I had completely forgotten what day it was yesterday so when I went to tweet about having finished chapter 75 I realized I was due for another update- and that I was supposed to post chapter 73 today.

It’s posted, don’t worry.

In that tweet I mentioned I’d find something to talk about- plan B was just going to be a picture of my cat- but minutes later the idea came to me in the form of a review for chapter 72 calling Asuma “the most mediocre of the Hokages…” [daniel2610994] which got me thinking that I obviously haven’t portrayed him well enough in the few scenes hes’ been in.

Admittedly, that may be in part because I’ve already written scenes containing him- like today’s- and the comments I’m getting are from people who haven’t read them yet. I also can’t dismiss the possibility that I’ve simply failed so at the end of this update I’ll talk a bit about our Godaime Hokage.

It should be coming up pretty soon.

On the subject of, you know, updates- which really should be the focus- we’ve just posted chapter 73 and have two more ready to go. With one week until the next post, I need to get at least two chapters finished to ensure we maintain positive growth. With that goal in mind- and widely disregarding today as I’m writing this before work instead of starting a chapter- I should have chapter 76 done on Thursday [March 28th] and 77 done on Sunday [March 31st].

At that rate, I should have the five reserve chapters in three weeks which is much longer than I had expected it to take. I thought my free time was limited before, but this promotion has really cut it down further.

Seems there might be some truth to the idea that those who have more things to do have more time, because I didn’t get nearly as much done just a couple months ago.

Anyway, chapter 74 should be up on April 1st- and, again, that’s not a joke- and based on reviews should be very much anticipated. Then again, you didn’t really want to see Inoichi get his body back or Shizune and co. realize just how wrong they had been, did you?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

That about does it for Sealkeeper updates, so a bit more before we move on to what you’re really here for- huh, that is quite backwards, isn’t it? Maybe they should have been separate posts.

While there wasn’t much response to my comments about Skyrim and telling you all about my adventures there was positive response to both that and the possibility of trying my hand at a Skyrim fic. It’s low priority compared to Sealkeeper- so I have to have at least 5 reserve chapters built up before I can even start- but I am looking forward to starting a new project.

The Skyrim fic will probably be a lot shorter because I’m not going to cover all of a game I’ve never even finished the main questline of. Instead, I’ll probably devote smaller stories to the various faction I interact with. Not sure if it counts as an OC or a self-insert if I gave him the name Eyazahrid.

Might have to change that.

Based on what I’ve done so far- and I haven’t really played Skyrim recently- the first part will be based around the Winterhold college. Hopefully I do well, because I’ve only read like one Skyrim fic and I’m pretty sure it was a crossover.

Well, one where they were in Tamriel, at least. Read a couple crossovers based in the other fandom.

I guess we’ll find out.

Speaking about my first mistress, however, I have settled on a name for her. And yes, I spent way too much time on it.

Basing her name off the names of my second and third mistress- again, pretty backwards- I decided that as two of them had matching first consonates she would too.

So, from now on everytime I mention the name Menoly, know I’m speaking about my games and, more specifically, the temptation to play them.

I usually give in.

My other two mistresses, Mydia and Muse, tend to be a bit less needy but to be fair I give them attention more regularly.

Let’s see. Sealkeeper si covered, upcomign stories is covered- ah!

I’ve been meaning to add more posts to the sight that aren’t based on my progress, so I have two things I may be posting soon. The first is my personal pantheon of gods, which I was toying with adding to a tribal-Uzumaki sort of story. I haven’t really done any work on it yet, but I like the idea of the Uzumaki being an island tribe and will eventually write a story that includes it.

Probably.

Anyway, I was thinking about posting both the pantheon and a timeline for Naruto. Now, to get this out of the way immediately the timeline I post will not be my own original work. Well, not completely. There’s only one decent timeline I’ve found for Naruto and there was a single flaw I found that sort of detracts from the way it feels.

Make no mistake, it’s just about perfect, but the way they went about it is less worldbuilding and more keeping track of everything. You may have realized this, but I love the worldbuilding aspects of writing. More on that when I eventually get around to working on it.

Those should be up somewhere between having five reserve chapters and starting on that Skyrim fic.

Now, I believe that covers the ‘update’ aspect of this post- I really should have broken these up- so let’s get onto the subject of Konohagakure’s Godaime Hokage.

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On Godaime Asuma

I hear quite a bit about Asuma and his stance on the Wolves, so I thought I’d address both that and his position as Konohagakure’s Godaime Hokage.

First, to make it perfectly clear, Asuma doesn’t have anything personal against the Wolves.

He also has no desire to be Hokage.

Despite both of those, Asuma is Hokage and the Wolves, though they’re based in Nami no Kuni, have a heavy presence in Konoha.

It is Asuma’s responsibility to keep Konoha- and to an extent Hi no Kuni- safe. The Wolves, while a part of Hi no Kuni, represent an unpredictable element as demonstrated during the invasion. Asuma wants as few uncontrolled variables as possible to better be able to lead Konoha.

Despite not wanting the position, he takes it very seriously. He has the expectations of his father, the safety of his family, and the well-being of every person on Konoha on his shoulders. Organizations such as ROOT and the House of Wolves aren’t just a presence he has to watch carefully in Konoha, but both are groups that operate internationally.

That means actions they take in other countries could potentially come back to Konoha, regardless of Konoha’s involvement. That is not a bit of paranoia, it’s a very legitimate concern.

The House of Wolves took over a country, betraying their former employer, and Danzo used ROOT to support Hanzo the Salamander in Amegakure.

Those are not the kind of groups you want in your village when you know for a fact you shouldn’t be Hokage- because as much as you might think he’s not a good choice you can bet he’s more than aware that hes’ not qualified.

The Sandaime is still teaching him the position, after all, and Asuma is really only there because there weren’t many other choices. Tsunade is more or less a hermit in her compound, Jiraiya is Jiraiya, and Kakashi. Well, he’s Kakashi.

Unless you want Maito Gai as Hokage- which would be as amusing as terrifying- Asuma’s really the only choice at the moment. The fact that his father was able to wrangle him into the position helped quite a bit.

With no other options- and no good prospects at the moment- Asuma’s doing everything he can to solidify Konoha’s position as the strongest village to deter anything from the other villages. As soon as he’s confident in their position he’s immediately going to split his efforts between building his own strength and cultivating Hokage prospects so that he can get out of that chair as soon as possible.

In the end, his heart is in the right place but because he doesn’t understand how the House of Wolves think- which we can’t exactly blame him for, they’re a strange bunch- he can’t know that they take Konoha’s protection just as seriously as he does because Naruto considers it his home.

So, as long as Asuma thinks the Wolves might jeopardize the safety of Konoha with their presence and actions he’ll do his best to hinder them.

How that might play out, well, you’ll see.

Until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid