Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ I'll Fight For You ❯ The Labyrinth ( Chapter 17 )

I don't own anything but my ideas!

 

The Labyrinth

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled, heaving aside a large hunk of what he was pretty sure used to be the Cliffside near the Hokage Mountain as he tried to clear a path to somewhere where he could get to the clearing in the forest he had seen the Kyuubi in.

 

Sasuke found his footing on a crumbling piece of a nearby shattered boulder and leapt into the burning trees, ripping away at the chunks of wood and rock as fast as he could. He blasted the rest of the rubble away with the chidori and forced his way into the clearing, coming face to face with the blood red eyes with the black slit pupils.

 

“You left him alone.”

 

Sasuke clenched his fists and stumbled back, away from the flaming air around Naruto's body.

 

“You left him alone in a thunderstorm, and he wouldn't let me out to comfort him, so instead of letting him incinerate the world with more of our chakra, I have come out and hidden him from the storm.” The Kyuubi snarled, rising slowly into the air, floating out of the hole in the canopy of blackened, burning leaves. He looked around him at the fires engulfing the village and the forest, and a huge grin spread across his face, fangs poking out over his bottom lip.

 

“Kyuubi let him go!” Sasuke roared, grabbing a branch from what had been a two hundred foot tall tree and flipping himself up.

 

“I can't Uchiha, the kit was in such turmoil when I came out that it was damn near impossible for me to come out. But I was able to, and unfortunately for you, to do that, I had to seal the kit away.”

 

“What?!” Sasuke barked as people began to accumulate around the forest, where he could see them from a hundred feet up in the tree, the rest had been blown away in the explosion. People were shouting for Naruto, shouting for him, yelling that it was the Kyuubi again, but Sasuke could only hear what the Kyuubi was saying.

 

The Kyuubi barked a quick, amused laugh. “The kit is gone Uchiha, locked away in his own mind, unable to even look into the outside world anymore. He doesn't know what I am doing now, and he wont ever. It is like he has been forced into a sleep that he will never wake up from.”

 

“Uchiha! What the hell happened?!” Tsunade barked, landing beside him on the remainder of the tree.

 

“Ah, the old witch the kit speaks so highly of.” The Kyuubi smirked.

 

“What did you do to Naruto?” she snapped.

 

“…Unfortunately, human, the only person I wish to fight today, is the Uchiha.”

 

Sasuke leapt back and drew his sword, his feet sliding into an attack stance.

 

“I can't allow that.” Tsunade snarled, fisting her hands. “You will have to take me on, I will not allow anyone from Konoha to be—”

 

“Humans,” the Kyuubi growled, he was loosing his patience fast, “you all think you can stop the sun from rising.”

 

A thin aura wound around the Kyuubi, the heat snaking out of the ground as it surrounded Naruto's body with the red shell. The world was still, and then suddenly a clawed, flaming hand of the aura burst out of the ground, lunging at Tsunade. She leapt back, just barely missing the hand by inches, but the Kyuubi wasn't done. Clawed hands erupted from the ground by the dozens, all directly below where Tsunade was.

 

He has complete access to the outside, and to all of his and Naruto's chakra. Sasuke thought as he watched Tsunade leap away from the hands grabbing at her, all missing by mere inches.

 

Tsunade leapt into the air, avoiding another hand, when a rift suddenly tore in the sky, revealing a flaming place through the opening where another hand shot out of and slashed at Tsunade. She dodged with a grunt at the impossible twist she was forced to make in the air, but a claw tore down her shoulder, creating a particularly large gash in her skin.

 

She landed on the ground, holding the burning wound and glaring at the Kyuubi, when the wound started to glow like the red aura around the Kyuubi. Tsunade gasped, and again tried to leap back from the heat, but this time it stayed with her, and the clawed hands sprung directly from her shoulder and wrapped around her, immobilizing all of her movement with one move.

 

“I wouldn't try anything human, unless you want to be roasted in fire hotter than the sun before you can blink.” the Kyuubi laughed,

 

Useless. Sasuke growled as he looked back to the Kyuubi, rolling his sword in his hands.

 

“It looks like you're ready.” The Kyuubi smirked. “Then let's begin.”

 

Sasuke charged forward as the Kyuubi opened his mouth, and single spark of chakra hovered above his tongue, crackling and flickering with the pressure. He waited until Sasuke was close enough, and then spit the chakra at him, the chakra exploding like an atom bomb.

 

Sasuke's sword crackled with lightning as he slashed through the explosion, again charging the Kyuubi when he was through the fire.

 

The Kyuubi laughed and launched himself into the fire and lightning, slashing at Sasuke with his claws and trying to bite through his windpipe.

 

Sasuke flipped back, dodging the deadly, flaming claws as he slashed at the Kyuubi. He was good, and landed several hits even in the first few minutes, but it didn't matter. The Kyuubi wasn't taking care not to get hit, every mark Sasuke made was instantly healed by the Kyuubi's aura.

 

The Kyuubi's dark laugh filled the skies as he landed a vicious bite to Sasuke's arm, sinking his smoldering fangs into Sasuke's arm and tearing the skin like cloth as Sasuke ripped his arm back.

 

Sasuke flipped far enough away as he healed the wound so the fire didn't spread to the rest of his body in the least, looking around him for the best way to defeat the Kyuubi and wake Naruto the hell up.

 

“Sasuke.”

 

Sasuke looked up as Neji landed beside him, Sakura right behind him.

 

“We need to wake Naruto up.” Neji said, the veins around his eyes clearly showing that he was using the Sharingan to see into the battle.

 

“What do you see? In the Kyuubi?” Sasuke said, picking up his sword and standing.

 

Neji formed the hand signs again, the veins around his eyes popping more as they became more strained.

 

“It's a strange place…” Neji said slowly, clearly confused. “It's… it's a labyrinth, with shifting walls and lava, and a cage at the center surrounded by water.” He narrowed his eyes again before saying darkly, “Naruto's in the cage.”

 

“What is he doing?” Sasuke demanded.

 

Neji paused before shaking his head, his eyes scanning the Kyuubi's form as he did. “Nothing.”

 

“Nothing?”

 

“He looks like he's sleeping.”

 

“Fuck.” Sasuke swore. A labyrinth. The damn fox is just going to make this is hard as he can for me, but how did he change Naruto's mind that much? Is it… theKyuubi's mind?

 

“I need to get in there, to try and wake Naruto.” Sasuke said, sliding his sword back into its sheath.

 

“Go in there?!” Sakura screeched. “How could you want to go in when what's out is as dangerous as a hydrogen bomb?!”

 

“Bomb…” Neji said slowly, “how much of a distraction do you need?”

 

“Enough of one to get me close enough to him, but preferably one he wont expect. And then I need someone to protect my physical body while I'm in his mind, I don't know if he can be in and out of his mind at the same time.”

 

“So then a puny and pathetic distraction will work?”

 

“Whatever you want.” Sasuke snapped leaning into a crouch. “Cover me.”

 

“Naruto will never forgive himself if you die.” Neji told him, moving to stand beside him.

 

“Naruto will never exist again if I don't go in there.” Sasuke returned, and dashed forward. He flipped over the blasts of chakra the Kyuubi sent at them, launching himself at the Kyuubi when he was in range. Kunai flew by his head like bullets, and Sasuke was about to yell something very derogatory at Neji for throwing them so close to him before the Kyuubi slashed at the kunai, and the exploded before him.

 

Exploding tags! It was brilliant. It was such a puny distraction for a demon that the Kyuubi—whose surprised expression gave this all away—had completely not expected any of it.

 

Sasuke flew through the smoke, coming face to face with the blood red eyes before he landed in a room, glowing with a red light, the heat about to singe his eyelashes off, and a ceiling so high he couldn't see it through the black. An archway, almost as high as the ceiling, stood before him, where the area beyond it broke into three different passageways.

 

Sasuke swallowed again, running his arm over the sweat on his forehead from the heat before walking slowly through the archway. Neji had said something about lava—Sasuke whirled around to the sound of clinking metal, watching as the archway barred itself over with chains. He turned back to the three passageways, looking between each one before walking over to the right wall directly next to the archway. He placed his hand on the wall and started walking.

 

Sasuke's eyes flicked around him, scanning for everything there was as he walked. He kept his hand on the right wall, following it the entire way. A sudden heat behind him caused him to look behind, and he jumped out of reflex as lava began to swirl out of the floor. Sasuke wrenched forward, keeping as close to the right wall as he could, racing through the passageways and skidding against the blazing floor as he ran. His black ANBU outfit was soaking up heat like a sponge, and the metal in the armor was burning his skin, but he didn't stop.

 

Sasuke slid against the floor in a larger room than the others, about to take the next right turn when the floor started to crumble before him, revealing a steaming pit of lava and fire below him. Sasuke slammed his feet against the floor before it was completely gone and leapt over the pit to the right turn, racing along it. He dodged the streams of flame that shot from the walls and slid down onto his stomach to slide through tunnels as the lava continued to pour out of the floor behind him.

 

Sasuke slid to a halt in one of the rooms, looking in shock and relief to an opening between the passageways where he could make out the cage that had originally held the Kyuubi. Sasuke took off for it, just about to run out of the maze when fire burst up in from of him, and parted to reveal another wall that had blocked his way. Sasuke had gathered too much momentum to stop, so instead he jumped and landed on the wall, taking the next right as he used the wall to run on.

 

Sasuke flew through the maze, leaving a trail of chakra where he ran so he wouldn't double over anywhere he'd been before, speeding up as he could feel a breeze in the air. It was a labyrinth, there should have been no air movement like this except for close to the exit, and all of a sudden, the wall he was running on shattered, and he fell into the boiling water around the giant cage.

 

Sasuke threw himself to his feet, rocketing himself forward with as big of chakra bursts as he dared the second the cage came into sight. His breathing was ragged already in his lungs from the fighting and the running through the maze, but his physical body was in so much danger while he was in here, he couldn't stay long unless he wanted to get everyone protecting him killed.

 

Sasuke gasped in shock at just how hot the knee-deep water was when he broke free of the labyrinth's confides, but he pushed himself forward, forcing himself to ignore the excruciating burns he would have.

 

His breath jumped in relief as the bars of the huge cage came into sight, and he knew he was close when he could make out the intricate seal on the cage doors.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled even before he reached the bars. He roared in aggravation, the water was slowing down his speed, and the burning temperature was excruciating, but he couldn't use chakra to run above the water or risk damaging Naruto's mind.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke slammed into the bars of the cage, looking around frantically for anything inside.

 

And there he was.

 

A form lying on the ground in the distance.

 

The golden hair falling into his calmly closed eyes, the symmetrical whisker-like scars, the breathtaking tanned body.

 

He was breathing.

 

He was alive.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke drew back his fist and pounded on the bars, ignoring their rattling and the way the seal sent sparks traveling over the door every time he hit it. “Naruto! Damn it! Wake up!”

 

“He won't.”

 

Sasuke whirled around to the dark voice, staring with burning hatred up at the form floating above the water.

 

“The poor kit is tired. He hasn't slept since you told him that I take over his body when he's asleep. You created another Gaara-insomniac, I congratulate you.”

 

Sasuke glared up at the Kyuubi's human form, taken from both Naruto and his own fox body, and the Kyuubi just smiled back sinisterly.

 

His skin was tan, tanner than Naruto's had ever been even after the merging; it was almost brown. The scars on his cheeks were black and thick, even darker than Naruto's when he lost control, and long, dangerous claws were visible, resting carefully on his crossed arms. He had Naruto's body and hair, with one streak of blood red in it, and his canines were larger than Naruto's even when transformed. His eyes, unlike Naruto's blue eyes, had bled blood red and his pupils were slits.

 

He was wearing the usual black ninja pants, the bandages wrapping around his ankles showing because of the pant's short length, and he was barefoot, showing the claws on his toes. Spiked forearms protectors were the only covering he wore on his arms. He was bare-chested, though he wore a short sleeved coat much like the fourth Hokage had, but with black coloring and red flames on the hem. The flames seemed to dance in their thread confides, and a live flame was burning on the necklace he wore.

 

“Bastard.” Sasuke snarled, his hands fisting until they were white from the pressure.

 

“As I have said before brat, you are truly an idiot.” The Kyuubi smirked, slowly descending until he was floating an inch above the water. “You have guts to come in here, being unable to do anything, but that doesn't make you a genius, it just makes you stupid.”

 

“What did you do to Naruto?!” Sasuke yelled, feeling his chakra shoot through the roof with his anger.

 

“Relax Uchiha, he's only asleep.” The Kyuubi smiled lightly, infuriating Sasuke more.

 

With a roar Sasuke grabbed his wrist and whipped around, slamming the chidori into the bars as hard as he could. They rattled, and the seal sparked like electrical wires in a thunderstorm, but Naruto didn't even twitch.

 

“I told you, he wont wake.”

 

Sasuke whirled around, preparing to attack the Kyuubi next when the fox spoke, the voice that was too deep and sinister coming out of Naruto's mouth making him sick.

 

“Do you remember when I told you I was going to fry your mind through Naruto?” he asked innocently, fire engulfing his arm as he spoke.

 

“I meant it.” He smirked sadistically and threw his arm forward, the fire whirling in a deadly, unavoidable ball at Sasuke. Sasuke stumbled back at the heat, forcing himself to fall out of Naruto's mind faster than he ever should have to dodge the flame in time.

 

 

 

“Sasuke! Sasuke!”

 

Sasuke groaned and forced his eyes open, though the world stayed black for the first few seconds, but slowly he was able to make out the pink hair of Sakura Haruno. He mentally groaned again.

 

“Sasuke! Wake up!” Sakura pulled him harshly upward and into her arms, and he cursed himself for being too weak to push her away. The Kyuubi may not have hit him physically, but its mind was fucking strong. His headache was about to split his head in two. He looked around to the surroundings of the burning forest. It was Practice Area 44, or the Forest of Death, the second part of the chunin exam.

 

“Please wake up!”

 

“Sasuke, we need to leave.” Neji's voice appeared by him. “He's dangerous, and you barely able to stay conscious is a little unnerving. He's lost himself to the fox.”

 

“Naruto would never do this!” Sakura screamed. Right in his ear.

 

“Damn fox attacked me, that's why I'm drained.” Sasuke growled, summoning the thunderclouds above him. “I already tried chidori, I'm going to step it up a notch. The lightening will paralyze him even if it doesn't knock him out; that may be all we need to wake Naruto up. Sakura, let go of me. I need to try another attack and try and wake Naruto up.” Sasuke breathed.

 

He reached up and touched at the sticky moisture on his cheeks, holding his hand out to examine it. He grimaced instantly, and reached up with his other hand to scrub at his cheeks. It was blood, oozing from his eyes like crimson rain. Now he knew why Sakura was so worried, he probably would have been too if he hadn't been so pumped full of adrenaline. He looked around curiously, and sure enough, his peripheral vision was extremely blurry and small black spots were starting to appear in his eyes from over use of the Sharingan. How had he not noticed those before?

 

“But—”

 

“If this is anything like Gaara, then when he wakes up, the Kyuubi will be sealed away again. Now let go of me.” he ordered darkly. Sakura slowly stepped back to let the lightning concentrate around him, molding and shaping into a sword. Sasuke took a deep breath, and charged.

 

“…He doesn't want us to help, so what now? Should we try to find something to seal the Kyuubi's chakra?” Sakura asked.

 

“Now we just wait.” Neji said quietly.

 

Sakura nodded after a moment. “Sasuke's strong, he'll be ok.” She tried to ignore the slight hesitant waver in her voice.

 

Sasuke concentrated all of his energy into the lightning shattering the air above him, the tingling in his arm as he held the blue fires of the heavens making him quiver with the excitement and the feeling of danger. The lightning filled the black sky, illuminating the ground with the blue light as it crashed through the air around them.

 

He jumped and flipped as fast as he could to the top of the nearly demolished tower in the middle of the Forest of Death. It was crumbling around him, but it was high enough and stood sturdy enough to hold him while he used this jutsu.

 

He raised his hand toward the sky, the lighting filling his hand as the shrill chirping of a thousand birds filled the air for miles around.

 

“This jutsu is impossible to dodge.” He told the Kyuubi, watching its face contort with confusion, though the amusement stayed present. “Lightning travels through the air at 1/1000 per second, and the range is to wide to run from it… come!”

 

The thunder boomed above them as an ice blue dragon, glowing with the power of the lightning, slid out of the black sky and soared around Sasuke before returning to the heavens.

 

“Vanish with the roar of thunder… Kirin!” Sasuke yelled, slicing his hand through the air at the Kyuubi. The dragon shot out of the sky with a roar louder than thunder, and rocketed at the Kyuubi faster than anything but the Sharingan could follow. Sasuke was just able to glimpse the flash of a red fox, made of the Kyuubi's flaming chakra, charging the dragon, before an explosion to shame even the one the Kyuubi had created earlier when Naruto had lost control of his chakra, blasted the forest into a billion fragments of chakra.

 

Sasuke's breathing was jagged and scraped up his throat, creating a lingering burn that made it even harder to breathe, and he was almost completely drained of chakra, and then the smoke from the explosion cleared.

 

“No.” Sakura whispered, her hand flying to her mouth. “That's impossible, his chakra was…!” she protested shrilly.

 

Sasuke's eyes were wide… with what, anger? Hate? No… fear? Maybe, for the first time since going up against his brother. Yes, it was definitely fear.

 

“You humans are so time-consuming.” The Kyuubi muttered, his arms crossed in a very relaxed stance. The flaming fox had exploded with the dragon into streams of burning chakra, and had completely surrounded the Kirin, constricting all of the lightning's movement. “Didn't your mother ever tell you that lightening and fire don't mix safely?” the Kyuubi smirked, before roaring and throwing the lightning to the side with the fire, where it soared through the air before smashing into the ground.

 

The attack had completely drained Sasuke, and it hadn't even touched the Kyuubi. Sasuke gritted his teeth and moved to jump back when a red, clawed smashed out of the ground wrapped around his body his body, pinning Sasuke's arms to his side and completely immobilizing him.

 

“Sasuke!” Sakura screamed, and shot toward Sasuke as fast as she could.

 

“It didn't even… touch him.” Neji mumbled.

 

“Well, for a human you do have an astounding amount of chakra, but still…” Kyuubi murmured, raising his hand slowly, where a swirling orange ball of fiery wind was condensing in his palm.

The Rasengan. Sasuke's brow furrowed weakly, his grip starting to slip on the hand squeezing his neck and keeping him suspended in midair. (Note: don't tell me the Rasengan is blue, because I know that. This is using the Kyuubi's fiery chakra, so it makes it orange.)

 

“One of the kit's favorite moves because of his father, and first of the strong ones, much like your chidori.” The Kyuubi purred. “Funny, you succeeded where the kit never thought you could: your usefulness finally ran out.” He moved his arm slowly to aim the Rasengan at Sasuke's chest.

 

“Stop!!” Sakura shrieked. His chakra! It's almost drained! That's not possible! He's Sasuke Uchiha!

 

“Naruto, please don't! We have to bring Sasuke home!” she wailed, tears streaming down her face. “Get a hold of yourself! Do you even see what you're doing?!”

 

“He will be home.” The Kyuubi hummed contently, about to fire the energy through Sasuke's heart. “He'll finally join his family, in hell.”

 

“Hmm…” he murmured suddenly, his clawed hand stopping in mid air, his red eyes moving back to stare deep into Sasuke's black ones.

 

The Kyuubi's face dropped slightly, but not in sadness or horror. No, something else, like… excitement. At least thank god Sakura was to busy screaming to have heard what the Kyuubi said next, or there would have been hell to pay.

 

“Actually…” Kyuubi purred slowly.

 

Now that tone of voice was fucking scary. It was predatory, merciless, wicked, scheming, and meant to cause pain for others. Sasuke felt his grip on Kyuubi's hand tighten unconsciously.

 

“Uchiha, did the kit ever tell you why he had those… symptoms? The throwing up, the headaches, the soreness…?”

 

Now the Kyuubi's face was dangerous, and his hand tightened on Sasuke's neck, cutting off his air even more.

 

“While he was staying with the sand child in Suna, he found out something rather interesting about a certain kind of jutsu that can often help… infertile couples.”

 

The headaches. The sore chest and shoulders. The bloating. The sickness. The fevers. The mood swings. All of a sudden, it all made sense.

 

“…You… impregnated Naruto?” he asked weakly. Holy shit.

 

The Kyuubi smiled, and shook its head slowly. “You did.”

 

Sasuke eyes popped, and his hand gripped the demon's hand tighter, even for his half strangled, half passed out state.

 

“I merely helped to alter his body so that he could carry the kits.” Kyuubi shrugged easily.

 

“…Naruto is…”

 

“Pregnant.” The Kyuubi nodded.

 

The silence was painful, agonizingly painful, and Sasuke was almost out of air. This was bad.

 

“And to know that now, it would be more painful if you were killed by… what did you call them… Naruto's sides?”

 

Sasuke froze. The Kyuubi was going to release the fourth side and make Naruto kill them himself. He had to try once more to wake Naruto up. He didn't have enough chakra to do anything else, and after he did this, he was positive he was going to go unconscious from how little chakra he would have left, but he had to try.

 

His eyes flew open, more blood pouring down his face, the Sharingan whirled, and again he was falling.

 

Sasuke started running even before he touched the ground, shooting forward with the upward momentum of the sweltering air surrounding Naruto's mind.

 

He flew into the maze, taking the same directions as he had last time, right, left, right, right, straight, taking care to avoid the pits of lava and the fire before he threw himself through the hole he had accidentally blown through the wall.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke yelled, running above the water this time. He'd used the chidori in Naruto's mind and it had done nothing, so using chakra like this must have been relatively safe.

 

“Naruto!” Sasuke slammed into the bars. “Naruto! Wake the hell up unless you want everyone to die!”

 

Nothing.

 

Sasuke bit his lip. If that didn't work, what else was going to wake Naruto up?

 

“The Kyuubi broke free! You're going to kill everyone if you don't lock him away again!”

 

Sasuke whirled to the Kyuubi's sick laugh behind him, drawing closer by the second. His red fox eyes and sharp teeth formed out of the darkness, just like the giant fox ones he'd seen at one time behind the bars.

 

He didn't know what to do, Naruto was still sleeping, like the first time when Kyuubi had let him fall into the lake and made Sasuke rescue him.

 

“Right now, Naruto is asleep, and being his team mate for as long as you were, you must know how much of a heavy sleeper he is. I'm going to `help' him stay asleep… he's been going a lot lately.”

 

That was what the fox had said to him before sending Naruto over the edge of the cliff. He'd woken Naruto up then, but how?! Naruto had breathed in water, and Sasuke had given him the air he needed to…

 

“I'm going to `help' him stay asleep.”

 

But then, it wouldn't have been the air that woke Naruto up…

 

Sasuke's eyes widened and his grip on the bars tightened until the burning temperature of the metal had his palms blistering and bleeding, the blood dripping down the bars until it turned black with the heat and crumbled off the metal in small black flakes.

 

He'd kissed him.

 

To breathe into Naruto's lungs, he'd kissed him.

 

The Kyuubi wanted them together to create the baby… it wasn't the water that had been keeping Naruto from breathing… it had been the Kyuubi.

 

“Your time is up, Uchiha.”

 

The Kyuubi was close, but he couldn't get anywhere near enough to Naruto to touch him, let alone kiss him…

 

Sasuke's lip pulled back in a snarl and he gripped the bars tighter and sucked in a huge breath.

 

“I want you to have my son!”

 

Nothing.

 

Sasuke felt his hands shake on the bars, and his breathing stop.

 

The Kyuubi laughed again. “Well, that went a long way—”

 

The world quaked suddenly, and Sasuke would have been thrown back if his grip wasn't so tight on the burning cage.

 

He could see them, through the bars of the cage.

 

Two sky blue eyes.

 

“No.” the Kyuubi snarled as the ground shook again, and the bars of the cage rattled menacingly.

 

“You're dead, human!” it roared.

 

Sasuke whirled, and something as hot as the sun ripped through his chest, gouging deep into his flesh and snapping through bone like bamboo sticks. Sasuke gasped out, collapsing back into the boiling water and choking as it rushed into his lungs.

 

The ground beneath him rocked again, and the Kyuubi roared, throwing its head back and snarling at the sky.

 

I have to get out of here… Sasuke thought weakly, his lungs filling with water. It didn't matter that he wasn't in his physical body, if he drowned mentally, then his body would cease to function.

 

I have to get out…

 

I have to…

 

I have…

 

I…

 

I...

 

…Naruto…

 

Everything was blurry before him, and he couldn't breathe with the scalding water rushing into his lungs through the holes the Kyuubi had torn.

 

And everything went black.

 

 

 

 

RR&R!

And also the scale of one to ten thingy.

Working on the next chapter, don't have a lot of time, got to go!