Update

I've made this announcement on Spacebattles but I'll paste it here and then explain what that means for you Patrons.

- - -

A lot has happened in the last few days. It's something I'm going to henceforth call the Asuma Riot of 2023. In my mind, it's certainly a memorable way to end the year and not an all-round negative thing. The criticism was more than valid, even if it got way out of hand with people going in circles, posting pages of argument -- so much that eventually, this thing warranted a staff post.

That is not quite how I imagined things going. I won't rehash it since I summed up my thoughts (and so did a few people) on Page 28. Instead, I'm going to say pretty bluntly where this story will go.

I'm going to delete Ch. 11 & 12 and then work on Arc 2 during the new year. Once that's done, I'll begin posting again. I won't be dropping this, and you guys have not demoralised me. Once the immediate hurt and indignation died down enough, I re-read every single criticism (the ones that were actual criticism, anyway) and properly thought it over.

I'll most likely take the first half of January off, though it might be the entire month mostly because of the 4 university assignments that have been hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles. Swords, rather. I've pushed them back as far as they can go and I've got 3 due on the 8th and one due on the 11th. With that in mind, I can't quite say when it'll be finished but I suppose that's just how the cookie crumbles.

Also, I think I'll be looking for a beta for this fic, who will be completely impartial and not someone whom I've known as a friend prior. I'm all for us becoming friends in the process of beta-ing, but I think my friends have lacked the... as one of them put it, the salt needed for the criticism to come across as actual criticism rather than suggestive.

Also, for anyone interested, I'll be hosting a Naruto watch party around 19:30 GMT. Watch-along? Whatever you call them, I'll be watching Naruto with a few people in the Discord server to wind down for the week and get back some of that enthusiasm.

Hope you guys have a wonderful New Year. This'll be it from me until January (unless you're in the Discord server).

TLDR; I'm not dropping the story, will delete Ch. 11 & 12 to rework Arc 2 in my spare time, and will come back at some point in late January.

- - -

Now, what this means is that I'll be pausing billing until I've written Arc 2, and delete Ch. 13, 12, and 11 from here. I know it sucks, but I truly believe that I can write it to be a lot better than how it was.

Sure, it sucks. I did spend hours of my life writing a thousand-word-long fight scene, but I believe this is the better decision.