#I haven't written anything with Sasuke as like anbu for example because hooooo boy that's a toughie

[kinomiakai]

Hi! Do you think making Sasuke stay in Konoha is ooc? Why or why not because there are so many fanfics that go like Naruto brings Sasuke back in the village he's either imprisoned or rendered unable to use his powers and somehow persuaded to stay in the village and not enough Naruto and Sasuke leave the village together exploring the world trying to help other villages and connect with people that share similar experiences with them while also developing their own relationship together. I don't know this feels more true to their characters. Also would this be something you'd like to explore in your future stories? Love your writing!

Hey anon!! I love this phrasing like an essay question hahaha okay okay lemmie get some brainstorming started

So first off, I’ve written both of these! Not the imprisonment scenario specifically, but I do have some fics with Sasuke in Konoha. So I don’t think it’s ooc, necessarily. I definitely think of the two choices, it’s the tougher one to write - you really have to work on justifying it in Sasuke’s head. Sasuke staying in Konoha, to me, relies on probably one of two things: (1) the world can’t change without his help, and he’s ready to help it again, and/or (2) Konoha is unrecognizable as what it once was, and now Sasuke sees it as another place entirely. I did a mix of those in Rebuilding; [SPOILERS if you haven’t read it] they do go travelling at the end, but they also have a house in Konoha, and Sasuke reconnects to the Uchiha compound. Naruto also really needs his help, as the person leading the charge—and Sasuke not only sees that he’s trying & struggling, but he knows Naruto can do it. In the fic, anyway. So that’s a way I think it can work; Sasuke hates Konoha but I don’t think his desire to change the ninja system is gone or anything. I think he’d either want to be 100% out of the loop, or find it really, really hard not to get involved, because anything that stalled Naruto’s efforts or what have you would infuriate him.

And I think this debate/choice is especially tough for them as a pairing, because either Sasuke needs manage to be okay with Konoha (which, in canon, he really really isn’t), or Naruto needs to be able to detangle himself from Konoha (which, in canon, he really really can’t). This is part of the reason my canonverse fics end up being so long lmao. It takes so much development to get anywhere!!!

But yeah, I’ve done both and I think both can work. It’s a really interesting challenge to try to tackle, too. Right now I’m tackling more of them being out, travelling together in Two is a Crowd - I feel like I’ve being going that route a lot recently, but it does still involve exploring Sasuke’s relationship with Konoha a lot. Especially because Naruto tends to be the Hokage, or getting ready to be, etc etc. It’s pretty hard to try and write Sasuke healing without dealing with the absolute hatred & fury he’s carrying around in some shape or form. And it’s not that much of a jump for the next step to be him being able to go there as part of the healing process, and maybe he's just thrown in head first by being imprisoned and is forced to confront his hatred all at once - that could happen. It'd be a really intense bit of time for him and probably involve a lot of breaking down, but if something could convince him to breathe for a little while and focus on the parts of his life that aren't bringing back trauma long enough to prove that Konoha is changing or something like that - yeah, I could see that. And you know, now that I think about it, I did start writing something like that years ago! It's in my notebook somewhere. It's basically just the start where Sasuke is absolutely furious & lashing out at everything hahaha. Can't blame him! I never finished it though. It'd be a much more intense & less peaceful sort of process for sure, but it could work.

This is a bit of a wishy-washy answer hahaha, but I'm a big believer in being able to make almost anything work with enough justification & development within the story. I think that's part of the fun. So something really tough, like making Sasuke okay enough with Konoha to happily live there, is totally a challenge I'd love to see tackled. Does that make sense? Does this all make sense? I'm rambling at you now.

But thank you for this, and thank you so much! I’m really glad you like my writing!! <3 <3 I hope this answered your question!