#meanwhiles and neverwere

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

'You weren't there in the final days of the War. You never saw what was born. But if the Timelock's broken, then everything's coming through. Not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-have-been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres.'

The what and the what?

Skaro degradations: These Dalek variations, born from Dalek self-experimentation, were malformed Daleks that were unpredictable and extremely dangerous. There are two known named variants:

'Gliders' - hovered off the ground, their design featuring a limbless humanoid torso encased in reinforced glass.

'Spiders' - egg-shaped body supported by three spider-like legs, moving with worrying agility.

Horde of Travesties: Unspecified, but feasibly creatures potentially ensnared in living paradoxes. They might consist of beings transformed into grotesque distortions of life, with a blend of limbs and organs from different ages, species, and evolutionary paths.

The Nightmare Child: A type of Dalek created by Davros during the early days of the Last Great Time War, designed to evolve and improve. However, it quickly spiralled out of control, rejecting its Dalek body and consuming other Daleks, and then trying to consume everything else.

Could-have-been-King and the Meanwhiles/Neverweres: Under the leadership of their King, these entities comprised of evolutionary dead ends, using elements from timelines and possibilities that were never meant to be.

Whoniverse Facts for Friday by GIL

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[lorenlily]

im sorry but the harbinger speech listing the gods reminds me of a) the end of time when ten is saying to the master "you weren't there with in the last days of the time war..." and then just listening offshit like the army of meanwhiles and neverweres (??) and b) in the satan's pit where ten is listing of all the gods he's seen so yknow just your classic rtd dialogue lmao

[sauron18]

The Night Land at the End of Time

The glimpse we get of the Time War in the End of Time has strong parallels to the dystopian far-future Earth of William H. Hodgson’s novel The Night Land.

In the Night Land, the last of the human race has lived in a gigantic black pyramid known as the Last Redoubt for millions of years. The sun died ages in the past, when human technology opened up gateways that let into the universe a horde of evil forces and monsters intent on destroying humankind, body and soul. These monsters are known by vague but ominous names—the Silent Ones, the Watchers, the Baying Hounds—and they are only kept at bay by the forces and mechanisms that protect humankind in its pyramid. No one and nothing else remains alive on Earth, perhaps even anywhere else in the universe.

In the End of Time, we see Gallifrey on the last day of the Time War. The Time Lords are under siege not only by the Daleks but also by other horrors that were unleashed in the war—the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Could’ve-Been-King and his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres—monstrous creatures that have seemingly turned Gallifrey into hell. If Gallifrey were to escape, the horrors of the Time War would escape with it.

But the Time War is complicated. Gallifrey is stated as being at the furthest edge of the War, with most of the battles continuing eternally far off. What does this mean? It means that most of the war is in Gallifrey’s relative past. The Time Lords and their enemies survive at the end of time, continuing to battle one another to the point of stalemate in the hell-world of Gallifrey. But the destruction and devastation of the rest of the universe, of the rest of the war, is still happening in its past.

This is Gallifrey in the time lock, which separated the Time War into a kind of separate dimension or reality. The Doctor ends the war by using the Moment, a weapon that destroys the Time Lords and the Daleks, sealing the war in the time lock and erasing it from history for most of the universe. But what we see of its last days, of the world it had become, besieged by monsters at the end of time, is right out of the Night Land.

(Note: I’m talking about the Time War as imagined by RTD only, not any other writers. Also, I’ve heard the comparison of Gallifrey in the End of Time to Skaro in Genesis of the Daleks, where all advanced technology had been used up. That’s not what I mean here, nor is it what I think RTD intended.)

Art is by Stephen Fabian.

[mrleopard25]

Doctor Who Regeneration Series Revisited: The Ninth Regeneration

The Old Warrior: “Well, gentlemen, it has been an honour and a privilege.” The Tenth Doctor: “Likewise.” The Eleventh Doctor: “Doctor.” The Old Warrior: “And if I grow to be half the man that you are, Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed.” Clara: “That's right. Aim high.” The Old Warrior: “I won't remember this, will I?” The Eleventh Doctor: “The time streams are out of sync. You can't retain it, no.” The Old Warrior: “So I won't remember that I tried to save Gallifrey rather than burn it. I'll have to live with that. But for now, for this moment, I am the Doctor again. Thank you.”

Story (from “The Day Of The Doctor” and “Rose”):

After countless years of the Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, with weapons of mass destruction on a temporal and galactic scale, the Old Warrior once known as the Doctor has finally seen enough. War crimes of horrific proportion have been committed by both sides. Weapons and tactics used included the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child (and, apparently, its jaws), and my personal favourite the Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The Time Lords resurrected the Master to use as a fighter, only to have him desert them when the Cruciform fell.

And at the end of it all, during the last great push by the Dalek to annihilate Gallifrey, the Old Warrior could say just one thing: NO MORE. Taking the the streets, a hero to many, the Warrior picked up a gun and blasted that message into a stone wall. Then he left and broke into the Omega Arsenal in the Time Vaults - the holding place for their most dangerous weapons.

There in the nearly empty collection was the most dangerous of them all: The Moment. Also known as the Galaxy Eater, it had been developed by the Ancients of Gallifrey in their final days. The Moment had become so powerful in its manipulations and control over time that it had achieved sentience. Not only could it end the war in an instant, but it could try to talk you out of it.

Bundling up The Moment in a burlap sack, the Warrior piloted his TARDIS out to the desert wastelands of Gallifrey, before walking the rest of the way to a barnyard from his childhood. He placed the weapon on a stand and began to look for how to activate it...

Story (Original Timeline):

The future was in flux. There were countless scenarios that could arise that would kill the Doctor or otherwise impede his travels through time and space. With so much of time in question, and so much of the future resting on this decision, The Moment did not hesitate in granting his interface. The weapon was activated, and the Doctor scarcely had time to leave before Gallifrey and the whole of the Dalek race were obliterated.

With the stress of what he had just done overwhelming him, the Old Warrior regenerated into the Ninth Doctor. Alone, he felt a terrible burden of responsibility to mitigate and heal some of the damage that he was a party to. We can’t say for sure that it was during this brief period that he sailed on the Titanic, witnessed the JFK assassination, and found himself stranded on a beach after the eruption of Krakatoa, but certainly they were presented as during that period by Clive to Rose (in “Rose”). That being said, there’s nothing explicitly saying that they weren’t from later in his travels with Rose.

It wasn’t much longer that the Doctor became wise to the reappearance of the Nestene consciousness on Earth, following the destruction of their homeworld in the Time War. Again, as the Doctor felt partly responsible for the situation, he began an investigation that would hopefully end with the Nestene leaving peacefully. And also hopefully not resurrecting an army of plastic mannequins to conquer the world...

Story (New Timeline):

After hundreds of years, and several regenerations, worth of adventures, the Eleventh Doctor is called to (well...dragged to) the National Gallery by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT to investigate a strange three dimensional painting surrounded by broken glass. The Doctor begins to surmise that the painting in question, a depiction of the final moments of Gallifrey’s destruction, is actually a piece of frozen time and that the glass was from the painting - something was waiting inside the painting and has broken out.

Meanwhile (not really) in 1562 the Tenth Doctor is investigating a Zygon plot to impersonate Queen Elizabeth the First, and pretends to be a suitor to expose the alien. When Elizabeth accepts his wedding proposal, the Tenth Doctor takes it as proof that Elizabeth is an imposter. He is soon chagrined to discover that Elizabeth’s horse is the imposter, and he is now engaged to Elizabeth.

Back on Gallifrey, as the Old Warrior examines The Moment for an interface, The Moment is able to see its place in time and the future is no longer in flux. Because it’s now the present, and The Moment is in the past (just go with it). As such The Moment assumes the form of the Bad Wolf entity due to the significance of the entity to the Doctor. Unfortunately the Warrior has yet to encounter Rose or experience the Bad Wolf, so this reference is lost on him.

The Moment asks the Warrior why he has decided to commit genocide and unleash armageddon upon Gallifrey and the Daleks. He explains the devastation of the Time War upon the universe, and how this is the last resort. The Moment offers him an alternative, then breaches time to allow him to join the Tenth Doctor in 1562. There he also finds the Eleventh Doctor, who has also been brought to that time.

The three Doctors uncover the Zygon plot in both 1562 and 2013 to make Earth their new home, as the Time War had destroyed their world. All humans would be enslaved or killed to make way for the Zygon invasion. The Doctors are able to convince the Zygons to simply live on Earth in peace, hidden from society as they are chameleonic. It’s not a perfect solution, but negotiations can continue.

The Moment breaches time further and brings all three TARDISes back to the barn where the weapon is ready to be deployed. With some prompting from both Clara and The Moment, the men devise a plan to not activate the weapon but to hide Gallifrey in a time bubble. Meanwhile the Dalek forces would have accidentally destroyed themselves firing at a target that would suddenly vanish. The Doctor reaches out to all his past selves, and one of his future selves, to aid in creating the bubble, but it is difficult to say if the plan was a success.

The Doctors share some tea, then both the Warrior and the Tenth Doctor realize they will not retain their memories of this event, as The Moment had only been able to act based on the “present” of the Eleventh Doctor (as such, they are out of sync with time).

The Warrior, now satisfied that he may still be called the Doctor, departs in his TARDIS, and begins to regenerate. His only memory is activating The Moment and seeing Gallifrey vanish and the Dalek fleets destroyed. He decides to go and make amends for his activities by helping those across space and time. And it’s not long before he finds himself investigating the Nestene arrival on Earth...

Production:

So how in the world do you undo seven years of continuity?? By using an absolute blockbuster of an anniversary special. It had been 50 years in total since Doctor Who had first aired, and the production team led by Steve Moffat knew they had to make it a phenomenal story.

I already wrote about the lead up in the last article, with the mini-episode “The Night Of The Doctor” which paved the way to this story, but it’s worth mentioning that although David Tennant was on board to reprise his role, this is an Eleventh Doctor story and it’s his version of the character that moves to resolve the conundrum and the prompting of Clara, his companion, to do the right thing.

“The Day Of The Doctor” was a complete success in terms of story. Homages were rife in the story ranging from Totter’s Lane to an outrageous scarf to even the Peter Cushing movies (being referenced as actual films) in the Black Archive. But they never detracted from the story, with the whole Zygon invasion arc even continuing into the Twelfth Doctor’s run. It had huge ramifications.

Another surprise the production team had in store was the appearance of Tom Baker as the Curator... and we’ll chat about that in a moment (har har har). It was during this whole 50th anniversary that not only did viewers get a tv movie called “An Adventure In Space And Time” celebrating the very beginnings of the program, but that curiosity was piqued on the exit of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, and what this would mean for the program going forward.

Finally, as for the regeneration itself, it was sort of a tease like the last one in that we see the beginning of the process with the light effect and the blending but we don’t see the end result. It wasn’t a total surprise, as viewers already knew Christopher Eccleston would not be reprising his role as the Ninth Doctor, but seeing the characteristics of his face coming in through the video mix was still exciting.

Analysis:

Although the canonicity of the Eighth Doctor’s appearance was never in question for me, when that incarnation of the Doctor was shown in the Tenth Doctor story “The Family Of Blood”, a lot of fans breathed a sigh of relief. After all, he was a fan favourite even if there were many questionable aspects to the tv movie. His repeated throwback appearances during the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor’s run further solidified his continuity, and kept fans happy with how the show was honouring its past.

But it left the lingering question of what exactly happened to cause the regeneration from the Eighth to Ninth. What was the total involvement of the Doctor in the Time War? That is, was he always involved or did he come in just to end it? It was explicit in dialogue in “The End Of Time” that the Time Lord High Council was fully aware that the Doctor has stolen The Moment, and this created a countdown for any action they could take. But which Doctor?

Then once “The Name Of The Doctor” premiered, suddenly there was an upset in the community - what was the story with the John Hurt incarnation?? Speculation abounded as to where in continuity he fit, and one of my favourite theories was that he was the Second Doctor from Season 6B. After all, we knew that the Second Doctor had aged significantly between “The War Games” and “The Two Doctors”, and we never saw the Second Doctor regenerate into the Third. And we also knew through dialogue in “The End Of Time” that the Time Lords had done remarkable (and highly questionable) tactics in their battles against the Daleks, including resurrecting both Rassilon and The Master. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that they brought the Second Doctor forward in time to use as their agent.

I also knew that the writers would never ever ever ever use that approach. Not a chance. But a fun thought anyway.

I’ve already mentioned that the original draft had Eccleston as Nine fulfilling that role, but having “The Night Of The Doctor” come out to fill in that gap was truly a joy. Then for “The Day Of The Doctor” to finish up on the regeneration into the Ninth Doctor just wrapped it up in a bow.

So why did the War Doctor regenerate? Pretty simple - he was old! Hundreds of years old. We know his body is hundreds of years old because his regeneration from the Eighth Doctor showed a much younger body (granted, obscured in a reflection) than what we saw in this story. In the context of the story we see that he is worn out by the war on a physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual level. It was exhausted him. Then to cap that whole experience with the most difficult decision to commit genocide, and not know whether he succeeded in saving or killing his people, would further exacerbate his physical health. So, as with the First Doctor, he noted his body was “wearing a bit thin”.

Okay so this leads directly into whether or not this story invalidates that last seven years. After all, the Time War and the Doctor’s choice to use The Moment haunts him and influences every decision he had made. It lent gravitas to his character and stories. And the short answer is, no it doesn’t.

This is kind of a hard idea to articulate, but bear with me. I basically outlined it in the story section above, but you have to approach time as that wibbly-wobbly ball AND accept that time is in flux. We know this because the series has repeatedly and explicitly mentioned that certain events were supposed to have happened, but when the Doctor goes to visit those events, something has changed (hey, even go back to “The Long Game” and “Bad Wolf” - Humanity was supposed to be in the midst of a golden empire, but that had changed). Further to that, we know the Doctor has in the past visited alternate futures that never came to pass, such as when the Seventh Doctor speaks to the Ancient One, the old haemovore, in “The Curse Of Fenric. The Ancient One was from an alternate Earth that had become corrupted by pollution and reduced humanity into vampire-like monsters. This means TWO important distinctions: 1) Time is never set in stone, and 2) Canon doesn’t exist in the time lines, BUT it does exist for the characters because it influences their decisions (so all those people arguing canon doesn’t matter? Yeah it kinda does!)

Okay, continuing on... The Moment is considered one of the most dangerous Time Lord weapons because it is sapient and has a degree of morality. It will allow itself to be used but only after forming a relationship with the user. We’ve already seen some killer Time Lord weapons (esp. The Hand Of Omega in “Remembrance Of The Daleks” and The Nemesis in “Silver Nemesis”), but none had that level of sophistication. The Moment even has the power to break the Time Lock surrounding the Time War. It was mentioned countless times in dialogue that no time traveller could reach the Time War anymore due to this lock.... which makes sense because I believe The Moment was the one that time locked it in the first place. If there is a war being fought between two time travelling sides, what keeps an outcome as final? To truly end the war, the deciding factor would have to cut off all other influences.

So the initial story takes place in the Doctor’s present, as the War Doctor or the Old Warrior (whichever - the script calls him Warrior, but all other media plus the resolution of the story reinforces his moniker of the War Doctor). Because that present has no set future, again due to time being in flux, The Moment would allow for its use. So the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctor operated in their time streams having known the truth: The Doctor used The Moment. Gallifrey, the Time Lords, and the Daleks were all destroyed. Now the new story takes place in the Eleventh Doctor’s present. Now that The Moment is in the past, it is no longer in a place of flux and can change the outcome.

So Gallifrey was always saved... but was it always saved before that story? Ugh, temporal mechanics.

But why doesn’t the Doctor remember it?? Because of the flux issue, and we’ve seen this in other multi-Doctor stores (except for “Time Crash” but I’m thinking that’s an exception because it exists within the TARDIS while it is in the time vortex). Remember, the Eleventh Doctor doesn’t remember any of it until the wormhole created by The Moment is opened. And only then does the Eleventh Doctor remember - notice the Tenth does not.

This is the same sort of deal with stories like “The Three Doctors” and “The Five Doctors”. Wouldn’t it make sense in those stories if the current incarnation of the Doctor immediately knows how to deal with Omega, or that Borusa is behind the Time Scoop, since the past versions find out? And there’s two ways to look at it: 1) They DO know, but forget as soon as they’re pulled out of their time streams to deal with the crisis. I don’t put too much stock in this one, but it’s possible. 2) Because the Doctor travels through time, his time stream is constantly under flux, so any crossing of the time stream with himself means that the encounter both did AND did not happen, so it’s an anomaly. This would also explain why we have an alternate Ninth Doctor in “Scream Of The Shalka” (as marvelously performed by Richard E. Grant) - given the context of that story, he was almost certainly the original Ninth Doctor when a previous version of the Time War ended with the Time Lords victorious. Or maybe from a time line with no Time War?

Okay you’ve seen me say “flux” a bunch of times now, so what am I talking about?? Let’s go to an outside source of fiction for an example (and one that the Tenth Doctor used in “The Shakespeare Code”): Back To The Future. When Marty went back in time and saved his father from being hit by the car, he created a whole slew of possible futures. The two primary futures (but certainly not the only ones) were one where George and Lorraine do not get together, and one where they do. Both have their own details that are fleshed out with slight changes to the developing situation (indeed, the “new” present Marty goes back to is a variation on one). When Marty notices his picture has his siblings vanishing, and he himself is beginning to vanish, this is due to that flux. The future is in the process of being changed with no set outcome defined.

Does that make sense? I hope so. Anyway that’s why canon does and does not matter, and why the previous incarnations don’t keep their memories. And that’s why Gallifrey survived even though it didn’t.

And Another Thing:

The Tenth Doctor saying “Cause I don’t want to go” is just awkward fan service.

The Ninth Doctor: “You think it'll last forever. People, and cars and concrete. But it won't. One day, it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone.  It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust. Before it's time.”  Rose: “What happened?” The Ninth Doctor: “There was a war. And we lost.”  Rose: “A war with who? What about your people?”  The Ninth Doctor: “I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left travelling on my own because there's no one else.”

[unboundwanderers]

               THE DOCTOR WATCHED IN REAL TIME AS CASPIAN HEALED HIMSELF. Interesting. He crossed his arms, "Destiny this, Destiny that." He rolled his eyes, moving to meet Caspian halfway until they stood face to face. It didn't matter if Caspian was pure pollution, the amount of smog he created couldn't compare to what The Doctor had seen. The neverending darkness, the unending horrors, the could 've-been king and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The Dalek Cruciform and The Emperor, Rassilon, and The Ark. Things that would make a being like Caspian shudder, but The Doctor remained humble about it. "I think the only authority on destiny is me, Cas." He explained thoroughly. "Last of the lords of time... the only mortals in existence that could combat you..." He looked deep into Caspian's soul with the eyes he'd worked so hard to forget.

               "I wonder if that scares you, Cas." He asks, his close proximity allowing him to speak barely above a whisper, "Mortals, and their unending desire to reach the height of godhood-" He moved to shrug softly, shaking his finger at Caspian. "And you know what? I get it- that's such a hard thing to swallow... because most of the time, Mortals don't get it right." He moved to slide his hands in his pockets- the unending darkness and the void that Caspian stood before. He just had to hit the right nerves. He wanted Caspian to recoil, debate, and argue with him- because that gave Gaia more seconds to soak up that vortex energy... To get her connection to her godhood back. With the TARDIS Supercharging her? She'd be able to put these two in their place. His ego was a bit damaged by the fact that he wasn't the one saving the day, but he took pride in the fact that only he could keep them from getting to her. The Last Timelord, standing against death itself. Fitting. He pushed the knife deeper. "But The Timelords... Ohohoho... They got it right, didn't they? I wonder if you even recognize them as gods..." He laughed softly, shaking his head, "...No... Of course not,"

               "Because then you'd have to admit that The Daleks reached that level, too... and they totally kicked your ass, didn't they?" He couldn't help but LAUGH subtly at that. He moved to reach into his satchel, "And don't even try to lie. I've been keeping an eye on Gaia. Even if she had her godhood, here, in this place- she wouldn't be nearly as strong as she is in her home universe." He moved to try and explain the science of it all to Caspian. He had this steel... puzzle... like an object in his hand? That he began fiddling with. He knew Caspian thought of him as nothing but an ant in the face of eternity... so he did what he did without acknowledging the other... "And neither are you, pal..." He looked up at Caspian, "Which is why this GRENADE'll probably do some significant damage to you!"

               DROPPING A GRENADE DOWN CASPIAN'S SHIRT, The Doctor moves to KICK HIM away and dives out of the radius of the explosion.

a knot has formed within her stomach; every inch of her body seemed electrified. every muscle tense whilst she couldn't help but stare at the doctor as he worked on the machinery. after all this time, she still felt like hardly understanding any of it; technical things & science were perhaps not her strong suit & yet, she had still developed a deep appreciation for said things. perhaps it was the fact that it was something so new & unknown. or perhaps it was the simple fact that she connected those things to him; maybe she would have hated them with any other encounter. hands remained folded atop her gown; she looked almost frozen within the spot. & maybe, she truly was. it felt like she'd break if she moved even as much as one muscle.

peachy lips were pressed into a thin smile as she listened to his words; her hand did not resist being grabbed, though, only the tiniest bit of reciprocation was given. " yeah. it's been . . . a nice experience. that's for sure. " despite her lack of energy, she tried to press the last bits of enthusiasm into her words. the usual loud-mouthed goddess; the gaia who could ramble on for hours & hours without taking a single breath was rendered speechless. even if she was mighty of every language that was conceived upon earth; none would have sufficed to properly express herself at this very moment. & thus, she kept quiet as he talked. she watched; pensively; brows furrowing; was she scared? she was going home! just like he said! so, what was this strange feeling . . .

in silence would her arm fall back into place & immediately, she started fiddling with the light fabric of her dress. why has this become such a nerve-wracking situation? she has been preparing for this day from the beginning! from the day they met! " yes . . . home. i will think about my . . . home. " but where was this home he had been talking about? images. memories. countless ones. they flooded her brain yet most showed something else than the garden she had spent her days. she saw a blue police box. she saw the doc — " wow . . . " the disarray of thoughts had been momentarily dispersed by the indescribable beauty that laid before her very eyes. a tear in the fabric of space & time . . . had she ever seen something like this? no. the holes she usually slipped through were tiny & cold. dark. lonely.

& there was this trance; even if she wanted to say something. even if she wanted to take a step back from all this; she felt the dark presence lingering nearby. perhaps it was all too late now. she had to concentrate.

poison followed every step that he took; feet burning through whatever had the audacity of coming his way. he could feel her; the very essence of earth was nearby & he was sure to fulfill his destiny. his master's wishes. it had to be done in order to fulfill the order of the void; of chaos. today, everything would come to an end. approaching the lingering aura of her, the being of pure pollution came face with him; the man that gaia seemed to have been attached by the hip with. the doctor. yes; chaos had foretold that this annoying entity would linger nearby. " ah, you're here, too. " caspian spat out, hatred burning within those soulless eyes of his. " this has nothing to do with you. i don't need to answer you. "

the wounds upon his cheek & arms were fuming as they sealed shut once more; quickly would he remove his sickle from the fixture at his hip. " chaos will follow wherever she goes. it is her destiny to die by my hands, you know that, don't you? doctor?" his name was spoken in a sickeningly sweet tone of voice, swinging the weapon to his side in an almost calm manner. " just step out of the way. trust me, i will make it quick. she won't feel a thing. it's like cutting roses, you know?" a demonstrative swinging commenced, showcasing a metaphorical decapitation of the goddess. " you can even keep her head once i'm done with her ! doesn't that sound just great? "

"that's me being kind, doctor. so, step out of the way. there's a million other divinities you can hang out with, so stop meddling in other people's business. "

[kuriquinn]

Meanwhiles and Neverweres [2/?]

Disclaimer & Info:

Almost two months after the end of the Third Shinobi World War, Obito Uchiha awakens in a prison cell at Konoha’s police station.

Or more specifically, on the floor of a prison cell.

It’s not the first time since returning home that he has found himself a guest of Konoha’s Military Police; nor is it the first time he has woken himself up with his own thrashing and screaming. He knows it won’t be the last, either.

Every night since Kannabi bridge, Obito dreams of Kakashi.

Minato calls it grieving, while the one time he mentioned it to her, Rin suggested post traumatic stress. Obito thinks they’re both wrong. He thinks he’s being haunted.

Despite how at-peace Kakashi seemed in death, the ghost that stalks Obito’s nightmares is anything but. It berates him for not keeping his promise, repeating the nonsense he spouted in his final moments.

Names that mean nothing to him and entreaties to listen. Oaths sworn in the face of death.

Rin said that it’s very likely that in his last moments Kakashi was deprived of oxygen, causing the speech centres of his brain to malfunction. During the day, Obito can repeat this to himself and ignore the nagging sense that he is supposed to be doing something important. At night, however, he is unprotected from the memory of Kakashi’s judgement.

Speaking of judgement…

He can feel it practically radiating from the door of his cell.

Obito squints across the room, half-expecting to see Rin standing there, hands on her hips and a disapproving expression on her face, or even Minato with a worried frown. Instead, he stares up into the unyielding, hard-jawed face of Fugaku Uchiha, the captain of the police and the head of the Uchiha clan.

“S-sir,” he mumbles, stumbling to his feet and attempting something resembling a bow.

“Obito,” Fugaku says, his deep voice worryingly neutral as he addresses him. “The Illusionist. Hero of the Kannabi Bridge. Pride of the Uchiha—or so I’ve been told.” He says all of this without any inflection, and each syllable rings with judgement. “Looking at you now, you don’t live up to your legend.”

“Uncle…”

“No. I am not your uncle here,” Fugaku reminds him sternly. “I am your superior and your clan leader. And I am waiting to hear the explanation as to why a hero of the Third Shinobi War is frequenting taverns and picking fights with his clansmen.”

Obito winces.

“We have lost enough of our people to the war, we will not have infighting here,” the head of the Uchiha continues in a forbidding tone. “Especially not from those lucky enough to return home. Others did not have your fortune. Too many of your cousins have died. Inabi Uchiha is more respectable than you, and he and his team gave their lives in the final hours of the war. You dishonour their memory with your behaviour.”

“It’s the memories of those we lost that I was trying to defend!” Obito snaps, and then adds a quick a tentative, “Sir.”

Fugaku narrows his eyes. “Explain.”

Obito scowls, wondering where to begin and how to avoid sounding like he blames Kakashi for all of this.

As the war entered its final months, Obito came into his own completely. His newly awakened Sharingan was much more powerful than he expected it to be. Coupled with the chidori he learned from Kakashi, no man who stood against him on the battlefield lived to tell the tale. He and Rin were instrumental in helping Minato end the war several months earlier than anticipated, once their squad destroyed Kannabi Bridge.

They returned to Konoha as heroes, and suddenly everything was different.

Minato was nominated as Hokage and Rin went on indefinite leave from shinobi duties in favour of working in the hospital. Obito never had responsibilities before the war, not beyond looking after his grandmother, and so he was unprepared for the welcome awaiting him.

Aunts and uncles sang his praises and children followed him in the street. One of his distant relatives asked if she could name her newborn son after him. Cousins who had no time for him before the war—who couldn’t debase themselves by being around a dead-last screw-up like him—were all suddenly clamouring for his attention. They plied him with drinks and spoke to him as if he held the future of the Uchiha clan in his palms.

And he welcomed it all.

Because the drinks numbed the pain and the memory of watching the life leave Kakashi’s eyes. And those loud voices laughing and joking in the background drowned out the cold silence that Rin treated him to since that day.

For a while, he could forget the blatant absence of his friends.

Until the good-natured conversation about the war turned to criticism, and his clansmen started to speak about Obito’s comrades. About how Minato was made Hokage to be a puppet, and how Rin obviously wasn’t strong enough to continue the shinobi lifestyle. About Kakashi maybe not dying to save them, but simply looking for a way to end his life quick the way his cowardly old man did.

That last one is the reason Obito is currently in jail and why he’s pretty sure the knuckles of his left hand are broken.

But he’s not about to explain all of this to the leader of his clan. Fugaku Uchiha isn’t known for his sympathy or patience toward emotional outbursts.

“Those guys were disrespecting the people who fought and died to ensure the peace they currently enjoy,” Obito eventually bites out. “Maybe beating the shit out of them wasn’t the best choice, but it will make them think twice before they do it again.” He pauses, then again adds, “Sir”, though it’s less deferential this time.

Fugaku is silent at this, considering Obito for several moments.

Then his mouth lifts in something that might—if it’s not a trick of the light—be a smirk.

“I imagine they will,” he says. Then narrows his eyes. “But if you do it again, I’ll have you cleaning every public toilet in the village.”

Obito gulps.

“The war is over—now is the time to decide what you intend to do in the future,” Fugaku continues gruffly. “With a little discipline and perhaps learning to practice better judgement, you could do well as an officer.”

“An…officer?”

“Konoha’s police require men of substance, not simply strength.”

Obito’s eyes widen in surprise, having not expected a job offer of all things when he woke up this morning. To be honest, he’s never even considered working for the police force. He intends to become Hokage, after all, and to do that, he needs to rise through the shinobi ranks, which unfortunately doesn’t include the military force.

“Respectfully, I must decline, Sir,” he says. “I, uh, I have other plans.”

Something like amusement twitches at the corner of Fugaku’s mouth.

“I thought as much,” he says quietly.

Then, in yet another surprise move, he opens the cell.

“Go home,” he tells him. “Get your hand seen to. Sleep it off.”

“Y-yes, Sir.” He turns to leave.

“I’m not finished with you yet, Obito. I want you to meet me at this location at sunset,” the police captain orders, pressing a paper into his hand. “Don’t be late.”

His tone hints at the consequence of defying him. Considering he once sentenced an officer of his to a month of manure inspection on the farms surrounding Konoha, just for having a crooked armband, Obito doesn’t question him.

Instead, he swallows and looks down at the paper in his hand, carefully unfolding it. A moment later, he yelps as it bursts in to flames – but not before he sees the words imprinted on it.

Naka shrine.

火

Rin Nohara strides between the beds of several of her patients, making observations on their charts and scribbling notes into her clipboard. Her stomach growls, but she ignores it, used to going with meals while on a mission.

Even if this isn’t exactly the same type of mission she trained for so painstakingly.

Since the end of the war, she has worked as a doctor in Konoha’s hospital. It’s a far cry from the danger of active shinobi duty, but she tells anyone who questions her decision to be here that medicine is her true calling. It’s almost completely true, if not for the gaping hole in her life where her friends used to be.

A wound that will never heal, she supposes. It’s permanent in the same way that Kakashi’s death is. Somehow the idea of going back out in the field without such an integral part of her team—and integral part of her life and her heart—makes her feel sick.

His death should not have happened.

She goes over that day in her head over and over, walking herself through every option she could tried, every sacrifice she could have made for him to live and can’t find out how. She isn’t entirely sure what she’ll do if she ever figures it out.

In the meantime, she refuses to let some other girl go through the pain of losing a comrade in the field, and throws herself into her medical studies. She was always a good student, but now she is obsessed, delving into the most technical basics of medicine and chakra manipulation to come up with a way to battle with Death…and win.

“Don’t you ever go home, Rin?” one of her patients asks, joking tone unable to completely disguise his concern. He’s is an older veteran of the war, who lost both his legs in an encounter with Iwa’s Explosion Corps. “You have to sleep, don’t you?”

“If I slept, who would take care of you?” Rin challenges with a smile, replacing an empty IV bag with a fresh one.

“You’re too young to be so busy. Don’t you have some nice young man to keep your company? I bet he’s missing you.”

Rin schools her features into her usual defence, a smile without substance and a light laugh. “No, no one’s waiting for me. Aren’t you lucky, you get me all to yourself.”

He chuckles and agrees, and Rin leaves.

As she heads to her office, she frowns, thoughs flying to Obito.

It hurts to think of him too much, to think of either of her remaining teammates really, but him especially. She hasn’t treated him very well, and knows it; but she has no idea how to be around him anymore.

The memory of his confession—“Heh…I’d be a pretty crappy guy if I let the girl I love get killed, wouldn’t I?”— is all tied up with everything else from that day. Fear and pain, the taste of blood and tears, Kakashi’s kiss, the loss of a piece of her heart. It’s not something she can explain to Obito, or even Minato-sensei when he tries to get her to speak.

Turning the corner, she almost ploughs headlong into another body.

“Sorry,” she apologises distractedly.

“You should be,” a voice replies. “Parental abuse is a serious offense.”

Startled, Rin peers more closely at her hapless victim, and flushes in guilt as her father gazes down at her. Ryūma Nohara is a tired man in his late thirties, with light brown hair and the brown eyes she inherited, although his are ringed with more worry lines than hers.

“You’re still here?” he asks her, grave and worried. “You should have gone home hours ago.”

“I had to check on my trial results before I left,” she replies.

“Your results won’t be affected by a few hours of rest. Go home and sleep. Come back tomorrow.”

“But I—”

“Consider it a directive from both your father and your boss,” he tells her, affecting a stern frown. “You’re already past your maximum shift hours.”

“How do you…?”

“The nurses. They know everything,” he smirks, but then his expression becomes grave again. “Rin…”

She can hear the worry and disapproval in his voice, and it makes her heart twinge. She only ever became interested in the field of medical ninjutsu as a genin because of him, and now here she is disappointing him.

“Fine,” Rin sighs. “Just let me fill in the last of my charts and I’ll go.” Ryūma raises an eyebrow at her, and she assures, “I promise!”

Her father’s expression softens. “How can I doubt you when you look at me like that? It’s just like your mother.”

Rin smiles sadly. Her mother was an elite ANBU who lost her life protecting the Third Hokage. The wound isn’t as recent as others, but it still stings. She wonders how her father found the strength to go on afterward. She’s never asked, though, afraid he’ll tell her what she already suspects.

Ryūma glances around mock-surreptitiously, and then reaches over to give her a hug, which Rin returns. Then, they go their separate ways as they hear him being paged over the intercom.

Once in her tiny office cubicle, which is really more like a broom closet, Rin jots down the most recent results that she noticed amongst her trial patients. The past few days have been a string of nothing, and it’s frustrating, but it’s also better than she hoped.

No news is good news in this case, she decides with a sigh, sitting back against her chair. Maybe Dad’s right, and I should—

“Rin!”

She sits bolt upright as one of the nursing students hurries in, looking anxious. “What is it?”

“It’s your friend—the Uchiha boy. He’s here and he’s asking for you.”

“He knows better than to interrupt me at work.”

“No, that’s not…he’s in the emergency care wing. He’s been injured—”

Rin drops her clipboard and makes a run for it before the woman has even stopped talking.

Obito! Hurt!

Heart in her throat, her mind casts back to the last conversation they had. She knows he’s on the active duty roster, and Minato-sensei worried he might do something stupid, but she dismissed him and asked him to leave because she had work to do and—

Oh, gods, what if something happens before I see him again?!

She practically throws the door to the examination room of its hinges, fully expecting to one of the other healers desperately trying to grasp him from the jaws of death.

Instead, she sees Obito, eyes clenched shut and gritting his teeth while her father sets the bones in his broken hand.

“Obito?” she croaks, confused. “Dad?”

“It seems your friend here needs to learn to be more specific,” Ryūma says, sounding more amused than he should under the circumstance. “He asked for Doctor Nohara expecting to see you. I think he got a bit of a shock.”

“This is…ouch…not how I pictured meeting you, Sir,” Obito bites out.

“I wasn’t aware that you wanted to,” Ryūma replies brightly, shooting Rin a look that is both knowing and expectant. She can see a particular gleam in his eye that she’s learned to be wary of.

“Well, you look like you’ve got a handle on this,” Rin says quickly, starting to back out of the room. “I finished the last of those charts, Dad, so I’m actually going to head home, just like you said—”

“Now, now, don’t run off, this is your friend,” her father chides. “I have an idea—why don’t you finish fixing his hand, and he can repay you by walking you home? I’d say that works out for everyone.”

Obito’s eyes bulge in panic, like he’s both overjoyed and terrified at the prospect. Rin, on the other hand, feels like she can’t breathe. Ryūma watches her expectantly, like he’s waiting for her to come up with an excuse. She knows if she does, he’ll have questions, none of which she wants to talk about.

“You’re right,” she brusquely, striding forward. “I’ve got it, Dad. You can go back to work now.”

“See you around, sweetheart,” he tells her. Over his shoulder, he adds, “Come by for dinner some time, hey, kid?”

Obito makes an undignified squeak in response.

With that, her father leaves her to finish caring for Obito’s hand. Her own desire to flee warring with her training, she eventually sighs and reaches for the bandages.

They sit together in heavy, forced silence for several minutes, before Obito breaks it.

“So…” he begins. Her eyes flash at him in warning, and he swallows whatever he was going to say. Instead, he clears his throat, and mumbles, “How’s work?”

Rin nods to herself; this is a question she can answer. It’s easy to talk about work.

She checks that the bones have been properly fitted back into place, she concentrates and allows her chakra to flow outward, mending flesh and bone back together. At the same time, she relates in great detail how she’s furthering her medical education, the surgeries she’s sat in on the hours she’s put in at the lab or researching in the library.

“I don’t think I’ll ever master anything like Lady Tsunade’s Sōzō Saisei, but I’m developing a healing pill that could allow for rapid healing in combat,” she tells him. “It’s still in the test stage, though, and there are a lot of kinks to work out.”

“Like what?” he asks.

“It’s excruciatingly painful during the healing process, and there’s a long recovery time. You can be absolutely useless for days after using it while the body tries to recover from such a quick healing—kind of like a coma.”

“That sucks,” he agrees. “But it sounds like it’s a start, though.”

“It is,” she agrees, sitting back. “How does that feel now?”

Obito studies his hand, waving his fingers and flexing his palm. “A lot better. Thanks, Rin.”

“So are you going to tell me what you did?”

“Do I have to?”

She folds her arms, unimpressed.

“There was a…tiny disagreement,” he admits. “That maybe involved fists and jaws.”

“I got that, yes.”

“They were saying stuff they shouldn’t have.”

“And you decided throwing yourself into a fist fight would fix that?” she demands, smacking him not-so-lightly in the shoulder. “Why would you do something so stupid?”

“It’s not that stupid…”

“Getting your hand broken is pretty stupid! Especially when you consider what could have happened if you picked a fight with the wrong person! Just because you’re a hero now doesn’t mean that you can’t get hurt or die just as easily as anyone else!” she lectures him, voice rising out of her control with each syllable. “I’m supposed to watch out for you, which is kind of hard if you get your stupid self killed!”

“Rin—!”

“Go on, tell me what was so horrible that they said which you couldn’t just let it go and walk away?”

“They were talking shit about our team!” he protests. “About you a—”

“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t need you to defend me!”

“It wasn’t just—” he starts to shout back, and then his shoulders sag and he looks away. “Never mind.”

Her sudden rage stalls, sense returning to her.

She realises he wasn’t just defending her, but Kakashi.

A beat later, she exhales and asks flatly, “Do they at least look worse than you do?”

He glances up in surprise, and then a sheepish smile appears. “Well, I dunno…I ended up arrested. But I think I saw one of them in the emergency room when I came in, so…”

She stands, turning her back on him.

“You still shouldn’t have done it. Picking fights won’t bring him back.”

“No, but it makes me feel like I’m doing something,” Obito returns bitterly. “He didn’t exactly leave us with a way of remembering. Not really.”

She clenches her fists, hearing Kakashi’s voice in her head.

“Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Remember those names.”

“And it’s not like I can go to anyone else about it,” Obito goes on. “The only person in the world I know who gets what this feels like…and you don’t want anything to do with me.”

“That’s not true!” she protests.

“Yes, it is. You’re different than you were. Distant.”

“It’s called grieving.”

“I’m grieving too, but I don’t want to be away from my friends while I’m doing it!”

“Maybe that’s because it doesn’t hurt you to be around us the way it hurts me to be around you!” Rin shoots back before she can stop herself.

Silence rings between them, and right away she sees the agony in Obito’s eyes. It’s familiar to her because she saw it the day he said goodbye to his best friend.

“Obito, I didn’t…that’s not what I…I didn’t say that right…”

“Would you have been happier if I had been the one to die instead?” he asks, cutting of her explanation.

Rin instantly feels as if she has been turned to stone, then cracked into a million painful pieces. Her tongue is like lead in her mouth as she tries to respond to such a thing.

Obito obviously takes her silence as a ‘yes’.

“I see,” he says, getting up to go, but she snatches out a hand to stop him.

“How could you haven even asked me that?” she rasps, the words dragged from her throat as if over a bed of knives.

“Well what else am I supposed to think?” he counters. “All you’ve done since we’ve been back is shut me out. I thought it was just the grief at first, but it’s not just that. You’re hiding from something. I never thought you were a coward. You were always so brave, and good, and the best of the three of us. So why are you doing this now?” When she can’t answer, he exhales angrily through his nose. “No, you know what? Forget it.”

“Don’t you dare,” Rin snaps. “You don’t get to…to just start this, and then leave!”

“I think you’ve made it clear you don’t want me around.”

“I do want you around!” she cries. “I just don’t…I don’t know how anymore. It…it just reminds me…and it’s not fair to you when I…”

“I know you loved Kakashi,” Obito tells her quietly. “I know you always will. I’m not asking you for anything that would dishonour that. I just…I want my friend back. I want us to be like we were before.”

“It will never be the way it was before,” she whispers, entire body trembling.

“I’ll wait,” he says. “Your friendship is the most important thing left in my life. And I’ll earn it back if I have to wait forever. I just hope you don’t make us both go through that.”

The way he gazes at her then, she knows he believes that to be true. Tears well in her eyes, and she looks away.

Obito sighs.

“Thanks for fixing my hand, Rin,” he tells her, and she feels the air displace as he moves past her. “I’ll see you around. If you want.”

She waits until she’s sure he’s gone before bursting into tears.

火

The recently elected Yondaime Hokage peers across the desk of his office, considering the man in front of him. The man who, by all rights, should be the one sitting in his chair.

If it weren’t for the distrust of the Elders and fecklessness of the daimyo, he would be.

Fugaku Uchiha is shorter than him, but he still manages to be imposing, with a face like granite eyes that are sharp even when his Sharingan is not active. In Minato Namikaze’s experience, his temperament is even less welcoming.

“Will you have a seat?” he asks the head of the Uchiha clan, offering what he hopes is a disarming smile.

“I’ll stand,” Fugaku replies.

The response isn’t a surprise, but it suggests what the tone of the following meeting will be. Rather than betray his exasperation with the stubbornness, Minato simply smiles wider and stands, walking around his desk until he is a few feet away from the other man. Leaning against the desk, he keeps his eye level with Fugaku, telegraphing a message while his hands rest on the wooden edge in subtle reminder.

We may be equals, but I’m still the one wearing the impractical hat. So even if you don’t respect me, you will respect this office.

One of Fugaku’s eyebrows twitch, and for a moment he looks like he’s about to bestow a nod of approval. But the moment passes, and Minato is once more staring down impassable granite.

So much for breaking the ice, he thinks with a sigh. Out loud, he says, “There were complaints about a disturbance in the Uchiha Compound.”

“A matter which does not fall under your jurisdiction.”

“The whole village is my jurisdiction,” Minato replies, a bit more bite to the reminder than he intended. “The police are an extension of this village.”

“Perhaps on paper.”

Minato narrows his eyes now, losing a little more control over his politician’s mask in the face of this frustrating individual. Something of the elite jōnin must show, a reminder that even if it was a twist of fate that made him Hokage, he is not without the skills to back up that appointment.

“It has been handled,” Fugaku states neutrally.

“And for that I thank you.” He allows his smile to re-assert itself. In a softer tone, betraying a little worry, he asks, “Was Obito really involved?”

“Not in the way you imagine,” Fugaku says, and this time he sounds more weary than guarded. “It was a youthful scuffle. Someone forgot himself and a made a disrespectful remark concerning the dead.”

“Even a grown man could be forgiven for reacting badly in that case,” Minato suggests. “Recovering from a conflict such as we have is easy on no one. Much less so given how many we’ve lost.”

“An Uchiha should be able to better control himself. It does not do well to lose control,” Fugaku dismisses. “What did you really call me for? If it were just a question of security in the village, or concern over a former pupil, a message by hawk would have sufficed.”

No one could ever say he isn’t forthright, Minato thinks with a wince. He knows what follows will not be a pleasant conversation. Still, he decides to grant him the same candour.

“In the spirit of solidarity and to promote lasting peace in the village community, the Elders have suggested that the Konoha Military Police begin accepting candidates from beyond the Uchiha clan.”

He allows the message to set in, keeping a close eye on the clan leader. Fugaku doesn’t betray any reaction as he processes, and after several long moments, he finally says, “I would have to personally evaluate the fitness of each prospective candidate.”

“Well, yes, of course,” Minato agrees, relieved. He really did think it would be more difficult than that.

“Where would these recruits be coming from?”

“I imagine the same place you get your recruits now.”

“They are recommended by current officers based on observations they make in the community and their own knowledge of our values,” Fugaku says. “So, allow me to rephrase: who would be making the first recommendations to the force should my admittance requirements be…relaxed.”

“The Elders have a few candidates in mind, I’m sure. Danzō Shimura in particular has experience choosing capable men and women.”

“Ah. There it is,” Fugaku says, and his mouth finally turns upward in a smile, but it’s a hard and bitter one. “Tobirama’s student wishes to insert his people into the one place in Konoha where he doesn’t have ears.”

“Spying? A serious accusation, and a giant leap to take,” Minato says mildly, though it’s an act.

He’s more than aware of Shimura’s distrust of the Uchiha, having seen it first hand when he convinced the other council members and daimyo, one by one, that Fugaku Uchiha should not be Hokage. He’s even experienced the man’s scrutiny himself. Of those who voted on the position of Fourth Hokage, Shimura is the only one who refused to support Minato’s candidacy. Since then, every interaction they’ve had has left Minato feeling like the older man is looking for the smallest weakness to start chipping away at him.

“It’s better to take that leap if there’s a dragon chasing you,” Fugaku maintains stonily.

“Perhaps. But you make it sound like you have secrets.”

“Every clan in this village has secrets. And every clan is entitled to those, so long as they don’t jeopardise the security of the village. That was put into law by the First Hokage, if my history is correct.”

“And what better way to protect the village than ensure its security is being maintained by the entire village and not a simple few?” Minato points out, returning to the issue at hand.

“If that were truly the case, the police would never have been assigned to the Uchiha,” Fugaku snaps. “It was Tobirama Senju who enacted that as a means to isolate our people. We knew this, but accepted it so as to keep the peace in Konoha. Over the course of generations, we have made it an honourable and worthy institution in Konoha. And now you would take it from us?”

“That’s not what this is.”

“Then please, enlighten me as to what you, in your naivety, think it is,” Fugaku growls. “Generations have passed without Konoha’s leaders paying any attention to the police force or the men who serve. And now suddenly, a war ends and they decide it’s the best time to stir the pot? The distrust was always there, Lord Hokage, but attempts were made to keep it under wraps. This is blatant and unapologetic.”

By the time he finishes speaking, his shoulders heave with anger, and Minato suspects it isn’t often that the leader of the Uchiha loses his temper in that way. His own anger simmers beneath his calm façade, because there is nothing wrong in what Fugaku has said.

“I am not naïve,” Minato states coolly. “I know the history, and I can only guess at the motivations behind this move. But I also trust in this village. The will of Elders is not the will of the people, and the only way to ensure that the people are served is through cooperation. And I will need yours.”

Fugaku frowns at him, calculating.

“You really don’t know what they intend, do you?” he eventually realises.

“No.”

“But you have suspicions.”

“Yes.”

The Uchiha leader raises a challenging eyebrow. “Care to share?”

“A naïve man would say that in light of the recent war, with so many of our heroes hailing from your clan, it’s simply an attempt to extend the proverbial olive branch. A forgiveness of past distrust and a hope that in the future, Konoha will be less divided.”

“If that were the case, restructuring the police is not the way to do it. What do you really think.”

That they’re afraid of you, Minato thinks but doesn’t say.

There were so many heroes among the Uchiha, ninja that are spoken of with awe both inside of the Compound and outside of it. If they become popular enough, there’s no reason why one day, an Uchiha might not become Hokage. It’s something Danzō and the Elders want to stop happening at all costs.

Revealing that to Fugaku, however, would be unwise at this juncture. Not while it’s still only suspicion. It’s better to not sow resentment and suspicion where it isn’t yet warranted.

He flashes an edged smile. “It’s too soon to say. And you never know who may be listening.”

“Well, at least you have some sense,” Fugaku snorts.

“In the meantime, I do have to relay something to the Elders,” Minato says, returning to his chair and sitting down. “If they decide I’m being ineffective, they’ll make running this village difficult. And not just for you or I, but for everyone.”

Red tape, I’m learning, can be a bitch.

A muscle works in Fugaku’s jaw, and it appears like he is doing some rather quick thinking.

“Tell them I will take their suggestion under advisement at the next clan meeting after Konoha’s official period of mourning ends.”

Minato’s mouth tugs upward. “That’s a year from now.”

“Then I suppose you have a year to give more substance to that suspicion of yours.”

“You know they won’t be content with just that, though. They’ll want evidence that I’ve got you well in hand.” Fugaku raises his eyebrow again, the expression somewhat mocking, and Minato feels his cheeks darken. “You know what I mean.”

“What exactly do you have in mind?”

“Some suggestion that the Uchiha are willing to put the village’s needs first.”

“I take it you have a recommendation.”

“A change, perhaps, to that clan law of yours,” Minato says. “The one where anyone who marries outside of the Uchiha has to live outside of clan boundaries. Is that something you might perhaps…relax?”

“So the village doesn’t just want to put their people in our police force, but in our homes as well,” Fugaku snorts.

“Now that is beneath you,” Minato retorts. “Especially since I know you’ve been considering amending that law on your own.”

“And what is your interest in it?”

“Let’s call it personal experience,” he suggests. “My parents chose to marry against their clans’ wishes. I grew up with a name, but no connection to my family on either side. It’s not a feeling I would wish on my child, and I doubt you would wish it on your own.”

Fugaku folds his arms over his chest. “And how does this convince the villagers of my cooperation?”

“It’s all in the manner it’s presented,” Minato points out. The other man makes a gesture like he should continue. “How do you expect the children of your clan to have a connection to their family and their village, when from birth they’re told they’re outsiders? You may see no benefit in the military police opening its doors to outsiders, but surely you can see some in value in allowing your clan to do so? Or do you intend to follow the example of the Hyūga?”

“To live amongst the Uchiha, one must be Uchiha,” Fugaku retorts, and Minato stifles a groan, until he adds, “Any individual who married into the clan would have to renounce their name if they intend to live with their spouse within the compound.”

Minato winces. “That’s…not quite what I meant.”

“It’s the most compromise my clan elders would be willing to accept.”

Minato considers him for a long beat, and then sighs. “It’s a start. I can work with that.”

Fugaku nods in return.

“Alright,” Minato exhales, feeling a little relieved. That wasn’t as completely painful as he thought it would be. Perhaps this meeting can end on a good note, after all. “Now, on to another matter: I was thinking we could have dinner sometime.”

“No offense, but I believe I can do better,” Fugaku replies with neither expression nor intonation.

Minato blinks, realises what he just said, and then sputters.

“That’s not…not what I…what I meant was…I’m not—!” He sees the glint in the other man’s eyes, something merciless but amused at the same time, and he scowls. “Hey…” Fugaku’s expression remains maddeningly unchanging while the Hokage clears his throat, embarrassed. “I only meant that Kushina would like you and Mikoto to come over for dinner. And bring Itachi. Since our wives are already friends, I think we should be as well.”

“Why?” The leader of the Uchiha sounds as if he genuinely can’t fathom a reason for it.

“Well…why not?”

“Hmph. This is not the Academy, boy.”

“You’re like seven years older, that hardly gives you the high ground to call me boy.” Minato grumbles, but when Fugaku continues to look expectant, he says, “Alright, if you have no interest in friendship for friendship’s sake, how about as a means of promoting unity in the village? If people can see the two of us getting along—”

“Ah, so it’s a political ploy.”

“Would-you-stop-twisting-things!” Minato hisses. “This is an olive branch, so stop being a stubborn asshole!”

Silence rings between them, and Minato’s eyes widen in horror. He’s never lost his temper like that before, not least of all while sitting in the Hokage’s office where diplomacy and patience are meant to reign. And in front of a man whose support he’s trying to garner…?

“Forgive me,” he bows his head stiffly. “I only meant—”

“And here I thought you were just the spineless puppet they stuck in a hat to look pretty,” Fugaku interrupts, and that’s definitely something bordering on approval in his eyes. Possibly even respect, if Minato were desperate.

Whatever it is, I’ll take it!

“Blame Kushina,” he says, laughing nervously. “I think she may be rubbing off on me.”

“It’s a poor fool who doesn’t learn some of his wife’s habits,” Fugaku agrees. For a brief moment, they exchange a glance of companionship, the one beleaguered husbands with strong-willed wives always share. Then the other man’s expression turns serious again. “But friendship won’t change generations of distrust.”

“Well, I don’t know if I agree with you about that…but it’s a start, don’t you think?”

Fugaku thinks about this, and then says, “One of many, I suppose.” He turns away. “We’ll see in the coming year, I imagine, if that has any bearing.”

He pushes open the door and disappears, leaving Minato staring at the door.

“So…is that a yes to dinner?” he calls after him. “You didn’t exactly answer me…” There is no response and he sighs. “Uchihas…”  

I was actually going to write more for this chapter…but it is sooooo long already. Besides, let's leave some stuff to be done for next installment. Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated! Thanks for your interest in my work!

クリ

[ridasart]

SasuSaku Time Travel Fanfiction Recs

I love time travel fanfics so I have made a list of some of my favourites 😊

** **

Sakura time travels

A Twist in Time by @wolf08 (Complete, T)

With Konoha on the verge of destruction, Sakura is sent on a last-resort mission to save her world by travelling to the past. Join her in coping with her old body’s shortcomings, testing the natural laws of time, falling in love all over again, and rediscovering who she is. Time-travel. SasuSaku.

Reversing Time by havanatitiana (In-progress, M)

The shinobi nations had been burnt down to the ground by the Ten Tails, but Sakura had been given a chance to change everything. To make everything right. However, and as years passed by, things would turn out to be so much more difficult than she’d ever imagined. Not your regular Time travel. Sasusaku. MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH

Bloom Again by iharalin (In-progress, T)

You made a mistake, shishō. If it was Naruto, he might have made peace with it. It's people like me, who keeps wanting more, doesn't know when to make peace, can't make peace. Can't live with being the only one alive. Can't handle being left behind even in death. This is no last stand. This is selfishness. Sakura-centric Time Travel where for once, Team 7 chases Sakura.

** **

Sasuke time travels

trapped in the amber of this moment KatRoma (Incomplete, T)

Sasuke refuses to cooperate with the Akatsuki in the aftermath of Itachi’s death, wishing to remain loyal in his brother’s memory, and rather than kill him, Madara tries to send him into Kumui. Clearly something went wrong along the way, because next thing Sasuke knows, he’s waking up the day after the Uchiha Massacre in his seven-year-old body with no way back.

Divergence by The Scarlett Ribbon / @scarlett-ribbon (In-progress, T)

They die under a red sky, in mud and blood and bitter regret. Team Seven, at the end of the world…at least, until Sasuke wakes up - twelve, Sharinganless and back on his old genin team.

Better Days (Vapid Perceptions) by stover / @s-tover (Complete, T)

At five years old, Uchiha Sasuke made an extraordinary discovery: he had lived this life, just once before. 

Part of a series where Sakura and Naruto also time travel

Better Days (Clear Horizons) (In-progress, T)

At eight years old, Uzumaki Naruto comes to a startling realization: the voice in his head is not his own—and it knows his name.

Better Days (Street Cred) (In-progress, T)

At eight years old, Haruno Sakura is a hot-tempered menace with a penchant for fighting—and has the mind of a woman who’s lived this life, just once before.

Ficlet by @sun-summoning (Complete)

featuring a blatant misuse of time travel 

** **

Sasuke and Sakura (and/or others) time travel

An Inch of Gold by @kuriquinn (Complete, T)

Team 7 is sent on a mission to investigate a disturbance outside of the village, where they encounter an unconscious girl in a crater. The mysterious Sarada insists she’s a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf trying to rescue her teammates. When the team discovers she possesses a Sharingan, things become even more unbelievable. [Part of the Legacy of Fire Series]

Companion piece 

A Pebble Cast by @kuriquinn (Complete, T)

Sasuke and Sakura wait at home for their daughter to return from a run-of-the-mill mission. However, it seems they've both forgotten what kind of trouble a team including an Uchiha and an Uzumaki can get into… [Companion Piece to An Inch of Gold] [Part of the Legacy of Fire Series]

Meanwhiles and Neverweres by @kuriquinn (In-progress, T)

Kaguya has won and the last of the shinobi lie dying, but Team 7 gets the chance to risk it all on one last desperate gamble: trade this reality for another and save more than just their own lives. But time-travel is tricky, and changing the past is never as easy as it seems. [Time Travel/ Alterate Reaility /Fixit/ Character death (ish)/Non-Massacre AU / ObiRin / Eventual SasuSaku]

Retrograde by AngelQueen87 (In-progress, T) 

Three years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Kaguya’s clansmen came to finish her work and take back all of the world’s chakra. The survivors have all gathered at what remains of Konoha, but there’s no end in sight. So when an opportunity to buy more time and find a solution arises, Sixth Hokage Kakashi Hatake seizes the chance to send Team 7 on one last mission. Time Travel AU

Sasuke-centric spin-off

That Time Sasuke Accidentally Ended Up in the Past (Complete, T)

An Uchiha returns to Konoha after a long absence from the village but Fugaku swears he’s never once met the man. But suspicious as he might be, he possesses the most powerful Sharingan the head of the Uchiha clan has ever witnessed and he’d be an idiot if he didn’t try to add his strength to their own. Time Travel AU that takes place in the Retrograde universe.

I Am NOT Going Through Puberty Again! by EvilFuzzy9 (Complete, T, crack-fic)

Our heroes did not come from a future where everything has gone horribly wrong. They did not travel back in time to save the world from a bleak or miserable fate. As a matter of fact, all they want to do is find a way back home as soon as possible.

Round robin by several incredible authors (Complete)

Sarada-centric time travel round robin (Alternate ending)

Away from Home by @pain-somnia (Complete, M)

Prompt: time travel w/smut

** **

Not technically time travel but similar

Out There by Joana789 (Complete, T)

For a moment, he aches for this different future, one he saw but one that was never his; envies this different Sasuke who was spared so much pain and so many mistakes. Then, he decides it’s high time to go back home.

faster than starlight by @sgrayonderii (Complete)

Growing old together was a luxury. Sasusaku AU.

the forward dimension by theeflowerchild / @sun--flowerseed (In-progress, M)

As Sasuke hones his jutsu, he watches himself fall in love over and over again, from dimension to dimension.

** **

If I’m missing any good ones, then please let me know! I would love some new stuff for my reading list ❤️

[rudolphsb9]

@magnaesquire I’m not done with the random thoughts lol!

I read last night there’s a theory that the Could’ve-Been King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres are Weeping Angels, weaponized somehow, but my personal theory is that they’re all potential energy, they’re all beings of all the things that could’ve happened but never did. Basically, they’re perfect Weeping Angel food.

[heroparadigm]

In my verse, time is calling with @timelxrd-victorious, it is set in the Dark Future.    The future that “could have been” or “might of been”.    To quote the tenth Doctor:  The Horde of Travesties. The Nightmare Child. The Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The war turned into hell!

For Melinda in the Dark Future, a pocket universe that was created.   For her, Wyatt is the “could-have-been-king” and there are monsters loose now.    Monsters that she can’t fight alone.   Monsters that the Source of All Evil kept at bay.  

Now no one keeps them at bay.   Melinda is one person.   She’s not twice blessed, she’ not a Charmed one.    The Underworld has been devastated.    There are few demons that have survived and even fewer left on the lighter side.

Welcome to a fight for survival on planet earth.   

And this is one of the reasons she ends up travelling with Teine.   She has nothing left.   No one to fight for.   Wyatt made sure of that.

[isagrimorie]

The Doctor Who showrunner wars is still in full swing despite the three Doctor Who showrunners being friends IRL, and some things they’ve done and implemented can all boil down to preference.

I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts on this.

I like some things RTD did in his time in Doctor Who, I am very grateful to him for bringing the show back from the war but I also remember slowly getting disgruntled with his writing.

He is a drama writer, and one of the best; RTD has a way of turning a phrase that just fires up the imagination like:“Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been-King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres.”

He has also written and help re-write my favorite two-parter of Revival!Who Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, Midnight, Turn Left, and Children of Earth. The problem is as much as he loves both camp (sometimes the results can work, sometimes it doesn’t), RTD’s cynicism does leak through.

He tried to fight against those instincts in Doctor Who but you can see the strain show as he struggled to keep that cynicism away from the show.

There’s also the part where his frequent joke targets are middle aged women. And TBH, I was tired of Ten’s God Complex (“I am the final authority!”) and how the narrative rarely call him out on it. Unlike Nine, he started to believe his own press and the press of other people

I wasn’t keen on the way he joked about appearances of women above thirty, and tbh, I was tired of Ten’s God Complex (“I am the final authority.”) and how the narrative refused to call him out on it.

Ten believing his own press could have been interesting if the narrative didn’t think he was right. For example, The Water of Marscould have been interesting but I thought WoM resolved Ten’s Time Lord Victorious moment far too soon and easily.

I thought they could have explored more about the ‘Time Lord Victorious’ moment for at least another episode, or have The End of Time comment on it.

Apart from series 1, all of RTD’s series finales were heart-wrenching; each finale I ended up feeling like I was going twenty rounds against a meat grinder.

It was why I loved and will continue to love series 5 and how refreshingly happy the ending was.

No one was trapped in another dimension! No one had to single-handedly stop an apocalypse and have their family enslaved, or mind-wiped.

In the scheme of things, I think in certain aspects, Moffat’s storytelling style is more on line with my tastes. The fairytale seasons. Even Twelve becomes a fairytale Doctor, and I wager that his arc in series 8 is remembering the joy and becoming the fairytale Doctor again.

Another reason why I love series 5, coming directly from Ten’s Lonely God thing, was that a lot of people called out the Doctor on their God Complex and made their self-loathing a lot more text. I also loved the fairy tale aspect of his seasons.

But like with RTD not everything Moffat’s done is my favorite, there were some stories that had missteps, and one of those missteps was Moffat trying to out clever himself. Credit to him for swinging for the fences but he also started to spread himself too thin working on two shows, and the seams showed.

One of the criticisms about Moffat’s writing is character work, and he had no interest in the Companions’ families.

I’m in the middle. I have issues but also (especially after rewatching) I was more forgiving, as an example, in the end I didn’t care as much about the state of Amy’s parents.

No, that’s wrong, I did care.

I cared the first time I watched Angels Take Manhattan, I cared so much that when Amy and Rory disappeared I was so angry because all I could think about was Amy’s parents and Brian (Rory’s dad). I cared to the point that it was one of the reasons why I stopped watching.

On subsequent rewatches, I’ve reconciled with the idea that Companion families and family dynamics (the Companion’s parents) isn’t something Moffat was interested in. It took Chibnall to give Rory a dad (interesting that parent-child dynamic is really something Chibnall is drawn to).

Honestly, if family dynamics isn’t something he is interested in, that’s fair. Also, Amy’s parent’s weren’t a factor since series 6 and Amy’s parents might have well fallen back into the Crack for all we know.

Rewatching also helped me come to terms with some narrative choices I wasn’t fond of. Binge (re)watch tended to sand down any rough parts and I find rewatching can help me hold the shape of a story more.

Still, it took a while to realize Eleven acting big and bombastic was deliberate. Moffat needed Eleven to be big and loud, and full of himself so he can also go crashing down. It falls in line with what River describes the Doctor she knew: “Now my Doctor, I’ve seen whole armies turn and run away. And he’d just swagger off back to his Tardis and open the doors with a snap of his fingers.”

One of the things I wasn’t satisfied with Moffat’s writing (and there were plenty) was how series 6 dealt with child loss. Or, how s6 initially didn’t deal with child loss. The writing would eventually address it, and most prominently in The Wedding of River Song in a fantastically chilling scene between Amy and Kovarian.

But even then I felt it wasn’t enough. Emotional continuity during this time was very low.

This brings me to River. I loved her the moment she stepped on screen in Silence in the Library but my love for her character cooled because of series 6. My theory is Moffat wrote himself into a corner trying to out grand series 5.

For those taking notes at home, I watched Doctor Who sporadically during series 7 and then stopped watching at Angels Take Manhattan. I stopped watching until Day of the Doctor happened.

**DotD* reignited my love for Doctor Who! So much so that I went back and binged series 7.

I liked s7 well enough except for how Amy and Rory left, that still sticks in my craw. I would have been okay if the Ponds left at the end of the Power of Three. Unfortunately, for Revival!Who, there’s an expectation now that Leaving Stories should be hard and tragic, and breaks your heart. I don’t always need grand leaving stories.

TBH, with the exception of The Day of the Doctor, Series 7B is one of my least favorite Moffat seasons.

One of the many factors was the way the writers kept giving Matt Smith big speeches. The writers know he can do big speeches so they kept writing big speeches for him. It was their default.

Also, as one podcast speculated series 7B could have been where the writers realized (belatedly) that Smith was actually quite hunky. This and Moffat being too busy to manage the next half of the season because of The Day of the Doctor can explain the disaster that was the Time of the Doctor.

TotD remains as one of my least favorite Doctor Who episodes ever. (Well, not ever, there are some series 2 and 3 episodes that stand above it).

And then the Capaldi era.

This was the turn around where I started loving Moffat’s work again. It wasn’t easy to get to that point though, and like the previous series, there was a time I fell off the Doctor Who wagon because the first half of Capaldi’s season didn’t click with me.

I found him far too mean and unlikable which broke my heart since I loved Capaldi.

But a binge, again, sanded down all sins (well, notall) and now the difficult and prickly series 8 is something I really enjoy because knowing where Twelve ended up in his character journey helped.

This is why, I don’t mind getting spoiled about a show, as long I only get the broad strokes but not the details. I love finding out what his journey was and I don’t think I would have come back if I didn’t know where he ended up.

I think I saw snippets of Zygon Inversion speech on YouTube, and then I decided to give Husbands of River Song convinced me to finally watch all of Twelve’s run.

And now Twelve is my favorite Doctor.

Moffat’s writing didn’t magically become perfect (to me) but I loved the themes he chose to tackle for Twelve. Twelve is another PTSD!Doctor but unlike Nine, he had an opportunity to grow from that trauma. (And get fresh ones — thanks Time Lords!).

I love that Moffat used Twelve’s stories as a way to interrogate Ten’s stories culminating in Heaven Sent/Hell Bent.

IMO, Twelve’s relationship with Clara is similar to Rose and Donna. Twelve and Clara developed quite a co-dependent relationship by the time series 9 rolled around. They never quite achieved the height of smugness that was the first minutes of Impossible Planet nor have they ever been as obnoxious as Ten and Rose were in Tooth and Claw. Possibly because the Doctor’s older at this point and knows the perils, and similar to Donna because of how Donna kept Ten grounded. And, of course, because of the mindwipe argument that was definitely Moffat’s answer to the mindwiping of Donna, and as Moffat said in the War Games commentary, to the mindwipe of Zoe and Jamie.

And then we have Bill with Twelve, showing the very final form of the Twelfth Doctor. Twelve as a grown-up, feeling settled with himself, finally. He learned a lot of lessons and committed himself to stay in one place.

I love the relationship he built with Bill and while I do love, love, love Jodie Whittaker, I was sad to have only one season of Bill and Twelve. Especially since after Lie of the Land Missy’s story began to have more prominence over Bill’s.

(And there’s the whole Missy thing which tbh would make this a longer post than it already is!).

TLDR. Both showrunners aren’t perfect, sometimes their views don’t align with mine. I loved series 1 because it was my entry point into Doctor Who but there are also things about RTD’s run I wasn’t happy with. Same with Moffat there were things I adored and things that really didn’t sit well with me.

There were points during both showrunner’s time on the show I had to take time off.

Now with Chibnall, the same thread runs through: I like most of his stories in series 11 but it also isn’t perfect and has a lot of room for improvement.

/EDITED

[winloseorcharmed]

v: End of Time

The Time War has spilled into other realities, more specifically into the Charmed universe.    They weren’t prepared.    This was not supposed to be a dark future, and so the Angels of Destiny alter the futures of many giving them a chance against what is to come.

The Horde of Travesties. The Nightmare Child. The Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The war turned into hell!

[etcor-archive]

The World Turned Into Hell

The Time War has spilled into other realities, more specifically into the Charmed universe.    They weren’t prepared.    This was not supposed to be a dark future, and so the Angels of Destiny alter the futures of many giving them a chance against what is to come.

The Horde of Travesties. The Nightmare Child. The Could-Have-Been King with his army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The war turned into hell!

[kuriquinn]

Omg. Omg this is beautiful! If I ever get back to my meanwhiles and neverweres series, I gotta ask the artist if I can do something like this...

Tsunade adopts Tenzo, a comic.

A gift for @kiro-sveta

[doctornolonger]

Not really sure whether I think the Could’ve-Been King is Grandfather Paradox, and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres is the Faction, or that he’s the War King, breaking from the War in Heaven into the Last Great Time War, trying to conquer Rassilon’s Gallifrey and steer it to victory one more time ...

[nirah10]

Djekehrumdndurhdbdbkdmdmjfhfiirndndjrhjturuurjruooo. Okay. What the fuck is happening in 11s world right now is worrying me a lot more than the Bad Wolf. The Bad Wolf is a egotistical, smug little bastard. But is not the same level of batshit has 11. That chapter. The descriptions of the chaos he has actually caused. Fuck. The meanwhile point of view was really interesting.

Yeah, I was really looking forward to writing this one. It was a difficult perspective to write but thoroughly enjoyable. I just really like the idea of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. I've this image of creepy shadow people since the names were mentioned in the show.

[kuriquinn]

Dear author, I just read the latest Ch 33 of IOG and I CRIED. It's not the first time I've cried reading fanfiction but the sheer extent of the emotional roller coaster you put me on with this chapter startled me. I am a huge fan of non-massacre works because I love Itachi's character and feel that he was so shortchanged in canon with the shittiest end of every stick (BTW - I am googoo gaga over Meanwhile and Neverwhere + Cooties... I'm on my third read of each and that's saying (1 of 2)

If you were on a rollercoaster, then the chapter had its intended effect :D Glad you enjoyed it!

And, ah, Meanwhiles and Neverweres...I really, REALLY want to get back to that one, but I think it’s as complex as IOG. So many timelines and plot points to juggle! And new characters that I rarely get to write!