I am sorry its been... what? At least 8 months since I last wrote? I literally have rarely had a day go by where I din't think about this story in some way, and the only reason I haven't written again is because of one simple fact:

I'm drawing a complete blank on how the chunin exams should be handled. Should Naruto befriend Gaara? Should some difference in experiences lead to someone else discovering and alerting the hokage to the invasion? I've backed myself into a corner with this. And as such, I am asking: if any of you have an idea for how I can handle this, even just suggestions for scenes I can write in the meantime as I figure out what I'm gonna do here, please just leave them in a review.

I still have no intentions of abandoning this, if you couldn't tell. And if worst comes to worst, and I really can't find a way to resolve this, I will at the very least write an epilogue or short event summary of what I planned to do.

So just know, this is not abandoned, and no matter if it takes months, weeks, even a year, I want to keep writing this.

And to guest user Adriana, thank you. Knowing someone is still hoping for this story is really helping to keep me going :)

Setsuna Eien