#i also have an ask to answer about kakashi and itachi and i promise it is in-progress but it got LONG so XD

[panharmonium]

next collection of in-progress naruto thoughts!

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I'm only still in the early stages of Shippuden (we just finished the arc where we met Sora from the Fire Temple and the Guardian Shinobi Twelve.  I literally had zero interest in Naruto growing up, so I remain unspoiled for virtually everything that happens past this point.  I would love to stay that way, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

- i am really just losing it over how the relationship between naruto and sakura has become so strong and solid and how it’s so clear how much they care about each other and how they finally really feel like they have a deep friendship.  like.  they have a real bond now.  naruto sleeping with all the notes sakura wrote him clutched in his hand - i was about to scream.  how he is SO horrified that he hurt her while he was in the nine-tails state, and how she didn’t tell him because she knew how upset he’d be and she didn’t want him to feel guilty.  how she sees him turned into this vicious creature that’s hurting himself and is flooded with all these memories of him as this happy-go-lucky little kid.  how she tells him “i’m here too.  we have to be strong, you and me, together” after they’re both devastated over how poorly their first encounter with sasuke has gone.  his awestruck thought of “sakura...you’re amazing” when she’s treating kankuro in the sand village.  i just can’t get over how their relationship has grown.  how she used to think he was so obnoxious and annoying, and now they are perfect partners, with a deep friendship rooted in mutual respect and admiration - they really are the stiles and lydia friendship progression of naruto, aren’t they?

- also BRUH sakura was the first one to take out one of the guardian shinobi twelve AND the first one to take out an akatsuki - FUCKING INCREDIBLE!  i cannot even explain how happy i am to see her out here being amazing.  the story actually thinks she matters now, and it is beautiful.

- when asuma came out swinging with “CHILDREN AREN’T PAWNS”!!!!!!!  oh my GOD.  I was YELLING.  ASUMA.  I LOVE YOU.  

- i have now met yamato/tenzo and he is precious.  i was a little frustrated with him in his first arc because i didn’t understand why he was allowing the kids to drift so far off-mission and infiltrate orochimaru’s hideout to “retrieve” sasuke when there was literally no way they would be able to succeed, but ever since then i have become fond of him.  i really, really like seeing him and kakashi be friends (the way kakashi just keeps fucking with him, lmao) and it warms my heart whenever kakashi uses his real name.  (fyi the episode tag where yamato is drunkenly ranting to asuma about how overworked and underappreciated he is was SO fucking funny; i would watch a hundred episodes of those little slice-of-life moments without any hesitation.)

- sai was a surprise - i literally had no idea this character even existed.  he is v. cute; however, i remain EXTREMELY concerned about what the fuck kind of training program the anbu black ops is running, and i hope we aren’t just gonna let this slide, because i mean, sai said they like - take in war orphans and  like........turn them into child soldiers??????  i just?????  this seems........Bad????  like something that perhaps the hidden leaf administration should uhhhhhhhh........be concerned about???

- the FACT that naruto was SLEEPING in kakashi’s HOSPITAL ROOM for DAYS waiting for him to be discharged lmao i CANNOT <3333333333

- LOVED seeing tsunade stand up for naruto when he wasn’t in the room.  “he is a SPLENDID ninja and an asset to this village!”  tsunade is fed up with naruto half the time because he drives her crazy, BUT i loved to see the show remember that her entire first arc was about how naruto manages to stir something hopeful in her and how “there’s something about him that makes you want to bet on him.”  she cares about him and she does respect him, even when he’s driving her up the wall.  when they flashed back to that forehead kiss she gave him, the one she gave her little brother - goD <333

- also absolutely LOVED seeing the kids being dumbasses together.  when they all get into that silly, non-serious fight with sora and naruto, and then lee comes soaring in like “WHO PLANNED THIS MIGHTY MEETING OF FISTS WITHOUT INVITING MEEEE” and they’re all scuffling and yelling and shikamaru is just staring at them off on the sidelines with asuma like “...idiots”.........so beautiful.  

- speaking of which - we started the team asuma vs. akatsuki arc the other night and boy i am enjoying seeing this group again, and i am esp. LOVING seeing more of shikamaru’s dynamic with asuma - one of my favorite moments in shonen jump was when asuma dropped out of the trees and annihilated the nine guys who were about to take shikamaru’s head off; it was the first time i cheered while watching the show - but i will say this: this arc is making me kind of nervous.  i hope i am stressing myself out for nothing. :/

- i think this show is doing a really good job of giving all the akatsuki members unique and engaging personalities.  i still cannot get over how all the members of this group seem to hate each other, lmao.  i cannot believe they ever get anything done XD but i guess that’s pretty realistic for if you got a room full of selfish criminals together and asked them to cooperate with each other - it’s half of what makes them entertaining to watch.

- kakashi whipped out the rasengan in one of the last episodes we watched and honestly i could not POSSIBLY have been more pleased.  i had wondered about that a long time ago, and now i have the answer :)  naruto’s reaction......he is SO dismayed that somebody else can do it, lol; he literally doesn’t listen to the point kakashi is trying to make because he’s too busy grumbling XD XD XD

- relatedly - i sincerely hope kakashi takes the time to parade naruto’s inevitably successful new jutsu up and down in front of jiraiya like “well well looks like ONE of us was able to teach our student how to finish the rasengan” >:)

[sunstaar]

I can get a headcanon of how Itachi, Kakashi, Neji, Shikamaru and Sasuke would react to learning that their partner is a witch (can talk to spirits, see the past, future and summon spirits).If they are too many then only the first 3 and that S/O is female, thank you very much ❤

hey, nonnie, thank you for the request! Playing around with the witch concept was a lot of fun, so I do hope you like the following headcanons :)

hc: Itachi, Kakashi, Neji, Shikamaru and Sasuke learning that their s/o is a witch

Word Count: 2k

Itachi

let’s assume first that you, too, are a member of Akatsuki

while Itachi did respect you as a new member of the organization, at first, he didn’t know the reason why you joined

you and your abilities were so enigmatic, he didn’t know anything about either

at one point, the two of you began growing closer and eventually even started a romantic relationship

that is also when the two of you teamed up for a few missions for Akatsuki

Itachi first saw a hint of your abilities when it was time for the two of you to stop Team Kakashi & Chiyo from getting to Gaara

for a reason he couldn’t explain, you could foresee all of Kakashi’s movements and dodged them perfectly

he himself could do this quite well, but only due to his Sharingan, which you obviously didn’t have

the real kicker was when you summoned a spirit to act as a child from Naruto’s rasengan

Itachi’s clone was really confused, he had never seen an ability such as yours before

at the same time, it did finally make sense why the leader of Akatsuki had insisted upon him using a clone to trick the Konoha Shinobi, but also insisting that your real self would accompany said clone

upon arriving back in the Akatsuki hideout, there were a lot of questions running through his mind, alongside a lot of answers to them

the easiest thing was to confront you, really

when you told him everything, he listened intently and connected the dots

everything made sense to him now, despite his initial confusion

Itachi always knew that you could defend yourself, but now he doubted that even less

one question would always remain on his mind, however, could you see his death coming? did you know about his illness? would his little brother Sasuke be the one to kill him?

in the end, he would never get to ask that

Kakashi

you didn’t mean to reveal your identity as a witch to him like that, it just happened

you really couldn’t have chosen a worse moment, looking back on it

after a long time of dating, Kakashi finally opened up to you about his childhood and his past

while he sometimes had begun talking about it, he often cut himself off and then promised to tell you later

so you thought it was an important moment and milestone in your relationship, a show that he trusted you

so your mind was solely focused on his past, which you kind of already knew (not that you would mention that to him)

of course, you were well aware of the rumors and murmurs running through Konoha, about how he was supposedly a ‘friend-killer’ and a cold person

but you also knew things only Kakashi should know, such as things about his relationship with his father and how he dealt with the death of the man

you shouldn’t know such private things about him before he told you them, but you found them out with your abilities by accident

one of the times he cut himself off, his past got unraveled to you, unbeknownst to him and ever since that you’ve felt very guilty about that

so now that Kakashi was going to tell you himself, all you had to do was pretend to not know this already and act surprised, and then of course comfort him if needed

and everything goes right at first, you do your part as the doting partner and are there for him when necessary

that is until he tells you something, and you blurt out “I know”

Kakashi is just so confused by that point, poor him because what do you mean? You know?? huh

you are just panicking by now because you did not mean for that to slip out, and now you have to tell him everything

at first, he is upset about that invasion of privacy, understandably so

you then go ahead and explain to him how it had been an accident and you didn’t mean to, that you didn’t want to find that out about him like that, but rather through him when he decided to tell you

the two of you do manage to talk everything out, but it does take time to rebuild that trust

and you do need to give Kakashi that time to fully trust you again, because while he does know that it had been an accident, he sometimes still has his qualms you need to respect

after some time, however, your relationship is as strong as ever, as long as you respect his privacy with your witch abilities, that is

Neji

the first time you showed a hint of your power to Neji was when you told him to fight against what he considered to be his fate, that he shouldn’t allow it to be predetermined

somewhat, you reminded him of Naruto during the Chuunin exams

this time around, however, he was a bit more open to listen

you are his partner, after all, you only want the best for him, which meant that you bothered him time and time again, so he would just listen to you

just before the beginning of the Fourth Shinobi war, you know that he is going to die soon due to his predetermined fate

you wouldn’t let him, however

because why would you allow your significant other to die?

your last resort was telling him about your powers, about what you are able to do

you tell him everything, and I mean everything, all at once

it does overwhelm him, especially when you tell him he is going to die soon

Neji had been confronted with death often enough already, but his own death?

by this point you were begging him to listen to you and to hear you out

and he does, he does hear you out because if you didn’t mean it, you wouldn’t get hysterical like that

he ends up believing you after you describe his death to him in great detail

he’s also a bit miffed because you didn’t tell him about you being a witch sooner, you kept that a secret from him

Neji does come around again when the two of you are sent to fight in the war, and he makes sure that you both make it out alive

thanks to your premonition, you do

Shikamaru

Shikamaru finding out about your identity as a witch had been an accident

the two of you get assigned a mission together, something about a ghost haunting in an ancient home

you are very confident in completing the mission due to your ability to communicate with spirits, something Shikamaru immediately notices

he doesn’t say anything at first and just keeps an eye on you and your swift change in mood

aside from Naruto, Shikamaru has never seen anyone that delighted to go on a special type of mission, although he would doubt that even the energetic blond would be excited about ghost stories

anyway, so the two of you arrive there to investigate the mystery

and in the beginning, everything does go smoothly

until the two of you arrive at a dead end

while Shikamaru is able to roll off his growing frustration, you, on the other hand, are not and search for another way to get to more information

what you did not consider however had been that Shikamaru did not know that you could talk to spirits, so when you suddenly started talking with nothing, he was bewildered

(for a moment he did think you were going crazy from this mission, but for that he wouldn’t blame you)

and when he asked what you were doing you just froze, like, mid-conversation

as a doe in the Nara forest would stare at him, so did you

while he did think that you looked adorable, he was quite concerned about you not breathing

when you did finally breathe again, his first question was to ask what you were doing, because obviously, he still did not know about you being able to talk to spirits

Shikamaru could only nod along as you explained your powers and abilities to him, and how they worked

at first, he was unsure of what to say but did listen intently, making sure not to miss a detail

and then, as though nothing major happened, he asked what the spirit from before told you

as fireworks lit up the sky, so did your smile as you began to tell him all about what the spirit said

and the two of you completed the mission successfully, it couldn’t have gone better, really

of course neither of you go ahead and inform the Hokage of how you solved the mission, but you do write a promising mission report

let’s just say it is a secret that remains between the two of you and the two of you only

he keeps it with his life, just as he plans on keeping you in his life

Sasuke

for this, I imagine you being part of Team Taka, a rogue ninja from a village other than Konoha

you joined Sasuke’s team alongside Karin, since you also were one of the Ninja taking care of his hideouts

Sasuke thought, based on how highly Orochimaru sometimes spoke of you and how much the snake man wanted you to stay in a hideout, you must either be really important or strong

when it was time to escape, you went along with Sasuke, viewing him to be the better option in comparison to Orochimaru

as part of Team Taka, you never really did reveal your abilities as a witch

maybe it was the fear of being used just like Orochimaru used you, or it was something else holding you back

that was all at least until Sasuke decided to storm the Gokage meeting and go after the not-inaugurated Hokage, Danzo

for the self-appointed mission, both you and Karin had come along to help Sasuke enact revenge on the man

once you do arrive at the bridge in the Land of Grass, everything just seems to get out of hand and go wrong

you’re really surprised once this Konoha girl comes along and tries to kill Sasuke and then Sasuke almost kills Karin in return

what you should have expected, but didn’t, was that Danzo would also use you as a tool to get to Sasuke

your last solution to this had been to summon a spirit to protect you, acting as a shield for your safety

while that meant that you were now safe, it also meant that Sasuke just learned something new about you, a revelation

it had also been you who warned him about his old Team from Konoha appearing, his sensei and his old teammate, and Tobi from Akatsuki

even more surprised for him, you could say

so it had been no wonder that once you reached safety, Sasuke questioned you all about your abilities and your identity

and with questioned, I mean it was almost like an interrogation

you had no choice but to tell him, or otherwise, you would no longer be part of Team Taka

it was a no-brainer for you to tell him everything, down to the last detail

lying to him or hiding any details from him would be very stupid of you, so you knew

it isn’t until after the war that Sasuke realizes how he used your abilities for his own success

in his own way and pace, he comes along to apologize to you

in the end, how the reveal affects your relationship is up to you, and your reaction to his apology

Sasuke isn’t selfish, you knew that when you first met him, but during the times of Team Taka he was very revenge focused and oriented

but then again, your abilities as a witch may be powerful, but that does not mean that they are endless and don’t drain you, because they impact you as a person too

so, again, it is up to you how your relationship turns out

[animeomegas]

I read the Naruto Omega request with the alpha commenting about how their kid is just like their Omega (and I loved it so much) but what if the kid is just like their Alpha parent? Like the Alpha hit copy/paste of their kid and it's obvious to everyone, especially their Omega parent.

(Hehe, the reverse, interesting! I got a bit carried away in some places, but this was really fun to write! Enjoy~)

Naruto - Naruto knows his pup looks a lot like his alpha, but they're also like him!! He can see it just fine! You see the way they don't like reading kanji? He didn't like reading kanji when he was their age! You see the way they scratch their head sometimes? He does that too! As far as he's concerned there is lots of him in his child and he doesn't know why no one else seems to see it. He will definitely dress them in the worst orange clothes and style their hair like his to try and get everyone else to notice the similarities.

"No, Kakashi sensei, you don't get it! I had to walk past Ichiraku's the other day and my pup started to cry because we were in too much of a rush to go in. They have great taste, just like me, believe it!"

Sasuke - Sasuke didn't think he was the sort to care that much, but he's honestly a little shocked. Uchiha genes are crazy strong, and he's surprised that his alpha's genes are apparently stronger. He also gets kinda embarrassed because he spent his whole pregnancy telling you that the pup was probably going to look a lot like him and he was very obviously wrong about that. But in the end, he honestly kind of likes it. He doesn't have the best self-esteem and he definitely holds a somewhat subconscious belief that the Uchiha bloodline is cursed, so he finds it relaxing for his pup to look so much like his alpha. It makes him feel like they have a chance at a good life, something he didn't even realise he was worried about beforehand. He prefers his pup to look as much like his alpha as possible.

"Huh," said Naruto, giving Sasuke's pup a glance. "If you were an alpha, I'd say your mate cheated on you, but I guess the pup came out of you, so I suppose you're all good."

"Tch, idiot," Sasuke scoffed, gently brushing his child's hair (his alpha's hair that he loved so much) from her eyes. "Don't be so crude."

Shino - He doesn't really notice, not at first, too enamoured by the fact that his pup is beautiful and amazing and someone him and his mate created together. But after a few comments from others, he starts to realise how little of him seemed to be part of that creation, and he gets a bit melancholic about it. Don't get him wrong, he thinks his alpha has amazing genetics and he loves them both but... he's been excluded from a lot in his life and the fact that he appears to have been excluded from this as well. It hurts. Thankfully, as soon as the pup is old enough to start dressing in the Aburame clan clothes, everyone immediately starts calling them a mini-Shino, telling him how much like their father they are etc. He always puffs up in pride and it doesn’t take long for his friends to notice and they make sure to say that as much as possible to him. I imagine his alpha also picks up on it and goes out of their way to point out the similarities.

"I had to pull him away from exploring in the woods today," you inform Shino, having just walked in from a walk with your pup to allow Shino some peace to clean the kitchen. "He didn't like being told he wasn't old enough yet. Much like someone else I used to know~"

"Is that so?" Shino felt like his heart might burst from happiness that his child loved looking for bugs in the woods as much as he did. "I'll have to take him there tomorrow. Why? Because I want him to be happy."

Shikamaru - If his child doesn't learn to appreciate the beauty of a nap soon, Shikamaru may just have to disown him. He's joking, of course, but he's another one who firmly believed in the dominant genes in his clan, so he is shocked to find that there is now a tiny clone of his alpha running around their house. His pup and his mate gang up on him all the time… poor long suffering Shikamaru. Apart from missing valuable napping/cloud gazing time, Shikamaru doesn't care that much, although he finds it distantly amusing that the future clan head looks nothing like a Nara. Maybe they’ll gain more of his traits as they get older, maybe they won’t, they’re his precious little pup either way.

“If I promise to give you some chocolate later, will you come and take a nap with daddy?”

“No, no, no! Don’t want to! Want to play!”

Shikamaru just let out a long-suffering sigh and resigned himself to being awake for the whole day. Troublesome.

Neji – Neji is so fucking over the moon, he can’t even put it into words. The second he sees his child’s eyes for the first time, Neji starts to cry. They have your eyes. In other words, they have no chance of developing the Byakugan and therefore no need to be given the caged bird seal. The weight that lifts off his shoulders is massive. He has no room in his emotions for any sadness that his pup doesn’t look like him, because he knows how unbelievably lucky he got with this.

You sat by Neji’s bedside, pup cradled in their arms, as you waited for him to come to after the c-section surgery.

When Neji’s eyes finally fluttered open, he immediately focused on the bundle in your arms.

“It’s a little girl,” you answered, understanding his silent question. “Either a beta or an omega.”

Neji didn’t speak, simply holding out his arms to take his daughter from his mate. But just as they transferred him his pup, they whispered something in his ear.

“She has my eyes.”

An unremarkable statement to most, but Neji startled and checked immediately. You were right. She had your eyes.

Exhausted, Neji burst into tears, leaning on his alpha for support and mentally thanking every power that may be for this miracle.

Iruka – Iruka doesn’t have any strong feelings either way. He just wanted someone to love and nurture, what they look like doesn’t mean anything to him. In fact, he’s pretty happy that his pup and his alpha are so similar because it makes him feel like he knows how to parent successfully. He knows his alpha better than anyone after all, so a pup who has the same personality and motivations should be easier for him to parent. He acknowledges every comment about how much his pup looks like you with a laugh. It’s true and it is a little amusing how similar the two of you are. (Also, does Iruka take all your baby photos and then stage matching ones with your pup because he thinks it’s cute how similar you are? Absolutely.)

“Here, if you eat all your vegetables, you can have some of this afterwards,” Iruka promised to his pup, brandishing a plate of both his mate’s and his pup’s favourite food. Without even a moment of consideration, his pup started to eat his vegetables.

Iruka smiled to himself. Works every time. (On both the most important people in his life.)

Itachi – Much like Neji, he’s very relieved that his child is unlikely to be able to unlock the Sharigan. The sharigan has brought Itachi very little good and so much suffering, so knowing his child can avoid that makes him extremely happy. Not to mention, the elders pretty much discard his pup as unimportant immediately, just how Itachi likes it, and while they do start harassing him about having more children, he would much rather that they were bothering him than his baby. He doesn’t let himself be disappointed that his child doesn’t look much like him. He has a healthy and happy pup that he loves with all his heart, and who is free from the perpetual harassment from the Uchiha elders. That’s the best situation he could have asked for.

“They don’t look like an Uchiha,” a blunt twelve-year-old Sasuke said, tilting his head at the bundle in his brother’s arms like he’d never seen a baby before.

Itachi didn’t take any offence and laughed softly, still very weak from the birth.

“Well, technically they are only half-Uchiha,” Itachi answered, absently stroking his pup’s head. “And I think they’re perfect.”

[wind-becomes-lightning]

in honour of father's day, here an older thing I wrote on my phone around christmas time. Kakashi as a dad with his youngest daughter. haruka of @uchiharomance

Haruka opens the door on the third knock, hair messy and neck sweaty from her work. She finds the Sixth Hokage on the other side, face as pale as his hair, eyes worried, holding his youngest child.

"What did you do this time?" She asks, no time for chit chat.

Miu laughs and stretches out her little arms to Haruka, her white hair stained with red. "I-I just threw her a little," Kakashi says, his eyes avoiding hers.

"And then what?" Haruka narrows her eyes at him. He shrugs his shoulders a little: "She- she hit her head.."

Haruka sighs. Of course she did. Miu seems unfazed by the injury. Still laughing she adds: "It made a BONK on my head." Haruka takes her. "Sure it did, sweetie."

The injury is a narrow cut on the child's head, bleeding a little, but not overall dangerous. Kakashi could have probably taken care of it himself if he wasn't always so worried about the health of his children.

Haruka leads them inside, Itachi checking in out of the kitchen to see who arrived. "He threw her and now she has an open wound", she informs him. He smiles at Kakashi: "Training them early, senpai?" The other knows he is joking, but feels called out anyway.

"Remember, I pardoned both of you" he says weakly, watching as Haruka starts the healing process. Miu is still laughing, always very fascinated by Haruka's facial markings. "Just like in Daddy's pictures!" she'd always say. Well she isn’t wrong.

"I would heal her even if you didn't" Haruka replies, a little annoyed. 

Kakashi raises his hands defensively: "I wouldn't have doubted it." He pauses for a second, his face still pale." I just- just- maybe you couldn't tell my wife about this?"

Haruka bursts out laughing. For a second the image in her head shows Sayuri, sharingan active and pissed, pulling out all the hair on her husband's head. "You did WHAT?!" Truly, a mental image for the ages.

"Scared of her a little, huh?" she asks even though she knows the answer. Kakashi runs his fingers through his daughter's hair: "I didn't mean to, you know, I don't want ...her to think that."

Miu giggles again, eyes aimed at her father. Since birth she was much more fixated on him than Obito ever was. Well fathers and daughters had a special bond, they said. Haruka knows of course that Kakashi is a good dad, that he would never intentionally harm any of them. She knows that not only because she has seen it, but also because of his habit to go see her for any little health related issue. He worried for them all the time.

"Fine, I won't tell Sayuri," Haruka promises, the cut on Miu's face closing without leaving a trace. "You should wash her up though. There is blood in her hair."

"What can't we tell Mommy?", the girl says immediately, big dark eyes fixed on Haruka.

"That it did BONK today", she replies softly.

Miu frowns and turns her head back to Kakashi: "It was a lot of fun though! And I got to visit Haruka."

Kakashi picks her back up, smiling fatherly at her. "Right, but this should be our little fun secret, Okey? One only between you and Daddy." 

"And Haruka and ‘Tachi" the girl adds.

Kakashi sighed quietly. "Yes, and them."

[trees-and-a-blue-sky]

There is a new ghost there when he opens the door to his room one day. A woman. She sits legs crossed on the window sill, a braid draped over the right side of her shoulder. 

“Hello”, Ren says carefully, stepping forward closer to his bed. The woman turns her head to him, her smile is more like a grin. It dances cheekily at the side of her face. “Hello”, she says back.

“Name is Sayuri”, she waves and Ren immediately has to think of the Sayuri Uchiha he knows. “I’m Ren”, he replies. “I know.” Ren wonders how often his dead Uchiha relatives just hang around and talk about him and his family. How much they watch him.

“We are not related” she says, lifting herself up from the place she had been sitting on. “At least not closely as far as I know.” Ren watches her walk over and stop in front of him. She surely must be older than him, but she isn’t much taller. “I would not have come to visit you like this if I didn’t have a favour to ask.”

Ren isn’t really in the mood to play messenger for dead people today. He frowns a little, caught between wanting to help and feeling awkward about it. Especially to someone that technically does not belong to his family.

Sayuri notices his hesitation. She puts her head to the side that her braid falls to her back: “I am content with being dead.” She says it as if it's true. “I just have one regret that needs clearing up. If you do this for me you will not see my face again. I promise.”

The boy scratches his neck, he really isn’t a person that can deny a request. Especially if its the last wish of a dead person that died in a tragic massacre. “Alright”, he replies finally.

They walk along the busy path of the village and Ren looks out of the corner of his eye to Sayuri, who can’t stop her eyes from wandering around. “It’s all so different”, she mumbles, “but somehow still familiar.” 

“How old were you when you died?” he asks. She answers without looking at him: “20.” 

“Did Uncle Itachi kill you too?” 

“No.”

That is new information to him. After all he had heard that the massacre had been completely Itachi’s doing. He puts his head to the side: “No? Who did then?” Sayuri looks into his face, there is something in her eyes that Ren can’t quite name. “It does not matter”, she says finally. Somehow he can’t shake the feeling that she is protecting the person who did it.

They are at the hokage tower before Ren realises where she’s led him. “Here?” he asks, confused. “I need you to speak with Kakashi.” She says his name so casually, even more casually than his father does. 

“I can’t just walk into the Hokage office”, Ren answers deadpan. “Kakashi-jiji is busy.”  Sayuri waves the concern away: “He will make time.”

Still insecure he gets up the stairs, past the secretaries place and knocks right at the door of the hokage office. Sayuri is right beside him, eyes sternly on the wood of the door. Whatever she wants to see seems to weigh heavy on her mind.

“Come in”, the Hokage says in his usual lazy voice. Ren enters. Sayuri walks past him, directly to Kakashi-jiji and circles him. “He looks good”, she says and grins, which makes Ren shake his head. Of the things he doesn’t want to hear, that must be one of the top ones. 

“Ren”, Kakashi-jiji smiles and puts his hands together in front of his face. “What can I do for you? If you want to know about your father I can presently also not tell you where he is.” Ren blushes at the fact that everybody in town always pities him for his runaway dad. 

He shakes his head and says, a little nervous: “I’ve come to deliver a message.” It sounds so stilted coming out of his mouth. “A message?” Kakashi asks kindly. 

“From Sayuri, Uchiha Sayuri”, he says and his eyes lock with Sayuri’s for just a moment. “Oh what is she up to?” Kakashi laughs, leaning back a little. Ren realises he does not think of the right person, that he too thinks of their Sayuri. 

From the window Ren can hear the woman sigh: “It wounds me, Kakashi, my old friend, that I’m not the first person you think of.” And then more to himself than to Ren: “It makes sense, but it hurts nonetheless.”

Ren scrambles, fingers fidgeting behind his back. He turns his eyes back to Kakashi: “A- A different Sayuri.” Kakashi puts his head to the side. “She- she died when she was 20.” Now his eyes get wider: “What are you saying?” 

The boy really feels nervous now. It is so difficult to explain his ability to others without sounding insane. “She is here”, he says, pointing a shaky finger to the window. “She has something to tell you, through me.”

“Ren, that sounds-” Kakashi starts, but Ren cuts him off: “I’m not crazy!” Sayuri walks around to let a hand fall over Ren’s shoulder. “Tell him what I’m saying.” Ren breathes out: “She said you are a damned idiot and she never thought there would be a time you’d be un-unkind to children. Idiot sandwich.” He has never said anything so insulting to the Hokage before. He never would.

Kakashi laughs: “That does sound like her.” Sayuri walks back to Kakashi, settling herself down on his desk. “Idiot”, she smiles at him, lifting a finger as if she is about to touch his face, but she stops mid air as he talks again: “Ren, tell me, if Sayuri is there. Why did she not come to speak to me personally? If she has a message for me?”

“Because I can see them” Ren answers without hesitation. “There are more. I can see and talk to them. They come to me. Usually it is close family only.” Kakashi furrows his brow. “He has a hard time believing you”, Sayuri states, having gotten up now and walking in half circles behind him.

Kakashi leans forward in his chair again, letting his eye wander around the room as if he would spot her if he just concentrated. “So, Sayuri, what do you want from me?” She stops right behind him. “Repeat for me, please, Ren,” she says and Ren nods, which must look very odd to Kakashi-jiji.

“You lost your sharingan eye”, she says looking into his face again. “Plus you grew a new one somehow.”

Ren repeats her. Kakashi laughs: “A miracle. I gave the gift back to Obito who needed it more.” 

“You buried me”, she continues, now in a much lower voice. Ren repeats her. “You buried me. Most of the Uchiha’s were put in a mass grave but you removed me, away from my father’s house and had me cremated and burned. You paid for it out of pocket. You were there, Gai-kun was there.” Ren feels weird about using -kun for a person that is older than him, but repeats her anyway “You did not have to do that. But you did it anyway.”

“Yes, I did”, Kakashi breathes deeply. “That must have been expensive”, Sayuri continues. Ren weighs his head: “She- she says that you must have paid quite some for that.”

Kakashi scoffs: “Is she here to complain about the fact that I wanted to give her a proper burial? That I tried to keep her eyes out of Danzo’s fat, sweaty hands?” Ren has no idea who Danzo is, so he just looks over to Sayuri. 

“No, she has something to say”, he repeats her words. 

Sayuri settles in front of his desk, legs slightly apart, hands grabbed behind her back. 

“Kakashi”, she says and Ren repeats it with “She is addressing you directly.” Kakashi looks up. “All- all the time we’ve spent together, when it was just the two of us. When Obito left and Rin died and Minato and Kushina died. Each night we spent together huddled under sheets in your bed.” 

Ren chokes at the words. It feels too intimate to repeat, but he does so anyway.

“We were thoroughly messed up, children of a war we had no stakes in, but we had each other and that was enough for a bit.” Kakashi’s eyes blink. “The nights I would sneak out of my house to come to your apartment, because I had gotten too used to having you by my side to sleep alone. It was all friendly of course, childish innocence and touch starved affection.”

She breathes in and out. “It was, without a doubt, the best thing about my short life. The nights with you in your apartment, when the terrible world was too far away to exist in our little refuge. Out there I was alone, but not in here, in here I had you.”

The woman stutters, voice breaking and Ren realises she is crying. He waits for more words. “Is that it?” Kakashi asks softly, worried he might offend. “She- She is looking for words”, Ren says, which is not a lie.

“I should have told you”, Sayuri says finally.

Ren repeats her: “She felt like there was something she should have told you.”

“I was so young then still, not really an adult yet, I did not understand it then maybe, not as well as I do now. It was something I felt for a long while, maybe years, without being able to admit it, but then I did and I could never say it.”

Kakashi lifts a brow. “She wants to tell you to get closure”, Ren repeats.

 Sayuri is crying a lot now, shoulders shaking, lips quivering. Ren waits again for her to get the words together. 

“I guess- I guess it makes no sense to wait - “ She breathes in and out again. “I love you. Always have probably.

Ren stops, unable to say the words he just heard. Too personal. He blushes and takes a step back. “I can’t say that”, he says out loud and Sayuri throws a look at him. It is, however, Kakashi-jiji who speaks: “Ren, please.”

“She-she says she loves you. That she always has.”

Kakashi lets out a sharp breath. “Sayuri- “ he begins but she cuts him off. “I know you are happy now with someone else, I know, I know. You should be, you deserve it so much, but I can’t help thinking what could have been if I’d lived. And maybe nothing would have ever been, maybe we would have stayed friends until the end of both our lives and that would have been fine. I’m not here in revenge or anger. I’m here to tell you that at your lowest, when you hated yourself more than any other person in the cruel world we were young in, I loved you. I want you to always remember that.”

She turns on her heel suddenly, walking away from the desk, still crying. Ren follows her with her eyes, stunned at the exchange. Nobody speaks for a moment or so. “Thank you for telling me that”, Kakashi finally says, his voice so soft, but so full of grief. “I am thankful you did.” 

“He just says that to make me feel better,” Sayuri mumbles under tears and keeps walking. “I cherish our time together too. It's a treasured memory” Kakashi says, a hand running through his hair.

Ren shakes his head. “She tells you to shut up with that sentimental crap.” Kakashi laughs. Sayuri walks right past him to the door. “She says she is leaving now. That she- she wishes you a happy life.” 

“I’ll always be watching over you in some way,” Sayuri says, wiping the tears off her face. Suddenly Kakashi rises, eyes wide again. “Sayuri.” She turns back to him. “She is still there”, Ren points with his finger.

“Did- did Obito…?” he asks, voice shaking. Ren frowns. What has Uncle Obito got to do with it? “She says ‘yes’” Ren repeats for her. Kakashi-jiji somehow grows pale.

“I’m going to see him next”, Sayuri looks over her shoulder and smiles. “Relief him of one burden at least.” Ren repeats her and then, realising what she said, protests himself: “You talked about one favour!”

[itachi-uchiha-deserved-better]

There were seven of them gathered in the tent that was serving as the temporary council chamber while the leaf village was being rebuilt. Kakashi sat at the head of the circular table, looking uncomfortable in the position of authority that had been thrust upon him in Tsunade’s absence. Next to Kakashi on his left was Shikaku Nara, with Shikamaru seated next to his father. On Kakashi’s right side sat Gai, Yamato, Naruto and then finally there was Sakura, sitting opposite Kakashi, wondering when in the hell she had become important enough to warrant an explicit invitation to a council meeting.

The elders, Sakura noted, were not in attendance. Kakashi had placed both of them under guard since Danzo’s treachery at the five Kage summit came to light. It didn’t really come as much of a surprise to Sakura that the Jonin of the village were hesitant to trust them with matters of importance.

Kakashi fiddled with his pen, as he seemed to search for the best way to approach whatever it was that was important enough for him to call a council meeting in the first place. He kept shooting Yamato glances, which Yamato always answered with a quirked eyebrow or a shake of the head, like there was a silent discussion going on between them. Sakura watched the exchange with fascination as she doodled on the note pad in front of her.

“Fine.” Kakashi growled, ending whatever argument he and Yamato were apparently having, “I guess we ought to just get on with it.” He took a breath, put the pen down very carefully, so that it was sitting perfectly straight in front of him. He swept his gaze around the room, locking eyes with each person who sat at the table in turn.

“You know I’m not the type to do things as officially as they should be done. Were it not for the delicate nature of this matter, I’d have left it for Tsunade to deal with when she recovers. Unfortunately, this is a matter that won’t wait until our Hokage is back on her feet.”

The air in the room seemed to grow still and heavy with tension. Everyone seemed to pick up on the carefully chosen words Kakashi used. Our Hokage. Not him. He had no desire to lead them. When Tsunade wakes up. Because none of them wanted to consider the other outcome.

“As you know, Yamato and I were present for the majority of the 5 Kage summit. I believe everyone here has read our reports regarding the proceedings of the summit and Danzo’s attempt at treason. That is not what we are here to discuss. This meeting is in regards to what happened before our arrival at the summit location. About information intentionally withheld from the official reports.”

Sakura observed the room. A large part of her medical training had focused on sharpening her observational skills. Teaching her to pick up on subtle changes around her, so that she can make decisions with the most information possible. So her keen gaze immediately picks up on the way that Shikaku straightened up in his chair as Kakashi admits to withholding information from the official documentation of their mission. She notes how Shikamaru’s gaze snaps to Naruto’s face, then to hers, trying to read the situation the same way that she was. She can almost visualize tangible waves of tension rolling off of Yamato and the worried look that Gai is giving her Sensei. It seemed that he had at least some inkling of what was going on.

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure that this information should be shared with anyone. The source is questionable, but Yamato and I agree that given the potential ramifications for the village if the information we’ve been given is accurate, that at least the people in this room need to be aware of it.”

More glances shot around the table. Naruto at Sakura. Sakura at Yamato. Yamato and Gai at Kakashi. Shikaku and Shikamaru at all of them. The silence in the room swelled until Shikaku quietly prompted Kakashi, “please continue.”

“Itachi Uchiha.”

The name sent a shockwave through the room. White hot anger flared in Sakura. Itachi. Sasuke’s older brother. The shinobi who had murdered his entire clan in cold blood, who had tried to kidnap Naruto, who was directly involved with the organization that had killed Gaara, that had destroyed Konoha and caused so much pain to the person that she loved. Even if he didn’t love her back, Sakura could never forgive Itachi for the pain he inflicted on Sasuke.

Naruto was shrinking in his seat, like the name was a heavy weight descending on his shoulders. Shikaku and Shikamaru were both now sitting straight backed in their seats, giving Kakashi their undivided attention. Only Yamato and Gai remained impassive.

“What about the Uchiha?” Shikaku asked as the impact of the name started to settle.

“It seems that there is much more to Itachi’s actions than the village was initially lead to believe. Our information indicates that Itachi held no grudge against his clan. That his crimes, while heinous, were carried out under direct order from village leaders.”

Shikamaru laughed, the sound breaking through the tension like a paper bomb exploding in Sakura’s ears, “You must be joking. You can’t honestly believe that Lord Third would have allowed-“

Shikaku grabbed Shikamaru’s arm, and shooting him a sharp look to silence him.

Kakashi sighed, “I understand your skepticism. Like I said, Yamato and I don’t trust the source of our information, but given Danzo’s treachery and how long that was allowed to go on unnoticed, I don’t think we can dismiss anything outright. By the same token, none of this is to leave this tent. Until we are able to verify or disprove the claim, I want to keep this thing quiet.”

Shikamaru huffed, but Shikaku nodded thoughtfully, “Kakashi, you were his Anbu captain at one point. You probably know the most about Itachi of anyone present. Do you believe it’s possible that he was manipulated into massacring his clansmen?”

Sakura expected Kakashi to answer immediately. The entire thought of the village ordering a man to kill his entire clan was ludicrous.

Wasn’t it?

But Kakashi didn’t answer. One minute passed in silence and still Kakashi was sitting there, glaring down at his pen, unable to answer Shikaku’s question. It was Yamato who eventually spoke up.

“I served alongside Itachi on team Ro. Speaking frankly, I could never wrap my head around it. The Itachi I knew wasn’t capable of harboring that much hatred. Even with the proof right in front of our eyes, I couldn’t make sense of it.”

Sakura breathed in a sharp breath of surprise. Neither Kakashi or Yamato ever really spoke about their Anbu days, so she had been completely ignorant of the fact that they’d both been on a team with Itachi, much less been friends with him.

Did Sasuke know?

Kakashi nodded his head, “I agree with Yamato, Itachi Uchiha’s actions never made sense to me. I accepted that I must have missed the signs back then and once everything was said and done, I tried my best not to think about it. About him. He was my teammate, and I had failed him. But if this is true, then I failed him even worse than I ever could have believed.” Kakashi hung his head and Sakura could see how much this pained him. She could only imagine what he felt, having this ghost of his past being dragged back up to the surface, especially after so much recent pain and loss.

“Regardless of my and Yamato’s personal feelings about the man, there are other factors which lead us to believe that at least parts of the information we were given are true. Danzo did possess a number of Sharingan, including an eye that we can confirm belonged to Shisui Uchiha, who supposedly committed suicide by the Naka. Itachi was, at the time, suspected of murdering his cousin.”

Another pause, as Kakashi allowed the information to sink in. Shikaku was nodding his head in recognition of the name. Shikamaru was studying his father closely. Sakura could hear Naruto grinding his teeth in frustration.

“Alright,” Shikaku tapped his finger on the table, “Lets have it then. The whole story.”

Kakashi obliged, and slowly the story came out, with Yamato jumping in when it seemed that Kakashi was struggling to find the right words. About the plan for a coup d'etat that had been brewing within the Uchiha clan. The orders to spy on the Uchiha, to monitor them for signs of rebellion. Itachi’s assignment to team Ro, and his early promotion to captain under Danzo. About the death of a man named Shisui, who according to this had thrown himself off a cliff only after Danzo had stolen one of his eyes. The coup coming to a head, and Hiruzen asking Itachi to buy time to find a better solution than annihilation, and Itachi being approached later by Danzo, with a promise- that Itachi could ensure his little brother’s survival if he singlehandedly stopped the coup. The implication that if Itachi refused, Danzo would ensure the clan’s destruction, Sasuke and Itachi included.

The clan’s lives for Sasuke’s life. That was the deal that was put forth. And Itachi had accepted.

But it was the final bit of the story that chilled Sakura to her core.

“Hiruzen was aware of Itachi’s orders. While he may not have issued them himself, if our source is to be believed, he also made no effort to intervene. Its true that the Uchiha massacre solved the problem of the coup d'etat once and for all. But the only way it ended without anyone losing faith in Hiruzen was for Itachi to shoulder the blame. If he’d remained in the leaf village, Hiruzen would have been forced to punish him for the massacre. So instead, Hiruzen let Itachi leave the village, left the barrier jutsu formula intact so that Itachi could come and go as long as he remained hidden, and Itachi decided to join the Akatsuki. Not as a missing-nin, but as Konoha’s spy.”

Shikaku hummed, nodding his head, “I never was able to come up with a good reason why Hiruzen left the barrier jutsu formula alone. I assumed he believed that Itachi must not have any more reason to target the leaf, but even then when word came that Itachi had joined the Akatsuki, he ought to have changed it.”

“Right,” Kakashi was rubbing at his temple, probably fighting off a headache. He’d had a number of those since his brush with death at the hands of Pein.

“There are piece that add up. The barrier formula. The fact that the leaf village always had more intelligence on the Akatsuki and their movements than the other villages did. Danzo’s possession of the Uchiha eyes, Shisui’s eye especially. But there are also pieces I cant explain. Like why that bastard locked me in a seventy two hour genjutsu that almost killed me. And the only person who could confirm any of this, as far as I know, has been dead for three years.”

Gai said something in response to that, but Sakura had stopped listening, their voices fading to the background as something started to click in her head.

Konoha’s spy.

Had to stay hidden.

Could come and go as he pleased.

Her mind was spinning. Recalling strange orders issued by Tsunade. Treating a shinobi outside the hospital. Not allowed to use her healing chakra at all, only basic medical skills. The threat of being stripped of her rank as a shinobi if she disobeyed. A strange Anbu who never spoke. Who suppressed his chakra at all times. Who had eerily familiar eyes that always seemed to be filled with something she could never hope to understand.

“Sakura? Sakura are you alright?” Naruto’s hand was on her shoulder, shaking her gently. Tenzo and Kakashi were both watching her with concern, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

The name. Recognition like a bolt of lightning struck her and Sakura stood up so quickly that she sent her chair flying back with a crash.

She felt like she was going to explode. Every eye in the tent was on her, waiting for some kind of explanation for her sudden reaction. How on earth could she not have put it together earlier? Then again, she’d never been given any reason to suspect that Ghost, the strange anbu operative in the blank mask was Sasuke’s older brother.

Tsunade. Tsunade must have known. Her orders were to protect Ghost’s identity, because if Sakura had felt his chakra, even for an instant, she would have recognized the similarities to Sasuke’s, and there was only one other Uchiha left in the world. So many thoughts were crashing around inside Sakura’s mind. Anger. Anger at Ghost…Itachi…for lying to her, even if he had no other choice. It wasn’t like she would have ever helped him before if she knew who he was. She’d have been the first person to turn him in, no matter how much kindness he’d shown her. Anger at Tsunade, for allowing the farce to continue, despite knowing that Itachi had made the only choice he could have. Anger that Hiruzen, for failing to intervene and stop all the pain that the massacre caused. For Sasuke, and for Itachi.

Her eyes met Kakashi’s steady gaze. Her sensei, always so adept at reading what troubled her, waited patiently for her mouth to catch up to her mind.

“You knew?”

“No.” Not a lie. She hadn’t known, “But I’m pretty sure this is the truth. I…” gods above how did she even begin to explain it all? To explain about Ghost, his strange behavior, the bizarre connection they shared.

Tenzo was her saving grace. He seemed to have put some of the pieces together himself.

“The Anbu? The one you told me about?”

Sakura nodded and sank back down into her chair, hugging her arms into herself. The eyes of the group moved off of Sakura, looking to Tenzo for more information.

“Earlier this year, Sakura confided in me about a patient of hers. She wanted to know if I was aware of an Anbu agent whose mask was blank, no markings at all. She told me that Tsunade had asked her to treat him and that the arrangement came with some unusual orders which had her uncomfortable.”

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, “Are you referring to-“ Kakashi cut off, but Tenzo nodded, clearly understanding the question. Shikamaru grumbled.

“Care to explain for those of us who can’t read your mind?”

“Ghost,” Tenzo shot back, “It’s a…well for lack of better terms, it’s a ghost story that exists among the Anbu. A few years back a few genin claimed they were saved by an Anbu agent in a blank white mask, who slaughtered the enemy shinobi who were attacking them and then disappeared without a trace. No one believed them, but since then all kinds of stories about the faceless mask have popped up. Most of them are incredibly far fetched, but there are elements that remain consistent throughout. Black hair. Always alone. Never leaves any survivors except for leaf shinobi. Only fights with Kunai and a tanto, never jutsu. At least, none that anyone ever sees. I didn’t think anything of it, but when Sakura mentioned her patient to me, I did some digging. There is a file for an Anbu agent, codename Ghost, but there’s no serial number on the file, and everything in it was encoded.”

Kakashi sighed, “It’s not proof, but that seems pretty damning.” Apparently Kakashi didn’t have any better explanation that Sakura did.

“In that case, there are a few things to address. First and foremost, it is very likely that Sasuke has also been made aware of the fact that his brother acted under orders. I don’t think he knows about Itachi’s identity as an Anbu operative, but we need to be prepared because I’m not sure what kind of effect this information will have on him. The last I knew, Sasuke’s sole focus was on killing his brother for revenge. It’s quite possible that his desire for revenge will shift to target the village, or at least those he feels most responsible for Itachi’s actions.”

Everyone in the tent nodded their agreement.

“The second question is one of what to do about Itachi himself.”

This time no one nodded. It was a momentous question.

“Are you sure we need to do anything at all?” Shikaku asked, trying to be as gentle with the question as possible. Tenzo slammed his hand down on the table and looked like he wanted to throw himself at Shikaku.

“Of course we have to do something! He’s a leaf shinobi! He’s put his life in danger for the past nine years, alone, hated by everyone in order to protect the village. He deserves to know that he isn’t being held responsible for being forced to make an impossible choice when he was thirteen fucking years old!”

“Easy, Tenzo,” Kakashi seemed to be doing his best to keep his tone level, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him while they sorted things out, “You know that I want to see him again as much as you do, as a friend. But we need to consider what’s best for the village. At the least, I don’t think we need to come to a decision right now. Our first priority is to rebuild the village itself. When Tsunade wakes up, I’m sure she’ll have something to say on the matter.”

Sakura clenched her fist and felt her chakra start flowing into them out of instinct. You better believe that she’ll have something to say. I’ll make sure of it.

She pushed herself up from the table. She needed to hit something. Needed to break something. And if she didn’t leave now, she couldn’t be sure what exactly it was she was going to break. Better safe than sorry.

“Sakura? Going somewhere?”

“For a walk,” She hissed, daring anyone to try and stop her as she stormed out of the tent.

[pinkhairedlily]

Chapter 5 - Student Council President Sakura

SCPS AO3 | PREVIOUS CHAPTER

When Naruto let go of that pitch, Sakura knew their school had won. She hugged Hinata who was also overjoyed, and she turned to her side to give Sasuke a high five then she realized he was still not back.

As she moved along the bleachers, she rallied her schoolmates to give a resounding yell routine. Disappearing within the noise, she moved along the halls below the benches, and there she found the group.

When the fist made contact with her face, she almost blacked out. The pain came rushing in after a few seconds of numbness, her sight a complete blur, a slight disorientation, and her hearing muffled. The scuffle played out before her as her eyes refocused, Sasuke kicking and punching the goons on the stomach, but it seemed she got it wrong when Kakashi’s eyes drifted to her as a pair of glaring daggers.

His one foot was on the wrist of the guy who punched her. When the blood finally dripped from her broken nostrils, Kakashi broke the guy’s hand, thankfully echoed by the screams from the bleachers. “You’ll get expulsion and multiple restraining orders just for the hell of it.”

While Kakashi called the security, Sasuke went to Sakura’s side with a mix of an irritated but worried look on his face. Ah, he was wondering why.

“I’m okay,” she tried to say despite receiving no question, but the words came out wrong. Oh my gods, are my teeth broken? How embarrassing?

As if summoned by her thoughts, he stood before them right after the guards took away the passed-out bullies. “Let’s get you two to the clinic.”

--------------------------------

“I can’t call Naruto. I left my bag with Hinata,” she tried to say again but the words were coming out jumbled like I con kor Nar-u-o…I re ma ba wi Hina-a…

Kakashi was trying not to laugh as she communicated with Sasuke who was on the other bed, being checked by a doctor with curtains drawn. The school clinic recommended them to go directly to the hospital.

“He would have to wait for our congratulations,” Sasuke replied.

“I see you wincing in pain, young man. That’s a broken rib right there,” the doctor noted from the other side. When the curtains were swept to the side, Sakura saw her raven-haired classmate clutching at his side. When his eyes opened to find hers, he glanced away and let go of his pained expression.

“Ms. Haruno, I will be referring you to our plastics. Would be a waste if your student council president loses her pretty face.” The doctor tapped Kakashi’s shoulder as she walked out of their ward.

“Thanks, Nohara,” he called out after her.

Sakura deduced he was friends with the doctor, but she could ask him that some other time. She looked a bit older than the Math teacher so they might not be together. Regardless, shouldn’t she be more engrossed of having a crooked nose in front of Kakashi than his personal love life? When he turned her attention to her finally, she instinctively covered her face with her hands.

“Sakura, you should tilt your head upwards, just a little bit. You had a nosebleed earlier, didn’t you?” She did what he said, but gods, this was so embarrassing. She tried to look at him through her fingers, and his beauty mark moved as he chuckled. Ugh, why is he so perfect?

His phone suddenly pinged, and he took a moment to read the message. “Hmm. I need to leave and go explain things to the board. Nohara might advise bed rest and school leave for at most three weeks so get well soon, all right?” Then, he turned to Sasuke. “You don’t have to worry about it.”

Sakura wondered if she should ask a favor from Kakashi. Asking him to stay was a tad too much, and asking him to contact the council would be too irresponsible. Maybe she could sneak out after his exit and find a way to contact the council. She should also call Naruto – second on the task list. He would be devastated without their congratulations.

A hand on her head stopped her thoughts. “Stop thinking at hundred miles per second, and rest. I will take care of the council and inform Uzumaki of your situation. I assume you three are friends?”

“No.” “Yes.” Sasuke and Sakura answered respectively.

Kakashi smiled, finding amusement in their dynamics. “See you soon.”

“Shi yo,” she muttered through her broken nose, unaware of her fingers already fidgeting the rubber band on her wrist.

--------------------------------

She was back in the hospital the following week. While Sasuke was advised to be confined, she was sent for home care. The mandated rest did not even last a day because she needed to show up to her shifts in the café and showed up she did in some elaborate mask to cover her bandaged nose and a sketchpad for conversations. To appease the constant nag and flood of messages from her councilmates, she stopped showing up in school for three days and turned the tables on them by doing all the nagging and demanding daily updates.

On the fourth day, she was up and running through the school halls to reach the board inquisition in time. She gladly accepted an annoyed litany of precautions and reminders from Kakashi.

“I never thought you could be this stubborn, Sakura.” He was visibly exasperated. “I can’t tail you every time and remind you that you’re injured.”

But you could. “I’m sorry, Sensei. I promise to not push myself so hard for the next days.” Sakura gave him a peace sign which he jokingly waved away.

“Pull your energy back, like 60 percent of it.” He patted her head softly, like an adult would to an unreasonable kid, and never have she felt more insulted. “If only I could take care of you.”

Like a babysitter would? She immediately put distance between them, feeling angry for no reason, and she stormed off, leaving him clueless in the middle of the hallway about her sudden rigid behavior.

Now she was back in the hospital after a week of mild recuperation. When she went to check on Sasuke, she found him asleep, probably from the sedatives. It amused her that even in slumbers, his brows would furrow, yet a part of her worried that there must be something looping him in nightmares. She left her presence with a basket of fruits and a medium-sized carton of tomato juice which Naruto mentioned was his favorite. Several juice boxes of the same flavor were stacked on the other side of his bed and a plastic bag filled with instant ramen bowls. She would ask the maintenance staff later to take out the trash.

When she finally reached the door of Dr. Aki Nohara, her assistant gestured for her to wait for a while outside. She figured she can loiter in Sasuke’s room and have one of the nurses get her until she heard Kakashi’s voice inside the room.

“I know you literally accelerated throughout school, but you need to act more like your age.” Her doctor scolded her teacher like an old friend. She was aware of her eavesdropping, but she hoped to learn more of his life. “I’m saying you should visit Rin.”

“Does she miss me?” It was and wasn’t his voice. She didn’t hear his usual nonchalance when he blurted out those words. Ah, a weird ache was forming in her chest.

“Do you even need to ask that from me when the answer is already so obvious?”

“Hmm. I’m just not ready….yet.”

“Well get on with it and put a ring on her finger or others will!”

Ah, her sensei was apparently planning to get married? So he had someone after all, someone named Rin. Sakura felt the room crowd her in, almost suffocating her, and she accidentally bumped into a passing staff and a tray cart of medical supplies.

Her small disturbance brought the occupants outside the room. “Ah, Ms. Haruno, you may come in now. You look pale, dear.”

Kakashi waved at her, his teacher persona already up in arms, then he turned to Dr. Aki. “Your medical advice for my heart is noted, but not now, maybe in the far, far, far future.”

Dr. Aki tsked at him. “Off you go Hatake. I have a patient waiting. Oh thank heavens, the color is returning to your face.”

He’s not marrying her……yet. Would it be silly to think I have a chance?

--------------------------------

A whole two weeks have gone in secluded rooms – a week alone in a hospital room because of Itachi’s connections and another week alone cooped up in his apartment. He got radio silence from his brother, and he almost wished he gave him an earful of insults instead – many of which should have called out his cowardice, especially when the clash had an avoidable casualty. He looked so stupid next to cool Kakashi, Kakashi who was only five years older than them, Kakashi who smoked and read with baseball playing on the background, Kakashi who took on all four people at once with no scratch on his body, Kakashi with his silver hair being friends with doctors and bigshots, Kakashi with his beauty mark laughing at Sakura.

If there was any further downside to this, that was also the angry flood of texts he got from Naruto the night of the game, and then nothing. He was too drugged with sedatives he didn’t have the right mind to reply and process them. He was too drugged to wake up with a clear mind even. He didn’t bother to text or call back. Whatever, whatever, whatever. He took a look again at his phone, checked the time, found no new messages, and put it back on his side table.

His past self would have enjoyed this momentary social isolation, but he couldn’t help the nagging feeling of missing company however, he can’t bring himself to admit this aloud.

The next time he opened his eyes, he scrambled out of bed in panic and cold sweat. Someone was incessantly ringing his doorbell. When his eyes tried to find the clock, he found that it was already eight in the evening. He was sure he wasn’t expecting any guests tonight.

He trudged on to his door and mustered some strength to look through the peephole. Blue irises looked back at him, moved away a few steps, and struck a pose with a pink-haired girl with bandages still on her nose. The door never opened so quickly during the length of his stay.

“Are you stalkers or something?” were the first words he spat.

“Dr. Aki Nohara said it’s okay to visit you now!” Naruto whined. “And Sakura brought food!”

Sakura presented several paper bags. “It was Naruto’s idea actually. He nagged me for a week.”

“Yeah and I couldn’t understand her in the first few days,” the blonde said, rather straightforwardly.

Sasuke held back the urge to slap his hand on his forehead, but he moved to the side as he allowed them to venture inside his apartment. On second thought, did he put his underwear on the laundry basket?

“We figured you didn’t have dinner yet,” Sakura told him as she laid out the food containers on the dining table. “Mind if we use your utensils?”

“I forgot to say please make yourself at home,” Sasuke snapped sarcastically.

“Eeew, you’re still in your pajamas.” Naruto made a face at him while he opened his fridge and scoured for water and fruit juices. “That makes the two of us who didn’t shower!”

“You idiot. I showered this morning.” Nevertheless, Sasuke sat on the seat beside Sakura, allowing her to give him a bowl of ramen and some serving of okonomiyaki. A large platter of takoyaki was placed in the center of the table, first to be consumed by impatient hands and hungry mouths. Sakura had one hell of an appetite and fast metabolism to boot.

“Anyway, congratulations idiot,” he said while munching on the last piece of takoyaki. “Aren’t you supposed to travel to Fukuoka for the semis?”

“Yeah, next week! It doesn’t start until next month, but Captain Haru said we need to train,” Naruto replied as he proceeded to open a bowl of instant ramen. “The board also granted us exemption from exams. My brains are saved.”

“Your training camp really coincided with the school field trip,” Sakura noted. “Maybe we could visit you in between?”

“That would be the best!” Naruto grinned sheepishly, but Sasuke swore there was a tinge of red in his cheeks.

Finally rid of all food and dishes, the three lounged around in his living room, browsing titles in Netflix – Sakura wanted gore, crime, and horror while Naruto wanted adventure and fantasy films.

“What genre do you want, Sasuke?” Sakura asked. She was in possession of the remote and was seated on the other end of the couch. Naruto was on the floor with an open packet of chips and soda.

“And if I said romance?” he chided, weirdly enough to catch them offguard, but Sakura landed on the Twilight series and pressed play without second thoughts. “I was joking.”

“And it’s now starting,” she said back.

“How long are you gonna stay here?” He lost track of time – not the first instance this happened but the first occurrence without the burden of something heavy. “It’s past midnight.”

“I thought I was slow but you’re actually slower,” Naruto teased. “We’re staying over, grumpy.”

“I would love for a vampire to bite me,” Sakura quipped out of context.

Sasuke figured he didn’t have the energy to refute their uninvited sleepover at his unit. By the time New Moon played on screen, Naruto was sleeping on the floor with his mouth hanging wide open, and Sakura was lying fully on the couch, her feet stretched out on his lap. He slid out of this awkward entanglement and strode quietly to his drawers where he took out spare blankets to cover them with. On his bedside table, his phone lit up with a message notification.

Happy birthday, Sasuke. – Itachi

AO3 LINK | NEXT CHAPTER | CHAPTER 6

[naruto-littlespace]

Akatsuki Littlespace Headcanons

I could and probably will write more, but I don’t feel like it right now, so here’s this.

Disclaimer 1: Littlespace, in the AU and in real life, is a coping mechanism for everything from everyday stressors to psychological disorders like PTSD. If you sexualize littlespace do not interact with this AU or me, I will block you.

Disclaimer 2: Littlespace in this post is slightly different from in real life, magic-ed up in a similar way to how ninjas are magic-ed up in the Naruto universe. Chakra-using littles actually revert to the size they were when they were their little ages, although they retain any bodily changes since then (little Kakuzu still has stitches, little Deidara would have hand mouths.) The exception of course is Sasori, whose body is manmade and doesn’t change. People also do not necessarily remember their big lives when they slip into littlespace, sometimes becoming confused about where they are and who they’re with. They will sometimes be confused about what time period they’re in as well, believing things to have happened that hadn’t happened yet in their little age but were far in the past in their adult age.

This isn’t how I’m going to treat littlespace w/ Naruto characters all the time on this account btw, it’s just an idea I’ve been playing around with, like the psychological defense of reverting to a childlike state inadvertently triggers a transformation jutsu to match.

Nagato:

Little age pre Yahiko’s death was 6-7, post is 2-4

Started regressing shortly after the formation of the original Akatsuki. She and Yahiko had to do research to figure out why their teenage friend had suddenly turned into a child, but after they learned they took care of him: treated him like a child, bought him kids books from the local thrift shop, tucked him into bed. He called them uncle and auntie.

He would stay in littlespace for a surprisingly long amount of time, for 4-6 hours on days between missions.

After Yahiko’s death he spent many days in a row regressed to age two. Konan scrambled to take care of him and handle her own grieving. After that was over he promised her she wouldn’t have to take care of him again.

Nowadays of course she still takes care of him when he regresses, but he tries to force himself out of it if he begins to.

He still has board books and stuffies, so if he does fully regress he’ll have one of his pein bodies bring them to him.

Being ~3 he doesn’t have the mental capacity to control all the Peins, so they just kind of idle for awhile.

Konan:

Little age is 3-5

Pre modern Akatsuki she didn’t like regressing at all and only did it involuntarily. She would handle it by either walking it off or reading Nagato’s board books by herself.

This continued pretty much until she started becoming friends with Kakuzu, who openly admitted he was a little (he thought she should know, in case it ended up delaying his missions--it was mostly so she would stick up for him to Pein. No, he wasn’t hunting bounties, there’s a perfectly logical explanation--)

So she had a bad day while she and Kakuzu were at the same base and went ‘can you please deal with me for a couple of minutes’ and he was like ‘ofc’ so she sat down in front of him and shrank down to a little girl and started crying. He picked her up and bounced her on his knee until she calmed down. She ended up staying little for a couple of hours because Kakuzu took her out of the office and telling her stories about his childhood while they prepared dinner.

Kisame becomes her caretaker too when the three of them start dating.

Sometimes she starts crying inconsolably about something she won’t talk about other than someone leaving her and something being unfair. Pein showed up during this one time and said he knew what she was talking about and it was none of her cgs’ concern which ofc made them concerned but they haven’t gotten the chance to talk to her about it.

Itachi:

Little age is 2-4 but since her chakra is often very low so she doesn’t always physically become that tiny.

She didn’t regress until after she joined the Akatsuki, but when she did Kisame wasn’t surprised. He reintroduced himself as her babysitter, slipped her a lollipop and took her to a library to pick out some kids books.

Loves to be pampered. Oh god it’s the only time she can relax at all

Wears reading glasses because they can’t get her in to an eye doctor appointment

She’s trans in this au because I say so

Likes playing with weasel and crow toys, esp when her caretaker (usually Kisame, Konan and Kakuzu as well when they’re around) plays the weasel and she’s the crow. She’ll tell stories where they go out to the woods to train or just hang out.

She loves to sit in laps <3

She eats a lot more in littlespace than out so whoever’s feeding her makes lots of food. For her to grow big and strong u know

Kisame:

Little age 0. He is just baby

Being reminded of the bloody mist triggers his littlespace, though he has to be in a bad headspace in the first place. It really does not happen often.

Post Akatsuki the first time he slipped was after he, Kakuzu and Konan started dating. Kakuzu woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of crying and woke Konan up immediately afterwards because holy sh*t there’s a baby in our bed!!

It was Kisame. Kakuzu picked him up and rocked him back to sleep. Konan asked how he was so good with kids and he was like ‘oh I had a baby once.’ She does not ask him to elaborate. Kisame wakes up as an adult the next morning.

They keep a container of powder formula for him if he regresses but won’t get him a pacifier because they’re afraid he’d bite off and choke on the teat. They have bottles but Kakuzu makes the nipples for them out of one of his threads on the spot bc he’d bite through literally everything else with his tiny demon teeth.

Sasori:

Little age is unclear (unlike some of the others, he’s never said it.)

Signs he’s in littlespace: stops talking, stops walking if he can afford it, walks unsteadily and a little bowlegged if he can’t. Stops using ninjutsu and if he’s near a kitchen he might try to eat despite not having a digestive system anymore. Has been known to ask where Granny Chiyo is. The answer is ‘back home.’

Deidara got him a pacifier and a coloring book. He does use them but not when anyone else is watching, not even Deidara.

He is a bit upset when he’s reminded that his body is wooden. He would like to feel things please. But he learns to just enjoy the sensation of squishing a stuffie and his jaw chewing on a paci.

Deidara:

Not actually a little. He just hasn’t gone through sh*t like the rest of the Akatsuki have, and has coping mechanisms for when he is having a bad time.

He caretakes for Konan when her boys aren’t around and for Sasori if he’ll let him.

Hidan told him about littles after Kakuzu regressed in front of him and thought Deidara might need to know because of how much baggage Sasori has (he doesn’t know what it is but he can smell drama)

So he looked out for Sasori becoming a kid and learned instead to look for him not acting like an adult. He walked out of Hiruko and tried to eat in front of him and Deidara had to tell him he couldn’t have a strawberry because it was bad for his health and not because it would probably make his insides mold. It’s weird but Deidara is also weird and he makes it work.

Kakuzu:

Little age is 9-10

Post Akatsuki the first time he regressed was in front of Hidan in the middle of the woods. He didn’t recognize him and immediately tried to run and then beat him up when he chased him. Hidan had to think fast and tell him he was his new neighbor and pretend to be taking him home. The next time he was babysitting.

Sometimes asks where his husband is. The first time Hidan heard this his response was ‘what the f*ck’ and Kakuzu told him that was a bad word.

Enjoyed activities include reading, sparring, and to the surprise of some, hunting. He’s not bad w/ a bow and arrow.

The best way to keep him in/make him feel comfy in littlespace is to make him a meal. U can let him help to the extent that he sets the table or pours the drinks or smth (because he will ask) but take care of the food for him, because he hasn’t had someone else handle that for him in a long time.

Regressing isn’t necessarily a common thing for him to do but he’s one of the only ones whose regression can be triggered by physical pain as well as emotional. He can usually harden his skin to block attacks but if he doesn’t in time he may turn into a ten year old. It actually can surprise an opponent enough for Hidan to be able to take them out.

Hidan:

Not a little either.

Knew about littles bc there was an old man in his village who had ptsd from some long forgotten war and sometimes turned into a six year old.

Caretakes for Kakuzu pretty exclusively, unless Kakuzu is big and taking care of someone else, in which case he’ll help out if he’s feeling nice at the time. Itachi is actually his favorite to take care of because Itachi is a very manageable child.

Obito:

Little age varies wildly from about 1-11. He blocks his physical regression because he regresses Often and doesn’t want to blow his Madara cover.

He has been regressing since p much immediately after he got crushed. Madara was really having none of it and went from patiently waiting for him to become ‘big’ again to pretending it wasn’t happening, forcing Obito back into a uh. ‘’Normal’’’’ headspace

The Tobi act is actually covering his littlespace though when he’s an adult he has no idea how to realistically act like a kid so when he’s actually a kid it’s kind of jarring for all involved

When he’s a baby he just screams. Not really crying in distress but screaming because he can

He’s so eager for attention. Please talk to him! Play toys with him!!! Read a book, eat dango, run around outside, catch bugs, train!!!

Never mentions Kakashi or Rin but sometimes will mention his grandma or Lord Fourth as if he is the current Hokage

[saskaykun]

Taka’s members’ bond with Sasuke. (For Taka team’s stans, this one’s for you.)

I don't think there's any point in introducing the Taka team again.

But as today's point is to prove the link as a point of complementarity with Sasuke. I'm going to take a look at the personal lives of each of them. 

Ps: sorry for the typos, english is not my mother tongue.

SUIGETSU:

We are going to start with Suigetsu, like Sasuke, Suigetsu had a big brother, pretty strong and skilled because Mangetsu was the only one of the 7 swordsmen of the mist to master the 7 swords of Kiri. Suigetsu's dream was to become as strong as his big brother to enter the 7 swordsmen assassins club, whom he admired a lot, but Mangetsu died rather prematurely while protecting his little brother Suigetsu. Suigetsu trained hard to barely match half of his big brother's sword skills. He also comes from a known clan from the village of Kiri, the clan Hozūki, and owns a Kekkei Genkai, which allows him to liquefy his body from flesh to water. Pretty handy for a swordsman, isn't it?  No blade can pierce his body. That's also why Orochimaru was interested in him and kept him prisoner in his laboratories for so many years. Doesn't that remind you of Sasuke? The story of the big brother to be surpassed in abilities, even though he was so admired by the little one? Sasuke had to kill Itachi because he had to avenge his clan, Suigetsu had to become much better than Mangetsu because he promised him before Mangetsu died, that he would take back the title of "Kijin no Sairai" - "the second coming of the demon" (as far as my translation is concerned), so he got it into his head to collect all the swords from Kiri village, in order to take back his brother's inheritance. It's rather cute when you think about it. Suigetsu, in spite of appearances, is not a deeply evil person even if he spent most of his life training to become an assassin. Of all the times he made fun of Karin for her feelings towards Sasuke and Karin hit him, he never twisted back once. Suigetsu doesn't have a family anymore, like Sasuke, he's the last survivor of his clan. Moreover, I wanted to add that Suigetsu, sometimes appears like a coward but is actually very competent, and he is certainly a better swordsman than Sasuke. At the same age, (at 16 years old) Suigetsu had already done 2 - D rank missions, 33 - C rank missions - 40 - B rank missions, 13 - A rank missions and finally 4 - S rank missions originally reserved for jônin, can he be considered as such?

KARIN:

What do we know about Karin?

At first, not much is said, except that she is a very competent sensory ninja, that Sasuke, with Suigetsu came personally to look for. He chose her, among many other competent ninjas. He acknowledged her as the best in her field. That's a canon fact. 

Another true thing, Sasuke, who came personally to pick her up, confessed that he needed her to reach his goal.

"I need you, Karin", really happened. 

He wasn't forced to do it, on the contrary, Suigetsu, who wasn't a big fan of Karin, spent his time dissuading Sasuke from going to pick her up and take her on the team, but Sasuke insisted.

They saved each other's lives several times. Karin healed him with her "Heal Bite" and he during their fight against Killer Bee, awakened a new power from his Mangekyō Sharingan: Kagutsuchi. He was able to extinguish the flames of the Amaterasu that had touched Karin. His face, scared of losing his teammate, proves how much Sasuke cares about his Taka teammates but especially about Karin. After I will not go on betting that he cares about her, romantically or just friendly because that's not the point and nothing in the manga proves that he did it romantically or kindly, I just want to emphasize this point: he was willing to die, and put Juugo's and Suigetsu's lives in danger in order to save Karin.

We learn a little more about Karin, during the Edotensei scene with Itachi and Sasuke against Kabuto. Kabuto then talks about Taka team members and reveals to Sasuke that Karin is indeed part of the Uzumaki clan, like Naruto, and that's why she has a huge chakra cluster. She regenerates quickly her own wounds but she can help others to regenerate and heal themselves by sharing her chakra, by biting her because it's the fastest way: in fact, the injured person drinks Karin's chakra and regenerates herself/himself in a few moments.

Besides the fact that Karin was used by Sasuke to locate Itachi through her powerful chakra and to warn him of his possible enemies, and of course to heal him in case he would be seriously wounded, she is not an exceptional ninja in combat, she must even very often be saved either by Sasuke or by Suigetsu. Sasuke knew that very well. He was never shocked that Karin might be a weight for them in their adventures. He chose her by himself, nobody forced Karin to be there and decided to protect her.

The scene where Sasuke "sacrifices" Karin to kill Danzō is totally a scene to be taken with extenuating circumstances. Sasuke finally being in front of the person who ruined his life, who ordered the massacre of the Uchiha clan, he couldn't do otherwise, he was forced by all means to kill him. Karin being in his field of action because she wanted to help him, was also pierced by Sasuke's chidori blade. Don't forget though, that he didn't really sacrifice her because she didn't die, since he didn't aim at Karin's vital points.

I still want to thank Sakura for helping Karin with her medical ninjutsu, she is still part of Karin's healing process, without Sakura's intervention, she might have had a hard time healing this time.

I also wanted to point out, on the scene following Karin's famous "sacrifice":

Karin thus finds herself on the ground, dying slowly, Obito then proposes to Sasuke to finish her off, properly because she knows too much about their plan. Sasuke doesn't even take the time to answer him. During this scene, Sasuke takes an exceptional time to load his chidori, giving Team 7 time to arrive on the scene, another proof that deep down he really didn't want to kill her. It is finally on Sakura that Sasuke decides to use his chidori, and not on Karin. Karin then dissuades him... but Sakura is really not far from being killed this time by Sasuke.

This scene is powerful, but it shows the total disinterest of Team 7 in the eyes of Sasuke, at least the disinterest he has in Sakura's life. Sakura being a burden, and considering her as the enemy, had to be eliminated as soon as possible. He was also never afraid to confront Kakashi. The only one for which he has doubts, a certain apprehension that he tries indirectly to hide, remains definitely for Naruto, but again, he does not hesitate to threaten him if Naruto still chases after him.

To finish with Karin, she is part of the Uzumaki clan, one of the oldest clans in the Shinobi world, and derived from the Senju clan, there are not many members of the clan left, at least to our knowledge except Karin, Naruto and Nagato. At the end of the war, only Karin and Naruto remain. She shares this fact with Sasuke. She also had lost her entire family during the previous war, her mother was used for medical purposes, literally having her chakra sucked until her death. She became an orphan at a very young age, left to live on her own, abused by others until she met Orochimaru. She has no one left.When she meets Sasuke, she falls in love with him for his beauty, he is pretty handsome, but as a sensory ninja, she found that he has a beautiful and attractive chakra, she realized right away that Sasuke is not as bad as he pretends to be. She took a close interest in him, and I think the interest was mutual.

JŪGO:

Jūgo, is certainly the only member where we are poorly with information about him.

Jūgo is a deeply kind and loving boy but is possessed by a heavy weight that overwhelms him: the cursed seal. He is the first holder of the cursed seal, it is with his DNA that Orochimaru started his experiments. The poor man, being unable to control his murderous impulses, preferred to die rather than to leave his cell when Sasuke, Suigetsu and Karin came to get him. Sasuke promised to hold him, Jūgo, usually not confident, agrees to come with them because Kimimaro had acknowledged Sasuke. Jūgo, in addition to his incredible physical strength when possessed by the cursed seal, is able to communicate with the birds. Sasuke uses Jūgo through this ability so that his birds can locate the Akatsukis' hideout and that he can create a map from the information transmitted by these birds. Also, Jūgo is an orphan, and since Kimimaro died, he was literally alone in the world. He has no known family, and his affiliation to a particular clan is unknown. Another peculiarity that Sasuke shares with his teammates.

I consider Jūgo as Sasuke/Suigetsu/Karin’s big brother. He took care of them. There also is a scene where he puts Sasuke in his futon after having treated him and bandaged him, because Sasuke had fallen asleep sitting, from exhaustion.

This boy is soooooo cute and gentle. His bipolar side contrasts enormously. His murderous personality with his soft and wise side.

                 Well, Sasuke's plan was perfect and well thought out.

 To answer the question I was asked, "What do they do as Team Taka, besides help Sasuke enter into darkness?"

I, for one, don't hold Team Taka members responsible for Sasuke's entry into the darkness. Far from it. Sasuke was motivated by his hatred for killing Itachi, and after the final battle with his brother, motivated by revenge for those who led to his downfall. Don't get me wrong, I always feel that when it comes to Sasuke, the people who interact with him are responsible for his actions. No, Sasuke most certainly suffers from PTSD, living in unresolved grief since the death of his family, in hatred and constant pain, doesn't need anyone to think for him. He's an intelligent boy, he knows his purpose, he knows he would sacrifice himself to restore honor to those he has lost. His goal was just that. I sincerely think that deep down Sasuke wanted to change the Shinobi world, build new foundations, and achieve peace, so that what he experienced would never happen again, but it was a kind of pipe dream because he really thought he would die in his next confrontation with Naruto. He expected no less.

It really pisses me off that people think that Sasuke is acting according to the actions of others. I don't remember hearing Suigetsu, Karin or Jugo suggest a plan of action to kill someone or do something. He was the leader of this team. The others were acting on his behalf and not the other way around. He was the one who came to find them, he was the one who surrounded himself with these shinobis to help him achieve his goal. You let yourself be influenced by Naruto “talk no jutsu” in Gaiden who dares to tell the Taka team to mind their own business when he himself spent years to mind Sasuke's business, without even understanding the reason for his actions.

Gaiden makes the Taka team look like the villains who helped Sasuke carry out the actions of his hatred, but look closer, they did nothing so exceptional except help him find Itachi and obey Akatsuki's orders to attack Killer B.

It even seems to me that the Taka team were, in the end, the only ones who listened sincerely to Sasuke, to meet his expectations, to try to understand him. 

A non-canon fact unfortunately, in a novel about Sasuke, after Itachi's death, Sasuke makes a kind of pilgrimage to learn more about his brother, during his Akatsuki period, and then meets two brothers, who were preparing drops for Itachi's eyes, and they make him think about him and Itachi when they were kids. ... I'm going to skip over the real story of this novel, although it's very well written for a non-canon novel, and we find Sasuke on his scene, by the sea, where he desperately lets go of all his pain in a torrent of tears, and decides to rename Hebi team into Taka team.

Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo were present during one of the worst moments of Sasuke's life: Itachi's death and thus the mourning of his older brother.

In spite of Itachi's terrible actions and choices to raise Sasuke's power, Sasuke still considers him as his beloved older brother who sacrificed himself for a village that never gave them the chance to live, properly...

Again, as I already said in another post, I truly think that all the people close to Sasuke tried to control his choices and his life, without asking his opinion.

Itachi made it clear that he tried to trace Sasuke's life from his childhood to what he became and finally disappointed to have failed... but what the hell did he expect?

Naruto, who absolutely wants Sasuke to go back to Konoha, but why? He knew very well that the people in Konoha would bully him for his actions, when he was already bullied enough to be an Uchiha in Konoha. So Naruto claims to know what's best for Sasuke. What?!

Sakura... is Sakura.

Kakashi and Jiraya tried to dissuade Sakura and Naruto from desperately pursuing a guy who clearly wanted to get the hell out of this village: Sasuke is not worth it.

Decidedly, Sasuke doesn't get much grace from people. Between those who think he's a sulky, who always makes moods because he has some problems in his life and those who judge him without knowing a second of his existence and his journey, he's really badly surrounded.

The Taka team is the only one that hasn't gone into the details and is following Sasuke, even before he decides to explain to them the reasons for this gathering.

I like their complicity. I like their dynamics. They help each other.

Team Taka is the one that Sasuke chose on his own, Team 7 is the one that was imposed on him. Don't forget that.

At least, I didn’t even use your post, but thank you again @justsasuke​ ! It was kind of you :)

                Ps: I found this pic very cute. They are all awesome. 

[jennyverse]

Prologue to Without You

Writers note: Sorry, this has taken me a while to upload! I had promised last week to myself and just never got it done. This seems a bit more like backstory so I titled it Prologue, but it could technically be part 1 to the story! Also I am still debating the title of this whole series, its been going from Without You to New Beginnings to whatever else is in my head so it may change.  I hope you guys like it!

Word count: 878 (short chapter)

Summary: You and Itachi are promoted to ANBU, and a little party is thrown for you both. Towards the end of the night, you and Itachi get away to talk a bit but more things are left unsaid than answered.

Pairings: Itachi/reader, Naruto/reader (platonic, eventual Kakashi/reader

On your 11th birthday you were asked to join the ANBU, following Itachi who had joined months back when it was his birthday. Of course, this was a cause for a big celebration in the Uchiha clan, they had two of the youngest people to ever join the ANBU. You two were considered prodigies of the Uchiha, you excelled in pretty much everything you did. It seemed as though whatever Itachi accomplished, you followed soon after to everyone’s delight.

Ever since children, your parents made fun of the both of you, saying you would get married one day. Of course, as children it was all fun and games, but as you grew little by little, you began to develop actual romantic feeling for Itachi. You were never sure if Itachi had the same feelings, he was always sweet and kind to you, but were those romantic smiles that he threw? You were only 11, maybe it’s just some infatuation for your friend.

A party was thrown for you both, celebrating not only your birthday but the achievement you and Itachi had accomplished.  Everyone from the clan joined together and celebrated you both. Of course, you brought Naruto along, he was someone you wanted to celebrate with. Of course, you and Itachi were the center of attention, your grandparents told you both to stay together throughout the festivities, to make it easier for people to find you and congratulate you.

Although you were enjoying yourself, you did feel an emptiness and sadness. You noticed Itachi zoning out throughout the night and you knew it was for the same reason. You both missed Shisui. It had been a little bit since Shisui had died. It was a bit after Itachi had joined ANBU, something still fresh in both your minds. You didn’t understand how Shisui could have done that to himself, he was like your older brother, his presence absent tonight struck a chord deep inside you. You thought he would always be with you. You tried to ignore the feeling, opting to believe that he was with you, celebrating with you.

Towards the end of the night, the music is fading down and people are starting to head home. Sasuke’s sprawled out on his mother’s lap, tired from the night, your grandparents are chatting with Itachi’s. Naruto had fallen asleep after playing around with Sasuke and you had taken him to your room to sleep at some point in the night.

Itachi and you are walking around the party, both pretty tired from the nights festivities.

“Want to sneak off to the training field” Itachi asks you. You look at him and give him a quick nod.

Arriving at the field, Itachi takes a hold of your hand and guides you over to a patch of flowers. Picking one out he hands it to you, giving you his best eye smile, although it seems a bit sad.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to protect you” he whispers but of course you hear it

Confusion is evident on your face, what is he talking about, protect you from what?

“what are you talking about Itachi”

“ANBU isn’t something you want to be a part of, the secrecy, the lies, the eventual loss” Itachi says looking at you with sad eyes

“Is this about Shisui” this causes his eyes to widen a bit, something no one else but you would notice. His silence makes you question him again.

“Itachi, do you know something about Shisui” this time, he does speak up.

“No, I don’t. Now don’t bring him up again please, it’s too painful for us both.” Of course, you knew it had to do with Shisui, what other loss would he be talking about. You see him lie down and look up at the stars, opting to drop the subject you follow suit.

“You don’t have to protect me Itachi” you say quietly, mostly to yourself

“I want to” he whispers back, turning to look at you. Without turning to look at him you smile up at the sky, a small blush forming on your cheeks. You both stay in silence, looking up at the stars.

In the distance you can hear your grandparents calling for you and Itachi, you notice it’s gotten quite dark, how long had you been staring at the sky? Turning to see if Itachi had heard them, you see him fast asleep. You take a second to look down at him, noticing the little bags that have formed under his eyes. You wonder what has caused his worry, his lack of sleep. Is being in the ANBU that perilous, something you can’t manage, so much so that Itachi brought it up tonight. Shaking your head, you throw those thoughts away, your Itachi’s equal, you’ve always been together. Whatever it is, you’re sure you can face it head on and manage.  You aren’t scared, you’ll always have Itachi there, right? With you together, there isn’t anything you can’t face.

Waking him up, you tell him your families are looking for you both. Helping him up, you both walk back to the party. You bid each other goodnight and head to your houses, you ready to start your ANBU duties tomorrow and Itachi dreading it.

[shikamarubae]

War of the heart pt 5

Pairing:  Kakashi x reader, Itachi x reader

Summary: Itachi enters your mind

Warnings: Mention of blood and death. 

A/N:  English isn´t my first languge, please keep that in mind, i hope you like it.(i appreciate comments and criticism).

The ages and order in the events may not correspond to the anime canon.

The parts in italics are memories/dreams with memories.

Tags: @flowersgirl02​ , @affection-rabbit​ ,  @dumb-dork​  @jillanaholland​              @ maybeisthemoon

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3 Part 4  Part 6 

Your arms remained around the body of the man, his clinging to you in the same way, you did not understand what was happening, what you had just done had been an absurd and irresponsible impulse but that it had been reciprocated, you were so nervous that you were afraid to separate from him , What would happen next?, your head was spinning trying to find out how you would get out of that until the voice of the man who was in your arms, stuck to your body, gave you all the explanation you needed.

-So warm ... Izumi-it was a murmur against your neck that made you realize that Itachi was not in his right mind, you took him away from you, he looked at you but he was not seeing you, his face stained with his own blood and the saddest eyes you've ever seen.

-Itachi, I'm not Izumi, it's me .. (YN) -you said in a low voice but still your voice seemed to affect him and the man in front of you activated his sharingan, it wasn't like other times, when you saw the intense red of those eyes everything disappeared around you, he had gotten into your head and it hurt, it hurt more than any physical injury.

A woman had you in her arms, her hair was black, very black and you caressed one of the strands near you, you felt happiness. Suddenly a man, red hair, his hand fell on your head and smiled, more warmth, more happiness, then blood, screams and the sound of swords, the bodies of those two people on the ground and the happiness and warmth had disappeared turning into pain, anger and sadness.

Red hair again, this time it was a woman, next to him a man, there was no longer black hair, he was blond and he was smiling at you, they both smiled, the anger had disappeared a little until the two smiles disappeared and again blood, a lot of blood, a giant claw pierced both bodies, anger reappeared, pain and sadness had never gone away.

As if it were a whirlwind, the image changed, again blond hair, but this time it was you who was holding the person with that hair in your arms, it was a baby, a little baby who looked at you and pulled your black hair while several men gave you orders, when you looked at that baby you felt the warmth of the beginning, but as soon as your gaze moved away from him, the anger, pain and sadness that had never disappeared returned to take over your heart and mind.

The images did not stop passing within you, but they were not just images, you felt again all that you had felt in those moments, stones being thrown in the direction of that little blond but being intercepted by your body, every time you had killed someone, insults directed at the little one who had all your calm, more murders, secret conversations about you, more secrets, fear, a lot of fear and rage and finally your heart breaking.

You writhed on the cold hard ground, with your hands on your head, wanting it to stop but you weren't able to articulate any words, just sounds of pain and sobs, they were the only sounds that came out of your mouth, until suddenly Itachi seemed to come to his right mind, his gaze finally saw you, writhing and crying. He undid the genjutsu and approached you carefully, his hand reached out to your shoulder, he was going to say something but you moved away, scared, with your hands still on your head and looking at nothing.

Itachi sighed and dropped back to the ground, leaning his back against the wall, waiting for you to come back to yourself, he rubbed his face with his hands and returned his eyes to normal, the image of you shrunken and scared was not something that he wanted to keep in his mind.

-What were you doing here?- He asked without moving from where he was and without looking at you, his gaze fixed on the entrance to the room.

-Nothing- you finally answered-I stumbled and found the hallway by chance

-I see- he got up and walked towards you, he took you by the arm and made you get up, you made no effort to get away from him, you didn't want to risk going through the same thing again.

In silence you walked back to the room assigned to you, your mind was completely blank, you really didn´t understand what situation you were in.

-I told you a week ago not to go out alone, I will repeat it to you, this is not a joke.

You nodded, didn't complain or made any misplaced comments like you would have done at any other time, seeing all your memories that way had broken something. You stood with your back to Itachi, looking at the wall, waiting for the man to leave so that you could drop into bed but that didn´t happen, his landed on your shoulder, but this time you din´t move away, you just stood still, tense, waiting for something to happen, you felt the presence of her body behind yours, near you.

He stayed like that for a few seconds but quickly broke contact and walked away from you to leave the room. At last you relaxed and let your body fall into bed, it had been a long time since you felt such a severe headache. Lying on the bed, you cried, it had been years since you cried so much, you heard the steps of the man coming back to the room, leaving something on the table next to you and going away again, at all times you turned your back, your body was traversed by a strange feeling and you were not able to identify it, you just cried.

-You can cry-said a boy behind you as you left the Hokage's office

-You don't cry for who you don't know-you replied clenching your fists and following the step, you had to get home quickly, Naruto had been left alone with two members of ANBU, so that you could go talk to the Hokage.

-Is that what the Hokage told you? to pretend you didn´t know them?

-Why do you care?

-It is my duty to watch over you

-Why? I have already promised that I will not tell Naruto who his parents were or what happened- you said, almost shouting at the boy, drawing the eyes of the people around the tower.

The boy covered your mouth and dragged you to the cemetery, ignoring your complaints and kicking, of course he could with you, he was part of the Hokage's guard and you were just a kid.

-Leave me alone- you yelled again, but this time he didn't cover your mouth and let you yell and hit him but he didn't let you go. "Why did you bring me here?"

-You were not at the funeral, listen (YN) It ​​isn´t my job to take care of you personally, I am like a bodyguard and it will be easier for me to do my job if the girl i have to protect is not a mass of anger and overcome what has happened, so sit in front of the grave, cry, scream and do what you have to do.

-Ninjas don't do that

-You are 8 years old (YN), you will have time to fulfill that.

With lips trembling and tears threatening to leave you hugged the boy's leg and cried, you cried what you had not cried the day you saw how Minato and Kushina died, you cried as you had not on the day of the funeral or when the Hokage had ordered you to pretend that they had never existed for you.

The boy's pants were soaked with your tears but he didn't complain, he just stroked your hair as you let your tears flow.

That had been the first time you had cried in front of Genma, for you he became something like an older brother, he was the only person you cried in front of, for the rest of the world you only had two emotions, joy and anger, while to him you were a more complex person.

You were wondering what he was doing and thinking at the time, you had always turned to him when your feelings overflowed and you did not know what to do with them and when you got older you also began to share the complaints about your love life with him, you had cried for Kakashi on his shoulder and even though he had never spoken out loud on the subject, you knew he didn't like your relationship. Thinking about it a new worry came over him, you hoped Genma wouldn't tell Kakashi anything he shouldn't say.

With that on your mind distracting you from your memories and pain, you fell asleep again.

[lyricfrost13]

BNHA/Naruto reincarnation au

Ok ok so the trope is that one character is reincarnated into another world, either as another character or as a new insert in the world right?  I had a kind of cracky idea for this one.  

It’s a bit long but basically a ton of characters from My Hero die during the War arc and are reincarnated as Naruto characters, which changes canon timeline but not a ton at first because they all think they’re the only one. Like, literally Minato is All Might, Aizawa is Kakashi - Team 7 is Izuku (Naruto - trust me I know it’s weird, but nearly-adult Izuku in a child’s body is here to cause problems on purpose), Bakugou (Sakura - the temper and eventually the ability to smash boulders? Yes. I know Naruto and Sakura could be flipped but I have Reasons), and Todoroki (Sasuke - evil older brother, fire stuff, kinda stoic) - there’s more under the cut because I don’t have the energy to write an actual entire fic but I need to put it down. Maybe at some point I’ll write the rest. 

Yagi thought it was a dream for a while.  Thought it was a nightmare, some days - but being Namikaze Minato was oddly satisfying in that he earned every bit of his power along the way.  He was proud of it, the strength and speed and intellect. The only person he ever told about his old world was Kushina - and she believed him.  His heart ached when his team fought and died and fought more - he tried to reach Kakashi in his grief, but the boy wasn’t happy. 

Aizawa doesn’t tell a soul that he’s someone else, that he’s a fraud, not a genius.  He doesn’t dare make a friend in Obito or Rin, still aching because all he can think is Mic and Oboro and his fucking class all gone.  Minato’s sunny smiles in the midst of being a deadly destroyer of armies makes him think of All Might and Izuku, the heroes, the best of them.  It hurts when it’s all taken away, and he uses his knowledge of how not to strain eye-related powers to cover his Sharingan when not in use and dives into ANBU to avoid thinking too hard about everything. 

Touya aches. He’s a genius of his clan, blew his first fireball so hot that it charred his throat for a week and glowed blue-white instead of red. This world doesn’t leave him burned beyond repair, and killing isn’t what makes a villain - but he still becomes one, for his little brother’s sake, because while Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shouto are gone, he still has Sasuke. (Another suicide mission fueled by revenge - only this time it’s him that has to die in the end, not his father.)  Itachi’s new flames are black, not blue.

Hawks is tired of lies.  So tired of being loyal to a system that’s full of false promises.  He might be a shark instead of a bird now, but he still flies the coop and joins up with a group that comfortably reminds him of the League. 

Izuku grieves everyone - of course he does - in the quiet of his little apartment. He’s reminded again and again of the fact that he’s different for whatever reason.  This time, instead of crying, he shouts - he laughs - he pranks the shit out of everyone to just be noticed for something that’s actually under his control.  If he can’t be the #1 hero, then dammit he’ll be Hokage - the strongest leader he can manage to be. 

Katsuki doesn’t know what the fuck to do. One, he’s become a girl - gender didn’t really matter all that much to him compared to strength and intelligence before, but it was still weird. What frustrated her more was his lack of quirk - explosions had defined Bakugou for so long that frankly, she was still going to research Iwa’s explosion corps and do something about that to add to her repertoire. Somewhere along the line Ino attached to her like the limpet Kirishima and Mina always had - getting up in her personal space without caring one way or another, understanding when she refused to speak, encouraging her temper every once in a while. The one annoying thing is that Ino interpreted her need to get stronger than the current projected Rookie of the Year as a crush.  Which - no. Sasuke was objectively good looking for a kid, but he was also intellectually a hell of a lot younger than Katsuki-Sakura, and he always uncomfortably reminded her of Todoroki. 

Shouto thrives at first - glad not to be the only one with expectations, even if he winces at the idea of an older brother shouldering so much responsibility.  He lives for having an older brother to look up to, to get close to.  He’s a little miffed that his clan’s specialty is fire-based, but hey, at least his father doesn’t expect him to be his successor - until he does. Until Itachi starts going on more and more missions, poking his forehead and saying “Another time, little brother,” more and more often. And then the massacre happens, and Sasuke wonders why he ever trusted that things would be so stable and ok.  He’s going to get strong, drag Itachi kicking and screaming back to Konoha, and rip his eyes out so he never does that again.

...

Kakashi is late again. Sasuke was more irritable than usual - after Wave, their sensei had promised to help him learn the Ice Release that Haku had done, and he’d really wanted to have that in his arsenal to have something more familiar. Sakura and Naruto had begun sparring in their boredom, and in the middle of it, Naruto slipped and hit one of Sakura’s sore spots from the mission.  She snarled.  

“Fucking deku, what the hell!” she said.  

Naruto yelped and fell forward, following through too far on a punch, eyes wide.  Sasuke stared, blinking.  

“Interesting,” said Kakashi’s voice behind them.  Sasuke was staring at Sakura in shock, and Naruto looked like he was staring at a ghost.  Sakura’s cheeks were turning pink. 

“What are you looking at me like that for?!” she demanded.  

“Problem children,” Kakashi said.  All three faces whipped to face him, mouths gaping, eyes wide. 

“ . . . Aizawa-sensei?” asked Shouto quietly. 

“What?” demanded Bakugou.  “All of us?  Who the fuck are-Icy-hot? Deku?” 

“Kacchan!” Izuku’s expression on Naruto’s features was - well.  Kakashi cursed inwardly - had things gone well, fuck, he’d be the kid’s older brother figure.  This wouldn’t have gone this far.  But the elation of not being alone was too much, even with that sting of he was right in front of me and I did nothing.  

“If we’re all back here,” Sasuke said quietly, “Who else might be?”

“Well, this changes things for us, but not for anyone else,” Kakashi explained.  “As far as the world knows, we’re the same as we’ve always been.  However, you studying Iwa explosion tactics and you wanting to learn ice release jutsus makes a lot more sense now.”

. . . 

Gaara had always had it in him to destroy.  From dust to sand to death - it was all the same.  The Ichibi raging against a jagged seal had only exacerbated an already damaged mind, one that couldn’t handle the empty space where All for One used to be. Instead stood rage.  

Yashamaru had helped, for a while. Gaara had almost even considered telling his greatest secret to his siblings - that he was once a terrible monster of a human, Shigaraki - but his uncle’s death shattered that thought quite thoroughly.  That was all it took to turn him once again into a monster, until a kid with another tailed beast inside him raged against his pain hard enough to scrape at his most protected secret: He didn’t want to be a monster or a villain. 

Naruto had that blinding smile as he fought he’d only seen a few times before - on Midoriya Izuku. 

. . . 

When Itachi next faced Sasuke, he had expected pain and rage. 

Instead, his little brother created a prison of ice mirrors, Sharingan flashing as he finished the sequence of signs.  His teammates screamed from outside the dome, and Itachi grimaced as he readied a stance - when had Sasuke learned anything about ice?  Why would he - 

“You’re going to give me answers, aniki,” he said.  “One of which is this: Touya, what the hell?”

Itachi stared.  And stared.  

“You-Shouto?”

“Apologies for not having the hair dye remover and livestream set up, but yes,” he replied.  

. . . 

Shikamaru was . . . well.  He wasn’t an idiot.  Talking about reincarnation and heroes and another life was a way to get a trip to T&I and never leave.  It didn’t mean he didn’t use his skills - Aizawa would be proud of how lazy his son had gotten in his next life, he bet. 

So when he saw Team Seven act a lot differently at the beginning of the chunin exams than he recalled, he was on high alert to find out what was going on. Naruto had learned some level of volume control, Sakura had tempered whatever her issue with Sasuke was, and Sasuke had - not softened, but definitely cooled off.  Seemed more attentive to his teammates. 

And Kakashi had certainly become more present, if the way they were presenting themselves with high-quality gear was any indication.  

Chunin Exams, Sports Festival - didn’t matter, he was still going to prove himself. No matter the fact he didn’t have his quirk anymore, he still kept asking questions. 

“Hey, Sakura.  Naruto. Sasuke. You ready for this?”

“We’re going to pass,” Sakura said. “No other option.”  He raised a brow. 

“You sure about that?”

“Sakura-chan said it, so she means it,” said Naruto.  Sasuke nodded. 

“What about you and your team?”

“Well, it’d be a drag to take the exam again. Guess I’ve got to get the promotion now,” he sad, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Gotta scope out the competition - I’m not here to make friends.” 

All three stiffened, and Naruto’s eyes lit up.  

“Shinsou!” 

Shikamaru spluttered. 

“Wh-what?!”

“You’re not the only one,” said Sakura immediately.  “Shoulda figured, eyebags. Would have thought Aizawa would be a Nara too, but it still fits.” Shikamaru was, of course, reeling.  

“Aizawa’s here?!  Wait, who are you three, then, if you know?”

“I’m Deku,” said Naruto, and yeah, that tracked.  

“Who the fuck else?” asked Sakura, and yep, her temper and Bakugou’s were just about the same amount of hair-trigger.  Which left - 

“And you’re Todoroki,” he said.  Sasuke nodded. 

“Kakashi’s Aizawa.  He’s gonna be really glad that you’re here, Shinsou. Talk to him when you get the chance.”

. . .

“You might be a monster, but so am I,” Naruto insisted as Gaara’s wild gaze turned on him. 

“No, no, I was born a monster,” Gaara insisted. “I destroyed everything I touched, it all was decay, I ended a world -”

Oh. Oh. 

“And All for One’s gone now,” he said. 

The Ichibi’s form flickered, and the sand surrounding the boy flailed whiplike and dangerous. 

. . . 

Naruto entered the seal and frowned.  It - his body, his spirit felt different. Somewhere between Naruto and Izuku. The mindscape shimmered, and a blond figure stepped forward - the First Hokage. But another step forward, and he shifted into someone else equally, no, more familiar. Naruto choked. 

“All Might?!” he gasped. “You’re the Fourth?  But - how - how is this?” he was helpless for words. Minato stiffened, staring at how the spirit before him shifted back and forth between a young man with whisker marks and blue eyes and a mop of green fluffy hair. 

“Izuku? You’re Naruto?” he asked quietly. His son nodded vigorously. 

“It seems I’ve bestowed quite the power and burden on you twice over,” he mused.  “Come here.  It’s not every day a father gets to see his son for the first time in over a decade,” he said, arms open.  Naruto blinked.  

“My - my father?”

“Yes,” he said with a sad smile. “I only ever told your mother about my past life. She even believed me!” 

Izuku-Naruto stumbled forward and sobbed into Minato-Yagi’s shoulder, clutching him tightly.  

“It’s not just us,” he said, “Aizawa and Todoroki and Kacchan and Shinsou and - there’s more out there, I’m sure of it. Not everyone, but more. And I’m going to save them all this time.” 

Minato smiled. 

[illwork4anime]

18 please!

Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

Yes! So I will use my WIP Done with Love

ORIGINS

ORIGINALLY THIS STORY WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE ShikaSaku. 

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ONLY ITASAKU. LOOK HOW FAR WE HAVE FALLEN BECAUSE I FELL HARD FOR SHIKA.

Literally never considered the pairing until this. 

This story started with the Itasaku oneshot that is the prologue. Then I wrote a drabble that was just the hospital scene, but a little different. It had Kurenais daughter coming in wounded. Sakura saves her and goes to the waitingroom to find Shika a mess. It's the end of her shift so she takes him out for a drink. The end.

Then I decided, no I want to write a proper story. So I combined them, with Shikamaru only there because of his big brain AND THATS IT. NOTHING ELSE. So I added...They talk. Shika owes her one bigtime. Asuma would have haunted him forever if she died. So, Sakura says - I know how you are going to help me out. Help me train and I am going to get Sasuke back all on my own. Work with me on a strategy. The start of the chapter was a flash forward to an event I can tell because its a spoiler! Basically, Sakura is captured and trying to escape. This helped add some suspense to the exposition and make a boring capture time more interesting by breaking it up. 

BUT then I decided to redo it completely. Because I fell in love with shikasaku as a later pairing. 

Also - all those Kakashi moments - ACCIDENTAL. I wrote that healing scene in the library on a whim and now here we are. Originally, just supposed to be Shika and Itachi.

DELETED/REFACTORED SCENE

One additional diversion was the scene in the art gallery. That originally didn’t have the genjutsu at all. It was an argument outside in a part. But I wanted to make it relevant to her training, so I put it in the gallery. In the alternate scene, it started because Sakura confronted Shikamaru about how he had kissed Ino before and wanted to know what kind of kiss it was. Here it is in DRAFT FORM:

“Oh, Sai!” Ino’s voice shatters through the moment. Ino bounds up behind Sai, throwing her arms around him in greeting.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding from me.” She says sweetly.

“Beautiful, I was not hiding, I assure you.” He says, face looking phonier than before. Why did Ino get a nice nickname, while Sakura got stuck with Hag? Ino beams at him for it.

“I missed you, silly. Let’s go to the movies Friday, so you can make it up to me.” Ino says sweetly.

Sai turns to Sakura, “What do you think, Sakura? Shall we go?”

Ino glares at her, as if she’s invited herself while Sakura puts her hands up in surrender.

“Um, actually Sai, I have training with Shikamaru on Friday night. I won’t be able to go.” Sakura lies.

“Is that what you’re calling it,” Ino grumbles under her breath.

“Apologies, Ino. We will have to try another time.” He says to her.

“She won’t mind if we go without her,” She says sweetly, then grinds out in a threatening tone, “Right, Sakura?”

“Right.” Sakura squeaks.

“According to my reading, the Hag is socially obligated to agree in this situation, though her true feelings could be to the contrary. It would be perceived as a slight to go without her.” Sai responds, looking rather proud at his insight.

Sakura cringes as Ino’s intensified glare.

“Then why don’t you just bring Shikamaru along, Sakura.” Ino offers, “Then we can have a double date.”

Again, the way Ino says it give Sakura no room to disagree, but she does anyway.

“I’m not going on a double date.” She says firmly.

“Forehead, let’s just talk for a second over there.” Ino says, grabbing her arm too tightly and dragging her out of hearing distance.

“Don’t ruin this for me, Sakura. I’m super close to sealing the deal on Sai and I’m not about to give that up because you made some phony sisterhood pact to yourself to swear off men forever.” She whispers furiously.

“It’s not about my completely legitimate pact. I have way bigger things to worry about right now than going on a fake date.” Sakura hisses back. Danzo’s disappointed expression rises up in her memory, along with his gentle reminder of her deadline. She shakes her head, “And don’t kid yourself, Ino. Sai has no idea you’re even interested in him.”

“Then you understand why I need this!” Ino argues back.

“Even if I wanted to, I’d never get Shikamaru to agree to this.” Sakura says, trying a different angle.

“Ha!” Ino lets out a shrill laugh, “That’s what you’re worried about.”

Sakura glares, “Yes. The last place he’d want to spend a Friday night is fourth-wheeling a date with you and Sai.” She’s not sure that’s strictly true, but is hoping his lazy, reclusive track record works to her advantage.

“Fourth-wheeling isn’t a thing, and you know it.” Ino disagrees, “And he’d go if you asked him. He’d show up in civilian clothes with his hair down if you asked him to.”

“Yeah, right.” Sakura scoffs, but blushes at the image that pops in her head of him running a hand through his loose hair. She shakes her head and says with more bite than she means to, “It doesn’t matter who asks. The answer will be no.”

“Then you’d better convince him.” She says, jabbing a finger in Sakura’s shoulder. “You still owe me from the time I pretended to be your lover to get that stalker fan boy to stop bothering you.”

“Hey, I didn’t ask you do to that!” Sakura protests.

“See, I did it out of the goodness of my heart, so now’s your chance to repay me, because that’s what girlfriends do.” She smiles with a shrug and turns back to Sai to answer without waiting for Sakura to respond.

“Sai, she’s in!” She giggles, skipping back over to him, “See you Friday, Forehead!”

_____

Even though he said it wouldn’t, Shikamaru’s waiting for her outside the theater out of uniform that Friday. His black pants look pretty much the same, but his well-toned arms are on full display in a mesh tee-shirt and a long green vest that brushes his thighs. It probably has the Nara clan symbol on the back.

“Look at you, Muscles,” She teases him, glancing pointedly at his exposed arms. He lets out an annoyed huff, but his cheeks go pink, “I thought you weren’t wearing your civilian clothes tonight.”

“It would have been more troublesome to stick out that to just change,” He sulks. She can’t keep the smile off her face.

“Ino and Sai here yet?” She looks around but doesn’t see them.

“Not yet.” He’s still blushing and looks to the side when he says, “You look nice too.”

She lets out a surprised, “Oh, thanks,” looking down at the outfit she found in the back of her closet. It had been hard to find something that was fancy enough to say ‘date’ for Ino but casual enough to say ‘friends’ for Shikamaru. The simple cream tank top, with a more generous neckline than she was used to, tucked into a plain red skirt did the trick.

“Forehead, Shikamaru!” Ino calls, jogging up with her arm looped through Sai’s.

“Here we go,” Shikamaru mumbles, pushing off the wall he’s leaning against.

“Hey, none of that attitude,” She scolds. If she was taking a night off, it was going to be worth it, dammit, “We are here to have fun. Even if it kills us,”

“It just might,” he breaths out as Ino bounds up to them.

“You actually showed up. I honestly didn’t think you would,” Ino says with an obnoxious laugh. She eyes Ino’s crop top and short purple skirt and suddenly feels like her neckline isn’t so racy after all. Sai’s outfit is just as bad, also in a black crop top with low riding pants.

“Why am I the only one not wearing a crop top?” Sakura says pulling at the bottom half of her shirt.

“Hey,” Shikamaru says sharply, gesturing to his shirt, “This is not a crop top.”

“Might has well be,” She jokes, poking his abs through a hole in the mesh.

“Stop that,” he complains, grabbing onto her hand.

“This is going to be so fun!” Ino says, looping her arm through Sakura’s and dragging them inside. Shikamaru doesn’t let go of her hand until Ino pushes him and Sai into the line for tickets.

“Why can’t you just get your own stuff, Ino?” Shikamaru grumbles. “What a drag.”

“You’d know why if you ever bothered to go on dates, Shikamaru.” She answers, sticking her tongue out at him. He flushes pink and glances shyly at Sakura.

“Beautiful is right. Traditionally men are the ones to pay for date activities,” Sai says, no doubt trying to be helpful.

“She’s totally taking advantage of you, man,” Shikamaru says, shaking his head and turning to walk up to the counter.

“I don’t understand,” Sai says, following behind him. “A date is still an equal exchange. Don’t men usually receive payment in the form of sexual favors at the end of the night?”

Sakura hears Shikamaru let out a strangled groan. He grabs Sai by the back of the head and starts whispering something urgently to him.

She can’t help but laugh at Shikamaru’s reaction.

“Isn’t he the cutest?” Ino gushes. “He’s like a lost little puppy.”

“He’s something.” Is all Sakura can think to answer.

Ino’s eyes turn mischievous and swing to Sakura. “So you got Shikamaru to come. Who was right again?”

Of course, Ino wanted to get in her I-told-you-so about it being relatively easy to get Shikamaru to come.

She tries to make it sound more trouble than it was. “Yeah, well you don’t know what I had to promise to get him to come here, Ino-pig.”

“Oh my, Forehead!” Ino lets out a scandalized giggle. Sakura’s face heats, realizing Ino took it sexually. “On the contrary, I want to know every saucy detail.”

“It’s nothing like that!” Sakura says, but Ino is unphased.

“Just as long as it’s nothing naughty in the theater. It’s all fun and games until you’re halfway through a hand job and a worker shines a flashlight on you with your hand down some guy’s pants in front of a theater full of judgy middle-aged women who clearly don’t understand the concept of spontaneous romance.”

“That’s so specific,” Sakura says suspiciously. “Please tell me that didn’t actually happen to you.”

“Yes, well,” Ino waves of her comment, “Learn from my mistakes Sakura. But more importantly, don’t mentally scar me by getting freaky with my teammate while I’m 2 seats down.”

“I should say the same to you!” Sakura says, blushing further, but Ino doesn’t make any promises.

Shikamaru and Sai return. Shikamaru looks more disgruntled than ever.

“That was the most troublesome conversation I’ve ever had.” He grumbles under his breath to her, low enough for Sai and Ino to miss. But as Ino passes, he says, “You owe me two times now for that.”

Sakura flushes. Although Sakura knows he means 2 weekends, Ino doesn’t. She wiggles her eyebrows and Sakura wants to sink into the floor from embarrassment.

He hands her a ticket with ‘Illusion of Silence’ written on the front, and she asks, “What are we seeing? A horror movie?”

“It was that or a sappy romcom. Just remember I chose the lesser of two evils.” He says and takes her hand again, leading her to the theater. It feels a little strange to be holding hands, but she doesn’t say anything. The trailers haven’t started yet, so they have no trouble finding their seats. The theater is mostly empty anyway, probably not a good sign for the movie quality.

She sits down between Shikamaru and Sai.

“Sakura, how is what you pass off as sketching going?” Sai asks.

Pass off. She suppresses the urge to smack him across the head. That kind of thing was frowned upon in these types of establishments.

“Terrible. I think Kurenai-sensei gave up on me.”

Kurenai had barely kept from laughing at Sakura when she’d shown her sketch book. It was pitiful, and while there had been a small improvement in Sakura’s visual genjutsu, Kurenai had decided to move on to a different topic. She still had to keep up the activity, but just not as her main focus.

Now they were working on non-visual genjutsu. Sakura found this a lot easier for some reason. Inducing pain, sounds, tastes, smells, all of that was just chemicals moving around the body. She understood those. She’d dealt with those before.

While she’d been extremely glad for the change in topic, she couldn’t manage to look forward to her lessons anymore. It was hard not to look at Kurenai differently after learning about her secret affair with Kakashi. It was a difficult feeling to explain, but every time she remembered it, her chest grew heavy, like something had reached inside her chest and squeezed a fist around her heart. She grits her teeth just thinking about it.

“I told you giving up was the best option,” Sai says sweetly, “No reason to waste your time improving a hopeless skill.”

“Shut up, Sai. A student is only as good as their teacher and you were absolutely no help.” She grumbles.

“Hey, don’t blame Sai because you can only draw stick figures. Some people just aren’t born to be artists like he was,” Ino defends, sending a starry eyed look at Sai and resting a hand to Sai’s arm. Then she pulls him into a conversation about what his ‘artistic genius’ has be working on lately.

“Is it really going that bad?” Shikamaru asks referring to her genjutsu training. His eyebrows are drawn in with concern.

“I don’t know.” She grumbles. She doesn’t want to admit it, but from Kurenai’s reactions, she felt it was going that badly. She wasn’t improving as fast as she should be. It seemed like something on a fundamental level just wasn’t clicking. “I try to do what Kurenai is instructing, but it just doesn’t seem to be working. We are so different that sometimes its hard to understand what she wants from me. Plus, it doesn’t help that genjutsu is so subjective.”

“Why don’t we work on it together next week. It might help to get a fresh perspective.”

“Really? That would be amazing,” She says with a smile.

“Of course.” He takes her hand again, rubbing a thumb across the back.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Shikamaru.” She says, squeezing his hand back.

“Let’s not find out,” he jokes, try to be nonchalant but he’s beaming from the comment.

Sakura lets out a yawn, “Let’s not.”

“You’re not going to fall asleep on me, are you?” He teases.

“No, I’m fine.” Sakura lies. She’d had practice with Team Guy this morning at 6am but had stayed up until 2am doing research. Physically, she was running out of steam fast. As the lights dim, she finds it harder and harder to keep her eyes open.

Shikamaru shakes her awake. Sometime during the opening credits, she fell asleep on his shoulder.

“Oh, sorry,” She says, groggily. Then whispers, “What did I miss?”

“Everything,” he answers with a smirk.

“What?” She hisses, “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

He shrugs, “You needed the rest. The point was to relax tonight, right?”

“I guess,” she grumbles.

“The movie sucked anyway,” he says standing.

“That was so scary!” Ino gushes to Sai. “I’m so glad you were here with me, Sai. I felt much safer.”

“It was not really that scary, Beautiful. No reason to be afraid of pictures.” He says confused. Ino huffs.

As they leave, Ino insists on a walk in the park across the street, but within minutes, she’s slipped off with Sai. The suggestive wink tells Sakura everything she needs to know about her plans.

Even just being friends with her, this was uncomfortable. Shikamaru actually was interested at some point. She wondered what he thought of all this.

“How is this not extremely weird for you?” Sakura asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Well didn’t you and Ino date a while back?” She explains and Shikamaru looks at her like she’s grown a second head.

“Tsh, no. Definitely not.”

“Well, you liked her though, right?”

He’s pouting, and reluctantly says, “Years ago, maybe. It wasn’t a big deal though.”

“But you guys kissed.” She counters. That seemed like a pretty big deal to her.

He stiffens and goes bright red, “Can Ino not keep her mouth shut about anything?”

“See, it is weird,” she says. But he doubles down.

“No, it’s not.” He disagrees crossing his arms, “That barely counts.”

But now she’s picturing the worst. A grating feeling rises in her chest at the thought of Shikamaru and Ino kissing and she has a strange compulsion to ask just what counts as barely counting.

“Barely counts how?” She says. She’s not able to look him in the eyes, so she trains her gaze on an ice cream cart across the park.

“I dunno, it just does.” He shrugs.

“Because it wasn’t good?” She offers. She hopes it wasn’t good.

“No, it was good,” He says defensively.

“That’s not what she said…” Sakura says skeptically, peaking at him out of the corner of her eye.

“Whatever,” Shikamaru grumbles. He’s scowling, “I can kiss just fine. She’s just trying to cover up that she’s the one who initiated the whole thing in the first place.”

“She did?” This surprises her and somehow it makes a difference.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Shikamaru states, picking up his pace. She strides right along undeterred.

“Well did you, like, want to kiss her?”

“I guess. Why does it matter?”

“Because!” She can’t seem to put the why into words. It’s just a queasy feeling turning her stomach. Even though it’s not the full truth, she offers the explanation, “You made out with your teammate, that’s a big deal.”

He stops short and turns to fully face her.

“It isn’t a big deal and we didn’t make out, okay.” He clarifies.

“Then what was it?”

“Just a kiss, Sakura”

“Well yeah, but was it a long, passionate kind -,”

“So troublesome,” he grumbles into the sky.

“Or just a quick -,”

She’s cut off by a warm pressure on her lips and her mind goes blank. As soon as she realizes what’s happening, it’s over.

Shikamaru pulls back a few inches, hands still cupping her face and searches her expression for her reaction. He kissed her.

“That’s all it was.” He murmurs, eyes dark and voice low. Her breath catches in her throat, the queasy feeling in her stomach grows magnitudes greater.

“Obviously I’d do things a little differently now,” He murmurs and his eyes flash, daring her to ask just how.

She should say something, but she couldn’t even if she wanted to. Her mind has snagged on the previous moment. The only additional thing she can seem to process is the warmth of his hands on her cheeks and his calming scent of pine and earth. She’s completely rooted in place by the heat in his chocolate brown eyes. It stokes something inside her. Maybe it is curiosity because she wonders what she would feel if just leans forward those few inches.

They bounce between her eyes and her lips, battling between waiting for her reaction and what she can only think to describe as desire. It only takes a few more moments for the latter to win.

He leans forward to capture her lips again, lingering longer this time. Its careful or rather experimental, testing her for a response she can’t seem to give. Again, he pulls back, studying her face. Again, from the moment his lips touched hers, her mind is just wiped blank, unable or unwilling to process it. Whatever he finds in her expression is enough.

His hand slides to the back of her neck and he kisses her again, deeper. Her eyes slide shut without conscious thought. She feels his other hand ghost down her side, stopping at her waist and pulling her closer. Her hands go to his chest to brace herself.

The pressure has him pulling back, checking over her face. He’s looking to see if she’s asked him to stop, she realizes, and a gentle warmth settles in her stomach. This time, his lips brush softly against hers, begging her to return the pressure and its so sweet, so unsure, that she reacts without thinking, relaxing into him. He pulls her closer, tension she hadn’t noticed draining from him and sighs against her mouth.

Finally, her thoughts are coming back to her, returning each slow, tender press of his lips against hers. The queasiness in her stomach settles into a gentle warmth and she relaxes into him. This is nice, she decides. It’s comfortable. Not great, not terrible.

It different than she’s ever felt before. Her heart isn’t beating out of her chest, she’s doesn’t feel butterflies in her stomach and she isn’t so caught up that needing air is secondary to feeling him against her.

Fine. Just fine.

Suddenly she thinks, shouldn’t it be better than just fine? Shouldn’t she be lit up inside, butterflies in her stomach, reluctant to separate even for air? The warmth in her freezes over.

“Stop,” She gasps, pressing against his chest. He steps back, and the distance seems to return more of her mind to her. The ball of ice in her stomach grows colder.

What was she doing? This was Shikamaru. Her closest friend, and she needed him like she needed air. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t get wrapped up in romance again and have everything between them fall apart. Because it would fall apart. That’s what love did to people or at least to her.

“That was a mistake” She finally decides. It was a mistake and they could forget about it and move on like it never happened. But Shikamaru’s face falls. He looks scared, she thinks.

“Don’t say that,” he begs, but she just shakes her head wrapping her arms around herself.

“I can’t do this,” Then looks into his eyes which are breaking in front of her.

“You don’t have feelings for me,” he tries.

But that’s not right. She felt something for him. He was so important to her and she’d be lying if she hadn’t found him attractive, but it didn’t quite feel like love. At least not how she’d loved Sasuke.

Even if it did, she didn’t want that anymore. Love only led to heartbreak and loss and she couldn’t lose him. Shikamaru was her only refuge in her storm of a life and she didn’t know how she’d stay afloat without him.  

Words are pouring from her mouth, and she’s not even sure they make sense, but she can’t stop them.

“I-I don’t know how I feel. I just – I can’t lose you and if we do that, eventually we’ll screw everything up and I’ll lose you. I just can’t, Shikamaru. I can’t. I need you.”

Hope shines in his eyes. It’s a rejection, but not for the reason he feared. “You won’t lose me.”

“I will.” She insists. Now she’s the one that’s scared. She torn between needing the comfort of his embrace and wanting to keep him at arm’s length. She settles with taking a step closer and grabbing the opening of his vest. “You’re the most important person in my life. I don’t want anything to change between us.”

How can she explain it to him? How can she make him understand?

“Nothing will,” He whispers, hand coming to her face again. But she can see the gears turning in his head. He’s looking at her like a shogi piece now, something to outmaneuver, outthink to the outcome he wants. Anger flares up in her.

He strokes a thumb against her face, eyes settling again on her mouth.

“Don’t,” She snaps, turning her face from his palm. She needed to leave. They just needed some time apart and he’d realize he was just caught up in the moment or something at they’d put this behind them.

“I can’t. I just need a minute.” She says disengaging from him and striding off.

“Wait, Sakura!” he calls, but she doesn’t. He swears under his breath.

She needed to put some distance between them, she needed to time to think, but she if she left alone, he’d just follow her. Ino and Sai approach then, Ino clinging to Sai’s arm. She doesn’t want to talk with Ino, doesn’t want her judgy questions, so she strides up to her next best option.

“Sai, we’re getting ice cream,” She says, dragging him toward the stand across the part.

“Sounds enjoyable,” He says with a smile, not at all minding the interruption.

Ino on the other hand lets out an annoyed, “Hey!” but doesn’t fight her past that. Sakura and Sai are out of earshot before she has a chance.

Ino crosses her arms, icily looking Shikamaru up and down.

“You are really screwing this up, aren’t you?” Ino says with a smirk.

Shikamaru scoffs going red and snaps, “Like you’re doing any better.”

To which Ino lets out an indignant “Hmph!”

 -

Sakura stops in front of the ice cream cart and gets them both a chocolate cone. Eating her feelings sounded wonderful right now.

“Shall we make some small talk now?” Sai asks with a smile. She groans.

“You don’t ask to make small talk, Sai. You just do it.” She explains, taking a lick of her chocolate ice cream. Its cold and sweet, but in a different way than Shikamaru had tasted.

Shit. Stop. That wasn’t allowed.

“Okay, so what are you doing after this?” He asks and it sounds like a pick-up line he probably read from a book on interacting with females. She rolls her eyes. Still, she’s thankful for the distraction and reminds herself this is still better than Ino.

“I’ll probably go back to the archives tonight and finish reading a few documents” She answers, talking another taste of her ice cream. Sai steps in front of her and she stops short.

“Did you not find the message I hid for you?” He says looking worried.

“What message?” She asks, confused.

“The one on the picture I gave you.” He says with a frown. Right, the picture of his brother. Is he talking about the numbers and symbol he signed in the corner? “You should go straight home tonight, Sakura.”

“Why would I do that?” she asks, growing annoyed that he won’t just get to the point.

“I cannot divulge that information.” He says robotically. She freezes.

“What did you just say?” she asks him to repeat.

“I cannot divulge that information.” He repeats and his eyes look urgent. It’s the phrase he uses when he’s close to triggering his seal. The message was about Danzo.

“Sai, what’s the message? What do you mean?” She grabs in shirt and pulls him to her, but he can’t answer.

“I cannot divulge -,”

“I get it!” She snaps at him. She has to ask it differently and her mind is racing a mile a minute over the possibilities.

“You said I shouldn’t go to the archives, right?” She tries, going back over his words.

“Yes, you should just stay home tonight.” He repeats.

“So, the message has something to do with the archives?”

“I cannot divulge -,” he begins.

“So, I’m right? You can’t tell me because I’m right.” She deduces quickly. “The message is about the archives. Is it a clue? Can I find it in the archives?”

“I cannot divulge that information.” He says, but this time seems to fight against it. “Don’t go there, Hag. You shouldn’t -,”

“Stop calling me Hag!” She bites out, unable to sensor herself, “I don’t care what I should or shouldn’t do. I’m going.” She releases his shirt and starts down the road.

“Wait!” He grabs her arm, “Listen, you shouldn’t -,”

“Was it important? Your message?” She interrupts.

“Yes,” he says, “but -,”

“Then I’m going to find it!” She says pulling her arm from his grasp and shoving her ice cream cone into it instead. She’s determined and sprints down the path. Sai had finally given her a clue about Danzo, and she’s not going to let this piece of information slip away.

“It’s not safe!” he calls, but she’s already disappeared into the night.

Reading this, I feel like this was better...hahaha oh well.

[lunelantern]

~Sasusaku analysis ~

                               ~~ Sasuke and Sakura - - pair analysis ~~                                            ~THE BRIDGE SCENE~                            (Team 7 Reunion - - after the Five Kage Summit)

                                           ---   PART 4---

How would anyone act when given an impossible choice: be a shinobi or a lover.

This scene suggests that one can't be both (Zabuza states that they can't be both and the human wins every time, albeit Naruto begs to differ and state that it is realistic and achievable to balance the two antithetical perspectives).

"Kill her and I'll accept your offer." Sasuke gives her a pill of her own medicine. Because he doesn't speak randomly for the sake of conversation, cruelly with seemingly no remorse lingering in his heart, Sasuke gives Sakura one example of how her life would be if she were to join him; the life of an outlaw where murder and disposing of people like nothing would be ordinary.

Plus, the scene is also symbolic; Sasuke asks a famous medic - - his following sentence is more than revealing for he knows very well that Sakura is a medic - - to kill a suffering person, when the very essence of her jobs nature AND her symbolism in the manga as the representative of rebirth and regeneration  is to heal, to cure, to lessen one's pain.

By joining him, Sakura would give up on her own self (Naruto answers to her shrouded confession that no sentient bring should event lose himself and betray his own morals, principles and feelings "I hate people who lie to themselves"). Hypothetically, Sasuke shows Sakura a glimpse into how her future beside him would look like.

Albeit is kosher and nuanced, barely noticeable, Sasuke still has a good nature and he proves he cares; he doesn't snap at her, he doesn't launch an attack, he takes his time to lecture her in his own blunt and sarcastic manner.

In the light of the most recent events - - Itachi’s death, the Kage summit, Danzo, Obito and his confession about Uchiha - - Sasuke might arguably have his ration altered, with interlaced moments of lucidity and madness, triggered by the emotional trauma, extreme stress and because he is being provoked. And that makes his moves seem mad, unusually erratic and exaggerated (his famous mad  laughing moment when he shouts to Kakashi that no one could ever bring his family back and restore that status quo - - a doctrine that the manga embraces).

But that's not the case; not with Sasuke and not in this scene.

The overly popular consent postulates that "Sasuke went mad/ he is crazy". Which isn't the truth at all, but it's so facile to superficially judge a character with no proper introspection.

He is not mad at all. Nothing in his demeanor reveal that Sasuke lost the clarity or the ration and his furious state must not be mistaken for insanity.

Sasuke is perfectly lucid. He's, calm, composed, enigmatic, his words have double meaning, he is coherent, analytical, tactical and he knows perfectly well what he is saying; he has complete control of his thoughts.

The fact that his following  conversation with Team 7 steals exacerbated reactions from him is due to the fact that he's more emotionally attached to them and thus his emotions would be pushed to extreme; he'd be more expressive and his rage would be more evident.

Sasuke is less reserved with Team 7 because he's emotionally involved; it’s very personal. But that doesn't make him a mentally deranged man.

He even kept his lucidity and perfectly placated Danzo with a sparkling strategy; he had enough lucidity to analyze Danzo's attacks and outsmart him, despite the emotional trump card of psychological upper hand that Danzo supposingly had on him. Even Obito himself thought at some point that Sasuke has lost it and he's only launching at Danzo erratically, aimlessly in his crazed mind, like Juugo. But it wasn't the suicidal rampage of a crazed man. Sasuke fooled everyone into thinking that he does not know what he is doing / that he lost it.

Nowhere in his attitude or his manner of speaking does Sasuke seem crazy and that's luckily to Sakura because she exposed herself to a ridiculously deadly situation. She came before him like it's a cakewalk with a confusing and conflicting strategy - - if it even existed.

That's the beauty of this pair. It's refreshing and novel, the dynamics are exciting, it lefts the reader constantly guessing and the finale isn't predictable. They aren't a cliché couple. Their movements, the inner feelings, the evident indecision and introspective turmoil is fabulous.

Sakura's ambiguous intentions and Sasuke's personal manner of speaking, his body language, her evident conflict and bedraggled approach are confusing and enigmatic. We keep in guessing what did she hope to accomplish?

Her presence alone holding a lethal weapon that she plans to use on Sasuke and the mention of the word "kill" on her lips when talking about Sasuke the man she loves might be symbolic for how much she treasures the bond with Naruto and how much she regrets for her innocent, naïve plea to bring Sasuke back.

A bond of blood, pain, rancor and emotional torment that she created, a harpoon of tm emotional trauma and torture for Naruto who didn't deserve it. Her present alone with murder intent is an attempt to free Naruto her best friend from this curse (a repentine decision taken after her "confession" failed - - her attempt to free Naruto from that promise failed because Naruto suggests that the supposed burden of her promise was also a conjoined personal motivation).

And maybe Sakura wants to confirm her own feelings and proceed from there: does she love him now when he's gone to this lengths or did her feelings changed for this new Sasuke and she'll be able to fulfill her shinobi duty?

That's how her disarrayed moves and the lack of any proper prior plan could be explained. She wanted to confront her own emotions and the best way to do so was to meet Sasuke herself and assess the situation with her own eyes and her suspicions coupled with the rumors about him lead to the verdict: he is not the same Sasuke that she fell in love with.

Solidifying Sasuke's role as a character with great development in the Manga (a Bildungsroman which follows the evolution of a character from childhood to adulthood, which emphasizes and supports the moral of the story). In antithesis with Naruto who is a linear character who didn't change in the bit, Uchiha is a dynamic character who evolves and never stays the same.

Both Sakura and Karin make it perfectly clear that Sasuke is not static like an unperturbed lake with no ripple to break the mirror-like stillness of its surface. He's a vivacious ocean - - unpredictable and fulminant with constant vicissitudes between tranquility and serenity and turbulent storms.

Sakura confronts her own feelings by approaching Sasuke and realization almost costs her life - - her heart gives us the painful confirmation that she loves him, still helplessly loves him ardently, in a moment when there's no safe turning back.

A moment of hesitation is lethal for a shinobi. A moment of indecision or unfortunate choice comes with devastating consequences.

She reveals her poisoned kunai from under her clothes while indecision takes control over her reeling emotions and fogged lucidity. Simultaneously, Sasuke prepares his Chidori and prepares to strike his attack.

The manga is very descriptive and suggestive. The transitions denote melodious cursively and the flow and cohesion of their interplay is assured by the constant introspection into the characters minds and hearts as the silent face expressions and body language emphasize their dialogue.

Sasuke sees Sakura's internal turmoil. He notices how she reviews her own feelings for he did the same when he heard the truth about Itachi. She's analyzing her feelings for him as he silently allow her to make a decision, up to the very last moment - - he wait for her to get close to him while he won't let any other enemy with murder intent to get so close to him.

Waiting for her to decide, to make up her mind, to choose the road to take and dictate the course of action. Up to the last moment when she reveals her kunai and her mind decides that "she doesn't matter", meaning that she won't comply with his request to kill Karin and "prove" her loyalty and feelings to him.

The implicit dubiety in Sasuke's voice has a moral purpose behind: in a couple, trust is fundamental for a healthy relationship. Love isn't enough when it’s not coupled with trust and respect.

When trust misses, there can't be any romance between two parties and that's what Sasuke's ironic and daring words mean when he dares Sakura to prove her loyalties and back up her confession.

Yes, she might love him but she won't do everything he asks and she does not NEED to comply to his requests. Sasuke tells Sakura that she does not BELONG to his world now. To this version of reality, according to the script of this play he can't be her lover, the one she dreams of.

His eyes, the mirrors of the soul as the symbols of the Third Eye in Buddhism - - the omnipotence of the one who beholds all the wisdom and knowledge / the spiritual part represented by Sasuke's Yin avatar - - are always scrutinizing and introspective. Sasuke is following Sakura's mimics, gesture and reactions with hawkish diligence, attentive and meticulous.

He sees right through her deception; he might not have accumulated enough life-experience, wisdom and information to unravel Itachi's truth ("how far can you see with that Sharingan of yours, Sasuke?"), but he sees right through Sakura's soul, reading her like an open book, every page and every line. She's transparent in front of the man she loves.

It can't be any different because romantic bonds are unique; nothing can begin to compare or come close to. There's nothing else tangible to compare romantic love with, nothing that can offer such a complete body and soul experience.

It's very difficult to draw a kokeshi doll mask on the face of a lover because primal instinct makes one react differently, in a peculiar manner in the presence of the loved one.

Is primal, animal instinct to entice and attract the attention of a potential match and thus it makes it difficult to fight against such strong innate reflexes.

For both Sasuke and Sakura, the primeval instinct to be a couple is very difficult to placate and hide. Sasuke makes it obvious from his tempered gestures, for how he allows her closer to him than anyone, and from he way he talks to her - - the syntax of the phrase and the choice of words are all very intimate, very personal.

And Sakura's pendulating actions shine with confusion and indecision, the inner turmoil revealing as theatrical and dramatic: she alternates between blubbing and shouting, rasping and barking at him and getting emotional and mellower with him.

The look in their eyes is one of this pair’s most symbolic feature. Since Japanese people aren't overtly extroverts with displaying emotions in public, subtlety is the key of this representative pair. There is an entire repertoire that composed the aria of love songs between this pair. There are heated glances, angst stares, incredulity and confusion. This time Sakura does not eschew her eyes from Sasuke; she doesn't glance shyly and flirtatiously aside from him like she does at the end of the manga. She holds Sasuke's gaze, leveling his piercing gaze as she knows she risks a lot because this man's eyes can see through everything.

He... Was always capable to see right through her deception. She can never hide from him.

Sasuke instead can perfectly mask his emotions, but chooses not to.

Considering how this couple's love story is embroidered into the tapestry of scorching passion, it’s no wonder that Sasuke is the one who initiates most the innuendos between them. No pronouns are more idoneous than the repetitive "Me" and "you" and the syntax of their dialogue; the flow of the conversation, the order of the words and the feelings elicited are extremely intimate.

There is history behind this couple and their now earmark stares and glances exchange support it.

Sasuke and Sakura are subtle but their body language is unique and a expressive. No fustian description can give their story justice, for it's far too complex.

That's why passion and intimacy scorch like a pyre with this pair. Every feeling, every emotion and every sentiment is augmented and exacerbated.

While he's clearly deranged by the women's litany of flirts and attempts to seduce him, he listens to Sakura's every word. He doesn't brush off her confession, he doesn't ask her to keep her distance from him, and he doesn't repay her confession with brusque scowls or growls (like he does to Karin, Ino and Mei).

Sasuke and Sakura's love story is very reminiscent to the compelling elements of Shakespeare drama in terms of its characteristic elements: the tragic hero who's suffering is the product of a peculiar  trait of fate or an extraneous force (the Uchiha curse/ manipulation and lies that surround HIM); his inner struggle (the struggle between good or bad), darkness and hatred and evil  that destroys any iota of goodness in the hero's heart, the stupendous internal and external conflict and the effect of catharsis that their feelings produce.

The strong, Naruto-esque happy ending is the only thing that differs, as Sasuke and Sakura don't end in a veritable tragedy, emphasizing the triumph of good in the manga.

I'd end by citing Obito and Hagoromo's hermeneutics:   "When a man learns how to love he must shoulder the burden of hatred."

The negativism and pessimism that attributes a negative connotation to life and suggests that pain and suffering are inherent to life and win over positive emotions - - the reign of pain and suffering.

... In conjunction with:

"I hope that this time is hatred which turns into love."

The positive overview of the humanist manga conclusion.

The positive, idealist triumph of peace, love and happiness, with love winning over pain.

It's Sakura who returned the lost peace and gave Sasuke happiness. It's her love that turned his hatred (Sasuke set on redemption journey because of lingering Uchiha demons he's scared to hurt people).

[kakashishomegirl]

Love the idea of the ask game! Would like to know: 4,18,19,22,25 & 26. I hope this is okay, if they’re too many just choose some ���️

They‘re not too many, thank you for the ask! I hope you don‘t mind my long answers though.

4) Favourite Chunin exam fight

I guess I‘m pretty basic here, it‘s definitely Lee vs Gaara. I would even say that this is my favourite fight in all of Naruto, because 1. I really really really love Lee and 2. the emotional component is so important. We have seen Gaara in the forest of death and he‘s scary, and then Lee gives his everything and comes so close to hurting him, it‘s so impressive, everybody is shocked at how much hard training can actually achieve. Yeah of course the ending is horrible, but it‘s all part of Lee‘s story which I honestly adored.

18) Favourite character

Hehe, that would be homeboy Kakashi then. ^^ (Funny enough, he didn’t start out as my favourite character actually, I really loved Sasuke in original Naruto. But I can pinpoint the second when Kakashi became my favourite, it was when he walked into Ichiraku and said „Yo“. I think it would be „Yo“, at least. When I saw that scene I watched the German dub and he said „Juhuu“, that was really fun.) Kakashi just has this laid back, I-don‘t-really-care, funny vibe that I try to achieve in real life lol. I do lots of stuff he does, too, and of course his story is one of the most compelling in Naruto. Every scene featuring him is just great to watch. (Honorary mentions go to Lee, who is my main inspiration to do anything and Itachi, who I wouldn’t actually call one of my favourite characters, but I feel with him the most)

19) Least favourite character

Tough one. I really don‘t like Danzo, but I don‘t think anyone does, he just sucks. I always wish he would leave when he‘s on screen. And Orochimaru, this dude is just gross! The memes on him are lowkey funny but yikes. I heard a YouTuber call him „terrorist pedophile“ once and... yeah.

22) Who would you want your partner to be in akatsuki

You can probably see this coming, sorry, but it‘s Itachi. I have several reasons for this: First off, he was never really a bad guy. I guess one can argue that many of the akatsuki were, in fact, not, but Itachi did everything in his life out of love and that is a motive I can get behind. He doesn’t enjoy killing like some of the others and he is a very kind and polite person. Second, his whole personality is so, I can‘t even really describe it, soothing? ethereal? It would be just nice to stand next to him, third, you can trust his competent leadership and fourth, it‘s just Itachi. I have this weak spot for him.

25) Favourite clan

The Hyuga clan is pretty cool! They have Neji and Hinata, I adore them both, and the whole main family, branch family (? I‘m sorry, I don‘t know the English words for that) relation was very interesting to watch. I would have loved to see more about that, also, if Naruto achieved to change anything like he promised to Neji. I do watch Boruto but I haven’t really learned anything about that. It would have been a great turn if Hiashi jumped in front of Neji, man, I‘m never forgiving Kishimoto for that, I feel like Neji‘s death makes his whole narrative so useless *facepalm*. Also, the fighting style of the Hyuga is freaking nice to watch and Hanabi‘s my favourite Jonin teacher in Boruto. Waisted potential everywhere, in my opinion.

26) Favourite Uchiha

Spoiler alert: Itachi. Oh man, I‘m sorry, I‘ve mentioned him three times now but it is true. I don‘t really like many Uchiha, Itachi is basically my single exception and my relationship with him is already a bit complicated. (Don‘t get me to talk about Sasuke) I‘ve mentioned some of the aspects why I love him, but at the same time, I think he wen‘t totally over the top in torturing Sasuke, that wasn‘t necessary AT ALL. I can understand where he comes from, but hate is not the only way of becoming strong, Naruto literally proved the opposite. What he did to Sasuke was cruel and the fact that he did it out of love doesn’t really make it better in my opinion. But all these contradictions are what make him Itachi, and in the end, he‘s one of the best characters in Naruto.

Naruto asks

[tekka-dan]

Happyhoganon: If Sasuke Uchiha died during his final fight with Naruto by a freak accident rather than gotten his arm blasted off, placed in jail and was released by Kakashi (the new Hokage), how sad would Naruto be to losing Sasuke? What happens if Sakura blamed Naruto for Sasuke's death? And how guilt ridden could Kakashi be for 'failing' his student?

For starters thank you for this question, love. I enjoy writing and answering these!

I do not have a short answer for this one so please buckle in, get settled and prepare for the long answer:

How sad would Naruto be losing [to] Sasuke?

The thing is, it was Sasuke who admitted his defeat.

And it was Naruto who wouldn’t accept this [as a win or loss]

So it’s blatantly obvious how Naruto would’ve reacted to Sasukes death here. It would ultimately devastate him.

But this doesn’t matter to Sasuke. In Sasukes eyes, his defeat [admittance of loss] is making peace with his death and giving into submission. Sasuke wholeheartedly accepts his imminent death here. He was prepared to die alongside Naruto upon making the request to battle him.

This isn’t enough for Naruto though. Sasuke admitting his defeat and accepting his oncoming death wasn’t enough to [satisfy] Naruto because Naruto needs Sasuke alive and to actively exist in order to prove his Shinobi way:

Sasuke being deceased would negate his entire belief.

He needs Sasuke alive to continually beat Sasuke into submission. Sasuke admitting he was willing to die was giving into submission, in his own way.

To Naruto death is an escape, not an answer. To Sasuke death is an answer and also his way of making peace. Even with his resolve, Naruto confronts him on the one thing he still has will to pose a fight for.

Naruto can’t let Sasuke die, Naruto can’t let Sasuke admit defeat, Naruto can’t accept Sasuke’s atonement. Because none of it serves a purpose to him.

So Sasuke’s death here would not only completely shatter / devastate him, it would disprove everything he righteously believes and preaches.

What happens if Sakura blames Naruto [for Sasukes death]?

In short and truth, Sakura wouldn’t blame Naruto for Sasuke’s death.

The reason and long answer being that Sakura would ultimately blame herself.

Hear me out — Sakura is the second most self absorbed and centered character next to Naruto. Most of her achievements stem from wanting recognition and approval, only from Sasuke though.

It doesn’t help that the last exchange Sasuke has with Sakura before the VotE fight was this:

So she already felt pretty useless and weak, something she was self conscious about in the first place, her whole arc consisting of changing Sasuke [and somewhat Narutos] perspective of her:

Seeing Sasuke deceased wouldn’t make her immediately blame Naruto, rather herself for not being able to save him sooner / for needing to get Naruto involved (where she asked him to make her that promise of bringing him back to the village).

I envision Sakura apologizing to Naruto...but in a selfish way.

Sakura: “Naruto...I’m sorry I asked you to save Sasuke all on your own like that...it wasn’t fair...if I was strong enough on my own..maybe this could’ve been avoided..”

Thus making Naruto himself feel worse and placing the blame further on himself but that’s not Sakura blaming Naruto. That’s Sakura blaming herself which guilts Naruto into blaming himself.

Sakura would still be a complete wreck with Naruto over the loss of Sasuke, though. This wouldn’t change her overall reaction to still feeling utterly helpless on top of devasted.

Now as for Kakashi..

How would Kakashi react to being guilt ridden for failing Sasuke?

In short I think Kakashi would take Sasuke’s defeat the hardest mentally.

The long answer as to why is because Sasukes defeat would come after his battle and change of heart against his childhood friend and rival Obito

It’s no secret that Kakashi values teamwork and not leaving comrades behind to die thanks to Obito and his father. This became even more apparent in his battle that was more of a mental struggle and realization.

Sasuke’s death would also make Kakashi a hyprocrite himself [once again]

Aside from a student, at this point Kakashi does regard Sasuke as a comrade and [somewhat of] an equal.

Losing him would take the mental toll on him the hardest because it would mean the promise he made to Obito would’ve once again been broken and he had already made that declaration before that he failed Obito once by not keeping his promise

And Sasuke’s death would prove he still couldn’t keep his promise or his word.

In the end I see Kakashi getting over it easiest though, because he’s already a walking tragedy case..he’s been through everything a shinobi could possible endure. Losing his student doesn’t absolve his other losses.

My final remarks regarding the ending of Naruto [and the continuation of BoruTrash] is that Sasuke couldn’t die here. Sasuke’s journey couldn’t just end there. After all one final thing about Naruto’s character prevailed:

The majority rule being everyone else were also against Sasuke and his beliefs. So him surviving was yet another ploy to beat him further into submission...

Which is depressing, to say the least.

Disclaimer: I wanted Sasuke dead after the battle with Itachi, I think his character could’ve gone out with his brother in an honorable way. However, making it to the very end and battling Naruto for the final time and making the claims of his ultimate defeat and approaching death, I’m sickened by the fact that couldn’t just fucking give Sasuke his peace of mind to Rest In damn Peace.

The poor soul had his mind made up, even before engaging in that last battle. He was willing to not only die but sacrifice himself. They couldn’t give him that though, Sasuke can never have anything, not even a justification for his death.

I get it though, Naruto couldn’t end on a bleak note with one or both main characters dying...the message would’ve been lost in translation if that were the case.

However, having him survive to only be treated as an enemy of the village (that vilified his whole clan FIRST...) was..sickening.

I don’t agree with the way Naruto ended and I don’t support the trash that’s continuing now, just putting that on the table.

I hope this answered your question and was somewhat satisfying. I apologize if you sent this awhile ago, I haven’t answered one of these since 2017 so being able to again was heart warming.

I appreciate you for giving me this opportunity.