OMG! Sakura! oh god she would soo do that too.....*shakes head trying to hold back a smile* god but I still love that crazy chica. Hopefully since it is Naruto he will heal quicker and survive this. and yes it appears I am doing a running commentary on your reviews page....hehe >.>

Author's Response: A running commentary is extremely useful, so by all means keep it up. I'm learning a lot from your responses. I hope he survives too tbh. It would become very AU if Naruto suddenly died on me...

awww Momoka seems like a darling but what is driving me crazy is not knowing who those opening words describe. I am not feeling that it is this Momoka girl but then again perhaps I am wrong....gah I must know!!!

Author's Response: Momoka is precious, isn't she? I think she's one of my favourites to write about here. As for the opening words... well, I'm saying nothing...

I'm feeling slightly seasick myself now... and I have never been seasick o.O You described this exactly as I would have imagined feeling on such a journey myself. Also you seem to be so in tune with the characters which is very impressive. Reading this also makes me realize just how lacking my own fan fictions are. I seem to think of them as just that and you yourself have proven that taking a novelist point of view only creates a thoroughly more enjoyable read.

Author's Response: I think your writing is brilliant - you just need to think about structure a little more sometimes from what I can see, but I always love the sheer good quality of your writing itself. I'm glad you think I can get the characters right - those kinds of things are really important in fanfiction. I hope you recovered okay from your 'seasickness'. I'm flattered that you felt my story was that engaging that you would say that! Thank you.

Once again it was as if Gaara was writing this himself. You kept everyone in character, which can be hard for some people. I was entranced from the very beginning. You wrote so well I could make it a movie in my head. I don't know what to say it was so impressive. I guess I can only say I LOVED LOVED LOVED x23.62953 (just a random decimal I came up with). I'm so glad I took the time to read this.

Another random thing: If a hamster made of cookie doe ate a chocolate monkey, would it make a chocolate chip hamster? I just had to ask because I started thinking of hamsters and then the monkeys started swarming. By the way, I tried to send them through, but I'm not sure if it worked. I know it didn't work when I tried to email my sister to Siberia *sigh*. Having my own room would have been so cool, too.

As you'll notice, my brain rarely stays in one place. So, I must ask forgiveness for my brain.

And, the most important part of the review...........*dramatic pause*....... IT WAS AMAZINGLY AWESOME!!!!!

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm really pleased you're enjoying the story. Not everybody reads passed the first chapter, so its great that continued to give me feedback. Thank you. It's great to hear people's opinions. I don't think I've ever had a review for this particular part, so thank you!rnrnI already answered your question in silverwolf's forums, but I am inclined to agree with you that it probably would make a choc chip hamster - probably with a chocolate filling, given the size difference. Perhaps we should get you some cookie dough hamsters to protect you from those monkeys?

Wow! This was incredible! I love my character, let me just say that. Her attitude seems a heck of a lot like mine, especially when she's angry. The resemblance is amazing.

Now, I know I say this way too often, but your description really astounds me. It's so elaborate, but not to the point where it's boring. It's helpful and in all honesty, brilliant.

I loved the action! It was a quick change from the annoyed chuunin to the fearful suspense. Nice transition, I loved it. And now we finally see the grey child awake and possibly ready to destroy some more.

I'm so excited, I really can't wait for more now! And if you're wondering, yes, this cheered me up a whole lot. Thanks for caring so much, but it really was an amazing chapter. Great work!

Author's Response: Yes, the changeover from humour to action scene was one of which I confess I'm actually proud. I think the sheer speed of it helps ensure that the reader isn't totally ready when Naruto gets thrown into action and that helps keep things unbalanced and sudden. Something which I thought worked well *touch wood* *touch wood* *touch wood* *touch wood*... (considering how often I do that, I really should explain to you that in the UK when we say 'touch' wood it means the same as 'knock on' wood in America.) That doesn't really means it's as great as I think it is. In fact I'm always aware that being the author means I'm prone to that wonderful thing where I read 'what I thought I wrote' as opposed to what I 'really did' - but I'm fairly confident that this worked nicely (*touch wood*). Ask me again when I reread this in about three months time and I may just be pulling my hair out.
I'm glad you liked your character. That is such a relief. I had a bit of a challenge finding different ways to express the very lovely personalities of three very lovely girls without making you all seem the same and without upsetting anyone. Yours was probably the one where I took some of the bigger risks, so I'm really glad you actually liked it. I was going for a mysterious reticent kind-of vibe and trying keep her personality distinctive and separate from the wolf's (who is probably one of my all-time favourites in this entire story), while still having the two compliment each other. I think all three cameos came out pretty well, as characters, but the opinions of the people they were based on is much more important in this case...

O_O

Wow... This was an excellent chapter. And it may sound like I'm just saying this, as I love all of your chapters, but this one really stood out, and I loved the entire thing.

We finally get to see how Naomi is doing, after her little episode. And we also get to see Gaara's growing feelings even more now, as he tries to steady himself with dealing with the pain of seeing the fallen hime. It was great insight to his normally hidden feelings.

When Ren showed up, it was a great display of brotherly affection toward his sister. Normally, Ren comes across as the overprotective slightly strict brother. But this time, he was illustrated as a broken man, as he fears he will lose part of his family. I saw great contrast in him compared to his other chapters, and I loved how he was portrayed.

And of course, the heartwrenching speech by the brother himself, as he describes Naomi's terrible life. It was a wonderful build-up to Naomi's awakening, and it was simply astounding.

The final lines had my eyes wide and my open. It was just that thrilling. It was a mean cliffhanger, but it was still a brilliant way to end the chapter.

I loved this entire chapter, by far one of my personal favorites in terms of installments. Great work with this scene, excellent job well done. It was incredible. I can only imagine what you have coming next. Keep up the great work!

Author's Response: It stands out for me too and was one of my favourites to write about. Possibly because we are finally just hinting on a little romance there and that's both familiar and very exiting territory for me.
I was surprised by your interpretation of the scene. It was a little different from mine, but that's a good thing. It's great to get that different perspective on the action in my writing. I don't always spell out things clearly, precisely to allow for a little ambiguity and your ideas are just as valid as mine. Having a second opinion also opens up more possibilities for me in what to do next, so thank you. That's really great.

It was so short, yet it was quite enticing.

I liked how you described Tsunade fury. It's just so... like her to be so angry at the patient herself.

Aw, lovely and cute little Ton-Ton, and poor exhausted Shizune. What a lovely pair you make them out to be, even when asleep ;D

Of course, it was the last paragraph that completely had me. I was so afraid, terrified, even. And then the final sentence had my jaw falling open and my eyes widening greatly. What a twist! I loved it!

Great work on this chapter! Oh, considering you already have 7f finished, I wonder how long it will take to dod 7e. Not that I'm rushing you. Just me personally, I would find it difficult to insert a chapter in between two completed ones. Eh, I know it'll be awesome anyway :D Good luck with the next chapter, and keep up the amazing work!

Author's Response: I nearly have 7f finished. There is a little bit of work left for me to do, as I left it when I decided to do a different scene first. It shouldn't take too long though.
7e is approximately half-done now too. They're quite disconnected scenes, so there wasn't really a problem with fitting it in - that and I actually have a linear timeline in this chapter. That's practically a novelty for me as it is. ;0)
Thank you for your kind words, yet again ;0), in this review. It really made me happy to hear you liked it so much even though there wasn't very much in it. Poor Sakura. I don't think her reactions at the end of the scene were much different from yours...

Aw, you wanted my opinion? Aw, shucks :D

I liked her. I feel like her stressed out behavior created a very frantic atmosphere that was not really what Naruto and the Suna ninja really needed at the moment. Good job with providing contrast. I really liked her, you described her very well.

I will admit I thought that Shifuni was a genin because I felt she was searching for her fellow genin. But that could be me not piecing two and two together.

Now I know what you meant by bringing more characters in because Seishin is, indeed, a ninja village.

So awesome job with her character! Your writing continues to astound me, and your description of Shifuni was amazing. You definitely went to great lengths to describe her throughout the conversation between the ninja, so good job!

Another great chapter. This is really getting the ball rolling, now I'm all full of suspense, and I'm wondering what is going on in Seishin. Keep up the great work, this was really good.

Author's Response: Well 'aww, shucks', right back at you. ;0) Thanks for the quick review! That really helped me out & I feel a lot better about it now.
Only thing I edited was in response to your comment about ranks. I think I was being a bit evasive about it (just like I was being evasive with the rest of her identity) and there was really no need for that. I added a few lines to make that clearer, so now hopefully people will know that she's a chuunin looking for the genin she's in charge of. I mentioned in an earlier chapter that in Seishingakure genin teams tend to answer to chuunin teams rather than jounin-sensei. Genin are real dogsbodies in Seishin - hence why they're stuck with cooking and cleaning and other grunt work and are generally unpaid.
Well, just so long as Shifuni likes her cameo character it's all okay... Yours is in the next chapter all going well.

Casimir says hi again by the way. He's bullied me into having a cuddle again (about his third tonight)...

Aw, thank you for the shout-out. You deserve every ounce of praise I give you :D

What an interesting chapter. The beginning was pretty funny. The banter between Naruto and Kankurou really had me smiling during that time. Then the scene got more serious as the pair, and the readers, discovered that something was not right, what with the missing people and such. This medical emergency, I can only imagine what it could possibly be. But I'm sure anything I come up with is way off and totally wrong, so I'm just not even going to bother saying anything.

Huh, I've just realized that I remember quite a few of your chapters that just so happen to start with humor and transition into a more serious atmosphere. That seems like a trend for you. Not that that is a bad thing, I personally like it. It makes it that much more interesting for me, and I think it makes the twists that much more enjoyable and surprising when they occur during the chapter.

Wow, what a way to start Chapter 7, I liked it. Keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing what more you have in store. From what you have said, it sounds like more action and romance are waiting, so I'm really excited about all of that! :D Nice work with this chapter, as always!

Author's Response: You're welcome. It's a bit of a habit of mine to thank people who've reviewed since I started writing a chapter in the beginning of the next. - and this was my first real chance to include people from TONFA, so that made me happy because you're an awesome reviewer and I'm glad I can acknowledge people like you.
Actually I'm sure you can hazard a pretty good guess about the medical emergency if you think about what happened in the last chapter. I drop another hint in the one after this as well.
I do use humour a lot, you're right, even though I rarely do 'funny fics' on purpose. I come from a family were everyone is always making fun of each other and telling jokes, so it's a fairly natural thing for me to reach for. I occasionally don't even really notice when I'm doing it, but it's a great break in a serious plot... and Naruto is such a good character for humour. Bless him. That's probably nine tents of the reason he's in this story.
I hadn't noticed that I was using humour so often at the start of a scene though... That's really interesting. I mean, it's not a bad thing per say - but now I'm definitely going to try and see if I can take a serious scene and make it humorous. I like variety and that just sounds like fun. Thanks for the awesome observation. =0D

Ooh, intense conversation with Naruto and Naomi. Well, it is good to see them together. They've been separated for a while, and I like the chemistry (not romantically, of course) between the two. Naruto seems to genuinely care about her, which is a nice balance to Momoka and some of the other Seishen ninja. I don't like Sakura so much during this scene, what is her problem?!

I'm still sorry about all of your chapters disappearing. Hopefully, it'll get better... maybe?

Excellent work with this. It's nice to get out of the conference room for a bit and get a glimpse into Naomi's true thoughts. Well, of course she wasn't being extremely elaborate, but it was still good to see how she feels about certain matters. Great work with revealing some of her emotions outside of the conference room.

Excellent work, I like the nice contrast that Naruto brings into Naomi's life. I cannot wait for more! Keep up the good work with your writing!

Author's Response: Sakura is simply trying to protect Naruto. She doesn't trust Naomi and doesn't want Naruto to get hurt by her - in any sense, although she's not very good at expressing it. I'm sorry if I didn't get that across very well. Hopefully I'll get a chance to elaborate later on in the story...
I love getting a chance to get Naruto and Naomi together as well. They get on well, which as you say is a lovely change and it's usually fun to write, so I'm glad you enjoy reading it. To be honest I worry about this story getting a little too melodramatic and dark were Naomi is concerned, so it's good to get Naruto in there to cheer everyone up.
You know, I'm also slightly worried that maybe I should have used Ren to do the talking here rather than Naomi (as you say, she's about as naturally expressive as a stone when it comes to her feelings (when she knows she's meant to be expressing anyway)), but even Ren wouldn't have known her true feelings on the matter (as we said, as naturally expressive as a stone...) and at this point there was so much information so widely available that maybe she would feel she ought to talk... even if Naruto has to bully her into it. I dunno. That's how I see it anyway...
Anyway the newest 6.m is the last of the meeting scenes and concludes Chapter 6! Ah, that makes me so happy - you have no idea. It's almost as good as when I was finally able to reveal Naomi's name - almost, not quite that good, but almost. I've got some clean-up & editing to do now (I was going to that anyway for a different site) & I'm probably going to repost the missing chapters here while I'm at it; there another (older) Gaara story of mine I'd love to clean up & post on here and that needs a new chapter too (it's had to wait for months & months cuz SWB has been eating my brain alive with the need to write it); I've got some nice sketches of SWB to put on my site (much nicer than the ones uploaded atm. I have to borrow Mum's laptop, cuz mine is broke & while she is using it I often do some SWB sketching while I wait) and, of course, there is Chapter 7 to write, so I'm going to be quite busy for a little bit - but you shouldn't have too long to wait all in all, so it'll be good hopefully. I have a lot to cover in the next chapter and none of it involves standing or sitting around talking for hours on end. It's quite exciting...

Oh, nice banner. Very pretty.

And oh my gosh, you updated! And with a long chapter, no less! I was so happy to see a new chapter.

I know I have pretty much said this for every review I have given for this story, but your story really continues to amaze me. It blows my mind with each chapter because everything seems to tie in so well, even new plot twists that you throw in.

Whether it be an intense battle scene or a long conference, your writing is utterly phenomenal. Your style is so insightful and intelligent.

This chapter started with some light-heartedness here and there. But then everything became more serious and more enthralling. Pretty much everything in this chapter kept me begging for me.

I probably read the first two paragraphs of this chapter before I remembered how great of a writer you are and how you are actually interested in my stories. Honestly, your writing really outshines my own. And yet, you say such nice things about my own stories and claim that I am a talented author. Coming from an incredible writer like yourself, those words really mean a lot to me. And as I read this story, I feel so much inspiration to write even better chapters for my own stories. I aspire to write with as much skill and detail as you.

As you know I must say, great job with this chapter. I love this story so much. It is definitely one of my top favorites, and it deserves to be. You're a very skilled writer with so much amazing talent. Your style is very elaborate and descriptive, and it feels like this should really take place in the actual anime/manga.

I am very excited to hear that there might be an update soon. I cannot wait! Keep up the excellent work with this story.

Oh, and I hope things work out for you and TONFA. It stinks that the site is causing you trouble :P

Author's Response: And you have your update. Hope you like it. I'm still not a hundred percent sure about how this one turned out, but we'll see...rn
rnI made the banner myself (even drew the rose - first time I've ever really drawn anything on a computer), so I'm really happy if you think it's cute. Just wanted to give this story a little something to set it off - and add something of a legal waver without putting a full blown disclaimer on every page. It was going to be a grand affair with a moody-looking Gaara and maybe a set of wheels from a wheelchair in the background - but I wanted to make it myself and I don't have that much talent... ;0)rn
rnBut as for your review - I don't know what to say except 'Thank You'. It really is quite something to receive such high praise from someone, but especially from someone who is not only a very talented author (I certainly think so) but also someone who I know loves and enjoys reading SWB... Thank you! It's just incredible to have you say such wonderful things about my writing. Really I don't think I deserve it. I've been working hard on improving my writing for many years and this is just the end product of all that effort and thought. SWB especially has eaten up my imagination since it was first conceived in my mind and I spend nearly all my spare time these days working on the plotlines and playing out scenes in my mind. It's quite pathetic really. Of course I wish everyone liked it as much as you - but to just have one person who enjoys it so much, who even draws inspiration from it, that is such an incredible, wonderful thing that I'm very nearly crying as I write this. Thank you so much.
I dunno if you'll take this as a compliment or not, but your writing style actually reminds me a little of my own when I was about your age. That's why I know you'll definitely achieve whatever you want from your writing style if you keep working on it - because, hey, I did and if I can then I'm positive you can as well. I can see the talent shining right out of all the things you write and I know one day you'll be a really fantastic author. You just need to keep building up your confidence. ;0)

Ugh, now I'm disappointed because I have to wait for an update! As I keep saying, this story is exceptionally well-written. Pure genius. I just love this story so much. You write your characters so well, and your description is so elaborately insightful that I keep forgetting that this is a fanfic story. You're a very talented author, and I really really enjoy your story. Keep up the good work on your writing!

Author's Response: Well, the update's finally up! It only took me like ... a month of solid writing. No joke. I write nearly every day (and exhaust myself doing it), but this ended up over 7000 words, which is a lot for me... I felt so awful about how long it took as I knew you were waiting for an update. I hope you like it as I think it's quite a tame, boring installment, but its an essential part of the plot so I just felt the sooner I get it over and done with the better. Both parts k and l are much shorter, so they should be here much sooner. (I'm already well into k, so hopefully you can expect that soon. *fingers crossed*). You're an amazing person, a talented writer and one of the best reviewers I've ever had, so I really hope you'll continue to enjoy SWB.
As I already told RowanRose, SWB is having some technical difficulties on TONFA, but the new update was showing okay last time I checked so I hope you won't be too badly affected by it all.