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cocostyles · 6 months ago

Note

Hiii! This was me! Can i request Sasuke x fem Uchiha s/o arranged marriage pls? Also can you make it non massacred au! Thank you!

Blood Chains — Sasuke Uchiha

pairing: Sasuke Uchiha x fem uchiha reader!

word count: 4595 k ( I might have gone a bit overboard i really need to get a life)

summary: You are forced to marry in order to continue the pure bloodline.

warnings; none, arranged married (?

hope you like it!

The Uchiha Clan had always been one of the cornerstones of Konoha. With their strength, their honorable history, and, above all, the cherished power running through their veins, they had left an indelible mark on the village. However, not everything within the clan had always been harmonious. After years of internal and political strife, the Uchiha decided that the best way to maintain the lineage and the purity of the Sharingan was through an arranged marriage between two strong members of the same bloodline.

Y/n Uchiha, a beautiful young woman with a strong spirit and an indomitable character, had never imagined being part of a political marriage. She was born to be a warrior, to preserve the honor and memory of her clan. She had always believed that her life would not depend on a man. Yet, when the clan council announced her arranged marriage to Sasuke Uchiha, she couldn’t help but feel trapped. It wasn’t what she wanted, but she couldn’t deny her father’s wishes.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had long distanced himself from everything the clan represented. He loved his family but had witnessed too many horrors in his life—too many betrayals, too many broken promises. His brother’s death had scarred him deeply, and walking a solitary path, regardless of the cost, was his way of surviving. He didn’t care about the clan, arranged marriages, or bloodline purity. But destiny—or rather, duty—had caught up with him, and even though he resisted, he couldn’t refuse.

When you were informed that you would marry Sasuke, you weren’t surprised. But that didn’t mean you were happy about it. Y/n understood her duty and was willing to fulfill it, yet she didn’t expect Sasuke to be so… irritating.

The wedding day arrived. The air was heavy with unspoken expectations placed upon the shoulders of the two young ninjas. They exchanged glances at the altar—not the look of lovers, but of two individuals simply accepting what had been imposed on them. It was only a brief moment, and Sasuke, in his habitual silence, showed no emotion. Y/n, on the other hand, stood firm, her eyes reflecting a determination that Sasuke had known since they were children, but there was also a shadow of doubt. What kind of future awaited them together?

The atmosphere during the ceremony was filled with curious glances and expectations from all members of the clan, especially their parents, who viewed the marriage as a necessary step for the survival of the lineage. “The clan needs this union,” was all you repeated to yourself as you listened to the priest’s words. There was no turning back now. You were trapped with him for the rest of your life, fulfilling your duty.

The first few days after the wedding were a silent torment for both. Sasuke spent most of his time away on missions for the village, escaping from his new reality. You, on your part, tried to fulfill your role as a wife, but the household duties and the clan’s administrative responsibilities left you with no peace. The bond between the two was so distant it could be cut with a feather.

One evening, after a long day of training, Sasuke returned home, tired but unwilling to yield. You were preparing dinner—a small welcoming gesture you hoped he’d appreciate, though Sasuke didn’t even notice it. His indifference immediately annoyed you. You were trying, and he didn’t care. Why was he such an idiot?

“Do you have something to say?” your sharp voice broke the silence, almost challenging.

Sasuke didn’t respond immediately. He was too exhausted to argue, but at the same time, something inside him couldn’t ignore the spark of irritation that had been growing toward you during his days at home.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied indifferently, dropping his bag on the floor. He chose not to fight.

You didn’t look at him, but anger began bubbling inside you. How dare he be so distant? you thought. “Then… why don’t you speak, Sasuke? Why do you ignore everything here?”

“I already told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he answered, now with a hint of irritation. There was something about his attitude that drove you mad. Crossing your arms, you stared at him with determination. This was the first conversation you’d had in days, and you weren’t going to back down so easily.

“I’m not here to play your games, Sasuke. This marriage—whether it’s just for the clan or not—forces us to live together. I’m not some decorative figure in this house you can simply ignore,” you said, unable to keep the anger from filling your voice. Sasuke observed you for a long moment, surprised by the strength of your words.

“And what do you expect from me? To call you ‘dear’ and live a happy life? This isn’t a fairy tale,” Sasuke said, his voice cold and distant as always.

And there it was again—that discomfort in the air, that insurmountable barrier between the two of you. You sighed, feeling your nerves start to snap. You couldn’t continue living like this, in constant friction. But he was right, so you locked yourself in your room with a loud slam of the door.

The next confrontation wasn’t long in coming. A week later, while Sasuke was away, you couldn’t stop thinking about what was happening between the two of you. You couldn’t deny that there was something about Sasuke that attracted you—a darkness that seemed to call to your own inner shadows. But there was also something about him that repulsed you: his indifference, his inability to connect. You were so alike, yet so different.

Since the wedding, your world had changed drastically, but that didn’t mean you would stay silent in the face of the contempt you felt from your husband.

Sasuke arrived home late, as always. You were waiting for him with a cup of tea in your hands, staring at the floor. Sasuke removed his sandals, paying little attention to your actions, and went straight to the window, seeking some calm after a long and exhausting day. The barrier between you remained firm.

You stood up, leaving the cup on the table, and slowly approached him. “Why are you here, Sasuke?” you asked, your voice firm but with a layer of vulnerability you couldn’t hide. “If you don’t want to be here, if you really don’t care to make an effort, just say so and leave.”

Sasuke turned to you, his dark eyes as empty as ever, but this time there was something different in his gaze—a spark of doubt, of guilt, as if your words were beginning to sink in. “I don’t understand you,” he said, letting out an exasperated sigh. “What do you want me to say, Y/n? That I don’t care about this?” His tone softened slightly, but his attitude remained cold, calculating.

“Then tell me,” you challenged, locking your eyes with his. “Because you haven’t said a single sincere word since we got married. I don’t know what you think, I don’t know what you feel. Is this really what you want, Sasuke? For us to live as strangers under the same roof?”

Sasuke stared at your face, noticing for the first time the intensity of your frustration, your pain. You were hurting, too. “Not everything can be solved with words,” he murmured, turning back to the window. “What I do, I do for the clan, for the future. If you have something to reproach me for, say it. I don’t have time for explanations.”

But in his eyes, you saw something else. An internal struggle, a battle he had never wanted to share. It couldn’t be that simple. Sasuke Uchiha—the man who had dedicated his life to revenge and solitude—was fighting against something he didn’t understand, something you couldn’t clearly see.

The tension in the room was palpable. You could feel the anger beginning to simmer in your chest, but at the same time, there was a strange sense of attraction toward him. His presence, his strength, the way he seemed so distant, so out of reach, stirred a mix of conflicting emotions within you. Once again, you let it pass, retreating to your room.

The next day, you decided to do something you hadn't done in a long time: step out of your comfort zone. For years, you had been part of the clan, always controlled, always aware of your responsibilities. But at that moment, you couldn’t keep ignoring what you felt. So, for once, you took a risk.

You walked toward the library of the Uchiha mansion, where Sasuke often spent long hours reading. The air was silent, the whisper of books sliding between shelves filling the space. He was there, standing in front of a bookshelf, his body hunched over the volumes.

“Can I talk to you?” you asked, the voice softer than usual, devoid of the anger that typically accompanied your words.

Sasuke glanced at you over his shoulder, his eyes void of emotion. “About what?”

You stepped closer, with your heart pounding in your chest. “About us,” you replied, a hint of vulnerability in your voice. "I don’t want to live like this, Sasuke. I don’t want to be in a marriage where all we do is ignore each other, and when we don’t, we argue."

There was a pause. Sasuke said nothing, but his expression softened slightly. You didn’t know if that was a good sign or not.

"Maybe, just maybe, if we give ourselves a chance, we could understand each other. Maybe even become... friends."

Sasuke turned fully, his eyes fixed on her. “I don’t want to be trapped in a lie,” he said, his tone heavy, but the intensity in his gaze suggested those words were not only for you but for himself as well. “I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to act. I...”

But seeing how much he struggled to open up, you didn’t let him finish. You took another step closer and suddenly stopped him with a hand on his chest. Sasuke froze at your touch, staring into your eyes with surprise, and though his body remained tense, the energy in the air shifted, both of you felt it.

"I know," you whispered. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t try. Because, Sasuke, if we don’t, this story will never have an ending.”

It was then that something shifted between them—a change so subtle no one else could have noticed. But in that instant, thanks to that small touch, you and Sasuke realized that the tension growing between you for so long was not just the result of the clan’s expectations or family responsibilities. There was something more, something that connected you, something neither of you could fully understand.

As days passed, the tension between Sasuke and T/n didn’t completely disappear, but something began to change in their strange dynamic. Both started interacting more subtly, less distantly. They no longer avoided glances or uncomfortable conversations. There was a fragile peace between them—one that seemed more like a temporary truce than a definitive solution.

One night, while dining in silence, Sasuke broke the stillness. “Y/n…” His voice sounded less harsh than usual. “Why do you always challenge me?”

You looked up, surprised by the question. Sasuke rarely spoke of emotions, let alone his thoughts. “Because I don’t think everything has to be so cold and calculated. The clan shouldn’t be the only thing that matters. Not when you’re so trapped in your own thoughts that you can’t even see what you have here.”

Sasuke stared at you, unsure if your words had any truth or if you were just searching for something more in him. But without a doubt, you had struck a nerve. He had always lived for his family, for the Uchiha clan, and had learned to disconnect from emotions. But with you, everything seemed different.

Silence fell between them again, but now it wasn’t as heavy. Though they didn’t speak, Sasuke began observing her more closely. There was something in her gaze—something defiant, something he had never noticed in any other woman of his clan. She wasn’t someone who would submit to the will of others, not even his. That intrigued him more than he wanted to admit.

A few days later, the Uchiha clan organized an important business meeting that you were both obligated to attend. During the meeting, Sasuke was absorbed in discussions with the leaders, while you watched with disdain the conversations about alliances and strategies. For some time now, you had been considering stepping back; you were tired of fighting. At that moment, a man from a rival clan began to make insinuations toward you, praising your skills and hinting at something more than mere admiration.

“You’re a very strong woman, Y/n,” the man said with a smile, stepping a little closer. “It’s an honor to meet such an… impressive Uchiha.”

You frowned, uncomfortable. However, the man’s words flattered your ego. “Thank you, Yamada,” you replied, stepping slightly away from the man’s hands, which had shamelessly landed on your waist. “But I’m not interested in your empty compliments.”

Sasuke watched everything from his position at the table, and although his face remained impassive, something inside him stirred. He couldn’t help but feel jealous. But what right did he have to feel that way? After all, he himself had treated you coldly, and you two were only just beginning to coexist in peace.

But the way that man approached T/n awakened something in Sasuke. He couldn’t let another man be so close to you. Though he didn’t fully understand what he was feeling, he knew he couldn’t allow things to get more complicated than they already were.

When the party ended, Sasuke walked toward you without saying a word, brushing past the man with a deliberate bump. You glanced at him out of the corner of your eye, recognizing the tension in his posture.

“Was that necessary?” you asked, crossing your arms. “It’s just a game for him, Sasuke.”

“I couldn’t care less about what he wants,” Sasuke replied in a low tone, almost murmuring. “I care about what you want.”

The silence that followed was heavy, and though you wanted to challenge him, a part of you felt touched by his words. Sasuke, in his own way, was telling you something without fully saying it. There was something more behind his distant and protective demeanor. Why did he feel that impulse to protect her now?

The previous night, something had changed in Sasuke. Although he didn’t fully understand what he was feeling, seeing T/n distant from him—even smiling with another man—made him realize he wasn’t willing to let you go. Somehow, you were beginning to stir something inside him, something that had been dormant for years.

You, on the other hand, were confused. Although you still saw him as your husband by obligation, the tension between you had intensified in ways you couldn’t ignore. Was that what you wanted now? To have something more with Sasuke, even if he would never be the romantic man you had dreamed of?

One day, after a morning training session, Sasuke stopped in front of you while you practiced your ninjutsu techniques. It was clear that the way you both looked at each other had shifted, but neither dared to speak about what they truly felt. You were exhausted, your breath uneven, yet you stood tall and defiant as always. Sasuke, on the other hand, watched you with a mix of respect and... something else.

“What is it, Sasuke? Are you just going to stand there staring at me all day?” you said without stopping your training, a touch of sarcasm in your voice.

“I’m just wondering…” Sasuke began, his tone serious. “Why do you push yourself so hard, Y/N?” He had spent his whole life watching you push yourself to the edge, becoming formidable.

You stopped training and turned to him with a challenging look. “Because I need to be better. I can’t afford to fail. This is my life, Sasuke. The one I’ve built for myself. And you? Why do you do it? Is it just for the clan, or is there something more?”

Sasuke stared at her in silence, a mix of frustration and strange admiration bubbling within him. you are unstoppable.

“I do it for what I represent,” he finally said, his voice low but firm. “For my clan. For Konoha.”

“Then keep pretending you’re not human,” you replied sharply. “Keep pretending you don’t care what you think or feel and stay out of it.”

Your response left Sasuke silent, but inwardly, he felt wounded. It was true. He had always kept his emotions under control, never letting anything distract him from his responsibilities. But you had seen beyond his facade, and that both irritated and intrigued him.

That same night, after dinner, they found themselves once again in the Uchiha mansion garden. The moonlight bathed the ground covered in fallen leaves, and the stillness of the place allowed them to remain silent without the pressure of prying eyes.

“Have you ever thought that we could be more than a political arrangement?” Sasuke broke the silence, his voice deep.

You looked at him, surprised by the vulnerability in his words. “I don’t know,” you answered after a long moment. “I’ve never thought about what could be. I’ve only focused on what is.”

Sasuke stepped closer to you, cautiously, as though weighing every word. “And what is that, exactly? You and I living like this forever?”

Your gaze remained locked with his, a flash of emotion passing through your eyes. “I don’t want to be just another pawn on the chessboard, Sasuke. I don’t want to be your obligation.”

Sasuke studied you intently, feeling your words sink deeper than he expected. There was something in your gaze that was disarming him. Something that told him he could no longer ignore his own feelings, the ones he had kept locked away for so long.

“Then what do you want from me?” he asked in a low voice, a spark of desperation in his tone that felt foreign to him.

You took a step back, returning to the strong, defiant woman you had always been. “I want you to stop hiding behind your responsibilities and start being real with me, Sasuke. I can’t keep living in a world where everything is just another damn duty.”

The air between both of you grew heavier, but Sasuke didn’t back down. He couldn’t. Something in his chest was beating fiercely, and it wasn’t just for the clan, not just for Konoha. Something else was driving him to stand there, facing you, ready to confront his own demons.

For the first time in a long while, you were not just adversaries. Perhaps, just perhaps, you were beginning to understand each other.

Even though you and Sasuke shared the same home and, in theory, were fulfilling your duties as husband and wife within the clan, there was a palpable distance between you. However, something had shifted in your relationship: words were no longer necessary to acknowledge that your feelings were evolving.

A couple of months after the marriage, Sasuke was in his office reviewing documents when a shadow appeared at the door. It was you, with your usual defiant demeanor, but this time, there was something different in your gaze.

“What’s keeping you so busy, Sasuke?” you asked, your voice laced with curiosity. “You can’t spend the entire day buried in paperwork.”

Sasuke looked up, his expression as impassive as ever, but his eyes revealed a spark of interest. “Work, as always. Do you have something to say, Y/N?”

You stepped closer, placing a hand on his desk. “Do you really have to spend all day locked in here, doing things that have nothing to do with us?” Your words, though direct, carried a faint tone of reproach.

Sasuke watched you for a long moment, something he rarely did. For a second, everything about him seemed more vulnerable. His life, always so controlled and calculated, was beginning to crumble under the weight of his own heart. What did he truly want? He couldn’t keep living solely for the clan. You knew it, and he felt it too.

“What do you suggest, then?” he finally asked, his voice unusually gentle.

You smiled faintly, the spark of challenge in your eyes. “That we stop pretending we’re just tools of the clan, Sasuke. Maybe what we need is time... time for us.”

The change in Sasuke was subtle but unmistakable. There was something in your words that resonated within him, something he hadn’t considered before. What you needed wasn’t just to fulfill a duty. There was a need to be honest with each other, to finally be real.

That afternoon, Sasuke decided to break free from his daily routine, spurred by your words. He invited you to train outside the city, in a calm area far from the Uchiha mansion. You wanted to train together, simply to enjoy each other’s company without the expectations of the clan.

The sun was setting as you arrived at a clearing near the forest. You glanced at Sasuke as he began to stretch, preparing to start. His body, always so rigid, moved with an innate grace.

“How do you manage to stay so... cold?” you asked as you began your own warm-up.

Sasuke looked at you again, as if deciding whether to answer. “It’s not cold. Just... efficient.”

“Efficient,” you repeated mockingly. “I know you, Sasuke Uchiha. It’s a façade. And you know it.”

He said nothing, but inside, his thoughts were turbulent. Did you really see him that way? What you said had struck a nerve. He wasn’t just a “cold man” or a machine that only thought about the clan. There was more to him, and for the first time, he felt you were the only one who saw it.

When the two of you began training, the tension between you became palpable. Every movement, every technique, was a blend of challenge, rivalry, and something more... something that was slowly building. However, the most disconcerting thing was the electricity that seemed to flow—a tension neither of you wanted to acknowledge.

Suddenly, as you sparred, Sasuke blocked one of your attacks, causing you to fall to the ground. The air grew heavier, as if everything between you had condensed into that single moment. Sasuke extended his hand to help you up, and as your eyes met, you found yourselves closer than ever before.

“You’ll have to do better if you want to beat me,” Sasuke said, trying to deflect the tension, though his voice was softer, tinged with something he couldn’t quite identify.

Instead of responding with words, you challenged him with a fierce red gaze—the unmistakable Sharingan you both shared. He smiled. Something was brewing between you, something even your egos couldn’t deny.

After an exhausting day of training, you shared a light meal at the mansion. Though both of you were reluctant to show emotions, the dynamic between you had changed. Sasuke couldn’t stop watching you, noticing how you ate, how you smiled, how every small gesture seemed more genuine than the empty moments of his past.

When you both finished, Sasuke stood and walked to the window, gazing at the horizon. The silence in the room was comfortable, something he rarely felt.

You watched him from where you sat, saying nothing for a few moments. Something in the air had shifted.

“You know,” you finally said, breaking the silence. “I... I don’t know if we’ll ever become what the clan expects of us. But maybe, we can try to be something else. Just us.”

Sasuke turned to you, his piercing eyes meeting yours. For a long second, he said nothing. Your heart pounded, feeling the weight of your words. Perhaps you’d ruined things, and he would withdraw again.

Then, suddenly, Sasuke stepped toward you, close enough that your breaths mingled. “Y/N...” he murmured, almost in a whisper.

The world seemed to stop, and you weren’t sure if it was the right moment to continue, to take the next step. But something in his eyes told you that, perhaps, the future wasn’t as uncertain as it once seemed.

Sasuke didn’t move for a long moment, his gaze locked on yours. The tension in the air was palpable, indescribable, something you both felt but neither wanted to admit. Your hearts seemed to beat in sync, and the silence between you turned into something almost sacred.

Taking a deep breath, your hands trembled slightly, though you tried to maintain composure. Should you take the first step? Something inside told you yes. You couldn’t keep ignoring what you felt—not when every fiber of your being yearned for him.

Finally, it was Sasuke who broke the silence, his voice low and husky. “Y/N...” he whispered your name again in a way he never had before. It was soft but carried an emotional weight you immediately recognized. In that moment, it was just the two of you.

Without further thought, Sasuke stepped even closer, his fingers brushing lightly against your cheek. The distance between you closed, and as you looked up, your faces were so close that your breaths intertwined.

“What... what is happening between us?” you murmured, your voice trembling with emotion.

Sasuke didn’t reply with words. Instead, he tilted his head slightly, and in an impulsive act, captured your lips with his.

The kiss was gentle at first, cautious, as if you both feared what would come next. But soon, the tension that had been building for weeks—that spark that had always been there but neither dared to acknowledge—exploded. Sasuke pulled you closer, his arms wrapping around you as you clung to his clothes, seeking more of the feeling only he could give you.

The kiss deepened with urgency, as if everything you hadn’t said before was being conveyed through that single moment. The world disappeared. The clan’s duties, the weight of expectations—all of it faded away. Only the two of you existed, discovering a new feeling, something you’d never experienced before.

When the kiss broke, you were both breathing heavily, your foreheads touching, gazes locked. Your heart pounded wildly, as if it had finally found its rhythm.

“This...” Sasuke began, but his words trailed off, unable to find the right way to describe what had just happened.

With a shy but genuine smile, you whispered in reply, “This is just the beginning, Sasuke.”

The room fell silent again, the weight of your words lingering in the air. But the certainty of what you had just shared, of what was growing between you, was clear. It no longer mattered what the clan thought or what the history of your families dictated. From that moment on, the rules had changed.

Now, the story was yours to write.

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badgalsasuke · 4 months ago

Note

https://www.tumblr.com/weepingnightmarenaruto/775649233787387904/the-way-kishimoto-handles-narutos-trauma-is-so

What are your thoughts on this?

Hello anon!

Ngl this is one of my favorite ask I've ever received because it allows me to discuss something I've been meaning to for quite some time now.

Before I get into the topic that interests me the most, I'll give my observations on this:

Honestly Narutos childhood before the start of the manga needed to be explored more and Kishimoto should’ve given a bigger focus to how Naruto is because of it.

It was explored. Since chapter 1 and throughout flashbacks over the next chapters of the series, Kishimoto efficiently established and explored Naruto's childhood which explained why Naruto behaves the way he does. Kishimoto does not need to grab the readers hand and explain exhaustively so people understand Naruto's character. This manga is not hard to get to need all that.

But the way Kishimoto constantly shows how okay Naruto is with being mistreated as long as he feels they acknowledged him, is so sad. And I wish Kishimoto awknowledged how unhealthy this is.

This is where it gets interesting. It is true that Naruto isn't allowed to get angry at Konoha and is quickly resolved in the manga (although that particular paragraph was in reference to Sasuke). However, this has more to do w/ the fact that Naruto is a shonen and the power of friendship and loyalty overcomes everything, even Kishimoto himself expressed frustration at how naive the resolution of problems in shonen manga is, maybe if the series was a seinen he would've written with more nuanced about Konoha as a political and military entity that also happens to be the home of the child soldiers.

This is also part of the reason why the Kage summit arc pisses me off so much. Naruto lets himself be beat up by Karui over Sasuke, has a panick attack, rejects Gaara, gets on his knees to beg the raikage to pardon Sasuke etc. Like he should be able to emphatize with the Kumo ninjas over what happened to Killer Bee and he should value his friendship with Gaara more. Honestly Sasuke joining the akatsuki and trying to capture Killer Bee should have been a deal breaker to Naruto. And to top that off Naruto witnessing Sasuke trying to Murder Sakura should at least be one. Naruto forgiving people who mistreats him makes sense, but people mistreating the people he cares for should not be. The way Naruto treats so many of his friends over his obsession with Sasuke is so disappointing.

And this is what I wanted to tackle the most. Naruto fans do not understand Kishimoto's writing AT ALL. Idk if the op of that post is Asian or not, but it's become clear to me that Naruto fans don't know and have shown zero interest in getting to know Kishimoto's writing influences. And no, I'm not talking about Dragon Ball.

Kishimoto has shared with fans his interest in Samurai and the Edo period Japan several times, to the point the first manga he wanted to write when he was a highschooler, before he even won an award at Shonen Jump, was about Samurai but scrapped the idea because at the time mangas like Rurouni Kenshin and Blade of the Immortal came out and he felt there was no longer space for him in the highly popular sub-genre and also that he's own writing wasn't as good compared to the aforementioned works.

But that does not mean that we don't see Kishimoto's nerdy side come out in Naruto about Samurai even if it's a manga about ninjas. There's the obvious, we see during the 4th war arc an actual battle between two samurai warriors, we also know Naruto is established in a fantasy universe of feudal Japan with damyos (feudal lords) and all. The themes of honor and loyalty, quests for revenge, the overall kinship is present as well.

But for those who have read Japanese literature works from the 17th century, you would have noticed that Kishimoto borrows A LOT from them when he's writing his manga, especially for Naruto and Sasuke.

It's funny because SS and NH shippers, as well as Naruto stans who hate Sasuke and Sasuke stans who hate Naruto and even fujoshis who are used to cookie-cutter stories where seme and uke do nothing but fuck after a couple of meetings in a corporate setting or high school or whatever boring shit they like to read, use the following examples to show how toxic and unhealthy Naruto and Sasuke's relationship is, not caring about Kishimoto's literary references as usual.

Kishimoto writes a love story the way they used to be written centuries ago. He draws a lot of inspiration from at least two writers from this period Ihara Saikaku and Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

The first example is Haku and Zabuza's relationship, I'll speak about them before moving to Naruto and Sasuke to give more context on how homosexual love stories were written around the time. Although Zabuza is not a samurai but rather a ninja on the run, the relationship is clearly inspired on the wakashudo practices where an older man would take a child from ages 11-16 as his protégé to train him, feed him, give him shelter and take him as his lover until the child came of age and became a warrior at the service of the lord of the land himself. Those young boys must be of great beauty, Saikaku is constantly writing about how their beauty is what grants them the better masters over the ugly boys.

This is what Zabuza and Haku do. Zabuza takes Haku as an apprentice and they swear loyalty to each other till the death, because that's the other thing, if the circumstance presented, both master and apprentice would fight alongside each other, kill for each other and if necessary die for each other.

Many Naruto fans feel uncomfortable about the real nature of Zabuza and Haku's relationship and delude themselves into believing their relationship is actually one of father and son, lol how stupid.

Because Naruto is a shonen, we never see sexual acts being performed so Kishimoto instead shows us the attraction these characters feel for one another through suggestive dialogue and flushed faces.

Even Haku's sacrifice and Zabuza's final words are totally inspired in the works of Saikaku, where both lovers hope to meet each other in another world. Foer exambple, in one of Saikaku's stories The Boy who Sacrificed his Life in the Robes of his lover, the boy, Senjuro, who had pledged to love Sazen in this world and the next and knowing his lover was at risk of being ambushed and killed, disguises himself as Sazen sacrificing his life for him getting slashed from the back, after learning about Senjuro's death Sazen kills himself as well.

Very dramatic right? This other post also discusses briefly Haku and Zabuza and Kishimoto drawing inspiration from literary works from the Edo period [LINK]

Let's move onto Naruto and Sasuke. Is their relationship toxic and unhealthy? By today's standards it sure is. But by the standards of the 17th century is one of the greatest stories of male love ever told, I'm certain if Saikaku could read Naruto he would commend Kishimoto on his work. But this is something Naruto fans don't know and quite frankly most don't care about.

In the post you linked, OP expresses the arc that pisses them off the most (and most Naruto fans hate as well) is the Kage Summit arc where Naruto states his fierce loyalty to Sasuke no matter what, and I must laugh because if there's any arc that resembles the male love stories of the Edo period the most, it's that one.

It bothers most fans Naruto wanted to commit double suicide so he and Sasuke escape the burdens of their world and be free of them in the next one. This is a common theme in literature of 17th century Japan. Two lovers making up for their Confucian failings in this world seeking redemption in a Buddhist paradise (at the time Buddhism had made its way into Japan and it was very different from China and India's Buddhism, you can read more about it here).

Kishimoto has referenced Chikamatsu in Naruto, so he is familiar with his plays where lovers commit double suicide as the ultimate showcase of love. I believe Kishimoto felt more comfortable and had more freedom to reference Chikamatsu and not Saikaku because the former wrote heterosexual romances whereas the latter focused more in homosexual romances and Kishimoto was already walking on a fine line by this point.

These other blogs have written great posts on how Kishimoto incorporated the double suicide trope for Naruto and Sasuke [LINK], [LINK], [LINK]. So I don't think I need to delve any deeper into it, they did a great job themselves.

But this is what OP doesn't understand. Kishimoto is writing an epic, a love story for the ancient times. Sasuke doing all that and all this is kind of like a test, Naruto's devotion is being put through highs and lows and they must overcome them. It'd be good fanservice to some if Naruto would give up on Sasuke but that'd be pretty boring and writers of the Edo period would be rolling over their graves if Kishimoto did that, HA!

Another element Kishimoto borrowed from Saikaku's literary works is the willingness to commit seppuku for your loved one. We see this with Madara and Hashirama.

In Saikaku's story Nightingale in the Snow two young boys, Naiki and Dannosuke, seek to become the lovers of the samurai Tonai. When Tonai demands proof of their love for him the boys show themselves willing to commit seppuku in front of him, Tonai shocked by their devotion accepts them as lovers.

The scene is similar to Hashirama also being willing to kill himself in front of Madara per his request, hoping Madara would accept him and trust him and his clan. Madara just like Tonai, is shocked by Hashirama's actions and stops him just in time, accepting him and joining his clan with Hashirama's, just like Tonai accepted the boys.

Which leads me to Kishimoto's *actual* finale for the Naruto series, the chapter he had planned and envisioned for 15 years, chapter 698. It's also been discussed by another blog how the theme of the battle Love vs. Power and the panels are a homage to Devilman's own final battle [LINK]. But what interests me in particular about chapter 698 in relation to Saikaku's work is how mutilation of your own body has also been a common trope in Japanese male love literature as proof your devotion.

In the story He never performed in the capital, Saikaku writes how Kabuki actor Heihachi would cut his tighs and slash his arms to prove the sincerity of his love for his patrons.

Or in An Onnagata's Tosa Diary where a devoted fan of kabuki actor Han'ya cut his own finger and gave it as a gift to the actor as proof of his sincerity. In response, Han'ya washed the finger thoroughly, wrapped it carefully and placed it in the breast of his robe.

Kinda like Naruto willing to lose his arm to Sasuke hoping to finally reach his heart (and did!). Sasuke would also go on to refuse a new arm, keeping himself mutilated as a reminder of Naruto's devotion for him.

Something that surprised me at first but then it made total sense to me is the brotherly troth found in Saikaku's works. Usually when a Samurai took a young apprentice, the samurai was old as shit (40-60 years old) and the young boy would be anything between 11-17 years. But there were times when a younger man would engage in a relationship with another man close in age, (although for us in modern times a lot of them would still be considerable age-gaps).

Saikaku for example, wrote the love story between Sazen, a 28 year old and Senjuro, a 17 year old, because of their not so big age-gap, these two lovers considered each other "brothers". They formalize their relationship by having sex, considering it the consummation of their brotherly troth.

When Sazen believes Senjuro had betrayed him for another man he's heartbroken Senjuro might had broken his vows of brotherly love.

So in Edo Japan homosexual relationships between two men close in age were considered similar to that of brothers, or at least brought the men so close they would consider one another brothers. Something very important to keep in mind is that none of these men are actually blood related.

In another of Saikaku's stories They Waited Three Years to Die, Kikui the younger man, considers his lover, Uhei to be his elder brother.

It seems that in this period of time there wasn't a clear divide in the type of love a man might profess another man with whom he is in love and has sex with, and the type of love two blood-related brothers felt for each other. Again, this is not condoning incest, it's more so how they saw male-male romantic relationships as deeply intimate they rivaled the bonds of blood-related people.

I had already made a post on what I believed Kishimoto meant with his whole "more brothers than blood-brothers" deal he has going on with Naruto and Sasuke [LINK]. But now I understand where it comes from. It really has nothing to do with actual incest (or pseudo-incest or spiritual-incest or whatever the fuck antis come up with) but him drawing inspiration from centuries old literary works on homosexual relationships. After all Naruto being set in what's clearly fantasy Edo feudal Japan, it makes sense Naruto the character would have a similar view on his feelings for Sasuke.

Finally, another thing I found very interesting is how in Saikaku's works he always makes sure to let the readers know how beautiful a man (usually the bottom of the relationship) is by comparing his looks to those of a girl. For example, in his story Implicated by his Diamond Crest, Saikaku writes Tannosuke is so beautiful people thought he was a girl when he was seven years old.

In another story, Fireflies also work their asses at night, the boy Handayou is filled with pride when he hears cries of admiration from both women and men alike, it's pointed out he resembles a beautiful woman and is exactly like a courtesan.

So funny how Kishimoto does the same with Haku and Sasuke, such pretty beautiful boys people think they're girls.

Kishimoto is so insane, this old man really thought he could get away with all this, uh? or maybe he was hoping people would notice.

So going back to OP's post linked, what they and most Naruto fans complain about is that Kishimoto writes seeking to emulate the writing of 17th century authors rather than a 21st century one. So a lot of things that for us are toxic and unhealthy, were symbols of passion and loyalty back then and that's how Kishimoto sees them and seeks to express them in his own work. This is why it's so important to keep in mind author's intentionality when engaging with some art or media work. What is Kishimoto trying to say with his manga? what are his references, influences and inspiration? which works parallel his own? There's a reason why every creative is always telling us the media they consume and their favorite art, because we are seeing pieces of them reimagined in their own new work.

I'm really proud that I managed to make this post only considering Japanese works and not adding Western ones for direct parallels between Naruto and other pieces of literature. But this sentiment of wanting to fight alongside your loved one, killing for them and dying by their side is pretty much universal in homosexual literature, especially from the ancient times. You can also find this celebration of homosexual love in Ancient Greek and Roman literature too, Achilles and Patroclus being the most famous example.

The lyrics of Taylor Swift's song You Are In Love, fit pretty well this same sentiment those men centuries ago were trying to describe as well.

Like yeah, imagine you've been sent off war, women stayed in the city and you're left with nothing but the company of the men you're gonna fight alongside and quite possibly die alongside too. Of course you'd love them, in every way a person could possibly love another one, because those men are your brothers.

The screenshots I used for this post are from Ihara Saikaku's book The Great Mirror of Male Love.

#ask reply #narusasu #sasunaru #hashimada #zabuza and haku #sns literary parallels #I'm so proud of this post omg #sns meta #Kishimoto was reheating Saikaku’s nachos a bit too much 🤨

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animeyanderelover · 1 year ago

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Hello⭐️Can I request Hashirama,Tobirama,Madara,Itachi,Sasuke,Tsunade,Neji and shisui with a darling who falls in love with them first and tries to pursue a relationship?Thank you 🍉

Tw: Yandere themes, toxic relationship, possessive behavior, obsession, delusional mindset, clinginess, stalking, manipulation, threats, abduction

Tags: @shumidehiro @swagenemyartisan

Darling falls in love first

Madara Uchiha

🌑By no means are you an idealist who believes that love conquers all. You know that you are only one of many people who has fallen in love with Madara and a tiny part of you is almost embarrassed about it as at this point it is a common experience to have for many people, including now you. On the other hand how could one not fall for the head of the Uchiha Clan? Madara is strong, stubborn, prideful and oozes such charisma and confidence that dominates every conversation and interaction he is part of. It is precisely because of his position and reputation that you aren't going to daydream. You are only a plain ninja in comparison to him and you are very well aware that arranged marriage is a common tradition in the Uchiha Clan to determine an ideal bride for Madara. You are still young though, still want to chase after your dreams so even if you predict that all of your effort will be ultimately futile, you decide to give it your best simply so that you can have a proper closure with your feelings if it should ever be announced that he is engaged to some bride the elder of the clan have picked for him. You want to be someone who always tries their best after all.

🌑You do not fling yourself at him like some other people do as this is beneath your dignity and you know very well how little the warrior thinks of such people. You attempt to be as subtle as possible about it and remain professional in times where you are summoned as a Jonin of Konohagakure. Despite your best attempts to be as nonchalant about your feelings as possible, you should have expected of Madara to see beneath your facade. He has seen the way you constantly glance at him, notices how you silently get flustered when he gets close to you. Pretty soon you are convinced that he is silently tormenting you on purpose as he always seems to step that tiny bit closer to you, dark eyes observing how you struggle to hold your composure with an amused twinkle in his eyes. It is you who then decides to confront him about it and when he simply states that he is aware of your feelings, you see no reason to deny it and instead admit that he is right. You see the need to clarify that you won't let your feelings get in the way of your profession nor your judgement. He states merely that he hopes that you can keep your promise as he has no intention to work with someone who chases daydreams.

🌑Luckily you can prove that you are more than just your words as you never neglect your own duties and training despite your feelings for him. You still remain loyal to your own morales and your own belief to the point where you have even questioned his way of doing things on some missions and as displeased as he is outwardly as he is the leader of the team, on the inside he is almost delighted that you have the courage to speak up to him like this. Madara actually enjoys your presence which is why he allows you to hang around him, something you haven't done before out of respect as well as fear to gain his ire. You are somewhat flustered when it's just the two of you, although he seems to have a thing to rile you up by criticising your taijutsu or your combat skills for the flaws he noticed during battle. You have the drive though which is why he offers to train you himself, fully aware how this may affect you. You see yourself challenged though and accept, ignore your beating heart whenever your body gets awfully close to his during training. You always deny it though and more than once has he started laughing when seeing your flustered and pouty face. You really are something.

🌑Your feelings for him only boost his ego and feed his pride until it turns into arrogance as soon as his own feelings start to develop for you. You have spunk and do not hesitate to speak your mind even to him and he admires your drive to work hard and to always do your best. As he is already aware of your own feelings, he does not hesitate even a bit as he instead approaches you one day and admits to you that he has fallen in love with you too. Initially you do not believe him as you know that he has always enjoyed to test your willpower. Just as you are about to rant at him though, he suddenly pulls you against his chest and in the next moment you feel his lips smashing against you in a passionate and possessive kiss that has your mind short circuiting. When he pulls away, not appearing nearly as dazed as you do, he declares to you with a cocky grin on his face that he won't let anyone else have you now that he has his eyes on you. He isn't even trying to hide his feelings and intentions either as he gets quite handsy with you even in public and everyone who he catches getting too close to you receives a dark glare from him, more than enough to frighten a grown man.

🌑Madara does try to see with how much he can get away before you start protesting and standing up for yourself or other people he intimidates. He is feeling quite secure in either case though as he not only holds incredible power but can also gloat about the fact that the only man in your heart is him. Still, his possessive attributes run deep so he soon approaches the eldest of the clan to inform them that he has found someone he plans to marry and to make his spouse with a confident grin that tells the older member of his clan that he has made his mind already up. It isn't quite pleasant to you to get dragged into the traditions of his clan as things move a tad bit too fast for your taste but at that point it is already too late. Both of you get engaged and news spread quickly until everyone knows about it. No one would even dare to act on any silly thoughts and even you find yourself trapped now by his side. You are beyond the point of doubting your decision now though. Isn't this what you wanted? To be only his? Even if your feelings were to change now, it is already far too late. You are already his and if you believe that he would let you go, you are sorely mistaken.

Hashirama Senju

🌳No one can exactly blame you for your growing feelings of the Hokage but you are also all too aware that you are one of many in line. Hashirama is very popular in the village. Not only because of his reputation as a Shinobi god and as the first Hokage of the Leaf Village but also because of his kindness that draws people towards him. He’s attentive, loving, good with children and there is such a warmth in his gaze that it is not hard to fall for his charm. You can count yourself as quite lucky though because you just happen to be someone who works closely with the Hokage and are often responsible to deliver him paperwork or to keep him informed of any important development. It is quite naive of you yet you can't help but relish in this as you know that you get to see Hashirama quite often and even witness moods and moments of his that not everyone can witness. You cherish those moments a lot, hold every grateful smile he gives you close to your heart. You are no romantic at heart though even despite your growing feelings. The reality of who he is always greets you every time when you open the door leading to the office after all. You know that you aren't what his clan desires in a partner.

🌳Ultimately you decide to not admit your feelings for him right away as you are a close witness to all of the responsibilities he has to fulfill every day. Instead you settle for now to silently support him to the best of your abilities, although you haven't given up on your feelings just yet. You dedicate yourself to every task you are given and work hard and tirelessly all to reduce to burden of work resting on his shoulders. Your hard work does not go unnoticed as Hashirama approaches you very soon. He appreciates everything you are doing for him but he also expresses his concern for you as he wouldn't want you to push yourself too hard for his sake. Even if it is a kindness that he gives to everyone and this doesn't make you anything special, you can't help but feel your heart fluttering when you notice the warm gaze in his eyes. His praise does fuel you to be even more diligent with your work from that day on all with the silent craving in mind to hear him say it again to you. Your feelings give you such a boost that you indeed end up neglecting some of your own needs in favor of focusing on your missions and as soon as Hashirama hears about it, he seeks you out again.

🌳This time there is disappointment held within his gaze though as he is upset that you have been neglecting your own sleep in favor of finishing more work than you are supposed to do. The disappointment in his eyes floods you with shame and you can almost feel the tears in your eyes when he asks you why you have been pushing yourself so hard lately. You don't know how to answer that question to him yet you don't need too. Hashirama, even if he can act like a ditzy idiot at times, is quite sensitive to the feelings of people around him. You can only bite your wobbly lips in shame when he questions you if you have fallen in love with you before everything just bursts out of you and you confess your feelings to him. There is no judgement in his gaze as he listens to you. He leaves you the choice whether you want to continue working with him or not up to you, considerate of what you think is best for you. You insist on staying though, stubborn to the bitter end. You know that there may be no chance that your dreams will ever come true but you would like to stay true to your feelings for him and support him. The Hokage accepts your decision, even admires you for your resolve.

🌳Things continue as they have always been for a while, although now Hashirama is cognisant of your affection for him. You treat him with kindness and affection and he has always been treating you with kindness too, although this is a kindness that is not only reserved for you. Until that changes one day. His presence is suddenly much more present in your daily life as you notice. He constantly asks for you to visit him in his office yet never because he has something to do for you and instead only because he has been missing you. Time that should be spend being productive is instead spend asking you how you are doing and if there has been anything that has been stressing you recently. Dark eyes always gaze at your face with a warm glow that you haven't noticed there before, a dreamy look on his face as he listens how you recount what you have been doing since the last time you saw him. You have known about his affinity to be touchy with people around him for a long time yet you can't help but notice that he has done so especially much so with you. His hands find themselves always covering your own when he talks to you and he even has drawn you a few times in a tight embrace.

🌳His feelings are as obvious as clouds in the sky on a clear day and his clan finds out soon. It's not like Hashirama has tried to keep anything from them as he instead finds himself singing praises about you wherever he goes. Delusional as he is, your own feelings for him only fuel his infatuation with you even more. In retrospect he just now realises that you must have sensed the undeniable connection that you two have long before he has. You must have been so hurt due to his own lack of awareness and he feels the guilt stabbing his heart when he recalls the disheartened look on your face you couldn't hide at times. Unable to hide any of his feelings for you, he rambles to you about all of his thoughts and feelings, even going as far as apologising for making you suffer that long. From there on, things happen quite fast though. Hashirama arranges things with his clan, helplessly in love with you as he announces his decision to marry you. It may come as a shock to you as both of you haven't even been officially a thing yet he sees no reason to hesitate or wait any longer now that both of you feel the same. He has deprived you of his love for far too long and now he will drown you in it.

Tobirama Senju

🌊Tobirama enjoys a lot of popularity within the village as well, although he finds himself silently despairing over it at times. His focus has always been on work and as the perfectionist he is, he has always poured all of his attention into it. In that regard both of you are similar and perhaps it is one of the reasons why you find yourself attracted to him. Obviously you are aware of all the brides his clan suggests to him just as much as all of the love letters he gets from citizens all over the village. It is at least somewhat amusing whenever you drop an entire bundle of such letters on his desk and he glances at them with that silently lamenting look in his red eyes as he gets spammed with such confessions almost everyday. You know best that you are not the only one who harbors romantic feelings for the younger Senju brother but you feel less inclined to win him over by writing letter after letter as you know quite well that the sight of such letters elicits silent dread within him by now. After all you are a hardworking individul yourself and do not have as much time to daydream with the important missions you are assigned to but you are quite driven by your determination.

🌊Tobirama and you have known each other for quite some time now, considering that he chose you to work closely with him as he recognised your skills and your clever mind, talents you are quite aware of. You have confidence in yourself and now that even a potential rejection would be something that you would eventually be able to accept. You'd hate it much more to not pursue something that you want which is why you don't even bother to hide your intention from him, although you don't admit it loudly either. After all you trust him to be smart enough to arrive at the conclusion himself. Tobirama doesn't disappoint you either as it doesn't take him long to recognise why you have been hanging around him much more recently. Whilst he isn't too thrilled about it, he trusts you enough to know that you won't allow your feelings to interfere with your diligence. It doesn't fly over your head that he acts a tiny bit more awkward and cold around you but you don't blame him and give him the time and privacy he needs. Cornering him would be the worst move to do after all unless you wish to majorly annoy him.

🌊You know him quite well. The Senju brother has always known that and it is one of the reasons why he trusts you so much. It is only now that he comes to experience that your sharp perception and accurate predictions of his thoughts can be quite tormenting. Even in the face of your feelings, he does his best to remain professional with you yet you always notice the subtle signs of his awkwardness and when both of you are alone, you love to point it out to him. It is quite embarrassing to know that someone can read him so well, although Tobirama usually prides himself on always keeping his thoughts and feelings strictly concealed and under strict control. Your teasing remarks and subtle flirting gets to him though because you are someone he knows and trusts quite a lot. Your goal isn't to torment him solely though, even if you have to admit that a part of you does enjoy knowing that you can get under his skin so good. Throughout it all you never forget your duties though and whenever something urgent comes up, Tobirama and you work seamlessly together as he doesn't even have to say something for you to know what he requires. You always have his back when it comes down to it.

🌊Tobirama has always known about your good qualities yet he has never considered that you do have a lot of qualities and attributes he desires in a partner. It isn't until he becomes aware of your feelings for him that he slowly realises that. Once that thought crosses his mind, he can't stop thinking about it. Red eyes find themselves observing you from that day on in deep thoughts, at least until you ask him teasingly why he can't stop staring at you. Whenever his clan asks him about the topic of marriage and even suggests that they have found some good matches, he can't help but reject all of them as he fluently points out what they are missing. In comparison to you. It is always the last part of his thoughts that has him silently pausing as he realises that he is comparing all of them to you solely because he considers you as everything he could ask for. He has always had expectations and wishes in his later spouse but just now he has given those desires of his a face. Your face. His proneness to overthink everything is ultimately what pushes him into his obsession as he cannot rid himself of thoughts including you from that day on. And as always, you see through him better than many others.

🌊It is quite encouraging for you to take notice of Tobirama's growing feelings and it leads you to increase your pursue for a relationship. What you do not seem to know yet is that his feelings run deeper than you might have expected and that the attention you give him greatly tests him in his self-control to hold back his festering obsession. He could decide to not care and give in as the chance is served on a silver plate for him. After all you love him and he could easily use that chance to bind you to his side forever. It is that last shred of decency left in him that holds him back from drowning in his own feelings that even leads him to pull back yet you are not having any of it and eventually you cause him to snap. If you desire him that greatly, he will give you what you ask of him whilst simultanously taking what he desires as well. Do not blame him later on if his obsession should prove to be too much for you though. You are the one who wanted him. Now that you have him, you have no right anymore to reject him, especially once you two are wed. After all hasn't this always been what you were hoping for? For him to only desire you and no one else?

Tsunade Senju

🐌You have been in love with Tsunade for so many years. Both of you have grown up together and have always been quite close. Whar Tsunade has always only ever seen as close friendship, you have been hoping to become something more. You have always held great admiration and respect for her and not only because she is the granddaughter of the first Hokage but because she is a great and strong person. You have been planning to pursue a relationship with her, have even been planning to confess your feelings to her but then tragedy struck when her younger brother was killed and you decided to focus on comforting her broken heart instead of only pressuring her for your own desire as you give her time to heal. As both of you mature and turn into adults, your feelings still linger and by now Tsunade has caught on to them as well. She notices the subtle signs and gestures you exhibit as you try to win over. She loves you but she has never seen you in that way. You are eventually forced to realise that Dan has won her heart and whilst it does greatly pain you as well as greatly frustrate you, you ultimately decide to be happy for her and give up on her, although you will always love her.

🐌Then Dan dies on her and Tsunade leaves Konohagakure and leaves you all by yourself. You should feel bitter and betrayed but love can indeed turn one into a forgiving fool as you do not find it within yourself to hurt her. So you just continue with your life but there is never a day where you don't think of her nor does your love ever weaken as seasons and years pass in the blink of an eye. When Jiraiya and Naruto bring her back since she has been chosen as the Fifth Hokage, your feelings threaten to all break out of you yet you manage to keep them in and wait for all the commotion and formal necessities to be over. Only then do you decide to visit her in the Hokage tower. As soon as Tsunade's eyes land on you, she falls silent as she stares at you and you stare at her. After several seconds she asks Shizune if she could be left alone with you and the younger woman does as her teacher requests, her eyes gazing knowingly at you as Tsunade has often talked about you. As soon as Shizune has left, the silence continues though as there are so many things you want to say but don't know where to start, all of your emotions transparent as you look at her.

🐌Both of you end up spending a lot of time together after she has returned to the village. There is so much that you two have to catch up on, so much that you two have to tell each other. Your feelings for her have never changed even after she has been gone for decades and you didn't even need to vocalise that as one look in her eyes told you that she is well aware. It is like nothing has changed between the two of you as your love for her is silently always there and she knows about it yet never mentions it due to her own hesitance as she doesn't want to hurt your feelings. It makes you feel like you two are still young adults yet so many things have happened and Tsunade has changed a lot. You on the other hand have stayed the same and it pains her to see that. There is a prominent guilt she can't help but feel whenever she is with you as the sincerity and loyalty of your love for her is simultaneously the most beautiful and saddest thing she has witnessed. You have waited decades for her despite her suddenly disappearing without a trace yet you still look at her after all of that the same way you have looked at her ever since you have been genin. A part of her doesn't think she deserves you after abandoning you.

🐌You don't allow her to think that though as you treat her with the same affection and love you have always felt for her and when she one night voices her thoughts to you after having consumed a bit too much sake, you confess to her sincerely that just being with her makes you happy, even if she doesn't return your feelings. She is moved to tears on that night and it is that confession you have never been able to tell her up until that night that sways her feelings. You have always been there for her, you have always supported her and been her shoulder to cry on. Even after all those years your love remains the same, although she wouldn't have blamed you for hating her after she left you without a word. Her feelings rapidly grow from that day on and it is something that makes people like Shizune, Naruto and Jiraiya very happy as they see that feelings start blossoming between you two, especially since you have been in love with Tsunade for decades. The Fifth Hokage finds herself yearning for your presence and company, her thoughts always drifting to you and a blush on her face as soon as you two spend time together as you make her feel young again too.

🐌The guilt she has been feeling for you even prior to falling in love with you festers though as she feels more heartbroken than ever now whilst thinking that she wasted years. Years you spent silently hoping for her to return and years she could have lived happily together with you. She has already lost so much time with you and she will never get that time back either. The only thing she can do now is spend every day with you that she has from now on. Knowing those thoughts, her increasing clinginess and smothering affection might be justified that she directs at you from that day on. Tsunade always desires her to be with you to the point where she gets anxious if she can't see you for a certain amount of time. Her clinginess is soon joined by a growing possessive nature that she has never shown before. She is possessive of your time and tends to get very quickly jealous if someone else asks of your time. Such negative emotions can stir up easily within her as her only desire now is to be happy with you so every little interference with her wish feeds into her festering jealousy. It is a new side within her that you have never seen before yet she sees it through that she won't scare you away.

Shisui Uchiha

🍂You are chasing daydreams is what your friends tell you when you reveal to them that you have fallen for no one but Shisui himself. The Shisui Uchiha. It's not like your friends can't understand it as all of them can see the appeal in him. He is handsome, smart, strong and has that mysterious charm around him that a lot of Uchiha men possess. Yet between you and him is so much distance as he is a praised man even amongst his clan and works for the Anbu. In comparison to him you are, bluntly speaking, painfully ordinary. You do not realise that though, or rather you don't want to see it from that point of view. You want to chase after the romance your heart desires and so you ignore the warnings of your friends and try to pursue a relationship with him. Soon you find yourself faced with numerous challenges though as Shisui is not only an incredibly busy man due to all of the missions he receives but also because the Uchiha are rather reserved and you aren't part of their clan, meaning that you aren't really allowed within the district that belongs to them. It hampers your initial enthusiasm a tiny bit but you manage to lift your spirits up again all by yourself.

🍂You have clearly overestimated your own confidence though as you spend days waiting in hopes of meeting Shisui again as he leaves for his next mission as a member of the Anbu. All of that time you have imagined in your head what you would say the next time you spot him and how you would confess your feelings for him and tell him about how much you admire. It all seems so easy when you imagine it yet reality often differs from expectations. You only find that out though when he returns weeks later. You are far too eager when you initially call out to him excitedly and tell him that you have something important to tell him. A small grin graces his face when he turns around and spots your familiar form running to him as he asks you what it is you have to tell him so eagerly. You don't know how it happens but the moment you stand in front of him and he looks at you with his black eyes, all of your previous excitement and confidence suddenly shrinks you and you feel your throat tightening. The sentences you have structured so carefully within your mind disappear and only the rapid pounding of your heart remains. The anxiety finally gets you after seconds of silence as you run away.

🍂This isn't an individual case either. Whenever you try to tell him about your feelings, your nerves get the better of you and always only leave you with your skin burning from frustration and shame. Why is it hard to tell him how you feel about him? In your mind it is always so easy to come up with words to convey your feelings but those words are doomed to always only stay on your mind. Letters you attempt to write for him as you realise that confessing to his face won't work always end up crumpled and in the rubbish bin as writing your thoughts on paper and seeing them always make you cringe. You start feeling rather dejected and with every mission that forces him to leave the village again, the doubt starts growing inside of you as your rose-tinted glasses slip off and you have to admit that it isn't as easy you initially thought. A few of your friends suggest that perhaps you should just give up and as much as you want to protest, you find yourself unable to counter their words with the same fierce determination you used to have. You love Shisui still but you have realised that first love doesn't always have to come true like in fairy tales that you read in your childhood.

🍂Just as you start considering if you should come to terms that this won't work out and even get rid of the many love letters you have written for him, some of which you don't even find anymore, something happens. Shisui suddenly seeks you out far more than you could remember he has ever done before and it silently torments you as it fills you with sweet hope you don't want to feel anymore. A part of you wants to close the case on your feelings but another part of you continues to foolishly hope that maybe things will still work out just as you have dreamed for them to do. You are absolutely torn apart between listening to your heart or your head as the black eyes always looking at you attentively tug at all of your heartstrings and his smile has your heart skipping a few heartbeats. You spend nights wondering what you should do before you make your final decision. You will give it one last try to tell him about your feelings and if you can't do it and he doesn't realise what you're feeling for him, you will give up on him. You feel your heart in your throat the next time you two are together as you try to collect your mind only for him to best you as he suddenly confesses that he loves you.

🍂Your feelings have started to waver. Shisui has been able to tell that you have started to pull back from him as you started to feel discouraged. Truth be told, he has known for a long time that you had feelings for him yet he never let you know about it as he decided to see how you would proceed. So many times he has watched how you weren't able to tell him about your feelings for him and how it slowly tore your confidence and enthusiasm down. You don't know that but Shisui was watching you when you were trying to write him love letters on many nights only to witness how you threw them away. A few of them he has stolen and hides them in his own room, chuckling to himself when he read them. He feels about you much stronger than you feel about him but he has never told them, mainly because of some lingering guilt born out of his morality. It is your own fading confidence that forces him into a corner and pressures him to make a decision. He doesn't want you to leave him which is why he has sought you out more to make you feel unsure and ultimately decides to take matters in his own hands and confess to you first. He won't let you give up on him so easily.

Itachi Uchiha

🍡It has never been easy to love Itachi as you know all too well of all the difficulties that come with your feelings. He is a prodigy within his clan but it is his undeniable talent that has made him so hard to reach for you. There are expectations that are constantly put on his shoulders as his father expects much of him and so does his own clan. A lot of time he either spends working for the Anbu or spending time inside the Uchiha campus where you can't visit him as his clan is quite reclusive and prefers spending time with their own kind, mostly because of the growing grudge between them and the other citizens. There is an undeniable tension that is steadily being fed with growing resentment from both sides but even if you feel your heart always growing heavy when you witness it, you hold on to your feelings and the hope that things will eventually work out. Whether love will prevail or not remains to be seen though. The only thing you can do though is keep your heart open and not let prejudice and hatred cloud your feelings, a bright hope shining in your heart as you pray to any divine beings out there that your dreams of peace and love will come true.

🍡You are only a chunin born to two citizens so chances are very few that you actually work together with Itachi yet it is the confectionary that both of your parents own and in which you regularly work as well that enables you to still see the Uchiha more often than you would have thought possible. The young boy has an undeniable love for Dango and your shop just happens to sell some exceptionally good ones. He's always in his attire when he visits the shop as you can only remember a handful of times seeing him over the years wearing casual clothes and then always in company of his younger brother Sasuke and you can't help but feel your heart aching. He probably has very little time he can spend just being a boy and enjoying his life. There is always a lot of kindness you give him the moment he enters as you know very well that you won't see him again for a while as soon as he leaves so you want to give him a good time for as long as you can. There is always some of his favorite Dango you reserve for the day he visits again and always a teapot of freshly brewed tea as you always offer him a quiet and reserved place where he can unwind and relax as you pay him especially much attention.

🍡Your feelings should be more than obvious as you even prepare him some Dango he can take with him when he leaves, the apples of your cheeks always burning with heat when you hand him the wrapped package and tell him that you hope that he will enjoy it. You have a feeling that he is all too aware of your love for him whenever you see the gentle smile he gives you, black eyes looking at your flustered face as he thanks you for your consideration and kindness. You wonder why he never addresses your feelings but you do not have the courage to ask him this as you fear a rejection from him. As the tension becomes more and more palpable, his visits in your confectionary decrease and the gravity of the sadness and longing pulls your mood visibly down. When he one day suddenly does drop by and asks you to see him later on, there is a mix of anticipation and nervousness stirring up inside of you. You leave with tears staining your cheeks though as he brutally tells you as soon as you have arrived that your feelings for him are a liability and that he has never felt for you like you do for him and that he never will. He doesn't even give you a chance to respond as he leaves as soon as he has told you.

🍡It is the very next day that the news spread that he has single-handedly slayed his entire clan, only sparing his younger brother. Your heart, already in sheds, is reduced to mere dust when you hear it and every time you hear someone talking about Itachi in fear and disdain, a small part of you dies. You don't want to believe what you hear as you try to tell yourself that there must be something you don't know yet there is nothing you can do to defend him against those rude and mean words. You try to talk to Sasuke in feeble hopes that he will share your sentiment yet a feeling of loneliness penetrates you when you realise that he has grown to despise his brother. With no one you can freely share your thoughts about, you lock everything away deep inside of you as you continue to smile and serve your customers all whilst your heart shrinks and withers away. Years pass where you learn how to deal with your perpetual heartbreak, even if just a little. Yet the little progress you made over the years is violently torn down when you one night clean the shop all by yourself only to drop the teapot in your hand when you hear a familiar voice behind you.

🍡There are no words you find yourself able to force out as you turn around only to see Itachi standing there. The only thing your emotions allow you to do to even vaguely express everything going on inside of you are the hot and salty tears running down your cheeks as you stare at him, your scarred heart crying together with you. In less than the blink of an eye he is standing in front of you, his hands grabbing your arms to keep you in place just in case you do find the strength to move away from him. The empty shop is the only witness to the confession he utters to you on that night as he admits to you that he lied to you on that day. Itachi has always loved you, perhaps a bit too much, but never found it in himself to tell you as he knew that he would only drag you into the difficult affairs of his life. He vowed to never see you again on the night he left yet the years have worn him down as his strength has left him which has led him to you. Somehow he seems to always make you suffer, no matter what he does, whether he tries to be selfless or decides to be selfish. A fuzzy darkness creeps up on you when black eyes turn red, the soft kiss he plants on your lips seconds before you lose consciousness tasting bittersweet.

Neji Hyuga

🕊️You've always had a crush on Neji even long before he learned to let all the bitterness inside of him die. Those were truly not good days for you and in retrospect is was really only your puppy-like adoration for him that encouraged you to not give up on him. If you would have been more reasonable back then, you would have given up on him the moment he opened his mouth for the first time and rudely told you off as he made it painfully obvious that he had no interest in you. His words still stung, worse than a bee sting even, yet back then love made you very blind so after a good cry you seemed to have already gotten over his rejection, even though from that point on you silently pinned after him from a distance. You should have guessed that someone with a Byakugan would notice you though and whilst Lee and Tenten tried to remind him that he shouldn't be so harsh on you with Lee even expressing anger that Neji should feel more grateful to have someone that admired him as much as you did, Neji didn't have any of it. There were more important things he had to do than to deal with a lovesick genin like you who proved to only be a liability and a burden to him.

🕊️After suffering an utter defeat from Naruto's hands, things changed for Neji though. The bitter resentment over his fate he thought was unchangeable turned into a blossoming hope that he could at least have some control over the way his life would turn out. There was a weightlessness in his heart he hadn't felt since he had been a small child and slowly he starts to change his way. Hinata and him start bonding more closely and he starts appreciating his teammates and his sensei more, even if Guy and Lee are at times still awfully insufferable with their fierce enthusiasm. When he notices how your gaze lingers on him even after all of the brutal and condescending words he said to you and how you at times still trail behind him, he calls you for the first time ever over without a sneer on his face. You are left speechless when he apologises to you for all the unkind and harsh words he has ever spoken to you yet also reminds you that you shouldn't neglect your training to chase after him. His sympathetic words seem to motivate you though as you ask him if he would spend more time with you if you would manage to become a chunin during the exams next year.

🕊️It is a rather childish promise in his opinion but something tells him that you won't give in so easily when he looks at the determined glow in your eyes so despite his better judgement, he finds himself agreeing to your words. The decrease of your presence around him is rather obvious as you pour a lot of your time and energy into your studies and your training to fulfill the promise you have made to him. As if all of the training helps you to mature, you start feeling rather embarrassed about your clingy antics you used to showcase in the past, although you still love Neji. When you one year later have officially become a chunin, you decide that whilst you will make Neji uphold his promise, you will take a different approach from now on. You have clearly grown up, especially emotionally and Neji takes notice of that from that day on. You have grown less clingy and whilst your gaze still holds that fondness when you gaze at him, it is much more subtle in comparison to what you looked like in the past when staring at him. Spending time with you is much more enjoyable as both of you engage in discussions about different topics and you even sometimes ask him for help with your taijutsu.

🕊️Guy, Lee and Tenten's teasing becomes very frequent the more time he spends with you, especially when they notice that Neji spaces out at times with a hint of a smile on his face. It seems like your persistance has won his heart over. This should make you happy as you have dreamed for years about this scenario and there is undeniable delight when you also pick up the signs of his affection. It's just that you soon come to realise that the roles have suddenly shifted. A few years ago you were the one who always felt like following him around and who daydreamed about him like a lovesick fool. Now it is Neji who constantly feels like following you around and gazes at you with barely concealed infatuation in his milky eyes. You enjoy spending time with Neji of course but his clinginess at times is exhausting as you still would like to have some time for yourself. He doesn't always have to accompany you when you want to hang out with your friends and teammates but Neji always insists that he wants to stick with you. Even when you don't tell him about your plans, he manages to find you with a worried and upset thrown on his face. He isn't using his Byakugan to find you, right...?

🕊️There is so much gentleness and adoration behind his eyes, each gaze at you a silent love poem and each careful and gentle touch of his another quiet confession of his growing love for you. There is also something else though, something so sickenly sweet that it makes you sometimes squirm uncomfortably when his gaze lingers for too long on you. Neji always used to be so independent back in the days but now he barely wants to separate from you and you have heard from his teammates that there is always a palpable tinge of unease around him when he is away from you. If you would still be the same lovesick and immature genin you used to be back in the days, you would have swooned over this development as it would have been like a dream come true for you back then. You aren't the same person that you were back then though and you do not desire his growing infatuated obsession as you find all of the attention and affection smothering. You still love him which is why you remain at his side but there is also a profound sadness resting inside of you whenever you look into his white orbs as you can't help but wonder if this is your fault that you have robbed the Hyuga of his independence.

Sasuke Uchiha

💙You think it is quite nice of Orochimaru to bring you a playmate in the form of one of the last Uchiha in the world. It is rather bored after all all by yourself so there is obviously delight when you find out that Sasuke will stay from now on as he is only two years younger than you. He may be a brooding and silently seething individual but that is fine. You are used to being around dangerous people and Sasuke in your eyes is still a little child and nothing more. You can deal with that, especially since Orochimaru asks of you to also play a part in taking him under your wing. The black-haired boy is very disinterested in you at first and you know that as his only goal is to get stronger and to kill his own brother. You tolerate his disrespectful behavior though, mainly because you do find it quite amusing to see him acting so bratty and moody. You do like taunting people so perhaps you let your slight sadism get the better of you. Even as you successfully push him over the edge and he attacks you, you quickly manage to get the situation under control. There is after all a very good reason why you are one of Orochimaru's favorites as you overpower the young Uchiha even despite his activated curse mark.

💙You are fully aware that he is a long shot away from giving you proper respect but he becomes more interested in you after he has seen your skills for himself. He seems to follow the people he thinks will be the best way for him to attain quickly the strength he needs to take revenge for his clan and in that aspect you are quite flattered as he seems to deem you as one of those people. You have stolen scrolls containing forbidden jutsu from your original village and are quite knowledgable when it comes to seals or techniques that have been prohibited from being practiced. Orochimaru on the other hand has welcomed you with opened arms and has provided you with everything you need to continue with your practices and now you are teaching Sasuke some of those jutsu. The young boy is quite demanding though which has led both of you into some arguments, although he's the only one who ends up losing his temper as you always treat it as a game. He has made it very clear that he doesn't like you and you love telling him that without you, he will have no one properly teaching him those jutsus he desires to know as you know even stuff Orochimaru isn't aware of.

💙Years of spending your time together eventually serves as a bonding experience. The little boy has grown into a handsome young man over time and whilst a part of you bemoans the little Uchiha that was filled to the brim with dark determination and a short temper, you find yourself feeling quite attracted to him. It is a foreign feeling to you that you do not understand fully just yet and from the few stories he has told you over time you know that it isn't the first time someone has fallen in love with him. You do know that you don't desire to be a screeching fangirl though, especially once Sasuke makes acquaintance with Karin and you see how she is all over him. You find yourself being subtly possessive of him as you are quite used to have him for yourself most of the time. You never admit it out loud that you love him though and that is partially because your pride holds you back from doing so as you do not wish to be seen as so vulnerable by admitting your romantic feelings for him. If Sasuke is aware of your feelings for him, he decides to ignore them as far as you can tell. You are useful to him after all and very bearable in comparison to the likes of Karin.

💙You have a sharp mind and very perceptive eyes. It shouldn't come as a surprise when you catch on to a growing possessive urge Sasuke starts developing over you. You are rather delighted with that development though as you realise that he has started catching feelings in his own way for you too. There is always a very harsh glare on his face when you spend time with test subjects and an urge to cut their limbs off when he sees your fingers touching their skin as he secretly wants to feel your hands touching him as well, even if your touch only elicits horror in them. It is much worse when you passionately speculate with Kabuto about a new jutsu you are working on before both of you sense how he is standing behind you, his red eyes seemingly attempting to pierce your soul as he tells you in a cold and dry tone that he wants you to spar with him. He develops a contempt for Kabuto as he realises that you and that man share a lot of interests which is why he always comes up with all sorts of excuses to claim all of your time for him. Whether he wants to train with you, wants you to teach him a new jutsu or asks you to bandage the little wounds he sustains during training.

💙You do enjoy a bit of possessiveness in Sasuke but you still value your freedom over that and unfortunately for you, Sasuke turns more and more monopolising when it comes to you. He always wants to know where you were and with whom you were on the rare occasion where you two aren't together and your laconic answer that you had something important to do only fuels his possessive behavior. You know that he likes being in control but unfortunately for him you are not someone who will bow to his every whim as you have a mind and will of your own. There is sometimes visible tension between the two of you when you butt heads over such, in your mind rather trivial, matters. Sasuke wants your loyalty to lie solely with him yet he is fully aware that you retain an unusual close bond to Kabuto and Orochimaru, something that irritates him more and more with each passing year. He has already made plans to kill Orochimaru now that the former Sanin can't teach him anything anymore and also wants you to accompany him when he leaves the hideout yet your loyalties are clearly split between him and the snake guy. You either choose him or he will have to simply force you.

#yandere naruto #yandere naruto shippuden #yandere madara #yandere madara uchiha #yandere hashirama #yandere hashirama senju #yandere tobirama #yandere tobirama senju #yandere tsunade #yandere tsunade senju #yandere shisui #yandere shisui uchiha #yandere itachi #yandere itachi uchiha #yandere neji #yandere neji hyuga #yandere sasuke #yandere sasuke uchiha #yandere x reader

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renaissanceofthearts · 6 months ago

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[Kakashi Hatake]

(STAR GAZER)

As the leader of Team 7, Kakashi is a source of wisdom and training for Naruto and his friends. However, he is far from your stereotypical sensei and comes complete with his own distinct personality, touching back story, and an awesome arsenal of impressive jutsu.

As Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura grow in strength, Kakashi’s role as a teacher becomes less prominent and his ability as a warrior comes to the forefront, as showcased in the battles against Pain, Obito, and Kaguya, with the Sharingan user fighting alongside his former students on an even level.

Aside from his (literally) electrifying battle scenes, Kakashi is known for his many quirks, such as his penchant for adult fiction and his unfaltering ability to turn up late for any and all appointments. Despite his comical tendencies, Kakashi has arguably one of the best character arcs in the entire series, starting out as an arrogant and brutal young ninja and transforming into a kind-hearted and selfless leader.

There is some debate within the Naruto fandom as to how exactly Kakashi developed the Mangekyou version of his Sharingan eye. The character first uses the technique on-screen during his battle with Akatsuki member Deidara in Naruto Shippuden, but it is later confirmed that Kakashi actually attained the power as a child at the exact same time Obito gained it, shortly after Rin had died.

There is no definitive answer on why Kakashi waited so long to unleash his upgraded eye. Some believe that he didn’t actually realize he possessed such a power until seeing Itachi use it during their own fight. Others posit that the younger Kakashi didn’t have enough chakra to pull off such grandiose techniques.

[POST 877]

#hatake kakashi #kakashi fanart #kakashi sensei #kakashi hatake #full moon #digitalart #tumblr #art #adobe photoshop #poster art #japan #clouds and sky #stars #anime art #illustration #anime #naruto #naruto art

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iwamotos · 11 months ago

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(240815) @sasuke_tbs: 📺 #SASUKEワールドカップ2024 チームJAPAN Blueを紹介🔥 Introducing Team JAPAN Blue No.3 🇯🇵━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🟦 　ミリオン連発 SASUKE愛No.1アイドル　　　　　　　Snow Man 　　　　　　岩本照（31） 🟦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🇯🇵 ✔️国際大会の経験が豊富なアニキたちとともに挑むワールドカップの舞台🌟 ✔️SASUKE愛が加速度的に上昇中💛 　　動画を事前にダウンロードし準備していくほど📱 ✔️3rdステージで戦える準備は万端💥 日の丸を背負っての初挑戦となるのか⁉︎

#snow man #snowman #snm #iwamoto hikaru #hikaru iwamoto #p: instagram #show: snw #sasuke ninja warrior #sasuke 2024 #sasuke world cup #sasuke world cup 2024 #岩本照 #type: official pic

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yukimura-4 · 8 months ago

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"Yuki what the heck are you doing now" Exactly! :D

So, this is an idea I had many years ago, which is drawing UT characters dressed like other characters from Samurai Warriors / Sengoku Musou, one of my fave videogame series (Same devs behind Hyrule Warriors, OP Pirate Warriors, etc.)

In the end I left this idea forgotten in a drawer because I was more lazy and unexperienced, but these last few weeks I've come back to play Warriors games, and it came to the surface again Xd

I'm planing to draw cosplays for the main UT characters in the order they appear in-game, starting off with Frisk. I couldn't decide between giving them a male/female character, so I went with both

A little bit of SW trivia! ^^

Kunoichi and Sasuke are both ninjas in SW, who work for the Sanada clan.

Kunoichi has appeared since SW1, and she's the adopted daughter of Takeda Shingen.

Sasuke (who is not the one from Naruto Xd) is a fictional shinobi famed as one of the "Sanada ten Braves". They're also the bodyguards of Sanada Yukimura (which you might now is the character from who I took my name Xd)

PS: You may recognize some of these designs if you've ever played Pokémon Conquest, a crossover Nintendo made with SW :3

#undertale #toby fox #frisk #samurai warriors #sengoku musou #koei tecmo

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yum-nyang · 6 months ago

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FUMA: sasuke ninja warrior training session

#andteam #&team #fuma #murata fuma #andteamnet #kpopccc #kpopco #kpopedit #dailybg #jpopnetedit #jpop #pinguingifs #useroro #hicosmo

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nartml · 2 years ago

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Your misogyny is showing. Get your shit together

(First and last time I'll ever bother with such a rude ask, but I'll use this oh so sugary sweet statement to get some things out the way )

CW: Rant ahead, not Sakura or Hinata friendly, if you disagree and won't be nice about sharing your opinions fucking DNI, this isn't for you.

My misogyny 💀

Because I don't like Sakura and Hinata, I assume? Why is it always misogyny's fault with y'all?

Respectfully, I don't really care about Sakura and Hinata. I'm mostly indifferent to them, but they're fun to criticize, considering there's so many flaws to talk about.

Maybe I was harsh with my words when respectively bashing them, but what I said still objectively stands. Sometimes, not liking a female character has less to do with misogyny and more to do with the fact that they're really, really not that good.

But alas, I sincerely apologize for my just so disgustingly misogynistic words (in case you don't get it, I'm being 100% sarcastic)

In a bit less harsh, more analytical manner, allow me to rephrase:

Sakura is someone who doesn't fit in the Shinobi world. She's too delusional about her romantic fantasies regarding Sasuke to be able to properly advance in such a harsh environment. And Hinata, with or without her infatuation with Naruto, is an incapable kunoichi. She's far too timid and hesitant to be a warrior.

Now, those are not necessarily bad things. Not having what it takes to be a Shinobi can easily be considered positive; be it because you're a hopeless romantic and that hinders your ability to maximize your potential or because you just don't have the spine or endurance necessary to be a badass ninja. Those aren't reasons to violently hate on someone. Specifically about Sakura and Hinata, those aren't even the reasons why so many people dislike them.

Or at least I hope not. I'd understand the point of your ask better if I had said anything derogatory about their appearance, for example. Those types of haters are annoying, and I manage to turn into both Sakura and Hinata's biggest defenders the moment someone says shit that degrades Sakura for her chest or some other bs, and/or fetishizes Hinata in any way. Rest assured, I'm anything but misogynistic.

But oh shit, it's time we realized that Sakura's "feelings" for Sasuke were simply a shallow school girl crush. And that would've been okay, understandable, maybe even a little cute, if it weren't for the way she constantly pushed herself onto him, consistently referred to him as hers in her head, saw him as a trophy, a blank canvas to project her fantasies onto. She was disrespectful, and her confessions were sickening.

Because how dare you compare your loneliness to that of a genocide survivor? How could you make your supposed love's pain all about you? How could you be so ready to abandon your friends, family, life, and future just to follow him to someone who you know would cause him harm, when you so clearly don't even know or understand him? How could you try to minimize everything he went through, try to diminish all he's suffered in the name of "laughing and having fun like the good old times"? "What about me, Sasuke? I'll be in so much pain if you leave. Please, if there's even a small part of you that cares about me, stay". "I can't get close to you, I can't exchange blows with you, I can only whine and beg, it's pretty pathetic. There's nothing I can do for you".

These are all things she's said and/or done paraphrased. There's so much more I don't care to recall. And they're all very annoying.

Her sole motivation was Sasuke; he's the reason she talks about how she'll get stronger to catch up to him and Naruto, about how she wants to "save" him, or "protect" him, about how she wants to be able to "fight for herself next time".

But she never managed to really do any of it, because it was all so surface level. Her aspirations for life began and ended with Sasuke, a guy she ultimately doesn't know a single thing about. That's objectively pathetic.

I don't like her because of the way she treats Sasuke, because of the way she views him, because of the way she's so pretentious about her "undying love" for him.

I don't like anti-sasusakus who come at it from a "Sakura deserves better" perspective, because she got exactly what she asked for; now she even gets to parade around wearing that Uchiha crest like the trophy it is to her, while having done nothing to earn it!!!

But.

Honestly? They're not exactly wrong. Maybe she doesn't deserve better. But her character would, at least if Kishimoto even wanted to write that story.

What do I mean by that? I mean that Sakura, as a main character, does not benefit from her feelings for Sasuke. It's not that Sasuke isn't good for her, it's that her "feelings" for him aren't.

I'll use Naruto as a comparison. His feelings for Sasuke [No, I don't care how you interpret their relationship. If you want, they can be platonic feelings or familial feelings (you'd be wrong but who am I to judge), or romantic feelings] actually serve as his basis for self improvement.

Usually, in media, love is something that drives characters to be better.

Naruto's love for Sasuke is his greatest strength.

Naruto kept getting stronger, with Sasuke as his motivator. Naruto kept trying to understand him, to see things from his perspective, never held any sort of idealistic "Sasuke would never do that" train of thought.

Naruto got to better understand the injustice of the system through Sasuke and his love for him. Naruto initially fought to bring him back to Konoha, not because he wanted to play house with him, or because he wanted Sasuke to cater to Konoha's every whim, but because in Naruto's mind, Konoha is home and it's safe, away from Orochimaru's dirty hands.

But then once he finally understood Sasuke better, once they fought and he carried Sasuke's burdensome hatred with him, he let him go. He let him travel, leave Konoha, without ever asking for him to stay, because he gets it (Unlike Sakura, who still didn't get it, and did the exact opposite)

In Sakura's case, however, her "feelings" for Sasuke hold her back. Though that's a bit of conundrum, seeing as any sort of achievements she's made are directly linked back to her crush. Like I said before, he's her motive. No, it's specifically the shallowness of her love, the half-heartedness in her convictions to improve that holds her back. Her "feelings" aren't as genuine as she –or any of you– likes to think they are, and that keeps her from growing, from seeing clearly (i.e: in the long run, they hold her back)

They're proof of her superficiality. She's too caught up in romanticizing the absolute shit out of Sasuke, too caught up in using him to live out her fairytale dreams, too caught up in asking others to bring him back to her, or whatever. She's too caught up in whether Sasuke looks at her or worries about her to fight properly. And I mean "fight" both literally and metaphorically here.

So yeah, her "feelings" for him aren't good for her. It would've been a much better character arc, in my opinion, something that could be actually empowering that would give her depth, if she had ended up with Lee instead.

Because Lee is the exact opposite of Sasuke, in the sense that he's ugly in Sakura's eyes (I'll state here that I don't think Lee is ugly, bushy brows and all, he's very pretty to me), and so to end up with him, well. That would require Sakura to see past physical appearance.

Sakura tends to be very judgemental of other people's looks, and the way she treats them is often correlated to how beautiful she finds them.

But falling for Lee would've been a great way for her to move past the cover and read the book. Something which could then translate to her being less insensitive and judgy from then on.

[Sakura fans love to point out that she might say rude stuff, but then she regrets it, so it's okay! To that I say, it hardly matters that you regret something you say and promise that you'll be better, if you're just going to repeat the process the next day]

That said, she didn't even have to end up with anyone. She could've remained single, after realizing how wrong she was about Sasuke. She could've stopped pining after him, and gotten herself a goal that is bigger than just ending up with him.

But that's not who she is. That's actually, an entirely different character. That's not how Kishimoto wrote her, and criticizing him because of that is stupid. He knew what and why he was doing it, and the narrative some of you adopt, the one that goes "no, I'm better than so-and-so, this character should've been that way instead", is exhausting.

Sakura fans never represent her how she canonically is. Truly, 100%, the way she's depicted in the show. They nitpick which parts of her they like, and ignore the rest. You guys love the version of her that isn't shallow, that understands Sasuke, that is assertive, that is 3-dimensional; a person whose hard work actually comes to mean something, who is much more genuine about her love for Sasuke, who is by all means an independent badass. The Sakura who is selfless and understanding and a go-getter badass. And that's okay, I guess. But at least admit it.

It's always an outsider commenting on how "she's better than Tsunade" because they saw her punch one time, or "her feelings for you have matured" (something cancelled out entirely by Sakura later). It's always "I've caught up to them" after something that amounts to nothing significant. We're told she's great. We've yet to see it for ourselves, outside of those five? Six maybe? Eight is my being generous. Truly iconic scenes that she has in the entirety of the manga.

I stand by my closing line on her post.

She's foolish, and too caught up in her own romantic, fantasy world to substantially thrive in a reality as cold-blooded as the one she was born in.

And that's all she'll ever be.

As for my girl Hinata. I absolutely stand by everything I said on that post. Not taking a single word back. Maybe Sakura has a few redeeming qualities; like I said, you could explore her character outside of her crush on Sasuke and make a true badass out of her. (While still acknowledging the fact that that's not who Kishimoto wrote her to be)

But Hinata? There's no character to explore. Period. She's nice. Sweet. Kind, maybe? Sweet. Did I mention nice? I should probably not forget to say that she's sweet. Let's not omit that she's privileged and doesn't care one bit that her family is a-okay with slavery!! OH, and she can cook well. She also has those big boobs. And all her symbolism with Naruto was ripped off sns, coincidentally.

She's very passively likable, and the definition of forgettable. Like it or not.

____________________________________________

As for me, I should make it clear here and now that I am no misogynist. I like to think of myself as a very passionate intersectional feminist, who gives credit where it's due.

These two ladies? They don't deserve the aforementioned credit.

Have a great day 💞

#anti sakura fandom #anti ss #anti the last #sns #anti hinata #anti sakura haruno #anti sasusaku #anti naruhina #anti nh #naruto ramblings #my stuff #y'all need to get yourselves some of those shiny critical thinking skills #they're very useful #respectfully fuck off 💕💕#long post #pro sasuke #pro sasuke uchiha #anon #my anti ss agenda

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luchicm04 · 1 year ago

Text

Eyes have a language of their own

Masterlist

Summary: Not every story is what it seems. Not every villain is evil. Not every hero is kind. Sometimes two eyes aren’t enough to uncover the truth, but once in a while, a simple glimpse is all that’s needed.

Pairing: Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Hikari/Nanashi

Word count: 8.4k

Overall warnings: angst, canon-typical violence, implied character death⚠️

All Naruto characters belong to Kishimoto. Uchiha Nanashi appears on the game Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections

A/N: This is a remake of the very first fic I've ever made. Well, the first one I've ever written down that's not a drabble or an undefined idea. I changed the lore a bit to adapt it to the game, so I hope you enjoy it <3 Also, English is not my mother language so if I have many spelling mistakes, please let me know (gently please, I have a delicate self-esteem :'))

posted on ao3

Sasuke took a deep breath. After hearing about the creation of the Hidden Leaf by the First hokage himself, he began to think about his future actions. Despite his heart yelling at him to take revenge on the villagers and raze the village to the ground, his brain was starting to contemplate on waht he had just learned. Depending on what he chose to do, the future outcomes would alter his life drastically, along with the world.

He silently casted a hard gaze upon the four individuals in front of him. The previous leaders –dead, now revived into decomposed bodies- of the place he once called home. The previous hokages. All of them irradiated power and respect. He remembered how frightened he felt moments ago when they resealed a fraction of their chakra. Clearly they were all full-fledged warriors who had grown in times of war and developed themselves into shinobi gods, although in his opinion only one of them had earned that title.

Senju Hashirama, a sunny personality that could rapidly turn into a monster. He had always invisioned him as a powerful leader and a firm person due to all the glory that was thrown at him. The truth was far from what he imagined, he discovered. A kind person with big dreams and a huge heart that always seeks salvation in everyone, even his worst enemies. He reminded him of a certain blond idiot he knew all to well, but he gave more respect to the First, as he was actually able to take a stand and do his duty of finishing of his friend.

Speaking of blond and sunny, his eyes travelled all the way to the last. His official godfather and appearently father of his idiotic 'friend'. Namikaze Minato, who was said to achieve many great things despite his short ruling period. Many information about him had been kept secret because of his son, but he had defeated the nine tails and killed thousands of hidden rock soldiers, which by any means were remarkable achievements.

Next to him stood the Third, Sarutobi Hiruzen, a person who had been kind to him his entire childhood, who looked after him and helped him when his clan had been murdered in one night. Only to discover that said man had ordered the attack and the assassin, his beloved big brother, had been used by the village leaders to take down a 'potential threat'. While he could agree that his clan was taking matters too far, he still couldn't forgive him for letting his kinsmen die instead of talking some sense into them and allowing Orochimaru and Danzo to live and continue their atrocious actions. Those two he had alrealdy retaliated againt, but what was done was done.

And lastly, he observed the blue-armoured man, his fury growing back. The culprit of everything. Everyone always put the blame on the obvious villains and praised the heroes, but that man didn't deserve the title of 'hero'. He didn't even deserve being called a 'man', in his opinion. According to the story they had just described, he had told on Hashirama when meeting with Madara, severing their friendship and a possible ceasefire. He had killed Izuna, nearly destroying any chances they had of finally ending the wars, making many more people die. Ignoring Hashirama's efforts, he continued to taunt him and discriminate his poeple, to the point where he had practically drove Madara to a desperate point. And then, when ending with his enemy wasn't enough, he made life a misery for all those born into the clan of 'hatred'.

This whole war againt the revived shinobi was his fault too, he reminded himself. The edo-tensei a powerful jutsu that should have never been created, was created by his hands. Many call Orochimaru a criminal for all his experiments, and Danzo a traitor for his recently discovered actions. No matter how right they are to do, he could not begin to imagine the heinous things Senju Tobirama had carried out in order for that cursed technique to be created.

All in all, he hated him. More that any other enemy he had come to face. He hated him. He let out a long sigh. This was the result of his actions. His hatred had never felt more justified than right now. His resolve was clear. He-

A cough caugth his attention suddenly. He look at Hashirama, who had a fist in front of his moth.

"Young uchiha," he started. "I know what you must have been thinking, but I still want to tell you that this isn't the way."

He stared at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow. He had already told them his reasons for what he was doing, of course he would say anything to save-

"I've seen the way you were looking at my brother before, young one. After what has been said here, I can understand where your feelings are coming from, but I believe you are partly mistaken in your resolution."

What? "What do you mean by that?" he asked gruffly.

"Show some respect, boy," came the sharp voice of the Second.

"It's alright Tobirama, this young uchiha has every right to be angry at all of us, doesn't he?" he said back with a small smile, to which his brother huffed and looked away. "Listen, Sasuke. I can feel your hatred and thirst of vengeance inside you. And also to who they are directed to. Given the events you have gone through you aren't to blame for them, but before you make a decission, I would like to correct your innaccurate perspective."

Sasuke stared at him now with both eyebrows raised. The rest of the hokages looked at him with curious expressions, even the Second mixed with his usual scowling face. He was surprised by his words. He already was acquainted with his kindness, but he had expected him to try and change his mind, not to agree with him and tell him his perspective was... innaccurate? What did that even mean?

"And what exactly did you mean by that, Lord First?" Orochimaru asked behind him, ever so curious and respectful towards them. It was kind of strange how he always expressed his repect to them, especially to the Second, like he had ever done anything to deserve it. Birds of a feather, he supposed. Juugo and Suigetsu stood next to him, the First with his guard up in case they attemped any other attack on Sasuke, the latter still shocked by their presence, as if they hadn't been standing there and talking to them some minutes ago.

"Well, while I don't agree with all my brothers actions, I am still his big brother and I must say that your vision is lacking of a certain detail that could change you entire view of him."

His words came out in a wise and gentle tone, funnily enough considering his recent change of moods. What he did not expect was for the Second to regard his brother with cold eyes, like he had a slight clue of what he was talking about. The other two stood in silence.

"And what slight detail might that be?" he inquired impatiently. This conversation was taking to long.

The First remained silent for a moment, looking unsure and a bit nervous before he schooled his features again and responded in a serious tone, if not trying to hide how his lips turned up in the slightest. "Does the name Nanashi say anything to you?"

The reactions came in the form of curious gazes sent his way. He tried to remember any uchiha with that name from the clan archieves but he coundn't remember anyone with that name. His thinking process was interrupted when killing intent began to emanate from the Second, who regarded his brother with a blank face and murderous eyes.

"Anija, what do you think you are doing?" His voice was straining with anger he was traying to contain. The First just looked at him from the corner of his eyes for a second and sent him a smile that looked sad. Then he looked back at Sasuke and his mouth dropped down a little. "No, of course you don't. I should have assumed she would have been kept secret from everyone."

"Nanashi? Who's that? Is there even a famous person named like that?" Suigetsu whispered to himself. Orochimaru also had an intriguing expression, so whoever that was, it didn't look like he knew of, which was weird considering his obsession for his clan. The Third and Fourth looked at each other with confussion, while the First and Second looked like they were having a silent conversation. For a moment no one said anything, until his patience finally snapped.

"Well? Care to enlighten us?" he growled. Hashirama sent a silent apology to his bother and finally he spoke. "She was an Uchiha from our time. A powerful child who suffered in the most horrendous ways until her time came." He closed his mouth and regained his thoughts ignoring the furious look of the man next to him. "She was born with amazing abilities, and people treated her in a cruel and unfair way... Tobirama was actually very close to her."

"Oh please Anija, I only met her twice in my life, and we weren't even that close", he said having calmed down a little. "If anything, that suffering you say she went under was her clan's fault. Just another reason as to why that cursed clan is better now that it's gone."

Sasuke ignored that last jab as he kept his eyes on Hashirama. Eventually, he continued. "Young man, do you know the main powers of the mangekyo sharingan?" Sasuke remained confused but decided to play along so that this whole thing could be over. "Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, Kamui, Kotoamatsukami, Izanagi and Izanami. What does it matter?" The First didn't react despite his rude comeback. "And do you know who their greater users where?" "Hn, why do you want to know that? You already lived with one of them."

Still no reaction. "Well, to answer your question, Nanashi was the greatest user of genjutsu that has ever lived. Unfortunately, that was also the reason of her downfall. Her story was trully one of a kind, but Tobirama will tell you more."

He directed his look to the Second, who looked seconds away from strangling his borther. "And why, pray tell Anija, would I do-" "Because -he quickly responded without giving him time to continue with a hard look- this story may help him decide what he will do, and by extension dictate the fate of the world."

With a heavy sigh, the Second stood up straighter and sent a judmental look towards Sasuke. Finally, he gave in and spoke. "From what we were able to gather, Nanashi was born in the main Uchiha compound with her mangekyo sharingan already awakened," he declared, to which everyone in that room adquired a shocked look. He waited a few seconds to make sure all of them understood the implications before continuing. "Her mangekyo ability was the Inkizami no Tsukuyomi, and it was extremily powerful. However, as a baby, she coundn't control it properly, and it resulted in her parents accidently being driven to madness by their infant daughter just weeks after her birth. The clan head at that time, Uchiha Tajima, found out and decided to adopt her as her own and train her to user her eyes for the clan."

Sasuke stood still not sure of if what he was hearing was real. There was an eighth technique? It was hard to believe, there was nothing writen on the Uchiha scrolls about this. It sounded so impossible, so fantastical. Oh, but if it was true... He could already imagine the possibilities. A child born with a mangekyo so powerful that it could destroy minds with just a small look. That girl sounded like a huge asset but... The clan hadn't any reccord about her. Why was that?

As if reading his mind, the Second continued. "This wasn't registered anywhere because of the darkness of the whole thing. A little girl trained from the moment she began to breath into a killing machine, who only had to peek at anyone to kill them mentally, but deprived of any love or affection. They even used a sealed headband to make her a emotionless slave. She was basically their ace up their sleeve. Their secret soldier who was sent to carry out the darkest missions only to be kept prisoner in a sealed cave, never to see the light other than to end a life. We were only able to gather this much information by pure luck. It's possible that not even Madara knew of her existence, with her being so young at the time of her disappearance." He released a thick breath, as if his words pained him. "Appearently, her clan feared her because of her abilities, and Tajima mistreated her a lot too, but he gained her loyalty when he proved to her he was inmune to her powers".

"Yes," Hashirama added with a somber look. "I still remember that day. It was a long time ago, when Tobirama was a young boy and so was I. We were both in a surveillance mission with our father..."

──

He remembered that day well. All to well. He and Hashirama were barely adults, patrolling their clan's borders with their father when he had detected two strong chakra sources advancing towards them too quickly. Their father and current clan head, Senju Butsuma, stood with his guard up and ordered them to prepare.

Luck had not been on their side. Tobirama always preffered to battle at night, when he could make use of his superior sensing abilities, but at the time he was still perfecting them. Besides, even if he could sense them, the Uchihas had their damned sharingan, which allowed them to locate them in the dark. The fact that the sky was full with clouds that blocked the moonlight was of no help.

He informed of their current predicament and right after doing so, he looked up at the sky. Not a star could be seen. They would have to relly on his sensing to return home. If they managed to survive this fight. While he was still young, he had already become a powerful asset to his clan, and a well-known warrior, but he couldn't affort to be arrogant. Those people were the first to die. Although the Uchihas, famous for their cockiness, had managed to stay in their position for centuries. If it weren't for their sharingan, the war would have ended years ago. Those cursed, bloody, red ey- Wait. Red. That brilliance... Was that-

Before he could figure out what he thought he had seen up in the firmament, their father and current clan head, Senju Butsuma, stood with his guard up and ordered them to prepare, but they weren't ready for what they saw. Uchiha Tajima, current head of the uchihas, and in his arms was a child.

A little girl with obvious uchiha traits. Black hair, black eyes and pale skin. But when he took a closer look, he realised she didn't exactly look like the other uchihas. Her hair was spiky with a blue tint and reached past her shoulder blades, instead of the typical ash black hair that most Uchihas had. She had an orange headband that secured her hair, allowing a few locks to escape. What's more, she wasn't dressed in the normal uchiha tunics. She wore a black cropped turtleneck and matching capri leggings underneath a blue coat with darker outline, brown belt with silver buckle, dark brown, fingerless gloves, and black boots. No sign of the Uchiha fan in any of her garments.

But this was strange. Why was the Uchiha leader here with a child on his arms? Who even was she? By the looks his father was sending them, it didn't look like he knew her. Then again, she was calmly seated in the man's arms, without fidgeting, which was weird for a kid her age, almost disturbing considering she was in front of her clan's most wanted enemies. Why was she so quiet? Why were her eyes so open and her pupils so small? And was nobody going to ask why was she on a battlefield?! For Kami sake, she looked barely eight years old!

"Well, well, look what we found, my dear. A small party of Senjus patrolling near our lands," Tajima spoke loudly looking at them with a sick smile on his face that sent shivers down his spine. "The one in the middle is Butsuma, their leader. The small ones are his sons. Hashirama, the brunette is the heir, and the white-haired one is Tobirama, his second son," he introduced them with a mocking face to the girl, who took them all in with an emotionless face.

"What is the meaning of this, Tajima? We are inside our borders, what business do you have here?" his father questioned severely. Tajima marely shaked his head and stood there unalarmed. He glanced to his brother who looked on guard but also confused. "Oh, us? We are here to put a stop to all the killing and destruction the wars have been causing," he innocently declared.

That made a new wave of puzzlement hit the three of them, although he could feel Hashirama perking up at the mention of stopping the wars. "Oh?" his father started. "And how do you propose to do that?" he all but scoffed. The brothers too were curious where this was taking and remained in silence. When Tajima spoke again, seemingly contemplating something, they all had to blink twice. "With your death and your kin burned down to ashes, of course".

Before anyone could say anything, Butsuma let out a loud laugh. They too were shocked, if not nervous, as the uchiha leader was not someone who made empty promises. And lately the uchihas had gained a lot of power with unknown methods. Still, he couldn't help but wonder why had that girl come along with him. He got his answers back soon.

"Nanashi-chan, my dear daughter", the senjus turned their heads sharply towards the little girl -now named Nanashi, as in that fearsome assassin the rumors spoke about? And daugher of Tajima, what- who responded by looking at her father with wide eyes. "Why don't you give Butsuma a piece of your mind on the matter?"

Suddenly, the girl turned her neck so fast he thought she could have broken it. Then her eyes changed, from small black dots to red with black tomoes, to a pattern they had never witnessed before. Her eyes were completely red with her pupils remaining small black dots, and three traingle-like patterns evenly spaced around them, making them similar to a pinwheel. She stared at her father for a few seconds before the man began to take steps back and muttering nonsense with his eyes so wide they looked as if they would pop out of his sockets. He stumbled, like he was dizzy, and fell down grabbing his head and started yelling like a mad man. Genjutsu? He and Hashirama went to him and tried to shake him out of it, but nothing seemed to work, not even his brother's healing jutsu. He still could sense the girl's -Nanashi's- gaze on his father. Had she casted genjutsu on him? But she was just a toddler!

How could she-

Movement! Behind him! What-

Sword-

Blood-

Before he could look back, Tajima suddenly appeared behind his father and thrusted his sword on his heart. Time seemed to stop. Not a sound was heard as he stared at his father's chest, once rising and falling quickly due to his harsh breathing, now covered in red with a sword sticking from his left side which kept leaking more and more blood. He remained there, still not believing what he was seeing. His father, his clan head. Was dying. Bleeding to death. He still coundn't believe it and yet, he-

A sudden yell from his brother made him come back to reality a little. Hashirama was screaming and trying to use his healing jutsu to his maximum but it wasn't working. Tobirama was looking at him with dead-like eyes because he knew the truth, though he didn't want to admit it. It was still unbelievable to him. Hashirama didn't give up, still trying to save their father somehow despite the obvious result. He desperately took Tajima's sword, who had gone back to his daughter where he had left her unguarded, and continued to try and yell and scream at their father to wake up and open his eyes.

His hand came up without him really thinking about it and soon found his brothers shoulder, who stopped moving with tears flowing from his eyes. It was painfully clear. Their father was dead. He had died a long time ago with their mother and their little brothers. And now their leader was gone too. Had been from the moment the enemy's sword had even scrachted his back. There had never been even a slight chance of saving him. A painless death. He almost laughted at the irony.

Nevertheless, laugh was heard. A wicked, empty laugh. Without turning they knew who it belonged to. The enemy leader had just finished of his greatest foes and rivals. And when he turned around, he could confirm it indeed belonged to Uchiha Tajima, who held his child in his arms again. She just regarded him with a poker face, her eyes normal again, as if she hadn't just tortured a man to madness and helped in his demise.

Then the ground started shaking. Wha- His bother's wood style! Roots started to grow around him, the trees howled sounding like angry cries who shared their master's pain. This powerful chakra was the reason why his brother was named God of Shinobi at such a young age. Hashirama was-! "Do it again!" An angry voice with a hint of a tremor sounded strongly. The child once again activated her eyes and the roots, which had already began to crawl around the Uchihas, came to a stop. Tajima let out a small exhale of air, and the girl remained with the same expression despite almost dying crushed. He, however, regained his inner fear as he turned his head to his brother and found him with a horrified look on his face, his eyes unfocused and speaking in mumbles too, just like their father before he had-

NO!!

He quickly drew out his sword and stood protectly in front of Hashirama with his eyes closed. It was clear now the girl was producing the genjutsus. Surprisingly strong for a little girl, taht not even his brother had come out of them. He was a sensor, he could fight with his eyes closed. Yes, he reasoned with a shaky sigh,it was alright. As long as he remained calm and with his senses on high alert, there was nothing to fear.

"And then there was one," he heared the taunting voice of Tajima. "The clever ones are always the last to die. I see you figured out my girl's little trick. Amazing, isn't it? Just a glance your way and your mind will be turned to mush. As long as she looks at your brother, he will never get our of that state." He heard steps, indicating the Uchiha was approaching. He took a stand with his sword. He felt him stop a few steps from him, and the girl standing there from afar. "Do you know what the best part of this is? I'm the only one who is inmune to her powers. Which means that with her by my side, there is no one strong enough do defeat me," he chuckled. "It's over, little Senju. Soon, I will kill everyone you hold dear. Your cousins, your uncles... they will all suffer the same destiny you father and brother did. You. Have. Lost."

Blinded by fury, his body launched itself into a set of angry attacks and jutsus. Fighting with his eyes closed, despite his good sensing, was always harder, but this time his eyes weren't coordinating his moves. It was his heart, his furious, raging, rabid heart. His mind was still sending possible strategies he could use to defeat him, but his inner person didn't want that. He wanted that demon to die a slow, merciless death. To suffer and erase that sickening smile from his face. So he kept striking, using his claimed speed to try and land a deadly blow. All in all, he became blind not by his closed eye lids, but by uncontrollable rage, which was the reason he didn't see when Tajima managed to sneek on him and slice his back with his katana, that he dodged with difficulty, still receiving part of the blow but not so that it took his life as intended.

With his last ounce of strength, he took out a kunai that we always kept on his chestplate just in case, and threw it at him so fast that it managed to scratch his left arm, tearing his sleeve. He had tried to use what was rest of his force on that blow, but it had failed. Now he was powerless to stop him. He opened his eyes, defeated, knowing what was coming for him, already accepting his fate but...

What he saw wasn't what he expected to see, though he couldn't express it well because of his fatigue. Tajima had dropped his sword, and instead of looking at him to kill him, he was looking at the arm he had sliced. No, not his arm. His gaze was fixed into a small seal on his forearm. 督 (Toku). Then his eyes lost their initial glee and turned scared and frightened that he had trouble believing this was the same man who had just killed his father. Even more weird, his eyes trembled even more as he looked at the forgotten girl, who had stopped looking at Hashirama and was frowning at her father. More specifically, at the seal which he now realized had the same kanji engraved on her headband.

Hashirama finally stopped speaking and fainted on the floor, and he felt he soon would too from chakra depletion. He was releived his brother could rest, and scared for what possible side effects it might have on him, but he came back from his thoughts when Tajima began to take steps back as his daughter came forward.

"N- Nanashi, my daughter... This isn't w- what it looks like, I-!" "I'm not afraid of you," her calm voice broke through his words as she advanced with an angry expression, while he kept retreating back, sweat visible on his brow. "Wait, please-" "I know what it's like to frighten other people. That's why I'm not afraid of you. I'm the only one." He kept taking steps back as he stumbled on a root and fell against a tree. The girl reached him and raised her arm. He just closed his eyes and lifted his own in defense, as pathetic as that was. He knew he was done for. That child was more powerful that all those in that field combined. He forced his eyes to remain open as he awaited the end of this battle, and felt his body hair stand in anticipation.

"Don't do this." Tajima's voice came as a scared whisper, and he witnessed as his daughter put her raised hand on his father's sealed forearm and stroke it gently. "Do what?" she inquired in an almost sweet voice. The man remained in that position for a moment before letting out a shaky breath and opened his eyes releaved. "That's my Nanashi-chan. Everything is going to be- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!"

Tobirama, even in his weakened state couldn't help but jump back as the man began to scream for his life as if a thousand knifes were gutting his insides. He watched astonished as black fire appeared on the girl's hand, which seemed to have no effect on her, and it burned and melted the man's skin, severing the right arm of her father from his body. He couldn't even believe she had the strength to do it, let alone the guts, but she didn't seem to mind as blood came down in flods from his right side. She still had an angry look on her face when she made him look into her eyes and destroyed his mind until the screaming stopped eventually and he fell down to the floor, his eyes now vacant of life and drool coming down his open mouth. That horrendous moment was chosen by his body to finally snap and he too fell down on the ground, face down. The girl appearently took this a sign, as she retreated her arm and stared at his body, and began to walk towards nowhere in particular. He had been spared, he faintly realized. She was at the edge of the field when his raspy voice came out one final time. "Where... are you gonna... go?" The girl turned back to him and regarded him with the same expression he had seen on her face before the battle began. "Nowhere," her childish voice responded as she continued walking. The last thing he heard where the sound of her heels marching away when he closed his and succumed to his wounds.

──

"... and then we didn't see her for years. After that, I becabe clan head and married Mito, the village was created, Madara... left and the rest, you all know," he finished.

The Third and Fourth were astonished as they didn't know that part of history from their predecessors. Orochimaru was impressed too, mostly because of the scientific possibilities he guessed. Suigetsu stood there with his mouth open, even the all-time serious Juugo had a surprised face. Sasuke was still in shock after hearing such a story. It still didn't sound possible for him. A child with that kind of power. But he could feel that wasn't the end of it.

"What happened to her after you last saw her? Do you know?" the Fourth asked, surprisingly enough. Sasuke reminded himself again that he was Naruto's father, so he should assume that his idiotic forgiving nature had come from his genes.

Hashirama gave him what he could call an I-smile-because-I-don't-wanna-cry look and answered. "Well, I actually never saw her again," he said rubbing his neck with a sorry smile. "Tobirama was the last to see her after we faced down the Seven Deadly Tengan." After that sentence, they all stared at him with dumbfounded looks. "What? It's not like we made up the name, they were the ones who presented themselves like that!" he said indignant when everyone regarded him with the same expressions.

"They were a group of civilans and rogue ninjas who were turned into crimminals," the Second explained for everybody's sake. "After many years, a group a mercenaries came out of nowhere and started to cause trouble to the neighboring villages, and we were sent to defeat them. I, Anija, Touka, Mito, my squad, Sasuke and many more. All of them possessed the mangekyo sharingan and represented one of the eight unique abilitys. Susanoo, Amaterasu, Kamui, Kotoamatsukami, Izanagi, Izanami and herself." That really shocked Sasuke even more. After hearing about that mysterious Nanashi, there were more like her out there? "Despite their seemingly relation to Nanashi, they were far from related to each other. They weren't even true Uchihas."

"How's that?" Suigetsu asked. He inmediatly hid behind Orochimaru as the serious look on the Second turned to him. "Because," he First interjected heavily. "She was the one who created them. With her very own doujutsu, Yachihoko. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that they could single-handedly defeat any of us, in the end it was the seven of them against the whole village. Eventually we took them down. Most of them, anyway."

──

Tobirama rested againt a tree as he regarded silently the enemies they had kept fighting against for a whole day at the ground of their newly built castle. The place looked as if had been taken out a fairy tail. Over a desserted wasteland , big and tall towers rose before them under a dark-clouded sky, and sorrounded by red trees with blue trunks. The most noticeable detail was the moon. It shone with a bright red color with a pattern resembling a mangekyo sharingan. Not Madara's or Izuna's, but a very familiar one nonetheless.

The Seven Deadly Tengan, as they had introduced themselves as. That name was definitely fitting. Yūbu had been an inpenetrable shield with a massive strength. Tsukai too was a source of destruction, with her unextinguishable black flames that could burn down anything. Luckily, those two relied on pure power rather than a strategy so they were the easiest to defeat. Idō and Musubi were a different story; one with intangibility and another with mind control skills respectively. With Idō, they had to decipher his technique and wait for the perfect moment to deliver the blows. Musubi had required lots of teamwork to overcome the mental control, and unfortunatelly the help of the uchihas to break it later.

Last but not least, the greatest of them all. Hiruko had the ability to regenerate from any wound, and even revive himself from the dead, which had come to intrigue him. Awashima could create powerful ilussions where she trapped you in a time loop, and made you lose sight of reality. They had been the hardest to take down. It painted him to admid it, that hundreds of shinobis had been needed to knock down that pair. As they discovered later, the answer was to make Hiruko lose his consciousness and as for Awashima, using the best genjutsu experts they had, they trapped her in her own ilussions. That's when Senju, previously Uzumaki, Mito came in.

Her help with seals had been expremely helpful during the fight, and also helping restraining them after being captured. "Aneue," he greeted her sister-in-law as she advanced towards him with his brother and Touka in tow. "Tobirama," she greeted back. "I need to ask you something. While we were fighting, I sensed a strong chakra signature radiating from the... Seven Deadly Tengan. –the name still sounded so silly, and yet they hadn't found anything more fitting- It was the same in all of them."

"Hmm. Now that you mention, I did feel something strange about them. And their behaviour was odd to say the least. It almost looked as if they were-" "Being controlled? I though so as well. What's more, judging from their title, it is obvious that one of them is still active and possibly hiding themselves. So I decided to step down for a moment during the battle to try and understand what it meant and I came to a conclussion". No surprises there, he mused. She had always been better at sensing than him because of her Uzumaki lineage. It also helped that she was capable of sensing emotions from others, something he had yet to discuss with her in order to comprehend it better. "It turns out that chakra was coming from inside the castle, which led me to believe whoever is inside is the last member that was controlling them the whole time."

That got them all thinking. Just who was so powerful as to control people as mighty as those six were. His inmediate thought was of someone from the uchiha clan, known for their visual prowers. Their enemies even had those cursed eyes, so it would make sense. But appart from Madara, now dead and buried, luckily for all of them, there were no reccords of any rogue uchiha.

"And... I think I know who it could be." Her voice made his attention turn to her one again. It seemed like she had a guess who could it be, though she looked uncomfortable for some reason. "You know I have memorized all the chakra signatures we all have faced down in time, and after comparing them, I believe the responsible for this was an enemy you faced down a long time ago." "So... Who is it?" Touka finally asked after a long, awkard silence. Mito took a deep breath and schooled herself. "Does the name Nanashi say anything to you?"

"What??" came his inmediate reply. His breath was caught in his throat. His memories came down crushing on him. Long forgotten memories that brought so much pain and still, he vividly remembered that little girl who had betrayed her father and ended his own life after taking his own father's and nearly his brother's. Nanashi. She had disappeard after their first encounter, she told him she was going... nowhere. At that time she didn't understand what she meant. An enigma he never had the chance of figuring out. And now it looks like she had taken out her anger on the world. But why? What did she want to achieve with this?

"Yes. The little girl you once told me about, who calls herself Nanashi. I had almost forgotten about her, despite the moon being an noticeable hint," she lamented, and no one there could argue with her really. The symbol engraved on the satellite was the same he had seen in her eyes all those years ago. How could they had missed such an obvious detail. "Alright, so what do we do about her? The last time we saw her, she helped us," Hashirama said, the ever forgiving soul. "Did you forget she helped in killing father and almost destroyed your mind too after that?" Tobirama reminded him harshly. "Well, we can't just do nothing. So maybe she 'helped' you a long time ago; she still can't go unpunished for all her crimes by using those six freaks over there," Touka pointed out.

Mito nodded her head. "I agree, we need to get to her and talk her out of whatever plans she has. Or else we will have to resort to violence," she declared firmly. Tobirama agreed too, and so did his brother, a bit unsure though. Then silence was implanted once again. In their heads, the issue was clear. They couldn't just go after her, of she could use them against each other. If anything, one of them shoud go inside. Alone. With a voice of steel, Tobirama voiced his opinion. "I'll do it. I'm the only one of us she has ever talked to. She might let me get close enough." His declaration brought him a series of frowns and clear denials on his realtives faces, but they still couldn't deny his logic. With only a few words shared between them, he was the one who she had most contact with. Still, nobody who erase the worry from their minds. It felt... nice, having people who worried about him. He wasn't the most animated person so he didn't have many friends outside his inner circle. As long as he had his familly by his side, his heart would beat with hidden affection. Not that he planned on telling them that.

"Before you go after Nanashi, you need to know what you're getting into," Mito's voice cut down the moment. They still had a strategy to plan out. One look at her guarded face spoke more than a thousand words. While she remained afraid for him, they couldn't just sacrifice the people's fates over his. They all understood that. "I've seen her powers before. She has the ability to give anyone she's in contact with hallucinations, as you can see," he explained, gazing at the fantasy-like background that surrounded them bathed under the red light.

"It's worse than you think. I checked her chakra line with my senses and her powers have evolved. She doesn't create hallucinations anymore, she telekinetically warps reality for as long as the moon's brightness can reach." "Please," huffed Touka nervously. "Are you trying to tell me all this is real?" He too wanted to believe that something that extraordinary wasn't real and that this was all a nightmare, but he had already faced down this situation long ago and learnt the hard reality. "Real, growing and permanent if we don't put a stop to it all. With my emotion senses I can safely predict that Nanashi is days, maybe only hours, from a massive chakra depletion. Her eyes must have been activated for a huge amount of time."

"Problem solved then?" Touka asked. "It isn't that simple. When she goes down, the energy backlash could kill everyone in range of her technique. That's a distance measured in thousands of miles," she said gravely while revealing something from her sleeve. A headband marked with a particular kanji. He remembered that symbol. It was writen on many of Mito's scrolls, which she had justified as them being part of an important project for the future she had been working on with the Sarutobi chief. 押 (Ō). Now that he knew what it did, he understood, what they wanted him to do. "Take her down before she takes everyone with her."

He didn't say anything as he turned towards the castle and started walking to its entrance, hidden behind a mantle of thorns. There was nothing to be said. He could feel their sadness irradiating in deep waves, but not out of fear for him. That had never been the problem. He knew, they all knew. "Do you understand what you're agreeing to?" he heard his brother's gentle voice, almost as if trying to persuade him from their already set objective. His only brother left, his Anija. The one who had always looked after him, protected him from any danger he had faced. It looked like time hadn't passed and they were still kids, when he had all but depended on his big brother to survive. "The only way to stop Nanashi for certain is to kill her."

He never gave back any form of response, not physically nor verbally. Instead he kept advancing to the principal door of the castle, the thorns drawing away from him with each step he took and closing back inmediatly after. When he pushed the doors open, the scenario inside the place looked even more unreal than the outside. A gorgeus garden welcomed him. Lush bushes filled with floers of all kinds and colors. Some even looked made up from a child's imagination. The ground was covered in grass, with stone tiles to walk over. There was even a sky up in the ceiling. What an intriguing jutsu. He could almost hear a soft tuned being played in the back, one that resembled those played at acts about mythical tales.

That wasn't the only sound that got his attention. When he turned back, his eyes finally met with her figure, lazily going back and forth on a swing. He couldn't help but take her new form in. Her hair had grown exponentially to her knees and had adquired way some spikes. The new hairstyle made him think she had chopped it in a messy way, possibly due to her lack of experience. Her old headband was gone, and so was her old attire. Now she wore black boots with short socks and a navy blue bodysuit resembling a nightgown, with wide sleeves and a turtle neck that didn't quite reach her knees, but remarked her age greatly, reafirming her gentle features. She had to be in the middle of her teenager stage, but she had defenitely grown into a fine woman.

Or at least, he suppossed so, because her dirty hair and the stains and cuts on her clothes only made her look like those orphaned children they had been receiving every so often in the village. That sight alone almost made him want to quit the mission. Almost.

The girl remained in place, swinging forwards and backwards like a toddler. An experience she never got to experience, he could assume. Finally after a moment, she acknowledged his presence. "Senju Tobirama," she saluted without moving her eyes from their position. Her pupils ever so small, she looked like she was looking at something only she could see. He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. "Uchiha Hikari," he greeted back with no emotion in his voice. "I see you have made quite the research. Not even him ever called me by my birth name."

Research he did indeed. That was one of the few information he had been able to obtain at that time until he had forgotten about her. "Did you like playing with my Seven Deadly Tengan?" she asked. Like a little kid showing their work to his parents and waiting for approval. Despite her past, her infant soul had somehow remained hidden deep inside her, and began to show when she became free. Still... "I can't say that I did," he replied, the image of his comrades lying dead on a battlefield not so long ago.

"Yeah. They aren't any fun at all. I gave them their powers, and they still hardly ever play with me." A snort came out unintentionally. "Can't imagine why," he said trying to hide a little sarcasm in his voice. She didn't speak for a moment but when she did, he clenched his fists a little too tight. "When I was little, he used to make me play all kinds of games, but they weren't any fun either," she began, her voice angering slightly as clouds covered the inner sky. "They'd make me train until by bones cracked and mute my will with their sealed headband, and force me to strain my eyesight to improve it and find out how it worked. 'Nanashi, can you move that object with your mind?'" A nearby tree lifted itself from the ground and into the dark sky. "Yeah, I can move it." He continued to look at her in silence. She needed this, he knew. To get it all out. "They weren't really games, you know. They were training me. Turning me into a weapon 'for the clan', they said," she stopped swinging and gave a little kick to the earth below her. "They got their weapon; I got cheated out of my childhood. All to become another link in the world's worst chain."

That had been the reason for this whole thing. The justification of so many deaths and destruction. A childish revenge, some would call it. But Tobirama... he understood her. Possibly better than anyone he could think of. Hashirama fought to lead their people into a safe tomorrow. Sasuke sought to become a better leader for his clan, which depended on him. Mito had the responsability to represent both Konoha and Uzu, being the wife of the Shodaime. Touka was a war general. Being her parents' only heir, she had been forced on the battlefield since she was a child to defend their honor and her clan's. But him? He was the second heir of he Senju. The little brother of the God of Shinobi. The spare in case his elder brother died. No matter how powerful he became, he was basically just a plan b, a second alternative. If he were to die, the village would still have their leader and the clan would still have their chief. Nothing would change significantly. Sure, he would be missed and a big soldier would be lost, but sooner or later he would be replaced with a new warrior from a yonger generation. Like Kagami or Saru.

All in all, he finally understood. She didn't hate him. She didn't hate the Uchiha, nor the village. She probably didn't even have the ability to hate anybody, no matter how much she wanted to. She just despised the Ninja World. It made sense. All the things she had to go under, the major reason for her continuous suffering was because of the reality they lived in. With her inmense capacities, she could have created more slaves to bring all the villages down if she felt so moved; she could literally alter the whole world with a single glimpse, as he had just learnt. But even with all that, she hadn't.

He just stood there firmly, unsure at first. Finally, he wetted his lips a bit. "I know what that's like," he said, mirroring his own childhood memories. Depressing as they were, he still thought nothing could compare to her past and present suffering. "You do, don't you?" she asked gently, her gaze landing on him for the first time. Speaking of first times, she also gifted him with a smile that he swore carried out an aura of sadness. But that face, it was just looked so accepting, so- "You don't have to answer. I've read your mind. That's how I knew you weren't going to use Mito's headband on me."

He revealed the accesory from his pouch without hesitation and allowed it to fall from his fingertips, leaving it lying to the ground. "No, I wasn't," he affirmed. "You were going to try and talk me into fixing what I've changed... before I die." Her words came out more as a sentence. He schooled his features. "Yes." "I'm dying very soon," she said again, her eyes not giving anything away. He gathered every bit of strength he had. For both their sakes. "Yes," he let out in a steady voice. "I'm sorry." He clenched his jaw thighly.

Those words seemed to be a breaking point for her. They probably sounded foreign to her. The first person in her life to ever apologising for what she went under, even if he wasn't at fault directly. A small sniff was heard as her shoulders flinched a little, most likely trying to contain her emotions. Many had called him emotioness in his early teens, but this girl had had that lesson drilled into her hear from the moment she began to speak. Still, a sad look dawned on her face. When she lookd back at him, long tears were coming from her eyes.

"Would you stay with me? I'm scared," she whispered, almost whimpered. He walked towards the swing next to hers and sat down, holding his hands on his lap. She wiped away her tears with her wrist and both stood there in silence. Eventually, he raised his arm, offering one final form of support. She stared at his hand and raised hers too. And there they stood, gripping each others hand.

──

"-Later after that, the moon regained its color and the land adopted its natural look again... He sat with her until her time came."

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ikemenfanfiction · 7 months ago

Text

"Interrogation"

part 2: Kasugayama Route Ikemen Sengoku (Dec. 2019) See Masterlist Characters: Kenshin, Yukimura, Sasuke, Hideyoshi, and Mai Disclaimer: Ikemen Sengoku Characters belong to Cybird Word Count: 2300 WARNINGS: May contain violence, hostage and abuse triggering content, and other mature content. 18+

“Sasuke. Please explain why this woman is in Azuchi after you helped her the night of Honno-ji.” Kenshin spoke decisively but didn’t even spare a glance for his ninja. Instead he watched Mai like a cat observing a rodent.

“Lord Kenshin, this is Mai. She was on a pilgrimage to Azuchi because she has a job working for a warrior family here.”

“Working for a warrior family or joining them?” Yuki snarked.

“I said I was sorry Yuki. I seriously-“

“If you think I’m going to forgive your tendency of tackling and attacking people, boar woman, you’ve-”

“Call me that one more time and I’ll kick you and mean it!” She warned.

“I’d like to see you try it.” Yuki glared.

“Yukimura it is usually protocol to remember someone’s name especially if a friend of yours introduces them to you. Isn’t that right Lord Kenshin?”

“Why would I bother to remember the name of a suspicious woman when I can just kill her?” Kenshin asked his cold eyes holding her captive.

“There will be no killing my friend either, Lord Kenshin!” Sasuke intervened actually moving to stand between her and his liege lord. Obviously he seemed the more viable threat in Sasuke’s eyes. “Mai is my friend. She speaks a similar dialect as I do and we discovered we come from the same region. I’ve been trying to help her settle in here. She’s been kind enough not to say anything about us sneaking around enemy territory. She has my trust and Yuki’s also. Right Yuki?”

“I trust her mouth if not her feet.” Yuki admitted.

“I said I was sorry.” Mai sighed. “Seriously, two ronin just tried to beat a guy up. Things like that don’t usually happen on my lunch break! All my self-defense instincts are on overload.”

“She speaks the truth.” Kenshin said but he still seemed skeptical. “Very well. Swear on your life that you will not betray us to Lord Nobunaga or any of his subordinates. If you break your vow your life will be forfeit to me.”

Mai gasped. Her life? Man these guys took promises seriously. She glanced at Sasuke who seemed at a loss for what to say to his sword-happy liege.

Suddenly Kenshin’s sword was at her throat. “Your oath, woman, or I take your head.”

She stared into those ice cold eyes. One green one blue yet both otherworldly.

“Lord Kenshin-” Sasuke started to object.

“I swear I will not betray you.” She spoke the words he asked for and she meant them. She had no intention of betraying Sasuke or the other’s to the Oda forces. It wasn’t her place to start the war prematurely. Also having war break out in the middle of Azuchi would have consequences she did not want to think about. .“I won’t reveal that you were in Azuchi. Not to your enemies or anyone else.”

“Very well.” Kenshin sheathed his sword. “Sasuke I’ll be at your safe house. See to her arm before sending her away.”

With that Kenshin disappeared around the corner into the streets. Mai couldn’t help a relieved sigh.

That was one warlord who was far too sword happy for her liking.

“I’m sorry Mai.” Sasuke spoke sheepishly, “I’ve tried to convince him that threatening the lives of strangers does not leave a good impression.”

“Threatening the lives of allies doesn’t either yet he continues to do it on a regular basis.” Yuki grimaced as he got to his feet. “As pleasant as this visit has been, boar woman, I think I’m going to take my leave.”

She glared at him. Then she noticed the weary sigh that escaped Sasuke and decided to cut her favorite ninja a break. “I really am sorry Yuki. I need to head home for today but some other time could I please treat you to lunch or something as an apology? I really really did not mean to attack you on the second day I’ve known you.”

Yuki paused his departure and glanced at Sasuke who shrugged.

“Fine. Meet me tomorrow at mid-day at my booth. The afternoons are usually slow anyway.”

“Ok! I’ll be there!” She sighed with relief.

“No kicking anyone though. Got it?”

“I swear! I will take the entire day off from kicking people.”

“Good. See you later Sasuke.”

With that Yukimura disappeared down the ally. Sasuke drew closer and lifted her injured arm to inspect it.

Oh yeah, Kenshin ordered him to do this. She hadn’t expected Kenshin to recall she was injured during that scuffle. That he would ask his own ninja to check on her, however, was almost as confusing as the rest of the experience. “It looks like the muscles have been strained but nothing serious. It will likely bother you for several days however. I’d rest it as much as possible so it can heal properly.”

After that observation Sasuke took out a salve to apply to the swollen part of her wrist and elbow.

“Thank you for helping me Sasuke.”

“After my liege lord threatened to kill you? It’s the least I can do. I really am sorry about him. He isn’t normally so-”

“Stabby?”

“Aggressive. At least not when it comes to women. Usually he acts like they are invisible or interacts with them as little as humanly possible.”

“He doesn’t like women?” She asked.

“More like he doesn’t acknowledge their existence. So that he noticed you and remembered who you were?” Sasuke shrugged, “I’m just really surprised.”

“Sasuke…are you safe working for Kenshin?” She asked hesitantly. She felt like she was trying to offer an abuse victim an opportunity to ask for help.

“Safe wouldn’t be the term I’d use. However, despite the impression he just gave you Kenshin is actually very strict as far as his code of ethics. He would never act dishonorably towards a subordinate. Also, he would never intentionally harm someone weaker than himself outside of battle. He does often express affection in odd ways. However, I wouldn’t be the ninja I am today without him.”

Despite his tranquil demeaner Sasuke spoke rather emphatically of his Lord’s good qualities. Someone who had earned Sasuke’s trust had to have his good points-right? Mai decided if she ever ran into Kenshin again she’d make an effort to not set him off. Hopefully then she might see some of the better points Sasuke saw in him.

After Sasuke walked her back to the outskirts of the castle Mai hurried inside. Hideyoshi was expecting her to return with the special candy he had asked her to pick up as a surprise for Lord Nobunaga.

Hideyoshi’s dark expression, however, was not the greeting she had hoped for.

“I take it I’m late?”

“Not just late, Mai, I’d say especially late. It is nearly dark and you left before lunchtime.” Hideyoshi scolded her. “I don’t mind if you window shop a bit while you are out on an errand but making me worry something happened to you like this is unacceptable.”

“I am so sorry I worried you. I truly did not intend to take so long.” She even bowed to him apologetically. The last thing she needed was another warlord angry at her today. “Azuchi is so much larger than I realized and it took me much longer to get back than I though it would. I promise I will be much more conscientious about returning early enough not to worry you again.”

“Were you able to pickup Lord Nobunaga’s candy like I asked?” Hideyoshi seemed to accept the apology at least.

“I did! Here.” She handed over the bag of konpeito she’d found at the shop Hideyoshi had asked her to visit. “I was also able to find the sewing items I needed at the shop you told me about.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Now, I was wondering if you’d be interested in doing some repair work on a Haori Coat for Lord Nobunaga?”

“What?!” Mai was really surprised especially because Hideyoshi had still seemed so suspicious of her.

She’d been doing her best to earn her trust but if a poison needle were to show up in his coat Hideyoshi would be most likely to blame her! “Are you sure you trust me to do that?”

Hideyoshi actually laughed at her incredulous response. “Of course I would. It is a small repair and I felt it might give you an opportunity to show him some gratitude for giving you a place here in Azuchi.”

Mai blushed. She really hadn’t been able to show much gratitude to Lord Nobunaga. Well not in the way he expected her too. She’d dodged his attention whenever she could. He seemed to be reluctant to enjoy her company against her will and Mai was relieved about that. Still how do you show gratitude to a guy who gave you food shelter protection and a job?!

“I’d be grateful for the opportunity Hideyoshi. Please let me know if there is any thing else—er—sewing-wise I can do for Lord Nobunaga. I would be happy to express my gratitude to him in that manner.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now get some rest. I’m sure you’ve had a long day. I left a tray of food in your room so you wouldn’t go hungry.”

“I-you did?”

“Well a spy can’t really be interrogated if she dies before I find out who she works for.”

Mai gasped. Did he really think that?!!

Hideyoshi’s laughter made her turn an even brighter red than before and she wanted to scamper off to her room to hide. Instead she braced herself and bowed to him again.

“You have been especially patient and accommodating Lord Hideyoshi. I am so sorry to be such a burden. If there is any way I can ever thank you—”

She broke off when Hideyoshi used his fingers to tip her chin upward prompting her to stand up straight.

“I appreciate the gratitude Mai, but there’s no need to bow to me. I’m happy to do it and I’d be happy just to hear you say thank you.”

She looked up into his handsome face and her heart seemed to be climbing up her throat making it difficult to speak. Seriously she’d been around way too many attractive warlords lately.

They did go into battle sometimes right? Shouldn’t they come home a little marred afterward or at least significantly less perfect? She thought of Lord Masamune’s eyepatch and the hallway immediately felt warmer. Okay even if Hideyoshi and the others lost a finger or an ear or something they’d still probably be outstandingly hot. It was a lost cause to wish that her heart could spend a few peaceful moments in the Sengoku Era not overacting to one handsome man or another.

“Thank you Lord Hideyoshi.” She said.

He smiled and she was once again reminded of why he was possibly the most eligible bachelor in Azuchi.

“You’re very welcome Mai. Here is the parcel with Lord Nobunaga’s coat. Just get it back to me when you’re finished ok?”

“Okay.”

“Goodnight!”

“Goodnight, Lord Hideyoshi.”

Mai watched him disappear down the hallway before heading for her room. Inside she found the food he had left for her and scarfed it down hungrily. She then opened the parcel that held Lord Nobunaga’s Haori to inspect what needed repaired.

She knew Hideyoshi meant what he said about her gratitude. For him a simple thank you was sufficient.

Yet she couldn’t help feeling like she somehow still wanted to show him she was grateful. So instead of going to bed she lit some extra candles and began to work on repairing the coat.

As she did Kenshin’s words from that afternoon came back to her.

"Don't cut yourself. The edges will be sharp."

She paused mid-stitch realizing how kind he had actually been to her. He had helped her pick up the pieces of the shattered bowl. Commanded Sasuke to check her arm—

Yet before all that he had saved her life.

Kenshin Uesugi had saved her.

What would have happened with those two ronin if he hadn’t intervened? She might have escaped, yes, but Kenshin had stopped them. She had only had the power to intervene. He had the power to change what was happening and chose too.

“I didn’t thank him. I didn’t even think…”

The realization stung and she was suddenly so angry with herself.

She continued sewing trying to come up with some way to express her gratitude to Kenshin for saving her. He didn’t like women so asking him to a tea house like she had Yuki would likely be more torturous than—

Yuki!! She was supposed to see Yuki tomorrow!!

Mai was suddenly very excited.

She could ask Yuki what she could do to thank lord Kenshin for saving her! Of course if he didn’t have any ideas she could always have him lead her to Sasuke and her ceiling ninja would certainly have a brilliant idea!

The idea made her especially happy and she began humming unconsciously as she continued to mend Lord Nobunaga’s coat.

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