#he deserved the chance to get to slaughter the village

[baked-hylian]

Sasuke for the blorbo ask? Or your fave Naruto character (if it's not Sasuke XD)

When I was 14 I had a choice when I was at the Edmonton Mall That choice was between a Sasuke plushie and a Gaara plushie, so good choice xD

So important notes

He's clearly emotionally divorced from Naruto ever since their first big fight, and as hard as he tries to get over it he just cannot (first big queer friendships are hard ok?)

He's not a murderer and has done nothing wrong in his life ever

He deserves a better ending, let him massacre them all

[yaut-jaknowit]

So. Uihoy x Male Yautja (bottom) reader… 

(Okay maybe it’s like a bit Mr. Preg… AAHH..)

Just the reader and him not both getting mates bc it’s that time of the year, but they both hate each other so they try to make fun of one another (one of them actually secretly likes the other and you can choose who), even get into a small fight which later turns into them getting too touchy bc of the heat. Shit gets crazy, rough sex, Like absolutely DOG pounding, breeding, size difference. I’m begging.

Hate Until You're Knotted

Pairing: Uihoy (Male Yautja) x M!Yautja!Reader

Word Count: 3259

Summary: You loathe Uihoy. He's top of the chain. He can get any female he wants. You, a lowly new blooded, have to scavenge and fight for just the taste or smell of a female. What does Uihoy do with this honor? Wastes it. He comes to you, out of his way, to find you.

Author Note: Don’t worry, I also want to get railed by Uihoy too. This is before Vic and Uie met since they were in a relationship before meeting reader. Gonna be honest, I unusually don't write Yautja x Yautja stuff but fuck, I loved writing this.

Masterlist

Ao3

Heavy, thick pheromones ran rampant through the village. Clouding everyone’s judgement, turning hunt brothers against each other. All in the name of breeding, continuing the bloodline. Only the strongest survive in a world designed to maul and slaughter the weak.

Like many of your sex, you were unsuccessful of gaining the favor of a female. A young, less scared male compared to those that have bested you in spars to near death. Anything to prove their worth for a chance to breed. Here you were, nursing your wounds, away from the dense population. There were a few others, scattered about like you, licking their wounds. You had chosen a high tree to pull yourself to the near top. From here, you could keep an eye on the crowd in the main square of the village.

Neon green blood dripped from wounds gained in battle against fierce opponents. As much as you hated to admit it, they were better, deserved whoever choose them after defeating you. Yes, there’s always next year for the season but only Cetanu could only tell if you would make it. Life was life. Death was death. You don’t know if you’ll be there to greet the next season.

Through it all, you caught a whiff of a scent that caused your blood to boil. Uihoy. The older Yautja was… arrogant in his own ways. Rude in others. Downright irritating if you must say. The male wasn’t one to mess with often. He did stick out like a sore thumb. His sexuality something that wasn’t popular among the Yautja kind. It did not produce offspring.

It is not frowned upon but discouraged. Yautjas were strong, mighty, and hunters. If males or females copulated with their own sex, the birth rate would decrease. Death was already high, especially for those that are young, learning.

Not that you had anything against mating with the same sex. No. But Uihoy was an icon for the village and he wasted his talents, his seed on something that wouldn’t produce anything. You scowled. How does a male like him not take pride in breeding with the females who are willing? You have to fight for your right while many females request him by name.

The tree shook from added weight. Your claws dug into the bark from the slight disturbance. Your head whipped down to find the face you wanted to cave in so badly closing in. Your jaw dropped behind closed mandibles at the sight. What the pauk is he doing? He knows I’m up here. This was purposeful.

Uihoy stopped to perch on a branch a foot above you, on the other side of the thick tree. A look of passiveness barely readable on his face. Not cocky. He knew his limits, where he stood on the chain of power within the village. Intelligent but respectful. He was about a hundred years from being deemed an elder. A title you believed he wouldn’t take. Not with the way he moves with ease.

Blazing eyes flicked between the cuts that marred your skin. You saw the way his chest rise with a deep breath. “Don’t speak,” you snapped at him and began to close up a cut along your thigh. The deepest, longest of any others. It required to be burned closed. You held your tongue when pain stung as the laser worked.

The purple Yautja snorted airily. “And why should I listen to you?” he asked, tilting his head to look at you over a mandible while exposing his neck. Your eyes twitched at the sight before narrowing on form. The laser was forgotten about and drove off course. You snarled and turned off the damned thing. Your jaw and lower mandibles jerked at the unneeded pain. Yet, in the moment, you steel your facial expressions the best possible. Uihoy didn’t need to see you weak, weaker than he saw you as younger male.

A scoffed then light scratching from nails digging into bark filled your ears. Before you had a chance to take notice was happening, Uihoy hopped over onto your branch and knelt next to you. Uihoy snatched the laser from your hands. “Youngling, you must pay attention or else you risk injuring yourself more,” he scolded and began to work on the rest of the wound.

If you didn’t want the laser to stray from its path, you willed yourself not to jerk away from him. His touch was prominently warm on your thigh. The hand not holding the welder was resting right above the wound, close to the apex of your legs.

Instantly, you blamed the scents that filled the air for the feeling growing in your stomach, for the way your cock roused in its sheath. It was the pheromones that clouded your judgment. Your jaw was locked, throat closed to stop any sounds from escaping.

Then, his hand shifted higher. You had enough.

You shoved the bigger Yautja away from you then your feet were underneath you. A glare settled on Uihoy, ready pounce if it came to it.

Uihoy nearly slipped off of the branch he was perched on but easily corrected the unbalance. He stood a fair distance away from you with a large grin on his face, tongue flickering out to smell the air. C’jit. His head lowered just enough he stared from underneath his brows. C’jit.

A drop of freezing water dripped down the length of your spine, then Uihoy sprung. The older Yautja could move. Fast. Faster than you were expecting. His body slammed into yours. Claws dug into your shoulders as his weight throw you backwards. Off the edge of branch and heading towards the ground closing in quickly.

To save yourself from pain of a mild fall, you twisted your body and latched onto the nearest branch. Your shoulder jarred, nearly pulling out of the socket at the weight of not only you but Uihoy gripping onto you as well. You release a snarl and kicked out a knee at Uihoy. The male grunted yet took the hit. His talons dug into the flesh of your shoulders, deeper and drawing rivets of blood. You growled and attempted to throw him off. Your one handed grip was weakening.

Your other hand latched onto thick bark as you held on. The purple Yautja snickered and lifted himself up enough to hold onto the same branch. This was your opportunity to kick him, using his body as a spring board and land on another branch further down. The leaves rattled at your landing. You lowered yourself into a ready position as Uihoy lifted himself and crouched as well.

Cocky but not, Uihoy held an aura of confidence around him. His body was lax enough to let his guard down. He did have the high ground and left you at a disadvantage. You didn’t let him take any opportunities to attack though.

The trunk of the tree was used as a foothold to launched yourself high up, above Uihoy. His eyes watched your actions, body moving into a position to take anything you served.

The first punch of the day was thrown, right at Uihoy’s beautiful face; ready to send him flying off of the tree. But the male ducked and counterstruck with a fist straight to your stomach. It almost sent you careening off the edge once more. Your claws dug in to steady yourself once more.

He eyed you up and down, scanning for points of weaknesses. The same thing you returned for the shy moment given to the two of you before the giants clashed again. He came at you this time with claws. The skimmed acrossed your chest, drawing trickles of blood down your sweaty skin. You couldn’t help the keen before returning the same fire at him.

Unlike the purple Yautja, you weren’t as lucky to draw blood. Uihoy was pushing hard, fast, throwing things you hadn’t even trained about at you. At points, it was dizzying. Now, you were just trying not to fall off or perish to him. He had every right to do so. It wasn’t against the code.

Your foot takes a step back but the way the branch dips means this was the end. Anymore and you could meet the ground harshly. When Uihoy takes a swing at your face, you lower yourself down to a crouch. The fist flies milliseconds later over your head. You spring and pushed with all of your force backwards.

Midair, you arch your back and force all of your weight over yourself. Then, your feet touch down on a branch on a different tree. It wavers at the sudden, new weight added to it but held strong enough for you to back up away from the oncoming purple Yautja.

From one branch to other trees, the two of you dance for what felt like hours. Possibly could’ve been. You only come to release the overwhelming scent from the mating grounds is faint when Uihoy pins you to the trunk of a tree. A grunt surpasses your throat, eyes clued onto his burning ones. Filled with fire. A fire you didn’t know what sourced from.

A firm hand had found its way to your throat, encasing it and keeping you to the trunk. Instantly, your body went lax. Uihoy could snap your neck before you had a chance to even raise a hand.

It was a stern, mighty gasp that held you. Yet, you didn’t fear it. Anger filled your veins at the fact this pauk-de was taunting, teasing you like prey. You had little chance to win against. It was idiotic to challenge him in the first place. It won’t cost you your life. Not while that fire blazed in his orange eyes.

The male leaned in and let his breath fan over your features, eyes blinking slowly. Your scales prickled. His tongue flickered out and tasted upon your skin. His hand tightened. The other palmed along your hip, nails creating divots in the flesh there. “There has been something about that has intrigued me since I first laid eyes upon you,” Uihoy chitters lowly next to your ear. You shivered, throat bobbing from a heavy swallow.

That’s when you smelt it. Heavy, thick in the air yet sweet to draw you in. N’dui’se. You felt the blood in your body screeching to a halt and immediately rushing towards your core. Unsure, uncontrolled, your own musk entered the air. It swirled, combed with Uihoy’s as the Yautja grunt and pressed harder on your hip.

All of your muscles strained into action to pin the male down. Uihoy locked his own down and kept you there. The claws attacked to the hand around a vital part of your being dug into flesh. He released a chest rumbling bellow of a warning. He had you. You could only watch as the male leaned back enough to find your eyes.

The other limb skimmed down just a couple of inches then grabbed a fistful of cloth. Your waistband was promptly ripped off in one go and absentmindedly tossed to the side. Before you could even squeak something pathetic, warm flesh palmed at the wetting slit close to the apex of your thighs. Your head was thrown back, exposing your neck to the male before you. An action that could cost you your life if it was anyone else. Uihoy attacked.

Sharp, lethal teeth latched onto the flesh of your throat. Just enough pressure to warn you who had the cards in hand. Uihoy purred pleased and let his upper hand fall away rest on your hip. The other kept working away, causing more slick to build up.

His touch was driving you wild. He knew it. He was doing it on purpose. Your mandibles gritted together at the bubbling rage at him. Like a volcano with molten rock rising to the surface, ready to blow when the time was right. And you weren’t going to give him the satisfaction of coaxing your cock out.

Gathering all of your energy, you shoved at Uihoy with everything you had. For once, you believed to caught the male off guard as he stumbled back, adding a fair amount of distance.

How wrong you were.

He was back on you in a split-second. Hands. Claws. Teeth. All seared across your scales until you were forced onto your front on the branch. Uihoy’s heavy weight draped over your back like shadows swallowing you whole. It was enough to keep you underneath him. A roaring bellow sounded from the Yautja as he made his claim vocal. “Ze-rei.” Fire. “You have fire that I want to consume.”

Despite Uihoy pinning you to the branch, you still wiggled and struggled. It wasn’t enough to throw the male off though.

All movements stopped at the feel of something blazing and wet resting against the tight ring of muscles behind your sack. Your eyes jerked wide open, head yanked up at the feeling. The head of your cock speared through your slit but didn’t move an inch more.

The body on top of you sat up. Hands grabbed at globes of your cheeks and spread them as far as possible. You squirmed this time uncomfortably at the fact he was putting you on display for him. Your claws dug into the bark underneath. “This is my new favorite sight,” Uihoy mumbled lowly to himself, a wide grin marking his face.

Then, the tip speared into you. Pain rocketed inside of you, eyes rolling back into their sockets at the feeling. Your mandibles flared open in a silent cry. But… you pushed back on Uihoy. More of his shaft disappeared inside of you, even if it was only an inch. Uihoy took the signal and thrusted his hips flush with your thighs.

Uihoy’s weight nearly collapsed on top of you as he struggled to stay upright. Something you never thought to see from the older Yautja. He tensed his muscles, talons prickling the skin along your cheeks and lower back. “I lied… this, this is my new favorite sight,” he growled before drawing his hips back.

The drag of each ridge and bump on the sides of his thick cock had you seeing stars already. All the way until just the tip was snug inside. Without warning, he forced his length back into you. The strength behind the thrust had you scrapping forward.

A low groan vibrated along Uihoy’s spine. “You’re so tight,” he stated like it was a fact. It was to be honest. You’ve never ventured outside to learn more about yourself. But after just the tiny taste, the littlest of drop from this, you’ll never be satisfied. “You’re going keep squeezing me out.” Uihoy bent at the waist. “Relax.” A hand placed next to your head while the other kept an even pressure on your shoulder blade. “I don’t know if you can even take my knot.”

Bark groaned as claws raked across the layer. You fantasized the thought of knotting another but never being knotted yourself. That ignited a hunger you never knew existed inside of you.

Fingers and claws ghosted down the length of your spine then diverted where your hip meets your thigh. Uihoy started a beginning pace to warm you up, to loosen up the muscles locked. Heat flared at the base of your spine as his touch palmed at the space below your slit. Your cock still barely peaking out. You weren’t going to give in easily. He had to take what he wanted.

The limb next to your head prevented you from slipping away from him, trapped under his thick body. His movements increased with speed but more importantly: harshness. Like any other male in the season, he was losing himself. His control slipping right of his fingers. There wasn’t a single thing he could do to stop it.

Thick finger grasped at what peaked out from between your legs. You gasped and rutted into the hand before a dark snarl had you stopping. The digits moved down where two rested apart from each other. They were in the space between your sack and slit, on either side of where your straining cock resided still inside of you. Uncomfortably. Very uncomfortably.

A single roll of his fingertips had you seeing stars. The rest of your length shot out like a plasma shot that it hurt at out fast it unsheathed. You choked out a harsh gasp and jerked back into the male controlling you. His hips went flush with yours while your muscles locked tight around his shaft. Uihoy roared. A hand flying to your hip while his claws dug into your flesh.

“Pauk!” he snarled into the tense air.

Something shifted in the air. You didn’t know what but could feel something change.

Uihoy reared his hips back just until the tip just sat inside. Without remorse, he bullied it back into you. This new pace was harsh, rough, uncaring. He was dominating you; taking what he wants and not caring about anything else. The only thing keeping you from sliding off the branch was the limb next to your head and his claws piercing your skin.

Your own talons dug into the bark, clawing away at the trees barrier for purchase. His thrusts are a driving force to reckon with. The ridges along his cock adding to the friction that winds you up. Pleasure growing at a rate you couldn’t fight, couldn’t stop if you wanted it.

His thick waist started to stutter, pace growing wary. The claws tearing into your flesh, drawing blood were pulled out. The pain in their wake was brushed off.

Between your trembling legs, your cock was painfully hard, weeping from the tip. As desperately as you wanted to reach underneath and touch yourself, Uihoy beat you to the punch.

A firm grip wrapped around your shaft. The pressure sent your eyes rolling into the back of your head, hips faltering on either to drive back or forward. Drool hung from your jaw. You were an utter mess of pre-cum, drool, and blood.

The grasp slipped down to your growing knot and squeezed. A vice grip. Stars exploded in your vision. You shattered like glass. Your cocked twitching wildly at each new pump of sperm staining the tree. His hand never relenting the pressure even as the overstimulation began to hurt.

He switched his other arm to wrap firmly around your torso and kept you flush to him. Snarls, growls, bellows poured from the male’s throat before he keened a high pitch. His hips slapped to yours. A pleasurable pain sprouted to life as you felt his knot inflate inside of you. The feeling completely foreign to you. You grunted and squirmed.

Uihoy snarled at you in warning. In reaction, you growled back at him.

Sharp teeth punctured the muscle that corded your shoulder. You choked on a gasped and went ridged underneath him. He had made his point and untangled his fangs from you. The Yautja leaned up, all he could do while tied to you.

“Look at that. You were able to take my knot,” he snarked down at you. You huffed. The energy once in your body was depleted for the moment. Yet, you could already feel your core filling the same need as before.

Pleasure shot through you like a plasma shot when his hand tugged at your sensitive cock. You bucked back at Uihoy to stop but the grip tightened. C’jit. And you were at his mercy.

[martialartslover7]

In defense of Sasuke Uchiha (Blank Period)

Another rant post of mine. Hoo boy.

Like, I don't know about you guys, but, honestly, Sasuke should have returned to the Leaf village, regurlarly, after the war. Not after months or years, and here is why: Sasuke may have chosen to leave the village and become a rogue ninja, but never forget...

...he is as much of a victim, as the rest of the entire Uchiha clan (safe for Madara and Obito), and the Leaf village, in the grand scheme of things. He was never the problem.

Remember, Sasuke wouldn't have even defected in the first place, had the Konoha elders not been such an ignorant and stubborn bunch, that is both stuck in the past, and unable to move on. Remaining bitter towards the Uchiha, until they get laid to rest in their coffins. ...Our totally trustworthy leaders, everyone! Would you still apply for a job with them, after what they had done to the Uchiha?

Here is a thing, if they were fine with the Uchiha getting sacrificed to "maintain peace" and wiping everything under the rug, too, where should we draw a line? Where does it stop? What other clan might have been next, had the Uchiha not been the ONLY ones to agree with a coup d'état? You really mean to tell me, neither of the clans, that had sensory abilities like the Hyuga, the Yamanaka, or even the Inuzuka, were ever made aware of this? This. Was. A. MASSACRE. This wasn't a spy operation, innocent civilians were slaughtered in the process, remember, not every Uchiha was even able to unlock their own Kekkei Genkai, so, the only logical conclusion is:

Either, Danzo might have blackmailed the other clans to shut their mouths about this incident, because, come on, NO ONE can tell me, the screams from men, women and infants, along with blood splatters, could have been missed so easily, I know the Uchiha were shoved into the very edge of the village, but what are the chances of this just getting ignored, just like that? Especially if you have the Byakugan, or you have a hound with you, like the Inuzuka?

The elders from each clan in Konoha were all in on this, as an orchestrated, planned event, choosing willingly to ignore it all, because hey, it's so convenient to just look away, when it doesn't concern your own clan, right?

This isn't the face of an "irredeemable piece of trash war criminal, who doesn't deserve forgiveness". This is the face of a man, who has seen and been told some shit, that cannot ever be unseen or unheard. Imagine being born into a world, where, the very second you drew breath, everyone hates you, just for existing, for things, you didn't even ask to be burdened with. Much less, when you were still a kid, too. And doing it in SECRET, no less. Dude. This doesn't take a genius to understand, how fucked right up this is.

Plus, am I the only one who finds it insanely shitty from either Naruto, Sakura or Kakashi, to never make any efforts to publically criticize or oppose the elders for what they have done to the Uchiha clan? Wanting to bring the truth about the entire clan to light, and put the elders and feudal lords on the spot? Just for the fact alone, that they never once tackled this subject during the Blank Period, is, to me, a very shitty thing to do, especially since Naruto prides himself the loudest on having made Sasuke come back to his senses, and yet, never once, does he challenge these old farts? Really? Maybe I am missing something, feel free to correct me, but from my memory, neither he, or Kakashi, when he was still Hokage, made ANY efforts to publically apologize to the Uchiha clan, or even so much as trying to build memorial stones for the deceased Uchiha, or hell, even Itachi (I think?). And yes, I know, the clan was at the verge of starting a civil bar, but again:

NOT ALL OF THEM. WERE FINE. WITH IT. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING, IT ALL MOSTLY STEMMED FROM MADARA BEING A SORE LOSER, AND TOBIRAMA BEING A RACIST PIECE OF GARBAGE. AND A HUGE PORTION OF THE UCHIHA WERE NOT EVEN ASSIGNED SHINOBI. PRAY TELL, KILLING EVERYONE, BECAUSE OF A FEW ROTTEN APPLES MAKES EVERYTHING OK THEN?!?!?!?!?!

And Kakashi bears Obito's Sharingan, he is living evidence too, of what public scrutiny and scapegoating can do to a person! His life, is essentially no different from either Naruto or Sasuke, and yet, despite having taught Sasuke, and still loving him as a teammate, no, as FAMILY, he NEVER ONCE HELPED HIM GETTING HIS NAME CLEARED?! What the FUCK, Kishimoto?

Also, can I be honest? I hate Boruto, as a follow-up story, for a different reason altogether. That being:

It STILL pretends as if the Uchiha are "evil, by default", and the elders are still, somehow, by some twisted "miracle", "in power", during Naruto's and Kakashi's rule. I mean, just for the fact, that these dried up twigs still have any say, WHATSOEVER, even the tiniest bit of presence in ANY capacity, after all the vile shit that they have pulled, by siding with Danzo, and making backhanded deals with other villages, is enough of a reason for me to more than sympathize with Sasuke's decision to never truly consider this village home, because WHY WOULD HE? These assholes ruined his life, way before he was even born, and yet these same jesters expect Sasuke to live in seclusion, and in shame, over what his heritage has done, but taking accountability for their own actions? Pffft, noooo, why would they? Their reputation as "village leaders" is more important than confronting their own shortcomings...

So, no, after the war, Sasuke should have been given some form of leniency, with either Naruto, Sakura or Kakashi having gone off to spread the word to other nations that what he did, cannot easily be pardoned, but they at least, THE BARE MINIMUM, deserve to know and understand, WHY he did all this. This. THIS course of action would have been a serious love letter to Sasuke, a sign of appreciation that, no matter where he went, he will always matter, even if he believes himself to be undeserving of it, because: It just isn't productive to be leaving an already scarred individual like him in the mold of "all Uchiha, bad", because that just won't work out. Paying for his wrongs is one thing, but putting him, for the rest of his life, along with his future descendants in the "square of shame", is just plain pathetic. Sasuke deserves to have some peace and quiet, too.

Moral of the story: DO NOT. LET HISTORY. REPEAT ITSELF.

Look, this post is not meant to excuse anything Sasuke has done, I am only providing more context that explains, why I feel like, the story was doing him dirty, especially near the end of Shippuden and during the Blank Period. You can think whatever you want about him, I don't care, all I am saying is, even someone like him deserves some well-deserved closure, because, that never happened. The stigma has not disappeared, and it wasn't Sasuke's doing, it was Madara's, don't get that confused. Besides, go on, keep ignoring the concept of "from action, follows a reaction", just so you can keep twisting and turning it, to always make Sasuke appear like the bad guy. Keep doing. You're doing great. In exposing how stupid and ignorant you are, frankly put.

Sasuke deserves to live in peace, he deserves to be happy, and not live in another illusion of supposed "peace", when really, nothing has changed, he deserves better. And look, we can judge Itachi all we want, but in the end, he still loved his brother, and that remains forever, all he did, was for him, as twisted as his method ended up being. It still ended up saving lives. No one else deserves to bear such a burden. Which makes it even more imperative to not wipe something as important as this under the rug, because "the truth is too unpleasant". Case closed.

Peace.

[beevean]

I know TvTropes is edited by different people, but I would dearly love to understand their general logic.

You find this in the YMMV page of Lament of Innocence:

Mathias is not afforded much grace for acting out of desperate grief, to the point that apparently some thought he didn't even deserve a second chance in the form of Soma.

Now, I would argue that LoI doesn't even expect you to cry over Mathias. It's very obvious that he has become a despicable person, using his friend as a pawn, causing the death of said friend's fiancée and not shedding a compassionate tear over her, and even believing he would be joined in immortality. But yes, I agree, Mathias is pitiable only to an extent: "wife died" is not exactly a compelling argument for rejecting humanity to the degree that he did.

... but then what about this, TvTropes? From the YMMV page of NFCV?

(you'd think Mathias would also get the moniker of Jerkass Woobie. nope)

One, NFCV didn't come up with the idea of Dracula lashing out due to the grief of Lisa's death. It comes from SoTN. NFCV only put more emphasis on it. Stop giving the show undeserved credit.

Two, really? Really. N!Dracula is really that sympathetic, that most of the voices he gets are all about how much of a poow bapyboy he is? What the hell do you mean, "he makes a good case against humanity"???? This piece of shit wanted to exterminate humankind and vampirekind (because he was aware that they'd all starve to death, he just refused to give a fuck) because one village didn't rise up against a bishop! When he yells "there are no innocents, not anymore", do you take him seriously?????

He does get a Moral Even Horizon voice, but it feels half-hearted, to say the least:

If you think it's hard not to sympathize with him and that being brought back as a treat rectifies it, then by definition it's not a Moral Event Horizon, because the very definition of the trope is that it's an act that makes a character completely and utterly unforgivable, on par with Griffith sacrificing the Band of the Hawk and raping Casca, to make a famous example.

(funnily enough they do the same with Lenore under the same trope, saying that apparently she understood that she crossed the line and tried to make amends. There's not, however, mention of Isaac killing innocent people and defiling their corpses for his selfish purposes. Inch-resting.)

I really, really am made uncomfortable by the serious apologism N!Dracula gets, and only because he cries a little more than his game counterpart. "He makes a good case against humanity", huh? Do you have any idea how many genocides started from motivations that were seen as reasonable? How many dictators tried, and are trying, to kill many for the perceived sins of few? Yes, I am fully aware that N!Dracula is a fictional villain, and he benefits from a cool design, suave voice, and multiple Pet The Dog Moments, I'm not really saying that his fans condone real crimes... but just like Lenore fans who justify her abuse and rape with real life rape apologism arguments such as "Hector consented at first" or "she wanted his own good", the rhetoric used here is honestly appalling.

But yes, on a pettier note, I'm also salty that game Dracula isn't afforded the same sympathy, even though he too is bereaved by grief. He just doesn't express it in a pitiable enough way. It's easier to go all 🥺 at a depressed man moping in a chair, isn't it? Ignore how said depressed man has hired two misanthropes to Forge demons to routinely send to slaughter innocent humans! It's off-screen, after all :) you don't need to see it :)

But you know who gets called Unintentionally Unsympathetic in the show?

And here I say what I said about Mathias: there is nothing "unintentional" about this, the show has zero pity for the peasants who were slaughtered. Much like you, person who roots for Dracula, the writing too painted them as stupid because believing the CHURCH BAD, and therefore, like all stupid people, deserving of gruesome punishment. Peasants are low-class and religious, and as such deserve death. "Cool" murderers like Dracula and Isaac, who are so intelligent and above the petty masses, instead deserve everything on a silver platter.

I really despise this show and the messages it sends. And the general anti-game bias, of course.

[ebony-underscore]

I got exactly 1 note on that other post and I feel like thats enough to enable me to curse the internet with some character concepts for a star wars sequel au. Still vaguely follows the canon plot though, haven't thought that far ahead

Ray is part of a big scavenger found family. Her force powers manifested at a very young age, and while she appears to be a charming and naturally talented jack of all trades, the force does the heavy lifting. Good with tech/engineering. Loves her family. Who are her parents? Doesnt matter

Her first real struggle is when she starts training as a jedi under Luke at some point. Also the fact that Poe and Finn aren't as easily persuaded by her. This annoys her quite a lot because she's meant to be good at everything. She can come off as arrogant and self-assured but she has a big heart

Finn deserves better. We all know this. A medic who witnessed a massacre of a village and refuses to kill, his story mainly revolves around spurring an insurrection of stormtroopers against the empires brutality. He will not compromise on his beliefs. Ordered to be executed but his squad refused to kill him, giving him a chance to escape. Probably a scenario at some point where in order to pull off a disguise he'd have to kill someone but refuses to do it. Maybe force sensitive

Poe is at odds with his family after abandoning his spicerunner roots to join the rebellion. They don't care about the outcome of the war as long as they keep making profit. Poe unfortunately has a moral backbone. Great flyer, terrible shot. Not force sensitive just very stubborn. He and Ray butt heads over plans fairly often. He knows a few maneuvers. Also skilled in the art of negotiation and avoiding getting killed for a late delivery

Phasma lost everything to the rebellion. Her home, her wife, her family. All lost after a rebel supply raid of her home planet. She's driven almost exclusively by rage and desire for vengeance. She views Finn as naive and foolish for believing in peaceful resolutions. Maybe he reminds her of who she used to be. Or her kids. Or her wife. And she can't handle any more reminders of that. She has to crush his spirit to teach him that the universe is cruel and unkind. Finn does not break.

Han & Leia are still together and help lead the rebellion. Well, Leia is in charge, but Han still holds a fair amount of sway, especially amongst pilots

Ben is believed dead after the Knights of Ren raid the jedi temple and kill Luke's padawans. He isn't, but it's better his family think he is. Ben wasn't good enough to live up to the Skywalker legacy anyway. Joins the Knights of Ren instead forge his own path (this is not a good way to go about it).

Luke is still grieving the loss of those kids, guilt weighs heavily upon him and he can't face Leia and Han after failing their son. He retreats to an island and hopes to find peace and the strength to carry on. He also communes with the force. The force tells him Ben isn't dead. That scares him. Absolutely senses Han in danger at starkiller base and tries to save his ass. Jumps at opportunity to train Ray and 'redeem himself'. He's still old though, and he's not as nimble as Yoda was

Hux is still a petty little bitch and rebel spy deep undercover. Friends with Kylo. Or at least the only person able to talk him down who he wouldn't immediately slaughter. Gives good advice. He thinks Kylo should probably go see a therapist for his anger issues but he knows that ain't happening

[ithoughtitdbefunny]

Vanellope Von Schweetz: A Character Rant

[Note: This rant will focus on the presence of Vanellope in Disney Dreamlight Valley, the good and the bad. I make these criticisms in the most respectful way possible, so please keep an open mind. And if you disagree with some of my opinions, I'd love to hear why! I can't shut up about this game lol.]

Wreck It Ralph characters have been anticipated since the furniture and clothing for the series showed up in Dreamlight Valley. But upon Vanellope's entrance, I can't help but feel offset by what feels like a change in personality for her.

Among film critics, it was pretty blatant that Ralph Wrecks the Internet was a synonymously frustrating sequel to the first of the Wreck it Ralph films. The blatant advertising and cash-grabbed inserts had made the characters severely lose their charm. Personally when I think about Vanellope and Ralph, I'm reminded of the amount of heart and creativity written in their initial premiere. The arcade-world and how it was presented, the clash of video game characters, the sympathy it made us feel for antagonists- it was a great movie with well written characters and the first Disney twist-villain I had ever witnessed as a child. All around- great!

My problem with using the sequel-written version of Vanellope is that she no longer comes off as a spunky kid with his ambitions and a mischievous demeanor- she feels like a character that thinks she's too good to be in Dreamlight Valley. Now, let me explain.

[I will use the disclaimer that I have not been on many quests or had many conversations with her. Simply because I don't feel motivated to.]

Sequel-vanellope has already spent time in Slaughter Race, a game she fought hard to get programmed into and play freely, leaving Sugar Rush behind. This new game she's in has very clearly provided everything she'd want. So why is she here?

To help promote the new photo-sharing system. Now I won't offend the writers by saying that was a bad idea, because I actually like it. But rather than having Vanellope STAY,

I think Ralph deserves a chance. Especially after coping with his best friend having moved on. I think it would have been far better to have Ralph stay in Dreamlight Valley to expand his horizons and to really drive home what makes the Valley so special. There's so much potential!! I could list what types of friendships and rivalries I think he would have around the village but I'd be getting off track.

TLDR: It's a little out of character for Vanellope to move from Slaughter Race to Dreamlight Valley. Ralph should have taken her place to make new friends and we would help him cope with her having moved from the arcade

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 102

Konoha looked like something from a post-apocalyptic movie. Aiko grimly pressed her lips together and tried not to breathe in more smoke than she had to, waving her hand in front of her face to try to get some visibility. It didn't help much.

'I could have picked a better location, apparently,' she noted, trying to figure out the layout of whatever fights were still going on. At least it didn't seem like Konoha had rolled over to die while she'd been gone. That was a little heartening. Orienting was difficult, but she was relatively certain that the massive multi-Kage level shinobi fight she noticed was only slightly north of where she had left Jiraiya and Tsunade. She used subtle clues, like the enormous toad looming through the distant fog and the occasional spout of fire, in order to come to that conclusion.

It didn't require a degree in astrophysics to figure out that removing Pein from the equation hadn't ended the conflict. Tsunade and Jiraiya were still fighting at least one Akatsuki, probably with assistance from Choza, Inoichi, and…

Aiko's heart skipped a beat.

Right. Well, Choza and Shikaku were probably still fine. She firmly steered her mind away from the obvious caveat. She couldn't deal with that now.

Akatsuki was more time-sensitive. That problem could still be affected. Aiko couldn't raise the dead or do more than give platitudes. She could try to take out an Akatsuki, though.

She set off at a careful run for the nearest fight, keeping a wary eye out for an ambush. The caution was wasted. Pein and his cronies had cut through her comrades with what seemed to be vicious efficiency. What activity she could pick out seemed to be desperate and last-ditch, when it wasn't injured survivors scrabbling for cover.

There only seemed to be one more major fight going on. Whether that meant that the Hokage was fighting four shinobi or that some Akatsuki had been killed was up for debate. She passed the still forms of more than one large animal. That might have been cause for celebration, if they hadn't been surrounded by dead Konoha nin. Some of whom she recognized. Not many, though. Aiko pressed on.

'It's almost amazing that a city could be leveled like this in a day,' she thought, biting back tears. She wasn't that attached to Konoha in specific, really. But she'd lived here as long as she could remember. Somehow, it hurt to see that the village would never be the same, even before she figured in the additional grief from losing so many people. Good people, dumb people, young people, loyal people… Just people, really.

Pein really was a monster. She hated him for doing this. How could he? There wasn't even any point to what he'd done. She was almost too tired for her earlier panic, though. That change in attitude might have had something to do with the fact that her head was still bleeding and that white spots veered slowly across her vision whenever she took a deep breath, however.

She had been right at the start. It was unrealistic to think that she could fight Akatsuki. She wasn't an S-class nin. She was a joke with good genes and a few fancy tricks passed down from her betters. At this point, it felt like she was running to one last kamikaze attack.

What else was there to do? Aiko probably couldn't stop them if they wanted to press forward and slaughter the trapped civilians, genin, and other valuable assets trapped inside the safehouses. But if she didn't even try…

Aiko swallowed, hard, and tried not to think of Fukiko lying cold and still. Or Ino, who still didn't know that… Well. Still didn't know the bad news. She didn't deserve to die like that, without even a chance to fight back. No one did.

'Did I just talk myself into suicide by Akatsuki?' Aiko wondered sardonically, slowing down to creep carefully towards the flickering signatures and occasional jutsu of the fight she'd been picking her way towards.

She only saw the combatants once she cleared a ridge formed of bent rebar and drywall. The Akatsuki she found was shorter than both of his opponents, hefty and with his red hair slicked back into a ponytail. The unathletic body type was deceptive, however. He seemed to be doing quite well, keeping either shinobi from hitting him, blocking and dodging with smooth perfection.

Konoha's teams were notorious for doubling up on their opponents and out-maneuvering them instead of getting hobbled by their superior numbers. That training was probably why Yukimasa and Anko weren't dead. Aiko wouldn't claim to know either person's full abilities, but she knew enough to be able to tell that they were both weary and suffering minor injuries.

A more level-headed, detached, and maybe even more intelligent shinobi might have taken advantage of the distraction that they presented to lure the Akatsuki into a trap or attack from the shadows. Aiko saw the earth gape under Anko's feet, and darted forward without thought except of helping.

The rescue was unnecessary, and she barreled into sight without any benefit to mitigate the loss of tactical surprise. Neither of her comrades seemed to care, although they didn't have time to stop and talk. Aiko threw herself into the rote motions of Konoha basic taijutsu with a vengeance, adopting the patterns she had been drilled in for years. Attacks were complementary to the hand combat, not surprises for the team to work around. Anko was in the first position, Yukimasa the second, so Aiko added the third to their set. That addition provided more opportunities to obscure where attacks would be coming from and disorient their opponent.

The relief when she joined her comrades was palpable—with two Konoha nin, they were holding their own against a superior opponent. With three, there should be openings and opportunities to get hits in. Of course, that meant that their opponent would be more desperate to get rid of one of them to restore the previous odds.

What advantage Konoha gained with their polished ability to double and triple-team opponents they lost in predictability. A team that relied on the series of openings and turn-taking that was engendered in the academy couldn't compare to the polish of a team with chemistry and complementary skills. It was no small feat that none of them got caught in anyone else's path, but the Akatsuki seemed to have some level of familiarity with Konoha's styles. They whirled around him, but hardly had a chance to connect. Anko got the first blow- a strike against his arm—and their opponent seemed unaffected.

Something had to give.

'Annoying.' Nagato growled, torn. He was almost to the interlopers in his country. But the damned Sannin were about to kill the Animal path. If he didn't have it summon him back before it fell, then he would be completely removed from Konoha. He had to focus on Konoha. Bitterly and begrudgingly, he stopped running and focused on the Rinnegan connection between himself and that borne by the Animal path.

He stopped seeing the sodden marshland in front of him and started seeing the Human path darting forward, working desperately to keep both Sannin away from the Animal path while he stood still and rushed through a summoning.

The Human path didn't quite succeed, but Pein's favored path stood on a dusty bit of metal in Konoha an instant before Jiraiya's toad oil bullet ruined the Animal body and flung it like a broken doll to lay still on the ground. The Human path's desperate ploy proved to be its last, having gotten far too close to the slug sannin. It too fell, though it was not as damaged. If it were to be healed, it could rejoin the fight.

Pein thinned his lips and sought out the Naraka path. It had backtracked to protect his real body, providing assistance to the Ame genjutsu specialists who had been meant to keep it safe. Apparently, some red-eyed woman had led an attack suspiciously close to the vulnerable body. She was dead now, of course, but she must have communicated to someone else because the Konoha nin kept trickling in that direction whenever they managed to dig themselves out of rubble or put down one of the Animal path's summons. With the animal path out of commission, all the animal summonings failed, leaving Konoha nin confused but free to join other fights and lick their wounds.

The Naraka path was too busy to be called to revive the animal and human paths. They would have to remain out of this fight.

How had events gone so badly? He would still win, of course, though at a terrible cost to himself and possibly to Ame and his neglected organization. All of his bodies but his own broken transport could be remade, but he hated to lose them. They were the result of years of work. He kept his unease off his face, and turned to see the Sannin with his favored path for the first time in a very long time.

The Hokage seemed grimly determined at the sight of another opponent. It was the toad sannin whose hand limply fell open, letting the blade he wielded slip to the ground with a clatter.

"Yahiko-kun?" Jiraiya asked, sounding strangely vulnerable. He took a step forward. "I thought you were dead." The old man looked almost sickeningly hopeful, not noticing the alarm on his companion's face or that he was leaving himself open to attack.

Nagato –and he was Nagato now, not Pein- snarled. "He is, thanks to Konoha!" Knowing that he was wearing his friend's skin fueled his anger, and he moved forward, intent on gutting the old man who had once been his teacher, the old man who had claimed to be their protector and then had fed out information on Ame that had led to a disastrous ambush by Hanzo.

It was the slug sannin who saved Jiraiya, colliding into Pein like a battering ram and knocking him back. Fine. Some things should be said.

"It was through Konoha's intervention that Ame's peaceful revolution failed. Do not look at me as if you do not know my pain!"

He knew that Konan would have rolled her eyes if she had been here. She seemed to think he was overly dramatic when he was upset.

Jiraiya seemed to age a hundred years, slumping slightly. His eyes were still hard, though, and his head high as Nagato stood to drink in the man who had betrayed him and his Akatsuki.

"If you aren't Yahiko, who are you?" Jiraiya had always been clever, Nagato knew. He was a spymaster, and a master of the art of deception. Still, he had no idea how the older man knew to ask the next question, unless it was just hope and blind faith. "Nagato?" Jiraiya slowly held out a hand, visibly pleading with him. "It's you, isn't it? I had hoped, when I found that Konan lived. How did Yahiko die? What is this? Why are you doing this, Nagato-kun?"

"I'm feeling confused," Yamato ventured after several minutes had passed and Karin's furious searching hadn't revealed anything. They had been ready for a desperate last stand that had just never happened. That wasn't a situation one could see coming. It certainly didn't happen often.

Kakashi quietly sympathized with Yamato's bewilderment, but gritted his jaw to force down frustration.

'This doesn't make any sense. First he was coming here, and now he's just gone? I need to know what's happening. I need information. We can't hold Ame forever without orders or reinforcements.'

But Tsunade and Jiraiya were out of contact. That meant he couldn't trust that any other messenger would be able to get to Konoha. His ninken hadn't contacted him, and hadn't responded to his calls. Something somewhere was very wrong, and he was completely without information. Bleakly, he wondered if it was partially his fault. Had his inability to control his team somehow led to whatever was going on?

Kakashi purposefully turned his face away from Naruto, Sasuke, and Karin, who looked sick with guilt and confusion.

If he pushed himself and didn't sleep or rest more than absolutely necessary to stave off exhaustion, he could make it back to Konoha in less than three days. Yamato and Genma could keep that pace with him. Gai and his little replica were far too injured to accompany them, so their team should stay in Ame. As for the rest of his team… he didn't really want to look at them right now.

"Baki, I'm handing over field command to you," he decided, turning to the oldest and most experienced of their allies present. There was no particular reason that Konoha had to be in charge. "Once the Kiri and Kumo teams get a representative here, my team and I are going to try to find out what's going on. I think it has to do with Konoha."

It had to, or Aiko wouldn't have brought the Akatsuki back out to Ame in the first place. What a mess.

'For such a stocky man, this one is fast,' Aiko thought grimly. All three of the Jounin here were fast, even for their rank. Of course, Akatsuki didn't have 'jounin' level shinobi in their numbers. They had monsters.

Yukimasa made a sweeping lunge, a deviation from their set that called both women's attention. He wanted an opening to use ninjutsu. Aiko felt a flutter of optimism- her captain had an idea. Anko and Aiko moved for the Akatsuki's rear at the same time, Aiko going low as Anko went high with a kunai in her fingers. He whirled around to protect from the greater threat, just as he was supposed to.

Aiko couldn't see Yukimasa flick through handsigns through the Akatsuki, but she knew he was. The two women split apart, Aiko going left and Anko right. They barely evaded the heat of the fire jutsu that Yukimasa had flung.

Soot blinded her for a moment, and Aiko moved blindly to lower her chances of being hit, despite hoping that Yukimasa had gotten a crippling blow. The caution was a good idea. When she opened her eyes, she was privately astounded to see that their opponent was undamaged. His right sleeve was completely burnt away, but the skin underneath was perfectly healthy.

'That means that he used that arm to deflect or block somehow,' she tried to puzzle it out. 'He's immune to fire?'

That couldn't be right, could it? Was it even possible to be immune to an element?

Yukimasa must have had much the same thought. He jerked his head towards her, indicating that the next try was hers. He must be hoping that her water type chakra would prove a good match-up. The change in their strategy was now obvious, so it should have been more difficult to find a second opening for an unobstructed attack. Luckily, Aiko's jutsu were smaller area than Yukimasa's, so she didn't have to make sure her comrades were back. She just had to avoid hitting them.

Aiko bought a full second to ready Sen Tsurara by darting backwards. Ox, dog, jin, monkey, and she waited for the right moment, watching the Akatsuki wait expectantly for the jutsu. She darted inwards. Anko side-stepped out of the way and moved to tangle the Akatsuki's leg with her shin, but Yukimasa used his body to block the Akatsuki's view of her until the last moment, reaching up to secure a hand and tug it out to the side, away from the man's body. Not coincidentally, that meant Aiko only had to watch for one limb blocking her while she went in for the torso. The Akatsuki tore his limb out of Yukimasa's grasp but the moment of forced movement cost him just enough that he couldn't get it back inwards in time to push her back.

Right arm outstretched, Aiko lit her hand up with the now-familiar spikes even as she coated her fingers with a protective glove of water-natured chakra. 'Funny,' she thought, in the last moment before she reached out to force her hand through his chest. 'If I didn't know better, I'd say he was fast enough to get that hand back in.' She blocked his right with her left forearm, deflecting it upward, and moved to pierce his heart. The cloth over his chest burst outward and shredded on contact, exposing pale, smooth skin.

And her technique sputtered, dying as soon as the chakra connected with her opponent, leaving her landing an awkward punch instead of piercing flesh. Aiko's eyes widened as her face jerked up. She thought she saw victory flicker in the Akatsuki's pale ringed eyes, just a hint of amusement curling his lips upward. She had just enough time to note that she had only seen eyes like that on one other person and wonder at their significance. The chakra around her wrist still hadn't fled and she was still pressing forwards and there wasn't time to jerk backwards-

With speed she couldn't entirely see, the hand that Yukimasa had pulled away darted inwards and twisted as it closed, viciously snapping her wrist and something smaller in her hand. The bones slid and gave in an instant.

She shrieked and hiraishin'd backwards, inadvertently dodging the hand that had been coming down for her head to land the killing blow. Tearing her hand away had done further damage, but probably saved her life. Pain was racing up her forearm like licks of fire. It was with a numb sense of disconnection that she observed that her hand was mangled, limp, and twisted in a way that obviously ruled out any chances of making a fist, much less handsigns or holding a weapon.

Anko bellowed something that Aiko couldn't understand through the buzzing in her ears, whipping around and stabbing something deeply into the Akatsuki's side, under the arm that was still raised.

He stepped back and kicked her away, already reacting to Aiko's other teammate.

Yukimasa was too close to the hand he had crippled Aiko with. That meant that the sword Yukimasa pulled off his back and over his head was caught in a casual display of monstrous strength and unreal pain tolerance.

Pain tolerance that Aiko couldn't match. She sobbed, forcing down actual tears and hysteria. God, it hurt more than anything she'd ever felt. She'd had broken bones before, but clean breaks, and not so many at once.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nagato asked quietly, almost incredulous that the man would pretend not to know what he had done, that he would look at Nagato with naked hope and pain on his face. "Konoha is part of a broken system. The shinobi world is one of petty tyrants selling violence for evil men, leaving only despair and pain in its wake. I will change that. I am burdened with a vision beyond compare."

Tsunade all but snarled. "You're wrong!" Her chest heaved with anger. Her hands still dripped with the oddly cold blood from the Human path, who had put himself in her way in one last attempt to delay the death of the Animal path. "Petty tyrants? We protect our own, the people we care about! You as much as admitted that you came here because of your desires, your choices. You're the selfish one."

Nagato eyed her, not letting wariness into his body language but not falling prey to arrogance either. He could kill either of these opponents in single combat handily. Both of them at once would require that he plan.

If he were a coward or had more resources available, he might have called on another path. But the Preta path was busy with two kunoichi and a shinobi, the Naraka path could not be spared, and the Animal, Human, and Asura paths were dead. Konoha was not as weak as he had supposed.

He was on his own. But he did not fear, not for himself. Nagato was torn between the desire to hurry so that he could find out what had happened to Konan and his knowledge that rushing in head-first might end badly. Reluctantly, he chose caution.

"Selfish," Nagato repeated slowly, mockingly. "I am selfish. I do not fight for no one, woman. My concern is all of humanity. I am not bound by your conventions of favoritism. I want everyone to have peace, and I will bring it to this world in the only way possible." He blinked levelly at the woman, registering her dumbstuck expression. "This world only understands fear and violence. Very well." He spread his hands and intoned, "So they shall fear me, and I will ensure that no one ever bands together against the weak."

"You're talking about destroying the shinobi system and villages?" Jiraiya asked lowly, shaking his head slightly. "That's crazy. Nagato, what have you become? You can't force peace through fear. It would never be true. You would only be a tyrant to the people. Their hatred would band them all together against you, even if it meant all of their deaths. No one will live in submission."

"Idealistic," Nagato rebuffed sharply, adjusting his stance to be ready to move if either of his new opponents lunged. He forced down a pang of doubt. Jiraiya was wrong. He had to be. "At their core, people are weak and frightened. That is why they arm themselves and turn to violence."

It was positively infuriating to see disappointment in his old mentor's eyes. How dare he condescend like that?

"Nagato-kun, you don't believe that," Jiraiya said quietly. "Yahiko never believed that. Konan never believed that. I wouldn't have taught you if I didn't know you were all good people, despite the odds against you." Tsunade looked almost mutinous at his gentle tone, but didn't try to stop the white-haired man from trying to reason with the intruder in her village. It was highly illogical, Nagato thought.

But Jiraiya pressed forward, painfully sincere. "I always believed in you, Nagato-kun. I told you once that I thought you might be the child of prophecy, the man who would bring peace to the world." He shook his head, and lowered his voice. "But not like this." Sorrowfully, he looked out over the ruins that had once been a vibrant metropolis. "The boy I knew had suffered as a result of someone else's war in his homeland. He wouldn't want to do that to other children, or to take away people's free will by force. You fought for your dreams with tooth and nail, but you were never a bully, kid."

If Jiraiya took one more step in, he might actually attempt to hug Nagato. The Ame nin took a cautionary step backwards, thoroughly disoriented.

This wasn't right. This wasn't how this altercation was supposed to go. Nothing was going right. He had forgotten how persuasive the older man could be, but that meant nothing. It had to.

"It's your fault," Nagato managed steadily, catching the older man's eye. He managed to work up a bit of anger when Jiraiya had the gall to look confused. "It was Konoha that sold us out all those years ago. Hanzo had backup from Konoha."

He licked his lips, strangely hurt and weary at the prospect of telling this story he had never told. "I had to choose between Konan and Yahiko, and it was Konoha's fault. There was no sense in that. Had you not sold us out for information, he would still be here today. Do not act as though you can lecture me."

Even as he said it, Nagato hated that he sounded like a child defending himself against this man. How did Jiraiya make him feel so small? Was it Jiraiya who had somehow ruined his plans once more- Jiraiya who had arranged for Konoha to invade and subjugate Ame, chasing out Akatsuki? It seemed logical that the spymaster would have been involved in the many subversions of his plans to collect jinchuuriki. He needed them to make the weapon that would allow him to force the people of the Elemental countries into submission.

The Sannin exchanged a confused look. It was Tsunade who spoke. "Konoha didn't send anyone to Ame," she said cautiously. "Sandaime-sama would never have interfered with your failed coup. He didn't care who ruled Amegakure. Konoha had our own problems."

"I was there," Nagato said slowly, outraged that she would deny this.

"Any Konoha nin present weren't ordered there by Sandaime-sama," Tsunade said bluntly. "You were tricked."

"Not by Sandaime," Jiraiya said lowly, looking as though an unpleasant thought had occurred. "Danzo, however, might have interfered if he saw opportunity for profit." He looked a little green.

Nagato didn't see what difference it made. He shook his head, tired of conversation that raised prickles of doubt. "Enough!" He narrowed his eyes. "I will not be dissuaded." No matter that he had been wrong, or that his old teacher was glad to see him, or that he feared for Konan, or that it seemed increasingly possible that his attack on Konoha would be a failure.

More than a sliver of doubt pulled at his heart. When it was all summed up that way… Perhaps it was time to reconsider his actions. Jiraiya was wrong: his motivations were pure and his plan the only one that could work. The Konoha nin were wrong about people, and he would prove it to them. Konoha had only rallied because they had no other choice and they thought there was no option for surrender. If they could bow to his might, they would have. Nagato would prove it, and that would prove that he had been correct in his thinking.

He took just a moment to connect with the Preta path, and nudge the manifestation of his power to move more aggressively. Dimly, he recognized one of the fighters with a bubble of amusement. It was of no consequence, however. Once it had killed those in its way, he would send it to the poorly hidden shelters in the west.

And then they would see who knew human nature.

'I need to get back in there,' Aiko realized distantly, feeling strain under her eyes and that she was breathing harshly.

It took a moment to re-evaluate her strategy to take her injury into account. She wasn't useless, but it would be much more difficult for her to get her own hits in now. That meant she was now support for her comrades, helping them get openings. She should keep her right side away from the Akatsuki as much as possible so that her left was always available for blocking.

She tried to pretend to herself that she couldn't see that her hand was swelling and turning purple. It was just a distraction. Pain was just a distraction. It didn't mean anything, and neither did the fact that she couldn't feel her fingers, or that they looked like fat blue sausages.

"What happened?" Yukimasa grunted, abandoning the professionalism of silence. Aiko understood instantly. It wasn't working as an intimidation tactic and they needed to figure out what had gone wrong with their attacks. It wasn't an immunity to fire chakra or even fire itself, so-

"I think he absorbs chakra!" Aiko called out, hoping the tightness in her voice didn't make her sound too weak. 'Like Kisame's sword. That's how he did it.'

That meant that genjutsu and ninjutsu were out of the running as optimal strategies. He'd endured both direct and area effect attacks. It would have been nice to figure that out another way.

But the man was monstrously strong, more like Gai than anyone she'd ever faced in combat before. In unspoken agreement, all three Jounin reached for a blade, if they hadn't one out already. Hopefully his flesh wasn't so tough that they couldn't pierce it. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised. This Akatsuki seemed optimally suited as a defensive fighter—their numbers weren't the advantage she had hoped for.

She was best with a short sword, and preferred to fight with her right hand, but Aiko awkwardly reached across her thigh to pull out a kunai with her left hand. Her broken wrist hurt terribly, but she tried to ignore it. The limb dangled a little limply when she darted forward—the elbow was curled so that her forearm was across her stomach, but she couldn't seem to do more than twitch her ring and pinky fingers.

"Foolish."

Aiko jerked involuntarily, looking around for Pein before she realized that the voice had come from her current opponent. That was positively uncanny.

"I have seen your technique through these eyes, girl. You only touched Pein because I felt you were of little consequence, a fly before me."

Was he seriously saying that the creepy eyes meant he could see what Pein had? Was he connected to Pein? If that was true, she was going to have a seriously hard time touching him. He knew she only needed a tap to move him or hurt him.

An ugly theory made itself known.

Well. Shit.

'Puppets,' Aiko realized bitterly. 'My favorite thing. These aren't new Akatsuki. These are puppets of Pein's somehow. I bet the others all have eyes like that too, just like the hair is Pein's color. What a vain son of a bitch.'

So Pein was still in Konoha. They were all Pein.

The moment that her hand had been broken, her reaction had been to bury the pain, not begrudge the man who gave the injury. He was her opponent in a fight to the death. There was no point in personal dislike. Hypocritically, that opinion changed in an instant, now that she knew it was that man again.

"You again!" Aiko snarled, near-frantic with the desire to end him or at least make him hurt. She lunged, trying again and again to slash at him, but failing. Pein just moved backwards and to the side, like he was a Jounin teaching an excitable genin. She had fallen out of tandem with her peers without realizing it, and nearly collided with Anko in her haste. The older woman managed to dodge and rally around, trying to intercept Pein, but he ducked under and around, placing her body between himself and Aiko.

Like a child hiding behind an adult at the playground, she thought furiously. He was mocking her. Calling her infantile, showing that she was too slow.

"Fall in!" Anko barked, drawing Aiko back to the real world. She jerked guiltily, realizing that she had been behaving unprofessionally. She didn't get to put her grudge before teamwork. It was seamless to slip back into line, letting Yukimasa lead their pattern. She recognized the move he called for instantly.

They were supposed to separate, and come at their target from three points around him, and whirl counterclockwise, moving downward in a spiral that Aiko had always thought strangely resembled a whirlpool. Yukimasa came in at Pein's right side, Anko behind him directly at Pein's back, and Aiko behind her at Pein's left side. She wryly noted that the maneuver had been flipped so that all three of them would be using their left hands, a concession to her crippled right.

All three of them corkscrewed, Yukimasa taking the lowest position to cut at the front of Pein's shins, aiming to slice the tendons keeping his feet firmly attached to his legs. Anko was sliding her blade through the back of Pein's right knee and around the side. Aiko had the most protected position and the toughest target, slicing at Pein's lower back in an attempt to cut through his spine.

Her blade connected, scoring deeply, in no small part because Pein shifted his weight back slightly so that he could kick Yukimasa back. With a yelp and a crunch of bone, Aiko's captain went flying, hitting the uneven terrain and rolling twice before he managed to flip to his feet. Pein had already turned to Anko, whose blow had missed due to Pein's kick.

Aiko saw it happen but still couldn't do a damn thing. Anko's low positioning put her head only slightly above Pein's hands. She had been vulnerable. The movement they had executed counted on the probability that the three-pronged attack would stun or startle their opponent long enough for them to move outward and upward so that blows couldn't come from above.

They had failed. In one smooth motion, Pein put a hand on either side of Anko's head and twisted. It popped all the way around with sickening ease. The older woman's knees buckled and her momentum carried her forward even as Pein continued to turn to face Aiko, who had both been highest and farthest from his vision. She was in an athletic stance. She could move away. Yukimasa had given her the least risky position.

It still wasn't enough for her to dodge completely. The foot she hadn't seen him raise connected with her right shoulder, shattering her upper humerus and sending the shards to collapse into her acromion. She saw white and only belatedly realized that the force of the blow had toppled her over, sending her rolling. She recovered to push herself further away with her good hand, and nearly screamed when the momentum carried her weight onto her now ruined shoulder. Breathing was all but impossible through the taste of bile and blood in her mouth. Some reserve or reflex carried her to her feet through the pain. She had dropped her kunai at some point and not noticed.

Her eyes met with Yukimasa's through the distance. Pein was in between them, looking thoroughly unconcerned. Distracted, even. He was still turned more towards Aiko than her teammate. Her surviving teammate. Anko was staring up deaddeadead and Pein was better than she was and he was going to kill Yukimasa, he was going to kill everyone and everything that he touched. She couldn't let that happen.

In the moment, the next thought seemed like a perfect idea. Pein was going to kill her. She couldn't survive him. When she died, her body was going to explode from Danzo's seal. She would be taking Pein with her. Unless Pein managed to escape the blast radius—he had to be close. And she had to die suddenly—he might realize what was happening and have time to back away. Or he might just choose to casually fling her away, or let her die slowly. She had to make it count, had to set this up right.

He was turning. Turning away from her, moving to the larger threat. Her captain still hadn't quite regained his balance, on his feet now but not ready to intercept an attack.

Aiko didn't think, she moved. Her good hand jerked up to the side of her face, planting a very familiar seal on her temple just above her cheekbone. An instant kill, and then Danzo's seal would fail in the same instant.

If she'd had more time, she might have had last words. Something poignant, or something heroic, like telling Pein that he couldn't win. But all she was really thinking was a combination of 'save captain' and 'fuck this guy', and none of that was suited for the record.

"Hey, assbutt!"

'I need to work on my insults' crossed her mind ever so slightly before, 'No, I don't' flickered in denial.

It didn't matter. Pein's puppet turned, sensing that she was lunging at him. She had just enough time to savor the slight confusion when he realized that she didn't even have a weapon out and twist her mouth into a parody of a smile before she let her momentum carry her a breath away from his body. He was about to block her, probably by kicking her down.

She snapped one last seal, and wasn't even able to appreciate just how fucking beautiful it was to see blood spray out over the short man's confused face. She certainly wasn't there to enjoy the secondary, much larger boom that rocked the ground, shredding both bodies and scorching a ring into the ground.

Yukimasa was, though. The first thing he did once he had registered the heaviness in the air that proceeded the explosion –after he reflexively scrambled backwards, out of range—was throw up. It might have been the way the force rocked him with nausea, but it was more likely the tiny scorched toe with a painted blue nail that collided with his chest and rolled when it dropped to hit the ground.

"God," he gasped, licking bile off the back of his teeth and shaking. "God."

Iruka's muscles were already so tense that they hurt, despite remaining perfectly still. His students and the other children in the shelter had been getting restless and impatient. He wasn't sure if the fact that they had quieted when distant booming echoed through the tunnels to them was good, although their whispers were much easier to think and listen over than the whining and chatting had been.

'I have no idea what I'm hearing,' he thought with frustration, not for the first time. Fighting had obviously begun, and it wasn't close. That probably meant the village was under direct attack. But there weren't many shinobi he could imagine would be loud enough to hear from such a distance—an Akimichi, perhaps.

At least no one seemed to be nearby. That didn't mean he was relaxing at all. Chuunin instructors were some of the best shinobi in the village because they were entrusted with Konoha's most valuable resources, but he had never specialized in detection of any sort. There was always a possibility that some of the attackers were a distraction for opportunists interested in a few bloodlines.

Those thoughts were why he came shamefully close to throwing a shuriken at the source of abrupt movement. Iruka wheezed in panic, trembling. He'd barely caught the blade between his fingertips in the same instant that he'd reflexively tossed it.

The surprised looking huddle of children who had jerked downwards didn't even notice that there had nearly been blood, though their kunoichi teacher gave him a murderous look.

"Where'd the doggies go?" someone whined plaintively.

'Oh, that's right,' he realized dimly. 'They were snuggling Aiko's ninken.'

It took a moment for him to connect the dots there. The children using that fluffy dog as a pillow had all knocked their heads on the floor when it had ceased to be in the shelter. It was… No, was it even possible for a ninken who had already been in the human realm to respond to a summoning? Iruka frowned, carefully tucking away his weapon and plastering a bright smile onto his face to avoid letting onto his increasingly dark thoughts. As far as he knew, that wasn't possible. He could be wrong, of course. But it seemed much more likely that the chakra sustaining the summons had cut out.

'Aiko could have passed out from chakra exhaustion,' he theorized. That wasn't a good option by any means, but it was better than the only other explanation that came to mind.

His female colleague met his eyes with an expression of grim understanding before she regained her post, having finished soothing a boy who had gotten a good knock to the head. She had come to the same conclusion.

He really wished he knew what was going on. Iruka had to stop himself from tapping his fingers against the side of his pants. His students knew his nervous tics well enough by now that he couldn't allow himself to forget what his hands were doing. It would do no good to panic them.

Jiraiya threw himself to the ground at the sound of an explosion, half-expecting the attack to be much closer. His reflexes were wasted, however. Whatever detonation that had been had been both large and loud, but the plume of smoke he spotted in the distance showed that it was a good half-mile away. The attack hadn't been for him.

He cursed his paranoia, even as he leapt to his feet and moved to ensure that Nagato-kun didn't manage to hurt Tsunade-hime while he was lazing about on the ground. The shock he saw on the Ame nin's face stopped him in his tracks. Tsunade stepped back, visibly wary of a trap. Katsuya bubbled menacingly, dissolving and dividing into smaller slugs than the large beast that had shielded hime from the last attack.

It was for naught.

"Impossible," Nagato said quietly, turning to stare off at the rising cloud of dust as if he had forgotten he was in a fight. "I… failed. How could I fail?"

Something uncomfortable crawled in his belly, a suspicion that Jiraiya couldn't quite verbalize.

"What are you talking about?"

Apparently, Tsunade wasn't struck by the same sense of cautiousness that told him that anything more than a whisper might break their odd stalemate, because her tone was firm and not entirely pleasant.

"I was going to demonstrate that you were wrong." Nagato blinked, and turned back to the older shinobi, looking a little lost and unnerved. "That your people would surrender to me instead of dying for you."

"It's obvious that they weren't going to surrender," Tsunade rebutted fiercely, frowning at him. "They've been fighting you since you came here."

"I meant the others," Nagato muttered distractedly. "I gave no chance for quarter to your Jounin. The genin and civilians, however, did not have to die."

"What did you do?" Jiraiya asked hopelessly, fearing the worst.

"Nothing."

Well, that hadn't been what he had expected.

"I did not have a chance to offer them terms." Nagato slowly shook his head, giving the Sannin a strange inquisitive look. "The last Path I possessed who could go to them is dead. I have no others but the path outside the city. Even if I beat you here…"

He trailed off, but Jiraiya knew what he meant. Nagato would have no clean victory. All three of them were bloodied and battered, but not ready to stand down. Nagato might fall to one or both of the Sannin, and his invasion would fail. Even if he won, he would be weakened. Someone, somewhere, among the Konoha survivors would find him and bring him down. He was no immortal. If he had thought he could take Konoha alone, he would not have brought other fighters.

"Paths?" Tsunade asked, uncertain.

"Like the story of the Rikkudo Sennin," Jiraiya explained quietly. "The Rinnegan is the power from that story. It's real. That's how he did this. The other intruders are him."

He had been all but certain, but seeing Nagato's head nod slightly in agreement hit home. God, when had one of his kids become so powerful? Jiraiya tried not to laugh, because if he did, he was going to cry. He was a failure of the highest order. He had been less of a disgrace back when he thought his students were all dead. His apprentice was still dead, as was sweet Yahiko. Nagato and Konan were criminals bent on Konoha's destruction and the deconstruction of the entire shinobi way of life. Naruto… He could have done so much more for Naruto. But he'd looked at that boy and seen his father's face and his mother's spirit and been torn between drinking away the memories and pushing him away so that he couldn't be hurt again when the boy died.

Naruto had forced his way in past his guard, but that was through no virtue on Jiraiya's part. He was a disgrace to Konoha, a pathetic failure as a teacher, and an utterly worthless godparent. God, he didn't even know what had happened to his goddaughter. He hadn't seen her since the fighting started. Was she dead? Probably. Half of Konoha seemed to be.

Nagato's quiet voice cut through his despair. "It seems that you were correct. I cannot best you." Jiraiya pulled his attention outward to see Nagato looking up at the sky, staring into the distance contemplatively. "I yield, Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sensei. I was wrong."

"What." Tsunade said ungracefully.

"If your shinobi are willing to blow their very bodies up to keep me from their civilians, I cannot believe that I will find what I thought I would here." Nagato shook his head slowly. "Konoha is not what I thought it was."

"What makes you think I would accept your surrender," Tsunade demanded, half-hysterical, tears of anger welling up and her face twisted in sick, trembling outrage. "You killed hundreds of my people! I want your blood. Why would I let you walk away?"

For the first time, Nagato seemed to really look at her. He shrunk slightly in the face of her obvious grief, apparently shaken by the realization that he had hurt real people and was going to be held accountable for it.

"I can fix that," he said quietly.

Tsunade threw her head back and laughed until she cried, great gasping sobs that shook her shoulders. "You can fix it," she repeated thickly, shaking her head and hugging her chest. Now that the adrenaline had gone and the fight was over, she was falling apart in front of his eyes. Jiraiya swallowed hard, and quietly moved to wrap an arm around her waist. She leaned into his chest and rolled her head to keep Nagato in her sight. "Are you mad, boy? You're going to fix this. What are you going to do, give hand-written apologies to every widow and orphan? Will you rebuild my city by hand?"

"No," Nagato answered, looking her directly in her eyes. He stepped forward seriously, hands curling slightly at his side. "Tell your people to stand down. They are still fighting my last path. I will bring the Naraka path here." He paused deliberately, as if he knew that the next words would be disbelieved. "The Rinnegan has the power over life," Nagato said quietly. "True resurrection, not a perversion or theft from the Shinigami."

Jiraiya felt his jaw drop. That was in the stories, yes, but stories couldn't all be true. It was perfect, it was unrealistic, it was-

"Impossible!" Tsunade breathed, curling her fist into Jiraiya's vest. He couldn't see her face even when she lifted it, but he knew the fury that would be on it. "You mock me."

"I do not." Nagato raised his head to make eye contact with Jiraiya. He met the gaze steadily, torn between disbelief and hope. "Jiraiya-sensei, you know I do not lie. I can do this. The Samsara of Heavenly life technique restores a body to the state it was in before death. I can rebuild what was lost, attach limbs, and breathe life back into damaged tissue. They will not be in perfect health," he admitted honestly. "I believe that there may be remnants of fatigue or imperfections in chakra level, and I do not know what would happen to a man who had lost a limb years before, for example, but I can restore your people to life in penance."

"In penance," Tsunade repeated slowly. "So you're sorry, boy?" She stared at him, coming to a decision. It didn't take long. Jiraiya knew what she would choose. There was only one choice, no matter how angry she was. Their people came first.

"Katsuya-sama, spread out and make sure everyone knows to stand down!" Tsunade ordered hoarsely, not taking her gaze off Nagato. "I'm going to let him try. I'll need your help to heal any injured, however. Nagato. Are you claiming that your technique only needs genetic material to rebuild a body and restore it to life?" she clarified, eyes hard. At his nod, Tsunade took a deep inhalation. "So a body should become as it was meant to be," she concluded quietly, running a hand through her left pigtail and tapping a scuffed, bloody heel against the ground.

A body should become as it was meant to be.

Hope swelled up in his chest, despite the grimness of the situation. Tsunade was obviously disgusted by Nagato, but he didn't feel guilty about talking to him under the new circumstances.

"What happened?" Jiraiya asked quietly, hating that he'd forgotten about his initial upset when his goddaughter had disappeared earlier. She had taken Nagato away—and he was now certain it was Yahiko's body, though he hadn't gotten a good view before—and had never returned. But Nagato had.

His old student gave him a careful examination. "What do you mean?"

"My goddaughter," Jiraiya clarified, oddly surprised that Nagato hadn't known. It seemed so obvious to him. "She- earlier, when we – first arrived"- 'Before Choza and Shikaku and Inoichi died' , he thought bitterly –"the girl who-"

Thankfully, Nagato interrupted his awkward stumbling for words. "Uzumaki Aiko," he clarified slowly.

For the first time, Jiraiya remembered that Nagato was an Uzumaki too. How was he related to his godchildren?

Nagato looked guilty, and Jiraiya's heart sank. Even as he told himself that Nagato would fix it, that he would bring her back, Jiraiya wanted to go see for himself. To find his goddaughter and apologize to Minato for failing him so completely.

"Dead," Nagato admitted. "Although I did not kill her with these hands. She took me out of Konoha, to the land of Rain in hopes of keeping me from the fight. She did not know that the Animal path could summon me."

"Then why is she dead," Jiraiya asked quietly, accusatively.

"That was the explosion."

His legs buckled under him and Jiraiya sat heavily. 'Maybe I already knew,' he realized dazedly. 'That wasn't an explosive tag. That was a big explosion. From something like the seal Aiko took from Danzo.'

Kami, how horrific. But, that didn't answer-

"How did she die," he demanded hoarsely. An explosion would be a monstrous way to die, but the seal was meant to go after she was dead. That had just been her body, not her. Maybe the truth was less cruel. Even as he grasped at straws, Jiraiya knew he was being irrational. She was dead. Dead was dead, and it certainly hadn't been peacefully in her sleep. Knowing wouldn't make him feel any better.

"Suicide," Nagato admitted quietly.

And his heart stopped somewhere between terror and confusion, even as the younger man continued talking.

"I don't know how she did it. One of her companions was dead, and the Preta path moved to finish the other while he was down. I had intended to have him go to the refugees after they were dead and was weary of playing with them. She leapt at the Preta path." Nagato looked oddly disturbed, as if noting a detail for the first time. "She was smiling," he finished quietly. "She didn't even try to reach out. Her head went first, and then-" Nagato cut himself off sharply, as if remembering that shinobi tolerance of gore and grief might falter in the face of such a personal connection.

Jiraiya bowed his head, feeling a despicable failure. He didn't even care when a tear drop hit his knees. "And you can bring her back?" he asked quietly. A body that had been the fuel for an explosion like that… half of it might be outright gone as ash, the rest scattered. Was it even possible to restore full function after something like that? Would she remember the experience? It must have been a horrible way to die. It might be kinder if she didn't have to count such an experience in her recollection.

"I can bring her back," Nagato promised solemnly. "And then…" he paused uncertainly, probably knowing that it was a terrible time to ask favors, but unable to resist. "What happened in Ame?"

Surprised by the question, Jiraiya had to blink three times before he made the connection. He'd pushed that affair back in his memory in his current preoccupation. It just didn't seem important at the time. But of course Nagato would be interested.

"I don't know much," Jiraiya admitted. "A toad came to me asking what was going on while I was fighting before you came back and told me that Naruto was actually in Ame, but I don't know when the situation changed. If there was a message from the borders about an excursion into Ame, it either hasn't made it here or the messenger abandoned their post to join in the fight."

"I see." Nagato seemed troubled. Jiraiya could sympathize.

Tsunade couldn't.

"Who are we waiting for exactly?" she asked crisply, pacing a small circuit.

"My last remaining path," Nagato said quietly. "I should probably make you aware that there are also four Ame shinobi present. I took our strongest team in order that someone might protect my actual body. In any case, the Naraka path is channeling a power that will allow me to perform the Samsara technique of heavenly life."

"And will this kill you?"

Jiraiya recoiled, but Tsunade was matter-of-fact. The question made sense. Most kinjutsu had a heavy price to pay. Life for life seemed fitting.

"I may die in the attempt," Nagato admitted. "I doubt it, however. I have a path left to aid me and a great deal of chakra still." He met her gaze for a moment. "I will use as much as it takes," Nagato said quietly. "I have not used this technique before."

"Why didn't you?" Tsunade asked suspiciously. "If this friend of yours is dead, why didn't you bring him back?"

A flash of pain crossed Nagato's face. "I had not mastered the technique," he said bluntly. "And by the time I had, it was far too late. I cannot bring back those who are long dead without dying myself, and Konan would not have forgiven me if I attempted the technique and failed. When I suggested it, she felt that the risk of failure outweighed the possibility of having Yahiko back, and that she would not choose between us."

'She didn't want to be alone,' Jiraiya realized sadly. Konan had always been a sweet girl. Skilled, clever, but not a leader herself. No wonder she had clung to her surviving companion.

They waited in unhappy silence until the 'path' came to them, impassive and dull-faced. Nagato directed it to stand nearby and took a deep breath. "Tsunade-sama, I can do nothing for your injured," he warned a final time. "It is still possible that any who are trapped under rubble will perish after I have performed this technique. They will remain lost. But if we delay, those who have perished already will be out of my reach."

"I understand," Tsunade said quietly, obviously pained. "Save as many as you can. I'll set them to searching for survivors and heal them with Katsuya's help."

'I'll never get a chance to see anything like this again,' Jiraiya knew when Nagato raised his arms slightly and began channeling a truly godly amount of chakra. 'I should pay attention so I can remember the way it looks.'

But it was all he could do to hold his old teammate's hand and try to soothe away her shaking as they both silently prayed that this would work.

The sky was blue through heavy overhanging dust, and her neck was hurting. She moved slightly, and the jagged rock that had been poking her flesh up rolled over to a blunter side.

That still wasn't great, but it seemed like as good a solution as any.

It took a moment for the realization that something was not right to set in. Cataloguing her senses took some time. The stinging in her eyes wasn't pleasant, but it didn't set off the danger alarms. Nothing did, until she forced herself to sit up and realized that she was completely naked.

She was naked, and she wasn't alone. Eyes wide, she crossed her arms over her chest convulsively and brought her knees up to shield some small part of her dignity.

'What's going on? Where am I?'

She couldn't even bring herself to question why she was naked, because she couldn't imagine an answer that wasn't terrifying. She didn't even see discarded clothes nearby. The situation didn't look good. She was sitting in a field of rubble. A starburst pattern of blood painted the grey and white stones. That was a lot of blood, but she didn't see where it had come from.

Is it possible to have your heart convulse so fast that it bruises your chest? Because that's what it felt like.

The man walking toward her split his face in an enormous grin, widening his hands in some gesture she didn't appreciate. The hair that fluttered behind him was white, where it wasn't red or dusty.

So, this was someone who had been involved in whatever had happened to her, she grimly judged.

"Aiko-chan!" At this distance, she could see that his face was tanned and faintly lined. It was also filthy, with slightly cleaner lines blurred downward where he had obviously been crying at some point in the day. He was older than his macho, careless body language and pleasant voice implied. That advanced age didn't correlate to physical infirmity. Strength was obvious in the casual grace of his movement and his enormous frame. "Shit, girl. That was stupid of you. But we're all alright now. Tsunade-hime's got almost everyone rounded up." He sounded oddly relieved to see her.

And he wasn't respecting her personal space. Face burning, she scrambled backwards, watching warily.

This seemed like a situation she should remember getting into. Blood that didn't seem to belong to anyone, broken buildings, hot scorch marks… it looked like she'd been in the middle of a fucking battlefield.

'Nice place you have here,' some irreverent part of her murmured, rather unconvincingly fronting nonchalance in the face of her fear. She couldn't make the words come out, though. Her mouth was too dry.

And the stranger was still looking at her. His grin made her very uncomfortable. In another situation she might have identified it as boyish or playful, but it felt distinctly predatory right now. Her right foot slipped on a jutting nail in her retreat, and the soft uncallused heel split open like a ripe fruit. She flinched, curling her leg inward. His smile slipped as he glanced down at the liquid that was warming the underside of her foot.

"Is something wrong?" Even as he spoke, he was slipping the oversized scroll that hung off one shoulder onto the ground. She tensed, but all he removed was the coat he wore. It was filthy and sticky against her bare flesh. But when he tossed it to her; she hastily wrapped it around her body and held it closed with one hand.

She still hadn't responded.

"Aiko, talk to me." The stranger's brow furrowed. He moved in slowly, as if trying to be unthreatening. She should reply. She wasn't convinced of his benevolence, but manners never hurt. "Are you dizzy? You look disoriented."

Her voice was raspy, but she managed words. "Where am I?"

Tired and uncertain, Tsunade allowed Nagato to leave, the one path that had survived escorting him.

"It's strange," she said quietly, not turning to look at her apprentice. Shizune had been a little frightened and jumpy since she had been revived, but doing her best to hide it. For her dignity, Tsunade pretended not to notice and tried not to break down and cry when the girl crept off to a corner to recover her composure.

Finding her apprentice wandering disoriented among the rubble had been terrifying as it had been a relief. Shizune had been equally streaked with tears and blood, clutching her torn kimono shut and all but incoherent. She hadn't been told what had happened. And Tsunade hadn't dared to ask. If Shizune wanted to talk about it, she would eventually. But now, they needed to pull together and take care of the village as best as they could.

"That he left the Ame team behind?" Shizune asked, not making much effort to falsify her usual bright tone.

"That, and something he said before," Tsunade acknowledged thoughtfully. "I think he's planning on seppuku." She turned away, disinterested in watching that man walk into the distance.

He could kill himself, but it wouldn't erase the memory of what he had done. It would make sense, though. Seppuku was historically used to erase disgrace and restore honor. His personal honor was beyond repair, but he still cared for Ame and Konan.

They hadn't managed to contact the other nations yet, but she thought she knew what international response to this whole mess would be. No one else had been battered nearly as much as Konoha, but that didn't mean anyone would accept the continuance of Nagato's unofficial reign as the kage of Ame.

No, he had to either die or be executed for them to have anything resembling a fresh start, no matter what Jiraiya thought. She suspected that he intended for Konan to take over as Ame's kage, actually. It sounded like a poor plan to her, but it wasn't her village to worry about.

Nagato had postured, as if he was attempting to convince her that he had something important to say. That seemed doubtful. Now that she'd finally heard from her people in Ame, it seemed clear that Akatsuki was taken care of. Whatever he was withholding could be found in another way without having to condescend to deal with that Konan woman until it was clear there were no other options. Tsunade wouldn't be an instrument in a plan to strengthen Konan's authority by acknowledging her as Ame's representative.

'Why am I wasting time thinking about these people?'

Disgusted, Tsunade wished good riddance to bad rubbish and took a moment to wonder what Jiraiya was up to. She had lost track of him in the hours that followed Nagato's resurrection technique and then her impromptu healing. It was all a long, dirty blur of digging and searching and trying to convince shell-shocked, traumatized shinobi to pull out of their personal sorrow and phantom pain to help her save everyone else before being trapped under rubble killed them again.

And Sarutobi-sensei was dead, permanently dead. She tried to shy away from the memory of finding him—breathing perfectly well, but the man she remembered was not inside the cage of flesh. When she took into account that he had apparently traded his life to the death god to destroy a path, Tsunade wasn't surprised that it had been impossible to revive him. She was miserable and sick with grief, but not surprised.

At least the digging had revealed that all was not quite as lost as they had thought. Downtown had been hit the hardest, but only several blocks were completely unsalvageable. Most of the city was broken and buried, but the infrastructure was still there. With work and time, it could be restored to something usable.

'It doesn't hurt to have an extra four sets of hands, but I'll need more than Ame nin to get this done before the Tsuchikage thinks to take advantage of our weakness,' Tsunade thought grimly. Everyone would have to be recalled from Ame. They couldn't afford to waste the manpower on a foray that wasn't even making money.

"Tsunade-sama? May I be excused?"

"Hmm?" She actually turned at that. "What do you mean, Shizune?"

"I would rather be working in the hospital," Shizune said quietly.

Her brow furrowed. It didn't seem like the best allocation of one of her best administrative resources. There were so few wounded… Well, physically wounded, in any case. There were more than a few instances of phantom limbs, cases of short-term memory loss from stress, confusion, and panic attacks, and a few who were still sleeping off whatever trauma they had endured that Nagato's resurrection couldn't rectify. Shizune was vastly overqualified to deal with the physical injuries present, and under-qualified to do anything about the sudden rash of psychiatric needs.

But she wouldn't deny her apprentice anything, and certainly wouldn't push her past her breaking point. Shizune wouldn't have asked on a whim.

"Of course," Tsunade conceded. "I'm sure you know the evacuation team is leaving soon. You'd better go join them."

The relief visible on her apprentice's face erased any regret she had. Impulsively, Tsunade reached out and pulled Shizune into a hug as she hadn't in years. She breathed in deeply, nose tucked into lank, dirty hair. "I love you kid," she murmured. "You know that, right?"

She wasn't an expressive woman. The thought of losing the girl she had raised had curdled her blood and made her regret every day where she hadn't made that perfectly clear.

"I know," Shizune sniffled in return, embracing her firmly. "I love you too."

Tsunade pulled away, holding Shizune at arm's length to drink her in for a moment before tiredly joking, "All the feelings in here are making me uncomfortable. Go on now, you'll miss your group."

She didn't have to cope with loneliness for long. Twenty minutes after Shizune left, her surviving teammate stumbled into her requisitioned office in a bank (of all the things) that had survived the destruction.

"You look terrible," Tsunade said bluntly.

Jiraiya couldn't quite muster up a smile. "It's been a long day, hime." He looked at her with something that wasn't quite fondness and wasn't quite sorrow—a desperate, grateful look that made her uncomfortable enough that Tsunade turned her face down.

"It has," she agreed quietly. After a moment, she cleared her throat. They'd never communicated about their feelings much, but if there was a day to express concern, this was probably it. Tsunade opened her mouth, and then closed it uncertainly. "So… Did you find-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Jiraiya cut her off sharply. At her shocked look, guilt crossed his face. He slumped, enormous shoulders curling inward. His enormous physical presence couldn't be diminished to something comparable to another man's, however. Even at his lowest like this, Tsunade looked at her teammate and couldn't see the scrawny boy she had grown up punching. He wasn't quite foreign to her, but sometimes when she looked and saw a man where she expected an irritating tween, it threw her for a loop.

"I'm sorry," Jiraiya apologized, glancing up at her through pale lashes ringed with soot. "That was bratty, wasn't it?" He heaved a sigh, apparently not needing a response. The kunoichi watched him warily, wanting to help but not sure what to say. "Yeah, I found Aiko."

"Was she…" Tsunade started cautiously.

Her teammate shook his head. "No, she's not dead," he said bluntly.

Tsunade avoided the impulse to say, 'that's good, right?'. He didn't seem happy.

Jiraiya inhaled deeply and looked up to the tacky gold-leaf ceiling. "She's not right, either." His lips twisted into something ugly. Tsunade found herself holding her breath, not sure what might set him off. "Didn't recognize me, or know where she was."

The Hokage winced. "Well, to be fair, she has a right to be shaken," she tried to say diplomatically. "And Konoha doesn't look much like itself right now."

That hardly explained why she wouldn't recognize Jiraiya. It wasn't like he had a particularly common face. That failure was hardly a good sign. Something could be severely wrong in her head. Nagato did say that there might be some complications… She couldn't know without some idea of the physical damage, though. She did have the presence of mind to know that it wouldn't be diplomatic to ask Jiraiya for the gory details so that she could form a working hypothesis as to the problem.

Tsunade did have suspicions as to what had happened. There were other instances of what appeared to be serious brain damage in shinobi who had been posted along the wall, where that horrific ray had burst through. What were the odds that Nagato's technique was absolutely perfect enough to reconstruct and attach brain cells that even the best doctors didn't understand? She chewed the inside of her cheer unhappily. Even if the cells were all perfect, the electrical connections between them were the result of years of signals being transmitted in very individual ways. Could that really be rebuilt from scratch?

'I'll have Shizune send me an update,' Tsunade decided. Now that she was curious, she wanted to know. Actually, she should remind Shizune that there was likely to be an incident. It wasn't uncommon for shinobi waking up in hospital to lash out, but the medic nin could usually take care of themselves. With all the civilian nurses and doctors that would be helping out, it might be a good idea to exercise extra precaution…

Jiraiya noted the obvious exclusion, and gave her an amused look that told her he hadn't been tricked into thinking nothing was wrong. She gave him a queasy smile. It wasn't like she was going to lie to him.

"I must be even worse than I thought," Jiraiya sighed, scratching his filthy neck depreciatingly. "My godkid didn't recognize me. She was scared of me, hime," he stressed, voice going up a little.

A deep sadness pulled at her chest. Unthinkingly, Tsunade crossed the distance and pulled her oldest friend into a slow hug. She wasn't a particularly small woman but she felt petite when her forehead rested against his pectorals. "We're a right pair, aren't we?" she murmured. "I always said I didn't want kids, but here we are. If Shizune and Sasuke aren't my brats, I don't know what they are." She tightened her arms protectively. "You did a good job with those kids," Tsunade stated firmly. "They're old enough to understand why you couldn't take them in, and it's obvious that you care. You did what you could. Naruto thinks the world of you, you know."

He gave an aborted laugh that expanded his chest enough that Tsunade's grip nearly slipped. "Not for long," Jiraiya joked uncomfortably. "I may have sent a toad or two to spy on him after everything calmed down."

Tsunade was surprised into a laugh.

"Hey, it's not that funny," he grumbled with a pout.

She shook her head and drew back, poking his chest. "It's not that. Katsuya is with Sasuke now. Great minds think alike, I think." She'd sent her summon to her student as soon as a dirty, yelping dog had limped his way to her after the fight. The note attached to the poor thing's collar had been illegible, but the blue vest marked him as one of Hatake's. When she'd seen it, Tsunade had discovered a new capacity to feel ill. She'd instantly assumed Sasuke was in trouble. Of course he wasn't, though. Hatake had apparently managed to rout Akatuki and snatch Ame… Which she needed to sit down and have a long debriefing about, apparently. Tsunade made a mental note.

"Paranoid old coots think alike," Jiraiya countered amiably. He didn't even wince when she whapped his chest. Instead, he took the blow with a smile, and rubbed the spot her palm had connected with. "I'll continue to be creepy tonight, I suppose. I don't want to scare her again, but I'd like to see that she's alright. Shizune isn't going to tattle on me if I come by while she's sleeping, right?" The expression on his face slipped slightly.

'He probably doesn't want to find out it wasn't a fluke that she didn't recognize him,' Tsunade assumed quickly, averting her gaze. 'It's not real if he doesn't deal with it, in a way.'

Politely, she pretended not to notice the drop in his composure. There was no point in mentioning it. He was hardly going to fool anyone who knew them into thinking that he was really alright, and crying was hardly going to get what needed done or help keep the village in line. "I doubt it," Tsunade said wryly. "Not if you ask nicely."

Jiraiya was being a bit of a coward, but he probably wasn't wrong. It might be best not to surprise Aiko with too many new faces in a day, Tsunade figured. Waking up in the hospital would be overwhelming enough. She was hardly a mental health specialist who knew how best to approach someone best after an incident like yesterday's.

'Shizune probably already knows to contact a civilian specialist,' Tsunade decided. 'Probably several specialists, actually, since our worst casualties appear to be psychosomatic or otherwise non-physical.'

They didn't have the capacity for so many mentally compromised shinobi at the best of times. When their own specialists were among the injured, the lack was profound. Already making plans, she turned back to her work.

When she next woke, it was to the feeling of rough sheets under her bare legs, and some sort of strap over them. It felt much like the ones around her wrists. She tensed instantly, bewildered and frightened.

'What is going on—Where am I? Why am I tied down?'

"Aiko, are you up?" A female voice called out from somewhere behind her. Quick steps crossed what must be a hard floor. "I'll loosen those in just a minute. Sorry about that, but when Jounin last remember being in combat conditions and wake up to the sound of people moving around, the first reaction is hard on medics, to say it lightly. There's a lot of civilian nurses around helping and no one wants to get skewered."

'There's that name again,' she thought, mystified. Aiko, Aiko, Aiko. It didn't mean anything to her. That was supposed to be her name? At least it was inoffensive. She supposed it could belong to her.

The word Jounin, though, that was familiar. That was an upper-level ninja. She was an upper level ninja?

Funny. You'd think she'd remember a thing like that.

"We're actually in Otafuku Gai," the woman blathered on. Aiko cracked one eye open uncertainly to discover that a relatively young woman with short dark hair and a purple kimono was at her side. She flinched away, but all the woman did was reach out to tug on her restraints, fiddling with some type of buckle.

And god, she just wouldn't stop talking.

"Our hospital is in pretty poor condition, having been downtown. Tsunade-sama thinks that some of the lower level is salvageable, but it's obviously not anything approaching a sterile condition right now."

Did she ever get tired of hearing her own voice? If not, she could at least say something useful. Although that name was familiar. The grinning man had mentioned that name as well, before he'd gone tight-lipped and called for a medic. That had seemed like a good idea, until the split-second when she realized she was being put under with that irritating glowing palm technique.

"You'll be glad to know that there's very little in the way of casualties to speak of," the brunette chattered, pushing a bit of hair behind her ear as she finished freeing Aiko's hands. Aiko pushed herself into a seated position, warily keeping an eye on the older woman as she pulled a clipboard off the wall and settled down gracefully on a folding chair. "Nagato-san—oh right, you missed that part, but it turned out that the six Akatsuki were actually was one shinobi, Jiraiya-sama's old student Nagato-san from Ame."

'Well, that clears everything up,' Aiko thought dully. She was beginning to suspect that this woman wasn't going to be any help at all. At least she didn't seem dangerous, other than maybe dangerously crazy.

"Anyway, Nagato-san used a forbidden jutsu that brought back anyone who had died in the fighting, because he realized that destroying Konoha wasn't going to help matters. Tsunade-sama and Katsuya-sama did their best with the injuries, of course, because Nagato-san's technique didn't do anything for anyone who wasn't actually dead. There's… well there's one death." The chatty nurse- at least, she was probably a nurse- glanced down, looking a bit depressed.

Maybe she wasn't actually particularly talkative, Aiko judged. It could be that this nurse was going a bit stir-crazy from loneliness and was taking the chance to update someone as a break from work.

"How about the injured, then?" Aiko asked cautiously.

As she'd thought, the older woman seemed to need someone to talk to. Her face brightened a little, but she still looked more worn than her youth should have allowed. "For an invasion, it's without precedent," Chatty Nurse confided. "There's a lot of damage from smoke inhalation and broken bones, but other than that, the biggest problems we have are psychosomatic." She gave a sharp glance at Aiko's face that seemed to be searching for something, and her tone gentled slightly. "It's very traumatizing to remember losing a limb or dying."

Aiko nodded politely. That did sound traumatizing.

Something about her reaction must not have been what Chatty Nurse was looking for, because she frowned slightly and looked down at her clipboard. "How are you feeling? Any dizziness, aches, or disorientation?" she asked clinically.

She took a deep breath and brought her knees up to her chest, idly noting the ugly off-white hospital gown she was wearing. "I'm a little confused," Aiko admitted readily.

That was an understatement. She had no idea what the hell was going on and was feeling more than a little lost.

"Oh?" Chatty Nurse's eyes sharpened, and she looked up. "Do you not remember the fight, then? That's perfectly normal," she assured. "Sometimes, the brain protects itself by forgetting especially disturbing things."

'What, like my whole life?' Aiko thought bemusedly, not thinking much of this woman's analysis. Her skepticism must have shown, because a flicker of exasperation crossed the older woman's face.

"Jiraiya-sama said that you were disoriented. Do you remember that? I think he was the one who found you."

Aiko cocked her head to the side. "Who, the old man who gave me his coat?" she asked curiously.

The smile froze on the older woman's face. "Aiko-chan, do you know who I am?" When she slowly shook her head, Chatty Nurse took a moment to respond. "Alright then," she added lightly. The tenseness in her neck and the intensity in her eyes were completely at odds with her professional, warm tone. "Nothing to worry about. I'm Shizune, Tsunade-sama's first apprentice, and Sasuke-kun's senpai. As I said before, temporary memory loss is not an unheard-of side effect of encountering something a bit scary or overwhelming. Let me just run a few tests."

She didn't seem to have much choice. Aiko was beginning to feel more than a bit frightened, despite Shizune's assurances that things would work out. If that were true, she probably wouldn't keep repeating it.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

That wasn't hard. Three. Thumbs aren't fingers.

Despite her cautious optimism at that victory, Shizune was surprisingly hard to read when Aiko tried to gauge her for clues. That seemed especially odd for someone who had initially seemed so bland and inoffensive. The other questions were harder. Aiko shook her head helplessly, feeling lost and confused when asked the year or the current Kazekage. Shizune's lips thinned ever so slightly. Then the tests she performed after that had more to do with running unnervingly chilly fingers over Aiko's scalp and talking about things that didn't make much sense.

Frankly, she had no idea why it would matter that the proportions of her spiritual and physical chakra weren't matching those of her old records. Shizune didn't seem to understand how that could happen. She seemed outright confused herself when her tests didn't show any signs of swelling or torn tissue in the brain or anywhere else.

"Don't worry," Shizune said unconvincingly. "Your chakra will probably stabilize itself given time. That might not be related, anyways. Retrograde amnesia isn't usually totally permanent." She fussed with the bedsheets, apparently very concerned that Aiko's feet might get cold. Aiko curled her toes in and tried to sink back into the bed. "If it doesn't come back on its own in a few days, then it can probably be triggered." She glanced up at Aiko with a reassuring smile that did nothing for the nerves roiling in her stomach. "Familiar people and things should help you start to remember."

Aiko made a noncommittal sound, biting the inside of her cheek.

'If that's true, why wouldn't I remember you? I'm seeing you now.'

That was paranoid. Wasn't it? Maybe. She didn't really have any reason to believe anything this woman said. She'd woken up in a place she didn't recognize after what had obviously been a fight… and then woken up again, tied down. That wasn't something you did to a person you trusted. What evidence indicated that she was who Shizune said she was? Maybe it was a mistake.

Or worse, maybe it wasn't. Aiko gave Chatty Nurse a queasy smile, feeling vaguely nauseous.

The older woman took some pity and left her alone for a while.

'A while' stretched into a day. The facility seemed quiet. It was apparently more of a clinic than a hospital—the civilian town she had been re-located to while unconscious wasn't prepared for mass injuries, apparently. A civilian nurse fed her and –mortifyingly- promised to help her bathe later despite protests that she didn't need to be supervised. But that was her only visitor and excitement in between Shizune's short visits. The older woman appeared busy and distracted, definitely not in a mood to indulge her questions.

It was terribly, coldly, horribly lonely.

That meant that she had an awful lot of time to do nothing but think. Try as she might, she didn't remember anything new. She was pretty used to her name now, but she didn't really feel a connection to it. None of the people that Shizune talked about –Tsunade, Jiraiya, Sasuke—jogged any connections. The scenery out her window was uninspired as well as unfamiliar.

'Is anyone looking for me?' She wasn't allowed to leave the room, but she couldn't stand to lie in bed all day. So she paced, feeling trapped and lost. Shizune had said she knew her. So someone would be coming for her. They would be familiar to her and things would be alright and she would know what was going on.

Even her body was foreign. Aiko spent hours staring at her hands once the cold from the tile floors seeped into her feet and forced her to curl up under blankets. She puzzled over why her hands seemed so odd to her. Carefully, she placed the tips of her fingers against her cheeks and rubbed, marveling at the sensation the movement elicited. They were ridiculously soft and smooth, with rounded nails and short fingers. Was that so strange?

'There's no callus,' she recognized, cataloguing an obvious deviation from the nurse's claim that she was a shinobi. Shouldn't she have callus if that were the case? The toes she wiggled were equally delicate-looking, but she couldn't find a trace of the scrape she remembered getting when she'd first woken up somewhere outside. So maybe she was just completely nuts and that was a false memory. She hoped not, and held onto it. It wasn't like she had many others.

The observation that she lacked callus was hardly a nail in the coffin of the story she'd been given, since she didn't fully trust her mind. Distrust in her perception was only fueled when she glanced at her upper arm in the shower, and had to blink twice at the pale skin. Once she realized that she had expected to see a tattoo, she knew her mind wasn't terribly reliable. Still, she'd scrubbed at the flesh as if hoping to uncover ink that would reinforce what her mind had expected. All she ended up with was sore, pink flesh and a loofah being gently pried out of her fingers.

She did have scars, which she counted as a point towards Shizune's story. When the light had been turned off and she was still alone and afraid, Aiko traced the curved imperfection below her ribcage curiously through the thin fabric of her hospital robe. She'd discovered that while in the shower but didn't have any more ideas about its origin than she did about the uglier, larger scar on her opposite hip.

Morning would bring answers. It had to.

But it didn't.

The side of her face was on fire. The skin was swelling and peeling open like a stepped-on grape and she knew her cheekbone would crack under the force and the pain was unimaginable, unbearable, unrealistic, rippling down to her lips and across her nose before she shattered entirely. And then Aiko woke up gasping.

She struggled for air, disoriented and still frightened. Until she realized that the dim red lights were from hospital machinery, and the slow tick outside in the distance was a hall clock.

"Just a dream," she whispered, curling her fingers into the messy sheets and resisting the urge to reassure herself by touching her face.

But what an odd dream. Where had her mind come up with the idea of her body bursting in slow motion? More than a little disturbed, Aiko slipped out of the covers and paced. She didn't dare turn on the light, knowing that there were probably nurses walking nearby on rounds. That meant that she stumbled and stubbed her toe in the dark, but it was better than getting scolded by some impersonal stranger.

As lonely and scary as it was to just wait for something to make sense or someone to come help her remember, she would have to be far more desperate for human company to intentionally coerce nurses for company. They didn't know her. They didn't want to spend time with her. They were doing a job. She wasn't that desperate.

'Not yet, anyway,' Aiko thought glumly. Maybe she would be not too long from now.

But no. 'I can't think like that. Shizune says she knows my friends. When I see her tomorrow, I'll ask. Maybe names will help.'

Still. She couldn't help but doubt. If someone cared she was here, where were they? Was the old man she'd seen when she had first woken up someone important to her? Aiko didn't remember feeling any connection to him. He'd definitely known her, though. Or he knew of her, at least. Maybe she should see if she could talk to Jiraiya.

Shizune didn't seem to think that was plausible when she came by.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, leaning over to adjust something on a machine that was totally foreign to Aiko. "He's with Tsunade-sama. I've been left in charge of the hospital affairs while they deal with Ame and coordinate restoration efforts. I already sent notification that you woke up, but I'm not sure he'll be able to come right away."

Shizune closed the door behind herself quietly, and tried not to feel guilty about lying. Jiraiya had met with her last night, actually, and taken back hospital reports to Konoha proper.

'He's not ready to actually talk to her,' she justified to herself. 'That's understandable. Jiraiya-sama has been throwing himself into his work, but he'll come around soon. Pressuring him to come too soon will just be a stressor for both of them."

There was nothing dignified about having his single remaining (and much diminished) path propel the wheeled chair that carried his body out of Fire Country. At this point, Nagato wasn't sure that he deserved dignity, but he was still quietly thankful that the Hokage hadn't cared enough to force him to bring his actual body into Konoha.

'It's a little hard to believe that's the woman that Jiraiya has been in love with since he was twelve,' Nagato mused. 'I had imagined someone a little less emotional and grudging.'

Not that she didn't have cause for upset, of course. He had done more than a bit of harm to her city and her people.

Bitterly, he laughed. It turned into a cough. Yahiko's lungs had been full of smoke and acid for a rather long time. 'Konoha hasn't been good to me either. I was wrong about their part in Yahiko's murder and our betrayal. But I'm sure they were the ones behind the rout in Ame.'

It hadn't been in terribly good faith of him since the surrender had been his own initiative, but he'd withheld information. When it had become clear that he couldn't have a true victory, he'd had to turn his thoughts to his responsibilities. Even if he had managed a pyrrhic victory, he would have left his followers to the meager mercies of Konoha's allies.

Nagato had overestimated himself. He had begun to believe in Pein on a literal level. It had seemed so straight-forward at the time. Konoha did not have any fighter of his caliber, so he had believed himself invincible.

'Foolish,' he cursed himself. 'A few shinobi who were as skilled as individual paths and a great deal more who were suicidally determined to stop me proved sufficient.'

That was why villages banded together, after all. Many weak worms could writhe in an ugly mass and accumulate the weight of a higher being.

Nagato tried not to frown when he caught on to the bitter tone of his thoughts.

'This childishness is below me.'

He thought that, but it didn't change that he had refrained from telling the Hokage anything about Uchiha Madara. That had been a bout of immaturity unworthy of him, but it was already done.

Konan would take care of matters. He was leaving everything to her.

"How long do you plan on watching me?" Nagato asked mildly. He hadn't been alone since he had passed out of Konoha's immediate border patrol route. If he were truthful, he was mildly surprised that his stalker had waited this long to show himself.

It wasn't possible to express a glower from behind a candy-colored mask. Somehow, Uchiha Madara accomplished it regardless. "Pein," he all but rumbled, clearly irritated.

"Nagato," he corrected mildly.

It was fairly obvious that Madara wouldn't care if he chose to call himself Princess Buttons.

Nagato repressed a sigh, having his path stop walking. Obediently, Yahiko's body stood silently and waited. He had known as soon as it became clear that he had failed that he had to die to open the way for Ame to forge a new path. It was the only way left that he could be of use.

He hadn't planned for that death to come at Madara's hands, but he was hardly surprised either.

Obito scowled, resisting the urge to shake the little bottle until the eyes inside pulped into jelly against the clear glass.

All those years of squirreling into Nagato's idiotic graces, manipulating the useless baka, and keeping him alive were wasted now. Nagato's only use had been that he had the one kekkai genkai that would make it possible for Madara to be raised from the dead to participate in the Eye of the Moon Plan. That was one of the most important steps.

Not for the first time, he thought longingly of forgoing the pretense that he was Madara's servant. He was an Uchiha too, and powerful in his own right. Obito could do it. The Rinnegan were powerful beyond all reason. In his hands, they would be far more fearsome than anything Pein could have dreamed up.

He couldn't get the job done alone, however. Obito would need help. His most dedicated helper, Zetsu, was only his ally because Obito was pretending to work towards Madara's interests. Without a chump to eventually play the role of the sacrifice (even if Obito never actually let matters deteriorate to that point) Zetsu would act against him.

The obvious answer was that Obito should find another disposable body to put the Rinnegan in. The disposable part was not a terribly difficult criterion. When he would be able to revive everyone with the ultimate genjutsu, there wasn't such a thing as a true loss. The more difficult conundrum was selecting the body. It was highly unlikely that he would actually let them raise Madara, but he had to act as though he would. That meant picking a viable target, someone who could actually use the Rinnegan properly.

Preferably, it would be someone he could easily control. Obito could use Sharingan mind control on anyone but another Uchiha, if matters became desperate.

It was a pity that the Rinnegan could only be wielded well by one of the sage's descendents. That ruled out the vast majority of the living population. Obito wouldn't have used Itachi in any case, petulant and paranoid as the boy was. He didn't need to be more powerful. But Sasuke would have been a reasonable substitute. Of course, he couldn't be reliably controlled with the Sharingan into compliance, and Obito couldn't afford another loose cannon with the Rinnegan. That lesson had been learned.

'Besides, I would have to pry him away from Senju Tsunade,' Obito noted with no small taste of amusement. No, thank you. That woman was more than a bit imposing.

She was another poor option, despite being the last of the Senju. Controlling a medic-nin renowned for her perfect chakra control and detail-oriented personality would be a risky proposition. That ruled out the two families directly descended from the Sage. Leaving only the family that Nagato had belonged to.

Obito left two mangled corpses and a broken metal chair on the road in favor of safely hiding away his newly acquired prizes. The Sharingan he had were valuable for both practical and sentimental reasons, but the Rinnegan were irreplaceable and one of a kind.

'Life goes on,' Obito thought wearily, not allowing himself to wallow.

Aiko sat up straight fast enough to make her a little woozy. She peered suspiciously at her closed door with pursed lips.

She smelled something that made her heartbeat speed up. It didn't even occur to her to wonder at the fact that she detected a change in the scent of the hallway a fair distance away, or even realize that her senses were far keener than they should be. Why shouldn't her senses be sharp? Of course, Aiko didn't know what she was smelling, either, so she was all-around clueless. Whatever it was, it was familiar somehow.

'Should I go look?' Uncertain, she lingered with her toes dangling to the floor for just a moment longer. That gave the man outside time to push her door open.

Her first look didn't give her any particular feeling. Not attachment or fondness or even the fear she had known at the sight of the last (and only other) man she remembered seeing. It was just a man—quite a bit taller than her, with fairly broad shoulders, dark hair, and a relieved look on his face.

She blinked, checking that her first impression had been right. Yes, it looked like relief.

"Aiko-chan," he breathed, one side of his mouth curling up ever so slightly. The other stayed stiff and still. "I suppose you don't remember me. How are you feeling?"

"Um, okay?" she half-asked, giving him a shy smile. Her first visitor! Shizune had said that someone would come. Relief bubbled up in her gut. She wasn't alone. No matter what the nurse had said, it had felt that way when no friends had conveniently welled up to greet her or take her home.

Honestly… She'd started to seriously consider that the woman had been lying. It begged disbelief that anyone and everyone who cared about her just happened to be absent from town for two whole days. Well. A day and a half, but still.

But here someone was, happy to see her and actually asking about her well-being. Besides, he obviously knew about her forgetfulness, and wasn't making her feel nervous or apologetic about it. He probably had answers for her.

"What's that?" Aiko asked curiously, pointing guilelessly at the paper that her new/old friend was clenching in his left hand. They were awfully wrinkled.

"Your medical information," he explained, oddly amused for some reason. "I didn't think it was a good idea to leave it here. We need to go."

At that, she paused. "Go where?" Aiko asked uncertainly. Could they really just check out? It seemed like something she would need Shizune's permission for. On the other hand, he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. That was probably how he got her information, come to think of it. He must have already talked to Shizune.

His eyelashes were long and pretty, she realized when he blinked slowly at her. Though there was something strangely asymmetrical about the way the skin on one side of his face moved when he smiled. "Do you trust me? There's a lot to tell you, but here isn't a good place to be."

That was an understatement, not that she knew it. He'd hypnotized Shizune in the nurse's station down the hall. Someone was going to notice that eventually, even if she didn't wake up on her own. Obito's hand shook imperceptibly as he slowly held it out, fingers splayed slightly.

The situation was perfect. Almost too perfect. Nervous energy had him nearly on the verge of fidgeting. Some kami had clearly sped his way. He'd been given a second chance to keep his plan on track, despite the loss of his decoy organization and most valuable chump. If he could just convince Aiko to trust him, he wouldn't have to genjutsu her into compliance. She would be an excellent decoy for his ambitions. She was the only option, really, and not only had she survived what appeared to have been a near-apocalypse in Konoha, but she was as vulnerable to a new worldview as a person could be.

He was doing an excellent job of not lingering on the guilty knowledge that Minato-sensei's children really deserved better. It was for a good purpose.

His eyes met hers, and Obito tried not to look too eager. He drowned out the sense that Madara was mocking him, ignored Tobi's chatter, and tried to look unintimidating. He all but sparkled with his obvious good mood, not a bit bothered by the blood on his sandals from his recent scuffle or the fact that he could sense a very familiar chakra signature far too close for comfort. All she had to do was say she trusted him.

Aiko took a deep breath, glanced down at her bare feet, and clearly struggled with indecision. But just for a moment. She peered up at him shyly and reached out one pale little hand to rest against his callused palm. Obito grinned.

"Hold on tight," he warned good-naturedly. "You don't like this technique much."

And then they were gone from the little trading town on the outskirts of Fire Country's foremost military power, only minutes before the alarm went off downstairs.

[battlefairies]

Our party blackguard claimed this suit of armour last session, so now I am at liberty to share its (D&D 3.5 edition) properties online. But first, some lore:

“Hide, hide, the Red Man is here Moloh-Chi the Soulless with his mask made for fear You may hide, you may run or you may stand up and try to defeat the Once-Defeated but he knows how you’ll die: One blow, you’re senseless two blows, defenceless Three blows, you’re reeling Four blows, you’re kneeling Five blows, begging, crying Six blows, fi-nally dying And seven are the blows all in all needed to cut up your soul.”

Dark folklore surrounds the character of Moloh-Chi, a warrior said to have made some grisly pact with the Lower Planes. While he was probably a real, historic figure from the Eastern Spine of the World region during the fledgeling years of the Netheril empire, precious little is known for sure. Legend has it that a star-crossed love for the daughter of a prefect caused Moloh-Chi to forfeit his soul to a devil in exchange for power, and then went on to single-handedly slaughter, raze and burn the prefect’s village.

The two lovers eloped and hid in the mountains, where the authorities at last found and challenged Moloh-Chi. His life ended with a killing blow from a soldier who had aimed his spear at the obidome or sash clip the prefect’s daughter had fastened over her lover’s heart.

Folkloristic tales of the region since speak of a ghost clad in red armour wandering the land, with a bitter hatred towards all mortals still possessing their souls.

It is unsure whether the name ‘Moloh-chi’ was derived from the word moloch, meaning something demanding terrible sacrifices, or if that word itself sprung from the legend of Moloh-Chi the Soulless.

Moloh-Chi’s +2 Plate Armour of Dread Lore

This unique set of +2 Full Plate functions normally despite being incredibly old and looking a bit worse for wear.

In addition to its enhancement bonus, this suit of armour grants the wearer a chance to strike fear in the hearts of bystanders each time he or she scores a (confirmed) critical hit on an opponent with a melee weapon or unarmed strike.

When the wearer confirms their critical hit and as part of the wearer’s turn, any humanoid with fewer HD than the wearer and within 30 ft. becomes eligible for the armour’s panic-inducing property. The wearer can freely choose which of these effectively get targeted, and which are exempt.

Targets must succeed at a Will save (DC 10 + ½ wearer’s HD + wearer’s CHA modifier) or become panicked (PHB p. 311) for 1d6 rounds. Creatures who make their save instead become shaken (PHB p. 312) for 1 round and become immune to the armour’s panic-inducing property for the next 24 hours.

Moderate Necromancy [fear, mind-affecting].

(No Price or Weight because math is hard and people who care about encumbrance don't deserve to wear this imo)

Disclaimer: homebrew item, but the Forgotten Realms setting belongs to Ed Greenwood and Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro. "Visions of Pelvuria" is the name of my campaign.

[everyeyeismine]

Statement of Senior Agent Meredith Crowley, regarding the ‘Hatchet Falls’ and 'Nursery’ research facilities in Romania, November 28th - 30th, 2019. Statement documented directly from subject on December 6th, 2022 by Jonathan Sims. Statement begins.

I had returned to Romania at the request of a contact - Carmen Preda, Council of Venice - after having wrapped up another investigation in the area earlier in the month. The village where we had worked together was experiencing a resurgence of werewolf attacks despite the situation seeming to improve at the conclusion of the previous investigation.

Follow-up revealed the werewolf packs to have been pressured into the areas surrounding the village by attacks by a new, larger monster. I was able to track the creature down and… eliminated it with the help of a vampire hunter operating in the area - John Smith, unaffiliated. He…

He set it on fire. And after it died, it. He. He returned to his human form after he expired - Nicolae. I knew him. He and his sister…

Sometime between the end of my previous investigation and being contacted by Agent Preda, Nicolae and his sister, Mirela, were abducted by Orochi Group researchers use in projects between the Hatchet Falls and Nursery facilities. Mirela was killed in their escape attempt. They trapped the wraith born from her soul to continue testing. The only mercy is that she killed the team that tried to use her.

They weren’t the only victims. There were dozens, children they’d abducted and tortured and killed, and more that they intended to but didn’t get the chance before everything spiraled out of control.

They kept them in cages at Hatchet Falls. Concrete and iron bars, ceiling-to-floor chain-link fences. It was a converted Soviet bunker, I think. Light on the conversion. Usually you walk into a place where everyone’s been slaughtered and you feel at least a little bad, but every corpse there deserved to be there, probably deserved worse than what they got.

Fuck. Um.

The… good ones went on to the Nursey for further experimentation. More modern facility, nicer rooms in the front. Parts of it could have been normal.

They were exposing their subjects to viral mutagens, lycanthropy, testing the effects of long-term possession on brain development. They… There wasn’t anyone human left. The ones that were still alive, they weren’t- There was nothing left of them to save. The things- the substances they’d been exposed to destroy minds and souls and there’s no reversing the damage. There was nothing we could have done. Killing them was the kindest-

…Sorry. Sorry.

We… I met a woman in the Hatchet Falls facility that introduced herself as a Council of Venice agent; she went with me to explore the Nursery and we found the hidden room under the director’s office together. A dark, red corridor to a dark, red room. The girl on the slab.

She was alive, the girl. Anima. When we found her, she was so cold and still, I thought… She’s alive. She’s fine now. But then… God, I was so scared we’d lost her too.

And then the woman I was with drugged. Because of course I was stupid enough to turn my back to her to look after Anima.

I tried to fight her off. I really did! But I… When I came back around, I was strapped to one of the tables.

…Do you have a Lilith? The original one? She introduced herself to me properly after I woke up. I don’t know how to explain it exactly… It might be different where you’re from, but. Everything is a medium. Anything - tangible or non - can have meaning woven into it. And Lilith’s very name - her real name, not just 'Lilith,’ but the form that is specifically her - carries the weight of countless lifetimes lived and the infinite atrocities committed across them. You can drown in the blood on her hands. There’s no bottom. And the pressure would crush you before you could ever got too far. I can’t even remember half of her gloating over me because I was too busy suffocating on everything she was and is and will be.

And - god, they’re going to want me to face her again. I can’t - She…

The little drone is Oculus. She stole them from me, reprogrammed them, swapped out the taser I had them installed with for a surgical laser, and had them cut off my legs while she took Anima.

I was stuck there for hours while they went across. Any time I tried to get loose, I just ended up making them cut a little more in a different direction, haha! I know I passed out a few times, but I’d wake up and they’d still be going! Inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter! And when they finally cut all the way through, I still had to-! I… I nearly degloved my hands getting out of the restraints, just… shaved off a lot of meat on the edge of them and… fell off the table. I…

…Sorry, my memory gets fuzzy from there. A lot of things… The entity in my head is usually fairly benign, but they feel strongly about Anima. Especially in that circumstance. I just remember them pushing me to get up and keep going. I don’t think there was much else left of me but what they wanted for a while. Everything else burned up.

Sometimes I’m still there, waiting, hoping somebody will come, and feeling everything I am burning away. Maybe next time it won’t come back.

[passerby-guy]

Atlas Whiskerveil

Skin: Pink

Eye: Iris Bright Green, Sclera N/A

Hair: Golden Tan with Black Spots

Age: 29

Height: 6’4”

Weight: 194 lbs

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Background: Sailor

Gender: Male

Class: Fighter

Species: Tabaxi

Sexuality: Bisexual

Languages: Common/Primornial

Traits: I will create some of the most outlandish plans and with full confidence in them working

I will help out those in need anyway I can and will remain honest while doing so.

Ideals: One should always think on how they should help some one any way they can.

Respect is a necessary for all relationship even the ones deserving of no respect.

Bonds: I travel the world to make sure what happened to Me doesn’t happen to other good children.

The crew of the Snapped Jaw are like a loving family to me

Flaws: I am deathly afraid of deep ocean water, I can stay and live on a boat for years but will not

swim

I feel very strongly about people getting unjust treatment to the point of anger

Backstory: He was born in the modest fishing village of Allagoone on a merchant boat. Having Contaur, a hard-working father, Cartogra, a soft and caring mother, and a strong backbone of a sister named Rose. His birth left his mother weak and ill for the remaining years of her life, dying five years after Atlas’s birth. His father, grieving from the loss of his wife, fell from grace to forever seeing his life from the bottom of a bottle, now with a corrupt liver leaving his hearty business to sink as well. After three long years of this miserable existence. Contaur, in a drunken fit of rage at Atlas for taking his wife and good business, attempted to shoot him but Rose, protecting her defenseless brother, stepped in the way of the arrow ending her walk of life. Now, distraught with what just transpired, the last good thing his wife left him died protecting the horrible monster that broke his family, he has had the last straw of Atlas and sent him to the Navy of the neighboring Kingdom Grottivalia, where he was put to work as a Cabin boy on the Serene Sword. He did a good job on the ship, as he lived on a boat most of his life and learned how a mighty ship has to run on respect. One day, after 6 years of his cabin boy status, the Serene Sword was carrying valuable cargo being sent to the kingdom's allies when it was ambushed by a stern pirate ship called the Snapped Jaw. The vessel seized the Serene Sword taking the cargo and slaughtered most of the crew leaving the Quartermaster, two deckhands, and Atlas, who were all imprison on the mighty Galleon awaiting their fate. During those months in the galleon’s hull as prisoners trying to get information from them, unlike the other prisoners. Atlas saw that the crew did everything that the Captain did as they were afraid of him. The Captain, feeling he got all he could out of them, had them brought up on deck as entertainment to himself. By the time the other prisoners were dead, Atlas had spoken out to the Captain, telling him that his own crew was scared of him, and that this was is no way to run a ship. Captain Thrawkal was amused by him, he challenges Atlas to a duel saying if he believes this so strongly he should fight for it, as he tosses his cutlass to him giving him a bit more of a chance. Atlas, being self-taught in dueling, was uneasy but confident he could take him out, but with his knowledge of skittering around on a ship of this size and his small stature gave him an unseen edge. With his skills and him constantly evading Thrawkal’s attacks and chipping away at him. With Thrawkal growing hurt and damaged, he attempts to slice him in half but gets his blade stuck. Leaving him exposed and Atlas delivers the final blow, and Captain Thrawkal the Relentless was subdued. The crew petrified from Atlas, taking down the most powerful Pirate Captain known to live. Not wanting to be killed, they gave him the title of their new captain. Atlas realizing this accepting the role started with a speech said to make a volcano crack stating that he would not lead on fear but respect and that they no longer pummel, plunder, and pillage but would recover bounties save the good people, and make no one live a life of fear again. From that day on, He disregarded the name Havaul as his birth surname and took his mother’s name as… Captain Atlas Whiskerveil.

[wanderlustknightofmagic]

Is Rainald happy with his life choices? Would he change anything? Does he have regrets?

Rain looks towards Sivir for a moment and frowns before putting his hands together and letting out a small sigh. "I'm happy with my choices in life... most of them at least. There is one big regret and I wish I could change it..."

//Early TW for just in case. This is gonna get dark. "I was in my earlier years, exploring the land and looking for new forms of magic that I could study, write down, and bring back to my kingdom. During that time, I was very naïve and optimistic to a fault. I would take down bandit encampments without a sweat, but I did my best to avoid killing them in favor of turning them in to the local authorities in order to try and give them a second-chance. Maybe they could redeem themselves or even turn over a new leaf entirely... Somewhere out there... there is a bandit who needs that offer... but the ones I encountered certainly weren't." He'd take a moment to pause and sigh while shaking his head.

"I was staying at an inn after taking out their hideout and sending most of them to jail. The inn owners were very sweet and kind, even to an out-of-towner like me. They had two children... a little boy and his infant sister," His hands start to shake. "Skies damnit... There's being naïve and being STUPID!" He'd slam a fist on the table and growl. He'd sniffle, let out a small sigh, and then compose himself. "The boy's name was Lexander and the baby's name was Slivy... I went to sleep that night, and awoke to flames. The rest of the bandits came back and decided to pay me back for my heroics with blood. They... they thought I was part of the village or that kingdom..." His hands are shaking now as he stares at them and refuses to look anywhere else.

"I rushed downstairs... Lexander... Lexander only had one arm... and he was barely breathing... His only arm left was cradling his crying infant sister and wielding a dagger. The boy couldn't even cry himself... he was fighting tooth and nail to stay alive. I healed him, I had him and his sister hide in my room where I put up a barrier of earth to protect them both. Then I saw their parents... Heh... nightmares... so many of them since that moment. I... I don't wanna go into details... but... it wasn't pretty... And the thought those... those BASTARDS did that after doing that to Lexander... I snapped. I ran out of the house and I killed them all... Every last one of them. Even when they begged for mercy, even when they plead with me, even when they asked 'Why did you spare our friends but not us!?'. And from there, I fixed my other mistake. I flew off... I found the other group... They were laughing when they saw the blood on my clothes and look on my face. They told me 'You deserve it for messing with us pretty boy'. I burned them. I kept the flames low so they would suffer. They had no remorse... they didn't even ask who got hurt or if I was even part of their kingdom... My eyes opened that day. I understood why bandits are listed as 'Capturing Optional'." His hands were still shaking and he hadn't noticed the tears that were now decorating the table beneath him.

"When I went back... Lexander and Slivy were fine, fast asleep even... My magic was strong enough to close his wound and restore his life... The kingdom they were in was one known for crafting... I heard they can make replacement limbs... However, before I could even apologize to the children... I was cast out of their kingdom for slaughtering the bandits I turned over to them, leading the remainder towards a village, and getting over half of the inhabitants wiped out. I was only pardoned because the King and Queen looked out for me... but I'm forbidden from stepping foot back in there. I don't know what the survivors told the children... maybe that I abandoned them... or that I was so ashamed, I vowed to stay away. I just..." He'd press his head to the table. "I just hope they are alright and happy..." He'd lift his head up and let out a shaky sigh.

"So yes... If I could... I'd go back and stop myself from such foolish thoughts. Anyone can seek redemption... but they need to want it... I have a policy now. I ask them who's there by choice. Whoever isn't, I'll give a chance... I'll take them to a remote village that my mother owns. If she deems them fit, I'll give them a choice. Live in that village, or return to their old home. If it seems like they seem like they lied, we bring in a device to detect it, if they are caught lying, Mother deals with them." A brief pause and inhale. "Sorry... I... perhaps overshared here... Heh heh... but yes... I wish I could go back and convince my younger self to enact that policy long before I ever stepped foot into that kingdom. It's my biggest regret and I always wish that I could undo my mistake."

[tenacioussoultree]

I feel like only Deadpool would do this but we need a lot more characters who actually kill the big bad with no remorse or guilt after.

Like if a villain literally kills villages and cities worth of people (including children, babies, and others who can't defend themselves) just because daddy didn't hug them enough maybe they do deserve to be slaughtered for that.

And like no I'm not meaning the villains who just do bad towards the hero and just the hero (they don't harm the hero's family members or friends who are innocent in this situation) . Or the semi villains who have been brainwashed or mind controlled by bigger villains (Bucky Barnes ) But if you literally level a whole city because of a pebble in your shoe you probably deserve whatever is coming to you from people who start to get vengeful.

Tired of this plot thing that heroes have to always forgive their villains because the villain can be "capable of change."

It's not like the villain is just a bully who's going to grow out of their bullying stage. These are literal murderers and serial killers who basically get to walk around scot-free SOMETIMES WITH HEROES DEFENDING THEM AFTER because of some plot armor they have about being abused. And sometimes this abuse isn't even big it'll be something minor (absent parent, light bullying , etc) compared to the shit they do. (Leveling cities , mass murder , sexual assault etc)

I mean you can deal with your prior trauma and abuse without inflicting pain and more trauma on the people around you! There are literally examples of that with the heroes themselves as usually the thing that separates a hero and a villain is just the choices they make in life after their traumatic event (ie spiderman I mean yikes he's gone through a LOT).

And before someone comes and smacks me in the back of the head with the actual reason why we keep getting stories like this. I know the most likely reason is because they want to keep milking money out of these types of stories by being able to reuse a villain over and over again (ie joker)

It's just...... It's getting tiring and it's to the point where you can basically figure out the plot and the ending of each and every one of these stories word for word scene for scene.

I want superhero movies where they don't just stick the villain in a prison with a Chance of parole (because in real life we put people on death row for less) I want them to have the hero and the villain have a standoff where the villain is obviously cocky that they'll get off scot-free because they think the hero is a goody goody that won't cause them too much harm and watch half their head get blown off the minute they try to utter the words "you won't hurt / kill me you're too good for that"

[pussymagnetmadara]

Sasuke true fans, read this please and tell me when I’m wrong

Nobody deserves Sasuke, no indeed. First of all, certainly not Sakura Haruno. Sakura never understood who Sasuke was, how he felt or what his goals were. In fact, she doesn't care at all. She always perceived him as the dude she fell in love with because you know he's Sasuke the cool guy in school, even years later. She doesn't deserve him because she always fought to get him back, to get him and get his favor, so that he could realize that she helped save him. How could she claim to save him from his torment when she never understood why he was so tormented. Of course she is aware of the genocide of the Uchiha clan and that Itachi was responsible for it but she just tells herself that he should never have let himself be consumed by revenge and hatred when she never had a say in the beginning. She finally got what she wanted out of him because she forced a victim of emotional abuse to marry her and giving him a child. Someone with such psychological distress that the dude doesn't even know who he is or why he did all this anymore. His brain pauses to save what's left of his mental state, he's unresponsive to anything, he's totally on autopilot. "I will say whatever my friends and Sakura want to hear if it makes them happy, I have to fix my mistakes." But what mistakes are you talking about Sasuke Uchiha? You haven't done anything wrong. You can't have anything to apologize for when you were the victim in the first place. If Sasuke's travels had been concrete with his state of mind, it's certainly not a redemption arc I would have liked to get but a mental health recovery arc. Secondly, Naruto Uzumaki. No Naruto does not deserve Sasuke and does not deserve his friendship and interest. When I hear that Naruto and Sasuke make so much sense together whether it be friendly or romantic, I say no. I sincerely think that Sasuke gave Naruto enough chances to be a real friend but Naruto never took that chance. Chasing him back to a village that ordered his brother to slaughter their whole family was never a good idea, but I could have left that out during Shippuden, if Naruto had used his brain after the 4th great war, but he didn't. So you bring back the victim of a nation that wasted his life to the very place where all the ghosts of his past are still present. Sasuke was not yet healed, Naruto gave the final blow to Sasuke's mental health. Why did Sasuke want to leave Konoha in your opinion Naruto Uzumaki? Yes because the village still sees him as the deserter and nobody in this damn village is able to reason and try to understand his gesture but also where do you want Sasuke to go in Konoha? The Uchiha district having been totally dismantled and razed, there remains only a small piece of rope to delimit the former territorial zone that had been granted to them and it is not really reasonable to let someone with such a trauma as Sasuke return to the scene of the crime that made his life collapse. . it's like if you bring a kidnapping victim back to the dark and wet basement where they remained locked up for a long time and let them fight their trauma by themselves, you would find it stupid and inhuman, well in Sasuke's case it's the same.

Then I was expecting an arc of reparation and justice for the real victims like Neji Huyga and Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto as the newly nominated hokage, but no, still nothing. Neji still hasn't got justice and neither has Sasuke while all this time Naruto was strutting around with Sasuke whispering in his ears: "don't worry, you will always be my friend…" What friendship are you talking about Naruto? The one where you don't even give your friend the right to officially break away from Konoha? To let him heal his wounds in another way? To let him live his life as he wants? So yes, you saved him from the death penalty but condemned him to a life of slavery as a watchdog of a state that never loved him and was never there for him simply because you, you are far too good to forgive all the people who hurt you, so even Sasuke should do the same. You do not love Sasuke.

So you offer the means to make up for his so-called mistakes by working in your shadow on behalf of Konoha and doing the dirty work for you while you sign piles of papers for hours on end in your sinister office in which hangs pictures of horrible people who have done nothing interesting with their position as hokage but stir up the hatred that eventually caused the genocide of your best friend's clan. You are just proud to finally be in the place that you have so desired to get all these years because of your lack of validation from others and your parents who died in fighting too soon and from whom you suffered a good part of your youth and from whom you are retracing the same path for your son who hates you because you are not there to raise him and his little sister.

So you get Sasuke to be your watchdog, and you continue to treat your so-called best friend, your soul mate as a common pet who should be happy with his lot. You put your friend Shikamaru as your main advisor but let Sasuke put his hands in the shit for you again.

Sasuke lost the hope to smile again, you don't allow him any decision and not even on his own life, and for all this, I deeply resent you.

Thirdly, Kakashi Hatake, for our friend Kakashi, Sasuke was his favorite student but as his friend Hiruzen Sarutobi once said to him, "We are always disappointed in our favorite student when they turn against us one day." Yes Orochimaru turned against you when you never understood him and called him weird and kicked him out of Konoha for his extravagant research while it doesn't seem to me that Tobirama Senju was then banished after inventing the edo-tensei jutsu which is literally fucking necromancy, a jutsu so horrible to practice that it requires in the first place a human sacrifice in order to bring back the soul of a dead person in the world of the living, deprived of its own will and its free will. .. Kakashi once thought he was close to Sasuke because he too had gone through the loss of people close to him, but need I remind you how Kakashi Hatake got over his depression? By stifling his emotions continuously and by murdering multiple shinobi. So he explicitly asked his favorite student who was in such an emotional distress that he was on the verge of internal implosion, to shut the fuck up and continue to live his life as a ninja and that losing people is part of life… he really dared to mean that to a 12 year old. I personally blame Kakashi but I try to make up for my pain by meaning that Kakashi himself being traumatized to the core has also lost all his cognitive faculties in terms of emotion and compassion. He turned himself off and also put himself in auto-pilot.

Fourth, Itachi Uchiha and Fugaku Uchiha. Besides his mother Mikoto, Sasuke only had eyes for his older brother and their father who they thought were just great. It's true, both of them were great and strong shinobi who far exceeded the abilities of the other clan members with a few exceptions. However, Fugaku in the first place should never have exposed Sasuke to a constant competition with his older brother. Fugaku in his great wisdom and experience should never have pitted his younger son against his brother to outgrow him, as he your sons are different, with different personalities and possibly different ambitions and mentally abusing them to force them to suit you is really twisted. To have tried to make Itachi the ultimate ninja that he never had the stature to be even while being the leader of the Uchiha clan and then to have your youngest son do everything to not end up like Itachi who then proved to be your biggest disappointment but in any case, outgrow him. In the sense that he had two chances to succeed, if one of them failed, the other one would inevitably succeed. And in another sense, where Hinata wouldn't go over Naruto's decisions as a good submissive wife, Mikoto never did anything to end it all and allow her older son to destroy himself. What kind of example was Sasuke supposed to draw from that? To be a good dog who is given orders and must obey without restriction? Yeah, Fugaku's twisted advices to Itachi caused Itachi's reaction to be stuck between his clan and his will to be a good ninja of Konoha? In the end, many blame Itachi for the massacre of the Uchiha clan, but when you receive so much pressure from one side or the other you end up inexorably imposing from the inside, and you end up making bad decisions and bullshit. When your daddy, instead of preserving you, shows you what a war looks like at the age of 4, how do you think you will end up? I sincerely regret that Itachi didn't succeed in his suicide, he would have been free of all that because yes he is as traumatized as his little brother, this trauma has disrupted everything in his brain, so much so that he finds it normal to traumatize his little brother in order to harden him, as if being a good ninja had to get over the trauma and the destruction of the mind and that he got from dad BUT even if he was considered as a genius, he never thought with his fucking brain. Like dude, WHY ARE YOU SUCH A FREAKING BOOTLICKER OF A GOUVERNMENT THAT ASKED YOU TO KILL YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING OWN FAMILY? Hello wake up! Fuck you.

Finally, Sasuke never had a real good example either in his education or in other areas. How can you blame a boy for being so called cold and insensitive when he never had a good example of affection except living in trauma, servitude of others and dishonor.

Sasuke didn't have Jiraya to replace the father figure that was so lacking in him. Sasuke didn't have the S/O who understood and admired him at last, not for his looks, nor for his famous family name but for who he really is. No, he has always been lonely, enslaved, and misunderstood.

Fortunately some of us in this rotten fandom really love Sasuke and give him all the love he deserves.

I love you Sasuke Uchiha. You'll always be my king.

PS: Please excuse my multiple grammatical errors, I wrote this very quickly and English is not my first language.

[fionainlove]

shower me with your love: 50 kisses prompts

i couldn’t sleep no matter how hard i tried and people on the internet made me irate and awake so here we are

|| SOOTHING KISSES (T) ||

canon | mild hurt/comfort | uhh sure mild angst too why not

Greta bolted from under her comforter, eyes wild and searching in the dark. Her heart leapt from her chest, over and over and over. She tried and failed over and over to catch her breath and calm herself. 

The night creature of her dreams was no longer after her. None of her people had been slaughtered at the hands of such a beast for months. The biggest stress on her as of late had been negotiating with neighboring villages for supplies for the upcoming winter.

 So, why did this terror still grip her? Why did this monster pull the rug from under her at every chance? This peace she’s come to cherish…feels short lived. This castle and all its wonder and opportunity could be gone in an instant. Whether it be by fate, or perhaps even, her own carelessness…

Suddenly something heavy and warm was laid across her shoulders and Greta didn’t have the presence of mind to quiet the shrill yelp that came out of her. The full moon high in the night sky casted a glowing halo around the dhampir. At some point he went and got his jacket, all black leather and golden embossing, and wrapped it around her. With a deep kiss to her cheek, he walked to their bedroom doors opening them just enough for him to slip through, and then in a mystical haze he vanished.

This was routine by now (thought it was a routine the headwoman loathed). She would battle her night terrors, wake up disoriented and scared, and The Alucard was off in a flash, fixing soothing tea and snacks for a long night of no sleep. She always felt it in the morning, dead on her feet and ready to battle sleep all over again if it just meant she could stop for just a moment…

It didn’t take long for Adrian to return. Well, he didn’t go as fast as he could. Past experience demonstrated the quite plain fact that hot liquid and speed do not mix well. While the dhamphir had ruined a good nightshirt (arguably his best one, at least in Greta’s expert opinion) he later told her it was worth the expense to see some semblance of mirth in his lover’s face that jarring evening.

He carried a small bed tray lined with refreshments for the evening and sat it across her lap. Closing their door, he crawled back into bed and pressed firmly to her side. Greta reminisced as she sipped at the sweetened chamomile and nibbled what little she could eat; this all could be much worse. Her life could be much worse.

Those first nights defending Danesti were her worst hell, she thinks. And after the carnage and the condolences and the crying, there was no one for her to share her burdens with. Mohammad and Ngozi had moved away so long ago. Sometimes…some dark days Greta wonders if she isn’t a fool for not having joined them…But in their absence, Greta hadn’t had the time (or the heart) to open herself to any others except for a night or two. So that meant when Danesti began to fall, Greta had no choice but to stand.

If the village leader were to falter, then what right did she have asking for her people’s faith?

The happiness and prosperity of her people has always been what kept Greta motivated to wake up in the morning. By that same logic, the headwoman should be dead a dozen times over with the overwhelming grief they have suffered these last few months. But she is not.

And of course her silly dhampir, with his mood swings and for whom brooding comes right after breathing, won’t hear any of this. Always saying that whether her people thrive or not, she herself deserves care.

Damn him. No, actually. She could never. That would mean going without midnight jackets and snacks and tea and that she would never again get those sweet kisses that were like a balm over her soul. A reassurance that tomorrow would get better and, that if by some cruel twist of fate it wasn’t, that at least she was not alone as she once was.

[val-aquenta]

You know what. I fucking hate Anakin apologia. Some of the most whack shit I see is about how he was completely under a spell when he commits genocide multiple times and it’s not really his fault. hahha what? Y’all serious?! Ok yikes uhmmm. Yes he was manipulated to a degree, but man he still chose to commit genocide not once, not twice, but countless times. He decided to stand by as Wookies were enslaved. Lol in aotc he decides to kill and entire town and (imo) seems to feel justified even though there were actual innocent kids there too. He knows what he’s doing is wrong when he’s killing the Jedi. I always saw the tear in those scenes as a way of showing that part of him knows he’s in the wrong, that he’s doing unspeakably shitty things, but he’ll still do it anyways because Padmè. 

And then folks who say he was brain washed into doing that. Lol y’all say that about Kylo Ren too and he straight up mind tortures Poe and Rey, stands by as folks literally blast planets apart, slaughters villages too, is all around bad (from memory and I don’t remember those movies well) but y’all will still go ‘oh he was tortured and brainwashed and mind controlled’ Like wtf y’all. He did bad shit. he’s an adult making his own choices. He, like Anakin, gets (undeserved imo) chances to turn back and stop being such a crappy person, but hoe no he keeps on going. God some of y’all will do anything to forgive hot white villains while treating Mace and Finn like shit just cause (lol we all know why stfu) Don’t even get me started on Mace. Y’all judge him for killing Jango in *self-defense* when there was like no other option (Lol what was he supposed to do? Tie Jango up? In the middle of a battlefield? bitch no) But of course when Anakin or Kylo murder people in villages for revenge or or no reason or lead some kind of murder spree in the Temple suddenly you stumble over and try to apologise for their actions. Mace will kill one (1) person in self-defense and y’all lose your shit but Anakin and Kylo straight up commit genocide multiple times and y’all are suddenly saying the victims deserved it or it was even necessary (I actually saw a comment where someone said order 66 was necessary... not kidding. Like ma’am... first of all you’re saying mind controlling a bunch of people to kill their best friend who happen to be some of the only people who actually think the Clones deserve rights is a-ok and necessary. Second, you’re saying that the killing of innocent children and elderly folk in the temple is necessary too. Finally, y’all thought a genocide, the complete erasal of a culture and the people within that was necessary please no. what the actual fuck.) 

Lol rant over hahah

[animeyanderelover]

Whoo, requests are open! Can I get Azusa Mukami, Ash Launders, Lau, and Grell Sutcliff with a darling who's a ghost, or something akin to one? Thank you, please take your time with this and remember to take breaks when you need to!

I recently talked about this with my friend, but both of us are amazed with how popular Ash actually is. He suddenly became so beloved in here. Not that I complain😏.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, delusions, paranoia, self-harming behavior, kidnapping, killing

Ghost s/o

Grell Sutcliff

🟥Grell is a grim reaper and for that probably met ghosts quite a few times ago. Ghosts are souls from people who didn’t find peace yet and whilst humans can’t see ghosts most of the time, other supernatural creatures can. Grell feels sometimes a bit sorry for ghosts whose souls are tight to this world until whatever doesn’t allow them to Rest In Peace is solved. There are exceptions though, it isn’t unheard that even after the issue was solved, ghosts decided to stay, mainly because they started enjoying life as an undead once again. So at one point such examples were counted in the supernatural community as well.

🟥If her darling should be a pure ghost, it depends on whether they still try to find a way out of this world or are one of those who decided to live forever as a ghost. If it’s the first one, she would definitely try to make her darling enjoy life once again since she doesn’t want them to leave. She wants to give them happiness once again and would try about everything to make them feel joy again. If it’s the latter case, she would switch from a worried mother mode in a totally fascinated one. She did meet ghosts before, but normally they are more of loners since they grief over whatever they couldn’t finish during life. So having a darling as ghost makes her more interested since ghosts aren’t that known to other magical beings.

🟥Hopefully you know how to manifest yourself or else Grell will get really pouty since she’s clingy. A ghost can learn to materialize their body so others can touch them even though that takes practice. Girl loves you just very much to the extent where she often wants to jump on you and tackle you in a hug after a boring day of work...which ends with her being met with the ground of you don’t know how to control it or did it on purpose. It also tends to scare her a bit if you suddenly pop somewhere up without her knowing since you can just walk through objects. There was this one time where you were looking for her, ending with your head popping up through the ground right in front of her. And Grell might be able to handle, blood, zombies and other gore stuff, but not this. It ended with her screaming startled.

🟥If you’re not dead, but just possess the possibilities of a ghost, the whole walking through walls and turning invisible stuff, you’re most likely a hybrid because believe it or not, in materialized form ghosts can create or bear children too. And half breeds have been since the earliest days always been a more risky topic. Many creatures are still lacking the openness to accept persons from two different kinds since many are still in the classic belief that only the same species should have children together. It leads her to being more overprotective over you since she doesn’t want you to endure hatred and racism from others. She’s fiercely overprotective in that regard.

Lau

🚢He has a weird fascination with such things, at least in my opinion. He might only be human, but he has awareness of the more otherworldly creatures on this planet and his assistant, Ran Mao, herself appears to be some sort of superhuman as well. He has probably heard a lot of ghost stories before, either from his own country or here, in England. And he is somewhat good in telling when a story was just made up so the person could suddenly gain attention or if there is a spark of truth in it. He has a nose for stuff like this and actually likes listening to such stories.

🚢So expect his obsession to very quickly grow if his darling should be a ghost even though he would hold himself back if they are unhappy due to their unfinished business. He is manipulative and is also, despite being good in hiding it from his darling, very greedy and mercenary. He might not show it, but he has every intention to make his darling stay with him, even if that means ensuring that whatever they need to do in this world will never be finished. If you are that kind of ghost who’s happy with their new life, he would be much more open with his curiosity, expressing his interest in your abilities and also backstory. Especially if you should be a lot more older than your appearance gives away, he would be keen on your story. If it should happen that you were murdered and the killer is still alive, that guy will join your kind maybe very soon if they have regrets in their life.

🚢He’s also interested in how your anatomy works since he’s an expert in it. He of course wouldn’t use you like some test subject, but he is just kind of interested how you are able to turn your whole body in one moment in something thinner than air and in the next moment into something that appears to be flesh and blood again. He also kind of likes it to touch through you since your transparent body has a certain coldness around it which gives him goosebumps. It’s a great contrast to when you have materialized and are in possession of a warm body which leads him to being even more touchy than usual. Lau finds it also always very amusing whenever you suddenly appear out of thin air, your abilities are such a breath of fresh air for him. He tends to be a bit surprised, but is good in hiding it with his usual mysterious smile.

🚢He can only guess that a half-ghost like you are one isn’t very beloved in this world. Lau of course doesn’t think you, he finds it highly interesting that you are a mix from two different species, he never thought ghosts could actually create babies. If there’s the possibility, he would like to meet your parents and talk with them, especially the parent who’s the ghost. It kind of leads him to wanting to isolate you a bit since he doesn’t want some other creature trying to kill you since different from a normal ghost you can get hurt by weapons and die like a normal human even though it’s harder to do.

Ash Landers

▫️Whilst he definitely is informed about all the other magical beings existing in this world, he stays away from pretty much everyone, even his own kind. Ash is just embossed from his obsession with purity and doesn’t think of anyone as really worth living since everyone is tainted by greed, lust, sloth and other unspeakable sins. He even hates his own kind since many angels protect the exact lowlife he wants to get rid off, believing that every life deserves living and given a chance. He is somewhat alone with his crazy goals, but he doesn’t mind.

▫️I think Ash with a ghost darling isn’t a very good mix, a horrible if I’m being honest. For the simple reason that you already died and merely your soul remains on this planet, either because of your own free will or because you carry a burden with you. You’re dead. That should say everything to why Ash is experiencing the true deepness of madness and terror someone could never possibly begin to imagine. He failed, he pathetically and utterly failed to protect the only person who actually deserved a happy and good life. It makes his whole life shatter, next to his already screwed up sanity. It does not matter if you were killed, died in an accident or because of a deadly sickness. The village you lived in will be blamed and slaughtered by him.

▫️He’s horrible to act with this because I have this terrible thought that he will not only not allow you to leave, but also desperately try to search for ways to somehow get your soul back into your body or will find a vessel in which you can live. He does not care if you want it or not, he doesn’t even really care if you’re happy or not. Dead is dead and he wants you alive. He would get incredibly prone and torn apart if you yell and cry at him that you don’t want it, that you want to die finally in peace or like being a ghost. You just don’t understand!! HE HAS TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE ALIVE AGAIN!!!

▫️With you being only something akin to a ghost, a hybrid in here, the situation would still be very tangled, but a bit less than with you being an actual ghost. I see Ash as someone who usually despises hybrids, but you are made the only exception from this. It isn’t worth saying that he isolates you since he would do this in all scenarios, even though he also does it in here due to fearing that someone might talk down to you because of your unidentified species. He kind of thinks he’s the only one who can truly cherish you for your whole beauty. You might have an advantage since you can just sneak past him whilst invisible, question is if you’re heartless enough to let innocents suffer under this because Ash can and will burn whole cities down if it leads him to getting you back.

Azusa Mukami

🔪I don’t think he ever met ghosts or other otherworldly creatures before even though he lived a pretty long life. It stands even open to question if he is aware of the existence such other creatures. Whilst he does know that vampires exist, he himself is a half-blooded one, he is not really too informed about other creatures and might even not really cared about it anyways before meeting his s/o. His brothers on the other hand considered the fact of other magical beings on this planet.

🔪He is saddened that you are already dead, it doesn’t matter since how long you’ve already been. It’s still very upsetting for him, especially if you should be mourning over something you couldn’t do in your life as well. I do see him as someone who might actually possess the selflessness to let you go if you’re really desperate despite knowing he’ll die without you. So it’s up to his brothers to find ways to bind you to this earth because they’re scared what Azusa will do if you should ever disappear and leave him alone for eternity. With a darling who likes their current body and is satisfied with themselves, Azusa will be happy as well and be in love with you and your fascinating powers.

🔪But please let him touch you. He is clingy and likes having physical contact with you and if you aren’t able to manifest yourself and hurt him, he will become overtime more desperate. His brother also realize the problem with you being able to escape anytime you want from them except if you make this place your new place to haunt for eternity which all of them hope. Whilst he does like feeling your actual warmth and body, he still finds your ghostly form appearing, the feeling of cold and lingering touches everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time. I do not know if ghosts possess blood or anything like this, I doubt it. So that means at least you don’t have to worry about him eventually giving in to temptation.

🔪He will never be able to understand if someone should dislike his s/o if they should be somewhat of a half breed. As I mentioned, I don’t think he really cared much about the possibility of other beings existing and certainly not a mix made from more than one species. It does add up to his worshipper tendencies since apparently people like you are not very common. He thinks you’re wonderful. As a half-ghost you might have blood inside of you, if it’s from a human is another thing to discuss. But Azusa is from all vampires the one who wouldn’t want to suck your blood, even if it drives him crazy. And even if his brothers try to force him, you can abandon your materialized form anytime for your ghost body. You give Azusa’s brothers honestly a bit of a hard time with your abilities, it’s mocking for them in a way.