Author's Note (End)

Hi. Been awhile, huh?

First off, I'd like to deeply apologize to those of you who liked my story, gave input, and who hoped it would eventually continue despite the years going by like leaves in the wind. I should have posted something letting you readers know what was going on, and that, my friends, is unforgivable. Despite not posting anything, I kept writhing with anxiety over how I was going to explain the hiatus, my lack of responses, etc. But I knew deep down that nothing could truly be accomplished until I had developed and solidified what I wanted from the story itself.

As to the "why" of the absence: Soon after Chapter 7 was completed a lot of personal things in my life came crashing down around me. It shook me to my core, and soon after I became afraid to continue writing. This lasted for some time, but I never once stopped thinking about Eclipse and what I wanted to do with it. Many future chapter outlines, world-creation, and character arcs were developed over the last few years, but I refused to post anything concrete because by the time I had it down somewhat solid we all learned that the actual manga Naruto was ending soon.

This gave me great pause. For me, knowing everything about a source gives me the license to create an alternate story, with all the understood mechanics and motivations set in stone by the source (Kishimoto). So I began editing my arcs to fit what was being unveiled. For many, especially fanfic readers, the romantic aspect of our fandom is a strong motivator for the creation of the actual written fanfiction. For me, that was really not the case. The Naruto/Hinata romance had been set in stone since the first chapter, and if one paid attention it was pretty stinking obvious (no offense to any Sakura or whomever fans out there, but c'mon.). No, what I needed was more information on the world of Naruto. For example, what chakra actually is, why the Byakugan was the originator of the Sharingan, where the hell the Rinnegan even comes from, etc. These questions, to me, were integral to where and what I had planned for my story.

So I continued editing, devising, creating. Then my hard-drive died. Literally, it died. I lost everything. Pages and pages of material gone forever despite my efforts to save it. Luckily I have a pretty good memory when it comes to these things, but not everything is so easily restored. Not to mention that my attitude and personal feelings on certain things have changed dramatically over these years.

This leaves the question of, "What, then, do I do?" With the end of Naruto I'm now given the absolute freedom I longed for to create my alternate tale. Granted, I predicted a large amount of revealing information Kishimoto gave out over the end, but things like the Data Book 4 and The Last were very important to me in terms of character development. I'll give an example here: The majority of fanfiction writers that use Hinata as a main character tend to give her the chakra element of Water when in fact she has the dual natures of Lightning and Fire – just like Sasuke. This relatively simple piece of information actually rewrote the entire concept for my Hinata character and her development.

I had to start from the beginning again. If that one piece of information could shake my conceptualization of just one character, what else was there I had missed? My desire had always been to create as faithful an alternate adaptation as possible, so more research was necessary.

That research is done, as of now. Everything related to the manga Naruto has been revealed (aside from Kakashi's face, which, honestly, is pretty great for me) and set in stone. Sure there's the 15 year blank period that The Last is set in, but, really, I can imagine not much happening in that period anyway aside from babies.

This means I can revive this story anew. I can give it the justice it holds in my head and in my heart. I love this story, it's characters, it's theme, and – above all – it's world. It's a world we never saw in Naruto, and I really can't wait to reveal it to you.

So, I'm packing up this beta version of Eclipse now. It's time for a makeover and a mulligan. It's time for Eclipse - Book One: The Frog in the Well.

I hope you'll rejoin me on this adventure I set out to show you years ago, and – this time – we'll get to experience it's creation together.

Though I still like the original prologue; I think I'll keep that.

I've recently found a lot of free time on my hands so expect the first chapter to be published in a week or so, hopefully. I did say I would never abandon this story, and I never will. Years may go by, but I will always think of it and of you and your encouragement and it will some day end properly and in completion.

Thank you for your patience, impatience, and overall for just being you.