder, with minor wounds and a bump on his head. Whereas he was slowly bleeding out from the fist size hole in his chest inches to the right of his hart.
They had both been rushed to the hospital and Tsunade had treated him personally.
It was later found out, after Jiraiya examined the now completed Cursed Seal, that there had been a compulsion seal hiding in the seal matrix that was responsible for Sasuke trying to abandon the village. They couldn't remove the Cursed Seal completely but the compulsion seal had been removed easily enough. Sasuke had gone back to being his usual broody self, though he did break character for a short time, just long enough to thank Naruto for stopping him and apologize for almost killing him.
Naruto had responded with his usual grin, which got him a smirk and Sasuke throwing out a 'dobe' comment before walking off.
A week after the retrieval mission, Sasuke and Sakura had started dating. It had broken the young blonde's heart when he heard, but like with everything else in his life he put on his mask and smiled at them, congratulating them and joking about Sasuke getting an early start on rebuilding his clan.
The only one that seemed to notice it was all faked was Ero-sannin. The white haired man had been in the room with them when the new couple told him, and had comforted Naruto after they left. He cried for the rest of the day, yet didn't make a sound.
The next day, Jiraiya had taken Naruto out of the hospital. No one saw him for the next six months. When his friends asked Tsunade what had happened to him, all she would say was that he was on a training trip with Jiraiya and that he would be back when he had finished his training.
When he came back, Naruto seemed exactly the same to all his friends, still hyper and loud. At first, they had questioned the blonde about what he had been doing for the past half a year. After he repeatedly refused to tell them anything, they gave up and things went back to normal.
At least until know.
On the bed next to Naruto was a small scroll, no bigger than the palm of his hand. He had found a small seal on the back of his neck a few hours ago. His training in Fuinjutsu with Jiraiya, allowed him to identify it as a storage seal. The small scroll was actually another storage seal with another two large ones inside it that contained a libraries worth of scrolls.
There were scrolls on Ninjutsu, Fuinjutsu, Kenjutsu, Genjutsu and a few scrolls with weapons of every kind imaginable and even a few unimaginable, sealed inside them. But the thing that shocked him the most was the letter from his father, Minato Namikaze.
My dearest son,
I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am for what I am about to do. If I had any other choice, I would take it, but I cannot ask another parent to give up their child. I hope that you can forgive me for what has been done.
If you are reading this, then you have just become a genin (I am so proud of you), and Sarutobi has told you about the seal on the back of your neck. In these scrolls is all the knowledge that belongs to the Namikaze clan, several generations' worth of information that we gathered over the years. The fact that I am dead means that you are the last of our clan, the others being wiped out during the Third Great War.
I am sorry that you had to wait this long to find out that I am your father, but it was too dangerous for you to know. I made a lot of enemies in my life. If they found out you are my son before you could defend yourself, I don't want to think about the consequences, so until you are jonin I ask that you keep it a secret while learning from these scrolls.
I hope you have had a good life. I'm sure that the village has been spoiling you rotten. After all, you are the villages savior. If not for you, the Kyuubi would still be free. Hopefully, you haven't taken after Jiraiya. Just because he's your godfather doesn't mean you can become a pervert, or a drunk like your godmother, Tsunade.
I'm sorry that I don't have more to say. I am running out of time and need to prepare for the Kyuubi. Remember that both I and your mother love you so much.
Love,
Minato Namikaze
He had read the letter over and over again, burning the words into his memory. His hero, the man he once dreamed was his father, it was all his fault.
The abuse... the beatings... the GLARES... the HATE, it was all his fault!
Yet despite that, he didn't hate the Yondaime for sealing the fox in him.
He was right. What kind of man would he have been, if he asked someone to do what he couldn't? If anything, Naruto respected him even more for that, being brave enough to give up everything for the village. It wasn't the fact that he had sealed Kyuubi in him that made him hate the man, it was his naivety.
He had actually thought that Naruto would be seen as a hero, after the fox had destroyed half the village and killed so many people.
The thought made his blood boil.
Then, there was the fact the letter said he was supposed to get the scrolls right after he had become a genin, an event that happened two years ago. The old man was supposed to tell him, but hadn't for reasons unknown.
He didn't even want to think about his supposed godparents, Tsunade and Jiraiya.
He couldn't help the feeling of betrayal.
He hated this village. He hated the people in it. People said that Konoha was the best place to live in the Elemental Nations, that it was filled with the friendliest people and the reason they were so strong was because of how they believed in teamwork and kindness, but that wasn't true.
The people weren't friendly. They were spiteful creatures that hid behind a mask of kindness while really that were no different than anyone else.
It made him sick.
'Then leave.'
The familiar sound of the voice in the back of his mind was enough to break him out of his thoughts.
Sitting up, his hair falling down over his eyes and covering them in shadow, Naruto took the small scroll and put it back into the seal on the back of his neck. Standing, he made his way to the door and left the apartment without looking back.
XXX
As the sight of the front gate came into view, Naruto saw the chunin guard sending him a small glare. The street was completely silent as the young blonde made his way towards the gate, eyes still shadowed by his hair and his mouth set into a small frown.
The man stepped forward, not even trying to hide his distain at the sight of him.
"What the hell do you want, brat?"
Naruto just walked passed him, as if he wasn't there, and continued towards the gate.
Getting angry at being ignored by the demon brat, the chunin made to grab the smaller boys shoulder and turn him around.
"Hey I'm talking to yo-"
He never finished his sentence. Just as he turned to face the older man, Naruto pulled a kunai out of his sleeve and stabbed it into the guard's stomach. Eyes going wide, the chunin let out a straggled gasp as he fell to the ground, Naruto looming over him.
Bending down so that he could get a good look at the man's face, the blonde genin spoke in a voice almost completely devoid of emotion, except for the simmering rage that could be heard bubbling under the surface.
"I remember you... you were always one of the ninja that chased us during the villages 'fox hunts'."
The guard's eyes widened even further at Naruto's words, fear becoming the most dominant emotion on his face.
With a snort of disgust, Naruto turned his back on the man as he slowly bled and walked off into the trees that surrounded Konoha.
XXX
It wasn't until after hours of running that Naruto heard the people coming up behind him. He had been running non-stop ever since he left the village. For a moment, he considered trying to outrun them, but realized that such a tactic wouldn't work. If they had caught up to him, then they would be able to catch him before long. Instead, he stopped on a branch and turned to face his pursuers.
He didn't have to wait for long. Moments after he stopped, Naruto was met with the sight of Sasuke, Sakura, Lee, Hinata, Ino, Shikamaru and Kakashi stopping on the branches and looking at him with mixed expressions of shock and confusion.
Stepping forward to address his wayward student, Kakashi raised his hands in the air to show that he wasn't armed. It was almost enough to make him laugh. Kakashi actually thought he was that stupid?
"Naruto, I don't know what happened, but you need to come back with us now so we can fix it. The guard at the gate is going to live. This doesn't have to go any further then it already has."
Naruto just stared at them with a blank face, looking at each of them in turn before turning back to Kakashi. Something didn't seem right about his face. It was still Naruto, but something seemed to have changed, in a way none of them could describe.
"Too bad. We should have just slit his throat and been done with it."
The casual way in which Naruto said that was almost as shocking as the words themselves, and just like his face something about it just didn't seem like Naruto.
Eyes widening slightly before settling on a look of apathy, Kakashi let his hands drop to his side.
"You're not Naruto. What's going on? Are you the fox? Are you controlling him?"
Shaking his head slightly, the young blonde leveled haunted eyes on his sensei.
"The fox? Is that the best you can come up with? You really don't know anything about us, do you?"
Letting out a tired sigh, Naruto looked at each of them with tired eyes that didn't look right on the normally energetic blonde's face.
"We've had enough."
At the confused look on his sensei's face, Naruto let out a small, hollow chuckle.
"Thirteen years... for thirteen years, we've been the village's scapegoat for what the fox did. The beatings... the insults... and to know who our father was... and that it's his fault... we just can't take it anymore. We're not going back! We are never going back to that hell hole!"
As he finished his speech, Naruto ripped off his headband and threw it towards the group and started to speed through hand signs as fast as he could. Before any of them could stop him, he let out a yell.
"Reverse Summoning Jutsu!"
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Present time
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After that, everything went black and he woke up here.
Obviously, something had gone wrong with the Jutsu. It was supposed to take him to the toad mountain, not wherever this was. At least he had gotten away from them. He didn't want to fight his old friends, not yet anyway.
Getting to his feet, Naruto looked at his orange clothes, then at the people walking on the path at the end of the alley. After a moment, he nodded to himself. He took off his wet jacket and threw it in one of the large mental boxes, leaving him in a tight fitting black shirt, that showed just how shinny he was, and his orange pants.
Letting out another sigh, Naruto made his way out of the alley toward the crowed street.
XXX
Shortly after they had woken up, Kakashi and his team set up camp in a large empty warehouse near a river to try and figure out what had happened. He had no idea where they were, how they got here, or how to get back. Off in the distance, they could see a tower that seemed to have been made in an odd shape built on a small island in the middle of the bay.
They were sat in a circle on the ground, facing each other, as Kakashi summed up what had happened so far.
"I have nothing."
This caused the five genin sat around the white haired man to face fault. After picking themselves back up, all eyes turned to Shikamaru, the shadow user being the best at analyzing situations on their current team.
"Troublesome. Whatever Naruto was trying to do obviously didn't work the way he had hope, because I doubt he would have brought us along willingly... At least, I don't think he would by the way he was acting. Which is another reason to be concerned, because he wasn't acting anything like himself. From that, we can only assume that the Jutsu wasn't supposed to bring us to... wherever this place is. He probably made a mistake in his hand seals, which means he is as lost as us as to where we are."
After a moment of silence, they all heard a snort and turned to Ino.
"Sure sounds like him. He can't even run away right!"
"Shut up, Ino! Whatever is going on, he is still our friend!"
Surprisingly, this came from Sasuke, who was leveling a hard glare at the blonde girl.
Despite how he acted around people, Naruto included, Sasuke had a great respect for his blonde teammate. He had saved him from a fate worse than death and, even though he would never admit it, he would always feel indebted to the orange wearing knucklehead for that. He also knew what was really going through Naruto's mind when they had told him about his and Sakura's relationship. He would admit that the blondes mask was almost perfect, but he had seen the look in his eyes just before he put it on.
Yet he had still put it on for their sake.
"But he stabbed a chunin, and ran away from the village. He's nothing more than a traitor now."
Shooting to his feet in a moment of anger, Sasuke practically yelled at the purple wearing Kunoichi.
"Is that what you think? Then what does that make me? I ran away from the village too, remember? But he didn't give up on me, and I'm not giving up on him!"
"Calm down Sasuke, nobody is giving up on Naruto. Ino, think carefully before you talk from now on."
After the raven haired boy sat back down and held his girlfriends hand to try and calm down, Kakashi turned his attention back to Shikamaru.
"What do you suggest we do now?"
Raising an eyebrow at the older man, the lazy Nara let out a yawn.
"Why are you asking me? You're the team leader."
"And you're the team strategist."
"...Troublesome. Well, I guess the first thing we need to do is gather information. Wherever we are, it doesn't match anything I've seen on the maps on the Elemental Nations. My dad had me memorize all of our maps. Also, from what I heard on our way here, I don't think we speak the same language. I'd say we get Ino to use her 'Mind Transfer Jutsu' on a few random people, to try and learn what we can. Until then, we need to keep a low profile, nothing above what a civilian could do. Also, we can't look for Naruto yet."
Seeing that they were about to argue with him, Shikamaru quickly continued.
"Until we know more about wherewe are, we can't risk doing anything that could draw the attention of the people here. We don't know anything about them and, for all we know, they could have ninja stronger then even Kakashi. When we know more about this place, we can start looking for Naruto."
After thinking about what he had said, they all fell silent, unable to argue with his logic. Letting out a sigh, Kakashi nodded his head.
"Your right. We'll put off the search until we know more about where we are. Tomorrow, Ino, Shikamaru and Hinata will go and gather whatever information they can. Don't be seen and, when you're done, you will directly come back here. Until then, sleep. I'll take first watch and after that I'll wake up Sasuke. It's been a long night and I get the feeling it's not going to get any better anytime soon."
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3 years later
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It had been three years since Naruto had first landed in Jump City and he could honestly say he had never been happier.
After making his way out of the alley, he had wandered around for several hours. Eventually, he had come to a large, old look building that had turned out to be a library. The women at the front desk hadn't even spared him a glance as he walked in and, after looking for several hours, he had found a few books that he could read.
After that, with the help of shadow clones and sneaking in at night, the young blonde had been able to learn a lot about where he was. The first thing being that he was definitely not in the Elemental Nations and that they didn't have ninja. What they did have, however, was enough to make him cautious.
He didn't want to have to deal with the Justice League.
Actually, he didn't want to have to deal with anyone. He was in a new world and, although they had wars, Naruto felt no need to fight. He still trained, knowing that there would come a time he would need to fight, but until that time came he was happy to just live a normal life.
After finding someone that could set him up with fake papers so he could stay under the radar, Naruto began saving up money by using his clones, Henge'd into random people, to do jobs all around the city, mostly construction work. After two years, he had enough money to buy a small book shop and still have a good sum left over.
He was currently walking between the shelves, his arms full of books and a small smile on his face as he placed them in the right spot, nodding his head to several customers as he passed them.
One of the first things Naruto had done after getting money, was to buy new clothes to help him fit in. He could honestly say that he didn't miss his old 'kill me' orange and the fact people would actually sell him what he wanted just made him more angry at his treatment at the hands of Konoha and the fact that he had let them get away with it.
He now wore a black jacket over the top of a red t-shirt, a pair of tight fitting blue jeans and simple black sneakers, along with a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back of his hands and a light brown bucket hat on top of his head that shadowed his eyes slightly. He had let his hair grow out a little, just enough to slightly cover his eyes.
He wasn't malnourished anymore, and had grown to 6'1. After three years of proper eating and training, his body had filled out. While he wasn't bulging with muscles like the body builders he had seen around the city, he wasn't skinny, and it was easy to see his muscles through his shirt.
At the time he bought the shop, he had laughed. If his friends could see him now, 'the dobe' actually willingly being around books, he could almost see the looks on their faces.
"What does it matter what they would think? It's not like they really cared about you. They were the same as everyone else in that god-forsaken village."
Letting out a sigh at hearing one of the familiar voices in his head, Naruto made sure not to react too much to it.
For years now, he had heard the voices in the back of his head. Seven, to be exact. When he had asked them who they were, all they would tell him was that they were him, just different parts of him. There was Sloth, who for all intents and purposes was smart but lazy like Shikamaru, Pride, who would always tell him to fight anyone that dared disrespect him, Gluttony, who just wanted to eat all the time, Greed, Envy, Lust, and the ever-present Wrath.
It was actually because of Wrath that he had stabbed the guard at the gate and said what he had to Kakashi. He had been so angry, that the dark voice had gained influence over him. Not enough to outright kill someone, but enough to affect his willingness to hurt people.
Despite that, and how annoying it was to have several extra voices in his head, Naruto didn't think any of them were evil, despite how they seeming to represent the Seven Deadly Sins. They all just worried about him, even Wrath, and in a way were all his friends.
"Not now, Wrath. I'm working. Besides, it doesn't matter anymore. I'm here and they're not."
He didn't say anything after that, simply humming to himself quietly as he made his way around the shop, a happy smile on his face.
XXX
As she made her way down the street towards her favorite tea shop, Raven could be heard grumbling under her breath about stupid green loudmouths and cocky robots. She didn't know why she put up with them sometimes.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the grey skinned girl took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. It wouldn't be good if her emotions got the better of her, and she destroyed something by accident.
She ignored the people staring at her; being used to it. If anything, she had it the easiest out of all her friends. Because of her dark personality and looks, not many people would approach her, despite her popularity as a Teen Titan. She remembered when Robin had been mobbed by his fans and dragged off. It had taken them an hour to find him and whatever they did was still enough to make the boy wonder curl up into a ball and mutter about demon fan girls at the mention of it.
It was just as she was passing by a small book store that she didn't recognized that her thoughts were interrupted by a man in a business suit being thrown out of the door, followed shortly by a shout to stay out. Turning from the downed man to the door he was thrown through, Raven got a curious look on her face and walked towards the shop.
The shop was actually bigger then she had thought it would be from the outside.
It was nice; several bookshelves with all different genres were set up and set in a corner of the room at the back was a small spiral staircase leading up to a balcony overlooking the store, with some chairs and desks for people to sit while they read. Hanging from the room in several place were security cameras, strategically placed around the shop so that nowhere was left unwatched. She could see three different people sitting at one of the desks near the railing of the balcony, pouring over an old leather bound book that looked so old Raven thought it might belong in a museum. She could see that they were all wearing rubber gloves and looked to be taken notes.
Slowly making her way around the shop, stopping at random places to look at the shelves, Raven soon found herself up on the balcony. Her eyes were soon drawn to the glass cases, set up in the place of bookshelves on this level. Each case had three books inside, except for one that only had two and a blank space in between them. Walking over to inspect one of the cases, she felt her eyes widen.
In the case she had walked up to were three old books, not unlike the one she had seen the other people looking at before, bound in old worn leather. They were perfectly preserved and set on pillows of crimson velvet.
But it wasn't the decorations that had really caught her eyes. What shocked her was the fact she recognized them as spell and occult books, particularly rare ones that must have been worth a small fortune each. Raven had actually been trying to find one of these books in particular for several years now. Which begged the question, what were they doing in a small book shop in Jump City?
"Beautiful aren't they?"
Suppressing her surprise at the sudden and unexpected voice of the person who stood next to her, the grey skinned teen moved her eyes to look at the blonde boy on her right.
He didn't look any older then her, 16 at the most, but the way he was built gave him a slightly older look. He had blonde hair under a brown bucket hat. Both of his cheeks had three whisker like birthmarks and his eyes were some of the brightest blue she had ever seen. Fighting down the small blush that was starting to appear on her face at the sight of the cute blonde, Raven turned her eyes back to the books as the blonde opened his mouth once more.
"Not many people can appreciate books like these."
"They are beautiful, though I wonder how such a small shop came to possess them. That tome on the right alone is easily worth over 15,000 dollars."
"Twelve actually, I found it eight months ago in an online auction. The poor man didn't even know what he had."
Turning to look at the boy again, Raven let a little bit of surprise enter her voice.
"You own this book?"
The small smile that appeared on his face was almost enough to make her lose the battle against her blush.
"Actually, I own all of them. My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I own this store."
Accepting the offered hand, Raven shook it while giving her own name.
"Raven."
When she told him her name, another smile came to Naruto's lips and he gestured towards the book.
"Well Raven-san, would you like to have a look?"
To say she was shocked at his words would be an understatement. Here was a boy she had just met, offering to let her look through a twelve thousand dollar book like someone would ask about the weather.
"Are you sure that's ok? I mean, you paid a lot of money for it."
Reaching into his pocket, Naruto put on a pair of rubber gloves, pulled a small key on a chain from around his neck and unlocked the display case with a small chuckle. Pulling out the book, he walked over to one of the desks at the balcony of the room, Raven right behind him.
"I don't mind. After all, what's the point of having a book if you never read it, especially one as special as this? Normally, I would charge you for it. But since you seem to be one of the few that actually knows what it is, I think I can make an exception just this once. The fact that you're cute doesn't hurt."
This time she did blush, but thankfully he had his back turned to her so he couldn't see it.
Taking the empty seat next to the blonde and taking the gloves he gave her, she started to flip through the book. Raven soon found herself lost in its pages. Three hours later, she didn't even realize that she had been sitting there reading for hours on end and probably would have continued to do so if not for Naruto tapping her on the shoulder telling her it was closing time.
She hadn't even notice that they were the last two in the shop.
After watching the boy lock the book back in its display case, she suddenly realized that she had forgotten about the man being thrown out just as she had been passing by.
"Before I go, I was wondering something."
"Hmm... what's that?"
"The reason I came in here in the first place was because I saw a man being literally thrown out as I was passing by. Why was that?"
Taking a moment to think, Naruto continued walking around the now deserted shop, making sure everything was where it should be.
"You must mean Mister Gold. He's a private collector and has been after a lot of my collection for a while now. He didn't want to take no for an answer, so I threw him out."
Raising an eyebrow at the casual why he talked about it, Raven couldn't help the slight amusement in her voice.
"Just like that?"
"People like him think that just because they have money means they can get whatever they want. He didn't want my books so he could read them; he wanted them so no one else could have them."
She could see the logic in that, most people that collected books would never actually open them, or let anyone else for that matter. It seemed Naruto was one of the rare ones few that didn't mind letting others read his books... at least as long as they paid.
After that, she left for the tower, telling him she would be back to see more of his books. Naruto's answer to that had been a charming smile, and a promise that if she played her cards right he would let her see whatever she wanted.
The double meaning in his words left her with a blush on her face that lasted all the way until the next day.
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Beta'd by Sihv (9/22/12)
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Let me know what you think :)
Also I would just like to take a moment to say, BUCKET HATS RULE! So don't dis the hat XP
R&R :)