#and 2. probably resentful of kakashi

[everyitachi]

[usuratongaychi]

Drawings + Rants + Headcanons/Naruto AU

i finally had some time to draw my versions of tean seven (minus kakashi). im gonna detail more of my AU later in the post but here are the designs and some notes.

For sasuke, in one of my other posts i had the theory that sasuke keeps his hair short to avoid resembling itachi, and thats why it is longer in time skip, because he is coming to terms with his trauma and still loves itachi. I also gave him similar creases to itachi, just from stress.

tbh im not too sure about this naruto design…but at least he isnt balding like before💀.

for sakura, i actually really like her older design, so i just drew her working. she would have her hair up and i gave her sakura blossom hair pins and eyeshadow.

also i havent drawn in forever so..thats why its messy.

(the rest of this is me rambling on..)

Now for changes i made to the story:

1. Narusasu endgame (yk im a stan)

I would have both of them be joint hokages, so technically both are the 7th. I know Sasuke is referred to as the shadow hokage, but that doesn’t really entail anything. I think it’s important because Sasuke would know just how important reform is for the village and shinobi system, but since people are still suspicious of Uchihas, Naruto would be the face. This fulfills Naruto’s dream, which when you really think about it, his dream was just to be loved, not really to be a politician. Naruto has seen how unfair and corrupt their society is, so he would completely work with Sasuke to make sure things like Danzo and Hiruzen’s corruption, child soldiers, hyuuga slavery and the “Uchiha Incident” dont happen again. I could explain more of this in a later post.

2. I would have Hinata look up to Sakura more, instead of Naruto.

I think it makes a bit more sense, Sakura is brave, outspoken and independent, just like Hinata wants to be. I would have Sakura be her first friend, since she can’t stand to see people be excluded or alone. That leads me into changes I would make for Sakura’s story.

3. Sakura. In the original, I would keep her kind of bratty attitude until things get serious in the Zabuza arc. Seeing her close friends so close to death, while not being able to help much would challenge her to become a protector. This also gives motivation for her to learn healing and medicine when Tsunade comes around. Sakura would be the “rock” or “glue” of team seven, which makes sense because she is the only one of them that came from a stable home.

Sakura initially resents Sasuke for betraying the team, but seeing how dedicated Naruto is to saving him, she decides its worth it to help bring him back. Besides if she didn’t, naruto would just endager himself trying.

4. Sasuke. I would have Sasuke after he realizes Itachi was manipulated into a genocide to protect the village, still go through him “i’m gonna destroy the village” phase, but when Naruto defeats him, they make a promise to change things, so no one else will have to suffer like that. I would also show more of the psychological effects of witnessing Itachi’s murders. One of my headcanons is that he’s pretty thin, since trauma survivors tend to have chronic stomach pains. He’s probably pretty paranoid about others betraying him, so he does it to them first (probably why he pushes naruto away so much). Sasuke is also probably still ostracized or “othered” for being an uchiha, since that is what the village is told about them. People still pity him, but dont come near him.

5. Naruto. 😭I actually made up a whole theory on why Hiruzen didn’t take great care of naruto, bc to me it just doesn’t make sense. it’s kinda a dumb theory and doesn’t rlly have anything to do with canon, but- what if Minato wanted to expose the corruption in the hidden leaf and get rid of the foundation, so as a sort of revenge, or just general distaste for Minato, Hiruzen doesn’t really provide for Naruto. 🤷‍♀️idk. A change I would make is to have naruto mature more to match his age. Like ofc it makes sense for him to act out for attention esp when he was younger, but i feel like past shippuden..he didn’t really mature at all? maybe thats just me. I’ll probably have more stuff to add for him, i’ll think of it later or put it in my headcanons post.

😭im so tired yall i will make a better post later on.

[heartsywritesthethings]

Team 7 Training 4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

“You should be training with the rest of your team, Shikamaru.” Asuma said, raising an eyebrow at his pupil from across the shoji table. The spiky haired ninja just shook his head and moved a piece of his on the board.

“And why is that?” Asuma asked, moving his own piece.

“They have to catch up to my skill level before we can train together again. Otherwise, I’ll just keep beating them and I won’t get better,” Shikamaru said nonchalantly. He moved another piece.

“They will grow to resent you if you keep acting like that,” Asuma continued. He glanced over at Ino and Choji, who were busy sparring with each other in a nearby field. 

“They’ll be fine. It’s your turn.” Shikamaru said with a small dismissive wave of his hand. Asuma moved his piece. Shikamaru nodded, leaning forward to inspect the board for a moment, before moving a piece of his own.

“Alright, well, you need to spar. Who would be on your level? Could you give me a name?” Asuma asked. He purposefully didn’t move a piece even though he clearly had a plan set on the board. Shikamaru didn’t like to admit it when things bothered him, but taking too long on a turn of Shoji was definitely something that rubbed him the wrong way. Shikamaru shifted in his chair, keeping his eyes on the board.

There was only really one move that the sensei could do. Why wasn’t he doing it? Well, probably to get a response out of him. It wouldn’t work this time. 

Shikamaru glanced up at his sensei, who was looking pensively at the board. As if he was actually thinking about what move to make. 

Just move your piece.

Just move it. 

You know exactly where it’s going.

“I don’t know. Do you want a sensei or another ninja? I’m assuming a fellow ninja because otherwise it would be you or Kakashi at this point.” Shikamaru responded finally, trying to appear calm and collected. Asuma reached to the piece, then pulled his hand back. Shikamaru’s eyebrow twitched. 

“How about…Naruto? He has grown in strength since he left to train with Jiraiya.” Asuma said, a small smile quirking up the corners of his lips. He knew that Naruto Uzamaki and Shikamaru were friends, of course, but they rarely ever sparred. Mostly because Shikamaru got aggravated with the silly mistakes Naruto constantly made in their fights.

“Naruto? His power is far beyond my own currently. It wouldn’t be a fair fight on my end.” Shikamaru said through ground teeth. 

“What about his mental prowess? Would that make the two of you equal in a match?” Asuma said, noticing that Shikamaru was definitely getting more aggravated, despite his best efforts. Shikamaru drummed his fingers on the table.

“Why would I fight him now when there is an unknown number of enemies looking to capture him at any given moment? When I injure him, his ability to fight back the Akastki will drastically decrease. I know I don’t have to tell you where exactly to place your piece, but I may move it for you if you take much longer,” Shikamaru said, staring a hole into the board where his sensei’s piece should be by now. 

“I think I may know a way. Team seven’s leader Kakashi has mentioned their…strange training methods to me before. I think it would be something you would be interested in.” Asuma said before finally moving his piece. Shikamaru relaxed, letting out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding. He moved another piece.

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” Shikamaru asked. His sensei moved another piece. Shikamaru smiled, moving yet another piece across the board. It appeared that his own sensei was falling into his trap.

“They tickle each other,” Asuma responded, moving another piece. 

Shikamaru didn’t even notice. His head jerked up immediately and he stared at his sensei as if he had just been betrayed. Sure, he was smart, but when annoyed like this (by someone he trusted) it was easy to mess up.

Or maybe…he saw this coming all along and wanted a challenge.

~

“Really? He agreed to spar against me?” Naruto asked as he was nudged forward by his old sensei. Kakashi was so excited to see this match, but there was no way that he could spoil the surprise. When Asuma had told him the plan, Kakashi couldn’t contain his laughter. Why Asuma was choosing now to start this match was abundantly clear. Ever since the loss of Sasuke and the knowledge that the Akatski were hunting Naruto down, the whole village felt on edge. With this tickle match between two of the most promising young ninjas in the entire village, spirits were bound to bounce back to the positive. 

“He did. Asuma went to me himself and said so. Now, I don’t want you both to tear up the village, so I recommended that you two spar in our old part of the field.” Kakashi said, patting Naruto on the back. Honestly, he was so proud of his entire team for making it through these rough times.

Well, he was proud of about ⅔ of team seven. Both Naruto and Sakura had come so far in terms of power and skill. They weren’t the same band of bratty kids he had trained all of those years before. But, he was willing to bet that Naruto was still as ticklish as he had been when they first began training. He could still remember those days as if they were yesterday. Naruto had always been the one to fall underneath Sakura and Sasuke’s tickly fingers, though Kakashi started to wonder if that was on purpose. Sure, there had been a couple of times when Sakura had been the victim, but that had been towards the end of their training days together. 

“Shikamaru actually agreed to that? Wow. He must have really changed while I was gone. Usually he thinks sparring is such a drag,” Naruto said. He was practically skipping over to the training fields. Some things just never change. 

“Right, of course, have you spoken to Shikamaru? Before this?” Kakashi asked.

“No? He thinks stuff like this is a real drag. I figured that talking about it may bore him too much.” Naruto said with a small shrug. Kakashi understood that sentiment, but still felt a little bad for the kid. As they reached the top of the hill, he decided that he needed to tell Naruto the rules before the kid accidentally blew up the entire field without thinking.

“Remember how we used to train together in this field?” Kakashi asked, but before he would let the kid’s head spiral through thoughts of their missing teammate, he continued on. “When we used to train without hurting each other?”

Naruto stumbled. 

“Y-yeah. I remember, why?” Naruto asked, not yet piecing these parts together. 

“Because you will be sparing with Shikamaru by the same rules we used to train by. So, whoever calls for their sensei’s help first loses,” Kakashi said, patting Naruto on the back one last time before disappearing into the nearby stands. Naruto could practically feel his soul leaving his body. He turned around and stared at the empty space where Kakashi once stood. He thought, just for a second, of just disappearing just like his sensei did. But no. He was going to be the future Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village, he couldn’t just run and hide. With a nervous smile, Naruto finished his long walk up the hill where Shikamaru was waiting.

“Finally. I was starting to think that all of this waiting was too much of a drag.” Shikamaru sighed heavily. He didn’t even take his hands out of his pockets as Naruto arrived. It did bother him slightly that Shikamaru never really took spars like this seriously. 

“I was just getting fired up! Being the future Hokage is hard work after all!” Naruto said, smiling and taking a couple hops of each foot to get himself ready. 

“If you pass out, I just learned how to revive people, Naruto!” Sakura called down. Everyone seemed to have a spot in the nearby tree branches, almost as if they were sitting in a stadium to watch a brawl. Naruto actually didn’t know how to respond to that. True, he had only ever passed out a couple of times, but that really hadn’t been his fault. If Rock Lee would have just listened to him those few times, he wouldn’t have ended up in the infirmary.

“Are you ready yet? The build ups to these types of things are such a drag. I’d rather just get to winning so I can get back to my game of Shoji.” Shikamaru said, finally taking his hands out of his pockets and wiggling his fingers as he did.

“Alright, you two. Both of you should know the rules by now. No physical harm done to the other and don’t blow up the village,” Kakashi told them, raising his arm up. Naruto shifted, getting ready to pounce at the first available opening. He could do this.

Kakashi’s hand dropped, signalling for the spar to start. Immediately, Shikamaru crouched into position and moved his hands to perform his shadow jutsu. Immediately, Shikamaru’s own shadow began to stretch, getting ready to attack. Naruto immediately jumped back, knowing exactly what his friend had in mind. A few years ago, he may not have had these reflexes, but things have definitely changed.

Several shadow arms shot forward, racing straight towards Naruto. The blonde scampered away, careful not to cross through the shadows of the woods that everyone was watching them in. Naruto flipped, jumped, and twisted around as the shadows rushed towards him. He dodged as the shadow hands reached and clawed for his open sides. 

“Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Naruto yelled, twisting his fingers together in a specific form. Suddenly, about a dozen copies of him were descending upon Shikamaru. 

“Which one is it?”

“Who’s the real one?”

“Looks like I’m gonna win this time!”

“Believe it!” 

Each Naruto copy seemed to have something to say to the kneeling shadow ninja. They bounced around the shadow arms. A few were exposed as the copy as shadow arms shot through them and the copies exploded into smoke. The real Naruto was already behind Shikamaru, flying through the air. This was going to be so easy. The other ninja was still crouched there, unable to see where the real Naruto was. Naruto was so damn proud of himself. Finally, he could say that he beat the so-called smartest ninja in the –

Two shadow hands grabbed his ankles. He was pulled, upside down, in front of Shikamaru’s crouched form. Naruto punched at the air and wriggled helplessly in the grip. The other clones disappeared into several puffs of smoke as Naruto lost his concentration on holding them steady. He hung there by his ankles, his shirt and jacket dangling due to gravity. 

“How’d you know I was the real one?! Do you have eyes on the back of your head?” Naruto asked, absolutely baffled as to how Shikamaru could have somehow seen him. 

“What a drag. Of course you would use your shadow clones to distract me and then attack from behind. “ Shikamaru said with a heavy sigh, but there was a small smile that quirked the sides of his lips as shadowy hands began to crawl up and down Naruto’s torso.

“Wahihihhihit! Wait! I can stihhihihihll get out of thihihhis!” Naruto giggled. He could come up with some kind plan. He just couldn’t get too tickled crazy. 

The hands began to scatter all around his body, tickling and squeezing away at every piece of exposed flesh they could find. Little hands began to squeeze the areas between his ribs, poke at his sides, and scratch at his underarms. The laughter just kept building as Naruto wiggled and squirmed in the grip of Shikamaru’s shadows.

“Get his feet!” Ino called out from her perch. 

“Get his stomach!” Sakura called out as well.

“NOHHOHHOHO NO HELPINHIHIHIHING! AHAHAHA!” Naruto cackled, unable to stop himself. His face was turning a bright shade of red from the tickles, the outside help, and being held upside down. He couldn’t let the hands drift anywhere near his most ticklish spots. 

“I don’t exactly need their help, Naruto. It’s pretty obvious where your weak spots are.” Shikamaru said, letting the tickling shadow hands shift Naruto around so he wasn’t upside down anymore. If the tickles didn’t get him to pass out, the blood rushing to his head would. 

As he was shifting the blond around, Naruto managed to get his hands together and create a small ball of energy just like he had learned to do with his new sensei. The sudden light destroyed the nearby shadow arms. Naruto collapsed onto the ground in a heap, but he bounced immediately back up onto his feet. 

“Shadow Clone Jutsu!” Naruto called out one more time, dozens more clones of him appeared. Before Shikamaru could really understand what was going on, about half a dozen clones descended onto him. He was pushed down onto his back with two Naruto’s holding onto his arms, spreading them apart so he couldn’t go back into his jutsu. Wiggling fingers from two other Naruto’s began to descend onto his torso.

And…nothing happened. Shikamaru stared up at him, a smug look on his face. The real Naruto, expecting laughter, stared back. He paled at the realization. This wasn’t a fair sparing match at all! His sensei just wanted someone to tickle him! 

“His back! His back!” Ino cried out. While she wasn’t a huge fan of Team 7, she had been on the receiving end of those tickly shadow hands one time too many. She knew exactly how to take Shikamaru down a peg or too if he was getting too cocky. 

The Naruto clones easily flipped over Shikamaru so that he was laying on his stomach instead. For a moment, Naruto wondered why it was so easy to flip the ninja over. Two Narutos began to squeeze and poke at Shikamaru’s back, four hands jumping up and down the poor guy’s back. Two hands stayed around his shoulder blades while two others began clawing at his lower back.

Finally, Shikamaru broke. His forehead pressed against the coarse grass and dirt and he began to laugh. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you laugh like this, Shikamaru!”

“That’s such a cute laugh!”

“You should let people tickle you more!”

“On your back? I can’t believe you’re so ticklish here.” 

The Narutos teased as they continued to tickle the shadow ninja. 

“Youhahahahaa aren’t goihihihihng to win that ehihihihiasily.” Shikamaru laughed. Naruto was about to retort when Shikamaru jumped forward, breaking free of the restraints rather easily. (Why did he let himself get flipped over and get tickled?) 

Shikamaru tackled the real Naruto to the ground, tugged his shirt up, and blew just about the biggest raspberry he could right over Naruto’s navel. 

“AHHHHH WAAAA AHAAAA!” Naruto screamed, immediately dissolving into a puddle of laughter and screeches. 

“Do you give up, Naruto?” Shikamaru asked, placing his thumbs over Naruto’s hip bones. Naruto took in a gasp of air to respond, but Shikamaru blew another raspberry instead of letting him answer. Those thumbs also dug into Naruto’s poor hips as well as an extra measure. 

~~~~

“Was that really necessary, Shikamaru?” Sakura asked as she cradled Naruto’s head in her lap. He would come back to consciousness soon, especially since she was helping revive the chakra in his body. 

“I thought he could handle it. What a drag.” Shikamaru huffed. He did feel bad though. He hadn’t meant for Naruto to pass out like that. 

Naruto gasped and sat up with a start. He immediately singled out Shikamaru and pounced on him again.

“I’ll get you! No one does that to the future Hokahahahahahahage!” Naruto exclaimed, but his declaration was short-lived as Shikamaru began tickling Naruto to get him off again. 

“What sort of training do you call this again, Kakashi sensei?” Ino asked, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“I like to think it’s endurance,” Kakashi said with a small shrug.

“You mean…you don’t actually have a reason for this,” Ino said, looking at Kakashi up and down like she was just seeing him for the first time. 

“It’s just fun,” Kakashi said before jumping down to accompany the other two ninjas on his former team. Ino stared at him. She was so thankful right now to be on team 10. Team 7 training didn’t really seem like any sort of regular training.

19/25

 -Ga!babe

[panharmonium]

next round of in-progress naruto thoughts under the cut

[i actually haven’t progressed that far from where i was last time, honestly, but i could feel myself getting to a stage where i had some things i needed to write up.]

fyi, this one is a little more gripe-y than usual - still enjoying myself, but there are some things in the current arc that are bugging me.

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time and have only gotten to the point where naruto and bee break out of the island barrier and leave to join the war.  i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

anyway, to go ahead with my grousing -

there are a couple things about this current arc that have me feeling "ehhh.”

1) too many dead people

i’ve personally always been lukewarm on the “revive/reanimate dead characters for the Confrontation Value” trope, which is probably due to me having been a comics fan for so long (i was pretty deep into DC-land during Blackest Night, and that’s not even the first/last time this sort of thing has been done there, so).  i’m not saying it CAN’T be done in an interesting way, but most of the time my experience with it has been that it’s kind of cheap/redundant storytelling.  it usually doesn’t add much to an emotional arc, for me, and when it retreads an emotional arc that did have a strong conclusion, i feel like all it does is weaken the original story.  

so like - places where i feel like shippuden does this well are with minato and kushina.  i found both of those scenes with naruto to be powerful moments that added something new to the story/to naruto’s development.  (but they’re not even part of the whole reanimation jutsu plotline, which is what i’m mostly feeling “eh” on, so it’s not even the greatest example.)

a place where i’m kind of in the middle is with asuma.  on the one hand, i really don’t think that this needed to happen, because the original story arc with him was SO strong.  however, they did kind of redeem themselves in a way by focusing the redux on choji instead of shikamaru, so at least they were still saying/exploring something something new.

places where i’m still pretty dubious are pretty much...everyone else.  i’m just not sure...well, i don’t know.  i can’t really say definitively how i feel about it until i get to the end of the arc and see how it ends, but at the current moment, i’m just not sure what we get out of seeing people like zabuza+haku, lady chio, itachi, nagato, etc....ALL of those stories had such powerful endings; it just makes me leery of these “resurrections” invalidating everything we saw previously/weakening the impact of what came before.

2) mixed messaging

this is my bigger gripe, and it’s something i’ve kind of had floating on the edges of my mind for a long time, but this season especially is highlighting it.

the one thing that is guaranteed to make me frustrated about this show (besides its obvious disinterest in female characters) is when it starts to lean super hard into the “Naruto Is The Only One Who Can Do It!” for every single task that needs to be completed.  and i know this is a stupid thing to complain about when the show is literally titled “Naruto,” but the reason it gets frustrating is because the initial message of this show was never “one super special person must do everything on their own and save everyone else.”  the original message of this show was teamwork.  

the very first lesson kakashi teaches the kids (and the foundation upon which the rest of the story has been built) is “you are stronger together.”  if you had all come at me together, you might have been able to take [the bells]!  he specifically criticizes naruto for working alone: “naruto - you do EVERYTHING on your own.  EVERYTHING.”  and that’s understood to be the Wrong Thing; it’s the reason naruto ends up tied to the stump.  but in the last few seasons especially (though there have definitely been previous moments where this has shown up before) the ONLY thing we keep hearing is how naruto has to accomplish everything by himself.  

it didn’t bother me in the Pain arc; i actually thought that confrontation was appropriate and necessary for naruto’s development.  but ever since then, it’s escalated to a point where now it’s like - “naruto is the only one who can fight sasuke!  naruto is the only one who can defeat madara!  naruto is the only one who can stop the war!  naruto is the only one who can erase everybody’s hatred!”  

and that’s the point at which i start to get frustrated, because my mind is like “okay, and the other characters are going to be doing...what, exactly?”

again, maybe it’s stupid to complain about that when the show is literally titled “Naruto.”  but i don’t think so.  title notwithstanding, this story at its heart was, in the beginning, an ensemble show with four main characters, whereas nowadays, the messaging is that only one of those characters can actually accomplish anything.  so i get kind of resentful, when i’m told that the other members of the team can’t do anything but step back and hold naruto up, because the essential message of this story has ALWAYS been “teamwork is more important than anything.  you are NEVER stronger by yourself.  we ALL have something to contribute.”

right now, the other characters feel like they’ve just been shunted off to do busywork.  none of them have grown or changed at all since the end of season 10 (and even the end of season 10 was starting to slide into the “only naruto can do anything about sasuke in the end blah blah” - yes it’s a huge pet peeve of mine but it is what it is; whatever; moving on).  we haven’t even SEEN sasuke since the end of season 10.  there’s been no consideration given to how kakashi is handling being drafted into a second war and being put in charge of 20,000 lives (and his clash with zabuza was just a vehicle for all the characters to reflect once again on how great naruto is).  there’s been virtually ZERO attention given to how sakura is handling things, minus that one scene where she’s looking at gory pictures from the previous great ninja war.  everybody is just marking time, punching a bunch of identical white zetsus until naruto can come solve the problem and wow everyone with his new abilities.

part of my annoyance might just be due to the fact that the timeline is so wonky due to filler arcs - it feels like ages have passed for me, but in-universe it really hasn’t been all that long.  but i also think there are legitimate reasons for me to be frustrated, when the show introduces things and then just unceremoniously drops them without any indicator of when they might be picked up again.  like - the uchiha genocide reveal was (i thought) a Huge Fucking Deal that should have Major Repercussions - but it’s just kind of.....disappeared as an issue???  and yamato - he’s been CAPTURED!!!!!!  but the show has not shown a single character reacting to this, or even being informed that it happened, and i think that’s shitty, actually.  yamato isn’t a minor character.  he’s been naruto’s personal guardian since season 2.  he has done SO MUCH for the kids, and he is kakashi’s friend, and i think it is shitty to have him get captured by the same people who experimented on him as a child and then not spend a second or two making it clear that other characters CARE about this.  

anyway.  this is just something that’s been creeping up on me as time goes on, and the last few episodes of “Naruto is the Savior of the Entire World” talk just made it feel more immediate, i guess.  plus the new intro (which i know may not be reliable; sometimes they show things that never happen) had a shot of naruto fighting itachi, and i think that tipped me over the edge, lmao, because you know what?  enough!!!!!  naruto can’t be the one who gets to do EVERYTHING!  some stories are not about him!  there are other characters who have relationships that are not about naruto.  there are places where other characters should be able to accomplish things naruto can’t do.  the other main characters should be allowed to complete their personal arcs, separate from (not just secondary to) naruto’s journey.

like - just - this is how i feel: this show started out as a story about a group of four people, and the root theme was “teamwork is everything.”  i don’t like how the show has slowly started to mutate into a story about naruto’s “solitary” quest to save sasuke, when we have seen MANY TIMES that: 

a) sakura was the first of the kids who even knew that something was wrong with sasuke, while naruto remained utterly oblivious all the way through shonen jump (and partway into shippuden, tbh)

b) kakashi in the past has connected with sasuke in ways that NEITHER of the two kids have been able to achieve

i just don’t like it.  i don’t like how S10 had sakura say the line “naruto...you were the first one to ever see the darkness in sasuke...” when she’s reflecting on their fight on top of the hospital, because that is a LIE.  it’s a blatant retcon.  of the kids, sakura was the one who knew from the very beginning that something was wrong with sasuke.  she was the one who was with him when he had that semi-dissociative episode during the bells test.  she was the one who was with him during all the curse mark stuff in the forest of death.  she was the one who knew something was off when he challenged naruto to a fight - naruto was just psyched that sasuke wanted to “spar” with him!  and SHE was the one who suspected that sasuke might do something as drastic as leave the village - naruto explicitly told her not to worry; that sasuke was totally fine; he would never ever do something like that!

like - the show already barely gives sakura anything for herself; now they try to take this away from her, too?  and give it to naruto?  to hammer in a kind of connection between naruto and sasuke that demonstrably did not exist??  (i’m not saying that naruto and sasuke don’t have their own important relationship!  but it is just provably untrue that naruto was the person who understood sasuke best.  shonen jump goes out of its way to demonstrate how clueless naruto is about what sasuke is really like and what he’s going through.  naruto is SHOCKED that sasuke would go to orochimaru.  he doesn’t realize that their fight on top of the hospital is anything more than their usual rivalry business.  when sasuke pops out of the coffin behind kimimaro, naruto waves and starts laughing, because he thinks sasuke is still on their side and is going to run right home!  and even in shippuden, when naruto hears that orochimaru is dead, he gets all excited and goes “so sasuke must be on his way back to the leaf village!!! :D”  like.  he just doesn’t get it.)

and i won’t really get into kakashi’s side of things here, because i would end up writing too much, but suffice to say that i am just...wary of the way it feels like recent parts of the show are trying to minimize or...push aside the real, textually-documented connections that kakashi and sakura had with sasuke in favor of “Only Naruto Can Help!”  it frustrates me.  kakashi made inroads with sasuke that neither of the kids ever achieved.  sasuke talks to kakashi in a more honest way than he ever does with either of his peers, even when he’s out of his head with rage.  and i would prefer to see this show taking the angle that all three of sasuke’s team members are going to be indispensable for saving him.  

you know.  like teamwork.

[charkyzombicorn]

Okay I have a question for whoever reads this which will probably be 2 people but idc

If you had to choose

Would you prefer a fanfic about naruto being a sensei to Minato's genin+Sasuke with sasuke resenting Obito because he was teaching obito with shuriken when the clan was slaughtered, sakura has Rin's usefulness and a possible of both kakanaru and obinaru involved and maybe kakaobinaru

Or

Au where Minato lived, the kyuubi didnt attack but was still sealed into naruto by choice because kurama sees him as the chosen one and Minato ends up being negligent because he's super depressed but ends up stepping down as hokage so he can have a simpler life of training genin. Theres Kakashi, rin and obito but naruto graduates early and is put into the team because the council being the slimy bastards they are, only trust naruto with minato. Again possible obinaru, kakanaru, kakaobinaru

I'm multi shipping trash and I've started writing both fics but idk which to pursue.

[justabrazilianwriter]

The Request (SHIKATEMAWEEK 2020 - DAY 2)

It is past midnight here in my country (it’s past 2 AM, actually), so technically it is the second day of ShikatemaWeek. My contribution to the best Naruto couple is this little fic that has been hanging around my mind for months and that I only now saw an opportunity to put on paper. It is also published in Ao3. It is my first Shikatema fic, so I hope you enjoy it! 

DAY 2: Marriage  

SUMMARY: Shikamaru wants to propose to Temari, but his fears prevent him. A conversation with Gaara changes his perspective.

 (2338 WORDS)

English is not my first language, so I translated this story through the google translator. If you find any grammatical or concordance errors, please let me know!

There was something extraordinary about watching Temari at Suna's sunset.

Shikamaru was always taken by this thought whenever he ended up being honored by fate, that allowed him to visit and see her in that position.

Temari was in the distance, on one of the hills in the landscape, with the wind on her face and the color of the sky mixing with the tone of her golden hair. Her arms and hips were supported by her huge fan and she had her head tilted slightly to the side.

She shone like gold, with her feet buried in the sand and her eyes fixed on the horizon. She seemed to have been made by and to that place. She looked like she was home.

And that thought, as extraordinary as it was, brought him enormous pain in his chest.

Because seeing her there, so at home, so comfortable, so in love, made his wishes seem even more selfish. His dreams for the future seemed silly and unreachable. The small box he had carried in his pocket for weeks seemed to weigh five hundred tons.

How could he ask her to leave that place? Leave her land, her people, her place in this world, because of him?

Shikamaru thought, when the idea of marrying her seemed more important than breathing, that maybe he should be the one moving. Why should it be Temari? He could go to Suna. He could move to her house, become part of her people.

But his village was gradually rebuilding after the war and his work was one of the most important of all. Kakashi told him whenever he could that without Shikamaru, it would all fall apart. And his father died. Shikaku died in the war and Shikamaru was now responsible for the Nara Clan.

And there was also his mother. She was a widow now. Shikamaru was all she had. How could he leave her? How could he get married and move on a three-day trip away, probably only being able to visit her every several months?

Shikamaru could not move from his village. But then, how he could ask Temari to do it? She had her brothers. Her job. Her people.

He was a strategist, he was the man who always had a plan and could see all the different results that his actions could cause. But, with fear growing in his chest like a poisonous plant, all that Shikamaru was able to think of were two results:

She would say no. And they would be unable to move on, their relationship would end and he would lose the woman of his life, the love of his life, his partner and best friend, forever.

Or she would say yes. But there would always be a resentment lingering between them, a pain he caused by asking her to leave everything behind. And time will pass and Temari would never forgive him and their marriage would end and he would end up alone and depressed, without her and and and...

Shikamaru's shoulders fell. A resigned sigh came from his lips. These thoughts have been prowling his mind every day for weeks. For the first time in a long time he was completely lost. There was no plan.

"The view is beautiful, isn't it?".

The voice behind him startled him. Shikamaru jumped slightly, turning quickly and facing very light eyes and a familiar face.

"Oh, Lord Kazekage" he sighed placing his hand on his chest. "You scared me".

"Sorry," replied him, giving Shikmaru an almost invisible smile. “You seem distracted. Mind if I sit down? ”

Shikamaru shook his head and indicated the empty spot beside him, on the bench he was sitting on. Gaara sat down and they both turned to Temari, who was still standing in the distance.

"She always comes here to watch the sunset," said Gaara in a soft voice. Shikamaru looked at him curiously. "I always saw her coming here every evening, since we were kids. I think that's where she likes to think”.

Shikamaru nodded, not knowing what to say. Gaara was always a distant figure for him, even though he had been dating Temari for many months. He was kind and polite, but shy and didn't speak much. Sometimes Shikamaru wondered if he was in favor of their relationship or if he thought he was worthy of his sister.

"You know, when Temari told us that you and her were starting to date, I didn't know what to think about" murmured Gaara as if he could read his thoughts. "But I know that you and Naruto are close and he always speaks very good things about you, so I trusted my sister's critical sense."

Gaara looked at Temari on the horizon. The expression on his face was calm and gentle, as was his tone.

"Time has proved to me that you are good for her" he continued and Shikamaru's heart raced in his chest. “I see her smile whenever a letter arrives or when you call. She always seems lighter every time she comes back from Leaf or whenever there is a chance for her to visit you”.

A warm smile appeared on Shikamaru's lips and he looked back at Temari again. He loved her so hard that he sometimes felt like his heart would explode in his chest.

"And I see your smile too."

Shikamaru looked at Gaara with slightly wide eyes. He gave him a small, rare smile.

“I see how you smile at her whenever you talk and how you look at her whenever she passes. It is visible to anyone how much you love her”.

They were silent for a few seconds. Until:

"That's why I wonder why you haven't asked her yet."

If it were possible, Shikamaru would have swallowed his own tongue at that moment.

"What?" he exclaimed, feeling his cheeks burn. Gaara almost seemed to want to laugh.

“Every time I see you watching her, it's like if Temari had invented oxygen. And every time I see you leave, it's like if your heart is being left with her. So it's confusing to me. I am not a person who has much experience with love, so there are many things that I don't understand. This is one of them. If you love her and it hurts not to be with her, why don't you propose? ”.

It seemed like a genuinely curious question. Shikamaru found himself speechless for a few seconds, with his mouth open like a fish out of water, trying to make his own thoughts make sense.

"It's not that I don't want to," he said softly, moving his hand instinctively to the pocket where the box with the ring rested. Gaara's eyes followed his movement. "I want to. More than anything I ever wanted ”.

And it is the truth. Shikamaru wants everything with her. He wants to see her every morning when they wake up, with her hair spread across the pillows and her bare shoulders against the sheets. He wants to hear her humming around the house, talking to his mother in the kitchen, laughing with Ino in the gardens. He wants to hear her footsteps through the halls, her voice every day, her laughter at every moment. He wants to be able to kiss her in the comfort of his home, in the comfort of their home, and see her cheeks redden. He wants to feel her skin on his fingers. He wants to hear her sighs echo in his ears. He wants to have children with her, if Temari so wishes. Small children with black hair and green eyes or blond hair and black eyes or simply blond hair and green eyes. If he can see her there, in that new life, her smile, her look, her attitude, then it is worthwhile that the future of the Nara clan does not look anything like its ancestors. 

He wants everything.

"So what stops you?".

Shikamaru understood at that moment why Gaara was a great Kazekage. He seemed to have captured him in a fog that melted Shikamaru's brain and made him suddenly want to open his heart and tell him everything he was feeling. No one could deny anything to those eyes.

"I'm scared," he admitted, so quietly that he barely heard himself. "Her answer scares me".

"Do you think she'll say no?" asked Gaara with a frown. He almost seemed to find the idea absurd.

"I don't know" replied Shikamaru looking at his hands. He needed a cigarette. “I just don't want to put her in an uncomfortable situation. I thought about it a lot and I can't leave my village. They need me more than anything right now. So asking her to marry me is asking Temari to leave her home. And I know that you and this land are all that she loves most. I'm afraid she'll say no. I'm afraid she will say yes and regret it later”.

Gaara was silent for a moment, his eyes on his sister. Shikamaru's hands were sweating. He would never expect, even in a million years, to have this conversation with Gaara. The last time he heard him say so many words was when he threatened to kill Lee when everyone was twelve.

Shikamaru knew that Gaara had changed. He might not be outgoing like Kankuro or incisive like Temari, but Shikamaru could see his personality change in his eyes and his light, rare smiles. It didn't make that situation any less strange and uncomfortable, but he decided to keep talking. He wanted Gaara to like him and he was completely lost, after all. Shikamaru was so desperate that even Naruto's help would be welcome.

"It is true that Temari loves this place," muttered Gaara. “And that she would miss the sand, the heat and us. But is also true that no one forces her to do something that she does not want to".

Shikamaru did not answer, being able to just stare at him in silence.

"I don't know if you know, but Temari was against the invasion of your village in our chunnin exams." Shikamaru looked at him, jaw slightly dropped. Gaara laughed lightly. “She was the only one to question those actions. She was only sixteen, but she confronted our sensei and said that it was not a good idea. And do you know what that proves? ”.

He looked at Shikamaru and smiled. It was the first time that he saw Gaara's smile so big.

“It means that Temari is intelligent and wise, but that she acts with her heart. If she thinks something is wrong, she speaks. If she is against anything, she acts. And if she wants to marry you, she will. It will not be a few thousand kilometers away that will prevent her from doing it”.

Shikamaru smiled, turning to Temari in the distance, looking at her with all the affection he possessed.

"Your sister is as uncontrollable as the wind," he said. Gaara laughed through his nose, affectionately.

"She is. And I think you should keep that in mind. If Temari wants to marry you, nothing will stop her. You will not force her into anything. I mean, Suna's sages try to convince her to accept arranged marriages since she is eighteen and they cannot. It will not be you who will force her to do anything ”.

Shikamaru laughed, feeling his eyes sting. Gaara's words entered his heart and were able to ease the tension in his shoulders.

"She doesn't know that I'm having this conversation with you, but if you want a sincere opinion from her brother, know that I don't believe she would say no to you" he says and Shikamaru feels such overwhelming relief going through his body that it almost burst into tears. “I think what I'm trying to say is that I understand your fear, but I believe it is preventing you from seeing her side. If you make her happy, I don't see Temari repenting in the future, for the simple fact that she didn't make that decision unless it is what she really wants ”.

His eyes burned. If that conversation didn't end he would cry in relief right in front of Temari's brother and she, if she found out, would never let him forget that.

"But what about you and Kankuro?" he asked softly. "Won't that be difficult for you too?"

Gaara looked at the end of the sunset and at Temari for long minutes.

"I got used to loving people from afar," he murmured quietly, his eyes still fixed on his sister. "I will be fine".

Shikamaru swallowed a bowling ball in his throat. And after a few seconds:

"Kankuro, on the other hand...".

Shikamaru groaned sadly. Gaara laughed.

"Oh Lord, he will kill me" he cried.

"Kankuro likes you," said Gaara. “He will be happy. It will just be more difficult for him. He and Temari always had each other ”.

Finally, he chuckled.

“Besides, you can always have a child and call him Kankuro Junior. It will make him forgive you” he joked and the fact that it was Gaara, there, making jokes, made a laugh pass through Shikamaru's lips.

The sunset ended and Temari turned to where they were. Shikamaru saw her beautiful eyes widen in surprise and she raised her hand, waving. He waved back and Gaara stood up.

With a last smile, he murmured as he watched Temari walk towards them.

“Remember, this is not an individual thing. It is not your decision. You are a team. A very smart team to be honest. Talk to her. You will find out what to do ”.

Then he was gone, quiet as always. And when Temari arrived with her beautiful smile lighting her lips, Shikamaru smiled back and felt that the small box in his pocket didn't seem to weigh that much.

[cheshiresense]

More on the Hadrian and Orion in Narutoverse AU please!!!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I don’t actually have that many more ideas for this AU, none that really focuses on the two of them anyway. Like, they found each other again and it was a done deal so there’s not really anything to add to that. But let’s see…

Edit: Ugh I give up, I ran out of inspiration for this one, I just didn’t know what else to write for it, sorry.

1. Ok so first off, Minato makes Hokage and stays that way and nothing terrible happens because I say so, and because I have no patience for the disaster that was the Naruto plotline, and also because lbr no way is Hadrian letting anybody muck shit up in his new home, he’s already lost one village, he isn’t going to let Orion lose his too, plus Danzo is dead which automatically solves like eighty percent of all problems and the world is just a hundred times better without him in it.

Kushina makes it Very Clear that their child will be placed under an Uzushio shinobi. Like, it’s part of their vows. She refuses to marry Minato unless he swears it (for a love match, it also couldn’t be more perfect politically, satisfying clans and elders alike by tying the two villages together, tying an Uzushio Jinchuuriki to Konoha, a union of talent and royalty, right before the Hokage Apparent ascends to the throne). Relations between Konoha and what’s left of Uzushio is a lot better than they were after Uzu was destroyed, but there’s still some tension, some mistrust, some resentment, and it’s not like anyone other than an Uzushio-nin can teach seals properly. It doesn’t help that some Konoha-nin still turn their noses up at Kushina and her people because they’re foreign, and others sneer at her because she’s a Jinchuuriki. She refuses to let someone like that teach her child.

Minato agrees of course, and ten years later, Naruto graduates near the top of his class, bright and cheerful and so very loved. He’s the son of the Hokage but also one of the first children born to the Uzumaki Clan after they’d finally finished picking up the pieces of their lives, and he has Minato’s colouring but Kushina’s determination and creativity and vindictive sense of humour.

In this world too, Naruto gets Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura as his teammates, but he’s known Sasuke since forever - his mom and Sasuke’s mom are best friends, one of his dad’s closest advisors is Sasuke’s dad, and his uncle (technically a cousin) is married to Sasuke’s uncle, so their families are a lot closer than most other clans in their villages. It was a shock to everyone, for the Uchihas of all people to have a close relationship with the Uzumakis, but their bond has stayed strong over the years despite many people’s doubts, and as a result, Naruto and Sasuke have been attached at the hip practically since birth.

As for Sakura, she seems like a nice girl too, a quieter counterpart to her best friend Ino, and they both know she’s upset at not being on the same team as the blonde, but she also beat both their academic scores and she doesn’t fall over herself trying to suck up to either Naruto or Sasuke, so they decide very quickly that they’ve lucked out with their third.

Naruto isn’t at all surprised when their sensei arrives. His mom’s been hinting at Uncle Hadrian for weeks because she is not subtle, and Naruto is absolutely thrilled because Uncle Hadrian is an S-rank Jounin with a flee-on-sight order and one of the strongest shinobi Naruto knows (Uncle Orion is almost as good, and he supposes his dad is okay too). He’s good at everything, better at seals than even Naruto’s mom, and his idea of babysitting is always an adventure - pranking someone mean and framing Kakashi-nii for it, setting up scavanger hunts in the village with a cool prize at the end, and taking him out for ice-cream or extra ramen that Naruto has solemnly sworn to keep secret from his parents. Hadrian is the best, and Naruto just wants to be him, him and Kaa-chan because Uzumaki really are the best, and his mom and uncle are the best of the best. And because he’s a good friend, he tells Sasuke beforehand about who’ll be teaching them and even tells Sakura the day of, so none of them are anything but excited when Hadrian sweeps into the classroom.

Uncle Hadrian just smiles at them, amused, and motions for them to follow. “Come along then, my new minions. Let’s see what chaos we can inflict on the world together.”

If Naruto had looked back, he would’ve seen the utterly horrified expression painted across the other Jounin senseis’ faces.

2. Team Seven gets a two-for-one deal. Orion outright rejects all offers of sticking him into the sensei rotation. The three times Minato tries, Orion fails every team and sends the kids back to the Academy within the hour.

It’s not as if he doesn’t like kids. They’re fine. But he doesn’t want to be solely responsible for them, especially in a world that’s literally out to kill them, and he’s no good with them for extended periods of time anyway.

He doesn’t mind helping Hadrian with his team though, and Fugaku definitely approves of having his brother help keep an eye on his youngest son. So the day after he returns from a courier mission, he tracks down Hadrian in one of the training fields and possibly enjoys it more than he should when he appears in a rush of Shunshin and makes all three kiddies jump or shriek.

Hadrian rolls his eyes at him but also reels him in for a welcome home kiss. “No complications?”

Orion snorts. “Of course not. It was barely B-rank.”

They turn back to the genin. Sasuke is rolling his eyes, more than used to their mostly subtle but easy displays of affection, and Naruto grins and gives Orion a wave because he’s as good as an uncle to the brat as well. The pink one though has her hands clapped over her mouth and is peering at them with big green eyes, like she’s never seen two men kiss. Then again, Orion’s already read the files on them, and she’s from a civilian family. They can be as weird as muggles about this sort of thing. Orion hadn’t cared in his last life, and he isn’t about to start now. At least she only looks surprised and not disgusted.

“This is Orion,” Hadrian tells his new students, for Sakura’s benefit. “My husband, and Sasuke’s uncle. He doesn’t have a team of his own, so when he isn’t busy, he’ll be joining us for training and missions. You’ll be seeing him a lot, and if for whatever reason I can’t meet up with you that day, I’ll probably send him in my place. Understand?”

He gets affirmatives from everyone and an “Awesome, dattebayo, we get two senseis!” from Naruto. Orion rolls his eyes and then smirks. “Twice the number of teachers, twice the amount of training.” He’s gratified when both boys pale a few shades, and Sakura - clever girl - takes her cue from them and has the beginnings of alarm creeping into her expression. He glances at Hadrian. “What’s on the menu for today?”

After they’ve sent Team Seven off for ten laps around the village (to start with of course, the day is still young), Hadrian remarks, “You’re a terrible person, and I never know what Minato is thinking every time he tries to shove a team on you.”

Orion’s smirk only widens.

3. Shortly after they get married, Hadrian and Orion move into a house in a quiet(er) part of Uzushio territory. They like their privacy, and they’re both quiet people by nature. Orion in particular only has so much tolerance for the Uzushio’s collective rambunctiousness and explosive personalities. They still get regular visitors, but at least they also get time to themselves without needing to escape into the surrounding woods.

A decade down the road, and they suddenly have three more children underfoot than either of them ever planned. then again, Naruto was around at least five times a week practically since he was born, and Sasuke had been allowed to drop by for almost as long, accompanied by his parents or Itachi.

Sakura is the last addition to their household, timidly shuffling in one evening when she’d let slip that her parents - merchants - were out of the village and wouldn’t be back for at least another three weeks.

Hadrian had always been a bit of a bleeding heart for strays, and this one is already his, so Orion hadn’t been at all surprised when - after treating everyone to dinner at Ichiraku’s - they ended up escorting all three kids back to Uzushio. Orion sends one of his wolf summons to the Uchiha compound to inform Fugaku that Sasuke would be staying over, and Naruto whirlwinds into the main house to hug his mom before sprinting back out and shouting back that he’d be staying with his uncles that night. Sakura smiles more as the night goes on and she finds herself ushered into a spare bedroom beside the boys’. She chatters more once she got to know her teammates better, and she’s more than a little awed by how much larger the house is on the inside compared to the outside.

“Seals can do all sorts of things, and my style is more versatile than most,” Hadrian tells her, and her eyes light up in a way Orion hadn’t seen in anyone but Hadrian himself.

“Can you teach me?” Sakura asks, flushing at her own gall. “Or- Or is it a clan secret?”

But Hadrian only smiles and promises to pull some reading material for her tomorrow.

“Orion knows some but he prefers kenjutsu,” Hadrian says, and Orion grunts. He likes offing his targets quickly and efficiently with sharp pointy things, so sue him. “Sasuke isn’t interested, and Naruto is but he has his mother to teach him. I’m glad I might have a student of my own if your interest lasts.”

Judging by the way Sakura begs Hadrian for a beginners’ book on sealing right then and there, and then spends the rest of the night - until Hadrian shoos them off to bed - curled up on the sofa in one of Naruto’s spare duck pajamas with her nose between its pages, she won’t be losing interest anytime soon.

Sakura becomes a regular fixture in their lives and in their house. Orion thinks she probably hasn’t realized it yet, but after a month of crashing at their place, the guards don’t even check her at the gates anymore whenever she swings by, even when she’s on her own.

4. Minato has the ANBU for the extra dangerous missions. But he has Hadrian and Orion for the ones that guarantee almost zero chances of survival. In the aftermath of the attempted kidnapping of one Hyuuga Hinata and the subsequent demand for reparations after Hiashi kills the kidnapper, who also happens to be the head ninja of the party sent to sign a peace treaty with Konoha, Minato refuses to hand one of his own over, A sends bolder and bolder threats of war, tensions between Konoha and Kumo haven’t been this high since the Third Great Shinobi War, and the eyes of the rest of the world are focused on them as they too count their numbers and stock up on weapons and supplies.

Three weeks in, after countless failed attempts at diplomatic talks and fairer compromises, Minato summons Hadrian and Orion to his office.

“I do not want war,” He says, features grim and somber, a far cry from his usual easygoing smiles and laidback nature. “It has barely been half a decade since the last one ended. But we are not in the wrong, and I refuse to bow to Kumo’s whims. If I cede ground now, the Hyuuga will never trust me again, and it will make Konoha look weak, not to mention it sets a precedence for Kumo and even other villages to try and pull something like this again. I won’t have it.”

Hadrian hums thoughtfully from where he’s sipping tea in one of the guest chairs. Orion is lounging against the far wall, eyes narrowed, features cold.

“So you want us to go and send a message,” Hadrian surmises. “But quietly.”

“Make sure A knows who it is,” Minato agrees, and nobody who’s seen the ice in his eyes when he’s like this would doubt his capability as Hokage. “But otherwise ensure that it can’t be traced back to us. I’ll deny everything on the public front. The rest, I’ll leave to your discretion.” He smiles thinly. “Let’s see how long it takes to make the Raikage bow.”

It takes six weeks. Six weeks of a plague that sweeps through half the towns along Lightning’s border at a terrifying speed, leaving civilians and border patrols alike puking their guts up for days. Nobody dies, but it’s a miserable, panic-stricken month for all involved when all they can do is ride it out, no cure to be found.

The Raikage does not bow.

Overnight, the guards stationed at various watchtowers all across Lightning fall prey to some invisible enemy, and all are found comatose or on death’s doorstep in the morning. Half of them die within the week, and all attempts at replacing the guards are met with the same result. A chunk of Kumo’s military is crippled in seven days.

The Raikage does not bow.

People within Kumogakure begin to die. No civilians or Genin, and the school and hospital are never hit, but Chuunin and Jounin are all free game, some in their homes, others on the streets or training grounds, and their T&I building blows up one day along with every ninja inside it who hadn’t gone out for lunch. The coup de grâce is the Raikage going in for work and finding a lock of Yugito’s blonde hair, his brother’s sunglasses, and his own vambraces - the ones he’d been looking for since he woke up this morning and found them missing from his bedroom - laid out neatly on his desk. A familiar leaf symbol glows on the wall behind it just long enough for A to get a good eyeful, and then it erases itself as if it were never there, leaving the Raikage bellowing his rage and fear.

The message is clear: no one in your village is safe, not your civilians, not your shinobi, not your Jinchuuriki, not even you. The next move is yours. Choose wisely.

The Raikage bows.

“Good job,” Minato says in way of greeting once Hadrian and Orion are home again, none the worse for wear. “A sends his apologies and has even agreed to a few import and trade concessions.”

“Ooh, make him send over some people from Cloud Confectioneries,” Hadrian pipes up. “Their cakes are divine, and you can’t get them anywhere else.”

Orion rolls his eyes, nods at Minato, and then grabs his husband and Shunshins them home. It’s been a long five weeks and he wants nothing more than to sink into a hot bath with Hadrian.

5. Literally everyone knows Hadrian and Orion are a couple. They’re not particularly over-the-top in their displays of love the way Minato and Kushina can sometimes be, but their marriage was the first one between a Konoha citizen and an Uzushio citizen since Uzushio’s destruction. And it was hard to miss when the two of them went out for meals, side by side, never flaunting what they had but quietly content in each other’s company in that way older people are after spending decades together and still being perfectly in love. Orion was a second son too, with no expectations (at least not too many) for producing children, so as far as a lot of clan elders were concerned, he’d definitely married well by tying another much-needed sealmaster to Konoha, one who actually stayed in the village (or close enough) and had a repertoire of skills that outstripped even Jiraiya’s.

(Orion scoffed when he’d first heard that going around and didn’t bother telling them that if Hadrian up and decided to become a missing-nin tomorrow, he’d be packed and gone with him by morning, no questions asked.)

Over time, some people do wonder - it isn’t normal for two people to fall together so easily, so quickly, comfortable around each other the way only those who’ve known one another their whole lives should be. There’s a level of instinct there that takes time and life to create, and yet Hadrian and Orion had that, from the moment they met. So people do wonder, even if they don’t ask, mostly because what kind of question would one ask anyway?

Still, sometimes, especially in the early days, Kushina sits and watches her cousin and his new husband move around the kitchen as they cook dinner like one soul in two bodies, gracefully in tune together in a way that goes beyond their shinobi training. it’s a dance, and a beautiful one, and she secretly hopes that one day, she’ll be able to have that with Minato.

(Almost twenty years later, Sakura will do the same, more at home in her senseis’ house than her parents’, watching Hadrian laugh at a deadpan joke Orion cracks, or watching Orion let Hadrian reel him onto the makeshift dance floor of their living room when Naruto brings home his latest record of whatever ridiculous tunes he’d found on a mission and insists on inflicting it on them. She’ll watch them and think of Ino and the way they’d been circling each other for months (years, really) and wonder if they might achieve something like this one day.)

Kushina will always remember their wedding vows - “-in this life and the next, and in every life we’ll ever share-” - and it wasn’t particularly profound or intimate, but there had been a weight in them that carried some hidden meaning known only to them, and it had struck a chord in her, especially when she sees them together and once again considers the niggling suspicion at the back of her mind that whispers reincarnation.

The next date she goes on, Minato comes to pick her up, another clumsy bouquet in hand like the ridiculous romantic he is, this time of salvia and mallow and lavender. She sighs and accepts them and doesn’t tell the moron that not all girls are automatically born knowing flower language or even pay much attention to the classes back in the Academy. But she’d bought a book on it after their first date, threatened Inoichi into silence because she knew exactly who Minato was taking flower advice from, and she doesn’t say a word about the album of pressed flowers she’d started ever since Minato started giving them to her.

Hadrian finds out, because of course he does (because Kushina had failed miserably at pressing flowers even with an instruction manual, and Hadrian was the only person she knew who could teach her and wouldn’t laugh at her first, especially when she confesses how she might’ve felt just a little bit guilty for not understanding what Minato was saying with the flowers every time). Hadrian hadn’t laughed, but he’d smiled and told her of the bouquets Orion had given him when they were still courting (that’s another tick in the reincarnation category because Kushina had never once seen either of them give flowers to each other), and how Hadrian had had no idea what they meant either when he’d first received them.

“And I think flowers can just be flowers sometimes,” Hadrian says as they work on Minato’s latest slightly ragged-looking roses. They look like he’d accidentally let an Inuzuka dog chew on the stems. “They smell nice and they look nice, and Minato took the time to get them for you, and you like them. Sometimes, I think that’s enough.”

And if Hadrian can say that and Orion still looks at him like he’s everything he needs in the world, then Kushina thinks he probably knows what he’s talking about. Hadrian usually does.

(Later, on their wedding anniversary, Kushina grins when she spots Hadrian exiting Yamanaka’s Flower Shop with a bouquet of his own, and she makes sure she has a good view of him presenting it to Orion at their favourite restaurant.

The way Orion’s expression goes soft and warm, wrapped in something like wonder - Kushina immortalizes it on camera and makes a mental note to give a copy to Hadrian later.)

[ambivalens999]

Hello ! I'm glad we can interact here. Someone reccomended me Masks last week and since then I ate it up. I have a few questions . What did Kakashi think when he found out who Saori/Sakura was? Was he surprised ? Regarding Sasuke's and Itachi relationship ,does it improve? From what I understood it's not bad ,but the communication between them seems lacking? When you write ,what are your goals? I think your caracters are writen beautifuly and I like how I can relate with them . Thank you!

Hello hello! Sorry for the delay in response, but hopefully these answers are mostly satisfying lol <3

1.  He’s taken by surprise, yes, in the sense that he had not in the least suspected Saori = Sakura. If I had to point to the dominant emotion he feels in the aftermath, though, I would say it’s anger--he spends very little time on denial / shock, if at all. And there are numerous factors that contribute to that anger. It isn’t only that Sakura has ostensibly “betrayed” Konoha. It isn’t only that it’s some sort of blow to his pride that he was successfully duped / fooled by someone he thought inept (although that’s a part of it). In my mind, the betrayal feels all the more perverse to him because it is personal--and I feel that to point just to the fact that they slept together as the cause of this would be too simplistic. More generally, Sakura’s relative lack of fear (as compared to nearly every other ANBU’s healthy caution of him) and her aggressive resentment (lol) enable her as Saori to push past the front Kakashi puts up, allowing her consequently (often unintentionally) to witness poignant intstances of vulnerability others do not...a handful of instances, but even that small amount is more than nearly anyone else has seen. These moments--her witnessing them and atypical reactions to them--undeniably have an impact on Kakashi too, though not really consciously observed or recognized until this moment of betrayal. Ironically, it’s as Sakura seems to betray him and Konoha that Kakashi realizes that he had unwittingly come to trust Saori/Sakura more than the average teammate, certainly more than whatever negligible value he typically assigns someone he has slept with--and, as you can observe, this sort of sends him off the deep end lmao.

2. Sasuke and Itachi’s relationship does improve <3 I’m not going to say much more than that though because I am vaguely planning to write a short piece for them as part of the vignette-style sequel :)

3. What are my goals when I write? Damn. That’s a big question. Hmm. For this fic in particular, I was very driven by the idea of writing a Sakura who is jaded, gritty, kind of an asshole, and just...seriously struggling with things far weightier than she had dealt with in canon. I was also generally sick of reading very nice and palatable, sweet-girl (or sassy-but-not-really-threatening) takes on her. There’s nothing inherently wrong with those depictions, just...well, they’re not interesting or particularly exciting examples of female characters (to me) and already dominate so many of the narratives we see. Tbh, now that I think about it, my fic’s Sakura is kind of like a too-ambitious Naruto verse answer to Jessica Jones? Lol. But yeah. I don’t necessarily believe that you have to write with a conscious agenda (social, political, or otherwise), but I do think I ended up taking on quite a few in the course of this fic, not limited to: a non-male character achieving a kind of success that our society would typically associate with masculinity, a non-male main character exploring their sexuality before “settling” down, and sex generally being treated as this fluid thing that doesn’t need to be assigned so much importance. At the same time, I did also want to address a lot of topics that I felt canon probably had to sugar-coat to some extent: the inevitable trauma resulting from a livelihood embedded in so much violence--non-sexual and sexual, perpetrated and received, justified and unjustified (depending on competing moral systems). Sakura’s characterization was definitely influenced by this; Sai’s/Sasuke’s as well--and ofc I would be remiss if I didn’t also say that this is the driving force behind this fic’s Kakashi’s not-so-subtle differences from canon Kakashi.

Yikes! Those were some paragraph answers haha. But hopefully not too confusing--I hope I answered what you were looking for! Def feel free to drop any follow up qs / ask me to clarify anything :)

P.S. forgive me my typos lol 🙏

[ladykissingfish]

Akatsuki story scenario 1 part 2

(Continued) into the habit of wearing masks, a-la phantom of the opera. everybody at school is used to him and therefore sees the masks as normal. sometimes a substitute teacher will demand he ‘take that off in my classroom; it’s not Halloween’, but is quickly corrected by Obito’s fellow classmates. Obito was taken in by an older uncle, Madara, who’s an army veteran and suffers from PTSD. he often rambles about ‘one day we’re going to take over this whole world’, but Obito habitually tunes out his ravings. Obito’s best friend is a boy named Kakashi, who ALSO lost his parents: his mother died when he was born, and his father committed suicide. Obito constantly tries to convince Kakashi to come with him to the group therapy, but Kakashi always turns him down, insisting that he’s fine he can handle/cope with things on his own. although Kakashi is his best friend, Obito can’t help but resent him a little. there’s a girl that Obito’s had a crush on for years, since preschool in fact, named Rin. Rin is his friend but it’s clear she ONLY thinks of him as a friend. it’s also clear that she thinks of Kakashi as much more than that, and although Kakashi doesn’t seem to reciprocate those feelings, Obito can’t help but feel jealousy over that. He often thinks that if he wasn’t ‘so damn hideous’ under the mask, Rin would return his feelings. Deidara: Deidara lost his parents in a freak accident: one night there was a gas leak in their house, nobody smelled it in time, his father lit a cigarette and set off a massive explosion and fire. Deidara was thrown through his window by the blast (resulting in severe lacerations of his arms, which had to be all but stitched back together) but his mom and dad didn’t make it. since then, he’s become somewhat obsessed with the idea of explosions, and he learns to craft low-grade ‘bombs’ (disguised as clay sculptures) as a hobby. for Deidara, experimenting with different explosives is his way of having some means of control, as well as expressing himself in a creative, artistic outlet. Deidara lives with his much-older sister and her family, but he doesn’t really feel like he fits in with them, and therefore keeps to himself most of the time. Deidara has inherited his mother’s feminine looks, and he’s somewhat sensitive about it, as almost everyone he meets thinks he’s a girl at first. he’s in the art room a lot, sculpting, which is where he meets Sasori who goes there to paint his puppets. Deidara has a very loud personality and Sasori is very quiet and reserved, so the two don’t get along so well at first. but the more they talk the more they find they have in common, and Sasori eventually convinces Deidara to start going to the group therapy with him, something Deidara turned down before. Deidara is a sophomore, and he’s friends with another sophomore named: Hidan. Hidan grew up with his mother, who worked as an escort. one day one of her clients got a little too rough with her, and ended up killing her. Hidan, who was a teenager at the time, somehow managed to track down this man and kill him. yes, KILL him. through a miracle he was let off, as his appointed lawyer was able to convince everyone it was in self-defense. But since then, Hidan has developed a taste for vigilanteism, and ‘getting rid of the scum of this world’. he keeps his thoughts to himself, as he knows they’d probably lock him up in a looney bin, but his mind is a terrifying storm. hidan also has the foulest mouth imaginable, and his curses are so creative that they’re downright genius. Hidan is a ward of the state, and lives in a home for orphaned teens. that changes when he gets taken to be fostered by an older man named Kakuzu. Hidan quickly realizes that Kakuzu only fosters kids for the money and government benefits this brings him, but he doesn’t really care. Kakuzu is the only adult who’s ever been upfront and honest about his intentions, and he pretty much let’s Hidan do whatever he wants, so long as it ‘doesn’t cost him anything’ (ie. having to bail Hidan out of jail). Hidan hangs out with Deidara, and (continued)

[asotin]

(1/2) The reason Danzo is thought as Tobirama’s student in fanon is because it’s presented as such in canon. Danzo was created much later, so of course Tobirama’s old team retcons that, but he is literally the heir of Tobirama’s teachings which he took to the extreme. In the Kakashi fillers (can’t remember which episode), Danzo says ostracizing the Uchiha was what the Second wanted and Hiruzen refutes that. Tobirama talks about Kagami like he knew him personally, same for Danzo.

(2/2) and danzo’s « emotions generate hatred, and hatred breeds conflict » is something tobirama repeats twice over in canon in different words. even kishi seems to forget danzo wasn’t in tobirama’s official team. i don’t think saying danzo got his attitude towards the uchiha from tobirama is false ; it’s false if we don’t consider how danzo’s own hatred and personal ambition shaped his perception of tobirama’s ideas. but having tobi as an almost-sensei probably didn’t help. (sorry it got long)

no worries about length! i think it's established that i can't throw stones about that 😂

is he presented that way, though? we know almost nothing about tobirama’s time as hokage. being close to hiruzen and a member of konoha at large would expose danzō to tobirama's ideas and be known to him without actually being his student. canon gives us nothing about danzō's background aside from that bit in the flashback and his final soliloquy. he, hiruzen, and tobirama all talk about knowing kagami, but hiruzen and danzō only refer to him as a friend. tobirama calls kagami his subordinate, which is too vague to say one way or another. this could be kishimoto being a shitty writer and neglecting backstory as usual, but imo it's equally valid to say they were just friends

tbh tho, my real opposition to danzō being tobirama's student in fanon is that i think it's limiting. it implies that all major sources of distrust of uchihas come from tobirama. to me, it's more interesting if we look at danzō from a wider perspective

madara's meltdown was public and must have been terrifying. i can totally see a lot of people being wary of the whole family as a result. the sharingan is the reason madara was such a threat, after all, and even hashirama struggled with him. especially after hashirama died, another madara could come around- or a bunch of souped up uchihas- but the only man with the mokuton in history isn’t alive anymore to help

on top of that, we don't have meaningful examples of uchihas making connections outside the clan. iirc mikoto, kagami, and itachi are the only ones who explicitly made non-uchiha friends (i'm deliberately ignoring sasuke and that mess), and only itachi's attachments are more than a passing moment

so you've got a clan that, as far as the rest of the village is concerned, is super powerful, unstable, and uninterested in the other clans. and if we take orochimaru at his word about the uchihas, then there was corruption in the police, too, and resentment towards them for being the police

that would make a lot of people angry and scared, and danzō works as a representation of the village’s growing distrust and antipathy towards the uchihas as the uchihas go further down the road to the coup. danzō making use of tobirama's legacy, something he misunderstands and oversimplifies because he wasn't close to tobirama, and getting away with it because the uchihas have no friends is a story i can sink my teeth into more than i can with danzō taking tobirama’s bad response to trauma and running with it because they were student and teacher

ultimately, there's no way of knowing one way or another because the founders era is basically just a series of plotholes and men who don't communicate

[ramenandchill]

Character criticism

Today’s criticism: The entirety of the show Boruto

Hood day/night my children. How are you all? I hope you all are eating your veggies and drinking your water. I hope you all are taking care of yourselves to the best of your abilities and that your all doing well back home, wherever home may be.

Today, we’re going to be tackling the mess that is essentially the anime,Boruto. Basically why it’s not as good as it could be, and why it has potential. I even have an alternative plot for Boruto, and I thought I would share that with you all, my loves.

So first, let’s summarize what Boruto is;

Boruto:next generations is a spin-off show to the Naruto series. A series that once followed the life of Naruto Uzumaki and his fellow friends as growing shinobi, now follows his son Boruto Uzumaki and his friends, who are the next generation of ninja growing up in the shinobi world.

In depth: the setting takes place in a now peaceful shinobi world, where the 5 great nations are no longer at war or no longer have bad blood anymore. Naruto Uzumaki is now the 7th Hokage of Konoha, and Sasuke Uchiha serves as the shadow Hokage, protecting Konoha from the outside. Most of the Konoha 11 have children. These children are learning to be ninja, and are growing up to become extremely powerful each day.

Though this plot sounds very entertaining, it is far from that and the lazy writing shows through many parts of the Anime. Here are some problems I’ve encountered with the plot and characters itself.

1. The children are extremely overpowered- for one, the children in Boruto are too overpowered. One thing that was interesting about Naruto was that we got to grow with the kids and see them develop their powers. Though some were prodigies at a very young age, we got to see them develop even more and we realized that they weren’t too ultra powerful and that they could be beaten. Once we as the audience realized that our beloved Naruto characters were only kids who weren’t all prodigies, the suspense was amped up quite a lot. The chunin exams is a great example. In the forest of death, many of the genin weren’t too powerful, and we saw a lot of genin groups die in the forest of death. We even saw a Sannin, Orochimaru, sneak into the exams and bite Sasuke, which caused the main plot to kick off. A lot of the times, we weren’t sure that our faves would make it out of their life or death situations. But In Boruto, the suspense is not there. We know that most of the kids, especially the 3 main characters, Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki are all powerful. There’s no “if” they are gonna make it out. We also don’t get to see much hit or misses from the children. We don’t get to see their trial and error with learning their parents jutsus and developing their own so it’s hard to grow with them. Their powers ensure that they get out of most situations, and it takes away from the hard work their parents did to reach the level they are at. Their powers look rather more genetic (which I’m sure they mostly are), than actual hard work.

2. The next generation-another problem is that the kids are essentially carbon copies of their parents personalities. They aren’t their own selves, which very much annoys me. I rather see the kids be their own person, rather than adapt ALL parts of their parents personalities. I don’t mind the children having small parts of their parents incorporated into them, but Boruto really takes it to new heights. The personalities are more copy paste. Most of them act exactly how their parents do or once did. One of the few characters this probably doesn’t go for is Mitsuki, as he’s rather pleasant compared to his father, orochimaru.

3. The lack of screen time- this is a minor issue to me, but I don’t appreciate how a lot of the interesting characters like Sarada are glazed over. The other teams besides Team Konohamaru are usually not shown progressing as much, and are given the much shorter end of the stick than the main characters, which is rather annoying.

4. The Konoha 11- the Konoha 11 have been greased so badly. Their powers seem heavily downgraded, and their character designs look awful. A lot of them look like pedophiles and Shino looks like a can of bug spray. Their powers seem very light, compared to in the Naruto series. For example, Shino not being able to control his bugs and messing up, is a regular for the shows gag unfortunately. That’s so unnatural because we know Shino is very serious and calculated and careful, so that gag is not funny at all. Even Naruto, who’s a master at shadow clone jutsu, has reverted back to his childhood. His clones are ineffective but they do it as a gag, which is dumb. They have made some of the Konoha 11 a shell of there former selves, which frustrates me. They were so cool in shippuden and such, but now their once cool and mysterious powers are downgraded for laughs, which aren’t funny.

5. Naruto and sasuke- Naruto and Sasuke are horrible fathers. For people who should want to make the most of family because they never had any, they don’t even spend time with their kids, which is so dumb. Naruto does Hokage work, but nothing is stopping him from making shadow clones to do the work for him, so that he could spend time with his family. Sasuke is even worse to the point where seeing Sasuke triggers Saradas sharingan because of the overwhelming emotion she felt from seeing him for the first time in years(I also hate how Sarada just bonds with him after an episode. Their relationship would need mending and building considering how long sasukes been gone. He doesn’t know much about her, so he should learn steady over a period of time like how it is in real life). That’s awful. They could be there for their families but their not, which is so weird for characters of their backgrounds.

6. The plot itself- the plot itself drags on for very long and in my opinion isn’t interesting. The plot is constantly jumping. The Arcs aren’t that intruiging and follow benign story plots that could only possibly serve as filler. It takes so long to get to the main plot of Borutos story. Here’s a list of the 17(Yes,17) arcs that have occurred in Boruto so far;

I can tell you that a lot of these are pretty much anticlimactic and waste time. Some are cool to sit through, like the time travel arc or Kara Actuation, but some are like the War arc of shippuden. If something’s like the war arc of shippuden, I rather smell someone’s booty than watch that again. So please, you can even read the plots yourself, and find that they aren’t that captivating.

7.The Villains- last but not least, we have the very copy paste villains. Just recently we’ve gotten some newer villains with a new agenda but it won’t be a breath of fresh air for long. For example, we know that so many of the villains such as Momoshiki, have been just copy-pastes of Kaguya. Their a Naruto and Sasuke level threat which we know that both Naruto and Sasuke could beat them any time. I’m bored of seeing Naruto and Sasuke fight villains that we know they will beat anytime. And with the villains point- I bring to you why Boruto has potential. You see, the Kawaki arc(Kara arc) showed that Boruto could turn into a show about a rivalry, and we saw the clip of Kawaki and Boruto fighting at the very beginning of the series. This is cool that a character like Kawaki who is shown in the end to have a strong resentment towards the ninja world for making him what he is, eventually will try to go the mile to end the age of shinobi. We will have to wait for this, sadly and I wished they introduced this sooner.

Alt plot: my alt plot goes a bit like this. Let’s say that the peaceful world is not exactly completely peaceful. The 5 nations aren’t at war anymore but the smaller countries within them aren’t exactly that peaceful. There aren’t a lot of casualties at all, but some people are still a tad bit resentful.

Let’s say that some of the great nations have become docile. The New generation of kids no longer learn how to be ninjas. Instead they go to regular school and for those who would like to be ninjas, there is a fake kitty-program for them to take. It’s not serious enough for them, though. Jonin still go on message delivering missions. The Hokage is still there, all of that.

Now let’s say a character like Kawaki and an organization behind them, a small one, has been wronged by the shinobi world. They aren’t exactly like the Akatsuki, open with their deeds. However, they are internal threats like Danzo almost, who live within the village. Nobody suspects them because they pose as regular citizens in the lands that no longer practice the way of shinobi life as they once did.

Now let’s say this organization start taking out unsuspecting Jonin. One by one, 2 by 2, Jonin are turning up dead left and right. Nobody can really explain their deaths yet, but their deaths are really disturbing. Next, Anbus investigate, but some of them are even taken out too.

The Hokage and village are becoming restless once again. Then citizens start going missing and dying. This doesn’t just happen in Konoha though, this also happens in other nations. This can make a rift between the nations who think that the other nation is sabotaging them, which can influence bad blood again. These villains are tearing up the almost perfect world from the inside out. They bring back people like Kakashi, Yamato, Tsunade, Kurenai, Gai, basically everyone from the old days, and the Konoha 11 for their lines of defense.

People propose that the children should learn to be true shinobi. Some argue that they shouldn’t, but it is decided that the children should learn to protect themselves and their lands. So now, medical ninjitsu classes are taught, ninjitsu, chakra types, genjutsu. The ninja school is rehashed.

Sasuke comes back to the village and is asked if he’s seen anyone enter the village but the answer is no, which gives a clue.

Soon, the children graduate and learn important lessons about friendship and teamwork. We watch them work hard to learn and perfect their parents Jutsus. we watch the trial and error, but we watch them turn out great in the end. They can even have Boruto face off against this villain when he gets older.

They learn from the oldest Shinobis and earn their powers, instead of just having them materialize them and genetically master them.

(p.s honestly Temari and Shikamaru should’ve had twins, one boy and one girl, have them both be smart but have one learn shadow possession and one learn wind style. The boy is obvi Shikadai who learns shadow possenion cuz that’s already cannon, and the girl Tomoe, could learn wind style from Temari. She doesn’t have to be a carbon copy, but she could still learn her mother’s craft.)

Thank you for coming to my ted talk my loves, and I’ll see you on the next episode of Character Critisims.

[void-tiger]

There’s plenty of conflict left in a Fixit AU of Naruto where Minato and Kushina Don’t Die (and Kushina and Kurama actually have a good relationship, like B and Gyuki later taught Naruto and Kurama to have) because Danzo and Madara are still around to stir up trouble.

-Naruto gets to be raised by loving parents

-Minato’s idealistic-yet-fanged (and not Tired) enough to say no to that genocide pushed by Danzo and those other two windbags. Which the coup really only became organized because of the pressure those three put on the Uchiha...not because of a dark clan history or their sharingans’ physiology.

-Itachi is never forced to make an impossible choice, Sasuke isn’t orphaned. But the two probably do leave the compound to get Sasuke away from those influences, and Itachi resigns from ANBU, taking on a teaching position at the Academy until Sasuke graduates, then requests to have his own genin team as a jounin-sensei. They’re much happier for it (although Sasuke still struggles with an inferiority complex and resentment projected onto Itachi for being the “genius/favorite older brother” as well as Itachi taking him away from their parents and clan)

-An all-out fight between Danzo and Minato (or one of the Uchiha. Or a 1 vs 2.)

-MASSIVE overhauls

-WELP Madara and Obito are alive!

-Minato and Kakashi trying to reach Obito. Eventually he comes home.

-Madara’s still at large tho.

-So is Orichimaru. (Still that Orochimaru vs The Third fight, ending similarly. Why? Because it’s beef between him and Hiruzen, over Hiruzen’s mistakes.)

-Still feudal and international stuff going on (like Land of Waves arc. But...maybe let Haku and Zabuza live. Find a new purpose for themselves vs tragically dying.)

-Orochimaru and Madara causing Problems (and both after Sasuke and trying to lure him away with Power TM. But this time he has a present older brother, slightly less traumatized sensei, his teammates, and Obito trying to talk sense into him. If he goes off it’s completely on him vs trying to pass off the blame onto someone else.)

-The Tailed Beasts (and their jinchuriki) are still targetted. But instead of being Plot Fodder, the Beasts lose limbs and a good deal of chakra. This canonically gets played with to Whatever’s Plot Convent. So yeah. Also I still feel robbed of seeing what these guys can do...yet they randomly get an 11th Hour Counting Song? The Beasts&Jinchuriki eventually recover, but it’s long and ain’t pretty until then.

-So...still the Allied War as Madara + Minions trying to revive the Tentails, even if the Jinchuriki&Beasts still survive. Plus Orochimaru doing whatever suits Orochimaru. (Like maybe cloning the Beasts since they didn’t get them entirely. Only the chakra’s needed, and that can regenerate.)

[narutostuff101]

Naruto Timeline After the War

Naruto Timeline After the War

Okay soooo, I know there's already an official timeline made by SP but I don't think it make much sense. I mean, how is it that Naruto got married at 20 and had a child at 20? And the fact that Sakura, Temari, Ino and Karui had children in the same year?? It doesn't make sense but then again, it's canon. However, I have thought long and hard and I've come up with my own timeline that I think (hopefully) makes more sense than what they gave us.

So here it is: (I'll be using Naruto's age as the year reference)

Year 17 10 October * Fourth Shinobi World War ends * Naruto turns 17 * Naruto and Sasuke's final fight

A few days later * Mass memorial takes place for the victims of the war

November/December * Shinobi Union is formed * Shikamaru becomes the union's planner

Year 18 April * Sasuke leaves Konoha for his atonement journey

October * Prologue of Kakashi Hiden takes place * Naruto only has one arm

December * First chapter of Kakashi Hiden takes place until chapter 14 * Naruto receives his new prosthetic arm * Kakashi officially accepts the position of the Sixth Hokage

Year 19 April * Epilogue of the Kakashi Hiden takes place

October - November * Mirai Sarutobi turns 2 (she was born in the depths of Autumn) * Shikamaru Hiden takes place (it was implied that the story took place around Autumn) * Shikamaru asks Temari out on their first date

Mid November - December (before 27th) * Naruto The Last took place (Hinata was still 16 according to the Databook so it took place before her birthday) * Naruto and Hinata had their first kiss

Year 20 19 January * Gaara turns 20

January - March * Rai no Sho special: The Beast that was Shot by Love!! takes place * Sakura Hiden takes place * Konoha Hiden takes place

28 March * Sakura turns 20 * Naruto and Hinata get married

~ Ok for the rest of Year 20 and onwards, I begin to modify the timeline ~

May * Akatsuki Hiden takes place (only certain parts) * Sasuke Shinden Book of Light takes place * Sasuke return to Konoha * Sasuke and Sakura leave on their journey together

June * Sasuke and Sakura get married * Gaara Hiden takes place

July * Shikamaru and Temari get married

August * Chouji and Karui get married

September - November * Ino and Sai get married * Rock Lee gets married

Year 21

May

* Boruto is born

31 May * Sarada is born

Mid June * Sasuke and Sakura return to Konoha

12 June *  Sumire is born

8 August * Chocho is born

23 September * Shikadai is born

5 December * Inojin is born

Late December * Metal Lee is born

Year 23 May (only because this is the sunflower season and it's supposedly close to Boruto's Birthday) * Himawari is born

Year 24 March * Sasuke leaves Konoha to investigate about Kaguya

Year 26 Sometime during this year * Sarada asks Sakura about Sasuke (a scene from the Gaiden)

December * Epilogue scene from Naruto the Last takes place

Year 28 May * Naruto's Hokage Inauguration Day takes place * Himawari awakens the Byakugan * Boruto is 7 while Himawari is 5

In the following several months * Boruto begins to resent Naruto

Year 29 * Mirai becomes a Genin and Shikamaru becomes her sensei

Year 31 April * Boruto: Next Generations Episode 1 takes place (school begins in April in Japan)

Next few months

* Academy Entrance arc

Year 33 Before 31 March (Sarada was still 11 in the Gaiden) * A Five Kage Summit takes place in Konoha * Konoha Shinden takes place * Sarada Uchiha arc takes place * Another Five Kage Summit takes place in Konoha

March * Kirigakure Field Trip arc takes place

Two days in March * Graduation arc takes place * Boruto's class become Genin * Chouji and Karui host a Sukiyaki feast at the Akimichi Residence at night to celebrate their children's graduation * Naruto Shinden takes place

March - April * Genin teams go on their first missions * Byakuya Gang Attack Arc

May * Boruto turns 12 * Himawari turns 10

June * Chunin Exams arc takes place * Otsutsuki Invasion Arc takes place

July * Chocho arc takes place * [insert filler lol] * Shikamaru Shinden takes place * Mujina Bandit arc takes place (occurs during the same time as Shikamaru Shinden) * Sasuke Shinden takes place

So this is what I've thought up so far. I'll probably edit it once we get the official dates for Birthday and Anniversaries and stuff — I mean if we get them lol.

But until we do, I'll assume this timeline is canon.

Oh and one more thing, I couldn’t decide where to bring Mitsuki into this. I’m not really sure when Orochimaru created him... was it the year Boruto was born or sometime later? I wasn’t sure so I didn’t put him in. But, Mitsuki’s brithday has been officially confirmed to be on 25 July. Idk, really.

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Moonlighting

I have Yamato on watch now. I know where he is. (Naruto Gaiden, Ch. 2) | Kakayama Week Day 3: Alternative Prompt (Hot Springs) | AO3 | 

Sneaking in is probably ill-advised, thinks Tenzō, but he doesn’t imagine the owner of this inn would appreciate him attempting to enter through the front door at this hour. As it is, he steps off the conveniently-grown tree branch and phases through the wall into the second-story room.

His eyes land on the sleeping form immediately, and he steps forward. He manages one step before he feels the tip of a blade pressed against his back, ready to strike. The sleeping figure disappears with a pop.

Turning so his face is visible in the moonlight, he asks, “Is that a kunai I’m feeling, or are you just happy to see me?”

Kakashi stows his weapon. “Both. Evening, Tenzō.”

“Do you keep weapons in all of your robes?” He steps backward, this time, further into the room.

“Yes, in fact.” Kakashi matches him, moving forward in the same direction.

A pause. “You know, that’s a little paranoid.”

A hand on Tenzō’s shoulder, tugging him closer. “That’ll happen when people keep breaking into your room.”

The moment Kakashi pulls down his mask, Tenzō leans in to kiss him, slow and warm and full of longing. When they pull away, he says, “Thank you, for sending the kids to see me. It was good to see Naruto, and even Sasuke too. Sarada’s practically a genin now.”

“What did you think of her?” asks Kakashi, falling back onto the bed.

Tenzō follows suit. “From what I could tell, she has Sasuke’s face with Sakura’s personality.”

“Personally, I see a bit of Naruto in her.”

“Don’t tell Sasuke.”

Kakashi smothers his laughter against Tenzō. “Careful. If I sound like I’m having too much fun in here, Mirai’s sure to think I’m up to something.”

“What’s she like?”

After a moment of thought, Kakashi decides, “Kurenai’s face with Asuma’s teenage personality. Be glad you missed that period in his life. He was very tightly-wound.”

“We can’t all be cool and hip, rival,” deadpans Tenzō, grinning.

“If you say that three times, Gai will appear at my window.”

Tenzō’s eyes drift to the window, as if expecting to see their friend standing on his hands in the moonlight. He turns his head back to Kakashi. “How is the nostalgia tour going? Am I meant to believe that either of you have taken any time to rest?” Raising his eyebrows, he adds, “I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence the last inn you stayed at was near to the recent kidnappings in Yugakure.”

Kakashi averts his gaze, pursing his lips in a way that tells Tenzō he’s holding back his own smile. “Was it? Sounds troublesome.”

“Then you’ll be happy to know that I heard the victims have been returned to their village without harm,” Tenzō says lightly. At Kakashi’s answering grin, he lets out a beleaguered huff, shifting closer to his companion. An arm is thrown around Tenzō’s shoulders. “Most shinobi your age retire, Kakashi.”

“Pot-kettle,” replies Kakashi, with a defiant prod at his side. “Besides, I am retired. Why else would I be lazing around hot springs?”

“To attract trouble,” says Tenzō, entirely serious.

“Twenty years,” says Kakashi, with an exaggerated sigh, “and not an ounce of faith.”

“I have faith,” responds the other man fondly, “that you will make sure to protect as many people as you can until the day you die of chakra exhaustion. Again.” He adds, narrowing his eyes.

Kakashi holds a hand to his heart. “Low blow, shinobi. My reserves have been much better since I lost the sharingan. And I repeat,” says the former Kage, with narrowed eyes of his own, “Pot-kettle. Remind me, which of us is on vacation with his best friend, and which of us is merely switching out on his regular rotation guarding a former S-rank criminal?”

“I’m younger than you,” Tenzō tells him, unrepentant.

Kakashi traces the smile lines on Tenzō’s tired face, and his eyes close involuntarily. “Are you?” he teases. “Doesn’t look like it.”

“Are you calling me old, Rokudaime?” says Tenzō, his smile forming beneath Kakashi’s hands.

“You started it,” retorts Kakashi, but he leans into Tenzō as he says it. When his lips are by Tenzō’s ear, he goads, “Most shinobi your age retire, Tenzō.”

Tenzō opens his eyes. “I have my duty to Konoha,” he reminds the other man. There is no touch of resentment in him. Only loyalty to his village and his people, as he makes sure the children of Konoha, at least, will never be swept away in the night to a laboratory again. 

“You’ve done your duty to Konoha,” says Kakashi. Equally, Kakashi doesn’t phrase it like an argument. He notes it like it’s an indisputable truth, and Tenzō can’t hold his gaze anymore. 

“My duty will never be done,” Tenzō says firmly, staring up at the ceiling. Unbidden, images from fourteen years past flood his mind. And then, older images, ones he barely remembers now, but ones that are filled with green light and distorted glass. 

Kakashi takes hold of his chin to redirect his attention. “I won’t deny that I still don’t trust Orochimaru. His pardon was always more strategic than sentimental. But there are new faces to take on those duties, Tenzō. Ones just as eager as you to protect the village.” There is an offer, in Kakashi’s tone, which he does not give voice. 

Tenzō asks anyway. “What would you have me do instead?”

“Whatever you want,” says Kakashi simply. “Go visit some hot springs. Get a dog. Start a farm.”

Taking hold of Kakashi’s wrist, Tenzō murmurs, “Those sound a lot like your plans.” There is endearment in his voice as he says it. 

“I already have eight dogs,” Kakashi replies innocuously. “And I don’t know much about farming.”

Laughing, Tenzō says, “They named you poorly, then.”

“They named you well,” says Kakashi, with a sincerity that makes his heart stutter, even after so many years. 

Tenzō can imagine a life, where he isn’t a shinobi. Where he sits in the sun in civilian clothing making something good out of hard work instead of chakra. Where he visits inns like this for more than just an evening between missions. He doesn’t know if it’s possible, or even what he wants, but Kakashi makes him think about it. That in itself, seems like a task he could not have done alone. 

“Hot springs, huh?” Tenzō asks pensively. 

Kakashi nods. And then, with an impish grin, he offers, “I can show you these ones if you like.”

[citrusdyke]

Kakashi for the ask meme

Bless you anon

1. Sexuality headcanon

Kakashi is gay

2. Otp

Kakashi and Guy! They’re so good together – they support each other, they have fun together (people who say Kakashi doesn’t like the challenges are lying to themselves; if Kakashi didn’t want to participate in the challenges he wouldn’t) and they’re married. Also they admire each other a lot! It’s really sweet

3. Brotp

Kakashi and Yamato (KakaYamaGai can be fun but I don’t seriously ship them). I think they have a fun friendship and good rapport, and when Yamato gets over his crush on Kakashi I think they’ll be great friends!

4. Notp

Kakashi and Iruka bc I don’t think it’s realistic and its huge popularity frustrates me given that imo it’s a pretty mediocre ship

Kakashi and Obito because Obito is a cishet homophobe who resents Kakashi for being stronger than him and only really acknowledges him on the Kannabi Bridge mission. Obito admits that he noticed that Rin moved in Kakashi’s way, which means that he saw Rin commit suicide via Kakashi’s chidori, and did he go comfort Kakashi? Did he show any sympathy towards Kakashi? No, he blamed Kakashi for not being able to keep Rin alive and decided that there was nothing redeemable in the world! Obito is shit and doesn’t deserve Kakashi and he’d probably date Kakashi to prove to Rin that Kakashi doesn’t want her and thus she should date him, or just to get an ego kick bc yeah maybe he can’t beat Kakashi but he can mess with him. Obito doesn’t respect Kakashi! I hate Obito and I hate Ka/kaO/bi!! Kakashi deserves better!!

5. First headcanon that pops into my head

Trans Kakashi…

6. Favorite line from this character

Either Kakashi saying ‘I won’t allow my comrades to die’ to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto in the Land of the Waves, or Kakashi saying ‘In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that’s true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash’ to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto while testing them as a team

7. One way in which I relate to this character

I, too, am gay and depressed

8. Thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

The way he acts towards Sasuke… His projecting onto Sasuke, and later, his dismissing of Sasuke’s very understandable anger, and comparing Sasuke to Orochimaru… I love Kakashi but that was very unfortunate

9. Cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

Problematic fave but he’s valid

[nikkxb]

A Small Change

Day 1: Early Morning Visitor (Kakashi’s Drunken Confession) Day 2: (Comfort) & Lightning (Summer Rain/Thunderstorm) Day 3: Skin (Itsy Bitsy Polka Dot Bikini) Day 4: Green String (Tan Lines) Day 5: Second Guesses (Sakura Washes the Ninken) Day 6: Sensei (Star Gazing)

KakaSaku Week (yes, from two years ago) Day 7: Shut Up and Dance Author note at the end. Also on AO3 and FF.N.

“What are you doing here?”

Pulling her focus from her glass, Sakura almost couldn’t believe he was there sliding into the booth in front of her. Looking around, she noticed the distinct lack of entourage, then looked again to see them blending in perfectly with the bar. Dressed as civilians, a few cheery and social while a few more kept their serious disposition, the Hokage’s ANBU guard really knew how to allow him to enjoy a night.

“I should be asking you the same thing,” she replied, turning back to the silver-haired man as one of the waitresses dropped off a second glass. It took nothing to fill the cup, sliding it to him before offering a toast and finishing what was left in hers. “If your answer is anything similar to mine, then we’re probably enjoying the same thing.”

An extra night away from the village, sitting in a bar where no one would recognize what her pink hair meant, quiet and isolated and the perfect moment to allow the turmoil finally settle before walking back into her normal life.

Sometimes, Sakura resented the hospital and what it had come to mean. She loved her work, loved healing and all that came with it, but that didn’t keep the walls from becoming a prison at times. Keeping her locked inside, chained to the village in ways that went against everything in her that knew what it was to be a kunoichi. 

“You know, I could have sworn you gave me this mission as punishment for having the gall to carry you home.” It was a tease, but a light one. More a jab at his own embarrassment than a ploy to soften the truth. “But now, I think you might have known just how much I needed it.”

Even after all these years, Sakura was still jarred at how easily he drank through his mask.

“Tsunade asked if you had visited the rooftop recently,” he answered simply. “Said you would do that when your feet missed running through trees.”

She dipped her head as she refilled her cup, a shy blush staining the edges of her nose before taking another sip. It was true, though she was didn’t know Shishou had picked up on that.

“I miss it, too.” He smiled then, the particular crease to his eyes showing it to be a genuine one. 

Silence settled, Sakura lost in her own thoughts. How different it had to have been for him, going from active shinobi to Hokage in such a short time. Even with the few years it had been since the end of the war, there was no getting used to a desk job. How well she understood that.

“Dance with me,” she said. It was a sudden thought, flying straight off her lips before she was even aware of its presence, but she didn’t take it back. Shoulders squared, she stood up and held out her hand. “Come on. Dance with me.”

A question – and probably a rejection – was on the tip of his tongue, but he must have seen the determination in her eyes. Something shifted in his gaze, too; something soft. 

Another smile touched her lips and she knew she made the right decision.

“You know my guards are never going to let me hear the end of this?” It didn’t stop his arm from sliding around her waist, or his left hand grabbing her right. Her own fingers grazed the fabric on his shoulders and Sakura pressed her ear over his chest. “The Rokudaime Hokage caught slow dancing with the head medic in a small village outside of Konoha. I can hear the gossip now.”

She huffed out a breath, ignoring his sarcasm in favor of the soft rhythm they set. The guards he had with him would never utter a word.

It didn’t take long for the sounds of the bar to drift away, replaced with the slow beat of his heart.

“Thank you,” she murmured, long after his shoulders relaxed. For the mission, for the drink, for the dance, for so many unspoken things that laid between them. 

He was still, almost as if he were tossing the sentiment around in his head to gather everything unsaid before she felt his mask touch her forehead in a barely-there kiss.

Warmth bloomed, almost akin to the path the seal striped down her skin when she released her chakra. Memories of the week told that maybe, just maybe, there might be more behind that small affection.

Leave it to Kakashi to offer a thousand sentiments disguised as nothing at all. 

“Has this been a good break for you, too, Sensei?”

“Sakura.”

And it was really how his tone was both quiet, soft, and stern that had her looking up.

“Kakashi.” The weight of that one word settled over the two, a shroud to block out the world. “Just Kakashi.”

That something was back in his eyes, tugging at the strings of her stuttering heart. It grew when she finally smiled, tentative at first as the gravity of the request fully dawned on her.

“It’s been a habit,” she swallowed around the lump in her throat, “so I’ll probably slip a few times, but okay. Kakashi.”

Funny – the intimacy of just his name felt perfect on her lips.

I have a shit ton of excuses for leaving this alone for so long, but I don’t really care about them. Looking back at this drabble sequence, I’m actually happy for the time spent. It’s allowed me to develop this a little deeper than I originally planned.

I don’t think this is the end. It doesn’t seem like it -- even if that had been my original plan. Stories have a way of changing on you, don’t they?

I’m happy to finally finish out the prompts, even though I’m two years late. I think there might be one or two chapters left to tell and I’m excited to see how they form. I can’t promise them soon, but I don’t think it’ll be another year before I update.

Thank you so much for reading and if you’ve stuck around, I cannot express how grateful I am. Please let me know what you think! I fear my writing style has changed and I’m curious to know what you might think of the direction this took. Any and all (constructive) feedback is welcome, invited, and greatly appreciated.