#shinokarin

[no-hugs-peach]

Figured out why I hit a wall on one of my more ambitious fanfic ideas: while I knew what's going on now I forgot to account that the characters have 10+ years of knowing each other in this AU before the plot begins.

So I'm now poking at my AU to explore some background ideas and details. If you guys wanna ask me anything about it (couple details, funny incident you think any of these characters may've had, what the rules of the parties are, etc), my ask box is open.

Harbor Having Fun:

The annual Christmas Party is a tradition. Everyone is invited, but since college it's been harder to get everyone together and this year is no different. Secrets can't stay hidden forever and sometimes you have to face your fears. But the holidays are also a great time to connect with old friends, meet new people, and hide from your overbearing parents and other extended family. Also known as: People give Gaara and Ino way less credit for maturity than they deserve. They also give Shikamaru and Temari way more credit than deserved. The following individuals are hiding secrets: Neji, Shino, Karin, Hana, and Tenten. Fake dating isn't that fake when everyone but you insists that you're dating a friend. But it is when you bribe another friend. And remember, friends don't let friends host single.

The couples in chapter one are: NaruHina, ChoKarui, ShikaTema, ShinoKarin, KankTen, SaiSamui, NejiHana, and (allegedly) KibaShiho.

I'm also working on working on the rules, and backstory for the rules, of the Christmas party. Along with determining which rules will be added from this year's chaos.

POV Characters: Konoha 12, Karin, Suigetsu, Samui, Matsuri, Sand Siblings, Hanabi, Itachi, and Shisui

There also a bunch of non-pov characters, rule of thumb is that if a pov knows them in canon they know them in this modern-au.

[something-like-air]

i think an au where karin meets team 8 during the chunin exams would actually be hilarious bc karin’s team would be like - yes! another team with a scroll! meanwhile karin is just like gUYS THAT DUDE IS LITERALLY FULL OF BUGS-- 

of course then down the road when the war happens and karin comes across shino again.... 

that’s a guy she’s gonna remember 👉👈

[raendown]

Last couple days were posted one a sideblog but we’re back to main for day 5 of @narutorarepairweek​. Today’s prompt is arranged marriage.

Pairing: ShinoKarin Word count 3359 Rated: G Summary: The war left them all tired and she was far from the only one who had no other place to go. When offered a second chance Karin takes it. It's not the life she asked for, not the life she wanted, but time marches on and the places we stay have a way of becoming home when we least expect it.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

The After Wife

Karin had never given much thought to her wedding day. Even in the sad year she had spent following Sasuke around and mooning over his every word there had been a voice in the back of her mind that knew it would never happen, never let her fantasies go beyond the now. If she had ever given the occasion any thought she liked to think that this was not what she would have imagined. 

The little girl deep in her heart cried out that she deserved better than a perfunctory informal ceremony alone in the Hokage’s office, no uchikake but the white dust of travel staining her clothing and no attendants but the two council members standing witness. She deserved more than marrying a man she barely knew the name of to secure herself a home in a place that didn’t want her. And yet here she stood while the Godaime Hokage spoke the bare minimum phrases needed to bind her future to another. 

What else was new?

As shitty as the situation was, however, there were several different points which stayed her tongue and stiffened her muscles against the urge to flee. Naruto was the first and biggest reason. The only person who had ever looked at her and truly wanted to know her. He was family, distant and far removed, but a blood relation. She hadn’t known any family since the last of her own gave their life to save another in the depths of Kusagakure. From that day on she had been nothing but an asset, an advantage. Yet Naruto looked at her and saw only the bond he hoped might someday grow between them. The siren call of affection given so freely was embarrassingly difficult to resist after the life she had led.

The second reason that held back the barbs at the edge of her tongue was the idea of rest. Simple and plain, Karin was tired of running. Tired of living her life uncertain of where her steps would take her next and tired of fighting for her right to stay in one place long enough to put down even the weakest of roots. Working for that snake Orochimaru hadn’t been pleasant but it had been the closest thing she could remember to having a place to go back to. Konohagakure had offered her a home and Karin, reluctant and full of pride, wanted so badly to open her hand and accept that offer. Wanted it to be possible more than she was willing to let any of these people know. 

Her third reason was much less optimistic than the other two. Her actions during the fourth shinobi war and in the years leading up to it had branded her a criminal. By all rights she should have been left to rot in the jail of whichever village won the right to punish her first. Instead Naruto had campaigned for her release along with several others on the condition they be rehabilitated. This was far and away the best possible option, the road which led to the least misery in her future. So while she was of the private opinion that whoever decided her rehabilitation should include being married off to a clan head was losing their marbles Karin had decided, after much thought, that resistance could only hurt her now. 

She didn’t really have many expectations for what married life would be like, not having known her husband until they were corralled in to a room together and legally bound, yet Aburame Shino somehow managed to subvert them anyway. Right from the start she was handed surprises as she learned that not only was Shino unperturbed to be married away to a stranger, he had actually volunteered. 

“I find this to be a good solution,” he’d told her. Then he must have seen her naked confusion as he quickly added, “Why? Because my elders had been asking me to find a wife for years now and you need a home. This is a good thing for both of us.”

Karin honestly hadn’t known what to say to that but she was grateful not to deal with someone angry at the very sight of her. His honesty had set the tone for a surprisingly harmonious coexistence. Although they did sleep in the same room Shino easily agreed to separate futons and never once asked more from her than she was willing to give, not even so much as a kiss. They ate their meals together and he complimented her cooking when it was her turn to do so but for the most part they spent their days entirely separate as he went about his business and left Karin to hers.

That wasn’t to say they never spent any time together, although it took the better part of a year for her to even realize that he was doing so. Shino was an unassuming man. Enough so that it was all too easy to underestimate just how subtle and sneaky he could be. It never occurred to her to question the nights he chose to stay in at home, choosing a book and settling in the library where she also spent most of her evenings. She thought little of the absent questions that more often than not drew her in to long conversations before one or both of them yawned their way to bed. Nothing about their situation seemed out of the ordinary until she ran in to Sakura while working at the hospital as part of the mandatory community service that was a condition of being allowed to stay in the village, greeting her one time rival for an undeserving man’s love with a cautious hello. Sakura’s smile for her was surprisingly warm. 

“How’s married life been?” the other woman asked. “I don’t see Shino around much these days. Or anyone, really. I’m so busy here!”

“Life’s fine.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth Karin realized that she meant them and that was enough of a shock that Sakura was able to chatter over her for several minutes, going on about a bunch of people she honestly didn’t care about. Just because they were Shino’s friends didn’t mean they were hers. He was smart enough not to force her to socialize when she didn’t want to – and since she knew the general opinion most people had of her here she really didn’t want to socialize with most of them. 

When Sakura started bemoaning how their busy lives kept her and Naruto apart most days and how they didn’t get to spend much time together Karin rolled her eyes. 

“Seriously? The two of you married for love and I see more of my husband than you do yours?”

The other woman looked at her strangely. “Really? The last I heard of him Shino was screaming busy helping Iruka-sensei overhaul the academy curriculum. Oh but that’s so sweet that he still makes time for you! I’m ashamed to say I never expected he would make such a good husband.” 

“A-ah…”

“Sakura-sensei! Come quick! It’s Yuzuki-san!”

“Oh! I have to run!” Sakura turned on her heel and dashed off towards wherever that voice had called from. “Let’s talk again soon!” 

Karin didn’t even bother to wave. Her head was spinning, hands lifting on muscle memory as she went back to her own work scrubbing floors in a daze. It wasn’t like she ignored Shino when he spoke to her. She listened very carefully. But she’d never realized that he was quite so busy, enough so that he needed to consciously make the time to come and sit with her in the quiet library where sometimes she didn’t even bother to engage his attempts at conversation. 

Community service brought her all over the village doing all sorts of different jobs so there was really no telling what time she would be heading home on any given day. By some kindness of fate it just so happened that she finished today a little before the academy would be letting their students go from final classes. With shame and embarrassment roiling together until she was able to translate them in to indignation, Karin set her feet marching along a path she had only ever walked the one time she was asked to clean out some old classrooms. The closer she got the easier it became to ignore the thousands of chakra signatures around her and focus in on the one she had come to associate with calm and safety without even knowing she was doing so. 

She didn’t really have a plan. Karin had always been a woman of emotion and right now her emotions were telling her to go confront her husband. She would figure out what exactly she was confronting him about when she got there. Or that was her line of thinking until she paused halfway across the grassy yard, catching sight of him through an open window and drifting over like a magnet to a lodestone. 

Despite the utter chaos of children up and moving about the room seemingly without order Shino stood by the front with a contented smile underneath the visor he wore to protect his eyes from bright lights. With both arms in the air he directed his students like a conductor, voice ringing out his instructions with confidence. 

It was a side of him that she had never seen before – or rather that she had never taken the time to see. Shino had taken her in and given her a home, played the part of accommodating husband more perfectly than she could have ever hoped for, and Karin could only think that all she’d given him in return was a few measly conversations whenever she felt like making the effort. Not once had she ever considered whether he might just want to talk after a stressful day. Sure there were other people he could have gone to and she’d assumed all along that’s what he would do but if he chose to seek comfort in her, the wife who was meant to share his life and home? He deserved better than she gave him. He'd certainly given her better in turn.

Whatever energy had brought her marching across the village drained away as she watched her husband at work for the first time. She was almost disappointed when the bell rang and he began to herd the children towards their cubby holes at the back of the room for boots and coats, calling instructions for the night’s homework over the noise. His gaze hadn’t even once strayed towards the window and for a few moments she wondered which exit she would have to meet him at as he left for home. Following his chakra wouldn’t exactly be hard. Then his head turned sideways to look directly at her without warning and Karin was ashamed of the squeak that slipped out between her lips. 

Beetles. She’d forgotten about the beetles, thousands of eyes watching the world on his behalf. 

He tilted his head but without being able to see the eyes behind his visor Karin was left with nothing but the flavor of curiosity in his warm signature, rooted to the spot while he picked his way across the room to stand on the other side of the open window with hands folded behind his back.

“What brings you here?” he asked in his quiet, unassuming voice. 

“I…oh. Should I not have? Do you have work left?” Not having been granted the honor of actually attending the academy in her own home village, she realized suddenly that she had very little idea of what a typical day’s schedule might include for either the students or the teachers. Thankfully Shino looked anything but irritated. It took quite a bit to irritate him, actually, something she had appreciated from the very beginning. 

“Yes I have much left to do. Why? Because the children handed in two different assignments today that require marking.” His head tilted ever so slightly again before going on. “If you would prefer, I can finish such work at home.” 

Karin shifted her weight and looked away, uncomfortable. What right did she have to ask anything of him? Yet still she heard her own voice answering as quietly as she hadn’t heard herself in years. “Yes. I would prefer you to come home. Please.” 

Obviously both of them knew that she had tacked on that last bit as no more than an afterthought. Manners were hardly second nature to her. The last thing she had worried about growing up was learning how to be proper and polite, not when she’d been taught that the way to get something out of life was to be tough and strong, to demand whatever attention and respect she felt she deserved. Life in Konoha hadn’t exactly gained her much respect and the last thing she usually wanted these days was anyone’s attention.

With Shino that was different. Feeling his eyes on her was not a weight she needed to bear up under but a blanket of warmth against the often cold realities that had been her life so far. He was a break against the wind, a mercy, a place to rest. Until that moment staring at him through an open window Karin hadn’t truly understood how much she’d come to think of him as home. Not just that he had given her one but that he, the man, the husband, had become the home she wanted to come back to. It was not a revelation she was prepared to confront. Thankfully he didn’t seem as though he required any explanations at the moment. Even as her thoughts spun and the earth seemed to tilt beneath her feet Shino was nodding and turning to gather the piles of messy assignment papers from his desk, sealing them all in to a single scroll before heading back towards the window.

“May I walk with you?” he asked.

“I…yes?” It seemed a silly question. They were going to the same place, after all. Refusing him would mean walking along the same path anyway but keeping a few paces between them and the very idea of it was ridiculous. 

Still, her answer seemed to please him. The smile that curled his lips this time was the sort of soft contentment he usually wore in the evenings as they whiled away the evening shadows in light conversation. Karin was ashamed to admit that it took until they were halfway home, turning from one deserted pathway down another, that she understood his question. 

“Were you flirting with me!?” she demanded, almost proud that he didn’t so much as flinch at her sudden outburst. Of course she was also immediately infuriated that he didn’t have the decency to blush along with his simple nod.

“I was.”

“Have you done that before!?”

“I have.”

“When!?”

Shino hummed like he was counting the moments she had inexplicably missed. “Often.”

It was almost offensive how calm he remained while she spluttered and choked on her own surprise. The rest of the walk home was stiflingly quiet. A truly staggering amount of thoughts chased each other through her mind but none of them were able to stick for very long before getting chased away by several more. Karin’s emotions were in a right mess when they made it home, confused and muddled and twisted in a way unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Shino led them in to the library and paused next to his usual seat with a serene air. It wasn’t until he reached up to remove the visor shielding his eyes from the outside world that finally words began to tumble over each other past her lips. 

“You flirt with me?” Her tone was a question but she had barely let him nod before she was going on. “I don’t get it. Why? You didn’t want to marry me, you just wanted someone to make your clan elders shut up and leave you alone and I just wanted a–” A home. The word stuck in her throat but he seemed to understand. 

“Does it bother you?” 

“N-no, don’t be stupid. Why would it bother me? It’s just…flirting.” Never in her life had she heard her own voice sound quite so unsteady. 

Shino’s dark, multi-faceted eyes blinked slowly. “Why? Because we are married and I have come to enjoy your company. Because you are my wife and you deserve to be cherished as a wife should be. Because your laughter is hard to earn and all the more precious for it. That is why.” 

“Oh,” Karin breathed. “Oh.”

In the time since she had come to this place she had felt like many things. A pretender, unwanted, unneeded, bored, caged, yet despite all those content was much more frequent as of late. Shino’s quiet words rocked her as for the first time she felt something she hadn’t before, not in all the years she spent clawing and scratching out a place for herself in the cruel uncaring world. She felt like a woman. Desired. Wanted for no reason other than her own merits as a human being. 

“Do it again,” she demanded softly and it made Shino smile. 

“You wish for me to flirt with you?” When she nodded stiffly he echoed the gesture with a serious air. “Very well. Shall I tell you how beautiful I find you? How the scent of you fills our home and eases away all worries of the world outside? Should I tell you that this life we have together is a happy one that I am grateful to have been gifted with?”

“By the kami, I didn’t expect you to lay it on so thick!” Karin covered her face with both hands, mortified to realize her cheeks were warm. 

“Ah, my apologies. I sought only to fulfil my wife’s request.”

It took a minute or two before she had collected herself enough to peek out between her fingers but when she did her gaze was as contemplative as his was amused. The shock that had flavored every emotion since her conversation with Sakura faded enough at last that she was able to think past it to possibilities that she could have never imagined before. 

“Fulfill my request huh?” Slowly letting her arms fall to her sides, Karin took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. “Well then I have an actual request for you. Um…dinner. If- if you’re going to do this backwards and court me after we’re already married then you should at least do it right. Taking me out to dinner would be a good start.” Though her cheeks felt like they had caught fire Karin stubbornly kept her chin up to watch the curl of Shino’s lips, something deeply content settling in the eyes he showed to so few people. How long had he been falling in love without her noticing? 

“Dinner would be my pleasure,” he replied simply. 

It would also be hers, she was startled to realize. This wasn’t the fairy tale most girls dreamed of but Karin wasn’t quite as surprised as she should be finally coming to terms with the fact that perhaps this life wasn’t really so bad. Perhaps her husband wasn’t the only one that she hadn’t noticed getting attached. 

When she pulled her chair over to sit a little closer that night Shino said nothing about it. And when they went to bed and he held out a hand she laid down to sleep on the same futon as her husband for the very first time without saying a word herself. Their marriage might have been arranged but it was odd to think that the relationship between themselves was only theirs to define. Karin couldn’t remember the last time she’d been handed such control over her own future. 

She’d never given much thought to her wedding day but maybe it was time she started thinking about how she wanted to love the rest of her life. If she was allowed her say then it was going to be happy. 

[yucaisnotanelephant]

I made my naruto crackships children :v obviously since shikatema is my shit i kept shikadai lmao. But yeah here are the kids name and parents

Ume Lee: Rock Lee and Sakura’s daughter

Tenryu Uzumaki: Naruto and Tenten’s son ( based off of @papabay‘s tenten genderbend)

Daisuke Uchiha: Karui’s and Sasuke’s son

Chojirou Akimichi: Choji’s and Matsuri’s son

Inohana Inuzuka: Ino’s and Kiba’s daughter

Kaede Hyuuga: Kankuro’s and Hinata’s daughter

Kenji & Tojikamura Aburame: Karin and Shinos twin boys.

[mallml]

For you sketch requests I’d be happy with anything Kakashi!

Country Dance

Does anyone remember this round of sketch requests? No? Because it was TWO MONTHS AGO bwahahahaha!

(Guess who was watching The Scarlet Pimpernel back in February.)

[fineillsignup]

Okay BUT CONSIDER Shino/Karin for a moment here --glasses game on point --get reduced to one character trait unfairly --people somehow forget them despite massive coolness and badassery --Karin is into perfumes, Shino probably makes some kind of weird insect pheromones or something I don't know SHINO/KARIN EVERYBODY

[talldarkandbuzzing]

@cherryreid

Major soft dom 👀

Stares. 

[eurekakinginc]

Posted by ShinOkarin via /r/artificial. Join Discussion: https://ift.tt/2R1n1nk. Curated by: www.eurekaking.com

[narutorarepaireventhub]

Day 16: Snow

Ship: Shino x Karin

-Mod Ghost

[no-hugs-peach]

WIP Title Game

RULES:  post the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it.

@ibelieveinturtles said to consider myself tagged if I wanted to, so I did. These are things I've been working on for the last few years, some of them are more detailed than others and some of them I just haven't touched in more than 2 years.

Current WIP

Runaway Train

Landscapes Flying Past - Side Collections

Leap of Faith ChoujiKarui

Something Something Vegas - KankTen

Starving - ShinoKarin

A Harbor Having Fun

Family Comes in All Forms - Gen

Katie Challenge

Peachy Keen Drabbles

Soulmarks ShiSaku

The Pink Dragon - HP Gen

The Simple Things - Unknown

Two Roads Diverge - GoT AG

Bacon

Get Home

I Need an Adult

HP:ML EWE Attemp

Schrödinger's Womb

I'm tagging everyone who is interested :)

[something-like-air]

Length: 4.2k 

Relationships: Aburame Shino/Karin, one-sided Uchiha Sasuke/Karin, Karin & Uchiha Sarada, background SasuSaku.

"It wouldn’t be the first time she’s snuck into the village on a whim, and so far she hasn't been caught at it. She gets curious sometimes, never seems to get the timing right, and is usually gone within the same day. Disappearing like that isn’t uncommon for her—it takes Suigetsu at least a week to notice when she’s gone, she’s learned, but her trips never last long.

Aside from Konoha there’s nowhere else for her to go, no other roots deep enough for her to follow."

[raendown]

If you're still doing prompts, ShinoKarin "I think that went well" *explosion in background*

AO3

-

As aware as she was of her own skills Karin knew that she wasnot much of a stealth nin. Healing was her specialty for obvious reasons butshe was also the best sensor of her generation and a damn good fighter when sheneeded to be. Stealth on the other hand? Not her forte. Her emotions tended tobe too loud and her chakra too large to properly suppress without being sealedin.

Which is exactly what she had agreed to in order toaccompany her boyfriend on the mission currently forcing her to tiptoe down adark hallway on the balls of her feet. Kakashi-sama had insisted that if shewanted to live in Konohagakure then she needed to behave like a soldier of theLeaf and that meant following the mission outline even if she didn’t like it.He had also said that if she wanted to accompany her boyfriend on this particularmission she would need to seal her chakra or he wouldn’t let her go, worried hermassive signature was too much of a risk.

It was true, she could admit that, but she’d still pushedher tongue out at his back when he wasn’t looking.

At the end of the day it didn’t matter what it cost her, shewould pay any price to watch Shino’s back whenever he went gallivanting off torisk his life for a village that never really properly said thank you. So hereshe was literally watching his backside and admiring how tightly his new pantsfit. He almost seemed to feel her gaze somehow, probably his beetles, as heturned around to look at her from behind dark glasses.

“Can you even see in those?” she whispered. “It’s dark ashell in here.”

“I can see perfectly fine. Why is that? Because I have amillion friends to guide my way.” He lifted one arm to release several morebeetles, instructing them to keep a lookout up ahead.

They didn’t have much father to go until they were free of thestupid sprawling compound they’d just spent half the night sneaking around in.Karin was practically squirming by the time they dropped down beyond the outer walland the moment they were able to stop moving she began clawing at the back ofher arm.

“Sweet mother, I’ve been waiting to get this off for hours!”she declared. With that she grasped the seal Kakashi-sama had stuck on her andpeeled the whole thing off, breathing deeply to feel her chakra unrestrainedonce more. Then she looked behind her with a grin. “I think that went well.”

No soon had she spoken then a massive explosion rocked theearth beneath their feet.

“Do you perchance recall which traps we left in the area?”Shino asked.

“Uh…chakra sensitive ones,” Karin answered with a cringe.

“That is correct. Traps that were not meant to detonateuntil well after we left, once the target was most likely to be at home wherehe would be caught in the blast.” When he tilted his head down she caught aglimpse of his eyes behind the glasses, stern and yet amused. “You understand,of course, why the traps have detonated now.”

Karin dragged both hands down her face. “I am never going tohear the end of this from your Hokage huh? He was all worried that my chakra wastoo potent. And he was right. Shit. Ihate getting yelled at.”

Her boyfriend’s shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughtereven as he turned to dart away in to the night. Karin chased after him with onefist shaking, yelling at him not to laugh, but he didn’t listen. Worse thanthat, she just knew he was going to tell everyone how badly she’d fucked thisup. She was never going to live it down.

[aburamebutt-blog1]

Karin/Shino Headcanon: Karin's favorite mode of transportation is Shino Piggy Back rides. Shino's okay with it because Karin Thighs.

[mallml]

In honor of @raendown’s reign of writing terror yesterday*, I am deigning to draw/post shippy stuff. This post is also notable for featuring three first kisses.

*Pharrell would like to note that he has nothing to do with any of this, but that he was there first.

[fineillsignup]

Hi! Love your work! However I was wondering the reasoning behind some of your couples in Your Most Important Person. Kakasaku is obivous since it seems to be your Naruto OTP. But why pair Naruto up with an OC instead of Hinata? I do not mean this as hate. I am merely curious about some of your artistic choices. On another note, I see what you're doing with Darui and Kakashi in your ABO fic. Nice one, dude! And Lee and Sakura are great as Eternal Rivals!

I tried to do several personal challenges in YMIP, you’ve hit upon one of them, which was, other than KakaSaku, to write only pairings I’d never written before. I should explain that YMIP was originally meant to be a one-shot (I know!) that would end at the Naruto vs Sasuke fight with KakaSaku acknowledging to each other that they were each other’s soulmarks, and an open ending. But I discovered I wasn’t done telling their particular story and so I kept writing.

I’ll put a cut in here to avoid spoilers.

NaruOC: The main reason for going with an OC was that the particular soulmarks of this universe–first words–and Naruto’s desperation for a soulmate made it near impossible that any canon character was his reciprocal soulmate. Once I realized that, I also realized it was a good opportunity to work on my OC skills. I had fun building Tena from scratch, including her name (which comes from the same legends that give us Kushina and Mito’s father’s name in canon). 

YamaIno: I lowkey ship this, it has a lot of similarity to SaiIno which is a big OTP of mine.

KankuHina: I don’t ship Hinata with many people, but Kankurou is actually one of them. Yes, it’s crack, but there’s a wonderful 279k fic called Marry My Father Please? by kaotic312 with it as a main pairing that made me love it.

Kurotsuchi x Konan: I was constrained by the Kakashi-centric nature of the fic in how much I could go into this, but I was intrigued by the idea of two new generation same-gender village leaders being soulmates, with all the obstacles implied by this–the distance, the conflicting priorities of their villages, whatever prejudices exist against homosexual relationships in the Naruto world–etc. Plus Konan making paper flower crowns out of cocktail napkins is just too sweet. I wanted to write a letter fic series for them for femslash week but I didn’t have time back then. Maybe someday.

One-sided Zabuza x Haku: I wanted a semi-dark mirror of how Kakashi x Sakura could have been if Kakashi had made different choices. In this fic, Zabuza knew Haku was his soulmate based on those first words “Mister, you have the same eyes as me” but intended from the beginning only to exploit and manipulate Haku as a tool (same as canon). So he deliberately manipulates Haku into seeing Zabuza as near to a god. But after the incident with Naruto (in this AU, Gato arrives before Haku dies, so Zabuza and Haku kill Gato), he realizes that’s wrong. Eventually, as Haku gets older, Zabuza falls in love with him. But by that point he realizes that Haku can’t and will never think of him that way, and Haku enters a very happy romantic relationship with another young man who also has a platonic soulmate. At that point in the story, I wanted to kind of shake Kakashi up and get him internally confronting his own feelings and fears. Zabuza x Haku mirrors some of his own fears of what could happen between him and Sakura.

Kabuto x Iruka and Kurenai: Some readers were confused by what’s going on here, which I don’t exactly blame them. Again, one limitation of the narrow Kakashi POV is that I’m limited by what Kakashi wants to think about. I don’t feel it’s true to character for Kakashi to be super nosy about other people’s relationships. I got around this somewhat by having Sakura gossip to him about stuff, haha. But yeah, Kabuto and Iruka are soulmates and romantically involved. Kurenai’s soulmate was Asuma. After Tsunade makes her speech encouraging the birth rate to go up and the blind dating thing is put into practice, the three of them all join for the interests of procreation. They end up hitting it off. I suppose you can say as a threesome they have a queer poly platonic kind of relationship? Kabuto and Iruka are romantically and sexually involved. Kabuto and Iruka each have sex with Kurenai to meet her sexual needs and to father children. (In this universe I’m headcanoning both Kabuto and Iruka as bisexual.) They all live together and jointly parent their biological children as well as the orphans.

ShinoKarin: Shino is her type, canon doesn’t give any data about what Shino’s type is, but anyone has to admit, you put them together and they would be one scary power couple. And just imagine the kikaichu colony that could be hosted in the body of a child of Uzumaki heritage… y i k e s.

Okay that’s all I got time for right now, if there’s any specific couple I didn’t mention, feel free to ask again.

[raendown]

Pairing: ShinoKarin Word count: 746 Soulmate au: The one where whenever you cry your soulmate will start to cry as well.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Chapter 127: Shino/Karin

“You know that you’re crying, right?”

“I am aware, yes. Thank you for your concern Naruto.”

“But, like, you know that they’re Sympathies, right?”

“Yes, I also knew that.”

Shino adjusted his sunglasses to the edge of his nose, making a bit of room so that the pearly white tears streaming from his eyes might run unimpeded. He himself wasn’t particularly sad at the moment but his soulmate appeared to be crying and so he had little choice in the matter. Interrupting the Sympathies felt as though he were dismissing some unknown other person’s pain and so Shino allowed them to run freely down his face, dripping from his chin, and continued on down the hallway without so much as a change of expression.

Most kids his age would probably be worried about appearing weak to their fellow high schoolers. Shino himself had never cared much what other people thought of him. He was already odd with his fondness for bugs and his eyes that stared too hard at everything he looked at, even hidden behind the glasses as they usually were. One more bit of oddness hardly bothered him.

He did prefer to be somewhere quieter, however, and since this was his free period he had the freedom to go wherever he wanted to. Ducking away from his friend and in to the stairwell, Shino bypassed the stairs for the door just at the other side of them which took him outside to the schools bedraggled, thirsty looking garden. He’d spent many an hour here watching ants crawl by in their perfect lines and aphids chew at the dying plants. Yesterday he had spotted a new beehive forming on the branches of the only tree in the garden and he his plan was to check up on it to make sure no one had thoughtlessly knocked it down in the meantime.

Those plans were foiled by the figure huddled between the tree’s roots, sniffling and thumping at the bark with one curled first. Shino tilted his head, hesitant, unsure of what to say or if he should say anything at all.

“This is not a good place to make such sudden movements,” he said eventually. The girl startled and looked up at him with the most beautiful red eyes he’d ever seen, leaving him off-center and making his next words come out breathy. “You may frighten the bees.”

“Bees!?” Immediately the girl leapt to her feet and darted a few steps closer to him. Shino observed the fact that she didn’t seem particularly scared, mostly just annoyed. “Of course I picked the one spot that has bees. Ugh. Can this day get any worse!?”

“Very likely it could,” he answered honestly.

She spun around with her mouth opening and one finger coming up to jab him in the chest, clearly about to give him a piece of her mind. Then she stopped and froze in place. Her pretty eyes were focused on the Sympathies trickling down his cheeks, slowing a bit now but still running steady. With her standing perfectly still in front of him Shino was able to watch another tear fall from her left eye at the same time he felt one escape from his own, perfectly in sync.

“Oh shit. Holy shit. Is that what I think it is? No, shut up, I know it’s a Sympathy. I’m not stupid!”

“I did not imply that you might be,” he felt compelled to point out. Strangely, she paused as though confused by the notion that he wouldn’t think her stupid, one of her hands tugging at her red locks.

“Well…whatever. Are those my Sympathies?”

“That is what we must determine. It would be best to make sure, perhaps by testing it a second time, wouldn’t you say?”

Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Yeah. I wouldn’t want to make that mistake again, I guess.”

Shino wondered at the story implied by those words but filed it away to ask about later. For now he simply nodded and gestured up at the tree. “Would you like to help me check on the bees?”

“Why do you care about some stupid bees?”

“Because no one else will.”

“Oh.” The girl blinked at him, her face contorting with several different emotions before settling on a hesitant grin full of mock confidence. “I’m Karin.”

“My name is Shino. I like bees.”

She laughed a little. “I suppose I could learn to like them too – if no one else will.”