#i dunno much else about naruto

[oh-no-its-bird]

Ok so everyone say thank you to @kirabasai for infecting me with the thought of Commander Fox getting zapped from starwars to naruto

Mitsuki and Fox clone solidarity,, I know Mitsuki only exists in Boruto but I don't give a shit so now not only is this a dimension travel au it's also a time travel

Somehow both Fox and Mitsuki end up in normal naruto canon, and work together bc uhhhh. Reasons, I dunno.

Fox gets zapped first to boruto, probably through spooky Palpatine sith shenanigans that don't actually matter. But he's only there for a second, with just enough time to knock into Mitsuki before he's zapped again into naruto— accidentally bringing Mitsuki with him.

Oops.

He actually feels kind of bad ab it. Or like, as bad about it as Fox can feel, bc he's Fox. But then he learns Mitsuki is a clone and it isn't just awww shit he accidentally kidnapped some kid but aww shit he accidentally kidnapped a Shiny

Head in his hands, he didn't ask for this,, he was a good boy,, he did his job so diligently,, he hid all the bodies and killed all the people Palpatine told him to,,, literally never done a thing wrong,,,,

Fox winds up with Palpatines lightsaber somehow, and over the course of the story it kind of becomes his. It freaks the absoloute FUCK out of literally any sensors, it is radiating legit evil over there and Fox is holding it like it's no big deal (bc he can't sense shit and is kind of numb to sith energy anyways)

Fox also has a blaster and I am definitely thinking ab the comedy of like. A gun in Naruto. It's a gun. It's a gun that moves fast as light. No one knows what a gun is and Fox is going to get SO much milage out of just having a weapon he can aim places without people realizing what it's ab to do (shoot you in the fucking face)

If someone were to pry into Fox's mind they'd actually have a really awful time of it, then probably walk face first into some nasty lingering sith mind fuckery stuff. Bad experience, 0/10, Fox is very happy w how it turned out but also has no idea why he got that effect. Either way, keep ur nasty ass mind fingers to yourself

Also, Fox speaks Basic. Not Japanese.

I'm thinking he has some sort of standard translator chip that allows him to communicate, but it sometimes translates the stuff he says weirdly. For example, from everyone else's perspective, he keeps introducing himself as Kitsune.

Which, for obvious reasons, doesn't really go over that well with a lot of people in Konoha when he gets there.

He's also visibly foreign and keeps being mistaken for being from Suna

So anyways, Fox and Mitsuki first fight bc like. Hey!! You fucking kidnapped?? Me???

Mitsuki gets the jump on him bc shinobi kid vs guy who doesn't know what a fucking shinobi even is

But then they're able to kinda talk it out and like, look neither of them know where they are so... truce?

Ok so now the fun part:

Fox has no fucking clue what's going on.

From his point of view, he's on... some kind of semi primitive planet. Doesn't remember how or why, but he's here now. So standard GAR procedures; find a way to contact home base. He has his normal gear on him, but no deep space radio, so he'll have to just... make one. Fuck, ok. If he can find the parts, it's doable. All command class clones are taught the basics of how, just like how they're taught how to assemble a blaster from scraps.

But from Mitsuki's point of view, they time traveled.

Mitsuki's POV is the only reason Fox knows there's smthn seriously up, but he's not exactly gonna go "aha! Dimension travel!" On top of it all

Now here's the thing. They're in early naruto canon, some time after wave arc.

Mitsuki only knows chunks of history, and only what has been taught to him second hand from school, Orochimaru, and very very occasional stories from Sasuke or the rest of team Taka

(I feel like Suigetsu especially would have fun telling all sorts of stories)

Not... all of these stories are completely accurate. And even if they are, they're often dumbed down to be easily understood by children— think that one Boruto episode where they put on some sort of silly play about the sanin (which was adorable btw and also fucking hilarious. Actual war criminals son learns about war crimes in class and everyone is just cool happy magic of friendship about it. Amazing.)

So now Fox is learning these fuckin third hand stories from Mitsuki, who literally learned it from the villains of many of the stories, and there is some SERIOUS biases going on

They go to Orochimaru for help.

Local scientist, parent of child (= dependable?) Best source of tech for potential radio + blaster repairs if needed. Fox can trade information to him if needed, it seems like a good choice.

It is not a good choice.

Orochimaru is like nearing the heights of his insanity, and I think it'd be real fun if he decides Sasuke is cool and all but a man from the stars??? A man literally made in a vat to be the perfect example of human physique???? Who's also resistant to many forms of corrosive chakra????

New perfect body alert.

Mitsuki is cute but Orochimaru isn't really in a parental sort of mind set, sorry <3

Mitsuki is going "Huh!! My parent did say they had a pretty severe midlife crisis..."

"Kid I think this is a bit more than just a midlife crisis."

Anyways, then they escape and continue to fuck around trying to build a deep space radio, which at this point is Fox's only hope home which also means it's Mitsuki's bc maybe the jedi can help with the whole uhh... time? Thing?

I'm thinking that after the thing w Orochimaru goes to shit, they're both a lot more wary of the fact that Mitsuki's information may not be the best.

After Oro in terms of figures of power and safety, almost everyone else is either a child, not born yet, or their current location is unknown— except for good old dependable ✨️ rokudaime Kakashi ✨️

Ok so picture this. You're Kakashi, sleeping peacefully in bed after a long day fucking with your students (who you're still very conflicted about having) You wake up to a presence in ur room and there's some fucking snake kid leaning over ur bed going "Hatake-sama—"

You freak out.

Knives may be thrown.

The snake kid has a very angry looking, foreign adult man body guard.

This is so fucking suspicious.

The snake kid says he's a time traveler, and that you are the eventual Rokudaime and also the only person he knows he can trust 100%

This is so fucking suspicious.

So obviously, Kakashi plays along then turns around and reports the fuck out of their asses to the Hokage.

Yeah, Fox doesn't really know what he expected. If some random kid showed up looming over HIS bed in the middle of the night, said he'd be the next chancellor and they know bc they're a time traveler and also pretty please help me build a deep space radio so I can go home— well, he wouldn't report them to Palpatine because not even he's that sadistic. But he'd probably toss them into the cells for a minute, if only because it was one of the only perks of his job

Or, well, for that analogy to work it wouldn't be a deep space radio, because he was used to space travel. It'd have to be something wilder— like an interdimensional radio. Haha, good one. Like that existed. God, imaging having to try and make one of those, that'd be insane. Fox would just kill himself at that point. Good thing he doesn't have to, right? Right?

Anyways mid adventure, they bump into Jiraiya who is fucking horrified to recognize Orochimaru's way of smiling in Mitsuki and gaslights himself into thinking he HAS to be wrong.

I think its Jiraiya who finally helps them out

[allwormdiet]

Hive 5.9

Don't worry everyone, dragons are notoriously easy to defeat with little harm done, right?

Taylor's attempt at bravado is very humorous, if dramatically misplaced

Also Sundancer I'm so sorry you have to catch up so fast on Skitter stuff, but this is what you deal with in Brockton Bay

I dunno Taylor, I get that the objective here is that the ABB gets taken down, but are you sure the correct answer here doesn't involve Kaiser getting his stupid pointy ass cooked inside that armor?

Snark aside, this isn't a fully incorrect complaint to have about a teammate who's like. Not fighting. On a mission where you kinda all gotta fight. Like I know why Sundancer's not doing it, but that didn't get explained in much detail to anyone else

Skipping the part where Kaiser does his thing because he's a fucking Nazi and he doesn't get called "cool" or "interesting" he gets called a fucking Nazi

What I'd give for the shoe to be on the other foot here, but alas

Taylor, I love the noble intentions thing, your dedication remains as admirable as ever, however: he's a fucking Nazi. You're not spinning the "it's bad to murder people" idea this time.

Yeah yeah yeah! There we go! Use the friendly fire power while the Nazis are in the blast zone! Perfect! Sundancer I forgive everything, you're great

please don't make me eat those words later

Jesus fucking Christ that is hot

Guess that's proof Lung isn't totally immune to fire though

Yeah that

Fucking Nazi scumbag idiot.

Kaiser dies, right? There's no way he comes out of this story in one piece. I hope it's undignified. I hope his own spikes pin him in the Family Guy death pose.

What a great fucking sell on this moment, Jesus Christ

Oh no.

Ohhh no.

Taylor you are so fucking brave and that is a problem

Ho-ho-holy fuck this is so dire, it's great but also horrific.

See, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the mistake that's gonna keep getting made here, and I'm pretty sure Lung's not even gonna get the worst of that. He's, y'know, still alive by the end of this.

Totally forgot about Newter's hallucinogen the first time I was reading this fight. So fucking cool as a detail.

So I joked back in Arc fucking 1 that either Lung was going to keep getting his eyes fucked up or Taylor was going to keep going for the eyes. I didn't expect to get more data for those at the same fucking time, but here we are I guess

God that's nasty, also incidentally not how eyeballs would come out, learned that by hanging around discussions of Naruto's plug-and-play magic eyes

(Short version is that the eye tissue would give up before the optic nerve would, so any eyes you yanked out would be. Less than whole.)

Oh thank God, I'd wondered about that actually

Nazi capes fuck off!! You tell em Taylor

If this isn't the vibe of Taylor interacting with other capes outside the team, I'll eat my hat.

Current Thoughts

Hoooooooly shit what a fucking chapter

What a fight, what a display, what an interwoven dance of stupid and clever and desperate and resolute

Taylor is only getting more brutal over time and I think she's gonna notice the blood on her hands (literal or otherwise) even less as she goes

Leaving it here for tonight, finish the arc tomorrow and keep this train a-rolling.

[raveneira]

Friendly reminder these are feats Sarada was pulling at 11-12, this isnt something new or groundbreaking & definitely doesnt scale her to Otsutsuki. If that were the case then that'd make her stronger than B0ruto who had to flee from them 😑 which your crazy if you think she is

A Chidori is not hard to dodge if you have the sharingan and reflexes to match it which Sarada does, why I bring this up is because yall were the same ppl who attacked me and anyone else who said she was more than capable of fending for herself against Kawaki both here & here

Yall said he was too fast, that she would've died, and my favorite 'what did you expect her to do?'

I dunno, THIS?

Dont even try to argue that base Kawaki without karma, and V1 karma Kawaki was stronger and faster than a 10 tails Rinnegan amped Sasuke.

Also just wanna point out yet another glaring power scaling flaw, which is why the hell is her chidori weaker than it was when she was 12? she grabbed a whole chunk outta Boro but 3 years later she just gives bee stings? Hidari should be missing part of his abdomen.

For the record heres the damage Chidori typically does if you think Im just nitpicking no, this is a literal power scaling flaw.

Dont get me wrong Im glad shes doing something, but she was always capable of doing this all along so its not really impressive but more of why'd it take yall so long to show her actually use her arsenal & fend for herself like she always could? where was this in 58? 78? 81? 82?

It took 4 years, 4 YEARS for her to do what shes always been able to do again, shes done this since Gaiden, Sasuke has done the same at 12, yet for 4 years all she did after Boro was stand there or cry and yall response was 'what could she do?' stfu.

THIS is what she could do, if a 12 year old Sasuke could dodge a semi Kurama amped Naruto then Sarada can handle a base karmaless Kawaki and a V1 Karma Kawaki.

And before anyone mentions, the only reason Sasuke stopped being able to dodge is because Kurama had a mind of his own, he could predict Narutos movements and dodge accordingly but he couldn't predict Kuramas.

Now yall wanna gas when yall didnt even believe she could do THIS much, the bare damn minimum, DODGE, yall didnt even think she could do that but now all of a sudden when she does its this incredible feat? but I thought we were the haters for sayin she was always able to do this?

Isnt it ironic that the ones who were called haters are the ones who were saying Sarada was better than that, and the ones who were called 'real fans' were the ones saying she was too weak and slow to even dodge with her 3T sharingan? funny how that works.

See how fast ppl switch up and forget their own narratives they put out there. Be honest, you knew she was always capable of this, you just made excuses either because of a ship or because it made your goat look good.

I already know Im still gonna get branded a hater for literally saying she's always been this strong and capable of fending for herself, but Im not gonna pretend this is some impressive feat when it isn't, 3 years ago yea, but 3 years later? this SHOULD be light work for her now.

If next chapter we see some MS abilities then we can talk about impressive feats, but this? thats how I know yall didn't think much of her and still don't if you think this is a big moment just dodging an attack and doing a low damage chidori 🤦‍♀️

This is what yall clowned Naruto for when he came back in the timeskip still using his same arsenal he left with, so lets not pretend this is any different for Sarada, everything shes done in TBV so far she was doing in part 1, there's no difference YET but hopefully in 11 we'll finally see her growth, OR a dodge and chidori is all she gets and will immediately need saving now.

As long as Boruto stays outta the way then the odds are higher for her to actually hold her own, but if Boruto is coming back to the scene its game over for her so here's hoping his ass has to take a back seat the entire invasion so everyone else can actually do they thing without him draggin them down.

For context, what I mean by that is whenever Boruto is involved everybody else gets dragged down to make him look good by comparison, for example in 58, 78, 81, and 82 Sarada for some reason completely forgot how to move, dodge, react, or activate her own sharingan, but as soon as Boruto has to stay away hiding, suddenly she remembers she has the sharingan, reflexes to dodge, and defend herself. I used Sarada as the example but this is a problem with the entire cast not just her, but since this post is about her thats why I used her for reference, but everybody immediately got better as soon as Boruto was written out of the way.

I said it before and I'll say it again, HES the problem, not from any fault of his own, but because the writers cant seem to make him shine and stand out on his own without draggin everybody else down so he looks cool and badass by comparison, rather than him just standing out on his own merits.

Think about it, name one 'cool' or 'badass' moment he's had in the timeskip that hasn't been handed to him at someone else's expense

His win against Mitsuki came with Mitsuki was already wavering and feeling doubt and willing to die

His win against Code came after he just rescued Sarada who just stood there

His win against Kawaki came after he had spent the last 8 chapters being easily knocked out and knocked down

The entire invasion everybody was getting sneaked, caught off guard, barely holding their own, and needed saving, while Boruto was just casually beating Code and his grimes with zero effort.

Now? with Boruto removed? Inoshikacho holding their own against Jura and Hidari, the strongest two clones

Shikadai done restrained Jura and pulled his branches apart to free Himawari

Inojin saved Himawari and bought them time to get away from the village

Chocho pushed Jura out of the way to make his bijuu bomb miss and expanded herself when Inojins bird was hit to cushion everybodies fall.

Himawari awakens Kuramas power

Sarada remembers shes an Uchiha with the sharingan who can dodge and react accordingly

Kawaki got his brain back and prioritized Himawari's safety over hunting down Boruto.

The difference between when Boruto was involved and when he wasn't is night and day. Again its no fault of his own, but it seems like the writers cannot make Boruto shine without dragging everyone else down, and the only way everyone else will shine is if Boruto is FORCED outta the way.

[doubleddenden]

Decided to try something different with a schedule I make for my friends in a discord server I'm in.

Going forward, I'll be posting my Toonami Schedules on my blog as well, and my DD ScheDDules too. That's just a little silly schedule I make.

Oh, the "meDDia" section is something I usually do when there's a rerun. In our server, I kinda have free reign over this part, so usually I'll look up a funny video that kinda fits the theming. This go around, since I'm feeling the love for DBZ again, I thought it'd be fun to try some fresh DB content we haven't gotten on the actual Toonami block. I decided to post ep 1 and 2 here since this is my first blog post of the schedule.

The graphic is definitely new for me. I found a font matching the Toonami font online, found the old Toonami emblem/logo, and from there I googled space pictures and did renders and edits in paint.net to get the result you see above. Thinking about changing the colors and doing a little more editing, but not too bad for my first attempt at one of these, right?

Some QA and disclaimers below:

"Why do this?"

I'm not really sure tbh. This kinda became my role in the server I'm in. I try to keep on top of the schedule and changes so everyone else can be informed or make other plans if they like. I wasn't the first to do this in my server, nor am I the only one able to do this, I just... I dunno, kinda did it so the others can catch a break? Life's tough and I like being relied on. I'm the schedule guy now

"Tf is the DD Schedule?"

Well, I am DD. The DD Schedule kinda started just as a little joke a year or two ago, again, I just kinda joke and shoot the shit. Some of my friends get upset with me if I forget or don't do the silly schedule, so I reckon if it makes them happy, I do it.

Sometimes it's good for recap. Sometimes not. Depends on the mood. It's just harmless fun and I like being silly.

"Why the inaccurate Japanese?"

Since Ninja Kamui is subbed, I basically just run my original Ninja Kamui bit through Deepl since I was told it is slightly more accurate than Google translate. No harm was meant if it comes off wrong. In other words, Sub is basically the same as Dub but slight differences.

"What are the numbers and projected end dates?"

Something different I decided to do with this schedule is to keep count of episodes and a possible end date for the season or series on Toonami. The Projected End Dates- PED- is subject to change for marathons that may happen. In fact, I'm pretty sure we're due for a Ninja Kamui marathon or 2 for when the series ends its current run, as they tend to do other originals.

"Why the graphics?"

Dunno, thought it'd be fun to try something different for a change. The schedule I post in our server is usually just text, so I figure this would spice things up.

"Why no time listed?"

Because I live in Central, some if my friends don't. Just assume the schedule starts as normal unless stated otherwise. For me that's 11:00pm central.

"Tf is Nart?"

It's Naruto, that's just my pet name for it.

Couple disclaimers

1. I am not a toonami employee. Just a fan. I have limited data per month and can't watch anime as much as I'd like, so Toonami is a great way for me to watch new things I haven't seen that I can't find on youtube or something.

2. I'm not a mod or admin of this server, more like a town crier or janitor.

If you have questions, feel free to message me and I'll answer whatever

3. Our server is a psuedo fan server, not official, and it's really more of a "whatever" server depending on the mood we're in, from Toonami to streamers to games and shows, etc. None of us are affiliated with Toonami in any official capacity and it's mostly us goofing off about whatever or watching Toonami on Saturdays. It is an 18+ server, fair warning- we try to keep that stuff in the designated channels, but *some* people are gremlins, so it can scare some off.

[minmin-pal]

you don't have to send a reply or even an answer really, i know it's close to the time so please feel free to ignore this and give yourself some time or just do something else you'd like other than answering a tumblr ask lmao/lh/gen

welcome back to custard/mikey/mustard/🍮 speedrunning asks in 2 hours go!

'Trying to become happy by doing assassinations' caught me off guard but yay I've already properly fixed and added the stuff you said to my watch guide, i appreciate the 'using the wrong pronouns for extra concealing' lol, ty jjba veteran for ur wisdom :pray: /gen

i've gotten so used to expecting them to come back too lol, but yes alright, thank you for the advice :D maybe i can somehow make it thru jjba with even a quarter of my feelings intact? (I'm not confident in that either ::/j/lh)

and woah I'm glad you were able to enjoy naruto! and yeah truee the possessed fox mode(?) thing always looked so cool and reminding is understandable lol, and now that you mention it he really would've been that one friend everyone would have in elem lmao. his cheery, rebellious to teachers and pulls pranks, he definitely would've been a popular kid or something during elem (is elem the same as primary school? ;;)

ngl i'd maybe say the reason gaara was more appealing than sasuke is maybe he was actually a nice character?/lh also younger gaara was very adorable to watch but yeah sasuke was just being a tad bit of an asshat lol

and ohh, people's opinions on tsunade is often positive leaning but it's neat to hear your thoughts on jiraiya and orochimaru are often like switched, if that makes sense? it's fun to see other opinions finally exist lmao, jiraiya was weird as heck but he had that character appeal going on somehow lol/pos

the 'hercules-corona borealis great wall' new term i never knew existed, ty for this brain food :pray:

and ah, somehow that single image you inserted of the dude drawn in the first style explains it (art looks nice though, muscles so cool omg/lh/pos)

I'm getting the same feeling that aot will end in the same-ish manner that killer in love did, just completely turn everything on the viewers heads and make us all feel emotionally exposed or smth lol, i'm gonna have to put on some protective gear before restarting the anime ;;

oh wait there's a csm part 2? I haven't heard much about it though it makes sense if his still working on it, and yep csm has already been added to my to-read list and csm2 is joining >:)

oyasumi punpun sounds very cute, i will be checking that out now, i need to feel feelings again after speedrunning killer in love lol/hj/lh

"boy's abyss" added to the collection (i will actually finish this list I swear lmao/gen) help naur "you didn't dislike kokoa, and that's really telling of you as a person" had me worried if it was bad for a few seconds TT/lh

and yeah I'm really glad they made her kinda of a victim too, really pulled the story together especially in the 'backstory leading to her walking off into the distance' ending (and yeah don't worry about any of it being too short or anything, it's understandable so pls don't strain urself :D/lh)

oh yeah, seeing a character make the same decisions or do the same thing as you and it's being shown/viewed(?) as a bad thing, is definitely an eye-opener moment

i don't know all the details and this might seem unwarranted but you were both human and I'm sorry they left you so suddenly (i'm not trying to come as all like- dunno pompous or anything i swear ;;) not trying to argue since it might've been the healthy decision for them and i can respect that, i'm sorry you had to be left alone so suddenly though/gen (i hope this didn't come off badly ;;/lh)

we're speedruninngg :run:

and yay, yeah i really did it like it, thank you again for getting me to read it/gen the wholw story and it's art in general was very lovely:]<3

(mustard is my new, nEW name that will appear on my birth certificate lmao, also how did i not think of that sooner it was literally staring me in the face lol)

i'm answering the first of the 'thank you and nice to meet you' post thing and i reached where you said you were physically running out of time and i am also running out of time physically, the irony is making me cackle lol/hj/lh

it makes me a bit sad too, but i'm really glad i did meet you (as much as meeting you counts to stumbling across your blog?) i might not have said this enough times, but reading you rant off on random tangents and just talking about silly random stuff that you liked and things that mattered to you was genuinely a very fun experience that i won't be forgetting./gen

mayb the afterlife or void or whatever turns out to be meeting you there, does have wifi, i mean you can never be too sure right lmao? I can imagine it might just be 2 bars or something tho lol/lh

bye bye to you too min, and yeah no worries, the end poem has a special place for me so i don't consider it corny at all that you brought up, not gonna lie the first time i read your response seeing the response just made me bawl harder lol,

you like showing me stuff and i like watching you show me stuff, it's very fun would reccomended:D/lh reccomended:D/lh

don't be sorry, you don't need to be/lh/gen

thank you for that, (am i allowed to save it?/genq/nf) making you tear up was the goal muahaha >:)/hj/lh

even if it's not new, i stand by "all min art is good art", thank you. genuinely for everything min. this has been a very nice few 47(?) days of knowing you and i'll always check back on here, i know you said promises don't count to dead people, but welp unfortunately one of us will still be alive and chilling so that promise is gonna get fulfilled >:) my evil masterplan all along, it's gonna take you so long to scroll down thru my jjba review part 1 ask with the shitty wifi in the afterlife/again, whichever ends up waiting

i'll take care of little dustball min >:) could go to a cat cafe, i heard you liked cats./lh

It nice meeting you min, thank you for everything genuinely, it's been nice.

love you stranger :D

gonna go offline permanently in 5 mins (plus i will be deleting a lot of posts- just cus i dont want to be known for some of these) so i cant go too indepth

im really happy we spoke. i sometimes would worry that people who found me off my more. sad stuff would never know me much and im happy u let me . not be so depressing and let me rant about fuckin g jojos bizarre adventure to you

thanks mustard custard mikey and see u in the next ecosystem

[yumeka36]

I recently watched the first season Jujutsu Kaisen. Since it's become a big hit, I was interested in checking it out, plus my boyfriend and another friend like it.

Overall, I liked it. Can't say that anything about it particularly wowed me, but it was still a fun time. Since I've watched plenty of Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, and other shonen series, the many shonen tropes and character archetypes in JJK were more noticeable to me than they would be for someone else who hasn't watched as much anime. But again, I don't mind seeing familiar tropes as long as they're done well.

My main major complaint about the series, at least for season 1, is that I couldn't stand how Todo's character was handled, especially how he was introduced. Maybe I'm missing something, but my interpretation is that he shows up, beats the shit out of Megumi for literally no good reason other than he doesn't like his taste in women?! I was like "aren't you guys on the same side? Why are you trying to kill a fellow student that you don't even know?" And then he's suddenly played up as a comical character who's infatuated with this cute female idol...that's fine and all, but it's a little hard for me to find a character funny/charming when they just attempted to kill one of the main protagonists for a petty reason. And then he does the same thing again to Yuji later - beats the shit out of him for no good reason (I know the principal ordered the Kyoto students to kill Yuji, but the way Todo reacted didn't seem like he wanted to follow those orders?) Then he has some weird delusion of him and Yuji being friends in school...and now he's suddenly best friends with Yuji?! And again, the show was making it seem like this was supposed to be funny, but I was just like "you were literally bashing his head against a tree a minute ago and now I'm supposed to like you because you've decided you're his best friend because he happened to give an answer about women you approve of? How is this a likable relationship?" And then in the very last episode, it was Todo who recommended Megumi to the principal and I was like "didn't you want to kill him when you first met him? Now you like him? Because you were fighting the same cursed being together for ten minutes?" I dunno, everything about Todo just rubbed me the wrong way and I just could not relate to him at all, which was frustrating. But at least he wasn't in that many episodes. I got excited when one of the episodes started with a bit of Todo's backstory and I was like "oh, maybe I can finally learn more about this guy and why he beats people up for not liking their taste in women." But no, the flashback hardly showed anything. A later season, hopefully.

But besides having issues with Todo, I liked most of the other characters. Megumi is my favorite of the main characters. I warmed up to Yuji and Nobara in time, but I liked Megumi right away, as soon as I saw he was willing to help Yuji during their first encounter. I liked him even more in the last few episodes of the season where we get to see some of his backstory. Yuji and Nobara are good foils to Megumi, since he's often the straight man to their immature antics.

Of the side characters, I like Panda and Miwa. I was curious about Panda as soon as I saw him, so I'm glad I got to learn his origins so soon. And Miwa is one of the few characters that made me laugh a couple times. She just seems more wholesome than many of the other characters. Nanamin is pretty cool too.

The animation in JJK was enjoyable to watch, as well as the interesting designs of all the curse creatures. Though I have to say the world-building seemed a bit weak to me, but I know that's something that could develop later. Like, Jujutsu High School doesn't seem much like a high school...I don't see any kind of organized training or classes, and there's only, like, ten students between Tokyo and Kyoto. We also didn't see much of the politics behind the jujutsu sorcerers other than from the perspective of the schools. There must be some larger network of authority figures who govern everything? But again, I'm hoping in time we'll learn more about that. The humor in the series was hit or miss for me too, but I also have high standards for humor in general, probably more than most people, lol. I'm not typically a fan of humor that involves the characters breaking out into hyperbolic shouting along with the animation style changing dramatically to indicate we're in "joke mode" now, especially in a series that's otherwise dramatic like this one. But I did get a few chuckles here and there.

The action scenes were really cool, especially the domain expansions. But I did find the power level of the characters a bit inconsistent. Like, in the first episode Megumi had to rest and get healing after that battle, but then he gets punched through buildings by Todo and gets practically killed fighting the bridge curse...but seems totally fine soon after. And then there's Yuji displaying extraordinary feats of physical endurance and shrugging off life-threatening injuries...I know he said at the beginning that he's more physically able than most people, but still. But I'll just say it comes from their curse powers giving them extra damage reduction, lol. It's the case in most shonen series that injuries that would kill a person in real life only cause minor injures to shonen protagonists 😅

My favorite bunch of episodes were the ones with Junpei. I liked his backstory and how he developed a relationship with Mahito. The series kinda hinted that he's not actually dead but I'm not sure. I also enjoyed the last few episodes of the season where it was just Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara going on a mission. If all or most of the series was just them going on missions to get rid of curses and developing their friendship, I'd be cool with that, lol.

To summarize, while I didn't love JJK and had some issues with it, I definitely enjoyed it enough to want to keep watching. I plan to start season 2 soon!

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Frank, i have to know, do you think Uchiha Sasuke did anything wrong? I feel like he was actually right and everyone else in Naruto was a punk.

He did many things wrong, but I'll say a few of the bigger ones to set the tone for this rant:

He murdered his clanmates, and then the village. He didn't do this for ideological reasons, though he certainly could have. The narrative doesn't show his clanmates as having lived evil, or his clan as living at all except in his own hands; it seems to show him doing what he saw was the only possible thing to save the village from being destroyed.

He slaughtered an entire village full of people because he couldn't make a decision.

He was cruel and controlling. His "relationships" with women were generally abusive. Yes, the guy was probably in a bad situation and the series never really explains it, but it never really shows you that this was good for him either. As an abusive relationship, it was not one he made "better." It was a bad relationship for everyone, and while it had tragic consequences that weren't their fault (Naruto's parents, Sakura, etc.) in the end it was not a positive outcome for anyone involved. Sasuke was right about how good it would be to be free of that relationship, but I think he was wrong about the consequences. Even without getting to the point of killing the village, he made things worse. His relationship with Sakura was unhealthy and abusive, and his attitude toward Naruto was so cruel that Naruto never really knew how to navigate it. By the end Sasuke had become his own worst enemy, not to be confused with the original antagonist of the story. His whole character arc was one of unending cycles of abuse that he never seemed to get out of (though of course he tried).

All of this is bad enough, and there are plenty of bad things we hear about the guy without needing to "explain" to ourselves or the audience that he has a good side, because we already know this. The issue here is that the good side is not really ever shown. The characters and the story continually avoid showing us what it is that could make all of this good, or what it is that would make Sasuke's actions not horrible and unforgivable. The whole "story" with Sasuke keeps sidestepping the issue. (You could make an argument that the story is about making this clear, but it seems like a lot of the time the story is either ignoring it or simply not going there.)

What's really striking is that in the end, it doesn't even seem clear what's really going on with Sasuke that makes his actions understandable or even excusable. It's always the same: "my enemies are awful and terrible, but I'm different. I know they're awful and terrible but I'm so much better than them. I have to take them on and beat them up because I'm the greatest hero the world has ever seen." But, well, he never seems to get out of that dynamic? (The narrative never tries to convince us he's actually good, it's just there to give us the excuse that he has a good side)

It's like a story that's been written by a twelve year old whose main characters are, I dunno, SpongeBob and Patrick from the cartoon. The story has no good reason to be about Spongebob or Patrick, it's just a story about SpongeBob and Patrick. It never says why they're doing this or what makes them like that. Spongebob and Patrick do not have much to say, and the main conflict is one of the other characters deciding they're going to make sure Spongebob and Patrick don't do anything that'll harm their friendship. The rest of the time, the characters are having fun and things are going OK until Spongebob and Patrick make it not OK, and so the whole story is one of trying to explain how Spongebob and Patrick caused the tragedy.

In this sense, the Sasuke character is exactly like Spongebob or Patrick. (Except he's even more terrible. If I were the author of the original comic, I'd probably have to give Spongebob and Patrick a really sympathetic origin story, something where they're trapped in the same dynamic but are trying to break out.) The characters are given the excuse to act the way they do, with no real reason to be like that, and the story is one of them going back to trying to make the excuse work. The series is one of endless cycles of the characters and the story not really saying anything about how all of this actually makes sense.

But then, all of this could be said of Naruto. After all, there is nothing in the story that makes this clear to the audience. If there isn't, can the audience be trusted to know? We could never be sure. (We know it because we watched all 12 seasons.)

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 95

"Hey, hey, Shizune-chan! That's you, right?"

She tried not to startle at the oversized, yellow and orange monstrosity hopping in her face. Instead of tossing the thing through the window, she clenched her fingers ever-so-slightly around her coffee. "Yes, toad-san?" Shizune greeted politely. This wasn't one that she recognized. Either Jiraiya had made a new friend, or this was one of Naruto's summons.

"I have a message!" His chest puffed out importantly, and then deflated. Meekly, he added, "It's bad news."

Shizune tucked her coffee in her elbow and unceremoniously scooped the amphibian up, ignoring the way he fussed. In flawless whoosh of chakra, she pulled a Sasuke. Tsunade looked up even as she elbowed her way out from behind the wall of potted plants, holding the messenger toad aloft like a squishy shield from her mentor's possible irritation.

Tsunade outright groaned. "What's the pervert done this time? He's only been gone-"

"It wasn't him!" the thing peeped up, wiggling out of Shizune's grip to land on the desk and grin up at Tsunade. "I'm Naruto's friend, Gamatatsu. Nice to meetcha, baa-chan!"

Shizune took a moment to wonder what would happen if Tsunade flattened someone else's summon, because her fingers were gripping the book in her hands with enough force to turn them white and it would only take an instant for her to lift it and make him into goo… The moment passed, thankfully, and Tsunade let the disrespect slide.

"Is something wrong?"

Gamatatsu slumped down sheepishly. "Ah, yes. I forgot all about that. Yes!" He seemed almost triumphant about remembering what he'd come to tell them. "It's terrible. Right after Naruto and his friends got back to Grass country, actually. When they found…" He trailed off, and then corrected, "No, that's not right. When they didn't find who they were looking for? I dun know, something about Kumo and Kiri? I get those confused. Anyway!" He hopped straight up, as if for emphasis. "They weren't where they were supposed to be! It turned out they tried to go into Ame, and a bad man came! Naruto found a Chuunin and his grumpy friend healed the Chuunin which was pretty cool, but I don't think there's anyone else left."

Tsunade was slightly white, though whether she counted this as a disaster or a near-miss because her people had been gone at the time was hard to tell. Konoha's teams had been running back and forth for supplies and messages, since they were by far closest to where the teams had tracked a team of Akatsuki and Konoha had the most information about the organization.

"They're all dead?" Tsunade confirmed numbly, although her tone left little hope for correction. The way the toad shrank back was answer enough. "Did Naruto know what happened?"

The toad shook his head vigorously. "Not exactly! The Kumo team decided to follow their targets past the border. Yeah, I think it was Kumo."

"But hadn't they been told to wait outside?" she demanded. That was what Kakashi had said was the consensus when he'd left with his team to ask for further orders… She'd sent him back out just yesterday, there was no way he should have already arrived in order to aid in a situational re-assessment.

The toad shrugged. "I guess they got too eager," he confirmed quietly, a little more solemn than before.

'And it got them all killed.' Tsunade swallowed, hard. "Is Naruto certain that there was just one assailant? How did this Chuunin survive?"

"He must-a been some kind of monster!" Gamatatsu confirmed with just a bit too much cheer. Toads were irrepressibly good-natured, and right now it grated. "I dunno why, but the man let him go!"

"Do we know anything else about this assailant?" Tsunade demanded. "Was he Akatsuki? Was he marked as Ame? Did all this happen within Ame, or did he follow them out of the border?"

"I don't know!" the toad crossly interrupted, stomping one filthy little foot on her nice mahogany desk. "I wasn't there, and neither was Naruto. The Chuunin didn't say much about what specifically he used except that he used all the elements, but he said the guy claimed to be a god."

It took a moment for that to sink in.

'So we're dealing with a very dangerous lunatic,' Tsunade realized tiredly. 'Someone who is dangerous enough that we will definitely not be sending anyone in Ame until we have re-evaluated the situation.' …And had Naruto even bothered to try to train his summons to work as information aids? That report was terrible, and she knew that Naruto knew how to make a report. That information was all but useless. And why had it gotten to her so late?

That question was answered easily enough, though the conversation gave her even more of a headache. Naruto had thought Jiraiya was still in Konoha, and sent the toad to report directly to his mentor. At that point, Jiraiya had decided to go meet the teams to provide reinforcement since he was almost there, and sent the toad to Tsunade on foot.

After that, the damn thing had gotten lost. She hated toads sometimes. Thankfully, humans were better at carrying accurate and timely messages.

"Shizune, get Aiko," Tsunade ordered tiredly. Her apprentice had probably already predicted that and left without a fuss.

She had to wonder… For this news, should she really be relying on a messenger? It might be best to dust off her fancy hat and have Aiko Hiraishin them both to the Raikage to tell him the news herself. Hopefully, he wouldn't take her unexpected arrival as a possible assault and would be reasonable, despite having previously specified that news should be relayed through Aiko.

…No, that was a stupid idea. He wasn't going to be reasonable at all. The Raikage was a gibbering moron, and she wasn't just saying that because he'd snubbed her.

Tsunade was apologetic about making the girl endure the Raikage's temper, but she had Aiko go out to Naruto's team, return the witness to the Raikage, and then kept her occupied running between kage for the next four hours.

The Raikage was indeed outraged, but he agreed to send out another team immediately to replace the one lost. Gaara risked Temari, Kankuro, and Baki for the mission as backup, which was more of a sacrifice than it sounded, despite only being one team. Mei's team was still intact—they hadn't been working directly with Kumo—and so they were merely informed, though the Mizukage was concerned that now was the optimal time to hunt down her loose jinchuuriki before Akatsuki got him.

She had a point, but it was hard to want to send out another high level team on a risky mission. Mei was irritatingly persistent about it, and equally insistent that it made sense to send Aiko.

'Probably because she doesn't want to risk her own people', the Hokage thought uncharitably. She managed to swallow the automatic retort.

At that point, Tsunade had to send Aiko out with Shizune to get lunch, because she didn't know how to convey her initial response through the girl in question and needed some time to think.

It was easy to tell that Aiko was chomping at the bit to get back out in the field, and she would be an asset to a retrieval team hunting a jinchuuriki, as both a tracker and a method of restraining him. But she was more valuable in village as an emergency communication system and emergency transport for any jinchuuriki who got into trouble in the field. Aiko could be ambushed and killed if sent out in the field, and the sad fact was that there were Jounin who were comparatively disposable. If she was safely in the village, she could be used as a resource over and over again to mitigate losses.

Instantaneous communication like what she'd been abusing today was an unparalleled development. The closest thing they had before was communication through summons or messenger birds, which was a complicated mess and had a lot of limitations. The ability for Kage scattered across the continent to communicate within minutes was far more valuable to a campaign than one inexperienced Jounin's presence out in the field. Aiko probably hated it, but it was true.

Still, with Tenzou out with Kakashi, Aiko was the best resource they had available for restraining jinchuuriki. The girl's skill set could have been plotted out for that specific purpose—Tsunade wouldn't pit her against a bijuu, or even most S class shinobi (or some A class, if she were to be honest) but her speed allowed her to use her undersized but efficient chakra chains to restrain one humanoid target with piteous ease. On the other hand, if the jinchuuriki were in an evolved form of their bijuu's chakra, or if the beast itself was in control, Aiko would get ripped to pieces.

'Why am I dwelling on this?' Vexed with herself, Tsunade rolled her neck and took a walk around her office, which degenerated into pacing. 'Her whole fighting style revolves around getting in the first hit and taking down superior opponents before they get their bearings or analyze her attacks. I can hardly claim that sending her against one jinchuuriki is too much of a risk when I know damn well she's good at it. Terumi is right in that it needs to be done. With Hiraishin, Aiko could get the boy trussed up and delivered to Mist in a sixth of the time it would take anyone else, and spend minimal time outside of the safety of the village.'

It would just be a phenomenal waste to lose Aiko on a mission that didn't absolutely have to be performed by her.

On the other hand, she should have some faith in her shinobi's abilities to fulfill the mission. Aiko couldn't be confined to the village indefinitely, in a practical and literal sense. Really, there was nothing Tsunade could do to keep her in boundaries, unlike other shinobi who at least had to factor in the danger of getting caught sneaking out as an impediment to mischief.

She didn't like admitting it, but at this point, she only had control of the teen because Aiko allowed it. That control was tenuous at best. If she continued to give Aiko orders that the girl found unpalatable… well, eventually she would crack and rebel in some way. Anyone would. And once she'd disobeyed once with no repercussions, why would she continue to obey?

Running a village full of strong-minded individuals was difficult enough when they had reason to respect and fear her displeasure. But Aiko was like Naruto and Sasuke in that they knew her too well to think that she would penalize them for anything short of murder.

'Damnit, I'm too soft,' Tsunade sighed crabbily. 'It shouldn't matter that Aiko is unhappy with the situation. I know that what I should do is make sure she doesn't break the rules regardless, not let her go blow off steam because I sympathize with her.'

But she was going to do it anyways. If she needed a message carried urgently, she could always recall Aiko. And it wasn't necessarily that dangerous for Aiko to be out and about wandering the countryside, if Akatsuki had no way of knowing where she was. A small team could move quickly to locate Utakata and bring him in long before Akatsuki could possibly know she'd left Konoha. Besides, they were all ensconced in Ame at the moment.

Aiko's face visibly lit up when she was told to convey that Mei was getting her way, despite the fact that enough time had passed for Kumo's team to be ready and that she was subjected to the indignity of carting them out to meet Konoha's team.

'I wouldn't be that happy about acting like a land-boat for sassy kumo-nin', Tsunade noted sardonically. Especially since they really seemed to despise Aiko. But whatever, it wasn't as if she'd never been subject to ignominious usage of her hard-earned medical skills. Not every necessary duty was dignified.

The news of the day was downright tragic, but Aiko still had to fight down a grin. She was finally being let out on a real mission. No matter how cute Fukiko-chan was, teaching just wasn't high-energy enough to suit Aiko's needs. If she'd spent one more week looking at the inside of Konoha's walls, she might have completely snapped and just started screaming.

It was sort of like being claustrophobic, or getting cabin fever. When a person routinely traveled hundreds of miles every month, sitting around one city was maddening.

(Visiting international offices didn't count. For all the effort she expended, Gaara's office might as well have been next door to Tsunade's with Mei's on the other side. That wasn't really a trip).

"I'm hunting jinchuuriiii-ki," Aiko sang tonelessly under her breath as she packed, dancing around her apartment as she worked. It was probably for the best that there were no witnesses, because she did not in fact, have 'the beat'. She nearly tripped over Mitsuo, who startled awake and gave her a reproachful glare without getting up off the floor. "Wake up, lazy thing," she chided good-naturedly. "We get to leave!"

Granted, she had no idea who she was working with, or if she was working with a team at all—Tsunade probably wouldn't send her out alone, right?—but they were just going to have to cope with dogs. Because she wasn't leaving them behind. She had no idea how long the mission would last, after all. They might find him in a day, or it might take a week.

"That reminds me," Aiko said under her breath, dropping unceremoniously to the floor and picking up one of Mitsuo's paws to peer at the soft pads at the bottom. "How are your feet?" She rubbed at the pink flesh. "Is this callous enough for you to keep up on a long run in open terrain, you think?"

He was willing to try, so she summoned Hōseki and let Mitsuo explain the situation while she got ready. Packing was a short affair, due to the fact that she was really just stuffing several outfits into storage seals and putting them as a page marker in inside Icha Icha Tactics (it was a classic) with the oft re-used seal that had her camping equipment.

She changed into blue shorts and a thin grey shirt that opened at her throat (to cover her newest tattoo) and barely brushed her thighs (to enable freedom of movement when running). Aiko contemplated her flak jacket for a moment, but ultimately left it. For her, that was more of a formality and an impediment than an aid. Those jackets were damn heavy. The lighter she was, the faster she was. She was better off trying to not get hit than hoping the jacket deflected blows. The only physical weapons she took were her sword over her back and the thin blades hidden in her boots—the thigh pouches for kunai were irritating, to be honest, and she wasn't interested in that today.

A braid would take more time than she was willing to invest, so Aiko tugged her hair back in low twintails and secured them tightly. Her headband was already on her forehead, so she merely tightened the knot and all but bounced out the door, sliding down the railway to escape her apartment and taking to the rooftops immediately. Hōseki gave an indignant bark, but raced behind as best as she could while Mitsuo gave a self-pitying sigh and leapt right after them.

Tsunade rolled her eyes, but Aiko could tell she wasn't really grumpy about Aiko being there early with Hōseki cuddled in her arms and Mitsuo nuzzling her side.

"You're just sickeningly cute sometimes," Tsunade critiqued sternly. Still, she deigned to scratch Mitsuo behind the ear when he came close enough to investigate her perfume. She only waived him off when a polite knock announced an arrival for debriefing, and a Jounin who Aiko had never actually spoken to sauntered in.

"Aoba," Tsunade greeted, which conveniently enough answered her next question (which would have been, 'who the hell are you, sunshine?'). "Thank you for coming on time. Not early, not late, but at the time that was specified." Aoba seemed to give Aiko a curious look from behind his red-rimmed sunglasses, but it was admittedly hard to tell.

'Complainer. There's nothing wrong with being eager to go. Would she have preferred I take after Kakashi?'

Reluctantly, Mitsuo returned to Aiko's side as the Hokage explained the situation to Aoba. Aiko hardly needed to pay attention, as she'd been playing at 'messenger pigeon' for the last few hours. The details were uninteresting, but still she was excited. She was going on a mission! Outside the village!

"Uzumaki, kindly attempt to show more decorum than Mitsuo-chan is," Tsunade drawled. Aiko noticed for the first time that she was grinning and fidgeting, but didn't feel ashamed. She had a lot of energy, damnit, and hadn't been able to really burn any off in a long time. Which reminded her.

"Do I need to stop on the way out and let Fukiko-chan know practice is cancelled?" she wondered aloud.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "I think I can take care of it," she said with practiced patience. "Aoba, you'll be in charge of this mission and primarily combat support if the situation degenerates. Hopefully, Aiko will be able to track this Utakata down and he'll come quietly, but if not, distract him so that she can immobilize him."

Aiko tried to work up indignation as the slightly skeptical look her partner leveled at her at that moment, but couldn't force herself to care. She was fucking awesome even if he didn't see it. And to be fair, this wasn't exactly the best display of her professionalism.

Then again, neither was the way that she initially left him in the dust when they rocketed out past the gates into the free, clean air of Konoha's forests. It took a disgracefully long time for her to come down from her cheer-induced high to realize that he was trailing a little too far behind her. Sheepishly, she circled back and let him take the lead.

"I apologize, Aoba-san," she forced out before she could be scolded. "I was just happy to run. I've been in the village for months straight."

He heaved a sigh, but dismissed the apology mildly enough. "That's quite all right. Just don't do it again." After a moment's pause, he cautiously asked, "So, is it true that you have the Hiraishin?"

'Well, everyone knows that, I thought.'

Aiko blinked twice before she realized what he was really asking. "Ah, we could cut out quite a bit of time, couldn't we?" she realized sheepishly. "Stop for a second, please." He furrowed his brow slightly, but did as she said. Aiko took note that he wasn't doing a good job of defending his position as top dog, but let it slide this time in favor of dropping to pick Hōseki up to her chest and tangling her finger tips in Mitsuo's fur. "We should start looking for the trail in Tea, right?"

"Ah, yes." He fidgeted slightly, as if about to ask what was going on. In lieu of explanation, Aiko pulled on a tag in Mist and two along Konoha's border, and sighed in satisfaction at how accurate her slingshot was.

"Be right back," she assured, rubbing her nose against Hōseki's before setting down the little dog and flickering back to Aoba's side. He was still looking at her old location, so she purposefully gave a little kick at the forest floor to garner his attention and held out a hand in his direction. The unspoken order was that he should take it, of course.

Aoba gave her a very skeptical look. Aiko blinked innocently and cocked her head to the side.

"Don't you want to hold my hand?"

Of course he didn't. He was a 34-year old man who probably thought she was a silly, hyper twit. If she were him, she'd avoid contact like the plague. Maybe he really did think she was contagious.

At the way she faked hurt, he heaved a put-upon sigh and gingerly took her fingers.

Teasing him like that had been an amusing diversion, but now she was actually somewhere she could work. Aiko briskly shook his hand off, all business, the instant that she rematerialized next to Mitsuo. "What town was he seen in again?" Aoba seemed to be dumb-founded at the sudden switch while she unfolded her map, so she impatiently prodded the paper with her finger. "I need to see the location to get a comparison for where we are," she slowly explained, as if to a child.

He didn't like that much, but obligingly enough helped her find the right settlement on the map. She could have found it on her own with time, but it was really much faster for the person who had a general familiarity with the layout of Tea country's infrastructure to point out the location. Aiko folded the paper up and tucked it away at her hip pouch.

The Kiri informant who had noted Utakata's passing was definitely not eager to talk to them, but eventually, he directly shared what he knew and what he suspected. The details of when Utakata had left town combined with the direction he'd gone in and what he'd done in the village was enough to set Aiko off on a theory. He'd been four days ahead of them, so any messages from an informant who'd spotted him since wouldn't have reached Mei yet. So Aiko left the dogs sitting in the informant's house and dragged Aoba off to apologetically ask Mei for the information to access whatever informants she had in two neighboring areas. She wasn't thrilled about exposing more resources, but obligingly enough gave up four names so that they could continue the search.

By that point, Aoba was looking distinctly queasy. He brushed off his front and hurriedly stepped away from her as soon as they were back in Tea. "You know, that technique was much less jarring when your father used it," he informed her in a tone of mild reproach.

All she could do was shrug. "No idea why," Aiko lied. It was probably because she wasn't as good with it as he'd been.

The withering look he shot her implied that he agreed about her comparative lack of skill, but it didn't bother her. Wasn't like he was any better, was he? It wasn't much of a shame not to be as skilled as a kage, parent or not. She'd inherited stunning good looks from him, not an intuitive understanding of his techniques.

To let Aoba's stomach settle, she didn't argue when he took off for their first interviewee at a run instead of letting her take them there quickly. She'd assumed that they'd come up with nothing and have to check the others, but once the white-haired mist plant had been convinced that they weren't there to assassinate him (and stopped throwing flowerpots) they found out that Utakata had indeed passed through… and he'd meandered over to a local teashop.

Once directed to the booth he'd had by a baffled but indulgent proprietor, Mitsuo picked up on the scents of the last ten or so people who'd sat there. Aoba had looked frustrated at that news, but Aiko wasn't surprised when her ninken confirmed that only one of the trails led directly out of town.

"Most people live here, ne?" she explained idly as she brushed past her superior officer. "Wouldn't have reason to leave all the time." Hōseki gave a superior-sounding huff, as if to ask why this useless man was even here. Aiko replied with a straight-faced yap (learned from Kakashi's most mischievous ninken) that probably shouldn't have been repeated in public. Mitsuo laughed, though, even as Aoba rolled his eyes and very deliberately didn't ask what the conversation was about.

From then on, it was a conventional hunt—if a hunt could ever be so called. The tree cover had given out into ambitious shrubs (she couldn't call them trees, none of them broke twenty feet in height), which let a marvelous breeze whip across the hill land and through her thin clothes. Tea country really was a marvelous place, Aiko thought, enjoying the heavily scented air from the wild plants that grew everywhere. It was heady, like incense, but fresh and natural instead of stuffy and smoky-hot.

Utakata found them before they found him, which shouldn't have happened. Maybe she just wasn't paying enough attention. Maybe he was just that good.

It would be a long time until Aiko forgot the swell of self-loathing that froze her muscles at the instant when she saw an iridescent glint off a strange round item in the grass and realized her ninken didn't see it in time.

She attempted to call his name, but it came out an incoherent bark. At least the sound conveyed alarm.

Mitsuo made a jerking aborted dodge and went down with a pained yelp, his momentum carrying him in an ungainly flip that fluffy white dogs were clearly not built to undergo. In another circumstance, the perplexed look on his doggy face would have been hilarious. As it was, it was overshadowed by the cracking sound that immediately followed when he whumped to the dirt.

Hōseki rocketed forward to engage the enemy with a growl as Aoba exploded into a cloud of crows that barely avoided the second small, glistening explosive bubble. But Aiko had skidded to a stop and flung herself over Mitsuo's downed form, frantically checking for breaks in the leg that he held aloft with a whimper. If Utakata wanted, he could have tried to take her out right then—she trusted that Hōseki would distract him, but he could have tried.

He didn't. "What do you want?" His footsteps were light, accompanied by the rustling of what sounded like expensive fabric. "Why are you chasing me?"

She didn't spare him a thought. Aoba could handle it.

Aiko kept her head bowed and tried to calm Mitsuo, soothingly rubbing at his back while he cried. It was a definite break, and he wasn't much more than a puppy. He'd never had a broken bone before.

"Have you heard of Akatsuki?"

She wasn't interested in the conversation at all and let it become a rumble of male voices, background noise rather than something important. If Utakata attacked, she'd kill him, and to hell with the consequences. She might kill him for this even if he didn't attack. Until then, Mitsuo was more important. "It's alright, you did well," Aiko mumbled, trying not to cry. He lifted his head and tried to lick her soothingly but couldn't reach, so she leaned in and let him lap at her cheek. "Go home, okay? Or- Or do you want to go to Tsunade-sama?"

Surely he had good medics at home, but really he deserved the best. She probably wouldn't mind being asked to heal such a good dog, would she?

He managed to convey that both of them abandoning the mission would be a little extreme, and gave her one last doggy kiss before ending the chakra thread that tied him to Tea country side for his own home.

For the first time, she glared up at her target in person. Utakata was a good-looking man, or at least she'd thought so when she'd seen the black and white picture in the dossier. In person, however, his hair was stupid and the lazy set to his eyes made him look unintelligent instead of discerning. Also, what was the point of wearing a kimono if you were going to let it hang open all the way to your hips? It was highly impractical for a shinobi—he could only be doing it because he thought it looked cool. Poser.

"What are you staring at?" Even his voice pissed her off. It was a smooth, disinterested tone. It sounded as if he didn't have the time of day for her, even though he'd been the one to initiate conversation.

"An asshole," Aiko countered calmly. Aoba's face fell at that particular bit of bluntness, but she didn't care at the moment. "Because no one else would try to blow up a puppy as their first target. Do you maybe want us to wait while you find a bunny-rabbit to kick or something? I have time." She gestured expansively at the greenery around them.

He had the grace to look a little flustered. "That was not a puppy," Utakata denied. "That slavering beast had to be at least five feet tall."

Slavering beast? She was going to turn him into a bloody smear. Mitsuo was an adorable little love, and probably twice as clever as Utakata was. And at least Mitsuo had manners, even if he did lick his plate.

"He's a growing boy," Aiko huffed. Hōseki gave a warning growl that seemed to startle Utakata into remembering that there was another dog present.

"I think that's enough," Aoba cut in sternly. "Please be calm, Uzumaki-san. I'm certain he did not intend to harm your friend. Now, Utakata-san. We really have to insist that you at least consider returning with us. This is for your own safety, as well as that of everyone in the Elemental Countries. Akatsuki will stop at nothing to capture jinchuuriki. I'm sure that you are formidable, but no one man can stand against half a dozen S-class shinobi. This is folly. The Mizukage offers your protection and amnesty."

His lips thinned further, if that was even possible. "I care not what my former village wants," Utakata denied. "I can avoid Akatsuki."

"Yes, like you avoided us," Aiko pointed out sardonically. "It took me less than a day to track you. We spent maybe three hours start to finish, not accounting for when we stopped for tea. Frankly, you're not that stealthy. You've just been low priority until now."

Utakata gave her the strangest look—perhaps the right word was evaluative. "Uzumaki, he said?" Suddenly, his voice had a slight lilt. He shook his head slightly and let his eyes flutter all but closed. His tone lowered dismissively. "I expected someone a bit more impressive, if you're really the girl who supposedly defeated the Nibi and escaped the Akatsuki."

'There is a huge difference between defeating the nibi and defeating the nibi jinchuuriki, you insufferable dodo.'

"Learn to live with disappointment," Aiko informed him crisply. "I'm not here to impress you. I'm here to convince you to return home where you're safe using my wit and charming personality, or to hit you over the head and drag you back to Mist over my shoulder."

The look he gave her was absolutely withering, and the response sardonic. "I wish you the best of luck with that endeavor."

She just shrugged, eyes hard. The breeze that had seemed so nice before while they ran carried a stifling, biting heat now. That may have just been her poor mood, however.

"Please, Utakata-san," Aoba sighed, probably cursing teenagers in general. "We do have you out-numbered, and this doesn't need to become a fight. I would prefer not to use force."

Utakata shook his head slowly. "I can never return to Kiri," he informed them. His tone was light, but Aiko imagined she heard a bitter undertone. "They only wish to use me what the power I contain."

'Well, duh,' Aiko thought rather uncharitably. It wasn't pretty, but that was what it meant to be a jinchuuriki. It was what being a shinobi was in general, really.

But he continued. "I cannot and will not trust any who hail from Kiri."

She blinked. That didn't sound right. "No one from Kiri?" Aiko confirmed a bit skeptically. "That seems like a big generalization. It's like saying that you can't trust anyone who prefers udon over ramen."

"My own teacher betrayed me on Kiri's orders," Utakata informed her rather snidely. "Who then could I trust?"

"That sounds more like a problem with your teacher in particular than with Kiri," Aiko countered genuinely, sitting down and bracing her elbows on her knee. Aoba seemed perplexed, but she ignored him while she cradled her chin in a palm and observed their target thoughtfully. This was a bit more interesting. "He definitely shouldn't have done that, of course. My teacher would have told Konoha to go eat dirt if they wanted to sell me out."

Of course, Kakashi might not be exactly representative of the average or healthy individual. But she'd do the same for Fukiko. Hell, she had essentially thumbed her nose as a higher authority for Fukiko before she'd even met the kid. That was what it meant to take responsibility for guiding a young life.

(She ignored that the thought made her feel guilty for passing ROOT off onto Tsunade. A master-apprentice relationship was one of the best vehicles for guidance precisely because it was flexible and personal. She could hardly mentor a large group of adults).

But he shook his head, eyes narrowed. "No. The entire concept of masters and apprentices is fundamentally flawed," Utakata rejected her argument. "I will never again be an apprentice."

"Well, yeah," Aiko rolled her eyes. "You're too old now. But you could be a master and treat your apprentice in the way that you think they should be treated. That's the dangerous and wonderful part about that relationship—it's so personalized to the individuals who enter into it."

"It gives unnatural authority to one individual." However displeased he was, Utakata seemed passionate enough about this topic that he moved from the deceptively languid posture that hinted he was about to bolt away at any moment to something stiffer and more genuine. Aoba kept his mouth firmly shut, gaze darting between the two. Aiko took that to mean he was going to let her have a try at talking sense into their target. "The master and apprentice relationship is reliant on inequality. It subjugates one to the other and allows the master to overrule the apprentice, who is should be his equal, as a fellow sentient being."

'I'm sensing a lot of baggage here, and can't help but note that he didn't say fellow human,' Aiko observed. 'He must be on very good terms with his bijuu, then. This isn't just about his teacher. It's tied into his state as a jinchuuriki.'

She was sympathetic to that, actually. Making jinchuuriki was completely unethical. Of course, so was murder, and she did plenty of that if the circumstances were right. "I agree that all sentient beings are created equal and should be treated equally, but the primary function of a master-apprentice relationship is not reliant on inequality," Aiko calmly rebutted, letting her eyelids slide mostly shut and observing his reaction.

What the hell, why not try philosophizing at him for a while.

"It is instead intrinsically attached to hierarchy, which is neither good nor bad. We all live in hierarchy, unless we never deal with others." That was a mild jab at his wandering loner act. Judging by the brow he arched, Utakata caught it. Aiko unapologetically gave him a playful little smirk. "The pack can't function without hierarchy. We'd just be wild animals." Her tone was innocent, but the implication was clear.

That jab he actually quirked a smile at, slightly hostile though it was. "And that's not a form of oppression? The strong forcing their worldview and agenda on the weak?"

Aoba looked bored out of his mind.

"Only when perverted," Aiko sighed, as if he was droll for even trying to make that connection. "All interaction is cooperative, at its core."

"Your naivety is charming," Utakata drawled in a tone that said it most certainly was not, looking down on her. "But you are incorrect."

She raised a brow and inserted as much scorn as possible into her next words. "I'm wrong?" Aiko repeated mockingly. "My, that sounds an awful lot like you're falling back on your original statement because you can't think of a rebuttal."

"It's not worth my time." Utakata gave a little jump, and—

"That's not terribly practical," Aiko mumbled under her breath, absolutely flummoxed as he attempted to escape via bubble. It was really pretty, she supposed, if a bit conspicuous. And it wasn't what she thought of first when defensible transport came to mind. It almost had to be permeable, and bubbles weren't exactly known for being sturdy in the first place.

She badly stifled a snort. This shouldn't be amusing, it really shouldn't. It probably indicated that he had a very dangerous, unique set of techniques that he could do terrible things to her delicate person with. In fact, he'd been living as a missing nin for a while, which was a notoriously hard life. He shouldn't be underestimated.

Still...

'Glinda, you're leaving far too early! Don't I get some shiny shoes out this deal?'

Luckily, her captain was able to force down any amusement more easily than she was. Perhaps he just had no sense of humor, but she'd forgive it. Someone had to deal with the fact that their princess was floating away to another castle, after all.

Aoba flung his arms out and what appeared to be (in technical terms) a ginormous cloud of chattering crows flew out and up at Utakata. They easily invaded his personal bubble and harassed him. The strain on his face as the first one broke through the glistening water let the Konoha shinobi know two things.

The bubble was indeed designed to allow physical objects to pass through, probably so that he could attack.

And it would be a pain for him to escape if birds were harassing him the whole time, which would force him to choose between killing the hundreds of annoyances and maintaining his sphere.

He chose to let the bubble pop, flitting to the top of one of the ambitious bushes and starting off west at a dash.

By that time, Aiko had stood up and flitted after him, only letting Aoba leap in front of her as an afterthought. The birds abandoned the bubble—which was good, because the tiny bubbles hidden inside the large burst transport detonated and sent a few unfortunate stragglers drifting to the ground in bloody feathers—and dove at the jinchuuriki from above.

She hoped they'd poo on his hair. Utakata twisted slightly to face them, revealing that he'd pulled some strange flute-like device out of his kimono and lifted it to his lips.

It probably wasn't to play get-away music, so Aiko was ready to bolt to the side regardless of the fact that she would fall further behind when a trail of green, glimmering bubbles shot out from his device at unpleasant speed. Despite her preparation, she felt the whoosh of air disturbed by their passing, and she'd had more time to react than her temporary captain who had been in front of her.

'Holy cow, Aoba is kind of a badass,' she realized, when her eyes registered that her companion had chosen the path less traveled by leaping over the bubbles like he thought he was a bird himself. That left him in the air and unable to dodge for a crucial moment, which could have ended him if the bubbles had been able to change trajectory—but they didn't, and he flipped in the air like a world class gymnast and continued running when he hit the ground without losing any speed. He immediately flung three short blades—Utakata dodged them all without even turning around.

The green bubbles were apparently an acid. Aiko wasn't any sort of expert, of course, but the sizzling sound and nearly immediate collapse of greenery behind them was a pretty good clue. Aiko lost just a foot or so of distance when she had to gather just enough concentration to form two winding chakra chains and trail them down each arm, but Aoba had caught up and moved to knock Utakata down with a swipe to the back of the neck.

With preternatural speed, the jinchuuriki swept around in a rustle of fabric and easily swung under the blow. Aiko could have sworn that he was smirking and his eyes were amused, but it might have been prejudice. His reflexes were inhumanly good. She knew that he would use the change in momentum to swing around Aoba and knock him over from behind, then dart over to her. With both of them immobilized, he would flee before they could regain their bearings. Or try to, at least. If he didn't really mess her up, she'd be able to catch him if she dropped the chains, and she didn't think he actually wanted to kill them. He'd been pulling his punches so far.

Shame that he forgot about the angry dog, who was also inhumanly fast. Hōseki probably weighed only about thirty pounds, but when she strategically applied that weight by latching onto Utakata's right ankle as it twisted without even attempting to slow, it had the humorous effect of bringing him down into a destabilized splitz. He might have recovered from that if Aoba hadn't knocked into him an eighteenth of a second later, wide-mouthed and clearly trying to dodge.

'That looked painful,' Aiko observed cheerfully, pinning Utakata with a messy pool of blunt chains as soon as Aoba's momentum had carried him in a roll of limbs over the now very disgruntled 19-year old jinchuuriki. He made the mistake of jerking, which gave her all the room she needed to slip the chains around his body and wrap him up like a caterpillar.

"Wow, that was embarrassing," she commented loudly. Hōseki spat out her mouthful of flesh and gave a loud bark through teeth that shone with blood.

"Oh, shut up," Aoba groaned, pushing himself up to a seated position. His glasses were crooked enough for her to see that his eyes were dark colored before he hastily adjusted them.

Aoba coughed uncomfortably and broke eye contact, though Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "It went acceptably," he half-asked, half informed.

"Well, that's convincing," Tsunade drawled sardonically, tapping her fingers against her desk. "Did you have complaints about the way that Aiko did her job?"

That had never happened before, but then again, she only seemed to work with a small group of people. And it wasn't as if that scruffy mentor of hers didn't have his share of infuriating habits. Some of them could have rubbed off.

"No, of course not," Aoba denied professionally. "She located the jinchuuriki and did manage to subdue him after I brought him down."

His tone on the last five-or-so words was odd, but Tsunade was already rolling her eyes and moving on with her life and report. "That's nice. So Terumi has him, huh? He didn't come quietly?"

After he was done, she sent him out and had Aiko come back in. Aoba was enough of a professional that he didn't let on that he was wondering why their debriefings had to be separate, although he certainly was.

Really, there was no reason she needed two debriefings on this mission. But acting as though she did would provide an excuse for ha—

'I need to give the cloak and dagger routine a rest,' Tsunade scolded herself as Aiko slipped in and gave her a curious look. She didn't feel obligated to explain that she'd forgotten she no longer needed to hide things from Danzo. It was just a force of habit not to openly meet with Aiko without an easy explanation. Perhaps it was the topic of this conversation that had moved her mind in that old pattern. "I have a present for you," she wryly informed Aiko.

Aiko was smart enough to be wary. Or maybe she'd just noticed a pattern.

"You're no fun," Tsunade grumbled. Still she pushed her chair back far enough to retrieve a sealed envelope from one of her drawers and held it out. "Well go on, take it." As soon as her hands were free and Aiko was stepping back, running her fingers over the paper consideringly, Tsunade sighed. "I think you need this information right now. It's what I've had put together from Danzo's records," she explained. Aiko's expression instantly became inscrutable, which made her wince a little. It was a reflexive reaction to thinking about Danzo and ROOT, probably. What had been done to that girl?

Those thoughts were useless, so Tsunade waved them away and trudged forward. "Since at least some of them have decided you're their new boss, I thought it prudent that you have some sort of idea who is out there." It might have been funny under other circumstances to think of Danzo's devotees flocking hopelessly to the woman who'd shut him down, but the lingering possibility that someone would figure out she wasn't really Danzo's chosen successor was worrying. When that happened, would anyone figure out that Aiko had been involved in his death? If they did, they'd want her head. She should at least know who to be wary around.

There was no need to explain that to Aiko. The girl clearly knew what was being implied, and gave a grateful bow.

Tsunade waved her off and out of her office, before getting the guilt-driven urge for a drink. She had a piece of hard candy instead, and tried not to think that she'd single-handedly managed to arrange the possibility that a group with about a hundred combatants within the city would want a teenager dead. If news of Aiko's association with ROOT and involvement in its downfall came out, no amount of well-wishing would change the fact that Aiko would be deader than a doornail. Konoha's walls didn't protect against inside threats.

'Maybe I should take Jiraiya's advice,' she thought glumly.

It had seemed impossibly cruel when he'd first suggested it. These ROOT shinobi had been wronged by Konoha's oversight. How could she possibly justify sending them out on dangerous missions and hoping they would die so they weren't her problem anymore?

What she wanted to do was feel them out individually and have them rehabilitated. But there was always the risk that someone would fake compliance and raise the alarm with their fellow ROOT. Danzo was gone, but they still had his procedures to fall back on, and they were a formidably sized force. It would be utterly impossible to go after them all at once, whether it was to help them or arrest them, and it would only take one of them to raise the alarm.

'I don't want to kill them,' Tsunade thought a bit helplessly.

That had never been what she'd wanted. Having Sai around as one of her bodyguards made the guilt from her thoughts even worse. He wasn't a bad kid. Surely there were others who could be saved, and assimilated into Konoha's forces. Maybe they would assimilate on their own, given time.

But on the other hand, maybe they wouldn't, and then she would have an uncontrolled traitorous faction with unknown objectives operating within her village. She really should inform ANBU and the Jounin, so that they at least knew about the threat. But that could only lead to a military clash. Not only would that be a horrific waste of manpower when they needed it badly, but it was the exact situation she had been trying to steer away from.

Having them report to Aiko worked to stall for time, if nothing else. They were used to taking orders. If they thought nothing was wrong, then hopefully they would just naturally be integrated into the village proper when she didn't send them out on excessively militaristic missions (and really, building bases in foreign powers was too aggressive. What had Danzo been thinking? If he hadn't planned to eliminate the local authorities, he would have been found eventually).

She did have to admit that Jiraiya's solution was neatest, provided she could trust them to fulfill whatever missions she sent them out on. A lot more people could die on missions without arousing suspicion than could be disappeared from within the village. If most of the ROOT only knew one other member or so, it might take quite a while to realize what was happening. And their numbers would be significantly lessened when they did.

Tsunade heaved a groan and put the matter aside for now. She wasn't getting anywhere by re-hashing the same problem over and over.

"You look like the cat that got the cream," Chouji's mother remarked, idly playing with the red stud in her right ear.

Aiko shrugged, before remembering that wasn't considered a particularly polite response. "I went for a good run today," she explained.

Chouji made a face, shaking his head vigorously. "Dad, you have the oddest friends." He gave her a conspiratorial wink to show he meant no harm. "You invite her over for dinner, and she talks of such stomach-turning things," he complained.

"Bah." Choza settled at the head of the table and gave Aiko a faux-stern stare. "Young lady, in this household, we don't speak of such things at the table."

Baffled, she blinked twice before realizing he might be partially serious. "Running?" she clarified.

The only person remotely close to her age gave a solemn nod, looking uncannily like his father when he did so. "Or at least, you can't talk about running for fun. Even Ino doesn't do that."

"Oh, little Ino?" His mother (whose name Aiko had completely forgotten and so was desperately hoping someone would mention soon) queried. "I haven't seen her around here in so long, how is she doing?"

And Chouji flushed a brilliant red, sticking his chopsticks into the table on accident and bumping his fist into his plate. That was bad enough, but then the damn thing flipped and ended up on his lap.

It wasn't particularly kind, but Aiko joined in with snickers when Choza burst out into laughter. Chouji pouted, even as his mother patted his hand sympathetically and tossed him a napkin to clean up his lap.

"Don't make that face, son," Choza managed to chide. "There's nothing wrong with getting flustered by a pretty girl. Just try not to do that in front of Ino-chan."

Chouji was still beet red. His expression implied he would rather do a great many terrible things than have his parents tease him about a pretty girl with an outsider looking in. "Excuse me," he choked out, before fleeing with surprising grace for such a big teen.

Aiko pressed her lips together to keep from smiling and refrained from offering comment.

"Well, we've embarrassed one teenager," Akimichi-san said cheerfully, reaching for some sort of dessert in a sugary frosting. "How may we make you uncomfortable today, Aiko-chan? Are there any cute boys in your life?"

"I plead the right not to implicate myself in a court of law," Aiko deadpanned. Of course, that wasn't a thing here, so the looks she got in return were odd. At least no one pursued it further.

"That aside, have you decided about what you're going to do about the small council seat?" Choza changed the subject. "You're going to have to resign from the large council, even if you choose to defer this offer."

"I'll somehow soldier on without that on my calendar."

Choza's lips twitched, but he waited patiently to a response to his actual question.

Aiko hesitated for just a moment, feeling oddly like this was a test, and then bit her lip for just a moment. "I think I'm going to accept the appointment," she admitted with just a hint of grouchiness. "If I really hate it, I can make Naruto or Karin my representative later. But it would be churlish to reject a good-faith offer. Politically speaking, it wouldn't look good for me to turn my nose up at something that a lot of clans covet. I'd hardly make any friends that way. Besides, there are actually contentious issues involving Uzumaki, and it would be irresponsible to abandon a possible tool to advocate for the others."

Naruto was an obvious issue, of course, as the jinchuuriki. Some people were never going to like him, and even those who did might still see him as a weapon before he was a person.

But he wasn't the only problem. Karin was a foreigner—no one liked those very much. She'd had enough trouble at the hospital with people refusing to work with her to make that clear.

And then there was Hinata… Kami, where to start there? She had no idea how she was going to sit in meetings with Hyuuga Hiashi and not implode from the sheer awkwardness of it all, but she was going to have to figure something out. Hinata had a tougher skin than she'd had when they were children, luckily, but she wasn't immune to the fact that a lot of people disliked her for snubbing the Hyuuga in exchange for a rather disreputable family.

In other words, she had a gaggle of silly bastards who needed someone to look out for them. Besides, the small council hardly ever met except in emergencies when the Hokage wasn't available to give direction. Considering the potential gain available, the commitment required would be small.

Choza looked unduly proud at her responsible decision. "That's very mature," he praised quietly. A genuine smile seemed to peel ten years off his face. "I think that you have a pretty tight grasp of the mentality a clan head needs."

Aiko attempted a smile, but it probably came across as vaguely nauseous. At the look her poor job garnered, she hastily tried to explain. She didn't want him to think she was ungrateful for his tutoring, but, "I don't know that I really feel like a clan head, or even a clan. I know that the Uzumaki are a real clan," she explained, waving her hands apologetically. "I just… I don't understand how I fit in context with that history. I didn't grow up with it. and what I have now hardly feels like a clan. It feels more like I'm taking care of my little brother and his friends. I don't mind being responsible for them, but it doesn't seem like…" she paused, struggling for words.

Sympathetically, Choza helped her, suggesting, "It just doesn't feel quite legitimate, does it? I can imagine that it might be hard to come to terms with a history you're unfamiliar with. You don't have the same sense of where the clan has been and where it's going that you should." Empathy was written in his features, and his voice lowered as if he was sharing a secret. "I don't know that I would feel any differently, if I didn't have that history as guidance. Perhaps you need to spend some time familiarizing yourself with your roots. The Uzumaki taijutsu and fuinjutsu are lost, and the names of people you've never met will hardly be inspiring, but it might help to see how they lived. That sort of thing."

Aiko smiled politely, but she didn't think reading the sparse histories available was really going to help. Konoha had a fair bit of information on how the Uzumaki had interacted with them—records of services rendered, famous friendships, and things of that ilk—but nothing that could tell her what it had been like to be a clan.

[nomadicrusalka]

For ask game 7,8,17, and 25!

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

Watercolours! I've always found it to be fascinating but it requires so much patience and you really need to be careful, kinda plan ahead and I'm just not that great with that lmao But the results can be so interesting so I love seeing any watercolour art! =D

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

Gosh there are so many wips in my graveyard ToT There was this one idea I've had that was set in a modern AU with Kurama being a mafia boss? And taking care of child Naruto and just a lot of drama around that since Kurama would be responsible for his parents' death but Naruto wouldn't know it ssdgggsk But when this idea came to my mind no matter how often I tried to draw it I just couldn't execute it in a way I would enjoy and like? I'm hoping that I will eventually try it again but drawing older men is just something that I find to be so so hard haha So it might take years lmao

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? If so, what

I love eating snacks when drawing haha Just anything sweet or sometimes chips,,, so unhealthy but I can't stop myself TOT even eating one right now,,,

25. Something that your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

Hmmm I don't think my art has ever been compared to someone else's? Or maybe I just don't remember. There was like one instance during art class where I dunno if I was sharing the idea I had or showing rough sketches or maybe a more finished piece where the teacher said that it reminded them of this one painter (that I have had no idea about I don't even remember the name djfdsf rip to them ig) but that was it lol

Thank you for asking!! <3

[7ban-sama]

you and your wife make the best posts about jshk, truly im invested in both of your thoughts and analyses as much as i am in the manga itself. you both add a lot to my enjoyment of the story and characters for me.

in one of the asks you recently answered, you referred to amane as having a special interest (which i agree is an apt description). so im wondering, do you think of amane as autistic? or do you feel like something else fits him better? or even just that theres simply no box he could fit in, clinically...

Aw, thank you so kindly for liking me & my wifey's posts, and I'm happy to hear we're enhancing your experience with the series in any way. We always hope that we can at least make someone pause and think about something they hadn't before (after all, I love posts that make me do that!) so... just lovely to hear~

As for your question: the answer is indeed that I do not think I could easily fit Amane in a specific box! I wouldn't use any one label on anything... I sometimes use terminology to convey a concept — like special interests! — but it's really just about communicating something quickly/efficiently enough. It's handy to be able to describe, like, the scene at the rooftop with Tsukasa and Nene as Amane entering a "triggered" state, so you can understand how I interpret that individual interaction... but I wouldn't go on to say I think Amane has PTSD, like, clinically (even if? he has been through traumatic events..) ; I separate these things.

Though, I definitely see Amane as an ill individual... which is actually why I place so much emphasis on living Amane NOT being a perfectly "normal" boy, as the idealized vision on PP is often seen as. You'll hear me rattling off about him definitely not being a Normie for a reason. He's NOT-!! & I'll die on this hill, ooh...

But like... to get to my main point... my reason for structuring my HCs this way, is that the story is so fantastical at times, it almost feels... distracting-? ...?? To get too clinical with our terminology? Like, of course the behavior comes off as pathological, as Amane is running around being so destructive and self-hating and whatnot... mmh but. Hm. Still... It just feels like there's a point where we need to walk it all back and remember Amane, the Character, is like, the ghost of a crazy perverted murderer — he's the fantasy of these traits & behaviors. It's not meant to be representation ww... so, we need not get too caught up in the details...

You know like, we could ask ourselves what is "wrong" with Itachi in Naruto, like, clinically. Or Naraku in Inuyasha. And so on and so forth. And I mean, you could conclude many things, but, like, I feel like... for ME, the human language starts to feel so feeble when trying to apply medical terms on these circumstances... What can be said for the human psyche once it experiences other-worldly levels of suffering and personal strife? When the manifestations of your feelings enters the point of, oh I dunno, rewriting the universe ala Homura Akemi...

It's poignant of course, and I think we might as well express things this fantastically as opposed to not... but it's these very feelings that make me want to forgo diagnosis. We're already IN the metaphor, extending beyond the constraints of reality...

(*rolls wrist* and you know, the fact is that medical terms are necessary to define ill individuals because we're humans in society and need help/treatment to function, to communicate... When I think about the reason why we have these systems, I get fatigued... It's really about knowing what medication is going to help you get through the day better... what part of the brain to try and stimulate...)

... the OTHER layer to this all, is that. JSHK is um, well it's a shota-bait manga, and Amane is out here holding his knife and tongue-lolling with swirly eyes... Just another layer of why I can't see him as actually having PTSD (would YOU end up like that after murdering your brother?) The "intent" is that, "it's hot when a guy is Crazy and murderer and going to disregard your autonomy." ... "Wouldn't it be soo hot if a guy..." and so on.

Obviously, of all people, me and Avvy respect all the beautiful thematic elements of JSHK — we adore it! we see it as a respectable piece of art! — but ah, we also just understand the genre, the "point"... You know, Aida-sensei is going to be excited to draw a boy in thigh-highs at the end of the day ww... & bless her heart, that's what art should be about, I think. It's actually pretty relieving for me, that the manga isn't trying to sell me any specific narrative with Amane, he's just, Amane! A confluence of his many traits, whether they be charming or frustrating or unsettling or deeply relatable... This is very liberating... it feels like, you could see anything you'd like within these traits, in that case.

No shame on anyone who feels the need to categorize this stuff btw, I get it; it's just a matter of how I want to personally engage with things. I'm always prioritizing what would be the most fun for me, and I wouldn't get anything out of adhering to like a DSM every time I get into a new character that appears ill to me. I really just go off of Vibes.

Though I do have biases towards what I see the boys leaning towards, natch. As I mentioned before I perceive like individual symptoms/behaviors so, I can see, relate to, and compare events in the manga as like, being overstimulated, being triggered, having a psychotic break etc... and I like to explore things in my personal work with this in mind. Oh but the disclaimer is honestly I have, like, a fetish, for mental illness, and enjoy fetishizing me & my wife's symptoms LOL soo... there's that... My motivation comes from a similar place as Aida-sensei drawing Amane in thigh highs, or, holding a knife, I suppose. "Because I Want To See It, Because It Would Be Hot." Perhaps why I have to be so glib about it. It's not very academic, at the end of the day. I'm also trying to get people on my level of casually calling characters psycho btw. It's fun, consider it.

Also fwiw, because Hanako-kun of Magic is a very simple AU & Amane in it IS just a non-magical high school student, I think of that one as the closest to simply "autistic." Lol.

[philosophicalparadox]

For the deranged ask, 4, 5, and 6!

4. Do you write in public? Like where people can see your screen?

Hell to the hell no lolllllll I would rather die. Writing discreetly at home on my phone is one thing. But no, never in a public place. I won’t even write essays in public. Won’t do art either. Inevitably some nosey nobody ends up looking over and trying to start a conversation about it and nope, I’m good. I’d rather not.

5. Who's the sexiest non-human character in your current fandom? (must actually diverge from human sexual characteristics - no elves or asari)

Hmmmm….pure monster-fuckery huh? Dunno if there really is one that has no human traits at all, but among the fandoms I presently occupy probably Farcille. (DM) If I’m going to completely ignore the no-human sex characteristic (how, exactly, is that meant to be taken????) then unironically Amaimon. (Blue Exorcist) Dunno why it is but that demon boi is something else. Mephisto’s got his appeal but Amaimon wins by a hair just because I like his aesthetic better lol. In the newly revisited Naruto fandom 100% young Orochimaru wins for me. He’s so pretty. (Especially in the manga, which makes him look younger overall)

6. What nasty/evil/maladjusted character traits do you enjoy exploring in your little meow-meows?

What traits don’t I enjoy exploring is a better question 😝 I’m open to pretty much anything as long as I’ve got the right character and the right angle. That said I gotta say, I am a sucker for possessive characters, and for general “mate guarding” behaviour, be it strictly jealousy or justifiable defence. Also a real sucker for the “runs away from love or affection because they don’t believe they Can be loved” trope.

Also fond of exploring power dynamics, and love to pick apart where a character is in their respective hierarchy and sort of centering my character interactions with them based on that to some degree; if character A were to push, would B shove back? Or bow out? And while this does not inherently seem toxic, or maladaptive, believe me it absolutely can be. Some characters just don’t know when to back off or seem to misunderstand the disparity between where they think they are and where they actually are in the pecking order. I inexplicably love to sort that stuff out, by fair means or foul; sexy or downright disgusting.

Speaking of foul, in the spirit of the question, by far the most “evil” thing I’ve explored in a blorbo however is probably a rapists mind frame. (Thank you Berserk for making that so easy). That was honestly an interesting character study moment for me, and weirdly cathartic, but I ended up scrapping the scene because it was just a litttttttle too much for that particular narrative (somehow) at the time.

I have since revisited the concept mentally a few times, with other characters, at least one of which ticks every box — maladaptive, nasty and evil — but I’ve not written any of it down just yet. It takes a braver soul than I to post a one shot scene of such brutal depravity solely because I know I can never write just one chapter 😮‍💨 and I don’t need more tummy-hurting projects right now lol

Thanks for asking @thebeingofeverything !

[ayamisc]

….this week's manga updates ^^

(c) Bisco Hatori (Ouran High School Host Club)

This is the LONGEST manga rant i've ever written...

well... except for the Samurai Deeper Kyo one.. that melmel witnessed in person where I pretty much talked in a very rapid pace for 2 hours. yeah. go me. so. here it is….

this is just all about mangas. nothing else…. oh. and I have finals next week….

Naruto 385 ……uh… and the battle ensues. there 'ya go… ^^ oh. and a little history lesson about the sharingan..blah blah blah..

BLEACH 306 …..eh. nothing much happens. yeah.

….and the BEST update… [This is LONG. and MIGHT BE… or.. erm. IS confusing….so…. if u don't wanna read… that's fine. lol….so.. yeah]

Ouran High School Host Club 57 …the one and ONLY manga that makes me feel all romanc-y and girly…which is REALLY weird… coz I don't usually like this genre….. but.. anyway…..

Ouran. YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWEEEEEEESOOOOOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEEEE………. …..spoilers here on. i love this chapter so much. i'm not leaving anything out.

so. ok.

Life at the Music Room 3 continues like normal.. EXCEPT… 4 people are acting out of character. ^^

1 Hikaru has changed his color to something dark… because he and Kaoru have realized their individuality….On other issues…. AHEM. Hikaru………………….. seems to be CONSTANTLY NEEDING to follow his brother's advices and orders about uh… controlling himself. I dunno why. But he seems to want to get Tamaki off of Haruhi's back all the time. I WONDER WHY. hmmmm ^^ (For every 3 minutes he can wait and succesfully control himself… Kaoru puts 100Y in his piggy bank…lol) ..of course. once the 3 minutes is over. He runs after them REALLY fast. LOL…. (sound effects: SLAM! WAITING'S OVER!)

2 Kaoru… at this point… have given up on his pursuit for Haruhi because he realized who Haruhi really loves. HOWEVER. He makes it clear that he is on Hikaru's side. ..and constantly gives advices on how to deal with their present predicament (which will be presented on the next 2 characters). He also goes out of the way to make sure the next 2 characters figure out their feeling for each other ON THEIR OWN.. (poor Nekozawa…lol) because according to him. Helping the 2 is cheating… and would TOTALLY kill off the chances Hikaru MIGHT have… coughif there is actually anycough

..oh. here's a scene after the "SLAM. WAITING's OVER.. which is the scene after the dialogue I wrote under Honey's section down there…. so. here: Kyoya: Isn't 100Y each time too cheap? Kaoru: How naive, Kyoya-sempai! For Hikaru to make Haruhi turn around, it's no good if he doesn't at least do this much!!! Because at any rate, if he were to confess now, he would definitely be rejected!! Hikaru: KAORU!!! No matter how you look at it… You're saying too much!!! Kaoru: Here. hands over a book to him Since you got angry.. I'll add a book reading assignment in your training program--- Hikaru: stops ..and goes to read a book DAMNIT! Honey: You really are hard with him, Kao-chan. Kaoru: Kinda… It is the whip of love.. Leave him to me from now on

3 Tamaki. Hmmm….. He.. as usual. and like what you expected. is VERY THICK. (and yes. I'm using Ron Weasley vocabulary here). He doesn't realize WHY Haruhi is SICK… why SHE is obviously avoiding him… why she is red.. and why her body temperature goes up when he's with her. …"Your temperature has suddenly risen! We should call an ambulance!!" …He actually thinks of taking her to the hospital for check up the next day. Hmmm…. CHARACTER WISE. He has IMPROVED GREATLY. For the first time in the history of this manga… Kyoya isn't the only one managing the club. Tamaki too…. is now supervising Kyoya's work. KNOW WHY? Because he's using the club to practice his business skills… since if you remember in chapter 56… Haruhi told him there's nothing wrong for going for the whole Suoh heir business… so…. he's completely business-like now. EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO HARUHI.

4 OUR HEROIN. VERY. VERY. VEEEERRRYYY. confused about herself. Hmmm… >> WHY oh WHY is she ALWAYS having this cold-like sickness? coughlovesickcough …she SAID she went to the doctor. But they seem to tell her she's COMPLETELY healthy. Hmmm…. ^^ ..of course… DADDY is worried. So he checks up on her temperature by touching her cheeks. Our heroin blushes. And her heartbeat quickens… so.. she avoids him. Tamaki… thinking her daughter hates him… runs after her… and they practically play TAG inside Music Room 3. …GUESS WHAT's HIKARU doing? ^^

eh..here's a scene after the dialogue in the Kaoru section: Kaoru: More than that, the problem is Haruhi's attitude towards Tono (Tamaki). She is obviously conscious of him. Honey: Yes. She is.. Kyoya: She has said something like she has a "cold". Haruhi is unaware of it herself.

..and the other 3 characters. why not.

5 Honey. …aside from his usualy sweets addiction… well.. here's a conversation…

H: What do you think Takahashi (Mori)? M: ………… H: That's right… like I thought. Haru-chan has been acting weird ever since then. I don't know what happened between her and Tama-chan.. but it may be "THAT." Kyoya: It IS "THAT." If you want proof, LOOK: *Hikaru seething with a dark look in his eyes.. with a LOT of the word "anger" surrounding him… and Kaoru looking at his watch waiting for 3 minutes Kyoya: ….Hikaru is in a bad mood. *Mori and Honey sweatdrops*

…now isn't THAT the funniest scene EVER? ..oh. and this is happening while Tamaki and Haruhi are playing TAG. LOL

6 Mori : ah. ….need I say more? [He acually doesn't say anything…. as u might have read in that dialogue up there]

7 Kyoya…… "We give them because our happiness is for everybody to come everyday to the host club in good health" (thinking: and more importantly for merit points) …haha.. typical Kyoya ^^ …and of course. as expected. He just stands there to watch…. probably collecting DATA.. knowing HIM.

8 Mei. I honestly never liked Mei. I mean.. she's ok.. but yeah. Anyhow… she is AWESOME in this chapter. Know why? Because she gives Haruhi a MAGAZINE. A TEEN MAGAZINE.

So. the next day. Haruhi comes in school….. remembers what she read in the magazine. and realizes she's in love with Tamaki. THE END. ^_^ yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so. yeah. the end of my manga rant.

Naruto is by Masashi Kishimoto BLEACH is by Tite Kubo Ouran Koukou (High School) Host Club is by Bisco Hatori

…go read them!! lol… if u want. [And wow. when I started this… I was in a REALLY REALLY bad mood. I'm ok now! ..happy even!!!!!]

Oh. I also read Vampire Knight by Hino Matsuri………

anyhow. I KNOW you don't care about what I read… but mel told me to tell her what the mangas I read are so..here they are. ^^

PS. This blog was originally posted on DeviantArt.

[kpchrs]

Which one is your favorite among the big 3 and why?

Whoopsie, I just reblogged your post lol Needless to say, my favourite is Naruto, because of... what I said.

But if I need to add, the love for nerd stuff was introduced to me by my big brother. He got me into so many stuff that I love right now; comics, animations, games, music.

It saddens me actually because he outgrows it and I still love it lol

I read Naruto for the first time when I was 8 (maybe) and I couldn't comprehend the story. Growing up with it means my literature comprehension became better and better, it's actually fascinating. Because at one point I didn't understand the word "rehabilitation" (Volume 38 I think) and now I do and know more.

Naruto is the first one I read from the Big Three. I have a much longer history with it, like having fun reading it and buying it with my brothers. It's my entertainment in the era of "Internet, what's that?" (as in I dunno what internet means and I didn't have access to internet yet). I love to stare at the almost complete volumes in my shelf. Practically, like everyone else and you, I grow up with it. That's why I love it the most.

Bleach and One Piece don't have the history length Naruto had. Still looong but not as long. I still love them for different reasons tho. Right now, my attention is for One Piece because hearing about people loving the live action is a wholesome feeling. Yes, yes, I know that Bleach has an ongoing anime right now. I... uh, haven't got the energy yet.

Thanks for the ask, Lenore 🤣

[spelunkingsnake]

Whos your favorite naruto villians

Favourite naruto villains? Hm... I do not know. I do not usually have favourites, I tend to just hate everybody. In everything. Characters I like are few and far between. If I don't hate a character, it had been bestowed a great honor because I hate the vast majority of characters anywhere. For petty reasons. Like "they are pointless and could be replaced by a pancake and absolutely nothing would change."

Anyway, while the naruto villains are.. Interesting, I do not have a favourite. Like, ya all know I love sasuke, but if we're talking about people other than the main antagonist (who isn't much of a villain but I think still counts by anime logic) then my first instinct is to say the first "villain" we really met, just because it started it off (and because I absolutely love waves arc, probably like my 3rd favourite arc in the whole series). So yeah, my favourite villain(s) are probably zabuza and haku (and gato because he was interesting honestly). Yeah, not sure what else to say. I like madara, I guess. Not so much obito, never really liked him but I liked tobi cause he was funny. I liked how he acted like a fool, but like- really wanted a war? (jk I know that isn't how it happened but I'm joking here lol)

This should be a simple question. I'm just stupid. I liked pein as well, ig. Dunno. You can say I liked all the akatsuki (aside from itachi, I can't get over how much he annoys me) i guess but it's not really accurate. I like them just don't care enough. Hm. I'm scared to post this

[thatlittledandere]

I was the anon that sent Naruto as a prompt and honestly? Dude same! Like I watched the series when I was eleven so a lot of stuff went over my head so this rewatch has been a really interesting experience because I Understand Now.

But same! I was never really bothered by the ships on my first watch except for Shikatema, I dunno why, I just adored both of them and desperately wanted them to end up together and you know damn well I celebrated when I read the final chapter 😆 But I agree so hard about Blank Period Temari! Like wtf why is she a blushing maiden now?? Her whole thing is that she's a warrior and honestly the toughest out of her family!

And omg Rin... Ngl, I am so mentally ill about Rin. That sweet girl deserved so much better... I wish we could seen more of her as a jinchuuriki, that would have been so badass. But she is genuinely one of those characters that if I think about them for too long, I start crying.

But y'know a ship that surprised me? Saiino. Like on my first watch through, I thought "Huh, yeah, they're kinda cute" and didn't think much else of it. But on this rewatch, they're actually really sweet??? And it's lovely seeing Sai so comfortable around someone (Sai is such an overhated character imo, like he's amazing, you guys are just mean) Plus, in Boruto, they're actually one of the more... Healthy??? Relationships? I dunno if healthy is the right word but they're the couple you see acting like a couple the most?

I am so so so sorry for sending a goddamn essay but I've never really had anyone to talk to about Naruto before so it's a little exciting to see someone else getting back into it! Especially since they announced they're working on some new projects for the anniversary!!

Oh my god not new projects let them REST

But OH MY GOD. YES. Shikatema was SO good but then?? TEMARI??? It's like. It's like they think "a woman in love" is a personality. Like there's only one way to act. No wtf who is that and what did she do to my mean bitch

Rin deserved SO much better I wanted to see more of their team 😭😭 Need to go back and watch the fillers I think there was something there.

INOSAI GRABBED MY BY THE BALLS WHEN IT HAPPENED WHAT THE FUCK. I THOUGHT IT WAS A FANON THING. NEVER SAW IT COMING. But their short segment in naruhina's wedding was cute, I give them that. Glad to hear they're doing well in Boruto 🥺 I believe I can make an educated guess on how most relationships are written in it lolll

[midzelink]

Do you think zant is related to midna?

I do!  In my headcanon, Zant and Midna are cousins, and were actually inseparable when they were kids.  Midna is older of the two of them, and they grew apart when she was old enough to recognize that he was “beneath” her (pre-game Midna was a real snob, lemme tell you), which planted the seeds of doubt and mistrust that would allow Ganondorf to mold him into the evil man he would later become.  But throughout all his atrocities, he could never truly hate her - he only cursed her when he could have killed her, and it’s even possible that Ganondorf’s “killing” Midna was the biggest reason Zant severed his bond with the Demon King in the moment when it mattered most (more on that here).  Post-game, Zant eventually turns back up in the Twilight Realm as a swirling mass of destructive spiritual energy, his soul having gone mad without a body to call home (Midna had destroyed it, completely and utterly) - but with Midna’s help he’s able to return to normal, and he bends over backwards again and again to prove that he’s more than the hollow shell of an usurper that the ghost of Ganondorf manipulated him to become.  He can never wash his hands of all the blood he’s spilled, but gods be damned if he’s not going to spend the rest of his life trying (heck, Midna has some amends to make, herself), and, eventually...the two become thick as thieves again.  Imagine that!

Re: Zant being beneath her - his latent magical abilities were weak even by a typical Twili’s standards, but especially so for one born of the royal family.  He was always an outlier, in that sense, and was treated poorly for it, which is why in-game he’s seen having such disdain for the so-called “do-nothings.”  Despite this weakness, he dedicated so much of his time training and practicing because this was something he wanted so badly (picture, like, Rock Lee overextending himself practicing nothing but taijutsu), and eventually his powers were recognized, enough so that he could throw his hat in the ring for the crown.  Unfortunately for him, by that point his heart had long been darkened by Ganondorf’s influence, and he was cast out once more.  Oops!