#Timeline - Post Chunin Exams

[konohagakurekakashi]

Kakashi's thoughts (as per our HC's) on seeing Tsunade not only back in the village but finding out she's the Godaime?!

|| In all honesty Kakashi was a listless, emotional eddy at the time, very evocative of the Uzushiogakure emblem stitched onto the standard issue blues he dresses in. With that said, I made this more about feelings than thoughts. Though in his case, I suppose it's the same thing. Accept it.

Initially he felt confused, red miasma evaporating from the recesses of his mind with every pulse of her mystical palm technique. Why was he in bed? Was this the hospital? Why and for how long has he been out? Then he became aware of the throb in his left eye-socket, the raw, burning ache of the Sharingan bringing with it the memories of a pair of cloaks adorned in red clouds and the crimson haze of Tsukuyomi. Red. Red.

The second feeling that followed was panic. If he was here, did that mean that Itachi and his pet fish managed to capture Naruto? Was Sasuke alright? What about Kurenai, Asuma and Gai? He pushed himself onto his elbows, then into a seated position, despite every muscle and joint screaming its protest. There was movement on his right, words being spoken, but he managed to ward of the poking, glowing digits with a grunt and a wince. He noticed that the tips of the receding fingernails were stained red. Red, more red.

What followed after was pain, just pain. The hand reaching for his being cuffed to the side in favour of him hunching forward so he could press the heel of his palm against his closed lid. He took a few shallow breaths, finally taking stock of the dim chakra flickers surrounding his bed. He noted Gai and Naruto’s first, the signatures that were so distinctly them, answering at least two of the questions which he had swirling through his mind. They seemed eager, impatient even, not at all aggrieved, which left the end results of their fight with the Akatsuki up in the air.

He paused when his sluggish mind finally processed the other two chakra imprints in the room, the instant recognition causing his shallow breaths to stutter and cease and then there was just…disbelief…because Uchiha Itachi appearing in the Hidden Leaf Village for round two was more believable than his present. Against his better judgement the Jōnin angled his head to the side to take in the two kunoichi, a twinge of pain ensuing the movement. Senju Tsunade looked more or less the same as he remembered, her hands on her hips and a rue, annoyed smile twisting the corners of her mouth – no doubt a consequence of him slapping her hands away. Her hair was longer and a diamond seal found its way across her temple, but in all other aspects; she seemed...unchanged. He also noted that her nails were red. Always red.

When asked, Kakashi would aver that he stopped looking at the large, village gates years ago. Not even when he passed through Konoha’s gates himself did he spare them a blink. He didn’t need to, not since that day. The guard post and its two occupants became his end point- his “I’m here” and his “I’m going” but not those gates.  It was a bitter nexus to observe, even through all of the aches and the brain fog; that the haori she was wearing was the exact same colour as those towering egresses. She was speaking then, tone still very much annoyed, reprimanding him for allowing a measly two insurgents to get the better of him, before allowing Gai and Naruto to whisk her away. The silence that followed brought the shame and the guilt.

It was Asuma that eventually informed him that Tsunade would be the Godaime Hokage, leaning against his open window, whilst recalling the way the woman had to dispel academy grade traps courtesy of his nephew. The boy’s antics seemed to please him, plumes of smoke exuding from grinning lips and coiling out of the window like wispy snakes, before a screeching nurse appeared to kick him and his cigarettes out of the room, complaining all the while as she shadowed Asuma to the exit: ‘smoke was detrimental to one’s health and absolutely forbidden within the hospital. How dare he!’ Kakashi watched a sheepish Sarutobi go, unsure how he felt about the news. On one hand he understood the stratagem that the Elders followed. It made sense to appoint a student of the Third as his replacement, and with Orochimaru labeled a rogue and Jiraiya frolicking across the Elemental Nations to sustain his spy network, Tsunade was the only viable option. Even though logical Kakashi still couldn’t fully fathom it. She didn’t strike him as the type to sit behind a desk all day, signing off on paperwork. In all the years that he has known her, she has never once showed an interest in the hat despite it practically being an 'heirloom' and then there was also the fact that she was never, ever supposed to return; his mind having reconciled that datum when he eventually stopped peering at those towering gates. Accepting the position of 'Fire Shadow' was like chaining oneself to the village - and like him, she was already chained to something else, the specters of her past.

Despite his misgivings, the Sannin’s healing increased his recovery greatly and he soon found himself slumped amongst the rest of the villagers, peering up at the Hokage Tower as Tsunade formally accepted the hat and the shackles associated therewith. Even bearing witness to the whole thing, a gentle breeze anointing the moment to memory, he still could not accede the juncture for what it was, expecting the Iryō-nin to disappear through those green posterns the moment the Elders let their guard down. He wouldn’t blame her and Shizune for the withdrawal; the narrow, winding paths, crowded markets and booming village populace likely more alien now than the tōro lanterns of the Fire Capital.

Still, he happened to glimpse her at an Izakaya the day after the ceremony, sake cup slanted in her grip as she paged through a file. He saw her a few days after that, growling at an academy instructor for not including basic first aid in the current curriculum and again some days thereafter with a few rumpled scrolls tucked underneath an arm, whilst she decreed for all to hear how tired she was of fixing her sensei’s 'messes'. Days turned into a week and one week evolved into two and before he knew it, he was meandering his way passed the two guards stationed outside of the Kage’s door with a full ten minutes to spare. Their shocked splutters and quacks of indignation went ignored, which he supposed only added to their ire (but really, despite the Konoha grapevine spewing the contrary he did own an alarm clock). Once stood in the confines of the office, Kakashi didn’t feel a jolt of surprise as he noted the Godaime behind the desk. He didn’t hesitate when he stepped up to accept his first A-rank since being discharged from the hospital and he made no interruptions as the Kage expanded on the mission rudiments, red-tipped fingers folded deftly underneath her chin. The copy-nin only hummed his response, feeling acceptance.

@senjutsunade

[erumai-maadu]

part 2 to this post of analyzing everything we see of Tenten from the show and data books to help me get a consistent character for her!

this one is gonna go over moments from all the post-series filler arcs she’s in from naruto original, or her genin years. this will also include the three genin-era fillers from Shippuden that she's in, up to the second chunin exams arc. These are all anime-only fillers, so these can be as canon or non-canon as you’d like them to be. We get quite a few moments where Tenten feels OOC to me (because yknow. filler), and I’ll point these out.

Some of these episodes aren't particularly important for Tenten's character, but I'll go through them anyway bc all that she ever gets is crumbs anyway. If you ever wanna do a Tenten rewatch of the show, these are some good filler arcs to watch.

I’ll be going in chronological order of the show’s (terrible and unclear) timeline. Unless specified to be from shippuden, the episode numbers I’m referencing are from the original series.

Jounin Leader! (Shippuden 360)

This is one episode of a long set of flashback episodes to Kakashi’s past, so this is more focused on him angsting than on Team Gai, but we get a few moments here. This one is about Kakashi and Gai’s time as a jounin sensei, and gives us more insight into Team Gai's first year as genin.

We get to see Team Gai’s “bell test” which is them just fighting Gai and showing him their determination. We get a few moments of Tenten using pure taijutsu, which is cool!

This isn’t about Tenten but I have to say it anyway. Gai is such a good sensei.

Just one scene earlier, we watch Kakashi brutally beat up three 12 year olds, and then we see Gai with his kids and he barely even touches them during their fight. He’s pretty much entirely on the defense, just redirecting blows and making space for himself. His most injurious attack is a kick that creates enough wind to blow them back several feet.

He really just wears them down and pushes them to their limit stamina-wise to see if they continue to fight. And they do! And he’s so excited by it!! it’s so cute, I love Gai so fucking much.

They take a little break after they all pass, and end up talking about Kakashi, who failed his team back to the Academy. It’s Tenten who brings this up, going “Good thing we didn’t get that other sensei that everyone talks about.” and looks around like she’s about to share some shady gossip. I love her sm, little busybody. She’s the one that tells her teammates all the tea in that scene, and they’re just sitting there like omg whattttttt :0

I think this dynamic absolutely continues on forever, with Tenten keeping her boys up to date on all the gossip and goings-on throughout the years.

Then we skip forward a bit to the chunin exams for that year, where Gai asks his team if they want to participate. Lee says no, because he believes he isn’t ready. Gai asks Neji, who also says no, and Tenten. She says that they’ll all train hard, and then take the exams again next year, together.

Their bond is so cute to me, and Gai clearly agrees because this drives him to youthful tears and he’s seen bragging to Asuma and Kurenai that he’s so lucky to have students like them.

Anyway, clearly some development happened with their bond during their first year as genin, and now Tenten doesn’t want to leave either of them behind or take the exam without them. She’s grown to care for them a lot in that first year. Neither want to leave Lee behind, even if Neji won’t admit it, and I love that sm. Team Gai forever 😭😭😭

The Neji Chronicles (Shippuden 192)

I already went over most of the Tenten moments in this episode in my last post, but a few more small details.

When Neji mentions that "perhaps I've made too many blind assumptions about the way things are", Tenten looks more relieved than surprised by this. It feels like something her, Lee, and Gai have been telling Neji for a while. I think Naruto was the push Neji needed to actually listen to/internalize everything that his teammates have already been saying to him.

Tenten actually looks annoyed to have Kiba along, probably because he was talking shit about Neji literally five seconds earlier and she yelled at him for that, but she accepts it because she knows they need the numbers.

She tells Neji to go ahead without her, and gives him a little wink, which is important to me bc Tenten is so cute! I love her sm

This episode also ends with the iconic ending 15 of Team Gai sparring with Naruto.

Deploy! Team Tenten! (Shippuden 184)

This episode takes place after the Konoha Crush arc. Tenten, Neji, and Naruto are sent out on a mission to get ninja tool supplies for the village from a research laboratory. This also my all-time favorite episode of Naruto.

Gai picks Tenten to lead the mission, and she's immediately surprised. Gai admits that he would usually pick Neji, but she's better suited for it on this mission.

We get a lot of Naruto and Tenten being cute asf in this episode, I love their sibling-like bond so much. She makes fun of him like I do with my brother, saying that he's lame, and when he tries to say maybe Neji should lead the team instead they start fighting.

Neji tells them to lay it off because it's just a D-rank mission, and then once she says let's get going Naruto's immediately back on board. Peak siblings.

I headcanon that Tenten and Naruto knew each other from the orphanage, and that's why they act this close with each other.

Through this whole episode, Tenten is more excited about new ninja tools than the actual mission, which is why I think her interest in weapons has been there for much longer than Shippuden 237 implies. She can immediately tell that all of the inventions he shows them are kind of useless, which isn't hard but again, shows that she knows weaponry very well.

She's also rather... I wouldn’t say rude, but not particularly well-mannered wth Io. At least in the english dub, she speaks fairly casually, and ends up yelling at him quite a lot. This goes with the first headcanon from this post from @tentenismybitch that Tenten isn't quite as well-mannered as Lee or Neji because nobody ever taught her that at the Konoha orphanage. It's not quite as bad as Naruto, but it's actually pretty close to that level of informality so. I'm sure she picked some stuff up from Gai during her first year as genin and that's why she's a little bit better than Naruto, but still a bit abrasive and not perfectly well-mannered.

She explains Team Gai's usual formation to Naruto, which is Neji, Lee, and Gai doing close combat with Tenten backing them up from a distance. This makes good use of Tenten's pinpoint aim, and to me, also shows that she has very good eyesight, like 20/10 vision (I'm a glasses wearer this is stuff I think abt sometimes LOL). She expresses a desire to fight on the front lines herself instead of always being backup.

Tenten can tell that Io and his apprentice have a passion for invention, which I think she also recognizes so well because she feels the same.

When they go through the trap that Io's set up, Tenten hands it off to Neji first, and he fails, and only then she says she's got it and gets through easily. This is really just supposed to show that even Neji can't do it but she can. I interpret this as a moment of Tenten's insecurity, reflexively leaving it to Neji because she underestimates herself ever since her fight with Temari.

She instantly recognizes the quality of the tools Io kept hidden, again showing how much of an expert she is with weapons. She also admits that getting through that trap was easy for her.

She relegates herself to support when the rogue ninja attack. When Neji gets knocked back, she quickly covers him by throwing some Fuma shuriken to put them on the defense and giving Neji some time to get up and recover. A good insight into Team Gai's usual formation and battle strategy.

Tenten figures out how to use Jidanda very quickly, and even Io comments on how well she uses it even though she's only seen it for maybe 30 seconds before starting to use it. He lets her take all the other tools she wants, and she seems a little disappointed, but takes Neji and Naruto's compliments.

Ah, My Hero Lady Tsunade! (Shippuden 237)

This episode is a full recap of Tenten’s genin years all the way up to Lee's surgery, so in a chronological sense it can fit anywhere before the second chunin exams arc. I’m just putting it here with the other shippuden genin era episodes.

This episode is pretty much entirely focused on Tenten and her self-worth, and while I talked about it a lot in the previous post, there’s a few more details I wanna go into.

In the opening scene, Tenten is shown on a playground listening to other girls talk but she doesn't really join in on the conversation. Interesting to me, since she grows up to be someone very personable and friendly, even with people she doesn't know well, so why is she different in this scene? We also don't see her with any sort of parental figure, implying that she likely doesn't have one.

So we move on from early childhood to her first year as a genin, and Tenten is shown to be the least physically strong of her teammates, lagging behind and struggling with most of the exercises they do. I will actually accept this because her main skill is accuracy and precision, not doing 1,000 pushups or running 500 laps. Every time they're doing the pushups or pull ups or whatever she's lagging behind after they get to like 1,100 so honestly she's not even doing bad at all.

When Gai tells her that Tsunade inherited the talents of the first Hokage, Tenten immediately asks him "are you saying talent is more important than determination?" This seems to be a real sore point for her throughout the episode, as she brings it up again and again. Again, she puts herself in with Lee in terms of talent, implying that she doesn't have any.

Clearly she underestimates herself, because even when she was trying to learn medical ninjutsu, she makes it up to the lecture of high-level medical ninjutsu, implying that she did make it past the lower levels! She fails to do the Mystical Palm Technique, but even Tsunade herself says it's hard to master in a different episode with Sakura. Tenten just doesn't have the fine-tuned level of chakra control to do higher levels.

I do disregard this sometimes, outright saying that she can't do any kind of medical ninjutsu because it really sets her apart from every other girl in the series and feels more right for her.

Tenten learns she's good at the summoning technique when Gai has her try to summon a weapon from a scroll to test if she's suited for summoning an animal. This inspires Tenten later after she fails to be like Tsunade to pursue becoming a weapons' specialist. Again, I tend to disregard this because I prefer the idea of her having always had an interest in weaponry, for various reasons.

Either way, Lee's determination to get stronger at what he's good at, taijutsu, inspires her to start working on seals and weapon summoning. She makes her own summoning scrolls, and clearly learns it all from books, which is really cool!

Given that she's described as a research enthusiast, this fits really well. She probably spends a lot of time at the library, and does a lot of her learning on her own by trial and error.

Again, because Gai doesn't have expertise in this, I think he sees her interest and gets her higher-level books from the library, talks to people for her, and helps her in any way he can since he can't directly train her on this.

Lee calling what she can do amazing, and calling her a ninja tool specialist makes her so happy, it's really cute how much she relies on him and how much it means to her that he admires her.

After his injury, when Tsunade tells him to give up on being a ninja, you can see Tenten's admiration for her kind of go down, which I think is fair. The image of Tsunade she made up for herself is very different than the reality, and when that illusion is shattered, Tsunade isn’t really much of an idol to her anymore.

She stands on the same roof that they first met on with Gai and Neji and starts crying, saying "so it means determination means nothing. so if you don't have talent, then..." and Gai stops her, tells her to trust Lee's resolve, and her own. Gai clearly recognizes that when Tenten talks about Lee, she's talking about herself as well, and that she clearly doesn't believe in her own strength. He does everything he can to uplift her.

"Trust Lee's resolve, and your own. It got you this far, and it will take you even further." This means so much to Tenten, and it makes her start to cry.

We flash back to the present, where Lee is stuck underwater, and Tenten jumps in to save him, saying "you never give up Lee, that's why I promised myself that I would never lose you, and I was able to give it my all too!"

Tenten and Lee's bond means SO MUCH to me. The two non-geniuses of Team Gai, they clearly rely on one another so much, and take inspiration from one another to push themselves further. Tenten equates herself with Lee a lot, especially in terms of how much they have to work to keep up with Neji, and I think it's really important how deep her and Lee's bond is as a result.

The Third Super Beast (Episode 195 - 196)

This arc is cool! It focuses on Lee and Gai's bond, as Gai takes on a new student who knows taijiutsu a little too well for a rookie genin. I think (??) this arc takes place before the other fillers, simply because Lee seems to still be fresh post-surgery, still not quite able to be on active duty and not able to train fully, so i'm putting this arc here in the timeline.

Naruto gets out of a medical exam (iconic Tsunade line of "you're not sick, just stupid"), and Tenten is waiting outside with Neji. She asks how it went, and he tells her he's all good, to which Neji responds snippily and walks off.

Naruto asks her what's wrong, and Tenten just rolls her eyes and tells him Neji's just "in one of his moods". She sounds annoyed herself, and I'm 100% sure Neji was being bitchy to her too. She isn't afraid to call him out for being moody, but she does give him a bit of leeway in not saying it to his face.

Given that Tenten is observant and good with people, I think during their first year as genin, she recognizes that Neji’s whole thing with fate and all comes from something deeper. Maybe not immediately clocking it as trauma, but at least understanding that there is a serious reason why he’s being Like That, so she’s a bit more lenient with him when he’s in a MoodTM or talking down on people.

She doesn’t let him walk all over her—she’s got more self respect than that—but she is a bit more forgiving than most. And this doesn’t go unnoticed by Neji. We see him being far kinder to her than anyone else, and letting her in on things he doesn’t normally share, and I think this is where it comes from.

All this to say: this is another of those moments. Neji is in a mood, and Tenten lets it go because she understands there’s something else going on there.

They bring in Lee for his exam, and he comes out looking sad because Tsunade told him to chill out on the training or else he risks permanently injuring himself. Tenten and Naruto see him looking all sad, and Naruto fully misunderstands Tenten saying that his diagnosis must have been very grim to mean he's going to die soon. In his defense, Tenten also doesn't correct him on this. I think it's because she thinks it'll be funny. Very sibling-coded.

Naruto and Tenten run to the training hall where Gai has introduced his temporary new student Yagura to Lee and is about to make them spar. They spar, and Yagura is as good as Lee is, and nearly breaks his ankle with a move that ends the spar.

Naruto asks Lee why he's trying to train, and "didn't the hospital say your condition was grim, very grim?" and when he looks to Tenten to verify this, she goes "well, they didn't exactly say that..." LMFAOOO what a little shit.

Then they all go to ichiraku with Neji to fill him in on the gossip, with Lee outside listening to them, and they all start talking him up, saying that they owe him a lot and that he's amazing, which is so stinkin' cute. They love him so much. Neji even admits that hard work and perseverance can mean more than natural talent.

Tenten does concede that if he pushes too hard, he might risk permanent injury and that would be impossible to recover from, and Naruto immediately yells at her for being negative all the time and calls her "the voice of doom" which made me laugh for no good reason.

But we can tell that Tenten generally seems to be a bit... I hesitate to say pessimistic outright, but she's very realistic and down-to-earth. She's not a constant damper on the mood, but she does cut in and remind us that yes, Lee's situation is pretty precarious because his injuries are severe, his surgery was life-threatening, and that's something to keep in mind.

It seems like a perfect in-between to Neji and Lee, where Neji is a major pessimist, and Tenten is optimistic enough to balance that out, but also real enough to balance out Lee's wild dreaming and overboard optimism. She warms Neji up and cools Lee down to bring them to equilibrium.

Tenten says she has a lot to thank Lee for, and the thing she immediately think about is... Gai trying to give them all those green training suits. She really respects Gai but she definitely still thinks he's lame, especially when she's a genin, and thanks Lee for taking the brunt of his attention and enthusiasm so her and Neji don't have to also become Green Beasts.

Yagura goes on a mission with Gai after shit-talking Lee, but he turns out to be an imposter so Tsunade has to get a team to go after him and Gai, and everyone please look at Tenten's ninja registration photo. She's so cute I love her so much. What a diva

After this we see Tenten fighting alongside Naruto, Neji, and Lee to save Gai.

As soon as Neji tells them that the enemies have Gai trapped in a structure infused with their chakra, Tenten is quick to start attacking the jutsu users, which seems to actually stop them from attacking Gai within the structure.

Neji also tells them the training dummies they're using to attack are controlled by seals on the back of their heads, and removing them will disable them. Tenten fires out kunai with perfect accuracy and just shreds a ton of the seal papers on the dummies, disabling many of them in a single attack. And then goes "Man, that was too easy!" Cocky ass mf, I love herrrrrrr.

Given that this is so soon after her fight with Temari, she's probably working slowly to regain her confidence, so it's nice to see her feeling good about herself!

We spend the rest of this episode with Lee and Gai and focus on their bond. Naruto even comments on how Gai and Lee have a really good bond, and that he wishes he had something like that with his teacher too. It's a super cute arc, and I really like it.

Curry Of Life Arc (Episode 152 - 157)

This arc is my favorite of the post-series fillers.

Gai gets deeply upset that his students have to go with Naruto on the mission and begs Tsunade to let them go alone, which I think is so funny. this is the iconic "why can't it just be my students who are beloved by all the world" line.

After Naruto embarrasses all of them and Neji pisses Tsunade off, Tenten leaves her office after telling Tsunade "Sorry about them! They have no manners, ahah", which is funny coming from her, given her behavior for the rest of this episode.

Tenten disses Gai, and Lee gets mad that Tenten thinks Gai's information might be wrong, and I just paused here and thought this screenshot was funny.

Tenten says that Raiga burying people alive is the worst thing she's ever heard, which fits with my headcanon that she's a little claustrophobic. It's not debilitating, but she gets a little uncomfortable in tight spaces and has trouble staying in them for extended periods.

Through this whole mission, and honestly a lot of the filler arc missions, Tenten follows Neji's orders in a way Lee and Naruto don't. Like him, she's a little more calculating and takes her decisions based on logic more than her morality, like a shinobi is supposed to. She’s always the one to get Lee and Naruto to try and see Neji’s viewpoint when they question his decisions, explaining the logic to them.

She's also the first one to notice that Neji is on edge when he spots Raiga for the first time, and immediately asks him what's wrong.

After Raiga is killed, they leave Ranmaru tied up in a cabin and go back to the town. When they get ambushed by the rest of his gang, Tenten gives them this look as they're about to fight, which I think is so cool.

She seems to like a challenging battle where she can really test her skills, and she's the first of the group to attack once they go on the offensive, clearly excited to fight.

Once they come back for Ranmaru, he tells them he has no reason to be alive, and Tenten immediately starts shitting on him. She says that everyone ought to be able to live on their own, at least the basics, and that she can't stand weak, indecisive people. Even as he tells everyone his tragic backstory, Tenten is the only one who reacts with barely any sympathy.

I like to think this mentality comes from her being an orphan. She's had to do these things on her own since forever, and she doesn't like people like Ranmaru or Haku who rely entirely on another person as their reason to live. She hasn't really had anyone to rely on like that until Team Gai, so to her, being able to live on your own without needing anyone is a basic skill.

Her disliking weak and indecisive people also explains why her self esteem is so low after losing to Temari. She felt so weak and useless in that fight, and she hates herself for it.

When they're back at the Curry Of Life shop, Neji sends Tenten back by herself to check on Karashi and Ranmaru. When Karashi comes back and tells Neji that Tenten slipped and fell off the cliff, Neji is the only one that knows immediately that it's a lie. He trusts her skills, and knows damn well that Tenten isn't clumsy like that, no matter what anyone says.

There's an awesome fight scene between Tenten and Raiga, where she very nearly overwhelms him, quickly binding him with her chained sickle and flinging a scroll's worth of weapons at him with one hand. She fights very smart, switching to a wooden staff after getting struck by lightning through her chains, and also noting she still can't hold her staff up too high because of the storm.

She flings dirt into Raiga's eyes, and even manages to disarm him of one of his swords by catching it with her staff and throwing it away, all in one movement. She gets knocked out after getting her staff broken and blasted with lightning, but overall, she handles herself with great skill in this fight.

Tenten is also weirdly uninjured for having been struck by lightning thrice during this fight, which fits with my headcanons of her having lightning-natured chakra.

Once she wakes up again, Tenten grabs Ranmaru, who passed out after bringing back Raiga, and brings him to a safe place. She takes care of Ranmaru and tries to nurse him to health. When Ranmaru says that he'd rather die, Tenten tells him that she won't let him get off that easily, and that he has to live and take responsibility for all the people he killed.

She's not completely lacking of sympathy for him though, because when Ranmaru starts coughing and looking worse for wear, Tenten stops yelling at him, and wraps him in a blanket to head to the Curry Of Life Shop, and takes him there through the rain. Even in the shop, she expresses her determination to save Ranmaru, and sits there taking care of him while Grandma makes the curry of life.

She coerces him to eat by saying that if he feels nothing after seeing Karashi and Grandma work so hard to make him the curry, then he's a "horrible human being" LOLL. She really does not like this kid. But it's her expressing all of these things to him that finally gets him to eat, and know what it is to feel alive. Even though she yelled at him more than anything else, it's her strong morals and worldviews that move him.

Just like we saw in the Forest Of Death, Tenten's medical care when it comes to Lee seems to be "shake him really hard and yell at him until he wakes up".

Her medical care for Naruto is to put a plateful of curry in his mouth, force him to chew it, and call him an idiot for passing out. And then she calls him a dumbass when he says he thought she fell down a cliff.

And then with Neji, she gets annoyed and tells him to get up and get going, feeds him like four spoons of spicy curry, and kills him immediately. I love her so much.

She really has great bedside manner LOL. Another reason why I think people see her as unfit for medical ninjutsu + more proof for those headcanons on her being a little bit rude because of her upbringing.

This arc is really fun overall and I think it's a good rewatch for some cool Tenten scenes.

Academy Student Leading Mission (Episode 158)

Tenten is in this one (1) frame of this episode, but it’s important to me because look at her using the Dynamic Entry!!!! We don’t get a lot of Tenten Taijutsu moments and this is one, so I just needed everyone to see her using her dad's sensei's move.

The Appearance of Strange Visitors (Episode 161)

This episode is really funny actually, and it features Tenten, Sakura, and Tsunade being absolute little shits, which is always a treat. This is just a very brief Tenten moment. Two people come into the village disguised and Lee and Gai, but nobody is fooled... except for Naruto.

So to drive them away, Tsunade, Tenten, and Sakura assign them missions to get them to go away. Tenten is the first one to take a crack at them, and we see her coming out of an apartment building to talk to them. She's also wearing her green outfit instead of her usual pink one!

Character-wise this episode isn't anything to write home about, but it's confirming that this green outfit is her "casual" clothes, while the pink is her ninja clothes, and that might be her apartment??

In the shot of her apartment from Shippuden 237 (and later in the RTN filler), we don't see any relatives, and she seems to be by herself in the apartment, much like Naruto. I think this is evidence for her being an orphan, living by herself after making genin.

This also raises the possibility that she met Naruto and/or Lee there when she was young.

Cursed Warrior Extermination Arc (Episode 162 - 167)

This arc feels like it should not be this long for some reason, there's just always some dumb bullshit going on. Either way there's not any noteworthy moments here, there’s just one thing I want to mention.

This arc features Neji, Tenten, and Naruto out on a mission to the Land Of Birds to stop The Cursed Warrior, who’s been haunting the land. After encountering the Warrior once and fighting it, they regroup and discuss who could be dressing up as it, and decide to come meet Lord Sagi, the feudal lord of the land to see if he knows anything and will tell them.

Tenten sees him and immediately calls him "a cutie" and "totally her type" so... her type is quiet and refined pretty boys?

Real quick, Tenten's type being "cool people" also speaks to how she wants to be perceived as well. Her embarrassment toward Lee and Gai's antics, her general refusal to participate in them unless one of them forces her to, it all shows that she really wants people to see her as cool and competent. This is also shown with the people that she admires or finds cute. Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sagi here, who is shown to be somewhat similar to Sasuke in personality and motivations, all have a similar disposition.

Tenten doesn't try to emulate the cold personality type they have, she still acts like her usual personable and open self. She just wants to be perceived the way she and others see them. People look up to and admire Sasuke and Kakashi and Tsunade, and that's what Tenten wants too. To be admired and respected. She wants to be "cool".

In the end, the feudal lord turns out to be Sagi's sister pretending to be him, so actually a woman, and Tenten doesn't take back the fact that she called Sagi cute soooo... personally for me? Bi Tenten confirmed. thank u naruto filler.

Star Guard Arc (Episode 178 - 183)

I won't lie, this arc is barely interesting the first time you're watching it, and any rewatch gets super boring quick. They sing this one song so many times and for like 2 mins at a time too. I skipped so much of this on 2x because it's so slow, and with very minor Tenten moments.

Anyway so it's Team Gai + Naruto going to the Hidden Star Village because they called for help from the Leaf Village and Tsunade sends them out. They meet a boy called Sumaru who wants to be the village's Hoshikage and make their village great again or smth idk and they're supposed to be guarding a star that some mysterious ninja keeps trying to steal.

There’s not a lot of big Tenten character moments here, this arc really just has her on screen and doing stuff so it’s here.

Lee and Tenten get assigned by Neji to keep an eye on the village leader's men, and it's Tenten who keeps Lee from confronting them directly, as Lee feels there's no honor it in. Tenten has to keep yelling at him to just be quiet and follow along, and Lee is reluctant to do it but listens to her anyway, which is also a testament to their bond and his trust in her, if Lee is willing to put aside his principles if Tenten really insists that this is what they have to do for the mission.

Tenten also just seems to be very good at convincing Lee to go along with her ideas in general.

We have a really silly scene of Tenten and Lee literally just hiding under a barrel with a peephole as a disguise, and Lee questions if this is really the way of the ninja.

There’s not really many big Tenten character moments here that I could gather.

Konoha Plans Recapture Arc (Episode 197 - 201)

I really love this arc! It's a fun one all around and it's one of the few where we get to see all of the k11 working together. It keeps the tension up all throughout, and has a good mystery element to it.

We don't see Tenten until midway through the episode, when Shikmaru is ordered to form a group to find the stolen blueprints. Team Gai + Hinata all go to each of the construction sites to check if the spy Genno had left any traps there, but find nothing. They reconvene in a dango shop and Tenten quickly notices that the only places Genno went to are restaurants around town.

Team Gai + Shino and Kiba then get assigned to go check the site of Genno's "death", and Tenten notices and points out that some trees are burned on both sides, which isn't normal unless the explosions came from multiple places, not one like originally suspected.

She analyzes the positions of the burns on the trees and determines that a ring of bombs on the outer trees was set off first, and then the one in the center, and that if he'd timed the explosions right, he could have made it seem like one blast.

When they find the escape tunnel Genno used after the explosion, Tenten also recognizes that the construction of the tunnel allows for it to collapse on itself.

Clearly she has a knowledge of traps and other such things, and is crafty. The vibes are giving engineer tbh. I really like this detail! I think from what we've been shown of Tenten as this smart and observant character that likes weapons and tinkering, traps and escape tunnels seem right up her alley. When Team Gai sets up camp she's probably the one putting up traps and stuff around the perimeter.

This also plays into her strategic mindset, and I think in any kind of ambush missions she gets, she does the same, setting up traps and escape routes. She's exacting and detailed in her work, and likely self-learned all of this from books or other sources, since Gai's expertise is not in this.

When they find the first paper bomb, Tenten is the one to disarm it, once again showing her expertise in not just weapons, but also paper bombs and the like.

This is also the arc that we see Tenten using this sick fucking bow. It has a scope on it and can shoot 4 arrows. I feel like it's kind of hard to reload?? but I'm sure there's some cool ninja way they do it so.

Menma Memory Arc (Episode 213 - 215)

Tenten doesn't appear until the second episode of this arc, where her and Neji are assigned on a mission with Naruto to take this guy Menma to the Land of Rice Paddies to help him regain his memories.

There's not too much notable here, since this arc focuses more on Naruto and Menma than Neji and Tenten, but there's a few things.

Tenten's observant nature is really put on display in these two episodes, as a lot of the time, she's the first one to point out surrounding details to the others. At one point, when the enemy is in a tree observing them with a spyglass in a tree, Tenten notices the glare of the sun off the glass and warns everyone that the enemy is there. To me, this also supports my idea that Tenten has really good eyesight.

This episode, like many, also shows Tenten having to physically get Naruto to be quiet. She does this with Lee as well. I think it's kind of funny that it's always her having to quiet down the two impulsive and loudmouthed ones, and she always does a pretty good job at it, appealing to their sense and somehow managing to talk them down.

This once again shows that not only is Tenten physically strong enough to restrain Lee and Naruto physically, but also shows her people skills and how well she can convince the two of them to chill out.

Suna Support Mission (Episode 216 - 220)

Tenten only gets one scene in this last arc of the original series, and it's in the very last episode, complaining that she was literally the only member of the Konoha 11 to not go on the mission.

I adore this scene too because we get to see Tenten sparring with Lee using pure taijutsu! And she wins! Another instance of her using the Dynamic entry!

Chunin Exams 2: Electric Boogaloo (Shippuden 396 - 413)

This arc is some of the best Team Gai content we get from this show, since it focuses on on them primarily for a lot of it. I'm not going to summarize every single thing that happens but I'll go over the major Tenten character moments.

During the written exam, Sakura mentions this test would be with Naruto here because he'd just score a 0. Tenten says things would be easier for their team if Lee were as dumb as that. So Lee is not completely stupid, as we well know, and Tenten knows that well.

Lee tells them they should try to arrive first, and Tenten tells him there's no advantage to that. Tenten tends to be laid back, so unlike Lee, she doesn't like exerting more effort than she has to, as we see during some training flashbacks later in the arc. She doesn't want to do anything that won't directly benefit her, and she's... a bit lazy LOL.

Still, they end up going at full speed anyway, which is absolutely because Lee and Neji are both competitive little shits and made Tenten go along with them at top speed. I bet she spent the whole trip complaining.

Lee says that they've never been to the Sand Village before, so I think they actually haven't taken any missions there as genin. This actually is accurate because in the Gaara rescue arc, they also don't go to the Sand, they head for the Waterfall Village in between. Neji says he went there once on an errand for the Hyuuga.

During the dinner scene, Tenten makes fun of Kiba when he calls the shinobi from the Sand "mean-looking", telling him that he's also pretty mean-looking. I think it's cute that she teases all of the other konoha 11 like this, especially Naruto and Kiba.

When one of Shira's teammates mentions a cactus, Tenten also realizes that it was the cactus flowers that caused the genjutsu they were put under. I have a headcanon that Tenten studies genjutsu, or at least has a passing interest in it and that's also why she gets stuck in the Road To Ninja world instead of the full genjutsu during the war. I'll elaborate on this when we get to that arc.

Tenten pulls out this giant ladder from a scroll to get her team out of the sand waterfall pit. We're shown at various points that Tenten is a bit of a hoarder. She has everything in her scrolls, from cooking items to tents to giant metal shelters. Any item that's vaguely useful to her, she'll just toss into a scroll. But she clearly has some kind of organizational system because she knows exactly which scroll and which seal every item is in. Likely, she organizes everything by scroll—so a weapons’ scroll, a food scroll, a camp setup scroll, and so on.

During Lee and Shira's battle, Neji is seen explaining all of the intricacies of their taijiutsu to Tenten. We also see in a flashback that he does this for Tenten all throughout their training, whenever Lee and Gai are sparring or when Gai is explaining a technique to Lee. It’s very cute that he does this, keeping Tenten up to speed with the rest of them. This is also an indication that while Tenten is still fairly knowledgable in taijutsu (since she knows enough to ask Neji follow-up questions), it's not her main focus and is more like something she relies on in a pinch.

After this we spend two episodes with Team 8 before going back to Team Gai and their encounter with Ajisai. Tenten pulls out dinner from a scroll, which like I mentioned before, she's a hoarder and a packer. What's interesting to me is that she has food stroed in there, which means you can store food in storage scrolls. I wonder how good it stays in there. If an item needs to be refrigerated, would that change the seal? Much to consider.

Tenten gets irritated at Lee calling her convenient, because she feels that it makes her seem like a tool that's convenient for her team, rather than him saying her technique is convenient.

She storms off, and during her training flashback, we see her and Gai training with nunchucks. I absolutely think Gai was the one that taught her nunchucks, since it was one of the few weapons that he has a lot of expertise with, so he helped her out there. It made him very happy to be able to teach her something new rather than having to just give her resources and letting her figure it out.

Gai calls her convenient in the flashback and she has the same reaction, telling him not to talk to her as if she's some kind of tool. To his credit, he really didn't mean it that way, but it still irritates her. This is another sore point for her, clearly. It directly goes against her want to be seen as cool and admired, since it makes her seem like just a utility, a bag to pull out whatever they need in the moment, and she wants to be admired for her skills, not dismissed as a convenient thing to have around.

There's a funny moment after Tenten's flashback when Lee calls to her and tells her dinner is ready. She asks if the okunomiyaki turned out okay, and Lee looks nervous and says "I have my doubts about them..." which made me laugh.

When they start to fight Ajisai and her team, Tenten immediately picks Ajisai as her opponent after seeing she uses the same jutsu as her. She clearly still has a competitive spirit, even if it's not as strong as Lee or Gai's.

There's a flashback to her training with Gai, and Tenten doesn't seem to progress very far in the span of two years, especially compared to Neji and Lee.

Even after two years, she says she still struggles with chakra control and that her chakra level isn't very high. Plus she seems to not know that she has skill with the Summoning Technique, which is directly contradicted by Shippuden 237 where she's introduced to it in her early genin days and told directly by Gai that she has the skill for it.

I find this inaccurate and reject it.

Tenten is shown to be a quick learner, an enthusiast for research, and deeply upset over her loss to Temari. There's no way she hasn't spent nearly every day in the past two years honing her skills in more complex fuinjutsu, weapons, and other space-time ninjutsu in an effort to beat Temari, and also prove to herself that she isn't weak.

And about her chakra level not being high enough for summoning an ocean, I think Tenten has much larger chakra reserves than average. That's why her chakra control isn't very good (like naruto) and she can use the Treasured Tools. So it doesn't make sense to me that her chakra level is too low for what she does in the show or that she has to work to increase it.

I think her training with Gai is more about chakra control than about increasing her chakra. She hones her control so she can do more complex seals and can control how much water or fire she releases from her scrolls. To this end, Gai has Neji help her, since he has good chakra control. I think Gai also makes Tenten train with Sakura, though Tenten is slightly reluctant at first, and that’s how they grow to be eventual friends.

I think her aptitude for summoning implies that she could also summon animals if she could get along with one long enough to sign a contract. Personally, I think she should get bears.

The flashback ends with Tenten falling off of a cliff that her and Gai were climbing as training, and then she wakes up in the tunnel. We actually never see what happens after she falls which is really weird.

While Tenten walks with Ajisai, she finds her unresponsive to her small talk and giving her attitude, and points it out directly to her. She doesn't take attitude from Ajisai but is still kind, and doesn't raise her voice or start arguing for the sake of it. She very calmly lays out a logical counterpoint, still sounding pretty friendly, and still jokes around with Ajisai when she's done.

I feel like this is also a fairly good insight into how she used to deal with Neji before the chunin exams.

Once again showcasing her observant nature and situational awareness, she hears the ants coming well before Ajisai does. Tenten also gets grossed out by the dead ant, which is fairly consistent with the rest of the show. Tenten is shown getting uncomfortable when she sees bugs or just anything traditionally "icky". Not human blood and guts tho. She's funny for that.

She also asks Ajisai for advice with the summoning jutsu, which I still reject that she needs to, and gets disappointed when she doesn't have any. She sighs and says "I guess it's just sheer talent," looking visibly upset. Even after two years, this insecurity hasn't fully gone away.

Tenten is also visibly insecure when Ajisai starts sealing the rocks into her papers, and when Ajisai asks her to help, Tenten says she can't, because... she doesn't have the chakra for it, I think?? That or she's not confident enough in herself to be able to do it. But then one flashback later she summons an ocean??? How does this work oh my god.

Anyway, we get a flashback to Team Gai at a restaurant when he asked his students if they want to participate in the second chunin exams. Neji and Lee say a very confident yes, and Tenten goes along with them but looks upset. Gai asks if something is wrong, and Tenten asks if she's gotten stronger since the last exams. Gai says she should have, and Tenten says that it seems like she has nothing to show for it. Neji and Lee immediately turn to look at her and both seem shocked at this.

I actually really like this moment because in accordance with my headcanons from earlier, Tenten has very much improved in the past two years, but due to her insecurities, and specifically her insecurities surrounding the chunin exams, she doesn’t see it.

Lee and Neji are shocked because they can’t believe that Tenten thinks she hasn’t improved over the past two years. And they know best, because they’re the ones who have been training and going on missions with her. This is cute to me, a “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you” moment.

I headcanon that whenever Tenten has these moments of insecurity after the first chunin exams, Lee and Neji both encourage her in their own ways and help bring up her confidence.

Gai tells her that “hard work and determination will never betray you” which really seems to be Team Gai’s second motto, right after “stronger than we were yesterday”.

When they're waiting out the sandstorm in Tenten's little shelter, Tenten looks a bit uncomfortable the whole time, again supporting my headcanon that she's a little bit claustrophobic.

Once the jinchuriki are attacked, the focus goes to Neji and his strategic knowledge to show why he gets double promoted to jounin.

At Neji’s request, Tenten pulls a scroll out of what looks like either a waist holster inside her shirt, or her bra since she reaches into her shirt to grab it, and gives Neji a chakra blade, which he uses to cut into Fu's cocoon.

The chunin exams end after the third round is canceled, and everyone in the k11 gets promoted to chunin, with Neji getting a double promotion to jounin. Lee thanks his teammates, and Tenten says "Our three man squad is forever, right?" and SP clearly hates me specifically because they zoom in on Neji and have him say "yes I certainly hope so" and that's just plain rude when we all know he died literally one arc ago in shippuden.

Now one thing I want to mention here that always stood out to me about Tenten. We never get any backstory for her the way we do with any other character. The most we get of her childhood is a single scene of her declaring when she's young that she wants to be like Tsunade. Almost every other character shares pieces of their backstory with others. Not Tenten though.

I think this shows Tenten to be a very private person. Neji's told her everything about his clan and she talks about his backstory at times, or talks about Lee's, but neither of them ever mention hers. She doesn't talk to others about her past or her motivations. She keeps her goals and hopes to herself. I don't think she's cold about it, but she probably redirects conversations about herself when they come up.

I think eventually, she begins to share stuff with her teammates, but at first, I think she keeps quiet about her backstory, no matter how mundane or interesting it could be in comparison.

Anyway, this wraps up Tenten's genin years! Next we move on to her chunin years in Shippuden!

[gaasaku-fanfests]

GaaSaku-Fanfests Month Prompts Post

Hi!😋😎😍😘💕💓💗💖

Here it is, the 2023 GaaSaku-Fanfests Month Prompt post. They are as follows: [click/tap on the images for a clearer read.]

Text version:

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Day 1 ◊ BAMF Sakura ◊ Cinnamon Roll Gaara ◊ “Punch me.”

Day 2 ◊ First Kiss ◊ First Time ◊ “You kissed me to shut me up?!”

Day 3 ◊ Sparring ◊ Childhood Crush ◊ “Dance with me.”

Day 4 ◊ Medic ◊ Naked ◊ “That doesn’t go there.”

Day 5 ◊ War ◊ Inverse Trope ◊ “Who is the real enemy?”

Day 6 ◊ Masturbation ◊ Forbidden Jutsu ◊ “It’s not illegal where I come from.”

Day 7 ◊ Coffee/Café AU ◊ Tattoo ◊ “Why are you following me?”

Day 8 ◊ Pregnancy ◊ Long Distance Relationship ◊ “Didn’t see that coming, did you?”

Day 9 ◊ Song Fic/Art ◊ Sick Fic/Art ◊ “Make Me.”

Day 10 ◊ Desert ◊ Flowers ◊ “I wrote you a love poem.”

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Day 11 ◊ BDSM/Kink ◊ Porn ◊ “Tell me what you want me to do to you.”

Day 12 ◊ Enemies to Lovers ◊ Friends to Lovers ◊ “Who do you think you are?”

Day 13 ◊ Wet Dream ◊ Inner Sakura/Shukaku ◊ “I had a dream about you.”

Day 14 ◊ Fake/Accidental Dating ◊ First/Blind Date ◊ “You opened my eyes.”

Day 15 ◊ One Night Stand ◊ Modern AU ◊ “Close your eyes.”

Day 16 ◊ Kazekage ◊ Politics ◊ “Do You Trust Me?”

Day 17 ◊ Marriage ◊ Honeymoon ◊ “It’s our anniversary.”

Day 18 ◊ Masquerade ◊ Secret Relationship ◊ “Be quiet or they’ll hear us.”

Day 19 ◊ Strength/Weakness ◊ Forgiveness ◊ “I’m strong but you make me weak.”

Day 20 ◊ Joint Village Mission ◊ Chunin Exams ◊ “I wish I still hated you.”

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Day 21 ◊ Soulmate/Soul Bond ◊ Bodyguard ◊ “What will this cost me?”

Day 22 ◊ Morning After ◊ Pillowtalk ◊ “Good Morning.”

Day 23 ◊ Family ◊ Domestic ◊ “It’s your turn to do the dishes.”

Day 24 ◊ Mythology ◊ Supernatural ◊ “I want to eat you.”

Day 25 ◊ Sex Pollen ◊ Scent/Senses ◊ “You smell so good.”

Day 26 ◊ PTSD/Mental Illness ◊ Bad Guy Wins ◊ “Save Me.”

Day 27 ◊ Oblivious ◊ Trapped ◊ “It’s getting hot in here.”

Day 28 ◊ Confessions ◊ Protect/Overprotective ◊ “What's your starsign?.”

Day 29 ◊ Casual Friday ◊ Free Day ◊ “Be careful what you wish for.”

Day 30 ◊ Home ◊ Vacation ◊ “All I want to do is love you.”

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These prompts are only a guideline so feel free to interpret them as you see fit. There are plenty lot of prompts so there’s more to feel inspired by. 💕

Also:

I’ve updated the ‘rules’ and ‘timeline’ - you can navigate there on the gaasaku-fanfests blog. I’ve changed the theme for both blogs so if you get confused, don’t hesitate to ask any questions you might have.

That’s if from me. I hope y’all like the prompts and find yourselves inspired to write or draw when the time comes. And spread that GaaSaku love.💕

Remember:

To participate all you have to do is post on your blog and I will reblog it to gaasaku-fanfests. The rules are on the blog, easily accessible using the navigation. Make sure everything is tagged properly and warnings are clear

Have fun!

.

As promised: @kimazuiiii . @oitanjerine . @babybinxxx . sabito-hasaku . @24primaveras . @fallen-in-dreams . @xeresmalfoy . @mangoissour . @bighugsbadtimes . @gaasaku-needsmorefanart . @mechina . @nsart . @longliveustherecklessandthebrave . @umbrasolaris . @missjewelsart . @deathblossom255 .

.

And PLEASE share this post wherever you can.💕💕

@narutoevents

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See you all soon. 😋😎😍😘💕💓💗💖

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Check-In

Gai's Birthday Bingo 2023

Prompt: Mask

Words: 3,760

Character: Maito Gai, Yamato, Hatake Kakashi

Notes: Post- Chunin Exams

“A month?” Tenzo just about choked on his tea when he heard the timeline his Senpai had given him for Sasuke’s training. He’d known that Kakashi had plans to focus on his student’s training in preparation for his next chunin exam fight, but to be told that he’d be out of contact for a month seemed a little extreme. In all of the years they’d known each other he’d never known Kakashi to take even a day away from training, but now here he was telling him that he’d be taking an entire month. “What if there’s a mission? Or an attack?”

“I’ll be just outside the village,” Kakashi dismissed his questions with swift answers while stirring the minuscule remains of his tea. “If anyone needs to contact me they’ll be able to. Whether I answer or not will be determined by how important I think the issue is.”

“But-”

“There are no buts,” his Senpai continued over him. “Sasuke’s being pitted against that Gaara kid from Suna. Not only did that kid break Itachi’s record for finishing the forest of death, but he just about killed Lee in their battle. If Gai hadn’t stepped in…” his words drifted off, but the weight of what he refused to say still lingered over them.

If Gai hadn’t stepped in, Lee would have died.

Tenzo hadn’t been there to see the fights himself, but he’d heard all about them from Asuma when they met up for drinks shortly after. Every detail had been spilled over Sake, from Asuma’s disappointment over Choji and Ino’s loss’ to his surprise at Naruto’s win.

The fight that he’d talked about, though, was Rock Lee’s. Not a single detail had been spared and by the end of the night, Tenzo could feel the concern that radiated off of Asuma. He’d even expressed some fear about Shikamaru’s upcoming fight against the Suna girl, Temari, but it was nothing compared to his concern about his student facing off against Gaara.

That was the fear of a sensei who didn’t have his student going up against Gaara, though. For his Senpai, the reality was very different. Not only was Sasuke set up to face Gaara in his next match, but according to Kakashi, he was woefully unprepared.

“I have to make sure he does alright,” Kakashi whispered, his eyes focused on the swirling tea in his cup. “I put them into this exam. I need to help them survive, no matter what. Even if it means I ignore missions for a little while.”

Tenzo understood his Senpai’s concerns. Every shinobi in Konoha faced the chunin exams, but it seemed that the risks in these exams were far more than when Kakashi had anticipated. Not only was there the threat that the Gaara kid posed but there was also Orochimaru. 

A sannin seeking to steal Sasuke, one of Kakashi’s precious students, and use for their own gain.

The world was stacking the odds against Kakashi and all he could do was try his best to protect his students. 

“What about the others?” Tenzo asked, his mind wandering to the other two students Kakashi had taken on. Whenever he spoke of them Kakashi seemed to have nothing but praise. Although he’d been forced into the job, it seemed to Tenzo that he’d taken to it quite well. 

His students were his pride and joy and he made sure to remind Tenzo of that fact every time they saw each other.

“Naruto needs to work on his chakra control,” Kakashi answered with ease. “I’ve spoken to Ebisu about training him while I’m helping Sasuke. If he can improve in that area I’m sure he’ll do well in his next match. He is Konoha’s number one unpredictable ninja, after all. No one expected him to make it this far, but here he is.”

Tenzo couldn’t help but laugh at the terrible nickname his Senpai had given Naruto. “Isn’t he going against one of Gai-san’s students? Hyuga Neji, correct?” Kakashi nodded. “I’ve heard a bit about him. Seems like he could pose a bit of a problem to Naruto.”

“He can,” Kakashi confirmed. “But there’s not much I can do for Naruto until he improves his chakra control, and Ebisu’s a better teacher in that regard than I am. Besides, as dangerous as Neji is he’s not going to kill Naruto.”

“Are you sure about that?” Another story he’d heard from Asuma was about Neji’s fight against Hyuga Hinata, and that was a story that said the exact opposite of what his Senpai was telling him. 

“Neji is hard, but not that bad,” Kakashi confirmed. “He’s also Gai’s student. I trust that if things get out of hand, Gai will step in if I’m not there too.”

“True,” There was no one who knew Kakashi’s struggles better than Gai. Even Tenzo didn’t know the true extent of what his Senpai had suffered in his life, but he had learned enough over the years to know that he’d do everything in his power to protect Kakashi from more pain. There was no doubt in his mind that Gai felt the same way. “So Naruto will be trained by Ebisu and Sakura?”

“A month without training won’t kill her,” Kakashi sighed. “She’ll have to take care of her training for the time, but I’ll make it up to them all when the exams are done and everything has settled. Once I can breathe then I’ll kick into gear.”

Tenzo cringed at the saying. During his time in team Ro with Kakashi he’d come to understand that ‘Kick into gear’ really meant ‘drive them into the ground until they can’t move, and then do it again’.

Sakura was going to need the month-long break to prepare for what was coming her way.

“So a month,” he sighed, circling back to the beginning of the conversation. “That’s going to be a pretty boring month for me. Though, I guess I can focus a bit more on missions while you’re occupied.”

“Actually,” straightening up, Kakashi locked eyes with Tenzo. “I have a request.”

Gai’s apartment was easy to locate. Not only did Tenzo have the apartment number that his Senpai had written down on a small piece of paper for him, three-zero-five written in giant blocky letters so that he wouldn’t misread any of the numbers, but there was also a sign hanging on the front of the door that announced who was living there with pride.

A simple wooden sign that Tenzo recalled making himself just a few years ago for Gai’s birthday. He hadn’t known what to get for the overly energetic Jonin until his Senpai had shown him a picture of his tortoise summon that he’d snuck during one of his outings as ‘Sukea’. Now here it was, staring back at Tenzo after a year. Telling him exactly what he needed to know.

He was in the right place.

Now all he had to do was knock.

“Come on,” he lifted his right hand and took a deep breath, but nothing happened. His hand refused to move. “You can do it, Tenzo. It’s just a quick check-up. Poke your head in, make sure he’s alive and functioning, and go. That’s all. It’s easy.”

He took another deep, slow breath, but still nothing happened.

His hand just hovered there in front of the door, neither lowering nor reaching out to knock. Stuck in a limbo of inactivity that Tenzo couldn’t seem to force it out of. 

“Just one knock,” he whispered, cringing when his hand refused to move. “Come on. He’s not going to hurt you.”

Gai was a good man. Stranger and perhaps a little too much for Tenzo to handle most days, but a good man. Short of harming Kakashi, which he would never think of doing, or one of his students, there was nothing Tenzo could think of that he could do to upset Gai.

Even if there was, Checking up on him certainly wasn’t on the list. 

“Just go,” he insisted. “One knock and-”

Before he could finish that train of thought the door swung open and he found himself face to face with Maito Gai.

Smiley, energetic, always pleasant Maito Gai.

Except, none of those descriptors seemed to fit the man that he was staring at today. Not because Gai wasn’t trying to portray himself as the exact same person he always with, with a smile that spread across his entire face, but because that smile didn’t match at all with the tired, defeated look in his eyes. 

“You look…”

“Great?” Gai cheered, though his voice sounded a little flatter than usual. “Wonderful? Ready to jump out and greet the day with the full power of my youth?”

Tenzo shook his head. “Awful.”

As soon as the word left his mouth the smile dropped off of Gai’s face and his shoulders slumped. “You’re learning from Kakashi, aren’t you?” he sighed, all of his usual energy missing from his voice. “

“I am a trained Anbu operative,” Tenzo argued, just a little insulted by the implication that he would need his Senpai to tell him what to look out for when he approached Gai. His Senpai had, of course, given him a few hints of what to keep an eye out for, but that didn’t matter. He was trained to read people’s emotions and body language. To look deeper and see all of the subtle signals that they were trying to hide from him. 

“Ah,” waving off his protests, Gai leaned forward and peered down the hallway. “He’s not with you, is he?”

Tenzo could only sigh. “He’s out training Sasuke for his next match,” he assured the green-clad dork that his Senpai called ‘rival’. “That’s why I’m here.”

“To check up on me?” jutting his bottom lip out, Gai huffed. “I’m fine. I don’t need someone to pop in and make sure everything is alright. I’m not-”

He stopped himself, but Tenzo knew exactly what he wanted to say. 

I’m not Kakashi.

A low blow, but a rather deserved one. In the twenty years that he’d known his Senpai one undeniable fact that Tenzo had learned was that his Senpai didn’t handle loss or disaster well. He would always put on a front, masking his emotions behind an aloof attitude, but deep down he was spiraling.

Tenzo didn’t think Gai would have the same reaction. His experiences with pain, as far as Tenzo knew, were different than Kakashi’s and his personality was almost the complete opposite.

That didn’t stop him from worrying, though. Everyone had a breaking point and although he hadn’t met any of Gai’s students, he’d heard enough about them to know just how much Gai cared about Lee.

If there was someone out there in the world whose death would cause Gai to crumble, it was either Kakashi or Lee. Kakashi because of their long-standing friendship and rivalry, and Lee because of how much Gai had come to care about him in such a short amount of time.

Tenzo wasn’t keen to find out which one it was anytime soon. The energy that Gai brought to the village was strange but comforting. The world needed more of the bright, youthful energy and less destroyed, irreparable spirits. 

“I see,” shoving those thoughts to the side for the moment, he leaned to the right just enough to get a view into the room behind Gai. The layout was the same as every other Jonin apartment in the building but with a few weights laying out on the floor and a workout mat half haphazardly thrown into the corner beside Gai’s desk. On the desk, there was a bit more of a mess, with dishes piling up on the back near the wall and three books of various sizes spread open along the desk. “And what is it you’re reading about?”

“Uh, well,” glancing back over his shoulder, Gai cringed. “I was just looking up some information. It’s important to keep up to date with our knowledge.”

There it was again. That wide, toothy grin that Gai always wore on his face.

A grin that Tenzo had once viewed with caution, but which he’d come to enjoy over the years.

“Stop it.”

“Stop what?” Gai blinked, the smile dropping away for just a split second, only to return as soon as Gai realized it was gone. “Stop reading?”

“Smiling.” Tenzo huffed, hating the words that were coming out of his mouth. As much as he liked to complain about Gai’s seemingly endless amounts of energy, he had genuinely come to love his smile. 

It was one of the brightest, most genuine smiles he had ever seen in his life, and whenever Gai turned it toward him he felt a strange warmth spreading in his chest. Kakashi had laughed at him the first time he talked about it and told him that everyone felt that way about Gai’s smile, but he hadn’t believed him.

Now, though, that warmth was missing. He couldn’t look at Gai’s smile and feel happy to see it because deep down he knew it was a lie. A mask that Gai was using to hide away the pain he was experiencing. 

“I don’t-”

Deciding to make a daring move, Tenzo pushed past Gai into his apartment and headed straight for the desk. His goal was the pile of dishes that sat at the back of the desk, but as he reached out for them he couldn’t help but gaze down at the books.

Medical books, all turned to pages with detailed pictures of leg muscles or leg bones. 

Kakashi had been right to ask him to check in on Gai. 

“You’re worried,” he noted, focusing his attention back on the dishes and slowly starting to move them from the desk into a small space between his left arm and chest.. “You’re overthinking Lee’s condition and trying to make up for your lack of knowledge on the subject by studying as much as you can.”

“What are you, an interrogator?” Gai huffed.

“No,’ That line of work had been a part of Tenzo’s job once, a long time ago, but it was rare for him to take on that role in Anbu. “I’m a friend,” placing the last dish on the pile that now teetered in his arm, he maneuvered his right arm around it for a bit more support and turned toward the kitchen. “A friend who has specifically been sent by another friend to check in on you.”

“Always straight to the point,” Gai sighed as he followed Tenzo toward the kitchen, dragging his feet along the floor. “And what are you doing with my dishes?”

“Cleaning them, obviously,” coming to a stop in front of the sink, he leaned down and carefully placed the dishes down so they didn’t topple over. The last thing he wanted to do today was go shopping for a new set of dishes after destroying all of the ones Gai had. “Since you’re too focused on improving your knowledge pool someone has to make sure you’re going to be eating off of clean plates.”

“I can-” turning his head, he glared straight at Gai. “N-never mind.”

“That’s what I thought,” with that argument sufficiently killed he focused back on the daunting task he’d taken on. “Well, I’m doing the dishes maybe you can make some tea?”

“Tea?”

“Yes,” Tezno confirmed. “You do still remember what tea is, right?”

Gai sputtered, tripping over his words a few times before finally taking a deep breath. “Green tea?” His voice came out strained, but the question was quickly followed by the sound of feet shuffling and cupboards being pulled open.

“Green tea is fine,” Tenzo confirmed. Turning on the tap he watched as water flowed into the sink. The pile he’d collected was taller than anything he’d ever tackled before, but he was certain that it was a task he could finish in under ten minutes. Just enough time for Gai to make them some tea. Once the dishes were clean and the two of them were seated with their drink, then he would start asking the questions that were already swirling around in his mind. 

How long has it been since you went outside?

When was the last time you got yourself some dango?

How is he doing?

Those were questions that would have to wait till later, though. Things he would ask when the two of them were sitting face to face with their hands wrapped around a warm cup of tea. 

Until then, they would continue swirling around in his mind demanding an answer to the nagging concerns that came with each one of them. 

“You don’t have to worry, you know,” Gai spoke as he stepped up to Tenzo’s side and held out his kettle to him. Taking the kettle, Tenzo popped it open and placed it under the tap. Once it was about halfway full he pulled it back and returned it to Gai. “I’m fine.”

“Fine,” he couldn’t help but laugh. Every moment he’d heard Kakashi say that exact line to him came rushing back to him. Bombarding him with memories of exhausted, haunted eyes staring through him as if he wasn’t even there. “Your student is in the hospital.”

“I know that.” Snatching the kettle back, Gai turned away with a huff. Instead of making his way toward the stove, though, he just stood there. His back facing Tenzo and his kettle clutched in his hand. “I know that…”

At that moment, Tenzo regretted agreeing to his Senpai’s request.

If he’d been smart he would have insisted Kakashi come instead. He would have pressured his Senpai to put off Sasuke’s training for just a few hours to check in on his friend. It was Kakashi, not Tenzo, who knew how best to support Gai.

He hadn’t, though.

Instead, he’d promised to take care of it. Assured his Senpai that he would make sure Gai was taken care of when he couldn’t be there for him. Now he was stuck with a pile of dishes higher than he’d ever seen, with no idea what to say next.

Well, there was one thing he could say. Something that he was certain he would never dare to utter in front of anyone else, even under threat of torture, but which seemed fitting in this moment.

“If it was Kakashi-Senpai, I’d be a mess.”

Gai spun round, an expression of utter horror on his face as he stared at Tenzo. “What?”

Grabbing the first dish from the pile he took a deep breath and started cleaning. “If it was Kakashi-Senpai in the hospital,” he continued. “I would be a mess. Or even Yugao, or you.”

It was difficult for him to admit, but all of his years of being trained to cut himself off from others and deny himself any emotional bonds had failed. Part of it was because of his Senpai’s insistence on friendship, which had rubbed off on him over the years, but there was also a piece of him that knew he never would have been able to succeed.

His friends were important to him. No matter how much he wanted to cut himself off from them, he couldn’t. It’s exactly the weakness that Kakashi had exploited when he found out about Tenzo’s mission to kill him, and what had led to him going against Danzo’s orders for the first time in his life. 

If any of his friends were stuck in the hospital with an injury that might never be healed, he would throw himself into his work much like Kakashi always did. There wouldn’t be a pile of dishes growing on his desk or open medical textbooks, but his mental health would take a turn for the worst.

And if or when that happened, he knew two things for certain.

Kakashi would show up at his door dragging him outside for some fresh air insisting that he can’t give up, and Gai would be right behind him with that brilliant smile and promises of dango and spars to cheer him up. 

“All I’m saying is…” finishing with the first bowl he placed it under the tap to wash away the leftover soap and placed it into the small drying rack beside the sink. “I get it. You don’t have to pretend to be alright for me, Gai.”

For a second the two of them just stood there. Gai holding onto his kettle full of water, and Tenzo washing dishes. The only sound that echoed in the small apartment was running water and the light clink of dishes as Tenzo added them to the drying rack.

Then, without any warning, Gai set the kettle down on the counter, threw his arms around Tenzo’s shoulders, and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. 

“Gai-” Tenzo croaked out as his bones cried out in pain. Immediately the Jonin loosened his hold, though he still kept Tenzo pinned against his body as he buried his face into his right shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into Tenzo’s shirt. “No apologies,” placing his hand on Gai’s arm, he ignored the water dripping from his fingers. There wasn’t much for him to say at the moment. Comforting other people wasn’t something he was good at, and he wasn’t about to pretend to be.

Comfort wasn’t what Gai needed, though. Kind words wouldn’t wash away the reality of the situation his student was in. They wouldn’t rid him of the memories of Lee’s battle, or the sight of his student laying in a hospital bed lucky that he had survived but with little hope for a continued life as a shinobi. 

Kind words would do nothing for Gai during this time, so Tenzo didn’t bother to try and come up with any. Instead, he simply stood there and let Gai hide his face in his shoulder while he hugged him. 

‘Just be there for him,’ Kakashi had told him when he’d asked why he wanted him to go check in on his best friend. ‘He needs someone right now. Usually, I would go, but I only have a month to prepare Sasuke for this next fight. So go in my place, please.’

So, that’s what Tenzo resolved to do.

Be there for Gai. 

Ask him questions, check in on his well-being, and just listen.

There was nothing he could say to make the situation better, but if Kakashi was right he wouldn’t need to. All Gai needed was company, and that was something Tenzo could provide in spades.

[natsubeatsrock]

The Lucy Paradox

I'm going to get murdered for posting this on Tumblr, huh?

Somehow, I've never talked about this. I've made this joke in private. However, it's worth discussing in this format. Think of it as a celebration of International Women's Day.

Incidentally, Lucy isn't the one who I named this paradox after. The original name of this was the Sakura Paradox. For the record, I mean Sakura Haruno from Naruto.

It feels like a given that Sakura is a weak character. The way some fans talk about her, you'd think she was the worst character in the series. The closest example I can think of is Yamcha, whom no one takes as a threat past the first arc of Dragon Ball. After the big-time skip, he's treated as the joke of the group, especially by fans.

Here's the problem. Sakura's very strong. That's true in a literal sense, but she has more ability than fans give her credit for. It's not a stretch to say she's the strongest civilian in the series universe.

"Yeah, that's true in the second half. But what about in part 1?"

Do you mean the part where she has a better grip on chakra control than her teammates? Or the part where she's shown to ace the first part of the Chunin Exam without having to cheat? What about later in the exam when she breaks out two separate genjutsu? Yeah, I'm not hearing it.

Why do people say she's weak? Simple, she'd been dwarfed in power by monsters. It's not controversial to say Sakura is the worst member of Team 7, with the potential exception of Sai, if you even count him. It's not a close race between her, Sasuke, and Boruto's dad. She's a distant third. The only debate is how badly she's lapped.

If this sounds like I'm insulting her, it's not. Those two might be the strongest characters in the universe, with no qualifiers or exceptions. From what I've heard about Boruto, they're still doing crazy things years after their time in the spotlight should be over.

I call this the Lucy Paradox because fandom might not be fully aware of how incredible Lucy is. She's on the level of magic to use two gold Celestial Spirit Keys at the same time. It's impressive if someone's able to use two keys. She can mix and match between any of the ten she has.

Remember that she's the only wizard capable of Celestial Star Dress. At its introduction, it was just being able to take the abilities of her spirits. In the sequel, it's also the ability to combine the powers of two different spirits.

Let's take that for granted for a second. Lucy comes up with strategies that are helpful to her friends. And it's not just helping Natsu's fights. She's the one who recognized the true meaning behind Daybreak. She's the one who saw through the Eclipse Gate in two different timelines. She rewrote the entirety of the Book of E.N.D. after reading it once. Most importantly, she's the one who revises Anna's plan to make it possible to defeat Acnologia.

I say all that, but she's the weakest human member of the Strongest Team. She's never been on Natsu or Gray's level. Erza's not an S-Class mage for nothing, even if you want to argue that Natsu's overtaken her. While Wendy started weak, she's surpassed Lucy in the last arcs of the main series. I'm not cruel enough to say that Carla is even close to better than her. However, if your only meaningful competition is the Exceeds, that's not great.

Though, let's back up and think about that last paragraph. Lucy is the weakest member of the Strongest Team, no doubt. She's not the weakest member of Fairy Tail. Let's ignore the no-named scrubs who show up for a couple of lines every four volumes Lucy clears. If Lucy joined Shadow Gear, she might be the team's ace. She was able to hold her own with Cana as her partner. (Speaking of which, Tenrou Island is another situation where her planning came in the clutch, and I can't believe I didn't talk about it earlier.) She's more powerful than the Strauss kids not named Mirajane. I'd even go so far as to say she could make a solid member of the Thunder God Tribe.

This is probably where someone else would make this about feminism and how shonen writers aren't good at writing women. (Except for the rare female writers.) I get this for Kishimoto whose writing of women is indefensible. Akira Toriyama (R.I.P.), who influenced much of the genre as we've seen it, isn't much better with how he handles his women.

But Mashima?

I know the fanservice can be way too much at times. But, as I mentioned years ago, his women are better written than fans often give him credit for. Lucy loses to two women on her team. Some of the best story arcs in Fairy Tail revolve around characters like Lucy, Cana, and Erza. I'd put Erza's character up against almost any other female character in a similar narrative role in the same genre. I don't care that she punched that meteor that one time. She's still a better character than a lot of them.

No, this issue is more the fault of fans and their pesky expectations. They see characters who aren't the strongest and assume they're weak. Fans do this despite the advanced strength of other characters and the narrative role of the characters.

I wouldn't say that we have a feminist problem. I'd say we don't recognize the strength of femininity.

I'm just going to come out and say it. Women are great because they're not men, and vice versa. I'm in favor of getting rid of some of the restrictive gender roles culture places on both genders. That shouldn't come at the expense of making women more like men.

"Doesn't that mean that we can't have women who fight and have active roles in media, similar to typically male characters?"

You know what? That might be the most eloquent I've made this voice sound.

My answer is simple. Why can't we have both?

Why can't we have our Rukia and our Orihime? Why can't we have our Tifa and our Aeris? (Or is it Aerith?) Why can't we have our Lucy and our Erza?

Now, don't get it twisted. I love seeing physically strong women in fiction. She-Hulk is one of my favorite heroes in Marvel comics. (I hate that I have to specify comics.) Jupiter is my favorite of the Sailor Guardians. Homura is my favorite member of the EZ Crew. However, a strong character is a good character, and vice versa.

The best thing about the traditional female characters is how they manage their lack of physical strength. They use their wit and charms to their advantage instead of brute force. Men rely on power and speed. Women focus on flexibility and accuracy.

I like to think of it in sports terms. If traditional masculine traits are more offensive, feminine traits are considered more defensive. Both are necessary for teams to succeed. Some sports require people to switch between both roles. However, players usually excel at one of the two.

"What about sports like fencing and the martial arts?"

You need to switch between offense and defense quicker than other sports. However, is it good if a fencer only parries attacks and never thrusts? Is being able to throw punches without blocking a great boxing strategy?

What makes characters compelling has nothing to do with either masculine or feminine traits. (At least, it shouldn't.) What matters are their virtues and determination. It may manifest itself differently in male and female characters. However, it's not as if women can't show strength without sending people through walls. It's not as if men can't show tenderness without caring for children.

The most essential trait for characters might be weakness. How do characters make up for their failings? How do they overcome the conflicts they face? These things draw us to good characters, no matter their gender.

Let's compare two fictional women. Sophie Hatter from Howl's Moving Castle and Captain Marvel.

Carol Danvers is an unfortunate case. She started as a character with solid writing in the comics as a side character. Her solo series as Ms. Marvel in the Civil War era is pretty good. However, since becoming the new Captain Marvel, she's been defined by her power and little else. Despite Marvel's best efforts, fans have not latched onto her new persona.

The MCU didn't help. Captain Marvel was one of the weakest movies in Phase 3. Even at the time, it was clear that its success was attached to the Avengers' success. Few people praised the movie on its own merits. Even fewer had meaningful defenses for its many critics.

Captain Marvel was a physically strong character with no weaknesses. She was so strong that the government she was working for had to limit her powers. However, Carol wasn't the best character the MCU has put out. She didn't endear herself to the audience, had no real connections to the main cast outside of Fury, and became a textbook example of a strong female character without the character part of the equation. Ironically, the best movie to handle her was the one where she barely showed up.

Then there's The Marvels.

It's unfair to say that the movie only flopped because of Captain Marvel's character. That movie's failure has much more to do with the current state of Disney and Marvel Studios. However, part of the plot's failings is because of Carol's lack of weaknesses. They had to find a way to nerf her and chose to tie her to the other characters. They had to find a way to show her connections to the universe and married her off-screen to a South Korean actor on a planet where everyone communicates through singing. No wonder it bombed the same year Guardians of the Galaxy did well.

Sophie Hatter (it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that was her last name) is the protagonist of Howl's Moving Castle, one of Hayao Miyazaki's most beloved works and one of my favorite anime. Miyazaki is no stranger to writing strong women. While I could pick either of the women from Princess Mononoke, Sophie is for the point I want to make.

She is by no means strong. She has no magic and has to rely on Howl and Calcifer many times throughout the story for protection. In a cast of magical individuals, she might be one of the weakest members of the cast.

However, she is far from a weak character. Even at her most insecure, she shows great inner strength and determination. She's determined to find a way to get back to her younger self. She doesn't shrink at the task of cleaning Howl's house. Not to mention, she becomes the heart and soul of the castle. (No pun intended.) It makes sense that she gets younger as she becomes more assured in herself. Ironically, she proves to be braver than Howl. He gains strength and courage from her.

Sophie's strength doesn't come from her ability to use magic or how many soldiers she can knock out. Her strength is more of an inner strength. It's an unshakeable will to achieve what is necessary. That causes her to push past her insecurity and grow throughout the movie. It's no wonder that so many people love her and the movie.

In Conclusion:

If you want to make a strong female character, that's a fine goal. What matters is that you focus more on the "character" than the "strong."

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Thanks for answering my last question I got another one

It more like a what if question what if Sasuke stay in the village after the war how long would it take Sasuke become a Chunin or Jonin straight away or a couple of months or longer

Assuming that Sasuke was willing to go through the promotion system (I don't think post-war it matters to him so much; he knows how strong he is), the timeline would probably depend on what system he was using for promotion.

There's the traditional route of standardized testing at scheduled times, or something specific to him, as they do with Naruto by having him study to become a chunin/jonin in the anime.

If it were the traditional route, and Sasuke chose to sit a scheduled exams, it could be like, anywhere from 2-9 months. We know that chunin exams are held bi-annually (Chapter 39) and the exams we see are the ones starting July 1st (Chapter 34).

The war ends around Naruto's birthday, which is October 10th. Assuming they do their second bi-annual exam at an equal distance of time, like in December, Sasuke could sit that exam, which would be 2-3 months. But everyone has also just suffered devastating losses and restructured their entire working relationships with the other major villages, so if they skipped that exam period, there likely wouldn't be another opportunity until July. So, October to July would be around 9 months and a few weeks. So, 2-3 months, or 9-10 months, in that route.

I would lean towards Sasuke taking a less traditional route and doing independent study, simply because we know based on the fact we never see him with a jonin status it's not a big priority for him. So, if you did it that way, it could be any amount of time. Naruto wiki tells me they told Naruto it would be two years of study in the anime. So it could be 2 years by independent study route, or less if you wanted to individualize it. Sasuke has always had better fundamentals and retention than Naruto, so it could definitely be argued it'd take Sasuke less time, like a year or less.

In either case, you'd probably want to fact in a sizeable recovery time for the loss of his dominant hand, and probably having to entirely relearn how to fight and do jutsu. So the 9-12 month range seems more grounded in that sense.

However, even if I don't think Sasuke would jump at standardized testing, I do think it'd be very funny and cute for Sasuke and Naruto to take the chunin exams with some fresh Academy graduates, so as always, do whatever works best for you. I always think it'd be adorable if Sasuke, Naruto and Konohamaru took an exam together.

TLDR: I would lean toward 9-12 months by independent study or standardized exam until he could be promoted due to the changes to the village and the loss of Sasuke's arm.

[shukakumoodboard]

18 19 21 22 25 for the evils if ur still doing them

i'm fuckign cryin this made me laugh so hard when i got the notification. lets GOOO the evils never die

18. answered!

19. answered!

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

lmaoooo the ENTIRE war arc/founders stuff. i simply do not give one fuck about anyone who was already dead when og nart's timeline started, and i kind find it annoying that the major concluding war arc is all about these revived dead people and not the cusp-of-adulthood, coming-of-age characters we'd spent hundreds of hours getting to know and love

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

look every single team gai moment tbh, but a lot of those are filler it counts anyway fucka you but specifically canon -- i think post chunin exams when sakura gives lee a flower. it's such a cute moment and i think shows really good sakura character development. and i'm always delighted when someone gives lee the kindness and respect he deserves

25. answered!

[darkclouud9]

I've seen a post where someone said they never questioned Kakashi's age until they seen how tall he was during his chunin exams. bc. he was literally 6.

but has anyone talked about this? Kakashi's supposedly 18 here, and Yamato's only 14, but Kakashi's voice is still so young. the next event in the anbu arc is when Kakashi's 20, and his voice has matured by then.

idk it's just weird. the timeline in general is weird.

[blue-15000]

Notes for Chapter 8 of To Be a Kunoichi

Hello all,

I undercooked the boba. What a tragedy. Anyway.

I struggled with some scenes this chapter, unsure of how Naruto might respond to certain things - I hope everything has come together in a satisfying way.

I thought I might elaborate a bit on my writing process.

I write the scenes set in the present first, and will usually write a few chapters ahead in terms of present scenes - they set the tone and themes for each chapter and for the whole arc, so I like to finish them first.

I have plotted the whole fic in broad strokes, and am plotting a couple arcs ahead in detail (Outline vs Scene Plans, in my notes). I try to begin and end the present and past parts of the arc in the same thematic places, the timelines will catch up, like, 4 or 5 arcs before the end of the fic.

Sometimes the timelines parallel and sometimes they contrast. In Run, Hide, Fight Naruto arguably lost her fight against the Iwa nin - a disastrous, deadly encounter, but won the fight against Bear in the past, a personal triumph. Similarly, in the arc To Be a Kunoichi things in the present improve - Tenzo wakes up, Shisui's leg is finally healed, after 8 chapters of the poor guy struggling. But in the past Naruto is plunging into a particularly bad period of her life, one that will change the way she feels about the Sandaime, the village, herself, and her teammates, forever.

Some details might be hard to catch if you're reading chapter-by-chapter. In the present, Naruto is 15, nearly 16 (she mentions it being early October, she's about to have an exceptionally crappy birthday).

In the past, Naruto is 9, very nearly 10. She was recruited to ANBU in late summer and now it's autumn. She is also about to have an exceptionally crappy birthday. This team has been together a long time - there will be time skips, but not more than 6 months to a year.

I try to keep the arcs on track, and fairly short, stuff that I can wrap up in 5-10 chapters each. I've seen too many long-form fics get bogged down in a particular arc and struggle to reach their conclusions because of it, I didn't want to make the same mistake. I also didn't want to rehash arcs that have been done to death, like the Land of Waves arc. Some arcs will be adapted from canon, some will be original. Depends on what the ripple effects would conceivably be - Nart's hardly going to be in the chunin exams with the rest of her canon cohort, for example, but nothing I've wrote so far changes the fact that Konoha will be invaded during the chunin exams.

I've also noticed a tendency in long-form fics to get stuck with too many POV's, adding more and more characters whose arcs need to be wrapped up. Writing often works best with limitations, so I have limited myself to one POV character, our beloved Nart. Occasionally I write post-fic day-in-the-life fluff from the POV of Shisui or Kakashi. But neither of them will ever narrate the main fic.

I headcanon that Uzumaki's are particularly prone to chakra wasting diseases or chakra parasites, a consequence of their dense and plentiful chakra. This is why Hirohito wasn't getting better.

I've had a couple people comment on the fast-paced nature of my chapters, and perhaps it's just my inability to interpret tone, but I am always open to (kind) constructive criticism. I try to keep things on track but if it's too fast paced I can slow down : ). I write for a hobby, but I would like to be good at it, too, and for my readers to have a good time.

Perhaps it's a bit heavy-handed, but I wanted it to be ambiguous, in most cases, whether Naruto is doing the right thing. The outpost is smuggling drugs, opium, weapons... and also cloth and birth control. Is she right to participate in its destruction? Does she have a choice in it at all? Does it change the rightness/wrongness of her actions if she's forced into it? If she tries to act morally, making sure Hirohito gets his medicine before carrying out the rest of her mission?

Similarly, in the present, we find out that a large part of her plan is to ally with Orochimaru - to whom she has some unknown connection. She's right that he's their best possibility for an ally, she has bargaining chips to lay on the table to keep him in check (and it's so, so far in the future, but I feel I've outlined a negotiating scene that's the bomb). But it's fucking Orochimaru. Does she have a choice in this, if she wants to see her teammates survive? Even if it will be very personally hurtful for her closest friends? What's the line, what's not okay to do in opposition to Danzo?

The point is that there is no possible way to act morally under this system, not if you want to live. Although in this chapter, past-Naruto certainly tries. Present Naruto is a tad more cynical.

It's interesting to me when characters are bad people, especially if they try so very hard to be good.

Orochimaru and Kabuto are the only characters we know of in canon to have visited the ruins of Uzushio, which is a special level of bonkers. It's there that Naruto can make contact with them - perhaps the location of the rendezvous was picked for practical reasons, perhaps out of personal cruelty to Naruto, to be in the place where her grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins/extended family all died. With those two, who knows.

Cloth used to be super, super valuable, especially in the quasi-medieval economy of Naruto (seriously, how do they have a thriving mercenary economy AND refrigerators?). In my fic, such appliances run mainly on chakra networks, and are thus inaccessible outside of the Hidden Villages, to make a world where merchant caravans are attacked by bandits, where military conflicts are common, and samurai still exist, and also they have fridges, radio, and antibiotics.

As I said in previous notes, hormonal and chemical (implants, IUDs) birth control is pretty inaccessible outside of the kunoichi profession, and is looked down on for the same reason. That doesn't mean there isn't a huge demand for it.

I currently have like, 7-8 more arcs planned until the timelines catch up, roughly (very roughly) one per year of Naruto's ANBU career.

One commenter wrote that they thought Aiko and Hirohito would die. They won't - it's much worse. Naruto has betrayed them, and they'll all have to live with the consequences. No easy way out for any of them >:)

[historias-multorum]

"You look stuck." - From Neji to Hinata (pre-Chunin Exam arc)

OR

“There are two types of love. True love, and the love we actually get.” - From Neji to Hinata (post-Chunin Exam arc)

Muse is still pretty new to me and my knowledge is currently up to the beginning of Shippuuden so that is as far as I can go in the timeline for now~

@roleplay-abiogenesis2

A harsh truth she was too stubborn to listen to. She knew Neji was right, but it was her own fear in knowing the one she had feelings for- did not feel the same. She wanted to believe that there was a chance for true love even when the odds weren't in her favor...

"Y-You're right..."

[sabaku-no-rozu]

TLDR timeline for Rozu

Age 6: dad dies, mom turns into an obsessive shut in and drags Rozu down with her

Age 11: Rozu leaves a long note and runs away, runs into Gaara while he's unguarded, keeps going and makes it to konoha

Age 12: starts ninja academy, is weaker than peers. befriends naruto and rock lee who help her train and come out of her shell

Age 13: participates in chunin exams, runs into gaara while hes unguarded, recognizes him but moves on anyway. runs into him again after horrifying Lee fight but dominates him in a staring contest

Ages 14-16: tsunade sends Rozu to Amegakure to train and learn more about her kekkei genkai, and also gives her a free pass to travel between suna and konoha because Dad Was A Powerful Ninja (also tsunade knows more than she lets on)

Age 17: Rozu trains her ass off and learns how to be a lightning god for 5 seconds then decides to go back home to Suna to show off. bumps into team Gai on the way and finds out the kazekages been kidnapped.

offers to help but neji tells her to fuck off to suna where she pulls her Strong Dad privilege card and becomes Gaara's personal bodyguard. old friends finally meet up after Gaara literally dies on the cross then comes back three days later like some kind of desert jesus and catch up like nothing happened

time skip to gaara's panty dropper speech, rozu fucks off to fight her dead dad who teaches her a Cool Trick then gives her the secret password to release the Mommy Issues no Jutsu Rozu's been trapped in her entire life, crying happens

cut to the Big Madara Fight. Fourth Div gets their asses handed to them by a silver space plate. Rozu uses her Avatar No Jutsu to try and Save the Day but she gets smacked down like john cena on fight night

Oh No Here Comes Ten Tails but Rozu isnt fighting that thing she's helping everyone else because im too lazy to write that part

Big Mommy Moon comes out of Madara's ass and puts everyone down for a nice nap. Rozu dreams about having a normal family and graduating college like she thought she would in the 90s

Naruto is a Big Hero and saves everyone by waking them up with a proverbial air horn, everyone's grateful that the war is over and they go party/mourn their dead friends/watch kakashi get promoted to Hokage Temp

Skip to blank period

Rozu releases Reina from Mommy Issues no Jutsu and they make up

Rozu is fully commenced as Gaara's 24/7 personal waifu body guard

Gaara and Rozu are now an Idiots to Lovers trope and everyone around them knows it except them

Oop, Gaara's surprise engagement! except its an assassination attempt! (what a twist) rozu knew the whole time duh she wasnt jealous what are you talking about

Kankuro calls Gaara an idiot to his face

Shijima calls Rozu an idiot to her face

Temari explains Being Whipped to Gaara post-breakup

something happens to Rozu and Gaara in the middle and they finally kiss or whatever

fast forward to a Big Happy Family with a Gremlin Child and A Stoic Boy

thats it thats the timeline

[sirdiabolical]

Kakashi’s timeline doesn’t make sense but I need it to for my fics

I’ve decided I’m going to formally figure out and write down Kakashi’s early life timeline so I can stick to a cohesive script when writing his childhood, specifically what age he is in relation to others. Once I have it all figured out and sorted neatly, I’ll post the final version onto my main.

Important Note: I do not have all the facts and these are my live workings out. Maths is not my strong suit and I am liable to get things wrong.

Here’s the foundation of my workings out.

Kakashi Canon: Genin at 5, Chunin at 6, Jounin at 9, ANBU at 12(?)*

Obito Canon: Genin at 9, Chunin at 11

Rin Canon: Genin at 9, Chunin at 11

Minato Canon: Genin at 10, Dead at 24

*I don’t have hard evidence of this, it’s just what people say.

The anime tends to portray Kakashi, Rin and Obito as the same age, yet I believe they supposedly competed in the chunin exams together? And if Kakashi did graduate before them, did he have a previous team?

I’ve seen fics tackle this in multiple ways. But before I tackle it myself, I’m going to establish a baseline. Assuming that Kakashi, Rin and Obito all graduated at the same time, we have: A four year age gap between Kakashi and the other two genin, and a ten year age gap between Kakashi and Minato (the latter which I think generally works).

Which leads us to Timeline A:

Genin Kakashi: 5, Genin Rin: 9, Genin Obito: 9, Sensei Minato: 15/16 (I haven’t accounted for birthdays and their placements in the year)

Chunin Kakashi: 6, Genin Rin: 10, Genin Obito: 10, Sensei Minato 16/17

Chunin Kakashi: 7, Chunin Rin: 11, Chunin Obito: 11, Sensei Minato 17/18

But Wait…

Didn’t they compete in the exams together? If we follow that rule, then Kakashi has to graduate a year later than Rin and Obito.

This would give us Timeline B:

Academy/pre-academy* Kakashi: 4, Genin Rin: 9, Genin Obito: 9, ??? Minato: 14/15

Genin Kakashi: 5, Genin Rin: 10, Genin Obito: 10, Sensei Minato: 15/16

Chunin Kakashi: 6, Chunin Rin: 11, Chunin Obito: 11, Sensei Minato: 16/17

*We don’t know how old Kakashi was when he entered the academy

???

We know Minato graduated at 10, but I don’t know much else. If he developed at the same rate as his students, that would put him at Chunin around 12 or so. He’d have to be a jounin to teach so perhaps he became one at 15/16 and was immediately given a team due to a war time and any other justifying head canons.

So we have two main options: Rin and Obito were in a different genin team for a year, or Minato took on Rin and Obito without Kakashi (and perhaps with a third irrelevant member) for a year before Kakashi.

That would bring the age gap between Kakashi and his two peers up to five years.

I don’t like the idea of a ten year old Rin infatuated with a five year old Kakashi as it doesn’t make sense, even as far as ten year olds having romantic feelings go. So to maintain this timeline, I’d need to head canon that Rin had a more of a ‘wow look at this little guy, such a cute baby ninja’ with possible sibling esc tones that frustrate Obito not because he sees Kakashi as a rival for Rin’s love, but more generally Rin’s attention.

HOWEVER! I have not, and likely will not, watch the part of the anime where they compete in the chunin exams and cannot confirm how they went (I’m too tired to look it up right now) and our first time line could maintain its integrity easily by having Kakashi graduate the first time around while the other two have to have another go. However, they would be without Kakashi and the exams seem to work with teams of three somewhat exclusively, so decisions would have to be made there.

———

I’m going to leave my workings out here for now, but so far we have:

Timeline A: Straight Canon, No Context

Timeline B: We All Ace the Chunin Exams

More timelines to come, such as ‘Actually, we’re all the same age (title subject to change)’.

[bakapandy]

hey!! can you talk a bit about shikadai? because i don't think that he's a shikamaru 2.0 but i never really got what's his deal yk? your posts are really great i love seeing u on my timeline <3

Much like Boruto, Shikadai's got a lot of expectation placed on his shoulders. His father and grandfather are Konoha's greatest tacticians, who helped lead their world to peace and victory during the 4th war. His mother is one of the highest ranking political figures of Suna. His parents' marriage and Shikadai's birth in it of itself is a political statement. So Shikadai has a big image to keep up and we've been shown that this is something that he has thought about quite a bit. For example, when he decided to focus on his shadow techniques despite always having relatively more talent in his mother's Wind Style. He did it to help with his father's and his family's image, even if no one really told him to. Another example is during the Chunin exams. Even though he tried to keep this facade of being relaxed, he worked very hard to perform and was extremely upset with himself when he "failed". He's a very astute and conscientious kid who gives off this laid-back attitude but actually cares a whole lot. But he is slowly growing into himself and learning to act on his own rather what is expected of him, in order to become the shinobi HE wants to be and represent his family the way HE sees fit. 

Conversely, Shikamaru never really had this pressure on him. I never got the impression that Shikaku put much pressure on Shikamaru, even if he always had full confidence in his son. Shikamaru was kinda forced to become who he is by circumstance, despite his own desires. Shikamaru was definitely more bratty as a kid haha but his growth is also one of my favorites throughout the series. 

But I think the biggest thing people forget is that the Boruto generation were born into a different time, time where war is no longer a constant and the world lives in relative peace. These kids have become shinobi, yes, but they have also had the opportunity live a relatively normal life as well. Their problems and their experiences are different. So their choices and the challenges they face are different. And not only that, but they have the expectations of being the offspring of the “golden generation” on their shoulders. So I’m personally just very intrigued by how they navigate that.

[everykabuto]

WAIT I’ve been reading your notes on the Kabutos and he was 14 when he joined Orochimaru? I don’t know why but for some reason I thought he was 17-

Yep, at least I think so! I just reblogged the post that I've been referencing when talking about his age, the op did some calculations on what his age must have been... though now I'm realizing that I don't know where they actually got the information about when kabuto joined root and orochimaru 🤔 If anyone else knows, I'd appreciate a link to that info...

Though even without that databook entry, the rest of the information we're given lines up pretty well with that timeline. In the chunin exams arc, kabuto is 19 and it's his 8th time taking the exams. They happen twice a year and in chapter 39 he says that he's been taking the exam for four years, meaning he would have started when he was 15. From the start he was taking the exam purely to gather information for orochimaru, so he had to have been working for him at least since then.

[leportraitducadavre]

What do you think of Kid Kakashi as a character and your overall opinion?

Are you referring to Kakashi before Obito’s demise? I believe I have replied details how I feel with Adult!Kakashi (and by extension, Kid!Kakashi after Obito’s death), so I’m going to assume you’re referring to him. 

Well, let’s point out the obvious, Kakashi was labeled as a genius when he was extremely young, as we can see on the First Databook:

He graduated from the Academy at five, and was promoted to Chünin at six, I’m not going to start around how messed up the timeline is because from Kakashi Gaiden it seems that everything happened around 10 years before the main plot, which would put Kakashi at 16 years old… when we know it’s impossible. 

We saw that Kakashi was paired with Rin and Obito before he was promoted to Chünin, which either means that Kakashi was significantly younger than them (being promoted canonically at the age of six), or that they were the same age and had been on the same team around five years, which doesn’t add up.

There’s no canon confirmation of what age Kakashi was when promoted to Jönin, but we’re led to believe that Rin, Obito, and Kakashi are of the same age. Thirteen/twelve years old. 

Obito graduated from the Academy at the age of nine, and was promoted to Chünin at eleven… so it’s likely that Kakashi is younger than them, having five while Rin and Obito had 9, while been together for around… 3 years, before Obito and Rin were promoted to Chünin when they were eleven. The point is not of relevance, not to the post, and definitely not for the story, is just a detail of barely any importance that I’m pointing out because I already researched it, Lol.

He’s called a genius by his peers. He’s apparently an “elite ninja” but little do we see of him actually being one. The context in which Kakashi was promoted was one when war was at its peak and apparently had been for a couple of years, since Obito -who is shown to be not good during combat- was promoted to chunin. During Kakashi Gaiden, the first time Kakashi uses the Chidori (an incomplete technique until he receives Obito’s Sharingan), he gets injured and has to be saved by Minato.

His status as genius is, at best, something to question, at worst, nonexistent. He did have the ability to create a jutsu all on his own, but as stated, he only completed it after obtaining the Sharingan. His skills at taijutsu are not particularly good either, since he was outsmarted and overpowered by other jönin.

Up to that point, Kakashi was similar (in the most superficial way, I’m not -by any means- stating that they are similar beyond that), to Neji. Now, let me explain further. Kakashi has seen and experienced what the Will of Fire truly meant; his father, Sakumo, had questioned the belief that Konoha must come first and had chosen to abandon an important mission to save his comrades. Up until there, Sakumo was respected and admired as the Sannin were according to Minato, but the people that loved him for his feats turned their back on him when he chose feelings over logic.

Kakashi chose to explain Sakumo’s suicide as something that happened when you don’t follow the rules, dismissing -unconsciously-, Konoha’s responsibility on the matter. He never, like Neji, questions the system that allowed them to be in the position they are: Kakashi’s father committing suicide and Neji’s father being killed by the main branch, also his condition as a slave. They explained their places in the system without actually upholding Konoha as the responsible. 

Neji never questions the fact that he’s a slave, he explains it with the Destiny of Hatred of his clan, he has bitterly accepted that it was his role to fulfill, and he will do so, despite his hatred. When Naruto beats him on the Chünin exams, it is not that Neji changes completely what his duty was -as some believe he does-, he still fulfills the role of a slave, as he did before, he’s just manipulated into doing it without the hatred that, forged accordingly, could become a revolution.

He’s completely representing the Will of Fire that Tobirama spoke about as Dänzo understood it (ninja being tools just following orders), but as I said before, the Will of Fire of Dänzo was not exactly the Will of Fire of Tobirama. Tobirama did not believe in turning off the shinobi’s emotions, it was about manipulating them to make them want to protect Konoha above everything else, like Rin did after Obito’s death, by sacrificing her life to protect the village.

Obito wasn’t following the Will of Fire either, he was trying desperately to rescue Rin -following what could be cataloged as the First Stage of Tobirama so-called Curse of Hatred-, and his desire was immensely alike Sakumo’s own when he put his comrades before Konoha. Obito awoke his Sharingan by wanting to protect his friends.

Obito’s words change Kakashi’s perspective of his attitude -like Naruto did with Neji-, but it still prevented him from seeing the actual responsible one for the position they were in: Konoha. Therefore, Obito grew on his ideals to bring a new world, a revolution of sorts -while Kakashi became the prime tool of Tobirama’s Will of Fire. Even so, Kakashi did not complete the mission, he had to do it later on with the assistance of Minato.

So it was Minato who saved him from the same fate of Sakumo. Had he not went to the Bridge or killed the entire unit of enemies nin, Kakashi would have been pushed aside as Sakumo was.

[hirazuki]

I read on your latest art post that you see parallels between Orochimaru and Sakura. That's interesting; usually he's linked to Sasuke. Please elaborate on your thoughts. Also, fantastic art! You are a gift to the world! Thanks for sharing!

Aaah anon, you are so sweet!! Thank you so much, I’m glad you liked the art! 💜 And sure! I’m sticking it under a cut because, well, I can never be brief :D

So, I’ve always felt like, even though Sakura has obvious parallels with Tsunade (her temper, super strength, etc.), a lot of those are only surface level. And a bunch of them, in my opinion, were actually instilled by Tsunade herself (the super strength, for instance; if Sakura had trained under someone else, she wouldn’t necessarily have developed that ability. It’s not necessarily an innate quality of hers, though to have taken to it so wholeheartedly, the potential was obviously there). If you look a bit deeper into her circumstances and how she responds to adversity, she’s actually a lot more similar to Orochimaru:

Both were the ones left behind by their teammates: The timeline is a little unclear as usual XD as to the order of things during the Second War, but generally speaking Jiraiya left his team and Konoha for 3 years to teach the Ame orphans, and it’s strongly implied that he only ever stayed at the village for brief stints after that; primarily, he’s shown to be busy travelling, establishing his spy network and searching for the child of prophecy. Likewise, ever since meeting Jiraiya during the Chunin Exams, Naruto was mostly out of the village training and travelling with him, even before he officially left on his long three year absence. Tsunade left Konoha permanently after Dan’s death; and I’m fairly certain the only reasons she wasn’t branded a missing nin were Hiruzen being the Hokage at the time and her lineage, because she essentially walked out and vanished. It’s either stated or strongly implied, I believe by the village elders, that they repeatedly sent out people to track her down and failed? I’d have to go back and double check, but I’m pretty sure something like this is mentioned when Homura and Koharu talk to Jiraiya about becoming Hokage, right after Orochimaru’s attempt to destroy the village. Likewise, Sasuke left Konoha permanently for training with Orochimaru, and also had people repeatedly trying to track him down. Meanwhile, Orochimaru was left behind still working for the village -- training Anko, working as ANBU/Root, working with Danzo who, despite what anyone thinks of him, still counts as village leadership. Everything Orochi did while in Konoha was actually endorsed by the government (regardless of whether it also lined up with his personal interests or not), whether directly by Danzo’s orders or indirectly through Hiruzen refusal to acknowledge or examine anything Danzo was doing. Sakura was left behind, also still working for the village; in her case, this took the form of pursuing her own training, developing new skills, joining up with other teams to run missions, etc.

.

Both of them reacted to loss by fixating on getting stronger and throwing themselves into their work: Orochimaru, after losing Jiraiya and Tsunade (and Dan and Nawaki, and seeing how their deaths broke Tsunade -- I think that was really the last straw for him), started pursuing his goal of learning all jutsu and attaining immortality with a single-mindedness that had not been there before. His fixation on these, at least to me, comes across as the simple desire to build himself up in such a way that he’ll never be affected by loss again. Similarly, after Naruto and Sasuke both left, Sakura approached Tsunade and essentially demanded of her to train her up. She also threw herself into learning and excelling in medical ninjutsu, building up her taijutsu skills and attaining incredible physical strength -- again, in an effort to ensure that she’d be strong enough to face whatever life threw at her next. Specifically in this case, she bears no similarity to Tsunade, whose reaction to loss was to cut ties and run, hiding indefinitely while giving in to her bad habits. (No judgement on Tsunade here, I totally understand and support her reacting to the events in her life like this, I’m just pointing out that she’s basically the opposite to Sakura in this regard). Both Orochi and Sakura reacted to loss by taking the strength equals survival mentality to heart, and being more driven than ever in terms of improving themselves. 

.

Both have an interest in the human body: For Orochimaru, this interest manifests more in terms of genetics, biology, pushing the limits of what is possible, experimentation, etc. It is the darker side of science that, occasionally, intersects with what Tsunade practices. For Sakura, it’s the medical field, specifically with a mind towards healing. However, given what we saw of her behaviors, thought processes, and abilities during the arc with Sasori and Chiyo, I personally can see Sakura having the affinity to specialize in things like poisons. Had it not been Tsunade that was available to train under when Sakura was at her lowest and darkest point and it had been someone like, say, Kabuto? I definitely think Sakura could have easily gone down a darker path in medial ninjutsu; one that still incorporated healing, of course (Kabuto is still extremely adept at being a healer), but possessing a large repertoire of how to cause damage to the body as well. This is my own interpretation, obviously, but I do think that the benign nature of Sakura’s medical training has more to do with who her teacher was than with Sakura herself; I have no doubt that she has the capacity of being as devastating as Kabuto within the medical field, and that could have been quite easily nurtured back when she was freshly abandoned by her teammates and left to pull herself back together, determined to catch up to them. 

.

Neither comes from a prestigious shinobi lineage: We have no clue who Orochimaru’s parents were. A popular fan theory is that they were ninja who were killed in the line of duty, but unless I’m forgetting something, we’re never actually given canon confirmation of that. All we know is that they died while he was very young, which is what started him on his path of questioning life, death, mortality, etc. Sakura’s parents, as we know, are civilians and, from all appearances, don’t really seem to have any clue as to what life as a ninja is about. Unlike Sasuke (an Uchiha and Indra’s incarnation), Tsunade (a Senju and granddaughter of the First Hokage), Naruto (the Kyuubi jinchuriki, son of the Fourth Hokage and the previous Kyuubi jinchuriki, an Uzumaki, and Ashura’s incarnation), Orochi and Sakura didn’t really have anything going for them in terms of bloodline. (We know nothing of Jiraiya’s parents other than the implication that they didn’t die while he was young, so he falls in this category too). That’s not to say that Sasuke, Tsunade, and Naruto didn’t also work their asses off to get to where they did; they absolutely did. But Orochimaru and Sakura (and Jiraiya) had less to work with, even if Orochi was naturally gifted with things like ninjutsu and hailed as a genius. Also, that kind of division -- between clan kids and non-clan kids -- isn’t really explored that much in the series, but it’s something that would definitely affect a shinobi’s mentality and outlook on things growing up. (Obviously, this last part doesn’t apply to Naruto -- he grew up a clan-less orphan, for all intents and purposes, but you get the idea).

That’s what I can think of off the top of my head for now! If anything else occurs to me, I’ll reblog this and add to it ^^ Hope that was a satisfactory answer!