To all my American readers, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY. Yep this is a gift for you guys, though it's my sister's B'day as well so I did some hard work for her as well.

Make sure to read the update of The return of Pein as well,

Review Response

D140725: The sword Naruto received in the last chapter is a trump card for him, (donald trump card hehe) the sword he was given by Sandaime is his primary weapon.

Dai Sennin kurosaki d Naruto: I know what you mean but that's the translation of lightning rod in Japanese. Don't worry, I'll use lightning rod and Hiraishin will only be used on some sword related events.

Zxan: It's not a plot hole, being an Uzumaki, Naruto still has a lot to learn. I'll right about Naruto asking the Sandaime about it though, thanks for pointing it out for me.

Tenjou Mitchell: Naruto's Taijutsu style is a mixture of his own, Nidaime's and Shodaime's Taijutsu styles, the previous author has written so in the previous chapters, I looked it up and it is there.

Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto

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CHAPTER-9 Libration

It was late in the evening when Naruto arrived at Tazuna's house to find everyone else already in their rooms, resting. They all were very tired from the travelling that they had done in this mission and the thought of a comfortable bed after being forced to sleep in the forest was more than just tempting. Naruto decided to go to the kitchen and check if he was lucky enough to find something to eat. Walking to the kitchen, he spotted one Kakashi Hatake sitting in his room with the window open, staring at the moon shining in the night sky. The Jonin was definitely thinking of something personal, that Naruto knew, but for the sake of concern for the Jonin, he decided to approach him.

On feeling someone coming towards him, Kakashi turned his head to meet the eyes of Naruto. There was a silent conversation between them as they locked eyes, before Kakashi patted the floor beside him and nodded lightly. Naruto quickly walked forward and occupied the signified space before staring out of the window, at the moon. He was contemplating on how to start a conversation with the older shinobi but luckily, he was saved the trouble when Kakashi spoke first.

"You know Naruto, sometimes in the life of a shinobi, things can get a little too hectic. It's not like the life of a ninja isn't a stressful job, but sometimes it gets just too much to hand at the same time," spoke Kakashi, still staring outside the window.

"I can understand sensei, when I was training day and night to improve myself in the academy, sometimes I would fall down on the ground due to exhaustion and think of taking a break from the training for a day or two. But then I thought what's the benefit of taking a break, all the training, all the hard work and all the precious time that I invested would be in vain and thus, I always started training with double the vigor," said Naruto with a true heart.

It was true, whenever Tobirama sensei instructed him to perform a jutsu or an exercise, he will do so until he collapsed with exhaustion. However, Naruto will never reveal that the water whip of the Nidaime was also a great inspiration for him in his battle against laziness.

"That's right, one must never stop trying to get better, I myself went through the same phase, constant training sessions with sensei then self training and then missions of war. Dealing with physical exhaustion is something one can easily take care of, dealing with mental exhaustion is something else," said Kakashi looking at Naruto slightly, gauging his reaction to the words.

"I don't know what you mean sensei, maybe because I have yet to have my first kill on the field, that's why mental exhaustion is something I am quite stranger to," said Naruto without missing a beat almost like it was a rehearsed reply.

'That's good, at least the kid has yet to get his hands soaked with blood, that will be worry quenching news for Sandaime sama for sure,' mused Kakashi before he pulled his right arm around Naruto and playfully pulled him in a sideways hug.

"Don't worry, because when you do become acquainted with the mental stress of a shinobi, I'll be there to help you, I am not sure if Azuma is any good with the ted talk but I know that I can help you a lot better than that chain smoker, after all, I was an ANBU captain once," spoke Kakashi before realizing he said a little too much.

'Hmm, I spilled some beans back there, well who cares, it's not a village secret or anything, the whole world knows I was one, Naruto may as well get to know too,' thought Kakashi before getting relaxed again.

Naruto felt a little awkward with the sudden physical contact but decided that as a shinobi, establishing a trustworthy relationship with the close allies is always a good move.

"Nee, sensei, how is the life in Konoha ANBU?" asked Naruto, a little excitement leaking in his question.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that.

"What's with the sudden interest in the ANBU? If you are planning to apply, sorry to inform you kid but being a chunin is a must for the job," informed Kakashi, speaking in an elderly tone for a change.

"Hehe, I am just curious that's all," spoke Naruto, cleverly changing tactics to force Kakashi into telling him more about ANBU.

"Alright then, Konoha's ANBU was established in the first shinobi world war by our Nidaime, Tobirama Senju, someone idolize if what Azuma told me was correct?" asked Kakashi, trying to stir the subject. Unfortunately, all he got from the blonde was an affirmative nod in return.

" So, at that time, the villages of Iwa and Kumo, along with Kiri were fighting against Konoha for the conflict of Hi no Kuni's fertile lands situated east of our village's location. Suna had declared themselves neutral and refused to help Konoha in the time of need, leaving us with only the village of Uzushio as our allies in the war. Even the smaller villages with shinobi forces were afraid of the three great villages and refrained from involving with Konoha in any kind of relation."

"Konoha was the strongest of the great SIX of that time, followed closely by Kumo, Uzushio, Iwa, Kiri and Suna. Naturally, the might of Konoha was enough to force the enemy think twice before attacking the land of Konoha's control. We later came to know that it was Kiri that started the war by convincing both Nidaime Tsuchikage and Nidaime Raikage. Against these kind of shinobi from three villages, who specialized in Doton, Raiton and Suiton, Konoha needed a force that could not only defend against all these chakra natures but also counter attack while gaining the upper hand in the battlefield."

"Nidaime was already toying with the Idea of creating such a force but the Shodai never agreed. It was only after taking the mantle of the Hokage as the Nidaime did he made it a reality, thus the ANBU was born. That time, it only consisted of Jonins having efficiency in two or more chakra natures. ANBU was a temporary assembly of shinobi, it means that the members weren't permanent. Whenever there was a need of a powerful force, the chosen shinobi were referred as ANBU."

'So how did the ANBU we see in the village came to be?" asked Naruto.

"It was when we lost our greatest ally, Uzushio to the combined forces of Iwa, Kumo and Kiri, did we came to realize the importance of the permanent existence of such a force both inside and outside our village walls lest risk the same happening to the village behind our backs at the battlefield."

"It was actually in the days of the Nidaime's reign, that he made a unit of such powerful shinobi who were stronger than a normal Jonin but a little weaker than a Kage. Named it ANBU black Ops."

"It was a secret force of Konoha military forces which operated behind the enemy lines, infiltrating bases and assassinating enemy leaders and officers, that was its forte, but just when the ANBU was starting to function, the second shinobi world war broke out, there was no Senju Hashirama to handle the talks, Nidaime was martyred, then the third war occurred. Casualties on the very first day was in tens of thousands, many homes, families were left with scars, scars that will haunt them for the rest of their lives." Spoke Kakashi with a dead voice, how could he forget, his own father was one the first shinobi who went on the missions prior the war, only to commit suicide due to that.

"People think that it was the Yondaime, Namikaze Minato, who won the war single handedly for Konoha, I beg to differ. Though it is true that it was sensei who forced Iwa to back out and eventually Kumo to stop the war, but if it wasn't for the Black Ops working in the shadows and then on the battlefield, Konoha would have fallen on the very first day of the battle. There was no Shodai to tower over the enemy, no Nidaime to crush the enemy with a single jutsu of his. Sandaime was still young and getting used to the title and the sannins, they were not up to the task, either grieving or doing illegal work, only Jiraiya sama fought for the village."

"In the last war, the only force on the battlefield that stuck fear in the hearts of the enemies of Konoha was the Black Ops, they never failed a mission, never left a man behind, no witnesses, no evidences."

"Anyways, I think we are going off the track here, you asked what was it like to be an ANBU of Konoha right?" asked Kakashi while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

Naruto just gave a nod, amazed to hear such a lesson from Kakashi. He had of course known about the fact that it was the Nidaime who established the ANBU, but all this was very intriguing.

"Well, I'll not sugar coat it, life of an ANBU is anything but easy. You have to constantly be on alert, stay out of sight of even your friends and family. Go on missions after missions back to back without a day off for months. In short, you have to embrace the darkness completely to become a ANBU. I was an ANBU and I would not trade those memories for anything, it's worth the blood, the stress, the sweat, to protect your home with your life," finished Kakashi with a sigh.

"Hm, it seems being an ANBU is both a blessing and a curse," concluded Naruto in a thinking pose.

"That's a good way of putting it," said Kakashi.

A comfortable silence fell between them as they stared at the night sky together. Naruto was thinking about asking Kakashi to train him a little in both Kenjutsu and Suiton as the guy was a legendary ninja of his village, a prime candidate for the position of the Godaime. Having his favor will be a blessing for sure and learning from him will allow him to reveal some of his abilities in the future.

"Uh, sensei?"

"Hm,"

"Can you train me in Suiton and Kenjutsu?" asked Naruto.

"Hm, why those two?" asked Kakashi, genuinely curious.

"Well first, Azuma sensei cannot train me in suiton as he only knows Katon and Futon along with a little Doton. As for Kenjutsu, it's not smart to carry around a sword if you don't know how to properly use one right?"

"You don't know how to use a sword?!" asked a surprised Kakashi.

Naruto was carrying that sword with a sense of confident the whole way to the Nami no Kuni, Kakashi had also noticed him drawing on the said sword in the confrontation against Zabuza. Even if it was for an instance, he had noticed to muscle movement of a swordsman in Naruto and now the same genin was telling him that he didn't knew how to use a damn sword.

"No, no, it's not like that. It's just that I have trained on my own with this sword and never had a teacher train me in this. I wasn't all that concerned regarding my swordsmanship until now but after seeing someone like Zabuza… you know," indicated Naruto.

"Hm, alright but I won't be able to train you until we get back to the village, once we are back in Konoha, I'll start to teach you a little something about those two arts in between the missions. You will still attend the training sessions of your own team as well, no skipping on those," said Kakashi, now a light frank with the blonde enigma.

"Alright Sensei," spoke Naruto with a grin.

()()()()()()()

For the next few days, either one of the Jonin went with Tazuna to protect him while he built the bridge while the other stayed to train the remaining Genin teams. Contrary to Sasuke's belief, Azuma never trained his team in Taijutsu, reason being in the form of his team. Hyuga clan members had their own style of Taijutsu called the Jyuken. The Nara clan heavily relayed on their long range shadow abilities while in close combat, a Nara was capable of defending himself/herself, they relayed on their teammates to provide backup. That's why some heavy hitters such as the Akimichi clansmen were paired with them. In Shikamaru's case, Naruto was more than capable of doing that task.

Tree walking was the curse that Sasuke was still struggling against while even that lazy Nara had finished the damned exercise. In his eyes, walking on a tree only made you look like a clown, a true shinobi was someone who could reduce that tree to ashes with a quick Katon jutsu and be done with. Uchiha's were better than this, he was better than this, but for the sake of increasing his chakra control, he needed to perform this exercise with the perfection of an Uchiha and he will be damned if he admitted defeat.

Soon it was the last day of work for the Bridge workers, as today they will finally complete the lifeline of the people of Nami no Kuni. At Tazuna's house, the bridge builder was about to depart for the last day of work. Escorting him were the two tteams of Konoha as the two Jonin's have decided to skip the last day training as the genins will need to be completely rested for their trip back to Konoha tomorrow.

"Alright Teams, lets head out, make sure to always keep Tazuna san in your eye sight and help in the work wherever you can," ordered Azuma before following Tazuna and Kakashi out of the house.

As soon as they were in the middle of the trip, Naruto suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to bring his sword with him. He quickly approached Azuma and informed him about the situation.

"Alright Naruto, You know where the bridge is right? Go and get your gear, we'll meet you there," spoke Azuma while smoking a cigarette.

Naruto merely nodded and dashed back to the house, his only objective being to get the weapon and get back to join the rest of the squad as soon as possible.

As he neared the house of Tazuna, he observed that many civilians were running away from the direction, getting a little confused he caught a middle aged woman and asked her.

"What's going on?"

The woman looked desperate to get herself free from him, maybe that's why she immediately blurted out,

"Gato's men! They are here to take someone!" she almost whispered before getting herself away from Naruto and fleeing the scene.

Turning around to stare in the direction from which the woman was coming from, he started to sprint towards Tazuna's house at full speed. He arrived at the scene only to see a thug grab Tazuna's daughter Tsunami with her hair before dragging her towards the front door from the kitchen. Another thug was standing idly on the front of the house, yawning lazily. As the first thug approached the front gate, Inari came running down from upstairs, Naruto's sword in his hands as he swung the said weapon at the thug with all his might.

The tears in his eyes were making it difficult to see and hence the strike never came close to the thug who grinned at the kid with a vicious face. He threw Tsunami in the corner of the room before advancing at Inari with his own sword in hand.

"I've heard they give more money to beggars without limbs eh, Koinji?" spoke thug to his partner on the gate.

"Yep that's true Dozu, and they give more money for the said kids mother as well," said Koinji with an evil smirk, a glint in his eyes as he stared at Tsunami.

"NO! Don't do anything to him, please I beg you!" screamed Tsunami as she crawled on the floor towards Inari with fear in her eyes.

She reached her child and clutched on to him protectively, not giving any opening to the thug to strike the boy.

"Come on Doza, finish it. We have o take care of the woman too you know," spoke koinji as he yawned again, appearing bored out of his mind.

Hearing his partner, Doza grinned and raised his sword to deliver a downwards strike to the boys head peaking from Tsunami's shoulder. With a evil twinkle in his eye, he slashed downwards.

CLANK!

Raising his eyes, he saw a perfectly polished kunai blocking his sword strike as a boy of twelve or thirteen appeared in front of him, holding the Kunai in a reverse grip. Blue eyes shining with hatred as the blond hair of the boy moved with the light wind coming in from the door. The emblem of Konoha shone brightly on the forehead of the boy as he glared at the man in front of him.

"Were you going to strike on a woman with her kid? Such a scum like you really exists in this world huh?" spoke the new comer.

"Hn, Shut up, or I'll kill you now along with your whole family!" screamed Doza in rage while his partner decided to allow him to have some fun the new boy.

"Like a street dog like you could even touch me," taunted Naruto with an emotionless face.

"RHAAW! That's it, you are dead!" screamed Doza as he brought his sword back to deliver a finisher strike to the ninja in front of him.

Naruto reacted at lightning speed and jammed the ring of the Kunai end in the chest of the thug, forcing him to stagger back with surprise evident in his eyes. Doza brought a hand to his chest as he started coughing a little while bringing down the sword holding hand on his side. Naruto turned his head a little and stared at a bewildered mother and son duo before speaking in a calm and collected voice.

"And that's not how you strike with a weapon kid," he said before slowly grasping the handle of his sword from the loose hand of Inari. He suddenly did a three sixty swing and decapitated Doza with a clean swipe of his sword.

"This is how you strike with it," he continued his lecture as Tsunami tried to cover Inari's eyes from seeing the gore scene in front of them. Doza's lifeless body dropped to his knees before falling backwards, his head rolling out of the door.

On seeing the end of Doza in front of his very eyes, Koinji gave out a war roar before trying to draw his sword from the sheath. He may have succeeded if it wasn't for a well aimed Kunai lodging itself in his forehead, right between the eyes, courtesy of Naruto.

"and that's how you throw a weapon," finished Naruto as his hand fell back to his side after throwing the weapon with deadly accuracy.

Turning around, he kneeled down to the level of the mother and son before ruffling Inari's hair a little.

"That was very brave of you, you know, trying to save your mother even when the odds were against you. Never change, always stay strong and protect those precious to you. Remember this feeling of desperation when your loved ones are in danger and the feeling of relief when you have managed o save them," said Naruto as he stood up and made two shadow clones.

"They will protect you for the time being while I go and protect Tazuna san, stay safe," he said as he helped Tsunami up and sat her on a chair in the kitchen.

"Th-Thank you Naruto kun," she said, still a little shaken.

"Don't worry, it's the job of a ninja to protect others who are unable to defend themselves, anyways I'll be going now," he said.

Tsunami and Inari merely nodded little as Naruto disappeared in a burst of speed. It wasn't like Gato to strike the house when he knew that Tazuna will be on the bridge, working. Maybe this was just a distraction or a side attack and he is sure that Tazuna will be taken care of on the bridge. He may have sent out someone strong at the bridge to take care of the matters.

With these thoughts of realization, Naruto pumped chakra to his legs, leaving cracks on the tree branches as he shot through the dense forest of Nami no Kuni. His destination, The Bridge building site.

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WITH THE REST OF THE TEAM

Everyone arrived at the bridge to find the area covered in dense fog. There was a sickening feeling in the air as the scent of blood could be detected everywhere. The silence was pregnant as the team approached the bridge with their senses on high alert. The visibility was almost zero as they could only see two to three meters in front of them, Kakashi, Sasuke and Hinata being the exceptions.

"What is this Kakashi?" asked Azuma with a hint of urgency in his voice.

"I never said it was a holiday for those morons, where is everybo-" started Tazuna before he tripped on something. Looking down at the obstacle, everyone saw the horror stricken face of a worker with his tongue out of his mouth and eyes rolled back in his head. Looking a little upwards, they could see that the poor man hand tried to crawl away from the bridge even in the last moments of his life. Blood stained the floor of the bridge as the fog started to lift a little, revealing all those workers who were missing.

Bodies were littered everywhere as crows sat on the limbs, biting on the freshly killed prey. Deep gashes were observed on the floor of the bridge by the two Jonins, indicating the use of a sword or a futon jutsu. The use of a sword was confirmed when they heard the voice of one Demon of the hidden mist.

"Well well well, I don't see that blond kid out here today, I wonder where he is?" came the voice from the fog.

"He is too busy to fight the likes of you right now, but don't worry, you'll see him soon, if you survive long enough that is," said Kakashi as he raised his hatai ate to reveal the sharingan. The two Kunoichis behind his back fell into protective stances around Tazuna because they knew that the heavy hitters of their squads were going to get busy soon.

"I am sure I'll meet him again, but I am not alone today, you see, you are not the only ones with students travelling you. I have a student of my own, Haku," said Zabuza as he appeared in front of the Konoha shinobis with the kiri hunter nin beside him. On seeing the ninja beside Zabuza, Kakashi and Azuma quickly recognized the said shinobi in a heartbeat.

"Should've finished you myself back there," spoke Kakashi with his signature laziness.

"Yes but what can I say, you missed the opportunity," said Zabuza with a mock grin.

"That we have," said Azuma while bringing his trench knives out.

"I would've asked you to hand over the gramps but I know better than that," said Zabuza as he prepared to start the fight.

"It's good to hear that we could teach you some manners," said Azuma.

"Then lets fight," said Zabuza as he walked backwards before disappearing from the view completely.

"Kiba, Sasuke, you two come with me, Azuma, you and Shikamaru take care of that hunter nin," said Kakashi as the Genins nodded.

"Right" said Azuma and dashed towards the hunter nin, followed closely by Shikamaru.

"Let's go," said Kakashi as he too dashed towards Zabuza accompanied by Kiba and Sasuke.

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When Naruto arrived at the bridge, he saw Hinata and Sakura protecting Tazuna while the sounds of fighting could be heard in the fog ahead on the bridge. He decided to approach Hinata before joining the fight to get some information. He landed besides Sakura, nearly scaring her to death before speaking,

"What's the situation?" he asked.

"Azuma sensei and Shikamaru kun are fighting the hunter nin, Zabuza's ally in front of us, in that dome of ice. Kakashi sensei, Sasuke and Kiba are fighting Zabuza further ahead on the bridge," informed Hinata as she stared at the bridge with her Byakugan blazing in the fog.

"Good, I'll be joining Azuma sensei and Shikamaru then," said Naruto.

'Hey, why are you boys getting to fight while we stand guard here?" complained Sakura.

"Because guarding the client is the most important task," answered Naruto shortly and disappeared in the fog.

"Hm,how can you handle being on team with this guy?" asked Sakura with a pout.

"I wonder how your teammates handles being on a team with you Sakura san?" said Hinata with indifference, no one spoke ill of her team in front of her, no one.

"Eh?"

()()()()()()()

Azuma and Shikamaru were not faring well in the dome of the ice. Even as a Jonin, Azuma's power was proving to be wasteful in front of the strong kekei genkai of the Yuki clan as Haku jumped from crystal to crystal while firing ice needles with deadly precision. Shikamaru had received quite an acupuncture therapy as multiple needles were sticking out of his body, luckily none had hit any vital points though he was having some problems in using his chakra properly. As for Azuma, apart from a couple of needles hitting him in the back and a few grazing his clothes, none had dealt any significant damage to the Jonin.

Naruto appeared inside the dome by kicking down a crystal easily, unfortunately that crystal got repaired on its own instantly. He landed in the middle of the structure and stared at the surrounding ice crystals with a hint of amazement. This was the Hyuton release, a kekei genkai of kiri which combined the Suiton and Futon chakra together in the perfect balance to create Ice.

"Entering the dome is an easy task, leaving it is quite another," said Haku from an ice crystal before jumping to another crystal, all the way firing ice needles at the three shinobis.

"Great now you joined us as well," spoke Shikamaru.

"Shh,it not the time to be sarcastic Shikamaru, focus on the situation here and think of a way to get us out of here," scolded Azuma while still looking at Zabuza's protégé.

"That's what I was saying sensei, I have a plan and now that Naruto is here we can implement it," whispered Shikamaru as he rolled towards his teammates to avoid getting hit by more of those ice crytals.

"What is your plan Shika?" asked Naruto in a low voice.

"Did you guys notice how he jumps from one crystal to another almost instantly?" he asked, gaining slight, almost unnoticeable nods from his teammates.

"Well I saw that he converts the freezing hard ice into water droplets just before entering via the newly made space and once inside, he turns it back to Ice crystals, freezing the crystal back to its strength," spoke Shikamaru.

"So what's your plan, don't tell me it was to lecture us on the topic of ice an water?" asked Naruto.

"Only you can say that Naruto, anyways, I want you to mix your chakra in the water exactly when he turns it into water and keep it open for a little longer," instructed Shikamaru.

"While you Sensei, you channel your futon and Katon chakra to make the inside of the crystal hot via hot air," he said again.

"When water freezes, it expands, which will compress the hot air inside the crystals. When something is compressed, it gets hotter, meaning more water. It will not only reduce his speed of travelling but also reduce the strength of his crystals drastically," he explained further.

"Alright, Naruto we are doing this, get ready!" said Azuma as he started to make an invisible globe of hot air beside him while Naruto started to channel chakra to the crystals. As they started to do what Shikamaru had explained to them, they noticed suddenly fall in the enemies speed which meant they were succeeding.

Haku frowned a little when he realized that his ice crystal were proving to be taking a lot of chakra to get back in shape after every time he jumped from on crystal to another. He stared at the three shinobis before spotting a smirk on Naruto's face.

"What are you smirking at? You are already doomed to die in this dome," said Haku with smug voice.

"Oh I was thinking of doing something regarding this monkey who was jumping from crystal to crystal over our heads," said Naruto in a taunting voice.

"What can you do ninja? Even Zabuza sama cannot break this technique of mine, how can you hope to do so?" spoke Haku as he forgot to jump to another crystal.

"Oh I don't know, maybe I can do THIS!" said Naruto as he jumped high in air and punched the crystal right where Haku's face was with a chakra infused fist. Haku stared at the fist smugly before his eyes widened when the crystal started to crack before breaking completely, allowing the fist to collide with his mask covered face with neck breaking speed. Haku was sent flying on the bridge as Naruto landed on the shards of the now destroyed crystal, soon joined by his sensei and teammate.

"Good thinking Shikamaru, I knew having you as a teammate will pay off someday," said Naruto jokingly.

"You're welcome Naruto," said Shikamaru in a bored tone.

Azuma was quick enough to go forward and take the injured shinobi in his custody by knocking him out and tying him up.

"CHIDORI!" came Kakashi's shout as he drove his fist right through Zabuza's chest, killing the man instantly. Slowly withdrawing his hand from the chest of the now legendary man's dead corpse, he wiped his hand clean of blood before turning to look at Naruto who was staring at his summoned nin hounds with amazement.

"About time you returned, huh?" he spoke tiredly before staring at Azuma.

"You got yours alive, lucky you," he said as he sat on the bridge side, leaning on the edge as he grasped at his side to see fingers coated in blood.

"Damn, he got me," he spoke before falling down on the floor.

Last thing he saw was Pakkun and the others surrounding him with worried looks on their face.

"Yep he definitely got me!" he said before his sight went black.

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TO BE CONTINUED

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