#hokage shikaku ask

[mixelation]

first part of velocity (unproofed bc i am running out the door) ->

Minato was stressed. 

“Then Orochimaru has Shiranui,” Danzo intoned, dead confident even though Shikaku’s report on the situation had included dozens of unknowns. “No one else in the area could pose a threat to a Jounin of Konoha.”

“We still don’t know anything about this new village,” Minato pointed out, “or what clans joined it. There could still be lone actors–”

“Please,” Danzo interrupted, unimpressed. “No Sound ninja could disappear a Jounin so thoroughly.”

“With all due respect,” Minato said tightly, “you have not been on the frontlines in decades. Does anyone who’s actually been to Sound have any thoughts?”

Had Minato even invited Danzo to this meeting? He barely even remembered calling the meeting. Meetings just happened, now that he was Hokage. Turns out that’s all being Hokage was: things happened, and then instead of doing anything about them, Minato sat around listening to high ranking ninja explain their opinions. Oh, and sometimes he stamped things. Forms. Proposals. Budgets. Paperwork.

Four years ago, Minato had been spending most of his time on the frontlines. Going from the most hands-on possible approach to this had been a rough transition, and he had perhaps relied too heavily on the ancient Hokage's Council as a result. 

The war was slowly coming to a stop now, and he could definitely make some moves to bring in younger people with more recent experience. But for now, he had to work with what was in place. For this meeting, that was Shikaku, an ex-field commander he’d nab in the hallway because she’d been stationed in Sound, and a bunch of old people. 

“Danzo-sama is right in that we’ve knocked out most of their known major players,” the ex field commander drawled. “But you never know, out there in the boonies. They’re not like us; they just let any ninja wander around and chop up whoever they want.”

To illustrate this, she held up her right arm, which ended not with a hand but with a wiry assistive device meant to let her hold a writing utensil. 

“...right,” Shikaku said slowly. “Inuzuka last caught his scent near the new… village, if we’re calling it that… but we can’t pin it on them, and we also can’t eliminate some other third party.”

Genma had only been officially missing a scant thirty hours. He’d been en route between camps for normal restationing and missed his check-in. If he were most ninja, this would not have warranted a meeting. It probably would have been dealt with locally, shoved into a summary report, and Minato probably wouldn’t have found out for days that anything at all had happened. If this had been at the height of the war, even someone like Genma might have gotten this treatment. 

But the war was waning, and Genma was part of the Hokage’s guard. As someone intimately familiar with Minato’s personal life and the inner workings of Hokage tower, Genma was important enough to warrant a quick investigation, and they had the people and time to dedicate to it. 

“Why was Shiranui even in Sound?” Koharu asked. 

Minato leaned back in his seat, biting his thumbnail in thought. He really didn’t see the need to have a full guard inside the village, and morale at field camps was usually better when popular Jounin like Genma were hanging around. Minato had seen it as more useful to have him running chores out in the field. 

It was true that a Hokage’s guard would be a great hostage, if some nefarious player wanted to re-escalate war. 

That would be so many meetings, Minato thought. He really couldn’t have that. 

The meeting wrapped up with barely a plan in place, as was what happened at many meetings. Shikaku would send word to both camps to re-sweep the area, and then Minato would add it to his agenda at yet another meeting to rearrange people to put together a tracking team instead of just one random Inuzuka who happened to be on duty. 

Miraculously, one of his afternoon meetings was canceled. Someone had died. Such was life as a shinobi. 

“I could move up your meeting with the fruit vendors’ union,” his secretary said. 

“Please don't,” Minato replied. He hated talking to those guys. 

His secretary left, and Minato immediately felt antsy. It was very rare he had an hour free like this in the middle of the day. What could he do? Take a nap? Kidnap Naruto away from his babysitter for a playtime speedrun? Bother Kushina? He glanced at the clock. No, Naruto would be down for a nap and Kushina would be meeting with the Academy headmaster about their curriculum on storage scrolls again… 

Minato glanced down at the mess of paperwork on his desk. He really, really didn’t want to do any of it right now. How was his job both stressful and boring? He liked being free to see his little family most evenings, and he mostly liked acting as a leader. But he’d thought he’d get more time to just be a ninja. 

Actually, he thought. Was he not his own boss? Was there not a pressing problem he couldn’t just solve right now?

Sound Country had been home to several major ninja pathways, camps, and battles during this war. Minato had plenty of Hiraishin markers scattered around, including along the path Genma would have taken between camps. 

Minato found Genma in about eight minutes of searching, several hundred meters off the normal route. 

“Hokage-sama!” Genma cried in evident relief. His face was one Minato had seen often in his lifetime but not so much in the last few years of mainly administrative work: the instant relief of a man who’d consigned himself to death, now realizing that he was going to live. 

Minato shot him a reassuring smile even as his eyes darted around the clearing. There were no ninja in the area, but Genma was currently trapped within the glowing walls of a massive blue-green chakra barrier. It had an unusual shape, delineated by stalks of bamboo at the corners of an irregular pentagon. 

Well, this shouldn’t be too difficult to dismantle. Minato might be off the battlefield, but he was still up to snuff on all things fuuinjutsu. He stepped up the closet bamboo shoot, which had a seal carved… into it…?

“What happened?” he asked Genma as he eyed the seal. This was… not a normal piece of fuuinjutsu. Hmm. 

“There was a little girl,” Genma started. He sounded incredibly stressed as he described the sequence of events: Genma had encountered a local civilian girl on his trek. He recognized her as belonging to a nearby village and being one of the local women and children who’d occasionally barter with Konoha field camps. She’d sprained her ankle, and he’d stop to help. 

“But then she… I don’t know, she… the barrier…”

 Then this random civilian girl had activated a barrier and left Genma. Sure. Why not. 

“Are you sure she’s not a ninja?” Minato asked, frowning at the seal. He could recognize it as a barrier seal, but there were like seventeen things going on with it he didn’t understand. A civilian could activate certain types of ninja-made seals in theory, but not this one. 

“No, she’s the soap girl!” Genma bemoaned. “She shows up sometimes to sell shitty soaps. There’s no way she’s a ninja.”

But then, Genma continued in a clearly upset sort of ramble, she’d asked him if he was well-hydrated and how much water and food he had on him, and just left. 

“I’ve been here at least two days,” Genma said. 

“The barrier lasted that long?” Minato asked. “Impressive.”

“Impressive?” Genma repeated. 

“It’s a fairly chakra-heavy barrier,” Minato replied. Genma continued to stare at him with what looked like a vaguely scandalized expression. “Usually to maintain something like this long-term, you’d need to put a lot of chakra in at the beginning– usually done with multiple people, and definitely not by a child– or you’d need to be actively maintaining it. This little girl never came by? No other ninja?”

Genma stared at him, wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open. Minato raised his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

“Well, no,” Genma said after a few moments had passed. “Can you please get me out before we debrief?”

Ah, Minato supposed Genma was a little freaked out by the prospect of his own untimely death, withering away in a random barrier by what seemed to be the random whims of a child. That was fair. Minato turned back to the seal. 

He looked at it some more, then moved around to the next bamboo shoot, and then the next. 

“Huh,” he said. 

“Hokage-sama?” Genma asked. 

“I have no idea how to undo this,” Minato said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. 

“Hokage-sama.”

Genma was looking at him in horror now, but Minato could feel a certain giddiness building in his stomach. Finally, something interesting! What was going on with this seal? He could tell a bunch of the mystery components had to do with pulling chakra, but from where? The bamboo itself? Minato had heard stories from Kushina of ancient Uzushio seals using length of living kelp, twisted into seals that could pull on chakra as long as the kelp was alive. But those were supposed to be legends! 

“Hokage-sama, are you smiling?” Genma whined. 

“It’s just really interesting,” Minato defended. He was going to save Genma, okay? “I’m going to get my notes.”

It only took Minato a minute to teleport to his office, dig up a notebook with enough blank pages, and then teleport back. Genma still gave him a look of deep betrayal that he’d left at all. 

Minato was pretty good at multitasking, so he quizzed Genma on details of how the seal had been activated while copied the location of the seals and took etchings of them. 

“She didn’t mention any name at all?” Minato confirmed. “No boss she’s working for?”

Minato really, really wanted to meet whoever had made this nightmare of a seal. He wanted to know how they’d come up with it, and then quiz them if they new more seals like this, that could use chakra from natural sources, and then maybe have this person to dinner to just talk fuuinjutsu with him and Kushina all night. 

Except they were in an enemy nation, so probably Minato would have to settle for imprisoning this person and then interrogating them via Yamanaka mindwalk. Boo. 

Also, on top of the wild chakra source, the barrier was just really well made. Genma had not just been sitting around for two days; he’d executed several earth jutsu to try and burrow out, but the barrier extended underground. It even stood up to a rasengan. Minato couldn’t even destroy the five bamboo shoots powering the whole thing, because they were integrated into the walls of the barrier itself. 

“This person must have troubleshooted this a lot,” Minato said, squinting at one of the seals. This thing matched no reports of anything Konoha had seen during the war. How could they have never noticed this person running around?

Genma was clearly starting to panic again. 

“Sir, what are you going to do?” he asked. “I’m out of water and food.”

Minato cocked his head to the side, thinking. He did have another meeting he really had to go to, as much as he wanted to stay here and geek out over this cool new seal. He could teleport over to the nearest camp, tell them where Genma was so they could put a guard on him, and then come back later with Kushina. Could they safely bring Naruto? He always felt guilty when they had to leave the kid alone in the evening…

Then, they heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching. They weren’t particularly loud, but they were definitely civilian. Genma shut his mouth, and Minato turned to the source, eyebrows raised. 

The person got close enough that he could see the outline of a figure through the bamboo. The person was small, clearly a child. Then they clearly realized they’d made a terrible mistake and turned to flee. 

Minato shot forward, grabbing the kid by the back of her yukata. She matched the description Genma had given of the kid who’d trapped him: dark curly hair and eyes, around eight. She stomped over to the clearing like a civilian who was used to navigating bamboo, and then for the briefest moment where she’d attempted to run, made it very clear she was a ninja in training. 

So. That was interesting. 

Minato pulled her into the clearing and set her down on her feet. She was technically an enemy who had put an important Konoha Jounin in a situation which might actually kill him, but also she was a little kid. Minato hated having to kill or bully kids. 

“Hi there,” he said, shooting her his most child-friendly smile. 

“Reina, you horrible little brat!” Genma yelled, banging his fists on the wall of the barrier. 

Reina ignored him entirely, eyeing Minato up and down with deep suspicion. She was either extremely confident the barrier could completely contain Genma, or she’d recognized Minato as the greater threat, or both. 

“Don’t worry,” Minato said. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just answer some questions as best you can, and you won’t even get in trouble, okay?”

“Oooh, you’re going to be in so much trouble when I get out!” Genma screamed. 

“Ignore him,” Minato said, then winked playfully at her. 

Reina’s lips thinned and she looked doubtful. But she also didn’t even spare Genma a glance as she shouted threats at her. 

“Look, I’m not going to kill him,” Reina said finally. “I was… even coming to feed him.”

She produced a beat up looking bag of dried fruit from her pocket and held this up as if it were evidence. There were only a few pieces left. If Minato hazarded a guess, he’d say it was left over from her own snack and then forgotten in her pocket. 

“Right,” Minato said slowly. “Listen, I don’t really care that you trapped him.”

(“WHAT?” Genma yelled.)

“But I really want to know, Reina-chan,” Minato continued, trying to look as friendly as possible even as Genma continued to bluster in outrage, “do you know who made this barrier?”

Reina’s brows furrowed slightly, studying his face. Minato smiled back encouragingly. He eyes finally darted over to the barrier. 

“Oh,” she said, as if realizing something. “Oh. Yeah, of course that’s what you’d want. Ummm.”

She fidgeted with the bag of dry fruit in her hands, crinkling the plastic under her fingers. The label was faded with time and the wear and tear of riding around in a child’s pockets, but it was one of the brands Konoha included in their ration packs for field camps. She’d likely gotten it from a field camp. 

“Did someone show you the trap?” Minato asked gently. 

“Uh, well,” Reina replied. “About that…”

Reina didn’t seem to be too afraid to talk to him, but she also seemed to be afraid of whatever the answers to his questions were. This made sense to Minato. If she was a ninja living in this area, she was probably associated with this new “village” Orochimaru had made. It would be logical to fear he’d turn violent if she brought up Konoha’s most notorious missing-nin. 

Briefly, Minato wondered if the seal was Orochimaru’s design. Setting up and then abandoning a trap such that a child might take advantage of it was not something Orochimaru was likely to do, but perhaps he’d developed the fuuinjutsu and someone else had set it up. 

Except, no– that wasn’t really aligned with Orochimaru’s skillset. Orochimaru was a prolific fuuinjutsu user, but he wasn’t a true master. Under Konoha he’d never shown interest in developing new fuuinjutsu beyond some modifications to seals useful to his research. Not even he could wake up one day and spontaneously invent what looked like an entirely new field of fuuinjutsu. 

Minato felt like fidgeting himself with excitement. If it wasn’t Orochimaru, maybe dinner wasn’t completely off the table. 

Reina still hadn’t answered, so Minato tried, “I know you’re an Oto-nin, and that our villages don’t really get along. But I promise I just want to know who made this seal. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

He did his best “don’t worry, I’m here to save you and you’re not going to die” smile. Reina tilted her head back, eyes narrowing. 

“Okay,” she said. “Nothing bad will happen to me? I have your word?”

“Um, yes,” Minato said. 

“So if I go back to my boss and tell him I gave up fuuinjutsu secrets to the Hokage, he won’t do anything bad?”

“No,” Minato replied slowly, and Reina looked at him like he was deeply stupid, the type of look only a little kid could level at an adult. It was the type of unimpressed expression he now only ever got from his own child. “Well,” Minato corrected. “I won’t do anything to you, and my friend here won’t either.”

He shot Genma a look. Genma glared back at him but shut up. 

“So I don’t have your word that nothing bad will happen,” Reina concluded. 

Gods above, Minato thought, starting to feel annoyed. His meeting was in fifteen minutes, but he wanted the identity of this fuuinjutsu user so bad. Why do they have to make kids so smart?

“At least ask her to get me out of here,” Genma said, keeping his voice level this time, although there was a hint of desperation in there. 

Minato had not asked for this, because he had assumed the girl had simply known of the trap and walked Genma into it, and was therefore unlikely to know how to deactivate it. But she eyed Minato up and down again, and then said:

“I’ll let him out, but you have to keep your word.”

Then she pulled a brush and a bottle of ink from her sleeves and walked over to the nearest bamboo shoot. Minato followed her, holding back the urge to ask her about fifteen questions. She was eight. She probably had no idea how the seal worked. 

“You know, my clan kicked me out,” Reina said conversationally as she applied ink directly to the barrier as it hummed over the wood of the bamboo. Who the hell taught her to do that? No one did that. That would have been Minato’s “well, nothing else worked” level attempt at breaking it. “I don’t have any biological family to defend me or look after me. My clan only lets me stay around because uniting the clans means other people take care of me. Really, I’ve been looking for a way to escape.”

“Uh huh,” Minato replied, watching her hands as she painted characters over the ones etched into the bamboo. A counter-seal then… what a bizarre way to design something, to only be able to undo it by painting a brand new seal on top. That barely left room for any error, although he supposed the benefit was that this approach had made it so Genma couldn’t just break the bamboo, and even someone like Minato would need days of work to come up with a counter-seal. 

Reina made no errors in her counter-seal, and so she didn’t blow them all up or screw up the seal such that no one could take it down. The walls of the barrier fizzled away, and for a second Genma looked like he was on the brink of tears. 

“Hey, stand down,” Minato chided when Genma made a move towards them and Reina tensed. Had Genma not been listening to their whole conversation? 

Genma obeyed, standing at attention while also scowling at Reina. 

Reina stared up at Minato expectantly, the ink brush still in her hands. The counter-seal had melted into ink stains on the bamboo and the surrounding grass when the barrier lifted, and Minato considered asking her to draw it again for him to make sure he got all the details. 

Still, who on earth had taught such a young child such advanced fuuinjutsu? Minato flipped his notebook to a new page and eyed Reina. 

“Reina-chan,” he said slowly. “Who is your fuuinjutsu teacher?”

“Oh, um,” she said. “Oto encourages… self study…?”

He stared down at her. 

No way. No fucking way. 

“Sir,” Genma said. 

“About your promise,” Reina started. 

Minato had his stupid meeting in two minutes, and it was vital to keeping the village running or whatever. He didn’t have time to unpack this right now. 

“You said your clan kicked you out?” he asked Reina. 

“Yes,” she confirmed. “So if you could just drop me off in–”

“So you don’t have family you’d miss?” he asked. 

“Uh… no?”

Right. This was perfect. He took her hand, then grabbed for Genma’s forearm. He teleported all three of them into his office. 

“This isn’t–” Reina started, for the first time showing actual fear. 

“It’s okay,” Minato said, patting her on the head. Children liked that, right? Well, Naruto hated it, but Academy kids loved when he paid attention to them. “Genma, go get checked out at the hospital and then come back for a debriefing.”

“Um, yessir,” Genma said, eyeing Reina and looking completely unsure of the situation. 

Minato actually couldn’t wait to quiz Reina on what the fuck was going on in Oto. How much fuuinjutsu did she actually know? How had she gotten the idea for the wild bamboo seal? Did Orochimaru maybe have old Uzushio materials lying around that Minato and Kushina should know about?

“Hokage-sama,” his secretary said, entering the office, “the Hyuuga clan representative… who is this child?”

Right. His meeting. He’d have to hold off on talking to her. If she were an adult, the protocol would be to stick her with T&I. But she wasn’t an adult; she was an increasingly frightened looking child. If he stuck her in T&I, he’d not only create a ton of red tape for himself to interact with her, but she might end up too freaked out to talk to him as soon as he wanted her to. 

“Genma,” he said, deciding on the best course of action. “On your way down, drop Reina-chan off with Kushina.”

Genma sighed. “Sure, Hokage-sama,” he said, sounding deeply unhappy. 

There. Now Minato could have his fun little dinner. 

[animeomegas]

New Things and Misunderstandings - Naruto Omegas x Alpha!reader

A/N: Happy birthday @omeganronpa !!!! I can't write more because ow, but yay, it's your birthday! I don't know what this post is, I just picked a few of your favs and wrote about misunderstandings lol, but I hope you like it anyway lmaoooo ❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙🩵💜🤎🖤🩶🤍

Warnings: Just some innuendo lol. And me thinking I'm funny, that needs a warning.

Naruto

*Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto having a drink together*

Sakura: It's your birthday soon, right Naruto? Do you have anything special planned?

Naruto: Uh, not much. Work is crazy, y'know?

Sakura: Ugh, you don't have to tell me. I haven't got my birthday off from the hospital in four years.

Naruto: Yeah, it sucks. I'll probably just spend the evening at home with my alpha. I was thinking of asking for a quickie or something.

Sasuke: *grimacing* Tmi, dobe.

Naruto: What? I've never had one before, so I thought it'd be cool to try.

Sakura: Naruto! No one wants to hear this.

Naruto: Why? You don't like quickies? I always thought they looked tasty. I mean, they aren't ramen of course, but I always get birthday ramen from Ichiraku, so I can't ask my alpha to make it.

Saskue: ...

Sakura: Naruto, spell quickie.

Naruto: Um, okay? I think it's Q-U-I-CH-E.

Sasuke: 🙄

Sakura: 😠

Shikamaru

Alpha: *in the middle of a chat with Kiba* -and Shikaku was so hot yesterday, it's kind of crazy, y'know.

*Shikamaru suddenly walks in, home from work, overhearing*

Shikamaru: What 😐

Alpha: Shika! You're home!

Shikamaru: What 😐

Alpha: We were just talking about how the aircon has given up in the jounin headquarters. You must have heard about it. The common room wasn't too bad once everyone opened the windows, but I was just saying that your father was suffering a lot in his small office.

Shikamaru: *visibly relaxing* Oh, I see. Yes, for once I've been grateful that Naruto keeps me in Hokage tower most of the time.

Alpha: Yeah, I bet!

Shikamaru: Okay, I'm going to take a shower upstairs, I'll be back in a bit. *Shikamaru leaves*

Kiba: ...

Alpha: ...

Kiba: Good save.

Alpha: Thanks 😅

Lee

Lee: *sighs sadly*

Alpha: You okay, baby?

Lee: I... Do you think I'm intimidating? To our fellow Konoha shinobi I mean.

Alpha: I mean, I would hope that they have a healthy respect for your abilities, but I don't think people find you unapproachable. Why do you ask? Did something happen?

Lee: I overheard some people talking in the jounin common room. They were saying that they could suffocate in my thighs... But I would never hurt them like that, even in a spar. Do you think they're... afraid of me? 🥺

Alpha: ...

Lee: ...

Alpha: Oh, baby, no.

Shino

Shino: *visibly relieved* Alpha, you're back from your mission!

Alpha: Yes... Is everything okay?

Shino: No... it's Shihori. I'm... I'm worried about her, but I didn't know what to do and you were away and I was scared I'd make it worse so-

Alpha: Woah, slow down. What happened? Is she okay?

Shino: She's... been drawing things. Horrible things. I don't know where she's getting it from, I didn't want to ask in case I made it worse! What do we do??

Alpha: Deep breaths, what sort of things has she been drawing?

*Shino anxiously opens a drawer and pulls out a stack of drawings. They depict large, scary creatures. A brown bear, a purple rabbit, and a yellow chicken. You immediately remember hearing your fellow parent shinobi complain about the latest horror video game trend that became popular with children*

Alpha: Ah. It's Freddy.

Shihori: *overhearing from the living room* YOU KNOW FREDDY, APPA?!?!

Alpha: Of course. And Bonnie. And Chica.

Shihori: 🤩🤩

Shino: 😧

Itachi

Alpha: Oh, hey, you're back from reconnaissance. Did you catch them doing anything suspicious? Pein seemed really sure there were our guys.

Itachi: No. Unfortunately, they both kept entirely normal schedules for the day, as far as I could tell.

Alpha: Damn. So we came all the way out here for nothing?

Itachi: Not quite. While their conversation was mundane, I believe they may have been using a code.

Alpha: Seriously?

Itachi: Indeed. They mentioned at one point that their compatriots had been 'sixty-nining' each other. I believe that might have been code, although I am not sure of it's meaning.

Alpha: ...

Itachi: What?

Alpha: ...

Itachi: You recognise the code?

Alpha: *suddenly remembering that Itachi had no friends as a teenager and parents that taught him how to dismember people instead of teaching him anything about sex*

Alpha: ...I'll explain on the way back 🫠

[martialartslover7]

Weird Wednesday Headcanon: Outside of Team 7, Neji, Shikamaru and Kiba sympathize the most with Sasuke's fall from grace after the Five Kage Summit.

Alright, this is another headcanon of mine that can be written off as "mental", but hear me out, this has so much potential.

I'd like to think that, outside of Team 7, Sasuke wasn't just closely acquainted with Naruto, Sakura or Kakashi, but also:

Neji (whom we even got a small teaser hint of a rivalry between him and Sasuke for, which sadly, never came to be, because Byakugan VS Sharingan is a question in the community, that truly needs answering)

Shikamaru (shogi rivals, nuff' said, the only guy, that managed to corner Shikamaru at his own game, I mean, Sasuke is meant to be a genius too, so, why not?)

Kiba (just being around him, Sasuke's IQ just automatically decreases, but in a fun way, like Renji and Uryu from Bleach, considering, Kiba had lived most of his life, surrounded by moody, dominating women, and he might be Sasuke's "stay-in wingman", when it comes to Sakura, or they would just talk about how tiring women can be, but they do manage to get best results out of you with their motivation, and he would be way easier to handle for Sasuke, because unlike Naruto, Kiba ain't braindead)

These are the three main players, but if you want, you can also put Choji and Rock Lee into the mix, considering that, later down the road, Sasuke's and Choji's daughter would end up becoming besties, and if Might Guy wouldn't survive the war, he and Lee can become the new Kakashi and Might Guy, the next generation, if you will. And this is ironic, because...

...just by coincidence, who else was sent to get Sasuke back, to prevent him from defecting to Orochimaru? Ah yes.

But now, I get to the meat and bones of this thread. And that being, the reason why I believe personally, it was a wasted opportunity to not give Sasuke more personal allies that sympathize with his actions, after he joined the Akatsuki.

Like, NO ONE can tell me, that the Uchiha weren't the only ones, who were under close observation within Konoha borders, by the elders. Sure, they were the biggest target, but it leaves you asking, especially in regards to those clans, who are either the strategist faction, or possess sensory type abilities: What about them? Wouldn't they suspect that something was going horribly wrong over there, at the Uchiha compound? Did absolutely NO ONE hear the screams, or blood splatters? I am just not sold on the idea that EVERYONE in Konoha blindly agreed to Tobirama's discriminatory policies, some had to know better than most. The select few, who weren't exactly fans of just distancing themselves from another clan, all because some frankly racist piece of garbage for a Hokage said so, along with the useless shitstains, that are the Konoha elders, especially Danzo.

And now, three people come to mind, where I truly felt like, they could have been there that night, when the Uchiha clan was being slaughtered, and they were either too late to stop it, or Itachi had knocked them out with his Genjutsu (which purposely contradicts Madara's propaganda about "no one in the village cared about the Uchiha, and only saw them as tools"). And ironically, they are probably the very select few of the adult shinobi, who weren't complete sub-human trash.

Hizashi Hyuga.

Shikaku Nara.

Tsume Inuzuka.

Just picture these three adults being the only ones, who caught on to what was happening, through not just the screams of terror, the smell of blood, or seeing through the walls with the Byakugan from Hizashi. But sadly, by the time they arrive, most of the Uchiha were already slaughtered. And right before they could even act to evacuate those, who may have survived, Itachi arrives, and knocks them clean out with his Tsukuyomi, not killing them, as their passing would just cause an uproar throughout the village, the following day.

And once Danzo learns, that three non-Uchiha, Leaf shinobi, were actually present that night, and they may or may not have caught a glimpse of who else was there that night, Hizashi, Shikaku and Tsume were forced to stay silent on the matter, as Danzo threatened them, through the lense of the ROOT Anbu:

"Dare to let a single word about last night's events slip, then your clans will be receiving severe repurcussions."

I mean, sure, it's kind of silly to try and silence three unrelated Leaf ninja into keeping silent, but considering how paranoid the elderly can be, especially Danzo, I wouldn't put it past him to actually go there.

And how convenient, because as the story progressed, two of these adults would wind up deceased. Shikaku died in the 4th Great Ninja war. One piece of the puzzle, gone.

Hizashi would actually be the first one to die, before all two of them, because the Hyuga clan was trying to mend their security blunder that one fateful night, when someone from Kumogakure tried to kidnap Hinata. But keeping in mind everything I just said, it just adds another layer to how corrupt this shinobi system truly is. Who is to say, Danzo basically bribed the Hyuga elders to sacrifice Hizashi, in place of Hiashi, because he couldn't possibly risk that one defiant Hyuga showing lip to the Hokage? Something to think about. Even if Hiruzen remains a useless piece of shit. You can never be TOO careful, right?

Tsume would probably be the only adult to keep on living, to tell the tale, and through her, does Kiba learn, how deep the rabbit hole with Danzo actually goes, and how Sasuke's hatred for the village MIGHT be """mildly""" justified. Especially if Neji and Shikamaru were to approach him about their own clan blunders, involving Danzo, right after his passing at the hands of Sasuke.

But especially Neji, man... If everything I said gets applied in practice, it would mean, outside of Naruto, he might also be considered worthy of facing Sasuke in battle, after the Five Kage Summit. Because, not only does he more than understand how it truly feels to lose family and loved ones, but also, how this entire shinobi system is essentially screwing over those, who were unfortunate enough to be born into families, that get treated like dirt by the government, that is supposed to protect them. Just imagine their exchange, while Kiba faces off against Jugo, and Shikamaru holds Suigetsu at bay.

"A slave to your own family... I really don't need another moral lecture from a man, who willingly decided to stick to his own kin, despite them viewing you as nothing short of cannonfodder. And yet, despite it all, you still side with them... Run, Neji. Run and hide with your insignificant existence weighing you down, before I tear you to pieces." --Sasuke

"No, Sasuke. You're wrong. If it's any consolation, I am more than able to sympathize with your current state of mind. As of recently, I had to learn the hard way, that you and I, at the end of the day, are not so different. Believe me, you're not the only one, who was royally screwed over by the same village that you once swore to protect. The only reason, why I am not defecting, is because I still have family left to protect... Which is something I cannot say on your behalf, as much as it saddens me to say this. You have every right to hate us. Especially considering, we believed the rumors first, leaving no room for you to speak up and defend yourself. I didn't come to lecture you. And I won't run... because I am going to make you listen." --Neji

Pretty epic, isn't it? I am sorry, Neji is just the GOAT to me, and anything to make him and Sasuke spiritual broskies, I am here for that. Just visualize how adrenaline-driven their encounter would end up being, if you add the Bankakyo Byakugan into the mix. This is how Neji's Bankakyo would look like (source by Aleister Brown):

And for context on what this eye gives Neji for busted abilities, which make him a more or less equal match to Sasuke, after he got Itachi's eyes implanted:

Left eye: Foresight (he can look 10 seconds into the future, to predict Sasuke's moves, before he could even pull them off)

Right eye: Timeskip (improves his Taijutsu, by basically freezing time all around himself, and teleporting, at anything his eyes can see for time)

And, to make it even, with the Bankakyo, you can even summon a chakra avatar, similar to the Susano'o called, Sarutakahiko, take a look:

And because it's me, this is the music that plays in my mind, every time I am trying to visualize their fight, with these conditions being met:

...and to end this thread on a more comical note, when I said, Sasuke's IQ lowers around Kiba, and I compared the two to Renji and Uryu, here is why. It's even more ironic when you consider, Uryu and Sasuke have the same seiyuu! Noriaki Sugiyama! Check it:

OK, OK, enough with that. Have a nice day.

Peace.

[cooliogirl101]

(Because I want Reina throwing the canon!verse into chaos)

"Absolutely not. I won't allow it!" Hiashi raged, slamming both hands onto the table.

"Unfortunately, we may have no choice. Konoha cannot afford another war at this moment." The Sandaime sighed, looking every single one of his years at that moment. "Not when we are still recovering from the Kyuubi attack."

"Still, what kind of precedence does this set? That we allow foreign nin to kidnap our children and steal our bloodlines, and yet we are the ones to pay retribution?" Inoichi asked sharply. "You say we cannot afford another war, but surely we also cannot afford to look this weak in front of our enemies."

"What Inoichi said. After what those bloodline-stealing, clouds-for-brains ninja tried to pull? If anything, they should be worried about us declaring war on them," Inuzuka Tsume snarled.

"This move buys us time while we build up strength," Utatane Koharu argued. She shot Hiashi a sharp look. "This wouldn't have been necessary had you the foresight to show a little restraint. I don't know what you were thinking, killing off a high-ranking Kumo nin with diplomatic immunity--"

"He took my daughter--"

"He was evidence--"

"Enough," Hizashi spoke up quietly. "If this will save lives and ensure the safety of the Byakugan, then I am willing. I can think of no more honorable way to serve my village and my clan."

"Try living," a new voice called from outside the doors, a split second before they opened and a vaguely familiar woman walked in. She was startlingly pretty, Hizashi couldn't help but notice-- delicate, almost elvish features, bluish-black hair tied up in a casual twist, deep blue eyes with a hint of mischief within.

Amidst all the ninja stiffening in alarm, Hizashi noticed Uchiha Fugaku letting out a low groan, pinching the bridge of his nose in an uncharacteristic display of emotion.

"Kobayashi-san," the Hokage said, eyeing her with...wariness? What was going on? "This is a classified meeting."

"Yes, you really do need to work on your security seals, Sandaime-sama, they're terribly outdated," she mused. "I do apologize for the intrusion but I admit to feeling rather worried after I overheard this esteemed council seriously consider handing one of Konoha's most valuable dojutsu over to Kumo on a silver platter." She clasped her hands behind her back, offering him a falsely bright smile. "As a tax-paying citizen of Konoha, you'll take my concerns into consideration, I hope."

Across the table, Nara Shikaku snorted at the blatant sarcasm in those words.

"Reina-san--" Fugaku growled. The woman--Reina-- waved at him cheerfully.

"Hi Fugaku-san! Mikoto-chan would like you to pick up some tomatoes on your way back. Sasuke-kun got into the pantry again, so we're out." She shook her head fondly. "That boy, honestly. I don't know what to do with him."

Next to him, Hiashi choked on his spit while most of the room stared at her in disbelief (with the exception of Tsume, who was currently stiffing her laughter behind a fist). With an abrupt start, Hizashi remembered where he'd seen this woman before. It had been a popular topic of gossip the past few days, when the Uchiha Matriarch had, seemingly out of nowhere, struck up a close friendship with a civilian woman who made a living decorating cakes and cookies.

Hizashi glanced at the woman standing calmly in front of them, having effortlessly broken into one of Konoha's most secure buildings, completely unconcerned by being in a room full of Konoha's most powerful and influential ninja.

If she was a civilian, he'd eat his shoes.

"We wouldn't be 'handing the Byakugan over on a silver platter,' girl," Danzo scoffed, narrowing his eyes. "Don't speak of things you don't understand."

"Oh? Because by my understanding, you were planning on sacrificing Hizashi-san's life for his brother's and just hoping the Caged Bird Seal does its job and prevents Kumo from utilizing the Byakuyan," she said sweetly. "The problem with that plan, of course, is that the Caged Bird Seal is an absolute atrocity and an embarrassment to fuuinjutsu, designed by someone who cared more about enslaving his family members than actually protecting his bloodline."

"The Caged Bird Seal is infallible," Hizashi interjected before he could stop himself, voice hoarse. It was infallible because it had to be-- because if it could fail, then his and his son's suffering meant nothing.

An unreadable expression crossed her face.

"Is it?" She asked softly. "Why don't you ask your son that?"

She turned towards the door.

"Neji-kun, come inside for a moment, will you?"

His son walked inside, forehead bare as the day he was born, and Hizashi's world shattered.

~~

"How? How did you remove the Caged Bird Seal?!"

"What, like it's hard?"

~~

"So you've proven that the Caged Bird Seal can be removed," Danzo glared at her. "That does not solve our problem; in fact, it worsens it."

"Danzo is right," the Sandaime agreed. "Kumo will still demand payment in blood and--"

"No, they won't." Reina tilted her head to the side. "Oh, I probably should have started with that. Yeah, they retracted their demand for Hyuuga-san's life, and send along their most sincere apologies for what happened, and their most sincere assurances that they had no idea their head ninja was planning such a thing, blah, blah, blah. You're welcome."

There was a long silence. It was the first time Hizashi had ever seen Sarutobi Hiruzen speechless. He probably would have enjoyed it more had he not been so focused on keeping his own mouth from dropping open.

"Um, excuse me. What?" Inoichi asked, sounding as gobsmacked as Hizashi felt.

"How the hell did you manage that?" Tsume exploded.

"Passed along a message?" Reina shrugged. "Although to be honest, it wasn't so much the content of the message as much as the method of delivery."

"Reina-san," Fugaku said, voice low and laced with dread. "What did you do?"

She grinned, twirling around a very familiar looking kunai-- one that Konoha hadn't seen in a very long time. Next to him, Hiashi drew in a sharp breath.

"Did you know A has one of these just lying around in his office? Probably in an attempt to deconstruct it. But oh man, you should have seen his face when I popped in!" She laughed. "Or should I say, flashed in. Never seen a man turn white so quickly! That was totally worth the motion sickness."

Kumo, after Reina breaks into their Kage’s office with an S-Class jutsu that was thought extinct but still gives like half the ninja world PTSD: I’m sorry Konoha, I wasn’t familiar with your game

(In Reina's world, there's like half a dozen people who know the Hiraishin, although obviously Minato's the best at it. Reina learned because after what happened with Obito and Rin, she wanted a way to teleport instantly to her precious people in order to provide emergency medical care (she also was on standby while Minato was developing it, just in case of any teleporting mishaps/he ended up needing any limbs reattached). She doesn't use it for combat though and dislikes using the jutsu as it gives her motion sickness. Kushina also technically knows it but doesn't have the chakra control to use it effectively. Kakashi and Orochimaru also know how to use it, and Minato plans on teaching Naruto one day as well. Which is a sharp contrast to the canon world, where the number is like zero).

[oh-no-its-bird]

I have been day dreaming about Chasing Shadows on the regular but I have a bad memory and am bad at day dreaming, so it's just been the exact same idea every time, but I enjoy so much, so here it is:

Uhhhh, because of [insert plot reasons], Ichigo is gonna get mind walked. Maybe she was convinced after realizing how people view Tobi-oji/Dara-oji, and has now made it her life's mission to explain to everyone that no, they were actually great and not at all murderous, unless it was necessary and unless it was with each other beause there was "tension" between them according to Mama and Touka-nee said they should just fuc-.

ANYWAY, cue the entire adult cast watching multiple memories of Ichigo continuously walking in on Madara and Tobirama very clearly having been making out until a second before she walked in.

One memory is Ichigo visiting her Oji-san's house, but no one opens the door when she knocks, so she sneaks in through the window in the kitchen and she starts looking for Tobirama but doesn't find him. Eventually, she ends up at his bedroom door and manages to just barely crack it open, only for a very disheveled and barely dressed Madara to shoot out from the opening and almost slamming the door shut, only to stop at the last second and quietly closing it. All she managed to see was a messy bed with her Oji-san curled up in it, seemingly asleep.

"Your oji-san is, uh, tired, Ichi-chan. He... experimented. Yes, that. Did that very late into the night. So. He needs sleep. Which I'm making sure he gets." Before ushering her out the door with a tired, if slightly stressed, smile on his face. His neck is also covered in bruises that look like teeth marks, probably from her Oji-san beating him up for interrupting his experiments, because the only one allowed to interrupt is her and no one else (lie, she's not allowed to interrupt either, but Oji-san would never beat her up for that, just scold her).

Hmmm, she would usually just break in again after getting kicked out, but her Oji-san really does need whatever sleep he can get... She'll break in again later.

Another memory is her walking into the Hokage office, only to find her Oji-san pushed up against the office desk by Madara. Tobirama pushes him off immediately, going to right some of his clothes that are now out of place, including the opening to his happi, one side of which as nearly been pushed off his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Ichigo asks as Tobirama snatches her up from the ground and starts walking away with her. Madara is laughing so hard he's sitting on the floor.

"Nothing." Oji-san's voice is rough and his face is bright red.

"Didn't look like nothing!"

"You'll learn when you're older."

"You never say that! You say you can learn anything if you try hard enough."

"Yes, well, this was boring adult stuff that you won't want to understand until you're older."

"Wrong, because I wanna know now."

"I will let you test my new seal if you never ask or speak of this again."

"Deal."

Madara is still laughing, the sound echoing through the corridor until the door shuts itself.

And it just goes on and on like that. Maybe throw in a memory with Touka where Ichigo is complaining about them always fighting and Touka pats her head before saying "They just really gotta fuck." Which is a WILD thing to say to a seven-year-old, but Touka never claimed to be good with kids and, in fact, strives to be a horrible influence.

By the end of the mind walk, Ichigo is squinting into the distance because 11 is old enough to start figuring out what the hell was happening all those times, Hiruzen is staring into the distance looking haunted, Danzou looks like his entire world just stopped making sense only to suddenly start making way more sense at the same time, Kakashi looks like he would like to be anywhere else but also he can't stop checking out Madara's ass, Shikaku looks like he wants to smoke twenty cigs at once before entering a coma, Inoichi has his head in his hands and is just slowly shaking either from laughing or crying or both, and Chōza is torn between going "awwwww" because that was some adorably dorky love and "fuuuuuucking what" because fuuuuuucking what.

So, yeah, probably none of this is going to happen in the fic, but by god has the thought been stuck in my head for days and now it will be stuck in yours too.

I'm in actual fucking tears thanks!!! Lying prone on the floor of an airplane isle losing my mind!!! I've read this like 6 times now and lose it the same way each time, I'll never recover

I'm?? Honored u like my fic enough to day dream about it???? Fucking crying rn oh my god. They need to GET A ROOM!!!! Ok actually got one, but they need to GET A BETTER ROOM!!!!!

This reads like one of those "characters read the original book/watch the anime" fics but the "anime" is just a highlight complelation of times Madara and Tobirama narrowly avoiding getting caught getting a little too up close and personal

You're right and it'll definitley never happen in the fic but I will never stop thinking ab the pure comedy of this now, so thanks

[ircn-mvn]

ShikaNaru 2

TW: Mention of Mpreg by Jutsu, No Omegaverse, Accidental Pregnancy

Shikamaru closed the door behind himself and sighed. He wasn’t looking forward to what he had to do next. He had gotten back from Takigakure a few hours ago and had spent some more at the Hokage’s Tower. He was exhausted, mentally and physically. But he couldn’t risk his father running into Kakashi-Sama before he got a chance to talk to his parents.

He took off his shoes and left the genkan. He walked to the living room where he found his parents sharing some tea over a game of go. 

“Welcome back,” his father said.

He was smiling. They both were. Shikamaru couldn’t help but wonder how long it’ll last. He had truly no idea how they were going to react to what he had to say. He had barely managed to wrap his head around it.

Shikamaru shook himself a moment later, vaguely aware his mother had been calling his name.

“Are you alright?” Yoshino asked.

She was frowning. Not a good start.

“Uh, troublesome,” Shikamaru mumbled. He shook his head again before he looked back up at his parents, squaring his shoulders despite his better judgment. “I need to tell you something.”

Yoshino opened her mouth but was promptly interrupted by the doorbell. They exchanged a look and Shikaku got up to answer the door.

“Sensei?” Shikaku started.

“Where is he?!”

Oh, Sage. Shikamaru knew that voice and he had hoped he would get more time before he had to deal with its owner — or that he would manage to avoid him until he finally calmed down.

“Nara Shikamaru!” 

Shikamaru stood frozen on his spot as Iruka-Sensei walked into the Naras’ living room. He looked just as furious as he sounded and Shikamaru was no fool: sure the man was only a chunin but there was a reason Hokages kept him close — well, in Kakashi’s case, more than one, but it wasn’t the topic at hand.

“You! I can’t believe you let this happen!” Iruka exclaimed. 

His old sensei marched forward until his accusing finger touched Shikamaru’s chest. He didn’t move. He couldn’t. He just stood there looking — ironically — like a deer caught in a fire jutsu. 

“What were you thinking?!” Iruka continued. “I expected something like this from him but you were with him! You were supposed to make sure nothing of the sort happened! He could have had a bad reaction! He still could! He — He could die! He could die! For Sage's sake, Shikamaru, aren’t you supposed to be a genius?!” 

Iruka was out of breath by the time he finished his tirade while Shikamaru had forgotten to breathe altogether. He knew all this. He knew Iruka was right. He knew Kakashi had chosen him to make sure nothing would happen to Naruto. To make sure he wouldn’t do anything stupid…

Shikamaru had been terrified when he first realized what had happened. Oh, they had figured out the High Priestess’s secret alright. Mission accomplished.

Naruto had freaked out for all but two seconds before moving on and finding some bright side to the situation like only Naruto could. Not that his joy hadn’t been contagious in the end but Shikamaru wasn’t as stupid as the whole thing made him look. He had thought of all the ways this could go wrong. He had barely slept since it happened, monitoring Naruto and —

Iruka sighed and seemed to deflate in front of him.

“Please tell me he is at least not alone in this?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Shikamaru said.

He frowned, standing straighter. Determination and whatever else Iruka could read on his face had him taking a step back.

“Good, good.” 

They both sighed again. Then…

“Can we know what this is about?” Shikaku asked.

He was standing a few feet away by the kitchen island with Yoshino. 

“Uh, they don’t know?” Iruka said.

Shikamaru shook his head.

“I sent Naruto home and wrote our report myself, I just got here,” he answered.

“Oh.”

Yes, oh. 

“Troublesome,” Shikamaru repeated. He took a deep breath and turned to his parents. “Naruto’s pregnant.”

His parents looked at him as if he had grown a second head. He couldn’t blame them. Sure they had seen a lot during the last few years but no male pregnancy — as far as he knew at least. He wasn’t exactly an expert on the topic. Not yet.

“Some kind of jutsu, it’s a long story, and not really the point,” he added when Yoshino opened her mouth. “It’s mine. The baby, I mean. And we are keeping it.”

There was another silence as his parents digested the news. Yoshino wasn’t yelling which Shikamaru counted as a win. Finally, Shikaku sighed.

“Well that’s going to be a pain,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Shikamaru and Iruka replied at once.

They had both tensed.

“I mean that basically, every clan with a daughter old enough to marry had been trying to secure a marriage with Naruto,” Shikaku explained.

“Well, they can stop plotting,” Shikamaru said.

“Can they now?” Yoshino asked.

His mother looked like she was ready to start planning his wedding. Troublesome but still.

“I said what I said.”

[cebwrites]

"captain" (how heavy is your title)

a/n: why is it so god damn hair to find gifs of pre-ts shikamaru my GOD gifsearch on this site has gone down the drain 😭

oc | gen word count: 1.3k

At some point during the timeskip, Shikamaru's put on a three-man team with Tae as their jonin captain, he's a genius but still lacks experience after all. The other two members of their temporary team feel bad for the kid and give their consolations quietly away from Tae before the mission starts.

Shikamaru finds out later that this is apparently because their captain has apparent bad blood with Shikaku. He's understanding to a degree, but whatever his father did really doesn't have anything to do with him, and he's understandably frustrated.

Regardless, the mission proceeds as intended, if not a little awkward at times.

When they get a moment to rest, Shikamaru approaches Taeru and asks if it's really such a hassle to work with him. Tae agrees for a moment, but follows this by saying that it has more to do with the fact that the higherups agreed to send a kid on an S-rank mission, genius prodigy or not. He's irked at the fact that they're throwing Shikamaru into the deep end immediately, and so soon after their failure to bring back Sasuke, too.

Tae then talks a little louder to say that he wouldn't begrudge someone for something as petty as their parents' faults, enough for the other two to hear and stiffen as they roasted fish over the fire.

Shikamaru gets to have a moment alone with his captain later on when, while on watch, Tae notices him tossing and turning in his sleeping back, unable to catch a proper wink of rest. The older man humors his junior by talking about the first mission he was sent on when he made chunin, Shikamaru complains at first but he eventually pipes down to listen. It didn't seem like Tae was going to stop talking, anyway.

The mission was a disaster waiting to happen. Tae's subordinates were all older and more experienced than him, scoffing at the fact that they had to take orders from a twelve year old. While the younger two eventually came around when Tae had a chance to show his capabilities and how reliable he was as a leader, a boy and a girl in their late teens, the eldest remained stuck in his ways - a man in his early twenties who hated the idea of being bossed around by some shrimp regardless of rank.

His stubbornness lead to an injury that lost him a leg and put an end to the man's shinobi career.

At the Hokage's office upon return, Tae was berated viciously by his wife. She spared no expense about how it was terrible to put her husband's life in the hands of some snot-nosed kid in the first place, lamenting that they had a newborn at home and now they had no way to support their family so how was he going to take responsibility for his actions?

Tae remained expressionless throughout her tirade, nothing out of the ordinary, though the only thing he could offer was his apologies - going as far to get down and prostrate for his failure as a leader. The two remaining members from their team came running in just as things started to heat up, begging to explain their sides of the story and come to their captain's defense.

It was right that they did, considering the way Tae felt Genma's chakra started to churn when his subordinate's wife lifted her foot in an attempt to stomp on his head while prone. If Lord Third and the accompanying Hokage guard noticed it too, they made no comment.

With the commotion dying down and mission reports fully filed away, Tae was dismissed. So was Shiranui, apparently, his shift was picked up by a young Iwashi since he was told to blow off some steam before he could come back.

Genma spends that time trying to cheer Tae up. When Tae brought up that he didn't have to go so far as to let his killing intent seep through, and luckily the man's wife was too far away to notice, Genma scoffed. Ruffling the boy's hair, he'd say that there's no way anyone would watch their kid brother get treated like that and not get mad.

Their little moment gets interrupted by the other chunin put under Tae's care for that mission. They're only a little older than Genma, but he levels a warning glare at them too, standing between them and his brother - Tae's been through enough today.

When they clarify that they're here to apologize on behalf of the third member and his wife, Gen's still skeptical, but Tae steps to the side to hear them out. They're out of breath and stumbling through their words a bit, but the point gets across; conveniently leaving out the screaming match they had at the hospital with the wife that morning.

Though the connection is still frayed, they say that he wants to meet up in person to apologize if Tae was willing to give a jerk like him the time of day.

Shikamaru asks if they managed to smooth things out and Tae nods, watching the sun slowly start to creep over the horizon and faintly register the chakra signatures of their other team mates waking up. Ah shit, they hadn't slept yet. The other two would have to cover them and gather information in town today instead.

Hopefully they'd take their time.

Shikamaru's next question comes paired with a yawn, inquiring if they were still friends after everything. Tae's quiet for a moment, still staring off onto the horizon, before he tells the young chunin that though he smoothed things over with the older nin, his peers closer in age died in the line of duty some time later under different captains.

The boy's lax posture tenses immediately, Shikamaru actually covers his mouth as his sleepy gesture turns into a cough, then clearing his throat, and finally; a quiet apology.

Tae's rebuttal comes easily, like he's had this conversation many times before. The life of a shinobi was tied inextricably to death - whether the blood on one's hands belong to enemy nin, the painful passing of a fallen comrade, or their own. It was unavoidable in this line of work, most people in it were aware; others painfully so.

But the casual way his temporary captain speaks of his former comrades in passing sends a chill up Shikamaru's spine, knocking the sleep from his mind. He was restless before, but he was sure he wouldn't be able to get to bed now.

Upon their return to Konoha, things settle back into their regular rhythm; though with the addition of Taeru popping in semi-regularly to ask Shikamaru to pass on miscellaneous documents to his father. Shikamaru knows there's something going on underneath the surface, but he respects Kirin enough not to pry directly. As for his dad? Well, Shikaku never really was good about being up front about those kinds of things anyway, always finding one excuse or another to slip out of the conversation.

The only thing he'd gotten out of his dad was a surprised look when he asked Shikamaru when he'd gotten so close to a jonin from Ibiki's task force, then a withering response about how Shikaku had work to attend when Shikamaru started to prod for details, considering his dad worked for T&I too. Man, his old man was such a drag sometimes.

The sinking feeling of Tae's words stick with him for a while, though Shikamaru wouldn't really learn the full scope of his grief until Asuma's death years later - he remembers how everyone just barely defeated the Sound Four with their lives in tact - but sometimes, he'd see Taeru talk to the older man running a soba shop near the Nara district and spar with a kid that could feasibly be around the same age as him.

The clouds in his mind begin to part.

[luv-kakashi]

One of us is dead

chapter seven - team two

chapter six | chapter eight

"Thank you for meeting on such short notice," said The Hokage, as he watched the Jounins in the room brief themselves over the mission report.

"A few of our ninjas recently completed a B-ranked mission in the Village Hidden by the Rivers, and what they discovered was unexpected and shocking."

Several gasps erupted among the jounins as their eyes fixed on a detail highlighted in the report. The room fell into a tense silence, the weight of the revelation hanging heavily in the air. Each of them exchanged wary glances, before ultimately fixing their gaze on a particular individual.

Fugaku Uchiha.

"Black flames engulfed a remote area of the village. We are unaware of any residents who may have occupied this area of land, and I am not hopeful that we will ever find out. Nothing has been left behind from these flames," The Hokage exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention.

"Black flames, huh? It's a key staple of the Uchiha clan and their Amaterasu jutsu," Danzo spat, his gaze never leaving Fugaku Uchiha's.

"You sure know a lot about the Uchiha, don't you Danzo?" Fugaku retorted to the elder's comment.

"It couldn't have been one of our ninjas," a yellow-haired ninja interrupted, "The Village Hidden by The Rivers has always secluded itself from any shinobi government. What reason could lead to this attack on a silent village?"

"Minato raises an important point. However, it is difficult to overlook the possibility that an Uchiha committed this attack. Only the Amaterasu can lead to such destruction, leaving behind no corpses or ruins," The Hokage adds, a weary look painted on his face.

"Lord Third, the Amaterasu is a complex and sophisticated jutsu that only a shinobi of my calibre, or perhaps even Shisui's calibre can execute," Fugaku exclaims as he jumps from his seat, "But it couldn't have been us! We've just returned from the front lines!"

"I understand Fugaku," said The Hokage, as he attempted to diffuse the tension building in the meeting room.

"Lord Third, if I may," a voice interrupts, "Sunagakure will eventually investigate this attack, it will be unwise to conduct any research in the Village Hidden By The Rivers, considering the suspicion that's already cast on our village. Besides, we simply cannot commit any high-levelled shinobi; most of them are already on the front lines."

"I agree with you Shikaku. Thank you all for attending, dismissed," The Hokage sighed.

'A village in flames and a mysterious girl turns up. Just who are you Y/N Uzumaki?' The Hokage can't help but think, as he watches his ninja leave the room.

"Since when were you and Shisui best buds?" I asked an unusually cheerful Akira, who couldn't help but display his toothy, shit-eating grin as he watched Shisui walk into class, "You're smiling too much, it's very off-putting."

"What do you mean? Shisui and I go way back. We've always been best buds," Akira chuckled before shuffling into his usual seat by the window.

"I wish to sleep before Kiuske sensei arrives, but anyway, someone wants to talk to you."

He looks up and winks at the said 'someone' before resting his head on his arms.

"Y/N, I am so sorry for being rude to you the other day. I hope you find it in you to forgive me," said someone with unruly, curly black hair as they bowed in front of me.

"Ah, so Uchihas can apologise, it sure took you long enough," I said, earning a chuckle from the 'asleep' Akira.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Shisui muttered, rubbing the back of his head.

"At least you apologised... Iforgive you," I replied, before shuffling over to let him sit with us. "Anyways, I thought you were a chunin. Why are you here at the academy?"

"Well to put it lightly I no longer have a team to work with," he sighs, recalling the tragic events of the war, "And Lord Third thought it was in my best interest to be put into a team considering how young I am. And I quote 'To allow me to integrate with my peers and maintain my youth'."

"He's making you out to be some sort of social outcast," Akira chuckled.

"So, you're our age?" I asked.

"Yeah, I graduated a while back and became chunin a few months ago," he said before Kiuske sensei dramatically entered the classroom with several boxes of tissues.

"Oh, here comes Mr. Waterworks," Shisui whispered.

"It seems like just yesterday you were all some snot-nosed brats knowing nothing about the shinobi system. And now you've all grown up into wonderful genin! I'm going to miss you brats so much!" Kiuske sensei wailed as he watched another class fly out of his nest.

"You will face many hardships during your shinobi career but never give up and stay true to yourself. Despite the struggles, never lose yourself on this journey and I promise you, you will always persevere through the hardship. I wish you all the very best." He finished off, wiping the tears that flowed down his cheeks.

"Well, at least he gave some useful advice even if he is dramatic," I said.

"He might seem like a big idiot, but he's probably one of the smartest people I know," Akira muttered as he got up and looked somewhat interested in sensei's words.

"Now it's time for teams," sensei interrupted, before calling up names of three.

"And for team two we have... Shisui Uchiha, Akira Kuran and Y/N Uzumaki."

Well, that doesn't seem too bad. At least I'm on a team with people I can stand.

"Would you look at that? I'm on a team with two of my friends." Akira cheered.

"The future of the hidden leaf lies in your hands; may you protect it with your ninja way! You are all dismissed." Sensei finished off, allowing the Jounin sensei to come in and take their students out, leaving team two in the classroom alone without their sensei.

"I wonder who our sensei is." I pondered.

"Where on earth is our sensei? Everyone's already left with their sensei. I want to get started on some missions already!" Akira cheered

"I'm sorry I'm late. I had something to do, " a voice chirped from the classroom door.

"Kushina-san?!" I asked, surprised to see the beautiful red-haired jonin again.

"It's been a while, Y/N-chan. I heard you're all eager to start your first mission, so as Team 2's first mission, we are going to get to know each other. Let's get out of here and find out each other's strengths and weaknesses." Kushina said, leading all of us to the nearest training ground.

"I want you all to tell me your name, things you like and dislike, your hobbies and dreams for the future." She asked.

"I'll go first. My name is Kushina Uzumaki, I like my village and spending time with my husband. I particularly dislike liars and people who make fun of others. And as for my dreams, I want to have a family of my own, and to see my husband become Hokage." She ended with her signature smile. "Okay, who's next?"

"My name is Akira Kuran. I like sleeping and watching the sky and I don't like being disturbed when I sleep." He said, before having a stare-off with me, "I dream to become a medic, just like my father." After he had finished, Kushina nodded and looked over to Shisui.

"My name is Shisui Uchiha. I like protecting my village, dango and my clan. I dislike selfish and arrogant people. I dream about achieving peace and stability within the nations." He said, before looking at me.

Oh Kami, it's my turn. What on earth do like and dislike? What are my dreams? In all my years of existence, not once have I ever pondered such things. Whatever my answer is, I can't forget that I'm just a girl on the run from captivity with no way back to her family.

"My name is Y/N Uzumaki. I like ramen, dango and watching the skies. I dislike people who bring others down and I haven't really thought of the future much but for now, I want to find my family." I said.

But what do I want for the future? All I've ever dreamed of was running away with my sister to start a new life away from the shinobi world, but what happens then? If running is all I'm doing now, then what awaits me at the end of the finish line? Do I start living then? Does my life truly start when I've made it to the end?

But it doesn't matter how fast I run or the distance I've run so far: running away is futile. It doesn't matter where I end up, I'm always carrying the pain and suffering from one place to another. The cycle never ends, and it never will. It's a race I'll never win.

A race I'm destined to lose.

Even if I do make it to the finish line, what would await me then?

I have no family to turn to, no friends to rely on and most importantly I don't even have myself to count on, so why should I assume my story has a happy ending?

I'm just a defiled, desecrated corpse that's found a way to walk, simply used by everybody, simply living for others but myself. Never have I once lived for myself. So why should I try now?

"Now that we've gotten to know each other, you three are going to complete your first mission." Kushina said, bringing me back to reality, "Shisui, since your chunin, you're going to be my partner.

I have one bell, Akira and Y/N have until noon to get this bell off me. You can use ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu against the both of us."

"Um sensei, why are we doing this test?" Akira questioned.

Why were we doing this test? I thought the test was over since we already made genin. But none of this matters to me, I made chunin 3 years ago back in Kiri, ranking doesn't matter to me.

"Out of all the genin that passed today, only a certain handful will officially be made into genin," she said, "You may start in 3..2..1 GO!"

Akira and I jumped back into the trees and I started planning out my attacks.

Kushina has the bell, so I'd have to slip past Shisui to get to her. But, Kushina's a jonin, she'll notice I'm planning something 50 miles away. Genjutsu's out of the question, there's no way it'll fool Shisui. And I can't use my full power, it'll give away who I am.

I should stick to fire style and wind style, they're the ones I'm strongest at. Perhaps I should use the clone jutsu to act as a decoy, but I'm sure they'll see through that.

"Idiot, I've been calling your name for the past 2 minutes," Akira whispered, causing me to jump at his sudden appearance. "Okay I don't stand a chance against Shisui nor Sensei alone, heck I don't even think that the both of us together could overpower them. But I'm sure we could surprise them if we worked together."

And that's when it clicked.

This was the Leaf's form of testing shinobi values. Unlike Kiri, the Leaf prioritises teamwork over ruthlessly killing your comrades. There's no way two mere 'genin' could overpower a chunin and a jonin.

"I'm not the fastest, so I'll act as a decoy. I think we should distract them with clones, then you go for Kushina sensei." Akira whispered, "We'll have to be as fast as we can. Shisui's renowned for his speed, he'll get through the clones faster than you think. Plus, I have a score to settle with him."

"Okay, I have a plan for how to take down Kushina. Wind clone jutsu." I said after performing the handsigns for the move.

Akira made 8 clones and we both headed out to where Shisui and Kushina were. Akira and his clones headed straight for Shisui and I took this moment to creep up behind Kushina. I had one hand behind my back performing my main jutsu and a kunai in the other.

I planned on distracting sensei by confusing her with my clones and transforming into the 'bells' to make her seem as if she had dropped them. But before I could even try and transform, all my clones were wiped out by a water-style jutsu performed by Kushina.

"You're going to have to try harder than that, Y/N-chan." She said, as she kicked my legs and pinned me to the floor as she held a kunai to my neck. "Looks like I win."

"Check again sensei." I gushed. Kushina was soon blown away by my wind clone she had pinned to the floor. I noticed Akira sprint towards me, he must've managed to distract Shisui.

Jeez, Shisui did a number on him; He looks awful.

"Y/N, I'll perform an earth style jutsu. Can you perform lightning? The two will combine to make a powerful jutsu." Akira panted, before straightening up again.

"I'm not the best at lightning but I can try," I whispered.

The both of us performed the hand signs for our combined move, one that will render Kushina sensei paralysed for a few seconds. That's all we need, a few seconds to swipe the bell of her.

"Earth style: ground shockwave!" "Lightning style: Lightning bolt!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath us started to ebb violently with a surge of lightning swimming through it. This was the opening we needed.

Akira and I ran straight after our jutsu, towards Kushina, but we were blown away by a surge of wind.

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" Shisui shouted as he ran through the trees to where we were. "Sensei, are you okay?" he asked as he pulled Kushina to her feet, frantically checking for any injuries.

"I'm okay Shisui, thank you." She replied.

"Hey how did you get out of my trap?" Akira questioned.

"Mediocre traps don't require much effort to get out of." Shisui giggled before tying me and Akira to a tree.

"TAKE THAT BACK BASTARD! IT WAS A PRETTY GOOD TRAP, RIGHT?" Akira yelled as he kicked his legs in annoyance.

"It couldn't have been that good if he's stood right in front of us Bakakira." I chuckled.

"I think they did a pretty good job you know! What do you think Shisui?" Kushina said, dusting off her trousers.

"I think they understood the purpose of the test right at the beginning, right?"

"It was all about teamwork!" Akira and I said simultaneously.

"There was no way we were going to get the bell on our own, so we decided to team up." Akira said

"Wait, we never managed to get the bell. Does that mean we aren't genin?" I asked, looking up to the towering shinobi above us.

"We purposely tried to pit you guys against each other to see if you could overcome your selfishness, but it seems as if that was pointless.

You worked together from start to finish. Not many teams have managed to see through that. I'm proud of you two and you should be proud of yourselves, you know!" Sensei said as she ruffled our hair.

"I'm proud of you too Shisui, thank you for backing me up there." She untied us from the tree and pulled us all into a massive group hug. "Looks like Team 2 is official! Our first proper mission starts tomorrow so I want you all well rested, okay!"

"Understood Sensei!" we replied.

"Let's go have some celebratory ramen, I'm paying. Let's go!"

ramen break sponsored by ichiraku ramen (ig: fanny_eerm)

Did life truly have no meaning up until now? The few short years I spent with my mother before the damnable world chained me to a world of crime, the sleepless nights spent with Sumire in our little attic world and meeting Team Two - all of it seemed like a fragmented memory, floating away in the distance as the aroma of perfectly balanced soy and miso wafted through my nose.

The tender pork melted in my mouth, so buttery and light in texture. The egg that had been floating on the rich, savoury broth practically dissolved on my tongue. The warmth of the broth spread through me as each bite tasted like comfort wrapped in a savoury blanket.

I paused mid-chew, eyes watering up at the perfection before me as I lowered my chopsticks.

"I... I LOVE YOU MR. TEUCHI!" I gasped, blinking at the very chef responsible for my tears who was already grinning.

"Well, I'm glad you enjoy it so much!" he chuckled as he went back to boil some more noodles.

"I think you're going to have a new regular Teuchi, you know!" Kushina laughed as she watched me wolf down my ramen.

By the time I finished, my bowl was cleaned spotless and I found myself longingly stare at the bottomless abyss hoping that Kami will refill my bowl with more delicious ramen. I turned to Shisui, who was watching me with an amused smirk.

"You know Y/N, you're souper special to me," Shisui uttered as he placed a fishcake into my bowl, "Udon know how much I care."

The entire room fell into a discernible silence as Shisui's words hung in the air. Each of us took turns to glance at the Uchiha before glancing at each other. I couldn't help but roll my eyes as a smile tugged at my lips. "Did you really just say that?" I asked as I shook my head.

"Don't be so broth-ered, Y/N, life is too short to be miso-serious!"

"Shisui you dork," I chuckled as I playfully shoved him.

Shisui laughed, clearly pleased with himself, as he dodged my shove. "Hey, I'm just trying to ramen calm and carry on," he said with a wink.

I couldn't help but grin at how ridiculous he was being. "How do you even come up with these?" I asked, my voice filled with both exasperation and amusement.

"I noodle my way through it," he replied, his grin widening.

"Okay, now you're really pushing it," I laughed, shaking my head. I sit back in my chair as my thoughts started to cloud over me. The longer I stay in Konoha, the deeper the ties I forge as Shisui, Akira and Kushina sensei as they slowly etch their way into my heart.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Y/N and Akira have officially graduated from the Academy! As fate would have it, they’ve been placed on the same team as Shisui, under the guidance of their mentor, Kushina.

However, Y/N cannot escape the lurking eye of Konoha's elitist shinobi. How long can she hide for before her entire past unravels before her. Stay tuned to find out

As always you can find this story on wattpad too!

Let me know what you think! Personally, I think I have outdone myself with chapter twelve, its real funny. I can’t wait for you guys to read it!

Lots of Love,

Suri

[scarecrow-in-a-hatake]

Yo,

Speakin' of kiddos, I've always wondered something. Growing up, I'm sure y'all spent a good time around the OG Ino-Shika-Cho. How's it feel watching the new generation step into them same shoes? I think they did pretty well, but that'd be my opinion.

Sorry if this makes ya' feel a bit up-there Hokage-sama!

By 'OG', are you referring to Inoichi, Shikaku, and Chouza? Because I hate to break it to you, but there's at least... five more generations of that iconic trio before those three. The Yamanaka and Nara have been Akimichi clan vassals for a long, long time, if not from the start. Although I will concur that it was the three you have in mind who elevated the Ino-Shika-Cho formation into international infamy during the Third War, since their immediate predecessors were more diplomats and negotiators with a emphasis on trade at the time. I was too young to have really known them, aside from seeing them around the village from afar.

Long post ahead. You've been warned.

Now, Inoichi... I didn't know him beyond as a work acquaintance. Definitely addicted to caffeine, incredibly busy with leading both his clan and the intelligence department, but he made time for his friends' old genin students just so they wouldn't have to switch shrinks when they got older. A good man, if a tad absent from his home as the years went by, from what I've heard. I can appreciate that he kept whatever he learned about me separate from our working relationship, and honor all he's done for this village.

Shikaku was a great drinking buddy if you weren't looking for any drama, but a frustrating conversationalist when he was looking for something from you. It was difficult to stay mad at him when he was so... deadpan? Levelheaded? Blase? I don't know if I would have accepted my initial nomination to become Rokudaime after Pain's attack if he hadn't been the one to talk me around.

He left a very strong impression on me when I was younger. You could say I looked up to him, in a way. He wasn't a genius like his son— which isn't to say he wasn't a brilliant analyst, tactician, and strategist in his own right— but then, there are very few people who can match Shikamaru in that aspect. It was more his organizational skills that got him where he ended up as Konoha's jounin commander and the Shinobi Alliance's chief strategist. Incredibly efficient, incredibly sharp, and above all, you never saw him lose his cool or his resolve. He knew what had to be done and made sure that it would be done. Among that generation, Shikaku was one of the greats— not infamous like Minato-sensei, but rather, the epitome of what a shinobi had to be.

Chouza is only someone I know because Gai and Genma— two of his genin students— kept in touch. I used to get dragged to Akimichi-hosted gatherings when I was younger, ergo, lots of positive connotations. I appreciated his wisdom when he invited me to tea shortly before both of my formal nominations, and he remains the most easy-going out of all the clan heads I have to meet with on a quarterly basis. Although he's since retired from the field, he was one of our village's greatest combative assets through two wars. I'm glad that he's still with us.

That said, their successors are not them.

Ino is still making progress in leaps and bounds with her clan techniques and innovating with our village's barrier team. Shikamaru is learning how the tower operates and taking on more responsibilities. Chouji continues to be an exemplary shinobi of Konoha and a role model for the rising generation of new genin as he grows in his role as a squad leader on missions.

All three have been lauded for their admirable contributions during the Fourth war. It is my hope that they will never see another, and never become what their fathers had to be. Let the youth create new footsteps for others to follow, and let old shoes be buried with a past that we can learn from.

If you want a better comparison, maybe ask @whotookmysenbon. He's closer with everyone involved than I ever was.

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Imagine shikaku insisting on the jonin council vote before Danzo leaves the village. Yes the Kage summit is important. So importabt they want to ensure that konoh is represented by a Hokage that is supported by the Jonin

Danzo trying to get around it and insisting on doing it after, but Shikaku arguing back that konoha cannot be represented by a Hokage who is not fully supported by the shinobi.

Danzo is forced to give in because Shikaku has supports that stand behind him, so they hold the vote

No one supports danzo, so the daiymo is forced to choose a new Hokage, resulting in Kakashi being elected. Danzo’s pissy and tries to go for an assasination, and Sai is the one who stops it from happening because at this point Kakashi has shown more trust and respect for him than Danzo

Kakashi taking Naruto with him as one of his bodyguards, along with Yamato or Gai (very likely for it to be Yamato for the nine tails)

Sasuke not being declared a terrorist by Konoha because Kakashi’s not going to do that, meaning Sakura doesn’t come up with her stupud ‘kill sasuke’ plan.

Maybe Sasuke still attacks the Kage summit because they got intel Danzo was the new Hokage and it wasn’t corrected? Or Obito doesn’t tell him of the change in time? So Sasuke makes his stand demanding danzo’s head and then and there Kakashi has to ask why

Last he knew Sasuke was after Itachi, not Danzo. He needs to know what’s going on.

I think Sasuke would tell him, though it would probably be in a very angry tone accusing Kakashi of protecting Danzo (which at that point it could seem like he is)

But Kakashi just f***ing agrees. He doesn’t know if what Sasuke says is true, but a guaranteed way of finding out is putting Danzo against Sasuke.

There’s a lot to work out but imagine Kakashi sending a message for Danzo to meet him and when Danzo arrives he has Sasuke standing beside him, making him look like a ‘traitor to the village’ in danzo’s eyes but Kakashi needs answers and if he gets the ones he thinks he will (aka Sasuke is telling the truth) he sees no reason not to let Danzo face justice

[kiljoius-writes]

Sun Rising

Ao3 Link

Pairing: Minato Namikaze/Kushina Uzumaki

Summary: Kushina Uzumaki is alone in the world.

A classroom full of bug-eyed kids stare at her and she stares back. She has to wonder if this village has no concept of color. Her eyes flicker to the only bright thing in the room: obnoxious, spiky, blond hair. Not even blond, just straight up yellow. This boy is actually too bright, if you ask her.

It's a lonely world for a jinchūriki, especially a foreign one with wild red hair and a temper.

For motroshell, part of the 2023 Fest no Jutsu. Prompt: Uzumaki Kushina does make it to Hokage and fulfils her childhood dream. Minato has been supporting her every step of the way. How did it happen?

Kushina Uzumaki is alone in the world.

That became overwhelmingly evident when a Konoha jōnin swept her from her home at the tender age of 9.

She remembers begging her grandmother to come with her.

“Don’t make me go alone! Grandma, I don’t want to leave you!”

Life is unfair and that was simply a fact that she got to learn early in her life.

Lucky her.

Kushina Uzumaki is alone in the world.

A classroom full of bug-eyed kids stare at her and she stares back. There’s a lot of black- and brown-haired and eyed children here. All dull pastels with their boring gray and tan jackets and fatigues. They look at her like she’s the alien, but she can’t possibly be. They’re the ones who look like they crawled out from a cave with zero sunshine and no concept of color. At least she has a reason for wearing pale yellow and brown: it compliments her hair!

Her eyes flicker to the only bright thing in the room: obnoxious, spiky, blond hair. Not even blond, just straight up yellow. This boy is actually too bright, if you ask her. His eyes are startlingly blue, his jacket is a crisp white, the only dark thing about him are the blue of his fatigues. Those electrifying blue eyes are locked on her and she feels a shiver up her spine, immediately averts her eyes to the rest of the class.

She inhales deeply.

“I’m Kushina Uzumaki y’know!”

Embarrassment seeps out of her at the way her voice sounds. She hasn’t spoken much in the last few weeks during her travel, and immediately, giggles spread over the classroom. She covers her mouth as one of those dumb, drab boys points at her and immediately insults her hair.

“I’m gonna…”

Another inhale as she clutches her fists.

“I’m going to become the first female Hokage of Konohagakure!”

Then, that boy. That alarmingly bright boy stands up and declares his intention to become Hokage, too. Looking so, so happy about it, too! Like he didn’t just steal her thunder! Like a little bolt of lightning, zapping all the energy out of her.

“Tomato!”

That dumb blond kid just stares at her, and she tries not to let tears sting her eyes.

Kushina Uzumaki is alone in the world.

A shiny new headband with a leaf symbol greets her, handed to her by their sensei who looks like he’s bored. She takes it in her hands and feels the cool touch of metal against her fingertips.

She is a kunoichi of Konoha. One that smashes the faces in of all the dumb, drab boys around her.

It should have been no surprise to her that once she graduated, the teasing only got worse. 8 others join her, only 4 of which she bothered to learn the names of. Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, Chouza Akimichi, and of course that weak blond and blue boy. The one she sees looking at her too often, the one who has a never-ceasing smile on his face, the one who travels this world without anything troubling him.

Her first C-Rank mission accompanies a group of chūnin. She resents that she’s not being trusted to take on a C-Rank herself but looks at the snot-nosed boys with her and figures it’s only natural they wouldn’t trust them with anything important.

“Thought you’d grow out of those chubby cheeks by now, but you just look even more like a ripe tomato.”

Kushina wants to rip her hair straight out of her skull. Instead, she whips around, reels back a fist, all while the boy guffaws and holds his arms in front of his face to prepare for impact. Her fist connects with the top of his head and he crashes into the ground.

One of the chūnin hollers at them and rushes up to pull Kushina by the armpits off of her dumb, drab boy teammate. From behind, deep, obsidian eyes crinkle with a smile. One of the first genuine smiles she’s received in ages.

“Certainly not a tomato.”

The older girl approaches her, ignoring the wailing of her boy teammate, and holds out her hand to Kushina. She eyes it with suspicion.

“I’m Mikoto.”

Carefully, she takes the hand.

“I think red-hot habanero is more appropriate, don’t you think?”

Kushina Uzumaki doesn’t feel quite as lone in the world.

They tried to keep the news from her, but she would inevitably hear the whispers.

“Did you hear? Uzushiogakure destroyed overnight.”

“I heard it was to wipe out that Uzumaki clan.”

“Isn’t that the one that little girl came here from?”

Kushina ran, and ran, and ran. She didn’t stop running, even when her feet went bloody.

It couldn’t be true. There was absolutely no conceivable way it could be true. Her home, her people, her grandmother. It couldn’t be that they were all just gone.

She had to see for herself. She paid enough attention in school to know which way Uzushio was, and she bolted. No thoughts occupied her mind except the overwhelming need to see it. See what they did to the place she held so dear. Find her grandmother and bring her to safety. She couldn’t be dead. There was no way.

“Grandma.”

She huffs and puffs as she pounds the ground with her heels, sweat dripping from her hairline, hair everywhere. If someone were looking on, they’d just see a red streak tearing through the mountain side.

Suddenly, she feels her body crashing to the ground.

“Kushina!”

Immediately, she fights back. Screams at the top of her lungs, tries to swipe at whoever is pinning her to the ground. Yells at them to let go of her, that she has to get home, that she’ll tear their eyes out if they don’t stop. In the flurry of it all, she can’t make out who her captor is, until she manages to slip out of their grip. Her eyes pop open to meet spinning red ones staring back at her, eyes she’s only seen once before on another teams sensei. Then she measures the rest and sees Mikoto staring back at her, heaving.

“You can’t leave the village.”

Kushina feels her insides get fiery, doesn’t even register the tears streaming down her face. She tells her she has to, that she has to save her family and her home. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. She tells Mikoto that she’s not afraid to knock her out if she has to. She expects Mikoto to laugh at her like anyone else would, a little genin threatening a chūnin, a Uchiha of all people, but she does not laugh.

Instead, she relaxes her stance and steps towards Kushina. Instinctively, she steps backwards, but stops with her next steps. Arms encircle her and pull her body in. And she realizes that her world is crashing around her, so her body gives out and heaves with trembling sobs. Her cries fill the forest air.

Kushina Uzumaki is alone in the world.

For her 12th birthday, she is gifted with the Kyūbi.

Mito Uzumaki tells her that it’s her destiny, to absorb the Konoha bijū, become it’s jinchūriki. That special, beautiful, bright chakra flows through her. That only her chakra can possibly handle the beast. That only her heart could possibly take the burden on.

For the last year, she had grown closer and closer to Mito. It was a special kind of pain to become attached to someone you knew for a fact would inevitably die quite soon. One that would die on a schedule, to ensure that damn bijū would successfully transfer to Kushina. One that she would have to watch die with her own two eyes.

When Kushina looks into Mito’s eyes, she thinks of her grandma. She learned shortly after her village was destroyed that crying about her grandma would only invite more mocking. That the tomato is broken and leaking. No matter how often she proved herself strong, not matter how many faces she smashed into the ground, no matter how brightly her chakra flashed, she was always simply that chubby cheeked tomato. Some days, she contemplates shaving her head.

But when she looks into Mito’s eyes, she feels tears sting her eyes, and lets it happen. It’s the only time she feels like she can cry in front of someone else. Mito just pats her hands, doesn’t ask why she’s crying. Just seems to understand, and Kushina is grateful for it.

One day, on a day she doesn’t cry, Mito has biscuits and tea waiting for her when she arrives. As her time grows near, she’s being treated more and more like royalty. It’s a bittersweet thing. One in which she wishes she could tell certain people to shove it, but grins and bears it instead. Just like she must.

Today, Mito tells her about Uzushiogakure. It’s the first time it’s been brought up in conversation. Of course, Kushina has wanted to ask her about it for a long time, but also has resisted doing so because she’s not quite sure she wants to tear open those wounds.

Speaks of all the great clans that lived there, including their own. Talks about her life there before being whisked to Konohagakure. Tells her how frightened she had been, too, but was doing it for her people.

Then she drops a bomb on Kushina.

“Many of our people escaped during the destruction of our home.”

Kushina hangs onto every word, thinks of her grandma. Could she have escaped…?

Mito goes on to talk about their clan, their strength, their power, their unique ability. Their crest, the meaning of rasen, all while making the long climb up the spiral staircase to the top of the Hokage tower.

As she looks out to the Hokage mountain, she envisions her face on those rocks.

Thinks maybe it’s possible. Then she wouldn’t be some outsider.

And when she does, she’ll find her grandma.

Kushina Uzumaki decides maybe she’s not so alone in the world.

As soon as she starts to feel better, something is right around the corner to knock her right back down. Peace isn’t something Kushina’s known in a very long time, so she just expects it to be ripped away from her at this point. So when she enters her home and finds her caretaker missing, it’s expected. Then, they come for her. It’s dead night, so it’s quiet and she can hear them before she sees them. It’s too little, too late, and she’s snatched up. She cries out in vain, because she’s in a desolate part of the village where few people reside, and those that do would never respond to screams in the night.

A few hours later, and her hands are tied behind her back while she’s marched through the thicket of the forest outside of the village. While she indeed holds the Kyūbi inside of her, she doubts anyone will notice she’s gone until tomorrow when she doesn’t arrive for her daily training sessions. Nobody ever visits her in the night. And by tomorrow, it will likely be too late. She’ll be very far away in Kumogakure, where she assumes they’ll attempt to take the Kyūbi, resulting in her death.

Still, she has to try something. She can’t go out without even a little fight from her.

She’s not naïve. There’s no way she can overpower three men, likely jōnin or higher, no matter how powerful she thinks she is. That would probably just result in them knocking her out, leaving her no way to try to escape. No, she has to be sneaky. Trying to get out of her restraints would likely be too noticeable.

She tugs at her hair behind her, and the light bulb goes off.

If she can leave a trail behind her, it would result in whoever comes to look for her finding her quicker. They’d probably even be able to figure out she’s in Kumo based on the path.

One hair is plucked, and she doesn’t wince, keeps a stoic face. Releases it, lets it travel the ground.

A few seconds later, another hair or two.

She continues like this for a full hour, purposefully walking slower to delay. One of them shoves at her back, so she picks up the pace, then slows again. The cycle repeats.

Exhaustion begins to take hold. No matter how tired she is, she continues the process of slowly removing her hair. Wonders if she’ll have a bald spot after this. Hopes she’ll live to find out. Still, she barely registers her surroundings.

Her eyes drift shut, and her legs keep moving on instinct.

She doesn’t even hear the chaos around her.

Only when she hears a familiar voice.

“Are you okay?”

Slowly, she stops, struggles to lift her head, and sees someone she never thought she’d be so happy to see.

The moon illuminates that blond hair and his shiny headband that she knows for a fact he polishes daily.

“I came to rescue you.”

Me…?

Her brain is fuzzy. The joy that overcomes her is the last straw. All she can manage is a smile before her body gives out for good. She falls to her knees, and before she can face plant, he’s there in a flash to catch her and keep her body up. She struggles to look at him.

“Everything’s going to be fine.”

When he slides his arms under her back and legs and hoists her up, she starts to protest, but she can’t even get her arms wrapped around him before he takes off with her held to him. Her eyes find his face, perfectly framed by a full moon, and then they fall to his hand and she sees it: her hair between his fingers.

It worked?

He tells her that her hair is beautiful, that he realized straight away it had to be hers. Her protective instinct over her own emotions kicks in, and she asks him why he ignores her if that’s the case. His response catches her off guard, telling her she’s always been able to take care of herself, that she’s strong.

“Both in body and in spirit.”

Tells her he doesn’t want to lose her. Tells her she’s not an outsider. Tells her she lives in Konoha.

“You’re one of us.”

Never once had Kushina Uzumaki wanted to kiss a boy.

Thought it’d be impossible for her to ever find love, ever since she came to this damn village.

Suddenly, she looks at that brat, the one she thought was another weak, dumb little boy, and everything has changed in her eyes.

That blond hair doesn’t look so obnoxious anymore, those eyes so piercing. He glows like he’s her sun in the midst of night. Now she thinks that maybe he is her sun.

Kushina Uzumaki isn’t alone in the world.

It’s amidst the Third Shinobi War that she’s taken on as an apprentice to one of the Legendary Sannin. Tsunade Senju ensures that no one will ever be able to kill Kushina, no matter how hard they try. By her side is Minato, but even so, he gets sent out to battle. It’s a miserable spot she’s in, constantly thinking of the love of her life possibly being killed in action every moment he’s gone.

It happened so quickly, but Kushina can’t begin to fathom her existence without Minato. Out of nowhere, that blond brat became her whole world, and he’s not much of a brat anymore. He’s getting tall – taller than her, and they’re not technically together. He’s held her in his arms and she’s given him a cheek kiss out of gratitude, but Kushina’s already decided he’s her one true person. The only person she can trust, she can be vulnerable with, she can love.

When he’s gone, it hurts.

It only strengthens her resolve. To become stronger, to become faster, to master the Kyūbi, so that when she’s needed, she’ll be there. She’ll make sure no one else dies, least of all Minato Namikaze.

Her will is no longer made up of spite. Instead, it’s fueled by love. Desire to live, desire to protect.

She has no idea just how long this damn war would actually last.

The Second Shinobi war lasted barely 3 years. Their lives would be plagued in battle for half a decade.

For two years, she’s kept from the front lines. She spends every waking hour training under Tsunade, mastering chakra control, pushing her stamina to its limits, and bringing her healing powers to new heights. Whenever Minato returns home, the first thing they do is spar, so she can show him just how far she’s come. He shows her, too, and it brings her some relief to see him grow stronger, even if it’s apart from her.

The day he revealed to her what he had been working on with Jiraiya for so long is a day that will be carved into her memory her entire life. Told her it was a jutsu created to battle bijū and jinchūriki, but also to work with her chakra. That it was all done to make sure he wouldn’t lose her.

She remembers blacking out, the monster living inside of her flashing through her mind in a blind rage, then her knees meeting the ground. Minato’s voice fights to overpower that of the Kyūbi’s, a voice that she hears every night in her dreams, for better or worse. Seeing Minato fly into the air and crash land is the last thing she remembers before hearing those words.

“That’s why I love Kushina.”

The rest happens so fast, but she remembers it all so clearly. Thinking back to her conversation with Mito. The Adamantine Sealing Chains being released to keep the Kyūbi back. One of those claws going straight through Minato’s side. Her pleading with him to run, to leave her, all for nothing, because that was never an option he’d consider. Finally, that big, bright ball of what looked like pure energy, flying straight into the Kyūbi’s chakra sphere.

Once he recovers, she spend the next three days in his hospital bed, eating the dry rice balls and cups of sugary pudding they bring them, drinking soda and juice while watching old movies on the new T.V.’s the hospital had installed. Honestly, for as terrified as she was of what possible grave injuries he had endured, she finds the time she spends with him so…nice. They’d never been able to just chill for so long together. Be in each other company and really get to know each other’s laughs, be present and also mindless.

She knows it can’t last. They both know it. Besides, she doesn’t want to become out of practice.

Still, she savors this little moment she gets with him.

“C’mon Namikaze!” she shouts at him one day, when he barely puts up a fight. Her heel lands in his chest, and they both come crashing down. She quickly wraps her arms around him so that he’ll roll with her, rather than be flung into a nearby tree, and they come to a stop with her on top of him. She huffs, annoyed, pushing her hair from her face as she glares down at him, unimpressed. Asks him what the hell he’s doing.

He apologizes, rubbing at his face with a sigh. “Just a little tired.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “The great Minato doesn’t get tired.”

His hand slides off his face and he gives her a smile. It makes her smile, too, so she presses a kiss to his nose, deciding to lay off him a little. “No, no, you’re right. An entire war shouldn’t be trying me out.”

She giggles, softly, presses her forehead to his. Then, her smile falls as she thinks about him on the battlefield. Almost makes her eyes water – almost. “I hate it when you’re gone.”

“Awh.” He reaches up to cup one of her cheeks in his dirty palm, and she doesn’t even mind. “I do, too.”

Her eyes flutter shut as she leans into his hold.

“That’s why…I decided to take the Third up on becoming a jōnin sensei.”

Kushina collapses on top of him, unaware of just how tired she really was. He holds her for a good 20 minutes before they peel away, and she’s crying. Mostly from relief. But some of it is worry.

Part of being kept back in the village while the rest go to war has made her especially soft for the children. Every few days, she witnesses a sweet little face burst into tears when they’re told mommy or daddy, brother or sister, auntie or uncle, are gone now. She’s watched them grow from little soppy toddlers to rambunctious kids to rowdy genin.

Thinking of them being the next soldiers makes her maternal instincts churn.

But…Minato will be home.

He will be with her. For at least a little while.

She wonders which of these anxious little kiddos will end up in his care.

It’s hard to think of any of them as lucky, but if they’re all destined to work for the war machine, at least some of them will be taught by Minato. A man she admires with her entire soul, one who she thinks will do right by them, someone who wouldn’t ever purposefully mess up a kid’s life.

Kushina stands in the shadows as she watches Minato greet three little babies she knows.

Rin Nohara. A spritely girl who greets Minato with enthusiasm, yet determination. She lets him know she’s not to be reckoned with, but that she’s eager awaiting their assignments.

Obito Uchiha. Kushina thinks of her pregnant friend, Mikoto. He’s even more wiley than Rin, with a wide grin and bright eyes, despite their dark shade. The grin makes her smile, even. His determination shines through his goggles.

Then there’s Kakashi Hatake. A boy Kushina’s heart is soft for, despite it all. Just a baby when his mother died, and still just a baby when his father took his own. The boy is aloof, but dangerous. Watching him hurts her insides, makes her eyes burn.

Kushina Uzumaki feels that her world is full.

Whenever she has spare time, she’s training with the three newly minted chūnin, or bringing them back to the apartment her and Minato bought with their measly earnings. When they were moving, Team 7 spent the whole day helping them. Minato made cookies and Kushina made sure the fridge was packed with sugary drinks. Kakashi even took a few cookies home, wherever home was for him.

It’s the closest to normalcy Kushina’s ever felt in her life, and she’s desperate not to let it slip away. Seeing three little faces sitting on the carpet, munching on treats and excitedly talking about their next mission, shoving each other’s faces and shooting jabs at one another. It’s something she realizes she wants in life, to be surrounded by people she loves.

She loves Minato. She loves Rin, and Obito, and Kakashi. Thinks that when she becomes Hokage, she’ll be able to show the whole village how much love she has to give.

When the day was over, and she was helping Minato clean up the kitchen, surrounded in boxes and stray utensils and blankets and tools, he spoke words that propelled her.

“You’re going to be the best Hokage Konoha’s ever seen, you know that?”

They’re the last words she expects to hear while drying a plate, so predictably, she drops it.

Minato, living up to his renown nickname, catches it before it shatters on the counter.

“What…did you say Hokage?”

He doesn’t skip a beat when he confirms, smiling up at her. Sets the plate where it goes and lets her grab him by the cheeks.

Let’s her pull him down to the kitchen floor and devour him.

“Gods, I love you.”

Kushina can’t even deny how perfect it is for him to say it to her here and now. Feels full of love and happiness, despite everything. Can’t believe that a war happens right outside of their tiny village while she confesses right back to him. It’s just so perfect, somehow, she’s not even sure why. The way he looks over her, happy and sweet and genuine, it makes her really believe.

She says “I love you” back, with just as much passion as he does to her.

They say it over, and over, and over again.

On top of each other, next to each other, in their ears, inside their mouths, in notes and through looks.

Kushina Uzumaki is madly in love with Minato Namikaze.

After a lethal mission that brings both boys back to her, missing eyes, Kushina feels her entire body lit on fire.

It’s a normal day, as Minato told her, a fairly light mission they go on. But she stands outside of her home, watching her fiancé and his team slug up to her.

Rin is in quiet tears, but she feels it, worse than ever. Kyūbi makes sure of it. Kakashi breathes heavier than normal, but isn’t disabled, just covers one eye. Finally, Obito has an arm slung over Minato’s neck.

When they come into full view, her heart drops further than it ever has in her entire life. Breath caught in her throat, tingles on the back of her skull and neck, tears already stinging the bottoms of her eyes.

She bursts through the front door, aiming for Rin, who looks the least likely to be injured by a hug.

“Why are you not all at the hospital?!”

“I need help.”

She stops for only a moment, just a sliver of a second to collect herself, before she lifts the worst looking one into her arms: Obito. Like a baby, she holds him to her chest, looks at Minato, who sighs in relief and nods, then takes off to the hospital, all the while letting healing chakra seep from her pores directly into him.

They all recover.

It’s some of the best news she’s ever heard in her entire gods-forsaken life.

Obito and Kakashi both missing an eye, but they are opposite. They learn to cover each other, whilst Rin covers the rest. Keeps them safe and sound. Kushina helps on the upcoming missions after they’re released back to ninja duty, makes sure that whatever Minato misses, she catches.

She knows Minato is strong and capable. Doesn’t make her lose her entire sense of self whenever he comes back, looking worse than before. Now, the village elders have no choice but to allow her to participate in the war. The power was always in her hands, but now she really feels it when she looks the Third right in the eye and dares him to try to make her stay. Let’s the fire of the Kyūbi in her palms burn a little brighter just to make sure the point sticks.

Kushina Uzumaki wants to make sure she’ll never be alone, ever.

Just when they think they’ve seen the worst of the worst, something hits them harder than before. Being on the front lines is terrifying, but it’s the only place she thinks she belongs right now. Tuning out the Kyūbi from poisoning her thoughts becomes easier and easier, day by day. Mito prepared her well, made sure she could remain collected no matter what sort of vile thoughts they tried to implant in her head. Still, there were times she would look on the battlefield, see the lifeless bodies, and listen.

Listen to the sounds of heartbreak, sounds of pain, sounds of despair that she could not soothe.

Those were some of the rare moments the Kyūbi would weasel their way in.

Couldn’t save them, girl.

Kushina rubs at her crusty, tired eyes as she turns her head from the gruesome scene.

By yourself, you’re weak.

With a sigh, she reaches back to tighten her ponytail before getting to her knees.

With me, you could do more.

Gently, she turns the dog tag over from the deceased in front of her. Notes the name and rank on a pad of paper.

You’ll regret the day that boy dies because you didn’t care enough.

The pen between her fingers snaps and the growl in the back of her throat sounds too much like the Kyūbi’s.

Didn’t care enough to make sure you protected him.

“SHUT UP!”

Her fingernails elongate, her jaw becomes stiff, her skin feels like it’s lit on fire.

It happens so quickly, the throaty scream that leaves her feeling so foreign. Before it can go any further, she stabs her fingernails into her stomach, clawing at the skin around the seal. Squeezes her eyes shut, willing the mocking laugh away by pressing her forehead into the wet grass below.

The Kyūbi doesn’t escape that day, and Kushina finally thinks that maybe, now, it never will.

Kushina Uzumaki wants to make sure no one is alone in the world.

Early in her pregnancy, she decides it’ll be her last chance for a while to go back to her homeland. Look upon it with her own eyes. See her old home and what remains. Minato and team 7 join her, keep her spirits up and make sure she’s well protected. No one besides Minato knows of her pregnancy, and she  prefers to keep it that way until she absolutely cannot keep it a secret any longer.

Once Uzushiogakure came into view, Kushina steeled her gaze, made sure no one could see her break.

It wasn’t anything she wasn’t expecting. She had heard stories and seen drawings depicting what remained of the land. The broken pillars and overgrown foliage didn’t bother her so much. It had been over ten years since the news reached her ears, it was enough time for her to adjust to the reality that her village was gone. All that remained was the hope that some of her people made it out alive.

Even seeing her childhood home flattened didn’t hurt as bad as she thought it would. She stands in the middle of it and closes her eyes, thinks of her grandmother. Hugs her own middle and bows her head.

The part that hurt the most was going to the cemetery.

Her feet carry her to where she knows her parents are buried, and her heart sinks at an additional tombstone. She stops before she can get close enough to read it, but already knows what she’s going to see. Swallows down the sob that threatens to escape her and just kneels in front of it, blinking bleary eyes.

Yukina Uzumaki

“I did it, grandma…”

She feels Minato’s eyes on her back as she slides a hand over her stomach, rubbing circles into the seal there.

With a longing sigh, she begins her tale to a ghost. She wonders if he thinks she looks crazy, talking to a stone, recounting her life’s adventures. Arriving in Konoha, her bond with Mito, little boys yanking her hair and teasing her face. Receiving the Kyūbi, being kidnapped by Kumo, a bright eyed blond boy saving her. That bright-eyed blond boy being her entire world for now.

“Until…until this one gets here.”

Finally, she smiles, with watery eyes and a stuffy nose, looking down at her lap.

“After that, they’ll both be my whole world.”

Kushina Uzumaki refuses to let her child be alone in the world.

When a masked man plucks her child and the love of her life chases after him, she feels the Kyūbi push against her insides. Her own screams deafen herself and everyone around her as she clutches at her stomach.

How?

After everything she’s gone through, this couldn’t be how it ended. Her newborn baby kidnapped, her husband fighting for his life, and the Kyūbi escaping her, to leave her lifeless. Leave her child alone in the world, just like she was. For just a few seconds, she got to look at the chubby, crying face of her son. Lightning blond hair and big, blue eyes, just like the man she loved. All that flashes through her mind is that blond little boy without his parents who so desperately loved him, alone.

With every breath, she feels them getting further and further away from her. The man returns, without Minato or Naruto, and she feels like her insides are lava. The seal strains, twists and burns her skin as she cries. The chakra chains she’s spent the last decade of her life training with strap in, and she sees the masked man return. She tries to yell at him, tries to ask him what he’s done, tries to do something, but she can’t let the Kyūbi escape. He walks to her, and she glares at him, feels the Kyūbi’s power flow through her arms and legs, her fingertips and toes. Then she sees it behind the mask – the sharingan.

“No - !”

Before he can come any closer, she summons every last shred of chakra from inside of her and holds one hand over the seal and faces her other palm towards the man.

It all happens so fast, chakra flares, the building they’re in cracks under the force, everything around her is hot and dry. Adrenaline courses through her veins, the only thing she can feel is the pressure from inside. The only thing that runs through her mind is that chubby faced baby and how desperately she wants to make sure she gets to see him again. She yells for him, and for Minato before she buckles to her knees, both hands working to maintain her seal.

It feels like hours that she’s done this, but at most, it had to have only been a minute. Just as the man steps to her, reaches out to restrain her, a flash of powerful blue chakra appears next to him. It takes everything she has not to give up, to keep doing her part while Minato takes care of the man.

Blood pours from her mouth as she coughs, doubling over onto herself before she finally blacks out.

When it is that she wakes up, she’s not sure, but the first thing she does is tumble out of bed, frantically searching for Naruto.

“He’s safe, Ms. Kushina!”

“They both are.”

Her vision is blurry as she tries to look for the source of the voices.

“Rin’s with Naruto.”

Two smaller shoulders lift her up on either side, and she breathes a sigh of relief. She blinks her bleary eyes, tries to focus them, then her heart sinks at an unfortunately familiar sight. Minato in a hospital bed, again.

She whispers his name, limps to his bed, carefully pulls her body into it. Hears Obito’s voice say that he’ll go get Rin and the med nin.

When they bring him in, her eyes immediately burn with tears, the happiest tears she’s ever had the fortune of shedding. As they nestle a sleeping baby between them, she feels Minato stir next to her, a little grumble and cough. His eyes peel open and they find hers immediately and she gives him a weak smile. He blinks, slowly, looks from her to Naruto, and she sees tears pool in his eyes, too.

Kakashi crouches on his haunches against the wall while Obito and Rin carefully sit on the end of the bed, looking at them with concern.

That all of them are safe and relatively healthy in the confines of the hospital, Kushina can’t justify anything other than unabashed relief.

With one arm under Naruto and the other over Minato’s chest, she gently nestles into them.

Kushina Uzumaki is not alone in the world.

The day it’s announced that the Third is stepping down, everyone looks to Kushina.

“My official recommendation…is Minato Namikaze.”

Hushed whispers fall over the room and she feels Minato freeze next to her. Kushina holds her gaze forward, lips thinned to a harsh line.

Immediately, debate breaks out within the space. After a moment, Minato clears his throat and voices his rejection of the nomination.

“He doesn’t want it?”

“Bullshit, he’s always talked about it.”

“Can he even reject the nomination anyway?”

Kushina grits her teeth, shifting her eyes slightly. It’s not like this wasn’t what she had always expected, anyway. It was always going to be Minato. She knew it back then, she knows it now. There was no way they’d ever let a woman hold the position, let alone the jinchūriki of the village. Even if she never asked to be, she was.

“If I’m appointed Hokage, I’ll immediately step down and nominate Kushina Uzumaki.”

Silence coats the room for a moment, and Kushina just sighs. She’s tired of people looking down on her after everything she’s gone through. Maybe it would just be easier…

“I’m in favor of Kushina Uzumaki as well, Lord Third.”

They both stop to look at the stony face of Fugaku Uchiha, who doesn’t look back at them.

Then another voices their agreement, Hiashi Hyūga. Then another, and another.

“She fought on the front lines in the war, saved my son.”

“Also protected the village from the Kyūbi.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such powerful chakra.”

Soon, what starts as murmured agreement turns into full blown encouragement. Her hands fall to her sides as she scans the room, feeling a rush of excitement hit her heart. His hand slides into hers and squeezes.

Kushina Uzumaki will never be alone in the world.

For the first time, she truly believes it.

It’s a quiet Tuesday when she climbs the spiraling steps of the Hokage tower, like she did so many years ago with Mito. Takes her time, plants her foot firmly on each one, like showing her intention as she ascends. Recalls all of the conversations, big and small, she had on these steps. With Mito. With Mikoto. With Minato. Dreams of becoming Hokage, protecting the ones she loves, and loving them and being loved.

A slow push of double doors reveals a clear day to greet her. The village is sleepy with peace. Foliage blooms, little birds and critters chirp, and the sun is warm on her face. The same spot she had looked at for so many years now adorns her face. It looks ridiculous, but she thinks that’s part of the deal. Can’t look too nice on the side of a mountain, she supposes. The face looks serious and stern like the others, but it’s her face.

On top of it, like a cute little bow, sits her son and his friends. The only noise in the village is his loud laughter. It’s the only noise in the world she’ll never get tired of. A sight she never gets tired of is her husband appearing behind him and scaring the daylight out of him.

Carefully, she runs her fingertips over the cord of her Hokage robes, twisting it between them.

Kushina Uzumaki has the love and support of an entire village.

Never will she feel alone again.

[mixelation]

i'm thinking in reborn au, when minato decides he wants to start setting up his retirement, there's three obvious choices for hokage. he definitely wants someone younger than him, but Naruto's generation is still a little too young. so minato sits down he's like: okay, looking at this age group, and filtering by accomplishments and leadership qualifications and just general village reputation, the obvious options are kakashi, itachi, and shisui. so then he and, idk, shikaku/jiraiya/maybe kushina start brainstorming ways to differentiate those three in terms of actual hokage tasks (which are mostly administrative) and he's like "what if i developed some sort of test where i see how they preform when given an annoying admin task" and then minato is like: do you know who would be great at creating some sort of lovecraftian paperwork clusterfuck for this test. tori

tori is obviously like "omg i LOVE puzzles i can't believe you won't hire me for the chunin exams" because tori's ideal profession is being a troll under a bridge dolling out weird riddles

and then i think it would be really funny if all three candidates were like "hmm this is might be unfixable...... do you know who i know who reveals in unfixable stupid problems?" and then they have drastically different approaches to asking tori for advice but in the end she's like "wait why did this backfire this hard"

there's also more to this conversation-- like the political ramification of an uchiha hokage-- but i think this is the catalyst where tori ends up on the board

[stillpanicking]

Mimicking Shadow

Part 1 of ?

Fandom: Naruto

Main Characters: Shikaku, Orochimaru, Minato

Tags: Hokage!Shikaku, Good!Orochimaru, and in the future... a very tired Shikamaru who has an orange shadow following him. Vowing that the young Nara heir will be the next Hokage! RTN Characteristics.

Summary: Shikaku was never one to purposely take on a leadership role. Nor can he say it was given to him. Preferring someone to take on the role.. if they deserve or show adequacy in said role. When it comes to the candidatcy to become the Forth Hokage... it's going to be a drag, but he's up for it.

<><><><><><><>

Chatter of the upcoming vote has the whole village filled with anticipation. Let it be good or bad. They just came out of a war and the need for peace is something that many want. While others, want to continue on with the war. The need to showcase power surpasses the need for peace.

Revenge is such a strong force that blinds many.

Those that follow such path has many weary.

The candidates are not known as of yet, but speculation has it going to be one of the Third's students. Rumors spread out that the War Hawk had put his own name into the race... well. That was the case until something came out...

Shikaku Nara narrowed his eyes at the report Anko managed to get him from her mentor.

"Sensei told me to make up some trouble to get this to you." Anko grinned at herself, proud at her handiwork to get into the Nara's office without anyone being the wiser. "Gimme a d-rank mission, Sensei said he'd get me dango if I get that to you without getting followed."

"The next time you do this, I'll have you chase after the Damiyo's pet peacock." Shikaku pulled out a scroll from his desk and tossed it over to Anko. "Tell Lord Orochimaru I will get in touch with him soon. Keep the bastard distracted."

Anko grinned before she started to act up as she exited the office. Yelling out how unfair she got stuck doing D-Rank missions. This earned Shikaku a look from his secretary and another surprise visitor.

There stood an obviously awkward Minato Namikaze, trying his best to wonder what Anko did this time to earn the eerie of the Jonin Commander.

"Having an already eventful morning?" Minato asked, walking into the office and closing the door behind himself. "I have heard an interesting rumor...."

"By rumor... you mean that pervert sensei of yours?" Shikaku deadpans. He signaled for his friend to take a seat.

Minato smiled as he took a seat. "It's an... interesting rumor."

"That rumor is, exactly?" Shikaku pulled out some packaged sweets he kept hidden in his desk. He nearly jammed his fingers over what was the rumor that was spreading around.

"Rumor has it.... Lord Orochimaru and yourself are conspiring against the Village and the Third Hokage."

"What a drag..."

[x-authorship-x]

Anon's idea is good but like, what would happen? Would the squad just go attack Danzō? Would they go to the Hokage? Would Kakashi tell them about the time Danzō told him to kill Hiruzen and he told Hiruzen and he did nothing and that he's probably not going to do anything this time as well?

Oh, but maybe they go to Inoichi after making sure Shisui won't die on them. I could see Shisui asking them not to take him to the hospital in the chance Danzō is keeping an eye on it to find him

I think the major difference is that, in HOPE AU, none of the really bad shit had happened yet so Danzo was in the dark, Shisui hadn't revealed to him what exactly Kotoamatsukami could do, and there was no physical evidence so Inoichi took the legal route as much as possible. That....wouldn't happen here 😏

If Shisui, on the night he died, went to his Squadmates... Things would develop extremely quickly and violently. We're talking a possible ANBU revolt against Danzo, made possible because of ROOT infiltrating the Ranks so it actually looks like ANBU in-fighting, the Uchiha arriving late to the party just to kick off, the other Clans freaking the fuck out about bloodline theft, and it all turn's over within the course of hours/days instead of days/weeks/months!

As for the Squad taking Shisui to Inoichi, it would probs go more like;

1) holy shit we need to kill Danzo (queue Kakashi's thing about Danzo trying to get him to kill Sarutobi without consequences + Tenzo probably having a Moment™)

2) holy shit Shisui's still bleeding and almost died (we need to kill Danzo and get the eye back)

3) holy shit we need help... Who here knows a good adult????? Shisui's not-dad Inoichi! Crap!

They'd go to him but the chances of Inoichi slowing down the ^^^ above scenario of events unfolding... Slim. He's more concerned about Shisui and also getting to rip Danzo's mind to mush.... He'd go to Shikaku and Chouza, he'd get the other clan heads involved, they'd probably storm the hokage tower just in time to see ANBU arrive, having taken ROOT down and possibly holding Danzo's head! Ta dah!

[sparklecryptid]

“I need you to disown me.”

Shikaku is used to his brother being outlandish. He is used to Makoto asking for resources and then using them to do something that borders on suicidal before coming back with a brand new jutsu that only the reckless would use.

“Why?” Shikaku had thought they were on good terms! They might not be outwardly affectionate but Shikaku does love his brother! He can’t just disown Makoto without a reason.

“Oh.” Makoto looks shocked that Shikaku asked why instead of agreeing. It kind of makes Shikaku want to hit him. “I’m going to adopt a kid.”

It takes a moment for that to process.

“You can’t just adopt Naruto-“

“Not while I’m in a Clan. That would involve stupid things like politics. But if I get disowned I could adopt him.”

“And you think the Hokage would let you?”

“Why not? He needs to make sure the kid doesn’t grow up hating everyone and he needs to make sure that Naruto has someone keeping an eye on him.”

Shikaku sighs.

“So why not you?”

Makoto grins.

“So why not me!”

[rangers-are-cool-moved]

Response to @shisui-uchiha-anon | original ask: here ::

  No one, not even the Hokage himself, had quite known what to do with the young medic. Putting her in a new team was certainly the more sensible idea in the long run. But both Nara Shikaku and Inuzuka Tsume vehemently vetoed putting her into another team so soon after the fatal C-tank turned A-rank. The two Clan Heads had got used to the quiet heiress, for she often brought her little brother to the play dates set up between the Clans.

  It had been Shikaku who first brought up the option of Shisui and Itachi’s team. As a medic, Ami would be invaluable to both Shinobi, like she would have been on any team. But he also knew that with time, the two Uchihas would pull her out from the detached mask she had hidden behind. Still, there was information about Ami that had been kept from her information file. He had left a note for Shisui, telling him that she was a jinchūriki but not providing anything else.

  After some reassurance from the Hokage, Ami avoided most of the high traffic routes and headed to her apartment. She had visited the civilian market place earlier, having needed to get some new casual clothing and equipment to refill her tailoring kit. But her plans to visit the shops catering for ninjas had been disrupted by the meeting. Not that she minded. It simply meant that she would have to go after meeting up with the other two members of her new team.

  Unlike some others she could think of, the detached soon to be teenager didn't care for flashy jutsus. She preferred sticking to the shadows or observing unnoticed, making her useful for information gathering. Neither Shisui or Itachi had told her where to meet them, so most would have had to search Konoha. That wasn’t the case here. With a bit of guidance from Tatsuya, her partner, she quickly zoned in on her teammates' chakras.

  “Had to find you first, Shisui-san.” She answered quietly, blank silver eyes hiding the wariness and uncertainty she felt at being put on a new team. Itachi, she knew slightly as she sometimes kept an eye on Sasuke for him. Shisui on the other hand was more of a unknown to her. Mostly because she tended to keep to herself a lot since returning from Suna, not really interacting outside of those she knew.

  Ami tilted her head slightly, studying him and adapting to the way that one side of her vision darkened. Although she couldn’t see the colour that her left eye had turned, the younger kunoichi knew that it was pitch black with no iris. It usually happened when the dragon was taking more of an interest than normal. Not that she was surprised as Tatsuya could easily tell if someone was trustworthy or not.

  “Yes I am. Although.. I don’t know how much help I’ll be to you and Itachi-san.” She admitted softly, before side eyeing him with mostly hidden curiosity. “That sounds like a plan.”