First and foremost, hi, hello! Yes, I am alive.

It's been so long since I've even bothered to look at this account. Originally I had every intention to rewrite this as soon as possible but for life reasons and pure laziness, the will to write this again fell off.

My health got so much worse that I couldn't bring myself to write for the longest time. I felt so barren for ideas that weren't dead end plots or just plain stupid. Then I started working as a Carer which ate up a lot of my time and I turned to Gaming as my release of stress.

All the while, I still amassed ideas for stories but rarely ever fleshing them out to be more than just that, ideas. Those that made it out of that sad cycle either remain incomplete or as a lucky survivor in the form of a short chapter that could potentially be strung together with another of its ilk to create something.

I was reading all the while despite that though, reading in hopes that I'd find something that would bring back my spark (so to say). I definitely found some goodies! But by this point many of them are not of the Naruto category. I'm sad to say that I have fallen out of Naruto as a fanfiction category (and as an anime) quite a bit, save from some outstanding works like writer168's "Hoshigaki" and "Stumble", Invincible Shadow's "Pulling My Weight", Keelah's "Instant Message", Varmint's "Old Man By The Bar", katlou303's "Time Flies Like An Arrow", Evil Is A Relative Term's "Kill Your Heroes" and Tobee's "Sakura's Glasses''. (These are some favourites, so I definitely recommend them.)

Aside from them all revolving around Sakura, the thing they have in common is that they deviate from the canon plot in a brilliant way, save for Instant Message which is AU. That is what I want to bring to the readers. Something brilliantly written that keeps you entertained and wanting more. I didn't feel that, reading through The Exchange. I would give myself the benefit of the doubt because it is my own work but having left it alone for so long it doesn't feel like my own writing at all.

What on earth was I writing anyway? To say that the me back then knew of her tendencies to paint herself into corners would be telling a lie. She decided to use a myriad of colours and then forced herself to tiptoe as to not step in wet rainbow paint!

Why there were so many elements I was trying to appeal to, I don't quite know. The glaring plot holes and under researched writing makes me seethe and I want to scream. The Shugo Chara-esque chibi floating humans, the weird tendencies of Sakura, the whole pink-blonde hair, Lucifer's weird paedophilia for Sakura (something in the back of my mind supplied that she wasn't even 18, so we don't even need to explain the problem here (Lucifer might look young but he's old as FU-)).

Breathe, Author. The list goes on though but my main problems, aside from the previously addressed, was that 1) this was a story that resulted in me trying too hard to be a 'cool' writer writing a 'cool' story with a bit of everything. 2) It's practically an amalgam of whatever animes I was (re)watching and/games I was playing at the time. And finally 3) I just loved to break whatever immersion there was/could have been with author notes. It's baffling really. Any issues with the story could have been discussed or resolved via PM or in the header/footer of the chapter.

These things alone make me want to pull my hair out. So here's the deal, I'm going to finish reading the rest of The Exchange, since I only reached Chapter 5 before having to write this. I'm going to pull the major points of that story and I'm going to do a big overhaul. Three years later it's finally happening. To old fans: Sorry for the wait and thank you for your patience. To the newcomers: I hope you enjoy the journey.

This story will remain on this account so everyone can read and compare the works against each other. I plan to try and write and update regularly once the first chapter is uploaded but Family and Work do come first I'm afraid.

In addition to everything said, "God" is no reference to any one god or religion. In the events of my story, old and new alike, God is simply the divine creator, while Lucifer is supposed to be depicted as the world corruptor/destroyer. How I depict them bears no means onto you, your religion, or the religion of your family or peers (nor on them as individuals). Please take it serious enough to enjoy the story but not serious enough to find concern in my work.

Now for all those story IDs:

writer168's "Hoshigaki" [12373473] and "Stumble" [11403659]

Invincible Shadow's "Pulling My Weight" [11910907]

Keelah's "Instant Message" [4176676]

Varmint's "Old Man By The Bar" [12199854]

katlou303's "Time Flies Like An Arrow" [12718639]

Evil Is A Relative Term's "Kill Your Heroes" [11418526]

Tobee's "Sakura's Glasses'' [10969652]