#naruto is very fun to draw i can’t lie

[piierrote]

so i’ve been watching naruto

[cross-d-a]

fic tag game

aaahhh @vishcount thank you for tagging me!!! These are so fun and I adored reading about your fic journey~!  ೖ(⑅σ̑ᴗσ̑)ೖ ❤

OH as a note!! For the ppl I tag at the end I don’t expect you to read all of this bc it’s A Lot!!! but I figured you might want to do this game yourself? haha :)

Name: cross-d-a shortened version of my first ever username. unfortunately stuck with it now haha but i’m fond of it :p wish it was cuter tho!!

Posting the rest of this under the cut so it doesn’t eat up people’s dashes!! 

(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Fandoms: 

oKAY YIKES there are....honestly too many too name. I’ve got a short and obsessive attention span so it’s either all or nothing with me usually. When I can stay in a fandom for a long period of time it’s a miracle. I’ll name the bigger ones that I’ve all written fic for! Even if I’ve never posted them haha

Right now I’m very firmly into Daomu Biji (dmbj). It feels like it’s both got a crap ton of content and yet barely anything at all haha. Maybe because the English fandom is so small. But at least there are a bunch of dramas and books!!! I really, really, really adore dmbj so much!! And a large part of that is the fandom!!! It's been a really cool and unique experience! Everyone in it is truly so kind and wonderful, and I’ve made some really incredible friends because of it (looking at you vish!! ❤). I’ve got a bunch of wips, but I’ve only posted two fics for dmbj!

Before this I was very into Guardian and mdzs. MDZS was my first foray into cdramas and Guardian’s Zhu Yilong really suckered me into watching more haha I also have fics for both these fandoms!

My very first fandoms were Fullmetal Alchemist, D. Gray-Man and Naruto. My very old ffnet account has fics for these and I’ve got a bunch of newer wips on my tablet. Then Star Trek, Twilight, BBC Merlin, Sherlock, Death Note, Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon, Battlestar Galactica, Avatar the Last Airbender and Marvel were a few of my main ones in high school. Plus a bunch of anime (like Fruits Basket! and Kuroshitsuji and Natsume Yuujinchou). 

Then college hit and I renewed my childhood love of Tolkien (mainly lotr and the Hobbit), and Star Wars. I also found Teen Wolf! Then after college it was Stranger Things. 

I find myself in a cycle of mild fondness and complete obsession with these fandoms haha I go back to Star Wars at least once a year!! Then I’m in the gffa hole for a few months. Marvel also reoccurs, depending on how interested I am in new content! Star Trek I always always always go back to. TOS is my comfort show and it will never fade from my heart ❤

But for now I’m stuck in cdrama hell and I love it

Tropes: 

Time travel, found family, whump+hurt/comfort, fairytale-like elements, resurrective immortality (thanks to a “Nine Lives” Hobbit fic), CROSSOVERS

I’m a slut for all these things so they often worm their way into my plots haha

I also just- love weird premises. I think that’s the anime influencing me haha

Fic I spent most time on: 

My series he leaves sand and stardust in my wake (main fic is hurricane on the edge of oblivion), I have...spent five years on now. I have done so much research for this fic it’s insane. 

The premise is force ghost!Obi-Wan getting shunted back into his tiny 10 year old self. I incorporate a shit ton of legends and I try to stay as canon as possible. I basically want this au to feel like it’s 1000% plausible while still getting all my gay shit. It’s chock full of whump, redemption, found family, minor characters turning into major characters, and I’ve got slavery uprising on the mind, too. It’s just- everything I could ever want to explore in the Star Wars universe basically. 

It’s my first big project. I started doodling and scribbling ideas in the margins of my notebook in my Scottish History class. I adore it so so so much. But, because of my hyperfixation and fleeting intense obsession with things it makes it- really difficult to consistently update. I leave it for months at a time and I am constantly guilt-ridden about it. Because it’s my baby and I have a lot of wonderful readers. I fear I’ll never be able to finish it. Especially since I’ve written so much and I’m still only in the beginning of it. ( ; A ; )

Also, I’ve spent so much time with Xanatos, Feemor and Bruck that they just feel like mine now. I can’t read any fics that involve them, it’s too strange. Which is a damn shame because I love them so much haha OH ALSO!! I think it’s the first really big fic to include those three?? So I’m very proud about that haha (I’ve had so many ppl comment about how they actually Give A Shit about these three and are Invested bc of me haha)

Favorite fic(s) you’ve written: 

hurricane on the edge of oblivion (with nowhere to go) (Star Wars)

My long-term passion project. My love-letter to Star Wars, I suppose. Reading it now I feel like a lot of it is clunky or long-winded, but I think it really shows the foundation of my writing today :) Main characters are Obi-Wan, Xanatos Du Crion, Qui-Gon Jinn, Bruck Chun and Feemor. Eventually we’ll get to Maul, Savage, Feral, Shmi Skywalker, (more!) Ahsoka, Anakin and a shit ton of clones ❤

things we hunger for (Guardian)

My Ye Zun self-indulgent fic. It’s a time travel amnesia Weilanzun! Honestly has some of my fav writing I’ve ever done. It’s so soft and really indulges in the hurt/comfort. It gives Ye Zun the friends and family I think he deserves. Also, he gets to grow into a (mostly!) functional person and I adore him.

the beast that slumbers within your soul (mdzs)

Jiang Cheng centric fic!! I feel like all my favourite fics I’ve written are love letters haha. This is one def my love letter to Jiang Cheng. This fic possessed me for two whole days. I wrote 16k in almost one sitting. I went to sleep at 6 in the morning bc I couldn’t stop writing. And when I drifted off I kept thinking of new ideas so I’d whip out my phone and write down lines and notes. I- have never ever ever felt that way about anything. It was- insane. It felt insane. It was so amazing. I’m still riding the memory of that high.

 Basically Jiang Cheng actually finds Baoshan Sanren and it turns out she’s a fox demon and Jiang Cheng is descended from wolves. It’s- okay I said the fic above this had my favourite writing?? That was a lie. This has my favourite writing I’ve ever done. It’s unfinished bc I am in dmbj hell but I am still excited about the next chapter which features Wei Wuxian’s pov!!

the whispers of spirits (dmbj)

My current passion project. In a way it kinda feels similar to hurricane? Bc multiple povs, incorporating different aspects of canon (we’ll get there!! I promise!), shit ton of research, etc. etc. I really really really love it for so many reasons. I’m basically taking all the things I was unsatisfied with in Reboot and Sha Hai and running with it. Found family and whump galore! It’s also a love letter to the women of dmbj who really deserve so so so much better.

Honourable mention to:

One Day (you’ll have given more of yourself than is meant to be taken) (Marvel)

This fic also kinda possessed me. I just- couldn’t get rid of the idea of a trans!Thor. And I mean a mtf Thor! It’s just? So many people look at Thor and go “that’s a Real Man.” Full stop. They never think there could be anything more, and it really really really bothered me. So I wrote out my feelings. I’m not trans. I don’t have that experience at all. I’ve had issues and confusion about my gender but nothing like this. I just wanted to do justice to this idea of Thor in my head. And I still feel a bit nervous having posted it. But I've gotten so many comments from people who really connected with what I’ve written? So I’m very very thankful I wrote it and it has a very special place in my heart. It’s a very cathartic fic.

Fic I spent least time on: 

Probably we rise (Star Wars) and I think it shows haha. I wrote it in response to Dave Filoni posting a drawing of Ahsoka and Gandalf telling her “People thought I was dead, too, and look how that turned out...” So I incorporated Ahsoka (and Din and Grogu and Ezra!!!) into the ending of Rise of Skywalker, kinda explaining how I think they could all still be alive. :)

Longest fic: 

hurricane is my longest fic (159k) but I’m kinda worried whispers will eclipse that.....

Shortest fic: 

Of my posted ones it’s The Five Moments it Took Tony and Scott to Admit They Were Best Friends (and the first time they ever did), currently clocks at 1.6k. It’s unfinished tho so maybe that doesn’t count.... otherwise it’s we rise which is completed and 2k.

Most hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks: 

hurricane overall has the most of all these. Though I don’t think hits counts as much bc it’s multi-chapter. If you discount multi-chapter stuff, most hits goes to my obikin smutfic Homecoming, bc people are horny af haha

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: 

If I had energy I’d like to rewrite the beginning of hurricane bc it feels so so wordy. I’d want to expand on One Day bc I really would like to write a whole series with trans!Thor. And like- I’d really like the focus to finish any of my WIPs.

Share a bit of a WIP: I really wanna share my Guardian/dmbj crossover that I started back in August. Bc I adore the idea of wu xie&shen wei&ye zun triplets! Plus time travel!!! I dunno if I’ll ever finish it tho ( ; A ; ) It just feels like a lot to deal with right now.

This scene takes place during the Mountain Awl arc. Guardian crew and desperado fam run across each other at the village! Wu Xie has recently found out that he’s adopted and he’s searching for answers in the area Sanshu originally found amnesiac!toddler!Wu Xie in :) Gonna pull two snippets bc I’m v excited and this might be the only time anyone else sees this fic haha:

“Oh?” Pangzi focuses on Yunlan now, lips twisting. “You think I’ve ‘got the wrong guy,’ huh?” He laughs, but it’s not a nice sound. “That’s rich! Are you that cocky or are you just stupid?”

Bristling, Yunlan drops his hands and scowls. “Excuse me?”

“Sir,” Shen Wei tries. “I think—”

Pangzi’s eyes snap back to Shen Wei, sharp and blazing. “How dare you fucking steal his face!”

What?

Automatically, Zhao Yunlan turns to Shen Wei, but the professor looks just as shell-shocked as Zhao Yunlan feels which- is seriously something. Since everything about Shen Wei is so carefully controlled, kept to the minimum. Except for those delightful little smiles that bloom across his lovely face, or the startled little bursts of laughter that fall from his lips. Or even when anger and frustration spark across his features, cracking his calm veneer open enough that he can see a glimmer of what lies beneath, the fire in those eyes. Zhao Yunlan delights in those moments, makes a game of making Shen Wei’s control slip.

He tells himself it’s nothing more than a game. Nothing more than trying to find out what makes Shen Wei tick.

Zhao Yunlan’s always been very bad at lying to himself. Or very good. Depending on who you’re asking.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Yunlan splutters.

But before anyone can say anything else, a very familiar voice calls:

“Pangzi? What’s wrong?”

Yunlan can feel Shen Wei stiffen, and Yunlan himself is pulled to that voice like a planet in orbit, like the inevitable plummet to the ground.

Another shadow wavers in the doorway before it steps out onto the dirt. Light illuminates shaggy hair, limning it gold, sharply casting everything else in shadow. But as the figure nears, the contrast softens until Yunlan can see the newcomer’s face properly and- and—

“Wu Xie!” Pangzi growls. “We’ve got ourselves an impostor!”

The man wearing Shen Wei’s face steps up to them, brows furrowed and mouth pulled down into a sharp frown. He glances between them, eyes landing on Shen Wei. His scowl deepens. He opens his mouth, but then—

“Wu Xie?” Shen Wei breathes, all trembly and lost and hopeless.

Heart in his throat, Yunlan turns to Shen Wei again. Turns and flinches at that stricken look upon Shen Wei’s pale pinched face.

“A-Xie?” Shen Wei chokes. “Didi?”

and

Pangzi snorts. “Professor?”

“I-it’s true!”

Startled Yunlan swings his attention over to Jiajia who clenches her backpack to her chest, face screwed up in admirable determination. “P-professor Shen took me and Xiao Quan on a field trip to investigate an archeological site around here!”

“Oh?” Wu Xie drawls all slow and amused. “Well, what a coincidence. We’re archeologists, too.”

“With guns?” Yunlan bites out.

Wu Xie raises a brow, grin full of teeth. “Well, you can never be too prepared.”

“Right,” Yunlan drawls right back. “Are you a professor, too, then? You come here with your students?”

Wu Xie outright grins. “You could say that, I suppose.”

Out of the corner of his eye, one of the men rolls his eyes. He’s the one with sharp features, glasses and looped earbuds. Does he think it’s appropriate to listen to music at a time like this? Yunlan admires the man’s gall.

aahhhh vish thanks so much again for tagging me!! This was so fun to relive my fic memories!! I’m gonna tag @alwaysaslutforshakespeare @jockvillagersonly @tehfanglyfish @lichelleme @undyingsunshine @humanlighthouse  @thewindsofsong I’m curious about your guys’ writing and fandom journey!! As always, no pressure to actually complete this!! I just thought it was fun ❤

Wow if you read all of this I am very humbled and impressed, thank you!!

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

[mexcraziness-art]

Naruto OC: Saisari Haruno

Me: I'm just going to quickly throw up a ref of my MoriSaku kid for fun Also me: *Spends the entire week on it*

Name: Saisari Haruno

Birthdate: September 25th (Libra)

Gender: Male

Age: 13

Height: 150 cm

Weight: 42 kg

Blood Type: A

Affiliation: Konohagakure

Rank: Genin

Nature Type:

   -          Earth Release

Parents:

   -          Sakura Haruno

   -          Morio Haruno

I don’t actually have a really worked out background or personality for him yet, so the next sections are just pretty much gonna be me spewing fun facts and headcanons about Morisaku and Saisari.

Also bear with me, I haven’t actually re-watched every episode of Shippuden yet, and my memories are foggy.

 Background:

In an alternate universe where everyone gets the good things they deserve, after Sakura initially rejected Morio they still met up in the medical tents occasionally, Morio offering to help out with whatever he could while he was still out of commission. From that they started to meet and chat on their breaks, and Sakura actually grew rather fond of him. She ended up finding his letter that he gave her before and this time she actually read it. (I have never seen a love letter in my life, one day I’ll think of something of what it could have said IDK) Anyways long story short, she was so touched by it she actually agreed to go on a date with him once the war was over.

After the war they haven’t seen eachother for a while but they stayed in contact through letters and eventually Morio came to Konoha and they started dating.

They married and Sakura got pregnant with Saisari soon after the events of The Last movie, Saisari was born on September 25th.

Growing up he learnt Earth Release from Morio, who in the meanwhile retired from the shinobi life and became a house husband, and chakra control and taijutsu from Sakura, even though he could never reach the refined levels she had at his age.

During the events of Boruto, he’ll probably take Sarada’s place on the New Team 7, also because in this world Sarada would probably be Karin and Sasuke’s daughter, but that’s a different topic.

Personality:

As far as his personality goes he took mostly after his father, Morio, he’s generally soft, sweet and kind, he’s also easily embarassed, some might even say he’s timid or shy at times. He’s also very helpful towards everyone. He can also be a smartass at times, he’s pretty book-smart and he likes showing-off with his knowledge and fun-facts. On the flip-side sometimes he’s judgemental when someone doesn’t know something he considers basic knowledge, or behaves in a way that’s strange to him. Having inherited both the Will of Fire and the Will of Stone, he’s also incredibly stubborn once he sets his mind on something, and he deeply cherishes his friends, these two things combined make him a real challenge on the battlefield, and also make him a protective and loyal friend.

Relationships:

Sakura:

Saisari greatly admires his Mother and looks up to her in essentially every aspect. The work she does at the Hospital, her medical ninja abilities, her strength, her accomplishments during the war, he wishes to one day grow up to be a shinobi of her caliber. He only wishes she’d have little less of a short temper during their training sessions, she’s not as ruthless as Tsunade used to be with her, but Saisari is much softer than she was and it’s stressing him out a lot.

 Morio:

He’s generally on the same wavelength with his Father about nearly everything. He tends to emotionally confide in him and talk about his problems more, because he feels less of an urge to impress him than he does with Sakura. He also loves to listen to his Father talk about Iwagakure and learn more about his home and costumes. One of his favourite pastimes is practing Earth Release with him.

 (As for the others… not gonna lie, I’ve seen the first few episodes of Boruto and the Movie a while back, but I have no idea what most of the charachters are like, so I’m going to only list the most notable ones I have some slight ideas for.)

Boruto:

So far I think Saisari would be pretty good friends with Boruto, since they were little they used to hang out a lot due to their parents. After Naruto became Hokage and Boruto started misbehaving he’d occasionally get dragged along but he’d try to avoid trouble as much as he can, in fear of Sakura having his head.

Mitsuki: 

I have no idea honestly, I think he’d initially find him wierd, but he’d grow rather fond of him as he gets to know him. They’d probably even get along great eventually.

Sumire: Saisari really looks up to her for how she turned her life around after everything she’d been through. He also greatly admires her for her skills and intelligence. He also has the biggest crush imaginable on her.

Abilities:

His skill levels are generally on an average level. He’s not particularly good at Genjutsu, he has absolutely no skills for medical ninjutsu, his strategy skills aren’t outstanding and he isn’t really skilled for leadership. His only outstanding abilities are his Chakra Enchanced Taijutsu and Earth Release that his parents personally train him in.

Taijutsu:

He’s very skilled in close and hand-to-hand combat. Sakura tried to teach him medical ninjutsu, but he totally failed at that, his chakra control not being refined enough. However it was good enough that she taught him how to use Chakra Enhanced Strentgh by concentrating chakra in various parts of his body. However due to his only-slighty-above-average chakra control, this is very taxing on him, and exhausts him quickly.

Ninjutsu:

He can perform all the basic jutsu Genin are capable of, like the Clone Jutsu and Substitution Jutsu.

Earth Release:

Morio’s been teaching Saisari various Earth Release tecniques since he was about 10 years old. By the time he’s 13 he has an outstanding array of Earth Release Jutsus at his disposal. He’s very proud of his Earth Release abilities, as he feels it’s part of his heritage, always working hard to improve and learn new techniques. Where his general skill sets are lacking, he makes up for it with his Earth Release techniques. Some say he’s well on his way to becomming an Earth Release specialist.

 By the age of 13 he’s able to use the following Earth Release jutsus:

 -          Earth Release: Earth Spear: The latest Earth Release jutsu Saisari has learnt, and so far the only one that wasn’t taught to him by Morio. He came across it himself when he was studying about Earth Release jutsus for the Chunnin Exams, and together with Sakura’s chakra training he learnt it all by himself. As of right now it leaves a lot to be desired and it leaves him greatly exhausted but it has the potential to be his strongest jutsu one day.

 -          Earth Release: Underground Split

-          Earth Release: Tunnelling Technique

-          Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm

-          Earth Release: Shadow Clone

-          Earth Release: Rock Trail

-          Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall

-          Earth Release: Rock Shelter

-          Earth Release: Rock Gun Technique

-          Earth Release: Reverse Antlion

-          Earth Release: Hiding in Rock Technique

-          Earth Release: Earth Wave Technique

-          Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique

 Other skills:

He’s very creative with paper bombs and other explosives. His favourite type of offense is combining his Earth Spear jutsu with a bunch of paper bombs. He jumps amongst the enemy, hardens his skin to withstand the explosion and sets of the bombs right there.

Weaknesses:

His greatest weaknesses are his average chakra levels and imperfect chakra control. He may be slightly-above-average, but his techniques are very chakra taxing, and they leave him very exhausted very fast. His strategy skills are also lacking, when left to his own devices he tends to become much more rash and get ahead of himself, which usually ends up with him chakra exhausted and vulnerable.

I wanted to finish this in 2 days, I have so many other things to draw, I hate how I just can't get faster, BUT I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, so there's that.

Art b @mexcraziness-art

Naruto belongs to  Masashi Kishimoto

[chemicalmagecraft]

Foresight is 20/20 Chapter 13

I sighed, then took another bite of my dango. The page of my book flipped and my frown deepened. Poison-making looked hard... And more than that, it was complicated and boring. Sure it was practical, but nowhere near as fun as, say, the chakra threads I was using to "levitate" both my dango and my book (I didn't want to get dango on my book or book on my dango).

"'Sup, kid," a familiar voice said, and I extended another thread to catch the hand that reached for my dango. "Almost didn't recognize you there with that tan, but who else casually uses a jutsu like that?"

"Anko," I greeted faux-angrily. She was somehow almost always there whenever I went to get dango, and I eventually managed to talk to her. "I do believe that I told you not to touch my dango." The thread around her wrist went slack and dissipated, allowing her to withdraw her hand. She just shrugged, sat down across from me and started eating her dango.

"So is that a book about poison?" she asked me.

"I don't really understand it, but yeah it is."

"I happen to know a thing or two about poison, especially after..." Her expression soured. "Him."

I closed my book and licked my lips. "Speaking of him," I said. "I do believe I've figured something out." I raised my hand to one of my demon gem "earrings" and it floated to the back of her neck, where her curse mark was. "Ah, I was right. I should be able to partially nullify your seal."

Her eyes widened. "You can?"

"I mean, I don't think I'll be able to remove it without causing major damage to you, at least not without the original notes, but this..." I used the demon gem to extract the natural energy from the mark, then placed a seal on it to prevent it from drawing in more. "Feel better?"

She rubbed the curse mark. "Yeah, lots..."

I smiled slightly and my gem returned to my ear. "That's because I just removed its ability to accumulate natural energy, and drained it too. Basically halted most of its functions. Now that I've become more adept at using these things, I can use them to detect the natural energy around me. Orochimaru's mark certainly is interesting, shame the man himself was terrible."

Anko grinned at me. "You know, I actually have access to all his stuff, seeing how I was his apprentice and all. He didn't like the idea of anyone else touching his notes, so me giving it to someone is probably a good way to spite him. Plus I could teach you way more about poison than some dumb old book!"

My grin widened. I'd have sealed her mark either way, but finding a dialogue tree that got me Orochimaru's notes and explanations on it was a godsend. "Looks like I found myself a teacher, then. Oh, and by the way."

"What's up, kid?"

"That seal was probably screwing with your metabolism. You'll probably have to actually work off all those sweets now."

Anko winced. "Dammit..."

kukukuku~

I meditated under a tree again, paying some attention to Hinata playing with Naruto and Tenten as with before. This time, though, I was just doing the regular sage training and not my weird convoluted separate-recombine approach. I'd managed to use a single demon gem to make a really thin barrier that pivoted like the platforms on the spires the toads had that also made it look like I was just mildly floating. "What are you doing?" a voice asked. I couldn't see him with my eyes closed, but Chikage within my shadow shared her sight with me. And then I would've figured it out anyway from the sound of someone eating chips behind the original speaker.

"Why hello, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji," I said, not even opening my eyes. "I am meditating on the energy that abounds in nature, and surrounds us all. With it, a true sage can do incredible feats."

"That can't be true," Shikamaru said. "Wouldn't we know more about such a troublesome power?"

I smirked, and a random falling leaf that got too close to me was shredded from a disturbance in the surrounding natural energy.

"Woah!" Choji exclaimed. "What was that?"

"Mendokuse..." Shikamaru muttered. "So why don't people use this more often?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I think it has something to do with how the only other user of the sage power that I know of with no relation to the snake or toad summon animals was Senju Hashirama, who at the same time one might argue had a slight relation to toads through his distant ancestor. And I have a theory that he actually had some sort of natural energy-related power even beyond normal sage powers, one tied to his bloodline."

"Mendokuse... How do you know this?"

"Magic. While I don't suggest you actually draw in natural energy without supervision from someone who would be able to expel the natural energy from your body, you seem like the type to be content to lie still from elongated periods of time, which you could use to try and sense the natural energy in the air, which is the basis of using sage power."

Shikamaru blinked. "So you're saying I could potentially get a lot more powerful just by sitting around?"

"You need to draw in natural energy for a bit before you can actually use it, but yeah. Also, you need a good amount of chakra before it's safe to do it, so don't expect to just take a nap and get superpowers."

"Well then why are you doing it?" Choji asked. "Even if you have more chakra than normal, you're a kid like us. Is it really that safe?"

"Tseseseseh~" I chuckled. "Nnnope, I'm just an idiot with a lot of chakra."

"You're the one kid Ino told us about, aren't you?" Shikamaru asked. "The weirdo."

"Yup."

"Mendokuse..."

I felt a wave of bad vibes through Chikage and heard some shouting. I bolted upright, forgetting that I was in the middle of absorbing natural energy. My leg gave out from under me, causing me to drop to one knee and suck in a breath. "Are you okay?" Choji asked me.

I rolled up the pant of the offending leg, revealing skin that was half crystallized and half scaled. And some of the scales were made from crystals, too. "Ah, that's not good," I muttered, then licked my lips. "This is why you don't mess around with natural energy without adult supervision, kids..."

"Mendokuse... Is there any way we can help you?"

"No, hang on. I got this. Let's see here..." I concentrated, using my experience manipulating natural energy with my various unconventional forms of sage jutsu to help me. The problem was that I had natural energy concentrated in my leg. I didn't have much in the other parts of my body, so I just redistributed the natural energy. My leg returned to normal as I felt the surge of power from a proper sage mode. Thanks to Chikage, I was able to see that the markings around my eyes changed to be the yin-yang symbol thingy, and moon symbols appeared on my cheeks.

"There, that's better," I said. "Really hope this stuff isn't carcinogenic... Let's go check out that shouting." Before either of them could object, I shot off. Even with my sage chakra not quite as potent as it could have been on account of my age and chakra capacity, I was still a lot faster than the two. I did go at a pace that they could easily catch up to, though, on account of the fact that I didn't want to burn through all of my sage mode. At what Chikage told me was the source of the negative emotions, I felt two familiar chakra signatures, very much in a panic. I came upon the scene. Thankfully, there were only a few people there, and they all appeared to be too afraid to do anything.

"Get back!" the guy holding the knife to Ino's throat shouted. He appeared to have taken her and Sakura hostage. Judging by the sack of loot on the ground by him, he'd robbed someone and was trying to get away. I could tell that neither he nor any of the onlookers had much shinobi training with the exception of one man who was probably a low chunin judging by his chakra, which was probably why there was such an impasse. "I'm not afraid to use this!"

"Really?" I asked. "This is the third young clan heiress that I've had to save. This is starting to be bad writing."

The man pointed the knife at me. "What are you gonna do, kid?"

I gave him a twisted smile. "This." I flashed through a series of practiced seals as fast as I could, drawing on the power of my demon gems, punctuated with a technically-superfluous slam surface seal. "True Demonic Illusion: Summoning of the Shadow Demon!" I shouted as an illusory seal made of some sort of dark energy formed underneath me. As I stood back up, a false, distorted Chikage rose from the ground behind me with chains made of an ethereal, shadowy material connecting it to the seal, forming from the dark energy. The illusion of Chikage looked older and larger (and larger, because we felt like it), and it had sharpened teeth, claws, and eyes of pure shadow. To add to the dark imagery, it was wearing Chikage's new outfit, which she'd made inspired by the gothic lolita style to go with her whole "demon of a thousand shadows" shtick, plus shackles on her wrists and ankles.

The shackles usually only had a few links of chain on them for the aesthetic and to act as foci for a variation of the Adamantine Chains jutsu we'd make, but for the illusion they were for the chains that were linking it to the seal. You know, the outfit actually looked rather good on our tanned skin. The illusory shadow demon beckoned to the man, the sound of jangling chains causing a feeling of unease in the bystanders.

To the would-be kidnapper, though, the illusion caused a pressure of unrelenting foreboding as the sun went dark and the land turned to shadows. "What the hell is that!?" He dropped his knife and hostages and tried to run.

"I think not," I said dully as my shadow, the true Chikage, reached his shadow, causing him to freeze up and my shadow to return to normal from Chikage entering his. "You've been possessed by my demon." In truth, the entire genjutsu was just smoke and mirrors, albeit elaborate ones. The illusory Chikage was both a medium to the hallucination suggestion and misdirection from Chikage's shadow movement. The reason that that worked, though, was because Chikage had the ability to possess people by entering their shadows, which was awesome. Without need for the genjutsu, I dropped it, letting the phantasmal copy fade from existence. I snapped my fingers, causing the man to stand up straight so he wasn't stuck in an awkward position, then walked up to Ino. "You okay?" I asked, holding a hand out to her.

She sniffed. "My neck hurts a bit and I scraped my knees, but I'm good now." She smiled and let me pull her up, and I placed two fingers on the thankfully small cut on her neck. Green-hued chakra sprang from my fingers and sealed her wound. I moved on to her knees, then walked over to Sakura.

"What about you, Sakura-chan?" She whimpered and showed me her hands, which were all scraped up. I smiled at her and placed my hands on hers, but before I could even use my basic healing jutsu something weird happened. The natural energy flowed out of my body and into her. Whatever she was doing, I could tell she didn't even know she was doing it. Once my sage mode was depleted I pulled her up and removed my hands from hers, revealing perfectly unscathed palms.

"Thank you, Kouki-kun," she said. Whatever the heck happened, she was now naturally passing natural energy through her body. If I had to bet, she'd automatically heal any injuries that happened to her. Not that I'd test it... Interesting.

"Thanks, Kouki," Ino said. I looked over to her and noticed she was smiling and blushing slightly. She probably didn't have an actual crush on me considering her age, but I knew how she would probably think about the dashing knight in shining armor who saved her...

"Mendokuse..." I internally sighed.

"Mendokuse..." Chikage telepathically agreed.

"Mendokusai desu ka?" Usagi asked.

"Mendokuse..." Chikage and I mentally chorused. At least if she kept that up I'd save Sasuke a bit of trouble and she wouldn't ruin her friendship with Sakura, but... ugh... I'd probably have to deal with that at some point...

"Where's the thief?" an Uchicop asked as he landed, then saw the guy standing there and whipped out a kunai. "You! Stop!"

"He's under my spell, he literally can't move without my say-so," I said. "Or at least I'm assuming the guy who took some hostages and had a sack of what appeared to be ill-gotten goods was also a thief."

"What do you mean, under your spell?" he asked. The thief's shadow morphed into Chikage's for a moment, just a flash.

"A genjutsu that I thought of after hearing of the Sharingan's genjutsu-casting abilities," I lied. "It uses a special ability of mine with an illusion as a visual medium to place a suggestion on a victim that allows me to control them. Unfortunately I can only do one person at a time so far and a powerful enough shinobi would probably be able to resist it, but hopefully it'll get a lot more useful when I'm older."

"Right," the cop said, then cuffed the crook. "Well, thanks for the help." If I had to guess, he was one of the more good-natured Uchiha. I doubted he'd have anything to do with the rebellion. "I'm sure you'll be a good ninja when you're older. For now, though, maybe you should stay out of trouble, kid."

"No promises." He snorted and escorted the guy away, taking the sack with him.

"What was that?" Shikamaru asked me. "And don't say genjutsu, because I know the difference between an illusion and shadow-manipulating jutsu."

"Definitely not your clan's jutsu, don't worry," I muttered so only he'd hear. I leaned over just a bit so that the tip of my shadow touched a nearby shadow, letting Chikage come back to me. "I was telling the truth when I said it was a special power of mine."

"It have anything to do with that weird meditation thing you did earlier?"

I smirked a bit and licked my lips. "Let's go with that, though there's also a bit more to it that's, as far as I know, unique to me. You'll never be able to use it, if that's what you're asking."

"Mendokuse..."

kukukuku~

I sighed, lying down on my bed. "What are we going to do about Ino?" I asked Chikage.

She shrugged, floating around as always. Not that I could blame her. "We... let her down gently?"

"Yeah, but how? Relationships are hard..."

"Gonna have to get back to you on that one..." We both sensed someone coming to the clan compound.

"Hey, is that..."

"Lemme check." She shadow-travelled there and back, only gone for less than a second. "Yup, Aburame Shibi. And it looks like those bugs we spared earlier were kikaichu, 'cause he's bringing a couple mutant ones in a bug cage." I nodded, then we became whole again. I silently walked to the front door, where the clan leader already was.

"...apologize for the intrusion, but earlier a member of our clan's kikaichu were drawn to an unusual source of chakra located within your compound," he explained to my father. "She managed to regain control of them, but not before some had died and others had... changed." He brought out the mutated bugs, which had rune-like markings much like the first-stage curse marks. They were acting pretty crazy. "They may not be able to escape this cage, but they are still far livelier than the normal variety and much harder to control. I am not accusing you or any of your clan of anything, but I would very much like to know what caused this, as it might prove useful to our clan."

"Well, the thing about that is..." Dad said.

"Would you trust him, father?" I asked, announcing my presence.

He nodded. "Go ahead, Kouki."

"Right, let's go somewhere more private," I suggested.

"So," I said once we went to a suitable room, "what the kikaichu felt was... let's just say a jutsu of mine." I brought out the half-sized demon gem that fed on the Aburame's bugs. "This is called a demon gem. Despite all appearances, it's a living thing that generates special chakra that, among other things, can be used to make more demon gems by compressing and cannibalizing living animal tissue. Unfortunately that's the only way to make it, though, and since I don't want to mass-murder people or large animals, that pretty much means I have to use its animal-attracting properties to occasionally draw in and cannibalize insects. I was doing that earlier, which is why you're here." On a hunch, I reached out to the demon kikaichu, influencing them through my power within them. They instantly calmed, becoming absolutely still. "Could you release them?"

"I see..." He opened the small cage. I commanded the bugs, causing them to fly out of the cage as one. They entered a formation on my command and began orbiting my body.

"Don't worry," I said, noticing a small shift in his emotional state. "I have no interest in usurping the kikaichu jutsu and even if I did I can only control these mutated ones through my power that they absorbed, if that's what you're worried about."

"I understand. It is interesting, though, that you're able to control them so easily."

"I doubt I could control anything more complex than them with so much ease. Not without a lot more of the special chakra, anyway." A thought occurred to me. "Actually, I thought of another thing I'd like to try, though this one might possibly have the potential to be arguably a usurpation of your clan secrets, so I'll only try it with your permission."

Dad sighed. "Why am I not surprised... I apologize for my son, Shibi. He... can be rather focused on power, even if he tries not to overstep boundaries."

"I am fine," Shibi said. "Why? Because he asked for my permission, and clearly wishes not to overstep his bounds. Tell me, Kouki-kun, what is it you wish to try?"

"I don't have much data to go by, but I think I might be able to gain special chakra-related powers by granting my special chakra to a subject and then absorbing it once it's fused with their chakra," I explained. I'd noticed, after the whole demon sage seal debacle, that I'd gained extra, Uzumaki-like vitality. After a talk with Ai, I found out that I could still manifest the adamantine chains that I used against her, despite that chakra having been fully processed by my body, much like how absorbing enough of Shukaku's chakra combined it with Kurama's chakra in me.

It made sense, all things considered, that a combination of my red chakra, which was easy to transfer from body to body, and natural energy, which had mutagenic properties, would allow my body to adapt to others' chakra intead of just adapting other chakra to me. In fact, I could also make my chakra signature almost identical to Ai's, which was probably useful somehow. Though that part I tested and found out that all I need for that is to have my red chakra exposed to someone else's chakra signature, like my red chakra was somehow easily imprinted with other people's chakra signatures.

"I'd like to see if I could gain the kikaichu's ability to drain and absorb regular chakra by, well, killing some of them by draining them dry," I requested. "With your permission, of course."

Shibi nodded slightly. "An interesting power. Could you grant that ability to another?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, I didn't exactly come with a manual, but if you want me to see if I could grant some of your people kikaichu powers then I'd certainly be willing to find out. Plus, the possibilities..." I grinned. "Tseseseseseh~" I hiss-chuckled, then licked my lips. "It's certainly something I'd be willing to do for you. Is that a yes?"

"I would prefer if you left a few for us to study, but take as many as you need."

"Alright, then. Let's see if half works, shall we?" Half of the beetles returned to the cage, while the other half landed on my hand. They didn't bite me, but I had them start draining me to get a feel for how their power worked. "Assimilation Jutsu." Safisfied by what I felt, I reversed the flow of the chakra, capitalizing on the connection the chakra-draining gave us to more easily suck the chakra out of their bodies. Despite the enhanced lifespan and vitality granted from their mutation, they stilled and fell from my body as all the chakra left them. "Do you want the corpses or can I try to resuscitate them to add to one of my gems?" I asked.

"Do as you please. We can always drain more, if we need to. Did it work?"

I commanded the demon gem to go at the recently-deceased beetles, then looked inward. "It feels like it's working, but my body has to 'digest' the chakra before I can use it. And it might be partially physical, in which case I might not have the power. I'll get back to you on it. Now." The demon gem, slightly bigger now that it was done absorbing the bugs, floated over to Shibi. "Don't worry, it's harmless unless it's specifically made to attack someone."

He took the gem. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"As Father said, I'm... more than a little obsessed with power, I admit. It doesn't have to be my power, though. I'm also interested by my allies' power, even my enemies' power. And giving my allies power?" I grinned slightly. "Well, I'm sure you can tell how I feel about that. I'm not even worried about if you turn against me for some reason. We've already established that those things are less than useless against me. Not to mention, I'm getting something else out of this too."

"How so?" Shibi asked.

"Kikaichu, like most insects, have a low lifespan, and can reproduce at a rapid rate because of that. It wouldn't be too much to ask, then, to sacrifice any of your kikaichu at the end of their lifespan when they start to become less useful to you to that gem to produce more demon gems for me, would it?"

"We feed our dead kikaichu to the living, but we can feed some to it, if that is the price for having it to study."

"Good. Make a snake seal and pulse some chakra at the thing to send it into 'eat' mode for a couple of minutes, which'll make it eat any insect-sized organism that touches it. Hopefully. Just in case, don't touch it while it's in eat mode."

"Suddenly I feel as though I should not be holding this," Shibi said, then placed the gem in a little baggie that was probably for dead bugs. Fair.

"Probably a good idea, once it's fully out of my influence. This close to me, though, I don't have to concentrate on it to have some measure of control over it. It should stay more or less inert, though, in a state where it'll produce chakra enough to fill its stores and not resist kikaichu draining. Tell me if it doesn't work quite right, though, and I'll try to make adjustments."

Shibi got up. "Thank you for this, Kouki-kun. I will do my best to make you not regret giving it to me."

I gave him smile. "Goodbye. Make sure to only let people you trust near that thing, or even aware of its existence for that matter. Good luck!" Shibi faltered a bit, then continued on. "This is going to be fun," I said.

[miximax-hell]

Happy Goku Day, everyone!!

I checked and, miraculously, I still have followers on this blog. In fact, I’ve gained some since the last time I posted, for some reason! I’m not going to question it, though. Just... bless. But, hey, long time no see! As usual!

This time, I’m going back to my roots. The first drawings I posted on this blog were meant to show my love towards original Raimon, and it’s never a bad time to remind you all that I still adore these kids. Especially now that my friend @dust-monsters-under-my-bed​ has reminded me of them. Go check her art, btw! She’s not very active on Tumblr, but you can find her art on Twitter right here: https://twitter.com/rachelmonart

Anyway, she’s watching Inazuma Eleven for the first time and she’s made me think again about how much love these kids deserve, BECAUSE THEY SURE GOT NONE FROM HINO. DAMN YOU, HINO. So, today, let’s talk about the one and only IE character whose feet are classified as mass destruction weapons, who decided to borrow power from someone who will make you all question me, my logic and my tastes: Yamhan (or, as he is known in the west, Tiencha), THE FUSION OF YAMCHA AND TENSHINHAN FROM DRAGON BALL.

Introducing ShoYamHan! More on him under the cut.

So, first of all, how have you all been? I suppose many of you, like myself, are being told to stay at home to fight this situation. I salute all of you who do your best to stay safe and not help spread anything. It’s a very necessary fight, even if it can be boring at times. Many of us have friends or relatives fighting on the frontline, though (unless you yourself are the doctor or nurse friend!), and we hopefully know that staying at home is a small price to pay.

As for me, I got a job in December and lost it last month, so... yeah. It’s not been great. Still, something I’ve been working hard on for a while should be released soon and that’s so exciting! MY NAME WILL FINALLY BE ON SOMETHING’S CREDITS AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR IT TO BE UP.

But, anyway, back to business!

Rachel suggested I talk about the reasons behind this particular miximax, and considering it makes for a perfect parallel with my first posts, where I talked about the reasons behind Max’s and Kageno’s miximaxes, I’m all up for it! But, this time, I will have to do something new: explain WHO THE HECK YAMHAN IS. So let’s start with a picture of this handsome devil.

As most of you hopefully know, this project is about miximaxing Inazuma characters with video game characters. No anime, movies or anything else. Only and exclusively video games. Dragon Ball has probably spawned all those things, but it started as a manga, so you’d be right to think it most definitely does not qualify for this project. And, indeed, Dragon Ball doesn't. What DOES qualify, however, are Dragon Ball characters exclusive, or first introduced, in a video game. And that’s exactly the case we’re dealing with here!

Growing up, I loved Dragon Ball games. Even before I watched the show properly, in fact! I would go to my friend’s house, who was a fan of the show, and we'd play the Dragon Ball Budokai games nonstop with absolutely zero regrets. Those were some great times. And once I came to know the source material, the game that blew my mind the most was Dragon Ball Budokai 2. Was it the best one? Not necessarily. Is it my favourite? Not by a long shot. Still, it was the most creative! Most games follow the story of DBZ, which, obviously, is always the same. But Budokai 2 wasn’t afraid to do new things. Its story mode resembled a tabletop game and it was more than happy to deviate from the source material in some really fun ways; most notably, with exclusive fusions.

Budokai 2 introduced us all to Yamhan, the fusion of Yamcha and Tenshinhan, two long forgotten characters in the series, as they (and especially poor Yamcha) didn’t do anything especially relevant past... well, past the original Dragon Ball. As a champion of the unloved, that blew my mind. There were other fun things in Budokai 2, but what fascinated me and stayed in my thoughts for years to come was Yamhan. It was just such a cool concept. Two underdogs who had fallen into obscurity fusing to create a much greater warrior!

Of course, Yamhan isn’t the only videogame exclusive characters in Dragon Ball. He isn’t the first, nor the last. Yamhan isn’t the strongest, nor the weakest. But I haven’t played FighterZ nor Fusions (yet), nor pretty much any game that wasn’t on PS2 or GBA. And even if I had, I doubt Android 21 or any of the HUNDREDS of combinations available in Fusions would captivate me and my imagination as much as Yamhan did back in the day. Yamhan was a fusion, which is something that has always fascinated me to begin with. I MEAN, THIS ENTIRE BLOG IS ABOUT FUSING CHARACTERS, SO I THINK IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS LMAO But he wasn’t just one among hundreds. He was this very specific, never-seen-before, cool as heck and usable fusion. Like, wow. That was wild for me. Sign me up, man.

But, you know, I try not to let that sway me too much. Of course, I wouldn’t likely pick a character I hate for a miximax, but, still, my preferences aren’t everything. And choosing Yamhan begs a question that I have already alluded to: if Yamhan isn’t the strongest game-exclusive DB character out there, then, why him? Well, the answer to that is related to the biggest problem posed by the sheer concept of miximaxing with a Dragon Ball character:

Power escalation.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Goku is, pretty much, the strongest character that has ever played the lead in any manga, and one of the strongest fictional characters ever, period. By the end of the Dragon Ball Super anime, he has EXCEEDED THE POWER OF MANY LITERAL GODS AND IS (or has been) A CANDIDATE TO BECOME ONE. You may prefer One Piece, or Naruto, or anything else, but few things reach the astronomical, reality-bending scope of Dragon Ball. Not to say DB is the best series--I’m just saying that it’s so out of control at this point (and I love it). But, of course, the stronger Goku is, the stronger the villains need to be, and Goku ends up becoming EVEN stronger than said villains. Rinse and repeat dozens of times until you can make an entire universe disappear by raising your hand.

Now, imagine applying that out-of-this-world power escalation to a context where the power balance isn’t so outrageous. For example, Inazuma Eleven.

Goku wriggling in his sleep is more powerful than Zeus, and an accidental sneeze would smash all of Ixal Fleet to smithereens. Do you see what this would do to the balance? It would ruin it completely, as anyone who miximaxed with Goku would be immediately a one-person army able to defeat ANY opponent--and if the opponent were to be EVEN GREATER than Goku, well, the rest simply wouldn’t stand a chance. Ever. Remember: the point of this project isn’t to create perfect and unbeatable players, and I’m not trying to prioritize anyone or make them noticeably stronger than anyone else just because I happen to like X more than Y. That completely ruins the tension and the fun (and my attempts to create justice in this unfair universe). The point is to come up with a balanced team full of players with strong points, but with flaws, too, that complement each other when they play together against stronger enemies.

So, if we go with Dragon Ball, and I love Dragon Ball WAY too much to not include it in this project in some way, we have to be careful and avoid overdoing it. Balance is key. And now that you know why I didn’t just choose the fusion between Beerus and Whis or something crazy like that, I’ll move on to explain what makes Yamhan a very interesting option. I SWEAR THERE ARE SOME ACTUAL REASONS.

First of all, the very concept. You know, Yamcha and Tenshinhan fused to created Yamhan, and now, Shourin is fusing with a fusion. That’s just... hecking cool. I won’t lie--my preferences towards Yamhan didn’t tip the scales towards making this happen, but my preferences towards FUSIONCEPTION totally did. XD But there’s more, thankfully.

From the very beginning, I knew I wanted a fighting game character to miximax with Shourin because it fits his theme best. I’m not big on fighting games, though, so it was quite tough. Especially because just any fighting game wouldn’t do it. Shourin is a martial artist. As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, his feet are his weapons. His entire body is a weapon, really. If I were to suddenly miximax him with some character who wields a sword or an axe, for example, it would be a complete disservice to Shourin. Original Raimon members don’t have much going on for themselves, and I’m going to cut or ignore the ONE thing that makes one of them special? Not in a zillion years. Shourin needs to fight with his body. That, of course, cuts many characters already: pretty much the entire roster of Soul Calibur, many members of Mortal Kombat, many from games like Skullgirls (which I still want to try to represent here in the future, because @lumaga worked on it and it makes me happy just because of that), etc. For a very long time, I considered someone like Ryu, from Street Fighter, but then it hit me: I have never played Street Fighter and I don’t want to include him just because I know what a Hadouken is. It’d be... cheap. And fake. Thankfully, as I also mentioned earlier, I played LOTS of Budokai back in the day and I am an actual fan, so I don’t have to pretend to know what the heck I’m talking about. XD And, thankfully, most of the characters in DB games fight with their bare fists and legs, so they perfectly fit my needs. Yamhan is, of course, no exception.

Now comes my favourite reason to choose Yamhan and not, well, literally any other DB game-exclusive character. And that reason is style.

Remember that power escalation thing I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s epic, but it comes with a big disadvantage: power ends up becoming much more important than skill. Early Dragon Ball was very focused on fighting styles. There was an ongoing feud between the Turtle School and the Crane School, who taught different martial arts to fight in different ways, and there was a big plot involving which one was superior. It wasn’t just about who was strongest, but about who fought better. With time, that disappeared, though. Even though battles became flashier, aerial and more spectacular, they were much more indistinct. Sure, there were gimmicks like “heh, I have a tail and I will sometimes hit you with it,” or “I will try to hit your face with the palm of my hand instead of my fist for some unspecified reason,” but that isn’t... much. You just see very fast people avoiding equally as fast punches to the face. And Goku, the main character, only shows some style when he adopts a fighting pose BEFORE fighting. Once the punches start flying, it’s all a race to see who can hit the other the hardest in the gut to make them spit blood. Cool nonetheless, but still.

Ironically, though, it’s two of the least relevant characters who never really lost those styles that made them unique when they were first introduced to the series. And those are, of course, Yamcha and Tenshinhan.

Yamcha joins the Turtle School and learns techniques as classic as the Kamehameha, but he had his own style way before that, based on attacking and tearing enemies apart like a wolf would. This is best represented by his signature move, the Rougafuufuuken or Wolf Fang Fist. He never drops this style, but instead builds up on it through his training to make it even fiercer.

Tenshinhan has different things going for himself. First of all, he is a hybrid between a human being and a civilization known as the Three-Eyed People, which grants him powers such as growing extra arms from his back or dividing in 4. Not just moving so fast that it looks like there’s four of him, but ACTUALLY dividing into 4 separate bodies. In terms of skills, he was a Crane School student, but when he realised the wrong of his master’s doings, he decided to start training and developing on his own. Basically, a path that mirrors Yamcha’s, but both lead to unique fighting styles unlike anyone else’s in this universe. And, most importantly, none of them depend on appendixes that are always there, like the aforementioned tail, so they totally work for us here!

Shourin is a proper martial artist. He wouldn’t want to make himself crazy strong as much as he would like to refine his technique and learn new moves and tricks. Martial arts are about discipline, self-control, skill and protection. He would take a cool-ass combo based on a wolf’s moves over earth-shattering strength any day of the week, hence why the fact that these two have so many techniques to offer is so appealing.

Finally, and probably least, is the design idea that immediately came to my mind when I thought of a miximax between Shourin and Yamhan. Historically, I have had to work with characters like Fudou, who are usually mostly bald and they miximax with someone with hair, thus making for some very... difficult things to figure out. But the idea of miximaxing Shourin, who is mostly bald, with Yamhan, who is ALSO mostly bald, was just golden and too good to ignore. And the fact that Yamhan has three eyes GIVES ME AN EXCUSE TO ADD A THIRD CROSS-SHAPED EYE ON SHOURIN’S FOREHEAD. IF A MIXIMAX BETWEEN BALD PEOPLE WAS GOLDEN, THIS IS OUTRIGHT PLATINUM.

Shourin would've probably looked a lot less like a joke if he had had hair covering his entire head or if I had at least given him proper eyes... but that would no longer be the Shourin I love. Not to mention that it’s very likely that Shourin willingly shaves his head to begin with (even if the ponytail ain’t doing him any favours--but that’s just Inazuma logic, so let’s not look too much into it), just like Tenshinhan or Krillin do, so he would probably be happier to keep that, uh, advantage. Relative advantage, but still.

As a side note, though, we can’t forget the balance. When Yamcha and Tenshinhan fuse, they undoubtedly become the strongest human being in the DB universe, overcoming the one who is usually strongest: Krillin. A fusion is always greater than its parts individually, and Yamcha and Tenshinhan aren’t so far away from Krillin to begin with, so that’s not even a question. Regardless, they still don’t have that overwhelming and surreal strength from other characters, so we still don’t get into absolutely OP territory. Yamhan is strong enough to provide Shourin with a power that can make a real difference without completely putting him above everyone else.

Sadly, Yamhan doesn’t really have a backstory, as he’s a game-exclusive character that, honestly, was probably only there for a laugh. That means there is no deep connection between them. We can, however, make obvious connections between Shourin, an aspiring martial artist whose dream, as stated in IE2, was to study at Manyuuji (Kogure’s school) for their focus on martial arts, and is now trying to become stronger to protect what he loves, and two skilled warriors who have been training nonstop under different masters and on their own for basically their entire lives to keep becoming stronger and more skilled in order to defend what’s precious to them and, simply, to be the best version of themselves they can be. Upon seeing such dedicated warriors and artists, Shourin would undoubtedly want to learn from them and, if necessary, borrow their strength too.

Or he might just fanboy and ask for their autographs, honestly. I sure as heck want Yamcha’s. And his baseball card.

[superviza]

For all the characters I’ve never liked, Master Fu is the only one I’ve ever done a PowerPoint for. Maybe that secretly means I love him.

I created this series just to organize my thoughts regarding Master Fu’s character. Exploring this character was my of asking questions that allow me to enjoy the show more. Just trying to solve a mystery and learn more about a show I like. In that quest these questions arose. 

Doing this has made me wonder, do I hate Master Fu? The answer I come back to is no. But Supervisa, people don’t create write whole PowerPoints roasting someone that they like. Debatable. I often judge characters based on a few questions, one of which being, “Can I have lunch with this person?”

The results vary....

No I’d rather not have lunch with Sakura or Leenalee Lee. (For some people, thems fight’n words.) But I also adore Azula and by no means would I have lunch with her. The only way they’d let me in the room is if I were serving lunch. In other words, this calls into question the character’s morals. I personally am a sucker for virtuous persons, or in some cases someone who tries to be, the antihero types. A person with outstanding morals and ethics is the type of person I want to talk to, get to know and above all emulate. That guy I’ll buy lunch for. Now that creates a contradiction. Sakura Haruno is one of the good guys right. Its not like she supports murder or human rights violations. No, but I never saw her as friendly person, between telling Sasuke Naruto was a bad person because he had no parents, to lying to Naruto so she could kill Sasuke with the very limited power she had (at the time, no lie I dig Sakura Uchiha a tad) I’ve just never seen her as someone I wanted to be like. Bringing up Sakura can usually start fights but the bottom line is, if I’m thinking about a character with traits I’d like to possess, I’d shoot for maybe Izuku Midoriya. Specifically his love for people which I could use more of. So do you want to be like Azula? That brings me to the next question.

“Did they do their job?”

That’s the question that separates my Sakuras and Azulas. Azula played the bad guy with finesse. She was tactical, decisive and ruthless and did the job of every and any character in any literary work, she supported the plot. Why am I so passionate about this? I love storytelling. The job of every character, anything mentioned in a story; is to support the plot. Nothing in a book, movie, graphic novel or TV Show, should occur due to happenstance. That’s not how real life works. No one exist for no reason, everyone has purpose and everything that happens to (wo)man is of no coincidence. (If you choose to give it meaning.) Therefore a body of work should reflect that otherwise its a waste of ink on paper, a waste of a polygon in a 3D mesh. A writer should be able to justify every stroke.

I think everyone agrees that Zuko had some of the greatest development the art narration had to offer. However, how often do we talk about the parallel of his growth to his sister’s decent. Azula was who Zuko was trying to become, confident, feared and above all, respected. Imagine if Azula didn’t posses those traits, book 2 would’ve ended differently. Zuko’s growth would’ve been motivated in some other way. In addition to that, she was the adversary that was most difficult to defeat after her father. This is not just because of strength, she was cold, ruthless and calculated, driving the Avatar’s objective. And imagine, once she has everything she wanted, and what Zuko thought he wanted, she came to the same conclusion her younger brother had arrived at. Everything we were taught, the callousness, the rigger and patriotism, it amounts to nothing. Her own mother was afraid of her. No amount of honor she gained could restore that relationship. Thus, I believe this supports my prior statement, Azula is a great character, not due to morality, but because of how she supports the plot and character growth in the series.

Does the character have multiple dimensions?

Everyone loves a multifaceted character, but do we know how to create one? This is another concept the resembles our reality. Humans, animals, creation in general is just a network of stories. (Get’n philosophic) Why else would we create characters ranging from human to bacteria source: Ozzy and Drix. But how do we make that character seem real? We’ve heard “one dimensional” used to describe characters in a negative way but why. This usually means the character needs more traits or lacks realism. It’s the difference between the relationship with your child and the relationship with your co-worker. A good parent is more likely to know what their child is thinking before the child acts. (You know, your mother just comes in with something you wanted but haven’t asked for yet.) A co-worker on the hand, even if you’er friends, the relationship will have to see a lot of upgrades before you have the same level of trust you would with a parent, generally speaking, but by then you maybe married by then. In a literary sense, a character with one dimension is essentially a stranger or acquaintance to you. How do we turn that character into our baby?

We get to know them like a real person. What was their childhood like? What event changed their life? What kind of things frighten them? What’s their hobby? If they could vacation anywhere for free, where would they go? The beach? The mountains? Some place urban? Take Izuku for example, he keeps notes on any and every hero? That’s a dead giveaway that he’s a relatively organized person, even more impressive for a 15 year old boy. It also gives the impression that he has a lot of self discipline. He did pick up a work out regiment from a world renowned hero and completed it in ten months, after he overworked himself. He also found ways to work out in during class. It makes you ask how he developed that self discipline. Even his room, covered in action figures and memorabilia, is organized and the rest of the decor matches. Not something very prevalent in men let alone teenage boys. His mother doesn’t seem particularly strict, but Izuku has proven himself to be very thoughtful. Keeping a tight ship may be the result of an attempt to make things easier for his mother. Theory, but that’s fun part in my opinion. It’s like that satisfying feeling that comes with scratching off a seal with a coin. Even if the conclusion you draw isn’t cannon, every time you ask questions about the character or world, it’s like you read/watched the squeal. And if the theory is proven in the show, film or book, it becomes that much more fun. A one dimensional character isn’t destined to be awful however, it just means we need more time to get to know them. 

So where does Master Fu fit in this complex scale of character appeal I’ve been painting? Can I have lunch with him? Sure. Do I want to emulate him? Absolutely not. Is he invited to the cook out? Depends on who all over there. Did he do his job? This is the moment of truth. Before I characterized this question from a literary stand point. That, I can’t speak to with an ongoing series.(I’m not holding my breathe though) Thus far, the character of Master Fu has supported the plot, giving viewers plenty of information about the world and lore. Does Master Fu perform the tasks he’s given in the duration he’s on “stage.” No, he failed miserably. Is he multifaceted? I’d say so, in fact, that may be the vary issue I’ve subscribed to. He has 186 years of backstory that I enjoyed probing. Even if the question I raise take me down the wrong rabbit hole, it’s like I got to explore the show from a new angle.I refrain from details because they’re in the slides.

So I say all this because I realize I may very well be alone on my Disaster Fu island. So if any viewer is wondering how I arrived at this conclusion, I hope this clarifies that. I can’t hate Master Fu if I wanted to. I have a healthy anger toward him, like the anger one has when their significant other leaves dishes in the sink. (Except your boy/girlfriend probably didn’t destroy a temple.) I think he would be a great cashier, but not a guardian. Master Fu could work at a mall kiosk, but miraculous guardian is not for him. It do be like that sometimes. Art, I am good at, but don’t ask me to play an instrument. I wasn’t planning writing on an essay but I felt an explanation was in order.

I don’t hate Master Fu

I don’t believe Master Fu was a good or even ok guardian

I decide how much I like a character according to their moral makeup or even attempt at morality

I decide how much I like a character according to their role in the plot and how suited they are to the role

I decide how much I like a character according to their different facets.

With that criteria in mind I made this series to organize my thoughts

This is just my way to explore an aspect of The Miraculous Adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir

That being said I hope you like the series as much I enjoyed making it. Maybe You agree with it or you don’t regardless, I shared it hoping it would make you laugh. I hope it makes you ask questions not just about Miraculous Ladybug but about your work and whatever you fan for. I hope those questions allow you to experience the story again in a new way that’s enjoyable. There will be more soon!

@solembum22  @starcrossedrose @firstdove15

[nothingunrealistic]

be more chill, august 4, 2019

Cast: Troy Iwata as Rich, OBC otherwise

More Than Survive

“girls! …boys!” is still in the show! Jeremy Heere: Not Cishet

there’s a drawing of a tesseract on the blackboard in the classroom. what are they teaching these kids?

there are posters advertising several school clubs, including chess club and Spanish club. (those were the only ones I could make out.)

Jeremy doesn’t even look at Christine when she’s telling him there’s something written on his backpack.

for most of Michael’s solo, Jeremy just looks frustrated with Michael for not listening to him, rather than relieved to see him.

as Michael and Jeremy are harmonizing on “Christiiiine,” Christine (having already signed up for the play) runs around them in circles. Naruto running, to be specific.

I Love Play Rehearsal

Michael physically shoves Jeremy into rehearsal as he’s verbally hyping himself up to go in.

when Jeremy asks if this is where to meet for the play, Christine looks around in disbelief and gestures to the podium when telling him it’s actually where to meet for the swim team, and Jeremy goes “what??” and spins around looking equally disbelieving.

after telling Jeremy that play rehearsal is “fun,” Christine shuts herself up — and then very gradually turns around to look back at Jeremy, and sees he’s still listening attentively, which gives her the courage to say more.

the few times Jeremy speaks in this scene, his speech is even more stilted than in the first scene, and he practically doubles over from nerves at some points — most notably when Christine comes VERY close to kissing him and then pulls away to Scream. 

Jeremy anticipates Christine saying that play rehearsal is starting “now,” and starts to form the word “now” just as she says “soon” instead.

Jeremy gets shoved off his chair by Rich and ends up on the floor, as do most of the characters.

Jeremy’s expressions throughout Jake and Christine’s conversation epitomize “looking into the camera like you’re on The Office,” especially after Jake describes Juliet as “that girl who died.” when Jake is telling Christine about the pressure he always feels, he not-so-subtly flexes his arm muscles, and Jeremy looks at his own arm with disappointment.

Christine leans on the podium in an obvious attempt to look Cool And Casual while Jake is talking to her, though she’s clearly nervous, and surprised when Jake tells her he’s doing the play for her.

the other ninety percent of this post is under the cut (with pictures!)

The Squip Song

I’ve seen Gerard’s Rich described as trying to fight/resist his SQUIP throughout this song and clearly not wanting to tell Jeremy what he’s telling him. Troy’s Rich isn’t anything like that — other than smacking himself to snap out of lisping, he doesn’t seem to be having an issue with his SQUIP at all.

Jeremy, on the other hand, spends the whole song flinching away from Rich — on Rich’s string of “then then then then then…” Jeremy is continually backing away from him, until he’s backed all the way into the proscenium and Rich is RIGHT in front of him.

on the “blip” of “on the school social map you’re just a blip!” Rich boops Jeremy’s nose, which would be adorable if Jeremy weren’t terrified.

in his reprise of the song, Jeremy attempts the hand choreography that Rich was doing in telling him about the SQUIP, and fails miserably.

Two-Player Game 

Michael is drinking the Crystal Pepsi that he’s comparing Jeremy to. that can’t be safe.

when Mr. Heere enters, Michael is curled up on the floor, so only his back and feet are visible to Mr. Heere — no wonder he didn’t recognize Michael.

Mr. Heere and Michael exchange Understanding looks behind Jeremy’s back after “that’s why most people aren’t your father.”

The Squip Enters

the Scary Stockboy communicates exclusively in grunts for several lines. think Tim Allen on Home Improvement.

Jake, Christine, and Jenna are looking on in confusion as Jeremy is first talking to his SQUIP, and he gestures to Christine that he’s okay.

Be More Chill, Pt. 1

Jeremy has fun following the SQUIP’s instructions at first — he goes over the top with arching his back, puffing out his chest, and walking with Swagger, looking cheerful all the while. he doesn’t look unhappy until the SQUIP tells him that “all your nerdiness is ugly,” which it does while physically moving his head/face around with its hands to look at him better. (it does that to him a couple other times too.)

after “everything about you makes me want to die,” Jeremy mutters “oh God, oh no” repeatedly, in addition to breathing hard and fast. in this song, and throughout the first act, he mouths “what?” and other phrases to himself in reaction to everything happening around him.

Troy plays a mall employee in the mall scenes, rather than whatever character Gerard plays.

the mall people get Right up in Jeremy’s face when telling him he sucks.

the girl’s shirt Jeremy picks out is the shirt Chloe’s holding in this picture, which is nothing like what I would have expected.

Do You Wanna Ride?

Brooke’s attempts at seduction involve twirling around the straw from her can of La Croix (which sprays some in Chloe’s eye), crawling on the floor, and shoving the can into Jeremy’s chest. oh, Brooke.

Brooke also emphasizes the “ex” when telling Jeremy about her ex-boyfriend.

Be More Chill, Pt. 2

“I can… access the mall security cameras” is clearly a hasty lie from the SQUIP.

Jeremy falls asleep sideways on his bed once he gets home, and the SQUIP makes him tuck himself in — possibly the first instance of it controlling Jeremy’s body?

Sync Up

while opening his laptop, Jeremy makes beeping noises to the melody of More Than Survive, which is also playing in the background at that moment.

“I was just going to check my email” was delivered angrily rather than defensively. 

Jeremy’s “ooooh” in response to his vision being fixed is also Tim Allen-esque.

as Jake passes by, the SQUIP tells Jeremy to “make a fist,” just in time for Jake to do an elaborate handshake/fist bump with Jeremy.

while the SQUIP is telling Jeremy about Chloe’s obsession with status, Chloe is leaning against the side of a bank of lockers, trying to collect herself and calm down.

Brooke reads the French phrase she’s using to try to impress Jeremy off of her hand.

during various instrumental breaks, Jeremy does the Squip Song hand choreography in sync with Rich and later the SQUIP, and cycles through greeting all the other students (bumping hips with and high fiving people, taking a selfie with Jenna, etc). it’s a great illustration of the “good hand-eye coordination” allegedly required for success in life and for how the SQUIP is helping Jeremy already, and also just really cool to watch. the lack of an applause break after the song was disappointing because I desperately wanted to clap for all that.

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into

Brooke is hovering over Chloe’s shoulder while Chloe is confronting Christine about Jake, even twirling her hair in time with Chloe doing the same. 

the curtains part on the school’s stage to reveal Rich twerking. he immediately scurries off.

most of Jenna’s Midsummer lines are delivered in a normal voice, but “one thousand years ago this midsummer” is in the most over-the-top Shakespearean voice imaginable.

Jeremy starts coughing the moment the SQUIP stops delivering his monologue through him, and looks shocked that it happened at all.

Christine is carrying the box of prop hearts when complimenting Jeremy on how Into This he is. wonderful visual symbolism.

as previously mentioned, the extended bowling ball dialogue (all occurring while the SQUIP looks on in confusion and disgust):

Christine: …and at the end, I give birth to the bowling ball! Jeremy [clapping]: That sounds awesome! And very… theatrical! Christine: Well, thank you. If you don’t mind — [hands over the bowling ball] Jeremy: Oh, yeah — Christine: Just for a moment… [both cooing over the “baby”] Christine: Don’t cry, you’re just a BALL! [takes it from Jeremy’s arms and rolls it offstage; both laughing] Christine: Ten! Jeremy: Win!

the other students pass back and forth behind the partly open curtains with the prop hearts (which are hinged in the middle) before passing between Jeremy and Christine with them.

Christine gets very close to Jeremy’s face, as if to kiss him, again, before revealing that the guy that she’d kinda be into is Jake.

Upgrade

Brooke sits on the ground and clings to/wraps herself around Jeremy’s legs while telling him about Eminem’s death; she slides onto Jeremy’s lap from a higher row of the bleachers to kiss him, and when the scene cuts back to them he fully gets up and off the bleachers to ask why she likes him.

Britton Smith’s vibrato. end of note.

during the overlapping “I’m tired of being the person that everyone thinks that I am,” the teens repeatedly cross the stage, finally arranging themselves in a V behind Jeremy until he jumps back onto the bleachers, telling the SQUIP that “this is way too intense!”

Loser Geek Whatever 

exact words from my notes: “Will Fucking Roland did THAT” 

he spends the first verse and chorus sitting on the top row of the bleachers, only standing and walking down the bleachers in the second verse.

the act still ends with the SQUIP ominously reaching for Jeremy just as the lights go down.

Halloween

Jenna arrives wearing a mask as part of her clown costume — not quite like the clown from IT, but in that same vein of creepiness.

some new dialogue between Brooke and Jeremy after he compliments her costume:

Jeremy: I mean… it’s amazing. You’re amazing. Brooke: That’s what I like about Halloween. It’s the one night I get to be something I’m not. Jeremy: What’s wrong with the way you are? Brooke: You’re sweet, Jeremy. You need a drink.

Christine vanishes after Jake tells her that “the keg’s over there” and walks away.

Chloe is talking to Jeremy on the couch at one point before they both leave, presumably telling him about Brooke’s “surprise.”

Do You Wanna Hang? 

the best way I can describe the choreography/staging of this song is that, like Brooke, Chloe has wildly inaccurate ideas about what “sexy,” is, and less like Brooke, she has wildly inaccurate ideas of what constitutes consent. (this post explains it well.)

the SQUIP makes Jeremy walk over to Chloe (in an extremely jerky/robotic fashion) while he’s expressing surprise that she’s jealous of Brooke. to which she responds “obviously, I am NOT” while obviously crying.

Brooke shows up after Chloe tells Jeremy that “I’m bored of you anyway,” and Jake soon follows, yelling that they’d better not be having sex on his parents’ bed because “I specifically told everyone that was off limits!” 

after Jake chases Jeremy out, Brooke stays behind to ask Chloe “how could you?” Chloe’s response, delivered so drunkenly that is isn’t even an answer to the question: “I’m so wasted right now.”

Michael In The Bathroom

“what’s not on the Internet?” got a lot of laughter.

Michael and Jeremy’s argument isn’t about luck, but about who’s looking out for Jeremy:

Michael: Think, man! We’re talking an insanely powerful supercomputer! And you’re using it to, what, get laid? Did it ever occur to you that there could be consequences? That you’re messing with something you don’t understand? Jeremy: You’re the one who said technology isn’t dangerous. Michael: Yeah, unless you use it like you. Jeremy: And I thought Chloe was jealous. Michael: I’m trying to look out for you. Jeremy: Oh, really? Because I think you’re pissed that I have one and you don’t.  Michael: Oh, come on, man. Jeremy: I’m looking out for myself, for the first time in my life. With my history, I think I deserve that. 

the jack-o’-lanterns hanging overhead flash in time with the “knock knock knock knock/clang clang clang clang/[etc.]” lines.

they really do take the bathtub away like in the rehearsal videos! bizarre choice if you ask me, but I’m not Stephen Brackett, so they didn’t ask me. 

A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into (Reprise)

Brooke enters in the background just as Jeremy is sitting on the couch with Christine, stops to look at him sadly, and then leaves without saying anything; he doesn’t notice her at all.

Christine now tells Jeremy that Jake is upstairs fighting with Chloe, rather than having makeup sex, and that she dumped him because “I know he seems like this confident guy on the outside, but… under that he had this whole other layer, he was sensitive and sweet. And then the third layer was like, this underlying total jerk layer.”

at this particular show, Jeremy and Christine’s mutual weird noises were just full-throated screaming. 

Christine advises Gingivitis to “drink water!” as he stumbles offstage.

over the course of them making weird noises at each other, Jeremy ends up lying on the couch with his legs hanging over the armrest, a pose I’d seen before in at least one piece of fanart but hadn’t realized was actually in the show.

Christine no longer gives any explanation of why she can’t date Jeremy — she just apologizes and runs off. the SQUIP’s return moments later is met with a very morose “look who decided to show up.”

The Smartphone Hour (Rich Set A Fire)

Brooke has a pair of earbuds that she briefly poses with (holding them taut overhead) before tossing them away just like her banana.

The Pants Song

at the SQUIP’s advice, Jeremy “disengages” from the conversation with his dad about the party; Mr. Heere says not to “hide behind [his] phone,” but Jeremy doesn’t look up until his mom is mentioned.

Jeremy’s rant about how his dad can’t act like a father and just keeps waiting for his mom to come back ends with “No wonder she’s gone.”

upon seeing Mr. Heere, Michael hides whatever it is he’s using to smoke (I don’t think it’s a bong but I have no idea what it actually is) among a bunch of garden gnomes.

“do you love him?” is followed by a record scratch (or maybe shredding on a string instrument?) and the music completely stopping long enough for Michael to respond.

Michael straightens/tugs down his boxer briefs during the second chorus.

“somewhat reluctantly” is followed by a recorder trill that’s not in the album recording.

Mr. Heere opens up his robe on “real literal pants” and shows off his distinct lack of pants to the audience before Michael urges him to put all that away.

The Pitiful Children

when Jeremy arrives at school, Chloe and Jake are arguing about who’s worse off:

Jake: No, no, no. You were messing around with Jeremy in my parents’ room! Chloe: You dumped me for a theatre girl! Jake: Hey, come on, Chlo. I broke my legs! Chloe: You broke my heart. Jake: Well, my house burned down! Chloe [furiously]: You had it coming! Jenna: Oh my God, guys, did you see me on TV? Chloe, Jake, and Brooke: Not now, Jenna!

Brooke’s confrontation of Jeremy now mentions her ex:

Jeremy: Hey, it’s so crazy, right, with Rich and the fire — Brooke: You knew my last boyfriend cheated on me. And you did it anyway. Did you even like me? Or were you just using me to get to someone else? Jeremy: No —  Brooke: I am not a sexy dog you can kick, Jeremy. I am a person. [cue Chloe calling her like a dog]

Christine says “I guess I’ll just do theatre” with heavy irony — she realizes that doing theatre won’t fix anything that she’s upset about.

on the first chorus, all the teens (who had left the stage) walk back through again, as if to remind Jeremy of who exactly the pitiful children in question are.

Jeremy adds Mountain Dew to the beaker first, followed by a few SQUIPs, which frankly seems like the worst order to do that in.

Jeremy sounds more stilted again (more like in act 1) when offering Jenna the excuse about preparing Pansy Serum. he still asks Jenna “how are you feeling today?” but doesn’t immediately interrupt her to offer her a SQUIP:

Jenna: No one’s ever asked me that before. I know everything about everyone at this school, but no one ever wants to know me. SQUIP: You can help her. Offer her a drink. Jeremy: I can’t trick her into drinking a pill! SQUIP: She would do anything to feel like she belonged. Jenna: I would do anything to feel like I belong. Jeremy: Then would you maybe want to… drink this? Jenna: What’s in it? Jeremy: A supercomputer from Japan that’ll solve all your problems. Oh, and Mountain Dew. Jenna [cheerfully]: Okay!

the same blue screens/user agreement that appeared in the projections during The Squip Enters appear again behind Jenna, during her singing to the melody of The Smartphone Hour, suggesting that that’s the moment when her SQUIP fully activates.

by the end of the song, Jeremy has joined in on the choreography with the SQUIP ensemble. at times the SQUIP guides him through it by standing right behind him and placing its arms under his, a gesture that returns in The Play.

The Play 

after Jeremy’s attempt to convince Christine to get a SQUIP totally fails, his SQUIP enters from above, being gradually lowered from the ceiling onto the stage.

Mr. Reyes gives Brooke the Pansy Serum onstage (as in, on the stage of A Midsummer Nightmare About Zombies) and she drinks it through a straw. (how did the SQUIP even get through it?)

the SQUIP explains its reasoning behind taking over more than just the student body:

SQUIP [over building music]: And why stop with the school? There’s an entire world of suffering people who need my help! It’s the glorious destiny for which I was programmed! And I never would have discovered it without… you.  [music cuts out] Jeremy: …Oh, shit.

Rich physically shows up and yells “I NEED MOUNTAIN DEW RED!” when Jeremy is remembering him doing just that at the party. I tried to describe the staging but couldn’t put it into words so here’s a picture

Jeremy glitches even more than is on the cast recording, from the moment he first tries to say “I’m sorry,” and the lights in the set itself flash in time with his glitching; when he isn’t talking or being forced to hit Michael, he’s clutching his neck/throat and bending over in pain.

Jeremy knocks Michael to the floor with a punch, which was met with gasps and silence until Michael said “then why are you hitting me?” (an understatement, really.)

Jake pours the Mountain Dew Red either down a sink or into a laundry bin (either way, it’s not just onto the floor.) after telling Jeremy and Michael that his SQUIP blocked his pain receptors, he jumps a few times and says, “Now I don’t hurt anymore… here… or here,” first gesturing to his legs and then putting his hands over his heart.

when telling Jeremy they’re no longer mad at him, Brooke clings to Jeremy’s legs like she did in Upgrade, while Chloe wraps her arms around his neck and head; once they realize they see and like one another, they physically toss him aside.

the SQUIP urges Jeremy to “look how happy everyone is when they just get with the program!”

Michael tosses the bottle of Mountain Dew Red to Jeremy just before being knocked out and taken away by the SQUIP zombies.

the SQUIP zombies all bow to Christine when she appears. Christine gets VERY close to Jeremy during her solo, putting her hands on his chest and just generally being all over him.

once Christine’s finished singing, Jeremy is standing and watching her, the SQUIP telling him he can’t possibly drink the last drops, the hand that he’s holding the bottle with shaking uncontrollably as he tries to fight the SQUIP’s control… and then! his hand stops shaking as he gains the strength to physically knock the SQUIP back — and gives the bottle to Christine. 

Michael explains about the links between the SQUIPs that means destroying one will destroy them all, AS the deactivation sequence is happening. good for him for figuring it out so quickly, I suppose? it does mess a bit with the flow of the scene though.

Voices In My Head 

Rich’s “totally bi now” on Michael’s entrance is sung, sounding a lot like like “technically I’m homeless!” 

Michael tells Jeremy that after everyone at the play passed out, “the audience went totally crazy… they’re saying it’s the best school play in years.”

since Michael’s already explained the linking between the SQUIPs, his and Jeremy’s conversation now focuses on how Jeremy knew that destroying one would destroy them all (he didn’t — he “was just trying to save Christine”) and why Michael came to help him:

Jeremy: After everything I did, you were still there for me.  Michael: Oh, I was fully prepared to watch you suffer. Jeremy: Wow. Michael: But then someone reminded me, when you love someone, you…  [Mr. Heere enters] Michael: …it sounds better when he says it.

Michael fixes Jeremy’s sweatshirt while saying it’s reassuring that Jeremy still needs them.

after Rich suggests that Jeremy tell Christine that she “excites you sexually,” Jeremy points at Rich as if to say “is that right?” and Michael and Mr. Heere make frantic gestures to the effect of “NO IT ISN’T.”

Brooke tells Jeremy that she’s still mad at him, but also over him, and Jenna’s arm is on her shoulder the whole time. considering that Chloe and Jake are being similarly affectionate in that scene, it certainly suggests that Brooke and Jenna are a couple now.

Jake dabs after offering his own advice, and Jeremy dabs in response.

Christine revealing that Ruth Bader Ginsberg was her SQUIP also got a big laugh.

instead of Jeremy bending down to kiss Christine, he kneels down in a sort of lunging position, and Christine runs into his arms to kiss him.

the repetition of “the loudest one is mine!” is accompanied by all the teens hugging and high fiving one another and dancing together. they’re all in love… 

Stage door

Troy Iwata was the first to come out and sign things, and someone standing near me shouted “Troy’s our boy!”

George Salazar came out second, not long after Troy and first went around posing for selfies with everyone before going around a second time to actually sign things.

after a while of waiting, the band came out — no idea if they signed anything, but they got cheers, especially the theremin player.

[seekerseekingsomething]

Fanfiction Recs, lots of them. and Whys. (P.S. This post is gonna be HELLA long.)

I love fanfiction.  I’ve been an author and reader of fanfiction for going on 15 years.  my early work is actually just awful. I can’t read it.  but it exists, largely.

 These days my expectations of myself are much higher and my writing both flourishes and suffers as a result.  

I would never have gotten where I was without the wealth of powerful stories I’ve found.  some of them are complete, a lot of them never will be.  And that’s okay.

Fanfiction is a transient thing, sometimes the source dissapoints us, and we lose the will to write, sometimes the fervor simply dies down as the source fades.  sometimes you feel like you’re writing to nobody and either stop writing it at all or stop posting what you do write.  This is fine too. I understand.

Most fanfiction will never be completed, but that is no reason to not love what is there.  With all this preamble out of the way, here comes my biggest recommendations and Why I like them and what about them I find special or powerful.

I’ll start with something accessible: Marrow (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3048172/1/Marrow) , it’s a Naruto fanfiction centering on Kimmimaro and Sakura, it’s at this point a Wild AU, and it’s complete.  It’s a good story because it lays character front and center, taking a bit player and pairing them up with Sakura in a really believable way, expanding the character to a unique and compelling person in their own right.  The ending is IMO not great, it just ends, but that’s fine.  What is there is mighty.

keeping with Naruto I’ll next recommend People Lie (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3745099/1/People-Lie), the story is abandoned, the author had tragedy befall them and take their desire to work on the story.  It is a rewrite of Naruto in a much darker setting where Naruto is functionally adopted by Morino Ibiki.  The world is a harsher place and much of the sunshine is blotted out, but the comedy is pitch black and often bawdy, the violence is well written and paced, the characters are a real draw.  Sasuke is not only a good character in this version, but Honestly my favorite of all of them.  he’s very one note in the original Naruto.  read it, and like Sasuke you’ll literally never be able to forget that.

Transitioning to another fandom on the subject of comedy and character driven storytelling Jinxed for Life (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2986037/1/Jinxed-For-Life) in this story Jinx is trying really hard to be a hero, too bad the HIVE kids from her past are not content to leave well enough alone and constantly interfere with her life.  A tale about people in very different walks of life, similarities and differences and a lot of budding relationships, drug use, sexual situations, longitudinal arguments about the merits of Coffee. 

now for a much less accessible but EPIC length story. this story is literally more than a million words, It is a Full rewrite of the Harry Potter series, focused on a more consistantly intelligent Hermione and highly advanced Maths. The Arithmancer (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10070079/1/The-Arithmancer) and it’s TWO sequels, but seriously, this story is a character piece focusing on Hermione and mathmatics.  you will learn math reading this story, you will pick up some french, you will think about politics and economics.  It is a masterwork fanfiction easily surpassing the original series in my opinion(being Much less problematic for one).  Easily worth the time sunk into reading it.

speaking of problematic and harry potter, we have Glass Silence (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8421972/1/Glass-Silence). A WLW fic pairing an alternate version of Hermione who never attends Hogwarts ending up working for the three Black sisters and through wicked means ending up orbiting each of them in turn.  sexually explicit, if you don’t tell FF.net, I won’t either.  Lots of dark themes, very heavy story that will suck you in and hold you under for longer than you think you can manage.

Speaking of darkness and death, Ghosts of the Federation *(https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10035862/1/Ghosts-of-the-Federation)  This one is Heavy.  It’s about inevitability, it’s about duty, honor, and why we do what we do.  It’s about philosophy, and throwing people out airlocks because nobody will pay their ransom.  It’s about religion, and prejudice.  It’s about a great many things, but even if you have Absolutely no idea what FTL is about, you should read this story anyway.  You will not be dissapointed.  

Bouncing back to AU but going lighter not darker, keeping the sex but stepping back from the Violence we have Universal Truths (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13397143/1/Universal-Truths) I’ll let the author’s summary stand on this one “ Hermione Granger is a single woman of intelligence and spirit. Draco Malfoy is a man of wealth and privilege. When they meet again, a decade after the second great wizarding war, they are not impressed. But when circumstances throw them together dislike turns to attraction - which may turn into something more - if they let it. A Dramione take on Pride & Prejudice “ Just finished recently and I laughed, I cried, and I desperately wished everything would turn out okay.  

Speaking of Harry Potter and AU’s This one is Wild, The Gates of Azkaban (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13092314/1/The-Gates-of-Azkaban) This one is Complex.  It’s both a Marriage Law fic, a Time Travel fic, and a hard AU to the main series.  I normally dislike those first two of things, but by the sun and stars this story makes me reconsider.  It’s nowhere near finished but what’s there is already a Journey.  Come for the charming characters and much improved, actually-redeemable Severus Snape, Stay for the Young!snape/Hermione? Never thought I’d say that phrase, but here we are, I’m as startled as you. (also Lily potter is a BRAT in this one.)

speaking of unusual pairings, I’m going to plug something from an older source being updated very occasionally, Echoing Through Eternity (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13569190/1/Echoing-Through-Eternity) politics, mercenary work, ice king seeking ice queen sort of story.  Fujin/Squall, hasn’t really gotten going, but what’s there is passable and might actually turn into something fun.  I’ll admit, I have a love of FF8 and there’s not a lot of compelling fiction for it IMO.  

Another one for the “the pairing is what?” and that’s the point.  Morbid Curiosity (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4036331/1/Morbid-Curiosity): Hidan/Sakura, specifically Hidan’s severed head.  what could go wrong, trying to befriend the head of an immortal zealot? complete, with an unfinished sequel.  such is Fanfiction. 

And I could sit here individually recommending every fic on my alerts and favorites list, but this will have to do for now.  I hope everybody who reads this finds something they like, Remember, if you liked it, leave a review, even a one word review means the world to the author.  Yes even if the story hasn’t been updated in a Decade.  brighten someone’s day :)

[definitelynotobito]

Hi! Can I have a Naruto match up? Any gender is fine for me. I like sports, reading, drawing, singing and any kind of puzzles and mind games. I'm always considered the smart one in a group and I value intelligence in people too. But I'm not really in tune with emotions and sometimes I say things that hurt others without me realizing it or I don't make them feel loved. I can't stand dishonesty and when people approaches me with ulterior motives. (1/2 ✨)

(2/2✨) Good conversation is a must for me in a relationship, from deep intelectual conversation to simple daily life talk. I would like someone who doesn't make fun of what I like, and also someone who could be patient with me and my fears, and who respect my boundaries while I work on becoming a better, healthier person. Thank you for your time and hard work! Keep going, you're amazing :)

Thank you for your support anon :) I match you with...

Shikamaru Nara!

☽ You both enjoy puzzles and mind games, and you're both very good at them. You guys would probably play a lot of Shogi together.

☽ You both value intelligence in a partner. You are both intelligent.

☽ Because of his high intellect, he quickly picks up on your lack of tact and is able to understand you don't mean to upset the other person. He isn't really sensitive or easily offended so he'd be able to handle this, and most importantly understand it.

☽ Wouldn't lie to you without a VERY good reason. Like secret information he can't share with anyone. Besides that, he really doesn't see a reason to lie to you and he doesn't want to either.

☽ Though not the most talkative person, he doesn't have any problems with communication. He can partake in small talk as well as deep intellectual conversation.

☽ Shikamaru isn't one to judge. He supports your hobbies, likes, and dislikes.

☽ He's not pushy either. He respects your boundaries to a t.

[razorblade180]

Tenzen Master Post

Name:Lie Tenzen

Nickname:Little Ninja (Nora) Sherbert top (Yujin) Good Boy (Yang)

Performer Name: TZ

Parents:Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren

Height:5’11

Age:16

Hair:Rocking his mother’s orange hair with it being a little longer in the back. Has as pink slither in the front like his Pop’s hair

Eyes:Pink! (Magenta)

Features:Basically looks like his work some slightly noticeable freckles. Built like his dad too but more toned.

Aura:Light orange and dark pink. About an average amount regularly like the average person. Definitely more than his dad.

Hunter garb: Nothing officially set! Tends to wear his dad’s old beacon clothes if he’s in a rush. His street attire is usually a mix of white t shirts and peach colored shorts; accompanied with his green track suit jacket or pink hoodie. Loves his green high tops. All his clothes have a little lightning dust woven into them.

Semblance:Overflow- his aura becomes like a river of flowing potential; easily skyrocketing to at least four times its normal amount. When in full use his hair becomes inverted and eyes switch to orange; his aura is visibly seen flowing upwards out of him almost like steam. Can’t hold this form very long but extremely versatile when in use. His aura recharge is drastically reduced when it runs out and gets sluggish.

Weapons:Kirin-A pair of metal tonfas that can easily conduct electricity and combine together to form a bazooka; the sound of it going off is familiar to thunder. (Nora smiles every time he uses it) The weapon is also a good conduit for aura

Mentors:Nora and Ren

Skills:The young man inherited some of his mom’s ridiculous strength along with her hair. Master of eastern style martial arts such as kung fu, karate, and his favorite one, tai chi. A genius at using aura attacks and slight manifestation/manipulation. Good morale boost.

Flaws:Nothing detrimental; the kid is pretty well off. Little bit of a people pleaser though.

Signature moves: Flash step- activates his semblance for a fraction of a second to unleash a powerful aura kick; propelling him at blinding speed and typically creates sparks. Current-uses his aura and clothes to create an electric current around his body. Thunder Push- unleashes a weak force or aura that pushes thing back.

Personality:Very rational and observant person that just so happens to be as energetic as a power plant. Extremely caring and has no problem showing affection to the ones close to him. Always ready to do damage control and fine a way to smile in a poor situation. Doesn’t get mad, he just gets even. Pretty mature for his age.

Bio:The perfect storm (pun intended) of Ren and Nora. A humble young man who a smile that won’t quit and a hunger to enjoy life. When he isn’t meditating at home you can find him performing parkour and street dancing in just about any place he can draw a crowd. This mysterious internet sensation, know as TZ, wears a Asian inspired fox mask to keep is identity a secret from the unwanted threats that has plagued his family for ten years. He is eager to use the money from his popularity to pay for Ren’s full recovery and take care of any expenses he will need on his quest to get to be enrolled at Beacon. Despite wearing a mask, the charismatic energy he gives through his performances has made him a teen heartthrob; those who have seen his face can’t deny such a feeling. Be it stranger or long time friend, he has an knack for worming his way into people’s hearts. Everyday he strives to make his parents proud, not realizing they couldn’t be prouder of their son.

Rivals:Yujin (she says it’s one sided when it totally isn’t)

Relationships:Friends with various people but will always have a soft spot for Yujin. His first and longest friend. Happily single (which makes everyone else his age group sad)

Fun Facts:Is a huge anime fan, known to make men and women swoon, adores Yujin, does the boop thing, isn’t a fan of sour foods, can cook, knows how to plant crops, night and day person, would probably kill for pancakes, doesn’t see the point of choosing if to look at men for the rest of life or women; so he does both.

Inspiration: Kirin is the name of a mythological lightning beast that looks like a dragon with horse legs and a horn. When figuring out his type of fighting style I had Neji Hyuga on the brain. He’s also pretty well versed in Kung fu. His appearance with his semblance mode is also inspired by Naruto’s chakra mode. He takes a lot of different things from the franchise in terms of combat

[kuriquinn]

The Girl Who Waited [5/10]

Disclaimer & Other Warnings

“Hey Sakura! Whatcha got in the bag? Huh? Huh? Huh?!”

“Naruto, if you don’t get out of my face, I’m going to slug you!” she snaps, making a threatening fist at him. The orange-clad boy pre-emptively ducks, sticking out his tongue. Several feet away, she can almost hear Sasuke rolling his eyes.

“But I wanna know,” Naruto complains. “Did you bring games? You should’ve brought something fun to do. Kakashi-sensei’s taking forever.”

“No, I didn’t bring games,” she tells him. She wonders why that idea hasn’t occurred to her before now. Their instructor is always late, if he even shows up at all. A pack of cards or dice might be a good idea...

“Then what’s in there?”

“You’ll see when Kakashi-sensei gets here,” Sakura retorts.

“But why not now?”

“Because I said so! We’re waiting until—”

“I heard my name?”

There’s a puff of smoke and, suddenly, Kakashi is leaning over them, disgustingly unbothered by his tardiness, as usual.

“You’re late!” Sakura and Naruto chorus.

“Well, my horoscope said something unfortunate would happen to me if I took my usual route today, so—”

“Liar!”

“Can we get started?” Sasuke interrupts, unimpressed with Kakashi’s excuses.

“In a minute,” Naruto shoots back. “Sakura said she would open the bag, and I wanna see what’s in it!”

“If you keep annoying me, you won’t,” she grumbles, but she’s already undoing the ties and unfolding the cloth.

Two red-wrapped packages shine in the sunlight, and she passes them to Kakashi and Naruto. Not waiting to see their reactions, she reaches back into the bag and draws out a plain carton of tomatoes for Sasuke. She has, after all, learned her lesson.

Sasuke leans away from the tomatoes, as if he’s expecting them to attack, but at her expectant look, he relents and reaches for them.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” she declares, beaming at them all and relishing in their varied expressions.

Kakashi looks as if he doesn’t know what to say—she supposes it’s been a long time since he got chocolate from anyone—while Naruto appears frozen. It occurs to her too late that today might be the first year anyone has given him anything on purpose. This suspicion is confirmed when he looks up at her, his eyes glassy.

“Sakura...”

“It’s not a big deal,” she hurries to say. “Ino gave all the guys on her squad gifts, so I figured I would do the same. I won’t let her out-do me.”

That’s not entirely true. Things have been so tense since their team formed. Sasuke’s is always cold and sulky, while Naruto has been more reckless than usual, hell-bent on surpassing rival. Which isn’t easy since the only missions they get assigned amount to babysitting or yard work.

Or worse, rescuing cats.

She hopes this tiny gesture will make the temperamental men in her life feel a little better.

“Hah! Sakura must hate you, Sasuke. She gave you vegetables!”

“Or she wants me to live longer than you.”

She winces. Or not.

“This is very thoughtful of you, Sakura,” Kakashi tells her, tone softer than normal. Even though she can’t see his face beneath that damned mask, she thinks he might be smiling at her. “I hope you receive some equally thoughtful gifts on White Day.”

In her imagination, he’s looking at Sasuke, who scoffs lightly and says, “If we’re not going on a mission today, I’m going home.”

This predictably leads into Naruto calling Sasuke names, Sakura trying to keep the peace, and Kakashi finally letting them know about whatever lame mission they’ve been assigned.

The fleeting moment of peace is broken, to be forgotten over the course of their day. Still, Sasuke brings the tomatoes home with him, and Sakura counts that as a victory—one of a meagre few.

Despite keeping her worries to herself, Sakura’s performance on the team remains lacklustre. Sasuke snaps at her for making mistakes, Naruto won’t stop making annoying requests for dates, and Kakashi doesn’t even seem to notice her while he deals with the rivalry between the two boys. If being ignored while performing useless chores is what a ninja is all about, she wonders if maybe she’s not meant to be there.

Perhaps that’s why she’s so surprised that one day in mid-March, Kakashi arrives at their usual meeting place with a box of white marshmallow animals and a casual “Happy White Day” greeting.

“Someone gave me these, but I don’t like chewy sweets,” he tells her with a shrug. “So here.”

She would brush it off as coincidence if Naruto didn’t hand her a package as well. It’s clumsily wrapped with magazine covers and he sheepishly admits, “I forgot what day it was until yesterday.”

Upon opening the package, she finds a much too large, much too frilly white lingerie set.

Kakashi chokes back either a laugh or a groan of dismay, and Sakura proceeds to beat her teammate into a human-shaped bruise for the inappropriateness of his gift. Still, inwardly she is grinning, because she has never received gifts on White Day from anyone.

Sasuke offers her nothing; this isn’t a surprise. Another girl might be upset that he’s the only one who doesn’t bother with a gift, but she’s used to this. Sasuke isn’t the type of person to give gifts to anyone, and after all these years, she finally understands that. But when Sakura glances up, his right eye is twitching as he stairs at the frilly material and she thinks, if she didn’t punch Naruto first, Sasuke might have. The idea makes her feel a little giddy because it suggests he cares about her honour.

A bit.

Ish.

Who cares? I’ll take it!

That any of them agreed to make such a silly day as White Day special for her has her beaming the whole morning. Training is even pleasant and her teammates don’t bicker with each other. Everything is going well, even though the only mission Lady Tsunade has for them is scrubbing graffiti off the back of the movie theatre. This goes by fast because Naruto is an expert at cleaning spray paint off walls.

The three of them are just heading to Hokage Tower to check in when they meet Konohamaru, tripping over his long scarf, knees scuffed and nose runny. It’s not an entirely uncommon sight, since he’s always following Naruto around after training, but the large bouquet he holds out to Sakura is somewhat of a surprise.

“It’s for you, Big Sis,” he declares with a grin, holding out a bouquet of white freesias and primroses. “Happy White Day!”

Sakura feels a muscle in her temple twitch as she decodes the meaning of the flowers—desperate, childish and immature—instantly knowing it was Ino that put the bouquet together for him. But Konohamaru looks so proud of himself, that she takes the flowers with a smile. Besides, no one has ever bought her flowers before.

“These are beautiful,” she tells him, and it’s not a lie because aside from their meaning, the blossoms themselves are pretty.

“I saw my uncle give some to his girlfriend today, and she was really happy about it. And I figured Big Bro would forget to give you any even though you’re his girl, so really, they’re from him.”

This time Sakura smile is strained, and she says, “Let’s just stick to them being from you, okay?”

Konohamaru chuckles nervously, and Naruto makes an insulted noise.

“Are you saying you wouldn’t take flowers from me?” he demands, and then turns to Sasuke. “Some people are so picky.”

Sasuke crosses his arms. “Who cares? They’re just going to die.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sakura asks before she can stop herself, clutching the flowers.

Sasuke shrugs and continues walking. “You’re impressed by useless things. If people intend to observe ridiculous holidays, the least they could do is give you something useful.”

“Hey, it’s not ridiculous!” Naruto protests. “At least we got her something, asshole.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s okay, guys,” Sakura mumbles, trying to diffuse the situation.

“No way, he’s being a spoilsport!” Konohamaru cries, and glares at Sasuke’s back. He holds out his balled up fists and yells, “Come back and say that to my face! I’ll fight you!”

“No, no! Don’t do that,” Sakura says quickly, imagining Sasuke setting the younger boy on fire. She doesn’t want him to be arrested for treason or something. “It would spoil the day. And really, I like the flowers. I’ll put them in water the minute I get home, okay?”

Although Konohamaru is placated, when she looks up, Sasuke is already down the street with Naruto glowering at his retreating back.

“He seriously needs to unpucker,” Naruto grumbles.

Sakura sighs and mourns yet another day ruined by whatever’s going on with Sasuke.

When she gets home, her mother admires the bouquet. She suggests inviting whoever gave them to her over to dinner, and Sakura is properly mortified as she explains it was just some little kid, and her father makes jokes about having to beat away the boys with a stick. Sakura grumbles at them both and heads upstairs to fall face-first onto her bed.

For several long, blissful moments, she exists in perfect peace, nothing but the light breeze teasing at her hair. She is exhausted, utterly drained, and if she’s being honest, a little hurt, too. It’s sometimes hard to care about someone unwilling to open up. Not that she blames Sasuke. Having your entire family murdered isn’t really an easy thing to discuss with just anyone.

But…

She still wishes Sasuke would let her in. One day he will, she knows, but in the meantime, pretending that his constant rebuffs and caustic remarks don’t bother her is becoming a chore.

A shiver creeps up her spine and Sakura frowns. Her room is draughty from the open window, a fact that’s confusing—she never leaves her windows open when she leaves the house. With a muffled groan, she pushes herself up and crosses the room to close it, only to pause at the sight of something sitting on the window sill. A plain, flat, white box—not very large, and she sees no ink or seals on it to suggest it might be dangerous.

But there’s no note attached to explain its presence.

Half-suspicious, half-curious, she lifts the thin lid on the box. Her breath catches in her throat.

A pair of black gloves are nestled neatly inside the container. They are thick, of high-quality leather, and clearly well-made. Upon trying one on, she discovers that they are bigger than her hand—obviously made for a woman. She’ll grow into them, one day.

She can’t figure out who left these for her or why. They’ll be useful, though, to protect her hands from any stray blades or even during sparring sessions.

As she pulls the glove off, an oddly familiar scent blows toward her on the breeze—cedar, incense, and tatami. It takes a second to place the scent, and when she does, her cheeks flush with warmth.

“Next time,” she promises herself out loud, holding the gloves close to her heart. Her birthday is in two weeks, and if she plays her cards right, she can talk him into going on a date with her.

Only I’ll call it training instead of a date because I think that word makes him nervous. But if we happen to stop by somewhere to eat on the way home, that wouldn’t be horrible, would it?

And what if it’s the beginning of a regular thing? What if they start dating, and then by next Valentine’s Day, they even spend it together?

She squeals and jumps on her bed, kicking her feet in excitement.

Sakura spends the rest of the night planning it all out in her head. She never dreams of the possibility that they will be stuck in the Land of Waves and more concerned with survival than her birthday.

And it never occurs to her that by Valentines Day next year, Sasuke will not be anywhere near Konoha.

つづく

Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome, but if you feel like keeping me caffeinated out of the goodness of your heart, it certainly would be appreciated! I’m also starting to post original works to my patreon.

I’m only able to keep writing as I do thanks to the support of readers like you, so every bit helps!

栗

Next Chapter

[obsidianarchives]

Black Woman Creator: Nilah Magruder

Nilah Magruder is a writer and artist based in Los Angeles. From her beginnings in the woods of Maryland she developed an eternal love for three things: nature, books, and animation. Her young adult web comic, M.F.K., won the inaugural Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in 2015, and has been published in print by Insight Comics. Her first picture book, How to Find a Fox, was published by Feiwel & Friends in 2016. She has written for Marvel and drawn storyboards for DreamWorks and Disney. When she is not working, Nilah is reading fantasy novels, watching movies, roller-skating, and fighting her cat for control of her desk chair.

Black Girls Create: What do you create?

I create children's books and comics.

BGC: What about children’s books and comics spoke to you when you got started?

I’ve always been interested in children's media. I grew up loving animation and from a young age I wanted to work in animation. A lot of the media that I consumed growing up was targeted towards kids and as I got older I never lost my love of that. I love Disney movies and animation from anywhere really. As I got a little older, that migrated to manga and a lot of that was targeted towards teens. That’s what I always loved consuming and wanted to put back in the world in my own words.

Now that I’m older I really think the kind of content we give kids is important, because they're going to grow up with this just like I did. These are stories and experiences that will form the basis of their knowledge and understanding of the world. You don’t always grow out of those early ideas that you ingest when you’re young. I think how we speak to kids and the sorts of stories we tell kids are very important.

BGC: Why do you create?

I just need to do it. If I don’t have this I drive myself crazy. Even when I wasn’t working in the arts, I used to be a journalist and work in marketing and this was my stress relief. It’s what I did to unwind and get away from real life and the things that stress me out. I’ve always loved art. In school when I wasn’t doing visual art, my passion was music and for a long time I thought I’d go to school for music and join a symphony, but then I veered over on this path. Art is something that has always spoken to me, it feeds me in a way. It’s become this thing where I need to do it. Even when I try to get away from it and not think about it my mind always circles back to looking at art and images and thinking about story and characters. It’s always been kind of an escape for me.

BGC: Now that is your job, do you need a new form of stress relief or has your stress just gone down?

No, my work is not my stress relief, it’s just a new form of stress. [LAUGH] I don’t draw for fun anymore, when I draw it’s with purpose. It’s thinking about the next story or it’s for work or it’s freelance. So to unwind I read a lot. I play video games on occasion when I have time, I roller skate, I go for walks, I go out with friends. At some point I want to take up gardening, but right now I’m just propagating a little plant. I used to garden when I was younger but a lot of hobbies are time consuming. I haven’t found that balance yet of having a hobby I can really lose myself in but also maintaining my work.

BGC: What are some of your all-time favorite comics or manga?

I was just recently reminded of Beck, which is a manga serialized in US as Mongolian Chop Squad. Beck is a manga about music and I was obsessed when I was a teenager, I loved it. Paradise Kiss always comes to mind because it’s about art and teenagers and feelings, and the art is amazing. Smile by Raina Telgemeier, was a very real story for me because I was also a middle schooler with teeth problems and braces. For Shonen manga I love Naruto, Bleach, and Shaman King. Those are really my favorites. When webcomics came along Strings of Fate by Jen Wang was my jam.

BGC: What exposed you to manga and comics growing up?

I guess it all started with Sailor Moon and that happened around the time that home internet became a big thing. The timing of both of those things was crucial to my entry into manga. I didn’t know anything about manga back then but I knew cartoons. From learning about Sailor Moon on the internet I learned there are other anime and a most of them are based on comic books, manga. Not a lot of it was being translated but very soon after that Tokyo Pop formed and started bringing over so much manga. That was my entry point right there, really cartoons was always the bridge into comics.

I should mention my brother kind of introduced me to anime and it really took hold with my first anime-con when I was 16. I learned about this through the internet and friends going to the conventions and learned of Otakon which was our local convention. The first time I went, everything you need is right there, the exhibit hall is full of anime and manga, that was a huge education for me.

BGC: Who or what inspired you to do what you do?

I’ve just always wanted to bombard people with my stories. I have a lot of little nieces and nephews and cousins and I just want them to think I’m cool so I keep working hard. I grew up in this area where art was a very traditional thing. I feel like there’s a very different appreciation for art on the West Coast so art has room to be seen as a viable career but on the East Coast it’s traditional, more fine arts. It’s about painting and photography and it’s just not a very practical thing. I grew up being very discouraged about pursuing a career in the arts and I’d love to share with kids that just because you’re getting older, you don’t have to give up art. Art is not a juvenile thing, in elementary school you take art class every week but then that falls away. Once you get to middle and high school, arts becomes an elective and I think that leads to a lack of appreciation for art in our society. I think it’s unfortunate that people devalue art, they don’t understand its purpose or how much of it impacts our world. I would love to hit kids when they’re young and show them art is an important part our society and culture. You don’t have to give it up, you don’t have to have it as a career, you can just have it as a hobby if you want. You don’t need to be an artist to appreciate art. Aside from just loving to tell stories that’s what keeps me doing this, to be an example and be part of the larger conversation of art as a thing in our world.

BGC: Why is it important to you as a Black person to create?

"There are so many other experiences, especially in America, that get erased and a lot of people get talked over. "  -- Nilah Magruder

Children’s books, film, television it’s all predominantly white, it prioritizes one experience. There are so many other experiences, especially in America, that get erased and a lot of people get talked over. There are many Black women who do comics and who are interested in art, but I get this question all the time from people, “Where are the Black women? I never see Black women at Comic Con, I never see Black women working in comics.” I actually had one guy tell me, “In my experience Black women just aren’t interested in writing comics.” I do feel a responsibility to be here because we need people fighting this battle to break through these barriers that exist. People really will sell that lie that Black women don’t exist, don’t have agency, can’t embody a variety of roles, and have no stories to tell. I just vehemently disagree with that. I love art but also feel a responsibility to keep at it and be the antithesis to that lie.

BGC: What do you think about how difficult it is to hear that lie repeated to you and said to your face? Does it ever get discouraging to be in a place that feels so unwelcoming and how do you find the day to day strength to continue to go into an unwelcoming space and prove that you deserve to be there?  

It gets really hard sometimes. There are days when I feel animation is crap, comics is crap, why am I doing this, why am I here?  Luckily I’m apart of a welcoming community, I’m in tune with the other Black women who work in comics and work in animation, with non-Black women who work in comics and animation, and we keep each other strong and pull each other up and keep moving forward together. It still gets discouraging, I can’t be positive every single day. I can’t always put my brave face on and plunge ahead, but even on those days when I feel weak I know there are other Black women who are in this industry who are still ploughing ahead. That’s enough, there are enough of us so I don’t have to be strong every day. I do have these moments where I have to sit back and reflect. I have to ask myself why am I really doing this. I love it so much that I eventually rally, and I’ve never hit the point that the negative outweighs the positive. I’ve been very fortunate in my career, I have a lot of supportive people in my life. I try as best as I can to offer whatever resources and knowledge to other people, to other Black women, so that they can find their path too. It’s about the community, there are a lot of stupid people in this industry who have backwards or outdated ways of thinking and I don’t know if you can do anything about those people but what we can do is stay strong, stay united, and keep telling our stories. That’s something they can’t stop.

BGC: How do you balance creating with the rest of your life?

It’s really hard and I’m not doing a very good job at it right now, it gets overwhelming. Sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day and art takes so long to do. I’m not always able to do as much as I want to do. Even if my brain is ready to work, my body isn’t. I’ve hit this age where my body fights against me sometimes so I’m not always physically able to work even when I want to. It’s a struggle to stay in balance. I try to be as organized as I can, and that usually helps. I try to be realistic about my capabilities and just knowing for myself, this is what I can accomplish in this amount of time. In the course of a day, these are the pockets of time that I can work with, but the best I can do is just try not to overwhelm myself because if I get burnt out then that’s it. Just avoiding over extending myself is a real challenge but I’m good as long as I can make a little bit of forward movement everyday. Even if I’m not drawing or writing. If i’m always thinking about it and always planning then usually I’m able to keep some momentum that way. It’s a real challenge and I’m not always great at time management but I do my best. Having a community, having friends and colleagues that I can call on for assistance or who can hold me accountable, that helps a lot too.

BGC: It’s nice to hear that no matter the industry, Black women creators make a point to help each other. It’s important to know that because it feels like we get pitted against each other, there can only be one, so you’re fighting for your one spot.

It feels like that’s what they want you to do because that’s a distraction. That keeps you focused on each other rather than focused on moving forward. I’ve fallen prey to that sometimes too but I’m trying to get better at staying focused on the path ahead and not dragging anyone down because I don’t need to do that as a creator. My success is not dependent on the downfall of other people, we can all move forward together. I’ve been trying harder to focus on that.

BGC: You have your own webcomic. Why is it important to you to create MFK and continue to keep it up when you are so busy? Why has that continued to maintain a level of importance to you?

I started MFK in 2002. That was around the time that I came up with the scenes of the first idea and it’s a story that never goes away. I’ve created other stories in that amount of time that have fallen away but MFK is the one that I always come back too. I think because it’s a very personal story for me. Abby was my first foray into writing a story with a Black girl lead. I’ve put a lot of time, thought, and work into developing this world so it’s a natural part of me. It’s not something that I can see ever letting go of, Abby is kind of my child. It may take a long time, I may not always keep up with it, I may have to take breaks like I am right now, but if I’m working on this for another 50 years than so be it. It’s the story of my heart and I love it and I don’t ever see myself walking away from it until the story is done. Hopefully, it won’t take 50 years but it’s a story that I made a commitment to. I had a choice, when I first decided to do a webcomic I had a couple of stories and this is the one I chose because I had already been sitting on this idea for 10 years and didn’t want to put it off any longer. I made that commitment and I want to see it through for myself.

BGC: What has been the response from the community so far?

It’s been really positive, I’m always bracing myself for the negative reviews or for someone to tell me this is crap but it hasn’t really happened yet and I’m kind of surprised. I’m still bracing myself because now that it’s being published in print it’s going to reach a larger audience. People really seem to enjoy it, a lot of people seem to connect to it which is a shock because it’s such a personal thing. I can see the relevance of it to me, but I can’t always see the relevance of it to other people so it’s always refreshing when I hear feedback and hear that people really do enjoy the story and the characters and they’re eager for more.

BGC: Do you have any advice for young creators/ones just starting?

Lately the advice I give is to start small, make some comics, don’t wait. You learn by doing, so go ahead and start making some comics and treat it as a learning experience, but start small. If you pick a problem that’s too big you can overwhelm yourself. If you want to start with that really big comic, that really epic idea then by all means do what you’re really passionate about but MFK was my first webcomic, it was not my first comic. I tried doing short comics first and also working on other people’s comics. I got acclimated to the medium before I launch my first epic. That’s what I would suggest. A big project can be overwhelming very quickly and if it’s too much for you to handle you’re setting yourself up for failure so just start small.

BGC: Do you have any future projects that you’re thinking about working on?

I illustrated a middle grade graphic novel that’s upcoming called Creaky Acres. It’s about a Black girl who moves to an all white rural community and joins their local horse riding club. It’s being written by Calista Brill and published by Dial Books for Young Readers. It’s coming out in 2019, I believe. That’s my other major project other than that and MFK I’m just deciding what else I want to work on.

Outside of comics, Canon Busters was recently announced, I did a bit of writing for that and it is an animated series coming to Netflix at some point.

BGC: Any last words of wisdom?

If art is intimidating for you, if you’re interested in comics and other medium, give it a shot. Learn to appreciate art by doing.

[chemicalmagecraft]

I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya’s Butt Chapter 13

I sighed, then took another bite of my dango. The page of my book flipped, and my frown deepened. Poison-making looked hard... And more than that, it was complicated and boring. Sure it was practical, but nowhere near as fun as, say, the chakra threads I was using to "levitate" both my dango and my book (I didn't want to get dango on my book or book on my dango).

"'Sup, kid," a familiar voice said, and I extended another thread to catch the hand that reached for my dango. "Almost didn't recognize you there with that tan, but who else casually uses a jutsu like that?"

"Anko," I greeted faux-angrily. She was somehow almost always there whenever I went to get dango, and I eventually managed to talk to her. "I do believe that I told you not to touch my dango." The thread around her wrist went slack and dissipated, allowing her to withdraw her hand. She just shrugged, sat down across from me and started eating her dango.

"So is that a book about poison?" she asked me.

"I don't really understand it, but yeah it is."

"I happen to know a thing or two about poison, especially after..." Her expression soured. "Him."

I closed my book and licked my lips. "Speaking of him," I said. "I do believe I've figured something out." I raised my hand to one of my DSC earrings, and it floated to the back of her neck, where her curse mark was. "Ah, I was right. I should be able to partially nullify your seal."

Her eyes widened. "You can?"

"I mean, I don't think I'll be able to remove it without causing major damage to you, at least not without the original notes, but this..." I used the demon sage core to extract the natural energy from the mark, then placed a seal on it to prevent it from drawing in more. "Feel better?"

She rubbed the curse mark. "Yeah, lots..."

I smiled slightly and my core returned to my ear. "That's because I just removed its ability to accumulate natural energy, and drained it too. Now that I've become more adept at using these things, I can use them to detect the natural energy around me. Orochimaru's mark certainly is interesting, shame the man himself was terrible."

Anko grinned at me. "You know, I actually have access to all his stuff, seeing how I was his apprentice and all. He didn't like the idea of anyone else touching his notes, so me giving it to someone is probably a good way to spite him. Plus I could teach you way more about poison than some dumb old book!"

My grin widened. I'd have sealed her mark either way, but finding a dialogue tree that got me Orochimaru's notes and explanations on it was a godsend. "Looks like I found myself a teacher, then. Oh, and by the way."

"What's up, kid?"

"That seal was probably screwing with your metabolism. You'll probably have to actually work off all those sweets now."

Anko winced. "Dammit..."

kukukuku~

I meditated under a tree again, paying some attention to Hinata playing with Naruto and Tenten as with before. This time, though, I was just doing the regular sage training and not my weird convoluted separate-recombine approach. I'd managed to use a single sage core to make a really thin barrier that pivoted like the platforms on the spires the toads had that also made it look like I was just mildly floating. "What are you doing?" a voice asked. I couldn't see him with my eyes closed, but Chikage within my shadow shared her sight with me. And then I would've figured it out anyway from the sound of someone eating chips behind the original speaker.

"Why hello, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji," I said, not even opening my eyes. "I am meditating on the energy that abounds in nature, and surrounds us all. With it, a true sage can do incredible feats."

"That can't be true," Shikamaru said. "Wouldn't we know more about such a troublesome power?"

I smirked, and a random falling leaf that got too close to me was shredded from a disturbance in the surrounding natural energy.

"Woah!" Chōji exclaimed. "What was that?"

"Mendokuse..." Shikamaru muttered. "So why don't people use this more often?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I believe it has something to do with how the only other user of the power of the sage that I know of with no relation to the summon animals of snake or toad was Senju Hashirama, who at the same time one might argue had a slight relation to toads through his distant ancestor. And I have a theory that he actually had some sort of natural energy-related power even beyond sage powers, one tied to his bloodline."

"Mendokuse... How do you know this?"

"Magic. While I don't suggest you actually draw in natural energy without supervision from someone who would be able to expel the natural energy from your body, you seem like the type to be content to lie still from elongated periods of time, which you could use to try and sense the natural energy in the air, which is the basis of using sage power."

Shikamaru blinked. "So you're saying I could potentially get a lot more powerful just by sitting around?"

"You need to draw in natural energy for a bit before you can actually use it, but yeah. Also, you need a good amount of chakra before it's safe to do it, so don't expect to just take a nap and get superpowers."

"Well then why are you doing it?" Chōji asked. "Even if you have more chakra than normal, you're a kid like us. Is it really that safe?"

"Tseseseseh~" I chuckled. "Nnnope, I'm just an idiot with a lot of chakra."

"You're the one kid Ino told us about, aren't you?" Shikamaru asked. "The weirdo."

"Yup."

"Mendokuse..."

I felt a wave of bad vibes through Chikage and heard some shouting. I bolted upright, forgetting that I was in the middle of absorbing natural energy. My leg gave out from under me, causing me to drop to one knee and suck in a breath. "Are you okay?" Chōji asked me.

I rolled up the pant of the offending leg, revealing skin that was half crystallized and half scaled. "Ah, that's not good," I muttered, then licked my lips. "This is why you don't mess around with natural energy without adult supervision, kids..."

"Mendokuse... Is there any way we can help you?"

"No, hang on. I got this. Let's see here..." I concentrated, using my experience manipulating natural energy with my various unconventional forms of sage jutsu to help me. The problem was that I had natural energy concentrated in my leg. I didn't have much in the other parts of my body, so I just redistributed the natural energy. My leg returned to normal as I felt the surge of power from a proper sage mode. Thanks to Chikage, I was able to see that the markings around my eyes changed to be the yin-yang symbol thingy, and moon symbols appeared on my cheeks. 

"There, that's better," I said. "Really hope this stuff isn't carcinogenic... Let's go check out that shouting." Before either of them could object, I shot off. Even with my sage chakra not quite as potent as it could have been on account of my age and chakra capacity, I was still a lot faster than the two. I did go at a pace that they could easily catch up to, though, on account of the fact that I didn't want to burn through all of my sage mode. At what Chikage told me was the source of the negative emotions, I felt two familiar chakra signatures, very much in a panic. I came upon the scene. Thankfully, there were only a few people there, and they all appeared to be too afraid to do anything.

"Get back!" the guy holding the knife to Ino's throat shouted. He appeared to have taken her and Sakura hostage. Judging by the sack of loot on the ground by him, he'd robbed someone and was trying to get away. I could tell that neither he nor any of the onlookers had much shinobi training with the exception of one man who was probably a low chūnin judging by his chakra, which was probably why there was such an impasse. "I'm not afraid to use this!"

"Really?" I asked. "This is the third young clan heiress that I've had to save. This is starting to be bad writing."

The man pointed the knife at me. "What are you gonna do, kid?"

I gave him a twisted smile. "This." I flashed through a series of practiced seals as fast as I could, drawing on the power of my sage cores, punctuated with a technically-superfluous slam surface seal. "True Demonic Illusion: Summoning of the Shadow Demon!" I shouted as an illusory seal made of some sort of dark energy formed underneath me. As I stood back up, a false, distorted Chikage rose from the ground behind me, forming from the dark energy. The illusion of Chikage looked older and larger, and it had sharpened teeth, claws, and eyes of pure shadow. To add to the dark imagery, it was wearing Chikage's new outfit, which she'd made inspired by the gothic lolita style to go with her whole "demon of a thousand shadows" shtick. It actually looked rather good on our dark skin. The illusion beckoned to the man, causing a feeling of unease in the bystanders.

To the would-be kidnapper, though, the illusion caused a pressure of unrelenting foreboding as the sun went dark and the land turned to shadows. "What the hell is that!?" He dropped his knife and hostages and tried to run.

"I think not," I said dully as my shadow, the true Chikage, reached his shadow, causing him to freeze up and my shadow to return to normal from Chikage entering his. "You've been possessed by my demon." In truth, the entire genjutsu was just smoke and mirrors, albeit elaborate ones. The illusory Chikage was both a medium to the hallucination suggestion and misdirection from Chikage's shadow movement. The reason that that worked, though, was because Chikage had the ability to possess people by entering their shadows, which was awesome. Without need for the genjutsu, I dropped it, letting the phantasmal copy fade from existance. I snapped my fingers, causing the man to stand up straight so he wasn't stuck in an awkward position, then walked up to Ino. "You okay?" I asked, holding a hand out to her.

She sniffed. "My neck hurts a bit and I scraped my knees, but I'm good now." She smiled and let me pull her up, and I placed two fingers on the thankfully small cut on her neck. Green-hued chakra sprang from my fingers and sealed her wound. I moved on to her knees, then walked over to Sakura.

"What about you, Sakura-chan?" She whimpered and showed me her hands, which were all scraped up. I smiled at her and placed my hands on hers, but before I could even use my basic healing jutsu something weird happened. The natural energy flowed out of my body and into her. Whatever she was doing, I could tell she didn't even know she was doing it. Once my sage mode was depleted I pulled her up and removed my hands from hers, revealing perfectly unscathed palms.

"Thank you, Kouki-kun," she said. Whatever the heck happened, she was now naturally passing natural energy through her body. If I had to bet, she'd automatically heal any injuries that happened to her. Interesting.

"Thanks, Kouki," Ino said. I looked over to her and noticed she was smiling and blushing slightly. She probably didn't have an actual crush on me considering her age, but I knew how she would think about the dashing knight in shining armor...

"Mendokuse..." I internally sighed.

"Mendokuse..." Chikage telepathically agreed.

"Mendokusai desu ka?" Usagi asked.

"Mendokuse..." Chikage and I mentally chorused. At least if she kept that up I'd save Sasuke a bit of trouble and she wouldn't ruin her friendship with Sakura, but... ugh...

"Where's the thief?" an Uchicop asked as he landed, then saw the guy standing there and whipped out a kunai. "You! Stop!"

"He's under my spell, he literally can't move without my sayso," I said. "Or at least I'm assuming the guy who took some hostages and had a sack of what appeared to be ill-gotten goods was also a thief."

"What do you mean, under your spell?" he asked. The thief's shadow morphed into Chikage's for a moment, just a flash.

"A genjutsu that I thought of after hearing of the Sharingan's genjutsu-casting abilities," I lied. "It uses a special ability of mine with an illusion as a visual medium to place a suggestion on a victim that allows me to control them. Unfortunately I can only do one person at a time so far and a powerful enough shinobi would probably be able to resist it, but hopefully it'll get a lot more useful when I'm older."

"Right," the cop said, then cuffed the crook. "Well, thanks for the help." If I had to guess, he was one of the more good-natured Uchiha. I doubted he'd have anything to do with the rebellion. "I'm sure you'll be a good ninja when you're older. For now, though, maybe you should stay out of trouble, kid."

"No promises." He snorted and escorted the guy away, taking the sack with him.

"What was that?" Shikamaru asked me. "And don't say genjutsu, because I know the difference between an illusion and shadow-manipulating jutsu."

"Definitely not your clan's jutsu, don't worry," I muttered so only he'd hear. I leaned over just a bit so that the tip of my shadow touched a nearby shadow, letting Chikage come back to me. "I was telling the truth when I said it was a special power of mine."

"It have anything to do with that weird meditation thing you did earlier?"

I smirked a bit and licked my lips. "Let's go with that. You'll never be able to use it, if that's what you're asking."

"Mendokuse..."

kukukuku~

I sighed, lying down on my bed. "What are we going to do about Ino?" I asked Chikage.

She shrugged, floating around as always. Not that I could blame her. "We... let her down gently?"

"Yeah, but how? Relationships are hard..."

"Gonna have to get back to you on that one..." We both sensed someone coming to the clan compound.

"Hey, is that..."

"Lemme check." She shadow-travelled there and back, only gone for less than a second. "Yup, Aburame Shibi. And it looks like those bugs we spared earlier were kikaichū, 'cause he's bringing a couple mutant ones in a bug cage." I nodded, then we became whole again. I silently walked to the front door, where the clan leader already was.

"...apologize for the intrusion, but earlier a member of our clan's kikaichū were drawn to an unusual source of chakra located within your compound," he explained to my father. "She managed to regain control of them, but not before some had died and others had... changed." He brought out the mutated bugs, which had rune-like markings much like the first-stage curse marks. They were acting pretty crazy. "They may not be able to escape this cage, but they are still far livelier than the normal variety and much harder to control. I am not accusing you or any of your clan of anything, but I would very much like to know what caused this, as it might prove useful to our clan."

"Well, the thing about that is..." Dad said.

"Would you trust him, father?" I asked, announcing my presence.

He nodded. "Go ahead, Kouki."

"Right, let's go somewhere more private," I suggested.

"So," I said once we'd come to a suitable room, "what the kikaichū felt was... let's just say a jutsu of mine." I brought out the half-sized demon sage core that fed on the Aburame's bugs. "This is called a demon sage core. Despite all appearances, it's a living thing that generates special chakra that, among other things, can be used to make more demon sage cores from living animal tissue. Unfortunately that's the only way to make it, though, and since I don't want to mass-murder people or large animals, that pretty much means I have to use its animal-attracting properties to occasionally draw in and cannibalize insects. I was doing that earlier, which is why you're here." On a hunch, I reached out to the demon kikaichū, influencing them through my power within them. They instantly calmed, becoming absolutely still. "Could you release them?"

"I see..." He opened the small cage. I commanded the bugs, causing them to fly out of the cage as one. They entered a formation on my command and began orbiting my body.

"Don't worry," I said, noticing a small shift in his emotional state. "I have no interest in usurping the kikaichū jutsu and even if I did I can only control these mutated ones through my power that they absorbed, if that's what you're worried about."

"I understand. It is interesting, though, that you're able to control them so easily."

"I doubt I could control anything more complex than them with so much ease. Not without a lot more of the special chakra, anyway." A thought occurred to me. "Actually, I thought of another thing I'd like to try, though this one might possibly have the potential to be arguably a usurpation of your clan secrets, so I'll only try it with your permission."

Dad sighed. "Why am I not surprised... I apologize for my son, Shibi. He... can be rather focused on power, even if he tries not to overstep boundaries."

"I am fine," Shibi said. "Why? Because he asked for my permission, and clearly wishes not to overstep his bounds. Tell me, Kouki-kun, what is it you wish to try?"

"I don't have much data to go by, but I think I might be able to gain special chakra-related powers by granting my special chakra to a subject and then absorbing it once it's fused with their chakra," I explained. I'd noticed, after the whole demon sage seal debacle, that I'd gained extra, Uzumaki-like vitality. After a talk with Ai, I found out that I could still manifest the adamantine chains that I used against her, despite that chakra having been fully processed by my body, much like how absorbing enough of Shukaku's chakra combined it with Kurama's chakra in me. 

It made sense, all things considered, that a combination of my red chakra, which was easy to transfer from body to body, and natural energy, which had mutagenic properties, would allow my body to adapt to others' chakra intead of just adapting other chakra to me. In fact, I could also make my chakra signature almost identical to hers, which was probably useful somehow. "I'd like to see if I could gain the kikaichū's ability to drain and absorb regular chakra by, well, killing some of them by draining them dry. With your permission, of course."

Shibi nodded slightly. "An interesting power. Could you grant that ability to another?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, I didn't exactly come with a manual, but if you want me to see if I could grant some of your people kikaichū powers then I'd certainly be willing to find out. Plus, the possibilities..." I grinned. "Tseseseseseh~" I hiss-chuckled, then licked my lips. "It's certainly something I'd be willing to do for you. Is that a yes?"

"I would prefer if you left a few for us to study, but take as many as you need."

"Alright, then. Let's see if half works, shall we?" Half of the beetles returned to the cage, while the other half landed on my hand. They didn't bite me, but I had them start draining me to get a feel for how their power worked. "Assimilation jutsu." Safisfied by what I felt, I reversed the flow of the chakra, capitalizing on the connection the chakra-draining gave us to more easily suck the chakra out of their bodies. Despite the enhanced lifespan and vitality granted from their mutation, they stilled and fell from my body as all the chakra left them. "Do you want the corpses or can I try to resuscitate them to add to one of my cores?" I asked.

"Do as you please. Did it work?"

I commanded the demon sage core to go at the recently-deceased beetles, then looked inward. "It feels like it's working, but my body has to 'digest' the chakra before I can use it. And it might be partially physical, in which case I might not have the power. I'll get back to you on it. Now." The demon sage core, slightly bigger now that it was done absorbing the bugs, floated over to Shibi. "Don't worry, it's harmless unless it's specifically made to attack someone."

He took the core. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"As Father said, I'm... more than a little obsessed with power, I admit. It doesn't have to be my power, though. I'm also interested by my allies' power, even my enemies' power. And giving my allies power?" I grinned slightly. "Well, I'm sure you can tell how I feel about that. I'm not even worried about if you turn against me for some reason. We've already established that those things are less than useless against me. Not to mention, I'm getting something else out of this too."

"How so?" Shibi asked.

"Kikaichū, like most insects, have a low lifespan, and can reproduce at a rapid rate because of that. It wouldn't be too much to ask, then, to sacrifice any of your kikaichū at the end of their lifespan when they start to become less useful to you to that core to produce more demon sage cores for me, would it?"

"We feed our dead kikaichū to the living, but we can feed some to it, if that is the price for having it to study."

"Good. Make a snake seal and pulse some chakra at the thing to send it into 'eat' mode for a couple of minutes, which'll make it eat any insect-sized organism that touches it. Hopefully. Just in case, don't touch it while it's in eat mode."

"Suddenly I feel as though I should not be holding this," Shibi said, then placed the core in a little baggie that was probably for dead bugs."

"Probably a good idea, once it's fully out of my influence. This close to me, though, I don't have to concentrate on it to have some measure of control over it. It should stay more or less inert, though, in a state where it'll produce chakra enough to fill its stores and not resist kikaichū draining. Tell me if it doesn't work quite right, though, and I'll try to make adjustments."

Shibi got up. "Thank you for this, Kouki-kun. I will do my best to make you not regret giving it to me."

I gave him smile. "Goodbye. Make sure to only let people you trust near that thing, or even aware of its existence for that matter. Good luck!" Shibi faltered a bit, then continued on. "This is going to be fun," I said.

kukukuku~

A/N: The next chapter's going to be a time skip. Well, an even longer time skip.

And I'm actually going to do a poll! I'm not entirely sure how the Hyūga clan would take Kouki having the power to copy their bloodline, but the subject would definitely come up over the course of the time skip, so I'll leave that up to you guys!

A: Kouki is allowed to gain the Byakugan, on account of being a Hyūga.

B: Kouki isn't allowed to gain the Byakugan, on account of not being born of the clan.

I'm leaning more towards B, but I won't not do A if enough people want to see it. And by the way, I'm welcome to and invite other suggestions.

[ookamitsu]

50 more interesting questions

Rules: fill this out and tag at least one person you’d like to know more about! Or just fill it out! Or don’t! Answer only some of them! Make up your own questions! “What kind of requirement is that”, you ask? A reasonable one! Who am I to tell you what to do? Anything goes!

tagged by @acrispyapple​ this was very long 

1. What kind of food can’t you stand? really spicy food, tho recently i’ve been getting better at handling spices. Also food that has cauliflower or cilantro

2. If you could choose one minor inconvenience to never have to deal with again, what would you pick? I’d love it if my fish tanks could magically clean themselves and feed the fish, that’d be great

3. Have you got any useless talents? is not being affected by the caffeine in coffee a talent? 

4. If you were really really good at one thing, what would it be? Probably drawing. I have soo many ideas but hardly any artistic talent lol. 

5. Name a few people you think are extremely good-looking gdragon and top from bigbang

6. What was your favorite way to pass the time as a kid? I wasn’t allowed to go outside really when I was younger so all I did was read books, watch tv, rewatch disney movies and harry potter movies over and over. 

7. What is something you’re proud of? eh, I don’t think i’ve done anything worth being proud about yet...ask me again when I have a career

8. What’s one character flaw in people that you just can’t tolerate? I hate when people don’t have proper manners, it’s so annoying. 

9. Do you consider yourself to be more of a leader or a follower? oh a follower for sure. I am but a humble, shy sheep~ leading requires effort lol and it just isn’t interesting for me. Although, if i’m forced into a leadership position I’ll do well, it’s just that I do want to do it. 

10. What kind of student are/were you? a pretty good kiddo. Never gto into trouble, and besides my ap physics grade back in junior year I never had low grades. Had to stay in tip top shape academically in order to get anything I wanted and not be disowned by my mom lol. 

11. Butterfly effect question! Has there ever been a seemingly minor decision you’ve made (at the time) that ended up having a profound influence on your life? eh I don’t really think so but maybe

12. Name your most irrational fear/aversion SPIDERS, they’re the devil’s animal haha. so that and most most insects ughhh 

13. Are there any fictional characters you find especially relatable? hmmm...maybe the mc from kiss him, not me? She’s into weeb shit, I’m into weeb shit. She likes yaoi, I like yaoi lol but she is way more into it than I will ever be. Also she’s surrounded by hot guys, which I am not and that is the ultimate tragedy. 

kind of drunk are you? Alternatively, what sort of person are you at parties? I’m still underage so i dunno. Ask me again in January when my bff turns 21, I’ll let you know. At parties I’m super awkward so I’ll either just stand around looking really awkward or follow my friends around. 

15. Do you fall in love easily? Or does it usually take a long time for you to trust someone? it’ll take a loooong while. I don’t trust guys (or most people). you can’t unlock my tragic backstory that easily if  you date me. 

16. Would you rather have one close friend or 100 casual friends? one. I love having close bonds with people because then I won’t feel lonely. Also who needs that many friends. 

17. Do you consider yourself to be more of a slob or a neat-freak? I like to have things clean for the most part. Though I might get really lazy and just throw things down and not put them away for a few hours lol. Also my desk can get pretty messy sometimes and becomes a sort of organized chaos, but I’ll always fix it anyway since the mess will eventually bother me. 

18. Describe a place (imaginary or real) that you would find incredibly cozy. Somewhere where the weather isn’t terribly hot or cold in their respective seasons and is overcast  most of the time. Or Loches, France. I freaking love that place it’s really nice.

19. Do you have kids? If not, do you want them someday? I’d love to have kids, at least 3. 

20. What was your favorite book as a child? I used to read the goosebumps and fear street series a lot. Also harry potter, a series of unfortunate events and the chronicles of narnia (Though fo some reason I couldn’t remember the books in that series at all but luckily @acrispyapple​ told me to reread it and now I have renewed love for it) 

21. Name one thing you just don’t get what all the hype is about yeah fidget spinners are pretty dumb and I see them wherever I go. 

22. Name one thing that you think is tragically underrated learning how to type properly? I think a lot of people barely know how to type and it upsets me to no end. I hate when people finger peck at the keys, they’re so slow.

23. If you had to be glued to a person for a month, real or fictional (who you have never met), who would you choose? hmm, maybe natsume takashi from natsume yuujinchou. Mostly becuase I really like him. Also being attached to him means I can cuddle nyanko-senesei. Or Nikkari Aoe from touken ranbu because I love him too. 

24. What’s something you’d like the chance to do someday? travel all over! 

25. Do you typically speak your mind when you have a controversial opinion? Or do generally prefer to not rock the boat? I don’t like confrontation so I keep my mouth shut usually. 

26. What’s the dumbest fad you’ve been caught up in? hmm, not sure

27. What’s something you thought was cool as a kid/adolescent, but now cringe at yourself for? *war flashbacks of being emo*

28. What’s a trait you consider to be very admirable? I admire people who can speak their minds without fear, of course they also have to have tact. Also the kind of people who are so good at leading that you’ll naturally want to follow them.

29. Is there a particular kind of item people always tend to give you as gifts? (For instance, people always get you things with ducks on them because you like ducks, etc.) people like to give me things with cats bc cat’s are God’s greatest gift to humanity. I appreciate money just a little more though lol. 

30. Do you speak multiple languages? Which ones? Yup. English, French, and Japanese. I really want to learn Korean, German and Spanish but I usually spend half of my free time on continuing japanese studies so we’ll see. 

31. Would you rather live in the big city or the countryside? Neither. I like the suburbs. Either that or smaller cities at least. 

32. Has there ever been something you were certain you’d hate, but ended up loving? sarada uchiha. When I first saw her at the end of naruto i kinda automaically hated her because I hate sakura. But ever since gaiden and the boruto movie I saw her personality and realized that I lover her haha. So whenever I see her in a boruto ep I’m pretty happy. 

33. Do you mind being the center of attention, or do you prefer the spotlight to be on someone else? nope, I get so uncomfortable. I’m happy enough to not be noticed. 

34. Favorite holiday? Christmas! I’m so obnoxious about it haha. I love singing Christmas songs and I’ll gladly sing along to the Christmas music that plays in stores and stuff. 

35. Are you a more go-with-the-flow type of person, or do you need to have things planned meticulously? a bit of both. For the most part I’m go with the flow but for most important things that happens outside of home life having some kind of plan is logical and for the best .

36. Is there something you loved so much you wish you could forget it and experience it all over again? (A tv show, book, series–anything.) the dragon age series and mass effect series. 

37. What hobbies do you have? reading, running this crap blog, doodling, studying, video games

38. If you could have a superpower, but it was only mildly useful, what ability would you want to have? the ability to make things clean themselves. 

39. Something people are always surprised to learn about you I’m super lazy! I give off the impression that i would never ever be lazy which is just a lie lmao. That doesn’t mean I won’t do the work that I have to do. One can’t be remiss about those things you know, you’ll set yourself up for failure that way. I just hate wasting energy  

40. Something that took you way too long to figure out  I can’t work @cyniccat​‘s sewing machine properly for the life of me.

41. Worst injury you’ve had? I accidentally ripped the skin off of one of my toes with a door. 

42. Any morbid fascinations? idk

43. Describe your sense of humor eh idk, I like sarcasm since I have such rapier wit. I also love really lame jokes lol. but I usually find most things 

44. If you had to be born in another era/place, which would you choose? well I wouldn’t want to live in another era because they weren’t such fun times for poc’s. But If I could live in another place, I’d rather live in either Canada or France. Maybe Japan. 

45. Something you are irredeemably bad at I can’t summarize that well without rambling. 

46. Something that sucked but you’re glad you went through school. Even though it made my cry and my workload stressed me out I met my best friends there and more importantly I got an education. 

47. Would you rather have a really godawful ugly tattoo in a place that is only slightly inconvenient to conceal with clothing (upper arm, thigh, etc.), or the coolest, most beautiful tattoo ever in the middle of your face? (Neither tattoo can be removed or concealed with makeup, and the ugly tattoo will deeply offend anyone who sees it.) I don’t want a tattoo ever, so the ugly one but like what’s so offensive about it??

48. Are you more of an optimist or a pessimist? for a pessimist i’m pretty optimistic 

49. What would be the most flattering compliment someone could give you? “you fight good”. uh i’m not sure. I don’t take compliments well so even if it was the most flattering thing I probably wouldn’t believe whoever said it and just awkwardly laugh and say thanks. 

50. Something you feel people often misunderstand about you hmm people who don’t know me think I like talking irl. I’m more of a listener. 

i’m only tagging two people bc I like to see them suffer with me but this is open to anyone who wants to do it

@krazy19kat @dicksoutforzarkon

[mouseymatchmaker]

May I please have a match up for Fairy Tail, FMA, and Naruto? Any gender is fine! According to my friends, I can be cold and intimidating when interacting with me for the first time, but I'm just socially awkward and really shy. I tend to be more outgoing and sarcastic to people who I know very well. I'm really laid back as well and I don't get angry too often. Also, I tend to space out and daydream a lot without meaning to, even when having conversations. [1/2]~

I have a bad habit of teasing my friends/family, but if it goes to far I end up being an apologetic mess. Despite the fact that I enjoy poking fun, I’m an easy target because I get embarrassingly defensive. I have a knack for drawing and most of the time I can be found doodling the day away. I love to sing, read, write and watch anime, too! Sorry, this ended up being kinda long! Thanks! :) [2/2]~

Fairy Tail-

I think Levy would be quite good for you :3 She’s such a warm and inviting person that your coldness will easily melt away. Sarcasm is something that does not bother her, depending on what is being said, of course. But she’ll always accept your apologies. She does not mind when you space out; she does the same when she has a good book and we both know that she does it on purpose to get back at you. Levy is the queen of passive-aggressive ;3 But seriously, she only ever does it to tease you. She can appreciate drawings even though she doesn’t do it that often; you’ll always have positive feedback and the whole ‘I wish I could draw like you’ thing. Singing isn’t her thing but if you’re into karaoke, then I‘m sure you could get her up for that. We all know reading and writing are her things; there’s too much to say about this but books swapping and reviewing each other’s work is always a thing between you both. It helps you both grow your skills. I think she’d be an anime fan. But the cutesy ones, like Ouran High School Host Club :3

Overall, you’ll both be a great support to each other, growing your skills and having a very healthy relationship

FMA-

I think that a great person you would be Greed (gotta love that man!)

He wants everyone, alright so even your cold exterior appeals to him. But if he breaks through to your shy awkward side, he’ll be even more thrilled. He thinks it’s adorable. I can promise you that he will tease you for it as well. Your reactions amuse him to now end, but he will ease off if he finds that it genuinely offends you. You spacing out will annoy him during conversations but if it’s as a standard and he’s not trying to talk to you, he’ll find it so cute! He can’t draw worth a damn but he’d like to see your work. You will be asked to draw him. Don’t. Just don’t. He does like to listen to singing, so you might end up singing in the Devil’s Nest; you’d be his ‘little songbird’. Reading and writing aren’t for him but I think he’d be an anime fan. Especially for the gory ones or ones with big battles in them.

Overall, you’re going to be the cutest thing he knows and even if he claims to own you, it is his way of saying he loves you. Feel free to poke him in the ribs when he says stuff like that :P

Naruto-

I thin Shikamaru would do nicely for you. He too is laid back, somewhat sarcastic but he’s not overly outgoing. He doesn’t mind you spacing out unless it’s on a mission when you need to be alert and pay attention to what’s being said to you. That will greatly annoy him as you could put the mission and your teammates at risk. That I think would be your only bump in the relationship, if it ever happened. He doesn’t like to be teased but I can assure you he will get his own back and it will be when he sees fit. Master strategist here, he’ll now how to make the teasing worth his while :P He’s not one for drawing, reading or writing, but this is stuff you can do near him to enjoy his company with; so when he’s out staring at the clouds, you can do these things near him. His opinions is valuable though because he won’t lie to make you feel better if it’s bad, but then you know he’s being honest when he says it’s good :3 I can see him being an anime fan too but for the really obscure stuff, so your anime horizons will be broadened :P 

Overall, a very chill but very honest relationship. Just make sure to pay attention when it’s needed

[coaldplay]

Promise of Mother’s Love: chapter 4 - “Let it go”

Three years later.

Summer.

Naruto didn't like Mondays. Not because it was a Monday and a beginning of the week. No. He didn't like Mondays, because it was the day of learning fuuinjutsu.

He went to the grandpa a few times a week, always just after Academy lessons. He stays there until Mirai comes and takes him back home. Sometimes, it was a happy moment. Sometimes, he was sad it was over.

Today, it would be of 180' degrees opposite of the latter. Like every Monday.

He sighed today for what seemed the 100th time. He was sitting there, on Monday, in grandpa's house, on pillows, just next to a low table, with Sarutobi-sensei. He called him Sarutobi-sensei only during these lessons, and in a sole purpose of mocking the old man.

He was sitting here working on fuuinjutsu, instead of doing something productive. He didn't consider fuuinjutsu useful. It wasn't. For him, it was just drawing weird stuff on a big roll of paper.

He sighed again.

"Today, Naruto, you are exceedingly active."

They worked together, sitting opposite to each other.

"Yeah... no joke."

Naruto heard a soft laugh.

He sighed again. He was so sleepy.

"You didn't get enough sleep today, Naruto?"

"You know it's not that, Sarutobi-sensei. It's fuuinjutsu. It's so boring."

"Will you stop calling me sensei, please? It sounds strange from you. And this surname..."

"You are my sensei, though. Should I just call you by Hiruzen only?"

Hiruzen winced.

"No, no. That is just too much."

"Yeah... it almost didn't come through my throat."

"Happy we agree on this, Naruto."

"Sure. You're welcome."

Hiruzen sighed mentally. Mentally, because he didn't want to be like Naruto, who had a strange habit of sighing. He must've learned that from the Naras, and there it went, trying to pass itself down on him. He would not let it do that to him. Not in a million years.

He sighed, physically.

"Fuuinjutsu isn't boring," he muttered.

"Something's wrong, Sarutobi-sensei? You ain't so young anymore. Don't forget that."

"You will never let me forget."

"Bingo!" he shouted playfully.

"You play bingo, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked surprised.

"No."

"So how...?"

"Just saw it the other day. You should go there. It's a game for people just like you. Old people. Maybe you'd finally meet a sweet old lady? She'd make you tasty cookies. Everybody knows how much you love 'em. Real tasty cookies. Delicious."

Naruto very much liked to make fun of him. He would make a fine comedian in the future, if he wasn't training for a shinobi.

But the good atmosphere had to end, when Naruto finally showed him his work, full of hopeless hope.

"Again."

The very-soon-to-be a nine-year-old lost his patience though.

"How many times do I must tell you, that I don't make it in fuuinjutsu?" said Naruto, annoyed, folding his arms.

Hiruzen didn't answer at first. He never reacted to anger. He reached for his pipe and began to rub in the tobacco. It wasn't until he almost ended to do so, when he started speaking, noticing Naruto calmed down a little.

"Naruto, list all areas of shinobi practice."

Namikaze looked at him in surprise. It took him a little off guard.

"The ninjutsu, the taijutsu, the genjutsu, the kenjutsu. And last, but not least," he spread his arms, showing work in front of him, "the fuuinjutsu."

"Oh, yeah, how very much he likes to show off," thought Hiruzen, laughing inside. He only nodded his head though.

"Yes. Now list the most famous masters of each of them."

"Hmm?"

It surprised him even more. This talk had made no sense to him, but whateva.

"Start with genjutsu."

"Genjutsu... it's probably Kurenai, Kurenai Yuhi? Hey, hardly anyone masters genjutsu, so it was easy."

"Oh, oh, yes. You're right. Kurenai is a genjutsu master, indeed. Kenjutsu?"

If he named Itachi or Shisui, he would get a little worried.

"It's a little harder. I think either the samurai from the Iron country or the Seven Masters of the Sword, from the Mist."

"Taijutsu?"

"Honestly, I don't know. This Maito Gai... or was it Guy? He is said to be very good, but I don't believe it."

"Oh? Why?"

"He looks so stupid! How does someone like him could be a taijutsu master?"

"You would be surprised, how much differs an outside look from what's on the inside, Naruto. You must know a person better before judging one. Remember that. And for you know, Maito Gai is a powerful taijutsu master. What about ninjutsu?"

Naruto looked at him suspiciously and folded his arms.

"Admit it, this whole talk is only for making me say that you are best at ninjutsu."

Hiruzen laughed at this.

"So don't say it, Naruto. What about fuuinjutsu?"

Naruto looked down.

"My father, the Fourth Hokage."

Hiruzen popped his pipe.

"Yes, Minato is one of the best living people, when it comes to fuinjutsu. But you are wrong."

It surprised Naruto.

"How is that?"

Hiruzen pointed his finger at the painting hanging on the wall.

"Could you take this off and bring it here?"

"Okay..."

He felt that he knew the sign from somewhere, but he didn't know from where. It felt as if having a word at the end of the tongue, but one can't say what word it is.

When he sat down and put the painting on the table, the Third asked:

"What do you think about this, Naruto?"

"I've seen this sign somewhere, but I don't remember where exactly."

Hiruzen nodded approvingly.

"This is the emblem that is placed..."

"...on shinobi jackets! Of course!" finished Naruto, facepalming himself.

Painted was a red vortex circle on a white background.

"Yes. Every shinobi of Konoha, as I told you, should know the basics of every field of ninja arts. Without these basics, you can't be an effective shinobi, Naruto."

"Yes, yes, I know, you don't have to repeat yourself, old man."

"This is not the only reason, Naruto, that I want to teach you fuuinjutsu."

"Really?"

"This symbol you see here is an emblem of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto. You see, in the first year of the Academy, you study the history of Konoha. The First and Second Hokage were from the Senju clan. Members of both these clans, Uzumaki and Senju, were very distant relatives. Their common roots were, ohoho, very ancient times. A thousand of years, at least. Half-legendary. What you don't learn at the Academy though, is that the Uzumaki clan was once Konoha's most faithful and greatest ally. My sensei's wife, the First Hokage, was from the Uzumaki clan. Her name was Uzumaki Mito."

"Uzumaki clan... was? As if, they aren't there anymore?"

Hiruzen nodded sadly, looking away.

"Twenty-four years ago, during the war, Uzushiogakure, home of the Uzumaki, was conquered and destroyed. Every man, woman and even young ones. Every building, there is no stone left on another stone. Few Uzumaki survived. Only a few families, which was because they were far away from home during the invasion. They did not have a home to come back to, so one of those families came here, to Konoha. It was them, who taught your father fuinjutsu. A lone mother with one daughter."

"Maybe...?"

Hiruzen shook his head.

"No, they won't teach you. Unfortunately, the woman who was your father's sensei died shortly after she passed every bit of her knowledge to Minato. Huge loss, I say."

"What about the daughter?"

Hiruzen gave him a long look.

Naruto deserved to know, It wasn't that big of a state secret really, since she died and who knows where Kyuubi is now. And she was Naruto's mother. He could not tell him though, that they suspected suicide... he was too young for that.

"She died not long after her mother."

Naruto nodded.

"It was during a mission to find other of her clansmen." Hiruzen added.

And Naruto felt it was a lie.

_

Kakashi stood with flowers in his hand in front of Memorial Stone.

The fact, that he was here, wouldn't surprise anyone. People knew, where to look for him, when he was, almost always, running late.

People used to be full of respect for his mourning. As years slowly passed, it didn't raise such feelings no more. Only politeness, which he found mocking. He preferred when people felt anger and irritation over his stupid mannerisms.

Sometimes though, they who knew, just looked at him with pity in their gaze.

He thought, they didn't remember another Kakashi, who wasn't standing in front of Memorial Stone for hours no end. Who was arrogant and laughed at them for their inability to stand against him; and who was, at the same time, strangely likeable more often than not, although he himself didn't know why that seemed to be the case.

Strangers were overwhelmed by his fame. Ninja, who knew a thousand jutsus, right?

No more than a two hundred.

Chidori no Kakashi, they named him. Kakashi of a thousand screeching birds.

Ain't helping with making new friends, is it?

Didn't help him with the ones he already lost.

His friends no longer remembered the Old Kakashi. As far as there has ever been someone like that, for he wasn't so sure anymore.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into years. His whole past... from before... was just an abstraction, incomprehensible and foreign.

These years today turned into a decade. What he had become?

"Let's go," said Minato Namikaze. Kakashi felt like a beaten dog, when he followed him.

Obito and Rin were buried side by side on Hokage's orders. The Uchiha clan and Rin's parents tried to protest, but his sensei was adamant.

At least in this way they will finally be together.

This, however, did not comfort anyone. Silver-haired only saw the irony that was spitting on his face. Obito's body wasn't even here. Only Rin's.

"Why, Rin, why? Did you really want to meet him so badly? Didn't you know what promise I gave to him?"

He could say no more, before he fell to his knees in front of the grave and cried.

_

Hours later. Same place.

A figure in a black coat appeared out of nowhere.

Obito took off his mask. He wanted Rin to recognize him.

If only he could, he would save her from them. From Kakashi. If only he could make it back in time.

Obito looked at the grave that was marked with his name.

He felt no feeling, except one and only one, which was the only thing that gave him his strength.

Love he still felt for her. Always. Since the time, he first laid his eyes on her.

He stood there for a while, not speaking.

If only he could make it.

"It's time," said black Zetsu, who was without white half.

_

Fugaku didn't look up, when the door to his office opened.

"Sasuke, it's late. Why aren't you in bed?"

He didn't ask for anyone. And no one ever comes at this hour. It must be his second son again. He thought he was too big for that, but apparently he was wrong.

There was no answer.

He waited for a few seconds, still a pen in hand, writing.

Only then did he look up.

And he frantically stood up, knocking over the chair. He immediately took a stance, ready to fight.

"Who are you?! What is this intrusion?!"

In front of him stood a tall figure in a dark coat, just as tall, reaching the floor. It had also very long sleeves.

A mask with flaming patterns was visible from under a wide hood. It only had one hole, for the left eye.

"Who are you?! Speak, damn you!"

"You really don't know who I am?" the man asked in a puzzled tone.

"Is that some kind of a stupid joke?! Why would I know that?!"

Madara expected Fugaku to recognize the mask. It seems that the Fourth has concealed at least some of what happened nine years ago.

"You should know. After all, we're both Uchiha."

"Who the hell are you?! If you are actually an Uchiha, you should know that such intrusion is considered an assault on the clan's head. The penalty is death."

"I know. I created that law, mind you."

What?

"What?"

The man in the mask sat down in front of the desk. His every move was observed by Fugaku.

"Sit."

That voice... there was something about it, that made him feel a twinge of fear.

Even if he was an Uchiha, he was something utterly different.

He took his chair and placed it on its place.

He sat.

"Now, we can talk. And, you heard me. I created that law. My name is Uchiha Madara."

Laughter, terror, surprise. Calm. Madara was impressed by how quickly Fugaku managed to calm his mind down, though his face showed suspense.

"Whether or not you believe me, it does not matter. I haven't come to take my place from you."

Fugaku didn't like this tone.

"I thought the First Hokage killed my predecessor in Valley of the End."

Madara pointed to a place, where there would probably be a second hole for a right eye.

"Izanagi."

Fugaku nodded. He wasn't very surprised. It was a kinjutsu, but Madara must've known it. The elders suspected this, but kept it a secret from everyone outside.

It could be considered an act of treason. At this point, the irony of that statement was laughable.

"Why are you hiding your face from me?"

However, the fact that these suspicions turned out to be, at least maybe, true, disturbed him nonetheless.

"Only a few people are still alive, who keep the knowledge of what I looked like in their memories. It will be finally forgotten, when they die."

Fugaku raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

"Why are you disturbing the peace of this village, Madara?"

Fugaku sensed his eyes on him. He looked into the hole in the mask and watched it closely.

Sharingan.

"Is that what you call peace? What you name peace, I call calm before the storm. Let's talk why I am here."

_

Autumn.

No one said a word about Fourth Hokage, even though they were at his son's ninth birthday.

Naruto was sitting on the windowsill and watching Konoha's night panorama.

He couldn't sleep.

His father hasn't come. Again.

Today were his 9th birthday. Everyone who did come, long ago went to their homes and laid asleep in their beds.

He couldn't take his eyes off of this city' landscape.

Konoha was sleeping. Yellow light from the lamps, who were only light sources except the moon, created a melancholic vibe.

A clock on the wall in his room showed one o'clock at night, but he wasn't weary. What he felt, did not feel like that.

He sure was often tired. Academy courses, Third's lessons. He felt a slight consolation in that from today, he was a genin. Officially.

He dreamed about it, he truly did, but now it felt bland. Like it was just another day, that one becomes genin. That was a peak moment in his life and yet, now, when he was alone, and it was late at night, he couldn't feel the happiness he certainly did feel, when he got the news.

For his father, even though he gave him a promotion, did not come to celebrate his birthday. That was so much different from years before.

The wind blew strongly. Sound of rustling leaves filled the empty space between his heart and body.

Somewhere in the distance dog barked.

Naruto jumped off the sill on the floor and opened the window as wide as it was possible.

He liked the cold. When the wind blew on his face, he felt just free.

Freedom. And ease.

Oh, how much he loved that feeling.

He stood by the bed and widely spread his arms, welcoming it and begging it, in his mind, to stay. It never did.

He smiled, when he felt chills all over his body. It was freezing cold, but for these couple of seconds, he always forgets about everything.

He wanted to be like the wind, uncontrollable and playful, free and not bound by anything.

He felt cold tears running down his cheeks.

When he opened them, his eyes went to the picture of a smiling Fourth Hokage, that was framed on his bedside.

He grabbed it and threw it out the window as hardly as he possibly could, screaming loudly until it hit the ground below.

He closed the window with a bang and threw himself on the bed, sobbing.

Naruto left the building, and then without even looking up, headed for the academy gate. He knew where to go.

On Thursdays, he always comes home by himself, alone.

Like every winter, he was happy to be outdoors. The snow creaked pleasantly under his boots. He was dressed in a warm orange jacket and blue, thick pants. Cold pinched his cheeks playfully, and he was smiling widely because of this.

He passed by snowball battle which was always there near academy, during the winter. Kids were laughing loudly.

He ain't a girl, so he is safe with just passing by. Nobody will attack him just like that, for they knew his revenge was always sweeter than most people's.

Some minutes later, he found himself at the crossroads. He glanced sideways. It's been a long time since he was in the Academy Park.

He sat on the bench and pulled out a map of Konoha.

He began to study it.

"A shinobi must know his village as well as the back of his own hand," he heard Third's voice.

To visit, there was left only one place. He has never been there, he thought surprised.

Well, he can do it today. He stood up and took the walk to the place. He put the map to his backpack - he didn't need it anymore.

He wasn't afraid. Right?

As he passed through the main gate of the cemetery, a wide square appeared to his eyes.

A tall board with a map painted on it, stood next to one of the benches.

He looked at it. The whole cemetery, square, divided into nine, numbered from 1 to 8 and a star.

He noticed it. On the map. The golden star. Grandfather's two sensei. The First and The Second.

He felt joy. Euphoria, even.

He never felt anything like that.

He didn't notice the moment, when he started running. People were turning around, surprised. Naruto was slipping between them without stopping for a moment. In his blue eyes they could see only happiness.

These people were blind. Are. Will be.

The Eyes were wild. They were mad. Every time they turned, they turned again, never focusing on anything longer than a quarter of a second.

What people ever saw, were his blue pupils. People always see what they want to see. If someone ever noticed him, he was always the esteemed son of Minato Namikaze.

Naruto was watching himself from above.

But these eyes, they were the Eyes, even though now like of a madman.

When the son of Minato passed the inner gate, son of Minato immediately noticed a large rock with a strange, angular shape. Behind it was a half-round high wall with thousands of inscriptions. They were dead names.

Lamps lit everything brightly.

Naruto awakened in his own body, out of euphoric amok.

He felt, he had to look behind himself. He was tempted to do it.

"No."

But he was doing it already.

"No! No, no, no! NO!" he shouted.

But the temptation was too strong. He gave up.

And suddenly, when he saw, what he must've seen before, the world around him stopped.

Every single man, woman or child disappeared. What was left, was only a strange smell.

Foul odor of the Death.

He had no right to know, but he knew anyway. The stench of the battlefield and hundreds of rotting bodies.

White tombstones to the horizon. There were hundreds of them. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. They filled his field of view. They covered the sky and the sun, and every star. Day, night, day, night, were passing by minutes. Arranged in rows, even, and clean. His field of view widened.

He still was watching himself and being himself from above at the same time.

Naruto heard his laughter. He sounded evil.

Then, suddenly, despair of hundreds came upon him. Despair, hate, longing, sadness.

Why didn't he notice them before as he was running on this straight path? He fell to his knees.

He was so cold.

Hate.

Hate.

Hate.

Increasingly, everything was in the end obscured by hatred.

He felt, as if he was drowning. On his whole body, he felt the Hatred. It wanted to tear him apart.

He raised his hand to look at it, but when he tried to do so, his forehead burned him with great pain.

"The end," he heard himself say. He did not know why he did that.

And then pain disappeared.

He fell to the ground with his whole body. He tried to get up on all fours. He managed to do it, even though he had no strength. The only strength he still had, was of his will.

He raised his head. Suffering, despair, hatred, sadness of thousands of people who visited this place. Every. Single. Day.

He watched them. Days were like seconds, stages of the moon passed by, and full moons were like minutes to him. He did not see people, only blurs of their bodies and their feelings.

A strange feeling of... fullness overlap him. He felt, as if millions of souls were crushed inside of his chest and between his hands, between his fingers.

He tried to breathe. He could not catch it.

He was terrified. He wanted to scream, but couldn't catch a foreign air. He felt a stinging pain in the left chest. It was his heart.

Something appeared above him. It was watching him.

It seemed to him, that it was Death herself, who was looking straight at his small posture. He felt so small in her presence. He raised his eyes.

It was a giant figure of a strange looking head. At its base, fiery purple flames were burning, and her eyes were like nothing out of this world. Royal purple, cut with black circles centering. They were looking at him.

And he was watching himself.

People were passing him all the time, paying no attention to anything. They were blurs, months passed like seconds.

Nobody looked at him. Nobody cared about him. Only thing they ever saw him as, was a son of Hokage. The Hokage they knew better than his own son knew him. This son stood in front of him smiling now.

Suddenly, Death stuck out a snake tongue from her nightmare giant lips, which entwined the neck of a son of the Hokage, who stood in front of him. Disgusting tongue raised the boy, holding him by his throat.

Huge head opened its mouth and devoured a son of the Hokage.

Naruto shook with coldness, that suddenly enveloped his entire body.

The cry of the devoured boy dripped with anguish and horrible pain. Behind him he heard a snarl of an animal. He didn't understand, but felt this animal was full of anger and hatred. He could hear it clearly, even though he knew that there was nobody around him.

Then, he realized that he was the one screaming. He found himself in the mouth of this monster in a form of a large head with purple flames surrounding its base.

Suddenly nine black flames appeared in front of him, which hung in the air opposite of him, orbiting slowly in a two-dimensional space.

He looked around.

He was on a meadow.

He felt nothing.

He looked at the black flames.

Six of the nine flames moved: three forming an external triangle between them, three forming an internal one.

Then, every of the nine started spinning, faster and faster, until they blurred into three thin lines, creating three black circles: internal, central and external.

Then, color purple enveloped the inside of this strange creation.

"Let it go", he heard a woman's voice.

He felt a blissful calm.

He slept through the rest of the night with no dreams.

_

Naruto opened his eyes. It was still a night. He stared at the ceiling of his room.

"They lie," someone near said.

Boy did not respond.

"They lie."

"Who lies?"

The Voice laughed.

"You don't know...? Ah... apparently you do know. Konoha lies. Your grandfather. Aunt. Uncle. Everyone lies. To you."

A pause.

"And you realize that. You feel anguish. I know this. You know this. You can feel my hate, don't you?"

A pause.

The Voiced laughed again.

"One thing only makes us distinct. You lie to yourself, just like everybody lies to you. You don't know any different. But I do."

"Who are you?"

"I have many names, but I am now your conscience."

"What do you want?"

"I want nothing that you can give me. Let's not talk about what I want. Let's just say... you have a part of me. Not that you knew it before. In the end, they always hide you in your cell."

Naruto didn't respond.

"I know you, Naruto. In the same way that you know they lie. I think you understand, what that means... or you don't and I am wrong about you?"

Naruto closed his eyes. A single tear ran down his cheek. The Voice laughed yet again, mockingly this time.

"Yes, boy. This is your first answer. You have this gift from me. In the future, you will know more about it and about yourself. And now... one more thing... you will inform no one about me or I'll kill you just as easy, as if by a snap of my fingers."

Even if the Voice did not blackmail him, the boy wouldn't inform anyone; and they both knew it, which Naruto was sure of.

The Voice wanted to tell him and Naruto knew what the Voice said in his last sentence, was true.

They are now in this together, are they?

The cemetery was exactly like in his dream, even though only in his dream he had seen it before coming here in person.

He didn't hurry. He had time.

The board. The map. The numbers. The golden star. Everything was the same.

He finally reached the centre.

The only difference was in the silver-haired tall shinobi.

"Who is buried here?" he asked famed ninja.

The man looked at him. One of his eyes was covered under Konoha band.

Kakashi wondered who was observing him for so long. Now, he knew. He looked back at Memorial Stone.

"No one." shinobi responded blankly.

Naruto did not know why, but he felt shivers going on his spine.

"So why are you here, Kakashi Hatake?"

Ninja snorted.

From a child's perspective, everything has always been so simple. Naruto was visibly confused that he laughed.

"I'm sorry, Naruto Namikaze."

The boy nodded. He did not show a surprise, when famed shinobi knew his name. Kakashi thought that was to be expected from Hokage's son.

"I am here for those, who were and for those, who couldn't be buried here."

"You need not to sense other's negative feelings to talk to people, you know?" Naruto smiled warmly. "Time has come for your sadness to go. I say to you: let it go."

After that meeting Kakashi finally started to let it go.

After a few years, he repeated the phrase, when he finally did... let it go.