#and Kakashi is the one who has to fight back all these crazy as men fr

[sinnbaddie]

I can’t ship Kakashi with anyone but Gai but I can ship Gai with any man that even thinks about wanting to fight him. Gai is just too full of love and power (and most of the ships I enjoy are enemies LOL)

[southsidestory]

The Valley of the End: Ch. 12 Excerpt

Rating: Explicit

Warning: Graphic Violence

Author’s Notes: To celebrate diving back into Naruto fandom, I’m sharing the first scene of Chapter 12 of The Valley of the End! I hope you guys like this sneak peek. :)

Read the whole story on fanfiction.net or AO3

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The village is burning. The Uchiha clan is famed for fire techniques, and now that they’re in danger, their fear is consuming Konoha. Sakura sees shops and apartment buildings reduced to ash, orange embers flickering on the wind. Smoke billows all over, clouding the morning sky, making her cough.

Sasuke. The world is falling down around her, and even as she runs home--she must find her mother and make sure she’s safe--he’s all she can think about. The look of hatred he shot at her as she fled, leaving his cousin dead on the ground behind her. It’s done, whatever love was growing between them, crushed underfoot with one blow to Saiyuri’s chest.

She doesn’t have the luxury of stopping, of taking even one moment to mourn her loss properly, but she cries as she runs. Fire and salt rest on her tongue, ashes and tears. This is supposed to be the first step toward freedom, but Sakura can only taste destruction.

She finds her mom outside their apartment building in her combat gear, and Sakura throws her arms around her before she can say a word. For a moment, she isn’t a strong kunoichi or a woman who’s known love, just a girl held close by her mother. She could be small again, a child made safe simply by her parent’s presence. It can’t last, though. There isn’t time.

Sakura steps back, wipes her face free of tears, and says, “Mom, I need you to help protect civilians. Things are crazy out there, and a lot of people are getting hurt.”

Her mother nods, then asks, “What will you do?”

Sakura gives the best smile she can, but it feels feeble on her lips. “I’m going to fight.”

Mom cups her face between her hands, kisses her on the forehead, and says, “I believe in you, Sakura. I know you’ll survive.”

She wants to hug her mother again, but she’s already spent too long here.

Large groups of the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans left to capture Naruto, weakening their ability to hold Konoha, but both sides have been caught off guard. It’s chaos, fire and erupting earth, buildings crumbling and shuriken cutting through the air. This isn’t a battle, just rebels against Uchiha clansmen and their loyalists, slaughtering whichever enemies they come upon in the streets.

And Sakura is among them, killing, killing.

She stabs an Uchiha boy no older than her with a kunai laced with a fast acting poison, and he falls to the ground, seizing. His veins turn black, spreading across his skin like rivers of ink.

She punches a Hyuuga girl in the cheek, and her skull splits open, ripe blood and brains showing beneath cracked bone.

Then she comes across a little Uchiha genin, brave but unskilled, and she disables him with a genjutsu. He falls to the pavement, lost in dreams.

Sakura finds Kakashi, Obito, and Rin encircled by enemies, and she rocks the earth with a strike to the ground, knocking down half of the shiboi around them. She leaves them then; those three can handle themselves.

The Uchiha compound is surrounded by her comrades, and just as she joins them, they take down the wall. Minato leads them inside, flashing from one enemy to another, taking them down with quick slashes to the throat and stabs to the gut. It’s a sight she’ll never forget, men and women falling, death delivered in seconds.

Minato leads them to the center of the compound, to the homes of the most influential families, and a Nara man shouts, “The Uchiha aren’t the only ones who can use fire!”

There is a terrible beauty to it, wind and fire working together to burn down these fine houses, monuments to Uchiha wealth.

But then she hears the screams from within, and children run out of their homes, innocents who had been left behind to hide.

“Stop!” Sakura screams. “There are kids in there!”

Someone has the mercy to use a water jutsu, but the blaze is spreading down the street, consuming, relentless--

Sakura runs toward Sasuke’s house, because she can feel Mikoto’s chakra inside, waning and flitting like an injured butterfly, trying to escape.

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[mymindsmadness]

Why I hate seeing the Uchiha logo on Sakura’s shirt/why I don’t ship SasuSaku

DISCLAIMER: I’m not shitting on anyone’s ship. I get it. You love them. You do you booboo, I’m just here to speak my truth. Don’t come at me with comments shitting all over the things I love. You have your opinion and I have mine.

If you are a SasuSaku shipper and you read past this point, you have no one but yourself to blame for your anger!

I’m probably gonna rant a bit, so I’ll start with the bottom line. Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship is one of the most toxic relationships I’ve ever seen.

Unrelated (but kind of related): All the female character are written pretty shitty, and that adds to this whole mess.

Part I [Young Love]:

Okay. I get it. She’s all for Sasuke and he doesn’t give her the time of day. We love a queen that gets hers in the end. The problem is that Sakura’s core personality traits are based off of her obsession. Her wants. Her flaws. Her essence as a [non] person is completely defined by Sasuke’s character. This is even verified when Kakashi asks them about themselves and Sakura literally gives [giggles] Sasuke for every answer.

When they’re tested with the bells, Sakura shows no ninja prowess whatsoever. She shows no skill beyond hiding in a bush. The only time we really see her moving/thinking/talking, is when it’s to ‘rescue Sasuke’. She even refers to him as ‘my Sasuke’ a dozen or so times. Seriously, it could be a drinking game.

During the chunin exams, we see a little more of a backbone from Sakura. But even as she struggles to make herself be seen, she really only wants to be seen by – you guessed it – Sasuke.

When Sasuke gets extra angsty [YOLO style], and tries to leave the village, Sakura tries to go with him. Think about that. Sakura tries to leave the village. Her home. Her family. Her friends. Everything! She does this because the idea of becoming a criminal is more appealing than being left behind by Sasuke.

But you know what? I’ll excuse it. She’s only thirteen at this point. She’s entitled to make stupid choices in the name of puppy love. We’ve all been there, man. And sure, at thirteen all love feels like true love. You know what girl? I forgive you.

Part II [Personal Growth]

At this point, Sakura’s whole character arch is defined by the people that leave her. And I could forgive this – almost. Enter Tsunade. I love Tsunade. I worship Tsunade. She is probably the one female character in the whole show that is as well integrated as the men [if we ignore the fact that her whole backstory is revolved around them]. When Sakura started training with Tsunade, I knew there was about to be an Eye of the Tiger montage. Sure enough, my girl comes through. Come Shippuden, Sakura is kicking ass and taking names [literally]. Better yet, she found her niche in medical ninjutsu [insert joke about how females always play the healers]. She’s got chakra for days and the control of a saint. Piss my girl off? You ‘bout to lose a lung.

Yes, Sakura’s still insecure when it comes to her place among the others, but can we blame her? She had demi-gods as teammates. But it’s different now. Sakura knows she’s a badass. She’s fully aware that her control and strength are something to be proud of. She uses those years of neglect and training to help her comrades!... and chase down Sasuke.

By the beginning of the 4th war, this bitch has lost her damn mind. At this point, Sakura and Naruto have been searching for Sasuke for the last 3 [or so] years. All this time, Sakura is under the impression that she’s in love with him. The times from when Sasuke left to the end of the war, are some of the most defining years in a person’s life. At 13-17 is when a person’s personality really starts to develop and lay out the foundation for the adult they will be.

Part III [All’s Fair]

Now, I’m not saying that Sakura didn’t hold a certain level of love for Sasuke her whole life. It’s very possible. However, there was no way it could be a romantic love. Think about who you were when you were twelve. Now think about who you were at seventeen. Did anything change in that time?

Sakura could not have been in love with Sasuke because she didn’t know who he was. They hadn’t been in contact in years! She had the memory of who he had been on a pedestal, and without him around to alter that image, it became more and more idyllic. By the time Sasuke returned [at the end of the war], Sakura was still in love with the idea of him.

She had put their relationship and romance in the forefront of her mind all of her life. It had been her driving force and defining mindset. When this crazy ass bitch [ily gurl] activated her seal and literally jumped on a pike for her boys, it was the most badass thing she’d ever done. And when she was done with that? She got upset that Sasuke hadn’t noticed/cared. She was fighting for her friends, her family, her village, her life… and all that confidence she had gained was brought down by the fact that the boy she thought she loved didn’t notice.

Part IV [In Which Sasuke Cares… Allegedly]

Remember when Sakura finally got Sasuke to notice her? When he overcame his terminal broodiness and admitted that he was touched that she never gave up hope in him? When he kissed her goodbye with the promise of returning and being worth all of her unfounded love and attention?

Oh… right�� that never happened.

I mean… he tapped her forehead like Itachi did to him that one time… Same thing I suppose.

Okay, okay… I might be being a little harsh. I’ll concede that it is a genuine act of affection for Sasuke. But… a minor one. Alright, our broody boi doesn’t like PDA… Still, we’re given no indication that they talked about their feelings before this goodbye. That’s backed up by the fact that she asks to go with him – something she would have done before now if they had. Legit, Naruto got more of a goodbye than Sakura did [two dudes, chillin’ in the woods].

To the best of everyone’s knowledge, Sasuke only stayed in Konoha for about a year after the war. Now, depending if you follow the manga or anime, some of that time might have been in jail. My point is, that a year or less was spent in the village after several years of Sakura loving him from a distance.

At this point, she very well might have learned about the older Sasuke. She might have decided that she did still love him [doubtful on a realistic level]. But then he leaves. We’re not sure for how long, but if we look at Boruto, it’s common for him to leave for long periods of time.

Once again, Sakura is left behind with her memories of the man she thinks she loves [because without a functioning adult relationship, there’s no way to be sure].

Part V [Sakura Achieves Her Nightmare Dreams]

Let’s step into Boruto for this next part. We flash forward to all of our beloved characters in their adult years. I know what you’re thinking ‘Oh! I’ve missed so much! They’re all so grown up!’. Hahaha, don’t worry. They’re not at all the same people.

Since the series is based on the children, we’re forced to fill in some of the blanks ourselves. Sakura – the best medic nin in Konoha. The woman whose strength rivals that of her mentor’s. The woman who mastered the Seal of 100. The woman who grew into her own as a character, even if the driving force was a boy - is living her best life as… a housewife? I mean... maybe?

We don’t know this for sure, and a lot of us hope she runs the hospital or something [because we want all good things for our girl], but have you noticed that she doesn’t wear a headband? A ninja one that is. The girl who worked hard to not be left behind’s whole adulthood is… the woman left behind.

Even if it can be argued that she achieved her goal… has she? Yes, she wanted to be Sasuke’s wife and baby mama since waaaaay too young of an age to be thinking about that shit, but like this? We know from the fact that Sakura fainted when Sasuke came home that he’s rarely there. This means that she probably raised their daughter alone. Even now, she can’t just leave because Sasuke’s always away.

If you think I’m taking libraries with filling in the gaps, I refer you to that one time her daughter basically asked if they were really married. And if you think I’m exaggerating Sasuke’s absence, I refer you to that time he almost killed his fucking daughter because he didn’t know what she looked like!

Let that sink in.

Part VI  [In Summation]

Sakura was a girl that grew up with a false ideal of love. She obsessed over a person that didn’t exist and carried that falsehood into her adult life. When presented with everything she thought she had wanted her whole life, Sakura jumped on the chance because it was the logical move. In gaining everything that she thought she wanted, Sakura lost any personal growth that she had gained by the absence of her obsession aka Sasuke.

Sasuke, who had ignored her as a child, tried to kill her as a teen, and barely acknowledged her beyond using her to revive his clan, can’t be bothered to even appreciate her. Even as he leaves again as an adult, he says goodbye to their daughter [again, with an oh-so-affectionate poke], but simply walks away from Sakura.

The truth is that given the way she blushes and faints around him still, Sakura doesn’t know him. She’s still in love with an idea of the man that grew from the boy she had been obsessed with all her life. She wears the Uchiha symbol on her back as a reminder that she did it. She got the guy! True love wins again! I mean… maybe? He’s fucked her at least, so…

There’s a chance that Sasuke loves Sakura. I think he loves her for loving him. At the very least, we know he’s fond of her… I assume.

Sakura was a character that was used to further the plot of a man. Even as an adult, she’s left to sit and pine as the boys go off on their adventures. She’s a woman that’s stuck in a hell of her own creation – even if she loves her daughter and the things that marrying Sasuke has brought her.

There’s ‘getting the guy’ and being trapped in a toxic idealized relationship. How you choose to see this one is up to you.

[grimmjowkurosakidrake]

Heeeelllo!! So i'm not used to "fic prompts" but I may have one ahah. I was thinking about young and fierce Sakura who would defend Sasuke against some hostage-taker who wants Sasuke's sharingan ( kind of like what happened with Hinata) and by any chance she knocked him out and then she runs in the forest with an inconscious Sasuke on her back??

I always try to be realistic when writing Badass!Sakura. specially Genin!Sakura. I mean of course this is fanfic but I don’t like to overpower my girl. I don’t trust Sakura’s raw power to single handily save Sasuke. But I trust her to use her nerdyness to at least secure him until their team helps them out. Anyway! I hope you like this little one-shot!

These men don’t want to take Sasuke’s Sharingan for themselves by any means, they don’t want to kill him out of some misplaced sense of retribution against the Uchiha either. They don’t even target him as a way of demanding ransom by holding the last owner of one Konoha’s strongest bloodline limits hostage.

They take him because of faith.

Sasuke and Sakura aren’t even on a mission when the ten men; all dressed in black and red robes with white Oni masks hiding their faces and only armed with long ceremonial staffs, ambush them. 

They’re running together up the hill that leads to the Hokage mountain one morning. Spending some time together as a team without Naruto running commentary, flirting with Sakura or starting a fight with Sasuke.

They love Naruto, even if the both of them are hesitant to admit it out loud for completely different reasons. But sometimes all they want is some time alone to train in silence and to strategize alone for future team seven missions.

The men don’t approach Sasuke, they’re smart like that. They wait until both teammates stop to take a well deserved breath, when they unconsciously separate from each other a few meters even when silently smiling to each other for a work well done and then they attack.

Sasuke is not fast enough to prevent the first man from gripping Sakura’s long hair tightly and holding the sharp side of his staff directly against her neck but he is fast enough to kick the next man who falls in her direction, beating him against the forest ground and steeping into his throat with just a little pressure.

“Let her go!” He screams frantically. “Let her go or I’ll snap his neck,” he threatens when he feels the rest of the men circle around them. Not doing anything, just watching silently and attentively.

“Do it” goads one of them, “we won’t realise the girl anyway. Not until you come with us.”

“Don’t play with me.” Threatens Sasuke, applying pressure on his own victim’s neck. The man holding Sakura doesn’t move, he doesn’t even apply pressure on Sakura’s neck, he just watches him as he viciously steps on the man’s neck with the force necessary to finally kill him.

“You’re truly a descendant of Madara-sama himself!” Marvels Sakura’s captor at the sigh of his dead comrade at Sasuke’s feet “burdened with the curse of love, a cold blooded demon born on this earth!”

“Come with us, Sasuke Uchiha.” They say “come with us and we’ll let the girl go.”

Sasuke doesn’t hesitate. He holds his hands up to them and allows them to tie him up and tie an old looking ruby necklace to his neck that make him feel suddenly weaker.

“This necklace will suppress your chakra,” they warn him, “so don’t even think about escaping.”

Sakura waits just mere seconds before following them. They don’t travel for too long, and thankfully don’t even notice her meagre chakra tailing them. 

They stop in a small temple hiding on the forest by Konoha’s boarders. Sakura only has some shuriken, cord and kunai with her, she doesn’t know any offensive ninjutsu nor is she trained in genjutsu.

But she’s smart.

The forest is full of poisonous herbs, animals and bugs of all classes. The first thing she looks for are herbs because she knows them by heart, but she’s lucky enough to find some dangerously poisonous spiders.

She kills some of them carefully and coats her weapons in the poison, the others she traps in little vials she usually carries for this same reason.

The temple is guarded by only two masked men and Sakura does a quick job of releasing the spiders on under their robes and just wait it out until they fall, either dead or passed out, all depending on their immune system or their weigh. Sakura doesn’t care much, she enters the temple and that is all she cares about.

She’s little and lean, so she can easily walk the walls and hide in the old vents of the temple without being heard, she tries to find Sasuke but instead just finds three more men.

They don’t expect it when Sakura holds them together by quickly tying the cord dipped in paralysing paste made out of bufotoxins she extracted from some toads around their exposed necks. They can’t even scream before all of their muscles loss their movement.

Then she finds Sasuke.

He’s held in a luscious looking room, his training clothes replaced with black and red ceremonial robes and he has bruises all over his face. He’s awake and Sakura sighs in relief when she doesn’t sense more people around his room.

“Sasuke-Kun,” She whispers from the vents above his head.

“Sakura…” He murmurs in surprise, one of his eyes too swollen to properly open and look at her. Sakura smiles bitterly and jumps from the ceiling to his side, where he’s sitting on a king sized bed.

“At least they’re treating you well, Sasuke-kun.” Smiles the girl awkwardly looking around the room.

“What are you doing here!?” Demands the hostage, glaring directly at her eyes.

“I’m here to get you out!” She declares half-heartedly.

She knows she’s not like Naruto and Kakashi. She’s weak, weaker than her teammates at least. But she’ll be dammed if she allows Sasuke-kun to be kidnapped right behind her nose in a poor attempt at protecting her without her doing everything in her power to try and save him.

“You can’t be here!” Berates her Sasuke, “they’re crazy, Sakura. They think they will summon a demon by sacrificing me. They won’t second guess it before killing you If you try to get me away from them!” His voice is desperate and his face contorts in an anguished expression. Sakura can barely hold her own tears when Sasuke grips her arms tightly enough to bruise. “You have to go, Sakura.”

“I’m sorry, Sasuke-kun but I can’t.” She apologises, caressing his neck where the necklace is still glowing and constricting his chakra. She can’t take it off and probably no weapon in her power will be able to break it. Their only option now is for them to escape from this place and hope for Kakashi-sensei or another Jonin to find them and help them.

Kissing his head sweetly she hits in the back of his neck, precisely on the pressure point needed to knock him out and taking him without any protests. He’s too heavy to hold him on her arms so she sticks to carry him on her back.

The guards the Kunoichi attacked first are still out but just as she’s almost out of the temple without being noticed she hears a enraged “Get her!” So she runs.

She runs and doesn’t stop for anything. Not when one of them throw a fire release justsu straigh at her leg, not when two senbon hit her directly on her arms and not even when a Kunai hit Sasuke on the shoulder, making him groan in pain even while passed out.

She needs to bring Sasuke home. No matter the cost.

[qobiin]

weekly fic rec hoard

here's what i've been enjoying reading (and re-reading) this past week for different fandoms across the board! this week features: atla, bnha, good omens, harry potter, marvel, naruto and stranger things  ♡ means: all-time fave, (m) means: 18+ themes 

avatar: the last airbender

♡ first rule of earth kingdom fight club... series by ohmygodwhy  zuko, his stubborn inability to die, and finding himself thru getting his ass kicked 

The Most Ragged Edges by twinfinite  In hindsight, Zuko really should have seen this conversation coming. He can almost hear Li and Lo chanting wickedly about the magic of Ember Island, about waves smoothing away rough edges… 

♡ ribs by ohmygodwhy  The first thing Zuko tells him during their first lesson after the whole Sun Warrior ruins ordeal, is “Fire comes from the breath.” a lesson in learning, and re-learning. 

♡ see your son rising at last by aloneintherain  When Zuko dashes into the sitting room, it is with the same wide-eyed panic that he ran from Azula’s smoking hands when he was a child. Iroh bites down on a smile. Zuko looks the same, even now, a decade later with a scar blossomed over one side of his face, green and brown robes replacing the solitary reds of his childhood. His hair is puffed up around his face. He looks like a very frightened, very windswept turtle-dove. Zuko dives behind Iroh just as Aang breezes to a stop in the doorway. Five times Zuko hid behind Iroh, plus one time Zuko stood proudly in front of him.

♡ the beginning of a new and brighter birth by aloneintherain  “I’m so proud of you, my nephew.” Uncle cups Zuko’s face in his lined hand. The gesture is so tender, his palm so warm, that Zuko has to take a fortifying breath against the sudden swell of emotion in his chest. “I want to be a good leader, Uncle,” Zuko says. “I want to look after my people.” “You will,” Uncle says. “You are, nephew.” In a new era of peace, Zuko works to be a very different Fire Lord than his forefathers.

boku no hero academia 

the stars are floating and we are flying by lunalou  Aizawa starts walking towards the exit, obviously expecting Shouto to follow him, but Shouto's feet are frozen in place. His eyes flicker from the distorted reflection of himself in the ice to where All Might is giving him a long look, eyes kinder than anything Todoroki has ever been deserving of, and he feels sick.  “Todoroki-kun,” Midoriya says gently, squeezing his arm in what Shouto presumes is meant to be a reassuring gesture. “It’s going to be okay.” He doesn’t think Midoriya is in any place to tell him what okay is, all things considered, but he chooses to keep quiet on the matter. 

♡ I’ll share this with you, so leave it behind by yabakuboi  For the sake of the story, All Might is never in need of a successor, and, when Izuku saves Katsuki from the sludge monster, encourages young Midoriya down a different path. Thus, Katsuki and Izuku part ways after junior high, as Katsuki enters U.A. and the Midoriyas move overseas. It’s later that Katsuki realizes that there’s something missing, that he drove that something away. Years after, Katsuki finds him in the last place he looks, in the cereal aisle at the local grocery store of their childhood neighborhood. 

Loose lips Sail ships by Yousayhun  Bakugou is at war with his own fucking mouth and everyone else just seems to be having the time of their lives. 

♡ flare guns go off in my head saying not to call you this late by youreanovelidea  Midoriya beams at him and Tokoyami is suddenly hit with the urge to look away. “So bright,” he mutters under his breath, low enough that Midoriya can’t hear him.  (or, Midoriya is a problem child who just really loves his friends) 

(m) The Devil Blues by iknewaman  The 78th precinct's police captain, Toshinori Yagi, has volunteerd his squad to help implement the mayor's wish of increasing the successful cooperation between the city police and active Pro-Heroes. Each detective is to be assigned a Pro-Hero who will shadow them for two weeks, and the operation has been dubbed the 'Station Cooperation Operation'. Although it is not well-received by those involved, Izuku Midoriya, current detective at the 78th precinct and loyal follower of captain Toshinori's ideals, believes that the operation will be a success. If his captain says it will succeed, there isn't a doubt in Izuku's mind that it will. That is until he meets his assigned Pro-Hero. 

♡ someone is wrong on the internet by rhenna  It’s been a long day. By all rights, Izuku should be falling into bed, half dead. But instead of sleeping, he’s hunched over his laptop at 2 in the morning writing a dissertation about why exactly Ground Zero’s pecs are the best pecs to ever pec, and how dare anyone insinuate that he should lose some of that muscle because don’t you even understand what kind of physique a quirk like that requires? Amateurs.  (Izuku has two jobs in this world: pro-hero and anonymous president of the Ground Zero fan club. What could possibly go wrong?) 

good omens

♡ Divine Intervention (aka God ships it) by TheLadyZepher  There’s a battle strategy devised by humans many millennia ago that's designed to overcome an adversary who is particularly well entrenched. Some walls are too tall and thick for a frontal assault, and must instead be bested through sheer dogged stubbornness. Crowley and Aziraphale didn’t know it, but they were about to be put under siege.  Fed up with an angel and a demon who are still avoiding any talk of Feelings, God starts to interfere. When it comes to the ineffable plan, sometimes things need a bit of a push. 

♡ Slow by write_away  It started like this: A boy with the ability to warp reality met an angel and a demon and he made assumptions.  You might say it started like this: An angel and a demon found a marriage contract hung on the wall of the angel's bookshop. They didn't question it. It also could have started like this: Once upon a time, the angel told the demon he went too fast. The demon took it to heart.  Aziraphale and Crowley find themselves somehow married. Crowley fears going too fast. Aziraphale forges ahead. Neither know how to ask questions of each other. 

♡ Eziraphael’s Gifts: A History of Queer Faith and Longing, by Natasha Marie Johnson (Beacon Press, 2019). by actualbat  "If Eziraphael has come to be known--in today's language--as the 'guardian angel of sad queers,' then it makes sense for him to have shown up more regularly in the past once that became a recognizable historical category." Natasha is really glad that she's given this talk enough times to be able to do it on autopilot, because those two funny-looking men in the back just made the most absurdly astonished faces. (Or: Not all historians ignore gay subtext, and not all immortal celestial beings have their shit together. Also, voodoo.) 

harry potter 

♡ Apple Slices and Cocoa by FeathersMcStrange  Harry Potter is an abused kid with not an adult in the world on his side when Molly Weasley meets him.  She decides right then and there that if nobody else is going to try and take care of this boy, then dammit, she's going to. 

hello goodbye (’twas nice to know you) by tamerofdarkstars  Draco Malfoy thinks he might know whose thoughts are scrawling themselves on his skin, but that's crazy. Impossible, even. It has to be a mistake.  -  Self-indulgent soulmate AU where the thoughts of your soulmate inscribe themselves on your skin in a shifting magic tattoo 

♡ (m) Men Who Love Dragons Too Much by fencer_x, IDoodleForNoodles  ‘Kill Albus Dumbledore’ is less a challenging task and more a suicide mission, so when Draco Malfoy is presented with the option to either dispatch his Headmaster or suffer an excruciating and most ignominious death of his own, along with his parents, he reaches deep into his black little Slytherin heart and manages to scrape together enough courage to go with option C instead: Spend Sixth Year secretly studying Animagecraft in the hopes he’ll turn into something sufficiently imposing even the Dark Lord himself won’t be able to keep Draco under his thumb. But just his luck, his Animagus form turns out to be a dragon, and a rather randy juvenile at that, intent on finding its mate: one Harry James Potter. 

marvel 

♡ Hard to Love by Gruoch  If someone had told May that Iron Man himself would one day occasionally show up uninvited to her quiet little apartment and intrude into her quiet little life, she would have laughed them out of the room. But then her life seems chock-full of unpleasant surprises these days.  Or, Tony Stark wants a bigger piece of the pie. May Parker learns to accept help. Peter just wants to keep the peace. 

♡ Mr. Parker Declined to Comment by apisdn  The events leading up to the embarrassing moments during the Doomed Field trip, and how Peter Parker accidentally ended up in charge of things. All the while the political machine moves on, the Avengers do not kiss and make up, and the future draws ever closer. 

Another No-Good Field Trip by Muimor  Peter Parker is not having a good day. AKA, Where Peter's decathlon team take a field trip to the Avengers Compound, Vision's a menace, and Peter really doesn't want to go.

naruto 

(m) Resonance by flailinginlove  After being hit by a missing-nin's jutsu, Kakashi's chakra is never the same again. 

♡ (m) What Otter Nonsense by DarkAuroran  “Is that an otter?” Iruka asks as large, sable eyes blink at him and a little whiskered nose twitches curiously. “That’s an otter. Why do you have an otter?”  “I can’t tell you,” Kakashi says with a great amount of dignity for a man cradling a baby otter in armoured gloves. “Classified Jounin mission business.”

♡ Learning Curve by ishiryoku  This is the life she chose: the path of the shinobi. It's either roll with the punches or be left behind by her team—and Sakura's not about to let them go off on their own. 

♡ Roots and Wings by ideaoforder  When Naruto is kidnapped from his orphanage at age three, Kakashi is so done with this shit. He gets Naruto back, tells the Hokage where to go (politely, because he isn't suicidal), and raises the boy himself. Or, you know, tries and is proud when there aren't too many explosions. Then everybody starts to copy him and it's a whole thing. 

stranger things

In Which Starcourt Is a Pun by asexual-fandom-queen (writeordietrying)  “Welcome to Scoops Ahoy. Do you know what you want?”  Nancy and Jonathan visit the Starcourt Mall and corner Steve at his place of work with their feelings, but in an awkward, this-is-still-the-1980s-so-we-can't-be-too-direct kind of way. 

♡ my father comes and he goes by mjolnirbreaker  So, for Max, he doesn’t punch Billy Fucking Hargrove. He just sits there in sweltering heat and listens to the C’s being announced, and when parents cheer for their kids he tries not to think about how his parents are currently in Colorado. 

♡ it’s a risk, it’s a gamble by nondz (pinkjook)  “I think we should pretend to date,” Robin says. "What?" Steve answers. 

one of those new wave boys by glorious_spoon  It probably should feel more awkward than it does. (Or: Steve and Robin go on a road-trip, drink, listen to music, and look after each other. And yeah, maybe there's some cuddling involved too.)

wanna rec me something? head over to my ask or submission boxes! message me even, i don't really mind (: 

and to all my fellow authors who may feel a little down about not getting onto rec lists, this is for you:

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Ayesha Liveblogs Naruto Shippuden S20 (Pt. 4)

Hashirama’s “:O” face at everything is so endearing

Hagoromo is now really the time for a family story there are three children and a sad old man in need

“It was a few thousand years ago” Zetsu just said it was 1,000 years ago how bad are you guys at telling time 

I wonder how Hashirama feels about Madara being his Soulmate™

“I want make sure [the Tailed Beasts] don’t fight amongst each other, and that people don’t use their powers for evil” better 2 have tried and failed I guess 

“That’s because a toad’s dream is destiny” weird flex but ok

“So then, will everything I do now be meaningless?” “Don’t waste your time worrying” Ffgkjhfgkjh damn I didn’t ask for a lecture on fatalism in my Naruto liveblog

Lmao @ this dude revealing his thievery scheme after talking to Hagoromo for 0.5 seconds what makes him think everyone will be on board with it 

“I only want you to go away as soon as possible” ah looks like Hagoromo made a friend lmao 

“If we make it too sturdy, you’ll break your bones when you try to destroy it” they actually did a really good job of making Hagoromo charming like consider me charmed I wanna hear abt ur ninja way

Hahahah I admire Futami for not bringing up the horns for the entire length of time it took them to build the bridge 

Futami: Hagoromo-sensei gave me a high-five one time and it touched my heart so I formed a cult around him

Wait if Hagoromo only gave 8 disciples chakra are the nine of them together responsible for fathering all the shinobi world what kind of Gengis Khan fuckery

Minus the Hyuga, who, for some reason are moon aliens, I guess

“Throughout this long history men appeared, one after another, with the desire to use the tailed beasts for their own evil purposes. And that turned the tailed beasts against mankind. Anyway, back to my story.” Hahahaha did Hagoromo just go “(A/N: Fuck Obito and Madara lol)”

Unbelievable you’re telling me there was someone who wanted to get with this old man with horns and three eyes who leads a cult and you won’t show me WHO where is the justice 

OH HEY FUTAMI HELPING RAISE THE KIDS I GUESS? WILD

Mmmm I love Ashura already 1000/10 endearing impulsive baby

Some filler storyboard artist who I respect beyond reason: But what if... we added.... a dog

“It might even be bigger than yours” please don’t tell me they fished Zetsu out of the river

"I didn’t realize you thought so deeply about [chakra being used as a weapon]” “Yeah, well” “But then again, what will be, will be” what kind of parenting is this Hagoromo kjhgkjhgkjhg

Indra, 10 years old: I am concerned about the ethical impact of my innovation

Hagoromo: YOLO, son ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“I’ll be watching you” Is that the voice of......... Pubescent Zetsu 

LMAO IT IS

These kids are really emotionally unprepared for the boar considering they were following boar tracks into the woods 

ARE YOU SHITTING ME THEY EVEN USED THE SAME FILLER DOG NAME LMAO WHO IS WRITING THIS 

I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY KILLED THE DOG I’M SO MAD

Wow @ them having Indra invent chidori instead hkjhgkhg poor Kakashi

Indra awoke his sharingan over losing his dog I cannot believe this how are dogs the central plot device of multiple arcs

“Whatever is in this village belongs to everyone - that’s the law” wow along with fatalism this arc is also teaching us about the practical failings of communism 

“The law is still the law” where’s the post that says Sasuke is ethnically a cop. Because that’s this arc

Not 2 be that gal again but Indra’s voice is also nice on the ears he has inherited his grandmother’s kekkei genkai of having an attractive voice and a terrible moral compass

...............kekkei grandma 

“Looking into his eyes reminds me of my mother’s eyes” I was kind of joking about the kekkei grandma thing but fair

“At that moment I felt that I understood for the first time why heaven had blessed me with two sons” have you ever considered your eldest son is mean in part because you make comments like this 

“What will the two of you do when you are out in the world alone” wow Hagoromo is giving his kids some kind of High-Stakes Bell Test 

Hahaha I like Taizo I hope they don’t do anything to him but they probably will because he’s had so much screen time

HAHAHAHA I LOVE THIS SQUAD it’s the first ninja team and the boy is the healer!!!

Ashura: OH NO I’VE FORGOTTEN HOW TO GENJUTSU

Kanna and Taizo: WE GOT U BUDDY WE GOT BATS

I thought I was going bananas for a sec but the intro did change lol 

Poor Tenzo I think he’s been officially discarded from OPs RIP

Side note: Having a Naruto blog has made me so wary of Kakashi and Sakura standing next to each other I don’t trust the ppl on this website to be normal for a second RIP x2

“They’ll suffer, sure, but everyone dies eventually” okay calm down Taizo

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s possible or not, because I’ve decided to do it” I admire Ashura’s blind optimism lmao

Not to poke too many holes but why would the water in the well not be affected by the Divine Tree

I take my comment about healing back ludicrously all the men get to display chakra natures and the women can only display glowing yin chakra hands booooo

Omg there is a Tenzo after all in an ED at least!! This is the first time I’ve seen all three members of the Naruto’s Dad Association in one place!!! Bless up

A shot of them standing all together!!!! My heart!!!!!!!!

SASUKE AND NARUTO’S GRINS AT EACH OTHER I WEEEP

[Hagoromo as Kakashi voice]: TEAMWORK!!

I was very much expecting Indra to go crazy and kill those two guys but wow that was a scene

“Enough to make you fall in love with him and follow him all the way here” At least Ashura gets like a real wife instead of Hagoromo’s ‘ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ she dead’

Hagoromo: Indra’s a dick because his eyes are red trust me it has nothing to do with my parenting I’m a chakra scientist

“Indra, just what is the meaning of this” it’s a temper tantrum lmao

Was it really necessary to kill both of those guys Indra one best friend death usually suffices for mangekyo my dude

Minato joining Kakashi in the club of Boyz Who Jutsu Was Plagiarized

Hagoromo really has absolutely zero hesitation to attack his son and you wonder why Indra has a complex

“THIS IS THE POWER OF OUR BOOOOOND” he said, as he punched his brother in the face with a thousand wooden hands (mood)

Indra’s Lightning Teleportation Jutsu is really doing The Most the Raikage is not nearly this dramatic about it 

Can you... just.... declare that your soul will be reincarnated? Is that how that works? 

Also. Who slept with Indra?! U made him out to be like. Very Not Okay. But he’s the forefather of the Uchiha?? WHERE ARE THESE CHILDREN COMING FROM TELL ME WHO IS BANGING THIS OUT OF CONTROL FAMILY

Hahahahaha I’M SO READY FOR THIS RIDICULOUS TEAM 7 TRYING TO UNMASK KAKASHI EPISODE BRING IT THE FUCK ON

I knew the Sukea voice would be different but omg I’m still thrown

“S-kay-a” is really not how I thought that would be pronounced wow 

“If I’m able to capture this Kakashi guy without a mask on, it’ll be the biggest scoop since the Leaf was established” a little arrogant Kakashi but okay kjhgkjhgkjhgjhg

This is such an adorable and weird bonding exercise of Kakashi teaching his kids how to break into Konoha’s archives I’M WHEEZING

I would pay money to see Kakashi explain what he was doing to all those dudes in ANBU who probably thought he was intimidating as all fuck catching him a wig with three twelve-year-olds breaking into his own file

“Who cares what I look like anyway!” THIS IS SO DUMB I LOOOOVE IT

“I think that a woman might’ve drowned right over there on the river bank” HINATA!!!!! UR TOO NICE TO BE ENLISTED INTO THIS SCHEMING HAHAHA

Oh I remember seeing reference to this scene booooo do they really have to make it weird all the time

This concept is even MORE ridiculous in the show bc it expands beyond Team 7 to all the other Konoha rookies like Kakashi how much do u enjoy teasing the children that this is how you’re spending your day

HAHAHAH Kakashi is lucky that the person who knows him best has face blindness and can’t call him out for his schemes 

Okay not to betray my own brand but ᵏᵏᵍᵃᶦ ᶜᵘᵗᵉ

They really designed a nicer apartment for Kakashi just so they could animate his silhouette in the shower STUDIO PIERROT PLEASE

Fhkjhkjfhkjhkf that last scene made me so uncomfortable I don’t really like seeing Kakashi’s mouth while he talks it’s weird

You know I spent a lot of this interlude chanting main arc main arc in my head but alas now that we have arrived I’ve remembered that the war arc climax is a mess

“If my chakra runs out, I’m done” seriously Obito.......... how are you here

Can you imagine if Naruto actually died.... what would that even mean for this series I can’t imagine 

“I already marked this space, so I can hide out in my time-space” I want to know how Obito “marks a space” is it like a jutsu or does he just have to nod at it and go “my space now”

 I would also pay money to see what Obito and Sakura talked about when they had to hang out in Kamui for a solid two minutes lmao 

“So you’re friends with sensei huh?” “Yeah it’s complicated but I think we’re cool now” “Yeah, same with us and Sasuke” “Sorry about that” “I don’t forgive you but thanks”

“You alright?” define ‘alright’ but also Obito’s never been alright a day in his life, Sakura 

Uh oh foreshadowing to the heavy gravity space where Obito d*es

Okay maybe this is the part of me that is still clings to their Part I friendship but Sasuke helping Sakura stand really brings out my inner soft bitch

 “It would’ve been helpful if we could’ve received this advice a bit earlier” Tobirama’s bitter about sitting through five episodes of filler

Tobirama: Why haven’t u been helping this whole time

Hagoromo: It all comes down to Madara’s magic pelvis—

“This man lent me his power and that’s why we were able to get here” does Sakura not know Obito’s name either khgkjhgjkgh

How many times will we watch these same two flashbacks of Obito’s life

Looks like Kakashi brought a knife to a taijutsu fight LMAO

God Rin is such a good friend to Obito and he repays her by literally defacing her grave 

“Am I powerless to do anything but sit here and watch” it’s not really your fault you can’t fly Kakashi tho u could try throwing some kunai or smth ur not a one sharingan pony

Ddkjhsdkjhd why does Obito get a line worrying about Naruto’s death but Kakashi doesn’t he’s spent the past two days trying to kill Naruto

I’m still emo abt Kakashi trying to die for Sasuke that’s his soooon

“Rin... this time, let’s spend some alone time together, just you and me” Why phrase it like that, Obito

"Why save someone useless like me” Kakashi get some therapy

“A fool full of only mistakes” it’s hard to disagree with Zetsu when they’re flashing back to every mistake Obito has ever made

Where’s the graphics set where Obito goes ‘admittedly I lost my cool here’ because that’s what that flashback was 

Update: found it

“Don’t cry, Obito, you’ll just get laughed at” this fantasy is an indication that Obito has no real comprehension of how fucked up Kakashi was by Rin’s death

Can you believe that Rin still dies in Obito’s jonin AU like....what. It’s not even like “AU of what I want” it’s like “AU where I learn how to cope with trauma” 

Also was this just an out for not designing an adult Rin bc he’s been thinking about Rin endlessly for like three episodes straight so..... what up with that

It’s still so fucking funny that Iruka’s in Obito’s jonin fantasy like when did they meet did he just absorb secondhand Iruka appreciation from Naruto 

“But, if you screw up, I won’t hesitate to step up as a candidate for Hokage myself” yesssssssss let Kakashi be the playful menace he truly aspires to be

Gjghjkhgjhg Obito’s “euuuuuuuuehhhh” when the paperwork dropped was funny

Sasuke’s face when Sakura punched Naruto was also v funny 

Honestly to be real for a second Obito imagining himself as buddies with Team 7 makes me mad u’ve done nothing but make these kids’ life TERRIBLE until today babysitting license REVOKED!!!!!!

Am I a hypocrite for enjoying AUs ft. Obito? Mayhaps!!!

“You told me that saving you was pretty much the same as saving the whole world, remember?” (Well.)

“I’d say, you did your best” You know that post that said it makes sense that Rin said this bc she’s a Scorpio. I’m still upset about it

You know... Naruto’s “the coolest guy” (“nothing but awesome”) comment about Obito is a direct parallel to “Bravest man I ever knew” in HP and that’s why, if I were to meet either adult man, I would dropkick both of them. In this essay I will—

“It’s kind of annoying seeing [Kakashi] all stiff and useless” u right Obito

Kishimoto pick up the phone I just want to talk about that rabbit bijuu design 

“A Susano’o? But whose?” DAD’S HEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRE

Kakashi with Six Paths Power REALLY feeds into my theory that Kakashi is Hagoromo’s transmigrant 

THAT’S MY TEAM READY TO SAVE THE WORLD TOGETHER!!!!!

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 KAKASHI GETS HER VULNERABLE AND THEN THE BOYS ATTACK WHILE KAKASHI GUARDS THEIR BACKS AND SAKURA FORCES HER INTO PLACE THIS IS WHOLEASS TEAMWORK

“I really love you guys” YEAH HE DOES 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Okay arc over haha right guys we’re good now RIGHT GUYS??

In part, Kakashi jumping around to save his students feels very much reminiscent of Part I’s “MY SENSEI SENSES ARE TINGLING” swoop and scoop that he and Gai loved to do

Lmao @ Kaguya spitting Madara out like he’s a bad-tasting vegetable

Coming up with an OP specifically for VOTE2 is so extra but I kind of love it the Diver parallels!!!!

Sasuke is SUCH a liar abt his attitude towards Team 7 - more specifically towards Sakura and Kakashi bc he has already granted that he cares for Naruto

Sasuke: Comrades? I don’t know her

Also Sasuke: Constantly urging Sakura and Kakashi to get to safety and actively intervening when they’re not

“Honestly at this point I don’t think anything could shock me anymore” Sakura really needs a hug and a nap

“I shall be sure to ask Obito tell me that tale in the afterworld” the real question is if Obito will still look 12 when he takes Hagoromo on the harrowing journey that is his life

Kakashi truly has endless love in his stupid ass heart Obito’s like, “Hmmm... whoops sorry 4 committing mass murder” and Kakashi’s like “Hehe, we all mess up sometimes :) See u in heaven”

Madara and Hashirama really did invent being in gay love huh

WOW I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO TEAR UP BUT KJHFKJHFKJH MY BABY BOY SAYING GOODBYE TO HIS DAD HE IS THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SWEETHEART

“You’ve now finally settled things with Madara” Tobirama has been waiting for like a hundred years for his brother to get over his ex

Hagoromo: Naruto’s your new conference room congrats kids 

Mmmmm I don’t like aaaaannnnnny of this

“You’re suggesting that I enjoy a roooOoomance” why say it like that Sasuke

I genuinely think this is the maddest that Kakashi’s ever been at Sasuke that boy is very, very grounded

“I, too, had two children at one time” OMG KAKASHI OFFICIALLY DESIGNATED TEAM 7 DAD BY HAGOROMO (ur miscounting tho Kakashi actually has four (4) children)

“I think I shall let Naruto handle this” said Hagoromo, and everyone who encountered any problem in this series ever

I’m very distracted from Sasuke’s dictatorship speech by the fact he looks so much like an alien. What is UP with his eyes they never look like this???? Why are they so far apart and narrow and angled

“Your blood will be the last that I shed” what r u just gonna keep genjutsuing ppl Sasuke? Could just keep the Tsukuyomi on then, homie

It also plays into the Hagoromo and Kakashi are related (spiritually or literally) that Hagoromo is equally as useless with advice to him lmao

Kakashi: What should I be doing, sir?

Hagoromo: Sometimes I like to pray :) 

Fjkkjgkjhgkjhk Sasuke claiming that Naruto is his only bond never ceases to amaze me like Sakura and Kakashi are RIGHT THERE ghkjhgkjhgkj u have been protecting them this whole time while they shout how much they care abt u. Just admit u have a crush on Naruto and go!!!

“I know your heart well by now. And you mine” Sasuke u unintentionally romantic dumbass

“Finally decided to kill me, huh,” said a thrilled Sasuke, taking a lesson from the Kakashi School of Very Much Needing Ninja Therapy

This entire fight is the Life or Death equivalent of this tweet:

Lmao one of these boys lost a tooth I want to know which of them has a dental implant 

Omg............... Iruka what is going ON.... u are suddenly v pale and also I think ur VA might be different could they not get the same Iruka or has he just forgotten how Iruka sounds

It was real unclear until this fight that Sasuke had any of the same powers as Nagato

“Now I can finally be alone... farewell, my one and only... friend” again... Sasuke... u can be in love with Naruto and still have other friends!!!!!!! Ask Naruto he has tons of friends he’s not in love with*

*Disclaimer: they are all in love with him

The idea that everyone Naruto’s ever cared about is spiritually trying to help him kick Sasuke’s ass is p funny

“Sakura and Kakashi are still there, they’ll figure something out” cute that you have such an assload of faith in your loved ones in ur life-flashing-before-you moment Sasuke but with what jutsu lmao

“I began to see a shadow of my own family in Squad 7″ YEAH HE DID  😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I still can’t believe that Kishimoto really wrote that all it took for Sasuke to return to Konoha was Naruto explaining to him how love and empathy work 

Omg Sasuke laughing...... I missed your laugh you precious boy

“Release the infinite Tsukuyomi once I’m dead by transplanting my left eye into Kakashi or someone else” Fhjfhkfh it detracts a little from the significance of Sasuke offering his eye to Kakashi to add the “someone else” but I guess they gotta make the syllables match up

Why is every Uchiha’s long-term plan just to die before they have to deal with the consequences of their actions

“I’m sorry” “Sorry? For what” “For everything” “You got that right” Sasuke I think u need to treat all of ur teammates to ramen 

“It’s finally back to the way it was” Kakashi loooves his baaabies 

TENZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 

Omg they included Guren from the filler arc in this crowd hahahaha

Gaara and Naruto enveloped in that same beam of light like Kakashi and Tenzo in the Tsukuyomi kghjghkgh SP said gentle gay rights

“I’m forbidden to talk about it” Team 7 would RIOT if Sasuke was locked up in a cell like that fuck you

Hahahaha I wish I could see the scene where Kakashi and Iruka decided to ambush Naruto with study materials 

Okay this is definitely a different Iruka ahhhhh weird I don’t like it

Iruka bursting into tears whenever Naruto talks about his progress.... same

I 100% believe that the vast majority of the reason Kakashi became Hokage was to pardon Sasuke but also that prison scene still seems appalling to me STOP MAKING THINGS WORSE THAN THEY WERE SHOWN TO BE

"Maybe next time” is super funny in the context that he does take her on his next mission outside the village and comes back with one (1) whole baby

Sasuke’s introspection usually seems to amount to “Birth is a curse and existence is a prison... oh hey Naruto <3″ 

The moral of the story seems to be that the best way to show someone you love them in ninja language is by telling them you want to keep punching them for the rest of your life

[darquedeath4444]

Ivy

Chapter TWELVE

It is three days later when Sasuke receives the scroll containing a brief overview of the mission he has been allocated to alongside Sakura with Kimimaro acting as proctor. Simply put, they are to hunt down a group of people selling information on different organizations, kill them, destroy all information on Oto and bring back anything that might be useful. Details woudl be relayed to him by Kimimaro. 

It sounded simple enough.

Sasuke was in a particularly bad mood that day. Orochimaru had called him into his throne room first thing in the morning where he had listed out a bunch of rules Sasuke could care less about regarding Sakura. Then Kabuto had decided to pay him a visit and had wished him luck in the most taunting way possible and the only thing that stopped Sasuke from tearing the man apart was the fact that time was near and he couldn't risk messing up. After chasing the medic out, he had sharpened his already sharp kunai more than necessary before he stormed out half an hour late, kind of understanding Kakashi and his tardiness. 

It felt nice to be late out of spite.

Had he been someone else, he probably will have pulled a Kakashi excuse too, but that was a little too much.

He is an Uchiha, after all.

Kimimaro and Sakura are already waiting when he arrives at the gates. Sakura is chattering happily and while it isn't obvious, Kimimaro is clearly listening.

The pinkette is the first to react upon seeing him. She doesn't seem to mind at all that he has kept them waiting for half an hour. She darts over and gives him a brief hug before she smiles and waves in his face. "Hi Sasuke," she says.

Sasuke simply nods and is about to say something when he catches sight of something from the corner of his eye.

Kimimaro shoots him a dismissive glare and while never admitting it out loud, Sasuke is sure he is a little more rough than necessary when he pats Sakura's head. Sakura doesn't complain, though, so he decides that he gets away with it.

Once satisfied, Sakura turns to Kimimaro. "Can we go now?" She asks.

Sasuke turns to Kimimaro as well. "Orochimaru said you have the details," he says.

Kimimaro nods. "Let's head out first." He says. "We'll talk at the inn tonight."

A part of Sasuke wants to complain but the reasonable shinobi part understands that details and important information and plans were best made when they were rested and relaxed. So he simply nods and they head out.

A few seconds into the journey and Sasuke notices something. It is something so small and trivial that anyone else would have easily dismissed it.

Not Sasuke, though, because Sasuke is nothing if not observant and it is in his blood to never dismiss something that his instincts point out.

He has seen Sakura during one of her training sessions with some Oto shinobi and had even fought her himself and he knows that skill wise, she is more than able to hold her ground in a fight. However, in missions, he has no idea what role she plays. From their interactions, he thinks that apart from the fighting, she seems to have next to no knowledge about the political side of being a shinobi. She blurts out mission content and has no qualms with sharing fighting tips and it is obvious she isn't suited for a mission that includes interactions.

Still, her steps are confident and just looking at the way she easily keeps up with him and Kimimaro it is obvious she has traveled a countless number of times. He recalls Sakura saying that she doesn't leave Otogakure apart from when she is on a mission and as far as he knew, she was more in than out. Still, no amount of indoor training could compare to the experience or the confidence gained on field.

He tucks this away.

They enter a small civilian village to spend the night. Kimimaro goes to get them a room at an inn while Sakura and Sasuke wander off to find them food.

As he watches Sakura skip around with a carefree air about her, Sasuke feels suspicion eat away at the back of his head. It is usual to spend a night at a close by civilian village to rest and plan before moving into the actual village the next day. However, there are a countable number of villages around Tanino village and all were as significant as the one before. The villages in this area ran on trade and as far as Sasuke knew, had no affiliation with any Shinobi village, so unless the group they were looking from were a bunch of farmers during the day, it was highly unlikely their destination was any of those.

And that left the only location in the area that was travelling distance from their current location.

Yoshiwara Village was a red light district known by those who knew. Men and women, boys and girls alike were sent there to earn money or pay back debts and as far as he was concerned, it was a horrible place. Those who had been long abandoned and forgotten by the rest of the world lost themselves from reality and Sasuke had to admit, it was the perfect place to look for a group of people crazy enough to sell information on Otogakure.

"Oh, look, Sasuke!" Sakura tugs on his sleeve and points at a small candy stall. "I want the pink one. Come on, Sasuke, please~" She tugs on his sleeve again.

Sasuke sighs but allows himself to be tugged over to the shop. The old lady running the stall looks up and greets them warmly "Hello."

Sakura nods in greeting and holds up a packet of pink candy. "May I have this?"

The lady smiles and turns to Sasuke. "Anything else, young man?"

"Hn." Sasuke grabs a few more of the ones Sakura had wanted and places them into pinkette's hands.

The lady chuckles and quickly adds up the price.

Sasuke notices that she is giving them a discount and offers her the closest thing to a smile he can manage. The two of them then enter a small stall nearby and and buy food for the night. By the time they returned to the inn, Kimimaro has spread the futon and is waiting for them. He looks like he wants to complain about the time but when he sees Sakura happily chewing on the sweets, he simply sends him a sharp nod and smiles in the pinkette’s direction.

Once settled, Kimimaro pulls out their mission scroll and spread in on the tatami. Sakura and Sasuke gather around him.

"The people we are looking for are a no named informant organization," Kimimaro says. "According to what we have on their history, they all have some sort of tragic past. The man who we suspect to be the leader had his whole family massacred by a hired mercenary."

"So in exchange, he sells information about them," Sasuke scoffs.

"So we kill him?" Sakura asks.

"We need to find him first," Kimimaro points at the photograph and the information beside it. "And make him spill. We want to know who he's sold information to."

"What about the others?" Sasuke asks.

"This group isn't a big one. We have the names and faces of all the members and I doubt they'll move separately."

"And why are we here?" Sasuke asks.

Kimimaro looks up at him, eyes equally dark. "Our prey is known to often visit the red light district." He shoots a look at Sakura, who has lost interest the moment the talk became strategic. "And Orochimaru-sama wants Sakura to act as bait.”

Chapter THIRTEEN> 

<Chapter ELEVEN

[elenathehun]

reading is emotional, part 13

So I read volumes 11, 12, and 13 several months ago, at the end of September, and then real life basically interrupted any attempt to write a reactions summary. So in lieu of that, I'll just pull my initial impressions from a Naruto group chat I participate in:

Jiraiya's intro is horrible - why is he a fan fave again? - but it also overpowers the most important thing in that scene: a foreign seal had been placed on top of Minato's work and was interfering with the original. I mean, wow, so many stories should come from just that. What haven't I seen this utilized by fandom more often? Orochimaru had access to Naruto as a baby, for one.

[One chat member points out that Orochimaru placed his seal on Naruto during the chuunin exam] When did he have time to do that? [another chat member points out that Orochimaru hit Naruto in the stomach to get him out of the way] Is that all it takes to apply a seal? Dammit, that's lame.

Anyway, is it just me, or does it seem pretty clear that Jiraiya was basically MIA in part 1? It doesn't seem as though Sarutobi knew where he was, given that jounin were supposed to report seeing him to command...

Meanwhile, an unstable jinchuuriki is just killing people all over the place - and our one sacrificial jounin is tasked with watching him. Dammit, I forgot how annoying this arc is. There is no chain of command in Konoha. No one seems to know what anyone is doing, ever.

[Chat member asks how Konoha has not fallen apart with no chain of command] I honestly assume ROOT has an actual purpose aside from fluffing Danzo's ego, and that is acting like an actual military. But seriously, nothing about how Konoha is portrayed makes a lick of sense. There should have been teams set to just watching the sand nin, especially Gaara. Jiraiya should have immediately reported for duty to Sarutobi.

Also, it's sort of horrifying how bad a teacher Jiraiya is. I mean, Kakashi is a bad teacher, but at least he never claimed to be good at it. [chat member asks if I'm at the point where Jiraiya throws Naruto off a cliff] Right now he's just trying to help a 12-year-old boy with shit control over his own chakra learn to use demonic chakra instead. In a lot of ways, Jiraiya is actually worse as a teacher, because it's clear that he's able to accurately assess Naruto's weaknesses as a shinobi. He's just uninterested in helping him get better at using his own chakra and not the fox's. I guess I'll have to re-read the early part 2 section, but aside from summoning and the Rasengan, what the hell did Jiraiya ever actually teach Naruto?

Anyway, in the next scene, we get an up-close and personal look at how incompetent Sarutobi was. All these jounin look pretty worried, and for good reason! One of their number is dead, and the Hokage is saying they're going to wait and see. This is a massive disaster in leadership.

Anyway, cut back to the hospital, where Sakura and Ino only show up to play spectator to Lee. It's infuriating. Why even bother having female characters, Kishimoto? I would have found it less insulting if he'd just decided to portray a totally gender-segregated society.

Anyway, I do appreciate that relationship we see between Sarutobi and Anko. I think it's clear that whatever his failures as a leader in the present, he was quite charismatic previously. But god, new leadership is absolutely necessary from a military POV.

...and Jiraiya threw Naruto off a cliff. I think it's safe to say that Tsunade was clearly the best teacher out of the lot of them.

Baki travels back and forth between Sand and Leaf with no chaperone. Because that makes total sense.

And Temari makes the same argument against war and for peace now that kid!Tobirama did 600 chapters later. It's a shame she didn't become Kazekage, but her vagina disqualifies her. [Chat members begin discussing the viability of a Kazekage Temari AU] If Sand's Kages all come from the same family, why the hell would you choose the nutty, psychopathic 12-year-old over his far more stable siblings? I understand it's not a democracy, but there's still an element of choice here. [the chat then considered Kazekage Kankurou] Kankurou's too sensible. Only nutcases become Kage - if half the men in your family had died on the job, you might pass too.

[chat member asks why Jiraiya is so keen on using the fox's chakra when everyone else is adamantly against it] He's an irresponsible weirdo in-universe. Given what we know in part 1, it was staggeringly incompetent: the only other example we see of demonic power is a boy who has killed about a half-dozen people on-screen. The real reason, of course, is that Kishimoto didn't want to do the hard work of developing Naruto's abilities organically, so the unearned superpower it is.

[Same chat member asks how I feel about Sasuke so far] He's not dumb. He actually has a survival instinct of a sort. And call me crazy, but there are a lot of Sasuke = Tsunade parallels there. He's lost literally everything, and there is a deep skepticism of Leaf propaganda that Naruto and Sakura haven't developed yet, and maybe never will. Like Tsunade, he is the scion of a founding clan - the very definition of the insider. That that hasn't saved either of them from tragedy and loss.

Anyway, reading the Neji/Naruto fight was actually the worst because I don't like Neji at all, but Naruto doesn't really deserve to win. Why couldn't Sakura beat Ino in the prelims and then go on to fight Neji? Anyway, I can skim a lot because Kishimoto's fight art isn't very dynamic.

O hai, Kabuto is still at large, still killing ANBU mooks. I definitely have to write the story where Team 7 gets involved with Kakashi's investigation of the mysterious traitor instead of participating in the chuunin exam.

anyway, Naruto shows he has a bit of a brain during Neji's fight. It's a shame this only happens every so often when dictated by the plot, instead of growing organically as part of his character.

What is the point of the Hyuuga? I mean, they have that nifty seal, you'd think the village council would really pressure the main house to ensure the branch members were able to use the entirety of the gentle fist skillset. If I were Danzo, I'd be maneuvering in that direction: hundreds of sealed Hyuuga with the full power of the gentle fist would really augment Leaf's manpower. I can understand the main house keeping the branch house down with superior knowledge of the gentle fist; I can see the main house using the seal to quash rebellion in the branch house; I can't see both, not in a world where the Hyuuga are part of Leaf and have a manpower requisition of some kind they need to fill. Leaf needs soldiers, and deliberately handicapping the ones who serve the village...yeah, if I were Danzo, I would force the issue.

OK, more of Kabuto just wandering around the stands, randomly healing Hinata.

Anyway, time for Neji's monologue. Mostly what I got from this is that Neji actually has no idea what really happened. Apparently, Cloud's Kage came directly to Leaf for the peace treaty, and Hiashi is strong enough to kill a Kage-level opponent. This doesn't even count the fact that the Kage of Cloud is actually in the stands right as Neji is telling Naruto his tragic story. Given that Neji was about 4 when his father dies, that makes sense - he probably cobbled his story together from household gossip.

Anyway, what I got from this is that Gai should have ensured that Neji got the crap beat out of him at least once by a social inferior. This is not the sort of lesson you want occurring during an international event open to the public, and honestly, Neji's overconfidence could have gotten him killed very easily - and not just by his opponents. Talking about Konoha's internal politics in front of outsiders is the sort of thing that involves the secret police...

Anyway, Naruto uses dangerous demonic power to beat up a 14-year-old boy. Jiraiya did not clear his training plan with Sarutobi ahead of time, looking at the unhappy surprise on Sarutobi's face. Also confirmed: the Byakugan can see demonic chakra that is invisible to the regular human eye. Would have been nice to have multiple Hyuuga guards on Gaara, right?

Ugh this Hyuuga bullshit is infuriating. I'm tabling it for another day until I can finish editing my Hyuuga rant post.

Moving on, Raidou's little "shinobi must be punctual" speech makes me think the blatant favoritism we see in canon wasn't appreciated by the Joe Schmoes around Sasuke. Kakashi can do that crap because he's basically been active a million years and is good for it in the clutch, and his co-workers still hate it! Sasuke doesn't have that leeway.

Ah, Shikamaru: one of Naruto's many out-and-out chauvinists.  

Anyway, it's pretty annoying that the matches have been set for a month, but not one of these dumb children bothered to do research on their opponents.

Kishimoto again devolves to show, not tell: Shikamaru is apparently the reason the rather weak Team 10 survived the Forest of Death, although how he did so is never explained. It would have been nice to see it, you know?

Oh, that's right. Shikamaru is a genius, who apparently never does shit unless dictated by the plot. So in real life, he'd be like one of those weird child prodigies who end up hermits in Montana, but this is Naruto, that ain't going to happen here.

The group chat had pretty divergent opinions on the tunnel Shikamaru was using to spread his shadow. For the record, I thought it was a pretty amazing asspull, but that's been my feeling the entire time I've been suffering through this arc, so go figure. I'm still sort of salty about how Shikamaru went from "maladjusted fuckup" to "GENIUS" in the space of one freaking battle. Every time Kishimoto talks about the "ideal chuunin psycho profile", I get an eye tic. In what universe is Shikamaru commander material at this point in canon?

OK, time for Kakashi's dramatic entrance, which is very dramatic.  

@hiruma-musouka proposed a while back that Kakashi is a fundamentally avoidant personality, and I can't stop thinking about canon in light of that. So an alternate reading of Kakashi's tardiness for Sasuke's match - Kakashi was actually hoping Sasuke's match would be forfeited due to tardiness, and Sarutobi's weak will foiled his cunning plan!

Gaara casually kills two mooks in plain sight. Where is Leaf's internal security? The only thing I can reconcile is that the Uchiha did all internal security, and given their deaths and the fact that Leaf still seems to be a largely pre-literate society, no group managed to fill the vacuum afterward.

How has Sasuke gotten so much better in a month of training? I don't care if your fancy eyes allow you to mimic moves and see very fast movement, you still need to build up the muscle to actually go fast yourself!

A moment of silence for the people of Sand, who are so familiar with the Ichibi they can tell right away when Gaara lets it possess him totally.

Those panels where Sarutobi and the "Kazekage" are looking at each other are actually pretty good. Ramps up the tension.

The invasion starts, and there is absolutely no coordinated response from the Leaf-nin.

Anyway, Shikamaru pretending to sleep through the invasion of his village is a massive black mark on his record. Like, God save the Nara clan level of black mark. He's technically an adult, he's the heir, he ought to be representing his clan...him trying to sleep through an invasion is a mark of cowardice, and would have terrible repercussions on his family. This is, in fact, the sort of thing that starts complicated succession disputes.

...and we end on Sarutobi, ready to fight all the time.

Anyway, reading this part of the manga sort of solidified why Naruto is a bad character for me, from a writer/author POV. Naruto spends so much time talking about how he understands the villain's pain. The problem is, Naruto's tragic life history never really shows up as a tangible issue in the plot! He's a lonely kid, but good lord, everyone in Leaf is lonely. People are jerks to him in a general way because he's an orphan and poor and stupid, which sucks but happens a lot in real life too. And even though people are jerks to him, we never really see them be cruel to him because he's got a demon in him. Iruka treats him like a wayward student; Sakura is basically his friend in a few months; Kakashi is a sadsack teacher, but he's not singling Naruto out with his awful teaching, and he does trie to find someone competent to instruct him; Sasuke isn't nice to him, but he's no crueler than the rest of Naruto's classmates. Basically, when Naruto talks about how he feels the villain's pain, I'm very meh. Contrast this to the chick version of Naruto, where lots of little girls beat the shit out of each other in the name of friendship: Nanoha. Fate Testarossa is a deeply tragic figure, and you are really, really, rooting for her to move to a better place by the end of that show. Or geez, just the first two episodes of Michiko and Hatchin, which features some truly awful child abuse.

Anyway, I'll post my long-awaited (?) Hyuuga rant later this week, and then I guess it's back to the old grindstone to try and knock out a reread of Naruto volume 14-16 before the new year begins!

[fuckishimoto]

I think Hinata fans have turned sakura haters into hinata haters. Every time you point out hinata's flaws her fans turn the discussion back to sakura trying to make her seem worse. They'll bash sakura like crazy but then get mad when someone bashes hinata. They make up all these bullshit reasons as to why sakura's evil and hinata's an angel. I fucking hate sakura but I hate hinata's fandom more. I've even started to defend sakura just to shut them up.

IMO, both Hinata and Sakura’s fandoms are one of the the reasons their characters get hate. They’re typical blind female characters stans, but Hinata stans are worse.

1. They glorify their characters for doing nothing. I still see Sakura stans try to refute anti by arguing she healed a bunch of characters. I don’t see people saying Chopper is QUEEN!! cos he healed characters. Stop yelling misogyny. Hinata stans are still delusionally acting she’s badass for getting one panelled by Pein. People are already going easy on her cos she’s always been useless. Kakashi lasted a few chapters before he lost a fight, he still got ridiculed for being useless after Zabuza’s fight. 

2. They overstate the characters’ “development”. “getting over her crush”?? talking about aiming low. “becoming strong” is the most generic goal you can get in a shonen, how many MC have been called cliche and boring for this trait? Power progression isn’t character development, nor is it creative.

3. They put down male characters. Well, nothing wrong with character hate, but it’s also fair for male characters stans to retaliate.

4. They portray Sakura and Hinata as victims. Having crush doesn’t make them a victim, no one is responsible for their feelings, they don’t deserve to be happy because they have a crush. There’re about 20 war orphans characters in this series, some got their entire clans wiped out, no one cares some girls are having one sided crush. They don’t deserve any sympathy for being thirsty. NS is especially bad in this regard, women who fall for bad boys do not deserve sympathy. People don’t feel sorry for men who fall for bad bitches.

Hinata stans are worse in 3 aspects:

1. They never read the manga, they can’t tell fillers from canon. They think their own fandom’s propaganda is canon facts. They can’t tell what’s fandom opinions and what’s canon facts. 

2. Hinata stans can’t seem to grasp and accept the idea of character hate. Every character has its haters. Hinata is a naruto character, of course she gets massive hate. They think she’s PERFECT, how can any character written by Kishimoto be perfect??? It’s mindbogglingly how they fail to understand Hinata is just the same shit as Sakura, and thus naturally she gets intense hate.

3. Hinata stans think “sakura is worse” is a defence of hinata’s character. It’s weak and pathetic they can’t defend her character and they just give up and take a piss at sakura cos that’s the only way they can deal with the hate.

[remotecontrolchuck]

Last Week Toonami Night Review: Jack is Back in the Past

Last week a long journey had come to an end. A good, but somber end. Jack finally gets back to the past and kills Aku, but at the cost of losing Ashi. Quite the Gurran Lagann as everyone was saying. But really, it just another case of time travel being a bittersweet experience. For not only by killing Aku in the past prevented Ashi’s existence, but everyone Jack has ever met on his quest now ceased to exist as well, becoming nothing more than a memory in the swordsman’s mind.

But even so, Jack has finally defeated evil itself, and saved his past and loved ones. The series may not have ended the way we expected it to, but nevertheless, it ended on a good note. Sure, the hero at the end of the story doesn’t get the girl after saving the world, but that’s how the story goes sometimes. Not all stories end on a happy note, and some great stories are like that. But even so, they could have done a better job conveying it.

Anyway, here are my last thoughts on the series finale. After so many years, I was glad to see this series get a proper ending. Jack finally got back to the past and defeated Aku once and for all. And while I’m not totally happy about the bittersweet ending we got, I was nonetheless satisfied with it. I look forward to seeing it all again in the marathon tonight.

Now to finish this off with the recap.

Samurai Jack: Jack is captured by Aku, but is rescued by everyone he’s ever helped. He then manages to help Ashi regain control of her body by admitting his love for her. Ashi uses her newfound power to help Jack travel back into the past and kill her father. The world is now at peace, but without Aku, Ashi ceases to exist. And while Jack mourns her death, he will heal in time, as he has his home again.

Also, in the end, we never got to learn his real name. I mean, we’ll always remember him as Jack, but some of us are curious as to what his name was originally. Oh well, I guess it’ll be left as one of those question we’ll ponder over for years to come every time we look back at this great series.

Dragon Ball Super: Frieza’s men plan to resurrect their master, and they do so by forcing the Pilaf Gang to use all seven dragon balls they had just acquired. With them, Sorbet wishes for Frieza’s resurrection, while Mai and Shu get their wish for money and ice cream. However, Frieza had returned in pieces, but his minions manage to put him back together again. With Frieza back in his prime, his rematch with Goku is sure to follow.

DBZ Kai: While Goku, Vegeta, and Gohan wait to face Dabura, the tournament continues, with Android 18 fighting “Mighty Mask”. However, the latter is soon revealed to be young Goten and Trunks, and are immediately disqualified and grounded by their mothers.

Attack on Titan: We’re given more backstory regarding Ymir and Krista, giving the two more character development, and nice break from the main characters. Gotta love episodes that focus on the side characters. Anyway, to summarize the episode is simply this. Ymir is a Titan Shifter, Krista’s real name is Historia, and the fans that ship these two were no doubt pleased by this episode.

Tokyo Ghoul: Hinami gets caught by Mado, but is soon rescued by Touka, who ends the mad investigator’s life. Meanwhile, Kaneki prevents Amon from catching up with Mado, and almost goes completely crazy from hunger. In the end, everyone goes home happy, except for Amon who mourns his mentor’s death.

Hunter x Hunter: While the Phantom Troupe continue to massacre the mafia, Zeno and Silva Zoldyck take on Chrollo Lucilfer, and we’re given a good, epic fight. I can’t wait to see who wins next week!

Gundam Unicorn: The contents of Laplace’s Box is revealed to be the original Universal Century charter, which includes an extra article regarding Newtypes, which could’ve prevented the hellish One Year War from happening. But while Banagher and Mineva plan to reveal the secret to the public, Full Frontal intervenes by using a new psycho machine to prevent their broadcast. The race for Laplace’s Box is over, now the final fight begins!

Naruto Shippuden: Kakashi takes on Pain, with some help from Choza and his son Choji. In the end they barely survive the encounter, and they discover a weakness from one of Pain’s puppets.

Ghost in the Shell: Batou goes undercover investigate information being stolen from a U.S. Naval Base. The suspect behind the thefts is a former paralympic silver medalist that Batou’s a fan of, Pavlo Zaitsev. While getting to know the man, he soon discovers that Zaitsev is indeed the spy, and is left with no choice but to arrest his former role model.

Well that’s it for the recap, here’s to seeing the Samurai Jack Marathon tonight! Don’t know whether I’ll be posting much during my liveblog, not sure what I can say that hasn’t already been said before, but I look forward to seeing everyone else’s comments during tonight’s run.

Until then, see you guys later this evening, and Stay Gold.

[raining-v-coffee]

Naruto AU fic recs

One step can change everything.

~ My notes       * Multichapter

A Game of Two Halves

The kyuubi had a secret. A splendid, delicious secret that it held close to its heart: Kushina and her lover had made a mistake.

A Snake In the Grass, a Wolf At the Door Mature

Orochimaru is on the edge of breaking when someone unexpected pulls him back to solid ground. When the time comes, he returns the favor.

What the Deep Sea is to a Puddle

5+ AU Headcanons rambling (sort of) fic: Naruto + AU where Minato survives the sealing?

Learn to Be Content

5+ AU Headcanons rambling (sort of) fic: Naruto + AU where Team 7 gets a different sensei?

Ibiki's Apprentice

The Academy's teachers thought they were getting one over on the Hokage, graduating an ill-prepared Naruto while Iruka was sick. The Hokage knew he was getting one over on the entire village when he assigned Morino Ibiki as Naruto's Jounin sensei.

Seal Shatter

AU/AR, mid-Chuunin Exams on. Orochimaru fails to seal the Kyuubi's chakra in the Forest of Death. Naruto interferes with Sasuke's curse mark. And what's wrong with the Hokage? Read and review, please!

An Invincible Summer

When Naruto is five, he's gutted by a drunken civilian and presumed dead.

Six months later a girl with ash pale hair and dark blue eyes enters the Academy.

Team Seven

Kakashi wanted to grab those little brats and wrap them all up in blankets, dump them somewhere soft and fluffy and summon his dogs to guard them and sit on them and keep them there. Then he could relax, read his book and listen to the most creative curses and rants his cute little students could come up with. One-shot. Because Wave should have enough of a wake-up call.

How to Win Friends, Influence People *

And Start Your Very Own Secret Ninja Organization. Three months into Naruto's training trip Jiraiya must leave him behind to go to check on a situation in Iwa, leaving Naruto to his own devices. Naruto thinks everything he did makes perfect sense, Kiri thinks he is a cult leader and Tsunade thinks she doesn't get paid enough to deal with this. 100 drabbles format.

~ Sooo good.

The sound of pulling heaven down *

For a ruthless assassin, Genma's got an embarrassing weakness for little kids with big sad eyes. Still, Minato's son shouldn’t have to grow up alone and hated—not when Genma is more than willing to provide a family, crazy and chaotic though it may be.

~ Super cute fic

The Accidental Sensei *

One little mix up in the Hokage's office sends Mitarashi Anko to the Academy with a vague mission-- one she takes to mean teaching Genin Team Seven! From one mix-up comes headaches for a copy-nin, a coming revolution in ninja education, and a far too amused Hokage! v 3.1- Edits via the commentary comb over

The Daddy Thing *

Kushina's early demise changes everything. Who said that mothers were more important than fathers?

Tsukumogami: The Living Seals WIP

A young Naruto finds the Uzumaki Clan Temple of Masks and is introduced to his clan's history by the chakra imprint of his ancestor, Mito Uzumaki. There he will learn the secret to the kinjutsu that led to the destruction of Uzushiogakure. (Fuuinjutsu!Naruto)

One Eye, Full of Wisdom WIP

Kakashi survived his losses in spirit as well as in body, and having learned both wisdom and intellect from his experiences, he now seeks to pass those traits on to his students. Story emphasis is on tactical fighting, mind games, adventure, and the occasional bout of humor. GenFic, no story stealing OC's or creepy romance between children. Current Arc: The End of Team 7.

Come to the Sand Side (We Have Ramen) WIP

Naruto and Gaara hit it off after the chuunin exams, and a slight twist of fate leaves Naruto questioning whether he really has a place in Konoha or not. Gaara comes to miss his company, and comes up with a plan- a plan to lure Naruto to pledge his loyalties to Suna, where, according to the Sand Siblings, he really belongs. Featuring eventual Suna-nin!Naruto. No romance.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men WIP

When Naruto decides to skip past the Kage Bunshin and picks another jutsu to learn from the Forbidden Scroll, Madara - who'd dearly love to kill the brat - is left scrambling to salvage his plans.

Family Reunion Extended Version WIP

When Naruto left the village for the first time on the mission to guard the bridge builder Tazuna, he ended up finding something unexpected across the battlefield...a living relative.

To my Masterpost of Naruto Fic recs <3

I also have rec lists for Harry Potter and Doctor who.

[isolavirtuosa]

Post-Post Traumatic: The Second Time 3-4

Post-Post Traumatic [fanfiction] NaruSasu (in progress)

A series of “drabbles” following the events of Post Traumatic.

Previous Parts

The Second Time

3-4 under the cut

- 3 -

             “I’m the best husband in the world, right?” Naruto said, hugging me from behind as we watched Ino approach.

           “You’re in the top five.”

           “What the hell, who are the other four?!” Naruto cried.

           “Not in my ear,” I muttered.

           “Uncle Naruto!” Yurina cried, running at us.

           “Uncle Sasuke!” Tsubaki cried, jumping down from her mother’s arms and racing after her sister.

           We both caught our girls in hugs.

           “Hi my darling boys,” Ino said, smooching us both on the cheek.  “Thanks for having us over.”

           That was just Ino’s polite way of saying, ‘hey, Naruto, you told me Sasuke was going crazy again, so as requested here I am with his nieces to use as a preventative measure.’

           I couldn’t even be mad about it because it meant I could spend a week with my girls.

           Of course, that led to its own complications.

           Mari was seething with jealousy.

           “You’re important to me, too,” I said, which didn’t satisfy her at all ,and in fact seemed to make her angrier.

           Then Karin came back, and the house was overflowing with females.

           “Let’s have a girls’ night!” Karin said enthusiastically.

           “We can invite Temari!” Ino chimed in.

           “A bunch of bossy chicks trying to out-yell each other?” Naruto said, making a face.

           “Don’t worry, Naruto, you’re not invited,” Ino said dismissively.  “But Sasuke can come.”

           “Why can Sasuke come?  He hates going out.  He’s terrible company.  Who would want to hang out with that?!” Naruto protested.

           “Thank you, sweetie,” I said.

           “Yeah, of course, here to help.”

           “Sasuke’s basically a chick, so he can come,” Ino explained.

           Naruto burst out laughing.

           I kicked him.  Then I turned my death glare on Ino.  I really didn’t like that shit.

           “Come on, Sasuke, you use more hair products than I do,” Ino said.

           “And more beauty products in general,” Karin chimed in.

           “Is it a crime to take care of one’s appearance?” I growled.

           “We said you were feminine, not a criminal,” Ino said.

           “I’m not feminine.”

           “It’s true, he’s really violent,” Naruto agreed.

           “Isn’t like every important woman in your life a little bit violent?” Ino pointed out.

           “Oh… wow, yeah.  So I guess violence equals femininity equals Sasuke?”

           I kicked him again.

           “OW!”

           Somehow I ended up going with the girls into town. It was probably because they offered to buy me drinks.

           “Hey, it’s Konoha’s two first ladies,” Temari said with a grin when she saw Ino and I.  She looked like she was already a few drinks in.

           “The next person who refers to me as a female will die,” I said flatly.

           “Have a drink, Uchiha,” Temari said, putting a beer in my hands.

           I glared at her, but drank it anyway.

           “Still no first lady in Suna?” Ino asked, slinging an arm around my shoulder.

           I eyed her warily.

           “Gaara’s married to the village,” Temari said.

           “I think he and Jugo would make a cute couple,” Karin mused.

           “…what…?” I said.

           “I dunno, they’re both asexual little weirdos.”

           “Ha, they so are,” Temari said.

           “Why do women have to pair everyone off?”

           All of the girls glared at me.

           “What?” I complained.

           “Why did we invite him?” Ino murmured.

           “Because he’s cute,” Karin said.  “Give him another drink.”

           “Who the hell is cute?” I growled, accepting the drink and taking a long swallow.

           The girls mostly talked about politics and weaponry, interspersed with romantic gossip.

           It wasn’t so bad.  At least I was drunk.

           “Kakashi and Gai are not getting it on,” I said, waving my drink around.  “Kakashi is out of Gai’s league.”

           “Then why do they always act so weird when Sakura and I walk in on them somewhere?  Like they were caught in the act.”

           “Were they caught in the act?”

           “…no…”

           “Maybe they were just having a private conversation.”

           “About what?!”

           “Ninja stuff.  Private ninja stuff.”

           “Like how they’re doinking?” Ino asked.

           “They are not doinking!”

           “We’ll see.”

           “No one wants to see that!”

           “Actually, okay, you’ve got me there.”

           “I always thought Kakashi would go for Sakura,” Karin murmured.

           Ino and I both gave her horrified looks.

           “What?”

           “You are off Team Taka,” I muttered into my beer.

           “Like you could function without me.”

           I stuck my tongue out at her.

           All of the girls cracked up.

           I looked at them sourly.  I didn’t like them thinking that I was cute.  I liked being fearsome and mysterious.  It was proper and befitting of an Uchiha.  Being cute… that was just about the opposite.

           “So, Sasuke,” Temari said, leaning towards me. “What’s with you and Naruto?  Are you fighting?”

           “Why would we be fighting?” I asked, feeling defensive.

           “Well, he’s obviously not getting any…”

           Ino and Karin both covered their mouths, eyes wide.

           I wished I hadn’t drunk so much.  It was hard to school the emotion off my face. I was going for ‘blank mask’, but I think it came out more as ‘broken child’.

           “You really are fighting?” she asked, softening.

           “Girl, no,” Karin cut in.  “Sasuke’s new psych meds-”

           “You will not finish that sentence,” I growled, sharingan activated and ready-to-go.

           “Oh,” said Temari.  “Ohhh.”

           I was embarrassed and angry.

           “Sasuke, it’s not a big deal,” Karin said, ignoring my rage.  “I don’t want to have sex with Suigetsu all the time, and I don’t even have a medical excuse for it.”

           “Could it be because you’re dating Suigetsu?” Ino suggested with a snort.

           “We’re not dating,” Karin said, taking off her glasses and wiping them on her shirt.  “But okay, you have a point.”

           “You’re not dating?” Ino asked, cocking her head to the side.

           “We have an arrangement,” she answered clinically.

           “Uzumakis have strange taste in men, hey?” Ino said, poking me in the stomach.

           I was feeling slightly better now that Karin and Suigetsu’s ridiculousness had become the focus of the conversation, so I just scowled at her and went back to my drink.

           Karin and Temari started talking about keeping their men in line, so I tuned out.

           Ino patted me on the head, and I found myself leaning into her.  I spent a lot of time with her and Sakura after Naruto… left.  It was nice having her here, even though all I really cared about was seeing my nieces.

           “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked softly.

           “No,” I answered sharply.

           “Okay, but we all want to talk about it,” Karin cut in.

           “It’s true, I’m vaguely interested,” Temari agreed.

           “Talk about your own sex lives,” I growled.

           “We have been,” Karin said.  “Now we’re bored of it and want to talk about yours.”

           “It’s none of your business.”

           “It was the subject of the most popular book series in the ninja world since Icha Icha.”

           “That still doesn’t make it your business.”

           “I have to share a wall with you.  Do you know how many times I’ll be trying to fall asleep and all I can hear is, ‘oh, god, Naruto, yes, right there, yes, yes, yes!’”

           I glared at her to cover up my blush.

           “Karin, come on,” Ino said, giving me a worried glance.

           “No way, Sasuke’s been sulking for months about this, but he doesn’t have the common decency to fill in all the details.”

           “Oh, I’m so sorry, Karin, what would you like to know?” I asked, shooting death in her direction while staying cuddled with Ino.

           “Well, first of all, since you’re the bottom, why don’t you two just have sex anyway?”

           “Who the hell says I’m the bottom?!” I cried, turning redder.

           “Um, my eyes, every time I’ve ever walked in on you,” Karin said, waving off my protest like it was ridiculous.  “And also my ears, because have I mentioned, ‘ohhh, Narutooo, I want your big dick inside of meeee’?”

           “I have never fucking said that,” I growled. Which was mostly true.  “Fuck off,” I added for good measure.

           The main reason I didn’t like talking about my sex life was because people made assumptions about things.  Me taking dick seemed to equate to me being passive or feminine or some other kind of homophobic bullshit, when all it really meant was that I liked dick.  It wasn’t like I never topped, but Naruto was such a baby about it with his ‘ow, oh my god, stop’ nonsense that it wasn’t particularly enjoyable for either of us.

           “Sasuke, this might surprise you, but we all know that you’re gay,” Karin stage whispered.

           “That’s not the issue!” I snapped.  “I’m not the girl in the relationship.”

           “No one said you were,” Karin said, rolling her eyes.  “I said you were the bottom.  Is that not the politically correct word?  Do you prefer something else?  The receiver? The penetrate-ee?  Vestibule of the penis?”

           “How about you don’t say anything at all?” I muttered, too embarrassed to even be angry anymore.

           I realized that Ino was glaring at Karin over my head.

           Temari was enjoying her cigarette.

           I put both of my arms around Ino’s waist, resting my cheek against her full breasts.  I didn’t understand the sexual appeal of boobs, but they were a very comforting place to rest my weary head.

           Ino thumbed my cheek.  “You drank too much.”

           “I’m fine.”

           “Sure you are.”

           “Karin’s being mean to me.”

           “A little bit, yeah.”

           “I’m not being mean!” Karin interjected.  “I just don’t want to watch you keep spiraling.”

           “I’m not spiraling!  Why does everyone think that I’m losing it?  I haven’t heard a voice in my head for months!”

           “So you’re not depressed?  You’re not feeling distant from Naruto?  You’re not upset that you can’t go to Konoha and see Yurina and Tsubaki whenever you want?  You’re not anxious about Suigetsu restarting the Swordsmen of the Mist and leaving the Land of Wind behind?”

           “That last one is stretching it,” I muttered. “And I’m not depressed, I’m just… empty.”

           “That doesn’t sound any better.”

           I finally sat up, fumbling for my beer.  It tasted suspiciously watery.

           “Sasuke.”

           “Fine.  I get it. You’re right.  Everyone’s always right.”

           “I don’t want to be right, I just want you to take care of yourself.”

           “And I want to not be a fucked-up mess, but that never seems to work out.”

           “Sasuke.”

           “I don’t know what you want me to do.”

           “Well I figured if we talked a little, maybe you could figure out what you need for yourself.”

           I stared at her like she was an idiot.

           “Or something,” she added helpfully.

           “You just want entertainment,” I muttered, finishing my drink despite the lack of taste.

           “Yes, that, too.”

           I smiled a little.  It probably looked like a grimace.  I appreciated Karin’s honesty.  It made her more tolerable to me.

           Ino handed me another beer.  It also tasted suspiciously watery, but it relaxed me.

           “I didn’t think I’d ever even want to have sex in my life,” I mumbled, lighting a cigarette.

           Temari gave me a funny look, but Ino and Karin nodded knowingly.

           “Go onnn,” Karin encouraged.

           “I’m done.”

           “But it was just getting juuuuicy.”

           “How is admitting to not wanting to have sex juicy?”

           “Because then you became a total manwhore.”

           “I think sex is repulsive,” I said.  “And dirty.”

           “Isn’t that why it’s great?” Karin asked with an easy smile.

           We all cringed.

           I rested my cigarette against my mouth, fingers brushing my lips.  I waited, then took a drag.  I held the smoke in my lungs, blowing it out slowly.  “I guess what I want to say is that sex has never been sex with Naruto. It’s the only time that we don’t fight. Despite what you’ve read, obviously.   And it’s the only time we can both just completely shed these personas we have to wear all day.  It’s an important part of our relationship, and it’s been taken away from me, and I don’t know how to fill that loss.  So yes, I’m having trouble adjusting, but I’m not falling apart, and can you all just kindly fuck off?”

           “Yeah, sure, whatever,” Temari said with a shrug.

           “Consider me fucked,” Karin said.

           I grimaced.

           “Wait, wait, so if sex with Naruto isn’t sex, then what exactly is it?” Ino asked, getting a lecherous look on her face.

           “Don’t repeat any of this to the idiot,” I said, trying to glare her into submission.

           “But it was getting so poetic!” Ino said. “Too bad Hinata isn’t here.  I think she’s starting to run dry on fresh material.”

           That moved the topic of conversation away from me.

           We all crashed at Temari’s, and headed home the next morning.

           “Hey, Sasuke,” Ino said as we walked.  “I’m only gonna be here a couple more days, but I was thinking maybe we could go out to dinner with the girls?”

           “I’ll stay with the kids,” Karin put in.

           “Sure,” I said, looking between them.  It seemed like they’d already planned it.

           “And after dinner, why don’t we stay at that hot springs hotel at the edge of town?” Ino continued

           I could appreciate how they were trying to be subtle while at the same time completely failing at it.  I wanted to say something snippy, but I decided to be gracious instead.  “That would be nice.”

           “Okay, we’ll have to ask Naruto which day is good for him,” Ino said, giving me a wink and taking my arm.

           “Yeah,” I said.  “…thanks.”

           Ino stood up on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek.

 - 4 -

             I shifted on my elbows, staring at the decorative hotel headboard.  It was gaudy, and awful, and I hated it.

           “Nothing, Sas’?” Naruto asked from behind me.

           I sighed.

           “You want me to… keep going?”

           “No.”

           “I don’t mind.”

           “I’m so glad you don’t mind eating my ass.”

           “Well I don’t.”

           “Just stop already.”

           Naruto sat back, leaning tiredly on his arms.

           I continued to stare at the godawful headboard.

           “C’mere.”

           “No.”

           “How can I love on you if you’re all the way over there?”

           “Don’t come anywhere near me with that ass mouth.”

           Naruto let out a long-suffering sigh and got up. I heard him gargle in the bathroom before he came back, lying next to me and pulling me over to him.  “There are other ways to be intimate.”

           I took one look at his exhausted face and held in all my snips and sarcasm.  “Yeah,” I said, touching his face.

           Naruto grinned, rubbing his nose against mine.

           I felt like shit.

           Naruto was focused completely on me.  I knew that he was stressed out beyond belief, with the daimyo of the Land of Water threatening to stockpile bombss, and the raikage refusing to sign the new peace treaty in light of all the protestors against Naruto and Sakura’s reforms.  It seemed like the whole world was turning against him.  Then there were the other everyday problems, like the separation from his children, or his mentally insane partner.

         But Naruto put all of that aside, kissing me adoringly and asking, “What can I do for you, my gorgeous boy?”

           “No.”

           “My handsome gentleman caller.”

           I snorted.  “No.”

           “My Sasuke?”

           “Fine.”

           “Heh.  Mine,” he said, smothering me in affection.

           “Yours,” I said quietly, threading my fingers with his. “Mine,” I added, bringing his fingers to my lips.

           “Always,” he said.  His lips turned up in the softest smile.

           I curled into his chest so I wouldn’t have to look at him.

           Naruto started humming to himself, stroking my hair and pushing chakra through his fingers.

           I rested my hand on his chest, pushing back.

           “Hey, since we’re already naked and all, wanna take another bath?” Naruto asked suddenly.

           “We already took one…”

           “Hence the ‘another’.  We’re here at this nice hot spring, might as well enjoy it.”

           “That’s not what you want to do.”

           “Yeah, it is.  That’s why I suggested it.”

           “Naruto,” I said, putting a tingle into the chakra I was pushing into him.

           He gasped, eyes going half-mast.

           “Why don’t you do what you want to do?” I suggested, kissing his jawline.

           He tilted my face up, eyes crinkled with confusion.  “I am doing what I want to do.  I’m spending time with you.”

           “Ugh.”

           “Don’t ‘ugh’ at me!”

           “Let’s fuck, okay?  Let’s just fuck.”

           “I would love to, but you know.  It’s hard for me to keep it up when you’re acting like a dead fish.”

           I stared at him, trying to comprehend being called a ‘dead fish’.

           “I told you, it’s okay.  We can be intimate in other wa- holy shit, what are you doing.”

           “Sucking your dick,” I said, staring up at him from between his legs.

           “You don’t have to-”

           “Shut up!”

           Naruto blew air into his cheeks, keeping quiet.

           “I want to do this for you.  I want to.  And you want me to, too, right?”

           He hesitated.

           I breathed on him.

           He started nodding his head vigorously.

           “Then just be quiet and enjoy.”

           Naruto nodded again.

           I circled him with my hand, gripping lightly as I lowered my head.

           “Oh, fuuuuck,” he breathed out, grabbing my shoulder.  I felt his claws cut into my skin.

           I waited until our eyes met, his gone red, and then I moved.  I knew what Naruto liked, knew where to touch and how to use my tongue.

           It had been a while, and Naruto didn’t stand a chance.

           He forced my face into him as he came. “Holy shit.”

           “You needed that.”

           “Yesss,” he breathed out, petting the hair soothingly that he had been yanking.

           “So all that bullshit about there being other ways to be intimate?”

           “Lies.  Complete and utter lies.”

           “At least you’re finally being honest.”

           “I… yeah…  Okay, not having sex sucks.”

           “I’m sorry.”

           “It’s not your fault.”

           “Uh, yes, it actually is.”

           “Would it make you feel better if I blamed you?”

           “…yes…” I said quietly.

           “Fine, it’s all your fault.  You better blow me ten times a day to make up for it.”

           “Ten?”

           “Or eleven if you’re up to it.”

           I stared at him.

           Naruto smiled, touching my cheek.  “This was what I needed, sweetie, thank you so much.”

           “You’re thanking me for a blow job?”

           “Yes.  That should tell you something about the quality of your services,” he said, pulling me up to him so we could kiss.

           Naruto never cared if I had a mouthful of come.

           We kissed and cuddled for a while, before I decided I couldn’t stand it anymore and went to get ready for bed.

          Naruto followed.  He grinned at me in the mirror as we both brushed our teeth.  He looked… lighter, happier.

           It made me feel like shit.

           Sometimes I wondered why he didn’t just leave me. I knew that he could now.  I pushed him to it.  Before I tried to kill myself, he would never have left.  But I just kept pushing, trying to find the limit.

           I think our relationship was still alive because of that limit.  But it also made me feel insecure sometimes.  Like now.  Because Naruto could do better, so why didn’t he?

           “Don’t make that face,” Naruto said, poking me in the side.  “What else can we do with our kid-free night?  Oh, I know!  Let’s watch a movie!  With swearing and sexual content!”

           “Wow, Naruto, you really know how to go all out.”

           He stuck out his lower lip at me.  “When do we ever get to just watch a movie together?”

           “Whatever,” I said, stepping back into the room. “Pick out one that doesn’t suck.”

           “Of course!”

           We cuddled together in our hotel robes, watching a terrible action movie that Naruto insisted wouldn’t suck.  I didn’t really care.  It was fun to needle him.

           I tried to keep the self-doubt at bay.

           It was suffocating.

[rockleefangirl987]

All This...and Heaven Too: Chapter Three - The Welcome Party (part 1)

To @asplendidninja (who introduced me fully to the glories of Team Guy) and to @ten-all-over @sausage-fist@nejicanspin @fruitysmellz  @morganknightos@samlovesmaitogai @teacher-monica @shock777

From the Introduction:

There are many ways to tell a story.

This is one.

While some of the most common things become accepted canon, we don’t always agree, oftentimes forcing even The Creator of the signature work to admit ‘I was wrong,’ frustrating us to no end because now it is ‘set in stone’. Which is why we create alternate universes, to satisfy our hunger for...well, whatever the case, be it to right some wrong, give our hero or heroine satisfaction, or to complete a journey we felt was never satisfactorily finished.

This is another version...a tweaking...a difference here and there, some so minor, they may not be immediately noticeable.

Consider this a level of the multiverse, finite and infinite, each universe part of a vast assemblage and existing simultaneously, the numerous realities unaware of the other. Therefore at first glance, should you, in the reading of this account, discover something you believe a contradiction, recall this introduction and remember - this is only one version of the story and the lives entwined with it.

Disclaimer: The following story has been written with no intention of claiming ownership or solicitation, nor does the author claim the movie character(s) as his/her own. The character(s) have been borrowed solely out of a love of the particular series and movies and is not intended for any other purpose but amusement and entertainment.

Because - as time goes on - this story is going to become quite massive - I promise to post the Permalinks to each chapter. I know how it feels when you find a chapter to a story you’re enjoying, but you can never locate the rest of it. I hope this makes it easier for any of you that come into this after the Introduction. 

Introduction and Brief History - 

https://rockleefangirl987.tumblr.com/post/159618388822/all-thisand-heaven-too-introduction-and-a

Prologue - The Answer

https://rockleefangirl987.tumblr.com/post/159843490557/all-thisand-heaven-too-chapter-one-training

Chapter One - Training Day - Arrivals

https://rockleefangirl987.tumblr.com/post/159619445665/all-thisand-heaven-too-prologue-the-answer

Chapter Two - Renewed Alliances

https://rockleefangirl987.tumblr.com/post/160078980106/all-thisand-heaven-too-chapter-two-renewed

CHAPTER THREE - PART ONE:

Team Guy goes to a party.

Tenten gets her way.

Operation Hyuga begins.

Choji gets some loving.

Neji and Kathryn finally meet.

Tenten gets an offer she can’t refuse.

Might Guy makes a promise to Lee.

At staggered times to prevent possible traffic jams, and about a half-hour before the scheduled start for the Welcome Party, the complimentary wagons, and carts arranged by the Village started the guest conveyance to the Briton compound.

Tenten suggested her Team go the “old-fashioned” way, her logic being that they did walk on most of their missions, so why not take it “slow and easy” like normal people were doing, Shinobi included. After all, it was not a race for them to get there, however, should someone wish an upgrade to arrive in a more stylish fashion, several drivers were for hire for that purpose.

The owner of a pair of vivid brown eyes set sights on that specific mode of transportation the second she saw it.

“Tenten called it a suggestion,” Neji whispered to his teacher and Rock Lee while they watched Tenten seek out an available wagon, suitable enough for her (and them). “I call it subtle arm-twisting. I would have agreed to her idea anyway, but she didn’t have to be so rough about it.”

He rubbed his wrist, recalling Tenten’s grip as she had coyly told him, ‘Neji - you don’t really want me...I mean us to arrive and not look my...our best, right?’ And he remembered following her gaze to a wagon where Naruto - following a bit of nudging from Kakashi - was assisting Sakura in boarding, the pink-haired girl looking quite elegant.

Lee swallowed. “Arm-twisting? I thought her quite intimidating, Sensei, even more than normal.”

And he remembered following Tenten’s gaze over to a wagon where Sakura sat between Naruto and Kakashi, and how the pink-haired girl pulled out a compact to double-check her appearance. Tenten had growled, ‘Lee - you don’t really want us...me...us to arrive and not look my...our best, right? I mean, take to the trees? Who does that, right? We want our Team to look good. You don’t want us all hot and clammy, do you? You’d never suggest something like that to Sakura, would you?’

Lee groaned. “I am certain she has one of her kunai hidden underneath her dress - at least she indicated she did, even if I never saw it.  And I never suggested we travel as such, Sensei - she just assumed. Why would I want us arriving all ‘hot and clammy’ as she put it?  It is one thing to be threatened by an enemy, but by a fellow team member?”

“Lee!” Guy exclaimed. “You’re talking about Tenten, remember?”

“It might be Tenten, Guy-Sensei, but Lee’s right,” Neji insisted. “She’s blown it way out of context. I swear she would have held us all at kunai-point if we suggested we travel any other way than how she wants it.”

“Well, considering how she looks, do you blame her?” But his mind drifted a bit...

And Guy remembered Tenten walking up to him, blinking her eyes, and nodding towards the vehicle with Kakashi’s Team. ‘You know I admire you Guy-Sensei, and you’ve been such a wonderful teacher to all of us, and you are always right about things, but do you want Kakashi-Sensei to appear, well, chicer by upstaging us...uh, you? You see that? Kakashi-Sensei hired a nice cart for his Team. It looks amazing. Now we can take one of the free wagons - nothing wrong with that, but they might be a tad, oh I don’t know, bumpy, lumpy. Or we could get a nice cart like Kakashi-Sensei did. Wasn’t that…’

“Perhaps I overreacted,” Guy mumbled, hoping the girl did not spend every cent he gave her on their transport. It had not been a great deal of cash, but still...

“Sensei! Neji! Lee! Look! I found one!” The three turned to see Tenten waving at them with one hand, while the other motioned at the brand new wagon pulled by a sleek gray horse which might have descended from a champion thoroughbred. “He’s ours for the night, isn’t that great?! Don’t just stand there! Come on!”

“Well,” Might Guy sighed, as he and the others headed her way, “I hope she at least got us a deal.”     

Deal or not, Tenten obtained a lovely transport with excellent springs to prevent too rough a ride and spotless cushioned benches for their comfort. There were even clean blankets for use later that night on the return home after the weather had cooled. In the end, when the wagon glided past Team Kakashi, Guy tried not to appear too pleased as he gave his ‘good guy’ pose to his rival. In addition, his praise for Tenten’s bargaining skills was unending. 

It was a beautiful early evening, considering the morning started with thundershowers which threatened to ruin the day. During the ride, Might Guy regaled his students with a brand new story of a competition he and Kakashi had engaged in during the Games. It always tickled the three to imagine miniature versions of their Sensei and Kakashi, but it helped pass the time. About fifteen minutes after they departed the Village, the smooth ride concluded, the driver bringing the little wagon to a stop right at the boundary of the Briton encampment.

Moments later, they were back on Terra Firma, the young men assisting Tenten in stepping onto the ground, something which pleased her as it was nice to be treated like a lady. She was even more pleased when Lee said:

“Tenten, I have been wanting to tell you how pretty you look this evening.”

“Why thank you, Lee,” the girl replied, heat entering her cheeks.

As soon as the party was announced, she spent days shopping for a new outfit she prayed would flatter her feminine side as well as show how much more of an adult she had become. After what she felt had been her ‘maiden battle,’ going into a shopping war with every girl her age, she emerged victoriously and with something which - weeks later - still made her giddy in a girlish way whenever she pulled it from her closet.

“Lee’s quite right,” Neji commented. “The three of us are privileged to escort you.” He linked arms with her once they had alighted from their wagon. “You’re going to be the loveliest girl there.”

“Oh you guys,” she giggled, flattered and self-conscious. After all her earlier cajoling, she felt bad at almost becoming brutal to get her way. But it appeared her temporary ‘insanity’ was forgotten as well as forgiven, for Neji and Lee could not have been sweeter. It was nice to hear ‘the boys’ compliment her as they did, considering they normally saw her as their close fighting companion and a good friend.

Someone would have to be crazy to think I look like ‘one of the boys’ when I’m wearing THIS.

She glanced down at the bronze-colored, midriff-revealing blouse and the clingy silken matching skirt which flowed about her ankles. She even dared to do her hair in soft curls instead of her usual buns and decided that just once, she would wear a touch of cosmetics to celebrate the occasion.

Sakura and Ino are going to gag. Both of them were eyeing this outfit when I snatched it up right from under their noses. I can’t wait to see their faces!

It was Tenten’s turn to offer up the compliments. “And I think you two look pretty handsome too.”

Neji’s crisp knee-length, oyster-white tunic and the slender pants possessed a tailored fit. Instead of the loose flowing clothing he wore when training or on missions, the suit revealed his physique to perfection. Everything about him smelled of sandalwood, one of Tenten’s favorite scents.

She was also delighted Lee looked his best. Although it was a pair of his trademark green tights, they were brand new, as was the lighter green flak jacket worn over it. His black hair shined and was combed so that not one strand was out of place, and his bushy eyebrows had been smoothed so they appeared as under control as they could be. Each hand and wrist were swaddled in bright white tape without a single fray, and his leg warmers and sandals were pristine. And he smelled so good! Tenten smiled, imagining him layering the fragrance he wore from the moment he climbed into the shower.

Did Guy-Sensei teach him how to do that? Or maybe Neji did. Or maybe he read how to do it. Lee’s always curious about those kinds of little things. Well, whatever, he smells nice. Cardamon - mint - hmm...amber. You did good Lee! You did! You might not ever be as handsome as Neji, but you don’t care. As far as you’re concerned, you are the Village’s Handsome Devil. And she linked her free arm within one of Lee’s so that she was arm-in-arm with the two young men she admired.

Guy tipped the driver and received assurances that the man would wait for them until they were ready to return home - no matter how late the hour. (The Jonin also got the impression that Tenten may have done some more ‘arm-twisting’ and subtle ‘intimidation’ so the driver felt it best to keep his word). Afterward, Guy caught up to the three, just in time to hear their compliments to one another. He did his best not to cry, but he was sniffing as he followed his students.

“All of you are making me proud. I can’t believe how grown up you three are.”

The trio thanked him in unison, delighted they had earned their sensei’s approval in something outside of training.

The scent of roasted meat was the prevalent thing catching their attention when they first arrived, but they were able to take in everything else as they passed through Briton security and were permitted to enter the main compound. Although the official sunset would not be for several more hours at that time of year, shielded torches were already lit, their golden hue dotting the landscape. White fairy lights draped the structures erected for the party, so once it was dark, the illumination would appear like stars come to Earth. Everything had been designed for the comfort of the attendees, whether they were inside or outside, so there were immense tents, temporary gardens with benches and fountains, as well as greenery and floral arrangements constructed in a way which felt a natural part of the scenery.

Off in the distance, they could see the dirigibles tethered into place, and the reality of how enormous they were became more apparent.

“What did I tell you?” Guy told the group. “Amazing aren’t they? I’ll have to see if they’ll allow us onboard one day.”

Music and singing could be heard in three of the four tents in use, and the aroma of fresh baked bread and pastries, as well as various meats, became more pronounced.

“So Tenten, we’ll leave it up to you,” Might Guy told her, smiling down at her. “Which tent do you want to try first?”

“Decisions, decisions,” she said with a lighthearted smile. This might be one of the few times they would have an opportunity to relax and enjoy themselves, so why not be a little playful and use those so-called ‘feminine wiles’. “Okay, how about...that one?” She nodded towards the smallest structure. “I swear I smell...”

“Chocolate?” Neji asked, tickled to see Tenten grin in agreement.

“Oh good, I’m not crazy!”

The tent, in fact, was considered the ‘dessert tent’ according to one of the staff, and after entering Team Guy could see why. Table after table was laden with sweets of every kind: confections, hard candies, and other chocolates were fashioned into all types of intricate shapes; dozens of puddings, cakes, pies and pastries in numerous flavors; cupcakes were on tiers, chocolate covered fruit and truffles were displayed in refrigerated cases, and fountains of dark chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate had been erected in a triangular formation near the center.   

“Chocolate!” Tenten, Lee, and Neji said at once.

“Have you ever seen…” Tenten shook her head. I’m getting fat just looking at all of this.

“No and I would have no idea where to begin,” Lee commented. The Village saw chocolates at special holidays, but to see it in such abundance was breathtaking.

Not a lot of people had discovered the tent yet. Among the ones present was a small group of prepubescent males, and they had gathered around something fascinating, giggling as they pointed.

“What are they…” Neji started to say, but Tenten had already broken away to find out on her own.

The kids were startled when she came up behind them and greeted them with “Hello there, boys. What’s up?” so their answers were not immediate. When she returned to her Team, she was shaking her head in amazement while the boys sprinted away.

“Guy-Sensei,  remind me one more time how I lucked out and got these two?” She smiled at Lee and Neji.

“What were they looking at?” Neji asked.

Tenten groaned. “Boys can be so stupid. They found some chocolate candies over there that are…” She rolled her eyes, but Guy was already laughing.

“Are they flesh-colored with a single brown dot?” Guy asked, and when Tenten nodded, he explained, “They had them here the last time and they were popular and delicious. The Britons call them Nipples of Venus. Venus was the name of some ancient goddess.”

Tenten groaned again. “You have got to be kidding?”

Lee and Neji snickered until they saw Tenten’s annoyed expression.

“Idiots,” she muttered as she turned to go. “I’m surrounded by idiots.” She stopped long enough to drool over a series of beautiful cupcakes then motioned to her Sensei and teammates. “Well, are you three coming or not?” The men laughed as they followed.

The incident was forgotten by the time they started their tour of the other tents. Tenten, however, was emphatic: she could not resist returning to the desserts at some point.

Each facility became more crowded as the Villagers continued to arrive and the Britons were on hand to mingle, but even then there was never a time when the person felt claustrophobic. The hosts had gone out of their way to ensure that everyone has a sense of comfort. They did not want the biggest problem to be where to sit or how not to step on someone’s toes. The ‘major’ concern should be what dish or drink to try next, or what entertainment they wanted to enjoy.

Team Guy felt an overload of emotions from the friendly, welcoming atmosphere. Although Guy enjoyed commenting on the various similarities and differences between the present-day and the celebrations of two decades before, each area, even each corner provided a new revelation for them.

It was one reason why they were not surprised when they ran into Naruto and Sakura. After they all spoke of how wonderful things were thus far, the blue-eyed, blonde Ninja gave them a bit of news.

“You’ll never guess where I found Grandma Tsunade,” Naruto told them as he laughed, taking another gulp of his punch.

“Naruto...” Sakura shook his arm as if issuing a warning.

“Sakura, you almost made me spill my drink. But guess where I found her? She’s playing craps in one of the side rooms with some of the Brits and some of our people!”

“Naruto!” Sakura warned again although it was too late.

Neji, Tenten, and Lee exchanged glances as they smiled. After all, everyone knew of the Fifth Hokage’s weaknesses, and if her form of entertainment at the party was gambling, then so be it.

For the rest, they all hoped it would prove a night of marvelous surprises.

Without announcement, the Marshall siblings entered the main tent and were surrounded by fellow Britons as well as Villagers, all of whom greeted them with bows, curtseys, and handshakes. The formalities of the parade were set aside, so all those witnessing their arrival saw the Queen’s cousins at their most casual as they mixed with the guests.

The relaxed situation gave Kathryn an idea. Upon hearing her suggestion for them to initiate a more personal exchange with the people of Konoha, her brothers and sister prepared to dive in with their typical enthusiasm. The four joined a number of officers and noncommissioned in a lively Ronde accompanied by music from the Briton Renaissance. Before long, a few Villagers found themselves swept into the activity whether they had intended involvement or not. The plan, however, worked to perfection, and soon enough, people were clapping along or attempting to learn the steps.

Overjoyed at the reaction, Harry tossed his jacket to Michael, shouted “Hold this, will you, Mike” and ran to the center of one set of Britons and guests. To the amazement of those able to see, Harry squatted and was skillfully kicking out his legs in an impromptu version of a Russian Trepak. Not to be outdone, Tessa joined him, performing a Galliard around him, the dexterous steps and leaps revealing her athleticism was not only in the field.

Due to the massive amount of cheering once the dance ended, no attempt was made to speak in normal tones. That was when a sportive Michael hand-signalled Kathryn’s staff, a motion they recognized. From his standpoint, the perfect opportunity had arisen for all in attendance to view his sister in yet another light, to reveal the devotion her dedication to service had earned her. If the Hyugas desired more reason to see her benefits, this exercise would suffice.

To Kathryn’s astonishment, several adjutants hoisted her onto their shoulders, laughing when she squealed and gripped them to steady herself. The chant began, low at first and then, like a wave undulating towards shore, gathered momentum until every Briton present turned to join in.

‘Valkyrie! Valkyrie! Valkyrie!’

They stomped.

‘Valkyrie! Valkyrie! Valkyrie!’

They clapped to the rhythm of the syllables.

A few let loose with a full-throated ‘Ho-jo-to-ho! Ho-jo-to-ho!’ whether they could carry a tune or not. The tent reverberated with their celebration.

The majority of Leaf Villagers did not understand what brought about the jubilation, so while some sought a quick explanation, a number of others shrugged, smiled and joined in the salute. They only knew the young woman from her appearance at the parade, but she made such an impression, the citizens decided that whatever this ‘Valkyrie’ or ‘Ho-jo-to-ho’ was, the Britons were showing how much they loved and respected her.

A blushing Kathryn was paraded about, her glee revealed by a smile as she reveled in the unexpected salute. At one point as they passed Michael, she called out, “You did this.” His response made her roll her eyes, for he placed a hand to one ear, shook his head and mouthed ‘What? What did you say?’ while wearing a mischievous grin.

The noise died down once the Captain was placed on a stage where she could better see the crowd and they had a clear view of her. Catching her breath, she thanked everyone for coming and hoped they were having a good time. “As you can see,” she joked, “we tend to break out into a celebration at the slightest notice, so forgive us that.”

The Villagers chuckled and applauded.

The little greeting complete, she accepted a stein of ale from her aide-de-camp. The facility went silent, the attendees awaiting Kathryn's next words. She raised the container, held it out towards the audience, and after some consideration proclaimed, “I drink to all those who came before us! I drink to all those who follow, that they be worthy! I drink to the glories of Valhalla and I drink to the renewal of the Alliance!” Kathryn’s voice lowered, her eyes scanning the beaming faces of her fellow warriors. “I drink to you, my glorious band of brothers and sisters. Know that I am proud to serve at your sides!”

And with a shout of ‘Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!’ the party returned to normal.    

For Kathryn, it had been a pleasant reprieve to have danced so everyone, Briton and Villager alike, knew this was a down-to-earth gathering and not a regal court function. To be saluted in such a fashion - it was nice.

But uppermost in the minds of the four Marshalls was the official beginning of what they referred to among themselves as ‘Operation Hyuga’. From that duty, there would be no escape.

“So which is Hanabi and which is Hinata?” Harry asked as he studied the Hyuga sisters, tugging his jacket back on and giving himself a quick once-over. He was unsure what he expected, even after scrutinizing the Intelligence reports on the Hyuga clan. Until now, his opinions had been based on cold hard data, not on the actuality of seeing either one in the flesh. It was difficult to fathom the reasoning behind the eldest daughter, Hinata, being removed as heiress-presumptive and the younger sister installed as a replacement, but when it came to family politics, one never knew.  

“The one on the left is Hinata,” Michael told him.

Kathryn nudged Tessa, the two rushing away while they had the opportunity.

Meanwhile, Harry’s response was an astonished smile. “She’s lovely,” he whispered. “By God, she’s absolutely lovely. I never imagined...” What did it matter whether she was an heiress or not?  “Would you uh...Would you care to introduce us then, Mike? I’m eager to meet her.” His older brother placed an arm around his shoulders so as to guide him to where the Hyuga patriarchs and the sisters stood with a few of the Briton nobles.

“You can’t stay away from them forever,” Tessa joked, she and Kathryn hurrying for another side of the tent. They wound their way through the guests, welcoming them as they did.

“I know, but I’m going to do my best,” Kathryn said, glancing over her shoulder to see how much distance had been placed between her, Michael and the others.

“Well, Harry seems game.”

“Our brother is always game when it comes to a pretty face.”

“That’s true, but I hope he doesn’t lay on the charm too thick, at least not at the start. I was watching her for just a couple of seconds, Kathryn, and she looks shy. I mean very shy. I don’t want Harry to send her running for her life.”

“Michael’s with him. He’ll keep him under control.”

“I hope.” Whatever else Tessa was going to say froze on her tongue as her eyes and smile sparkled in anticipation. “Kathryn, do you mind?” she asked.

“What?”

“Remember that boy I told you about? The one I saw in the crowd?”

“Yes, why? Do you see him?” Kathryn craned her neck with the hope of seeing for herself. Tessa had not quit speaking of him the entire time they were preparing for the party.

“I see him.” The young sergeant smoothed her dress and jacket, then used her fingers to brush her hair.

“Kitten, you look fine. Go ahead.”

“Okay, okay. Look, I’m sorry to leave you like this.” She was already on the move.

“Just go!”

“I’ll catch you later. Try to have some fun!” Tessa was swallowed up within the guests as she rushed away.

Kathryn smiled, recalling her little sister’s excitement as the girl wondered whether he might be present at the party. Try to have some fun. I had hoped to, but...I guess I’ll see. I envy her being able to still have that freedom. Well, I had it too, until certain people got it into their damn noggins to...Okay, stop it. I agreed to this foolishness. I might as well see it through...Oh, Kitten, you’re at such a wonderful age. Your first romance. Well, I hope it’ll be. I just wish I’d had a chance to see this young man. Tessa said he was on the heavy side, but not much else. Maybe I’ll...

“Your Ladyship?”

The Captain turned at the sound of her aide-de-camp’s voice. “Alanna.” It was the one time she regretted seeing her efficient administrative assistant.

“Excuse me, My Lady, but Lord Michael asked me to find you. He wishes for you to join him. He has located Neji Hyuga and thought it would be nice if both of you greeted him.”

Kathryn took a deep breath, her stomach knotting. What did Tessa say? Try to have some fun? I’m afraid that is going to be a little harder than I thought. “Thank you, Alanna. If you would please take me to my brother.”

Hands clasped in anticipation of the evening to come, Ino spun in one spot, surveying the tent’s magnificent interior. This was more enchanting than she could have hoped for: the lights, the spectacle - she felt like the often spoken of ‘kid in a candy store,’ as well as a princess in some story her father might have amused her with at bedtime. And the men, it was almost too much. Her entire life had been spent around the likes of Shikamaru and Choji, or Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Rock Lee, Shino and in recent times Sai. Of course, there had also been the one for whose affections she and Sakura had fought over...

But comparing those adolescents to the likes of these Briton males who came of every age, every color, every size and shape, each one oozing sensuality and godlike handsomeness. There was no comparison! Ino felt ready to overdose on her excitement. It was a choice between cheap conveyor belt sushi, the same plates spinning around until someone realized the products were past the expiration date; or being waited on at a table, while the finest and greatest sushi chef in the world prepared Fugu Sashi!

What a comparison. Briton men and Fugu Sashi. Beautiful, potentially lethal. I could still eat up every single one of them. And I'd want...

“Earth to Ino!”

She groaned, looking over at the bored Shikamaru and Choji, the latter munching on something or other. “What?” How could the not-so-godlike Shikamaru interrupt her magnificent fantasy?

“Look, it's a drag standing here watching you drool over every Briton man you see. Choji’s not enjoying it. I’m not enjoying it. I want to see what else is happening.” Shino and Kiba had told him there were female dancers entertaining in another tent, dancers who could move their bodies with amazing finesse, whether on the ground or in the air. He was not going to miss that for, well, for this!

“And I'm dying of hunger!” Choji exclaimed. The last of the hors d'oeuvres he snatched from a sterling tray were rammed into his mouth.

Ino’s eyes narrowed. “You're always dying of hunger. And Shikamaru, you, I thought you'd be more sympathetic to what I'm going through here.”

The shadow-Nin looked astonished. “Be more...How can I be ‘more sympathetic’ about you trying to decide which of these guys you’d like to...”

“Watch it Shikamaru! Don't go there.”

“I was going to say, you'd like to take home to Mommy and Daddy.”

“Yeah? Well, anything’s better than you two pieces of imitation crab meat.”

Choji looked at his best friend. He knew he and Shikamaru stayed in a running battle with the sole female of their group, but to be compared to a cheap piece of seafood, and fake seafood at that! “Why did Ino just call us imitation crab meat?” he grumbled.

“Because Choji, she's delusional when she’s hunting down good-looking men.”

Ino turned red. “I'm...”

“Pardon me. Hello!” A sweet voice came out of nowhere.

The trio was startled to find the beautiful Tessa standing before them, a charming smile on her face. She did a quick curtsey as an introduction.

“I’m Tessa Marshall. Welcome to our party,” she greeted, wishing she had arrived before the ‘imitation crab meat’ portion of the conversation! That was hysterical and she couldn’t imagine what brought on such an outburst!

Shikamaru decided to speak first since it was normal to find himself as the unenthusiastic leader of the three. “Lady Tessa,” he said, recalling her numerous titles from the announcement at the parade. “Good evening, yeah hi. We saw you during the parade.”

“Did you?” So they were paying attention. I wonder if he...“That’s wonderful. I’m glad you were there. I hope you had an enjoyable time.”

“We did thanks.”

“And I’m sorry, but you are...”

“I’m Shikamaru Nara. Glad to meet you, Lady Tessa.”

“It’s very nice to meet you as well.” He’s so thin, she thought. Nice looking but thin.

There was a pause. Throats were cleared. Shikamaru sighed. What a drag. Guess I’ll have to do all of the introductions. Choji looks like he’s going to hurl, and Ino’s too busy eyeballing the Sergeant’s outfit. “This is Ino Yamanaka.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mistress Ino.” Tessa reached over, giving the blonde a warm, unexpected embrace. “Welcome to our party.”

Ino stuttered, “Oh...uh, oh, thank you. Thank you very much for having us, My Lady. It’s all wonderful, just wonderful.”

“Well, we’re thrilled to have you.” Tessa concentrated on the last person of the group, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. Here she was: a decorated legionnaire in her archery division and an officer to boot, but she was tense about an introduction to the young man who captured her fancy. “And...this is...” she started, hoping to encourage him to say something, anything.

Choji gulped.

“This is Choji Akimichi,” Shikamaru said since his friend was too overwhelmed to speak.

“Welcome, Choji Akimichi.” Tessa dipped another curtsey.

“Hello,” he whimpered. Shikamaru shoved him in the ribs and Choji added, “Uh...nice to meet you, Lady...Sergeant...Sergeant Lady...Lady Tessa.” He was glad he had finished eating. He would have been embarrassed for her to see him devouring something.

“You may call me Tessa.”

Shikamaru and Ino ceased to exist.

“Alright...Tessa.” Choji shivered when the girl stepped close enough for him to smell her flowery perfume, the cream-colored gown giving her an angelic quality.

“I wonder Master Akimichi.” Tessa gave a coy smile. “Would you care to see what we have cooking outside in the smokers and on the grills? The pigs have been roasting all day and...”

Choji’s eyes lit up. He was excited this beautiful girl was paying him attention - and she was adding such a succulent dish to the equation?! “Roasted pigs?!” Tessa nodded. “All you can eat?”

Tessa laughed. How cute! “Of course all you can eat. Everything we’re serving is all you can eat.”

“I would love for you to show me, Lady Tessa! I mean...Tessa. And you can call me Choji.” He accepted a hand, glancing back once to flash a goofy grin before Tessa guided him away.

There was a pause, then...

“What just happened?!” Ino exploded, googling at the pair. A few guests briefly looked her way then returned to what they were doing. “What...just... happened?! She's royalty. Or about as close to royalty as I may get in a while! Shikamaru?!”

“What?!” He was still staring after Choji and Lady Tessa.

“What just happened?!”

“How do I know?” he responded, shrugging. “It’s all a drag. She likes Choji. You saw that during the parade. And he seems to like her. And on top of that, you know he loves roasted pork as much as he loves barbecued beef. For him, this is the ultimate combination.” Who would have thought it? I think that pretty girl’s got the hots for Choji. Hope none of them start thinking about me. Dating’s just way too much work. “Now if you'll excuse me. There's another tent with my name written all over it. Have fun with your...uh...whatever.”

Once outside the main tent, Choji - an animated Tessa as his guide - zigzagged the small groups milling and wandering about, the couple heading in the direction of the grills and smokers constructed at a distance so the smoke would not become a nuisance. He sniffed the air, allowing his lungs to fill with the fragrant mixtures of hickory, applewood, mesquite, and oak, anticipation growing in his eyes as he looked about. He came close to running into several individuals, saved due to his companion quickly moving him out of the way, but his senses were overloaded: with aromas, with the visual display the Britons had created, with her. The world around him was filled with multiple diversions.

On occasion, he would give the young sergeant an incredulous look, see her smile, then duck his head in embarrassment, unsure how to react, the round cheeks turning crimson. At this point, he felt confused. Unlike in the past, the scent of barbecue did not seem as crucial, not as crucial as whatever perfume Tessa Marshall wore.  

“See? What did I tell you?” Tessa announced, lightly touching his right arm to indicate he should look.

Choji’s mouth dropped. Long folding tables covered in green linen and white linen appeared endless, each one brimming with silver warming trays, platters, and cold stations. Barrels and bottles of wine, ales, liquors and other beverages were as prominently displayed as the roasted pig serving as the centerpiece on one stand. Despite the temptation to linger, stare and point at the variety of items, the organized queue of Villagers and Britons moved quickly, even when finding it difficult to choose. A few servers cut and carved the pieces of meat, poultry, and seafood while others dished out the accompaniments.  

“Did I die and go to Heaven?” he whispered. At this point - had he been with Shikamaru and Ino, or those with whom he felt comfortable - drool would have been visible at the corners of his mouth. Somehow he avoided that, knowing a pair of hazel eyes were on him.

“Did you…?”

“Did I die and go to Heaven?” he repeated,

“No. Why?”  

“Because I’m here.”

“Yes.”

“With you.”

Tessa smiled. “Yes,” she said again, praying she didn’t sound as nervous as she felt.

“And...that.” A shaky finger pointed at the layouts.

“Yes!”

“And it’s got to be a dream because you’re beautiful and there’s all that beautiful meat...and…” Had he compared this lovely girl to all this succulent meat? But she was grinning, not seeming to take exception. “I’m sorry. It’s just that Shikamaru...he’d tell me I’m not making any sense and…”

“Well,” Tessa’s brisk manner of speech was even more pronounced, “Master Nara’s not here and you know, he might not blame you anyway. Go ahead and think whatever you like, whether it makes sense or not.”

Choji gave a firm nod of the head. “You’re right.”

“And I think we should fix a plate for ourselves, don’t you?” She tucked one arm within his closest. Despite being taller than many fifteen-year-olds, she felt tiny beside him. “I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Kathryn kept telling me I ought to have a bite of something after we returned to camp, but I was so excited. About everything, you see. I’ve been in parades before, but never anything this historic.”

“Are you in a lot of parades?”

“A few. Special occasions like the Queen’s birthday or the Prince Consort’s birthday - that’s her husband. And of course we had massive celebrations when my cousin, the little Princess, was born because no matter how many brothers and sisters she has, she’s the oldest and she’ll be Queen someday. But I must be honest.”

“What about?” Choji was uncertain what he was about to be told.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect because I only know of Konoha from all the stories I’ve heard from my family who came here years and years ago.”

“So how did you feel?”

“I was nervous, you see. All the strangers. But everyone was so kind when we rode in. You can’t imagine how happy it made me seeing your children waving at us and people were smiling and...It was nice. It was nice of all of you to make us feel welcome. I heard a few people call to Michael that he resembled Papa and I thought it was awfully sweet of them. My parents told me it’d be this way.”

“Oh, well, it was nothing.”

“Nothing?! Oh no, Choji. It meant a lot to us - to Kathryn, Michael, Harry and me. Then I looked into the crowd and I saw you and...Well, I’m glad you made it.”

“So am I, Your Ladyship.”

Groaning, Tessa rolled her eyes. “You’re not back to that again, are you?” she teased. “I told you. Call me Tessa.”

“Tessa.”

“My Lady!” They were greeted by one of the servers. “How may I help you?”

Tessa cocked her head. “Hmm...I think I’ll try the grilled chicken and the brisket with a little of the cole slaw. Oh! Some pickles and whatever else you think would go with that.” She leaned towards Choji and softly said, “I can always get more. Sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach.”

“And you sir?”

“Huh?” Choji realized he was being spoken to during his analysis of the contents of each dish and bowl. He didn’t know where to start because most of it was foreign to what he knew.  “Oh, I’m...I don’t…” This was the first time in his life he had been at a loss for words when it came to food.

“My friend,” Tessa suddenly said, “will have some of the suckling pig, a turkey drumstick, oh and some smoked brisket. Do you like salmon, Choji? It was caught fresh and frozen for the journey, but it’s still excellent.”

“Salmon? Sure.”

“He’ll have a piece of salmon too. I really think we might need a couple of trays to hold everything because he’s going to want sides along with that. And don’t be stingy.” Smiling up at him she added, “He wants a hearty sampling of all our Briton fare.”

Choji emitted a delighted sigh and answered, “What she said.”

A few minutes later, they were sitting on one of the picnic blankets made available for those wishing the full outdoors experience.

Tessa dabbed a napkin to her lips, looking over to where Choji had cleaned the drumstick of all its’ dark meat and was now biting off a slice of brisket, doing his best to keep the juices from dripping on him. “So Choji Akimichi…”

Choji stopped in mid-action, put down his chopsticks and smiled at her. She resembled a dream, the layers of her dress spread out around her like a cloud, although the draping revealed a pretty pair of stockinged legs. Shaking himself back to reality he responded, “Yes, Tessa?”

“Tell me about yourself. Are you a Ninja? If so, what rank are you? Genin? Chunin?”

“You know about that? Our rankings?”

“Of course I do. Good Lord. I’ve been hearing about Ninjas my whole life. I’ve heard about Ninjas as often as I did hobbits and elves and dwarves and wizards and...” On seeing his puzzlement, she paused, shaking her head in amazement. “Choji! You’ve never heard of hobbits?”

“I don’t think we’ve ever run into them before. Who are they?”

“Oh!” She didn’t tease him at not recognizing the fictional characters, but instead, her eyes widened and without realizing, she excitedly shook his hands. “Oh, Choji, you don’t know what you’ve missed! They’re these little…” Somewhat embarrassed at getting carried away, Tessa let go. She needed to be calmer, like Kathryn, but sometimes the Marshall passion was too overwhelming in all of them. Pushing back the bowler hat from where it had slid over her forehead, she took a deep breath. “You know what? It can wait. It’s not important right now. But I’d love to tell you someday if you think you’d be interested.”

“Well, I like hearing about other people. Sure, Tessa. Sounds like it might be fun.”

“Great. And you’re right. It will be. I think you’ll enjoy hearing about them. And it’s funny, but Ninjas in training sort of remind me of this series of books with these make-believe wizards that attend this school and…” She shook her head again. “I’m rambling. Sorry. I tend to do that.”

He looked understanding. “When you’re nervous?”

“When I’m...Yes. Sometimes. Kathryn���s the same although you’d never know it. Now. Ninjas. I keep getting side-tracked.”

“You said you’ve heard about Ninjas?” He went back to eating.

“Right, yes.” She motioned with her hands, causing her to laugh while Choji watched, wondering what she was attempting to do. It wasn’t long before he, too, chuckled. “Hand signs or something, am I right?”

“Or something? Yeah, I guess you can say that. Sorry, I laughed.” He hoped she didn’t take offense, but Tessa was laughing harder, placing her hands over her face.

“I know I must have looked idiotic doing all that.” She flailed her hands again. “Anyway, you know what I mean.”

“Sure I did.” Another bite finished up the brisket and he began to munch on a selection of salads Tessa had suggested. “These are good.”

“I told you you’d like them.”

“Oh! Chunin.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m a chunin. Haven’t been one for that long though. Shikamaru and Ino - we all made it together.”

“Well, congratulations then.”

“Thanks. They’re part of my team.”

“Oh, okay!”

“We’ve all been together for years.”

“That’s nice. So you know how one another works then?”

He tried not to laugh as he thought of his numerous adventures with his teammates. “I guess we do.”

“That’s very important for teamwork. You need to have a flow to it all or it falls apart.”

“Shikamaru and I do for sure. We were friends long before we were genin.”

“Really?" she asked, layering her brisket between a small ciabatta bun so as to make a sandwich.

"Yep. I even remember the day we became friends. My dad was with us. I had some chips."

"Chips, chips. Oh! You must mean crisps."

"Is that what you call them - crisps?"

"Mm-hmm. We call chips Gaulish Fries."

"Gaulish Fries?"

"In fact, they should have some up there with the other sides. When we go back, we'll have to get some. I'm sorry though. You said you and Shikamaru became friends..."

"Oh, we became friends over a bag of chips." He looked upwards and then back at Tessa, noting an expression of wonderment on her face as if she was imagining that moment. "We watched the clouds and ate chips. It was a good day."

"I’ll bet! And that must make him a very special friend then.”

“Yeah, he sure is.”

“He seemed nice. Mistress Ino too. Mmm. I saw you all together. At the parade, I should say. I’m guessing you were with your families. I saw the one gentleman near you, and I figured that must be your father because you resemble.”

Choji nodded. “That was him, yeah. You noticed that much, huh?”

“I have to,” she proudly told him. “You have to be vigilant and study things, even when something catches your eye. My parents and teachers taught me that. And you can’t afford distractions or you’ll miss the mark. I’m an archer, so that’s key. I’m still kicking myself for slowing my horse,” she grumbled.

Choji almost said he saw her do that, but knew the admission would make Tessa scold herself more. “You slowed your horse?”

“You didn’t catch it?  Michael, Harry and Kathryn said nobody noticed or cared, but it’s not like me, so if you didn’t see it, then good. Perhaps no one else did either.”

Lowering his head, Choji softly said, “So...I’m...I’m guessing something caught your eye, huh?”

Tessa shrugged, taking up a forkful of salad. “Yes, I suppose it did.” Her voice had grown softer.

Another bite. He looked thoughtful as he chewed, and on swallowing asked, “Tessa?”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why did you wave at me?”

“Why did I…?” She stared at him, shocked at what she had heard. “You mean you don’t know?”

“I...No,” he squeaked. “Should I?”

Putting aside the plate and utensils, Tessa gave Choji a steady gaze, deciding whether she should do what was on her mind. She recalled her observations of Kathryn’s steadiness whenever the older sibling experienced a romance, admiring her sister’s temperament and wishing to emulate it. But she often wondered how Kathryn had such control when she fell in love, to be romantic and yet composed. Because Tessa’s heart was beating with uncontrolled desire, pumping so loud she feared Choji would hear it. This was happening quicker than the younger Marshall expected, but she couldn’t help it.

Her fingers stroked one side of his red hair. “Because you are quite possibly one of the most handsome boys I’ve ever seen.”

“Huh? What did you…?” His chest rose and fell with each quickening breath. Gulping, he hoarsely asked, “What did you say?”

Tessa’s response was to smile, lean forward and kiss him on the cheek. When she looked at him again, a broad smile was on Choji’s lips. Tessa settled back, took up her plate and said, “Now, tell me more about yourself, Choji.”

“And there he is.” Michael nodded in the direction his sister should look, and Kathryn moved so she could observe without bringing overt attention to herself. “Do you see him?”

“Yes.” A small group comprised of an older man, two younger ones, and a young woman stood near a table laden with decorative fresh fruit displays. They were in the middle of an animated conversation as they laughed, pointed, and stretched their necks to better see. “He resembles Lady Hinata and Lady Hanabi, doesn't he?” In fact, she was amazed at how similar in appearance the Hyuga clan was, no matter how close or distant their relationships.

“It’s those eyes. Makes them all distinctive, along with the facial features. So...what do you think?” Michael smiled as Kathryn shrugged, pleased that otherwise, she offered no objection to the individual she was seeing.

“He’s...not unattractive. The rumors got something right for a change.”

“Will you meet him then?” he asked, keeping the eagerness out of his voice. The way Kathryn was situated, Michael could see over her shoulders. This meant he had an excellent view of the Earl of Derby and several more among the Briton peerage making odd facial expressions at him, attempting to ascertain the Captain’s reaction based on what they saw of Michael’s.

Kathryn, meantime, rolled her eyes, sighing. “Do I have a choice?”

“Of course you do.”

“Of course I do,” she muttered, performing a dumbed-down impression of her brother. “Sorry,” but Michael was laughing. “So other than Might Guy and Master Hyuga, who are the others?” She had met Guy and his fellow Jonin, Kakashi Hatake when they came to Briton to finalize the agreement with Queen Elizabeth.

“The young lady is called Tenten,” Michael recited from his memory of the reports, “and the other young man is...”

“His son? Might Guy’s son?”

“No.”

“No?” Kathryn shook her head, astonished. How was it possible two individuals were unrelated and resembled one another that much? “You’re certain?”

“That’s what I was informed. His name is Rock Lee and him, Mistress Tenten and Neji Hyuga have been students with Might Guy for years.”

“Incredible. I mean, they...could they not be father and son?”

Michael chuckled. “Oh I agree, but our sources claim they share no common bloodline.” He bent closer to his sister. “Seems their common bond are those eyebrows.”

Kathryn winced. “Michael! That’s awful. Neither can help how they look.”

He regretted the comment the moment he uttered it. Had one of the officers under his command said anything similar, Michael knew he would have dressed them down as being rude and unprofessional. And here he was breaking his own code. “You’re right...of course you’re right. We both have heard Might Guy is a powerful warrior. I should show him more respect than I just gave him. And I know nothing of the boy to tease him that way. So, are you ready?”  

“Ready?” It was as though she had forgotten ‘Operation Hyuga’, but reality returned and her eyes grew despondent. “Oh yes, ready. Yes, of course. Time to throw me into the lion’s den.” Kathryn linked arms with Michael, and together they approached the four as Guy was speaking to his pupils.

“And it was right then that they...Captain Marshall!” Upon seeing the siblings, he stopped his talk and struck a regal pose as he bowed to the pair. “Lieutenant Marshall!”

“Sir, it’s an honor to make your acquaintance again,” Michael said, shaking the Jonin’s hand. It was his way of apologizing for his earlier attempt at humor.

Kathryn made a curtsey. “Might Guy, it is good to see you again, although I was uncertain if you would remember me. I was one of so many when you visited us.”

While Guy smiled, his students glanced at one another, amazed that their teacher managed such control over his emotions when before, each mention of the Britons brought him to the brink of tears. “Of course I would remember you, My Lady. Although you and your brother were part of the Queen’s security detail, you could not have shown strangers a greater kindness than you did while Kakashi and I were there.”

Michael answered, “Well, it’s good to see you under more informal circumstances, and you are most welcome here.” And now we wait to see who makes the first move as far as the additional introductions. “I hope you're all having a good time. It's just a tiny way of showing our own appreciation. We have heard of Konohagakure all our lives. It’s wonderful to see it at last.”

Guy beamed at the words. “We are happy to welcome you and your people. It has been too long. Oh My Lady, Lieutenant. I beg your pardon: these are my students. This is Neji Hyuga.”

It begins. Kathryn gave a slight curtsey, her focus never once leaving Neji’s face as she analyzed his pale features in closer detail. He, too, studied her with those amazing lavender eyes and she wondered So is this part of the Byakugan? Is this what he does to his foes - draws them in with his eyes until they are helpless? We’re not altogether certain what this Byakugan is or what it does. All I know is if I continue to look at him this way, if I don't take care, I shall lose myself before I realize it. “Master Hyuga,” she said, breaking the silence and whatever spell he might have woven.

“Le Capitaine Marshall,” he greeted, and taking her right hand in his, he bowed, then kissed the back of it. “Je suis très heureux de vous rencontrer.” (‘Captain Marshall, I'm very pleased to meet you’).

Kathryn did not reveal her shock. How did he know? The Gaulish tongue had been beloved by her since childhood; she was as fluent in it as she was Japanese and her own native Briton. Did he assume that with her being part of the Royal court, she would be familiar with what was considered an international language, a language of the diplomatic community and ‘polite’ society? Or had he somehow learned of her personal fondness for it and decided to use it to his advantage? Whichever the case, her heart skipped a beat.

Recovering she replied, “Il est un plaisir de vous rencontrer ainsi (‘It is a pleasure to meet you as well’),” glimpsing Michael’s smug smile, as well as the stunned expressions on the faces of Neji’s teacher and friends.

Releasing her hand, Neji broke eye contact with Kathryn. “Captain, Lieutenant...since you are already acquainted with Guy-Sensei, may I introduce you to my fellow teammates? This is Tenten.”

The two women nodded their heads in greeting, but Tenten was surprised when Kathryn shook her hand, then followed it with a warm embrace. “It’s very good to meet you, Mistress Tenten.”

“Oh...likewise, Lady Kathryn.” She had seen the Briton females welcome the female guests this way, so she guessed it was a custom.

“And I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I love your outfit. It’s gorgeous.”

Tenten blushed. “Thank you so much, My Lady. And if you don’t mind me saying, I love yours too.”

“Why thank you, Mistress Tenten. That’s very kind of you.”

Tenten watched how the Britons of both genders dressed, finding it both intricate and elegant as these were fashions never before seen in the Hidden Leaf Village or her limited travels. She wondered if she could pull off such a look. The long, black military cut jacket with vertical buttons along both sides; a silken black dress underneath a white striped tunic which fell just above the hem of the flared skirt. The outwardly worn black corset cinched the entire outfit. Even the elaborate pearl necklaces and silver chains served as the perfect accessories and did not feel overdone. Tenten could see white cuffs and gloves - lacy and intricate - with all types of jewels and links. And that footwear! She felt she might surrender all of a mission’s pay to own a pair of those sexy mid-calf black boots with the lace and translucent fabric. She wasn’t sure when she would ever wear them, but pulling them out of a closet once in awhile and slinking around her home, just to feel so feminine - oh, it would be worth it!

Once. I’d love to try that look just once. Me - with a corset over top of my clothes. It would set the Leaf Village tongues wagging, that’s for sure. I can see it now!

Her attention focused on Lady Kathryn’s brother.

“And it’s nice to meet you too, Lieutenant,” Tenten told Michael, praying her knees were not knocking together as she imagined, but she was caught off-guard. At first glimpse, Michael’s eyes were a soothing pale, field grass green. The moment Tenten greeted him, his eyes transfigured into a smoldering dark blue. What in the...? What did he just do?

“My pleasure, Mistress Tenten.” As Neji had with Kathryn, the Marshall brother gave the pretty chunin a kiss on the hand.

If I drop dead this second, I’ll go a happy woman, Tenten thought, hoping she could remain cool and collected despite her body reacting in ways she would rather not think about in mixed company.

Neji motioned towards the final member of their group. “And My Lady, My Lord, this is my other teammate - Rock Lee.”

With perfect poise, Lee stiffly bowed from the waist while saying “It is an honor to meet you, Lady Kathryn”. There was no way he would attempt the hand kissing without having rehearsed it to perfection (Kissing my own hand I suppose). Considering he had been ignorant of the action before today, he knew he would never carry it off with the suaveness the Briton and Neji possessed. He was still attempting to comprehend that language Neji and the Captain exchanged, deciding it was another of those mysterious things in which ‘born geniuses’ and royalty excelled.

“Master Lee, it is nice to meet you too.” She returned his bow with a curtsey.  

Lee was thankful he was not distracted when she responded, so he could offer a polite smile as he bowed to her a second time. The last thing he needed was to look a fool in front of these visitors. He was already concerned he might have gawked as Captain Marshall went through the introductions with the others.

With a short distance separating them, he was able to see she was as pretty as he suspected when she presented herself to Lady Tsunade during the parade. His innate curiosity caused him to observe her closer, as he did when he met anyone for the first time. But one thing Might Guy stressed: never let a subject know they were being studied. Lee feared he might have made an error ‘worthy’ of a beginner. The idea that the Captain would turn to find some black-eyed chunin glaring at her as though he had lost his mind - that would be an embarrassment which would spread like wildfire through the Briton compound and the Village.

Rock Lee - forever labeled the complete and utter dweeb.   

But he realized the lovely Captain smiled back at him. One glance further gave proof his actions had been successful. Guy-Sensei was smiling, then winked in lieu of his familiar thumbs up; Tenten was smiling and not rolling her eyes or shaking her head; even Neji was smiling instead of looking appalled.

Just one more to go. You can do this. Lee continued his good manners, bowing towards Michael. “And Lieutenant Marshall, it is a great pleasure having you and your family as well as your people here in our Village. Guy-Sensei has been telling us many wonderful stories about the last time the Games were held.”

“Master Lee - as my sisters and our brother will tell you, this is a dream come true for us as we have heard the stories as well. Thank you for your kind words.”

With a closer view, Michael wondered whether their intelligence had botched the research regarding this boy and Might Guy not being son and father. The resemblance was extraordinary. I apologized to Kathryn for what I said earlier, but those eyebrows and that hair. Amazing. If they aren’t related, God help young Master Lee. I’m afraid his hero’s physical attributes and wardrobe selection are not ones he should emulate.

However, the curiosity about a Jonin and his student needed to wait for Kathryn, of her own accord, stepped over to Neji Hyuga.

Kathryn! You did it! I won’t celebrate just yet, but thank the Creator!

Michael looked towards a small gathering consisting of a few members of the peerage and the Hyugas who carried the most authority in the clan. Their heads were together; there was a good deal of nodding accompanying their self-satisfied expressions. He sighed. He was not happy with his coercion of his sibling; he had the disgusting feeling of selling her to the highest bidder. But it was best she and Neji meet and see how matters progressed, than for her to refuse without any attempt at compromise. The Queen would credit her cousin for trying, and that might alleviate Kathryn being placed under such pressure in the future should Operation Hyuga fail.

“Would you care to dance, Lady Kathryn? I think I may know this one.”

Michael was thrilled when Neji asked and was even more pleased when Kathryn agreed. The couple excused themselves to those in their company, and the Lieutenant smiled as his sister was escorted onto the floor at the center of the tent so she and Neji could join a group beginning the ancient Allemande. That’s a perfect dance for them - elegant, stately, and the steps will give them some very nice, close contact. Wonderful Neji Hyuga. You may not realize you did so, but dancing is one of the ways to my sister’s heart.

He prepared to excuse himself but instead paused in what he was about to say. He would be an idiot, he thought, to let this pass. After all, he did find her attractive. Therefore, he clicked the heels of his black boots and asked, “With your permission Might Guy. May I have the pleasure of this dance, Mistress Tenten?”

Tenten caught herself before she gasped and squealed. “I...” She almost said she did not know the dance, but stopped. If Neji could do it then so could she. She had always been a fast learner. “I’d love to, Lieutenant, thank you.” She permitted him to take her left hand, and as Michael led her away, she looked back at Guy and Lee. Two words were silently but excitedly mouthed before she disappeared in the crowd.

Lee shook his head. “Guy-Sensei, did Tenten say...”

“‘He’s gorgeous,’” Guy repeated back. What had he said about his students growing up?

“‘He’s gorgeous’,” Lee repeated the comment as well, shifting to have a better view of the dance floor. He saw Tenten smiling up into the Lieutenant’s face, laughing as he guided her through the various handholds. But Tenten has always had excellent tastes. I cannot blame her for wanting to dance with him. He also observed Neji capably performing all the complicated twists and turns involved as Kathryn followed his lead.

Once he heard Might Guy step beside him, Lee said, “Tenten looks like a princess, does she not, Sensei?”

“Well, that's what happens when you grow up with someone, Lee. You turn around and they don't even seem like they're the same person. It’s hard enough for you, Neji and Tenten having that realization. Think how it is to me as your teacher. Makes me feel...old.”

Lee smiled, his focus shifting to Neji and Kathryn Marshall. All around he heard whispers of how perfect the couple looked, comments he ignored as he returned his attention to Guy. “You will never grow old, Sensei. Do you not say that age is a number?”

Guy chuckled. “Glad you're still paying attention when I give you advice. But yes, remember that when you're a Jonin with students of your own, Lee - the Power of Youth. That is what will keep you young! That is why age will always be a number!”

“I will remember, sir.” Although that seems so far in the future. Me - a Jonin. But that is something more to aim for. Guy-Sensei has assured me I can do anything once my mind is set, and he has never steered me wrong.

Those thoughts evaporated when the dance concluded, for neither Tenten, Neji or their partners were leaving the floor as another dance began. And this one, Lee perceived, sighing, put each couple in even closer contact as they swirled around the floor.

“It's called a waltz,” Guy announced.

“A waltz,” the young man whispered, observing one of Neji’s arms around the Captain’s small waist. One hand rested in the crook of her back, while his left hand clasped her free right one. After all these years, Neji remained full of surprises, and this evening, one after another was revealed until Lee felt as awkward as he once did at the Academy.

“Many of the adults learned it when the Britons were last here. I tried it too, even as a boy, but it's a bit slow for my liking. The ladies, however, love it.” Guy’s voice lowered. “And that's often the thing that matters most in a man’s life, making sure that his lady is pleased.”

“Yes, Sensei...Tenten appears to have caught onto this waltz.” His teammate was animated as she gazed at Michael Marshall, and Lee wondered Is this how a woman looks when a handsome man is courting her?

Captain Marshall wore a similar expression to Tenten’s, and Lee thought her conversation appeared excited, involved. There were times when she nodded her head as she considered something being said, or a pretty smile crossed her lips. Neji kept her humored, for on occasion she laughed at whatever he said.

“You would think they had known each other their entire lives,” Lee mumbled, unaware Guy heard him.

“Who do you mean? Tenten and Lieutenant Marshall?”

“I...Yes.” Then he added, “and Neji and Captain Marshall too.”

“Well, some people tend to hit it off pretty quick, and others...” Guy paused, knowing his student might feel a tad dejected. After all, Lee was the single one of the three pupils not on the dance floor. Guy patted Lee’s back. “Don’t you worry, my boy. The evening’s young.”

“Sir?”

“Right now,” he confided, wrapping an arm around Lee’s shoulders, “this tent is full of dozens of some of the loveliest women the gods have put on this Earth. And not just lovely, Lee, but smart and courageous and talented on top of it, just like Captain Marshall. And as the evening goes on, before you know it, others like them will be walking over from the other tents so there’ll be dozens more on top of the ones you’re seeing. You couldn’t ask for a better chance to meet someone who would enjoy your company. Give it time. Do you hear me?”

Lee smiled and nodded, his confidence rising. “Yes, sir! I will remember that, sir!”