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retroaria · 8 hours ago

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Hi, happy new year!! I hope you're doing great! 🎊🎆

This is genuinely so random but I would love to request fluffy windbreaker boys (choji, sakura, suo, etc etc.) reacting to their s/o calling them for help because they got hurt ... but it's just a tiny scar ! I wanna know how they would react if they found their s/o acting dramatic over a small scratch lol 😭

this request is vv cute, i don’t write for choji so i swapped him with kaji!! thank you anon and happy new year to you as well <333 ~ aria!

𓂃⋆.˚ these guys are somehow patient as ever... ── ★

★ how the windbreaker boys would react to an apparently “injured” s/o. gn!reader btw!!

★ mentions of blood, cuts, injuries, etc. for kaji, reader works in a cafe i just picked something random for the plot.

• wb m.list • as always, reblogs are appreciated!

★ he's just in awe...

“Did you just snicker at me?” you raised a brow in annoyance, shooting an expectant glance at Suo as he worked gently to wrap a bandage around your hand. Your question only seemed to amuse him more, the smirk plastered on his face began to stretch out to a smile as he tried to hold back his bubbling giggles. “Hmph~ I could’ve bled to death you know.” you pouted at him again - even you knew it wasn’t that serious of a cut, but here he was making you feel like an idiot for waking him up at the crack of dawn because you couldn’t cut an avocado properly.

“I’ve had nose bleeds more crucial than this~ you’re going to be fine my love.” he coed at you through his goofy smile, letting out a few breathy chuckles as he spoke.

The cut was right between your thumb and index finger, which was genuinely an annoying place to get a cut. You woke up this morning and for some reason decided to play master chef, wanting to surprise Suo with breakfast in bed. As you began cutting into the avocado, cutting through the skin and around the inner pit, you had failed to realize your hand was in the way of a full 360° cut. You pushed the knife down with a force you’d usually only use if your flesh wasn’t in the way, but of course, you didn’t notice until it was too late.

A fair amount of blood had gushed out at first, but the wound stopped bleeding by the time Suo had woken up to your frantic calls from the kitchen. He all but hopped out of bed and sprang straight to your side. When you lifted the paper towel you were using to soak up some of the blood in your hand, his eyes darted between you and the cut before he let out a sigh of relief - and slight disbelief. Without saying a word, he grabbed your hand and guided you into the bathroom, sitting you down on the toilet as he rummaged through the cabinet below the sink for the first aid kit.

As he made the final rotation around your hand, he pulled the end of the bandage tightly. You winced a bit and watched as he tucked it snug under itself. Suo looked up at you, still smiling.

“Does your ouchie feel ok now?” he said in a mocking tone, standing before you with your hands in his to bring you up with him.

“Fuck you, this wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t trying to do something nice for you…” you pouted again and looked away, feeling rather silly and unaccomplished for not being able to finish breakfast.

“Miraculously, you didn’t get any blood on the food. How about you sit down and I finish breakfast, hmm? Don’t want you working yourself too hard when you’re oh so injured, my poor baby~” he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into him, ignoring the disgruntled look on your face and planting a chaste kiss to the top of your head. “No more knives for you, yeah?” he chuckled softly against your skin.

★ has no idea what's going on...

“S-sakura! I’m serious! I don’t think I can walk like this, can you please come get me?” your words came out like sobs over the call, but of course, Sakura was already sprinting to you the second you said you were hurt. He got to the street you were on and peered down every alley until he spotted you on the ground leaned against the wall of a building, clutching your ankle in pain. He immediately ran over to you and fell to his knees beside you. He was panting from the run there and his eyes scanned your body for any visible signs of injury.

“Hey-hey, its ok. What happened? Did someone hurt you!? Who was it?” Before even assessing the scene before him, Sakura was in a frenzy. He was practically seething at the thought of someone hurting you, yet his hands began to wrap around you gently, contrasting his demeanor. You gazed into his eyes for a few moments before glancing over at the culprit, beaconing his eyes to follow yours.

“A…a soda can…?” his angered expression twisted into a dopy look of confusion. He looked at the can a few seconds longer before looking down at your ankle and noticing that your foot was aligned just fine. His eyes then met yours again. “Did you…just trip on the can?”

“Y-yeah, and I fell and scraped the palms of my hands too. It hurts Sakura…c-can you carry me?” you sniffled, bringing one hand up to wipe your tear stained cheeks. For a moment, he looked at you in disbelief. You caught his expression and furrowed your brows at him. “I’m serious! What if it’s sprained!?”

“Well, is it?” he asked cluelessly as he scratched the back of his head.

“How should I know!?” you shot back, upset that he wasn’t taking you seriously.

“I-I just wanna make sure! Did you try walking on it?” he was still a bit confused but his voice was laced with genuine concern.

“No, that’ll just hurt even more, please I don’t want it to hurt~” you pouted up at him, your eyes glossy as they looked into his. He couldn’t bear the sight of you this distressed anymore.

“No no, don’t worry baby it’s gonna be ok...” he scoured his brain for the right words to use, nervous to upset you any further. “I-I can carry you home and we’ll uh…figure it out from there. I’m gonna make you feel better though I promise. Please stop crying...” he pushed any possible doubt from his mind and wrapped his arms under your body, lifting you up bridal style. He gave you a warm smile as your body molded comfortably against his.

He walked you home and laid you down in bed, placing an ice pack over your ankle before laying down next to you. He comforted you in your fragile state until you drifted off to sleep, and eventually, you kicked the ice pack off your ankle as your body shifted in the bed. Sakura let out a sigh of relief, glad that you had finally stopped crying and that by the morning you’d believe his love and a little ice healed your supposedly broken ankle.

★ you're lucky he loves you...

panting, heaving, covered in sweat and slightly more scuffed than usual - your knight in shining armor, ren kaji, makes his grand entrance to save you. even from way behind the counter, you could see the subtle smirk forming at the corner of his mouth as he gazed upon your hopeful expression.

"I came as soon as I got your text, is everything ok?" his eyes scanned over you and the rest of the cafe, checking for any signs of struggle.

well, you didn't expect him to run here like your life was in danger. you began to feel a bit small under his gaze, thinking of how to tell him what happened. he walked closer to you on the other side of the counter, leaning in to get a betterlook. as far as he could tell, you didn't seem injured at all. his eyes made their way back to yours and he raised his eyebrow a bit. truthfully, he didn't want to accept that he'd abandoned his patrol early in order to come here for nothing, so he persisted a bit and calmed his demeanor.

"Hey...y-you ok?" his voiced began to rasp towards the end and he cleared his throat.

"Well, yeah, but..." you let your words trail off as you raised your hand over to him. he looked down at your palm for a few seconds before grabbing it with his hand and pulling it closer to him. after a few more moments of inspection, he let out a sigh and looked up at you.

"What are you even trying to show me?" he said slightly annoyed.

"You don't see it?" you pouted at him. you leaned in closer and pointed at a small sharp of glass splintered into your palm.

"I don't see shit..." he said slightly frustrated as he genuinely tried to find what it is you were trying to show him. He turned your hand a bit and the light reflected off the glass enough for it to finally show in his vision. "A splinter?"

you looked up at him through glossy, hooded eyes - trying your best to make him give in and help you despite the look of annoyance and disbelief plastered on his face right now. "Uh, yeah...a-and it hurts! so, i can't take it out on my own..."

he furrowed his brows and closed his eyes - turned his head slightly down as to hide his face from you. how was he supposed to scold you for taking him away from his duties when you looked at him like that? it was absurd. he took a few deep breaths before his eyes met yours again. he decided that he'd make sure you knew this was a nusance, but he still wanted to play knight in shining armor.

and so he sat there at the cafe counter, his face disgruntled and a pair of tweezers in his hand as he shaky attempted to remove the small shard of glass from your hand. if he had taken a few minutes to calm down he surely could've done this much faster, but eventually he did get the glass out - a sense of pride washing away some of his annoyance as you thanked him.

"It's whatever, y-you're welcome...but next time, don't just text me 'help', maybe fill me in on the situation before i run halfway across town." he huffed.

network: @pixelcafe-network

#wind breaker x y/n #sakura wind breaker #windbreaker fluff #windbreaker headcanons #wind breaker headcanons #windbreaker x reader #wind breaker x reader #sakura haruka headcanons #sakura haruka fluff #haruka sakura x reader #suo hayato x reader #hayato suo #suo hayato #ren kaji #ren kaji x reader #kaji ren x reader

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meimi-haneoka · 1 year ago

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Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Chapter 76: Comments + JP-ENG translation differences

Ooooh CCS fans, welcome back to our monthly appointment!! Which, apparently, will go on a little longer than previously expected because (I'm sure you've heard of it in the last month, but in case you didn't) CLAMP/Kodansha did what I thought they wouldn't dare doing: they extended the Clear Card serialization a little bit more, announcing the last volume will be the 16th one, instead of the 15th one as previously stated! Volume 16 will be released on April 1st 2024, while they also delayed the release of volume 15 to November 13th (this made me suspicious, is it to accomodate more chapters in it? Or what else happened there, to delay it?) I have no idea how many more chapters we'll get at this point (or if the 16th volume was born because it will accomodate some after-story extra chapters), but I have to say that after the initial shock, I've took the news quite well and I just can't deny that the story really seemed to need a bit more room to develop the conclusion properly, so I'd daresay the announcement ultimately made me sigh in relief. And this chapter definitely proved to me that things are steadily proceeding, but taking care in depicting carefully and without haste an heroic moment that will turn out to be more complex than what probably Sakura & co. expected. I'm gonna need a bit more patience to see how all of this ends, but I prefer for the end to not be rushed and not have regrets in the future! Also, this looks like it might tie in with the beginning of season 2 of the anime? We'll see!

Well, after this preamble to update everyone on the situation of the serialization, we'll proceed under the cut to talk about the actual chapter, which unfortunately this month is stained by several translation mistakes, omissions and inaccuracies. They really deceived me, doing a good job on the past 2 chapters...*sigh* I'm still quite mad because of course WHO gets affected the most, among those translation mistakes? I feel like coming at this point I don't even have to state it. *another sigh* Before diving into my ramblings, let's give a look to the gif of this month! I chose this one because I feel like I need to lighten the mood a little bit, since between the end of this one and -I'm sure- the next chapter, I'm afraid there won't be anything to laugh about.

Under the cut!

The Color Page

Anyone following this blog since some time, or who knows me well, probably doesn't need to be told that I completely loved the color page of this month! 🥰After 11 chapters, Akiho comes back to grace the opening page of a chapter of Clear Card. It's very simple, but in its simplicity I could feel all of Akiho's essence, while appreciating the usual symbolism of some elements of the color page. First and foremost, Akiho is smiling, and that wasn't a given for a color page appearing at the end of this story. We've seen Sakura making plenty of wistful faces lately, so it feels like we can't really take for granted to see our characters smiling. But her beautiful smile in combination with the nice shade of green Mokona-sensei chose for her elegant dress (which is totally in tune with what Akiho would wear) is really giving a kind of hopeful vibe to the whole color page. And I feel that for this chapter, we really needed that. Green is kind of an unusual color to associate Akiho with, but there's more to it. Together with the shade of yellow that sensei used to create a gradient on the skirt, this green is a clear callback to the color scheme of the lilies that Akiho is holding and wearing among her curls. And as we all know, lilies in this arc are primarily a symbol of the character who literally bears their name: Akiho's mother, Lilie (German for "lily"). As soon as I saw the presence of lilies in this color page with her, I went all "awwww" because I couldn't help but think "this is a sign her mother is watching over her and is always with her, right?" And inevitably, seeing Akiho gently holding those flowers made me wish even more that she could know something, anything about her mother. I also noticed that Mokona-sensei slightly changed the shading of Akiho's hair again, removing the yellowish undertone that was present in the most recent color pages that Akiho appeared in, making me sigh because I'll have to modify my color palette for my fanarts once again 😩it still looks lighter than her mother's, at least, and it's still very much ash blonde. The editorial text in JP on the color page is what Sakura told her at the end of chapter 73: "Let's get them back. The one you didn't want to lose".

Collapsing Time

Aaaaand this chapter for me started with a "I KNEW IT!" equipped with a loud laughter, because ever since chapter 75 ended I've really been wondering "will the group at home be able to follow their journey inside the fake moon, or will the connection be conveniently cut off?" OF COURSE IT'S THE LATTER, what else could've been? 😆 Tomoyo rationally wonders if the signal simply doesn't reach in the space inside the fake moon, but Eriol from the other end of the videocall tells everyone that these are rather some more specific, particular circumstances: he was able to see what was inside the fake moon for a split second before the connection was cut off, and what he saw is an environment where time isn't simply stopped, is actually collapsing. I want to start my long list of complaints about the translation in English of this chapter, with this mild inaccuracy: the ENG makes Eriol consistently sound unsure of what he's affirming above, using verbs like I suppose, while the JP text doesn't leave any trace of doubt - Eriol isn't supposing, he knows that time is breaking down in that environment.

Back to Sakura and Syaoran, our little heroes start to feel the effects of this powerful magic that is permeating the interior of the fake moon, with Syaoran noticing that the clock parts fluctuating aren't really deformed like they're seeing, but only appear so due to the strong pressure of the magic spell inside that environment. And here we have to stop once again, because this is another straight up mistake of the ENG translation:

ENG: "There's nothing wrong with the watch itself. The spell's placed too much pressure on it. It only looks broken"

JP: "It's not like the components of the clocks are really deformed...They only look like that because the pressure of the magic spell is too strong"

As you can see, skipping the translation of the word 部品 (components) made them completely misunderstand Syaoran's line and make it about the pocket watch in their hands, instead of the fluctuating clock parts! And it's like they wanted to give an explanation to why the pocket watch looks broken (hello??? The pocket watch gradually broke when Kaito was still active in the un-rewritten world!!), despite the adjective used in JP is deformed, not broken. But let's go on.

Sakura starts to feel that pressure on her head, in fact she points out that her head is hurting to a worried Syaoran (JP, lit.: "My head is..."). He answers that it's only normal, because the spell is so powerful that it's affecting them physically, and he can feel those effects too (he's only better at dissimulating it, apparently). (I'm just worried if it's clear in the ENG translation, by how they're phrasing things, that the spell Syaoran is referring to is the one that's active on the whole place, not the one he used to trace the owner of the pocket watch). Syaoran continues saying that it's happening the same to the interior of the "fake moon", basically everything is so warped and deformed (due to the strong pressure) that if the pocket watch didn't show them the way, they would've lost both their sense of orientation and even the "target" they were tracking with that compass. So while the readers might have thought that if Sakura and Syaoran got there successfully it was only thanks to the compass, CLAMP went out of their way to specify that it wasn't exactly like that: it seems like the pocket watch actively guided them through the magic beam that originated from the compass, preventing them from getting lost. I guess without the watch's intervention, the compass might have still shot that beam in search for Kaito, but it might have gotten all of them lost, because the magic spell at work inside that environment is so strong that it warps everything, beam included. Again, I wonder if this concept above is clear enough from how they phrased it in the ENG translation.

And if that wasn't enough, Sakura's sweet smiling face says that Akiho guided them there. Evidently she thinks that the pocket watch is not only permeated by that mysterious moon magic that they still don't know who it belongs to, but also by Akiho's strong will to look for and to find the person she never wanted to lose. Akiho is always with them, spirit tightly connected to that pocket watch, and I couldn't help but being so moved by how considerate and sweet Sakura is. Akiho is evidently at the center of her thoughts even now, after all, she departed for this mission precisely for her sake.

Syaoran says that the beam is pointing at this dragon that is sleeping in front of them, but then actually starts doubting it and says "wait, is this really a dragon...?". The mere fact that he had a second thought about it might already be a sign that there might be more than meets the eyes, behind this creature that we're seeing now. Sakura just needs to look at it for a moment to remember immediately: she met this dragon before, in a dream. Of course, she can remember about this only thanks to the "film strips of memories" that the Record Card supplied her with some chapters ago, since it's all stuff that comes from the "un-rewritten world". Then, Sakura takes charge of the pocket watch and thanks Syaoran for his help with the compass: it's clear that she wants to talk to the dragon, now. Clutching the pocket watch tightly and looking at the sleeping creature in an intense way, she gets closer to it.

The dragon finally opens its eyes and wakes up.

Sakura is such a sweet and well mannered girl, so I couldn't help smiling when she said this: (JP, lit.) "Please allow me to address you with "you" (anata), since I don't know your name". Yes, because Sakura's usual speech pattern includes calling people by their name, rather than using a direct "anata". Even with Syaoran, some pages ago, she didn't use a direct "you", but simply repeated his name instead. Her usual way to talk to people always sounds very soft, well mannered and warm to me, while probably using "anata" even with her closest people feels too "blunt" to her. Or, maybe, "impersonal". In this case, she really doesn't have any other choice, though. Alas, this was something that was hardly translatable in a literal way in the ENG version, and I think the way they chose works pretty well anyway.

And so, Sakura continues. (JP, but ENG is equally fine as well:) "I can feel 'something' coming from you, which is the same that I can feel coming from this watch as well. I guess Syaoran-kun would call it 'magical power'. Do you know the owner of this watch? Or.....is this watch YOURS?" How cute, this really shows clearly that Sakura's relationship with magic is not made of technicalities and such, and she still feels a newbie about it, so she is capable of feeling distinctly the magical aura coming off the dragon and the pocket watch, but she isn't still used to use technical terms like "magical power", "aura" and such. Syaoran is the expert for those things, and she seems to admire and respect him a lot for that! 😆

Sakura asks something to Syaoran to get a certain confirmation. I have the impression that she could feel it herself, but wanted the confirmation from her expert husband boyfriend. She asks him if the magical power that is permeating the environment of the fake moon is the same moon power that comes from the pocket watch. Syaoran confirms they're different (again, an inaccuracy of the ENG translation, which makes Syaoran say "something is different". There's no "something" in the JP, he was just plainly stating that the two sources of power are different).

I want to point out how cool Syaoran looks in his pose of this scene, his hand gripping the handle of his sword the whole time, ready to unleash it at the minimum sight of danger on Sakura. I really love it because Sakura doesn't really know the intentions of the dragon yet, so what she's doing is pretty risky in itself, but Syaoran didn't stop her, he trusted her and let free to do what she wanted to do. He's just, you know, going to stay in the background with his hand on his sword, ready for any scenario, just in case. 😂 Protective boyfriend (but not suffocating one) strikes again! This is what I mean when I say they came a long way ever since chapter 1.

I Know Your Eyes

Sakura can feel that even the magic coming from the "cage" (she uses a term in JP that sounds more like fence than the harsher cage, though) is different from the one the pocket watch is giving off, and this is all she needs to have the confirmation she was looking for: just putting 2 and 2 together from the difference in powers, she concludes that the dragon is there against its will, and someone else locked it up in there. Sakura asks the dragon if she's right, but it simply......stares at her, in silence.

Sakura watches those eyes....and they're all she needs to see. Because she realizes she knows those eyes.

And here, unfortunately, I have to prepare you for another translation mistake, an actual omission that irritated me quite a lot because I consider this a very important scene for a certain character's depiction and development. And you probably don't even need to ask who he is, because he's been bastardized this whole time by the ENG translation.

ENG: "I know you. I know your eyes...And not just because I've seen them in a dream. With your eyes, you watched over Akiho-chan. Somehow, that memory's still inside of me"

JP: "I know...your eyes. And not because I've seen them in a dream. Those eyes used to look at Akiho-chan with great care/affection. (That feeling) remained inside of me"

*draws a deep breath* Okay. I'll go with my grievances with the translation first and then I'll talk about my own reaction to this scene.

When Sakura is talking about the way Kaito used to look at Akiho (because it's clear as hell we're talking about him here, even if she doesn't remember who he is, yet), the JP text includes a very important adverb, 大切に (taisetsu ni, lit. "carefully, giving importance, cherishing something). And Sakura doubles down on it by preceding it with another adverb, とても (totemo, "very"). It is absolutely, unmistakably clear that Kaito used to look at Akiho with lots of affectionate feelings. That 大切に indicates how much he cherished her...how much she was important to him...and he never said it aloud, probably not even realizing it himself, but his eyes spoke for him. And Sakura saw it all.

The ENG translation completely omitted and skipped the translation of the adverb とても大切に, indicating only that Kaito "watched over" Akiho. Completely stripping the action of looking at her of any emotional involvement. To me, that is intolerable. Why?

Because this is the first time that a character, any character, clearly spells out how Kaito considers Akiho. And of course they gave the honor of pointing out the elephant in the room (gosh, this really looks like that situation) to the protagonist, our Sakura. I mean, we came to this point in the story precisely because nobody was able to say for sure what the hell Kaito thought of Akiho. Not even the person concerned himself! I've seen countless of theories along the years, and a worringly big amount thought that Kaito only wanted to use Akiho for his own selfish goal. I kept seeing speculations of that kind even after all he did in chapter 70. And that was particularly strong in the western side of the fandom, because of how the translation portrayed Kaito all these years. Now that we finally get a spoken, spelled out confirmation that he considered Akiho so important, he cherished her so much, and those sweet feelings seeped through his eyes and couldn't escape Sakura's attentive stare, what do they do? They remove any sign of it. They make Sakura say that he only "watched over her" like a regular watch dog, without touching any of the emotional involvement that was indicated in the JP original text. I remind you that 大切(な) is also the core adjective of the famous 一番大切なひと, "the most important person". If this will be connected to an eventual statement later on, this omission is even worse.

Of course, I cannot be anything else than dismayed at this perpetrated character assassination that this translation is operating on Kaito. Leaving aside all my bias for my two favorite characters, this omission penalizes Sakura's characterization too. The fact the she could recognize Kaito (without knowing it's Kaito) through the Dragon's eyes is a testament to how extraordinarily empathetic she is, and how her empathy is literally saving this story. Her empathy made her understand that Kaito couldn't be a bad person, deep down, because of how he looked at Akiho and how Akiho was so happy with him, leading her to make the decision of not confronting them openly, back in the un-rewritten world. Her empathy is what guided her here and what now is telling her "yes, this IS Akiho's most important person. And that person cherished her too". And how she was able to recognize that? Not because Kaito used to just "watch over" Akiho, what made that gaze special were the feelings that Sakura could see inside of it. All of this story is held up by the feelings between its characters. I think it's a huge mistake to not give the right importance to them, to ALL OF THEM.

I think I complained enough about this translation, so let's get talking about happier things. Because of course, in its original form, this scene became my favorite one from the entire chapter and moved me to tears. I was amazed by how Sakura was capable of recognizing Kaito's soul, his essence, only looking at the dragon's eyes. And you know, although being similar (they are some kind of tsurime too), they're not exactly the same as Kaito's, so it seems clear to me that Sakura recognized them basing on sensations and feelings alone. Eyes are, after all, a window to somebody's soul. And even though we could never really get into Kaito's head, or only partially did towards the end of the "un-rewritten world", I really have to say that his eyes spoke volumes of what he was feeling for the entirety of the manga. And for that, we can only praise Mokona-sensei's wonderful skills. I always loved Kaito's eyes, how they could be mischievous, happy, surprised, sweet, sad, tragic. The fact that I could be sure that he loved Akiho in any capacity till now, was also thanks to how he looked at her. So I was really glad to see the element "eyes" being used in this scene to make Sakura recognize him. And there's more to it. I delved into the use of the word 瞳 (hitomi, lit. "pupils") with the furigana "me" next to it (which is the pronounciation of another kanji used to indicate eyes, 目), and I found out/re-confirmed that 瞳 indeed literally means "pupils", but in manga, songs, novels and such it is a trope used to indicate the eyes when there's an emotional nuance attached to it. It is used to make things sound more "romantic" or drip with emotion. "Your eyes...looked at her with so much affection"... ...You can now understand even better why I am so peeved at the omission of the ENG translation for this part. All the other languages did their job and included the nuance correctly. CLAMP were trying to be very straightforward with their composition of Sakura's line, everything was indicating that this was a very important and emotional moment. Akiho, all alone in Sakura's memories of the double date, is at the center of the entire page, as if to indicate that she was at the center of Kaito's eyes too (because that's what Sakura is talking about in the bubbles). But we can see a "spotlight" beside her, an empty one: that was certainly where Kaito used to be when Sakura met them at the botanical garden.

The Escape

Okay, Sakura found what she was looking for. Or, rather, WHO she was looking for. And it doesn't matter if it's a huge, dark dragon trapped inside a cage. I found this almost hilarious, how she doesn't question even for a second that Akiho's most important person is actually a dragon! But I could quickly realize that it's all because in this manga, external appearances don't matter. What matters is who you are. These are all souls, loving other souls. Everything in between holds no meaning. And so if there's one thing that Sakura knows with all her heart, is that this dragon cannot stay here. So she tells him (yeah, I can finally say "him") to come along with them. But it's in that moment that a danger arises: the clock particles start attacking Sakura and Syaoran at great speed, so much that Syaoran has to turn around very quickly to realize it (I loved the effect in his eyes to indicate the speed). With a swift move, Syaoran summons his famous "Raitei Shourai" and his powerful thunderbolt repels and destroys the clockwork that was about to attack them.

We go back for a moment to Yukito's home, where everyone is staring intently at the tablet to see if Sakura and Syaoran give any sign. A worried Touya (and Yukito, too) turns his attention to Akiho, though, who is the quintessence of tension right now. Hard stare to the screen, she looks as if she's ready to fight anyone at any moment. And here, unfortunately, another translation mistake drops.

ENG: "We need to be sure we're ready to go...In case Sakura-chan calls for us" JP: "I have to be fully prepared...for when Sakura-san will call me"

First thing first, you probably caught it yourself, Akiho calls Sakura "Sakura-chan" in the ENG version, and that's a mistake. She hasn't suddenly changed speech tone in the JP, she hasn't dropped keigo, she still calls her "Sakura-san", as usual. And despite here there isn't a subject (again, a typical thing Ohkawa-sensei does in her scripts), it's pretty understandable that she's talking about herself and not the whole group, because of the imperative tense she's using. Moreover, Sakura told the rest of the group that MAYBE she would've called them if she ended up needing any help, but for Akiho she was SURE she was going to call her, so Akiho really does have to be ready to be called at any moment. Akiho in JP uses a particular word to indicate the concept of "be fully prepared, all set, take all possible measures": 準備万全 (junbi banzen) and when I looked for its complete meaning on the internet, to understand the context better, I found out that this is also the name of a skill in the game of the "Uma Musume" series. That made me laugh because coincidentally, Akiho's voice actress Minori Suzuki is famous for voicing one of the characters of Uma Musume, "Agnes Digital" and I know for a fact that CLAMP are fans of Uma Musume. Was Ohkawa-sensei trying to make a fun reference or an Easter egg, here? 😉 Anyways, Akiho's determined face here is really beautiful, I'd daresay there isn't only determination in those eyes, but also a tiny touch of...irritation? I've probably said it before, on other social media, that I hope Akiho will be the one giving an earful to Kaito, and yell all her feelings in his face while angrily crying 🤪if this is building up to that, I cannot be happier than this!

Everyone proudly looks at our little warrior getting ready, and unfortunately due to the misunderstanding above, Yukito's line is mistaken too, in the ENG version: they make him say "I'm glad we have eachother" while in JP he simply commented "You're so confident/reliable!", which is totally coherent with the face she was making before. The adjective he uses, 頼もしい (tanomoshii) indicates someone who's dependable, reliable, confident or even "sure-footed".

Needless to say, I was very happy to: 1) See an interaction with Akiho coming from Yukito, this is the first time and with this comment he acted like another お兄ちゃん to her (the more, the better); 2) See him defining her "confident and reliable", I've seen a JP fan I follow on Twitter making an interesting interpretation of his line, coming from a character that was always worried over not knowing what to do to help the people he loves, and seeing another magic-less character standing tall and facing this ordeal courageously might have prompted him to understand Akiho's position more than we could imagine; 3) Acknowledge that it really seems as if CLAMP are trying to establish new and more connections between the old cast and Akiho, probably because these connections will stay even after the end.

Back to the situation inside the fake moon, Syaoran yells to Sakura that he's sure he won't be able to break that cage only with his spells, so he urges her to find a way to free and get that dragon out of there while he fends off all the incoming attacks. Sakura immediately complies, and this back and forth between them was already awarded the title of "husband and wife interaction" from the JP fandom. 😂 Sakura remembers what Momo told her about the remaining Cards that are waiting for her call...and sadly I have to point out another translation mistake: while the JP was always vague about the number of Cards awaiting for her to call them, the ENG this time around traced back its steps and made Momo say that "There is one more Card that was left behind", despite in chapter 73 correctly translating Momo's words as a general "There are other Cards that haven't disappeared". So, not only they haven't even checked what they translated just 3 chapters ago and are unable to keep coherence with it, but they didn't even consider that the Card we're about to see isn't even the last one that is waiting to make an appearance ever since the Clockland Play happened. Therefore, it's NOT true that there's just one left.

But the inaccuracies aren't over, because in the next line, Sakura looks at Kaito's pocket watch, and this is the association that she makes with it:

ENG: "This is my mother's watch...and that card looked just like it. I don't remember creating it...but..." JP: "My mother's watch....I created a Card that looked like it, and I never found out when that happened"

Always thanks to Record, Sakura got also back the memories of Nadeshiko's pendant watch, how she got it, and that she found herself with a Card that looked like it but didn't know when she created it (hint: it was because Kaito rewound time, but the Card survived).

It's the moment for Sakura to call the Card: TIME!! And finally, this Card that many awaited in trepidation gets activated for the first time. In a very poignant moment, no less! Sakura, full of gratitude, thinks about her mother and how they made this Card "together", and she finally realizes that Nadeshiko's pendant watch found its way to her through great-grandpa Masaki precisely for this. To be used in this moment. And so she does. She orders to the Card to "activate" the time of the cage, so that she can "open" it, and Nadeshiko's watch goes to position itself precisely over what I think is "the lock" of the cage. I think this might suggest why the watch was changed into a key in the anime: it would make even more sense that it's a key the one that will open the lock. The lock, together with the cage, successfully dissolves, freeing Kaito/the Dragon. The Dragon seemingly "stretches" himself (poor thing, having to stay all crouched for god knows how long!!), destroying all the remaining clockwork in the process. Sakura gets her Card back and doesn't waste time, urging everyone to get out of there. Syaoran notices the opening they had "sliced" into the fake moon earlier, and says to go through that to get outside. I think the opening is appearing here in front of them so immediately because the spell that was warping and making that space so tortuous and convoluted is now broken. Sakura and Syaoran fly towards the opening, successfully getting out of it, but once outside Sakura notices something and looks back in dismay: the Dragon is not moving. She asks frantically why. But Syaoran yells to Sakura to pay attention: she turns around, in time to see a big group of arrows pointing at them, in full attack.

Aaaaand this is where the chapter ends, once again with a big cliffhanger!! Where is this attack coming from???

I'll give you a hint......

Remember a nice afternoon tea, interrupted by a clan of ass*oles allied with an Association of criminals, back in chapter 33? Yeah, Kaito sure remembers well. Lord knows how many of these attacks he had to repel over the months that passed from when he was excommunicated from the Association, officially starting "the war" between him and those bastards. Kaito back then easily fended off the attack by stopping time, again at the expense of his life, but I wonder what will happen now. It's clear it's something that's coming from them. However, I'm still not sure they're concretely sending the attack right now. It might be a "trap" they've left in place in case anybody tried to free Kaito, so maybe Sakura won't confront them directly. I still don't believe this is where it's going. But we'll see what will happen and what direction CLAMP decided to give to this.

My biggest concern is also the Dragon. It became apparent, in this chapter, that the creature is Kaito himself, in some capacity. I say "in some capacity" because we don't know if he was transformed, if this is the form the Seal of D forced on him, or if it's the effect of taking all that magic from the artifact that he got from Akiho. I am pretty sure this isn't his true form or anything like that, he was a human being to begin with.

We don't even know if he's conscious of what's happening right now, what he remembers from "before", from the un-rewritten world. If he remembers about Akiho at all. Unfortunately, he didn't give any signs of even understanding what Sakura was telling him. I have to say it pains me to see Kaito like that, and this is a possibility that I had been preparing myself for since long time, so that surely "cushioned" the blow.

However....

There is a theory going around, about why the Dragon won't move at the end of the chapter. I've seen it both from JP fans and from my mutuals too. And I have to say....it's pretty in-character. It's very convincing. The Dragon/Kaito doesn't move because he doesn't want to. Because he thinks he doesn't deserve to go out there and be saved. And it's to be noted that what Syaoran says is indeed 動かない (doesn't move), not 動けない (can't move). If we have to take those words literally, then we should exclude that there's anything "external" preventing him from moving. The reason is somewhere else.

If it's really Kaito being unsure/not willing to go with them because he doesn't think he deserves to, then that would also mean his memories are intact. Add agony over agony. If his consciousness is intact, I wonder what he thought when he saw Sakura and Syaoran? Was he surprised? I really think this could be the perfect spot where Akiho could finally spring into action. Because THAT is something only SHE can do anything about. If that's really the reason why he's not moving, then he needs to hear the full story. And he needs to hear it from the person his plan affected the most, the one he saved, yes, but also the one he's hurt the most with his blind "excess of love". But before that, Sakura needs to understand where the problem lies. I really hope she'll have the chance to talk to the Dragon again, and with her exceptional empathy, understand that Akiho needs to talk to him.

Next chapter, the 77th one, is going to be published on August 30th on CLAMP's Youtube channel, less than a month away! And by this release date, I can infer it'll go on sale with Nakayoshi on September 1st. At this point it doesn't even feel so "special" to announce it, but the next issue of Nakayoshi will see Sakura once again on the cover, and once again featured in the furoku! At the time of writing this post, no leaks have appeared regarding how/what the furoku will be.

Well! Sorry again for an endless post full of complaints about the translation, but this time around they really messed up. I thought something changed in the translation process in the past 2 chapters and they paid more attention/checked multiple times before giving the OK, but apparently this time that was not the case. As usual, I'll await any question/topic you want to discuss about in my ask box! See you at the end of this month for chapter 77!!

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #clear card arc #ccsakura #ccs spoilers #translation differences #sakura card captor #sakura kinomoto #syaoran li #yuna d. kaito #akiho shinomoto #chapter 76

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saintgoths · 6 months ago

Text

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏᴜʀᴛᴇᴇɴ

WORDS - 4,592.

RATING - G+.

SUMMARY - the third round of the chunin exams gets ambushed.

feedback would be appreciated!

i also cross-post this fic on wattpad and ao3.

previous chapter - chapter thirteen.

It had been just Suiren and Sarada, sat in their living room, Sarada had watched the rom-comedy that had usually been live during this time of the day and Suiren had nibbled on the sweets Shinki had bought her during on their walk back home. Suiren could feel the way Sarada glanced at her from time to time, though Suiren did not have to say anything for her older twin to speak.

“Are you seriously into Shinki?” Sarada had eventually asked and as Suiren moved her green eyes towards her sister, she nodded. “I thought you only saw Shinki as a boy toy,” Sarada reminded and as Suiren leaned on their sofa, she had thought about the time she told Sarada that.

It was a moment before Suiren had realised the compassion she had for Shinki, how he was with her, how he treated her with care and protection. “I once did,” Suiren replied as she slipped the sweet out of her mouth. “But things change,” she said as she shrugged.

“What does Raiden think? Sarada questioned as she folded her arms in her ‘older sister manner’.

Suiren scoffed. “What about what he thinks?”

“You were kind of leading him on,” Sarada forwardly replied and as she sat up, Suiren moved her head away from her.

“No, I wasn’t,” Suiren easily replied and with a distressed laugh, Sarada clicked her tongue.

“Suiren, sometimes you can be so---” Sarada had then cut herself off, she had held her tongue as she had not wanted to cause any trouble.

Though challenged, Suiren sat up slowly the same time she returned to look at Sarada. “I can be so what?” Suiren pressed, eyes narrowed as she rudely examined her.

However, before Sarada could say anything, the front door of their current home had been pushed open, which had caused both Suiren and Sarada to snap their heads towards its direction. The distinct pink hair of their mother was the first thing they saw as the rest of her appearance had been shadowed, behind their mother was the taller figure of their father, both of them had an expression on their face that had made the twins believe they were in trouble.

Suiren the most.

“Hey mum,” Suiren warily smiled. “Hey dad.”

“Well done for passing the Second Round of the Chunin Exams,” their father acknowledged, and as the twins thanked their father, Sasuke closed the door behind him as Sakura pulled off her coat which revealed her usual pink outfit, she had placed her jacket on the hook, and she was silent.

Suiren had felt dreadful, aware that there had been tension shared between her two parents, though she had not commented on it yet.

She continued to eat her sweets.

Although, Sakura couldn’t hold herself back. “Your new powers,” she began and as the youngest licked her lips, Suiren briefly smiled as if she was caught red-handed.

“Yeah, cool powers,” Suiren nodded as she attempted to play it off.

Sakura had then folded her arms, the same way Sarada would, the lady and her husband had watched the way Suiren had formed a glowing symbol of a Lotus Flower few inches form her palm, though it had crackled, as if it was static. “It’s not completed.,” Suiren shrugged as she released the chaos. Now, she had a wider smile on her face, aware that there had been a flash of interest on both her parents’ face, but Sakura had returned to be the worried mother archetype.

“We saw,” Sakura said. “We saw your nose bleed, almost everyone did,” she frowned and as she bit the inside of her left cheek, Suiren glanced down.

“It’s a powerful technique,” Suiren lowly muttered, uncomfortable by the piercing stares she received from everyone.

“How comes you didn’t tell either of us?” Sasuke questioned, his voice warmer than Sakura, though Sasuke usually spoke very soft to his women, specifically his daughters.

With a brief sigh, Suiren sat up. “I wanted to tell you guys about it when it was fully completed,” she sadly smiled. “But circumstances change.”

As he had taken a step forward, there had been a more serious look on her father’s face, his eyebrows straight as if he had remembered the conversation. He had with his wife to be sterner with Suiren, he usually allowed the youngest to get away with a lot. “Communication is vital,” Sasuke said and awkward, Sarada glanced towards Suiren before she moved her vision towards their father, her glasses lowly glinted within the action as she moved. Observant, Sakura turned to Sarada hands on her hips.

“Has Suiren told you about this?” Sakura investigated and with a hard gulp, Sarada shook her head.

“No,” she forwardly replied, though the older twin had held her tongue about the Water Stone.

“You guys cannot forbid me from using my powers if that’s what you’re planning to do,” Suiren popped and as he turned to look at her, Sasuke used all his strength not to kneel.

With a soft smile, Sasuke placed his hand on her head. “We won’t,” he replied. “Though you need to practice it more.”

With a hasty chuckle, Sakura sighed. “I thought you were going to be sterner with her,” Sakura said and with a brief smile directed towards his wife, Sasuke gently shrugged with a knowing look on his face and as she scrunched her nose, Sakura lifted her hands from her hips and folded her arms. “Like old times.”

“It’s my charm,” Suiren clarified as Sasuke let go of her head, he had then pulled off his cloak.

Sakura had then turned to look at her youngest, she arched her right eyebrow. “You’re not getting away with it,” she reminded. “You will have to be doing check-ups if you’re going to be practising something like that,” she said and with an understanding hum, Suiren continued to eat her food.

“To be truthful, that ability is pretty cool, manipulating chakra to her will,” Sarada said and with a happy thank you, Suiren had sat up ready to show her family an example.

She had used the vase with one of the flowers their mother had bought from their aunt’s flower shop, and with her palm aimed towards the vase, the rest of the Uchiha family watched out of curiosity while the sound of matter cackling had gently filled the room, it had sounded like sparks, and from the inside of her palm had floated out a an opaque blue chaos around her hand, the power had lifted up the vase and had warped it, it had looked strange with the way it had bent itself inside.

“That’s magnificent,” Sarada whispered.

Partly, she had struggled but used most of her energy to focus to warp the vase into a cat sculpture, it was her first time doing it, but the idea of the vase supposing to be a cat had been made aware to everyone. With a deep sigh, Suiren placed her hands on her hips. “You pick up on things fast,” Sasuke said. “This is Matter Manipulation,” he informed and intrigued, Suiren’s green eyes had been trained on him. “If Sensei Ren is not going to train you with this ability, then I will.”

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

Excited, Suiren had sat on her bed, she had been content that her father wouldn’t only be training Boruto, but would be training with her, during her moment of excitement, Suiren had thought mayhap she’d tell her father about how she would want to collect all the stones, however, she was sure he’d go on and tell her mother hence the two of them were very close.

Suiren was sure the Hokage would be informed about what she’d planned to do, and she’d get in trouble once more, but Suiren thought about it, so would he, since he had kept the interaction of her and the Water Stone a secret.

Suiren had wondered if Naruto had thought about it, because she still thought about the night, she had absorbed the power of the Water Stone. With a short hum, Suiren had messily tied up her hair, her locks were getting longer so she’d offer her mother to cut her hair as she was usually the one who did everyone’s hair. Though, Suiren had loved her mother’s hair when she allowed it to be long, sometimes she wished she would grow out her pink strands again.

Suiren’s hair reached passed her lower back, it was normal for women to have hair that long, though Suiren was quite short, a few inches shorter than Sarada, so it made it look like she was carrying the world’s weight on her shoulders. Sometimes Sarada would joke on how Suiren was Harionago, a beautiful woman who was known to have extremely long hair and was able to ensnare men, but the only difference the two women had was that Suiren didn’t have the tip of her hair shaped like thorn-like barbs.

Suiren had chuckled at the reference, she had tied her hair into a knot but the moment she had let go of her hair, a high-pitched humming sound pierced through her ears, and in pain Suiren lurched forwards. The pain had been worse than anything she had felt before, it had felt as if thousands of bees had stung her while dozens of wasps had taken rage in her mind.

She had whimpered, eyes teared a she struggled to take out the drugs the man had given her, and as she pulled out the mini-Ziploc bag, she had briefly glanced at the white powdered substance that had she left untouched and quickly opened the package. Suiren had been quick to dip her finger inside of it, as her mind had consistently begged for the pain to stop, Suiren slipped her covered finger into her mouth and collapsed against the bed.

It had worked quick, and with a sigh, Suiren had feathered her eyes shut, there had been a small distance of her eyes being open, so everything was blurry before her room commenced to combine and twist with each other prior the usual colouring of her room had popped into a lucid theme of rainbows and circular pools of different colours of paint, Suiren had felt her skin vibrate.

As if each inch of her skin had jumped on a trampoline, it was a strange feeling, and Suiren was too confused to react to how quick her heart began to beat and how she could feel and hear her blood flow through her veins, but when she could react, all she could do was laugh.

The lights began to tilt side to side and her wardrobe began to dance, she could feel her bed swing as her ceiling opened to a black portal that was quickly taken over by circles of different colours, she had opened her mouth as she could feel her eyes adjust in size. She had laughed again as she could see a recognisable figure crawl out of the hole and land against the floor.

Black hair with a blonde shaven undercut, steel eyes and piercings on the eyebrows, she had recognised the Latin Numeral of Nine on his face and had furrowed her eyebrows, she had remembered him but once again she didn’t. Confused, Suiren had sat up before she called out a name, a name she couldn’t remind herself where she had gotten it from. “Kawaki?” She croaked, at first, he had looked like a blur, but the more steps he had taken towards her, the clearer his face appeared, handsome as she had remembered, but she couldn’t remember where she had remembered it from.

“Suiren?” Kawaki called out, his usual rough voice had been silky, as if he was in relief to see her, as if she was an oasis he had found from miles of walking in a desert. It was Suiren, his Suiren. His Suiren. “I’ve waited so long to touch you,” he cried out as he crawled above her body once he had reached her, he had been careful with how he towered her, but he had been mainly focused on the aim to kiss her.

So, he did, and she had accepted it, had closed her eyes as she wrapped her palms around his arms, he had felt like the air, as if he wasn’t here, was he? Though she couldn’t remember, because the moment Suiren had wanted to make sure he had been here, in her room, was the moment he had disappeared and she had fallen asleep.

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

A few hours before the Third Round of the Chunin Exams, currently the Uchiha Family had been in a forest known for training, Sakura and Sarada had been pressed against a large boulder as they watched Suiren and Sasuke battle each other. Sarada had been the first to train, and when she had finished, Sarada had been given a tub of ice cream by her mother.

Sakura had stood against the boulder with her arms folded and Sarada was the one who had sat down, she had adjusted her red frames with her left hand and excitedly chewed on the strawberry flavoured ice cream as she had watched her twin and their father fight each other with Tai-Jutsu. Normally, it was their mother who had trained them with Tai-Jutsu as she was a master at it, while Ninjutsu was something their father excelled at, though Sasuke had wanted to do it, claimed that it was a father-daughter bonding moment.

“Is it true that you’re dating Shinki?” Sasuke questioned as he threw a fist towards his daughter who had easily blocked it.

With a comedic stunned expression, Suiren laughed through her nose. “Are we really speaking about that?” She asked.

“People talk,” Sasuke responded. “What about Raiden? Or are you on the path to be a heartbreaker?”

With a smirk, Suiren aimed a kick before she spoke. “I was told that you were a heartbreaker when you were younger, maybe I just want to be like you.”

In response to her statement, Sakura giggled as a complex expression flashed in Sasuke’s eyes, but Sasuke quickly gathered himself to smile. “My version of a heartbreaker was different than yours.”

“Is this your version of a father-daughter bonding?” Suiren pressed. “Training me while asking me about my love life?”

With a kick sent her way Suiren easily dodged, with a side smile, Sasuke answered. “If you say so.”

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

It was time, Round Three of the Chunin Exams had started and the arena had been filled with people from all types of Villages, Kages from each main villages had been present along with the Kage from the Sun Village, he hadn’t shown his face, had worn a grey hood that shadowed his frame as if he was susceptible of the Sun, which had been ironic considering where he had come from, what place he had ruled.

Metal Lee’s father, Rock Lee…had been today’s instructor, the two had looked terrifyingly similar, and specifically with the mother of his son being unknown, the two of them had been spoken about a lot. “I am sure you are all aware, but Round Three, consists of individual matches!” Instructor Rock said and with a few shared glances to her team-mates, Suiren held her hands behind her back as she had contemplated if she might have to fight her own team-mates.

“You may even face a teammate, who knows your skills!” It was as if Rock had read her mind.

With eyebrows both raised, Suiren didn’t move her head, but rolled her dark eyes towards Akane who had faced forward, her silver hair covering the side of her face, thus, Suiren could barely see what expression she had made. “There will be three stages, the final match will be a three-way battle between the winners of blocks, A, B and C.”

Suiren had been first to be called forward as her name flashed against the board that had displayed who was going to fight against who, Suiren read over her name and her eyes followed the name of who was going to verse her.

Aina Tadashi.

“You’re going to win this Suiren!” Sarada screamed from the seats, and shortly embarrassed, Suiren waved at her sister who had been plopped by her mother.

As the long-haired girl walked to the middle of the arena, she had remembered what her father had told her an hour before, that the people from the Sun Village have had meetings with Naruto, along with other Kages, to see if they were the enemy, and fortunately they weren’t. Sasuke had also informed Suiren of all of the Sun Team’s abilities, Aina had Lava Style, Keiko had Fire Style and Ryo, the boy, had Earth Style.

Fore Suiren belonging to a Fire Style Lineage, the Uchihas, Fire and Lava going against each other would cause chaos. “I’ve always wanted to fight you,” Aina said as stood opposite from the Uchiha girl.

With both of her eyebrows furrowed, Suiren had smiled. “You basically just met me,” she pointed out and with a mirrored smile, Aina had wanted to speak again, but she had been too late, Instructor Rock had counted down and sliced his hand through the air which had provided Suiren the chance to throw her fist against the ground, and when she did, she had shaken an immense crack that had caused Aina to fall through.

Persistent, the brown-haired girl had been fast to leap out of the ground, and as she jumped out, she had quickly pierced multiple kunais towards Suiren who had quickly avoided them with flips and somersaults. Those drugs Suiren had taken yesterday had enhanced Suiren’s energy the second her body understood she was in a physical match, she had felt hyper and hasty, and as she quickly woven hand signs to produce three shadow clones.

Suiren ran towards Aina who had quickly began to bend her fingers into hand signs, though, Suiren had been faster. She had activated her Two Tomoe Sharingan and had copied precisely the hand signs Aina had made, to Aina’s shock, when she spilled out Lava from her mouth Suiren had done the same.

Suiren could hear her mother cheer from the background which had made Suiren smirk. Annoyed, Aina leaped upwards before she kicked Suiren who had easily created a shield with manipulating her chakra, it was in the form of the translucent lotus flower, and shocked, Aina widened her eyes.

From the entry way of the arena had stood Sensei Ren who had sharply glared at his student, his black hair had shadowed his irritated features as he continued to watch Suiren, whereas, her team-mate, Akane had cheered her on while Suiren created mini shurikens with her chakra that had sped towards Aina, the weapon had dug into her and the noisiness of the crowd had paused.

There was a brief pregnant pause from the audience who had anticipated on what would happen next, she had felt weird, Aina who had looked down to see thousands of cuts form on her skin. Confused, Raiden’s eyes shook, he had softly twisted his gaze towards Akane who had clasped her hands together, just as shocked as everyone else when they watched blood pour out of the cuts. “She’s learning how to use is really fast,” Raiden commented just as the crowd gasped at what Suiren had done right after.

She had pummelled her leg towards Aina, the face of her lower leg had smashed against Aina’s stomach and before she could react to anything, the brown-haired girl was flown across the wall during the same time she had coughed out blood.

Suiren had landed on her feet as she could hear the approval of her family and the rest of the civilians who had watched the battle.

“She really fucked her up,” Boruto said as the rest of the arena continued to cheer.

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

Time had passed and more fights had progressed, Akane and Raiden won their fights and so did Sarada. Suiren had sat by her mother while her close friends Ino and Temari had sat in the same space as them. Sakura had her hand placed against her daughter’s shoulder before she spoke. “Your group is excellent,” her mother said and as Suiren smiled in approval, she agreed.

“They sure are.”

Suiren had been set to fight Shinki for the second round of part Three of Chunin Exams, and she had been unsure if it would be a fair fight, but fortunately, her fight with him wouldn’t be after a few good rounds, whenever she had looked at Shinki all she could think about was the kiss she had shared with him, two of the kisses, and the strange kiss she had shared with the unrecognisable boy in her room the night prior.

It had been Boruto’s second fight, and he was assigned to par with Shikadai, Shinki’s cousin. Suiren had leaned back, had watched the way they had swiftly and perfectly fought, it was like a dance of leaves with the way they spun around each other, jumped, dodged and kicked, but no matter how much Boruto had tried, Shikadai had the upper hand with his clans Shadow Imitation Technique; the ability to merge with a targets shadow and paralyse their lower body and have them do whatever they want.

“So,” Shikadai smiled as he pulled out his kunai. “It’d be nice if you could just give up graciously.”

Though, Boruto had been stubborn, without having the need to make hand signs, the blond boy was able to produce shadow clones, his action had caused everyone to gasp, it was quite impossible to do that, there were more than dozens of shadow clones Bourto was able to produce, and with the certain look on Shikadai’s face, the Nara boy had known he had lost. “You’re kidding right?” Shikadai mumbled as he looked around, and with a winning look on his face, Boruto leaned forward.

“Gah!” Shikadai said as he raised both of his arms up to surrender. “I don’t even wanna bother counting, I give up.” He smiled and everyone laughed at his reaction.

With a short chuckle, Rock Lee pointed towards Boruto. “Uzumaki Boruto! You advance to the final!”

“Yes!” The blond boy cheered amongst the people within the crowd, Suiren had looked back, to see if his father had been cheering with him, but he had a suspicious look on his face, he jumped down from where he had been sitting and walked towards his son, he had walked with a certain demeanour, an essence that compelled everyone about his dominance. “Dad!” Boruto widely smiled as he turned to his father. “Did you see that?” He questioned as he balled his fist and raised it towards his father for him to connect it with his. “I’m in the final!”

Silent, Naruto had raised his fist and aimed it towards his wrist, but instead of doing the motion to connect his knuckles with his son, he hastily grabbed his wrist, in front of everyone the man had revealed a device that had been strapped below his wrist. “Boruto,” the Hokage frowned in disapproval. “What’s this about?”

“I banned the use of scientific ninja tools in this exam, because using these instead of your own chakra, defeats the Chunin Exam’s purpose of nurturing new shinobi,” Naruto explained and with wide eyes, Suiren and Sakura had turned to look at each other, both had listened to how Naruto disqualified his son from the exam and had rightfully given the winning title to Shikadai who stood there with his mouth wide open, shocked on what had just happened.

“You’re not worthy of being a Ninja,” Naruto said as he peeled off the headband that had once been wrapped around Boruto’s forehead, the mere sentence had commenced an argument between the two, though as everyone’s eyes were glued to what had been happening down at the arena, Suiren looked up to the open ceiling, eyes trained on the many unknown figures who had been making their way towards them.

Out of reflex, Suiren grabbed her mother’s arm. “Mama!” She shrieked fore she pointed her right index finger to the unknown people who had darted towards the floor, stealing everyone’s attention.

It was an ambush.

There were many of them, two had seemed alien-like and the other was people Suiren recognised, the Prism. She had recognised Botan, who had pointed one long finger towards Suiren, with a deranged smile the man yelled. “The Dragon Spirit!”

Confused, Sakura had immediately stood in front of her daughters, ready to protect them. Though, Shinki had been fast, aimed to protect Suiren with his metallic sand but there had been a woman, a woman who didn’t need to touch Suiren to harm her, a blond woman dressed in all black had stared at her, and within seconds translucent air ripples pummelled through the air, while the rest old heard a repetitive hum, Suiren had felt her ears ringing, the same ringing she’d hear that’ll cause her to drop to her feet and crave the drugs.

The sound wave pushed Shinki back whereas Raiden had stood shocked, Suiren’s eyes were bleeding along with her nose, and beside the woman who had caused Suiren this pain, stood Botan, with a smile as he saw the way Sakura went to check on Suiren. “It’s nice to see you again,” Botan said, “if you haven’t realised, we teamed up,” he said, as he used his thumb to point towards the aliens that had been handling other civilians.

With a sneer, Botan and the woman next to him attempted to aim towards them, but Suiren had used her chakra to make a shield while her mother quickly ran towards Botan and slammed her fist against his cheek, her swift but heavy attack had made him fly back.

Tired due to the sound waves, Suiren cowered forwards as the recognisable footsteps of Sarada who had paced towards the situation, the older twin had reached her sister. “What’s happening to her?” Sarada exclaimed as she helped Suiren stand up to her feet.

“It must be a frequency she can only hear,” Shinki said. “It’s harming her, and it’s coming from that woman!” Shinki pointed, already on his feet to attack her but someone had been quicker, Sasuke who had sent an enormous rip of lightning powerful enough to slice her head off. Silent, everyone had been shocked, but Suiren had been relieved, the ringing had stopped and she could finally stand up straight.

“I need to take her to the hospital,” Sakura said with worry; she had then picked up her daughter as if she was little, but Suiren had allowed her to do it. The pain the sound waves had brought her, the over-whelming sight of the Aliens fighting everyone she had known had caused her to crave the caring touch of her mother.

“They’ll still come for me,” Suiren said. “Because I’m the only one who can do it.”

Confused, Sasuke had walked towards her, his priority being able to understand what she had been keeping from them. “The stones,” Suiren said. “I’m the only one who can unlock them,” she finished and after that, her vision of the world had twisted into blobs of black and a second later her entire world dimmed.

masterlist

series masterlist

tag list - @audreyblack

#suiren #naruto #boruto #naruto fanficiton #boruto fanfiction #naruto fandom #boruto fandom #shinki #shinki x suiren #sasusaku #sasuke #sakura #sasuke x sakura #suiren x boruto #suiren uchiha #she's sarada's twin #sarada has a twin #sarada uchiha #sarada

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dark-elf-writes · 2 years ago

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Please do scream about it! I love hearing your thoughts

SO starting with the one that hit me like a ton of bricks today

Song of the Sea

Co Senseis Genma and Kakashi because neither can be spared completely from their duties to the village but between the two of them there is always someone guaranteed to be available (also Hiruzen is a petty man and this is 100% payback almost a decade later for kidnapping baby Naruto)

Sakura Sasuke Naruto team makeup.

Wildly different teaching styles that somehow mesh. Kakashi is more “give them the information and let them gnaw at it until they get it.” Genma is full dad with all the head pats and “good jobs” that doesn’t quite hide the fact that he is an absolute fucking monster hell bent on making all three of his adorable baby genin into monsters as well. More than once the kids are carried home by one or both of them (or clones) because they absolutely exhausted themselves. Lots of team dinners and trust building.

Oro-Sensei AU (Team Seven Style)

Loyal Orochimaru made team 7’s sensei.

Sasu Saku Naru set up

In true Orochimaru fashion he sees these two sad orphans and one sad girl with a family that doesn’t appreciate or care for her and just yoinks them. They’re his now. Who’s going to stop him? Hiruzen? Man can get fucked.

GENDER

Oro mostly unintentionally raises these three to be three genderqueer little chakra monsters that are everyone’s bi awakenings.and when I say monsters I mean M O N S T E R S. The others in the rookie 12 are asked to go up against them in the Chunin exams are just “???? So you want us dead is that it???”

Ghosts and Greenery

Kakashi as sensei.

Sasu Kiba Naru set up

All the ninken can see the ghosts and are side eyeing/getting bribed into silence by Naruto constantly. Kiba can sometimes hear/sense the ghosts eventually confronts Naruto who folds immediately and confesses everything. Tbh pretty instant bros. This only increases Sakumo’s insistence that Kiba is the perfect partner for Naruto (until Sasuke activates his sharingan and sees them all. Look they’re used to hiding from kakashi when he lifts the headband not the spontaneous activation of this child’s eyes out of nowhere).

Kakashi’s pack also act more as teachers in this because they’re helping train Akamaru just as much as they’re training the kids. Dog jokes constantly. Poor Sasuke is the lone cat in a pack of canines. He will never recover.

—

These are only some of them rn but I am fully willing to keep going the rest just have been mentioned to some extent or I haven’t thought about yet but am fully willing to.

(I know I do want a Ino Shika Naru team set up eventually. Don’t know where I would put that necessarily but I do know I want that.)

#the elf talks #naruto #song of the sea au #oro-sensei #ghosts and greenery

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hazelthevixen · 3 months ago

Photo

Scary Show Of Spookiness (Speedpaint In Description)

Watch speedpaint here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SsXleab2mk This is the wizard teacher Alfie hosting a spooky themed magic show to celebrate the spoopy season, and gave some of the audience quite the scares and shivers! And perhaps showing examples to his students on how they can host a good magic show UwU In the very end, he bowed and gave his apologies for terrifying the crowd, knowing how polite he tends to be. Though some of the braver audience were actually more excited than scared XD No creature or person was harmed during the making of this magic show I remember I worked really hard on this but it took alot longer than expected to complete. Especially since my birthday is right near halloween so I was also working on birthday art too. It came out great and I still love it to this day ^w^💜 I've grown to really like some of my side characters such as Alfie, Zerda, and Sakura, thanks to some roleplay development ^w^

Please do not steal my character(s)! They belong to me, not you. Don't add offensive tags cos ya know, it's just unnecessary.. ╮(╯-╰)╭ And please do not criticise! I refuse to be criticised so please accept that. Oh and don't steal any of my artwork in any sort of way. ‾ʌ‾ Pleease be nice when commenting! Yep, fanart is welcomed as I truly appreciate gifts! ≧◡≦ Feel free to check out my other works too! I work so hard but it's always fun :3 If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all. Thanks for checking out my works! meep meep! ヽ(◕ヮ◕)ﾉ I'm on other places too! ^-^

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maoam · 1 year ago

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One thing that bothers me about jujutsu is that the author doesn't know how to develop some characters. 1 Shoko Ieri is an interesting character but I find her apathetic without a cold and superficial personality. 2 itadori yuji doesn't seem to be a protagonist he seems more like a tool than the protagonist of the work. 3 nobara had no development dry and emotionless death. and many other characters. There were only 2 characters that really had development, which was gojo and geto, for me, they were the only ones that had it. Why do you think the author did this, is it because he didn't want to develop the characters that's why he killed many important characters? I would appreciate it if you respond.

To me it's a bit wild you genuinely think Yuji and Megumi don't have any development... We are only getting to really delve into what's Sukuna's deal. Maki has definitely gotten development. Yuuta got too but it was more in the prequel, in the main story he's a full fledged sorcerer. Characters like Todo, Yuki, Utahime don't need development imo. Now Gege has to show if he actually has something planned for Miwa (for me the way he wrote it it looks like he does, but I won't praise him yet in case he fumbles it).

What I find funny is one of my co-workers just recently watched all of Jujutsu kaisen and he liked it, but his biggest problem was that season 1 was too long lol. He felt it could have been shortened. When I told him about some people's opinions on character development and that there should have been another arc between season 1 and season 2, he was baffled and said "umm no". He was like "it's actually fine, he manages to make people care about many characters, I don't get why people even expect every character to have character development... not all need it". It's interesting to see how differently people see it.

The thing that's most notable about both Shoko and Nobara in terms of being female characters is that despite being the only female in a trio (and Shoko also being a medic) neither of them is the most emphatic nor the softest. Shoko seems more interested in dissecting bodies than healing them and she also keeps some distance to Gojo and Geto. She doesn't want to get involved in their fights and thus doesn't play the classic role of a mediator whenever the two get confrontional with each other. But she's not apathetic, she wishes Gojo relied more on others, including herself, she seemed frustrated with him.

As for Yuuji, he is very much involved in the plot so I don't know what you're talking about? Jjk isn't your typical shonen so Gege makes some twists and turns that people aren't used to. Yuuji goes through a lot of rough events that shape him into a more full fledged sorcerer. He's connected to Mahito, Sukuna and Kenjaku as well.

Nobara did have subtle development too. She was strong fighting wise since the beginning, so she didn't need to go through the kind of development people expect Sakura like characters to go through. She started to rely on others more and letting them get closer to her (in her initial appearance she is very harsh on Yuuji and Megumi, and thinks she can do everything alone), but not surprisingly when she was dying she wished she let them more close. We don't know yet if she died for real since Gege refuses to confirm it, but I do like her character.

#anon #jjk ramblings

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tamagosandesu · 2 years ago

Text

Title: And That’s a Wrap Summary: Being a production assistant, Sakura is expected to be the one to run errands, relay messages, distribute and print scripts, and every hard work there is to be done inside a set. What isn’t expected, is falling in love with an actor on set. Author’s Notes: This was originally for ssmonth day 30 but never made the final cut because I was too lazy and unmotivated to do it. Pretty plain, cliche, but enjoy!

_______________________________________

She was late. Again.

Sakura made a vow last night that she’ll be on time today, especially since it’s the first day of taping. Plus, this might be by far the biggest show she’ll be in.

Well, technically, she will be working on, not starring in. The amount of teamwork done by the production team, (which she is a part of), is a great factor in order to allow the actors a better space to be comfortable working on. And by the amount of effort and talent the actors could be putting, will the show’s success be measured.

Being a production assistant, Sakura is expected to be the one to run errands, relay messages, distribute and print scripts, and every hard work there is to be done inside a set. It’s very tiring for someone like her—a five-foot-eight woman with not-so-strong arms for heavy errand lifting.

But she’s willing to endure it, for the sake of achieving the dream that she truly wants.

Though for now, she can't afford to think about such serious matters, Because what’s important at the moment is for her to catch the train and hope that the director won’t have her head when she realizes Sakura's late.

_______________________________________

First day in sets was both tiring and fulfilling for Sasuke.

Being in the industry and acting for about ten years now, he’s experienced many things when he’s working on set. A lot of it was from his co-stars who may vary depending on whoever the director wants. Most were fun to be with, he’ll admit, who are more concerned about one’s welfare than their own comfort. And Sasuke quite appreciates that, being someone who is not as socially inclined as many, and someone who likes his own company rather than unwanted mingling.

Tiring as it was, due to hours and hours of changing into clothes, preparing for scenes, memorizing dialogue, and being committed to the character he is portraying. He could only hope that the off-cam staff are there to help him, because he knows he can’t deal with everything that is required of him when he’s acting.

And as far as experiences so far went, first days most of the times were fulfilling.

But not today though.

He arrived at set at 5 am, still yawning after being awakened so early. It’s been a while since he’s done a project that required more months than usual of filming. While most taping only requires 2 to 3 months of filming, this new project he was starring in was a fantasy series—multiple episodes and almost an hour each one, according to the director that is—so that meant he was due to be in filming production for almost 6 months because of the complication of certain scenes.

As much as he loves this line of work, he can’t deny that there are times like these where he wished he could just lay in bed and forget his career.

Surely, he knows how fulfilling it would be if his show would be officially out in the public, ready to be viewed and to gain recognition which could very well boost his career into further stardom.

But at the moment, where his energy is required in great measure, he wants nothing more than to run home and have a coffee date with his bed.

This proposition was developed after he realized that he was to do what he needed, instead of having someone to run errands for him. It wasn’t a form of laziness or lack of initiative to do certain tasks, but because it was almost expected, or if not, then required that another person from the production team or form the crew members behind cameras should be the one to run errands, because you can’t possibly expect an actor—who does the job in the film—to be the one to do his own errands as well.

Sasuke’s sure he’s heard that there was a production assistant or something along those lines to provide them their needs. But the morning he came, he missed the said person seeing he went out his way to get himself breakfast and get his script before going to the make-up trailer. Supposedly, he’s to go directly to the make-up department in order to start things quicker in filming. But instead, he went out to get himself food for energy fuel and his script because he can’t possibly improvise into character and make his own dialogues.

This made his mood slightly on edge so early in the morning, especially that filming hasn’t technically, officially begun. His face had a scowl, and a frown as if he’s shooing away everyone who would come his way. It did not help that he was practically irritable to the make-up team, who did absolutely nothing yet at all.

He sighs in resignation, hoping that the day would get better, at least.

_______________________________________

“You’re late!”

Sakura winces at the loud voice that assaulted her the moment she stepped foot in the little tent set up for crew members like her. She looks up and sees no other than the director and the producer herself, Tsunade Senju. She looks at Sakura with a piercing glare that makes her feel like a child being scolded, her arms crossed and screaming the very word authority.

“I’m sorry,” Sakura says as she blows a perfect 90 degree, hoping that she could get away with it because it’s the middle of the day and they have scenes to film.

She hears Tsunade sigh, and that prompts her to look up. “Just…go along with your job,” she waves her hand as a gesture of shooing Sakura away. But before Sakura could exit Tsunade’s wrath peacefully, the director brings back her menacing glare and adds, “But don’t think we won't be talking later.”

Sakura feels a chill run up her spine as she’s provided with a mental image of what could possibly happen later.

“Yes ma’am,” Sakura says with another bow, before she quite literally ran away.

When she was a good distance away from the tent, Sakura heaved a breath of relief. She couldn’t possibly bear to stay in that tent any longer without her head getting cut off from mere anger.

Punctuality is important to Tsunade, especially when it's the first days of official filming. She knows the director won’t tolerate this consistent tardiness that she’s doing. But punctuality is also important for Sakura, it’s just that her alarm didn’t ring as loud enough to wake someone with only four hours of sleep everyday, maybe even less.

But nevertheless, Sakura only got herself to blame for her predicament.

None of that right now though, because aside from the looming terror of what Tsunade could do to her later, she is still a production assistant, and therefore there are many things she has to do, or run around for.

So what she does first is to see the other co-directors probably filming scenes right now with the actors, and to see if they need something from her.

And sure enough, the moment Jiraya set eyes on her, he motioned for her to come to him, before saying, “Please inform Tsunade that we’ve already film this scene—” he gestures to the script he was holding, in which Sakura herself was also holding a replica of “—and these scenes.”

Sakura smiles and nods, before making a metal note of the specific things Jiraya told her. She then runs around to check on the actor’s trailers, asking if they need something or they want to ask for something. Like clockwork, Sakura finds herself in the ever-so-familiar routine she’s grown to inhabit. Running around, relaying messages, information, fetching needs, finishing certain tasks, running errands, and the things that someone in her position is expected to do.

Despite the fatigue, Sakura finds herself smiling throughout the day, welcoming the familiar pain in her arms and the aching of her legs.It’s these moments that reminds her of the path she’s really chosen to take, and the sense of satisfaction that she’s doing her job properly—being able to help the production crew and attending to the actors’ needs.

And by tomorrow, she’s ready to repeat the cycle all over again.

_______________________________________

Sasuke’s first day was as tiring as ever.

Due to the availability of locations, and the current location they were in, he had to film most of his action scenes first. And action scenes, by far, especially in a fantasy genre, required a lot of flying and being hoisted up in ratchet pulls from stunts.

He had a stunt double, luckily. But at the same time, there was a complication about it because his stunt double did not look like him at all. Sure his supposed double has the same build as he was, but his face didn't look nearly like Sasuke. The crew members told him that they couldn’t find someone that looked like him that could also do stunts, only someone that looked like Sasuke when he’s facing the opposite direction. This issue made some eyebrows raise and develop the notion that Sasuke’s apparently too pretty or perfect that there’s no one else who could possibly have the same face that Sasuke has.

Thankfully, though, Sasuke took matters into his own hands as he declared he could do most of his stunts. He learned martial arts while growing up, and is physically capable of being harnessed and hoisted up in the air while pretending to fight someone.

A method actor, he was.

So it wasn’t a surprise that the second day, when he woke up, his limbs were tired and his body felt like it was beaten up violently. Running errands would be so hard in that state, surely.

Yet fortunately, by miraculous gifts from above, there was a knock at his trailer door after getting picked up from his hotel to set.

He was removing his shirt to change into something more comfortable when it came. “Come in,” he said nonetheless.

The trailer door creaked open before he heard a very feminine shriek of Oh! and the trailer door closed once again.

Sasuke momentarily looked back. It was a woman. His mistake, being careless of allowing entry. So quickly, Sasuke put on his shirt and fixed himself, before re-opening the door and expecting the person who hastily exited while he was changing to be there waiting.

And sure enough, there was the person. A woman of odd pink hair, looking downcast as if looking up was sacredly forbidden.

Pink hair?

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Sasuke says in politeness, and also to make his presence known since it looked like the woman didn’t notice him yet.

The said woman flinched and quite literally jumped at his voice. Her gaze snapped towards his face and Sasuke saw the most charming sight he had ever seen.

She had bubblegum pink hair, no mistaking, a cute nose, plump lips, and the most fascinating green eyes of viridian.

She was breathtakingly beautiful, Sasuke realized that as he stared and held his breath. What made this whole person even more charming was the bloom of pink on her pretty cheeks, making her all the more beautiful.

“Ah, I-I’m sorry too…” she started, tucking a stand of her pink locks behind her ear. “I didn’t know you were c-changing.”

Sasuke nodded and gestured her inside, knowing that she needed something from him seeing that she went all the way and even went inside his trailer.

“Right,” she cleared her throat after she came inside his trailer, her cheeks still hot with that familiar blush. “I just want to know what you want for today,” she said, then took the thick bind of paper she was clutching between her arm and torso. “I also brought your script.”

Sasuke only nodded and took his script nonchalantly, “thank you,” he slightly bows, before finally asking the obvious, “And who are you?”

The woman once again flinched and nervously fidgeted as she bowed. “Right! I’m Sakura Haruno, the production assistant."

"Hm…" Sasuke murmured. "You weren't here yesterday."

That made Sakura slightly shameful as that blush on her cheeks deepened into an almost red tint.

Sasuke almost laughed. She looked like a tomato.

"Right. I was late yesterday and arrived here when production was already ongoing," she explains, looking anywhere but his eyes, fumbling with her hands and stressfully talking.

When Sasuke only stared at her did Sakura realize that she was just talking nonsense.

"I'm just babbling, aren't I?" she sighs, "I'm sorry…"

"It's alright," Sasuke says as he places his script on the table. "Yesterday wasn't very tiring."

Liar. His mind tells him as he's reminded of his aching limbs and drained energy.

"It wasn't? The other actors told me how tired they were 'cause I wasn't here," Sakura curiously explained as she tilted her head to the side.

Adorable. Sasuke thought as he tried to hide a smile.

Suddenly, a loud ring interrupted them and made Sakura flinch and fumble with her pocket.

"Oh shoot," she whispers, then looks at him. "I'm really sorry, but it's the director and I think she needs me."

"It's okay. Go ahead."

And with that, Sakura left Sasuke’s trailer explaining on the phone with her voice almost about to cry.

Sasuke lays in bed and waits for their call time, remembering how he didn't tell Sakura what he wanted for breakfast.

_______________________________________

Sasuke was wandering around the food section, looking for a potential breakfast before heading to the make-up department when he saw Sakura standing and getting food. She wasn't really that hard to miss since was a very tall woman and had a unique hair color. She had at least 4 stacks of paper cartons on her arms and a few bundles of scrips on her other arm.

Sasuke makes a point of searching around the stalls, ignoring the avocado that he's been eyeing, and slowly inching towards Sakura as if he didn't see her.

Sakura was the first to greet him with a 'hi' before he responded with a 'hey'.

"I've never got your order," Sakura starts as she counts the paper containers she has and orders more food.

"It's fine. I was planning to head here myself anyway."

"Have you ordered yet?" Sakura asks.

"No," Sasuke honestly responds with half a mind to lie.

"You should probably order now, Mr Uchiha. Taping will start pretty soon."

"Sasuke is fine," he murmurs, which Sakura might've missed.

"Pardon?"

"Sasuke. Call me Sasuke," he says clearly and looks at her. Sasuke finds it comfortable to look at her since they see eye to eye easily as her 5 '8" height is a good match to his 6 foot height, unlike most women who look up to him when they talk.

"Sasuke-san then," she says.

"That sounds too formal."

"Sasuke?"

"Too plain."

"Sasuke… kun?"

Sasuke smiles a little and nods.

"That's better," he says. "Can I call you Sakura?"

"Sure!" she smiles. "I feel like if you call me Haruno I should expect a scolding."

Sasuke lets out a breath, the closest thing he does to a laugh. Sakura giggles as well, before their little laughter dies down.

They were left to look at each other, Sasuke’s eyes roaming her beautiful face before his eyes looked at her lips. Sakura nervously cleared her throat when she saw that his eyes were looking at her lips.

Sakura's phone chimes suddenly, this time making both of them flinch. Sasuke looks aways with his face all heated up, clearing his throat as Sakura reads her text.

"Um… It's Tsunade," Sakura points at her phone and shows it to Sasuke.

"Go ahead," Sasuke ushers.

"I'll see you later then," she waves goodbye then leaves with stacks of paper carton on her arm and a few copies of the script.

_______________________________________

Taping started not long after Sakura and Sasuke’s little encounter.

Sasuke, thankfully, was still able to eat an avocado toast before one of the staff took the last one. After that, he realized that he was late for his make-up appointment, so he rushed towards the make-up department and followed through on time for the first scene he'll shoot for the day.

Luckily, the director saw it fit to have a break from the intense action stunts, but decided to push through the dialogue-heavy scenes and the slight romance that was included in the series.

Sasuke's co-star, Karin Uzumaki, was his love interest in the series. Karin had an annoying habit of being loud at most times, but when it comes to the cameras rolling, Sasuke's thankful that she's nothing but professional. He's also met her fiancé, Suigetsu Hozuki who he's worked with in some projects. Suigetsu is quite mischievous and often playful, while Karin is more serious and regal. Now that he's met them both, Sasuke thinks they're quite the match.

Since Karin was needed on the other scenes, they had to tape the little 'knight in shining armor scene' that included a little romantic sense.

Sasuke and Karin practiced beforehand when the crew was setting-up the place. Since romance wasn't Sasuke's forte, and that Karin was more on the girlboss side than the damsel in distress, they both had a hard time to nail a good interaction that had good chemistry during their practice.

They both eventually agreed that maybe it was because they were conscious of the lack of camera that they were unable to get into character. Sasuke and Karin dropped the practice and hoped that once the director said 'action!' the chemistry will come naturally.

When the 'action!' did come, however, it was shortly followed by a loud 'cut!' that left Sasuke and Karin confused.

"There's something wrong," Jiraiya left his seat to stand in front of them. Being the director known for romance dramas, and more-than-your-contemporary-romance genres (read: erotica), Jiraiya was tasked with the romantic scenes. Sasuke has seen his work and heard his reputation, and decided that it's better to watch his more simpler films than those he did that reflected his personality way too much.

"You're both very stiff," Jiraiya said, thinking about how to solve the problem. Sasuke doesn't understand what he means by that, because for all he knows he's been giving it his all just for this scene. "It has to be more…free."

Jiraiya then asks Karin if he’ll allow him to touch her so that Jiraiya can demonstrate to Sasuke what he should do with her. The redhead begrudgingly agrees as she goes in front of Jiraiya. The director told and showed Sasuke where to put his hands, how to look at her, then how to deliver his dialogues.

When Jiraiya was done, Sasuke tried to replicate what he did, but found it hard to do so. Jiraiya kept correcting his tone and adjusting the position of his hands.

They went like that for almost 10 minutes until the director got frustrated and heaved a sigh. He looked around and asked, "I need a volunteer!"

No one seemed to be interested, so the director decided to just choose.

Luckily, Sakura was walking around with a clipboard, checking tasks and whispering to herself.

"Ah, perfect timing," Jiraiya smiled. "Sakura!"

Said girl turned her head to the director. She walks to Jiraiya and bows.

"Yes sir?" Sakura innocently asked, a little bit fidgeting since she's become conscious that she's in the middle of a scene about to be taped.

"Stand in front of Sasuke," Sakura does as she's told confusedly. Jiraiya faces Sasuke then says, "Me and Karin will do what the scene should look like, and I want you to replicate it with Sakura."

Sakura's eyes all but bulged. "Sorry?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Oh, it's just…" Sakura fumbled. "Should it really be me?"

"You're the perfect candidate!" Jiraiya explained. "You're almost the same height and the same build as Karin so it'll be easier for Sasuke to adjust."

"Then why can't I be your partner sir and Ms. Uzumaki be Mr. Uchiha's?"

"Hush now, Sakura. We're wasting time."

Sakura can't fight that. She pouts and faces Sasuke, who tries not to look at her. Sakura notices his ears red and wonders if he's cold under the layers of his costume.

Jiraiya demonstrates with Karin and Sasuke replicates real time. Although, unlike Karin and Jiraiya, who showed perfect chemistry and acting, each of Sasuke’s touch on Sakura felt like it burned her skin. Each dialogue said by Sasuke felt like it's from the heart and not from the script.

After the little impromptu practice was done, Sakura was a little light headed and her knees felt a little weak while Sasuke seemed to develop a blush that no one from the make-up team remembers putting on his face.

It seems the practice was effective because of how better Karin and Sasuke were when they did the scene. They nailed it after 2 tries and finally moved on to the next scenes.

Although Sasuke wasn't sure what caused the success of that moment. He thinks it was the real time practice of having the director guide you. But maybe, it was because he imagined that it was a certain pink-haired woman he was talking to and not his co-star.

_______________________________________

After 2 months of taping, Sasuke and Sakura have grown considerably close. Whenever she would go to his trailer to do her errands, there's no hesitation when she climbs in and their speech has become casual. Sakura would sit on his chair now unlike before where she profusely refused whenever Sasuke offered so.

Whenever they bump into each other, Sakura would smile instead of bowing. Whenever they see each other, they would stand close to each other as if they were long time friends.

The 'practice' incident with Karin and Jiraiya was never mentioned in any conversation. It became an unspoken rule between them to not bring it up to not complicate their budding friendship, or whatever relationship they might have.

Sakura's long accepted that she likes Sasuke. Ever since she saw him on TV, she's always been interested. But now that Sakura got the chance to spend time with him and get to know him behind the cameras, her interest developed into a feeling that she’s sure can only be named as ‘liking’.

She likes seeing him in the morning. Despite what her schedule dictates, she always goes out of her way to visit Sasuke’s trailer first. She spends a good amount of time there just to feel his company and to converse with him, and everytime she exits, it always leaves her giddy and energized.

Since Sakura is the assistant producer, she always runs around the set and meets new people. Every interaction with everyone matters for her, especially if she is to see Sasuke and get the chance to smile at him.

Never once did the thought of confessing and being in a relationship with Sasuke come up in Sakura's mind, however. She's mostly a realist than an idealist and sees the huge obstacle between them: Sasuke is one of the biggest stars in today's generation at the peak of his career, while Sakura is a freshly graduated student that is only starting to pursue her passion.

Sakura thinks she can handle the pain of only being friends with him. She can handle only being able to talk to him and not kiss him. She can handle only being able to stand close to him and not hug him, and most of all, she can handle being the only one feeling this way between them.

The possibility of her feelings being reciprocated, she thinks, is zero, and she doesn't want to stick to delusion and assume that their feelings are mutual.

Although, there are times that Sakura likes to let herself dream about being his and him being hers. She allows herself to drown into the feeling of being together with him and enjoying activities that couples do. But she keeps it managed that she will never act on those deep desires that she has.

Just like now, walking with him is enough. Talking with him is enough. Being with him for a few minutes, for the purpose of work, is enough.

It's enough. Sakura tells herself even when Sasuke looks at her with that look she cannot comprehend. It sends shivers down her spine and stirs something inside of her.

It's enough. Sakura repeats. It should be enough.

_______________________________________

Taping eventually ended after 6 long months and equally tiring days. It wasn't Sasuke’s first time filming a fantasy genre, nor is it his first time being harnessed for action stunts. Although, it is Sasuke’s first time filming a fantasy series that involves being hoisted up in the air in impractical clothing and heavy dialogues. It was both mentally and physically draining for him.

Sasuke was quite happy that taping has finally come to an end and that post-filming will begin. Last days are usually fulfilling and emotional for most since it means that the long journey of making another art is done, and so will it be the last time co-actors and the production crew will see each other.

Sasuke didn't particularly develop any connections with the actors nor the crew to make him dread the ending of taping. He's quite happy that it's done.

Quite. Sasuke thinks. There's a part of him that whispers about a certain and different connection he's made with a certain someone from the production team.

He's not a master of emotions and feelings. He might be quite the method actor, but Sasuke does not have the intrapersonal ability in his body. His emotions are foreign for him and often hard to understand. The simple feelings he knows—happiness, sadness, anger, fear, but not the complex ones like love.

Familial love, sure he knows. But romantic love? He never had the chance to delve into that topic. His brother though, happily living with his wife, is the romantic one between them.

Maybe this is the sign for him to have a talk with Itachi about the topic.

Sasuke sighs as he continues packing the things he leaves in the trailer before heading to his hotel, then finally at his house. There's supposed to be a small celebration after wrapping up, which is probably why it's quiet and not a single sound can be heard near the trailers. Sasuke’s antisocial status is quite known to the public, probably making it the reason why no one asked why he wasn't going to the celebration.

Sasuke doesn't want to leave yet, but he doesn't want to mingle either. He wants to be left to his thoughts and ponder about his decisions, and choices that he doesn't know what are.

He lays down on the little bed on his trailer, about to fall asleep when he hears a knock on his door.

"Sasuke-kun?" that all too familiar voice of Sakura reaches his ears. Sasuke all but smiles upon hearing her.

When Sasuke first felt the urges of smiling, laughing, or finding Sakura cute, he was flabbergasted by his own antics. But after 6 long months, he's grown to accept his reactions and allowed them to flow through with no restraint.

"Are you asleep? I know you're in there!"

Sasuke takes mercy on the woman and opens the door, seeing Sakura holding a little plate of a variety of food, probably to deliver to him.

"Did you go to the party?" Sasuke asks as he steps aside to allow Sakura in.

"Yeah. I planned to not but Tsunade pestered me."

"And those are?" Sasuke pointed at the plate she's holding.

"These are for you. I thought about how you didn't go and decided to get some for you," Sasuke took a bite of the food.

"Hm… Thanks."

Sakura sits on one of the chairs and Sasuke on the bed.

"So…" Sakura starts. "Care to tell me why you didn't go?"

"Mm… Don't want to."

"I wish I could just stay in the tent too. Tsunade just brought out the booze when I left, so they're probably having an alcohol party now."

"Why?" Sasuke genuinely asks. "You don't drink?"

"It's just that… I'm still young… I think."

"Aren't you of legal age? How old are you anyway?"

Sakura looks at him, somewhat offended. "I don't think it's gentlemanly to ask a woman her age."

"That is if you're a middle-aged woman or an old woman, which I assume you are not."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "I'm 23, fresh grad."

Sasuke did some mental maths. 3 years his junior.

"You can stay here," Sasuke mindlessly suggests.

"Nah," Sakura responded almost too fast. I'll come back to the party. Tsunade might have my head if she doesn't see me if she calls me."

"She's probably drunk. Everyone is probably drunk," Sasuke points out.

"I'll go to the tent then."

"What's wrong with staying here?"

"I couldn't possibly intrude. You were about to sleep when I came, so I'll let you rest," Sakura started to stand up and pick up her things.

"I'll see you later, Sasuke-kun."

Before Sakura could walk out of the trailer, Sasuke grabbed her hand and pulled her back inside.

"Why are you avoiding me?" He asks.

"Avoiding you?" Sakura repeats, fumbling a little. "I'm just going to our tent to pack up and leave."

"Leaving so soon?"

"Well, I still have other tasks to do at home. Like….feed my dog, and clean my bathroom, an—"

"Sakura, you have no dog. You told me you didn't have any pets."

Sakura mentally facepalmed. "Well, I'm gonna clean my room and vacuum the living room…"

Sasuke looks at her, unimpressed. Sakura eventually gives up.

"Look, Sasuke-kun, I just want to go home," she sighs in defeat. "You're tired, I'm tired, we're all tired. And since taping has ended, then I'm allowed to pack-up my things and go home to my house."

"But you're avoiding me."

"I'm not, Sasuke-kun. I would never. So do me a favor and let me go, because I really want to get out of here already."

Just when Sakura's mind was made-up, Sasuke looks at her with that look that makes her doubt her own boundaries. It makes her hope that there's something inside of him that cares for her, something inside of him that wants her as much as she wants him.

It's enough. Sakura repeats in her mind. Being friends is enough. It's more than enough.

So, without permission, Sakura kisses Sasuke with all that she has. With all that she wants to say to him, and all that she's been keeping to herself.

Sasuke stood frozen at first, but snapped into reality and held Sakura closer. He responded to her kiss as he fisted his hand on her hair. Sakura responded with a sigh that made something stir inside of Sasuke. He quickly deepened the kiss with an urgency that came abruptly. Sakura looped her hands into his neck while Sasuke’s hands wandered around her hair, to her shoulders, to her back, her waist, then her hips.

When Sasuke found the need for oxygen, he quickly broke the kiss and moved towards her neck. Sasuke nipped at her jaw, down to the junction between her neck and shoulder and sucked at a particularly sweet spot that made Sakura moan in complete, foreign pleasure.

The sound snapped her back to reality as Sakura realized what they were doing.

What happened to boundaries? She thinks as Sasuke continued with his ministrations and slowly traced a path towards her ear.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura calls out, breathless and panting but eyes wide with epiphany.

Sasuke stops and looks at her with a hungry expression on his eyes. Sakura suddenly sees the possibility of where their earlier activity might've led if she didn't stop, and especially if he didn’t.

"I–" Sakura stutters. "We can't."

Sasuke frowns. "Why not?"

"I'm not ready for this."

"Then we'll take it slow," Sasuke suggests, implying a possible relationship.

"We can't," Sakura repeated. "I'm still young and ambitious, and you're already successful. Don't you think that's a bit hard?"

"Why would it be?"

"You already have a life carved out for you, while I'm freshly out of college barely earning minimum wage."

"And so? Then I'll provide for you."

"No," Sakura pointedly says. "We can't."

Sakura released Sasuke and released herself from his grip. She quickly picks up her things and prepares to leave.

Sakura might be afraid to enter a new territory that she’s never dreamed of entering, but she thinks it’s better than risking it for the adrenaline rush that they’ve felt while being in each other’s arms.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun," Sakura opens the door. "And thank you, for everything."

Sasuke rushes to her, but she has already left the trailer and ran out.

_______________________________________

5 years later, after many more projects following Sasuke’s worldwide success with his romance-fantasy series with Uzumaki Karin, another good news for the Sasuke fan club graces the headlines.

JUST IN: Sasuke Uchiha to star in romance film directed by rookie and rising director Sakura Haruno.

#naruto #naruto fanfiction #sasusaku fanfiction #Sasuke Uchiha #Sakura Haruno #anime fanfic #sasusaku

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firebatvillain · 1 year ago

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20 questions for fic writers!

As seen on @givereadersahug (x)!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 59 works on AO3, though some of those are unrevealed or anonymous, so the visible work count is a bit lower.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

105k! Wow. Over half of that has been in the last two years, when I've been doing a lot more writing and taking part in exchanges.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Naruto (7) Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (7) Original Work (7) Warhammer 40.000 (3) Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms (2) Stellaris (Video Game) (2) From there we get into a lot of one-offs that I wrote for exchanges. House MD, Gundam Wing, Good Omens, The Order of the Stick, and many others. Most of the Original Work fics are for particular exchange prompts, some of which are quite fun.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Greatest Weasley [Harry Potter, Ron-Centric, incomplete] - this WIP is my white whale! Ron gets sorted into Slytherin. Only a couple chapters, I should return to it sometime...

Harry Potter and the Independent Path [Harry Potter, parody, one-shot] - This very short parody fic is fun and I'm glad people like it. I actually look back fondly on this genre even if I poke fun at it.

Five Times Sakura Heard the Voice, and One Time It Faded [Naruto, Sakura-centric, one-shot, 2.9k] - This was an fest fic for Fest No Jutsu 2022! I really enjoyed writing this one.

If You Won’t Wait for Me, I’ll Find My Own Path [Naruto, Sakura-centric, drabble] - Wrote this one based on the fandom opinions of my friend @xenosimp. Surprised at its popularity.

Liana and the Labyrinth’s Core [Original Work, Explicit, Het, 2.3k] - I wrote this very explicit fic for an exchange, and had a lot of fun with it! Minotaur/Sacrifice, make sure to read the tags/warnings.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

For exchange fics, almost always. Otherwise, I do sometimes. It's fun to chat with other fandom people and let them know I appreciate their comments, or answer their questions.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't usually write angsty endings, but The Rules of Reintegration [OW drabble, prompt: military android masquerading as a human] is angsty.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say Four Times Toph Beifong Triumphed [ATLA, Toph-centric, 2.5k words] would be it. It's generally fun!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not often, though I got one very baffling comment on a fic where someone questioned the realism of it. I'm not in the big fandoms where there's lots of drama though.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, often for exchanges. It typically tends to be straightforward steamy sex. I've got some more kinky stuff posted to anon that I won't share here, heh.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've written one, but it's not usually my style for writing, since it's a challenge for me. I love reading them though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, and I hope it never happens. I don't think anything I've written is popular enough for that 😅

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My fandom friend and I co-wrote Mist and Shadow, a WH40k AU fic about Eldar escaping the fall of the Eldar empire. After about 12k words, we set it down, but we may return someday.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

This is a tough one! All-time, I'm not sure. But at the moment, I'm basically chewing on Durge/Enver Gortash (BG3) and having a great time with it.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oof, this is a tough one! There's a very old Naruto fic that I don't think I'll ever get back to... Lost Root. I can't really recommend it in its current state, but it was one of my first plot bunnies.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm pretty decent at paragraph-to-paragraph rhythm, and I am unafraid to try new things.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes I repeat certain phrases without realizing it, and pacing scenes can be difficult for me. I also have a tendency to write excessively long sentences. Trying to improve on that last one!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Seems like a hard sell for both writer and reader.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

StarCraft pro gamer RPF. No, you won't find the fic on my AO3 profile.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I'm still in love with Roonil Wazlib and the Goblet of Fire, a 2.8k word Harry Potter crackfic I wrote for Bad Bang V. Is it bad? Yes, oh yes. And it's fun, and so are the comments.

Tagging (no pressure): @xenosimp @vanyalanthirielofmana @chacusha @vampiremonday @uozlulu @miss-ingno @verecunda

#tag game #writing #fanfic #fandom #fbv writes

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iced-coffeebean · 11 months ago

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Fic Writer (of doom) Interview :)

Thank you for the tagged my beloved Stars (aka @starsmadeinheaven)

How many works do you have on AO3?

WOW UH

I apparently have 31 works on AO3. Christ, that's a lot.

21 of them are Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

4 are Original Works

3 of them of Hetalia

2 are Yu-Gi-Oh 5d's

And 1 is Yu-Gi-Oh! DM

What’s your total AO3 word count?

72,638 words apparently. Slay. I didn't think I'd have a lot of words tbh.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Oh god, I wonder.

1. Everything Stays (Hetalia GerItaPan Oneshot)

2. Sakura Petals Blossom But Love Blossoms Faster (Hetalia AmeriPan oneshot)

3. You Know I Love You Right? (Yu-Gi-Oh! DM Wishshipping Oneshot)

4. My Remedy (Hetalia ItaPan oneshot)

5. This Is Home (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5d's fic collab with my brother)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to but sometimes it feels like they don't need me to respond to them if that makes sense?? Sometimes it's just a statement more than a comment of appreciation if that makes sense???

So yeah, it depends.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really know tbh. I have a lot of unfinished YGO fics that in theory, are supposed to have lots of angst and possibly angsty endings but I never finished those but they don't really count ig??

I haven't really written angst but maybe Cross My Heart In Hopes To Die

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Probably almost all of them have neutral/happy endings.

Everything Stays and My Remedy

Do you write crossovers?

I don't think I've written any currently unless it's Yu-Gi-Oh! related since you can smack some of the shows together. If it isn't YGO shows being smacked together, it probably won't exist. Maybe a series AU for another series but them meeting that series' characters?

No </3

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I've gotten some hate on my Anikishipping fics but tbh idc anymore. I'll write whatever makes me happy and if people have a problem with that, they can suck my dick. Like idk what else to say.

If you don't like it, go write something else then.

Before going onto AO3, I was on Wattpad and we ALL know how THAT must have gone.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I write smut but I rarely ever post it and if I do, it's anon LMAO.

I just feel like it's too awkward and I'm just scared people are gonna judge me LOL.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I wouldn't know and I SURE hope not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nah. I'm not that famous yet.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

This Is Home is a fic I'm writing with my brother. It's kind of on a hiatus cause of life and cause of the YGO fandom break we're both taking. We'll talk it out and see if we can continue it.

I'm actually gonna hopefully work on new micronation related works with other lads so I'm SUPER excited for that!!!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hetalia: GerItaPan and MolSeb.

DM: Wishshipping

GX: Anikishipping

5D'S: Toolshipping

Zexal: Aztecshipping

Arc-V: Candyshipping

Vrains: Respectfulshipping

Sevens: Moonlightroadshipping

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I had a Spamano/ItaPan/MolSeb werewolf fic that I was gonna do but I gave the fic away to a moot to write instead since I lost interest in it and didn't want to write anymore.

What are your writing strengths?

Tbh, I don't know. Probably internal dialogue and emotions. I like writing arguments and deep conversations cause it's so fun playing around with people's emotions <33

What are your writing weaknesses?

DESCRIPTIONS AND USING FANCY WORDS.

I don't wanna sound repetitive with words but god, I need to work on having a bigger vocabulary.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I try to use it in fics considering I'm in the Hetalia fandom but I do try to add translations at the bottom/on the notes if it's something that most people wouldn't know by now or more complicated items. I try to not use it cause I don't want to be that person with awful Google Translate or sucky translation app language errors but yk, sometimes duty calls.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Probably Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal or Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V if I'm being honest. I don't remember y'all. It's been a SECOND.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I wanna write Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains content but the show is so SLOW and BORING for me but I really LOVE Spectre and I would love to maybe write some Respectfulshipping.

I'd also love to write some Gakuto fics for Sevens cause they did his character SO WRONG it's makes me SO MAD.

For Hetalia, I'm not really sure tbh.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

For YGO, maybe Imaginary Friend (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Anikishipping oneshot)

For Hetalia, it's definitely gotta be My Remedy

I tag these lads (you don't have to do them if you don't want to)

@stardust-revolver @starfishes-and-watercolors @apalonespinifera

This concludes my ask <3

(I'm going to be honest, most of the fics I mentioned here I kind of hate now but I left to see any possible growth or progress when I work on new stuff. I only really like my more recent content but we won't go into that <3)

#iced_coffeearts #coffee rambles #coffee rambles about stuff

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theunrealinsomniac · 2 years ago

Note

If the Naruto and Sakura in your canon met 12-year-old Naruto and Sakura, what would the adult Naruto and Sakura say to their kid selves, and how would 12-year-old Naruto and Sakura react?

(I'm glad to know you appreciate my asks)

Oho ho ho ... this is a bigger haystack then I think you realise.

Now we've established that you mean my version of Canon, so we'll stick to that. But it does depend on which version of my Canon!AUs we're talking.

But that's a whole essay worth of wondering and we're not here for *every* single version of Canon!AU!NaruSaku ... we'd be here all week. I do have something of a multiverse after all lol.

So we'll go with the broadest strokes, the versions of NaruSaku that are the most common. Let's say they're in their late twenties, married and parents to at least Sachi and Ichika. Cool? Cool.

(Btw if you want more info on my NaruSaku kids, cos I don't use Shina etc, I am *more* than happy to wax lyrical about my four Uzumaki brats lol.)

So, for a start? Twelve year old Naruto and Sakura would be goddamn stunned. Naruto wouldn't be able to look away from adult Sakura of any age and Sakura would be struggling to pick her jaw up off the floor with how Naruto looks as an adult.

We are talking instant crushes on the adult versions of the other without even realising it for Sakura. Naruto's already there of course but seeing Sakura as a grown woman? Boy would fall so deep he'd never stand up again.

There would be incessant questions and a whole lot of fawning, to the point it might actually get a bit annoying. And when the younger versions of NaruSaku find out about how they got together, made PG-13 of course, and how they're married and have kids ... Naruto gets all starry eyed and tries to hide just how happy that makes him from Sakura.

Cos Sakura? Sakura's not taking it as well. She does ask the fateful 'what about Sasuke-kun?' question. And Adult!Sakura does see the wince in young Naruto's face and rest assured she apologises to Adult!Naruto later.

Even after marrying him and having children with him, she still feels a lot of guilt for how she treated him when they were kids. Not that Naruto was entitled to her love as he tells her, but we all know how guilty Sakura feels for her treatment of Naruto in the early days.

For his part? Adult!Naruto actually takes the time to hang out with his younger self, distracts him while the two Sakura's have a very long talk. About self-worth and not letting your feelings for someone overshadow their wrongdoing.

We must remember these versions of Naruto and Sakura are parents. They know how to talk to kids. If they're in their late 30s/early 40s? They know how to talk to teenagers.

It does however end in shouting lol. For Naruto.

The two Naruto's are getting boisterous in a fun way, especially when Naruto informs his younger self about how much stronger he's going to get and younger Naruto does start a sparring match that older Naruto plays along with for funsies.

The Sakuras, with an annoyed and fond look at the boys respectively, continue their conversation and Sakura has to restrain herself from flat out telling her younger self things that she desperately wishes she could tell her. Major things yes, but also about men not to waste her time on, friends to hold closer, little silly embarrassments to avoid at work for example.

But she doesn't. Because anything she could tell her younger self could change everything Adult!Sakura has. And she won't risk that for all the saved secondhand embarrassment and heartache in the world.

TL/DR? Adult Naruto and Sakura from my Canon!AUs would parent the shit out of their younger selves and the younger versions of themselves would have massive crushes on the older version of their teammate to the point of deep, deep cringe lol.

Hope this earned a chuckle lol. I certainly laughed.

Ta ra!

#ask theunrealinsomniac #narusaku #i could so write a fic about this #i think it'd be funny if 'just together' narusaku met their 12 year old selves #Sakura would flat out scream at her younger self lol #just so damn much lol

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wrestlingfaves · 15 days ago

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AEW Double Or Nothing 2019

The AEW re-watch continues with the AEW’s first official pay per view – May 2019’s Double or Nothing.

We start with a recap of the press conference that announced the formation of AEW.

Commentators: Jim Ross, Excalibur, Alex Marvez

SCU vs the Strong Hearts. A fine opening match. I miss SCU and their “worst town ever” gimmick.

Kylie Rae vs Nyla Rose vs Britt Baker. Allie joins the commentary team for this match.

Kylie’s gimmick never appealed to me -neither did Bayley’s hugger gimmick. Both women are talented though.

Nyla!

Britt is out and she’s rather bland in this era.

Brandi comes out in wrestling attire but she’s not here to wrestle – she’s here to introduce Awesome Kong! I loved Awesome Kong in TNA – such a badass.

Alex remarks “Suddenly Nyla Rose becomes a cruiserweight”. I don’t know about that Alex, I don’t think there is much size difference between Kong and Nyla.

The crowd is loudly behind Kong in this match.

Britt wins which is … meh.

It’s unfortunate that Kong’s body was breaking down by this point. A feud between her and Nyla would have been awesome (no pun intended).

We peak in on Kenny and Chris getting ready for their match.

Best Friends vs Jack Evans/Angelico. I miss the Best Friends.

They mentioned Sue all the way back at Double or Nothing 2019!

Chuck and Trent are about to give the people what they want when they are interrupted by Evans & Angelico. Prompting massive boos from the fans.

Best Friends win in a fun match.

Two Things:

The Best Friends should have had a tag title run.

Surprised Angelico/Evans didn’t go farther in AEW – they’re talented and fun to watch.

The two teams hug as the lights go out. The lights come back on and Evil Uno & Stu Grayson plus their creeper henchmen attack the two teams.

Evil Uno takes his place on his throne of human creepers.

Riho, Ryo Minzunami,Hikaru Shida vs Emi Sakura, Aja Kong, Yuka Sakazaki

Excalibur mentions Emi has trained more than 50 women wrestlers including all three members of the opposing team. Emi’s contributions to wrestling are vastly underrated.

Aja is a true legend of the sport. If you’ve never seen Aja in her prime, you should type her name into youtube and treat yourself to the awewomeness of not only Aja but her fellow All-Japan Women co—workers.

Riho, hon, you are not going to win a strike fight with Aja.

Aja and Shida have a “can vs kendo” fight. Shida has the initial advantage due to the reach of the kendo stick, but Aja wins in the end because she’s Aja.

Riho (!) takes out Aja enabling Shida to pin Emi for the win.

Fantastic joshi match.

Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes in the “Battle of the Sons of Dusty Rhodes”.

Cody does his famous “smash the throne with a sledgehammer” moment.

Love Brandi’s outfit.

Earl Hebner is the referee for the match in a nice touch. Earl doesn’t have much history with the Rhodes family but in a match that centers on generations and legacy, Earl is the best fit for the theme.

Brandi spears Dustin! Hilarious. Brandi in AEW gets a lot of hate but I always enjoyed her.

Dustin is soaked in blood and Cody is covered in Dustin’s blood. Eww!

Dustin pulls down Cody’s tights and gives him a belt spanking or as JR put it “The Cheeks of Wrath”. You earned it, Cody.

Not the mat is covered in blood! Earl has blood all over him!

Cody wins but give Dustin his props. This match won many “Match of the Year” rewards and it’s well-deserved.

We have the emotional reunion of the brothers and a huge “Thank You, Dustin” chant.

Love the respect and appreciation Dustin has gotten in his AEW run. We all loved Golddust in the WWE but its nice to see what Dustin can do when he’s not underneath an outlandish gimmick.

Now we have a huge Dusty chant. The reconciliation was sweet and yes, I realize calling two blood-soaked men sweet is an odd choice but that’s what it was.

Aww, Excalibur has to dry his tears from beneath his mask.

We get a recap of the battle royal from the pre-show. Hangman Adam Page won. I wish they would include the pre-show matches with the pay-per-view replay. Other competitors in the match were MJF, Joey Janella, Jimmy Havoc, Tommy Dreamer, the Jurassic Express, among others.

Bret Hart comes to the ring and unveils the AEW world championship belt.

Bret looks good for his age, especially after his various health issues.

Bret was my favorite wrestler from the 1980s through the 1990s and would still make my all-time favorites list.

Bret calls Adam Page to the ring. Adam’s battle royal win guarantees him a shot against the winner of the Omega-Jericho match. That match will determine the first AEW World champion.

MJF calls himself to the ring. Greeted with a loud “asshole” chant.

MJF runs his mouth until Jungle Boy comes out. MJF attempts to leave until he is stopped by Jimmy Havok.

MJF gets group beatdown and is escorted to the back by Jungle Boy and Jimmy Havoc.

Recap of events leading to the Young Bucks vs the Lucha Brothers.

The Young Bucks vs the Lucha Brothers for the AAA tag titles.

The Bucks win in a typical yet fun Bucks-Lucha Bros match.

Promos/recap video from Kenny & Jericho.

Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho. Winner of the match will face Hangman Adam Page to determine the first AEW World Champion.

Another great match from Omega. The man doesn’t miss.

Kenny’s nose is busted open!

Not a fan of Kenny’s gray dye job.

Jericho wins. Boo!

Jericho grabs a mic to berate the audience and congratulate himself. He demands a thank you and gets a…Jon Moxley?!

I don’t think that’s quite what Jericho meant.

Mox DDT’s both Jericho and the ref! What did the poor ref due to deserve that.

Mox then targets Omega who is regaining consciousness. Kenny fights back, leading to a Mox-Omega brawl, culminating in Mox tossing Omega off the pile of giant poker chips.

Poor Kenny is now 2 for 2 on pay per view ambushes from debuting wrestlers.

If you weren’t watching in 2019, Moxley’s debut was huge. More so than Jericho in my opinion. Jericho had been interacting with Kenny, Cody, and the Bucks in NJPW and BTE so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that he showed up at All In. Mox had no interaction with the participants before the pay per view (not counting independent matches from years ago).

#aew #double or nothing #all elite wrestling

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poemshubs · 2 months ago

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Why Is Haiku About Nature?

Haiku, the traditional form of Japanese poetry, is renowned for its simplicity, brevity, and deep connection to nature. These three-line poems, typically containing 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 structure, often evoke profound emotions and reflections, and they have become synonymous with capturing the essence of the natural world. But why is it that haiku focuses so much on nature? This article delves into the cultural, historical, and aesthetic reasons why nature has been a central theme in haiku, exploring how the natural world shapes this poetic form and its significance in the broader context of Japanese literature and philosophy.

Historical Context of Haiku and Its Connection to Nature

The origins of haiku can be traced back to the 9th century, though the form as we know it today began to take shape in the 17th century. Haiku evolved from the hokku, the opening stanza of a collaborative linked-verse poem called renga. The hokku set the tone and mood for the rest of the renga, and it was often inspired by seasonal themes and images of nature. As the genre evolved, poets began to experiment with shorter forms, leading to the standalone haiku.

The association of haiku with nature comes from this early tradition of incorporating seasonal references, or kigo, into the poems. These references to nature not only serve as a backdrop but also symbolize deeper meanings and emotions. For example, a reference to a blooming cherry blossom in the spring can evoke feelings of beauty, transience, and renewal, while a mention of falling leaves in autumn can convey themes of impermanence, aging, and death.

In the early days, haiku poets were often monks, scholars, and artists who lived in rural areas and were deeply attuned to the natural world. This close connection with nature influenced the content of their poems. Nature was seen not just as a subject but as a reflection of the human experience—a mirror to the inner emotional landscape.

The Role of Zen Buddhism in Haiku

One of the key influences on the development of haiku and its connection to nature is Zen Buddhism. Zen emphasizes mindfulness, simplicity, and the direct experience of the present moment, all of which are central themes in haiku. The practice of Zen encourages individuals to observe the natural world with an uncluttered mind, appreciating its fleeting beauty without attaching unnecessary thoughts or judgments.

In Zen philosophy, there is a concept known as satori, which refers to a sudden moment of enlightenment or insight. Haiku often aims to capture this kind of moment—a brief but profound realization or perception. The natural world provides a rich source for these moments of clarity, where the simplicity and beauty of nature can prompt a deep sense of understanding or insight.

Many famous haiku poets, such as Matsuo Bashō, were influenced by Zen Buddhism, and their poems reflect this connection. Bashō, in particular, is known for his use of nature to evoke spiritual and emotional states. One of his most famous haiku reads:

An old silent pond… A frog jumps into the pond— Splash! Silence again.

This haiku perfectly captures the Zen ideal of simplicity and mindfulness. The poet presents a moment in nature—an event as ordinary as a frog jumping into a pond—but through this simple act, the poem evokes the stillness and quietude of the world, inviting the reader to experience a fleeting moment of awareness.

Seasonality and the Use of Kigo in Haiku

One of the most distinctive features of haiku is the use of kigo—seasonal words that indicate the time of year and evoke particular feelings or associations. Each season carries its own symbolism in Japanese culture, and these seasonal references are integral to the haiku form.

For example, the word cherry blossom (sakura) is a powerful symbol of spring, evoking images of renewal, fleeting beauty, and the passage of time. In contrast, snow (yuki) is often used in winter haiku to suggest purity, quiet, or coldness. These seasonal references are not merely descriptive; they help to evoke a deeper emotional response from the reader, creating a connection between the natural world and human experience.

The seasonal cycle in haiku reflects the Japanese cultural understanding of the impermanence of life. The changing of the seasons is a constant reminder of the passage of time and the inevitability of change. As the seasons change, so too do the emotional landscapes of human beings. Haiku, by aligning itself with the seasons, becomes a way of capturing these transient moments of beauty and reflection.

The Influence of Nature on Haiku Structure

The structure of haiku itself—three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables—lends itself to the concise expression of nature’s beauty. The brevity of the form forces the poet to distill their thoughts and feelings into the simplest possible expression, which mirrors the way in which nature is often most beautiful in its simplest moments. The act of observing nature through a haiku becomes an exercise in mindfulness—seeing the world with clarity, unburdened by excess.

In a haiku, every syllable counts. The brevity of the form emphasizes the importance of each word and image, much like the way nature is observed in fleeting moments. A sunset may last only a few minutes, but the impression it leaves can stay with us for much longer. Haiku captures this momentary beauty, preserving it in its purest form.

The Aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi in Haiku

Another key aspect of haiku’s connection to nature is the aesthetic of wabi-sabi, a Japanese concept that embraces imperfection, transience, and the beauty of the natural world. Wabi-sabi celebrates the simple, the rustic, and the fleeting nature of life, all of which are reflected in haiku’s focus on nature.

Nature itself is imperfect—leaves fall, flowers wilt, and seasons change. Haiku, in turn, embraces this imperfection and transience, finding beauty in the most ordinary moments. The focus is not on idealized or romanticized images of nature, but rather on the raw, unvarnished moments of life that are often overlooked.

A famous haiku by Bashō illustrates this aesthetic:

On a branch Floating downriver, A cricket sings.

This haiku captures a moment of quiet imperfection: the branch floating down the river, the cricket singing its song. There is no idealized scene, but the beauty lies in the simplicity and the fleeting nature of the moment.

The Universal Appeal of Nature in Haiku

While haiku is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, the focus on nature has universal appeal. The natural world is something that all people can relate to, regardless of their background or cultural context. Haiku’s simplicity allows readers to connect with the poem on a visceral level, experiencing the beauty of nature through the poet’s eyes.

In today’s world, where many people live in urban environments and are disconnected from the rhythms of nature, haiku offers a way to reconnect with the natural world. The practice of writing and reading haiku encourages mindfulness and a deeper appreciation for the small, often unnoticed details of life. In this way, haiku serves as a bridge between the human experience and the natural world.

Haiku Examples with Nature Themes

To further illustrate how haiku is about nature, here are several examples of poems that focus on natural imagery:

Over the wintry Forest, winds howl in rage With no leaves to blow.

This haiku by Bashō captures the harshness of winter, where the wind howls through a barren forest. The absence of leaves emphasizes the desolation and coldness of the season, invoking feelings of solitude and stillness.

The light of a candle Is transferred to another candle— Spring twilight.

In this haiku by Yosa Buson, the image of a candle’s light passing to another is paired with the quiet, reflective quality of spring twilight. The simplicity of the scene evokes a sense of calm and continuity, a reminder of the interconnectedness of all things in nature.

I write, sleeping, With a fountain pen in my hand, On an autumn night.

Here, the poet’s act of writing is intertwined with the natural imagery of autumn. The fall of night and the autumn season become metaphors for introspection, memory, and the passage of time.

Conclusion

Haiku’s focus on nature is not merely a reflection of cultural or historical traditions but is also a profound artistic choice that speaks to universal human experiences. Through the lens of nature, haiku captures the fleeting beauty of life, the impermanence of existence, and the simplicity that can often be found in the most ordinary moments. By embracing the natural world, haiku allows readers to reflect on their own lives, fostering a deeper connection to the world around them. The seasonal imagery, the mindfulness, and the Zen-influenced simplicity of haiku all come together to create a form of poetry that remains timeless, resonating with readers both in Japan and around the world.

#haiku

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mx-pokirby · 3 months ago

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Netsuzou TRap is a very deliberately frustrating anime about the cycle of abuse, and how lack of communication, and the "comfortable" choice to maintain a poor status quo instead of taking a risk to break out, can lead to tragedy.

Boyfriend beating his girlfriend, girlfriend corrupting her best friend, best friend neglecting her boyfriend

Y'know? I actually kind of oddly appreciate how, while narratively horrible and repulsive (of course), the multiple S/A scenes are animated to still be "appealing" to the audience.

Briefly looking past the probability that all the artists working on this just don't care about exploiting such a serious topic for money, seeing those disgusting, traumatic experiences depicted like I'm expected to enjoy it when I don't want to... makes it that much easier to sympathize/relate to the victim. "It sucks, I hate this, make it stop... But aren't I supposed to want this...?"

We doubt it was on purpose, but that's a good use of Art.

Am also glad how early into the story the manipulative girl's abusive boyfriend was introduced, just to help humanize her a little bit. Of course I don't mean "humanize" in a way it makes literally any of her actions justifiable, no, she's still a monster; only that it's a good reminder that people who do cruel things to others don't just materialize out of the aether. "Abuse can come from anyone, even those you previously felt safe with."

We never really learn what his specific deal is tbh, but it's easy to interpret as simply toxic masculinity doing its job to create guys exactly like him, who expect to get whatever they want, as long as they have the Power to take it.

The ending was roughly as uplifting as a tragedy like this could turn out. The ideal situation in our own mind is "none of these people ever talk to each other again; everyone goes to therapy and lets out the most cathartic cry. Except that scumbag boyfriend, he can rot"

Instead the one girl who was repeatedly victimized decides to get together with her abuser, leaving the two boys behind. The abuser had successfully planted those seeds of toxic co-dependancy, and just had to wait for them to bloom. Now they don't need anyone else. At least for now; their asses are absolutely not lasting in a "healthy relationship" for long, but at least it's easy to see their new situation as a couple to be... "technically better than the prior situation" I guess??

Anyways those are just some scattered thoughts

PS: At the end of the OP, the screen fades to black before the two girls can kiss. Meanwhile the two female leads in Sakura Trick kiss, directly focused in center screen, like 5 seconds into its respective OP. I think it's clear who the winner is /j Yes the NeTR girls kissing is an undesirable thing, I'm just poking fun

#anime review #netsuzou trap #tw sa #abuse

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saintgoths · 1 year ago

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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇ

CHAPTER NINE - UNTIL NEXT TIME.

WORDS - 4,993.

RATING - G+.

SUMMARY - suiren has a father-daughter talk with sasuke.

feedback would be appreciated!

previous chapter - chapter eight.

Green, Suiren had walked out of her bedroom, awkward on how the upcoming events would be played out, truthfully, before Suiren had exited her room she had contemplated if she should get up and join them, and the only thing that had pushed the long-haired girl to eventually take herself out of her room was the aroma of her mother’s cooking.

As expected, everyone had been silent, it was as if Suiren had inhaled their vocal capacity the minute she had stepped into the dining room, and awkward, Suiren crossed her arms, eyes purposeful to avoid her father’s. Sasuke who had been unsure of what to say, had glanced at his wife who had focused on their youngest child who she understood was rightfully angry.

“Are you okay?” The matriarch questioned, she had stood behind a chair that had been left alone, though Suiren had noticed that all four seats around the dining table had hot food ready to be eaten, it was as if Sakura had known that Suiren would come out eventually, mayhap it was her motherly intuition.

Suiren hadn’t uttered a word but had slowly nodded her head as kickback to her mother’s inquiry while she had moved herself to the unused seat that had clearly been for her, hence it had been the one closest to Sarada’s.

“It’s good to see you,” Sasuke said and surprised, Suiren had turn to look at her father, her lips still softly pressed together, Suiren glanced at her sister who had been silent the entire time which had moved their father to quietly worry about how his daughter was going to react.

Thus, Suiren had held back the animosity she had felt about her father and then redirected her gaze to her patriarch. She had pushed a smile, as she had used the small kindness that had been happy to see him. “It’s good to see you too.”

Relieved, Sasuke could feel the world lift off his shoulders the moment Suiren had treated him with altruism, while part of his hair covered one of his eyes Suiren could still see the tenderness’ emit from his dark orb. “Did Shizune tell you the entire thing?” Sakura questioned and aware, Suiren beckoned her head as she briefly shared a glance with Sarada who had gracelessly looked down at her fare, Sarada gently shrivelled in her seat as she could feel the judgement radiate from her younger sister.

“Yeah, she told me that Sarada didn’t believe that you were our mother because dad’s co-worker wore the same glasses as her---”

“When you word it like that!” Sarada jumped embarrassed as her face stemmed from a pale shade of redness to an enraged ashamed claret.

The short-haired girl had then pouted, arms crossed and dark eyes trained on the table as she could feel the others laugh at the short discussion. “But we ended up fighting enemies that had the Sharingan!” Sarada smiled in attempt to push the attention off her and in success, Suiren pulled herself forward in interest. “Yeah, they were Science experiments and they even tried to carry the last name Uchiha.”

Suiren gasped in interest and satisfied, the glints of Sarada’s frame glistened in advance while the mirrored figures of their parents’ humoured faces had shown on the clear specs of Sarada’s glasses as the two young girls continued to speak about the previous interactions shared outside of Konoha. “Whoa, I would’ve loved fighting with you guys---”

“And that would’ve never happened,” Sakura smiled and upset, Suiren pouted before she continued eating her food, however, the small family had continued speaking to each other, and Suiren had forgotten the anger she had for her father and had been able to enjoy herself with everyone around her. Suiren had forgotten how many times she had smiled and laughed but she had understood it was time for her to go to sleep when her face and stomach had commenced to be sore.

Yet, before she had tucked herself to bed, she had bid her family a goodnight and before she left down the corridor with Sarada behind her who had then left to her own new room. It had appeared that, Suiren had already gotten used to her new surroundings, mayhap it was due to the help of her father returning back to Konoha, back home, but as much as there had been a side of Suiren that had been upset over his absence, there was an excitement that bubbled in her stomach; and the reason for the buzz she had felt had stood behind her door.

Her father had knocked against the door, his movements soft and patient as he waited for his youngest to respond.

“Come in,” Suiren called out and easily, Sasuke had pushed the door open, a calm look on the chiselled face he was known for, and as much as Suiren had heard of the stern and confident man her father was supposed to be, there had now been a look on his face that had contrasted the claims that were made by her aunts and uncles.

-He had appeared worried, but the look had soon disappeared when he saw the light and kind expression Suiren had on her face, she had sat up as Sasuke had closed the door behind him and gently, Suiren had made space for her father to sit on.

Quiet, Sasuke had sat next to her, his frame veritably larger than hers that it was quite comedic, it had reminded Suiren whenever she was told that she was in truth his little girl, the one he was around all the time, even though he loved Sarada, Suiren had been clingy to her father when she was young, as if she needed him to live.

“Your reaction to my return is completely justifiable,” he said, his voice calm but subtly nervous.

Small, Suiren had sat beside her father as she scanned the thin and soft lines detailed on her hands. “I’m sorry for swearing in front of you,” she mildly joked, and humoured, Sasuke had gently smiled at his child and for a brief second there had been a comfortable silence shared that had then been broken by the curiosity of the girl.

“Where did you go?”

“You cannot tell anyone else,” Sasuke forbade, and seriously, he looked down at his daughter whose dark green orbs widely stared up at him, the kind of curiosity and adolescence that had once again, wiped off the stern expression the man had tried to have on his face. Soft, Sasuke’s shoulders slowly dropped as he began to explain his absence to her, “There was a very big threat outside of the village that wanted to hurt the place, and if the village is hurt then that means the people I love get hurt, you guys.”

“Couldn’t anyone else, do it?” Suiren asked and quickly, Sasuke shook his head.

“I was the only person who had the power to defend the village,” Sasuke said and with her lips pressed together, Suiren took in what her father spoke about and stared at the thinness of her fingers, her nails soon to be re-painted had slightly chapped from all the violence and roughness her hands been through.

She had listened to her father calling the enemies the Otsutsuki Clan, and how dangerous they were and eventually, Suiren had understood the entire situation, and had thanked her father for his contribution on protecting the village.

“You’re welcome,” he had said and when he noticed Suiren glancing at her fingers, his intuition had quickly struck him as he had noted that Suiren had wanted to say something; and the moment he heard a sniffle, he had called out her name. “Suiren?”

As she had quickly wiped the tear that had edged itself to fall out, Suiren gently shook her head as she encouraged herself to speak. “I missed you so much,” she whined and with the evident crack that had stumbled from her lips, Sasuke had immediately hugged his child, remorseful for the sadness he had brought to her, all the missed birthdays, achievements and all the times she had just generally needed him, he had felt terrible, thus, he had allowed Suiren to rest her head against his shoulder, as he aided her with his one arm, like he would use to do when she was a toddler.

Whenever she’d fall and scrape her knee and needed him to dote and tell her that everything would be okay, or whenever the doll she’d want be sold out so he’d hug and promise her that he’d find a way to get the one she had requested. Or whenever Sakura had denied her ice cream so Suiren would immediately turn and cry to him to fetch her some and like the doting father he was, he’d always fall for her act and give her it, oh he had loved her, and he had wished that she had known that.

“I’m so sorry,” Sasuke apologised and as she clung onto him, Suiren lightly sobbed.

“I needed you so much.”

“I’m here now.”

Moreover, as she pulled away from him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, Suiren gently smiled, “will you be coming back home more?” She asked.

Sasuke had then patted her head as he reflected the brief smile Suiren had on her face. “Yes,” he said as he pulled away his hand from her crown. “You’ve grown so much,” his voice trailed with guilt, and as Suiren’s shoulders sadly dropped, she had pulled herself off his lap and had returned her position beside him. “You should go sleep,” he said and as he gently aided Suiren under her duvet, he had left her one more head pat before he exited her room.

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

With the loud noises that had included Sarada who had loudly rushed Suiren to get into the picture, the photographer had patiently waited behind his camera as the family he had been currently occupied with, had easily entertained him with the contrasting personalities that had resided in their small group.

Suiren had taken the advantage to freshen up in front of the closest mirror while the rest of the family stood in front of a green wallpaper, impatient, Sakura clicked her tongue as she echoed Sarada’s complaints while Sasuke had stood there, humoured.

As the youngest pouted, she turned to them with a look that had emitted her disapproval. “I feel like I’m getting ganged up on,” she argued with her hands on her hips, the long-haired girl had strolled towards her family who had then been relieved she had finished prepping herself to perfection in front of the mirror.

The four had then organised their positions, Sakura behind Sarada and Suiren in front of Sasuke, Sakura’s hands on Sarada’s shoulders whilst Sasuke’s only had had been placed on Suiren’s right shoulder. Focused, the photographer posed behind his object as he stared carefully into it. “Are you ready?” The photographer questioned and confident, Suiren beckoned her head as she held a complimentary smile on her face while the man counted down from three.

The second the two girls heard the camera clack, they had impatiently rushed to see the outcome, “You two pick out the frame!” Sakura called out and without hesitation, the girls immediately did so, spectating and analysing each colour frame the family picture could go well with, while the married couple spoke in the background.

“We should get the blue frame,” Suiren hummed and in disagreement, Sarada side-eyed her.

Cocky, Sarada comedically snorted as she crossed her arms. “We should get the red frame,” she countered and the minute the two girls’ eyes levelled with each other, they fell into an endless petty bicker that had eventually been put to stop by the photographer who had observed the two girls entertained.

“You two should get the white frame,” he chimed and instantly, the twin sisters stared at the white object the photographer suggested, intrigued.

In sync, the two girls gasped, Suiren’s hands clasped while Sarada had her hands against her hips. “It suits the style of the picture,” Suiren complimented and with one look, the girls twisted their vision towards the photographer fore to comment on their approval of his choice.

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

“Will you be gone for a long time again?” Sarada asked Sasuke, with her arms behind her back, shy whether to hear if their father would return soon or not, the small family stood outside the tall wooden gates of Konoha to bid the patriarch a farewell ere he returned to his mission, prior to Sarada’s question, their mother had passed a lunchbox to him, in her state of comfortable clothing that covered the skin she would usually share, the matriarch had stared at Sasuke and Sarada with an approving and calm look on her face.

As Sarada shrunk down to her shoulders in dismal, Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows empathetic to his eldest daughter’s feelings. He gently crouched down to her level as he pulled Sarada into a hug, he gently formed the words he said. “I don’t like that expression on your face,” he truthfully expressed.

“Dad,” Sarada muttered and to comfort his little girl, Sasuke formed a short smile on his face before he used his middle and index finger to gently poke her forehead.

“Until next time,” he worded and surprised Sarada pressed her hand against the place he had touched and re-directed her vision towards Suiren and Sakura, who had watched the scenario, pleased. “Suiren,” Sasuke called out, and as if she was summoned, Suiren rushed towards her father as she joined the embrace that was shared between him and her sister.

“I don’t understand what that action means,” Suiren muttered in reference to the gesture Sasuke did to Sarada and in response, the older twin giggled pleased as their father informed them that he’d be coming more often and when the trio had let go of each other, their parents quickly discussed a short conversation together while the twins made their way back into the village.

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

Days had passed and Suiren had pondered if her father’s return had been the medicine to her previous problems, she hadn’t had any nightmares, she hadn’t seen Kawaki and there was less of the buzzing noise that had almost been the end of her.

On the other hand, Suiren had now been able to train again and presently, the long-haired girl had been with her Sensei, Ren who had pushed the trio a lot, and privately Ren had been by Suiren’s side in aid to help the girl create the Jutsu she had wanted.

Due to this, Suiren would arrive to the training grounds earlier than usual to communicate with Sensei Ren and sometimes Suiren would arrive one or two hours earlier than expected. Currently, Suiren had sat down in front of her Sensei as she discussed her ideas for the prototype.

“I was inspired by the design of the lotus flower,” Suiren said as she drew the outline of her example in the mud. She had drawn it with the closest stick she could find and had delicately displayed the example to her coach, “and that I could manipulate chakra into some sort of matter,” she said.

“It seems great, fantastic even, but it can take a lot of energy manipulating chakra into matter,” Sensei Ren said.

As she put the stick down, Suiren spoke, “I know that,” she replied. “Yet, I have a lot of energy and chakra and I believe I can do it,” and before Sensei Ren could say anything to her, Akane had come into view, her long silver hair had flopped and swayed with her movements with the bright sun that had gleamed into her light strands. Suiren had watched her come into view as she had noted that the sun had made Akane’s hair appear almost white.

As Suiren got to her feet, Sensei Ren had followed after the second he saw Raiden come up behind Akane. Kindly, Suiren had greeted her team-mates, comprehensive with the knowing look Akane had on her face. “I heard that your father came back,” Akane said and alert, both Ren and Raiden twisted their vision towards the girls.

Happy, Suiren nodded her head with a confident smile on her face that had only caused Akane to fake pout. “Meaning, I wasn’t able to see him.”

“He’ll be coming over more,” Suiren replied and happy, Akane enthusiastically clapped her hands which had pushed the dark-haired girl to roll her eyes, ere, Suiren could speak about Akane’s odd obsession with her father, Sensei Ren had awkwardly coughed which had immediately gathered the children’s attention.

He held three letters and handed them each their own, and as he urged the trio to open the letters, they quickly noted that the letters signified of an invitation for the Chunin Exams, briefly, Akane gasped as her eyes lit in sudden amaze. “It’s finally happening!” The girl gasped and enthusiastic, Raiden flipped the letter to see if there had been anything else he had to read upon.

“No wonder you were training us so hard,” the boy joked and as he put the form back into the letter, Ren had urged his students to sit down.

“You need to sign the form, each of you need to sign it, the Chunin Exams can’t allow a group of two to enter it, it has to be at least three,” Ren explained.

“I’m totally joining,” Suiren said which had been followed with a bunch of accord from her teammates, the girl had still babysat Himawari from time to time, but ever since Sakura had allowed Suiren to re-join her team, hours had to be cut down between the long-haired girl and the Uzumaki.

On the other hand, Suiren had pondered how the outcome of the deal she had made with Lord Hokage would transform. As Ren had ushered both Suiren and Raiden to train with each other, Raiden slowly pulled himself up his feet, surprised, he had barely fought Suiren, and the idea of him hurting her has never crossed his mind, while the two briefly strolled to a place comfortable for their combat, Raiden turned to look at his Sensei, his eyes dark with uncertainty. “Sensei Ren, why do I have to fight Suiren?” He asked and as he could feel the disappointed grimace from the long-haired girl, it didn’t bother him.

“It’s obvious you’re hesitant when it comes to her,” Ren briefly explained. “I’m pretty sure Suiren can be relaxed fighting you, you on the other hand---”

“Is scared to be beaten by a girl way smaller than him,” Suiren smiled, which had caused Akane to echo a laughter. While their Sensei had quickly tasked himself to put on a ten-minute timer, Suiren and Raiden positioned themselves opposite each other, keen to hear the count down. As he stood between the two of them, Ren raised his hand as he slowly counted down from three.

“3…2…1!”

Immediately, Suiren had begun with Taijutsu that Raiden had easily dodged, but with every nudge, push and pull, Suiren could identify a message of anxiety that fell from his eyes.

Annoyed, Suiren furrowed her eyebrows as she watched Raiden pull out his kunai in attempt to attack her, but with flaw, he had missed which had aided Suiren to kick his chin that had pushed him to fly backwards. Though, with quickness, Raiden jumped to his feet and noticed the famous woven hand signatures of the Fire Hand Jutsu.

Horse, Tiger, Serpent, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse and Tiger.

Raiden’s eyes quickly examined the hand movements before his hands began to move itself, Dragon, Tiger Ram, Bird, Dragon and Tiger: “Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!” Raiden yelled before a striking large boulder of water spilled out of his mouth.

Its quick efficiency darted towards Suiren who in response continued to blow the fierceness of her Fire towards him, the blaze easily took over his Water which had commenced the boy to get knocked backwards. The Water Bullet Jutsu had also been what his clan was known for, aside for its villainous Dojutsu but Raiden understood no matter how much he had trained that Jutsu, it wouldn’t have been able to overtake the strength of the Uchiha Flame.

As Raiden got to his feet, the brown-haired boy leapt backwards, still hesitant to resume his training towards the girl, which had released an angered kickback from the small Uchiha who without a second-thought had speedily aimed towards the Nakamura boy and harshly shifted a punch against his face.

The punch, loud, had silenced the natural sounds of nature and had cut the silent seek of both Akane and Ren who had made their way towards Suiren and Raiden. Suiren who had clasped her hands against her mouth, frightened of her own behaviour and commenced to apologise quickly. “I’m so sorry!” The girl whimpered, generally in distraught to her quick temper.

Without second thought, Suiren had aided Raiden to his feet who had as kickback pulled his hand away from her. “I’m not weak,” he muttered.

“I know,” she said.

“I know you’re not weak,” he carried on, and as he wiped the bright red blood that leaked from his nose Suiren’s hands dropped beside her.

“Then why do you keep on hesitating?” Suiren asked and as he pulled himself from a response, Suiren clenched her jaw, once more, irritated.

“It’s because he doesn’t want to hurt his little princess,” Akane chimed in and as she felt the glare Raiden had sent her way, unapologetically, the silver-haired girl bounced her shoulders. Hands on her waist, Akane leaned her weight against one foot as she watched the brief drama play in front of her.

As Suiren quickly took in a deep breath, she had pulled Raiden closer to her, her grip around his arms a bit tighter than usual---while the look on her face referred that she didn’t want him to let go this time. “Let me heal your face,” Suiren said as she dragged him to a better spot.

While Akane spoke with Sensei Ren, Suiren had rested on her knees as she sat beside Raiden. Her hand gentle against his face while the light buzz and green hue of her healing chakra emitted into his face. “You need to stop doing that,” Suiren muttered and apologetic, Raiden rested his shoulders.

“I’m sorry.”

As she hummed Suiren had then lightly shrugged her shoulders. “It’s okay,” she said as she healed him.

“The thought of me hurting you is something I don’t like,” Raiden truthfully said and comforted by his chivalry, Suiren smiled, a pure smile, one that he has seen before, one that he has seen displayed to ones she had cherished the most.

“I’m not made out of glass,” Suiren whispered and charmed, Raiden sat up. “You wouldn’t hurt me as much as you think you would,” immediately, Suiren had regretted her choice of words while Raiden sent her a look. “I’m not saying you’re weak,” she smiled, “my skin is made out of steel,” she joked, “so keep that in mind the next time we train together.”

Confident that she had finished her small chore to heal his nose, Suiren had helped the both of them stand to their feet, both faces plastered with optimistic looks that had showed the admiration the two had for each other. “Let’s go back to them, Rai,” Suiren smiled and as she wrapped her hand around his arm, the long-haired girl softly dragged the boy back to the rest of the group.

⋆｡‧₊°꧁ ༺𓆩❦︎𓆪༻ ꧂‧₊˚.⋆

Suiren had always loved junk food, even though she was a girl who had casually put herself on a strict diet, this was the same girl who had loved to break the rules. She loved fried chicken, burgers and pizza and Lightning Burger was the best place to get those commodities.

Team Thirteen had currently finished training and had joined the other Genin Teams in the popular fast-food restaurant, the area had been buzzing with almost each figure speaking about the Chunin Exams, and hungry, Suiren tapped her fingers against the booth table her and her two team-mates had sat around.

The booth could consist of four people, two people each side, thus Suiren and Raiden had sat next to each other while Akane plopped herself opposite of them. As Suiren lightly huffed, her boredom had been excused by a loud commotion a couple of booths down, and in sync, the trio had lifted their head to see what had happened and in to their surprise, Sarada had grabbed Boruto by his collar, her eyes stern and fierce as she commented on how she wanted to become Hokage.

“If you stand in the way of that, so help me God!” Her voice boomed and humoured, Suiren smirked at her older sister, it had appeared that the two girls shared their mother’s anger, especially her way of words.

As the trio returned to comfortably sit on their seats, Suiren briefly glanced at her team-mates, as she comically spoke, “I forgot how loud Sarada can be,” she muttered while the shadows of two recognisable boys neared towards her. Akane had been first to notice their presence, specficially due to the angle she had sat on and when Suiren twisted her vision towards the path of the young men, she comprehended them to be Inojin and Shikadai.

Inojin, the son of her mother’s best friend, Ino and her husband Sai. Shikadai, the son of Shikamaru Nara who is known to be Lord Hokage’s right hand man and also one of the most intelligent people in the village. Shikadai was also the son of Temari, the Sand Princess who had a brother as the Lord in her birth place.

As she crossed her arms, and looked at what had been in their hands, Suiren understood what they had wanted to speak about involved their gaming devices. “Sarada and Boruto are arguing, and we need a third person to play with us to beat the Third Boss.”

“I don’t have my gaming counsel on me,” Suiren verily replied and the moment the words fell out her lips, Shikadai clicked his tongue which had caused Suiren to send Shikadai a look that had been full with threat. Thus, he had immediately taken back his rude behaviour.

“Well, have a good day,” Inojin kindly bid ere he lazily sent them a wave as he followed Shikadai back to where Boruto and Sarada was.

Eventually, the food they had ordered had been placed in front of them and Team Thirteen had spoken within themselves, while Suiren sat close to a window pane she had been able to see a strange looking man walk towards them, he hadn’t said anything and his strange presence had caused Suiren to look at her teammates to discover if they had saw what she had.

Confused on how both Raiden and Akane had not seen the man outside the window, Suiren returned her sight to her fare before she continued to eat it, although, with how distinct the man was, with his red hair, bright blue eyes and grey colour scheme of clothes, Suiren couldn’t help but return her sight towards his direction during the moment he began to knock on the glass window pane.

Annoyed as she recognised that she was truthfully the only person to see and hear the odd man outside, her curiosity had pushed herself to pack her food away and send it into her bag. “I’m leaving early,” Suiren quickly said ere she rushed out of the fast-food restaurant without looking back to her teammates.

On task to follow the man, Suiren had realised how dark the sky had been ever since she entered the Lightning Burger, on the other hand she took into consideration to how long Team Thirteen had trained together today.

“Who are you?” Suiren called out as she stalked the red headed man, “why are you here and why am I the only person that can see you?”

Stubborn for answers, Suiren chased him down further until she had almost bumped into his back. The man had eventually turned around, his face not as odd as she first perceived it and Suiren had realised how handsome the man was, he seemed a couple of years older than her, at least one or two.

Aside from him being a pleasure to look at, there was still this odd feeling considering him, a knowing smirk on his face as if he had known her deepest needs and secrets.

“I can make it stop.”

Confused, Suiren knitted down her sharp eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“The humming,” he answered as he tapped the bridge of his of head and it was as if his answer had been a trigger for the sound to begin, frustrated, Suiren harshly breathed in the tight gaps of her teeth. “Is it happening again?” He asked and reticent, Suiren beckoned her head.

Easily, the man had pulled out a small bag that had consisted a powdered essence, and the moment Suiren comprehended that what must have been in the bag, was a drug, she hastily pulled herself back. “I don’t take drugs.”

“It’ll be the only thing that can stop it,” he said as he passed it onto her, and unsure, Suiren grasped onto the little bag as she examined it.

Confused on how the man had known what she had needed to decrease the humming noise, Suiren eventually looked up and away from the translucent bag to inquire her question only to be met with his absence. Perplexed, Suiren looked around while in the background the irate humming had finally come to a stop.

masterlist

#naruto #naruto fandom #naruto fanfiction #boruto fanfiction #suiren uchiha #sasuke uchiha #sasuke #sasusaku #she's sarada's twin #sarada has a twin

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