#fuck even for the swing era i want to present as feminine most of the time

[gandalf-theslay]

hhhhh I’m tired of trying to figure my gender identity out it’s too hard :/ can I just id as genderqueer and be done with it lmao

[loveoaths]

🌀

ASK MEME // STATUS: ACCEPTING.

PROMPT 32: UNDERNEATH. HEADCANON.

you have to remember that haku was one of the first characters introduced in the naruto canon as a “ninja prodigy” and “young genius.” he’s fucking brilliant, okay — he figured out how to do hidden jutsus without anyone from his family to teach him and no scrolls left behind to learn from. at the age of fifteen he was considered on par with/arguably stronger than zabuza, one of the elite seven ninja swordsmen of the mist. he’s a product of his era & the only known surviving progeny of one of the most deadly & infamous clans in water country’s history. he figured out how kakashi’s sharingan worked in a manner of minutes, a feat that (the part one narrative implies) has eluded far older and more well-known shinobi. and i think it’s fair to say that like 90% of the naruto cast without wack character nerfing haku would be on par with the other part one young ninja prodigy, such as shikamaru, neji, sasuke, whoever the fuck else. 

however, unlike the aforementioned in his class group, i personally believe that haku’s high intelligence is something that often flies under the radar in his interactions with others. there are a lot of reasons for this. for one, haku doesn’t display the same “young isolated genius” behavior typical of most of the other tragic male geniuses of naruto, though he certainly does have his arrogant moments. haku’s quick as a whip and will call you out without issue, but he’s also far more socially intelligent than many of the other young geniuses in canon. he had to be. as a young, wanted, *effeminate orphan, he had to learn how to read, manipulate, and sway people in manners different than his arguably more protected and masculine presenting counter-parts. he’s a planner, schemer, marionnette-strings sort of guy. strategy is everything if he can help it. he’s more likely to get the things he wants done by convincing you that it was your idea/you want to do it too than swinging his Big Brain Energy around and demanding you do as he says because he’s smarter than you. because even if your idea is the best idea, people tend to rebel when you make them feel stupid or embarrassed. he’d make a great leader or second in command. he also doesn’t make a big deal out of being smarter than most; weapons are less effective when everyone knows they’re there, right?

additionally, haku’s vastly more emotionally developed than most of the other ninja geniuses. he is capable of connecting with people that the others struggle with for the entirety of the series. he is warm and soft and kind and good in a world where such traits are considered detrimental to a shinobi’s success/characteristics of sub-par fighters. because their world is so masculine-coded, traits coded as feminine tend to be seen as weakness. so people are quick to forget that haku is also incredibly dangerous and wickedly intelligent because they choose to underestimate him for his effeminate appearance and compassionate heart. ALSO Y'ALL HE'S JUST SO FUCKIN' NICE LMAO EVEN IF HE DRAGS YOU IT'S LIKE SO BEAUTIFULLY DONE YOU HAVE TO TAKE A MOMENT TO ACKNOWLEDGE HOW WELL HE DID THAT BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN REGISTER ANGER LMAOOOO !!!

ahem. so. finally, i think his smarts go under the radar because of where he’s from and how he’s raised. i hc that people shit on kiri all the time and there’re lots of jokes about how kiri nin are all illiterate and stupid ( there’s truth to some of this, they have a terrible education system, a high mortality rate, and are actively taught not to think for themselves so they can follow orders ). so people hear his dialect and make assumptions. also, like …. i know sasuke and neji had super fucked up upbringings, but haku was like …. literally trained to think of himself as an object useful only when in the right hands. he’s spent a lot of his life not thinking of his own body, himself as his own. this included his intelligence. being smart wasn’t something to make a big hoot about because who cared how big your brain was if you were dead or causing trouble. and how can you brag about something that isn’t yours???????? so he doesn’t. eventually haku does begin to see his intelligence as his and something belonging to him that he can use however he wants, but it takes a lot of time for him to actually believe it. and by that point he’s mostly grown out of the braggy adolescent phase and is content to drink tea and kick your ass in sho any day of the week.

*btw, i only mention this point because the naruto manga makes a huge point of highlighting the vulnerably of kunoichi and young girls solely on the basis of their being female/feminine-presenting, and because the narrative makes femininity a large part of haku’s character and interactions with naruto, sasuke, and sakura.