#third great ninja war

[shironezuninja]

Hey, Alabama. If you like labeling things as “children” so much, why don’t you take in some pregnant Palestinian women from danger? Cuz I know where to dump those defective frozen embryos~~🎶🎵😜😈

[good-advice-ganondorf]

Majora's Mask and what it means to be grown up

(aka my collected analysis of the Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask)

I will say that generally I don't think Termina is purgatory, or a dream, or anything like that. To me, Termina is kind of like a Silent Hill type parallel world, where you face your deepest traumas.

First, the parallels between Majora's Mask, and the child section of Ocarina of Time.

The first dungeon for both games is in a vast wooded area, there are woodland races inhabiting both areas, the Kokiri for Ocarina of Time, and the Deku for Majora's mask. The second dungeon is in a great mountain, inhabited by the Gorons. The third dungeon is in a vast body of water, inhabited by the Zora.

Then, things split. After Jabu Jabu, Link becomes an adult. After Great Bay, there's Ikana Canyon. A land of nothing but Death.

Who caused the death of Ikana? Who else but the king, Igo Du Ikana. Ikana was plunged into disrepair, after Igos started a war with a clan of Ninjas, to receive a powerful artifact, in a great and mysterious temple. Sound familiar? It should, this is exactly what Ganondorf did, after Link was sealed away for seven years. But Ganondorf was successful.

But Ikana isn't completely occupied by the dead, no. Pamela remains, with her father, turned into an undead monster. Much like Sheik, the last Sheikah, who is revealed to be Zelda. And her father? He's never seen, but I'd imagine it would be easy enough for Ganondorf to become king, if the other one was no longer around. From a man, to a corpse.

So, if Ganondorf is a parallel to Igos, and Zelda is a parallel to Pamela, what about Link? He's a little different. I believe that, along with Kafei and Tingle, all three of the transformation masks are a representation of Link, and his feelings towards being forced to grow up.

Tingle is, as we know, a 35 year old man who thinks he's a fairy boy. Similar to how link was a 10 year old boy, who thought he was a fairy boy. I believe Tingle is a reflection of what Link could have been if he never left Kokiri Forest. An adult hylian man, thinking he's a Kokiri.

On the contrary, Kafei is distraught at the idea of becoming a child again. He's weaker, he can't marry his fiancee, and everyone treats him like well, a child, despite his maturity. I believe this is how Link feels after becoming a child again. He used to be a strong adult, and even if he's not as mature as Kafei, he still went through a lot, and knows a lot more about life now. Kafei even reuses Link's model and animations.

There's a reoccurring theme in Ocarina of Time where Link just doesn't belong anywhere he goes. He's an outsider to the other races, because he's a hylian, but he's also an outsider to the hylians, because he was raised as a Kokiri. I think the transformation masks reflect that.

The Deku Butler's Son is what he could have been as a Kokiri. He could have been a happy little boy, living with his father, and his community. But Link and the Deku butler's son both left home to explore, and as far as both the Kokiri and the Deku are concerned, neither came back.

Darmani is what he could have been as a Goron. A powerful hero to the Gorons, celebrated by them for clearing Dodongo's Cavern. A close link between the goron elder, Darunia, and their sons. Both him and Link remain after death, lamenting on their histories as heros.

Mikau is what he could have been as a Zora. Maybe not a cool as hell guitarist, but a husband to Ruto, and Prince of the Zora Who would stop at nothing to keep her happy and safe, like infiltrating a fortress, or climbing inside of a whale.

Even the Fierce Deity is just Link, but back as an adult. As if so much changed so rapidly, he felt like he transformed into something less like himself, and more like a powerful god. He could have continued being strong, and powerful, the defeater of Ganon, but he had to become a child again. He has to stay as a small, and unknown child.

The ages of the masks even match the human life cycle. According to the debug menu (and if you subscribe to the theory that Link and DBS's ages were swapped), DBS is 5, Link is 12, Darmani is 30, Mikau is 78, and, Fierce Deity is 17, likely due to his model being recycled from adult Link's. Link starts the game in the body of a 5 year old, then a 12 year old, then a 30 year old, then a 72 year old, and finally, a God.

We don't exactly know how Link feels. But I can't imagine it would be easy to go from a child, with no concept of death, to be thrust into a position where he's forced to fight and kill an adult man so much stronger than he is. And then everything was just reversed. Like that. As if it never happened. And only Link remembers the impending doom he faced. All he can do is remember Ganondorf's reign. Almost like he's reliving the same few days, again, and again, and again.

[mixelation]

first part of velocity (unproofed bc i am running out the door) ->

Minato was stressed. 

“Then Orochimaru has Shiranui,” Danzo intoned, dead confident even though Shikaku’s report on the situation had included dozens of unknowns. “No one else in the area could pose a threat to a Jounin of Konoha.”

“We still don’t know anything about this new village,” Minato pointed out, “or what clans joined it. There could still be lone actors–”

“Please,” Danzo interrupted, unimpressed. “No Sound ninja could disappear a Jounin so thoroughly.”

“With all due respect,” Minato said tightly, “you have not been on the frontlines in decades. Does anyone who’s actually been to Sound have any thoughts?”

Had Minato even invited Danzo to this meeting? He barely even remembered calling the meeting. Meetings just happened, now that he was Hokage. Turns out that’s all being Hokage was: things happened, and then instead of doing anything about them, Minato sat around listening to high ranking ninja explain their opinions. Oh, and sometimes he stamped things. Forms. Proposals. Budgets. Paperwork.

Four years ago, Minato had been spending most of his time on the frontlines. Going from the most hands-on possible approach to this had been a rough transition, and he had perhaps relied too heavily on the ancient Hokage's Council as a result. 

The war was slowly coming to a stop now, and he could definitely make some moves to bring in younger people with more recent experience. But for now, he had to work with what was in place. For this meeting, that was Shikaku, an ex-field commander he’d nab in the hallway because she’d been stationed in Sound, and a bunch of old people. 

“Danzo-sama is right in that we’ve knocked out most of their known major players,” the ex field commander drawled. “But you never know, out there in the boonies. They’re not like us; they just let any ninja wander around and chop up whoever they want.”

To illustrate this, she held up her right arm, which ended not with a hand but with a wiry assistive device meant to let her hold a writing utensil. 

“...right,” Shikaku said slowly. “Inuzuka last caught his scent near the new… village, if we’re calling it that… but we can’t pin it on them, and we also can’t eliminate some other third party.”

Genma had only been officially missing a scant thirty hours. He’d been en route between camps for normal restationing and missed his check-in. If he were most ninja, this would not have warranted a meeting. It probably would have been dealt with locally, shoved into a summary report, and Minato probably wouldn’t have found out for days that anything at all had happened. If this had been at the height of the war, even someone like Genma might have gotten this treatment. 

But the war was waning, and Genma was part of the Hokage’s guard. As someone intimately familiar with Minato’s personal life and the inner workings of Hokage tower, Genma was important enough to warrant a quick investigation, and they had the people and time to dedicate to it. 

“Why was Shiranui even in Sound?” Koharu asked. 

Minato leaned back in his seat, biting his thumbnail in thought. He really didn’t see the need to have a full guard inside the village, and morale at field camps was usually better when popular Jounin like Genma were hanging around. Minato had seen it as more useful to have him running chores out in the field. 

It was true that a Hokage’s guard would be a great hostage, if some nefarious player wanted to re-escalate war. 

That would be so many meetings, Minato thought. He really couldn’t have that. 

The meeting wrapped up with barely a plan in place, as was what happened at many meetings. Shikaku would send word to both camps to re-sweep the area, and then Minato would add it to his agenda at yet another meeting to rearrange people to put together a tracking team instead of just one random Inuzuka who happened to be on duty. 

Miraculously, one of his afternoon meetings was canceled. Someone had died. Such was life as a shinobi. 

“I could move up your meeting with the fruit vendors’ union,” his secretary said. 

“Please don't,” Minato replied. He hated talking to those guys. 

His secretary left, and Minato immediately felt antsy. It was very rare he had an hour free like this in the middle of the day. What could he do? Take a nap? Kidnap Naruto away from his babysitter for a playtime speedrun? Bother Kushina? He glanced at the clock. No, Naruto would be down for a nap and Kushina would be meeting with the Academy headmaster about their curriculum on storage scrolls again… 

Minato glanced down at the mess of paperwork on his desk. He really, really didn’t want to do any of it right now. How was his job both stressful and boring? He liked being free to see his little family most evenings, and he mostly liked acting as a leader. But he’d thought he’d get more time to just be a ninja. 

Actually, he thought. Was he not his own boss? Was there not a pressing problem he couldn’t just solve right now?

Sound Country had been home to several major ninja pathways, camps, and battles during this war. Minato had plenty of Hiraishin markers scattered around, including along the path Genma would have taken between camps. 

Minato found Genma in about eight minutes of searching, several hundred meters off the normal route. 

“Hokage-sama!” Genma cried in evident relief. His face was one Minato had seen often in his lifetime but not so much in the last few years of mainly administrative work: the instant relief of a man who’d consigned himself to death, now realizing that he was going to live. 

Minato shot him a reassuring smile even as his eyes darted around the clearing. There were no ninja in the area, but Genma was currently trapped within the glowing walls of a massive blue-green chakra barrier. It had an unusual shape, delineated by stalks of bamboo at the corners of an irregular pentagon. 

Well, this shouldn’t be too difficult to dismantle. Minato might be off the battlefield, but he was still up to snuff on all things fuuinjutsu. He stepped up the closet bamboo shoot, which had a seal carved… into it…?

“What happened?” he asked Genma as he eyed the seal. This was… not a normal piece of fuuinjutsu. Hmm. 

“There was a little girl,” Genma started. He sounded incredibly stressed as he described the sequence of events: Genma had encountered a local civilian girl on his trek. He recognized her as belonging to a nearby village and being one of the local women and children who’d occasionally barter with Konoha field camps. She’d sprained her ankle, and he’d stop to help. 

“But then she… I don’t know, she… the barrier…”

 Then this random civilian girl had activated a barrier and left Genma. Sure. Why not. 

“Are you sure she’s not a ninja?” Minato asked, frowning at the seal. He could recognize it as a barrier seal, but there were like seventeen things going on with it he didn’t understand. A civilian could activate certain types of ninja-made seals in theory, but not this one. 

“No, she’s the soap girl!” Genma bemoaned. “She shows up sometimes to sell shitty soaps. There’s no way she’s a ninja.”

But then, Genma continued in a clearly upset sort of ramble, she’d asked him if he was well-hydrated and how much water and food he had on him, and just left. 

“I’ve been here at least two days,” Genma said. 

“The barrier lasted that long?” Minato asked. “Impressive.”

“Impressive?” Genma repeated. 

“It’s a fairly chakra-heavy barrier,” Minato replied. Genma continued to stare at him with what looked like a vaguely scandalized expression. “Usually to maintain something like this long-term, you’d need to put a lot of chakra in at the beginning– usually done with multiple people, and definitely not by a child– or you’d need to be actively maintaining it. This little girl never came by? No other ninja?”

Genma stared at him, wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open. Minato raised his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

“Well, no,” Genma said after a few moments had passed. “Can you please get me out before we debrief?”

Ah, Minato supposed Genma was a little freaked out by the prospect of his own untimely death, withering away in a random barrier by what seemed to be the random whims of a child. That was fair. Minato turned back to the seal. 

He looked at it some more, then moved around to the next bamboo shoot, and then the next. 

“Huh,” he said. 

“Hokage-sama?” Genma asked. 

“I have no idea how to undo this,” Minato said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice. 

“Hokage-sama.”

Genma was looking at him in horror now, but Minato could feel a certain giddiness building in his stomach. Finally, something interesting! What was going on with this seal? He could tell a bunch of the mystery components had to do with pulling chakra, but from where? The bamboo itself? Minato had heard stories from Kushina of ancient Uzushio seals using length of living kelp, twisted into seals that could pull on chakra as long as the kelp was alive. But those were supposed to be legends! 

“Hokage-sama, are you smiling?” Genma whined. 

“It’s just really interesting,” Minato defended. He was going to save Genma, okay? “I’m going to get my notes.”

It only took Minato a minute to teleport to his office, dig up a notebook with enough blank pages, and then teleport back. Genma still gave him a look of deep betrayal that he’d left at all. 

Minato was pretty good at multitasking, so he quizzed Genma on details of how the seal had been activated while copied the location of the seals and took etchings of them. 

“She didn’t mention any name at all?” Minato confirmed. “No boss she’s working for?”

Minato really, really wanted to meet whoever had made this nightmare of a seal. He wanted to know how they’d come up with it, and then quiz them if they new more seals like this, that could use chakra from natural sources, and then maybe have this person to dinner to just talk fuuinjutsu with him and Kushina all night. 

Except they were in an enemy nation, so probably Minato would have to settle for imprisoning this person and then interrogating them via Yamanaka mindwalk. Boo. 

Also, on top of the wild chakra source, the barrier was just really well made. Genma had not just been sitting around for two days; he’d executed several earth jutsu to try and burrow out, but the barrier extended underground. It even stood up to a rasengan. Minato couldn’t even destroy the five bamboo shoots powering the whole thing, because they were integrated into the walls of the barrier itself. 

“This person must have troubleshooted this a lot,” Minato said, squinting at one of the seals. This thing matched no reports of anything Konoha had seen during the war. How could they have never noticed this person running around?

Genma was clearly starting to panic again. 

“Sir, what are you going to do?” he asked. “I’m out of water and food.”

Minato cocked his head to the side, thinking. He did have another meeting he really had to go to, as much as he wanted to stay here and geek out over this cool new seal. He could teleport over to the nearest camp, tell them where Genma was so they could put a guard on him, and then come back later with Kushina. Could they safely bring Naruto? He always felt guilty when they had to leave the kid alone in the evening…

Then, they heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching. They weren’t particularly loud, but they were definitely civilian. Genma shut his mouth, and Minato turned to the source, eyebrows raised. 

The person got close enough that he could see the outline of a figure through the bamboo. The person was small, clearly a child. Then they clearly realized they’d made a terrible mistake and turned to flee. 

Minato shot forward, grabbing the kid by the back of her yukata. She matched the description Genma had given of the kid who’d trapped him: dark curly hair and eyes, around eight. She stomped over to the clearing like a civilian who was used to navigating bamboo, and then for the briefest moment where she’d attempted to run, made it very clear she was a ninja in training. 

So. That was interesting. 

Minato pulled her into the clearing and set her down on her feet. She was technically an enemy who had put an important Konoha Jounin in a situation which might actually kill him, but also she was a little kid. Minato hated having to kill or bully kids. 

“Hi there,” he said, shooting her his most child-friendly smile. 

“Reina, you horrible little brat!” Genma yelled, banging his fists on the wall of the barrier. 

Reina ignored him entirely, eyeing Minato up and down with deep suspicion. She was either extremely confident the barrier could completely contain Genma, or she’d recognized Minato as the greater threat, or both. 

“Don’t worry,” Minato said. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just answer some questions as best you can, and you won’t even get in trouble, okay?”

“Oooh, you’re going to be in so much trouble when I get out!” Genma screamed. 

“Ignore him,” Minato said, then winked playfully at her. 

Reina’s lips thinned and she looked doubtful. But she also didn’t even spare Genma a glance as she shouted threats at her. 

“Look, I’m not going to kill him,” Reina said finally. “I was… even coming to feed him.”

She produced a beat up looking bag of dried fruit from her pocket and held this up as if it were evidence. There were only a few pieces left. If Minato hazarded a guess, he’d say it was left over from her own snack and then forgotten in her pocket. 

“Right,” Minato said slowly. “Listen, I don’t really care that you trapped him.”

(“WHAT?” Genma yelled.)

“But I really want to know, Reina-chan,” Minato continued, trying to look as friendly as possible even as Genma continued to bluster in outrage, “do you know who made this barrier?”

Reina’s brows furrowed slightly, studying his face. Minato smiled back encouragingly. He eyes finally darted over to the barrier. 

“Oh,” she said, as if realizing something. “Oh. Yeah, of course that’s what you’d want. Ummm.”

She fidgeted with the bag of dry fruit in her hands, crinkling the plastic under her fingers. The label was faded with time and the wear and tear of riding around in a child’s pockets, but it was one of the brands Konoha included in their ration packs for field camps. She’d likely gotten it from a field camp. 

“Did someone show you the trap?” Minato asked gently. 

“Uh, well,” Reina replied. “About that…”

Reina didn’t seem to be too afraid to talk to him, but she also seemed to be afraid of whatever the answers to his questions were. This made sense to Minato. If she was a ninja living in this area, she was probably associated with this new “village” Orochimaru had made. It would be logical to fear he’d turn violent if she brought up Konoha’s most notorious missing-nin. 

Briefly, Minato wondered if the seal was Orochimaru’s design. Setting up and then abandoning a trap such that a child might take advantage of it was not something Orochimaru was likely to do, but perhaps he’d developed the fuuinjutsu and someone else had set it up. 

Except, no– that wasn’t really aligned with Orochimaru’s skillset. Orochimaru was a prolific fuuinjutsu user, but he wasn’t a true master. Under Konoha he’d never shown interest in developing new fuuinjutsu beyond some modifications to seals useful to his research. Not even he could wake up one day and spontaneously invent what looked like an entirely new field of fuuinjutsu. 

Minato felt like fidgeting himself with excitement. If it wasn’t Orochimaru, maybe dinner wasn’t completely off the table. 

Reina still hadn’t answered, so Minato tried, “I know you’re an Oto-nin, and that our villages don’t really get along. But I promise I just want to know who made this seal. Nothing bad is going to happen to you.”

He did his best “don’t worry, I’m here to save you and you’re not going to die” smile. Reina tilted her head back, eyes narrowing. 

“Okay,” she said. “Nothing bad will happen to me? I have your word?”

“Um, yes,” Minato said. 

“So if I go back to my boss and tell him I gave up fuuinjutsu secrets to the Hokage, he won’t do anything bad?”

“No,” Minato replied slowly, and Reina looked at him like he was deeply stupid, the type of look only a little kid could level at an adult. It was the type of unimpressed expression he now only ever got from his own child. “Well,” Minato corrected. “I won’t do anything to you, and my friend here won’t either.”

He shot Genma a look. Genma glared back at him but shut up. 

“So I don’t have your word that nothing bad will happen,” Reina concluded. 

Gods above, Minato thought, starting to feel annoyed. His meeting was in fifteen minutes, but he wanted the identity of this fuuinjutsu user so bad. Why do they have to make kids so smart?

“At least ask her to get me out of here,” Genma said, keeping his voice level this time, although there was a hint of desperation in there. 

Minato had not asked for this, because he had assumed the girl had simply known of the trap and walked Genma into it, and was therefore unlikely to know how to deactivate it. But she eyed Minato up and down again, and then said:

“I’ll let him out, but you have to keep your word.”

Then she pulled a brush and a bottle of ink from her sleeves and walked over to the nearest bamboo shoot. Minato followed her, holding back the urge to ask her about fifteen questions. She was eight. She probably had no idea how the seal worked.��

“You know, my clan kicked me out,” Reina said conversationally as she applied ink directly to the barrier as it hummed over the wood of the bamboo. Who the hell taught her to do that? No one did that. That would have been Minato’s “well, nothing else worked” level attempt at breaking it. “I don’t have any biological family to defend me or look after me. My clan only lets me stay around because uniting the clans means other people take care of me. Really, I’ve been looking for a way to escape.”

“Uh huh,” Minato replied, watching her hands as she painted characters over the ones etched into the bamboo. A counter-seal then… what a bizarre way to design something, to only be able to undo it by painting a brand new seal on top. That barely left room for any error, although he supposed the benefit was that this approach had made it so Genma couldn’t just break the bamboo, and even someone like Minato would need days of work to come up with a counter-seal. 

Reina made no errors in her counter-seal, and so she didn’t blow them all up or screw up the seal such that no one could take it down. The walls of the barrier fizzled away, and for a second Genma looked like he was on the brink of tears. 

“Hey, stand down,” Minato chided when Genma made a move towards them and Reina tensed. Had Genma not been listening to their whole conversation? 

Genma obeyed, standing at attention while also scowling at Reina. 

Reina stared up at Minato expectantly, the ink brush still in her hands. The counter-seal had melted into ink stains on the bamboo and the surrounding grass when the barrier lifted, and Minato considered asking her to draw it again for him to make sure he got all the details. 

Still, who on earth had taught such a young child such advanced fuuinjutsu? Minato flipped his notebook to a new page and eyed Reina. 

“Reina-chan,” he said slowly. “Who is your fuuinjutsu teacher?”

“Oh, um,” she said. “Oto encourages… self study…?”

He stared down at her. 

No way. No fucking way. 

“Sir,” Genma said. 

“About your promise,” Reina started. 

Minato had his stupid meeting in two minutes, and it was vital to keeping the village running or whatever. He didn’t have time to unpack this right now. 

“You said your clan kicked you out?” he asked Reina. 

“Yes,” she confirmed. “So if you could just drop me off in–”

“So you don’t have family you’d miss?” he asked. 

“Uh… no?”

Right. This was perfect. He took her hand, then grabbed for Genma’s forearm. He teleported all three of them into his office. 

“This isn’t–” Reina started, for the first time showing actual fear. 

“It’s okay,” Minato said, patting her on the head. Children liked that, right? Well, Naruto hated it, but Academy kids loved when he paid attention to them. “Genma, go get checked out at the hospital and then come back for a debriefing.”

“Um, yessir,” Genma said, eyeing Reina and looking completely unsure of the situation. 

Minato actually couldn’t wait to quiz Reina on what the fuck was going on in Oto. How much fuuinjutsu did she actually know? How had she gotten the idea for the wild bamboo seal? Did Orochimaru maybe have old Uzushio materials lying around that Minato and Kushina should know about?

“Hokage-sama,” his secretary said, entering the office, “the Hyuuga clan representative… who is this child?”

Right. His meeting. He’d have to hold off on talking to her. If she were an adult, the protocol would be to stick her with T&I. But she wasn’t an adult; she was an increasingly frightened looking child. If he stuck her in T&I, he’d not only create a ton of red tape for himself to interact with her, but she might end up too freaked out to talk to him as soon as he wanted her to. 

“Genma,” he said, deciding on the best course of action. “On your way down, drop Reina-chan off with Kushina.”

Genma sighed. “Sure, Hokage-sama,” he said, sounding deeply unhappy. 

There. Now Minato could have his fun little dinner. 

[veiledfox]

On one hand: super excited for this and really hopeful for some things

On the other: dreading that DRK might not get similar treatment as the other tanks did in Endwalker.

} FFXIV's Job Action PLL is this thursday at 4 am PDT (5am for me)

[bunniefaery]

I saw this article calling Sasuke a Villain and how the live-action shouldn't include his "villain" arc, because it "felt tedious and too convoluted to the bigger narrative" and instead they should make him a pivot for the fight against the Otsutsuki...

Did this person watch the anime or read the manga?

Article from CBR, Title: The Naruto Live-Action Movie Doesn't Need To Adapt This Villain Arc

1. Protect Konoha from what? The Uchiha wanted to end the decades long discrimination and oppression they were facing at the hands of the higher ups... (Not to mention that when Kurama attacked the village (under genjutsu, when Naruto was born), and during the konoha crush, no other villages went to attack the Leaf after the events), not even after the Pein arc...

2. Most people would hate growing up alone, and why was that sentence in bold?

3. Sasuke didn't find out about the true reason Itachi did what he did, until after Itachi died, as well as the real reason behind said Coup... as far as I am aware. And why wouldn't he want revenge against Konoha (specifically the 3 people who are left that caused all of his trauma and the uchiha genocide, it'd be 4 but the Sandaime Hokage was already dead by this point in the story)

4. What "wars" against Madara and Obito? There was only 1 War against them, the 4th great ninja war, that lasted 2 days a.k.a. approximately ~212 episodes, including filler (volumes 55 through 59 in the Manga, according to google)

"Naruto and Sasuke were reincarnations of her sons (Ashura and Indra, respectively)"

Okay, so the author didn't watch nor read Naruto...

Indra and Ashura Otsutsuki are not Kaguya's sons... they are her grandsons 👁️👄👁️ Homura and Hagoromo Otsutsuki are her sons... and Hagoromo is Ashura and Indra's father…

I feel like the author doesn't know much about Kaguya either, if they did they'd know her story.

"The advantage of Sasuke being a rebel without defecting from Konoha is that Naruto would have the help needed to fight the big villains of the franchise: the Ōtsutsuki."

When the time came, was Sasuke not helping Naruto with that? 🧐 And why shouldn't he have defected from Konoha? What good could they do for him?

Why does Sasuke need to be convinced to return home, when his home was taken from him by this "home" the author speaks of, that "home" being Konoha? Why should he return to the place that treated his people so poorly that they felt they no other choice but to do a coup against the people in charge of Konoha only to be wiped out for daring to stand up for themselves after years of oppression...?

Konoha, specifically Danzo, the third hokage, and 2 hogake advisors, Homura and Koharu (3 of which where Tobirama Senju's students and all 4 of which were on his personal team, and we all know what Tobi thought of the Uchiha) forced Itachi to wipeout his whole clan, excluding Sasuke, and then blamed him for it. They swept what they did under a filthy rug, that already had many skeletons piling up, and acted like he was the most evil person... He was a child and he was forced to do that and to become a fugitive by the old people in charge, who had no business being in charge of Konoha since there should've been a 5th Hokage by then... (regardless if Itachi regretted it or not, which he never really does)

I won't say it...😇

"Sasuke could learn more about how Indra developed a dark side, which passed down to the Uchiha, while Ashura's light gave way to the Senju and Uzumaki (Naruto's family) clans"

1. While I do agree that Naruto should've learnt more of the Uzumaki (and the Namikaze), besides finding out they excelled in Sealing Jutsus, had very long lives and were a bit savage (it wasn't in-depth at all, and there is no one to teach him, since the Uzumaki are also victims of genocide (in which Konoha did not help protect them) and well, I don't know what happened to Minato's people)

2. And that Sasuke should've learnt more of his people (but how was he going to, when he was the only one left at age 7/8?)

3. Indra's dark side... it wasn't passed down, nor did it emerge until his father gave his little brother the title of successor and expected him to follow without questions, having his birthright taken away because he was more introverted than his little brother whom their father called "the flunky useless dropout younger brother" (according to a panel I saw). And implied, at least to me, that ninjustu was created for wars and all things evil (Indra created ninjustu when he was just a child). ah yes his dark side the Uchiha inherited, that darkness of wanting to be treated like people and with respect in the village they helped make.

4. Kushina calls the Uzumaki, among other things, a bit savage. Batsuma Senju punched Hashirama, a child at the time, for being angry/sad that his little brother died, saying he was disrespecting his brother (and him) by basically questioning the system. Tobirama is a Senju, who was not shy about his hatred and prejudice against the Uchiha Clan (he is after all the founder of the bigoted psuedo science that was the "Curse of Hatred" the Uchiha are supposedly afflicted by, a clan that according to him is cursed and called Sasuke "a brat possessed by Uchiha evil") and that's on Ashura's "light" that gave way for his descendants, the Uzumaki and the Senju, "a clan of love~"🥰

Right, because he wasn't a pivot to the story, nor did his and naruto's story have any "heart and impact"... Right...

At some point, I wonder if some of this article is just satire 😅

[powerful-niya]

The Tell-Tale Heart

❀Fest No Jutsu 2023❀

Naruhina Oneshot Available on: AO3 | Wattpad | Fanfiction.net |

Prompt claimed fulfilled for @wickermayne 🥰

❀Naruhina RomCom❀

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚《

Summary: The Fourth Great Ninja War ends and Konoha is at peace; Hinata Hyuga contemplates Naruto Uzumaki's unexpected desire to spend more time with her.

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚《

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ * 。° 。 • ˚《

Tags: Blank Period • Canon • Canon Divergence • Declarations Of Love • Drama & Romance • Fake Relationship Trope • Fluff • Happy • Happy Ending • Humor • Light Angst • Love Confessions • Mutual Pining • Naruto Universe - Freeform • No Smut • Post War • POV Third Person • Romance • Teen Rated  •Tooth Rotting Fluff •

Word Count - For Entire One-Shot: 8.4k.

Word Count - Tumblr Post: 3.3k.

❀Preview:

Today in Konohagakure, the temperature was moderately warm.

The shining sun rose high in the cloudless, blue heavens, beaming with happiness where it took center stage above.

The residents of Konohagakure, enjoyed every moment of the new day, a day of peace and fun, as the sun smiled down on them with warm but pleasant beams.

The summer breeze flowed through the busy streets of the village, sweeping green leaves within its gentle wake where they carried on powerfully, just as the ninjas, Konoha's defenders, have done each and every day.

A year had passed since the conclusion of the Fourth Great Ninja War, allowing Konoha as a whole to at last settle down.

The streets were alive with laughter and chatter, with kids flying kites and pretending to be the ninjas they idolize, racing full speed through the crowds with their arms thrust behind them as if soaring.

Smiling villagers of all sizes and ages filled the streets, setting up their businesses and outlets to cheerfully trade their produce and wares with one another.

All around, structures and residences stood tall, having all been rebuilt from the devastation that numerous battles, particularly the Pain onslaught, had wreaked upon them.

Konoha was now endowed with brand-new structures, fresh possibilities, and new beginnings.

Ninjas, villagers, and children alike were all beaming and renewed—all appreciative of the timeless peace they had gained by never giving up, by consistently standing up for what is right, and by moving onward no matter what.

Konohagakure was now at peace.

Aside from Hinata Hyūga.

In the midst of the happiness that beamed all around her, the young kunoichi found herself having quite an episode: fingers twiddling together, her breathing escalated, cheeks red, and her mind in scrambles.

Hinata traversed the streets of Konoha dressed in her typical ninja garb, accompanied by her longtime team members and companions, Kiba and Shino.

Kiba, her loud, ferocious friend, shot her a glance with his slitted eyes, lifting an eyebrow as he sensed his shy friend's worried state.

After all, it was Hinata's idea to get together so the three of them could go for a walk through the village, get some fresh air, and just spend some time in each other's company.

However, Kiba and Shino have observed Hinata to be extremely fidgety and quiet the entire time, appearing to be preoccupied with a problem that both ninjas were overly conscious about.

Hinata was unable to stop talking about it after all.

Kiba groaned and shook his head, causing his brown curly hair to tussle about, brushing against the nape of his neck due to its increasing length.

To lighten the mood, the cheerful canine ninja gave Hinata a gentle shove with his elbow—just with the side of his folded arms.

He laughed as he caught the surprised squeak that flooded out of her lips, her body jolting as a result of being shoved out of her troublesome thoughts.

"Come on, Hinata-chan, stop overreacting already. It's not that bad." Kiba remarked with a gruff tone and an amused grin, his lips stretched wide to show off his razor-sharp canines.

Due to his delighted smile, the red triangles on his cheeks raised just a touch, his features quite robust and well-defined given his maturing age.

His voice, which had become deeper over the years, was emitted in a halfhearted manner, with little worry detected within, which did absolutely nothing to calm Hinata's anxiety.

Hinata's predicament was only made worse because of it.

Her pale cheeks grew even redder, and she found herself hiding behind the curtains of her long, midnight-blue hair, unable to meet Kiba's gaze.

"No, th-this is..."

"It's just Naruto, Hinata-chan. What does it matter whether the knucklehead wants to spend time with you? Big deal."

Kiba muttered impassively once again, simply shrugging his shoulders as if everything was normal—and especially normal for Hinata.

She shook her head. There was nothing normal about her situation.

Hinata took a glimpse at her brown-haired pal through the strands of her dark hair, only to be struck by the nonchalant expression found on his tanned face.

Kiba didn't seem bothered by her predicament or even able to understand why she was feeling the way she was, for the matter. It was certainly a sight she just couldn't comprehend.

It was quite obvious why she was so worked up.

Hinata bit her lip briefly, to deal with her nerves.

"B-But every day?" Hinata exclaimed, apprehensive.

"A-Am I the only one who finds it strange that Naruto-kun is suddenly spending so much time with me? It's s-so odd."

Hinata's meek voice broke through the gaps of her delicate lips, bursting into the village's midday hum. Such comments of hers would have been drowned out by the din of the crowd, but Kiba's keen hearing picked up on her words flawlessly.

He heard her loud and clear.

Kiba shrugged.

He genuinely did not perceive anything wrong with her current "situation."

Kiba thought Hinata was acting rather ridiculously, in fact. Every time Naruto was brought up in their many conversations, she would just revert to her usual flustered self.

The mere mention of the goofy blonde ninja always causes her to flush red all over and sends her into a stuttering frenzy. Even in her primary years, she would faint just by being in the blonde's presence.

Hinata has always been a flustered mess around Naruto, but even now, after having Hinata as a teammate for so long, Kiba has never been able to understand the immense anxiousness she would feel because of the blonde.

Apart from the fact that Naruto was now regarded as a war hero as a result of his heroic deeds during the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kiba still saw him merely as a hyperactive, dense, brainless knucklehead.

He just couldn't wrap his head around the fact that anyone would feel immense anxiety around someone like him.

It was all quite ridiculous.

Kiba found nothing odd or different about Hinata's frenzied behavior nor about Naruto's desire to spend more time with Hinata. After all, they were all growing closer to one another—every single one of their friends—now more than ever.

Nothing's strange there.

Shino, on the other hand, saw a different picture.

He let out a hum of curiosity, bringing to light his presence as he walked alongside Hinata.

His eyes were shielded from the sun by black shades, so others couldn't see his facial expressions as well.

One hand of his was buried in the pocket of his long jacket, while the other lifted to stroke his chin.

"Now that you mention it. That is strange."

Shino's voice emerged from his mouth, somber and monotone, phasing with the pleasant breeze around them. He too joined the conversation between Kiba and Hinata, voicing his concerns about the current situation at hand.

Hinata's dilemma.

All in all, it shouldn't really be a dilemma.

Hinata was aware of this.

Her predicament shouldn't be one that keeps her up at night, sends her in a tizzy, and leads her to become a hot, stuttering mess whenever she thinks about it.

Naruto.

Naruto was her dilemma.

Since the war has ended and all of Konoha has spent its time relishing the peace, Naruto has been exhibiting a variety of behavioral shifts—shifts that were pretty different and quite apparent—particularly because they diverged from the customary behavior tactics he has always demonstrated.

Such changes were all very unusual to Hinata, changes that she was unable to interpret or understand.

To put it simply, Naruto's been acting quite strangely toward her.

How strange you might ask?

For starters, Hinata thought it was somewhat odd of Naruto to unexpectedly develop the longing to devote every waking moment with her.

It seemed weird to her that he wanted to see her every day at the same time at Ichiraku Ramen in order to spend time with her.

Hinata bit her lip a bit harder.

She could hear him now.

"Let's eat out again, tomorrow, Hinata-chan. At Ichiraku, same time, same place. I had such a great time with you, dattebayo!"

Hinata could still clearly remember what he said to her almost a day ago when they shared a meal together at the Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

Even then, he showed signs of immense eagerness for her that she had never seen him show before.

Hinata recalled how he constantly barraged her with many subjects of discussion, even as he spoke to her while stuffing ramen noodles into his mouth.

He told her several of his own tales, including mission experiences that actually made her laugh quite a lot. More than she's ever done in her entire life.

It was all so... strange.

Don't misunderstand Hinata; Naruto's excitement was refreshing, albeit a little overwhelming.

Indeed, Hinata has always wished to spend time with Naruto, and she can't stop herself from enjoying those moments when she gets to sit beside him, shoulder to shoulder, and share a meal and a conversation with him, especially after the war is all said and done.

Sharing such moments with him has always been her dream.

Hinata relished the moments when Naruto lavished her with lots of attention, gazing into her eyes with a true sense of joy and care, and wanting nothing more than to spend as much time with her as he could.

And maybe, she's just overthinking.

Maybe, she's just blowing the entire situation out of proportion.

Maybe she was getting ahead of herself, but she was unable to ignore Naruto's peculiar behavior toward her, including the very difference in the way he spoke to her. It consumed her mind and bugged her so much.

Hinata has made a constant effort to understand why Naruto's behavior has drastically changed in the way it did toward her and why he suddenly developed the urge to hang out with her so excessively.

This was a really big deal to her.

Hinata couldn't help but mull it all over.

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Naruto changed from scarcely recognizing her to having just fleeting conversations with her to obnoxiously craving her company all the time.

It's such a drastic change.

This cannot be a coincidence, she thought.

Hinata occasionally found herself questioning whether Naruto's motives were sincere; she wondered if perhaps he was merely allowing himself to be close to her out of pity.

Pity for her losing Neji.

Yes, the war was officially over, but even so, there were still a lot of wounds that needed to be healed, and Neji's death surely left a lot of them. A lot of wounds.

Hinata occasionally finds herself becoming very sad at the mere recollection of Neji being dead, no longer living in Konoha, but instead buried with the other valiant ninjas who fought in the war.

She would frequently experience severe depression as she recalled the events leading up to his death and once more realized that he had indeed left this world and never to return again.

Hinata often thought of such depressing memories and felt their suppressive effect on her throughout her day-to-day life, and thus, she often thought that is why Naruto wished to spend so much time with her.

Because of pity. Because of guilt.

However, she always dismissed the idea, labeling herself as ridiculous for having such negative thoughts about her dear Naruto-kun.

As a result, Hinata discovers herself becoming quite enthusiastic about the alternative reason she came up with for Naruto's behavioral changes toward her.

And that was a result of authenticity.

Maybe, just maybe, Naruto has come to want to be close to her from a genuine standpoint.

Maybe he secretly yearns to be close to her, yearns to learn more about her, or, better yet, just genuinely enjoys her company.

Maybe, Naruto has come to yearn for something more.

But just as Hinata thought of such a thing, just as she allowed her fantasies to intertwine with her thoughts, she was quick to shake them off.

Hinata squealed, covering her eyes with her hands due to her lewd thoughts.

'No, no, that can't possibly be it!" Shaking off the idea, Hinata exclaimed in a frenzy fit in her mind. It was absurd for her to think that the frequent outings she would have with Naruto were anything romantic.

Yes, Naruto yearns to see her virtually every single day.

Yes, he genuinely offers to pay for her meal at each and every get-together.

Yes, he regularly gives her his jacket whenever she grows cold, without her having to utter a single word.

But...

Those were merely the acts of a friend, Hinata thought, a friend that truly cares.

'There's nothing romantic about that.' Hinata dismissed once more, hysterically shaking her tomato-red face as she hurried on carelessly, her open-toed shoes kicking up dirt every step of the way.

However, she was interrupted from her thoughts when she once more heard the voice of her enigmatic friend, Shino, speak after a little period of silence between the three of them.

"Hm, it almost seems like the two of you are dating. Maybe that's what Naruto wants."

It was only hearing those words from Shino that led Hinata to completely lose it.

She began to feel lightheaded. Terribly lightheaded.

'Me? D-Date Naruto-kun?!?' Hinata practically screeched in her head. She was going to faint, she just knew it.

It was only a matter of time now.

She whipped around to face Shino, in an effort to quickly dismiss such a ridiculous notion from his head. She couldn't bear it.

Hinata sweat dropped, her cheeks flushed red, "No, no, Naruto-kun and I aren't d-dating. Dating o-or romance, for that matter, isn't possibly the reason for all of this. There has to be a-another explanation..."

"Hm." Shino rubbed his chin once more, "It's quite obvious what's going on here, Hinata-chan. Naruto's sudden and enthusiastic yearning to spend more time with you when the war is over. All of it seems to be pointing towards the possibility that his eyes may have opened after all this time." Shino hummed.

"The evidence is right in front of you." Shino expressed with a nod, as he tried to piece together the situation and come up with a solution.

Kiba, in contrast, just shrugged. He merely found the two humorous, trying to solve an issue that was so clear.

He shook his head, "Hinata-chan, come on. You gotta stop overthinking."

He brushed his shoulder against hers yet again, doing so with a groan, "Good kami, all of this Naruto stuff is getting you ridiculous, Hinata-chan. Come on, think about it. Isn't this what you always wanted?" He asked, blurting out what he knew had to be said.

With wrinkled brows, he gazed down at the midnight blue-haired woman beside him, watching as her lavender eyes widened at his remark.

He tilted his head, his expression somewhat solemn, "Isn't this time spent with Naruto, or rather, him wanting to spend time with you, something you always wished for?"

Hinata's eyes widened even more. Even her heart skipped a beat.

It was. It's all Hinata has ever wanted.

She's spent her entire life walking behind Naruto, always staring at his back, longing for him to turn and notice her.

She had yearned for him to realize her presence, to recognize all the times she had followed him, supported him, been influenced to become stronger by him, and even risked her life for him.

She yearned to be by his side, showering him with her affection and reverence.

She wished so badly he would one day look at her the very same way she looked at him.

That is all she has ever wished for—Naruto to notice her.

And now...

Hinata's breath caught in her throat as Kiba's words flashed through her mind, finally waking her up and causing her to realize what a blessing this entire situation was for her.

The sudden acts of Naruto wanting to spend time with her; and the genuine smiles he showers her with.

The big, warm hugs he gives her the moment she arrives at Ichiraku Ramen.

The jokes, the laughter, the smiles.

Everything.

Hinata finally considered every bit of her situation, and she used the opportunity to take a step outside of herself, away from the troubling emotions that were stifling her, and instead take in the situation as a whole.

Her breath hitched.

Indeed, she has always wanted this.

Always.

And now, with her eyes opened, she has realized how silly she has been.

She has done nothing but speculate about Naruto's motives, questioning herself as a whole for liking his behavioral shifts.

She was so worried and anxious about the whole thing, as well as flustered and embarrassed by being so close to Naruto so suddenly, that she entirely failed to notice the positive elements of her predicament.

But now...

A smile arose on Hinata's face and in that moment, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She suddenly felt the worries she's been dealing with for a couple of weeks now set sail and fly away.

She finally sensed herself becoming free from her worries; free from it all. All thanks to her friends; Kiba and Shino.

She really needed this chat.

Because now, Hinata could finally see the situation from a different perspective, a more positive approach to her situation, and now she finds herself a little bit more...

appreciative.

She bawled her fists tight by her chest, biting her lip briefly, "Y-Yes, this is what I have wanted." She whispered, finally voicing out her own wants for a change, voicing that she indeed has always wanted Naruto to notice her, just in the way he has recently.

Kiba and Shino exchanged a joyful grin, both ninjas flawlessly catching their bashful friend's answer even in the midst of the raucous outside noises around them.

It was undoubtedly like music to their ears, and they were both comforted by the fact that their friend's sentiments of embarrassment and worry were no longer clouding her judgment—no longer keeping her troubled.

The two men were pleased to find that their efforts had been successful and that their words of caution and contemplation had not been merely ignored or overlooked.

Kiba and Shino were certainly pleased to see Hinata finally diverted from her mental woes and the clamor of her irrational thoughts, which had previously blinded and hampered her. And ultimately, keeping her from finding happiness with the one man that almost everyone in the village knows can greatly comfort and increase Hinata's level of contentment.

Peace was now assured.

Kiba exclaimed joyfully, "See, there you go! So I say, quit your overreacting and relax! Enjoy the peace already!"

He shoved her shoulder again which actually caused Hinata to giggle, her body swaying a bit.

"Kami, if you're so worried about Naruto spending time with you, why don't you just ask him? Who knows, Shino might be right, your precious Naruto-kun might have finally woken up." Kiba teased with a laugh.

Hinata instantly gasped, her head space once again flooded by overwhelming thoughts, her body riddled with feelings of flusteredness.

Throughout Kiba's entire speech, one particular detail caught her attention the most.

My precious Naruto-kun.

Hinata's blush rushed back to engulf her whole tenfold, "H-Hey don't call him that!" The flustered kunoichi exclaimed in embarrassment before reaching over to slap Kiba's folded arm.

But her gesture of getting him back due to his teasing only pushed the brown-haired male to laugh and tease her even more.

"Oh, Naruto-kun! My precious Naruto-kun!"

"St-Stop it, Kiba-kun!"

"No! You make it so easy, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata grumbled, her heart racing in her chest as she was teased by Kiba but soon comforted by Shino.

After all was said and done, however, and after a much-needed conversation with her good friends, she found herself looking forward to the dinner get-together with Naruto.

Now, more than ever.

[stu-dyingstudent]

third war continued/Sakura sent to war prematurely fic recs

Okay, I'll be completely honest, this is one of my ultimate favourite tropes when it comes to Sakura-centric fanfiction! Unfortunately, there really isn't too many of these out there and most are not completed, so if you know of any more then please send them my way. I'm begging.

Started: 2024.07.23

Last Updated: 2024.07.23

note: feel free to check out my master list which has a bunch of Sakura Haruno fic recs (all organized)!

----

Your Move, Instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue) - Laysan_albatross || ao3|| third war extended AU || complete

“We are still under wartime policy,” the recruiter had told her parents. He had an envelope in his hand. He sounded sorry. “She has two parents who are successful ninjas. We would be remiss to overlook her potential based upon that alone.” The Third Shinobi War never ended. Konoha needs more soldiers, grabbing anyone who can fight, especially those who can't say no.

You guys, I love this one to death. It's definitely a darker take on the Naruto universe, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The civilian born shinobi are deemed as more expendable and thus thrown into war while the clan born remain sheltered. I found it quite interesting that the Uchiha were also lobbed into this group, but it was more done as punishment instead. Very raw and properly gets across the devastation that this brings.

.

still waters by Vulpecula_et_Anser || ao3 || gen || M || Sakura sent to war early AU || one-shot complete

Sakura is twelve when she queues up in front a desk with a bunch of other equally-terrified looking shinobi. The ages range from younger than her to old enough to be her grandpa. The man sitting at the desk is stony-faced as he doles out assignments. Sakura obediently shuffles forward when it is her turn, and recites her shinobi identification number in a shaky voice when asked. When the provost marshal looks at her, looks down at his paper, looks back at her, and grimaces, Sakura knows it’s not going to be good. OR How Sakura survives the war, told in bits and pieces.

Canon-fodder! Sakura makes her shinobi debut on the front lines, forcing her to get creative in her means to survive. It's gritty, raw, and the clever use of seals is great! In most of the other works of this type, Sakura is placed on a team of sorts or has some "support" (kinda), but here she is all alone. She is forced to fight for her life, to keep going despite how she feels because ultimately, Sakura does not want to die. She does meet some people later on though and it was great to see. Y'all know this type of story is my personal guilty pleasure (also one of the best I've read thus far)...

.

Find Your Place (whatever it takes) - Dovey || ao3 || third war extended AU || incomplete

The war lasts longer than in canon, and has only just ended. While most of the 'Konoha 12' are clan heirs and thus protected from having to go to war prematurely, Sakura is from a civilian family, with naturally advanced chakra control, and thus is thrown immediately onto the frontlines. Now she's on a genin team in peacetime, and she's struggling to figure out how to live when she's not constantly at risk of dying. Team seven bonds in new weird ways, The Uchiha are actually all dead except for Sasuke (including war-hero itachi) who's got a chip on his shoulder the size of Konoha, Naruto isn't the kyuubi container and he finds Sakura kinda scary. Sakura would just like to have a hobby.

Find Your Place (whatever it takes) is the og fic of this category as far as I am aware. The main difference to consider is that it primarily focuses on the aftereffects of the war and the impact that it had on Sakura as a person.

.

team. - waterpllar || ao3 || gen || third war extended AU || complete

She’s under Neji's command, which apparently means she’s under the Hyuuga’s command. The Hyuuga’s role is on the frontlines, but Neji must be special for a kid from the branch family, because they mostly send him and Sakura out after the big battles are done, to pick off the wounded, and burn bodies. Sakura kind of wishes she had someone to keep her from the big fights, too. Her job is with Neji, taking back kekkei genkai and retrieving important people’s bodies, but she has other assignments, too. She’s given a dull kunai and told to go through the battlefield, dodging blows and jutsus from friend and foe, slashing at whatever isn’t wearing a Konoha headband.(the third shinobi war doesn't end, dragging on for years. konoha is running out of troops, and unimportant children in the academy with even a modicum of talent are snatched up to the warfront. sakura, unfortunately, is one of them. so is neji.)

Such a strong beginning, although, I gotta say that the ending was rather disappointing imo. There was so much potential, but the author admitted to not wanting to continue the story so it was cut short. Hopefully more works of this nature will come to light!

.

Induction - Anonymous || ao3 || M || gen || third war extended AU || incomplete

in·duc·tion /inˈdəkSH(ə)n/ noun: induction 1. the action or process of inducting someone to a position or organization. enlistment into military service.   or; The Third War does not end soon enough. Children pay the price.

Definitely not my favorite take on this trope, but it fits the bill, so it's here! Anyway, tbh I never actually made it far enough reading to get to the actual war part, so I don't have too much to say.

.

Ground Zero - TheIzzatron || ao3 || gen || T || third war extended AU || incomplete

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If this means forcing weapons into the hands of children, then so be it.

AHHHHH I'm praying for the day we get another chapter of Ground Zero!! I really appreciate how we actually get a training arc where we get a base of the characters and how this system works before they properly get dispatched. The characters and their emotions are so well done that you truly feel how unfair the situation is. They aren't heartless, they are children. Highly recommend.

.

Control - Dragonist || ao3 || gen || no rating || Sakura sent to war early AU || incomplete

Kumo kidnaps a child of Konoha. Sakura graduates from the academy only a year after starting it. There's a war going on, and she's obedient enough to stay quiet and follow orders. Then the war ends, and it's unclear who is really giving them. (a mystery from a child's perspective)

I haven't read Control yet, but I really need to get around to it!

Ok I just noticed I forgot to add the link to this one, but that has been fixed!!

Edit: bruh, I’m so mad I didn’t get around to reading this sooner because it seems the author deleted it 😭 if any of you have a link/download, please send (I’m begging)

---

Please send me more like these!!!!

[bestanimatedmovie]

Tumblr's favorite animated movie, Round 1!

Classification round | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4

Round 1:

Results overview

A Monster in Paris vs Sailor Moon R: The Movie

A Silent Voice vs Shaun the Sheep Movie

A Troll in Central Park vs Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods vs Lu Over the Wall

Astro Boy vs Ferdinand

Azur and Asmar: The Princes' Quest vs Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

Barbie & the Diamond Castle vs The Great Mouse Detective

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus vs My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper vs Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Adolescence of Utena

Barbie Princess Charm School vs Turning Red

Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero vs Robots

Batman Ninja vs Barbie Fairy Secret

Belle vs 101 Dalmatians

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children vs The Princess and the Goblin

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie vs All Dogs go to Heaven

Chicken Run vs Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time vs Green Snake

Despicable me vs Wreck-it-Ralph

Fantastic Mr Fox vs Wendell & Wild

Fantastic Planet vs Anomalisa

Gnomeo & Juliet vs Ernest & Celestine

Home on the Range vs A Goofy Movie

Hoodwinked! vs Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro

Ice Age vs WALL-E

In This Corner of the World vs We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem vs The Tale of John and Marie

Isle of Dogs vs Weathering with You

James and the Giant Peach vs Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Klaus vs Summer Wars

Kubo and the Two Strings vs Bambi

Liz and the Blue Bird vs Tekkonkinkreet

Madagascar vs Encanto 

Mary and Max vs The Sea Beast

Monsters vs Aliens vs Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks vs Night Is Short, Walk on Girl

Night on the Galactic Railroad vs Metropolis

One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island vs Star☆Twinkle Precure the Movie: Wish Upon a Song of Stars

Paprika vs The Secret of Kells

ParaNorman vs Suzume

Penguins of Madagascar vs The Sword in the Stone

Persepolis vs The Garden of Words

Phineas and Ferb: The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension vs Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus

Planet Hulk vs Zombillenium

Pocahontas vs The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Pokémon Heroes vs Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Porco Rosso vs Meet the Robinsons

Quest for Camelot vs Digimon Adventure: Our War Game

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas vs The Nightmare Before Christmas

Spookley the Square Pumpkin vs Kirikou and the Sorceress

Tales of the Night vs Stormy Night

Tehran Taboo vs Emesis Blue

The Adventures of Tintin vs Bee Movie

The Book of Life vs The Aristocats

The Boy and the Beast vs Waltz with Bashir

The Brave Little Toaster vs Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

The Breadwinner vs Millennium Actress

The Congress vs The Legend of Hei

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen vs Ringing Bell

The Jungle Book vs Wolf Children

The LEGO Batman Movie vs Kung Fu Panda 2

The Lego Ninjago Movie vs Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride vs Watership Down

The Little Prince vs Loving Vincent

The Pagemaster vs Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

The Phantom Tollbooth vs The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Secret World of Arrietty vs 9

The Thief and the Cobbler vs Felidae

The Wind Rises vs Brother Bear

Tokyo Godfathers vs 5 Centimeters per Second

Trolls World Tour vs Promare

Unicorn Wars vs Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

Whisper of the Heart vs Batman: Under the Red Hood

[humanconditionpoetry]

Fun Little Poem to Past the Time

Hello Everyone, as you guys know if you follow my blog. While, I do enjoy a deep well thought out human condition poem, I can not do it all the time. As of late, I have been watching one of many favorite shows over and over again called Naurto( I have ADHD and sometimes I just want to watch the same time over and over even if it has been few years). So, I decided to make a fun little poem of Itachi and Hope you guys enjoy it.

T.W/Tags: Deals with some very tough topics like Suicide, Genocide and War. If any of these things makes you feel trigged or uneasy, I suggest you stop reading beyond this point. Read at Your Risk!

Again, T.W for Death, Suicide, Genocide and War!

Crows Winged Slashed:

Crows visited a boy one day

The boy was hoping to get away

From the horrors he saw on display

Third Great Ninja War on play.

But then the crow flew closer

It felt as through the boy felt like life was composing...

Found his ignited passion to keep on living.

So, try as might to live a normal life.

But everywhere he went, he was hearing nothing...

but praising that the adults were singing.

This was a doubled edged sword.

The village wanted him and the clan....

To use him for their plans.

Mulling over for two years....

Things and motions were starting to appear.

A coup'd et , Just as he had feared.

Working for the village for a career.

But he was not alone in this, his friend was near.

Till a circumstance struck, time was running out....

With his friend's eye in a crow....

Things were starting to show.

He was a double agent, he knows.

And he chose...

The village that impose.

Killed his entire clan

expect for one, his brother, who was driven with hatred and mad.

Left as traitor rather than face the village for an answer.

Even that was a lie....

As really he was a spy...

Keeping the village same with new found eyes.

But even they were not enough to pierce....

Not his brother, Not his clan, not his village nor himself....

He died, holding on fierce...

Wether those were great actions or not, have yet to appear?

But one thing remains certain, He suffered himself....

But could not see clear and

Made others in his life, so mere...

That they lost themselves and disappeared.

Thought it was sincere, but really was unclear?

His plan that he pioneered all those years.

No one would adhere.

He could not be a domineer...

The wings that flew....

Became a broken view.

He was so smart, that it him left screwed.

To people who would use him for ideals for their pursue.

As much as their empathy for what he went through...

At the same time, no pity can be given beyond a point....

As a lot of what he did, he knew the direction that was flown.

From all the actions, he anoint ....

Alone.

I Hope you all enjoyed this Poem. Let me know some poems I should write about in the Naruto Verse. Maybe I will do Orochimaru as his birthday is near. I would also like to the Avatar and Dragon Price Poems, along with others shows as well.

Thanks for reading and check the blog out for more poems.

[yotonyokai]

assorted yugito nii headcanons

• C is her cousin. Their clan had been serving the raikage since Kumo’s founding, which made her a politically viable jinchuriki candidate. The two don’t talk much, with her jinchuriki status isolating her from the clan.

• While B embraced Rap and Enka, she was quite fond of Kouta. She and B would often try to fuse their musical interests and it always resulted in a painful cacophony. Although she prefers Shamisen, her ability to stimulate her nail growth makes the Koto natural to her.

• Matatabi is extremely proficient with genjutsu for a tailed beast and would force Yugito into dazed states or outright abrupt sleep if she felt like Yugito was flippantly using her abilities or showing any other signs of disrespect.

• Ironically, despite this and despite her lineage being renowned for their genjutsu skills, Yugito was never able to pick up the basics for it. This was a great source of anxiety for her when she was younger, it felt as if she was a failure to her clan and a failed jinchuriki.

• Though she was trained for it, she ended up never being deployed in the Third Great Ninja War. She felt a mix of guilt and jealousy towards B for this.

• Although a Jonin, she refused to train Genin time and time again. It was often perceived as a lack of responsibility, but she wanted complete control of Matatabi’s power before taking on students. Due to the actions of the Akatsuki, this never came to fruition.

[aidontdraw]

I gave up on rendering...

Spoiler scene for Konoha Crush: Next Generation.

Kankuro was the first one up to make a pot of coffee. Sasuke the next. Followed by Menma. Finally Gaara & Boruto, only to see Naruto a minute later.

“Did you start the kettle?” Gaara asked.

“Don’t worry, princess Naruto’s tea is on the counter.” Kankuro joked.

“Thank you.” Gaara first placed Boruto in a still sleepy Naruto’s arms, then walked over to the counter.

Pouring Naruto a cup of no caffeine tea, with honey. It was his favorite, but it could get tiring after 9 months. If he was being honest, more like 2, almost 3 years without coffee. It felt like a lifetime.

“Love ya’.” Naruto smiled at the tea before him.

Gaara smiled, and kissed Naruto's forehead, then made a bottle for Boruto. He handed it off to his husband, who provided to feed their child in between his own tea. Still sleepy from the night before.

“Need any help?” Sasuke asked awkwardly.

Gaara looked around, “there’s nothing you can do.”

Sasuke sat down on the corner seat of the table watching the performance of a lifetime. They all moved together in synch, each knowing the next part of the routine. Kankuro and Gaara swapped places to focus on different parts of breakfast.

Menma seemed to share his fathers attributes to the morning, and not his mothers. Already acutely awake and planning his day. He would be able to go straight to school after breakfast was done.

Gaara scraped the bottom of the pan, pulling up any bits of bacon that attached itself. Thick popping grease created a perfect place for the eggs. Nice and fried in bacon fat.

“Menma,” Gaara announced, “put your homework on the table. I want to look it over.”

“Yes dad.” Menma reached over for his book bag, taking out a few sheets of paper.

Gaara said, “Kankuro, switch.”

“Yeah-yeah.” Kankuro got up, coffee still in hand as he took over egg duty.

“Actually, you might be better suited to this,” Gaara admitted.

“Hah?” Kankuro cracked open two eggs.

“My homeworks on the history of puppets,” Menma said excitedly. The years of indoctrination by his uncle worked too well, “I did my report on Lord Sisori.”

Sasuke's face twisted in confusion.

Naruto calculated in his head, looked over to Sasuke, “They’re at the Third Ninja War Unit right now.”

“Still,” Saskue asked, “Sasori?”

“Yeah! He’s amazing! His 100 puppet technique saved so many lives during the Third Ninja War. He was basically able to be his own army.” Menma recited facts, like his mother, he was a bit of a show off.

“Sisori is an important figure here.” Naruto admitted.

“Sisori?” Sasuke confirmed.

Kankruo and Gaara switched places, the new puppet master of Sunagakure said, “Like it or not… His techniques revolutionized modern puppetry.”

Sasuke’s face contorted again, glancing back over to Naruto. Boruto in his arms, getting a pat on the back. Then spitting up a bit on a towel and smiling a toothless grin.

“You want to mention that he didn’t actually turn the sand red. Most of the battle fields were near the Sisori Clift Side, by the Rivers Nation. The ground there is iron rich clay.” Kankuro said after finishing a rough read of the paper, “That’s what gave it the red color.”

“Yeah, but the enemy didn’t know that. So they just assumed it was so thick with the blood of his victims that it stained the ground.” Naruto added.

“Yep! It's a great example of Sunagakure’s resourcefulness. You want to use everything you can against your enemy… Including their own stupidity.” Kankuro said, “Most people don’t know anything about this fuc<i>-ggen</i> place. They die before they even reach the gates.”

“That’s not important.” Menma said confidently.

“It is. Imagine you went against Lord Sisori,” Naruto transformed into teaching mode, it was natural after all these years, “You’ve heard terrifying things, that he’s killed so many. You have a rudimentary idea of what the desert should look like. You get to the battlefield, and it looks nothing like that. It's red. Blood red. Do you think you’d be afraid?”

“No.”

Naruto chuckled, “Okay… do you think someone else might be afraid?”

“Maybe?” Menma shrugged.

“They would be.” The first time Naruto saw that place, he thought the ground was stained with blood too, “People make stupid decisions when they're scared. He knew that and used it to his advantage.”

“That's kinda cool… I guess.”

Sasuke tried to enter the conversation, “Ya’ know, Sakura fought him once.”

“She did?!”

“Yes,” Naruto sighed, and glared at Sasuke, “It was arguably the official start of the Fourth Ninja War.”

“I thought it started because of the Gokage Summit.” Menma said in confusion. That's what a lot of the history textbooks would say. It was a clear line in the sand, when the Gokage formally joined forces against the Akatsuki.

“Well, yes, but also, war is a funny thing. There are many things that lead up to it and it's hard to ever say when it really starts.” Naruto said.

“What do you think started it?”

Gaara answered quickly, “The Third Shinobi War.”

“That doesn't make sense.”

“After it ended the Dynamos and Kages agreed to enter a disarmament, causing many villages to lose a majority of their funding.” Gaara explained, “The loss of money ment villages had to decide on whether or not they could pay for veterans benefits. Most decided they couldn’t. Leaving several very powerful ninja without a way to earn an income from the state. Many went rogue.”

“Okay?”

“Of those that went rogue, were the members of the Akatsuki. All people who played a part in the Third Ninja War. All trying to create eternal peace, due to the issues they faced in the Third War.”

Naruto added, “Your fathers right, because of all of that we entered a dark age. Without a reason to fight, there was no reason to pass down knowledge. Many ninja families were killed off, in fear that they still had power. When they died their histories died with them.”

“So war is good?” Menma still couldn't comprehend the complexities of war at his young age. As he shouldn’t. The young boy should be writing histories of heroes who saved the day. Something that would carry hope for the future.

Naruto said, “No.”

“War is complicated.” Gaara added.

“Heavy topics for breakfast,” Sasuke noted as he ate his eggs that were done in the middle of their long winded speeches.

“We were going to leave it at Lord Sisori’s accomplishments in the Third Ninja War… but somebody had different ideas.” Naruto glared at him.

“Tch.”

“When would you say the Fourth Ninja War started, Mr. Sasuke?” Menma asked.

Who responded with, “Konoha Crush.”

“What's that?”

“It was when-

“It's how me and your father met.” Naruto said, glaring at his ex.

“Really?”

“Yes.” Gaara said, “Your mother showed me great compassion, and our relationship bloomed from there.”

“And it had nothing to do with the Fourth War. It was a fringe group who attacked Konoha.” Naruto added.

“I’d hardly call Suna a fringe group…” Sasuke scoffed.

“I’m talking about The Sound.”

“We attacked Konoha?” Menma couldn't comprehend that. They had been allies since before he was born. His mother was from there, his cousin was from there, they visited often.

“Yes.” Gaara tried not to shy away from his own past.

“Does that mean Shikadai might be my enemy one day?”

“No,” Naruto said confidently, “We’re in an age of peace.”

“Plus, there are many treaties in place to ensure that Konoha and Sunagakure remain allies.” Kankuro tried to help out.

Menma was still concerned, “How do we know they’ll stay?”

“Because you and Shikadai exist,” Naruto accidentally placed a heavy burden onto his child's shoulders, “You all will ensure that our treaties will live on in the future.”

“Oh.”

“Now enough talk about war… Finish up your breakfast.”

[somekisamestuff]

Sometimes I find myself thinking about what Kisame’s “village destroyer” moments would be like. Was he alone in doing this? Was it because of an order or a personal reason?…

Anyways, i like the hc which he witnessed his family being harmed by shinobi from a certain village during the Third Great Ninja War, which most likely took place when Kisame was a child (like Nagato’s Konoha shinobi trauma). Years later, when he became strong enough, he may had wanted to destruct that village. ( maybe i’m affected by Anakin Skywalker’s slaughtering the entire village of Tuskens after his mother’s death )

<Btw, I wrote all of this just to say that I love the theme which Kisame takes revenge for his personal issues.🩵🦈>

[mixelation]

how does the akatsuki and amegakure work in reborn au? you mentioned something about ame making a tiny nation union and the akatsuki interfering if one of the great nations did something they didnt like?(if i rememeber right??) but like do people know akatsuki and ame are led by the same guy? are the akatsuki still doing missions like in plasticity? and is yahiko around somewhere? i love the toriverse so much i check your blog like the morning newspaper

i think i have answer this before but

basically, nagato and konan figure out they're both time travelers pretty early on, and they loop in yahiko. (yahiko is the only non-time traveler who Knows. lucky him.) i still have to iron out details (like i'm not sure if they train under jiraiya or not), but they reform Original Flavor Akatsuki (the Ame freedom fighters version) as teenagers, kick out Hanzo, and then are able to drive foreign ninja out of Rain Country pretty early on in the Third Shinobi War. this is why it lasts longer btw-- without being able to trample through Rain, it's logistically harder for the bigger nations :)

yahiko is the nominative leader of Ame but konan and nagato are Known as his super scary advisors/right hand men. akatsuki gets disbanded/merged with ame at this point while the ame trio solidify their power within rain.

post war, they slowly start reforming akatsuki as a internationally facing "peacekeeping" group, with nagato and konan as leaders. their argument is there needs to be a group to hold larger nations accountable, and they offer to let other nations send their own representatives. a lot of small ninja villages/place with no ninja like this idea. however, it's pretty controversial bc 1) even if they say they let other countries have a say, leadership is still really firmly just ame, and 2) they recruit missing-nin. but yes it's pretty transparently based in ame and run by people from ame.

they do do missions but i'm not 100% what they look like. some of them are just tiny nations being like "hey we can't get rid of this a-rank missing-nin by ourselves :(" and some of them are like "water country is trying to steal an island again and we're here to show up and scare the shit out of them." i imagine some are taken with the sole purpose of making money but i'd imagine they'd be pickier about those than in canon because they're ostensibly ~keeping peace~ (by force!!)

the end roster for akatsuki has a lot of overlap with the old one but it shifts around a lot and has new names. kisame volunteers to represent kiri, for example, and then they recruit zabuza (active kiri missing-nin) and kisame is like "why would you do this to me, guys, this is SO awkward." there's potentially an insane subplot where sasori works for them for years and then they're like "what do you MEAN you were in line to be kazekage?" and he leaves to go take over suna so he's not working "for" them but suna suddenly has close ties

and minato is like "PLEASE CAN WE BE FRIENDS" because his character arc is realizing his best non-wife friend is fugaku, a man he doesn't even really like,

[jinnaizaemon]

Nintama Rantarou: Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudou! no Dan commentary

I've been wanting to write about this movie for a while because it was my entry point into the franchise, and since I've been neck deep into the script recently after translating it, I thought now is a good time. However, I wasn't sure how to articulate my post, and what direction to give it... So in the end, it looks like a collection of my own thoughts, mixed with some trivia, notes about the script and how I translated some things, in my best attempt at following the movie chronologically. I hope it doesn't come off as too messy and that it is at least a little bit of an interesting read to you. Let's begin under the read more! Beware of spoilers, and forgive my broken English.

(by all means, have a snack while reading)

A little background first of all: The first Nintama Rantarou movie came out in 1996. This one, Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudou! no Dan, came out 15 years later, in March 2011. And 13 years later, in December 2024, we will get the third movie in the franchise... the gaps are too long, I don't want to wait a decade between each movie >< More precisely, this movie came out in theaters on March 12 2011, that is to say one day after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11 2011 ; it resulted in promotional events related to the movie being cancelled, and in general theaters in Japan shortening screenings or closing entirely. As a consequence of this, the movie is a box-office failure, despite having extremely positive reviews.

The movie itself adapts the contents of volume 37 and 42 of the manga, which had already been animated in the 16th season of the anime series, making the movie a remake of sort, with movie-only original scenes, and an adaptation of the plot so that it includes every member of Ninjutsu Academy.

Personally, I only watched this movie recently at the recommendation of friends, and while I've felt a bit overwhelmed by the HUGE cast of characters, I've been charmed by the colorful palette, cheerful characters and positive, optimistic tone contrasting with the setting of the story - the Warring States period in Japan not being an obvious background for a fun children cartoon... It's a strange mix Nintama always does brilliantly and it's shown at its best in this movie I think, daring to show actual battlefields (as opposed to the usual dust clouds of the TV anime version) and wounded soldiers as explicitely as an anime for children can allow, while giving the spotlight to the Health Committee, most importantly to Rantarou as he finds his role and what he's best at in battle. The movie isn't about Tasogaredoki VS Oomagatoki, it actually opposes war and healing at many scales ; Tasogare Jinbei and Oomagatoki Magatoki's abusing villagers VS Ninjutsu Academy protecting them and giving them their freedom and independence, the great ninja Zatto covered in wounds and his mirror opposite clumsy Isaku the healer, and finally Rantarou who offers to heal (free of charge!) soldiers and let them go when the expectation at the time was that surrendering meant death. It's like, in an era poisoned by war and death, Ninjutsu Academy is a little pocket of optimism where children grow to make the future a little bit kinder, here shown most explicitely in the Health Committee and Isaku's good influence but not only ; and I found that surprisingly sweet. I also have an interest in historical settings and anime so... yeah, that movie left a good impression on me!

Anyways, now to follow the movie chronologically! Iza~

Opening scene

The movie opens with a flashback scene involving Zatto and Isaku, introducing the big themes of the movie I mentioned before. According to Amako Soubee, the original author of the manga Nintama Rantarou is adapted from, cloth was expensive at the time, hence the recurring use of flags, clothings, underwears, etc recycled as bandages.

Isaku is dressed as yamabushi, practicioners of shugendo, known for retreating to the mountains for ascetic practices, rituals, etc. In the context of nintama, the outfit permits to hide Isaku's affiliation, making him an enemy of no one, and signify a knowledge of herbs and medicine giving him credibility to care for the wounded.

if i had a nickel everytime i wrote on tumblr about yamabushi because of anime I'd have two nickels etc etc...

Ninjutsu Academy

The TV anime seems to go back and forth with this, sometimes showing background students in classrooms, sometimes showing very small classrooms (like how 1st year i-class and ro-class each have 4 known students, and they are sometimes the only ones in their classroom while sometimes there are more desks occupied by nameless mob characters), but the movie features a BUNCH of unknown, nameless students appearing in the back. It's probably an effort to give the school a feeling of greatness to fit the grand scale of the story, but it's a bit weird to see unfamiliar students especially in older years haha.

The 名物 meibutsu, or local specialty of Sonoda Village. It's a flower tha is never named, and despite showing up multiple times throughout the movie no big attention is brought to it, apart from it being mentioned that while it can be used as a painkiller, a wrong dose is poisonous. It finally gets a significant role at the very end, though, when it's used by Tasogaredoki to halt the Dokutake army. I think I could write a lot about the symbolism of this flower and how it relates to Isaku but it may border on crazy fan rambling so it'll be for another time. (maybe)

(They appear in numerous scenes taking place in Sonoda Village!)

Komatsuda was probably too busy thinking of his big brother, owner of a fan shop, to notice the pattern on the floor spelling へっぽこ heppoko, "useless", "incompetent".

When the ha-class is discussing the mixed-up homework, Chouji is shown growing asagao, Japanese morning glories. Because these flowers grow fast and easily, they are often used as teaching material in lower grades of elementary school where students have to care for them and report on their growth as homework.

In the same scene, while all of ha-class is laughing, only Shouzaemon and Kingo stay serious, Shouzaemon being well, Shouzaemon and Kingo being Kisanta's roommate.

Before the Headmaster enters, there's a sheet of paper on the floor with every student's name and the homework they received. If they got the right homework, it's marked with a O. Flipping and zooming on this frame reveals whose students got the wrong homework, and what the assignment they got was. Sadly, since the text is blurry I couldn't decipher everything, and putting the whole list will make this post even longer than it already is. But I can tell you that apart from Kisanta, Monjirou, Chouji, and the Rescue Team... Heita, Kyuusaku, Shirobei, Sakubei, Kazuma, Takamaru, Heisuke and Hachizaemon got the wrong homework too.

...Takamaru's summer homework was "crossdressing".

Kisanta Rescue Team's introduction scene has a LOT of interesting details, so I already dedicated a post for it.

Talk with Tegata Kessai

Tegata Kessai explains how he wants to get a 庇いの制札 kabai no seisatsu from Tasogaredoki's lord, which I translated as a "protection decree" for ease of reading, but it's actually a little bit different. In the words of Doi-sensei: "Don't burn, steal, and kill. Basically, a document prohibiting the army from committing violence." kabai means protecting or sheltering, while seisatsu refers to an edict publicly displayed on a wooden board in a specific place to make the public aware of a law in place in the area, a recent proclamation of the local lord or of the shogun, etc.

Danzou misunderstands kabai no seisatsu as kaba no keisatsu, literally "a hippo policeman" - I don't know if the average Muromachi child would be knowledgeable of animals in Sub-saharan Africa, though!

I think the people behind him are Maasai people, but I'm not very knowledgeable so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

In this post, under the read more, I wrote about the meaning of the words "Tasogaredoki" and "Oomagatoki".

Kousaka makes his only appearance ever in civil clothes in the next scene. I have to point it out. It's important., okay. By the way, badminton only became a thing in the 19th century. But feudal Japan already had a similar game called hanetsuki, which started as a game reserved for nobles, but grew in popularity during Muromachi and became a New Year tradition by Edo. He's not being anachronistic... just a little bit avant-garde.

Opening theme and to Sonoda Village

The noodles they are eating is a dish called kuzukiri, a popular, refreshing summer dessert from Kyoto, so it's a local snack for nintama. It's made by mixing kudzu starch with water, and once thickened, cut in the shape of noodles with the tool seen above. It's then served with black sugar syrup traditionally, and with a variety of others toppings in modern times.

Given Sanjirou, Isuke and Heidayuu's reactions, looks like there wasn't enough for everyone.

What I translated as "hand", as in a manual worker, is 夫丸 bumaru in the original script, and is a word specific to Muromachi-Edo. The bu part means male and maru is a suffix for names used at the time for children (like Kirimaru!) or lower-class workers. Shinbei explains that they are "the people carrying supplies to the battlefield", which is true, but it seems that the word refers to lower classes laborers in a more general way.

When Kirimaru explains how he traded his lunchbox for a bunch of things until he got the Oomagatoki hands' uniform, Rantarou tells him it's just like Warashibe chouja, or the Straw Millionaire story. It's a folktale that became popular during the Muromachi period, about a poor man who starts by trading a piece of straw, and after a series of trades, meets with a rich man who offers him his daughter in marriage, making the poor man a millionaire.

Rantarou misreads the tag as "Size rerere" because the roman letter L looks like the katakana character レ, which is read re. So レレレ is read rerere.

When Kirimaru first tries to carry Shinbei on his shoulders, they both talk in a very theatrical, over the top way, and wear red make-up. You can also hear a nohkan flute, hyoushigi wood clappers and tsuzumi drum in the background. This is all typical of Kabuki theater.

Just a cute detail, but Rikichi was carrying Shouzaemon on his back in this scene.

Okay.. that's a very poor attempt at adapting Rikichi's joke, I hope we find something better by the time we release it publicly hahaha. In the original script he says 斯く斯く然々kakukaku shikajika, which simply means "this and that", "such and such"... while holding a puppet of the bishop shogi piece, called kakugyou or kaku for short, and a puppet of a deer, or shika in japanese. So the joke is that as he says kakukaku shikajika, he shows a kaku and a shika... hm...

Lord Oomagatoki, in hiding, wears a raccoon dog mask to conceal his face. Raccoon dogs with the ability to shapeshift to conceal their true identity and play tricks on others are a common motif in japanese folktales and they are known as bakedanuki. They are usually portrayed as goofy and fun characters, with um, large testicles reminiscent of Oomagatoki's chin under the mask lol.

Zatto turns his head to listen to lord Tasogare from his right side, since he's deaf in his left ear.

Sonoda Village

Everyone is here! This is the part where you point in excitement at your fave getting two seconds of screentime.

Chouji is shown with the 震天雷 shintenrai, or thunder crash bomb, which will play a big role later in the story.

There are a few words used related to Ninjutsu Academy's whole defense tactic that are a bit specific, either to warfare or to the period, which I swapped for ease of reading. For example, 逆茂木 sakamogi is "abatis", as in a fortification made from stacking wood. I left it as simply "barrier" for ease of reading.

The rabbit design of the telescope is explained in the manga and TV anime, but not in the movie. According to Shousei-san, it's a common motif on telescopes, but when I tried to find pictures of real telescopes with a similar design I only found Nintama Rantarou related webpages. So. Okay stay with me this is a little look into how tricky nintama can be to translate sometimes hahaha... The design is a pun based on the 12 animals of the zodiac, ordered like this: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. If you count ten animals starting from the rabbit, you end up with rat. Rat in japanese is nezumi, or "ne" for short. "tenth is rat" is 10番目がね juubanme ga ne, which you can also read as 十目がね toome ga ne, which is itself an homonym of 遠眼鏡 toomegane, "telescope". ...Phew!!!

When the Explosives Committee destroys the bridges leading to the village, Takamaru and Saburouji, being newer additions to the committee, have to cover their ears while Doi and Heisuke are okay.

While most soldiers in the Tasogaredoki army simply wear the skull kamon (emblem) of their lord, higher ranking members wear kabuto helmets with... interesting designs, like a crab, squid, or a banana design. In the Muromachi period, when the tanegashima matchlocks were introduced, armors had to be redesigned to become thicker and bulletproof ; as their design evolved, so did the datemono, or crests on helmets. Initially U shaped, these crests got a number of designs, usually one's kamon or fortuitous animals like rabbits, dragonflies, etc. Yes, samurai walked around with cute rabbit ears. The country of moe, truly.

Here, Isuke and Shouzaemon call Hieta Happousai 冷えた 発泡酒 Hieta Happoushu, hieta meaning cold and happoushu refering to an alcoholic drink similar to beer. Unless I find something better, it's Hieta Happousoda in the translation.

Look at how cute Hikoshirou dozing off is. Yes, that's all.

This scene puts a lot of focus on the two tins containing the leaves from Sonoda's local flower ; it can be used both as a painkiller or a poison depending on the dose. When Zatto enters the room, Fushikizou throws a bunch of stuff at him, including one of the tins. Just after, Fushikizou notices that Zatto took one of the tin with him... but doesn't seem to have told anyone about it. I guess that makes the first time Zatto and Fushikizou work together!

Tasogaredoki's assault

The tactic used by Ninjutsu Academy... well... Torawaka to defend the village against Tasogaredoki is very reminiscent of the battle of Waterloo, where Wellington's army was posted on a slope made muddy by bad weather, slowing down French troops.

The shintenrai, or thunder crash bomb, is just as Senzou explains in the movie: "Ordinary cannonballs don't explode on impact. But this thunder crash bomb has a timed fuse, and its shell itself explodes." It comes from China, and is one of the first bombs developed in history.

I love this scene so much... well, I already explained the reasons why above. But even though he's the titular character, Rantarou rarely gets the chance to shine like this, doesn't he? After this line, you can hear hyoushigi again, as Kirimaru and Shinbei cheer for Rantarou. This evokes Japanese theater again ; what they are doing is called kakegoe, shouts from the audience to encourage performers. When a kabuki play reaches its climax, when an actor does something really impressive, he will often strikes a pose and the story will stop for a moment just for the audience to shout such kakegoe.

I don't know if it's intentional, but there's a scene earlier in the movie where Tasogare Jinbei repeats multiple times "Nine for me, one for Magatoki-dono", referring to their respective share at dinner but obviously to the taxes taken from Sonoda Village, too. Yuki wasn't here to witness it, I think, but I find it ironic that she specifically goes "One for my lord" here as he hasn't realized yet his scheme has been found out.

Tasogaredoki ninja corps used the leaves taken from the Health Committee earlier to stop Dokutake.

Credits

It's more explicit in the manga but Monjirou is bonking his head because he's frustrated he didn't get to fight haha.

And Kisanta isn't the only one who completed his summer homework in the end, Isaku did too!!

Finishing with one last pic because Doi crying for Kisanta is just way too cute.

And now I think I'm done! There were so many things I wanted to mention, I know that the moment I press publish I'll realize I forgot something important... oh well!! That means I can write another post later. If you've read this far, thank you! I hope it wasn't too boring ^^ Now I can't wait until the next movie...!!! Tenki...!!

[numbuh-7-knd]

Random Naruto AU musings/fanfic ideas incoming:

OK so, I was listening to Naruto theme songs in my room via speaker to drown out the sounds of my mother/housemate having a private appointment downstairs via zoom. (As you do)

And I started to think of how Asuma's death kind of represented a turning point where the konaha 12 are not kids anymore, things are getting serious, main ensemble members are drying, ect.

And I thought, the other thing like that in the original series was the death of the third homage. Exept even that didn't hit as hard because he was old and stuff. Then I realized one big opportunity lost with his death: the person was likely to maybe someday tell Naruto the truth of his parents, especially since he's the one who made it classified in the first place.

Here's where the AU comes in: I was trying to think of scenarios in which the third would have allowed Naruto to know about his parents during the time before the thirds death, and had a thought: there's a bunch of fics out there of Wave having some connection to hidden Whirlpool village, Uzushio, either neighbors or even that they were protected by/allied with Uzushio before the village destruction.

So what if, during the wave arc, Tazuna and the other villagers reacted when they heard Naruto's last name, being overjoyed to hear that at least one Uzumaki survived. Being hush hush about it because they don't want Gato to know because having an Uzumaki present threatens his standing.

Eventually they get Naruto alone with some of the older villagers who express their relief and exitment that there are still surviving Uzumaki after the destruction of Uzushio.

Naruto is so confused, poor kid. These old people are almost acting like he's some long lost relative or something, something about his last name, the destruction of some place called Uzushio? And what's this about asking about his family? Are all these old people senile and mistaking him for someone else?

The villagers confirm his last name is Uzumaki, and that they are talking about his clans home village of Uzushio, which was destroyed during the last war. What do you mean you've never heard of it? Is your ancestral homeland surely your parents would have mentioned it.

And then they learn that he's an orphan left all alone in the world, nothing of his family save his name and the symbol on his back. He tries so suggest that maybe he's not related to those Uzumaki, only to be rebuffed by a team of geriatrics, each pointing out some innocuous feature they swear is an Uzumaki trait, from his speech pattern and large amount of Chakra, to his ears and his chin.

By the end a group of Wave villagers old enough to remember Uzushio in its prime have mentally adopted Naruto and started telling him stories of Uzushio and the Uzumaki Clan, even trying to determine who he might be related to.

Eventually an old woman remembers a friend of hers, who's daughter was sent away to Konoha years before the attack, to be a Konoha ninja. they figure that must have been his mother, and naruto puts together that he was born around the same time as the nine tails attack of the village and they come to the conclusion that his mother probably died in the attack, weakened from childbirth, maybe even dying to protect her baby, and that he must not have had a dad in the picture for him not to be claimed afterwards.

Maybe they even introduce him to a village elder who's actually an Uzumaki and married into Wave decades ago, even long before the attack, and as she took her husband's name and wasn't a ninja, no one caught on. Maybe it Turns out to be his great aunt or something.

I'm imaging the bridge being named something representing the return of the Uzumaki clan.

Also, when the missions over and is time to return to Konoha, the entire village of Wave tries to fight for custody, especially his Great Aunt, who insists on accompanying them back to Konoha to interrogate the Hokage as to her grand nephew's treatment.

Maybe his newly found great aunt or distant cousin decides to move to Konoha, maybe with a bunch of her kids and grandkids giving Naruto a bunch of cousins. Or maybe he just gains a single elderly Uzumaki refugee from Wave.

I feel like Sasuke would be pretty mad/offended on narutos behalf over having the knowledge of his family hidden from him, since at least Sasuke has his memories and his clans belongings.

It'd be pretty funny if however many Uzumakis end up in the village, they all more or less adopt Sasuke as well as Naruto.