#A Moral Compass for The Wayward Ninja

[narutofanonshinden]

Prompt of The Week

It's Fic Title Friday Saturday💖

Come up with a summary or scene for this not-yet-written fic titled, 'A Moral Compass for The Wayward Ninja'

[madhare0512]

hesitantly tugging the other's fabric of their shirt or sleeve, testing the waters + Ninja Storm or Beyond the Grid; Cam & Marah & Kapri

I actually love and adore this relationship!

~

If asked, Cam couldn't tell you why he'd chosen to take Marah and Kapri in. He knows that Dustin had pulled him aside not long after they'd found the pair in the aftermath of the battle. He knows that Dustin had said, "I still see good in her, Cam," and Cam had believed the sencerity in Dustin's eyes. He knows that Marah and Kapri have the training to be good ninjas, but not the proper needle in their moral compasses. Cam knows that Lothor may have been disowned from the Mori family, but Kara (his father's sister) was not and Marah and Kapri are his counsins. He knows that Shane, Tori, and Dustin had been on board with giving them second chances.

Cam knows that his team backs him 100%, even against their own students. Hunter and Blake's words don't mean much to the kids at the Wind Ninja Academy, but the title of Power Ranger goes far enough.

It's night time when it happens.

Hunter and Blake are out of Ninja Ops, of course. Hunter’s teaching his classes and Blake's busy with Factory Blue. Shane, Tori, and Dustin were already asleep- already in bed. Cam was up late taking care of some paperwork, so his father didn't have to. Sitting in Ninja Ops and doing paperwork isn't unlike doing his school work while waiting for the computer to finish scanning the area, not unlike bouncing ideas of Cyber Cam while Cam twists a guitar pick between his fingers or files with the amulet around his neck.

"Cam?" calls Marah softly.

Fuck.

"You down here?"

Cam puts down his papers and looks up. Sure, Marah and Kapri are regular- good- ninjas now, but he's still hesitant to let them into Ninja Ops, into the heart of his home, into a place of safety for him, Shane, Tori, and Dustin.

Still, he can't just... Well, maybe he could-? Ah, who was he kidding?

"If you're going to be loud, could you do it outside?" Cam says back, standing as his wayward cousins slip silently down the stairs. He turns to face them. "There are people trying to sleep in here."

Marah comes over quickly, fitting herself to Cam's side as if he and she were conjoined. Ironically, they're the same age, born not long apart. It wasn't hard to imagine them to be twins. Not for Cam, at least.

"Sorry," Marah breaths. "Couldn't sleep."

"She insisted on coming to find you," Kapri says. She grabs Cam's wrist, which would've made Cam freeze in shock a few months ago and send her flying last year. Now he just lets it happen. Kapri doesn't show her emotions as a typical human does. Kapri is stoic and quiet.

She tugs gently on Cam's sleeve. It's the green hoodie Dustin got him a while back, one that Cam loves and adores. Kapri, knowing this, is very gentle when she tugs and tugs.

Cam takes the hint of what Kapri wants- what she won't say, what she's testing- and wraps his arms around her shoulders. "It's fine," he says, squeezing gently. "I'm here for whenever."

Eventually, the cuddle puddle gets moved to the small couch area for when Cam's dizziness proves too much for him. None of them say a thing in the morning, but Cam still finds his cousins in Ninja Ops far more often.

~

@augment-techs

[daresplaining]

It's like Daredevil and Elektra are my kids, and I essentially adopt them both, to train them to fight. My problem [...] with Daredevil is the one line he won't cross is taking a human life. He'll beat people up [...] but he won't kill people. [...] I play a defender against the worst evil in the world, but my only way of dealing with that is killing people. I don't think of myself-- Stick-- as being a bad person, but I certainly don't think of myself as being a particularly good person either. [...] I'm a soldier in combat, in a desperate war, and that's the way I have to behave.

Scott Glenn, on Stick’s morality

Defenders Countdown: 23 Days

    As a major Stick fan, I’ve intended for a million years to write a post about the MCU version of the character, and now seems as good a time as any! 

    The Daredevil show has taken my favorite grumpy ninja and rounded out his character to a degree that I could never have expected. It takes the framework of his character presented in the comics, and makes him feel all that much more solid and real-- while still being fundamentally the same person. As in the comics, we know very little about MCU Stick’s past, and his motives are never clear. And like in the comics, he is emotionally distant and brutally unforgiving. However, there has always been the underlying understanding that Stick cares about those he trains. He doesn’t show it, but the fact is that if he didn’t like Matt, if he didn’t like Elektra, if he didn’t like the other members of the Chaste, he wouldn’t bother with them. Stick is not sentimental at all– in the comics, anyway– but the reader/viewer is made aware that he has a hidden pride in his pupils. He complements Matt to others, for instance, but never to his face.

Stone: “Stick-- this is a mistake. Daredevil should not be involved.”

Stick: “Yer wrong. I trained each of you. So lissen when I tell you the punk would be as good at what we do as any of us... if only his head wasn’t such a snake pit...”

Daredevil vol. 1 #188 by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson

  But the show has done something utterly unexpected with Stick– it has given him a degree of open compassion that far surpasses anything he ever expresses in the comics. This is a fascinating choice, and it adds to the painful, wonderful complexity of his character.

   This fact doesn’t undermine the harshness of Stick’s character-- it shouldn’t, and I’m not trying to claim that it does. He wouldn’t be Stick without that element, and I am far too invested in that side of his personality to ever try to soften it, or claim that it isn’t real. Stick is a stone-cold jerk– and I wouldn’t have him any other way. What fascinates me about his portrayal in the shows is the degree to which he does openly shows compassion in spite of his crass personality and scorn for interpersonal connections. He acquires Elektra to use her and train her, but he also behaves as a father figure for her to the degree that he kills another member of the Chaste to protect her, and she is distraught by the thought that he might forget her. We also get the clear implication that he breaks off training Matt partly to avoid forging too strong of an emotional bond with him. (And don’t get me started on “Matty” and “Ellie”. Diminutives? Stick never even calls Matt “Matt” in the comics!)

    But at the same time, we are driven to always question MCU Stick’s motives. As Scott Glenn comments in the above quote, he is recruiting these kids to be soldiers in a war in which morality and emotions are serious weaknesses. Are these perceived emotional connections simply another form of manipulation? Does he drop the bracelet in Matt’s apartment because he’s been carrying it with him for sentimental reasons, or is it just a tactic for drawing Matt back to his side? Does he save Elektra’s life and restore contact with her as an adult because he cares about her, or because she’s a useful asset? Or is it a little bit of both? Many relationships will be hitting some serious climaxes in The Defenders, and chief among them is the relationship between Stick and his two wayward pupils. Color me both nervous and excited to see how it all turns out.   

[narutofanonshinden]

Prompt Fill by @fireflylitsky

Modern Bounty Hunter AU featuring Kakuzu and kid!Fuu

Kakuzu’s been a bounty hunter for a good long while now. Best in the business some might say. When he’s offered a contract to locate and transport a target across the country to a very wealthy client, he initially declines. He doesn’t usually take jobs involving kids—too annoying, too messy—but they insist, and the price is too good to pass up.

_____..._____

“Are you stealing that?” comes a small, inquisitive voice from beside him.

Kakuzu takes a deep breath from his nose. He’s not supposed to kill this little girl—just deliver her to his client—but goddamnit she’s making it difficult. Live capture bounties are the worst. Right now she’s at his side, looking up at him expectantly with those giant, creepy lantern eyes.

Without acknowledging her, Kakuzu continues shoving the merchandise into his satchel. 

“That’s bad,” Fuu tells him. “You’re not supposed to do that, y’know.”

“Keep talking about it and I'll add ‘murder’ to the list of things I’m not supposed to do today.”

Her mouth slants and she stares at him like she’s trying to assess the sincerity of that threat. Apparently she doesn’t think he means it because she keeps prattling on.

“I’m just trying to be your moral compass. I think you need one.”

He lets out a derisive snort of a laugh from beneath his mask. Where’d she get that from? Kids really do say the weirdest shit.

“And I don’t even like that kind,” she says, eyes on the honey oat granola bars he’s grabbing.

He looks directly at her, puts the granola bars in his pouch, and then grabs two more boxes. It’s vaguely amusing, the scowl it puts on her face, but even better, it shuts her up.

They peruse some other aisles in silence and are almost ready to leave when he feels a tug at his sleeve. Lord give him patience. He looks down to see Fuu, a tiny little thing really, clutching a candy bar—Reese’s cups.

He raises an annoyed brow. “What.”

After some brief hesitation, she holds out the candy. “If you’re going to be stealing food, can you do this one too, please?”

With a moment to look her over, he scoffs. “Do it yourself.”

“You want me to steal this?”

“Kid, there isn’t a thing you could do besides disappear that I want. Take it if you want it so bad, but don’t expect me to coddle you.”

It puts a despairing expression on her face, and she looks between him and the candy in her tiny hands.

“C’mon kid, it’s now or never. We’re leaving.” He walks past her, leading them to the exit. He doesn’t make an obvious show of watching her, but he takes note that she trots over to the display she found the candy on and puts it back. 

When they get in the car she’s quiet. Fuu lets her temple hit the window and just stares out for a while as they drive. Blessed silence.

Eventually when Kakuzu gets hungry enough to raid his snack sack, he notices her eyeing them from his periphery. Yeah. She’s probably hungry too. 

As much as it pains him to play babysitter, a cranky kid with an empty stomach is something he wants to avoid, so he holds one out to her. “Eat.”

“Mm.” She hums, unsure and making a face of distaste. Kakuzu isn’t sure how anyone can dislike honey oat, but whatever. “No thanks. I’m not hungry.”

As if on cue, her belly gurgles in protest like it’s calling her bluff.

“Suit yourself.” Kakuzu shrugs, shoving it back in his bag. More for him.

Fuu lets out a sigh and returns to sulking. “Aren’t we stopping somewhere to eat for real soon?”

“No.” He peels back the wrapper and crunches into the granola bar loudly. “You should’ve stolen that candy.”

“It’s bad to steal.”

“You didn’t seem to mind asking me to do it.”

“Yeah, well, that’s different...”

He glances over at her, brow slightly raised.

“The way I see it, you’re probably already going to the bad place. Y’know…” she drops her voice to a whisper, “h-e-l-l.”

Kakuzu actually laughs. It’s short and abrupt and barely distinguishable from a cough, but yeah, that caught him off guard, and yeah, she’s not wrong.

“Can’t argue with that,” he admits. “If there’s a hell, I’ll be there.” He’ll be the goddamn treasurer of hell for all he cares.

“I’m just sayin’,” she sighs with a shrug, staring out at the countryside. “No sense in both of us going down there.”

It’s not the worst logic he’s heard, he’ll give her that.

Fuu lets out an overwrought blustery noise. “Are we really not stopping for food soon? I’m just a kid. You’re supposed to feed m—” Something hits her in the head and tumbles into her lap. Kakuzu may or may not have thrown it at her. “Hey!” She complains, shooting him a disgruntled look, rubbing her cheek. “Hey!” She brightens when she finally looks at what actually hit her. “Reese’s! You stole it for me after all, thanks!”

Kakuzu rolls his eyes. “Some moral compass you are.”

She happily unwraps the peanut butter cup and shoves it in her mouth. “Never said what way I point.”

Kakuzu snorts. He needs to make it through another week and a half of this brat. Irritating as she is, at least she’s mildly entertaining at times.

Prompt of The Week

It's Fic Title Friday Saturday💖

Come up with a summary or scene for this not-yet-written fic titled, 'A Moral Compass for The Wayward Ninja'

[narutofanonshinden]

Prompt Fill by @woofgang69

Some Gaara & Hinata in the forest of death. They somehow get separated from their teams & then gaara basically imprints on her. Like when they have those dogs with the cheetahs at the zoo 😂

_____..._____ Hinata’s whole body ached with the tense way she was holding herself, but she couldn’t let herself relax, not as she walked side-by-side with Gaara. He hadn’t tried to attack her, but that didn’t make him any less dangerous. She used her byakugan to search the forest around them for their teammates, but also used it to keep a close eye on Gaara’s chakra. She wouldn’t stand a chance against him if he suddenly changed his mind about her usefulness, but she might be able to run far enough away if it came to it.

Hinata’s fear of Gaara and her desperation to find Kiba and Shino made it easy to forget about the chunin exam, but she was forcibly reminded of it as a team of Kusa genin ambushed them. They dropped down from a large tree branch, already weaving hand signs Hinata didn’t recognize. She tensed further as she tried to brace for their attack, but it never came.

Gaara held his hand out in front of himself, directing his sand towards the Kusa genin. The sand enveloped them almost completely, leaving only their fearful faces free. Hinata’s blood ran cold as she watched Gaara slowly curl his fingers into his palms, easily recognizing the gesture for his Sand Coffin even though she had only seen him use it once before. The thought of watching him use it again made her feel a little sick, so she forced herself to intervene even though there wasn’t really anything she could do.

“Please don’t kill them, Gaara.” Hinata’s voice shook, full of fear that she’d be unable to hide even if she wanted to. A tremor ran through her as Gaara looked at her, his gaze cold and unreadable, but she didn’t flinch back from him. Gaara was still staring at her as he dropped his hand and their would-be attackers along with it.

Prompt of The Week

It's Fic Title Friday Saturday💖

Come up with a summary or scene for this not-yet-written fic titled, 'A Moral Compass for The Wayward Ninja'

[narutofanonshinden]

Prompt Fill by @little-serpent

TobiIzu soulmate AU

_____..._____

Senju and Uchiha. Two proud clans who were at war and constantly fighting with each other. Two clans that were known to always battle for lands and control... No one knew why the two clans were fighting or for how long they wanted to keep going... Many lives had already been lost on both sides and many more were yet to be taken, if things wouldn't change.

But during the war between those two Warring Clans, two Shinobi ended up bonded in a way that no one would have expected. A bond no one had seen coming, especially not between enemies. A bond that might bring an end to the Warring Era or cause the complete annihilation of one of the two Clans. And yet, one of those Shinobis held hope that this might be the way to peace, while the other Shinobi, plaqued by the deaths of his loved ones, sought to destroy the Clan of his enemies.

Only the Kamis and Deities may know if the bond would be strong enough. If the plaqued Shinobi could be saved, before his own hatred would drag him down into a pool of despair and madness.

Prompt of The Week

It's Fic Title Friday Saturday💖

Come up with a summary or scene for this not-yet-written fic titled, 'A Moral Compass for The Wayward Ninja'