#naruto use rasengan

[kaymarie-bell]

I fell to my knees

[cosmicrhetoric]

this is so stressful

[every-jiraiya]

[acealistair]

ended up watching God Troubles Me, a Chinese anime (donghua?) on Netflix and i gotta say i highly recommend it, it was fucking hilarious but also stupidly heartwarming

don't go in expecting a romcom tho bc there is 0 romance between the female lead and either of the two male characters lol (actually a bit refreshing but i'll admit i was mildly surprised)

[brighteuphony]

On the way back from Tea Country with Chakra-poisoned Kakashi tryna "casually" fish for some info before Sakura comes in with the one-hit KO on accident.

So she's got some complicated feelings for Kakashi as well, though they're a lot milder than what she feels about Sasuke.

There's a moment in my AU where Sakura goes through a deep reflection ritual, in which she has to face Inner Sakura -who is representative of all the ugly truths her day-to-day self hasn't been able to face- and come to terms with who she is.

During that time, she's got to face the music.

The music:

Sasuke is the last prodigal son of a clan that was brutally butchered. He's a genius with one of the most powerful dojutsu out there (that he has no idea how to use) and is coming in hot with more baggage than an airport terminal.

Naruto is not normal. She doesn't know what he is (as in-canon, she finds out after the time-skip and the Sakura from above is right on the cusp of Shippuden), but there's nothing normal about a kid who can pull wild orange chakra and who can fight Gaara's tailed beast and come out on top. He's got the personal attention of the Hokage, but the entire village has banded against him for some reason. He's special.

Kakashi is a war veteran turned Jounin and an infamous ANBU captain (I headcanon that some ANBU names are leaked specifically to generate a healthy level of fear/caution among other villages- which is why we know of Itachi/Kakashi/Shisui very publically) and is ALSO the last prodigal son of an old noble clan.

(No way a bookworm like Sakura didn't consume every publically available scroll on Konoha clans).

It doesn't take the big brains to figure out that he got team 7 specifically to help deal with Sasuke's trauma/teach him about the Sharingan, and put a leash on Naruto (and in the future, when she finds out that Madara was able to control the Kyuubi with the Sharingan as well as the knowledge that Kakashi was Minato's student it becomes even clearer why he got the Sasuke/Naruto combo.)

And Sakura? Sakura is a civilian. No clan, no dojutsu, nothing to her name except great chakra control. She's the literal meat in the meat-grinder of the military machine of Konoha, the acceptable sacrifice in a group of otherwise invaluable shinobi. She's just a...girl. (And it doesn't help that she was obsessed with Sasuke instead of training, furthering the gulf between her and Kakashi.)

Kakashi was absolutely not built to handle her- in fact, Kakashi has NO idea how to relate who hasn't gone through a mountain's worth of trauma or someone who hasn't been ingrained in the shinobi-as-a-tool lifestyle, and even then, he's not fully equipped to handle people who have (lmao Sasuke). Not to mention the man is a prodigy- he has no idea how to teach people who have to work hard to get somewhere in life. How do you teach someone if you've never had to 'work hard' to get there yourself?

So, Sakura understands that Kakashi was put in one of the most ridiculous situations of his career- a situation he had NO idea how to handle. She can forgive him for that. BUT, she can't forgive him for not trying his best.

Sakura spent a lot of time coming to terms with the fact that she rushed into the Chidori/Rasengan combo without a single idea of what she would do, but...Kakashi was a big reason for that.

She was HIS responsibility, and he fumbled that bag. Whatever his reasoning, whether it was to 'protect' her, or whether he thought she was worthless, whatever: he should have TRIED.

Kakashi was an adult with resources aplenty. He recognized that she had stellar chakra control but never bothered to teach her genjutsu or direct her to teachers who could pick up the slack.

And after the accident, he abandoned her again. Being forgotten in lieu of Sasuke and Naruto hurt...but she could heal. Being abandoned as some kind of martyr to Kakashi's failures as a teacher? It's gonna take a while for Kakashi to make that up to her...if he can muster the courage to face her.

Sakura finally understands why he preferred the memorial stone to the living. He already failed the dead, and it's easier to wallow in self-flagellation than it is to try and step up for the living.

Sakura stopped being a coward some time ago, and when Kakashi finally does the same, she'll forgive him.

Thank you so much for sticking with this wall of text! And thank you so much anon for the question! Once again, I really appreciate all the kind words people have been throwing my way. <3 <3 <3

[mochiajclayne]

isn't it crazy that sasuke chose to use chidori every single time naruto uses rasengan even though we know that wind beats lightning and uchiha's natural affinity is fire

[tozettastone]

hidan and kakuzu were literally so fucking married.... team 10 should not have won that fight

Ohhhh, the fight. The fight. Hahaha.

I think the really egregious parts for me were:

Hidan not noticing that he had not hit his enemy. That one's weird. Pressure and impact communicate themselves pretty well through an object you're holding and he has a lot of practice hitting people.

Kakuzu just kind of standing still waiting for his rasengan. Naruto canonically is very slow at making those things at this stage. He needs his shadow clone to help. There's a weird part where Kakuzu just stops fighting at all and stands there. Like... you don't want to mount a retreat, buddy? You don't want to, idk, block? Dodge?

I think if they'd given me a really good Kakashi and Tenzo v Kakuzu and Hidan fight (perhaps using Shikamaru to provide the battle plan to provide closure on the Asuma thing, even though I don't really like Shikamaru), I'd have bought the zombi combi defeat. Grudgingly.

But yes I think the canon end to Kakuzu and Hidan was a bland cop out. I'm biased but I'm also correct.

But also even though I love Kakuzu as a character, I do think shippuden Kakashi could have won against Kakuzu. I think they both would have had a pretty good chance of winning that fight, so if the story requires Kakuzu to die, it could have been written as a Kakashi victory.

Hidan... I'm not sure what even happened there. Shikamaru should never have won that. Shikamaru's entire plan hinged on tricking him about whether or not he'd actually hit something?? What?

I am really biased about this one because I also think constructing the Shikamaru-avenges-Asuma story beat as personal revenge arc, using this established setting in which everyone's one mission away from being a hired killer, is tone deaf to the point of absurdity. To me it is misaligned with the setting and represents a frustrating flaw in the delivery of the themes and tone of the manga. (This marks the point in the story at which I took a break for many months lol.)

[phantomchick]

Naruto and being the Underdog

Okay so recently I was discussing naruto's characterisation in the comments section of a fanfic and the author was explaining that they don't like/never vibed with Naruto's character (which is totally fair). But then they explained how they felt the supposed underdog setup was contrived and didn't really work because Naruto never actually starts at zero thanks to his jinchuriki powers and being the yondaime's son. (And so here I am, on my soapbox to discuss how Naruto and the concept of being and underdog relate.)

On a physical level perhaps this applies, but Naruto places an equal (if not larger) amount of focus on the emotional action as it does on its plot action.

On an emotional level he has to work for each and every one of his personal relationships.

He wants to be hokage a role he can only take if he is both respected by his village and powerful enough to protect it. It''s a twofold goal. And in terms of the social aspect this is clearly stacked against him due to the hatred and exploitation of jinchuriki as well as shinobi in general, achieving emotional connection and dialogue between people who are used to might makes right or who are pre-disposed to look down on him or want to kill him puts him firmly at a disadvantage narratively.

With the notable exception of Hinata whose love is unconditional, whether it's Tsunade, Neji, Sasuke or Gaara or even Kurama the respect and attention that naruto craves are things he actively pursues in both good and bad ways and he earns them through his own effort.

He does this both by striving to understand these very different people and where they're coming from as well as surviving all the shit the world throws at him. Emotional and physical tasks.

In terms of being a jinchuriki and getting the rasengan easily thanks to his shadow clone bullshit / birthright connections to the yondaime It must first be acknowledged that the jinchuriki power is more of a disadvantage than a boon to him at first. First, because of kurama actively going out of his way to mess with his chakra control as a kid while doing the leaf exercise he was unable to learn the regular clone jutsu; it also results in him experiencing the trauma of discrimination and isolation from a young age which could easily have led to festering self-hatred and alienation if not for Iruka's intervention, it results in multiple S ranks who are fully capable of killing even shippuden level Naruto targetting him, and while the trade-off of boundless energy and survive-ability is immense those same boundless resources have the potential to burn him alive if he loses emotional control/gives into his most negative emotions - that's basically making the subtext text at that point, the story is about his emotional development and growth, something his "OP buffs" don't earn for him. Let's talk about boundless chakra resources for a moment. At the end of the original series, he only knows the rasengan; the rasenshuriken, the shadow clone justu and sage mode/yinyang mode by the end of the series and that's like 5 justu tops if we're counting yin/yang/bijuu mode and sage mode as jutsu. The majority of what he learned from jiraiya for three years seemed to be taijutsu only with a side of failed bijuu control. Naruto has his jinchuriki chakra from the start but that doesn't translate to an ability to use it, he has to spend hours working out how to do the shadow clone, he did not figure out how to do the jutsu because of his chakra even if that was the reason he was able to use it at all, and when it comes to the rasengan I will cite [someone who deleted their reddit account] here:

Naruto completed the first stage in three days and one night. He figured out how his chakra needed to move to burst the water balloon (thanks to a cat) but because he didn't have the necessary chakra control, he improvised by using another hand. He completed the second stage in three weeks or so. The next day(?), Jiraiya gave him a hint to improve his focus which allowed him to finally complete it. And the third stage was completed seven days later to win his bet with Tsunade. Once again, Naruto didn't have the control to focus his chakra the correct way despite his continuous efforts. It wasn't until he came up with another improvised method by using a shadow clone to focus the chakra that he was able to complete the final stage.

Meaning he is the one who comes up with unorthodox methods, such as also using his other hand, or using a shadow clone to focus the chakra, to learn it in four and a half weeks but he still had to figure out how to do it all himself. The shadow clone would've been useless without his understanding of the jutsu or his ability to do the individual parts of the jutsu. He earns the jutsu and could conceivably have learned it the old fashioned way were he not under an artificial time limit as both Jiraiya and Kakashi, both without jinchuriki power, know it and can use it.

Now I'll talk about his supposed privilege as the yondaime's child: Sasuke gets chidori and later kirin thanks to HIS connections but that's never remarked on in the same way. And in fact most people in the naruto-verse learn a big jutsu from their clan or parent; see Might Gai, the genius of hard work, learning the eight gates thanks to his father. The rasenshuriken is something he's only capable of learning thanks to his chakra and shadow clones I hear you quote Kakashi, but it's again, something he couldn't do without actually putting the work in to learn the jutsu. Naruto is on a time crunch because of Akatsuki, the fact he is capable of learning the jutsu once he has advice on wind chakra from Asuma and has practiced forming the rasengan and doing windblades enough means he didn't need the extra chakra to do it, having the chakra didn't automatically make him capable of the rasenshuriken all it did was speed up his chakra control practice exponentially, it would have taken him more time practicing but he could have learned the jutsu eventually even if he wasn't a jinchuriki. Now summons. Being the Yondaime's child might get him an in with Jiraiya to let him have the toad contract, but Sakura and Sasuke also get summoning contracts thanks to personal connections with Tsunade and Orochimaru and Jiraiya only gets him the opportunity. It's Naruto who has to use his willpower to stay on Gamabunta's back and it's Naruto who has to form relationships with his summons like Gamakichi, (a bond that becomes instrumental toward the end of the 4th war). Additionally learning Sage mode wasn't just a result of Naruto getting the contract because neither Sasuke nor Sakura achieved it despite both having contracts (and despite Kabuto managing it where Sasuke didn't) Sasuke with the Hawks as well as the Snakes. And importantly Naruto was unable to use clones or his extra chakra to speed up his training in this. In fact the clones only come into it after he has successfully mastered sage mode and function as a limited extra resource that's can't go beyond three shadow clones meditating and this doesn't function as more sage powah but as a means of extending his sage modes duration, a workaround that's only needed because his being a jinchuriki gets in the way of him gathering sage mode in real-time with the toads on him. In conclusion while his chakra lets him practice jutsu to learn them faster, this is not the case in either his sage mode or the yin yang release and only applies to the shadow clone, rasengan and rasenshuriken - all of which he had to actually learn and understand the mechanics of otherwise the jutsu wouldn't have worked no matter how many shadow clones he had try it and that with the exception of shadow clone he demonstrably could've learned them without being a jinchuriki. And in the case of rasengan and rasenshuriken he is under artificial time-limits imposed by Orochimaru and the Akatsuki.

So that's shadow clone, rasengan, rasenshuriken and sage mode covered but what about bijuu mode. An overpowered special mode he only gets for being a jinchuriki, that B only bothers to teach him because he's a jinchuriki, surely that's LEGIT op bullshit. No? No. At least not in comparison to the Sakura's forehead seal from Tsunade, Sasuke's Mangekyou abilities like izanagi, giant purple warrior and amaterasu, Obito's mokuton, Madara's sage of six paths abilities or the rinnegan's everything, anyway. Not to mention what the edo tensei are capable of.

The only reason bijuu mode works is that he earns Kurama's regard on an emotional level, it's not something which being a kage's kid or having jinchuriki chakra levels actually does fuck all to contribute to. He was that all along but Kurama still hated him and tried to take over his body. It's Naruto himself who has to reach out and make that effort to understand this person who he's always seen as a burden or a curse or an annoying tenant who doesn't pay rent, a monster who tries to kill him and take his body. It's Naruto who has to put in the emotional labour and see Kurama as a person, no matter the harm he's done.

Naruto is the underdog in spite of being "the chosen one" and having the strongest bijuu and a kage father because emotional labour is never easy and in a world like his it seems insane to even try. It's why everyone except him was prepared to give up on Sasuke, Naruto recognises his anger at Itachi and desire to avenge his family as valid, Naruto when he finds out the truth about Itachi from Danzo tells Sasuke he gets it, why he wants to destroy the village, why he's so angry, when Sasuke changes his mind and decides to become hokage instead of destroying it so he can change it, Naruto understands WHY even if he still wants to be kage himself. The problem with Sasuke is that his anger is self-destructive and self-isolating, not that it exists, it's when Naruto fights him one last time and makes Sasuke realise that he's only hurting himself and his loved ones at this point, that "talk no jutsu" finally works and Sasuke is able to listen to Naruto and come home.

It's also why Naruto earns being hokage; in a world full of killers, someone who is capable of acknowledging the harm done and not ignoring or forgetting it (like how he tells pain he can't forgive him), but who is also capable of looking past that and understanding the motivations and feelings of the person he's dealing with and talking to them on that level as equals hits so hard. It just felt like a fantastic set up for a diplomatic hokage capable of dealing with other kages and achieving a peace in spite of the fact they're all to the last, untrustworthy ninja mercenaries who are generally very ends justify the means. In a world of kill or be killed Naruto is still willing to kill, but he's also willing to understand and to talk. And he wasn't born with that, he worked for it and failed often, especially with Sasuke, it was never easy, it often appeared hopeless but he kept trying.

And we rooted for him because of it.

[lesbianrupaul]

Sasuke: Finally something I’m better at than Naruto…

Naruto: I love you, bro! RASENGAN!

Just being silly :3

Please credit if you use for anything!! :3 💜🧡

[vahvah]

Every time I think about how Tobirama created some of his jutsu, it makes me… well, let's just say it FUCKS me.

Okay, okay, I know a lot of people have probably talked about this and written about it, but let's think about it again. The point here is not even that in the world of "Naruto" the existence of the soul and life after death is objectively known, and most likely before Tobirama created Edo Tensei (and this, of course, explains why the characters so easily treat them as their own, and to the death of others). It’s not even that Tobirama, knowing this, decided to not care about the will of dead people and once again return them to the “impure world”, where they must fight according to his will - and for this he needed their DNA. And not even that LIVING human bodies were used as vessels (yes, there were no White Zetsu then).

But. Jutsu have been created over the years. It took Minato four years to complete the rasengan, but it’s just a ball of chakra, it’s not even a ready-made jutsu, because Minato couldn’t and didn’t have time to add elemental release to it. How long did it take Tobirama to summon souls from the afterlife? Did he immediately realize that someone else's life would be required in exchange? He probably should have known that Shinigami wouldn't allow something like that to be done for free. But even taking this into account… how many prisoners of war, criminals and some other people whom the state does not feel too sorry for did Tobirama kill? He couldn't have developed Edo Tensei just as a theory, otherwise how would it have been known that the original Edo Tensei was much weaker than Orochimaru's more advanced form?

So yes, he probably experimented for a long time. Secret from Hashirama, MOST LIKELY. Thinking about this, I imagine something like Lovecraft's "Herbert West", where the dude spent years plundering the graves and corpses of recently deceased people, injecting them with various solutions until he succeeded (of course, in the process he created several indescribable monsters that became cause of his death).

And Tobirama dealt with all this, hell, he even came up with such an idea, NOT being a maniacal psychopathic nihilist like Orochimaru… Dude is really cold-blooded.

[the-real-sasuke-uchiha]

Sasuke, what do you think of Kakashi?

1-He was clearly biased against me when Naruto and I fought at the hospital rooftop, he only lectured me for pulling the chidori against Naruto, while he never reprimanded Naruto for using the rasengan against me. Which, I remind you, he pulled first and I only used the chidori as a legitimate self defence. He only asked me if I wanted to kill Naruto because, apparently, I have no right to defend my life.

2-Then he goes and ties me to a tree. See, this is very recurrent for these people, I apparently never have a right to decide where I want to go or who I want to be with. So he ties me to force me to hear his petty speech about revenge and friendship, because revenge (JUSTICE, YOU IDIOT) is apparently so wrong (but only when I seek it, ahem, because if it is Shikamaru then everyone is supporting him).

3-He dismisses my feelings, I apparently have to let go because he let go? He compares himself to me, as if losing comrades heroically because they wanted to protect their village is the same as losing your family because they were brutally murdered. As if losing your father to suicide is the same as losing your entire family, people, culture, because, allegedly, your brother, your most loved person, killed them all on a whim. I am apparently not the most unfortunate person because I have "friends"? This is not drama Olympics, Kakashi, but if it was, you and I would be in totally different leagues and you know it, quit the bullshit.

4-He learns the truth about the massacre, he knows the village committed genocide, and first thing he does is tell Naruto to shut up about it. He knows the village committed a genocide and still makes up his mind to kill me so I am not a liability for the government. He treats me like a terrorist and a mad person when he knows my rage is totally legit. Never even once he tries to hold the village responsible for what they did, never even once he faces the elders or demands any explanation. He never even acknowledges it was wrong.

5-He has the guts to blame me for defending my life when Sakura tries to kill me and pretends she is the victim. He pretends she was trying to kill me to "save me" instead of getting rid of a problem for their government. I repeat, he knew the truth here.

6-He never respects me and he treats me as if I am responsible for what Sakura feels for me. He never respects my right to decide about my own life and my own body. He validates her emotional blackmail and adds to it, pretending I have to do whatever makes my friends happy regardless of what I want or feel. He pretends I am a monster for responding roughly to continuous blackmail and harassment, which I am suffering since I can remember. Apparently I am not my own person, I have to be Sakura's love toy or else I am evil.

So, in summary, I despise him and I want nothing to do with him.

[leportraitducadavre]

Let's get something out of the way, the "Sasuke as a medic" AU has nothing to do with Tsunade being more "suited" to mentor him; there's nothing she can teach him that he'd find useful in his quest (why would he, who has an enormous amount of chakra at his disposal, need to learn to delicately control his energy as Sakura canonically needs to as her chakra pool is small?), nor helpful. Tsunade would never even consider taking him out of the front lines to use him as a medic either, as doing so would be a waste of his immense power and capabilities in the field.

No. This AU isn't about Sasuke, it's about Sakura and how her stans want to disguise their ultimate desire for her to have more jutsus at her disposal than what Tsunade taught her.

Hate to break it to you, but being the student of a powerful ninja doesn't mean copy-pasting the abilities of the mentor down to the disciple. What they learn has all to do with their personal capabilities, desires, and natural strength. Naruto, while he used mostly his teacher's jutsu, quickly outgrew his teachings by taking the Rasengan further than his father and Jiraiya, Sasuke surpassed both Orochimaru and Kakashi, as Kabuto did with the Sannin by the end of the series.

Orochimaru knowing kenjutsu doesn't translate to Sakura being able to be even remotely good at it. Her "agility" (which isn't even canon as there's no mention of medics being agile, rather them staying away from danger) has to do with her being a medic-nin, and I'll reiterate, Orochimaru isn't a medic in a similar manner Tsunade is, that one is Kabuto. Why would Orochimaru take Sakura with him when Kabuto, a 19-year-old, devised a technique like Tsunade's without even meeting her before fighting her?

Sakura copy-pasted the techniques taught to her, she improved them in no manner:

Do you see where I'm going with this? Kabuto even has a larger pool of chakra as he was able to learn Senjutsu mode which Sakura will never be able to do (Tsunade and Sakura having a small chakra pool is the whole reason why the Yin Seal -that actually uses Yang, as that's the only chakra nature Tsunade possesses even exists).

Kabuto knew medical ninjutsu outside of Orochimaru's teachings as those were the reasons Orochimaru sought him out, the Sannin even admitted to looking for extraordinarily talented people to take "under his wing", and at no moment he even looked in Sakura's direction (I implore you to read yourself the whole Orochimaru vs. Team 7 fight, from Chapter 46 to Chapter 49, and tell me how many times Orochimaru even glances at Sakura's direction. He knows both Naruto and Sasuke's names, yet never mentions Sakura's).

I don't even understand why "being an expert at Genjutsu" has her fandom in such a chokehold, normal genjutsu became almost obsolete when the Sharingan (Yin Release at its finest) was introduced and the more the story unfolded the fewer regular genjutsu experts, of the likes of Kurenai or Shee, were introduced, as the strongest characters either used kekkei genkai genjutsu (which can't be broken by a single person as the chakra needs to be disturbed by someone else) or ninjutsu/taijutsu skills. Regular genjutsu can be broken by the target if they realize a genjutsu has been casted, it's mostly used as a quick diversion for an attack or to escape, and most ninja have that tool at their disposal.

[And if you think Sakura would be able to pull off a Genjutsu like Shee does and attack with the speed at which A attacked Jügo you're out of your mind, she used not a single remarkable genjutsu in the whole manga, having Sasuke do that for her during FoD and dispersed a single basic one. She fell for Kakashi's genjutsu on the bell test, had to wait for Sasuke's reassurance that an illusion was in place in the chünin exams, fell for Orochimaru's own genjutsu in FoD, and was fooled by a henge twice in the same chapter and once by non-other than Naruto who pretended to be Sasuke. She had four encounters with the genjutsu technique, and three out of the four times she fell for it and still, some of you still hold Kakashi's words as "proof of her wasted potential" when he's the same man who couldn't care less if she dropped out of the exam.]

And as a quick addition, why is Mokuton!Sakura so insanely popular? Her having Earth and Water releases (Ino also has those nature releases, what's your point?) means nothing as she'll need a huge amount of chakra (which she doesn't possess) and few ninjas are even capable of mixing the two.

While any ninja can learn to transform their chakra’s nature, and even transform it into different natures consecutively (which Sakura was never even shown to do as she only used her medical skills to fight), it is impossible for them to transform two at the same time.

And he could perform such a special jutsu because he was of a kekkei genkai bearing clan

Only those with the genetic abilities of these kekkei genkai have a chakra system capable of double-nature transformation.

Canonically, no one but Hashirama could naturally have such nature release (for god's sake, Naruto and Sasuke both have water and earth nature and they can't even use Mokuton!). Let me remind you the reason why Hashirama having Mokuton is so important thematically:

Mokuton is the expression of Yang (Life) at its finest; Yang Release uses chakra that is two parts physical energy and one part spiritual energy. It governs vitality and manipulates the body, breathing life into form to animate that which lacks life of its own, which is in direct opposition to the Sharingan that expresses Yin (creating form from nothing); Yin Release uses chakra that is two parts spiritual energy and one part physical energy.��It governs imagination and manipulates the spirit, creating form from nothingness to give shape to that which has none (which is why the Sharingan is the ultimate expression of Genjutsu).

[Used Sasuke's chart to exemplify, as Madara has both Yin and Yang Releases as he modified his body using Hashirama's cells].

Yamato was experimented on by Orochimaru by using Hashirama's cells, so the only way Sakura could have such power is if she is experimented on by Orochimaru, and why on earth would he do that? Furthermore, Hashirama's cells would eat her alive in seconds, she couldn't handle a scratch amount of Kyuubi's chakra, how would she handle Hashirama's? This is the same man whose chakra was so vast and potent he healed himself unconsciously!

Sakura having delicate chakra control isn't a wild card you can use as you see fit to fulfill your fantasies, it means nothing outside her medical work. This notion that "Sakura has precise control of her chakra! That means she can learn any jutsu she wants!" is completely false.

First of all, Kakashi outright claims this idea of "no Jutsu should ever be beyond you," is "in theory, anyway." At no point does he say you'll be capable of learning chakra-draining ninjutsu with this skill alone as not a page after he claims this:

If you think this looks hard, it's even more difficult to maintain your chakra when using ninjutsu

Delicate chakra control in a portion of one's body (like fists when using Sakura's Cherry Blossom Impact) used to enhance one's strength (chakra enhancement is a feat used by every shinobi ever, like Lee and Gai themselves, albeit with different levels of expertise) isn't as chakra depleting as using Ninjutsu, which is why Sakura and Tsunade use it as their main fighting technique since they don't have a vast chakra pool as Hashirama had.

[hellcifrogs]

Naruto but Backwards

I tried to keep it in short topics, but this still got long enogh for me to need its own post

A war just broke out in the ninja world, 12 year old Naruto has a huge target on his back and doesn't even know why. His father dies protecting him and telling him about the beast sealed inside him. (Other important plot points happen, that I don't feel like really thinking and elaborating now).

The conflict dies out for a while, many casualities and a new villain claiming to have the power of all the bijuus but two, Tobi/Madara/whatever Obito calls himself here, challenges the five nations to hand over Naruto and B. Naruto is sent to a secret island to train and be safe. There he meets his mother who teaches him to use his powers. He and B are rescued by Iruka's team when the big villain's new organization shows up to get them (Kisame from the Akatsuki)

The five kages meet and a little terrorist (Sasuke) shows up by Tobi's orders to disrupt their attempt to reunite forces, the Hokage Danzo takes the responsability for the boy from his village - when in reality he hopes to get another easy sharingan. Sasuke manages to kill him with the Akatsuki's help.

The leaf village is in shambles after the death of their hokage and Tsunade is appointed as the new one (not counting their titles, Minato could've been hokage or not so Tsunade could be 5th or 6th). Her first challenge is an attack from the Akatsuki after Naruto. Again lots of people get hurt, but the boy convinces Nagato to turn against Tobi and in exchange Nagato introduces Naruto to his old master.

After failing his first mission for the Akatsuki, Sasuke has to fight his brother to prove himself (sasuke is 13) nearly dies, but wins (Itachi lets him - doesn't die). And Sasuke is given his own little team (taka) to work. Their first job? Capture the 8 tails - clearly Tobi doesn't value them and is just sending them to their death, they defect, Deidara is sent to stop them and fights with Sasuke. (Bonus- A tracker team from the leaf is after Sasuke)

Team taka, now running from the Akatsuki seeks shelter with Orochimaru and becomes team hebi. Naruto is training with Jiraya, learns the shadow clones because Minato taught him rasengan already.

Kakuzu and Hidan are sent to capture Naruto and he is saved last minute by team Ino-Shika-Cho. Asuma dies in the first confront, but gives Naruto a hint to improve his rasengan. His students avenge his death with the help of Kakashi and his own team - Sakura and Sai. Naruto asks to be trained by Kakashi and joins his team, so he can have more experiences.

Naruto's first mission with team Kakashi is to investigate one of Orochimaru's hideouts, because there are rumors (thanks to team 8 ;)) that he is working against the Akatsuki and if that's the case they could become allies (he is, but he won't lol). They meet Sasuke!! They knew him from the stories, from his attack to the kages, but they meet in person for the first time.

Back to the leaf village, the sand sends an unexpected request for their help - they have a jinchuuriki and they need to hide/protect him. Turns out Tobi lied about having all the bijuu! Team Kakashi goes (though Sai could be busy this time), they save Gaara from Deidara, who had already kidnapped him and was almost at the hideout. Team Gai shows up to save the day! Naruto makes a new friend like him.

New measures are taken to protect the jinchuurikis, Naruto leaves to travel with his master Jiraya, though he is now officially a member of team Kakashi. He learns sage mode in the two years he's away. And returns to the village once there's apparently no risk of the war breaking into active conflict again. Tobi is quiet.

Sasuke discovers that Orichimaru had been helping Tobi and planned to hand him back to him. He kills him and escapes on his own. He's desperate to find a way to protect himself, if Kabuto or the other members of Hebi find him they'll kill him, if Tobi finds him he'll kill him, if the kages find him... He finds Naruto instead.

Naruto and Sasuke fight in the Valley of the End. Sasuke wants to capture Naruto and hand him to whoever offers him protection. Naruto just wants to reach Sasuke and, by the end of their fight, he does. Sasuke returns with him to the village. They become team 7 with the hokage's student - Sakura (Sai is team Kakashi, but has his own job).

A team from the Sound comes after Sasuke and almost take him back, but a group from the Leaf (and help from the Sand, who owe them for their help) save him, proving to him that he's safe now, Naruto and his friends will keep Sasuke safe.

Kabuto convinces Tsunade to use her powers to bring Orochinaru back to life. Probably blackmailing her. Jiraya comes rescue her with Naruto and Sasuke. She gives Naruto the necklace as a thank you, and tells the boys about the founders!

Naruto and Sasuke learn to fight together, joining forces and when, Itachi and Kisame (the first two akatsukis who the boys ever had to face) show up in the village to take them, they are ready. They defeat the Akatsuki and prepare to fight Tobi himself when the time comes. But first they need to officially become chunin lol

Soon after there's a large scale attack against the Leaf village (pretend is Pein level of destruction here). The Sound and Sand seemed to have joined forces, konoha 13 have to work togethee to save everyone (they're all 16/17 now, Naruto with his sage mode, Sasuke with his summons and sharingans, Tsunade is trapped but Sakura has the byakugo and lady Katsuyu). Orochimaru is back, he actually killed the kazekage and manipulated the Sand, as a thank you he doesn't kill Tsunade - she didn't bring him back, but Kabuto still found a way to do it based on her abilities. (Konoha crush)

After all that Orochimaru wants revenge for what Sasuke did, he is not sick anymore and almost does get him, but team 7 saves him and together they finally kill Orochimaru! (forest of death) -> Gaara becomes the new kazekage -> konoha 13 are all promoted to new positions (chunin exams equivalent, but make them jonin and even anbu). -> At this point I almost forgot about Obito, but...

Team 7 is sent to the mist for a mission, to go after the other jinchuuriki they found out about, one that had been actually helping Obito. They pretend to be on a escorting mission and there they meet a pair of mercenaries :) the waves arc goes pretty similar, but with the addition of rescuing Yagura from Obito's manipulation. Finally defeating him since they slowly had been cutting off all of his supports - Kakashi finds out he *is* Obito and they have their dramatic fight. (Them fighting around the three tails ouch)

Haku and Zabuza actually turn to their side last minute and die teaching Naruto the same lesson that becomes his motivation to become hokage.

[whotookmysenbon]

you made me cry with the answer of if you knew who Naruto's father was It would have been cool to see something like that. I think he would have shown another approach than being with Iruka and/or Kakashi

Now, here’s the thing: on paper, Kakashi was the best teacher for those kids.

He was intimately familiar with the Yondaime’s teaching styles, his sealing, his techniques, even going as far as to be able to use Minato’s unfinished rasengan. Not only that, but with the Sharingan he had the ability to keep the Kyuubi in check should Naruto’s seal ever leak in training.

With Sasuke, he was not only another sharingan user, but also his brother’s captain in ANBU. He knew clan jutsus that Sasuke never got to learn that were his birthright. He shared a lightning release with him, and knew what it would be like to be a kid clan head, as he’s the last Hatake in Konoha.

Sakura would have been the best for him though. They both scored in the 99th percentile for chakra control, and both typically work on a shoestring budget of chakra. They’re both suited less to flashier techniques and more assassination (or healing, the two have a scary amount of overlap) techniques. Something that also was mentioned and never worked with is that Sakura is a genius. More so than Sasuke, I’m talking she had the genius to rival kid Kakashi or the Yondaime at her age. Her test scores were always a fraction of a percent behind Sasuke’s, because beating him would be ‘unladylike’ or some shit. In the intel gathering stage of the chunin exam, she didn’t cheat. Not once did she look up from her paper, and answered questions 1-9 accurately. A genin barely six months out of the academy correctly answered questions most high level chunin or new jonin would struggle with. I was sorely disappointed when she lost out in the preliminaries, as I would have offered to train her myself if Kakashi chose not to.

… sorry for that last tangent, but yeah. Kakashi could have been really good for those kids.

[brighteuphony]

I LOVE your Sakura AU, thank you so much for making it 🥹

Even though her ending is supposed to be “good”, I always thought that canon didn’t do her justice and threw any character development she had out of the window so she can be with Sasuke

I SO wanted her to finally move on and just let go

And I don’t have anything against Sasusaku

But I think it’d be much more beautiful if Sakura long let go of her feelings by the time Sasuke came to his senses and they developed their relationship TOGETHER from the START

And, once again, your work is AMAZING and I can’t wait for next pieces ❤️

Btw, can I ask a question?) Will we see Naruto’s and Sasuke’s reaction to her condition (maybe flashback to before she left the village?), if not, can you please tell me a bit about it? I can’t imagine them to ignore her after the incident, especially considering that they are at fault as usual

Thank you so much for the kind words! I've also never been a fan of how Sakura ended up. I have no beef with SasuSaku, but my biggest issue was that we never saw Sasuke try to make up/connect with Sakura in the same way we saw him do with Naruto, so their romance in Boruto just felt so...abrupt?

As for what happens to Sakura and her friends....

Sasuke was essentially put on probation/jailed, but broke out and defected to Otogakure as canon. This devastates Sakura, as she's both in deep denial about his contribution to her injuries and also the fact that she basically threw herself in there for nothing. Kakashi shuts down completely. It's a nightmare replay of his own past, including the female team-mate being horrifically injured by the chidori. The guilt of everything is eating him alive so he basically withdraws into himself and uses her demotion to civilian status as a way to trick himself into thinking that if he just 'rips off the bandaid' and cut ties, she'll be able to move on more easily.

Naruto is the only person who is really able/willing to face justice. After the incident, he was basically also put on probation/awaiting trial but busted himself out to join Jiraya.

So for context, Sakura got clapped hard by the Rasengan/Chidori combo (hearing gone, nerve damage, eyes shot etc) and basically had to be put in a coma to try and stop the damage from getting worse, but unfortunately none of the medics in Konoha had the ability to reverse anything but the most superficial damage. So Naruto joined Jiraya in an attempt to find and bring the only person in the world who could give Sakura a sliver of hope.

I felt like this worked well with canon and the desperation to get Tsunade to be hokage and Naruto basically begged her on his hands and knees to help Sakura. Tsunade made it there in the nick of time managed to save everything but her eyes.

But Sakura's life has fallen apart, her career is over, her parents dead from Konoha Crush and her eyes gone...and Naruto is the most convenient and available person to take out all her rage on, so...while he deserves a lot of that rage..she is essentially punching down on who she perceives to be the cause of all her problems.

Lee is in the same boat as her, but while he tries very hard to be there for her, Sakura can't stand to be with him right now, as it just makes the reality of life hit that much worse- especially when she finds out there's a surgery that might give him a better chance than she'll ever have.

And Ino visits often at first, but then it's awkward...and painful as the weeks go by. They have lunch and gossip but at some point, there's not much a shinobi and civilian have in common, especially after the shortage of manpower post Konoha-crush has Ino entrenched in the shinobi life more than ever before.

I hope this answered some stuff! Thank you so much for the questions and the interest! I love Sakura and I just wanna give her the development and power she deserves!!

[mochiajclayne]

I find it fascinating that Rasengan is technically an incomplete jutsu that heavily relies on shape transformation (changes the form and movement) and the complete version of it was made possible by Naruto through adding nature transformation (changes the attribute of chakra), specifically, Wind Release: Rasenshuriken.

I know this is an incredibly small detail but we have seen the lethal effects of Rasenshuriken (to the point that Tsunade even warned Naruto about using the jutsu as it is harmful on cellular levels not just to the enemy but also himself). It contains microscopic wind blades, too many to count even with Sharingan. My point is, Naruto is presented with obvious opportunities to use a powerful jutsu to stop Sasuke, especially in VOTE2 but he did not use it. It's a conscious choice and an intentional decision. He will do everything to stop Sasuke but he draw the line at killing the precious person he's been chasing for years.