*If you don't want to hear my ramblings, skip to the last paragraph.

Yup, I know what you're thinking. You thought this was dead, didn't you? Well, so did I, I was neck deep in some writer's block for this. I had rediscovered my love for Star Wars and was getting back into that, and during that gap didn't know what I was going to do with this. But I found my first rough draft when I had started writing Unity, and it inspired me to finish this story you've just finished reading.

Another question: yup, I really did stop writing right near the end. Making a satisfying conclusion is always a little difficult. Always sounds good on the draft, then when putting it down... not so much.

I got the inspiration for this story from two things, a creative writing class I took and watching the Boruto Movie. From the workshop, I got the concept of "threat level," or how much of a challenge an antagonist is to the protagonist. And I realize Naruto was quickly succumbing to a "hyper-threat level rise," or that the protagonist is so powerful that challenges no longer are logical. I mean, you had to have a villain come from another world just to fight them in the last two movies.

So, I made a reasonable, classy, homegrown but intimidating villain, which I think I did pretty well. And then there was some nice political issue thrown in, some interpersonal conflict, and bam a story which I'm really quite proud of.

Ultimately, I hope you enjoyed this work. To those who reviewed, followed, and favorited all the way to the end of the veryyyyyyy drawn out story, thanks a lot. As you've probably heard countless times, any bit of acknowledgement from people on the work you've done is what drives authors, artists- everyone, including me. We're all grateful for the time you, the reader, put into seeing our stuff. As for any future work I do, I don't know if I'll write anything from Naruto for a while. I'm doing my own Star Wars novel called Dim Star, and also co-writing with the core of justice on another Star Wars novel called Child of Darkness. I may do a few short stories of Naruto here and there, and I still want to write about alternate Itachi/Kisame and Pain/Konan histories. When they'll come out... well, we'll see.

Thanks again for reading, and have a nice day.