#the way naruto holds sasuke kills me every time

[nwluxx]

Delicate...

is the way Naruto holds his Sasuke 🥺

[twomiddlefingersforthehaters]

Naruto and Sasuke often uses 'Nazedaka' and 'Nandeka' in their monologue. Nazedaka= for some reason,without knowing why, somehow. nandeka = nazedaka have similar meanings.

We know that Naruto never wanted to give up. If we ask him 'why', there is always an answer for it.

He stabbed himself to open the wound, why? Because he doesn't want to run away and being afraid again.

He sympathize with Haku even though he killed his teammate Sasuke, why? Because he knows what loneliness is. He is also the one who taught him how far you will go to protect your precious person. He also understands him.

He never want to give up taking the tenth question in chunin exam, why? Because he doesn't want to run away.

He never want to give up fighting against Gaara, why? Because Sasuke acknowledged him and he wanted to protect Sasuke & Sakura.

He understand why gaara becomes a maniac, why? Because of loneliness, the hatred from others... And he is a Jinchūriki.

He never want to give up fighting against kabuto, why? Because he wanted to prove to Tsunade that he was worthy to hold the title of Hokage. By this, he can bring her back to Konoha and cure Sasuke and others.

He never wanted to give up fighting against pein, why? Because he wanted to protect the village. He wanted to end the cycle of hatred.

He never want to give up fighting against Obito, why? Because he wanted to end the fucking war.

But when it comes to Sasuke he doesn't know, why does he feel like that…? Why he didn't want to see him hurt...? why he doesn't want to give up on Sasuke? Why would he go to such lengths for him? He is unable to give a definite answer to all these. Because it's not that easy to say.

N̲a̲r̲u̲t̲o̲

1. Naruto's inner monologue (In ch. 228) vote 1

Raw: 何でか分かんねーけど...

Romaji: nande ka wakannē kedo...

Literal: I don't know why.... but...

Raw: オレは お前を... 大蛇丸なんかに 取られたくねーん だってばよ･･･

Romaji: ore wa omae o... Orochimaru nanka ni toraretakunē n datte-ba yo...

Literal: I don't want you... to be taken away by someone like Orochimaru!

[His words contain sooo much emotion.]

2. Vote2

Raw: 「それ説明しろって言われてもオレも正直よく分かんねェーよそんなの... ただお前のそーゆー背負ってゴチャゴチャしてるとこ見てっと・・なんでか・・ ・・・オレが・・・痛てーんだ」

Romaji: sore setsumei shiro tte iwarete mo ore mo shōjiki yoku wakanne yo sonna no...tada omae no so you seotte gochagocha shiteru toko mite tto... nande ka ... ore ga... Itate nda

Literal: Even if you ask me to explain it.... I honestly don't properly understand... that kind of thing...It's just that.... When I see you carrying burden on your back... getting all messed up.... for some reason... ...I'm.... hurting...

S̲a̲s̲u̲k̲e̲

(Sasuke's dialogue is much more poetic in Japanese. He sounds so incredibly vulnerable)

1. Sasuke's inner monologue (ch.698)

Raw: 「...なぜだか気になるようになった」

Romaji: ...nazedaka ki ni naru yō ni natta

Literal: For some reason/without knowing why, somehow.... I became as anxious/worried and bothered about you (when you were in my mind).

means -> { I became (in such way [that] when you were in my mind) }

Raw: それからのお前を見る度にど んどん気になるようになっていった

Romaji: sore kara no omae o miru tabi ni dondon ki ni naru yō ni natteitta

Literal: And then, steadily, every time I saw you, I became uneasy (when you were on my mind)....

• Kininaru

気 - ki exists in us. Spirit. It is the spirit principle that follows it within a person. Kininaru - that person is occupying our feeling, sensation, thoughts etc... Whatever it is that turning into our spirit.

-> Kininaru means to think about something unconsciously/subconsciously.

Kininaru means shinpaininaru 気になる -> 心配になる｡ 心配になる (shinpaininaru) means- someone is worried about something. It depends on the context how it use, it could be 1. I'm concerned about something/someone 2. I'm worried about something/someone 3. I'm interested in~ 4. I'm bothered about~ 5. I wonder~ 6. I'm curious about~ etc...

1 . Kininaru uses when you are curious about something or you want to know because you are curious about something/someone. It's like, that someone/something catching your attention and you becomes curious because you want to know so badly! 'You want to know more & more'! And using 気になっていた (kini natteitta) means "I've been curious about something/someone." It's not about 'you are curious about it now' but about 'you've been curious about it for a while.' Kininaru express about the feeling of yourself about what you feel about something.

2. I'm worried about -> "I can't help but worry about that X"- Worried about X (because X has an injury/illness or some other problems). If you say you're worried, it doesn't mean you're worried, it's that you're worried about 'that person'. Kininaru has more of a feeling of something that effects you. As like Naruto's worries become Sasuke's worries

3. Kininaru uses when you've romantic interest in someone or someone attracted you or someone catches your attention. "Oh, that person drew my attention" Or "something was interesting about this person". It often use なって- form to say 'you're interested in someone'. If you say that you're interested in someone (気になってるんだ - ki ni natteru nda), it means that you like him/her a little bit. And you want to know more about that person.

Note: Potential verb + "you ni naru" - to become/to become able to. kininaru - anxious/worried/bothered or to be on one's mind. Adding 'you ni naru' means "I couldn't do it before but I can now". So the potential verb + youninaru express or to shows the change.

So, 気になる has the meaning of 「心配になる-shinpaininaru」 (worrying/ bothering/anxious/curious/concerned...) and also the meaning of 「ちょっと好き- chotto suki」 a little liking ( in a romantic way) . It's a bit special. There are two meanings to this verb, so if you use this you need to pay attention to this.

Raw: その時思った... お前の弱さがだんだんオレに染まってきたんだと

Romaji: sono toki omotta... omae no yowasa ga dandan ore ni somatte kitanda to

Literal: At that time I thought.... your weakness gradually came to taint me.

[[The other panel 'literal' is above, you can check]]

Note: The image of どんどん (dondon) means 'something is going very fast' or 'changing speed of the progress is very fast'. Dondon means rapidly/steadily/more & more/significantly. And whereas だんだん (dandan) means little by little/gradually. So both dondon & dandan are opposite because どんどん is faster than だんだん.

And in both cases Sasuke saying something like; "Seeing Naruto being scolded by the others and him suffering... made Sasuke worry more and more about Naruto. The thought of Naruto made him worry/anxious. He's feeling uneasy or being overly concerned about him".

2.

Raw: 「そしてなぜだか安心したんだ」

Romaji: soshite nazeda ka anshin shita nda

Literal: And then... without knowing why, somehow.... I felt relieved (because of you).

Note: Anshinshita + Nda, んだ (nda) is used at the end of sentences. んだ is a casual and preferred in speaking. んだ- One way in which it often does this is by emphasizing the feelings of the speaker. 安 (AN) which means "peace" Or "ease", 心 (shin, Kokoro) which means "heart" or "mind". 安心 as "relief" or "peace of mind". 安心 has the kanji for 'safe' and 'heart'. So it means "peace of mind your heart is at ease". 安心する means " I feel relieved."　安心 is a noun, and 安心する is a verb. If you want to say ``I felt relieved'' in the past tense, you should change the verb to be in the past tense 「安心した」. It more emotionally relieved.

And, Sasuke using anshin shita which means something like - 'only when you are there, I was always at peace/safe/relieved '. It has a meaning of 'That's a load off my mind ' or 'you found your safety or security when your burden was lifted ' Or 'being pleased/happy and satisfied (feeling content)'. So, it has more deeper meaning than just 'relief'. (It is a vague concept in Japanese with a wide range of meaning).

We can also see the same word used by Naruto himself in his monologue (VOTE 1)

Raw: オレは... 最初自分と同じような 奴がいるって 分かって 安心したんだ!

Romaji: ore wa ... saisho jibun to onaji yōna yatsu ga iru tte wakatte anshin shita nda !

Literal: In the beginning... when I found out.... There was someone similar to me.... I felt relieved!

Also the same expression was shown in ch. 499 when Naruto heard his mother's word 'I love you'

なんだろ = nandaro = (I wonder) what is this?

すっげー 安心する... = sugge anshin suru... = I feel so calm/ I feel so relieved...

すっげー うれしいっ!!! = sugge ureshi !!! = I feel so happy!!!

Naruto's reaction to kushina saying i love you was so precious. He was unaware of any of these types of emotions. He have never known what a mother's love is. He doesn't even know what his mother looks like or what her voice sounds like. He doesn't know how mother's scolding and mother's love feel. When Kushina says "I love you" to Naruto, it means that she has deep affection and care for her son and wants to express those feelings. It is a way of showing him that he is valued and appreciated. His mother's love... it gave Naruto a peace of mind that he had never felt before. It makes him soooo happy. Tender and unbreakable, gentle and strong, soft and loud bond between a mother and a son. And he felt all these for the first time.

A boy who is alone in life gets comfort from another boy without even have a conversation with him. Sasuke and Kushina were the two people who soothed his heart, made him happy, and comforted him.

Kid Naruto:

それに 嬉しかった。 ホントは すぐに話しかけ たかったんだ･･･

soreni ureshikatta. honto wa sugu ni hanashikaketakatta nda...

And besides, I felt happy. To tell the truth, I really wanted to talk to you right away.

Teen Naruto:

オレだって いつもお前が 一人なのは 知ってた

ore datte itsumo omae ga hitori nano wa shitteta

I always knew you were... alone

同じような奴がいるって安心した・・・

onaji yōna yatsu ga iru tte anshinshita ・・・

There was someone similar to me.... I was relieved/I felt relieved...

すぐに話しかけたかった･･･ なんだか嬉しくてよ!

sugu ni hanashikaketakatta... nandaka ureshikuteyo!

I immediately wanted to talk to you... Somehow/somewhat I felt happy!!

When characters are nervous or shy about talking to someone, they often put their hands behind their heads as if rubbing their head or neck. Here, Naruto making the same gesture. But he never made this kind of shy gesture to anyone else. Why is he shy? Because Naruto was confessing that he always wanted to be like Sasuke and he found him strong and cool. He complimenting sasuke's look in person.

If Sasuke and Naruto felt like they were just friends or brothers... this 'I don't know why, For someone reason,without knowing why' would never exist. Sasuke is someone who actually had a brother, and he knows what it's like to have a brother. Naruto literally acted like a big brother to Konohamaru and He was someone who found many friends because of his hardwork and he knew what it feels like. And yet they can't say it out loud "why they feel a certain way for each other"

Sasuke begins to worry about Naruto way before they become friends, before having a proper conversation with Naruto. Also, they are not even connected by blood. The way they feel each other's pain and the conversation they have in KSA, Vote2 and Sasuke's monologue is not the way you would talk to your friend or brother. It's because they clearly love each other.

[dira333]

Jealousy - Sasuke

warning: someone’s getting killed, but it’s a quick death

requested by @iminlovewqr0w​

Last night, someone joked about Sasuke being jealous. 

He doesn’t remember who it was in the alcohol-filled haze of the night, but he remembered the way those words hit him, slammed into his chest like Chidori.

He’s still thinking about it in the morning. 

Is he jealous?

What does that even mean?

-

When he was little, Itachi showed him around the big library of Konoha and taught him the importance of educating himself when no one had the time to do it for him.

It’s no surprise that he finds himself at the doors of the same library just a few minutes later or that he finds the right row of books with ease, even slightly hungover.

-

Jealousy, feeling or showing an envious resentment of someone or their achievements, possessions, or perceived advantages.

He grew up looking up to Itachi for everything that he was and could do. There was never any resentment for the greatest big brother there was. The only resentment he felt back then was for his father, someone he would never have been good enough for. 

But Sasuke remembers clearly the bitter realization that Naruto was surpassing him. That he would never be as good as Itachi without help. 

That’s the past, though, right?

He’s gotten to the point where he knows his strength, where he has fulfilled his duty in Itachis big scheme. There’s nothing to be jealous about?

-

Realization cuts into his heart only a week later. 

He’s late and it’s not fully his fault, but he can see you from where’s quickly approaching your parent's house.

Your face is illuminated by the warm light of the living room and you’re laughing at something your father’s saying. It’s not the first time the two of you are invited over and it’s not the first time he witnesses the close bond between you and your father.

But it’s the first time he feels envy crawling through him.

Why is it that your father never expected you to be more than you could be?

It’s not fair that his family is dead and there’s nothing you or he could have done to prevent it but for a second he chokes on the resentment. It’s just not fair.

“Sasuke?” Your voice calls from the window. He doesn’t look up, afraid of what you would see in his eyes, even from this far away.

But warm hands are already pulling him closer, guiding him to the safety of your embrace.

“Sasuke!” Your father’s deep voice calls from the house. “Come in boy! I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“I swear,” you mumble into his hair, “He likes you more than me.”

And it’s still not fair but your words mend a hole inside him, form a knot in the net that is his life. It’s right next to the tangled web of strings that team seven formed in his life.

It reminds him that he used to be alone but he’s not anymore.

-

Jealousy, feeling or showing a resentful suspicion that one's partner is attracted to or involved with someone else. 

There is, perhaps, no greater torture in this world than to play bodyguard for you.

Especially on a mission like this.

From where he’s standing, face a clear expression of misery, he can see the way you flutter your lashes at some guy that’s not going to survive the night - he just doesn’t know it yet.

Sasuke knows that he doesn’t have to worry about you.

You don’t even hug your boy-friends and when he first asked you about that, you’d told him that you wouldn’t like your boyfriend hugging other girls so why would you do it yourself then?

And he had always admired that side of you, that was willing to protect a relationship that hadn’t even been born yet.

But he thinks that he finally understands Kiba now, who growls every time someone dares to touch Sakura. Or Temari who once used her fan in a crowded market because some girl didn’t want to understand the meaning of Shikamaru’s wedding ring.

There’s an almost feral feeling taking hold of him, a feeling as dark as it is dangerous. He wants to grab that guy and chuck him out the window. 

He knows what the guy is thinking and it’s making him sick. 

Everyone should know that you and Sasuke are two sides of a coin, something inseparable, and-

The guy drops to the floor, foam forming on his lips as he chokes, unable to get air into his lungs.

He’s dead within a minute and amidst the panic, you slip into the space next to Sasuke, your hand finding his.

“Let’s go.” You tell him. “We’re done.”

They leave unseen, too fast to be noticed. 

“Why did you kill him? I wanted to do that.”

You laugh. “I could tell. Your face was murderous. You’re cute when you’re jealous.”

“I’m not…” You silence him with a kiss, leave him literally hanging in the air to pull yourself up to a window on the other side of the street. 

He can tell your laughing at him but he doesn’t really mind.

-

Late at night when you’re asleep next to him and the moon illuminates your skin, he thinks about it.

Jealousy… is he jealous?

He doesn’t suspect you of ever betraying him.

And he no longer resents you for having the chance to grow up sheltered. 

But there’s a third definition of jealousy and when he lays awake at night he can’t help but think how much it fits him.

-

Jealousy, being fiercely protective of one's rights or possessions.

In this life, he was given the right to be by your side. To hold your hand, kiss your lips and dry your tears.

You’re not a possession of him but you’ve given him something that he will protect with the last shred of his life.

And whoever dares to threaten it, should be afraid.

[sansxfuckyou]

not just unfortunate timing

summary: turns out suppressants can fail, Naruto learns this the hard way when it strikes him in the middle of a mission after trying to hide it from Sasuke and Sakura successfully for years

tags/warnings: omegaverse, fluff, hurt/comfort, Naruto's an omega Sakura and Sasuke are making sure he doesn't get fuckin' hurt, check Ao3 port for full

authors note: they make me go absolutely fucking insane your honor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53140039

"He's burning up, Sasuke! Don't be so combative," Sakura snapped at the rather aloof Uchiha who just scoffed.

"And you shouldn't be so loud, you'll hurt his delicate ears," He spits the words mockingly, throwing Sakura's overblown care for Naruto right back at her. And he can see that she can smell it on the air, he's shocked that Sakura hasn't dropped the H word to try and make him less snappy. They both know what's up with Naruto, the dumb little secret he's been trying to hide by rubbing pine needles and cedar on his clothing. Acting like he's one of them despite the fact they've already been through enough for them to know.

"Guys, it's fine- I'm fine," Naruto said as he stood up and started on his way past them, the two… Beta's of the group, as all Genin, Chunin, and Jonin must be aside from few exceptions for Alpha's. He snuck past the rules by nearly overdosing on suppressants at age twelve, and now he's in the middle of a mission entering heat.

His balance wavers as he makes his way out of the small room that he's been quarantined too until it passes over. Thankfully their mission was a somewhat stationary one with light travel, an escort mission, so they could bunk in a town till it's over. He feels his head go light before he starts to fall but he knows he isn't fainting. Both Sakura and Sasuke try to stop him, their Beta instincts won't allow them to let an Omega (or other Beta) get hurt even with Naruto holding Kyuubi's spirit.

"You're staying in this room until your heat is over, Naruto," Sakura ordered as sternly as she could, pressing a finger to his chest as she spoke, "It's for your own good."

Naruto just whimpered.

Sasuke hoists him up a little bit more, and he's heavy despite being smaller in every way, much denser with something or other. He ignores the pathetic little sounds crawling out of his teammate, "You heard her, it's final."

"Thanks, Sasuke," Sakura said, and she speaks so softly to Sasuke it strikes a couple chords for Naruto despite all the things the three of them have been through and done together.

He drops Naruto on the bed with some gentleness before throwing a blanket over him, "I'll go do the mission while you take care of him. Don't let him starve or dehydrate, he's… a valuable asset to our team," He brushes his hand across Naruto's head to see if he really is burning up, and he most definitely is. Higher than average, Sasuke wouldn't be shocked if this unfortunate event kills Naruto.

Naruto arches up into Sasuke, the one point where there's physical contact which is the back of a cool hand on his forehead, "But Sasuke-"

The Uchiha retracts his hand sharply, "Don't you dare expect any of that 'Beta's always take care of Omega's no matter what' bullshit from me, even if we're more than teammates," He snarls a bit as he speaks and Naruto shrinks back into the mattress.

This is gonna be a long week.

-/-/-/-

The brunt of it hits him on day three and leaves him even more bedlocked than before. His mind is utterly swamped, and his body aches and burns and he refuses to eat any of the food that his teammates bring him unless they're cramming it down for his own good. It's a miserable aspect of existence he's glad he's dodged for a considerably chunk of his lifetime. But now all that has caught up to due to him tripping as he runs from the worst part of his anatomy.

"You're gonna die if you don't drink any water," Sakura tried to coerce, holding the rim of the glass to Naruto's lips. And he reluctantly grabbed the cup and took a couple sips of the ice cold water that shocked his systems. He released a shudder at the cold relief rushing down his dry throat, it felt nice.

He places aside the glass and drops back down onto the bed, he's already partially sweat through fresh clothing he changed into not even six hours ago. He's pretty sure this is what he gets for being Kyuubi's vessel, another aspect of something that shattered his entire life and everything that could've come from it. His breathing is heavy as he gives a small, "Thanks."

"It's what I'm supposed to do, I gotta take care of my mates," Sakura answered with, "Are you hungry yet?"

Naruto shook his head, "I haven't been hungry this entire time, but you and Sasuke keep shoving food down my throat," He wants to curl up under the blanket but he knows that'll make things worse.

"Well considering you've been taking suppressants for your entire life this could kill you, you have no idea how luck you are that me and Sasuke are here," Sakura answered with as she sat down on the edge of the bed, Naruto tossed and turned until he was nestled up close to her. She gently placed a hand on his head, her fingers were ice cold in comparison to the temperature he's running at.

"Then where is he?" Naruto questioned as aggressively as he could manage.

"Doing the mission," Sakura answered with, "He'll be back soon, he better be back soon or else I'll tear him a new one."

Naruto stifles a laugh at Sakura's threat, "Thanks for taking care of me, pretty pathetic isn't it?"

"You still kick all kinds of ass, when it runs it's course we'll pick up on our mission again," Sakura said, "Promise."

-/-/-/-

"It's a trap," Sasuke declared as he tugged a shuriken out of his shoulder and held his palm on the wound.

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura demanded.

"I mean it's a trap, that asshole we're escorting set it all up, he spiked Naruto's suppressants when we breaked to sleep last week," Sasuke explained, "Now a bunch of Grass Ninja are jonesing for our hides, if we don't leave now we're fucked."

Sakura felt herself shatter into a million pieces just like that, fear shooting through to her very core, "What?"

"We need to go, we'll stuff his jacket with pine and the rest is in the hands of fate," Sasuke said, wiping down his bloodied hand on his clothing. He grabbed hold of Sakura's shoulders to ground her into reality, she's shaking, "He's going to be killed, he can't do shit until it passes through his system. It's chemically induced this time, he just needs to sweat it out and drink lots of fluids, if he doesn't it could keep going for weeks."

"So you're suggesting we drag him all the way back home even with his current condition?" Sakura asked.

They can't hear the door open and Naruto hobble over to the small kitchenette. But they can smell it the second he passes the final doorway over, he gives this nervous grin as they glance over too him, his hearing was weak and foggy at that, "What are you guys talking about? Is Sasuke okay?"

"I'm fine," Sasuke speaks firmly, "We need to go for it and get the hell out of here, you're gonna get hurt."

"I'm useless like this right now, I'm gonna get us killed," Naruto answered with as he hobbled ever closer to Sasuke and Sakura, again, they both rush over to help him in his weakened state. His legs shake and he revels in the coldness of their touch, leaning into each of them equal amounts.

Sasuke holds onto him tight, tighter than expected or usual considering his average bluntness and sharpness towards his mates, "Our escortee spiked your suppressants, you'll be through the heat sooner than later. It's a trap, Naruto, they want to get you when your weak, which is why we need to go."

Sakura held up Naruto who was being thrown for a couple loops at the new knowledge, "It'll be fine, Naruto."

"I'm leading them right too us," He whispers the words, "I should've known better than to become a Shinobi."

Sasuke wraps his hands in Naruto's messy hair and yanks for a brief second to pull him back down to reality. He yelps and glares up at the ravenette, "Don't fucking say that, that's bullshit, this is a fluke."

Naruto nodded as Sakura rubbed circles on his back, "Right, a fluke, an inconvenience," He nuzzles the side of his face against Sasuke's arm and he freezes up just a bit even though he does enjoy the affection.

-/-/-/-

Day five and they're further away from the village, and the worst of it has passed but the clinginess still lingers with the slightest fog. He still shakes when he walks and he just wants to be with both of his mates whenever he can manage even though they're on a semi-constant vigil while he waits for the chemicals to flush through him. But oh man does he ever enjoy a bath in ice cold water after being so shaky and mentally weakened to remember to change his clothes.

He can actually not feel like he's burning up as cold water washes across every single inch and washes away his troubles just like that. He dunks his head and he can think clear for a very brief moment before all the blood flow heats up his head again and removes perfect cognitive function. He doesn't want to get out of the rushing water unless he absolutely has too and he doesn't even start trudging to the rocky edge of the river until the cold starts to bite too deeply into his skin.

He's shivering as he walks across the moss and grass covered ground, he shakes himself down like a dog. That comfortable sensation still resides in his bones as he towels down with a t shirt he grabbed before leaving. He's more than lucid enough to start a fire, wearing naught but a pair of boxers and a jacket tied around his waist so he doesn't heat up too fast. He tosses the bundles of logs into a small circle of rocks, he debates on wasting the chakra he's still burning through impossibly for a fire jutsu to light it up before deciding to just go for it.

He still has to wait for either Sakura to return with food, red meat to help both him and Sasuke restore the chakra that they've been burning through. Sasuke because he spent a couple nights in the village fighting off every single ninja sent their way and never had a chance to recover it naturally while they were running. Naruto because of the heat that was never supposed to hit him in the first place.

Just a couple more days and he'll be fine, they'll be able to go back their and pulverize the boss that sent those poor Chunin after them. Until then Naruto's just trying his hardest to not lose it entirely as the rush of the heat flows through him.

Sasuke arrives first, dropping down from the branches above and landing with a small flourish. He sends a couple extra sparks of fire jutsu to fire to give it some extra pep and he feels his eyes go blurry just a bit. He take a seat beside Naruto, one leg outstretched and the other hitched, "Have a nice bath?"

Naruto laughed, "It was great! I haven't enjoyed some cold water in what feels like years."

"It's been five days," Sasuke said as he rolled his eyes.

"Do you know where Sakura is?" Naruto asked, "I'm starving."

"Don't be so whiny, idiot," Sasuke chided.

-/-/-/-

Naruto falls asleep nestled between Sasuke and Sakura perfectly, a third piece of an incomplete puzzle that he didn't expect to fit into considering their ranks. But he's thankful that they're both there for him, for him to lean and for him to boost ever further into their strengths. He finds himself with his back partially pressed against Sakura's torso, her arms wrapped gently at his waist, most of Sasuke rests atop Naruto, splayed with one arm to reach his other mate. Although they usually wake up in different spots than they fall asleep, twisting and turning and tangling further with each other.

It's a knotted mess of limbs and comfort alike, but when Naruto finds himself blinking awake, trapped underneath Sasuke and held close by Sakura, he doesn't have any complaints on the matter. He snakes a hand around Sasuke's torso to hold onto him and leans back his head to nuzzle the side of his face against Sakura's. He can feel Sasuke start to shift awake along with Sakura but they fall asleep again rather promptly, sliding around to get comfortable and tossing Naruto's weight onto Sasuke instead.

Naruto whispers out a meek, "Love you guys," It's spoken on a whisper and they're both stuck in a state of mostly asleep they shouldn't be able to hear it.

But they both mumble it back regardless.

[anime-fan-05]

Please may I have a Naruto angst (it is platonic mind because they are children) and comfort scenario of the most painful truth known to man when you (Sasuke's older twin sister *she is like Winry from fullmetal alchemist brotherhood* and she is a chunin and Naruto's childhood friend and everything) found out that Itachi was the one who murdered your whole clan and it was painful for Naruto to see you like that 💔 and it was even more painful of how you loved Itachi dearly and he did this..you cried..you really did and Naruto saw you as the most bravest girl known to man and it was a long time since you've cried.

https://youtu.be/JU6ZExP1pwI?si=5oGUnQ9r6avQ6h9E (to help you of how the female reader broke down in Naruto's arms 4:47 and how Naruto stopped you from doing something that you will regret and how it went and to help you with the scenario)

I'll always stay with you

Manga/anime: Naruto

Warnings: slight angst (nothing that it's unbearable), but there is a happy ending

(Y/N): your name

It was Itachi who killed our clan.

It was Itachi who killed our clan.

It was Itachi who killed our clan.

These words keep repeating in my head.

Nii-san (big brother), how could you do that?!

After all that kaa-san (mom) and tou-san (dad) have done for us! They loved us! They taught us to live, to love, to fight...

Why did you do that?!

Why?!

Why?!

Didn't you love kaa-san?

Didn't you love tou-san?

Didn't you love Sasuke?

Didn't you love me?

~ 🧡 ~

I run and run, until I reach the Hokage Rock. I wanted to be alone for a while to think, but there is already someone there.

"Naruto?"

"(Y/N)-chan? Are you ok, -ttebayo? You seem to be distraught and shattered."

"I..."

"Has someone hurt you? I'll deal with them, -ttebayo!"

"Naruto..."

"Yes, (Y/N)-chan?" He comes closer to me.

"I can't handle it anymore!" I collapse on my knees and start crying.

"What happened?!" Naruto's voice is surprised.

"The Uchiha clan was exterminated by my brother Itachi! And I... I... Naruto... Please..."

He kneels next to me and I can see his face: his eyes are wide open and his mouth is slightly open. From his expression, he seems shocked. Strange, I should be the only one shocked, not him too.

Without hesitation, I throw myself straight into his arms and I hold him tightly.

He hesitates for a few seconds, but then he pulls me close too, hugging me tightly.

"Naruto! Please, help me!"

Apart from you and my brother, I have no one left.

Please...

At least you two...

Don't leave me...

Please...

Please...

"Shhhhh. Everything is fine, (Y/N)-chan. Everything is fine, -ttebayo." He tries to reassure me, gently stroking my head with one hand and rubbing gentle circles on my lower back with the other hand.

"It will all be fine, -ttebayo. You're the strongest person I know: you'll get through this."

"Please, Naruto, don't leave me... Please, please."

"I won't do this: whatever happens, I'll stay with you. I know sometimes I'm stupid and I do things I don't want to do, but you know my nindo (ninja way): I'm not gonna run away and I never go back on my word, dattebayo! I swear to you I'll always stay with you."

His sweet voice and his caresses calm me so much...

~ 🧡 ~

Eventually, I end up falling asleep, lulled by his embrace; I don't know if I did it for his caresses and his words, or for the relaxation after my outburst.

Naruto... Thank you.

Thank you very much!

If you didn't remember, nindo is the personal rule every shinobi lives by.

Hey! Sorry for the delay, but this week has been very difficult for me. I hope you liked it anyway.

💮 Rules 💮 Masterlist 💮

[harrietbarnesblog]

Kitty

Masterpost

Masterlist

Pairing: Kakashi hatake x reader

Warning: cats, implied smut.

It was a fine day. After a hard time of practising team 7 decided to have ramen. The team was headed towards Naruto's favourite ramen shop, Ichiraku's.

On the way back home, Sakura spotted a stray kitty.

"Kakashi sensei, wait up." Sakura said, lifting the cat in her hands. Everyone came to a halt.

She examined it thoroughly in her hands. She noticed it was so weak. "We can't just leave this cat here. We need to take it home and give it treatment."

"Yeah, then take it home, Sakura." Naruto said.

"I can't. My mom will kick me out if she knows I brought a cat inside our house. Naruto, why don't you take it home?"

"I can't. I don't know how to take care of a cat." He said sheepishly.

"Sasuke?"

"I'm sorry but I have more responsibilities than taking care of that cat." Sasuke said. But deep down he wanted to take it home and cure it. But he wasn't sure how.

"But we can't just abandon it here." Naruto said. "Kakashi sensei, why don't you take it home with you?"

"Who? Me?" Kakashi wondered.

“Yes.”

“I- I” kakashi hesitated. Before he could say anything, Naruto pushed the cat to his hand. He wanted to take it home but..

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Honey, I'm home.” Kakashi said, his voice was a bit shaky. He had the cat hidden behind his back. He entered his house and searched for his wife. But she was nowhere to be found. He let out a relaxing sigh.he rushed to his bedroom and hid it in the closet. He kept a bowl of water and a bowl of milk for it.\

“Be a good kitty and be silent. Okay? Stay here.” he said to the cats and it meowed back.

“Kashi, you are home.” you said as you entered the house.

Kakashi closed the closet door but He kept the door a bit open so the cat wouldn't suffocate.

He ran out of the bedroom to greet you.he hugged you and kissed on your cheeks.

“y/n, I’m so hungry. Is there anything to eat?”

“No,but I can fix something for you.”

“Yeah, that would be nice.”

“But before that I need to change my clothes. I hope you can hold your hunger till then.” you said and started to head towards the bedroom.

He started to panic.

You walked past him. He grabs your wrist, spins you around and pulls you into his chest. You gasp at his sudden moment.

“I've changed my mind. I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, I'm hungry for something else.” he whispered. He slowly slides his finger from your lips to your neck. You let out a shaky breath.

“Not- not now. later . I really wanna get out of this dress…”

“Yeah, I really want you out of this dress.” he interrupts you.

“And get into something else.” you finish your sentence. You push him away with a kiss on his cheeks.

You move past him and open the bedroom door. Every step you took towards the closet, Kakashi's heart slowly stopped beating.

Suddenly Kakashi was behind you, hugging you tightly.

“Darling , what is it with you today?” you chuckled softly.

“I just need you so much.”

“We can do whatever you want tomorrow. I'm so tired today.”

You reached for the closet before Kakashi could stop you, you opened it.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.” you screamed looking at the tiny little kitty.

“Meow.” the kitty purred. You clumsily walked towards you and sat in front of you.

“Kakashi, I'm going to kill you.” you said. “What do you think about bringing a cat home without my permission? This is the 13th time this week.if you keep doing this we will have no space to live in this household. Already our guest room is full of dogs and cats.where will we keep this?”

“Oofff” kakashi shrugged.

“You are sleeping outside today.”

You picked the cat in your hand and kicked Kakashi out of the room.

“The kitty…”

“He will be sleeping super comfy on the bed tonight. You don't have to worry.”

“Won't you be, my kitty kitty?” you said changing your voice.

“My kitty kitty?”

You closed the bedroom. You changed your clothes and climbed to the bed. The cat was already asleep.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour passed and you couldn't sleep without your husband beside you. You went out of the room. Kakashi was deep asleep on the couch. You slowly climbed on him without waking him up. He unconsciously adjusted his position and wrapped his arms around him. You kissed his chest and laid your head on him.

“Couldn't sleep without me, y/n?” Kakashi whispered.

“Shut up, I'm still mad.”

He chuckled.

“Meow.”

You both looked down to find the cat standing beside the sofa.kakashi picked him up and placed him on top of you.

You all fell into a comfortable sleep cuddled up with each other.

[justsomeoneunordinary]

Since I already poked into the hornet’s nest a few times, I might as well get this out once and for all and be done with it: In my opinion, character antis and character stans are both two sides of the same coin. Both go into the extreme and more importantly, both lack nuance.

(I came from the MCU Tony Stark fandom into the Founders Tobirama fandom and it’s crazy how much they parallel each other. All fandoms have some similarities, but in this case, the antis, the stans, the tropes, the mischaracterization are so much the same, it’s freaking mind-blowing.)

The thing about the founders characters is that they’re just a footnote in the whole Naruto story—we don’t know enough and that means we have to interpret a lot of things. And naturally, interpretations vary. If you look at Tobirama and decide that he’s some bigot, then you can do that. (I’m not going into the whole racist debate about him, I have already stated my thoughts on that.) To me, though, this is such an incredibly boring interpretation. The fascinating part about the founders is that none of them are morally good characters due to the times they grew up in. Some might be darker grey than others but, in the end, they all have good sides and bad sides and that’s what makes them interesting to me. That’s what makes them 3-dimensional characters, rather than flat ones.

It’s absolutely wild to me that you would want to imagine any character as bigot at all, instead of trying to put yourself into the character’s shoes and try to see where they might come from. We don’t see any of his thoughts ever, we only have his words and what we do with them is up to us. Maybe he did put the Uchiha all in the police to close them off from the rest of the village in hopes it’ll be their demise, but isn’t that a bit boring? Isn’t that also a bit of a wild theory, considering there’s no assurance the Uchiha will perish once he’s gone? If anything, he would want to get rid of them while he’s still around and holds a leadership position. He says he did it to integrate them more into the village and give them a good purpose, and isn’t that more interesting? If he really, genuinely thought that and failed so massively? Doesn’t that make him a way more interesting character, a character with his own weaknesses? Sure, you can imagine the former but I fail to see how that’s more interesting than the latter. In the end, we don’t know what’s true anyway, we don’t know what’s going on in his head, we don’t know how he went from “grown-ups are stupid and just need to make a truce” to being so ready to kill the Uchiha and not believing in peace at first, so we might as well go with the 3-dimensional interpretation, no?

Similarly, people who put him on a pedestal, who believe he has done no wrong, who see him as the good dutiful brother, while Hashirama, in contrast, is in the wrong—how do you take a character who’s so multifaced, who shows intelligence and leader capabilities, who went from not believing in peace to wanting to protect it at any cost, but who’s also way too prejudiced of the Uchiha to the point he threatens a teen before he even knows what’s up, and make him flat? Tobirama is no saint. A man who can create the Edo Tensei and use it often enough that every other Kage immediately recognize it is not a morally correct person. I will not get into the debate if the Edo Tensei is morally bad or not, since killing people is equally fucked up and the point is thus moot because no shinobi is a saint. But the way he talks about the Uchiha is fucked up. Personally, I think it’s hilarious how he calls Sasuke a little shit and how he loses his temper. From an audience view, I love it. But from a character analysis view, it’s wrong. That’s a whole grown-ass man who was Hokage and before that the Hokage’s right-hand man and he wants to attack an Uchiha teen just like that before he even has all information.

If you think he could somehow have been a better Hokage than Hashirama, then you can do that but I fail to see how. I don’t think he’s some bigoted asshole with no good qualities, but he’s not faultless either. We don’t know what is going on in his mind at any time but we see he has good qualities and bad qualities alike, and you can just latch onto one of these qualities and pretend the other don’t exist but in my opinion, that’s how you create a flat character.

(On a different note: I know so many people are mad about the “curse of hatred” thing and I get it but it’s so weird to me that they hate Tobirama for this instead of Kishimoto. This isn’t presented to us as an opinion but as a fact. Kishi came up with all kinds of new things when it comes to the Uchiha and the curse of hatred just was his newest nonsense. Hate the message; not the messenger.)

And while I’m already on the topic of wanting to interpret characters as bigots: Izuna doesn’t have a character. Izuna isn’t even a character; he’s a plot device. People can imagine him however the fuck they want and there’s zero right or wrong. However, I fail to see why people would want to imagine him as a bigot. They heard him saying not to trust the Senju when Hashirama asked for peace and decided clearly, he must be a warmonger, a spoiled little bitch, an idiot etc. Absolutely wild to me. You literally have free reign, you could try to put yourself into his shoes and try to see why he thinks so, why he’s so mistrusting, how it must look from his point of view, and instead you decide to portray him in the worst way possible. I mean, you can do that and no one can tell you you’re wrong, but wow, this could never be me. Sorry, I prefer to imagine characters in a more multi-faceted way than have such a flat view of them.

Now, Hashirama is far more established as a character than Tobirama is but he is, like the other founders, still just a side character with so many unknown variables and a whole lot of freedom for interpretation. But, I think if you somehow think of him as a master manipulator, as someone who’s a bad leader, as an idiot… you can think that. There isn’t enough canon material to disprove that completely. However, if you think that, I think you missed some crucial parts about him. You missed his strive for peace since he was a child, you missed that the Uchiha willingly deserted over to the Senju when Hashirama was clan head and that the Senju were ready to make peace with the Uchiha under his rule, you missed that Hashirama was voted Hokage by a majority. None of this would make sense if he were a dumb, bad leader, now, would it?

Usually, Hashirama depicted as an idiot also goes hand-in-hand with the Tobirama stans who see him as a bad brother. I already talked about this, so I won’t go into detail, but Hashirama rightfully calling Tobirama out when he’s being a prejudiced shit toward the Uchiha doesn’t make him a bad brother. His threatening Tobirama when Tobirama is about to kill Madara doesn’t make him a bad brother either. It is wrong. He’s overly emotional over this and he’s being unfair in that moment but that alone doesn’t make him a bad brother, it just makes him a well-written character who has his own faults. Sometimes he’s too emotional, sometimes he’s too idealistic, and if you see that and decide it means he’s a shit brother and also an idiot, then you can interpret it that way but I couldn’t disagree with you more if I tried.

To me, he’s a good man, a charismatic man who’s trustworthy, who always strives for peace and the best in general, but also a product of his times, a son of his father, a man who goes his path straight ahead and doesn’t look left and right which then leads to fucked up situations such as almost killing himself in front of Tobirama, or also killing Madara in the end instead of trying to find a different way. It makes him interesting.

At the end of the day, my opinion is always, if you have to push other characters down (Hashirama as an idiot; Izuna as a bigot; Madara as a madman), so you can pull up your fave (Tobirama as the only right one, the better leader, the better brother), then the problem is you. It just shows me that you don’t know how to prop your fave on his own and who he simply is when you can’t do it without making others look bad. Sorry not sorry.

(This really happens in so many fandoms—you have a character who’s shown as the good one but then you get to see his bad sides and people latch so much onto that that they then portray him as the devil incarnate. Vice versa, you’re given an asshole character who’s shown to have his good sides and fandom somehow manages to twist it so much that suddenly this character is the real saint. It’s maddening.)

Lastly, Madara is just like the other characters a complicated character with his good and bad sides. I think it’s crazy how some people only see a madman and a terrorist in him, and how others find he was right with everything. Again, you can interpret is such, but… no. He’s a deeply traumatized and grieving man, who believes in peace and wished it badly but saw that it would never be achieved because humans will always fight each other no matter what, and then makes a decision that is nuts. The Infinite Tsukuyomi is utter bullshit even without Zetsu and Kaguya, but he is right in pointing out that there will be no real peace. The problem is just that there’s no perfect answer for that—the answer is democracy, therapy and transparency of the higher-ups, which is a boring solution for the world Kishimoto created because in a world where cool fights go brrrr and friendship is magic a political answer like that is not going to cut it. Which is why he had to come up with a bigger threat and make Madara look insane, even though the points he made were right, only his methods wrong.

My general opinion is, when you have characters that are so little established, that leave so much room for interpretation, I don’t see why anyone would want to interpret them in such a flat manner. I like my characters 3-dimensional, I like to take the good and the bad in stride, and you can do you, that’s fair enough. But if you come to me to put Tobirama in the good light and Hashirama in the bad one, or in converse, to tell me what a bigot Tobirama is, then you’re at the wrong address here, and that’s on that.

[demonsfate]

i've never seen a fandom hate and spite their own mc more than the tekken fandom. i was browsing r/Tekken one day for tips on how to beat lili and unsurprisingly i found a post where people kept disrespecting him on his OWN BIRTHDAY. seriously, as someone who is a diehard stan of kazuya mishima and sasuke uchiha (i loved both of them since i was a kid) even those two get more respect than jin - the naruto fandom on reddit never straight up disrespected sasuke on his birthday.

worst part of it all is that jin got basically the same treatment as luke from star wars and captain america in marvel comics - he was just ooc as fuck in tekken 6 and his characterization in that game completely contradicts tekken 3-5 jin. it can easily be fixed too by just saying he got brainwashed by azazel (like how nina got brainwashed by ogre). jin fans get called whiny for trying to retcon or fix their own favorite, but side character fans (ex. paul, law, etc) get a fix their own fav and be called "the best writers in all of fiction". i think i also remember seeing someone say they hope jin's va gets terminal c*ncer and dies so the writers could have miguel kill him off and then replace him with kazuya or lars as the new mc while xiaoyu fucks hwoarang or something (i checked to see if it was still there, but they probably deleted their twitter account).

why can't the tekken fandom just do what voltron stans do and ignore canon while making their own?...yes, everyone and their grandma knows tekken story has gone down the shitter since post tekken 5. so then instead of saying "Tekken story sucks and no one cares about lore in fighting games" for the 100th time how about fucking make your own au's and fanfic.

honestly it's hard to look thru any jin content without a joke about tk6, or straight up bitter haters. i'm not saying every jin post has a comment with that content, but there's a lot that does. reddit is probs the worst place for jin hate too as i see it there the most. heck, i get hate for being a jin main. usually when they don't agree with one of my takes, they point out me being a jin main and how we're all retarded or some shit. (alisa & jun are now more of my mains, but that was back then when i still listed jin as my main lmao) so whilst you're still gonna come across jin hate on places like twitter or even here, it's best to steer away from reddit 'cos it's most egregious there.

yeah. most normal fandoms do just ignore canon, or if they can't ignore canon 'cos it's canon, they acknowledge it's trash and purpose ways it could've been handled better. but the tekken fandom isn't like that. they're insistent on jin being a fucker head because it happened in one game. and yeah, i have seen ppl say jin fans are either whiny or losers for wanting to say he was brainwashed and not hold him responsible for his actions. and it's like, yeah, i approve of holding characters responsible for their actions. but the problem with jin is that his character should've never been written to commit those actions to begin with - i'm not gonna care to hold a character responsible when they were out of character. i'm just gonna criticize the writing.

also maybe you saw that on a message i already answered? there was another anon that also told me something similar that their sister or friend was praying for that in a church lol. i dunno if you're the same anon or not (as you both have similar takes regarding the treatment of jin's character)

i think the reason why tekken fans have a harder time ignoring the Bad Parts of canon compared to fandoms like marvel, star wars, or certain animation is because of the "stories in fighting games don't matter" saying that's popular. it gives people the mentality that they shouldn't care about the story as much... yet ironically caring about it as they're mad at jin for being the Hope of Mankind lmao.

[ilbenmalpensanteus]

These are songs that inspire most of my sasunarusasu feeelings’:

- Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol:

Sasuke and Naruto

We'll do it all / Everything / On our own. / We don't need / Anything / Or anyone. / If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world? / I don't quite know / How to say / How I feel. / Those three words / Are said too much. / They're not enough. / If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world? / Forget what we're told / Before we get too old / Show me a garden that's bursting into life. / Let's waste time / Chasing cars / Around our heads. / I need your grace / To remind me / To find my own. // Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see. / I don't know where. / Confused about how as well / Just know that these things will never change for us at all.

- Before You Go, Lewis Capaldi:

From Naruto to Sasuke

I fell by the wayside like everyone else. / I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, but I was just kidding myself. / Our every moment, I start to replace / 'Cause now that they're gone, all I hear are the words that I needed to say. / When you hurt under the surface, / Like troubled water running cold. / Well, time can heal, but this won't. / So, before you go, was there something I could've said to make your heart beat better? / If only I'd have known you had a storm to weather. / So, before you go, was there something I could've said to make it all stop hurting? / It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless. / So, before you go / Was never the right time, whenever you called / Went little by little by little until there was nothing at all. / Our every moment, I start to replay / But all I can think about is seeing that look on your face // So, before you go / Would we be better off by now / If I'd have let my walls come down? / Maybe, I guess we'll never know. / You know, you know.

- Stay, Rihanna:

From Naruto to Sasuke

All along it was a fever / A cold sweat, hot headed believer. / I threw my hands in the air, said, "Show me something". / He said, "If you dare, come a little closer". / 'Round and around and around and around we go. / Oh, now tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know / Not really sure how to feel about it / Something in the way you move / Makes me feel like I can't live without you. / It takes me all the way. / I want you to stay. / It's not much of a life you're living. / It's not just something you take, it's given. // Ooh, the reason I hold on / Ooh, 'cause I need this hole gone. / Well, funny you're the broken one / But I'm the only one who needed saving / 'Cause when you never see the light / It's hard to know which one of us is caving.

- Far Away, Nickelback:

From Naruto to Sasuke

This time, this place / Misused, mistakes. / Too long, too late. / Who was I to make you wait? / Just one chance, just one breath / Just in case there's just one left. // 'Cause you know, you know, you know / That I love you, / I have loved you all along. / And I miss you / Been far away, for far too long. / I keep dreaming you'll be with me / And you'll never go. / Stop breathing if I don't see you anymore. / On my knees, I'll ask / Last chance for one last dance / 'Cause with you; I'd withstand / All of hell to hold your hand. / I'd give it all; I'd give for us / Give anything, but I won't give up / 'Cause you know, you know, you know / That I love you. / I have loved you all along / And I miss you, / Been far away, for far too long. / I keep dreaming you'll be with me / And you'll never go. // I need to hear you say / That I love you (That I love you) / I have loved you all along / And I forgive you (And I forgive you) / For being away, for far too long. / So keep breathing / 'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore. / Believe it. / Hold on to me and never let me go.

- The Reason, Hoobastank:

From Sasuke to Naruto

I'm not a perfect person. / There's many things I wish I didn't do / But I continue learning. / I never meant to do those things to you. / And so, I have to say before I go / That I just want you to know / I've found a reason for me / To change who I used to be. / A reason to start over new / And the reason is you. / I'm sorry that I hurt you. / It's something I must live with everyday. / And all the pain I put you through / I wish that I could take it all away / And be the one who catches all your tears. / That's why I need you to hear / I've found a reason for me / To change who I used to be. / A reason to start over new / And the reason is you.

- Il regalo più grande, Tiziano Ferro:

Sasuke and Naruto

// Vorrei donare il tuo sorriso alla luna perché / Di notte chi la guarda possa pensare a te. / Per ricordarti che il mio amore è importante, / Che non importa ciò che dice la gente perchè / Tu mi hai protetto con la tua gelosia che anche / Che molto stanco il tuo sorriso non andava via. / Devo partire però se ho nel cuore / La tua presenza è sempre arrivo / E mai partenza / Regalo mio più grande. // Vorrei mi facessi un regalo, / Un sogno inespresso, / Donarmelo adesso / Di quelli che non so aprire / Di fronte ad altra gente / Perché il regalo più grande / È solo nostro per sempre. // E se arrivasse ora la fine / Che sia in un burrone / Non per volermi odiare / Solo per voler volare. / E se ti nega tutto quest'estrema agonia, / E se ti nega anche la vita respira la mia. / E stavo attento a non amare prima di incontrarti / E confondevo la mia vita con quella degli altri. / Non voglio farmi più del male adesso / Amore… // E poi… / Amore dato, amore preso, amore mai reso / Amore grande come il tempo che non si è arreso / Amore che mi parla coi tuoi occhi qui di fronte / Sei tu //.

- Arcade, Duncan Laurence:

From Sasuke to Naruto

A broken heart is all that's left / I'm still fixing all the cracks. / Lost a couple of pieces when / I carried it, carried it, carried it home. / I'm afraid of all I am. / My mind feels like a foreign land, / Silence ringing inside my head. / Please carry me, carry me, carry me home. / I've spent all of the love I saved. / We were always a losing game. / Small town boy in a big arcade, / I got addicted to a losing game. // All I know, all I know / Loving you is a losing game. / Do you love me, love me not? // I don't need your games, game over / Get me off this rollercoaster.

- Another Love, Tom Odell:

From Sasuke to Sakura/Naruto to Hinata

// I wanna cry and I wanna love / But all my tears have been used up / On another love, another love. / All my tears have been used up / On another love, another love. // And if somebody hurts you, I wanna fight / But my hand's been broken one too many times / So I'll use my voice, I'll be so fucking rude / Words, they always win, but I know I'll lose. / And I'd sing a song that'd be just ours / But I sang 'em all to another heart / And I wanna cry, I wanna learn to love / But all my tears have been used up / On another love, another love //.

- Only Love Can Hurt Like This, Paloma Faith:

Naruto and Sasuke

I tell myself you don't mean a thing / And what we got, got no hold on me, / But when you're not there, I just crumble. / I tell myself I don't care that much, / But I feel like I die 'til I feel your touch. / Only love, only love can hurt like this // Must've been a deadly kiss. // Say I wouldn't care if you walked away / But every time you're there, I'm beggin' you to stay / And when you come close (when you come close), I just tremble. / And every time, every time you go / It's like a knife that cuts right to my soul. / Only love, only love can hurt like this // Your kisses burn into my skin. // But it's the sweetest pain, / Burnin' hot through my veins. / Love is torture, makes me more sure. // 'Cause only love can hurt like this / And it must've been a deadly kiss.

- Fix You, Coldplay:

From Naruto to Sasuke

When you try your best, but you don't succeed / When you get what you want, but not what you need / When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep / Stuck in reverse / And the tears come streaming down your face. / When you lose something you can't replace. / When you love someone, but it goes to waste / Could it be worse? / Lights will guide you home / And ignite your bones / And I will try to fix you. / And high up above, or down below / When you're too in love to let it go. / But if you never try, you'll never know / Just what you're worth. // When you lose something you cannot replace //.

- The Loneliest, Maneskin:

Sasuke and Naruto

You'll be the saddest part of me / A part of me that will never be mine / It's obvious. / Tonight is gonna be the loneliest. / You're still the oxygen I breathe, / I see your face when I close my eyes / It's torturous. Tonight is gonna be the loneliest. / There's a few lines that I have wrote. / In case of death, that's what I want, that's what I want, / So don't be sad when I'll be gone. / There's just one thing I hope you know, I loved you so. / ‘Cause I don't even care about the time I've got left here / The only thing I know now is that I wanna spend it / With you, with you nobody else here. // I'm sorry but I gotta go / If you'll ever miss me give this song another go / And I just keep on thinking how you made me feel better / And all the crazy little things that we did together / In the end, in the end, it doesn't matter //.

- Bruises, Lewis Capaldi:

From Naruto to Sasuke

// And every breath that I've been takin'. / Since you left feels like a waste on me. / I've been holding on to hope / That you'll come back when you can find some peace. / 'Cause every word that I've heard spoken / Since you left feels like a hollow street. / I've been told, I've been told to get you off my mind, / But I hope I never lose the bruises that you left behind. / Oh my Lord, oh my Lord, I need you by my side. / There must be something in the water. / ‘Cause every day, it's getting colder, / And if only I could hold you, / You'd keep my head from going under. / Maybe I, maybe I'm just being blinded / By the brighter side / Of what we had because it's over. / Well, there must be something in the tide. // It's your love I'm lost in, / Your love I'm lost in, / And I'm tired of being so exhausted. // Even though I'm nothing to you now //.

- Iris, Goo Goo Dolls:t

Naruto and Sasuke

And I'd give up forever to touch you / ‘Cause I know that you feel me somehow. / You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be. / And I don't want to go home right now, / And all I can taste is this moment, / And all I can breathe is your life / And sooner or later, it's over. I just don't wanna miss you tonight / And I don't want the world to see me / 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand / When everything's made to be broken. / I just want you to know who I am / And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming / Or the moment of truth in your lies / When everything feels like the movies. / Yeah, you bleed just to know, you're alive. // I just want you to know who I am.

- Creep, Radiohead:

Naruto and Sasuke

When you were here before / Couldn't look you in the eye. // I wish I was special, / You're so fuckin' special. / But I'm a creep, / I'm a weirdo. / What the hell am I doin' here? / I don't belong here, / I don't care if it hurts / I wanna have control / I want a perfect body / I want a perfect soul , / I want you to notice / When I'm not around. // She's running out the door (run) //.

- Wonderwall, Oasis:

From Sasuke to Naruto

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you / And by now, you should've somehow realised what you gotta do. / I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now / And backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out. / I'm sure you've heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt. / I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now / And all the roads we have to walk are winding / And all the lights that lead us there are blinding. / There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how / Because maybe / You're gonna be the one that saves me / And after all / You're my wonderwall //.

- The Only Exception, Paramore:

From Sasuke to Naruto

// Maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul / That love never lasts / And we've got to find other ways to make it alone / Or keep a straight face / And I've always lived like this / Keeping a comfortable distance / And up until now I had sworn to myself / That I'm content with loneliness / Because none of it was ever worth the risk / But you are the only exception / You are the only exception. // I've got a tight grip on reality / But I can't let go of what's in front of me here //.

- Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now), Phil Collins:

Naruto and Sasuke

How can I just let you walk away? / Just let you leave without a trace / When I stand here taking every breath, with you, ooh / You're the only one who really knew me at all / How can you just walk away from me? / When all I can do is watch you leave / 'Cos we've shared the laughter and the pain and even shared the tears. / You're the only one who really knew me at all. / So take a look at me now, oh there's just an empty space / And there's nothin' left here to remind me, / Just the memory of your face. / Ooh, take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space, / And you coming back to me is against the odds / And that's what I've got to face. / I wish, I could just make you turn around, / Turn around and see me cry. / There's so much I need to say to you so many reasons why. / You're the only one who really knew me at all. // Take a good look at me now, 'cos I'll still be standin' here/ And you coming back to me is against all odds. / It's the chance I've gotta take.

- Take Your Time, Sam Hunt:

From Naruto to Sasuke

I don't know if you were looking at me or not // 'Cause everybody in here knows your name / And you're not looking for anything right now. // Your eyes are so intimidating, / My heart is pounding but, / It's just a conversation. // You don't know me, / I don't know you but I want to, / And I don't wanna steal your freedom, / I don't wanna change your mind, / I don't have to make you love me, / I just want to take your time. // You coulda rolled your eyes, / Told me to go to hell, / Coulda walked away / But you're still here / And I'm still here. / Come on let's see where it goes. // I just wanna be alone with you //.

- Somewhere Only We Know, Keane:

Naruto, Sasuke and their blank space

And if you have a minute, why don't we go / Talk about it somewhere only we know? / This could be the end of everything. / So, why don't we go / Somewhere only we know? //.

- Potremmo Ritornare, Tiziano Ferro:

Naruto and Sasuke

// Ogni preghiera è una promessa a Dio / Che non ho mai dimenticato /La mia preghiera non raggiunse poi / O almeno ancora la strada che avrei sperato // Perdonare presuppone odiarti / E se dicessi che non so il perché dovrei mentirti / E tu lo sai che io con le bugie / Eh, mi manchi veramente troppo, troppo, troppo, ancora // Ho passato tutto il giorno a ricordarti // Tanto lo so che con nessuno avrai più riso e pianto come con me // Quindi perché mi scanso invece di scontrarti? / E tu perché mi guardi se puoi reclamarmi? //

If you are thinking about suggestions, I am looking forward to hearing from you!! ✨✨

[waffliesinyoface]

anyways i just read all of naruto in like a week so i am now qualified to have The Most Correct Opinions.

Land of Waves arc is unironically the best one

its also the ONLY standard mission in the entire manga?? literally, at no point does anyone interact with a client after tazuna, its all in response to orochimaru/akatsuki. Naruto your resume is ridiculous. The reason Kakashi is 6th Hokage is not because Naruto wasn't strong enough, but because he needed to learn what the actual job of being a ninja entails. Yes you are very strong but you do need to have a basic grasp of paperwork systems.

Its kind of weird that, out of all the akatsuki, kisame is the one who hangs around the longest. Most of the others show up, do their bit, and then are immediately killed. Kisame is introduced first and dies last.

i've already mentioned this in another post but the Cycle of Hatred thing does not work. It worked as a motivation for Pein, but like. The reason the villages kept declaring war on each other wasn't for revenge, it was because their economic system was inherently tied to being the one with the strongest military and also they were paranoid that if someone else got too strong they would be invaded first.

Related: they should've had warring clans exposition and details about the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd wars BEFORE Pein showed up. If there were more details about wars in the past presented in a tragic-but-still-overall-necessary light, then Pein showing up and going "you miserable bastards trample over everyone weaker than you and deserve to be punished or it." It would have had more weight. Literally you could've slotted this during Naruto's initial training with Jiraiya as a follow-up to Hiruzen's "The chuunin exams are a replacement for war" speech.

Sakura why the fuck didnt you marry Ino

Kishimoto did Sakura so dirty at every turn. Literally every time she gets screentime she goes "THIS TIME... I WILL BE THE ONE WHO PROTECTS YOU...!" and has a cool moment, and then gets immediately overshadowed.

Literally at one point she's like "in the chuunin exams i was so weak... i hid behind you guys at every turn" and i felt like I was going insane because both during wave and the chuunin exams she has moments where she's like "yeah i dont have any special powers but i DO have a knife and you're going through me FIRST, fucker" which is honestly way cooler to me than like 90% of all the jutsu bullshit. Literally she stands in between a berserk gaara and a crippled sasuke armed with nothing but a kunai and pure fucking grit.

its very funny to me that the first time naruto ever does a nature transformation its rasenshuriken. Kakashi woke up in a cold sweat one day and realized he forgot to do the most basic teaching about chakra theory when they were genin. Whoops.

Im sorry but i legitimately do not care about the sage OR his sons OR the reincarnation twist. Its not interesting to me and I WILL be ignoring it. I'm all for the sage being reminded of his kids or the idea of history being cyclical, but explicitly going "no youre a reincarnation, this was Fated" is dumb and kishimoto SHOULD feel bad.

Edo Tensei arc is unironically very funny to me. Kabuto is having a mid-life crisis and has turned into a snake about it, and has decided to raise a bunch of dead badasses for. reasons. honestly i am not sure how his goals required obito or the akatsuki??

Anyways he raises a bunch of badasses and WHOOPS theyre all comedians. Deidara and Sasori are bickering, Itachi is being even more of an unhinged control freak than normal, the Mizukage is curbstomping everyone while berating them for not hitting the weakpoints he's explicitly telling them about, Tobirama is annoyed at everyone but mostly himself for actually coming up with this jutsu, and madara puts his entire plan on hold for a minute because he sensed his ex boyfriend and got incredibly horny.

Orochimaru gets brought back to life and promptly goes "actually i take back my plans about konoha, watching sasuke is INFINITELY more entertaining. Also I'm going to help out against the akatsuki because Kabuto's snake fursona is a tacky knockoff of me and I'm disowning him for being lame." I also liked him being chummy with Tsunade, that was very cute. I kind of wish Jiraiya HAD gotten edo tensei'd so that all three sannin could have been reunited on the same side? It would have been cute??

I feel strongly that Sakura and Karin deserve to go to some hot springs together and mutually complain to each other about being unfortunately attracted to the most misogynistic man on the planet after kishimoto himself. Orochimaru and Ino can tag along because they LOVE gossip and complaining.

Gai being the only person on the planet strong enough to beat the crap out of Madara is great, actually. Yes you can block all ninjutsu and genjutsu, but can you block his fists? No.

The "special chakra" produced in uchiha brains is actually entirely unrelated to the sharingan. It mostly just causes brain damage. This is why Madara, Obito, and Sasuke are all Like That.

Obito's heel face turn and the ensuing team up with Kakashi is, against all odds, actually good. I am willing to overlook Obito temporarily coming back from the dead through sheer willpower both because its cool and because we've already established chakra is bullshit and ghosts exist.

Obito your plans are dumb, your motivation is stupid, your critical thinking skills are nonexistent, and your coping mechanisms are insane. Somehow I still like you, despite this??

Does anybody at all like kaguya. Anybody.

Everything about the epilogue annoys me. Mirai and Sarada can stay, everything else I am actively choosing to ignore.

Frankly I'm confused and appalled that kishimoto wrote sasuke and naruto like that, and then put them in heterosexual marriages with other people.

[spatio-rift]

to be honest i really do much prefer the way jounin were depicted in very early naruto. the way they were all ruthless and didnt necessarily know each other or like each other (kurenai didnt know kakashi in early naruto iirc because she had made jounin recently and asuma was the one telling her about him, and also asumas comment after kakashi was harsh to iruka during the nominations for the chuunin exams... etc). it all lowkey comes back to asuma (LOL) but i actually really liked that he straight up didnt care about his genin. team 10 were far from his first, and he used to only care about shikamaru (though he didnt have very nice things to say about him) because he was interesting... who here remembers chouji planning on forfeiting if he got matched up against gaara and asuma pushing him to fight because it would be fun to watch. even though he knew full well gaara would likely kill him? lolll. but i think it worked for the village like how would things get done and the workforce would renew if every jounin just taught three kids only their entire life??? it should be a heartless factory. kakashi getting so emotionally attached should be an anomaly not the norm

anyway speaking of kakashi lets chat a little about him too. he is like kabuto to me in that he is a different character at different points of the story lol! but i personally really liked who he was in early naruto. he wasnt friends with any of the other jounin or whoever else because he pushed everyone away as a result of all his dearest people dying. like gai was an annoyance the other jounin werent his friends yamato didnt exist etc. the lone wolf extraordinaire.

i dont know why kishimoto decided to make every jounin in konoha and their mother kakashis classmates at some point in shippuden but it was BAD ! what was the point?? and also now kakashi telling sasuke all the people he holds dear are already dead is a very bad look cuz it turns out he still had a whole bunch of very good friends lol. ultimately its all a matter of personal taste but to ME it was more powerful for team7 to break kakashis barriers first and from then on kakashi finally letting the people around him in for the first time in forever. leading to a genuine bond w gai new friendships w the other jounin etc. but well who knows !

[ohai-there]

i just discovered and so the moon wept recently and i adore everything about it, its very much a fic i didnt know i needed but am so happy to have found thank u for blessing us with it🙇‍♂️ ur take on kakashi is so refreshing and well written i love him and i love u for putting him in a terrible situation and then having him utilize his intelligence and abilities to get himself out of it. would u mind sharing ur inspirations for the fic?

Haha thank you!

I've actually read through pretty much all of the Kakashi time-travel and Kakashi-centric fics and most of them felt... a bit too nice? Like the struggle wasn't enough, and often I felt that some author's writing styles were a bit difficult for me to enjoy and there just wasn't a fic that was exactly what I was looking for so I figured if no one was going to do it, I would have to... _(:з)∠)_

I find the often a simple but intriguing premise makes for a good way to build an AU in a way that hooks a reader, rather than starting from an entirely established AU which can cause a lot of confusion so! It was just Kakashi takes Obito's place, but since there's no plot because he's not an Uchiha that Madara would find use in, he's just gotta deal with it. I really wanted to explore Kakashi's mental state and his perspective!

My main inspiration is my mental illness! (joking, kind of) I took the above premise and basically just tossed it around in my head over and over again for months until I decided to write it, but as someone who doesn't actually watch the source material, I take massive inspiration from other fic in the fandom, which also is where I get a lot of my information lol.

My main fandom inspirations are:

In Good Company (Sasuke-centric fic where canon diverges and he kills Orochimaru and returns to Konoha + Sasuke can see the Hokage ghosts, crazy good writing style and dips into mature subjects, but can be a bit confusing for first time readers) by weialala

The Hidden Prodigy (Kakashi-centric time-travel fic, old, but changed something fundamentally in my brain since I was reading it while it was updating so many years ago) by Applepie

Of course, Blackkkat's fics - in particular their Sakumo/Orochimaru fics, even though they're no longer in the fandom. Their fics in particular really helped me in developing my characterisation of Sakumo, even though I feel that my Sakumo is quite different from theirs.

Talking about Sakumo, I also (funnily enough) took a lot of inspiration from my own, super old fic If Only We Were Leaf-born where you can see the beginnings of the Kakashi and Sakumo characterisation that I'd only just begun to create.

Because my naruto phase rolls around only every couple of years, I actually completely forgot I created this fic and the skin I use on my Ao3 doesn't easily show that the fic was created by me so when I was scrolling through the Sakumo tag this year, I came across it and was like "damn that's crazy! this fic is like,,.. exactly what I didn't know I needed in my life" and then halfway through I was like.... hold on a second, wtf I recognise this..... IT WAS ME???

It's actually crazy how many new fics have been made since 2020 and a bit sad to see how many older fics have disappeared... I had a lot of fun reading through the new juggernauts of the naruto fandom, especially since most of them hadn't been created or were just new babies when I fell out of the fandom.

Anyway, that's enough of my blabbing haha thank you for enjoying my fic!

[team7-headquarter]

I can't even explain correctly how much of a mess was the Land of Iron Team 7 encounter.

It started with Sakura poisoning her whole team so she could go and kill Sasuke, since she thought that way she'd take the burden out of Naruto's shoulders, but apparently she's the only person alive that doesn't know she can't do it, she can't do it for many reasons but especially because she doesn't have it in her to kill her loved teammates (and the guy she has been in love with since she was a little kid). And when she arrives Sasuke had just chidori Karin, who is basically Sakura's parallel there, but first thing Sasuke does when he sees Sakura is just ask her what is she thinking. Like, he knows her, it's painfully evident that he knows her and can read her like an open book even after all those years, but she's convince he has grown to be a stranger, and Karin is like dying right there and witnessing all that mess. Then Sakura tries to kill him and she can't of course she can't and then Sasuke tries to kill her and you can see in the dull color of his eyes that that's gonna send him even further into his spiral of grief and hatred, but Naruto and Kakashi arrive on time.

And somehow it gets worst, because you have Kakashi willing to fight Sasuke to protect Naruto from having to do it and Sakura from trying to do it again. He almost killed Sakura with the jutsu Kakashi taught him. There is a girl bleeding just like Rin, just like Sakura would have bleed, 'cause Sasuke used his chidori in a way Kakashi never wanted it to be used for. Sasuke makes it very clear he doesn't plan to die which means absolute heartbreak for me since one of them would have killed the other with the chidori, so it was either Kakashi paying for teaching his student or Sasuke dying disgraced, literally the worst scenario.

And of course Naruto rejects that option, 'cause we all know neither Kakashi nor Sakura'd have survived if they killed Sasuke. At least not when it comes to their mental health. And Naturo can't afford to lose Kakashi or Sakura, even less allow Sasuke to kill them because it'd probably break something in Sasuke and in the team for forever.

Also, once again Sakura couldn't prevent Naruto and Sasuke from fighting. Every time she tries the only thing she can do is almost die + get rescued. The thing she can literally do is wait until the fight is over and try to heal them and keep them alive, which I bet must suck. And Kakashi once again can't prevent the cycle from continuing, he can only stay behind and survive whatever horrors get hold of his loved people, he can only tell the story and step aside. And Sasuke and Naruto are okay to fight each other in the most suicidal pact ever, 'cause at least if they die is by each other hands and if they live their deaths belonged to each other and as stupid as it sounds, it fucking hurts but it feels right.

The reason no member or Team 7 died even at the end is that all of them suffer from insane levels of survival guilt and they could have only moved on with each of them alive. I can only think about Karin trying to guess what the hell was going on between them, baffled by the utter insanity of it.

[kinomiakai]

Kill yourself, fucked up virgin fag.

Oh my god, no way!!! Hi g.o.d.!!! What the hell happened to you, I thought you’d gone to therapy and learned to constructively deal with your anger or something!!

You guys, this person has been telling me to off myself since I started posting How to Break a Mask. THAT WAS IN 2006. On fanfiction.net!! It took a literal ten years to be posted, sporadically and randomly and with multiple year hiatuses, and every chapter, without fail, my first comment would be some variation of this. Sometimes they add a “delusional” for some spice, but it always has this very specific format. They never changed it up. My favourite part is how they think “virgin” has the same gravitas and insult as an actual slur. I feel like that is such an insight into the mind. And it was always my first comment! Sometimes within the first ten minutes of posting, which is fascinating, because it meant they were either obsessively searching the sasuke and naruto character tags, they were a group of people dedicated to the very specific cause of telling kids to kill themselves, or they were a bot of some sort. And since it happened with such frequency and the wording was so consistent, I was pretty convinced they were a bot. Even when I saw them pop up on ao3 - weird that they were still going, but I was still getting sporadic messages on FFN, so I figured they’d still been around somehow. But then it tapered off, so I thought the bots had broken & the person behind them had moved on to being a human being or something - but now! This has completely thrown that theory for a loop. You’re on tumblr???? Do you have an account?? Do you search through author pages, desperate to find someone who links to a social media?? That must take so much time!!!

I’m so fascinated. Am I going to get messages like this randomly now? Is it going to be tied to when I promote a fic? Is it specifically tied to the ao3 share function?? Do you get paid to do this?? How do you have time to do anything else?? Oh man. Holding my breath for next month, I can’t believe I might get some more answers to this mystery. I so wish this was in the era of broken tumblr where you could look at the source code of an anon ask and find their ip address 😂 I won’t reply to too many more asks like this if I keep getting them - I always deleted them on FFN because I noticed it tended to make my readers sad & that’s the direct opposite of what I want my fics to do, but if I have a new theory, I might! Also, I noticed people talking about them like they were new on ao3 and I feel like I need to spread the word about this obsessive little weirdo. That’ll be their tag, in case you want to blacklist!

Anyway, uh. Same time next month? I guess we’ll find out :D

[thatsneakymedic]

October Writing Challenge Day 9 Eyes

"How... how did you do that? I couldn't move the moment our eyes met." Kabuto panted and shivered as despite holding onto the kunai in his hand, he felt paralyzed and his stomach seemed to tense so much that he wanted to throw up right then and there.

The sannin chuckled softly as he holds his own kunai over the bridge of Kabuto's nose. Pushing Kabuto's glasses closer to his face with it. "I don't know what you're talking about? I haven't done anything to you at all. Perhaps you are having feelings for me that are far past appropriate of that of a right hand man. Why so nervous, I barely have yet to touch you.~"

Orochimaru was a well known sadist not only to his followers. But also to his own right hand man to be Kabuto, so he knew full well what he did, but he wanted to tease Kabuto out of pure amusement. Who said that training your right hand man can't be fun?

Kabuto still couldn't move as his body felt like a child's building set that is slowly falling apart the more he tried to shake off the chills and the urge to want to run away from them. But of course he couldn't...

Would you be able to move if you had seen your own death by disembowelment and having your head split open by the middle?

Orochimaru places a hand on his cheek, and with a small pat, Kabuto blinked as he takes several deep breaths. Since he didn't realize that he was holding his breath the whole time.

But while Kabuto was trying to shake off the paralyzing effect on his body, Orochimaru however frowned as with the kunai, he presses the tip of the blade against the thin skin on Kabuto's neck, over the adam's apple and he slowly and thinly cuts it, leaving a small trail of blood to slide down into his collar. Not deep enough to kill but small enough to snap him out of his "trance". "I was expecting at least some fight from you considering that you had seen your death in her hands before death took her instead of you. And if I recall..." He stares at a single drop of blood now gliding down the kunai.

"You tore me apart, like that of an animal when the mere threat of your planned death was uncovered by you, how angry and vicious..."

He pulls the kunai away from them now, "That is the Kabuto I need to see right at this moment. And as you know, weakness and fear is what will be the end of you. And the only way to counter it..."

"Is the will to survive, and devour your predator before you get devoured yourself." Orochimaru says now his voice is as that of a patient teacher than the sadistic man earlier. There was no need to rush after all. The two of them will have plenty of time to train and work on each other's weaknesses. Orochimaru's goal today is to help Kabuto cope with the following tragedy of his Mother's death and help him regain the will to carry on the burdens of the shinobi.

Kabuto wipes the blood off of his neck as his own eyes are now that with full focus and determination despite that he can't shake off the uneasiness in his body. He knows that he needs to pull himself together, especially if Orochimaru has specifically chose him a valuable and important role in their goal to create Otogakagure.

Orochimaru smiles as he's pleased to see Kabuto no longer shaken up as he was earlier, but he still is going to give him "that stare" every now and then to help him become just as lethal as he is. Kabuto needs to after all. "If you're feeling better now... come at me again. This time, with the intent to kill."

------------------- Years later at the Chunnin exams...

His terrifying reddened eyes glare at the rain genin the moment they knocked off his glasses. Not only were they precious to him, but the fact is that he couldn't hold off the "rookie genin" facade that he had made of himself.

The rain genin froze in horror as they had temporarily witnessed their own death for a moment till they were knocked away by Naruto and Sasuke.

Despite Kabuto's earlier inexperience, as of now. He too has such an ability that it came naturally to him over the years. Not that it would ever has scared Orochimaru (he thought it was cute and interesting) but it indeed as frightened many followers to the point of obedience. And as he learned, killing intent is not taught by others, but one has to find it within themselves.

Even something like hatred is enough to evoke it.

Tagging @lunyraartistry

[motivationisdead]

I know I normally ramble on about MDZS on here but today I’m going to ramble on about Naruto and you guys are my unwilling captives.

So, first things first. Naruto has a lot of nostalgic value to me as I’m sure it does to a lot of other people. And I had a lot of fun watching it which is why I’m now going to enjoy putting it under a microscope. So spoiler warning if people haven’t seen Naruto or Shippuden.

Most of the issues I have with the story are in Shippuden and are compounded by just how good Naruto was setting up to be early on but I do have some issues with the first part as well.

The handling of Naruto’s and Sasuke’s relationship is one of those things for me. It felt very… forced? Or rushed? To me? I could see the progression of Naruto beginning to grow fond of Sasuke and building a rapport with him but at no point did I understand or relate to what drove Naruto to have such an attachment to him.

And maybe that’s just because I was never Sasuke’s biggest fan. I could be (probably am) biased. But the only way I can make sense of it in my mind is just by chalking it up to Naruto’s complete unwillingness to give up on anyone—not Sasuke specifically. And maybe also the result of some attachment issues on Naruto’s part.

(Though I would have payed to see what it would have looked like if Naruto was forced to give up on Sasuke or forced to kill him and how that would have affected him. A lot of missed opportunities there.)

Ironically though most of the things I like about the Naruto series are the things Shippuden threw out the window by the end.

I really like a lot of the fight scenes in Naruto because more than anything else they had to be clever when they fought and constantly deceive their opponent. It felt like a fight between ninja because they constantly had to be two steps ahead of their opponent. Zabuza vs. Kakashi and briefly against Sasuke and Naruto kept me on the edge of my seat because I never knew what was coming. I rewatched Shikamaru’s fights more than anyone else’s in the series because it was utterly fascinating to watch him play 3D chess with an opponent that was more often than not still on checkers. Every move was thought out and every battle a mind game.

By the end of Shippuden most of the fights were boiled down to ‘throw bigger chakra blasts at each other’. And make no mistake, I cheered as hard as anyone else when I was swept up in the moment. But I’ve also never thought about those fights ever again because there was nothing mentally stimulating enough to make me go back to them.

The beginning of Naruto was about impressing how harsh the reality of being a shinobi was against Naruto’s more idealistic view. It was Naruto having to accept the truth of his life while still holding onto his convictions. It was Naruto seeing how the ninja world broke people—Haku seeing himself as a tool; Tsunade, despite being one of the greatest ninja’s and healers to live, off drinking and gambling with a crippling fear of blood because everyone she loved died; Neji being oppressed by his own clan; Naruto and Gaara suffering as their villages’ biggest secret and weapon—and becoming determined to fix it. Naruto and his ideals were always constantly being challenged just be virtue of how the shinobi system worked.

And it was great to watch! The set up was all there. And yet a lot of what should have been big pay offs never really came through or had satisfying conclusions by the end of the series—instead focusing on Naruto’s relationship with Sasuke. Outside of some flashbacks the internal strife of the Hyuuga is never brought up again. Naruto gets a cop out for achieving world peace because the Nations need to unite anyway against a common enemy. Naruto and Gaara’s friendship is one of the best things in the series honestly though I do wish they got more time to just, idk, hang out.

And I’ll be honest, Naruto was interesting because nothing about their lives was ever really as clean and simple as Naruto seemed to think it was at first. In the first part the biggest overarching enemy was always the shinobi system and how it effected individuals. And then that all gets brushed away in favor of bullshit chakra goddess to never really be addressed again? Boo. Boring.

I dislike how Naruto and Kurama’s relationship was built even though deeply I enjoyed watching their partnership. Most of Naruto’s interactions with Kurama consisted of him either demanding or taking his power (and Kurama trying to manipulate him in turn) aside from, what, Naruto throwing out one line about helping Kurama someday? Wtf. I would’ve told Naruto to go fuck himself.

Naruto showed Kurama basic empathy once and Kurama’s down to be nice after a whole flashback about how humans only want to use him? As Naruto uses Kurama’s chakra—that he took by force and without permission? What, no. In what world does that progression to “mutual” partnership make any sense. There is literally nothing on this earth that could convince me that this makes any kind of sense no matter how fun of a team they make while working together. If anything I think this is just Kurama finally developing Stockholm Syndrome.

I hated the Indra and Ashura plot line for Naruto and Sasuke because it felt like it completely undermined all the blood, sweat, and tears Naruto and Sasuke had to spill to even get the scraps of a relationship they had when they were younger and how hard it was for them to get there.

The chakra goddess plot line was boring and I honestly having else to say about it. I literally fast forwarded through those episodes okay? It just… did nothing for me. I could not have cared less about it.

I hated every romance in that show except Asuma’s and Kurenai’s and I honestly think that’s just because they were shown so little before Asuma died that Kishimoto had next to no way to fuck it up.

Okay, and with that out of the way here’s the things I actually like about Shippuden.

Asuma’s death and how they handled it and Shikamaru’s growth from it was absolutely perfect. It reminded me what I liked so much about Naruto before. It was tragic and heartbreaking and revenge was sweet. And Shikamaru eventually helping Naruto cope with Jiraiya’s death was also really nice touch.

Shikamaru period. He’s one of the characters that got the most development that made sense in the entire show. I was more interested in him than I was in anything else happening in that show honestly. Him realizing the responsibility that came with leading people after becoming a chunin and seeing people get hurt on his orders and vowing to do better—it was perfect. Him looking out for Kurenai after Asuma died and their kid—perfection. Shikamaru’s growth from being unmotivated and uninterested in being a ninja to the competent shinobi we see later is fantastic.

I really liked Sakura’s reintroduction as a competent medic-nin that could punt people through walls until Kishimito fell back into the habit of sidelining her with an occasional side of Bad Decision Making. I was hyped when she was treating Kankuro. Literally vibrating in my seat at the character growth she showed.

I really like the Akatsuki and all it’s colorful members. I could watch a show just about them. I even liked Obito being revealed as a shadow leader even if I thought their entire masterplan was stupid and shouldn’t have existed.

I really liked Pein’s attack on Konoha and how absolutely devastating that would have been if Kishimoto hadn’t been a coward and actually left people dead. I still stand by that even if I was ecstatic to have Kakashi back. If we see them die-die then they should stay dead.

And… yeah. I think that’s everything. And none of my negative points stopped me from finding enjoyment in the series. I had a lot of fun writing this though and of course everyone’s entitled to their own opinion about the show. Things I hated someone else might have loved.