#sakura week 24

[inosakutema]

Happy birthday Sakura Haruno!

❀ 𝐒𝐀𝐊𝐔𝐑𝐀 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐎 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓

— March 28th is Sakura Haruno/Uchiha’s birthday! We compiled a list of 28 facts about her in celebration of her special day.

🌸DAY 1:

Sakura is the second oldest and tallest female of her trio and her generation after Temari. She was born on March 28th and she’s 165cm tall, the same height as Ino Yamanaka, according to her two official adult character design provided by Studio Pierrot.

🌸DAY 2:

Sakura is the kunoichi with the most outfit and hair changes of her generation in canon including The Last: Naruto the Movie.

She’s known for her sporty Chinese style of traditional qipaos or modern qipaos with a zipper in the middle and tights to complete the look. She also wears her ninja gear and Konohagakure headband is red to compliment her pink hair. Her representative color is red or scarlet, which she always in her clothes with some bits of white in the edges and pants. 

Her hair has also changed throughout the eras from long hair parted in the middle, shoulder length, slightly longer with bangs and a bop style with the hairline on her left.

(Her Naruto Gaiden and Sasuke Retsuden styles are not included in this picture)

🌸DAY 3: 

Sakura is the only kunoichi to wear her family’s crest on her clothes and the only one to wear her Konohagakure headband with all her clothes.

It’s a tradition she has cherished with since she was a child, wearing the Haruno crest on her back first and the Uchiha crest after marriage. This is also a token she shares with Team 7, with Naruto wearing the Uzumaki clan crest and Sasuke wearing the Uchiha clan crest on their clothes in the manga.

🌸DAY 4:

Sakura is the most popular kunoichi of Naruto according to the official manga character popularity polls during serialization.

Adding all the polls together, she obtained 11.889 points, earning the first place overall among the female characters. Link to the third databook character popularity poll.

She was also voted third most popular Naruto character in Naruto Worldwide Character Popularity Poll NARUTOP99 and the most popular kunoichi with 489.619 daily votes. Link to the poll results.

🌸DAY 5:

Sakura is the only kunoichi of her generation of Konoha shinobi to be promoted to jōnin rank and the second kunoichi besides Temari. After the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sakura and Shikamaru were promoted to jōnin, becoming the only shinobi of their generation to be promoted at the time. 

Up to Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Sakura Haruno, Temari Nara, Shikamaru Nara, Neji Hyūga and Rock Lee are the only jōnin of that generation in Konohagakure.

🌸DAY 6:

According to official sources, databooks and novels, Sakura became the best medical-ninja in Konohagakure and the world at age 17 after surpassing her master, the Fifth Hokage and Sannin, Tsunade. Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage and God of Shinobi also noted that Sakura had also surpassed Tsunade in strength, becoming the strongest kunoichi too.

Sakura becomes one of the kunoichi to be considered “the best” at her field, medical ninjutsu and taijutsu with enhanced strength, along with being Temari hailed as the best Wind Release and tessenjutsu user in the world and Ino implied to be the best telepath of her clan.

🌸DAY 7:

Sakura was the sixth character Masashi Kishimoto created when he was thinking about the story. As he drew, he decided to add the heroine and create a love triangle between the hero, the rival and the heroine.

🌸DAY 8: 

According to Boruto: Naruto Next Generations’ character trivia at the end of Volume 3, Sakura Uchiha is currently the strongest among her jōnin mates by a huge margin and also the third strongest ninja of Konohagakure after Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki.

She’s also still the second smartest person of her generation behind Shikamaru like it was said in the manga. Her profile also states that she has perfect taijutsu, ninjutsu and high resistance.

🌸DAY 9:

Not only is Sakura recognized as the strongest kunoichi in official material, but the Uchiha couple formed by Sakura and Sasuke Uchiha are also hailed as “the strongest married couple” in official material. Their descriptions in Sasuke Retsuden read: “The strongest couple fight at the end of the universe.” “… The strongest couple running through?!” “Spouses and partners. The strongest couple’s infiltration.”

This is because Sasuke is the strongest shinobi alive with Naruto Uzumaki.

🌸DAY 10:

Sakura is the third most experienced kunoichi of her trio and fourth of her generation. She completed 34 missions in total by age 16, a little less than Team 10 and Temari due to Naruto and Sasuke leaving Konohagakure and Sakura being left as the only member of Team 7.

However, she’s also the only kunoichi to have completed seven A-rank missions, which are normally completed by a group of experienced chūnin or jōnin mostly, while being of genin and chūnin rank. Some of these A-rank missions she completed as a genin. She also completed missions for Tsunade and escaped the village to investigate Sasuke’s whereabouts.

🌸DAY 11:

Despite only focusing on taijutsu and medical ninjutsu to fight, Sakura’s elemental affinities include Water and Earth just like Ino. She’s also very skilled in Yin techniques like genjutsu and her Yang Release allows her to perform highly complex medical ninjutsu.

One of her jutsu, the Cellular Extraction Healing Technique, manipulates Water Release to remove poison. According to Sasuke Retsuden, she’s also proficient in Fire Release. Sakura, Temari and Ino are the only kunoichi to use the elements in canon.

🌸DAY 12:

Besides her active job as a ninja of Konohagakure, Sakura has also actively contributed to the village in other fields. She has worked in Konoha Hospital from age 16 as one of the village’s top doctors, and now she’s the Medical Director of the health system of Konohagakure. She's also a member of the Cypher Corps shown during Pain’s Assault too.

Similarly, Ino used to help her parents at Yamanaka Flowers from time to time and now she runs the shop with her own family; while Temari was the Kazekage’s bodyguard and ambassador and now she’s the Ambassador between Konohagakure and Sunagakure.

🌸DAY 13:

Haruno Sakura (春野サクラ) means “field of cherry blossoms” and her name, Sakura (サクラ), means “cherry blossom flower”. This is a symbol of her pink hair and green eyes like cherry blossoms and red clothes like the cherry fruit.

The cherry blossom is also Japan’s national flower, very cherished and famous around the world because it signals the arrival of spring and flower season.

🌸DAY 14:

Sakura represents the cherry blossoms, a flower that is cherished and treasured in Japan for its beauty and short lifespan that is often associated with samurais. 

According to the Japanese language of flowers, Hanakotoba, the cherry blossom or Sakura represents kindness, gentleness and transience of life; while in China they represent feminine beauty. 

🌸DAY 15:

Sakura has been praised for her beauty by several characters in the manga and novels, and she’s the most beautiful kunoichi of Naruto and Boruto according to the author too.

Masashi Kishimoto in chapter 252 and The Last databook, Rock Lee, Naruto Uzumaki, Inari, Jiji and even Ino have praised her beauty in canon. Rock Lee and Naruto Uzumaki are also known to have been in love with Sakura while Naruto was serialized. 

🌸DAY 16:

Sakura is one of the two females of her generation to have a summoning, the other being Temari. She has a contract with the slug Katsuyu of the “Three Big Unexplored Sage Regions”, the Shikkotsu Forest. 

This summon is the most special in the series because it can only be summoned if the user possesses the Strength of a Hundred Seal. Katsuyu is also known to be an offense and defense type of summon with incredible durability and the ability to change from solid to liquid. Moreover, she’s capable of dividing her body into hundreds of fragments that can sense, heal and communicate with each other to share intel no matter the distance.

🌸DAY 17:

Sakura is one of the most skilled ninja in ninjutsu, taijutsu and a user of very advanced techniques. She is the only kunoichi of her generation to master not one but two S-rank techniques: Creation Rebirth and the Strength of a Hundred Seal; and with Tsunade and now her daughter, she has perfect chakra control that can’t be copied even with Sharingan or Mind Body Switch.

She can also use techniques on a superior level than others like taijutsu and medical ninjutsu.

🌸DAY 18:

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Sakura was assigned to the Third Unit, the Intermediate-range battle unit. That group had specialist in both close and mid-range battle skills in taijutsu and ninjutsu with high speed and great strength including the masters Might Guy and Rock Lee with taijutsu, and Kakashi Hatake with ninjutsu. 

She was later joined the Medical and Logistical Support Division to help Shizune, where she healed many shinobi and defeated the White Zetsu, saving the Alliance from murderers and intruders.

🌸DAY 19:

Sakura is one of the shinobi most related to Hokages and she’s quite close with the Kage in general. She’s a student of the Fifth and Sixth Hokage, was praised by the First and follows his will, and the best friend of the Seventh Hokage. Gaara, the Kazekage, has also praised her skills in taijutsu and medical ninjutsu and considers her a pillar of his life.

Sakura is also quite close with the current Gokage and her status as a person with the highest rank after Naruto, she has attended Kage Summits and kept secrets of international interest. Moreover, she has also been acknowledged as a perfect replacement for the Hokage.

🌸DAY 20:

Out of 700 chapters of Naruto, Sakura appears in +330. Link to the manga count.

She’s the female lead and heroine of the series, and the kunoichi with the most screen time of her generation.

🌸DAY 21:

Sakura is the only kunoichi to have a side story starring as the co-protagonist in several formats: novel, manga and anime.

In Sasuke Retsuden, with Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha, she infiltrates a remote country called Redaku to find a cure for Naruto’s illness and becomes the heroine of the Observatory. 

🌸DAY 22:

In Naruto Retsuden and Boruto, Sakura is recognized as one of the five most important people in Konohagakure and the only most important kunoichi of her generation.

This is popularly known as “The Five Pillars of Konoha” and it highlights Sakura’s dedication to Konoha’s medical development from Naruto to Boruto. From the start, Sakura has contributed to Konoha’s health system as a top-rated doctor, later opening mental health organizations across nations and finally leading Konoha’s Medical Department.

The Pillars of Konoha is also a reference to the Japanese card game Koi-Koi (こいこい), played with the Hanafuda cards. The Hikari cards are the most valuable combination of the game (20 points) and the cards together are called the Gokō (Five lights - 五光). In that combination, Sakura represents the cherry blossom (桜, cherry blossom).

🌸DAY 23: 

According to the first fanbook, Sakura was praised by Iruka Umino, her sensei, for her great chakra control and intelligence in the Academy, and she aced all the written exams too with the highest grades.

She was also the only person to complete and answer correctly all the questions of the written test of the Chūnin Exams without cheating, something Ino took advantage of with her jutsu.

Sakura is known to be the sharpst mind of Konohagakure and the most intelligent kunoichi.

🌸DAY 24:

Sakura’s first ever friend was Ino, who defended her from bullies and helped her gain confidence and self-esteem. Despite becoming healthy rivals later on, both remained the best of friends and have helped each other many times in their lives

Also, Sakura was probably Temari’s first female friend. Not only was Temari’s first interaction with Sakura but they also show amity good feelings in part 2. Later Sakura would save Temari from a stab wound and together with Ino they’d become best friends.

🌸DAY 25:

Sakura, just like Temari, married into another clan that isn’t her own.

Originally from a small civilian family, Sakura joined one of the strongest and noble clans of Konoha, the Uchiha. She has become the matriarch and the mother of the first Uchiha born after the massacre.

🌸DAY 26:

In the new era, Sakura is the Head of Konoha’s Medical Department as a full-time job. Her main task is lead other doctors as the Director of Konoha Hospital as she's their main doctor always taking the most important cases. As the head of the entire medical division, she’s also a teacher of medical ninjutsu for the new generation.

She briefly became the head doctor of the Astronomy Observatory of the Land of Redaku.

Her continuation as a member of the Cypher Corps hasn't been brought up.

Sakura is also often seen training Sarada in chakra control, taijutsu, medical ninjutsu and shuriken.

She's still an active jōnin too that goes on missions regularly.

This is a repost. You can still find the original here: Sakura birthday post original.

Temari birthday post. Ino birthday post.

[hirazuki]

For Now [Chapter 18 snippet]

Sasori/Haruno Sakura, Sasori & Haruno Sakura | T | Blank Period | canon divergent | angst, hurt/comfort, enemies to friends | ongoing [AO3]

•────────────────────⋅☾ ☽⋅────────────────────•

“Human bodies are an inconvenience, in multiple respects,” he elaborates. “Surely you can appreciate this.”

Sakura sighs and flops on the bed, her back to him. “I am not debating life philosophies with you at – ” she cranes her neck up to look at the clock on the nightstand “ – three forty-two in the morning.”

“Oh? Is there something else you’d rather be doing?” Sasori smirks, knowing full well that he’s annoying her.

“Yes,” she snaps, sitting up and whirling on him, throwing her second pillow at his face. “Sleeping. I have a job to show up for in the morning, unlike some.”

She prepares to dramatically fling herself back down again but stops, abruptly, likely realizing that she has relinquished both of her pillows to him at this point, leaving her with only the mattress to lie on. He can feel the debate going on in her head – to just grit her teeth and live with the situation that she created, or to swallow her pride and ask for them back – and it looks like the latter is winning out, as she slumps her shoulders and starts turning towards him.

So, naturally, he does the only thing possible in this situation.

Sasori swings both pillows at her, trapping her head between them.

She sputters, briefly, and once the initial shock is over, yanks them out of his grip and attacks him with them. He grabs one of his own to defend himself with, and they exchange several blows until, predictably, she gets too invested, and accidentally channels some of that monstrous strength – and they hear the crack of wood.

“Okay, stop, truce!” Sakura calls, shielding her face with her pillows. “I can’t afford a new bed.”

“I win by default,” he announces, as she’s rearranging her side of the bed.

“I said 'truce!'” she argues, and snatches his pillow from his hands, clearly claiming it as a prize. “Hmph.”

Holding it close to her chest, she sticks her tongue out at him, turns around, and lies back down.

He doesn’t need it, to sleep; he doesn’t need to hold that particular pillow, though it's the one he's been using, nor does he actually need to hold anything at all. It’s simply that insomnia still breathes heavily down his neck – two years of being back in his human body is not nearly enough to overwrite almost two decades of experience, no matter how this body craves the rest – and he has discovered that clutching something physical against him helps to ground him, for whatever reason. 

But he doesn’t need it, and even if he did, he has his chakra threads at his disposal, growing stronger by the day – he can simply pull it out of her grasp.

Like her, though, he has a near-addiction to having the last word, and one of his favorite pastimes is making her squirm.

Sasori leans over, well past the unspoken boundary between their respective sides, and hovers above her for a moment, before lowering himself snugly behind her body and wrapping an arm around her – waist, pillow, and all.

“What are you doing?!” Sakura immediately startles – he can feel her muscles tense, and the way her heart is beating wildly – and attempts to throw him off.

His grip tightens.

“You stole my pillow,” he murmurs into the hair at the back of her head.

“You can have it ba –”

“Silence.” 

“But – !”

“Shut up,” he mutters again, holding her down more forcefully. “I’m trying to sleep.”

[maikamaki]

I discovered that I have a thing for drawing Sakura, more milf than ever

[akkivee]

was checking up on hypmic content coming out this week and lmao can you believe we’re getting 3 new song previews, 2 new chapters for the manga, ichiro’s bday, a cute looking summer event in arb, and a hypmic seiyuu event vid all this week 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[gibberishfangirl]

WIND BREAKER | affection

Synopsis ✰ head cannons of how pda looks like between you and the boys

Characters ✰ Haruka Sakura, Hajime Umemiya, Hayato Suo, Akihiko Nirei, Jo Togame, Choji Tomiyama

Contains ✰ sfw! pda, kissing, hand-holding, cute content of the boys being in love

Haruka Sakura ᡣ𐭩

♥︎ shy shy boy

♥︎ you’re the one who usually initiates any type of physical contact

♥︎ you’re always holding his hand in public

♥︎ expect him to constantly have red cheeks around you

♥︎ he very defensive whenever someone points out your hand holding

♥︎ doesn’t necessarily hate it, he just doesn’t like how flustered he gets over it

♥︎ Suo 100% teases him about it meanwhile Nirei thinks it’s cute

♥︎ the most he can handle is hand holding

♥︎ he might actually die if you kiss him in public

♥︎ once you saw how he almost died from a simple kiss on the cheek you didn’t want to find out how he’d react a kiss on the lips

♥︎ his hands get sweaty, he can’t help it he’s a nervous wreck around you

♥︎ gets embarrassed about his sweaty palms but you always reassure him it’s okay

♥︎ once he gets used to the hand holding he’s more calm and doesn’t get as red as before

♥︎ he’ll even subconsciously initiate the hand holding after awhile

♥︎ only time he initiates physical contact in public is to hold your hand underneath the table so no one can see

♥︎ gets super flustered if you hug him or lean your head into his neck

♥︎ he’ll never push you away, he might not be used to it but he’ll never want to hurt your feelings like that

♥︎ accepts your affection even if it makes him a blushing mess

Hajime Umemiya ᡣ𐭩

♥︎ he’s not afraid of pda whatsoever

♥︎ literally isn’t shy to kiss you in front of anyone

♥︎ he for sure initiates it 90% of the time

♥︎ always has his hands on you

♥︎ not in an overly sexual way or anything

♥︎ even if his hand is just wrapped around your waist or caressing your hand he’s happy

♥︎ loves to feel your touch

♥︎ hugging with soft kisses is one of his favorite things to do

♥︎ he just laughs in response to anyone trying to tease him

♥︎ really isn’t bothered by eyes on you two

♥︎ expect the boys to mimic barfing sounds around the two of you

♥︎ “GET A ROOM!” “no one wants to see that” “i hate love” “so scandalous”

♥︎ the rest of the boys are determined haters due to jealousy

♥︎ he usually teases them by saying “love is such a nice feeling, i’m sure you’d understand if could you ever get a girlfriend.”

♥︎ never pushes your boundaries

♥︎ he only goes as far as whatever you’re okay with

Hayato Suo ᡣ𐭩

♥︎ he’s not very explicit when displaying his affection

♥︎ he’s a gentleman of course he’s not going to maul you in front of others

♥︎ will hold your hand or have an arm delicately wrapped around your waist

♥︎ if he isn’t doing that, you’re most likely holding onto his bicep

♥︎ he secretly loves it whenever you sit on his lap

♥︎ there’s no extra chair ?? oh nooooo guess you’re just stuck sitting on his lap

♥︎ loves to hold you from your waist

♥︎ expect him to hug you from behind 24/7

♥︎ he makes sure to take you out on dates at least once a week

♥︎ Sakura silently judges your pda with irrational blushes whenever he catches you two being affectionate

♥︎ will sneak in small kisses on your cheek whenever he has the chance

♥︎ doesn’t mind if you initiate kissing in public

♥︎ will not make out with you in public, don’t even think about it

♥︎ people find you two adorable

♥︎ honestly the perfect amount of pda, not too much not too little

♥︎ he will open every single door for you (not rlly pda but i wanted to include this)

Akihiko Nirei ᡣ𐭩

♥︎ doesn’t initiate it

♥︎ he doesn’t mind if you’re into pda

♥︎ is very respectful about it

♥︎ will blush if you happen to get too excited

♥︎ will break up the kiss before it goes too far

♥︎ easily flustered

♥︎ goes with the flow and with whatever you want to do (as long as it’s not too explicit)

♥︎ honestly is just super down bad for you

♥︎ whatever you say/want goes

♥︎ he’s easy to break when it comes to you

♥︎ can never tell you no

♥︎ you mighttttt be able to talk him into being a little late to class so you can sneak off for a quick make out session

♥︎ he’s satisfied with small hand holding

♥︎ kissing can sometimes be a bit much for him

♥︎ do not try to slip in tongue he will immediately blush and pull away before muttering a small “later”

♥︎ he’s more open to pda around people you don’t know

♥︎ for example, he’s perfectly fine with it when you two go on a date at a location where you won’t run into friends

Jo Togame ᡣ𐭩

♥︎ pda king

♥︎ he lives for it

♥︎ he initiates it alll the time

♥︎ cannot get enough of you

♥︎ expect him to always want and have his lips on you

♥︎ he likes to show off that your his

♥︎ his pda is more rough than gentle

♥︎ will and can be gentle during more private moments

♥︎ most people are still nervous about making him mad so you two have unlimited privacy anyways

♥︎ always has his arm around your shoulder

♥︎ is happy whenever you’re the one who initiates it

♥︎ he likes to know you want his touch as much as he wants yours

♥︎ will have you wearing his jacket whenever he can so others know you belong to him

♥︎ secretly wants you coddle you at any chance he has

Choji Tomiyama ᡣ𐭩

♥︎ he’s surprisingly a natural

♥︎ it’s kind of weird when considering the fact that he hasn’t had too many girlfriends or relationships in general

♥︎ he flows with you very well

♥︎ he mainly likes to show others that your his so everyone knows not to bother you

♥︎ is very protective over you

♥︎ doesn’t mind if you ever escalate things

♥︎ doesn’t see an issue in too much pda

♥︎ wouldn’t be against a public make out session

♥︎ it’s not like anyone would have the nerve to tell him something about it

♥︎ the two of you usually get private time since Choji unintentionally scares everyone away

♥︎ he’s more of a hugger than kisser

♥︎ will bear hug you before even initiating intimate kissing in public

♥︎ he’s always holding your hand, hugging you from behind, having an arm around your shoulder, or having an arm wrapped your waist

♥︎ he’s obsessed with you in the best way possible

[yanderealm]

⋆˙⟡ YOUR VAMPIRE S/O HCS !

PAIRING: gi / hi3 / hsr x afab! reader

TW: blood sucking, needy actions, your s/o being thirsty for your blood 7/24, you suffering from anemia because they always sucks your blood, biting marks, hickeys, NSFW, yandere & suggestive themes, possessiveness, oral ( f! receives ), period sex & soft sex.

NOTE: done and gone crappy i’m dying 💀. && banner edit inspired by @justblades .

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT !

they immediately get turned on because you whimper too much while they were sucking your blood, they made you lay on the floor without wasting any time and whisper “ leave it to me… i won’t hurt this time, i promise. “ for not making you get panicked. but you end up being broken by them.

diluc, zhongli, lisa, alhaitham, yelan, dainsleif, ayato, thoma, kaveh, wanderer, durandal, su, kevin, eden, otto, elysia, himeko ( hi3/hsr ), dan heng, luocha, welt, jing yuan, seele

they suck your blood until you pass out because they find your blood so rarely sweet that they shouldn’t leave even a drop to someone else. you always carry their marks on your neck, cleavage, breasts, wrists, thighs and inner thighs that they makes a new one if any of those marks perishes, they even lick your period blood if you let them and finger you gently.

kaeya, ayato, arlecchino, zhongli, childe, pantalone, alhaitham, cyno, rita, raven, hare / mistelyn, kalpas, blade, kafka

they prefer to suck on your blood once a week because they don't want to ruin your beauty by sucking too much blood. they always cares about your skin in aftercare, makes you sure that you eat well against anemia. they’ll even apologize if they went too hard to make you cry loudly, immediately licking the wound they made as treatment.

thoma, diluc, kazuha, keqing, shenhe, jean, lisa, fu hua, su, mei, aponia, eden, yae sakura, kallen, otto, gepard, sampo, dan heng, natasha, jing yuan

they want only their marks on your body and want to have their scent mixed with yours when they rest their face on your neck or chest. they won’t even comprehend that they’re not the only one who’s getting possessive over their beautiful s/o. you become a vampire to be immortal and to be more closer to them. and maybe even sucking their blood too?

childe, diluc, xiao, albedo, lisa, eula, yelan, ei, pantalone, signora, dottore, capitano, shenhe, raven, rita, yae sakura, blade, serval, bronya

they want to be intimate with you while sucking your blood because you’re really seductive in their eyes! they want to see you whimper in pleasure under them!

miko, dehya, sara, dainsleif, alhaitham, jean, baizhu, wanderer, pantalone, capitano, miko, xiao, mobius, mei, durandal, jing yuan, sampo, seele, kafka, luocha, serval

the reason they fell in love with you is the smell and hotness of your blood! it drove them crazy and they even tend to change their sick traits for making themselves ‘ boyfriend / girlfriend material ‘ in your eyes just for your sweet blood!. but soon, they achieve your delicious blood in your first date.! and maybe you spiced it up in the end <3

ei, cyno, wanderer, sara, childe, itto, kaveh, hare / mistelyn, kallen, mei, elysia, otto, kevin, dan heng, gepard

( YANDEREALM ) // MASTERLIST.

[waffliesinyoface]

dumb naruto ffn concept: sasuke and sakura have an argument post epilogue about familial duties

-sakura understands that sasuke wants to travel and do ninja stuff, but... she is also a ninja? a ninja in extremely high demand?? she has missions too, sasuke. someone needs to go eliminate random plagues and punch down buildings, sasuke!

-both agree that sarada needs a stable parental influence, but sakura doesnt want to give up her career to play 24/7 housewife, and sasuke would go insane if forced to stay in one place for any length of time

-both agree that revolving baby sitters would be no good, she needs someone to watch her who is like. actually family, and not a friend doing them a favor.

-unfortunately they are also both ridiculous in their own special ways, and have insane standards for the role of "would trust with their child." they would need someone who is:

-A: not on active duty, because thats the problem both of them are having

-B: is someone they feel they can trust around children (ie: not kakashi, because he's family, but also, the worst possible role model. And not naruto because he is hokage and also, just. no.)

-C: is up to the ridiculous standards they have as a consequence of being on team 7. (ie: "obviously we want someone capable of defending her from random missing nin, what if she gets attacked coming home from the academy" "obviously")

-D: most importantly: someone who would be willing to. actually do that. sasuke's whole family is dead and sakura's parents are both old (read: in their 50s, or, positively ancient in ninja terms) and civilians.

-This goes back and forth for ages... until sasuke remembers that. He knows the edo tensei. He watched orochimaru do it with his sharingan. So. There is. One possibility.

-Sakura goes to tsunade and is like "hey :) can i have that missing nin that was brought in last week :) the one that accidentally got his brain melted by T&I :)" and tsunade is just. so tired. sure, why not. the things she does for her cute little apprentice.

-So now they have a technically still alive body that is legally braindead and who no one will miss!!

-Anyways, itachi gets pulled from the afterlife to be sarada's weird uncle and constant babysitter. This can only end well!!

[kvohru]

matching jammies - nejiten week '24

day 2 - gezelligheid (dutch) A convivial, cozy, or warm atmosphere. The warmth of being with loved ones, or seeing a friend after a long absence.

The snowstorm outside didn’t seem to be willing to relent anytime soon, but that wasn’t all that unusual for late December in Konoha. Blankets of pure white snow coated the streets and slicked the windows, creating the idealistic picture of a winter wonderland. It was the perfect setting for creating snow angels or having a snowball fight, Tenten thought, but with them coming up on the coldest month of the year, she couldn’t imagine getting pelted in the face with snow in these particularly frigid temperatures would be very comfortable.

Which was particularly why she’d insisted on everyone staying inside that day, much to her twins’ absolute and utter dismay.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Tenten murmured, brows furrowed, and bit down on her bottom lip. Her eyes flicked up to the clock once again, almost instinctively, and she was again met with the fact that Neji was supposed to be here hours ago.

Despite the world being fairly peaceful, the Fourth Great War having ended five years ago (along with the whole ‘let’s blow up the moon!’ thing from three years ago), shinobi were still needed, and especially capable Jōnin like Hyūga Neji. This time, he was tasked to lead a team of two Chūnin on a mission in the Land of Silence. She didn’t know anything past that, though— he wasn’t allowed to share any specifics with her, but she imagined she had a basic idea of the objectives.

Tenten knew he could take care of himself and of those with him, she trusted him implicitly, honestly, but whenever he was late coming home from missions, she still couldn’t help but worry.

What if he was hurt? What if his subordinates were hurt? What if they encountered—

“Mamaaaaaaa,” a sulky voice came from behind her, little feet padding on the kitchen floor and cutting her train of dreary thoughts short. She could practically hear the pout that was surely on her two year old daughter’s lips. “When’s Papa coming home?”

Ah, yes. And then there was this little munchkin. Tenten had accidentally fallen pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl, two years ago, around this time. Thankfully, it was a fairly easy pregnancy.

Too easy, in fact, to the point where they didn’t find out until around seven months in. By chance, at that. Was quite the way to celebrate Neji’s twenty-first, that one.

(And then it was even more surprising when they went for their first checkup and found out they were having, not one, but two children. But that’s a story for another day.)

The brown-haired woman sighed, picking her adorably sleepy—though Hibari was vehemently insistent on denying this—daughter up. “Soon, baby.” She planted a kiss on Hibari’s cheek and fixed her sweater, absently wondering if she should turn the heat up a little more. “Are you cold?”

Hibari shook her head, tiredly nuzzling into Tenten’s neck. “Can we play in the snow, at least?” Unlike her twin brother, Hibari was very vocal. Sakura told her that they were both incredibly advanced for their age, speech-wise, but Hibari was a lot more outgoing than Hao, and therefore a lot more chatty.

If there was someone who did not let her terrible grammar and weird conjugational habits (like exclusively using the word ‘talk’ in the past tense, no matter what) stop her from speaking her mind, it was Hyūga Hibari.

“It’s too cold right now,” Tenten responded, repeating that same explanation for what seemed like the millionth time that night. And then, in a playfully chiding tone, she said, “And it’s too late now, anyway. It’s way past your bedtime.”

Hao was already asleep on the couch, wrapped up in Tenten’s knit throw blanket, having gotten too tired to stay up waiting for his dad. It was a valiant effort, and Tenten didn’t blame him— it was just past midnight by now, and she frankly wished Hibari would just let herself sleep, too. And, well, he was also two years old.

“You sure you’re not sleepy?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure?” Tenten walked back to the living room and folded herself on the couch next to Hao’s sleeping form. Hibari nodded again and nuzzled into her mom’s chest.

A tell-tale sign that she was about to surrender to sleep.

Smiling, Tenten reached over to grab the second throw blanket they had draped over the couch, and adjusted it over the two of them

“Wanna watch a movie?” she asked, voice quiet so as not to wake up Hao. Tenten’s master plan was to put on a Christmas movie, have Hibari utterly entranced and engaged for, like, thirty minutes, before she would inevitably fall asleep. Worked every time.

When Hibari replied in the affirmative and Tenten put the movie on, she was finally free to fret over her husband once more. 

And so they sat there; all three of them on the couch next to each other, Tenten and her two chunky two year olds, bundled up in cosy Christmas pyjamas and warm knit blankets. It was a sweet sight.

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

When Neji quietly unlocked the front door of his house and walked in, absolutely and utterly exhausted from that week-long mission abroad, he was surprised to see that warm, yellow light coming from the living room.

Hm. It was probably one of two things: either Tenten was still awake, probably reading or watching a movie (she did that sometimes after the kids went to bed, taking advantage of any alone time she could get), or Tenten was reading or watching a movie, and ended up falling asleep on the couch. Also a likely possibility, and usually an inevitable consequence of the former.

With a small, amused huff, Neji took off his cloak and hung it up by the door, and stepped over the threshold. “I’m home,” he said lowly, if only out of habit rather than out of a real need to alert his wife. As expected, no response came. He made his way to the living room, where a large, prettily-decorated Christmas tree sat in the corner, dimly illuminating the room along with the fairy lights Tenten had strung around. The only other source of light was the television, which was playing one of Tenten and Hibari’s favourite holiday movies (Hao found it a little too scary), The Nightmare Before Christmas. The volume was very low, though, and the credits had started playing at some point before he walked in.

And again, as expected, Tenten was asleep on the couch.

Her long, brown hair was unbound, falling in waves over the back of the couch, and her lips were slightly parted, making way for quiet huffs of air. What surprised him upon walking closer, though, was the toddler laying on her chest, and the other one asleep next to her thigh. All in matching red and white pyjamas, by the way.

He sighed, exasperated but without any real annoyance. He should’ve known they’d wait up for him. Or, well, try to wait up for him.

It was touching.

One of Tenten’s hands was automatically patting Hibari’s back, as if by muscle memory—which meant she mustn’t have fallen asleep that long ago—while the other was holding the remote. Silently and with the easy grace of a seasoned shinobi, he grabbed the remote control from her lax grip (which, okay, wasn’t difficult whatsoever), and turned the television off, before walking to the corner of the room and turning both the decorative tree lights and the string lights off. He was starving and in desperate need of a relaxing bath, but he would carry all three of them to bed before making something to eat. They’d gone through the trouble of trying to stay up and welcome him home, but the mission had unexpectedly dragged on, and with the snowstorm outside, it had all delayed their travel plans. So the least he could do for them was to tuck them in.

“Neji?”

He turned around at the whispered proclamation of his name.

“I’m home,” he said simply, smiling tiredly at his wife. She blinked rapidly, as if trying to dispel the sleepiness, and gently set Hibari down. “I’ll come to you,” he said hurriedly, noticing how tired she was and not wanting her to get up. It was fine that she’d woken up, he supposed—he could still carry her to bed regardless. At the last second, he decided to keep the fairy lights that were strung behind the television on. Despite his words, Tenten still got up and quickly made her way to him, meeting him halfway.

“Welcome home,” she murmured into his chest once she was close enough, having all but thrown herself at him. Her hands grabbed onto the back of his shirt, as if of their own accord. She exhaled, “I missed you.” Immediately, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, and he basically crushed her to him.

“I’ve missed you more than you can imagine, my love,” Neji breathed tiredly, inhaling her sweet smell, and both of them were content to stay in that embrace for a long moment. She could feel the tension leave his body—the way his toned muscles relaxed under her touch and his shoulders drooped. And Tenten honestly would’ve been content to stay like that for the rest of the night, practicality be damned, but much to her dismay, Neji’s arms loosened around her. She pouted at the loss of contact, and made a sound that was much more fit for her daughter to make than it was for a twenty-three year old woman. He rolled his eyes, amused, and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m sorry. I probably smell. I’ll hug you all you want after I shower; I promise.”

Tenten braced her hands against his chest and stood on her tippy-toes, promptly kissing his scruffy cheek. “You really don’t,” she said honestly. “Smell, I mean.” And it was true—even after a week-long mission with no access to his nice soaps and fancy shower products, Neji still smelled nice. Because everything else wasn’t enough, he just had to add ‘always smells good’ to his résumé, apparently. With a yawn, she said, “I’ll go put the kids in their beds and then I’ll heat up your food while you shower and change into something comfortable.”

He covered her hands with his, rubbing gentle circles across her knuckles. “You don’t have to do that,” he argued softly. “You can just go to sleep, darling. Really, I can do the rest.”

She hummed. “I know I don’t,” she yawned again, “but I want to.” She had already turned around and started gently extricating the blanket out of Hao’s grip, and the look she gave him over her shoulder dared him to argue, and while the refutation was at the tip of his tongue, he let it die.

“Thank you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her from behind. He spoke so sincerely, brushing her ear with his lips, “You’re incredible.”

She grinned at him, and with an adorable little wink, teased, “I know.”

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

Once she heard the water shut off, Tenten started heating up Neji’s share of their dinner that night—homemade herring soba. This would’ve been so much better fresh, she thought, a touch sadly. She’d gone through the trouble of making everything from scratch (save for the smoked fish, of course), and she would’ve loved if he had gotten to taste it right after it was done. Oh, well. It wasn’t like she regretted putting in the effort regardless— she didn’t have much to do today anyway.

Soon enough, Neji walked out of their room in a matching pyjama set in his size and a towel around his neck. Once his eyes found her and then fell on the bowl of noodles in front of her, it was like his whole body softened. His gaze softened, and his shoulders dropped. 

This girl, he thought, was sure to be the death of him.

“C’mere,”

She obliged, pushing herself off the table with a small smile. The moment she was close enough, he pulled her into a rough hug, lifting her off the ground. Over the past few years, Neji had, not unlike some of their other friends, grown considerably in height. When they were teenagers, he’d had some two inches over her, but now, at the age of twenty-three, that difference had increased to what must’ve been something like nine, if she had to guess. His body had filled out considerably, too. (The wonders of testosterone, am I right?) After the War and his fatal injury, he had had to spend upwards of a year recovering and recuperating, and then he had to spend the next year regaining his strength and training, little by little, but he managed. It was a miracle he’d survived in the first place, though.

The curse mark had disappeared, removing any doubts that he could’ve been alive, but somehow, medics found a very weak pulse, which was enough for them to work with. It was so on brand for him, though—denying the odds so intensely. 

Tenten squeaked gleefully, the noise dissolving into giggles when he pressed his lips to hers. “You,” he was saying between bruising kisses, “are not real.” She looped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his middle, giggling into the kiss but unable to come up with a witty comeback of any kind. “God,” he groaned, “I love you so much.” 

Ah, there it was.

She grinned against his lips, and mustering up her most annoying, smart-alecky voice, she interjected, “Um, the name is Tenten, actually, but thanks—”

Neji rolled his pretty eyes spectacularly, without any real annoyance (when had he gotten so mushy?), and he scoffed a laugh. Of course she’d say that. “Oh, shut up.” 

When she giggled again and nuzzled her face into that spot in his neck, he allowed himself to fully enjoy this moment, letting go of that knee-jerk guilt he felt whenever he got something good, for once.

And when, after a moment or two, she murmured a very quiet, “I love you, too, Neji. I’m glad you’re home,” into his skin, he let himself think he deserved it.

--

thank you to my lovely oomfie @lubdubu for letting me borrow hibari & hao LOVE YOU DEARLY!!!

[wonderlandgoblin]

Okay, so I don’t watch Hazbin Hotel (if I wrote it wrong, sorry) but for like weeks, the only thing I see in the asexual tag is people complaining about allos shipping ace characters in a very allo way, and it’s been annoying me to no end, because while we do have to be upset about that, the ace tag should also function in a way for us to share jokes, have fun and enjoy our identity without having to fight for our right to exist.

So I propose we do something different. Let’s annoy the aphobes. I propose that from now on, every character becomes ace/aro/aroace. No more shipping fanfics, just platonic relationships and friendships. Every fanart is now SFW and has the ace/aro/aroace flags colors.

I DEMAND A REVOLUTION!!!!

Tell me the characters you’re claiming!

My ace claimings are:

1-Luffy (any pairing with him just gives me nausea)

2-Zoro (fuck zosan, he prefers swords over anything except maybe luffy, who he has a squish on)

3-Bakugou Katsuki (I love that kid, I’m making him one of my own)

4-Sasuke (I hate that guy, but he rejected both Sakura and Naruto, that kid’s definitely aroace)

5-Yor (my queen mama prefers killing over kissing, that should be an obvious sign)

6-Yona (no one’s touching my queen, she never liked Soo-won nor Hak, it was all social pressure to not end up alone, fight me)

7-Xie Lian (I don’t like the idea of anyone touching the god I worship, so that means he’s ace now)

8-Kageyama (idk why, he just has a vibe)

9-Handa from Barakamon (I don’t think this needs explanation)

10-Fushiguro Megumi (I like him, he’s one of my own now)

11-Maomao (she prefers venoms over sex)

12-Mash from Mashle (like, look at him, that guy just wants to exercise, eat and be with his family)

13-Violet Evergarden (I don’t think I need to explain this, this girl dedicated her entire life to understanding romance as it made no sense to her, aroace queen)

14-Sokka (he’s too smart to like sex)

15-Zuko (he’s an angel, angels don’t have sex)

16-Magnus Chase AND Alex Fierro (they’re my babies, I identify too much with them, the idea of them having sex gives me the ickies)

17-Jude from the Cruel Prince (I liked her better before she fell for that stupid fairy)

18-Edmund from Narnia (he was my childhood crush, I’m making him ace)

19-Annabeth Chase (she’s too perfect to have sex)

20-Alec Lightwood (I just like imagining Magnus loosing his shit every once in a while because of it)

21-Leo Valdez (bc why not?)

22-Blue Sargent and half the women she lives with (no explanation needed)

23-Dick Gansey the Third (he prefers dead kings over sex)

24-Katniss Everdeen (if you disagree, what is wrong with you?)

25-Castiel (fuck destiel shippers, angels don’t have sex)

26-Felicity from Arrow (haven’t finished the series but as far as I know, she’s too cool for sex)

27-Barbie (she’s a doll, she has no reproductive organs, she can’t feel desire)

I could probably pick more characters but I think this is enough for now, have fun annoying the aphobes!

[zukadiary]

Takarazuka news roundup 2023.12.19

Additional cancellation announcements from the official site:

① Cosmos Troupe's upcoming small theater shows, Excalibur (Serika Toa/Haruno Sakura, scheduled for Hakataza -> Umeda Arts) and My Blue Heaven (Bow Hall, scheduled to be Kazeiro Hyuuga's first Bow lead), have both been preemptively canceled. All future appearances of Cosmos Troupe actresses TBD.

② The company previously announced that they would reduce the number of performances per week and the number of shows per year, in order to reduce the actresses' workload. This initiative will start from shows that have already been announced, and in some cases, tickets that have already been sold. The following performances are canceled:

Star troupe RRR/Violetopia: Takarazuka performances from 1/1-1/5 (opening day becomes 1/5 at 3:30pm); The 3:30pm shows on 1/11, 1/18, and 1/30 (2-show days become 1-show days); Shinjin Kouen is canceled. Tokyo performances at 6pm on 2/29, 3/5, 3/18, and 3/28; at 1:30pm on 3/12 (2-show days become 1-show days).

Flower Troupe Arc-en-Ciel: Takarazuka performances 2/9-2/10 (opening day becomes 2/10 at 3:30pm); 2/18 11am, 2/20 3:30pm, 3/5 3:30pm; Shinjin Koen. Tokyo performances 4/13, 4/14 (goes from two shows to one, 1:30pm becomes opening day); 6pm shows on 4/18, 5/2, 5/7, 5/14; 1:30pm shows on 4/25 and 5/24.

Snow Troupe Boiled Doyle on the Toil Trail/Frozen Holiday: Tokyo performances at 6pm on 1/9, 1/16, 1/23, 1/30; the 1:30pm performance on 2/6.

③ All 110th anniversary festivities for 2024 have been canceled. This includes:

The 110th anniversary ceremony scheduled for July

The 2024 Takarazuka Special

Sports Day

Rescinding publication of the 3rd-party investigation report

Translated from the official site:

Regarding the sudden death of a Takarazuka actress of Cosmos Troupe, we continue to extend our sincerest condolences to all of her surviving relatives. As announced on December 7 in relation to this incident, based upon written notice received from the family’s legal team on 12/6, along with the contents of the press conference held by said legal team, we made the decision to conduct a second investigation that will examine the facts of the case more closely. We are still taking the problems outlined in the investigation report that we released on 11/14 very seriously. However, as the issues present are not limited to those outlined in said report, after taking into account the information shared by the family’s legal team via the aforementioned documentation and press conference, and with the deepest consideration for the bereaved family’s thoughts and feelings, out of sincere desire to continue our earnest consultation with the family, we have made the decision to rescind publication of our report at their request. Additionally, we will continue to work toward achieving a formal compensation agreement with the family.

Threats demanding Takarazuka performance cancelation

Tiny blurb translated from 47News

In the aftermath of the sudden death of an actress from the Takarazuka Revue in Takarazuka City, Hyogo Prefecture, we've learned today, December 19, from an inside source, that the company has received numerous messages with threatening contents via post and email, demanding that the reopening of performances be suspended.

[anerdinallherglory]

Approaching Sun (36)

Author’s Note: Hey again! Surprising you all with a new chapter a week apart. I had to cut the last one short and this one short as well, essentially dividing one chapter into three. This doesn’t mean the wordcount is short. This one comes in just under 10,000. But keep your eyes out for the next part. I also wanted to drop my linktree here: linktr.ee/anerdinallherglory so it’s easier to find all my info in one place. Please go and check it out! I am also looking for beta readers for my own personal novel. I’m even considering starting a newsletter or posting it back on Wattpad as a pre-published draft, but haven’t decided on that 100%. I will let you all know as soon as I decide. The tracks I recommend for this chapter: 1) Let Me Touch Your Fire by ARIZONA and 2) Daylight by Crypto/DEIIN. Thanks again for reading! 

Pairing: SasuSaku

Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35

Chapter 36: Demons

When Sasuke stepped into the brothel disguised as a bathhouse, an empty room greeted him. Not a single soul was in sight, and Sasuke wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting, but the place being deserted was the worst possible outcome. It meant no traces, no answers, and Sasuke dreaded finding Sakura’s trail end in this damned place. It also made his stomach knot at the thought that this might be what the room typically looked like on an average night considering the private and concealed activities that occurred in separate chambers.

Despite the absolute darkness, Sasuke could make out giant undisturbed baths beyond the reception counter, the water a still onyx glass as if the baths were only there to serve as a display, never to be used. And that’s probably exactly what they were: a lie to disguise the truth of what this place actually was. Only Sasuke’s Sharingan could make out the alcove, the inconspicuous hallway in the back that Sasuke crept toward in the shadows. 

His visual abilities revealed the outline of the door at the end of it, where someone without visual prowess might find nothing but a wall. Sasuke placed his fingertips against it to push on the barricade, not detecting any sort of seal or rigging to prevent it from opening. Sasuke wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t considering this particular establishment housed regular citizens and not ninja. If ninja did inhabit the space, Sasuke figured that it was for a short, purposeful visit, not long-term residency. The door gave to his pressure and a faint light glowed through the opening as Sasuke silently slid the door until he had had hairline’s width to peer through. 

A group of women were the first thing Sasuke noticed, all gathered in the middle of the floor, some holding candles in various states of distress. Muffled, crying sounds reached his ears and Sasuke naturally found the dimly-lit faces where the noises originated, paths of light-reflecting tears striping their painted faces. There were also lavish styled chairs scattered throughout the room, some tipped on their sides and others still erect in rows.

A gruff male voice interrupted the women’s soft, plea-filled weeping and Sasuke’s uncovered Sharingan eye instantly narrowed as he located three supervising figures that towered over the distressed girls. They stood just outside of the candlelight between Sasuke and the group they were terrorizing, their shadows passing in front of the light source which made it very easy for Sasuke to trace their movements, even without his Sharingan. Their mistake, Sasuke thought to himself, as the words became more substantial. 

“There must be something else that she said,” hissed one man as he reached forward and fisted one of the older woman’s robes, yanking her forward from the group. The other girls screamed, clutching at the dangling woman and halting her movement forward. One girl was kicked down by the man because she dared to stand before him in an attempt to wrestle the woman from him. “You’re the Mother, aren’t you?!” he spat viscously in her face. “How could you make such a mistake? You let the enemy in, and you will pay for it!”

“We already told the last group of men here,” the woman gasped, tearing at the sleeve of the arm that held her in the air by her throat. “She’s gone to the Land of Fire’s border. That’s all we know. Please let me go.”

“Where?! Where at on the border?” 

“We don’t know!” a fair-headed girl pleaded, crawling forward to the man’s feet to look up imploringly into his shadowed face. “That’s all she said after she took the men away.”

“There must be more,” another man spoke, coming forward to respond to the girl and glare up at the hanging woman, too.  

Sasuke waited, dampening his eagerness to intervene. A situation such as this one was not typically one to cause any sort of reaction from Sasuke, but as his conscience had come back to him over the years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, these types of intimidation tactics on people who didn’t deserve it were the sort that pissed the Uchiha off in an unforgiving sort of way. But he couldn’t be too rash, considering the information he, too, was receiving from the exchange. Unfortunately, Sasuke was still the sort of person who would let that woman dangle for an eternity if it meant that he would get the answers he needed about Sakura’s actions and whereabouts. But at the same time, Sasuke was desperately hoping she knew nothing.

The woman choked, face purpling. She was beyond being able to speak now, her body no longer receiving the oxygen to use words, so the girls huddled on the floor made implorations on her behalf. 

“Stop this! You’re killing her!” 

“Give me more information and she we will live!” the man shouted down at them. “Or stay silent and she dies!” 

Another minute of silent crying had Sasuke’s hand itching toward the door, not certain how much information there was left to learn. Their tactic worked as intended, however, and Sasuke stilled himself once more when a dark-haired girl shuffled forward on her knees, barely old enough to be considered a mature adult. With beseeching hand movements, she disclosed, “I’ll tell you everything. Just let her go.”

“Talk first!” snarled the offender, shaking the matron for good measure. 

“All I know is that she dyed her hair after arriving. She’s in disguise,” she confessed with a shaky voice.

Finally receiving a scrap of intelligence, the man threw the matron toward the group of girls and there was more shrieking as she landed roughly among them, and their hands all scrabbled in unison to catch and break her fall. The matron coughed violently as color began to return to her face. 

“And?” the man enticed the young girl to continue, leaning down to fist her dressing gown next. 

The young girl returned his gaze with a fire that wasn’t there before. Now that she had replaced the matron’s spot in the face of the zealot, she laced her next words with venom. “And,” she murmured. “She’s going to kill every single one of you bastards.”

There was a loud strike against flesh, but the sound was infinitesimal compared to the crack of lightning that suddenly struck and shook the ceiling above them. Everyone fell to the ground at the sound, covering their ears and crawling toward one another instinctively. Even the three men crouched in surprise, but they were the first to recover, casting their eyes about wildly. 

As the three extremists turned to assess the room’s entrance, the door that separated them from the Uchiha was now fully open, the darkness of the hallway consuming all of Sasuke’s person except for his unconcealed blood red eye. When he stepped into the room, the three ninja prepared themselves to face the new threat, which was a mistake, because all three of them locked eyes with red and purple. 

Without a second of passing time, the three men fell back to their knees and their screams were positively delicious sounds as they succumbed to the horrors Sasuke had planned for them in his genjutsu. They would suffer and the chakra it cost the Uchiha to do it was worth it based on their screaming alone.   

The girls scrambled to collect the candles they had dropped out of fear when the lightning had struck, each of them desperate to claim some light to reveal what monster had just stepped into the room with them. When the youngest girl successfully secured one, she brought it to her face only to reveal Sasuke’s dark outline standing before her. When she looked up into his Sharingan, she dropped the candle once more. 

“The devil,” she whispered, speaking the word as if doing so had sealed her fate. “He’s finally come for me.”

Panicked gasps, crying, and prayers fabricated into existence around Sasuke as the other girls beheld the apparition of him for themselves, a phantom of black and red and purple delivering punishment to the three begging men now behind him.  

Sasuke crouched before the young, dark-haired girl, the very one who had revealed information about Sakura to the three anti-peace members, all of whom would soon not be able to remember anything but Sasuke’s katana as it penetrated their bodies over and over. How fitting a description, Sasuke thought to himself as he remembered Itachi, whom the genjutsu he now used was modeled after, how devil-like the Uchiha clan became when they were set on protecting something they cared about.

“Not for any of you,” Sasuke responded coldly, wasting no time to reach for her terrified face over the flickering circumference of the discarded candlelight between their bodies. When he clutched her chin between his fingers, her eyes widened in fear, which was positively advantageous for the Uchiha as he peered through them to search her memories. 

Sasuke moved through this girl’s memories just like the phantom she imagined him to be, gliding through the very sins she committed tonight until he saw the scene he was looking for: Sakura’s face coming into view as she entered into the dark room in which this girl and a man were coupled on a lounge, both still wet from the bath. They were wrapped in one another’s arms, exchanging sweet whispers to each other in the dark. 

Sakura seemed surprised by this fact, as if she hadn’t expected to find them nestling into one another there. Sasuke watched his teammate hesitate for just a moment until a needle sank into the man’s flesh. The girl from whose eyes Sasuke watched his former teammate, gasped at the sudden attack. Untangling himself, the man swung in Sakura’s direction. “You,” he had hissed. “You’re—” he began before falling to the floor lifelessly, incapacitated by the drug that Sakura had injected him with.

Sakura stared down at him for a moment, eyes flashing back toward the girl, before she reached down to flip over the man’s body, so that he could breathe freely. 

Sasuke couldn’t focus on anything other than the raven black of Sakura’s tinted hair. A small part of his heart wanted to linger on the scene, imagine a child with Sakura’s features and Sasuke’s hair. He fisted the emotions and shoved them back, resuming the memory. 

“Hae, what are you doing!?” screamed the girl, scrambling from the lounge onto the floor beside the man. 

“I am sorry, Tabi.” Sakura whispered, biting into her thumb and performing a summoning jutsu that Sasuke was too familiar with. Katsuyu, Sakura and the Fifth Hokage’s summoning familiar, materialized into existence on the spot on the floor where Sakura had pressed her five-fingered seal. To Tabi’s extreme horror, the slug, human-sized, began to encapsulate the man she desperately tried to shield away from the creature. But her hands disappeared into the mucusy flesh of the gastropod, failing to gain any purchase.

“Who are you?! Why are you doing this?” she cried, backing speedily away when the creature began to absorb her hands as well. 

“There’s not much time to explain,” Sakura replied, coming to bend down before the girl. Sakura knelt before the girl, revealing a small canvas bundle of small bottles, needles, and medicines. “I’m not really in this business as I made all of you believe. I’m a doctor and I only have a few minutes to help you.”

When Tabi said nothing else, just stared at Sakura in confusion, she asked carefully, “Do you suspect that you’re pregnant?”

Tabi’s mouth fell open at the revelation and her hands moved to her stomach at the mention of pregnancy. The tears that began to fall from her face was confirmation enough for the medic. She asked her next question. “Do you want to keep it?”

“What?” Tabi asked, wondering how the woman before her could have suspected something Tabi only was beginning to experience the symptoms of. 

“Do you want this baby? There are ways to—”

“Yes, I want it!” Tabi cried, hugging herself and flinching away from the unrolled canvas parcel of vials as she began to see the collection in a new light. “The baby is mine and—” she protested, turning back to the man who was now completely encased by the slug. “What are you doing to him?!”

Sakura’s eyes flicked over to the man and only Sasuke was able to recognize the regret in them. “He’s one of the members of Zenshin,” Sakura informed the distraught girl. “It’s my mission to eradicate the organization.” 

“Please,” Tabi begged, grasping Sakura’s arms with her hands, stilling them over the bag of medical supplies. “You can’t take him. He’s different from the others. We love each other.”

Sasuke saw Sakura chew her lip in thought, rerolling the canvas bag into a tight parcel. He instantly knew Sakura was thinking of him, his face flashing in her mind as she faced Tabi. The confliction there let Sasuke know exactly what she was thinking. Just as Sakura so desperately wanted her own happy ending, she also wanted Tabi to have hers. But her eyes hardened, and she removed her arms from Tabi’s hands. In that very same instant, the slug dematerialized into nothing, taking the man with her to wherever the slug disappeared to. 

“If Toka loves you, he will come back to you once I am finished with him,” Sakura divulged, looking pointedly at her stomach. “Does he know?”

Tabi shook her head, more tears streaming down her face. “I was going to tell him once he left them. He was going to do it soon—run away with me.” 

Sakura nodded and shoved the canvas bundle into Tabi’s shaking hands. “Give these to the other girls and have them follow the directions inside. I don’t know how well you guys are taking care of yourselves here, but there are medicines in here. To prevent pregnancy— and to protect yourselves from diseases. As a medic, I can’t leave here without doing at least this.”

Sasuke flinched at the scene before him, knowing that Sakura had carried that on her person, probably having prepared it in advance for this very mission in this damn brothel, intended for her own personal use. Sasuke had never been so close to wanting to vomit in his life. He wanted to reach through this memory and grab her arm and force her to explain all of this to him. Why would she take such risks for a mission—abuse herself in this way?

“Where are you going?” Tabi beseeched, focused more on the fact that this parting gift meant Sakura’s immediate intentions to depart along with the man she loved. 

“The border of the Land of Fire,” Sakura responded without hesitation as she met Tabi’s gaze with hers. “You can tell that to whoever comes asking questions,” the woman who Tabi had believed was named Hae added. “It’s the truth and it’s not a secret. Let them come.”

Sasuke closed his eyes at the intentional crumb she had left for the enemy. She had probably told every girl who had asked this information the same response. It was obvious that she was luring whoever was left of the organization out of Tanigakure. They had more of a personal vendetta against her now after her actions tonight and would definitely pursue, especially since they believed she was acting alone. It would be perfect for them, to eliminate their Number 1 and get revenge in the same motion. The temptation to chase would be too great.

As Sakura stood and headed back for the door, she turned back to Tabi, who was still kneeling on the ground and clutching the bundle of medications to her stomach, shielding the small flutter of life that had started there. 

When Sakura’s eyes met Tabi’s, Sasuke suddenly felt as if Sakura were looking beyond them, into the memory itself until her eyes met Sasuke’s within. “In case you’re watching this, I can handle this alone. I don’t need your help.” Sasuke felt Tabi’s confusion as the girl failed to comprehend Sakura’s last words. Sasuke, however, knew exactly who those words were for: the Uchiha, himself. So, she knew. Sakura had known that he was here in Tanigakure searching for her. She had predicted that he would track her to this place and perform this very jutsu. 

When Sakura closed the door behind her, leaving Tabi to sob uncontrollably to herself, Sasuke rewound the memory further, past the indecencies between the girl and the man called Toka, until he was watching the same man spin Sakura in front of a crowd of lust-hungry brutes. Sasuke froze the scene before him, eyes narrowing as he memorized each of their faces. One man came forward and grabbed Sakura, pulling her into his lap. His eyes were tightly bound, and the blind stranger leaned his mouth against Sakura’s ear in the dimly lit room. To Sasuke’s extreme dissatisfaction, Tabi had not heard, and therefore Sasuke could not decipher what the man had whispered in his teammate’s ear. Sasuke was beyond disappointed to miss the very words that he would repeat to the man as the Uchiha eviscerated him. The memory of Sakura ended once more as Toka led Tabi away to their private room. 

Thoroughly enraged at what he had just witnessed, Sasuke cursed to himself as he released the young woman’s chin. Tabi gasped when Sasuke retreated viciously from her mind, and she fell back on her wrists away from him. Sasuke’s crimson gaze fell on every girl who clustered in the darkness, gaping openly at him in terror, and he couldn’t help but picture Sakura in all of their faces. They, too, had been feasted upon by the eyes of despicable men, dragged into laps and so much more. In another life and in different set of circumstances, who knows if Sakura might have ended up trying to earn her living doing such a thing, too. He pitied every woman who had no other options. Sasuke would not consider himself a sentimental or feeling person. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to turn on his heel and vanish from the room in the same manner in which he had appeared, letting his fire-style impede the very building in which he stood. But he wavered, glancing down at the tiny swell of Tabi’s malnourished stomach. With his Rinnegan, Sasuke could see the tiny orb of light there. It pulsed like a tiny, throbbing sun.

Leaning fully into the devil character they believed him to be, Sasuke did something very much unlike himself. He took the time to say, “Leave this place and do not come back. Every single one of you.” He turned back down to Tabi once more and said, “Your child deserves a peaceful world. The next generation does not need to suffer for the sins of their parents.”

And then Sasuke, like a demon specter made of shadows, turned and vanished back into the blackness of a hellish night. 

.

.

.

The downpour lasted long into the night and Sakura swore at her bad luck. Sakura had quickly snagged a set of clothing from one of the smaller ninja that she had rendered unconscious back at the bathhouse. Even still, the man’s clothes hung loosely on her thinner, angular frame and Sakura had apologized to the palm-sized version of Katsuyu that clung to Sakura’s skin at the slug’s initial repulsion to the smell of the stranger’s attire. Sakura hadn’t had time to find her original set of clothing once her mission had begun; the tight-fitting robes from the bathhouse had been insufficiently insulated, so Sakura had tugged on one of the radical’s dark pants, black jacket, and matching vest in the presence of one of the horrified girls without explanation as the girl watched Katuyu absorb another person and whisk them away. Strategically, Sakura had even adorned her forehead with the five-spiral headband tucked away in the man’s vest just in case it was slightly advantageous to do so. Sakura had only seen the forehead protector twice before, but more recently caught a glimpse of it in the desert when Mako was thrown the identical headband for successfully kidnapping her. 

With her shadow-colored hair tucked hurriedly under the jacket’s stiff-fabric hood, Sakura pulled the shirt’s loose-fitting collar up and over her nose so that only her eyes and the headband were visible on her brow. She had hoped such a disguise would at least get her out of Tanigakure unnoticed in the night. Surprisingly enough, Tanigakure’s “peaceful” reputation and open access to travelers made it relatively easy for Sakura to locate a small mountain path that exited the village undetected. The kunoichi also allowed herself a moment of pride, because not being stopped also meant that she had been quick enough with the execution of her plan. She had handled any immediate threats back at the brothel, making it out before any other Zenshin members could discover the cookie crumb she had left behind for them to find. 

It was dark, and the rain was merciless as Sakura skirted the side of the mountain, taking refuge from the rain in the dense tree cover that blanketed the landscape. The tree limbs bowed beneath the weight of her hurdles as she bounded from branch to branch, arms thrown behind her as she mercilessly raced toward the border between the Land of Rivers and Land of Fire. Once she had guided her likely pursuers into the Land of Fire, Sakura would be able to handle the rest of them as she pleased, as recklessly as she pleased. She would no longer have to worry about causing any catastrophes in Tanigakure that the Leaf or the Sand might have to take responsibility for. 

She had expected a pursuit. Mako had told Sakura that there were Zenshin members all throughout the shinobi world—eventually, they would come for her, too—but the remaining Zenshin members in Tanigakure would be absolutely desperate to prevent her from reaching the border. But what Sakura had not expected was the speed in which some of them had caught up with her. 

When Sakura had first picked up on the footfalls that those without the sharpened senses of a ninja wouldn’t be able to distinguish beyond the crashing rain against the canopy above, Sakura had immediately halted her movements in the branches. Tucking her body tightly into the bough of a tree, she contemplated her options as the voices began to near her. Considering that it took Sasuke and Sakura two days of leisure travel to reach Tanigakure from Konoha, Sakura was predicting that it would likely take her a fraction of that time to reach the border—which was located much closer to Tanigakure than the Leaf—at the speed in which she was travelling now. If her estimations were right, it would be essentially six hours, four of which had already transpired since her exit. Could she simply outrun them for another two hours? 

Maybe the solution was something simpler, something E-Rank that Sakura hadn’t used since her Genin days. Sakura thought back to her interaction with the second man she had spoken with at the brothel, “the clown” of the group as Rugo had called him. Sakura’s initial target who had asked Sakura questions, investigating if she were “new, new.” Sakura focused on his features as she performed a transformation. The Transformation Jutsu had its flaws, which is why it wasn’t used too often, especially in the presence of experienced shinobi or those who could see chakra with a visual prowess like the Sharingan or Byakugan, or detect chakra signatures like the ninja, Karin. But a confrontation was going to be inevitable regardless of whether or not Sakura could fool them with a jutsu; she would just have to face them head on sooner than she had wanted. If it were the latter, then the jutsu possibly failing was a moot point, so there was no harm in crossing her fingers and going for it. The jutsu wouldn’t have to be flawless to be effective.

She could hardly assess them, the rain a thick sheet between herself and the enemy. There were three of them, all cloaked and protected from the elements. The low number made Sakura suspect that this was one of many search parties and their likelihood of finding her had less to do with their skill at tracking and more to do with fact that at least one group was going to guess her direction of travel correctly and encounter her by chance. She waited until they were practically under her perch to make her choice. 

Without a second more of hesitation, Sakura dropped several feet in front of them, shouting in a voice that had thickened into that obnoxiously loud tenor from the brothel. “I think she went this way!” Sakura didn’t wait to hear a response as she darted forward into the night. 

“Araki?!” came a woman’s voice as she was the first to recognize the man whom was Sakura’s current disguise. The female immediately followed as she continued to shout after who she believed was her fellow Zenshin member. 

“Hurry!” Sakura screamed back in reply but did not slow her pace for them. One of the Transformation Jutsu’s innate failings that made it unfavorable to use, was that it was difficult to converse with others or perform other mental feats because a ninja had to pour a lot of focus into channeling chakra into maintaining the transformation. It’s the very reason why a lot of transformations didn’t last too long; some people were better at executing it than others. It wasn’t overly difficult for Sakura to engage in conversation while transformed, but she didn’t know her enemy very well or their various jutsu and talents, so she decided to take advantage of the chase element of their interaction to avoid super close proximity. 

Like shadowed hounds that thought they had found one of their own kind, they pursued after Sakura, barking after her as their feet collided with the ground, thinking they were joining the hunt when in fact they were chasing the very goose they were after. 

“How do you know she went this way, Araki?” a male voice called up to her through the thundering rain, and Sakura barely made it out. 

“She’s making a run for the Leaf Village, but we have to catch her before she gets too far over the border!” Sakura called back with the same arrogant confidence Araki had spoken to her with at the brothel.

“How did you escape? Weren’t you with the others at the bathhouse? What happened to them?” the woman’s voice called out again, firing questions off faster than the rain could fall from the sky, and maybe Sasuke had started to rub off on Sakura the past couple of months, but the relentless inquiries were beginning to annoy her.

Sakura didn’t know if she should even attempt to respond. She knew very little about this Araki’s personality, other than the fact that he was loud, bold, and talked incessantly as well. But Sakura was not comfortable sustaining an unrehearsed act for long segments, and was unsure exactly what types of ridiculous comments were normal for the man. A little too late, Sakura wondered if Rugo or Toka would have been a better choice to impersonate with their various stoicism in comparison to Ataki; their seriousness would have suited Sakura’s current circumstances better. As a side note to rationalize her choice, Sakura wasn’t too sure about how Rugo’s blindness affected his abilities, and Sakura naturally wanted to steer clear of casting Toka in more of a negative light in case he really was trying to cut ties with Zenshin as Tabi had claimed. 

“We have to move faster!” Sakura deflected, pretending not to hear them as she bounded further ahead of them to create a safer distance between them.

Sakura relentlessly pushed them forward, a shadow before them that they could barely distinguish as it was. She was desperately clinging to the transformation even as she strategically considered her next move. Sakura had crossed the river she and Sasuke had camped at on their second night of traveling together hours ago. She was only minutes away from the border now. For the most part, Sakura had chosen to stick to the same remote path she and Sasuke had taken from Konoha because it was the most recent in her memory and it was a small miracle she wasn’t getting the four of them completely lost in this starless monsoon. At some point over the past hour, she dissected from that trail, travelling northwest for the plains she remembered passing through during a mission with Kakashi, Naruto, and Sai. 

The forest thinned as Sakura neared the space between forests, the sizeable meadow surrounded by rocky plateaus like the very mountain the Leaf was built up against. Seeing such familiar forested landscape, Sakura could have wept in relief. Her lungs shuttered from the relentlessness of her breathing and her legs practically felt numb and cold from the freezing rain, but the pain was absolutely miniscule in comparison to the absolute thrill she felt in her bones when she took her first step across an imaginary line only a ninja who had crossed it multiple times would remember even in the hours just before sunrise. She stumbled to a stop in the knee-high grass, wading through ankle-deep flood waters, stealing herself for what was to come. As much as she wanted to fall to her knees, tilt her head up to face the rain, and not get back up, she couldn’t quit yet. 

The three ninja following her burst from the trees behind, lurching to a halt when they realized their front-runner had finally stopped. “Did you find her!” one called out to her, but Sakura didn’t answer as she turned to face them. Sensing a change, one of the ninja suddenly stopped in his tracks and held his arm out to halt the others. 

“Araki?” he asked, preventing his team from moving any further toward her as she stood unmoving and waiting for them. Sakura wasn’t intending to suddenly act so predatory, her shift in nature causing them to hesitate like all prey before a hunter, but she was just so tired of pretending. She let the transformation fall away and the girl in the group gasped. Sakura could still sense their confusion, and their assessments of her outfit and headband that mirrored their own was almost painful to watch. 

Deciding that the charade was truly well and over, Sakura relieved them of their nervous bewilderment. “Unfortunately, no,” she called back, talking loudly to reach them through the persistent deluge around them. 

“I was wondering why he was being so quiet,” one of the male voices answered, pushing forward to stand in front of his teammates. “It’s her. The Haruno girl. She’s in disguise.” Sakura could hear the girl gasp again before she grabbed onto the man’s arm fearfully to pause his advance.  

Sakura pressed against the inner-pocket of her jacket, whispering, “Are you still with me, Lady Katusyu?”

“Yes, Sakura dear,” the small slug replied, slithering out to greet her despite the rain. “I’m here if you need me.”

“Hang on tight, then,” came Sakura’s instructions as she tucked her back away. “I’ll be sending more your way soon.” 

A laughter broke out near the tree line and Sakura saw one man shove forward, past his concerned and apprehensive teammates. Sakura could make out his flashy, red cloak for the first time now that he was closer in the downpour. “You’ve given us exactly what we wanted—lead us far away where no one can help you, now! I am going to have so much fun beating you within an inch of your life!” 

“What are you waiting for, then?” Sakura goaded, pleasantly surprised when the cloaked man rushed forward despite his teammates’ beseeching council. 

The man charged at her, sloshing his way through the muddy field, and Sakura let him come, let his momentum carry him face first into the punch she had waiting for him. He sailed backward, right into his other male companion and they skipped like scattered stone across the flooding pasture. Even in the dark, Sakura could see the mud [SR1] that sprayed up around them, covering their once distinguishable features in total blackness. That felt so good. After days of secrecy, disguising her power and identity, the release of her physical abilities was positively glorious. Sakura didn’t have a ton of chakra left at her disposal after her repetitive use of the Summoning Technique, but she had the adequate amount remaining in order to take care of these three and anyone who decided to show up later. 

The girl, who had avoided the collision, came for Sakura next, and as she neared, Sakura was able to finally get a decent look at her. Her hair was white beneath her black cloak’s cowl and her brow was adorned with the anti-peace symbol. Sakura wanted to talk to her, ask her opinions and learn her story, investigating her personal vendetta against the peace they had all fought so hard for during the Fourth Shinobi War. The girl quickly began to form the signs for a fire release and Sakura’s eyes widened as the heavy rain suddenly steamed around her as it hit the girl’s body and hissed into hot air. When the floodwaters pooled at Sakura’s feet began to bubble, Sakura cursed as she jumped back and into the air to avoid the boiling water below. At first, Sakura feared that the girl might have the Boil Release Kekkei Genkai, a transformation of water and fire nature energies, but as Sakura began to descend from her fall, the girl met her in the air, and Sakura soon realized that she had a unique fire release that allowed her to direct heat from pinpoints on her body. Sakura’s shielding kick that made contact with the girl’s stomach was instantly scorched through her boot from having touched her, and Sakura hissed. 

“Die!” the ninja screamed, grabbing onto Sakura’s calf muscle with both burning hands and swinging her right into the arms of her knife-wielding companion. But Sakura gripped the man’s arms and simultaneously kicked against the girls’ stomach, deeper into her magma flesh, gritting her teeth at the pain, but directing her immense strength into the blow. The girl went sailing into the trees just as the red-coated man had done seconds before this second confrontation. Using the same momentum, Sakura swung up and over her captor’s shoulders, slipping easily from his grasp. 

She landed behind him, a dark-haired, broad-shouldered man with silver pupil-less irises that reminded Sakura of the Kazekage. She saw these eyes clearly despite the darkness and the mud smeared across his face practically made them glow. The ninja turned on his heel to intercept her next blow, his knife catching her cheek just before he also received the brunt force of her physical strength. 

Sakura could feel the water around her already tenderized ankle start to boil again, and Sakura swore, locating the girl with her eyes. Sakura had to admit that this girl was quite literally making it impossible to remain standing on her own two feet. Even if Sakura summoned chakra to the soles of her feet to walk on the surface of the five inches of saturation, Sakura knew that the water would quickly melt through her stolen shoes completely, so Sakura came up with another solution. She wouldn’t let this girl scald her from a distance; if this fire-nature ninja wanted to land another injury on Sakura, she was going to have to get up close and personal, just as Sakura liked it.

Sakura exhaled when her uninjured hand collided with the ground at her feet. “SHANNARO!” she screamed as the entire landscape fractured beneath her, spiderwebbing across the plain until all the rainwater succumbed to gravity, falling down the sides of new projectiles of earth, and down into the fissures. Sakura perched on top of one of the new pillars like a bird of night, staring down at her three recovered enemies who stared up at her with a new appreciation. 

“You bitch,” the female spat up at Sakura, but Sakura ignored her. She fisted the anti-peace forehead protector on her brow and tossed it down to the three of them. She pulled back her hood and looked up into the sky as it fell on her face, the rain fingering her dyed tresses until streaks of black began to run down her chin along with the blood from her sliced cheek. Keeping it always on her person, Sakura reached into her vest and revealed her own shinobi headband, the red one bearing the Leaf Village symbol she had worn as a chunin. She tied it tightly against her forehead and across the back of her ink-dripping crown and thought how fitting it felt to bear her flag now that she was standing in Land of Fire territory. She saw her enemies’ shocked and exchanged expressions when green regenerative chakra began to glow around her knuckles, her cheek, and the various burns on her leg and ankle, healing the damage in seconds. 

“You guys didn’t do a lot of research on your target, did you?” Sakura called down to them. She couldn’t understand it, the surprise. If they were not originally from Tanigakure, who had been neutral, that would mean they had all fought together in the war. So how did they not know every detail about Sakura? Sakura began to collect various pieces of information in her brain and a realization formed. Most of the members of this organization that Sakura had encountered in Tanigakure so far had not been overly remarkable. Aside from the shade she went head-to-head with in the sands surrounding Suna, everyone seemed to know the bare minimum of Sakura’s power. They knew of her, but not what she was capable of. In fact, they seemed content to hang back and relish in the fear created by their superiors, and Sakura suddenly realized why some of them might be interested in a world that created bitter and stronger generations to follow them. They were those ninja who hung back during the war, who let others—the strong and fearless—do all the work because they could not; it’s why they wanted to mimic conditions that would create strength in other ninja for them to hide behind. Huh, Sakura thought privately to herself. She wondered who exactly was taking advantage of ninja like this to kill off others who stood in their way. Who exactly was the leader?

“We know enough to kill you,” the silver-eyed one spoke, and his voice was raspy and menacing. Even his voice reminded her of the Kazekage, along with the sand-weilder’s path to redemption, and Sakura tried not to be distracted as she imagined this dark-haired ninja capable of a future where he could redirect his efforts into a righteous cause. This type of thinking, while keeping her intentions toward others good, would cloud her judgement now. 

“We have to get information from her first and then deliver her to the boss,” reminded the red cloaked one, whom Sakura had all but forgotten was there after she sent him flying for his bold move to attack first. 

The other two swapped looks of apprehension to one another, as if they weren’t sure they were going to be able to restrain and deliver blows to get her to talk, after all. And Sakura smiled because, she too, knew that wasn’t going to be happening. 

Sakura’s finger bled once again when she bit back into it, and now that the rain had washed away most of her ivory face paint, the Hundred Healing’s seal spanned out across her forehead in black stripes. It was still activated since her very first summoning of Katsuyu, and Sakura could feel the steady drain of chakra from her body that it was costing her to maintain the states of all her captives where she had reverse summoned them back to Katsuyu’s home in Shikkotsu forest. Since Sakura wasn’t having to heal her horde of hostages, but rather, keep them all in an unconscious state, cryogenized in the chamber of Katsuyu’s flesh, the chakra being loaned to her familiar was a trickle, but it was still depleting her already diminishing levels. 

“Are you alright, Sakura dear?” came Katsuyu’s voice from the inside pocket of her vest, the slug sensing her labored breathing and strain on the chakra connection between them. 

Sakura nodded, whispering, “Yes. I have a few more summons in me. If more enemies appear here, I might not be able to hold onto the jutsu. The connection will be severed between us. What happens then?”

Katsuyu’s answer came back as a whisper in the relentless pattering of rain against Sakura’s flesh. “It will take them all some time to come out of comatose. When they do, they will have nowhere to go. The Shikkotsu forest is an endless maze of jungle. They’ll be in the same spot when you come for them.”

“Excellent,” Sakura responded, reaching into her waistband, and withdrawing three vials of sedative. Privately and expertly, Sakura filled three needles with the drug and placed each between her teeth until three needles protruded from her mouth like the fangs of a demon.  Next, Sakura palmed her bloody hand into the top of the jagged steeple of earth on which she still stood and cried “Summoning Jutsu!” as clearly as she could manage with a mouthful of liquid sleep.  

The three human-sized divisions of Katsuyu’s body slithered down the sides of the post and came to a stop when Sakura’s own feet touched level ground once more, the water no longer coagulating around her ankles. 

“Here she comes!” shouted the girl, and Sakura smirked as she sprinted straight towards them through the rain, engaging each one in a pirouette of hand-to-hand combat. 

Just as Sakura had once fought Sasori’s countless puppets on the end of Lady Chiyo’s chakra threads, Sakura took control of her own strings now and navigated smoothly between her enemies’ strikes like a leaf darting on the wind. Deflect, block, strike, defend, parry, punch. The actions were faster than Sakura could even think of which move to execute next, and she let her muscles act on memory alone. 

She could feel the heat of the white-haired girl’s skin every time one of her open-palmed strikes grazed Sakura’s body. She was aiming for the most incapacitating of areas like the eyes, her hands, legs, or any other placement that might cripple Sakura temporarily. But every time the ninja got close to landing a hit on her, the sound of sizzling rain would alert Sakura’s sharp ears to her nearness and Sakura would dodge just in time. Sakura focused on the mud covered, silver-eyed enemy before her, turning to the side to dodge his kunai stab to her stomach. She fisted his own weapon hand with her own and used his own piercing thrust to direct it into the stomach of the red-cloaked shinobi who had come up behind her and fisted her inky, wet hair. She heard his cry at the same moment that the grip on her hair slackened. When the white-haired kunoichi recovered and came at her again, Sakura was ready. Grabbing the silver-haired ninja by the leg as he fell, Sakura swung him like her own weapon, right into the burning arms of his companion. The two of them collapsed into a tangle together, and Sakura’s knee was in the man’s back as she sank his body deeper into the lava skin of the fire-wielding ninja until he began to scream. Sakura used his screams to motivate the white-haired ninja. She would eventually stop her fire-nature jutsu. 

Sakura couldn’t risk incinerating the needle, so she waited patiently, yanking out the syringe of her mouth in the meantime. She saw the girl’s eyes widen at the damage she was inflicting upon her partner, and the melting instantly stopped. Sakura plunged the needle into her neck, followed by a dose for the silver-eyed ninja. [SR2] They both fell unconscious against one another, and two of three Katusyus had already crawled to meet them.  

When Sakura pulled the last syringe from her mouth and turned to face the red-cloaked man who had been stabbed, she was surprised to find him already standing before her in the darkness. He knocked the syringe out of her hand and seized Sakura’s throat, slamming her against one of the pillars of earth at Sakura’s back. The very blade that had lacerated his stomach was now pointing into her navel, still bloody and dripping from his own injury. Sakura’s next move was going to be to knee him directly where his wound bloomed the same shade as his cloak in order to create a safe space between them again. Even if he managed to cut her open, Sakura would use her Mitotic Regeneration Jutsu to heal herself before the blood loss rendered her unconscious. However, his next words made her reevaluate her actions at the last moment. 

“When Mozai finally has his way with you, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it,” he snarled as he pinned her body with his. The knife in his hand dug into her flesh with every word and Sakura hissed at the sudden pain. 

As she reached up to push against his hold on her throat, she choked out, “Who’s Mozai? Is he your boss?” She pretended to weaken at his hold. She needed to keep him talking and feeding her the information she wanted. 

“Someone who will do a lot worse to you than I’m about to do.” His knife suddenly pulled away from her and began to snake up Sakura’s clothing, cutting a trail of blood up her bare stomach. She gritted her teeth against the pain, holding back the instinct to break the wrist around her throat. If Sakura could just get him back on the topic of her choice. 

“He’s nothing without his henchmen. Didn’t you want to know what happened to the others?” she strained to ask next, spluttering the words, trying to regain his attention. 

He laughed, a cruel, wicked laugh that reminded Sakura of the deranged Orochimaru. It was the sort of laugh that alerted her to his madness, the deeper and more dangerous kind of madness that a medic such as herself was easily able to recognize no matter how hard one tried to hide it. “He knows where you’ve run off to, and we will find the others soon enough now that I know your pets have taken them.” He pushed harder against her throat and despite her efforts to remain calm and focus, Sakura’s vision still blackened from the lack of oxygen and her grip on him tightened. In that moment, Sakura barely even felt Kaguya’s small body drop from her clothing. With her squinting eyes, Sakura witnessed the small slug make a dash for the syringe that Sakura had dropped earlier. At the same time, she realized that Katsuyu knew that it was their last dose of sedative and the slug wanted to either protect or retrieve it for Sakura.

The rain was still coming down so hard, a shower soaking every inch of Sakura’s newly exposed stomach. It made the knife he was ghosting her skin with wet and slick as it bounced against her skin, causing knicks and superficial lacerations where it touched. Sakura couldn’t tell if she was only feeling the rain, or the trickling of her own blood. Was it pooling at her feet with the man’s own colors of red? 

“But he won’t mind if I have my fun with you first before he gets here,” came his thickened voice as he placed the hilt of his kunai between his teeth and replaced the pressure against her stomach with his fingers. They caressed her abdomen, smearing the blood there. Sakura realized in this moment that the game of holding back for information was over. 

But before she could act, break his hold on her, and shove him away from her, Sakura’s stomach dropped as her vision came to focus over the man’s shoulder at the shadow that stood there in the rain, red eye flashing as he unsheathed his katana. The rain rendered him nearly invisible in the dark and Sakura sucked in a breath of alarm.

“You’re going to die if you don’t let go,” came Sakura’s hurried warning to the man still inching his hand up her shirt. The vice on Sakura’s throat instantly slackened when a blade came across the man’s throat, not hesitating to sunder the man’s head from his shoulders. Before the damage was inflicted, Sakura’s hand shot out and grabbed Sasuke’s katana just in time, the bite of the blade sliding against the palm of her hand until she stopped its movement completely with her grip. She fisted the quaking blade, and it was immediately abandoned. 

Sakura was powerless to stop what happened next. In the very next second, the man was thrown from her, catapulted near across the field as Sasuke pivoted to ram his fist into the side of the man’s face. Sasuke, too, disappeared as he teleported, switching positions with the bloody kunai the man had possessed. Before the kunai stuck true in the grass at Sakura’s feet, the Uchiha was on top of his victim in a millisecond, and Sakura could hear the man’s screams as she ran toward them in the rain, still clutching Sasuke’s katana in a bloody grip.

“Sasuke, don’t!” she screamed, desperate to reach him in time. Sakura soon realized that the distance the man had been sent wasn’t just a coincidence. It served two purposes: to deliver a harder impact, and to generate enough space from Sakura to give Sasuke the extra second of time to exact whatever revenge he had in mind. The kunoichi spared one minute to find Katsuyu, a bright pinpoint of white in the overwhelming darkness. Beneath the slug, lay the last injection of sedative, and she scooped them both up. 

“Follow me,” she instructed the last of the three summonings of Katsuyu’s body.  

The screaming was Sakura’s only compass in the storm, guiding her to the source of the brutalization. When she finally neared them, two dark obscurities in the night, Sasuke was fisting both of the man’s hands with his single grasp. The black flames of Amaterasu were already ravishing the bones of his ten fingers. 

“You seem awfully fond of these hands of yours,” Sasuke sneered, “let’s begin here, shall we?” The flames spread to the man’s palms and then his wrists, a drawn-out creeping of flickering black that couldn’t be anything other than an intentional deliberateness—to maximize the pain of it. The red-cloaked ninja’s screams were louder than any suffering Sakura had ever heard. 

The kunoichi could see the smirk on Sasuke’s face as she finally came around to face him, and her stomach turned to ice. Even his words delivered a blow to her heart in a familiar way. It was like the Chunin Exams: the ferocity, the visible fury rolling off of him in waves, the embracing of inner-darkness. Sakura had only ever seen Sasuke resort to methods of torture a few times in her life, and the sight struck such fear into her heart. Don’t you see? She thought to herself at the terrifying vision of the Uchiha stooped over the scorching man. Don’t you see what the price of his love will be? 

“Sasuke! Stop! You can’t kill him!” she shouted over the rain and guttural begging, grabbing onto the Uchiha’s clothing, fisting the wet fabric in her fingers. He didn’t budge, just let the fire spread as he watched and drank the pinned man’s screams, as if hearing them would quench a deeply buried thirst. 

When Sakura’s immense strength lifted Sasuke to his feet and pulled him away from the man, Sasuke’s leer twisted into a frown and a different sort of fury filled his eyes. As if Sasuke sensed her impending interference and decided to finish the job before she could convince him to stop, the fire erupted over the man’s chest with a quickening ferocity. At his resolve, Sakura panicked, making Sasuke look at her with two palms to his face.

His dead eyes found her, and he spat a response to her previous demand, “He doesn’t get to live.” 

The earsplitting screams intensified, and Sakura physically shook Sasuke, but he just glared down at her as the flames resumed their feast upon the man’s vaporizing flesh. “You’re not going to do this. You can’t kill someone because of me. I won’t let you go back to that!”

The words broke Sasuke’s carefully controlled anger. “I have spared hundreds today in your name! If it weren’t for you, they would all be dead. One of them can die, and it’s going to be him.”

“This isn’t who you are anymore!” Sakura shouted, willing her words into a truthful existence. She would hold on to him, the Sasuke she loved. The Sasuke who could see reason, act on ninja principles, and not let his emotions override his judgment. Not anymore. As a last attempt, she added. “You can be merciful. You don’t have to kill unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Sasuke scoffed, choosing not to hide his smoldering ire as he broke eye contact with Sakura in order to survey the damage being done to the man who had attacked her. “It’s necessary.”

When he didn’t say anything else, Sakura demanded, “Spare one more. This is my mission and I need him to live.”

After a moment of deliberation, Sasuke snarled, like an animal being forced to give up its kill, and turned his back to her. With the dying of the Amaterasu, the screams turned into painful whimpers as the man spasmed on the ground. 

Sakura knelt beside the man, who now looked at her with desperation in his eyes. A begging for mercy that hadn’t been there earlier, now glistened with tears. “Remember that I spared your life,” Sakura told him, penetrating the vein in his collar with the needle of the syringe. “Maybe one day, a future version of you will deserve it.” The man’s eyelids fell, and even in his unconsciousness, Sakura could sense the relief that came with oblivion. The third slug had appeared by her side, and Sakura watched as Lady Katsuyu began channeling Sakura’s chakra in order to heal the man’s injuries. They were deep, penetrating wounds that would require intensive medical treatment. The draw on Sakura’s reserves zapped her, real fatigue coming over her now. 

“I can’t hold the summoning,” Sakura relayed to the two Katsuyus, one small and gliding over Sakura’s shoulder, the other encapsulating the injured man as the creature healed his injuries. She was the first to vanish, just like all those summoned before. 

“Don’t worry about me,” came Katsuyu’s small reassuring voice. “I can handle the rest until you arrive. Will you be okay?”

Sakura nodded, “Yes. Thank you, Lady Katsuyu.” With the last of the jutsu released, Sakura exhaled a sigh of relief as the drain on her chakra reserves lessened. She caught her breath, sitting in the muddy grass for a moment. 

When she turned to Sasuke, he was standing over her, silently brooding with an emotionless mask slipped back into place. 

Sakura wanted to yell at him for his recklessness. For interfering when she was more than capable of handling this herself. “You have potentially jeopardized my mission,” she informed him bitterly, rising to stand toe to toe with him. 

He didn’t respond, unmoving as he received her rebuke. Even the rain hailed down on them harder if that were even possible. And then the Uchiha was moving, taking her bloody palm, the hand that had come between Sasuke’s killing blow and his victim, between his fingers. She fisted it rebelliously, stiffening her arm, not quite ready to let her anger go. 

And so he grabbed her wrist instead, pulling her with him toward the circumference of trees closest to them. 

“I can’t leave,” she protested, digging her heals more firmly into the ground. She became immovable. “More of them could be on their way. I need to intercept them.” Sakura didn’t know how many more there would be, or what she was going to do to incapacitate them now that she was no longer able to summon Katsuyu. She would have to dig deep, fight until she couldn’t stand, pummeling them until she knocked them unconscious. 

Still not looking at anything but the wrist in which he gripped as if Sakura could be ripped away at any second, Sasuke confessed. “Every person who was headed in this direction in pursuit of you tonight was handled. I shoved each of them into another dimension.”

Sakura’s eyebrows rose as she stared at him speechlessly. For the first time since she observed him, Sakura noticed his heavy breathing. His Rinnegan eye was closed and the Sharingan deactivated, and Sakura recognized the tell of his exhaustion. He had overexerted himself, definitely a sign that he really had transported an unknown number of men through his Rinnegan’s portal tonight.

“At least for now, let’s get out of this rain,” he told her. “There’s a place not far from here.”

Sakura pulled her hand free from his grasp and Sasuke didn’t move to take it again, accepting and mirroring her own frustration. After a moment, he turned, and Sakura followed the coiled back of the Uchiha into the shelter of the trees, allowing him to lead her from the battlefield.  

[sizhui]

I am so autistic about my books if I don't take them out and rearrange them once a week its over for me 🙂‍↕️ listed under the cut for the like minded

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (1-4), Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (1-5), Heaven Official's Blessing (1-8) [Legally buying MXTX's entire opus may just be the worst thing I have ever done, and I ran Stardoll scams of young children when I was in middle school]

Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou: Remnants of Filth (1-2), The Husky & His White Cat Shizun (1)

Meng Xi Shi: Thousand Autumns (1)

Gothic & Lolita Bible, volume 45

CLAMP: Cardcaptor Sakura (Collector's edition), volume 3

Min Jin Lee: Pachinko

Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre

Nakahara Chuuya: Collected Poems (Translated and edited by Paul Mackintosh and Maki Sugiyama)

Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (and other stories) (translated by Cristopher Moncrieff)

Pat Barker: The Silence of the Girls

R. F. Kuang: Babel

Masashi Kishimoto: Naruto (volumes 22 & 24)

Yoshihiro Togashi: Hunter x Hunter (volumes 8, 14 & 36)

The Diary of Lady Murasaki (Translated by Richard Bowring)

Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Mexican Gothic

Milivoj Solar: Literary Theory

Sophocles: Tragedies (volume 1, edited by David Greene and Richmond Lattimore)

Liu Cixin: Death's End, The Three-body Problem (translated by Ken Liu)

Veljko Gortan, Oton Gorski & Pavao Pauš: The Latin Grammar

Masashi Kishimoto & Shin Towada: Sasuke's Story [Sunrise]

Osamu Dazai: No Longer Human (translated by Donald Keene)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust (1-2)

The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem

Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, the Serial Killer

Toni Morrison: Love

Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne & Kadija Sesay: This is the Canon: Decolonize Your Bookshelves in 50 Books

Ovid: The Metamorphoses

Zen Cho: Black Water Sister

Judy I. Lin: A Magic Steeped in Poison

Sue Lynn Tan: Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Heart of the Sun Warrior

Xiran Jay Zhao: Iron Widow

Kazuo Ishiguro: Klara and the Sun

Toni Adeyemi: Children of Blood and Bone

N. K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season

[yuripoll]

SEASON 3 BRACKET

i still need to read kakegurui but immmmm impatient <3. shes the second highest seeded title im sure she can manage for now.

KEY POINTS

No particular metric for voting! Your fave, which looks prettier, which is serving the most cunt, etc etc; you have my full approval for clicking at random.

Main bracket battles all last a week, and times listed below are all in GMT.

All participants that get knocked out of this round get a second chance in the losers’ bracket.

If you want to scroll through just the poll posts or check out the propaganda, the navigation tags are linked in the pinned post.

Obligatory statement that if you take things too seriously or get overly vitriolic in my notes, your candidate gets penalised by 10%.

Polls will be going up next Monday (4/3/24). Matches listed under the cut!

9AM MATCHES

Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl vs I'm Not Cut Out to be a Princess, so I'll Elope with the Villainess!

That Time I Was Blackmailed by the Class's Green Tea Bitch vs Soulmate

You Are My Angela vs Because You Are A Red Rose

Kanojo ni Naritai Kimi to Boku vs Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko!

10AM MATCHES

Aoi Hana vs Dark Forest, White Road

Serendipity vs Savior

Kiss & White Lily for My Dearest Girl vs The Girl That Can't Get a Girlfriend

Composing Spring in This Room Where Cherry Blossoms Bloom vs I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up

11AM MATCHES

Kakegurui vs Netsu wo Obiru Veil

Yuki and the Authoress vs To Die in June

Maria-sama ga Miteru vs A Lady's Table

Muted vs If That's Love, Break It.

12PM MATCHES

Ohana Holoholo vs Sakura Namiki

2DK, G-Pen, Aftertime. vs Makoto no Momoka

Indigo Blue vs The Moon on a Rainy Night

Blooming Sequence vs Mahou Josei Chimaka

[friendlylifecherry]

Kiyotaka Week Day 3: AU. Mastermind Ishimaru AU. Unedited, mostly

@mini-mecha-cowboy

It's rather late in the night and Taka is doing the old, familiar dance of speaking to Izuru inside of his dorm room. It's just that this time, it's through one of the Monokumas instead of with the communicator.

"I really have to say, Kamukura-kun, this was an excellent first day as Monokuma. I'm quite proud of your performance! I was actually pretty worried when you didn't want me to know what you were going to do for Monokuma, but your performance was actually very well-actuated! I’m very proud of you, Kamukura-kun!” Taka says as he changes into his sleep clothes.

Izuru rolls his eyes behind the monitors, mostly focused on putting together the assets for the first Monokuma theater. He knows that Taka is proud of him, it’s nothing at all new for anything that Izuru does. It’s not like Izuru has to bother putting on the act here.

“It’s nothing. So, what do you expect will happen next?” Izuru says as Taka brushes his hair and teeth.

Taka spits out the toothpaste after he’s done thoroughly scrubbing his mouth. “Considering that I know the others quite well, I doubt they will start any sort of murder anytime soon. But this first murder does have to happen within the week.” After all, the news cycle already has a million other things to focus on outside of updates about these children trapped inside of a school with a murderous robot bear, even with a 24-hour live feed. If he wants to keep the attention of the media, he better have it clear that this is not some sick joke by a cultist but the real deal.

Izuru nods as he integrates the background music in the Monokuma Theater. “Motive or do we force the issue?”

Taka weighs his options. Just forcing the issue through some form of blackmail would be easy, but it wouldn’t send the message that he wants to send. No need to make a point about inherent human desperation when the first deaths happened because it was literally forced onto them. On the other hand, someone does have to be dead by the end of the week, and if they wait around, they may genuinely be waiting forever. And Izuru sure is not going to wait forever for his promised entertainment.

“How about this? If a murder doesn’t happen within the next 3 days, you can use one of the motives. If someone doesn’t get murdered after that, then we can start forcing the issue! Would that be acceptable?” Taka asks as he makes his nightly final rounds before he heads to bed.

“Can do!” Monokuma cheerily salutes Taka. Izuru’s working with the audio equipment. You have to make sure that the voice sounds the same in the Theater as it does in the live feed, or at least similar enough. “So, who do you want to bring in for plan B? Maybe your favorite thug?”

Taka turns bright red and chastizes Monokuma. “Mondo is not a thug!”

“So you’re *not* denying that he’s your favorite? I thought that you were supposed to be “impartial and fair”, Ishimaru-kun?” Ugh, Taka can already feel his face get redder and the headache start growing. Why does he even bother with these arguments? He never wins them anyway. Monokuma continues as if Taka didn’t interrupt him. “How about Oogami? She’s big and strong, and pretty much would have to listen to whatever we say if it has something to with our hostages.”

“Oogami-kun is a good choice, but I doubt that the dojo would be good enough collateral.” A centuries-old family dojo is all well and good, incredibly important, and almost a holy ground for Sakura. But the fact that it was burned down in an arsonist’s blaze (unrelated to the Ultimate Despair) about 6 months ago and all the members have been scattered to the winds in the refugee crisis is a bit of a snag on the effectiveness.

“Not that run-down old dojo, dummy! I meant her little boyfriend. Well, little compared to her right now, anyhow.” That actually draws Taka’s attention from organizing his papers.

“I thought that Kenshiro-kun was terminally ill with a severe cancer diagnosis?” Frankly, with the collapse of medical services, he should’ve died a while ago.

“Nope! He’s still kicking somehow! Ain’t the world’s strongest man for nothing, the weirdo! Gwahahahahaha!” Monokuma laughs at his hilarious “joke”. “He’s actually the one we got in custody right now!”

Well, that certainly makes things much easier for everyone. Provable collateral and if there’s anything about Sakura that he knows, she would do literally anything to protect her loved ones. Even kill or die for them.

“Well, that’s perfect! You can contact her as soon as possible, correct? Maybe make some implications that we can keep him alive as well, to really sell it.” Taka wants this to be locked down by the time that he wakes up, after all. "And after that, please get some sleep! A healthy mind and body start with proper rest!"

"Fine, fine. I gotta go now, since she's just done meditating. Buh-bye!" And with that, Monokuma disappears again.

The light on the camera in his dorm room comes back on, Izuru must be focused somewhere else and done with the conversation for the night. Well now, it’s off to dreamland for Taka! He would be a hypocrite if he didn't get his rest now! And with that, he shuts off the lights and drifts off to sleep.

[pacthesis]

áo dài month - week 4

day 22

knee-length panels! round collar!

jacquard!

sakura print!

anyway my parents are from vietnam!

when they were teenagers they narrowly escaped via boat cause at the time there was war stuff!

i was born in minnesota!

winters here are snowy and cold! brr!

day 23

embroidered flowers!

iconic raglan sleeve!

iconic high collar!

iconic long panels!

my parents also got this one from a nice local!

she did some alterations so it fits me really well!

another one of my favs!

day 24

puffy flared raglan sleeve with silk buttons!

multi-layered sheer panels!

floral motif with 3d flowers, a sequin bird and butterflies!

btw i digitally document and sort all my áo dài with filters!

it makes managing em easier!

day 25

embroidered flowers with beading and pearls!

iconic raglan sleeve with pearls!

iconic high collar!

iconic long panels!

my parents also got this one from a nice local!

i got this khăn đóng headpiece custom made just for me!

its soo sparkly!

day 26

floral print!

sheer raglan sleeve!

taffeta long panels!

i’ve always wanted some áo dài but i was nervous to buy em online!

early 2022 me, my parents and pizza man visited a local my aunt knew and we got to try em on!

she also did alterations for us!

day 27

off-shoulder sleeve with bow design!

iconic long panels!

anyway some of the áo dài i tried on at the local's didn’t need alterations!

they were ready-made (not custom tailored) so i found a size that worked for me!

now i feel confident buying online!

day 28

iconic high collar!

multi-layered sheer knee-length panels!

lotus and crane motif!

my parents also got this one from a nice local!

i never learned to speak vietnamese but because i grew up listening to it i understand what ppl are usually saying!

[eventuallyaugust]

bbtr plot timeline

everything happened in bbtr (both private and public)*

2022

JANUARY

• chapter 1-24 took place (yes, all of that is just in january)

• matchmaker was filmed for the remaining weeks of the month

FEBRUARY

• matchmaker eps were released two days apart (1st ep was released on 5 and ep 5 ended on 14; valentine's day)

• the show garnered all of attention locally and globally, making the pair getting shipped together more often

• several matchz photoshoots happened to promote the show, including attending some variety shows together as a pair

MARCH

• seol blowing a party for sakura and moas have a field day when seol posted an ig story being in sakura's bday party, showing off her tattoos

• fans trended yunjin and seol in several various social media platforms due to a photoshopped photo of them together (the original was a photo of oddz with sakura and eunchae between the pair)

APRIL

• bighit started to tease moas about a potential seol solo album with a teaser photo of a burning car

• seol joined in the fun by posting several pics of her being in the studio

• kmoas caught seol and umji shopping together in public, making a dating rumor spark between them which was later denied by bighit and bpm entertainment

MAY

• lesserafim debut date

• reports of txt seol caught outside lesserafim's debut show cheering on the girls

• seol threw a debut party for the girls in private

JUNE

• on the first day of the month, seol posted several pics of her and some pride flags before ending her post with a pic of her showing off a pride pin, causing a sort of backlash from the homophobes

• yunjin posted for the pride month and it caused a minor inconvenience for them because of the fans shipping them together

• bighit started releasing photo teasers for seol's solo debut

• something happened to seol and bighit announces her hiatus from the group on the last day of the month

JULY

• seol's hiatus announcement on the last day of the first week

• seol's supposed solo debut release was postponed

• a sudden hate train on seol started on the third week from different fandoms while seol is on hiatus

• bighit instantly announced that there will be an action for the people making malicious comments and posts to seol

• hybe caterers was filmed with seventeen, le sserafim, fromis_9, txt without seol, and several other idols.

AUGUST

• seol's hate train continued until the first week of the month because of txt

• two txt members got into a heated argument in the dorm one day,

• two txt members started acting cold one another, making the fans notice the odd behavior between the two

• there was a noticeable drought of replies from txt in weverse

• moaville has been in the shambles without seol

• seol finished recovering but decided going against her initial decision of announcing her return

SEPTEMBER

• txt made up from the fight and celebrated yeonjun's birthday

• good boy gone bad photo teasers were released on the third week and fans were both upset and disappointed that seol wasn't on the teasers

• following the gbgb photo teaser releases, a sudden hate train on seol manifested in several social media platforms, saying seol won't fit into the concept since it'll be all boys

• bighit surprised everyone by posting gbgb photo teasers of seol, including the group photo teasers she was edited out of for surprise purposes

• multiple fandoms were surprised and shock at the sudden change in seol's appearance

OCTOBER

• good boy gone bad was released on oct 1st

• noticing several changes in seol with eyebrow piercing and new tattoos, moas claimed that seol's entering 23 year old curse along with yeonjun, and they loved everything about the mv and the visuals, glad that seol isn't in hiatus anymore

• an anonymous source revealed the reason why seol has undergone in a hiatus, making her name trend so much txt needed an extra layer of security in public

• following the unprecedented leak of the reason of her hiatus, another hate train manifested

• gbgb promotions was cancelled on the third week of the month due to the threats seol was receiving

NOVEMBER

• everything was quiet in this month with minimal responses in weverse from soobin and yeonjun, but not the other members

• no selca, no halloween costumes, nothing

DECEMBER

• seol never got to debut for her solo album up to this month

• seol "came home" by posting a few selcas of her wearing a christmas pajamas and santa hat, greeting her fans a merry christmas

• seol released a cover of a christmas song: rockin’ around the christmas tree by brenda lee

• bighit released a statement of seol's departure from the group and company on the last day of the year

2023 (will be doing a separate post)

*note: i am very aware that gbgb was released on may, but i will change the release date for plot purposes ONLY and nothing more

*another note: i might write some to explain on some events on what had truly happened each month & this is not proofread.