#and itachi's a victim too to be clear there's no thirteen-year-old who should ever be asked to kill anyone much less their whole family

[evilkitten3]

bet

totally normal brotherly interaction

and then again four years later

in shippuden, kakashi explicitly states that what sasuke went through was entirely bc of itachi's bs

(thanks to @therecexz for the images; i would've linked directly to you but people on tumblr don't like clicking links, so sorry about that)

counting the time in shippuden, that's three separate times itachi has done this– once when sasuke was eight, once when he was twelve/thirteen, and once when he was sixteen. that's a helluva a lot of psychological trauma to go through in your formative years

itachi couldn't bring himself to kill sasuke. he had absolutely no problem beating the shit out of him and torturing him psychologically.

look, i don't hate itachi and i'm not even a particularly big sasuke fan– they're both fun characters, frankly, i think kishimoto wasted too much time trying to make their relationship #dramatic and not enough time showing itachi post-resurrection realizing how badly he'd fucked up (dw he has a secret magic bird he made naruto throw up and that makes everything ok i guess. sure the bird's purpose was to brainwash the little brother he traumatized but w/e)

honestly it all could've worked if the ending had been anything remotely close to satisfactory but g-d forbid we challenge the status quo

[panharmonium]

the other thing that i keep thinking about, especially now that i’ve been knee-deep in conversation about kakashi’s father for the last couple days, is the amount of politically/socially-charged context kakashi must be constantly navigating as a leaf shinobi, even though we don’t get to see much of it.  

the transformation of the hidden leaf village is obviously still a work in progress, and society never changes overnight.  we’ve heard at various points in shippuden about the still-present divide between hardliners like danzo and the (somewhat) more moderate senju line, and it’s clear that there are still plenty of reactionary/conservative forces at work in the shinobi world, which means there are absolutely still segments of the population who would view the kind of challenge that kakashi and his students pose to traditional shinobi values as a threat.  and back when kakashi first chose to reaffirm his father’s principles, i’m sure it was much worse - the way minato tells it, the entire village and the land of fire turned on sakumo, and it’s not like all those people just disappeared when kakashi finally allowed himself to recognize that all of them were doing something wrong.  they were still there.  they were his neighbors.  they were his colleagues.  he had to live with them.  he had to work with them - he had to work FOR them, even.  to this day, he still does.

like.  i am FASCINATED by the complexities of this situation, even though we barely see any of it.  just...thinking about thirteen year-old kakashi being a member of the Jonin Assembly alongside all of these grown adults who persecuted his father until the “great man who everyone looked up to” couldn’t survive it any longer.  thinking about teenage kakashi lost and “waiting to die” in the anbu black ops, but still breaking every rule to rescue little tenzo from a hardline conservative who tried to have kakashi assassinated.  thinking about adult kakashi, still a member of that same Jonin Assembly, still working alongside people he can clearly remember harassing and attacking his father for saving their lives, being asked to serve as a clandestine hokage under danzo’s nose, because foreign nations trust kakashi where they don’t trust the actual nominee, and then being nominated for real when danzo turns up dead (and having his nomination approved, i might add, by the land of fire, whose government officially blamed kakashi’s father for the damage that resulted from that abandoned mission years before).

we only get hints about the lingering controversy surrounding kakashi and his family via danzo and, occasionally, the village elders, but like.  kakashi occupies such a complex place in the hidden leaf village, because he’s become incredibly respected and renowned by many (if not most) of its residents, but he also spends every day of his life moving within a community where many (if not most) of the older people around him participated in a campaign of vicious harassment against his father, one that ultimately led to his death.  some of them may have had changes of heart after sakumo’s suicide - that seems like the kind of thing that might have shocked some people into reevaluating their positions, particularly given how respected sakumo was prior to that time - and some of them probably died later in the war, but we know there’s still a conservative faction active in the hidden leaf village, and some of those people are always going to be who they are.  and even the people who aren’t - even the ones who regret how they acted - it’s still so complicated!  how do you continue to live and work in that environment?  how do you navigate a history of being harmed in that way, when you still have to collaborate with and/or serve the same people who did the harming, some of whom likely view you with the exact same disdain they had for your father?

kakashi manages it, somehow, though i’ll bet he has complicated feelings about it, even if he keeps them to himself.  and that’s yet another reason why (if i can just take these thoughts on a slight detour to the present) i think kakashi’s relationship with sasuke is so vitally important, especially moving forward.  sasuke’s family was wronged by the village too, in horrific, unforgivable ways - the shinobi system swallowed itachi whole and sacrificed the entire uchiha clan on the altar of a mission, in exactly the kind of evil, inhuman decision-making process that sakumo and obito and kakashi said could never be justified.  the uchiha were victims of the same shinobi system that drove kakashi’s father to his death - the one that said “everything is acceptable as long as the task at hand is accomplished.  people are disposable in service to a mission.”  both sasuke and kakashi’s families fell to a cultural context that refused to acknowledge that it is never okay to sacrifice your comrades for a mission, a cultural context that embraced this belief to the point where even literal genocide became excusable.

if sasuke is ever going to really and truly Come Home, he’s going to need to learn how to navigate this situation.  not to excuse the wrong that was done, and certainly not to give up on getting justice for himself and his clan, but also to figure out, in conjunction with these important tasks, how to continue existing in an environment where so much officially-sanctioned harm was done to his person, and where so many people around him have at least a little bit of history of being suspicious of or uncharitable towards the uchiha clan, even though they obviously didn’t know about the impending coup or danzo’s extermination order.  

it’s an incredibly complicated situation, and even if kakashi doesn’t have all the answers, he can at least understand what it feels like to be in that kind of position.  he’s been navigating something like this for many, many years.  he’s the precedent, someone who can help sasuke wrestle with the perhaps unanswerable questions of how am i supposed to dedicate myself to a place that wronged me like this?  why should i protect people who hurt me so badly?  is there even a way for me to move forward here, if i can’t forgive the ones who took my family away from me?  can this actually be my home again, when i know what it did to my people?

kakashi has obviously managed to come up with answers to these questions that enable him to stay integrated in his community and keep building a future he believes in, though I doubt any of his answers are simple, and i’m sure there are some things that he’s just had to accept will never be fully settled in his heart.  it’s like what he says to obito in an episode i watched recently: “i don’t know anything for sure, either...i’ve thought that this world is hell, too...but...”  it’s the but that matters.  even in the face of confusion and complexity, kakashi has found a way to keep moving.  he’s learned to co-exist with the uncertainty and discomfort surrounding him, and to make his own meaning out of this life, regardless of how complicated his internal relationship with the village might be.  he’s found a way to keep his eyes trained on the light, whatever that light might look like for him, and even if said light is only, as gaara says, “the faintest glimmer.”  he has so much to teach someone like sasuke, who up until recently was responding to that same plea of gaara’s with a fatalistic “i shut my eyes a long time ago.  the things i seek now lie only in the darkness.” 

anyway.  i am just having Many Thoughts currently about the intricacies of the political and social context that kakashi is always navigating, even though he never says a word about it.  and i’m curious whether this family history will ever come up again in the last fifth of this show.  if i were going on instinct alone, i’d suspect that we weren’t quite done with sakumo yet - i feel like we barely even started with him, to be honest (and also - whatever happened to kakashi’s mother???) - but i should know better at this point than to try and predict what this show is going to do, so i’ll just wait and see.

[darquedeath4444]

The Pain We Share

NARUTO

Pairing: Sakura x Sasori

Summary:

Ever since Sasori could remember, there were cuts and bruises on his body. In a world where Soulmates exist and any injury or pain was shared between the two, he grew up curious, then fearful, of what exactly his Soulmate was experiencing as a child, then annoyed, and even a little angry, when it begins to affect his life as he grows older. Then, one day, he meets a broken pink haired girl in the aftermath of an invasion against a renowned criminal organization and his world is turned upside down as she brings with her a darkness she was born into and was unknowingly trying to escape ever since. 

Chapter ONE

It was a wracking sort of pain that made Akasuna no Sasori stiffen. The action caused the tower of cards he had been building to topple over and Deidara, his partner, grinned at him in momentary triumph before he recognized the look on his face. The blond dropped his own deck and hurried around the table to his side.

"You okay, Danna?" He asked, and the clear worry in the teen's eyes filled Sasori with a familiar bitterness.

"I'm fine," he snapped. He lashed out to push the blond away, but the second wave of pain made him lose his balance and he fell back into his seat.

Deidara scoffed. "You clearly aren't fine, un," he said.

Sasori closed his eyes and placed an arm over his face. "Don't ask, then," he groaned out.

He could not see, but he felt the blond take a seat next to him. "Want some water?" He asked, then correctly took the silence to be a yes. He reached over the table towards his own cup. "Will you be fine for tomorrow?" He asked. "If we tell Pein now-"

Sasori bolted back up, glaring at his partner. "Don't you dare!" He seethed. He snatched the cup offered towards him and had to hold back the urge to empty it over Deidara's head. Instead, he chugged it.

Deidara raised his hands in mock surrender. "I won't, Danna," he said. "But you know he wouldn't take you off the offensive team if you insist." He glanced at something over his shoulder. "And also, I think it might be a little late, un."

Sasori followed the bond's line of gaze and rolled his eyes when he was just in time to see Hoshigaki Kisame and Hidan too casually look away. Uchiha Itachi, Kisame's partner, was also with them, but the raven was much, much better at it than them and he was already glancing out the window. Sasori, however, did not doubt for a second that all three of them had witnessed his bouts of pain but decided to appreciate the gesture anyway, simply because he was too tired to muster any more annoyance.

After all, most of it was reserved for his Soulmate out there, whoever it was.

"Must suck," Kisame offered sympathetically. The man plopped himself down in an empty spot on the couch.

Sasori rolled his eyes again. "What can I say," he said sarcastically. Then, to emphasize just how fine he was, he raised his hand and called upon the warm feeling within him. The power, known as chakra, answered and he willed it into strings, which he then used to gather the collapsed cards. The blue threads neatly cleaned up the mess and Sasori tossed the pack to Deidara. "At least it won't kill me."

Because it wouldn't, no matter how painful it might get, for the injuries that appeared on his body were not his, the pain not inflicted directly onto him.

Everyone had a Soulmate, but the chances of actually finding that Soulmate were very slim. The one hint they received was how any pain one felt, as well as any injuries obtained, were reflected on the other.

He was simply feeling whatever his Soulmate, whoever that maybe, was feeling.

"From the way your girl is throwing herself into injury one after another, I'm surprised she isn't dead yet," Hidan said. He wandered past them and vanished into the kitchen.

Some spent lifetimes searching for their Soulmate, but only a lucky few actually got around to meeting them, simply due to the sheer amount of people out there living all over the place. To most, it was merely a tickling thought at the back of their head, where they were aware that there was someone out there, but there were more pressing matters to focus on.

"Might be a guy," someone else said, and Kakuzu, Hidan's partner, appeared at the door moments later. He waved, then followed the silver-haired man into the kitchen.

That was not Sasori's case, though. His case was special because his Soulmate appeared to be very clumsy with two left feet at best, an abuse victim if they were unlucky and involved in something much more horrific at worse. He had never met anyone who hurt as much as he did through the link, and since the problem lay on his other half, there was not much he could do but endure it.

He could still remember glimpses of his childhood when the same bouts of pain had woken his screaming at night. At first, his parents had been there. He could remember his mother wrapping her arms around his shaking frame and his father whispering words of comfort.

Then one day, his parents had vanished but the wracks continued and suddenly he was alone and everything only felt worse as he tried to shield himself from the pain he really had no control over. He had only been four back then, too young to care for himself, and his grandmother had taken him in, where he had grown up ever since.

Sasori scowled and he slowly stretched out his limbs. The pain never lasted like an actual injury and wounds always appeared already scarred over. He checked over himself and noted that somewhere, somehow, it appeared as though his Soulmate had stabbed him or herself in the hand. He scowled, because did they not realize that when very they got hurt, he was heavily affected as well?

He tried not to think of how maybe someone else was causing these injuries, because how was he supposed to know?

Over the years, he had gotten used to the pain. Sometimes they took him by surprise, but as he grew older the daily doses of pain changed to strong bursts of it with periods of peace in between, and if he was careful, he could almost tell when they were coming. He managed to work his life around this, entered a special academy for chakra wielders, and graduated with top marks. He was one of the renowned prodigies of his generation, and it was not long before the Akatsuki, an elite force made up of the best of the best, invited him into their ranks when he was fourteen, an age that had surprised many. Itachi was the only one to have been recruited earlier than him at thirteen.

Said Uchiha glanced at his scarred hand. "I believe you should tell Pein about it anyway," he said quietly. "Just in case they return during the operation, so we know to be prepared."

"Bastard's right," Deidara agreed. "We've been planning this for months; wouldn't want you to trip up at a crucial moment because your Soulmate tripped down the stairs or something."

Sasori scowled because he knew they were right, but that did not make it easier at all. He cursed his Soulmate once again before he begrudgingly nodded. "I'll do that."

The Elemental Nation had once been five different countries that had come together under an alliance to unite into one state, or that was what Sasori often read in history books. Now, though, it was the most advanced, powerful nation in the area.

While it was still separated into five different areas, named Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water after the old five nations, they functioned under a single ruling power made up of leaders from the five lands. The Akatsuki had been one of the first organization to be made up of members from different national backgrounds, and what had once been nothing more than a show of unity was now one of the biggest, most trusted security and defence organization known.

Sasori tapped at the power within him and summoned blue strings from his fingertips. They flew around his room, picking up his pouch and stuffing a handful of metal needles, senbon, into it. He flicked his fingers again and the pouch landed neatly in his hand.

Many years ago, mankind had managed to tap into their own lifeforce, and this power, which had been named 'chakra', had long become a necessity in life. There were many uses to it, and those who could wield it and mould it to their commands were simply seen to be superior to those who could not. It could be said that, in a way, one's ability to control it became one value within society.

Sasori himself was considered to be one of the best chakra users out there. His control was considered extraordinary even among those who prided themselves in this aspect, and while most channelled chakra into objects in order to manipulate them, he was one of the few who could summon chakra outside a medium and mould it to his will.

Even without his level of control, though, people found many uses for it. There were those who used it in their everyday lives, for something as simple as strengthening themselves for construction work or using it to enhance their vision for delicate crafts. It was used in hospitals to heal wounds and ease pain, sterilize and operate. A slightly uncommon number blessed with better control than others had unique abilities, ranging from being able to control certain objects infused with chakra from a distance to bending even the elements to their will.

And of course, criminals used it to commit crime and authorities used it to try and catch them.

The Akatsuki had always been small but effective, and as the tales of their successes and prowess spread they soon became known as the official law reinforcing group outside the knights, known as ANBU, and the civilian security force, run by the Uchiha clan. It's members usually worked in pairs, and outside of requested work that usually consisted of rounding up bandits and the likes, they also took on more powerful chakra users that the ANBU could not handle.

Sasori grabbed his cloak and threw it over his shoulder. He glanced around his room one last time before he headed out the door.

At the age of eighteen, Sasori, partner to Deidara, was one of the younger members of the Akatsuki. For the past four years, he had used his powers alongside his fellow members to help with policing their ever-growing nation.

Deidara, who was currently the youngest at seventeen, was a relatively new member though, only two years having passed since he was recruited. Sasori clearly remembered his partner before the blond had taken his place, and that thought alone left a trembling in his hands and a bitter taste in his mouth.

Orochimaru had been a member since before Sasori had joined, and the older man had acted like a mentor to him during his first few months. Known infamously as the 'Snake', he had not only been skilled in combat, but in the more research related aspect of investigations as well, and had dedicated a large part of his time outside of work looking into chakra and its relation to the human body.

It had only been a few months into Sasori's work with the Akatsuki when a group of people trafficking children was brought to light. It was Sasori's first-ever major job but everything had gone smoothly. They managed to rescue all the children unharmed, and while it was revealed that most of the kidnap victims had been orphans taken from the streets, work had been put into giving them food, shelter, and support, and an orphanage had been set up.

Orochimaru had offered to take over the role of managing the orphanage, and it had taken them too long to realize who his true intentions had been.

The man had been using the children at the orphanage as experiments for what he claimed to be scientific research into chakra. By the time there had been enough evidence to try and take him in, he had been long ready for them. He had already transported out many of his successful experiments to bases he had prepared years in advance. Itachi, who had caught up to him after the man had made his initial escape, had gotten into a messy battle with him and Orochimaru managed to escape with a sliver of his life. He had gone into hiding ever since only to reveal himself a year later as a new nation he called 'Sound'. He ran on organized crime and assassinations, and after months, years, of investigation, they had tracked down a major base of his. The Akatsuki had been given full rights to handling the case, and finally, after years of bubbling anger and planning and thoughts of revenge, they were executing a massive operation to take him down.

Sasori entered the main office of their base to see that only Itachi and Kisame were present. He nodded in greeting then took his usual seat at the table.

"Good morning," Itachi said politely.

The raven had once been heir to one of the biggest clans within the nation. The Uchiha, in fact, ran the entirety of the security organization that prioritized civilian safety. When the Akatsuki had recommended him for their ranks, no one had expected him to accept the position. It had caused a huge rift within the Uchiha clan but Itachi had shaken off all the protests and attempts to stop him. Though they were the same age, Itachi was a year his senior within the Akatsuki. He was an unparalleled user of fire, even among his clansmen who were known for fire manipulation. However, what made him truly stand out was what was known as the Sharingan. Rarely, chakra caused physical mutations to occur. The Uchiha were a clan that had managed to pass down this mutation until it became a family trait. The Sharingan affected the eyes of the Uchiha who had them and allowed them to cast illusions that directly affected their targets through eye contact. Itachi was talent, potential, skill, and birthright wrapped up in a single, deadly package.

Kisame grinned. "Finally, huh?"

The man, one of the oldest among them at age twenty-three, was skilled a swordsman as he was a chakra user. He had once been a part of a group known as the Ten Swordsmen that originated from the Land of Water. While during the warring ages decades ago, the Ten Swordsmen of the Mist had been declared one of the most dangerous groups of warriors, it now only existed in name. Still, those who were a part of it were all considered master swordsmen, and Kisame had been recruited for his ability to mould chakra with his weapons. From what he knew, he was also rather skilled in manipulating water.

Sasori nodded. "I can't wait to get my hands on that stupid snake," he hissed.

Itachi nodded. "I let him get away once," he said. The Uchiha had always blamed himself for Orochimaru's escape, even though everyone knew it had not been his fault. Itachi had been fifteen then. Orochimaru was much older and had years more experience on him and the raven had still managed to push the Snake to the edge. "It will not happen again."

Before the rest of them could say anything, the door was thrown open and Deidara marched in. "Morning," he called, then sat down in his chair next to Sasori. "So, who's ready to kick some scaly snake ass?"

Deidara was once a kid Sasori had put behind bars for causing several explosions in abandoned factories. No one had gotten hurt, though, and everything had changed once it was revealed that the explosions were caused not by bombs, but by the blond's unique ability to cause things he channelled chakra into to explode. The Akatsuki, looking for a member after Orochimaru had betrayed them, had taken him in. Sasori would never admit it, but underneath all the noise and annoyance that came with associating with him, he quite liked Deidara. At the very least, he was very entertaining to watch.

Sasori glanced around the room. The four of them would be the attack force. Kakuzu and Hidan had an emergency job within the capital to take care of, and they could not leave their own base unmanned.

"Zetsu returned from his scouting just before you entered the room," Itachi told them. "And it appears Konan will be offering us support. From what we already do know, Orochimaru is currently not within the Northern Base."

Sasori cursed under his breath. They had all known that this would take a long time. Orochimaru definitely had more than one base, and the possibility of him being in the one they decided to take down first was low.

"Sucks," Deidara muttered, appearing to mirror his thoughts. "It would've been nice to just get rid of him now."

"Still, the Northern base is a major one of the Snake hideouts," Kisame pointed out. "Once we take one, it won't be long before we manage to track the others; Orochimaru can't build bases as fast as we can destroy them."

Deidara grinned. "Ohhh, I like the sound of that."

Sasori nodded once, firmly, in agreement.

Chapter TWO>

Chapter List

[proudpoe]

#naruto#naruto shippuden#uchiha family fuckery#don't come at me about naruto lore dude that's not a fight you wanna pick#i feel like people forget that whenever itachi was showing up pre-shippuden kishimoto made sure we knew why sasuke hated him#this guy was a BASTARD bastard#itachi was the king of needless dickery and putting the fear of g-d into everyone he came across#that's why it was such a wham moment when sasuke finally finished him off and suddenly he was all smiles and forehead pokes#i remember reading that chapter over and over bc i was so freaking baffled by what just happened#in itachi's very questionable defense he never intended sasuke learn the truth#he just sorta. hoped no one ever mentioned it#despite the fact that there were many MANY people who were fully aware and could benefit from saying something#he turned his brother into a pretty easily aimed rage bomb and obito took about five and a half seconds to point it straight at konoha#sasuke made some shit choices for sure but literally all of that was itachi's fault#and itachi's a victim too to be clear there's no thirteen-year-old who should ever be asked to kill anyone much less their whole family#but that's the thing about naruto– every single character is a victim of a deeply broken system that requires child soldiers to function#sasuke hinata and neji experienced deeply fucked up abusive childhoods due to ninja shit#lee naruto and gaara faced discrimination for what set them apart#all of the kids were thrown into ninja business with very minimal training to what was necessary#in the land of waves arc kirigakure is mentioned as being exceptionally brutal in forcing its kids to fight to the death#this is followed immediately by an arc in which every village sends their kids to a big tournament in which they are free to kill each othe#some are even encouraged#while some non-participants express distaste at the actions of certain individual contenders (most notably gaara)#none of them ever stop to go ''hey maybe this is on us actually''#every character in naruto is placed under absolutely ridiculous expectations and all of them break under it#naruto is a tragedy; the author just kinda forgot about that#abuse tw#torture tw#blood tw#death tw

Tags from OP evilkitten3