makkoskafanfic

[makkoskafanfic]

I sadly haven't come across any collected sources (but please share if you do, it's a very interesting topic for any western Naruto fan!)

This is such an interesting topic, so I hope you don't mind my long rambling answer. I'm no expert at all on Japanese history, mythology and literature, so don't take these as the ultimate answers.

I've done some reading over the years, often starting from a Naruto wiki page and then getting lost in various topics I found the suggestion for on these pages.

I see you tagged The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya  and I believe that's the most direct literary influence.

Most other things are more subtle - Team Gai draws from Chinese/Hong Kong fight/action movies, Gai himself is a bow in front of Bruce Lee, for example.

Watching/ reading anything about actual shinobi can have a lot of "ah-ha!" moments when discovering where different jutsu names (the term on ninjutsu too, etc) are coming from. The Warring State period is a reference to a very turbulent time in Japan and can lead you down into the rabbit hole of the story of constantly fighting Samurai clans.  

Japanese folklore, mythological figures like Amaterasu (Goddess of the Sun) offer us explanations behind namings and give a little more in depth understanding on naming of characters, techniques, places and so on.

Even Japanese topography does: mount Iizuna is one of the "Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu", along with Mount Madarao. If you were ever wondering what Madara's other brothers might have been called, this is a good idea for them.

Kishimoto also referenced Shinto and Buddhist Mythology a whole lot of time. The chakra system itself reflects Buddhist ideas about spiritual energy and enlightenment. Many jutsu names reference Buddhist terminology, and the Six Paths of Pain directly correspond to the Buddhist concept of the six realms of existence. Shinto influences appear in natural spirits, kami, probably the tailed beasts too.

My totally under-researched theory is that Senju and Uchiha also represent Buddhism vs the older Shinto beliefs. The Senju are obviously Buddhists (see Hashirama's giant Buddha) and also represent the will to renew, while the Uchiha are more rooted in the past and closer to the old spirit world. See Madara with the Kyuubi. 

One of the interesting things I realised recently is how people can also be worshipped as Kami: while we usually translate the term as God (Kami no Shinobi/God of Shinobi), very notable people can also be "kami". So, in Hashirama's case he is not, or not only, "god" as in super powerful, but the "founding father who achieved great things"

I've read a few interesting things about what Kishimoto changed at his editors' urging. Sadly these were so long ago, I probably forgot most of them and I absolutely can't give you any sources, so please take this with a hefty pinch of salt. The two things that really stuck

- How Kishimoto wanted to make the Hokage a dog. (I don't know, I think we can argue that dogs would make better politicians than human do)

- How he wanted to write about Samurai at first, but he was suggested ninjas instead as they were a bigger hit in pop culture. My own, unsupported theory is that Hashirama's and Madara's story was something he wanted to create at first (they are pretty much magical samurai from an alternate Warring State period) - and also that is why this short arc turned out to be so good. 

Could someone point me to where I could learn more about references to Japanese literature in Naruto? Kishimoto seems fond of drawing from old epics etc and I’d like to learn more. I’m also curious about what references were directly from Kishimoto and what references were suggested by his editors.

[makkoskafanfic]

Given how the popular imagining is that Hell has circles, indeed, Hashirama is straight as Hell!

Hashirama is straight as hell cuz if Madara was my best friend and Kakuzu tried to assassinate me I would show them the village hidden in my pants

[makkoskafanfic]

i've read your tweet about hashimada and honestly everyday i pray to god that one day i'll be able to read a beautiful story about that farmer hashimada art you've made. but honestly as well, i'd read anything from you and i love your art dearly, sincerely and i hope you'll get all success possible to be achieved through your art (or anything you'd like to do). you're amazing and you touch people beautifully through your art.

oh my gaddd thank you you're so sweet 🥹 yeah that "farmer" hashimada doujin is an incomplete passion project of mine that i hope to finish one day i had the whole plot ready ahhhh... here are some sneak peaks

[makkoskafanfic]

Writing stories make me go through an interesting cycle, especially if they are on the longer side. (20K words and above) When The Idea comes from some unexpected source of inspiration, I'm excited to start on it. Usually after a few pages, at best 10-20 of them, at worst just after a half page, I start to slow down, put the fic aside for a while. This is the phase where stories can get a permanent residency in my WIP/Unfinished folder.

If not abandoned, then I slowly, slowly progress, a few pages a week, or not even that.

Then, somewhere past the 2/3 of the story there's a sudden breakthrough, and I start to write a lot faster. Finally I see the light at the end of the tunnel, I know how I will smooth out the plot, get characters together, fit in one last scene I really wanted to include. It is the absolute best part of writing, almost like a rush of adrenaline, that keeps me going.

When I'm at the very finish, I start to worry that it's almost at the end. (I'm at this stage right now) I'm finally having fun with writing, I don't want it to end! It's, ugh, the oxytocin of giving birth to my creative, typed child, that will make me bond with it. I felt tortured by this story for months, wondering why was I even bothering, but suddenly that changed and I love it, I feel close to it, and I want it to be successful in its Ao3 life, once I let its hand go.

This rush of joy is what makes me ignore the horror of having to edit it before it comes to posting. It is also what will make me start on a new one again.

[makkoskafanfic]

Managing to find the setting on Tumblr that made me see the same posts over and over again, instead of new ones made me feel unreasonably accomplished. Never mind working in IT support, making Tumblr behave *more* like how I want it to behave is the pinnacle of tech achievement.

[makkoskafanfic]

some very good to know answers

I wish ao3 would let you save filters on searches so that I don’t have to input loads of filters every time

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A redraw of this from over a year ago, but with the composition I originally wanted to draw

[makkoskafanfic]

Oh, okay. I guess that drink in the afterlife consists of sitting between sakura blossoms (on a branch? Madara halfway in Hashirama's lap?) with Uchiha and Senju being happy together downstairs with the exception of still disapproving Tobirama. Yeah, I can accept this as canon. This is the gay spirit Konoha was founded upon.

New Official Art

[makkoskafanfic]

I bet he's not even carrying a cup of coffee! Izuna was right, Senju can't be trusted.

Why are morning people like that.

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he sunburns easily

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do you know these posts you are legally obliged to reblog every single time you come across them?

cha cha real smooth

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i think about him constantly

[makkoskafanfic]

The use of AI in Fanfictions - an essay I'm sure many people wrote before me

I've been thinking about this back and forth a lot lately and here's my two cents nobody asked for on the topic of AI in fanfiction.

Long text under the cut

I'll make a distinction here between using AI to enhance some of your creative fan writing and just prompting AI to write something for you en bloc, because in my opinion we are speaking of different things here. For the former there are some arguments I can make. For the record, I use claude.ai as I find it the most politely human sounding and a lot less inclined to come up with complete lies. (chatGPT I'm looking at you)

The thing I sporadically use it for is information gathering. Sporadically, as I quite enjoy reading through long Wikipedia articles about subjects I never dived into before, but sometimes I just need a two line summary that I'm struggling to find. Some of the random things I had to research for the current fic I'm working on:

- clubs/nightlife in the early 2000s in outer London/Reading

- parent-teacher meetings in Japan for 16 years old students

- popular drugs in Tokyo in the 2000s

- traditional musical instruments from Tibet

I've read through a bunch of blog posts, reddit posts (which I always find really draining), PDF reports, while I needed pretty much a 3 word answer on these. In a better late than never moment, I asked from AI as well, and decided to accept what it said as truth for the missing bits.

Then, for this same fic, I decided to write some song lyrics - and found that I really suck at it. In a pitch, I tried to get AI to write them for me - sadly they ended up even worse then my own ones, but I could use a few lines as inspiration at least.

So, I would say when you need a paragraph in a different style, let's say a news article, a diary entry, you can try to prompt it. I'd never use the text as it is, as AI writing is quite flavourless, missing the soul if you will, but it can help you through those bits that make you stuck for days at least. 

As a non-native English speaker, I'd really love it to help with the language at times, but I don't see it fit for this, at least not at this stage. Maybe specific translation tools are better at this, never tried them for any creative purpose, but I'd only ever recommend them if you are confident in understanding what the returned text says. We are very far from the point where you can type in a whole story in your local language and trust AI to return the translation while keeping not just the meaning but the quality of your writing as well.

And this is, I think, the crucial failing point of AI in creative writing. A story isn't only the plot, isn't only the characterisation, or the dialogues, which you can prompt to a degree. It isn't even only the smut. (I don't know any AI that writes you explicit scenes, there might be some out there already.) So many times I've said I have great story ideas inside my mind, if only I could plug in an USB stick to download them, but this wouldn't work for other reasons than the obvious.

Anyone who tries to write down one of the many ideas in their mind will know that a written story isn't the same as the one the internal movie machine provided. There will be gaps and plot holes and stuff that just doesn't work when written down. There will be conversations that will fail on paper. There will be things you can just not make your characters do. Even moreso, a written story is also your choice of words, your pacing, your style. A good story will be reflecting you, or the parts of you that you decide to expose through writing.

And this is why I don't see AI's point in creating whole fanfictions. It will miss *you* from it, it will be nothing but templates and cliches put next to each other and sure, we have all seen movies and series which didn't do much else, but it isn't what we should aim for, is it? A creative process is sometimes painful, sometimes frustrating, but strangely is still a fulfilling thing. If someone wants to prompt AI for a fic for themselves, why not? I did, mostly to prove my point that it won't be good, and yes, it wasn't good. I actually had a good laugh as it was so cringe. Posting it isn't evil either, but I find it fully pointless. Why would I read anyone's prompted AI fic, when it takes me less than a minute to create a bad story for myself? As far as I can see you gain nothing but a few kudos and lots of hateful comments if you post an AI created fic, so unless you want interactions from others regardless if they are positive or negative, why would you do it?

Bottom line? I don't see harm in trying to use AI smartly for fanfictions, it is nothing but a tool after all, don't let the "intelligence" part mislead you. It's not. But let us not forget to cherish the human creativity, and appreciate the beauty in different styles and thought processes. Let's use fanfictions to learn English (or language of your choice) on a higher level. Make it a *good* story. Make it a well-written story. Create believable characterisation and dialogues. Write that sex scene.

One more thing: I'm talking about fanfictions only, where we are already playing with someone else's toys and can have a lot less claim about what's "ours". For an original piece of fiction, especially if you are one of those brave souls considering publishing something, the level of AI usage I'd find acceptable converges to 0.

To prove, or disprove my point, I also asked AI what it thinks of this.

[makkoskafanfic]

hashimada kiss.

[makkoskafanfic]

[makkoskafanfic]

Fic Sentence Tag Game

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fics, and then tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don't be shy and share anyway.

Tagged by @enquiringangel - thank you 🙂

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“This is not what we agreed on. Hashirama said…”

“I don’t care what he said!” Madara snapped. “Never mention the name of that man to me!”

Onoki fell silent. He bravely kept Madara’s angry glare for a while before he lowered his eyes. 

“I’m not obliged to work on the weekend. If there’s a business need for it, you need to speak with HR first. They have to create a compensation plan that people can sign, but you can’t make us sign it,” he mumbled. [Waiting for You, Waiting for Me, Naruto, Hashirama/Madara]

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The gods weren’t created equal. Nobody knows this better than Hephaestus does. He is, after all, forever cast to the side, never fully welcomed at the table when the Olympians dine. He has too much fraud with the others, he is considered unpleasant, demanding and imperfect. The last one is his most undesirable trait - in the eyes of the flawless gods and goddesses, his lameness is almost unforgivable. [Equals - Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Ares/Hephaestus]

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Madara thinks the world should stop for a minute, to hold its breath, when Hashirama dies. Someone larger than life, someone who shaped the history of the upcoming generations of shinobi is no longer, he ceased to exist. Allies should grieve, enemies should stand shocked by their fortune. People should despair over a future without the God of Shinobi. How can they possibly go on, continue to live their lives as if nothing happened? How is the earth still spinning around the sun? [Our Shattered Pieces (Fit Together so Well) - Naruto, Hashirama/Madara]

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When Hashirama arrives back to Konoha he feels more dead than alive. Maybe he has died and now it’s only his ghost crawling back to haunt the place of his once-dreams, chained forever to this village. Konoha, a miracle came true. Konoha, that has become Madara’s damnation and along with him, condemning Hashirama as well. [The Moon is Just the Sun at Night, Naruto, Hashirama/Madara]

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“Hashirama! Where’s that boy disappeared to? Hashirama!”

“Coming, dad, stop yelling!”

“Hurry up, or you will know what yelling really is!”

Hashirama hopped down the stairs to stand in front of his father. Just a few months shy of seventeen, he was already taller than his old man, a gangly teenager with limbs that were still too long, and a posture that always made Butsuma snap “don’t slouch!” at him. [Saturday Night, Naruto, Hashirama/Madara]

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“An undercover mission?” Kakuzu asked, not even bothering to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “Why us? Blending in isn’t exactly our strong suit.”

“Itachi and Kisame would be more ideal,” Zetsu nodded, grinning. At least his white half grinned. “But everyone would instantly recognise Kisame in Land of Water. This town is close to Kirigakure, too.”

“What’s the task?” Kakuzu asked with a sigh, knowing he wouldn’t like the answer. [Undercover, Naruto, Kakuzu/Hidan]

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“Hashirama, you know I can’t… with you watching. Turn away.”

“Come on, Madara. It’s not that I haven’t seen it a thousand times by now.”

“This is different. And it certainly hasn't been a thousand times.” [Flow, Naruto, Hashirama/Mada]

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“Boss? You better come here to see this.”

 Asuma Sarutobi, Chief Investigator at the Homicide Division of the Konoha Police was just about to go outside for a much needed smoke. He repressed a sigh and sank the pack of cigs back into his pocket. It was always easier to just do what Ino said than getting into an argument with her. He walked over to her desk and looked down at the dark and blurry picture on her screen.

“What am I looking at?” [The Thing That Should Not Be, Naruto, Kakuzu/Hidan]

-

FADE IN: 

IZANAGI HIGHLAND - NIGHT

 The night is dark and stormy, lightning crisscrosses the sky. Rain starts to pour and into the sound of thunder, the shouts of men mix. The camera slowly leaves the sky to focus on the ground. [Acting Bad, Naruto, Hashirama/Madara and some other pairings]

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The Land of Fire was a country that knew suffering. For half a century, war tore the lands apart. The old noble families had lost their influence, and their bickering for power opened the way for more serious troubles. Pitiless mercenary bands were hired by the opposing Lords, fighting against each other and the foreign warlords that tried to take the once-was, legendary wealth of these lands.. After the battles, the armies raided the villages and towns, pillaging and plundering, taking the goods people tried to hide in vain, burning down houses, killing men and violating women. [King of Mine, Naruto, Hashirama/Madara]

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Look, a total number of 1 (one) out of ten stories that’s not Naruto! This certainly speaks of my insanity dedication!

The social side of social media has never been my strong suit, but tagging @latart @thedreamermusing @loki-ate-my-sandwich @andreyahalms and anyone who thinks this is fun (it was)

BONUS: start of the current fic that I'm working on. Yes, it's HashiMada and if it feels somewhat similar you aren't wrong - it's a rewrite of Homecoming.

The drums sped up and along with them, so did Madara’s heart. The clapping of the audience grew thunderous, syncing with the ever louder beat. A bead of sweat rolled from under his hairline, down his temple. He wiped it off impatiently. Under his short, black gloves, his fingers were also clammy. It felt like his heart was trying to break free from his chest. It was a lucky thing he didn’t manage to eat anything at all the whole day, as he would likely be throwing up now if he did.