Cuddles, Now – Posted 2019.07.08

The following are the recorded responses of Eyazahrid to the feedback he received on the above listed chapter and the story in general for the week following. This document is to serve as a replacement to the traditional Author’s Note at the beginning and ending of chapters and will be kept separate from both the above listed chapter and any future chapters unless deemed sufficiently important.

Danzo

Lord Kyuubi has made the most amazing discovery that Naruto is pretty much Danzo. This is incredible because no one has ever made this connection before, especially not a character in the story itself.

Oh, wait, Hiruzen mentions how similar Naruto is to his rival in one of the early chapters- as does Danzo himself.

You may also note that the majority of the people who actually like him are Shinobi I’ve made very clear aren’t the most sane of sorts. No, normal people wouldn’t really care for Naruto but when he’s surrounded by people like himself it doesn’t much matter.

Category

While I can’t remember what I eventually settled on, Silently Watches is absolutely correct that the theme of the story fluctuates wildly. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure what kind of story it’s supposed to be either.

I’m pleased to hear you’re enjoying that, though.

Ino

Pairing Ino with Naruto seems to be a popular request as of this last chapter. While I haven’t planned for it happening yet it is definitely a possibility- just not for a while. We’ll be firmly into ‘Shippuden’ territory before those two get together.

Kage Bunshin

[May be slightly spoiler-ish in regards to Mai-drama. I don’t consider it such but skip to the next set of brackets if you don’t want to risk it. Note that after the brackets addresses the rest of Cam’s review and not the Kage Bunshin.]

This is more or less just a response to Cam’s review, but we’ll focus a bit more on the Kage Bunshin.

Mentioning the Kage Bunshin would indeed be a very easy thing to mention. It’s so small that slipping it into a conversation should be easy- the problem there is that it’s such a small thing that he’s not really registering it as important.

He’d already been using them by the time Mai returned and she was gone the entire time he was learning them. She knows that Orochimaru sent the technique to him because she was there when we introduced Tayuya but she doesn’t know that he’s even spent any time looking over the scroll let alone figured it out.

Because of that she doesn’t bring it up or question it and because she doesn’t bring it up he keep forgetting to go “Oh, yeah, I figured out that technique Orochimaru sent me like a week ago.”

When she learns of it it will probably be through a comment by Shizune or a report by a Wolf involving Tsukuyomi interacting with Naruto. Haven’t quite decided but both could be rather fun. What I will promise- and that’s a rare thing indeed, I never promise anything- is that I will not use the discovery of the Kage Bunshin to create more drama between Mai and Naruto. We’ll be letting all the current drama burn out first before I start stoking the flame again.

We’ll see how long the respite lasts.

[It’s safe now. Maybe.]

In defense of Naruto’s density, Anko has a lot of expressions – playful, bloodthirsty, flirty, childish, arrogant- and many of them end up blending together. He knows the look enough to be cautious, he just can’t recall exactly what he should be expecting.

She also tends to be aroused, which means hes’ getting that look when she’s playful, bloodthirsty, and all the others. He’s not quite recognizing it on its own.

If he spent more time with Orochimaru, he’d probably start describing it as ‘hungry‘.

As for action, I have some coming. The chapter I’m posting later sets everything up and it starts happening in chapter 90. I’m going to try to maintain momentum but I haven’t exactly planned everything out.

General Response and Closing

Again, the overall response has been pretty positive which I’m very pleased to see. The two biggest requests have been to pair Ino with Naruto and to speed up the story itself. Hopefully the next few chapters don’t disappoint.

Unless you were hoping for Ino.

If we do that it’s going to be a while before you see it.

I think that will do it for this week’s Commentary so until I next have your attention,

–Eyazahrid

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