I may have the timeline with the death of Uzu and Kushina coming to Konoha slightly off but whatever. Plot holes for my plot holes. Fuck it we ball

Third person pov

Sasuke went to the academy with Naruto for too long not to know how to fabricate his handwriting, luckily for all of them. Enemies or not, that chicken scratch of his had been practically impossible to miss.

"Get into the character of Naruto." Kakashi was looming over the Uchiha's soldier, anxiety radiating off of him. Tsunami had been kind enough to find him an old crutch to use, and he was a menace now that he was mobile again. "Make up as many cute scenarios that could plausibly have happened in the amount of time that we've been gone and add them in, too. To minimize the chances of him showing up. But-- not too cute, or he might get upset he's missing them and come anyway."

Sakura's nose scrunched up. Sasuke could feel his eye beginning to twitch. 

"What does that even mean?" Sasuke grit out. "Cute scenarios-- what, like him running into a litter of puppies and befriending them all?"

It was meant to be sarcastic, but a single glance at Kakashi showed that the man was absolutely eating it up. He looked at Sasuke like he'd just struck gold.

"Exactly that." Kakashi breathed out. His one visible eye narrowed. "Do you think there are any puppies around here? It'll be more believable if we have Naruto bring one back with him."

Naruto, who was MIA currently and had given no indication of any kind that he'd be back anytime soon. He had until the bridge was finished to show back up, which sounded like a lot of time, but realistically? Naruto was always going to get into the absolute most amount of trouble possible.

Sasuke understood, sort of. On the off chance that he managed to stumble his way back over here-- assuming he hadn't been capsized by a shark and subsequently eaten in the process-- they would need as solid a background story as humanly possible if they didn't want the Hokage to sniff out their lies. That man was batshit insane when it came to Naruto.

But again, that was an off chance. Naruto's luck was so hit-or-miss that he was either going to pull through perfectly fine, or his body was going to wash up on the shore. No in-between. Kakashi was being optimistic, wanting to look for a puppy when they didn't even know if Naruto was going to make it back in one piece or not.

"Kakashi-sensei, you can't be serious." Sakura sounded incredulous. Kakashi gave her a flat look.

"Eviscerated, Sakura." He reminded, voice dead with its seriousness. "Sasuke, start writing. Sakura? We've got until the end of the day to find a puppy. Minato-sensei will know if it's too young or too old, so we need one the right age. Chop chop."

Sasuke sighs hard through his nose but doesn't bother trying to say no. On some level, he knows Kakashi is right. If anything is off, Naruto's dad is going to know. And it's going to be them answering for it. 

Personally? Sasuke would rather like to keep his headband. And his life. He refuses to lose it because that moron walked himself off a pier. 

"Fine." Sasuke grumbled, slightly venomous. He couldn't believe his first mission out of the village was amounting to this. Really, he should've seen it coming considering he got stuck with Naruto as a teammate. "Go get the stupid dog. But after this, you're going to actually teach us something. Or I'll send the Hokage a letter telling the truth myself."

It's a bluff, because doing that would be suicide. Kakashi probably knows it's one, but that doesn't stop him from jolting back, a look of dawning terror encroaching upon his expression. He straightens as much as his injuries allow him, looking newly frantic.

"Consider it a deal. Sakura." He cocked his head sharply. "Now."

Sakura looked like she wanted to argue, but whatever she saw on what little was visible of their teacher's face was enough to stop her in her tracks. She sighed and stood up instead, expression twisted into one of general disdain. Sasuke hated that he could relate.

Turning back to the blank parchment in front of him, Sasuke took a deep breath and tried to dumb himself down. After all, there was no way this letter was going to sound like Naruto otherwise.

~~~~~~~

The boat scrapes up on the gravelly shore of the island, and Naruto knows immediately, without a shadow of a doubt, that he is on Uzu.

His sandals hit the sand and it comes to him as a certainty. It crawls through his veins, washes up and and over his spine like the waves that lap at his ankles. The obscuring fog lessens, like doors opening up to let him inside. Naruto can feel himself be recognized, and the next breath of air he takes in brings with it a sense of familiarity that isn't his own.

Kurama is strangely silent, cowed in the face of such a strange sensation. Nothing about the island feels natural, and yet Naruto has never felt more at ease on foreign land. He feels like nothing can touch him here. Like something stronger and older than even Kurama has looked him in the eyes and smiled.

Tentatively, Naruto takes a step forward, and then another. That tugging sensation is back and stronger than ever. He's so close. The island knows it and it wants him here, ushering him along with whispers that whistle past his ears like gusts of wind. 

The sounds swirl around him in a way that should be disorienting, but Naruto is clear and steady as ever. Sun refracts off the sea glass and different stones scattered amongst the shore, which is littered with an array of colorful shells. Bright and loud, just like the ships.

A path comes into view, paved with red brick reminiscent of his mother's hair. It's overgrow by wild brush and a tangle of flowers he doesn't recognize, but the plants almost seem to lean away to let him through as he sets on it.

For such an abandoned island, Naruto cannot help but notice the way it teems with life. Birds sing, and twigs crack under the foot of active wildlife, and plants arch towards the sun. As heavy as the rain was coming in, the sky above Uzu is clear, and the rays of sun have no trouble beaming down at him and warming Naruto's skin. 

His clothes dry, feeling strangely soft when they do. Naruto's chakra hums, and something embedded in the very earth of the island hums back. Home. This is home. This is where his blood originated from, where it will always have a place should he seek it. 

Naruto needs something from his ancestors, and Uzu has made sure to get it to him. Maybe it's weird that such a realization makes Naruto want to cry. He's been given a lot in life-- he got his parents back, a brother, the best friends in the world, and he got a bond with Kurama that no one else has ever had the honor of having. 

This is just different. This is something bigger than all of them put together, and it's reached out a hand to him and guided him here. It pulled him here, a rope tethered, and made sure he got here safe. The very sea had cradled him, and Naruto's throat feels tight at those implications.

"Don't get too emotional." Kurama mutters, though his voice is low too. In respect for Uzu and those whose bones forever rest here, perhaps. "Keep going. You're almost there. Try not to cry-- I don't need anymore headaches from you today."

Naruto's nose scrunches up as he ducks under another tropical looking leaf. He's about to open his mouth to tell him that he's not going to cry, and that crying over something like this would be a totally weak move on his part, but he doesn't get the chance to get the words out. They're dying in his throat before they're even halfway up. 

He carefully slips between a flowery pair of bushes, and there it is. The fallen village of Uzushiogakure. 

(It is more magnificent than his mother's words could ever, ever serve justice to.)

The buildings are ancient, domed with gold tile that shines like treasure in the light. Intricately carved wood lines it, framing it into sections and twisting into spires at the top. The etchings are just as complex as the ones he'd seen on the ship, depicting waves and animals and unique swirls he's certain are seals.

The buildings are a mixture of brick and hand-painted stoneware. More seals glaze their surfaces, disguised expertly amongst patterns and bright colors Naruto hadn't even realized existed, they're so vibrant. The houses are vivid conglomerations of art and power, and Naruto suddenly realizes exactly why this place feels as alive as it does.

It's because in some ways, it is. The chakra of all those who stepped foot here before him still swims through these seals. It is weaved in the very foundation of these walls, in the stone of the street, carved into the concrete with a careful hand. The Uzumaki clan had breathed their very essence into everything they made, and it had stuck.

Naruto doesn't feel alone, standing here. The city is empty, but it doesn't feel abandoned. They're all still here, in the fountain ahead of him that still spurts crystal clear water, and in the window sills with swirling foxes painted on them. In the overgrown flowerboxes with vines spilling over the sides, and in the gold doorknobs forged hot in a fire and molded by chakra to be solely unique.

An entire culture sits before him, and it's his to claim. Parts of the city have been destroyed-- he can see holes in walls, and broken windows, and gaps where doors should be. He can see cracks in the road and shattered rooves. He can see bones, stark white against the colorful backdrop, left here to rot.

Naruto blinks rapidly, bringing a hand up to his cheek. His fingers come back wet. He swallows thickly. Inside of him, Kurama is quiet and solemn.

"Th-They were killed here." Naruto stutters, because the people of Uzu made all of this. They were creative, and bright, and strong. They were an entire clan, with a past, with ambitions, with wishes, with feelings. They were his family, and nobody had come to help them when they needed it. "They're gone now." 

They're gone now, and the island hurts for it. Uzu screams. Naruto understands the rage of the ocean more than ever now, feeling this chakra rush through him, knowing the ones who put it here were cut down where they stood. In their homes, and in their streets. 

Children, slaughtered where they should've been safe. Shinobi, feeling helpless and desperate. Mothers, bloodied and clenching their teeth. Fathers, feelings like failures. Men and women, fighting hard, taking down as many as they could, even knowing they were overwhelmed.

Their blood sunk into the grooves of these roads. Their souls never left, steering the waves, screaming at the skies. There is no rest here. They echo, and they will echo for all eternity, even when they're forgotten and there's no one left to hear them. 

"They're gone." Kurama agrees quietly. 

Naruto lets himself stand there and take it in. He lets himself cry. He doesn't say a word more, and Kurama doesn't either. Uzu takes Naruto's grief as though it is an offering-- a gift. It sings back to him. 

Something reaches out to him once more. It's warm, reminiscent of his mother's chakra chains and his father's hugs. It feels like the flowers he and Kurama created. It feels like Kashi's grin. It feels like Ayumu's laugh. It feels like Shikamaru's lazy shadows, and Lee's whoops of victory. 

Naruto cries harder. He doesn't have anything else aside from his tears to offer Uzu, but the island doesn't seem to mind. Naruto doesn't know if that makes it better or worse. 

(Crying over something like this is decidedly not totally weak. That, at least, Naruto is sure of now.)

~~~~~~~

It's getting dark when Naruto finally gathers himself up enough to let himself be tugged again. Uzu is patient and Kurama doesn't make fun of the way he sniffles and hiccups, even if his lip does curl at the way Naruto wipes his running nose on his sleeve.

"God, you are disgusting. Children are disgusting." Kurama is curled up and yawning, though he doesn't let himself drift off like he normally would. That alone shows how much he cares. "Why do I put up with you again?"

"You love me." Naruto chokes out petulantly, voice a little raspy from crying. He frowns. "I think I just shed enough tears to fill a kiddie pool. I'm probably going to shed more. I mean, this is just--"

Heinous. Inhumane. Awful in literally every sense of the word. Any synonym with one of those works, really. 

The bones in the street are in perfect condition. Naruto tries not to look too closely at them, but he can't help but notice the breaks in the ivory. He can't help but envision the exact ways they died, and all the ways they suffered before they did. People were afraid of Uzu, and Uzu suffered for it.

A part of him wants to bury them. He thinks it might be appropriate. He doesn't think the island would be mad, but--

The people of Uzu do not want to rest. Perhaps they'll be ready one day, but today isn't that day. They want to be in their homes and in their streets. The village is a city of ghosts, and Naruto can feel that they want to inhabit it, even in death. Naruto has to respect that.

"Yeah." Kurama acknowledges with a harsh exhale. "Yeah, brat. It's... humans are capable of some of the most vile atrocities that have ever laid waste to this world of yours. For all that they point fingers at us tailed beasts, they have just as much capacity to be monsters."

Naruto thinks back to the time before his dad, when people would throw things at him and call him names and try to kill him in various ways, and he grimaces. Cruelty, he understands perfectly.

"It's ass. All of this is just-- it's ass." Naruto's throat tightens again as he looks over the mesmerizing architecture. How much care and love had been put into the creation of these homes, he wonders? "I came here to learn about cursed seals, not get sucker-punched by my feelings. This was..."

"Genocide." Kurama provides bluntly. Naruto takes a deep breath. "It was a genocide. Sacred holiday had brought the residents of Uzushiogakure back to congregate, and their enemies monopolized that. Your mother was only spared thanks to being wrapped up in the war. Everyone else was here."

Sacred holiday, and they'd been killed. Naruto is all for world peace and stuff, but holy shit. He's not sure he wants to take the high road on this one.

"Fuck." Naruto mutters, clenching his teeth. His mother's bottled up anger is starting to make a whole lot more sense, fiery personality aside. "This is so messed up. I mean-- I'm glad I'm getting to see it, but I feel like I have been irrevocably changed from this entire like... thing. Believe it."

Naruto's feet carried him to a quaint house on the corner. Well, quaint wasn't quite the right word, honestly. By Konoha's standards, none of these homes were humble, all of them with a unique flare that set them apart. 

This one had a concrete pathway that was swirled with different sand tones, marbles embedded in its surface. The windows on either side of the heavy door were stained glass, still in tact, if not a little dusty. There was a gold knocker on the door, a fox with a sly look on its face.

"Goody. More irreversible changes to your personality." Kurama intoned drily. He sounds tired. Naruto gets the impression that he's squinting. "This home looks... familiar to me." 

And isn't that just great. That sounds like more trauma just waiting to happen, but whatever. In for a penny, in for a pound. Naruto reaches out for the knob, which is warm under his palm. It turns without resistance, the hinges squeaking as he swings the door open.

A rush of uncannily cool air meets him head on, ruffling his hair. This is another welcome, different than the one Naruto got stepping off that boat. It feels eerily personal.   

The house isn't completely trashed, though it's obvious some sort of struggle went down here. Naruto steps in tentatively, almost afraid he might be trespassing even with the slight breeze that seems to coax him forward. Dust stirs as his sandals settle on the beached hardwood, eyes adjusting to the lighting change.

The house is full of windows, fluttering, sheer curtains covering them. Seashell windchimes hang from the ceiling, the couches made of soft leather. There's a handmade quilt over the back of one that Naruto can't help but reach out and run his hands over.

Some of the stitches are crooked, others neat. Two sets of hands working together-- a lesson in yet another one of Uzu's traditions, likely shared between a parent and child. Naruto resists the urge to scoop the blanket it up and wrap it around his shoulders, eyeing the different squares of fabric and wondering if they wove and dyed those by hand too. 

Inside him, Kurama prickles. Naruto flinches slightly at the way his chakra goes sharp. The fox inhales audibly. 

"Naruto." He rumbles out, almost like a warning. Naruto turns almost on instinct and freezes.

Through the doorway directly to his right is a traditional dining room. The table is overturned and there's old blood splattered on the walls, staining them. That's not what catches Naruto's attention, though. 

The painting centered on the wall is big and carefully done in oils, the frame made with care. The seals on it are ones Naruto recognizes to be preserving, meant to keep the paint looking fresh and clean even in the worst of conditions. It's done wonders.

There's a man and woman depicted in the picture, grins on their face. And between them, beaming so wide it looks like it hurts, is a little girl that is unmistakable even at that age.

It's his mom. Bright-eyed, probably around the age Naruto was when his dad came back to life. She looks happy, cheeks rosy and hair just as bright as her mother's. Naruto is frozen in place staring at it, hands curling into fists so tight his knuckles go white.

"Oh." Naruto squeaks out, voice small. He once again feels like he's been sucker punched in the gut. The sensation that brought him here to begin with coos, and Naruto views it through a new lens as he gazes at the faces of what are very clearly his grandparents. 

"Oh." Kurama agrees, sounding as though he may be cringing. He pauses. "...Are you going to cry about this too?"

Naruto bursts into tears. Because yeah, obviously he's going to cry about this. He falls back onto the couch and puts his face in his hands, taking deep breaths and forcing himself not to look. Outside, wind rattles the loose shutters. Kurama's chakra heats up and fights the chill the draft brings, peripherally comforting.

This is so messed up. Naruto hadn't really thought about what coming here would actually be like. He'd known they'd been massacred, but seeing and knowing were two very different things. It was so much realer, being here. Naruto just... he needed a moment. 

He should've thought more about the implications of venturing to Uzu. Though, it's not as if he'd really gotten much of a say. He'd been asleep when the whole thing happened. Uzu had clearly thought he was ready to come here, but sitting here? 

Naruto really wasn't sure. He certainly didn't feel ready.

Kurama doesn't rush Naruto. Naruto doesn't rush himself either, because this entire thing is just-- a whole new level of fucked that Naruto has never broached into before, shockingly. Neji may be free from the Hyuga clan by the end of this, but he's going to owe Naruto for life for this one.

"I'm a good friend. I'm a great friend who never breaks his promises, believe it." Naruto scrubs at his face. "I'm already here. Literally already here. Point of no return. May as well get it over with." 

"Are you talking to me or yourself?" Kurama yawned. "There there. Reassurance. It'll all work out. Sunshine and rainbows. Flowers. Puppies. Ramen-- you love that stuff." 

"You are so bad at this." Naruto muttered, sighing. He sat himself up fully, feeling tired and suddenly super hungry. He tensed when he felt something slide off his shoulders and pool down his back. He twisted around. 

The quilt was there, unfolded and shaken free of dust. Naruto stared at it blandly. Yeah. Yeah, Neji was going to owe him through this life and the next for this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto sleeps on the couch that night, curled up under the quilt. There's instant ramen in the cabinets, somehow. It's sort of stale and Kurama might have to fight off some food poisoning, but it takes more than that to bring Naruto down. He brushes off the brief sway of his stomach and gets to business. 

Sleep and food makes everything better. Naruto views the house through new eyes and it's not as devastating as it was the night before. It still hurts-- the grief is there and so is the sorrow, but Naruto breathes through it. 

It happened. He can't change it. Those facts are set in stone.

What Naruto can do is get to know the people who were once here. He can learn about them and who he is, and he can be as respectful as he can manage. It's not the best, but it's better than nothing. Naruto gently collects what little photos he can find of his grandparents, family, and their friends-- his mom will want them. 

Keeping this whole trip a secret isn't worth her not getting these again. Naruto is feeling this loss secondhand. He hadn't even been alive when they died. In contrast, his mother had been young, whisked away her home to become Konoha's Jinchuriki thanks to her impressive reservoir of chakra, even for an Uzumaki. 

It must have been impossibly hard to lose them and be unable to do a thing about it. Naruto takes in the bright colors of his mom's childhood bedroom, still set up as though just waiting for her to come home and visit. His heart feels heavy. 

Only a few things call to him. Naruto gathers them up. He pulls the painting off the wall and doesn't look at the blood dried and flaked on the floor, turned brown after years left to sit undisturbed. He scoops up the quilt, and the plush toy that sits on his mom's bed. 

There's a hand carved wooden spoon in the kitchen he plucks out, and a book sat on the small table in the hall. He doesn't open his grandparents' room. The trail of blood that leads there tells him of what's likely inside, and he knows he won't be able to bear seeing it.

"Alright." Naruto dusts off the containment scroll he found tucked away in a jacket pocket in the hall closet, looking at his haul outside. He'd brought it all to sit by the fountain, not sure how much longer he could stand to stay in the house knowing what had happened there. "Sweet. Familial obligation fulfilled, believe it."

"Can't wait to bear witness to all the therapy sessions that will be borne from this very moment." Kurama's voice is laden with sarcasm, though he doesn't judge Naruto for his hasty retreat. The island doesn't seem to either, nor does the house. 

It had welcomed him. Showed him what he needed to see-- he'd witnessed and gathered snippets of their life there. His grandfather's fishing lures, and his grandmothers sewing. The seals of their specific design, painted carefully on the walls, bright and loud as they must've been. Their chakra had still thrummed through those walls.

It was a brief introduction, but enough. Naruto let out another breath. He didn't feel the pull to go back. They'd met him and they felt content, and Naruto had gotten exactly what he needed from them and then some. 

"Man. So much for monthly sessions. Ayumu is going to be spinning on his head." Naruto unraveled the scroll. It looked a little different than most storage scrolls, though not by much. He flipped it to the sealing side, letting his chakra pour into it. "Now we've just got to find out where they were keeping all their super secret sealing clan knowledge and--"

The items he collected from the house were quickly sucked into the scroll. Next to him, the fountain gave an ominous rumble. Naruto paused, pursing his lips as he slowly turned to look at it. 

The water flowing through it sputtered a few times before turning off completely. Naruto made an effort to withdraw his chakra, pursing his lips harder when it refused. It flowed out through his feet instead, leeching out and into the ground beneath him against his will. 

Around him, several seals lit up blue. Flickers of Kurama's gold popped off like additional fireworks as light rushed through the grooves between the bricked road, circling the fountain. Naruto struggled to keep up with the rush of energy, following it as it filled in spaces he hadn't even realized were here before.

It wasn't just that there were seals carved into the bricks. This entire road--

"It's all a seal." Kurama didn't sound particularly surprised. The fountain drained of water, rumbling some more. "Your luck is truly something to behold, Kit. I don't even know why I bother anymore."

The stones of the fountain made a loud grinding noise as they shifted. Naruto leaned forward as they dropped, stairs spiraling down into a dark well. The dimness was quickly lit by the flickering on of candles, held aloft by gold sconces.

"In literally any other situation this would be a bad idea." Naruto peered down the stairwell skeptically, jamming the sealing scroll in his pocket as best he could. A weird hum was echoing up the chasm. "Chances of me getting murdered?"

"On a deserted island? Zero to none." Kurama ushered, tails flicking. "Though with your track record, it wouldn't be much of a shock. If it's statistically going to happen to someone, it'll be you. Every single time."

Naruto wasn't sure if that was an insult, a fact, or some mixture of the two. If he dies, he'll have to remember to save Kashi a seat on the other side. Since Naruto's dad will be killing him in cold blood where he stands the moment the news of his being missing drops. They really are on a time crunch, aren't they?

Naruto hesitantly stepped over the rim of the fountain. There was no dampness from the water. Naruto wonders if he could adapt whatever seal did that part to operate in their bathroom, since Kashi fucking floods it every time he showers.

Naruto has no idea what the man's doing to turn the entire floor into a swimming pool, but Naruto's gotten his socks wet one too many times to be okay with it. Something has to give.

"You're entering the ancient stronghold of the Uzumaki clan and you're thinking about your bathroom floor?" Kurama sounded utterly unimpressed. It was the same tone he'd used when Naruto woke up in their shared mindscape last night and immediately began ranting about how to couch he fell asleep on was too comfortable to just be sitting there for all eternity with no one to enjoy it.

"It's a serious issue. One day I'm going to slip and that'll be what takes me out, believe it." Naruto grimaced. "Why's it smell like a peat bog in here? And before you say it's because we're by an ocean, I mean it's a strong smell. Think Gai that one time he spilled eighteen bottles of soy sauce on himself after trying to juggle them."

Naruto gets the distinct impression that he's being judged. Simultaneously, Kurama also seems relieved. Naruto hasn't cried once today, acting notably more like himself. This entire trip is quickly shaping up to be a journey of self discovery, but Naruto's holding strong. Or-- stronger than most would in this situation, anyway.

"Everyone you know is pathetic." Kurama grouses. The flickering candles are making this whole dungeon place way more ominous. "And it's not a dungeon."

"If it looks like a dungeon, and smells like a dungeon, and is built like a dungeon, it's probably a dungeon. Believe it." Naruto halted as he came to the last step. The sound of him coming to a stop echoed in the tall room before him. "Woah."

It was... massive. The entire door was a seal, shining gold, like it'd been polished just yesterday. Naruto can't even begin to imagine how they must've made it. He can only guess the different chakra natures they must have had to wield to bend it with such accuracy. There's no room for error in seals, and metal can be unforgiving even on its best days.

The energy that thrums through the island is strongest here. It's physical against his skin, a static that races up his arms and across his shoulders. If Uzushiogakure has a heart, Naruto is certain this is it. 

It had seemed like an accident that he stumbled upon this place, but it wasn't, was it? None of this was. For all that Naruto's life has been full of the impossible and strange, sporadic chance encounters that all cumulate to the conclusion of him having the shittiest luck known to mankind, this isn't that.  

This is all intentional. He was brought here not by fate, or accident. There'd been a call and this was the answer. 

Realistically, Naruto shouldn't know how to open the door. There's no handles and he's never actually been here before, so how would he have any idea where to start? This thing is probably booby-trapped to the nines to keep intruders out. Not that anyone seemed to have discovered it down here.

There'd probably be bones down here if they had. And the fountain wouldn't have been working, that's for sure.

Despite never once standing before this door, Naruto steps forward anyway. His chakra swirls in an odd spiral in both hands, almost like a Rasengan is trying to form. Naruto lets it, raising his arms and letting his palms come to sit on the left and right of the centered yin yang seal respectively.

There are layers among layers, unlike anything he's ever seen. Naruto bets there's more embedded beneath the layers of metal, inlaid with crystal to keep their form against the scorch of fresh metal being poured over. He takes a deep breath as something in him corkscrews outwards, heat radiating through his fingers.

His chakra surges out of him, lighting the door up into a miasma of colors. Despite himself, Naruto can't help but grin.

~~~~~~~~~

As always, you can read up to chapter 14 on Patreon, as well as other Naruto things I've written (Naruto seeing ghosts, Sasuke DEFINITELY NOT BEING GAY HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT WINK WINK one shot, dimension travel, time travel, drafts, and more idk)