mellifluousmadness

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Given how the story went in Naruto with the introduction of Kaguya and an alien clan that introduced chakra to ‘Earth’:

Orochimaru, through his research, probably found that the earliest ninjutsu can be traced back to a thousand years, assuming that is when Kaguya lived and when she was sealed.

Since he has a DNA testing lab handy, he would take DNA samples from all the clans known to practice ninjutsu or with special bloodlines and find that bloodline limits stem from a single event in history. they are all connected to a single ancestor a millenia ago. All the major bloodline clans are related.

Before Sasuke, he wanted Itachi’s body. He found Kimimaro, but his illness rendered him ‘imperfect’ for Orochimaru’s use. Had Orochimaru known about Itachi’s illness, he would have come to the same conclusion regarding him.

His final body is a White Zetsu body that will not decay like the others. This body was made using ninjutsu to begin with.

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Did only Kakashi and Obito spar? Did Rin get any combat training? This panel is from when Kakashi and Obito fight just before he becomes a jinchuriki. I understand that there aren’t going to be any spars with Rin if there were any.

Going through Obito’s memories from when he was training in Madara’s cave:

Kkakashi trains with shuriken.

Some throws a barrage of shuriken at the team, Kakashi and Obito deflect with Kunai, and Rin throws her hands up to avoid major injuries.

Since these memories are Obito’s, it is likely that he is remembering certain types of interactions with her. Most memories of Rin involve catching her glancing at Kakashi and protecting her in some form.

In her short life, Rin was kidnapped at least twice: once during the Kannabi Bridge mission, and again by Kirigakure ninja. In the first one, she withstood the effects of genjutsu as the enemy tried to pry information from her. And the second time, a tailed beast was sealed inside her. As a medical ninja, she likely adhered to Tsunade’s three rules for such ninjas.

No medic ninja shall ever stop medical treatment until the lives of their party members have come to an end.

No medic ninja shall ever stand on the front lines.

No medic ninja shall ever die until they are the last of their platoon.

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I wonder what the concept of magic is like for ninjas. They already do things like bringing the dead back to life, teleporting, summoning meteors, … what would be ridiculous and unbelievable for them?

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Obito’s Ostracism

I think it’s very telling that it’s not the Uchiha who are shown degrading Obito for his lack of Sharingan. Why would they? The Uchiha rite of passage is the Grand Fireball jutsu, which he could cast. The Sharingan is not a universally activated characteristic; the clan wouldn’t consider its lack shameful (unless my Madara theory below is true, but even then it would likely be expected, yet its lack would still be not shameful). It’s a person like Kakashi, who likely thinks of Obito’s worth in terms of his military value to the village, who insults him on that basis.

Then why is Obito considered the black sheep among his clan? Two theories:

He’s disliked for the same reasons that Naruto was: he never studied, was annoying, was late, etc. The Uchiha clan was a proud clan + discriminated against & desperate to not let their status slip further. In this scenario, he’s not only not living up to the values of his society, but casting a negative light on his clan.

He’s the direct descendant of Uchiha Madara and is being ostracized on that basis. In the cave, when Madara tells Obito of his identity, Obito’s response is very specific and telling (”The Uchiha Madara of my ancestor?” = his ancestor, not just of his clan). Keep in mind that the Uchiha are a diverse ethnic group, not just a clan (Shisui and Sasuke could be first cousins, or they could have only a single common ancestor in Indra), so Madara being referred to as his direct ancestor is interesting.

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Madara is established as his father’s first-born son. Tajima died at the age of 42, some time before Izuna’s death at age 24.

Let’s assume they died within a year of each other, then Izuna was born when Tajima was 18.

Since Madara is one of five children of Tajima’s, and assuming that all children have the same mother, then Madara could’ve been born to Tajima anywhere from when he was 13-17 years.

Tajima’s partner need not be the same age as him or younger. From what I have read of biographies of Japanese warriors, an older wife is perfectly acceptable, more so in political marriages within or between clans.

It’s unfortunate that we don’t have Butsuma’s death age. I would’ve liked to see how the numbers worked out with the Senju head family.

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Why is this kind of public behaviour, okay? I don’t understand why girls would say this kind of thing out loud in a warrior society. Are they not concerned about how they will be regarded? Not all of them will end up marrying Gaara… they must realize that their society pays a lot of attention on lineage and ability?

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idt ive mentioned this in a while but i think the reason sasukes narrative is so violently misogynistic without the character himself really being so is that kishimoto has the habit of using the abuse and disregard of women as a measurement of a characters inner darkness. when naruto turns into the four tails or whatever and starts burning his skin away that comes with endangering sakuras life and showing that hes losing his humanity with this lack of control. the same narrative pressure is placed on sasuke over and over again where he leaves the village but first you have to see his inner darkness with him knocking sakura out. logically we know that like,,,, she threatened him first and knocking someone out isnt that big of a deal when youre both ninjas. but in story sakura loses that personhood (or ninjahood) and instead just becomes a helpless woman who can only threaten to scream if sasuke leaves. 

we see this same thing played out with the two of them time and time again. sakura attacks him and sasuke retaliates and logically it makes sense but kishimoto consistently reverts sakura back to just a helpless woman in the way he presents it and the tone. we can recognize that sakura is facing dehumanization and misogyny which is why when we all begin analyzing naruto for the first time we stan sakura and hate sasuke.  

karins also a good example of this because she gets this treatment twice with different results. sasuke accidentally sets her on fire and instead of discarding her like suigetsu suggests he quells the flames and saves her life. this contrasts later on when karin is captured by danzo and instead of her being a viable hostage sasuke just stabs her. 

and its like. one of the more misogynistic moments in naruto. karin goes from a ninja to just a damsel in distress who cant break free of a fucking arm hold from a dying man. sasuke throws her life away like trash and logically we know he would do the same exact thing if it was suigetsu being held or kakashi or juugo or whoever. 

but kishimoto would never write a man receiving that treatment. that isnt edgy enough. that doesnt show the extreme darkness overtaking sasukes mind. only  the abuse of women can portray this accurately. 

so it ends up with this fucked up narrative where we as the readers logically can follow that the majority of sasukes actions arent actually abusive or misogynistic, but the intent of the writing is still based on the subjugation of women. 

theres no reason why two ninjas engaged in battle wouldnt hit each other or knock the other out or whatever. but for some reason were not able to see sasuke engage in battle w a woman without kishimoto reverting the girl into a fucking civilian and waxing poetic about the darkness of sasukes heart  

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old grudges

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Wow it’s been eight million years since I shared my friend YG’s art on Tumblr for him!!! I have to do some translations of his comics too, but in the meantime, here is a dump of his Itachi work since the last time I posted his art! His Twitter has changed names! He is now @Sy981023. Unfortunately if I put the link directly Tumblr hides the post from search, but treat yourself and follow him if you use Twitter.

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Thundercloud Unit, led by Yukai. A group of seven twelve to thirteen-year-old ninja from Kumo, deployed as a backup unit for Supply forces due to their skills.

Aka ‘someone thought letting kids join the war effort was just fine and dandy.’

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siofreed

I wonder if the ANBU said that cause they’re still unhappy about Sakumo

About this. 

That’s possible, though I think the high ninja turnover makes it hard to be sure how much anyone remembers, in terms of past events. More likely it’s just more issues arising from the whole “ninja are just tools” mindset. Are they even aware of what trauma looks like? Maybe they’re all “Oh, I also sometimes feel the desperate need to wash my hands because the blood just won’t come off! That’s normal!” 

The general mentality seems to be that if you’re not randomly killing people in plain sight, then it’s not really a problem. As long as you can still do missions, that’s all the village cares about. 

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i never really understood why people ship itachi and shisui. i mean didn't shisui tell him to see him as an older brother? and we didn't see much of their relationship anyway so nothing about them seems romantic or sexual to me. and it wasn't the same as say narusasu where their whole relationship is layed out for us to see. i know shiita is not really your topic of interest but what do you think?

I’m not a big fan of Shiita cause I find it boring, but I can see why people ship them. First of all people ship characters for much less than the moments Itachi and Shisui have together in the anime (cause in the manga there’s pretty much nothing)...tbh I ship characters for interacting even less, for their potential or whatever. So I can’t judge shiita shippers, because like I wrote here and here, Shisui and Itachi share values and ideals, they spent a lot of time together and they trusted each other, even Itachi who never trusts anyone trusted Shisui, so it’s a lot.

About elements seemingly romantic or se/xual actually how many characters have se/xually charged moments? not many, and yet ppl ship them lol. Like me. Or heterosexual couples, they have no se/xually charged moment and yet...

Sometimes a good close combat fight is enough to suggest something se/xual that might happen/be imagined, sometimes a few words are. Sometimes you don’t need much to have a glimpse of how some characters’ relationships and dynamics are. Team Taka, for example, don’t have much screen time, but you can totally understand the bond between them. And if you want to see them as brotherly, ok, if you want to see more, there is space for it as well. That’s how shipping works.

What bothers me about Shiita is fanon, because some fandom headcanons became the norm, so (and I’m not referring to anyone in particular, don’t feel attacked. I just remember random things I saw online) there is kinda shy Itachi who enjoys to become a submissive bottom with Shisui (I mean there are controlling people/characters who like to be sub and this fan opinion makes sense, but now it’s the only one and I’d like to see more variety, because the opposite makes sense too), Shisui who’s a dork even tho he was one of the most feared Konoha shinobi and he was the one who influenced Itachi’s ideals, and Sasuke being the third weel, always jealous and possessive of Itachi even tho he was never like this in canon and he respected Shisui very much (in the anime he calls him Shisui-san when he was a child).

Another thing that bothers me is the ‘wholesome’ concept that now gets applied to that ship and from which a lot of ppl seem to judge those tho like different stuff in fictional pairings. Ofc wholesome is an option and it makes a lot of sense for them, but there can be more.

(also in the past I wrote a darkfic where there is shiita. needless to say it wasn’t received well in that fandom lol)

Since you mentioned NS I have the same problem with that fandom’s portrayal cause despite the many moments they have, and despite the ending, which highlighted how unhealthy and un-wholesome their relationship is, they misinterpret both characters and they reduce them in an ooc couple made of a grumpy selfish drama queen and a selfless ball of sunshine, and both are wrong because Sasuke is a selfless character who’s passive in relationships and Nar is a very assertive personality who’s not selfless at all and who’s totally dominant and possessive to Sasuke. But I have a whole tag abt how I see them.

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大叔 “Uncle” by benxiangtaitai part 1 fan translation by @fineillsignup I claim no rights over this work at all, and merely wish to share it with English speaking Naruto fandom. Feel free to typeset this work using my translation, please credit and link the original artist. I would appreciate being credited and linked as the translator.

I need to explain a little about the title and the content, in Chinese, the term 怪叔叔 or 怪蜀黍 which means basically “weird uncle” is used as a slang for “pedophile” in a similar way that in English we might say “pedo” or “lolicon”.

This comic is a sweet, platonic gen Kakashi and Sakura doujin with the beginnings of a one-sided (Sakura->Kakashi) crush, could be considered very very very pre-KakaSaku.

Summary of the whole comic: Kakashi is going on a mission with just genin Sakura (she still has long hair, so this is pre-chuunin exam arc). Sakura says that people will think he’s a pedo if he’s out alone with just her while reading his Icha Icha, so Kakashi henges into his younger self. Sakura gets mad because he still wants to read his Icha Icha even in 14-year-old Kakashi form. They unexpectedly run into some enemies and have to hide, then Kakashi has Sakura hide in a cave while he goes to get water. The cave turns out to host a very angry bear, which Kakashi saves Sakura from. Sakura tries to convince herself she doesn’t have a crush on her sensei by reminding herself of Sasuke. Then Kakashi falls asleep sitting up against the wall and Sakura falls asleep too with her head on his shoulder. It’s very cute.

So to be clear, at no point in the comic is Kakashi depicted as having any kind of romantic or sexual interest in Sakura. 100% platonic on his end. Sakura isn’t shown as being seriously attracted to him either. More like the very very beginnings of “huh, my sensei is actually hotter than Sasuke-kun, this is weird…”

I’m going to do five pages at a time when I have the time. :)

Translation behind the cut!

Keep reading

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this isn't really a headcanon but im a such a slut for aus where kakashi nuts the fuck up and raises naruto. single dad kakashi makes me cry tears of joy (even if he's way too young and in over his head. maybe especially because of that)

Kakashi adopting Naruto was my guilty pleasure when I was a kid. I use to read fanfiction about those two all the time because the idea simply warms my heart. More often than not, Kakashi would even have relapses because Naruto looks so much like Minato.

A smol Kakashi taking care of an even smaller Naruto. That’s so adorable.

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There's so much character assassination in Naruto, Kishi must have a private graveyard behind his house. It's painful to admit it but Naruto has failed as the Hokage and as the hero. He's only changed the ninja world on the surface, its core is still rotten and hurting people. The issues could have been worked on in Boruto but instead readers are told everything is peachy keen when everything shows other wise.

I wrote a reply to this but my browser said “NO :D” and crashed and I lost it sooooo I lost motivation when that happened.

Basically what I wanted to say is that, from a meta perspective, kids want to see a story where a kid is the hero, and they want to imagine what it would be like to physically fight and save the day right now.

But from a realistic perspective, we know that if a kid is having to fight death battles, adults have, in some way, failed the kid. Kids shouldn’t have to be fighting battles. One can finesse it in various ways, but a lot of those avenues are automatically closed to a Naruto sequel.  Namely because Naruto, from the very first major arc, presented the shinobi system and the dehumanized use of shinobi as tools as a problem to be solved. We were presented with a desperately sick society that knew it wasn’t doing things right but was stumbling around in the darkness, unable to comprehend things that to us as outside viewers were obvious, simply because That’s How It’s Always Been Done. Also, It Used To Be Worse So This Must Be Fine (this is implied a lot–I’m sure to Hashirama and Tobirama, the way they used child soldiers seemed more humane than how they grew up; and I’m sure to Hiruzen, the way he used child soldiers seemed more humane than how he grew up; etc).

Also they can’t use the other angle for excusing child fighters in a lot of media–this kid has a special power that is greater than any adult–because Naruto and Sasuke start the series so ridiculously OP that it would be impossible to make a kid protagonist believably better than them to begin with and still have any kind of arc be possible.

The result is that they fail the most important rule of sequel making: don’t destroy the characters people already care about to make them care about new characters. This is like character cannibalism. The viewer has a limited amount of good will and you squander it all by turning the previous round of heroes into this generation’s shitty backstory. When regular flavour Naruto is still bringing in $$$, they would be foolish to follow it up so quickly with “haha actually none of this stuck and everyone is miserable, psych!”

So they’re trying to have it both ways. It’s a Happy Ending! But literal darkness is looming that our new hero can see with his ~magic eye~. But Naruto is a Good Hokage Who Achieved His Dream! But his son resents his absense and he looks like he’s miserable and dying by inches. But he brought Sasuke home! But Sasuke is never home and has no relationship with his daughter. But there’s peace! But Orochimaru is still experimenting on children, and one of them makes up the third in the Daddy Issues Trio that is Team Konohamaru.

It’s a fucking mess. It would have been more honest if they had committed to the “Life’s Gonna Suck” Denis Leary aesthetic full-throttle and said, yep, everyone in the Naruto generation is fucking miserable and failed to change anything, nothing ever goddamn changes kiddos, open your eyes, you live in Japan and you’re about ten years away from working 60-80 hours a week and wanting to die, just like the animators and the mangaka and everyone else in this shitty workaholic industry. Cheers.

Life’s gonna suck when you grow up, when you grow up, when you grow up,life’s gonna suck when you grow up, it sucks pretty bad right now.

You might have to go to war, shoot a gun, kill a nun,you might have to go to war when you get out of school.

You’re gonna have to deal with stress, deal with stress, deal with stress,you’re gonna be a giant mess when you get back from the war.

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PSA for any high schoolers who’re going to college soon or  are just worried about it

your high school teachers are LIARS.

Most college professors accept late assignments.

Some of them are so chill that you can ditch most of class so long as you can handle the final. 

It’s all about playing it by ear.

YOU DON’T ASK TO GO TO THE BATHROOM PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE EMBARRASSMENT. 

It is NOT harder than high school. You’re more or less ready for it if you do ok in high school, ok?

Seriously. I got A’s in AP classes yet was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to handle college.

Surprise surprise?

AP classes are harder than college classes. 

No joke. 

College professors are a lot more liberal on what counts as a “right” answer. 

Plus they give you points for caring. 

Some classes give you points just for showing up. 

There’s an atmosphere of controlled panic, and you are not the only one. 

You can pretty much go up to anyone and say god life is a nightmare and finals are gonna kick my ass, and they’ll go saaaaame, regardless of how genius they’re supposed to be. 

Seriously. 

College student here.

High school teachers are the WORST of liars.

They’ll tell you college is a “whole nother level” but that’s such horse shit. 

High school is a standardized sheep counting facility. 

College is a research lab full of cats that may or may not do what you expect. 

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While I’m at it I’ll say that yea when you get down to it the shinobi system IS twisted and they breed child soldiers but… in the meta sense, Naruto was made to be a boy’s action/adventure series that became popular because kids think it would be fun to be a ninja. Critique it if you want but you don’t have to take it THAT seriously…