Hello!

It certainly has been a while since we last spoke and for that, I apologize, before I begin I want to say that sincerely do hope all of you have been staying safe with everything going on in the world. With that said I now also want to talk about where I have been in regard to this story (and my other stories to be fair) and what the status of this story is for the people were wondering given how long it's been since the last chapter.

To start with I want to make it clear that this story HAS NOT been abandoned and I do plan to come back to it! I know that was a concern for some people based on a few PMs I received and I just need to make that clear. I would have done a full-on announcement if that was the case so please do not think that I've just left the story to rot on its own or anything. This, of course, begs a question then, if the story has not been abandoned where is the next chapter?

Well, stuff happened. Nothing bad I assure you but just other things that captured my interests. If you somehow haven't seen it or don't pay attention to other stories I post then you might not know that I started my second, pure Naruto story. This one is sort of a culmination of everything I've learned and everything I wanted ABP to be from the outset but didn't have the skill or knowledge to pull off and I've been having a really good time with it as have readers. Given that I am someone who writes whatever I feel really strongly for, most of my time has gone into working on that for the moment.

That is not to say I haven't written anything for my other fics but I've never been a fan of forcing a story/chapter out just because I "need to". If there isn't sufficient passion or creativity to it then I find I can barely write at all and I just end up unhappy with whatever I produce.

With all that said, you probably don't care very much about all that and just want to know when can you expect the next chapter of this and the answer to that is… I don't really know. It is a terrible answer I'm aware but I don't know when exactly the next update will be ready since I don't know when that second wind will hit. That said, I do wanna talk about more cheerful news in regards to this fic and something that could very well turn my interests again and that is your answers to the question I asked last time!

So last time I asked you all about changing Naruto's summons and by and large it seemed as if a majority of people were into the idea and you all had plenty of suggestions. Given that I have picked some of the more popular ones and would like to get your opinions on those that have made it into my sort of final round of consideration.

To those that disagreed with the idea, I may have PM'd you a response so check your inbox

Anywho, the list of final options is shaping up to be:

Big Cats: (Lions, tigers, possibly sabertooth)

Komodo Dragons: (Those big beefy bois)

Elephants: (Which surprised the hell out of me but they showed up a lot lol)

Honey Badgers: (Little tanky bois)

Hyenas: (Might be a fun pack summon)

Jellyfish: (I admit this one made me laugh and then I thought about and realized how terrifying this is, I didn't realize there was a species that was an about as long as a blue whale)

Manta Rays/Sting Rays: (Another fun aquatic animal)

Now, there were a lot of suggestions and I know some people might be disappointed they don't see their suggestions but I did and get the more popular choices and some of the more popular/unique thematic suggestions in as well such as water-based creatures for the whole Uzumaki heritage thing. For everyone who wanted DInosaurs, believe me, I understand why and in almost any other fic I might have caved to that but that leaned a bit too hard into the realm of a bit silly for me lol

Anyway do let me know which you like most from the list above, I think they all have their uses both in and out of combat so I'd like to hear your thoughts. I also admit that having a better idea of which animal to go might help propel me to write the chapter faster so there is that *nudge nudge*

Anyway, sorry to have gotten any hopes up but I do want to get back to this soon. I just need to get in the right mood. As always it was great to talk with you all and again I hope you are staying safe!