#all i’m saying is naruto and sasuke didn’t have anyone stopping them

[bakugoushotwife]

Inextricable P2 (Sasuke x Fem!Reader)

a/n: okay plz don't hurt me im so sorry...this one is brutal, and we'll definitely need a part three to wrap this all up and I will need your help with a decision so look for the poll i'll link!!

summary: Sasuke has left the village and training has yielded amazing results. Kakashi grows anxious about your future, Sasuke finds a way to communicate, and you've unlocked your Mangekyo sharingan...but how?

warnings: a shit ton of angst you guys, spoilers for Shippuden, major character death, decently long once more

pairings: sasuke x uchiha!fem!reader, slight naruto x uchiha!fem!reader

wc: 6230

part one // part three

“No.’ Comes from Kakashi sternly, his hand closing around your wrist quickly. “It’s even more dangerous for you now.” He says, hoping you would understand. 

You try to, tilting your head to the side to contemplate the risks. “I’m strong enough to handle them.” You reply after a while, giving Kakashi a crazed look of your own. He knew you harbored the same hate and desire for revenge in your heart, so what had stopped you from joining Sasuke when he had asked? 

Naruto cleared his throat. “Kakashi-Sensei! We have to go after him right now! You know I’ll keep Y/N-chan safe!” He protested alongside you to no avail.

“We need to alert the Hokage, she’ll decide how to proceed, you two. I’m sorry, but if you went after him you would be doing the same thing he is.” He said meekly, he was fighting himself. Your arrival had changed everything about him, made him a more careful and thoughtful person. He cared for you deeply, this was known. The danger you faced now put a lump in his throat. Sasuke was unpredictable, and as much as Kakashi had changed, he started out in a very similar place. Kakashi didn’t have anyone dear to him at that time, but he knows if he had known Rin then he would have done anything to keep her safe. Kakashi could only hope Sasuke considered you dear to him. He couldn’t rest his hope on that alone, knowing the risks involved. 

Naruto grumbled at Kakashi’s ruling. Kakashi knew what he would have to do. He would have to tell Tsunade and Naruto your true persona when you all briefed her on Sasuke’s desertion. Knowing the truth, Naruto would be motivated to keep you and Sasuke apart for the time being and Tsunade would prevent you from being put in harm's way. 

Boy was Kakashi disappointed by the results. He had miscalculated. Naruto was surprised, mouth hanging open at Kakashi’s every word, even if he didn’t quite know who Shisui Uchiha was. It hurt him to think that his friend, a boy he views like his family, would hurt you. He had known you for a short time, but he valued you. You were kind to him, you were very strong, and you always shared your snacks with him while you waited on Kakashi to start training. 

But Tsunade heard the implied part of the story, and her thoughts were focused elsewhere. She, unlike Naruto, knew exactly who Shisui Uchiha was, and the way she studied you like a bug under a microscope made you nervous. “Younger sister of Shisui…a secret Uchiha. Kakashi, your daughter is already a top chunin, correct?” She asked, still staring at you. 

Kakashi’s heart rate quickened. “Uh, you could say that, sure.”

“And she’s not using her doujutsu or any abilities associated with the sharignan?”

He shifted his weight uncomfortably. He knew what she was really asking. “I’ve helped her harness her abilities in private, but as that would expose her identity, no, she doesn’t use them for her missions and classes.”

Tsunade smirked, very interested in the power you truly held. If Sasuke was led astray, perhaps Naruto could persuade him back on track. Or maybe you could force him. “So she’s already hailed as a Hatake prodigy, thanks to you. Yet if what you tell me is true, she’s only using a percentage of her abilities.”

Kakashi doesn’t know how to respond. He’s not exactly sure what Itachi’s motivations behind all this were, but he does know it wasn’t his choice and that certain people would send assassins after the female Uchiha if she was discovered to be alive. He didn’t like the hungry glint to the Hokage’s eye, he had made the wrong decision. Tsunade would use you and Naruto as weapons. 

“She’s supposed to be dead. It would be a great danger–”

“Danger? Is she not stronger than Sasuke?”

“I am.” You declare, knowing that in your heart Kakashi was worried about you, but your worries lay elsewhere. 

“She is–Lady Hokage, I’m not concerned about Sasuke, if I’m truthful. There are leaders, people from other nations that fear the Uchiha name, people of our own village.” Kakashi points out, folding his arms over his chest gruffly. He looks at you sadly before he continues. “If word were to get around of a female Uchiha, a second survivor. That leaves the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha alive and the younger sister of Shisui. There is potential for Sasuke and Y/N to rebuild a pureblood powerful line of their clan, and they won’t allow this. She would be under attack.”

Tsunade sighs. She organizes her words in her brain before she says them. “That’s why she’ll need more training. Naruto will leave for training with Jiraiya soon.”

“Are you suggesting I send her to train alongside Naruto?”

“It’s something to consider, but I would also be interested in students. I’ll take both your girls.” She smirked, knowing medical nin is something Kakashi has introduced and taught the basics of, but there was no better teacher than the Tsunade Senju. Plus her chakra seal would increase your power by a large margin.

You look to Kakashi expectantly, hoping he accepts this proposition for you and Sakura. 

He sighs, knowing he couldn’t get out of this. “I think that would be wonderful for the two of them. On one condition.”

Tsunade shakes her head, knowing what Kakashi was about to propose. “No can do, Kakashi. She needs to train and go on missions using her true talents. If assassins come, we will deal with them. You can keep her safe, you have this far.” The fifth Hokage stands and folds her arms, leaning against the front of her desk. “Besides, if she never fights with her all, we’ll never know what she can do.” She reaches her hand out and pats your head. 

Later that day, Lady Tsunade sends Shikamaru to round up a team to go after Sasuke. He doesn’t ask you to go, probably because the way your fight against him went back during the chunin exams. It still upsets you when Naruto comes to say goodbye, promising Sakura and yourself that he would do whatever it took to bring Sasuke back, and not to worry. 

The years pass seemingly slowly. Naruto left the village to train with Master Jiraiya, a lively and funny man. You knew Naruto would have fun, and hopefully develop rapidly. 

This left you and Sakura to train with Tsunade. Admittedly, Sakura was better than you, naturally drawn to the art. Don’t misunderstand, you were very talented, but you would much rather spend your time learning more jutsu from Kakashi. 

You can’t deny how helpful the chakra control has been, though. You earned your seal, able to use it for your jutsu and not consume any power. This impresses Kakashi every time he sees you do it, mentally proud that he has taught you to be more powerful than him. You were brilliant, he thought. You already exerted amazing chakra control before, but Tsunade’s training has made you a well rounded threat.

He loves you, he realized this when Sasuke left the village. You see, he had known for a while that he cared for you, he thought it was similar to the way he cared for the members of his team. He would do anything to get Sasuke back, to protect Sakura, or to make Naruto feel encouraged. Anything that wouldn’t require him to leave you too long, of course. For you, there was truly nothing he wouldn’t do, and he wonders how he could feel so powerfully for a child that isn’t his own. 

“Check this out!” You call out, dissipating yourself. Kakashi can’t see you anywhere, a puff of smoke clouding the air. He pushes his headband up and scans the area, no sign of your chakra. He becomes worried instantly, the issues since your reveal as an Uchiha seemingly endless. Had another assassin come, jumping you at the perfect time?

His troublesome thoughts are interrupted by a swarm of leaves swirling around in the wind and pooling at his feet. He realizes a second later, as you start reanimating in front of him. You smile, a girl three years older, a girl proud of what she’s learned seeking his approval. 

You make it easy to give it, the jutsu powerful and sneaky. Most times, you would be too quick and unsuspecting that it would be hard to catch that it was a leaf substitution jutsu at all. “Nice work Y/N. Keep practicing and you’ll get faster.” He nods, a smile of relief cloaked beneath his mask. “It’s a nice ode to Shisui’s flicker.”

You nod, still beaming. “It worked on Shikamaru!” You share animatedly. Shikamaru was always your test subject before you showed Kakashi a new move, his wits being top of the line. Your rule of thumb was if he figured it out, it wasn’t ready. “I have another, if you want to see!”

He leaned against a nearby tree, arms lazily folded across his chest. “Let's see.”

You smirk. Instantly, your sharingan sings to life, all three tomoes swimming to their rightful positions before your eyes even open again. “Plant style: lifeless limb!” You call, weaving the corresponding sign. The tree Kakashi leaned against started to move, the branches growing to wrap his body in their clutches. Kakashi jumps out of the way, looking at you to read your next move. You lock eyes for a moment and continue weaving signs, incorporating some fire and some wind style into your barrage, but only the minor stuff. You wouldn’t want to hurt him too badly after all, he hadn’t realized he was in a genjutsu just yet. 

This was the one you were most proud of. This delayed sense genjutsu makes the opponent see your movements 20 seconds later, giving you plenty of time to get in the finishing blow. For the purpose of showing Kakashi, you just used your extra time to get up in his face and make a silly pose. 

When he realizes what’s happened, you’re standing in front of him, making a goofy face with the assistance of some of your fingers to give you a pig nose. He chuckles, it’s genuine and warm. He’s overwhelmed with pride, that genjutsu enough to make your name feared, if it wasn’t already. He gives you a fond smile, resting his hand on your head. Yes you had grown in power, but not much in height. “That’s amazing! You sure have made me proud.”

You didn’t realize how hearing those words would make you feel. You begin to tear up. If it wasn’t for Kakashi, you didn’t know where you would be. Would you even be a fraction of this talented? Loved? Supported? You crush him in a hug. You two had an amazing bond, but were both horribly awkward. Neither of you ever knew the proper protocol for interaction or physical affection. He wasn’t your father, but he absolutely was your Dad. Life was short, you would know. Losing everyone you care about will put things in perspective in that regard. Kakashi has been the only constant in a life full of variables, and for that, you love him. “Thanks, Dad.”

His eyes widened, surprised by the force of your hug and then the words that followed. He only places his hand on the back of your head, the other returning your hug.He looked down at you, your hair pushed back by the same purple headband he gave you at six. He was moved by that, for it was no accident. You had let it slip before, but always turned red and apologized profusely after. This time, it was carefully chosen, and it almost meant more now that you were nearly grown. You recognized everything he had done and continues to do, and you wanted to thank him for all of it, not just today’s training. The other jounin often asked if he felt like he lost the ability to have his own real family, or if he felt like he didn’t get to live a full life. He always answered honestly. ‘No, she is my own family, I just didn’t have to deal with a crying baby.’ and  ‘I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.’

He takes the time to carefully craft his own reply. After all he realized the answer to his earlier question: it was him, his influence is how you tame your rage and why you stayed in the village. “Always, my girl.” 

You hum, relinquishing him from your hug. “I’m going to meditate, then I’ll be home.” You say, neither of you keen to sit in emotion.

He nods, taking a deep breath. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. I’ve got to meet with Tsuande later, so I may not be back for dinner. Don’t wait up.”

It’s your turn to nod, letting him walk away entirely before you turn to address the other wave of chakra you detected while your sharingan was still active. 

“You made it.” You say with a deadpan tone. “You’re lucky he didn’t see you.” You add, wondering when the bird got there.

The black bird’s head twitches, talons gripping the lowest branch of the tree closest to you. “I’m not worried about him.” The deep voice said calmly, it had lost its lilt of arrogance. 

You sigh and move to sit down, leaning your back against the base of the tree. “I am, and you claim to worry about me. So by association…”

“I worry about you because you could be stronger, he’s holding you back.” The voice says from the mouth of the crow. 

You chuckle. “Any stronger and you wouldn’t stand a chance at beating me.” You declare, shaking your head from his earlier comments. “Kakashi means a lot to me, so be nice. He was your sensei.” You add, trying to imbue some respect.

He scoffs. “That’s why I would win. I didn’t have anyone to cuddle me through my nightmares.” He spits, and you know he doesn’t mean it the way it sounds. 

“I know, I wish you had.” You say sadly, staring into Sasuke’s sharingan. His crow cocks it head toward you. “I mean something to you, that’s why you send this crow, is it not?”

Silence reigns for some time. “You’re my only competition. I like to keep close tabs on you.” The bird hops down from the branch, landing conveniently on your thigh. Now you have to look slightly down at the creature of chakra.

This causes you to smile, you try to hide it behind your hand, but from the way the crow’s eyes narrow you can tell he’s already seen it. Sasuke quickly cleared up any concern about being a threat to you, sending this crow for the first time just two weeks after he left. “Yeah, you like to spend your days chatting with the enemy?”

He groans. “It’s not exactly that.”

“I know. It’s you worrying about me.” You correct, lovingly stroking the bird above the beak. “Or is it a coincidence that you started visiting me again when the first assassin came?”

Again, the crow just tilts its head side to side for a few seconds. “Idiot Kakashi for telling that moron of a woman!” 

You bite your lip, knowing when to pick your battles. “I’m glad I get to be myself now, in any event.” You say cheerfully, adjusting your headband carefully, before reaching down for your shinobi headband tied around your thigh. “It means I get to go on missions and fight with my full power. It feels good.” 

“Imagine how free you would feel with me.” He hummed, the crow spreading its wings but unmoving. “Your training is finished, Y/N. Face it. I’m almost finished myself. My offer stands, my dear, I can still come get you when it’s time for revenge.”

You bite your lip. You would be lying if you said you hadn’t thought about it. You missed him horribly, despite how things went the last time you spoke in person. You had been communicating like this for three years, and it only brought you closer and reminded you both of a simpler time. You still want revenge on Itachi. Of course you do. He killed your brother and entire clan, forcing you into a life consumed with fear and guilt. As grateful as you are for Kakashi, you would have much preferred your brother and true parents. 

Kakashi. That’s the reason you hadn’t left already, along with your other friends. You see the way Sasuke’s departure has tortured them, and you don’t know if you’re capable of doing the same. Maybe he was right, the day he left. In most ways, you’re so powerful. In this way, you are weak. 

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about leaving Kakashi?”

“He’s the only family I know!” You defend, irritated by the complexity of the emotions squeezing down on your heart. “Of course I don’t wanna hurt him by leaving! I miss you, it feels horrible to miss someone this bad. But Sasuke..your path, I’m worried about what you may become. It’s only natural to feel the way you do–”

“Shut up.” 

You furrow your brows, prepared to keep going. 

“You either miss me, or you don’t.” Sasuke states plainly. 

“Sasuke…”You pause, gathering your thoughts. You feel the way his eye scans over you, like he was worried you would lie. “You are all I have left. I’ll join you…for a time, and if you promise me something.”

His bird leaned in, anxious to hear your conditions. 

“It’s just you and me. We don’t work with anyone evil. We can work to be pardoned that way.” You reasoned. Part of you knew he wouldn’t agree to it, part of you hoped he would. Despite the disappointment that Kakashi would still face, you ached to see him again. You knew Kakashi would eventually understand, he would forgive you. 

More silence followed. “I’ll think about it.” He finally said, parroting your earlier words through his crow. You hum in response, absentmindedly reaching for your hair to play with. “If Tsunade revealed your true identity, why are you still coloring your hair?” He asks, hoping to change the subject to something more palatable. However frustrated you made him, he does care for you. He struggled to admit this for a time. He would see the color green in the oak trees around him and the quaint ponds he passed on his journey, and he would think of your tricycle and the way your childhood giggle sounded. He remembered the emotional whirlpool from the night of the massacre: the relief of seeing you alive, the fear that you would still be killed, the sadness as Itachi confirmed that he was to blame for everything wrong with your life, the agony as his brother suggested he earn a Mangekyo from killing you, the grief as he watched Itachi cart you away. He remembers the relief he felt, seeing your face again during chunin exams. He remembers letting Naruto and Sakura close to him in hopes they would earn him Mangekyo someday. He loves you, in his own warped way. He doesn’t know exactly what that entails, just that he could never harm you or allow anyone else to. 

“I like the way it looks, the colors make me feel part of both clans.” You reply with the truth as always. You were ever honest, and he valued that part of you too. “Plus, it still throws off the occasional assassin.” You chuckle softly. 

He groans again. He also likes the way it looks, you are impossibly beautiful. Sasuke was no slouch with women, as you remember from adolescence. Yet no girl compared, they didn’t glow like you did. No one could possibly understand him the way you did either, he didn’t have to watch his words around you. He didn’t have to wonder who you were loyal to, despite his annoyance with your fondness for your adoptive father. He can’t exactly compliment your appearance, so he decides on, “That was so stupid. She put a target on your back.”

“She wanted me to fight with my full ability.” You argue, trying to put it in perspective. 

“By declaring to the world that the Last Uchiha Princess is in the Leaf? Moronic.” He huffs, very dissatisfied with the attempts on your life. “You would be safer with me too.”

You arch your brow, a small blush creeping its way up your neck. “Last Uchiha Princess huh? I kinda like the sound of that.”

Your neck catches a sudden chill and you power up your eyes, scanning for the reason. Sasuke’s crow flies back to his original position on a tree branch, wondering what came next. It always made him nervous to visit you like this for this reason. If this was an assassin, he wouldn’t have time to get to you. The leaves rustle,, it gets closer before a tall figure emerges from the treeline.

“Y/N-chan! Sakura told me you were here!” His raspy voice calls as you get to your feet. Your mouth drops open, Naruto’s appearance a total surprise.

“Naruto-kun? I didn’t know you were coming back today!” You giggle, closing the short distance to give him a hug. He holds his arms open for you with a blush on his features. Sasuke wants to throw up. 

“Yeah I kinda wanted to surprise everyone! Your hair looks great by the way, you look pretty great.” He says smoothly, pinching a few strands of your hair in his fingers. 

“Oh–well, thank you…” You tuck your cheek to your shoulder, embarrassed that Sasuke was listening to all this. “You’ve gotten so tall! I trust Jiraiya-sama taught you a lot?”

The blond nods eagerly. “Oh yeah, koibito! I’m back to keep you safe and get Sasuke back!” He says, features coming together determinedly, an arm slung around your shoulders. The crow caws in protest, making you chuckle. 

Koibito? Why would Naruto call her that after so many years apart? Surely he didn’t feel like she was that close to him, Sasuke wonders angrily to himself. Maybe Naruto had noticed how beautiful you were the whole time and wasn’t afraid to make it known. 

“Who says I need anyone to protect me?” You ask, arching a brow at him, but it applied to Sasuke as well. “I’ve been training this whole time too, I’m a powerful kunoichi!”

Naruto smirks, looking at you with a renewed sense of determination.”Wanna bet? I’ll take you right now!” 

You tilt your head to the side, sorry Sasuke. You can’t turn this one down, you wanted to see how much he had grown and if you were strong enough to keep up. 

Sasuke watched as his two closest comrades sparred, every action being countered accurately. Sasuke was impressed with your speed and tenacity, the way you used your talents was much different than him. You were aggressive, but it was fun. Naruto was on the defensive for quite some time, not able to fool your sharingan with shadow clones. Sasuke didn’t care for it much when the fight went to the ground, his rival hovering over your body. He would peck his eyes out if he could. 

But it was just the opening you needed, activating your delayed sense and leaf substitution consecutively. Naruto fell abruptly when your body turned to leaves beneath him. He springs back to his feet, searching for where you would reappear. But you rematerialize right behind him as if you had been there the entire time. You turn and smirk at Sasuke, pointing a kunai to Naruto’s back. 

When Naruto feels the kunai, he gasps. He hold his hands up, “You got me! But what the hell was that?”

You giggle. If you giggle at Naruto one more time, he may just go ahead and attack the leaf before he kills Itachi. “You just haven’t faced my sharingan abilities! It was genjutsu.”

“And you punch harder than Sakura! You’re amazing, Y/N-chan.”

“Thank you Naruto, your fighting has certainly come along. I’m sure Kakashi will be excited to see your progress.” You smile softly. 

As if you had reminded him, he jumps slightly. “Oh yeah, I gotta go see Granny Tsunade! Maybe Kakashi-Sensei will be there! See you later Y/N-chan!”

You wave goodbye to the boy, turning back to Sasuke’s dissatisfied crow. “Oh don’t look at me like that, mister. I’m the Last Uchiha Princess after all!” 

You’re not sure if crows can roll their eyes, but maybe Sasuke’s chakra beast can. It certainly looks like it anyway. “You two basically made out in front of me.”

“It’s nowhere near like that, don’t be jealous.” You pout, fixing the purple headband once more. It strikes Sasuke then that you wear it as a reminder of him. It almost made him forget your taunts. 

“I don’t even know what it feels like to be jealous, and I certainly wouldn’t get jealous over you.” He asserts, his voice corrupted with annoyance. You can tell he’s lying. 

“Oh good, so I guess now's a good time to tell you I can’t make tomorrow’s session.”

“What? Why?”

“My date with Shikamaru.” You tease, throwing out the first name you can think of. 

“You would choose that bag of slime over me?” He growls, disgusted by the idea of you in the hands of anyone else. No one could ever understand you like he does. 

“You’ve never asked me on a date.” You giggle, knowing just how to press his buttons. 

“I’ll take you on a date when I see you again.” He huffs, shutting down your giggling fit. He was satisfied with the blush on your cheeks and the way your lips parted with surprise. He knew just how to shut you up. 

A few months later, you walk into the forests to ‘train’ as per usual. You expect his crow to be there waiting for you, but it isn’t. You search for it with your sharingan, refusing to believe Sasuke would stand you up. You hoped he was alright, nerves getting the better of you as you slid your back down the trunk of your meeting tree. The ground stops your momentum when you sit. You resign yourself to wait, just hoping he would show up to ease your fear if nothing else. 

Within the next hour, his crow materializes on your knee. “You’re late.” You smile softly, reaching out your finger to pet the bird. You wonder if Sasuke can feel the touches, and what it feels like for him. 

The air is different, you realize. He’s not clinging to his only happy emotion right now, he’s consumed with grief and darkness. “What happened?”

“Itachi is dead.” He announces, but it clearly brought him no relief. You can tell there’s more to this story, so you arch your brow and wait for him to continue. “It was all a lie. All of it. He showed me the truth.” He said with a tragic fondness in his voice. 

  “Wait, a lie? He killed them all, I saw the blood on him.”

“That part is true. The 3rd Hokage and some other pigs I’m going to kill arranged it. Our clan was about to revolt against the Hokage, they had been treating us like an infection. My dad was leading it…they made Itachi kill them all. He told them he would spare me, but he couldn’t expect them to spare you as well.”

“I don’t get it, we were kids, why wouldn’t they allow it?”

Sasuke’s answer reminds you of what Kakashi delicately explained to Tsunade that day your identity was revealed. 

“Because the two of us can revive our clan and keep our kekkei genkai strong by not diluting it with other clan blood. Given Itachi and Shisui’s relationship, it’s natural that they expected us to be close and maybe marry later in life and rebuild.” 

You open your mouth to express your feelings, but close it quickly when you realize you don’t know exactly how you feel. You suppose the logic makes sense, and if the entire village was at stake you understand why Itachi made the decision he did, to prevent the 4th Great Ninja War. Yet still, is that what Itachi designed? “Well that’s a silly thing to be worried about.” 

“Is it? You feel the affinity we have for one another. I think they are right. Itachi placed you with Kakashi for safekeeping, he felt he owed that to Shisui. He never killed him, Shisui also tried to stop this but it didn’t work, Danzo Shimura attacked him and stole his right eye..he gave the other to Itachi and then..”Sasuke pauses, taking a shaky breath through his already shaky tone. He wanted to pick his words carefully, to best comfort you when he could not physically be there. “He threw himself into the river, activating Itachi’s Mangekyo. Itachi loved Shisui, and it hurt him to take the blame for his death. He felt horrible, letting you believe that.”

He watched you take it all in, your eyebrows furrowed together as you analyzed everything that you heard. Finally, you make a choking sob sound, making Sasuke frown. “B-but he wanted you to kill me! For your Mangekyo!”

Sasuke flashes his new eye for you. “Hearing all this, seeing it from his brain…it was enough to awaken.” He explains quickly, watching as tears fall from your eyes. “He needed us to hate him, it made it easier that way..he needed me to grow up alone so that I could pursue this journey of truth. But now, now that I’ve learned the truth I’ll make sure anyone involved in this is dead, and then I’m coming for the leaf!”

You blink several times, soaking in the reality he just presented. Your tears are quiet but ever flowing, and Sasuke wishes more than anything to be there, to hold you when he told you this, to take you with him on his journey. But he couldn’t, you would probably seek Naruto or your teammate Kiba’s comfort, and the picture of that made his stomach feel like he swallowed fire. 

“Attack the leaf? Sasuke! If what you said is true, then Itachi did all of this for the leaf!” You say once the latter half of his declaration soaks in. “I’m in the leaf, what, you’re gonna let your emotions take over you again and kill me anyway?” 

He grimaces, he shouldn’t have mentioned that part of his plan to you yet. “I could never hurt you, Y/N-chan. You are my koibito.” He asserts, yearning to reach out a hand and wipe away your tears. He always hated to see you cry, and his childhood self would wipe your tears every time.

“Killing my friends would still hurt.” You state, blinking away any trace of emotion.

“I’ll think about it. Y/N-chan, please don’t treat me like this.” He asks quietly, noticing your guarded apprehension that was caused by his promise to destroy your home. 

“If this is who you are, then I’m going to treat you like it. Kill those involved and no one else, this village as it stands now didn’t do anything to us.” 

“Alright.” He relents, and you know you’ve made some distance with him. He called you koibito earlier, a sign of his true affection for you, a thought that makes you smile. 

“Koibito, eh? Sakura-chan will be heartbroken.” You hum innocently, dying to see him again. He can see you, but you had no idea how he had grown since he left. 

He chuckles softly. He honestly could not care what Sakura thought, but you’ve always been more thoughtful. “She’ll move on.” 

Tsunade tried. She tried to make sure Naruto was ready, she tried to send out her most powerful teams to stop the damage. That’s what you tell yourself as you jump tree-top to tree-top on your way back to Konoha. You had a sinking feeling in your gut when you left for the Sand a week prior, but you didn’t know it would lead to this. You could see the destruction for miles, and all you could hope for is Naruto to make it back soon. You were definitely powerful, but no match for this Akatsuki member alone. 

When you make it to the scene, all you can see is injured shinobi and confused, fearful faces. Ahead, you see a massive light, Kakashi’s chidori blade, you thought to yourself as you bounded that way, tuning out the protests of your classmates and higher ranked shinobi. 

When you get to him, there’s two bodies. One you can identify as Pain himself, the other looking just as mutilated and powerful. Kakashi fights, by himself, against these two powerful villains. You couldn’t have that. You were smart enough not to call him dad here in the battle scene, knowing it would only make both of you easier targets. You jump into the fight, capitalizing on the element of surprise. You weave signs to grow your plants, but they’re easily crushed by Pain’s pushing jutsu.

“All their eyes are connected, Y/N!” Kakashi calls out, and you return a nod. 

A look of recognition flashes across Pain’s face. “Y/N Uchiha…what an honor.” As Pain throws an attack your way, Choji and his father appear to help. 

The fight continued, your jutsu being rendered useless, if you could just get one under a genjutsu…but no, they were expecting that, younger sister of Shisui, prodigy of Kakashi. 

You find yourself throwing fireballs and wishing Naruto would just show up already. Pain’s Almighty Push traps you and Kakashi under a pile of destroyed building rubble. Kakashi breathlessly begs Choji to get back to Tsunade and report Pain’s abilities, staring at the man with his Sharingan. Pain holds a nail between his fingers, the metal tool gleaming in the sun. 

Kakashi tries, kamuing the first nail away. “Y/N..you have to get out of here..I don’t care what you see. Get out of this village. I love you very much, you have given me something I didn’t know I needed, child.” He says, your eyes immediately pooling up with tears. This sounded an awful lot like a goodbye, and there was no part of you that could leave him to die. 

“Kakash–” You blink rapidly, the tears dropping in fat pools in the dirt. You could only move one arm, the rest of your body swallowed by dirt and debris, but you reached for him. If this was the last time, you could risk it now. “I love you too, Dad, that’s why you gotta keep going! I know you’re tired, but please!”

“Kakashi of the Sharingan,..Y/N Uchiha. Green Goddess of the Leaf, both of you shall know Pain.”

The nail was flung from his fingers like Kakashi was a magnet. The sound it made when it killed him was the same sound your heart made as it shattered. Kakashi’s head flopped forward, and with the change in chakra evident immediately–you knew he was gone. You scream out, kicking and screaming against the rock caging you in. The sound you make is horrible, even the other group of shinobi hears you wailing. You feel a new wave of chakra, using it to turn on your eyes, you know what you’ve done. Your Mangekyo Sharingan. 

Shisui’s Kotoamatsukami was so powerful, you hoped your own ability was somewhat close. In fact, you gamble your life on it. You should be able to enter Pain’s thoughts, and from there, control them so subtly he never knew he was being controlled. You point a finger at him, feeling your control seeping into his mind. You smile, knowing you would avenge Kakashi. 

“You will know complete devastation.” You challenge, resigning control of your own body in favor of controlling his. You realize you can’t influence his thoughts, but you can control his movements. You use this ability to dig yourself out, looking through this murderer's eyes, you see your eyes staring back. The rage that you see almost makes you fear yourself. You slide back into your own consciousness as more shinobi show up on the scene, Pain choosing to engage them first. 

Naruto will be here soon, you think to yourself, staring at the forest ahead of you. Kakashi was once the only reason you stayed in the village, and he was the very thing begging you to leave. You have officially lost everything. People have schemed against you your entire life, giving you nothing but heartache and an immense appetite to square away your depression. Your feet move themselves into the treeline, numbly trusting that Naruto would save the day. 

Or not, you can’t find yourself caring anymore. The Leaf was home because that’s where your people were, but now that they were all dead, friends and teachers alike, you didn’t care what happened to that place. 

Your only thoughts were Kakashi, and what he meant to you, his last words. He wants me to go find him, you say to yourself. And then your mind shifted to your newfound ability, this baby kotoamatsukami that could be harnessed, and the only person who could help you do that. 

“I’ll be there soon, Sasuke.”

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tags: @cococola-cocaine @hinari27

[chaosnojutsu]

Who *Should* Have Died From The Konoha ~12 Instead Of The One Who Did

rules:

we’re assuming they die under the same circumstances as the other guy

each one listed would have a complete storyline and their death would further the immediate plot as well as the overall narrative

i’m not “just picking characters i don’t like”

i do not condone killing characters for the sake of shock value but am considering shock as a legitimate tool in generating impact of a character’s death

miss me with “[redacted]’s death was a tragic result of the shinobi system” because no it was not. if that were true you could sub out [redacted] for any other child soldier and get the exact same impact. we know exactly why they were chosen and it’s got an (insufficient) explanation irl and in-universe.

#3. Sai

Motivation: Friendship

First of all, imagine the shock value from killing one of THE Team Kakashi members.

Cool. Now imagine Naruto’s shock at Sai sacrificing himself for him.

Sai overanalyzes normal human interaction to the point of not understanding it. He reads books about how to befriend people. He still doesn’t understand it all the time but friendship is coming more naturally to him these days. What he does understand is that Naruto is the only chance of winning this war, and he’s down, and the enemy is aiming for him, and Hinata is trying to stop them but she’s on the ground, the spears are in the air and so is Sai, and Naruto is his friend.

He doesn’t need to think about it much deeper than that.

Now imagine Sasuke “What Does ‘Friend’ Mean To You” Uchiha witnessing this, witnessing Naruto’s reaction, and the further effects this may have on his character. After all, Sai was his replacement. If Naruto feels this strongly about losing someone who was decidedly not him but his friend and teammate nevertheless then… maybe.

#2. Rock Lee

Motivation: Youth

Regardless of *how* this one plays out, no one wants to watch the determined, precious, comedic relief die; no one who’s watched this far into the show wants Rock Lee specifically to die. Huge impact already. But we can make it super duper sad because he deserves a memorable death. I see it going one of two ways.

One: Hinata doesn’t even have the time to try to shield Naruto because Rock Lee is faster. Ten-Tails barely launches the attack and Lee’s already taken/attempted to counter the hit. Perhaps this is his eight gates moment. Similar to Sai, Rock Lee would cite the power of friendship in his dramatic death speech, but he also was just… doing his duty. Truly, if you’re in the “Neji was just another tragic child soldier” camp, Rock Lee is the prime example of what I mean when I say you could sub in any child soldier, which I know sounds paradoxical but stay with me. Rock Lee’s entire personality is training harder than anyone else to benefit a system that will ultimately result in his death. If you want to make a point about child soldiers and needless lives lost, Rock Lee is the one to kill.

Two: Rock Lee doesn’t shield Hinata. He shields Neji. But not necessarily on purpose. The scene plays out exactly as written up to the moment Neji activates his byakugan, and the next frame isn’t him falling to the ground, it’s Rock Lee. The usually-somewhat-reserved Neji is devastated, probably in tears, demanding to know why he would do something like this. Rock Lee coughs up a bit of blood. “I was faster than you.” Smile. “I finally beat you…” Serene eyes fall shut. “…rival.”

And now imagine Naruto’s reaction to losing Bushy Brow. Imagine him watching Gai be brought to his knees by a blow that didn’t physically touch him. Imagine Madara incorrectly perceiving that. The implications. The foreshadowing.

#1. Shino

Motivation: Legacy

I’m gonna be real, the writers were never gonna kill off Rock Lee like that, which is the biggest reason Shino has taken the crown as Most Worthy Of A Tragic Death in my book.

This dude has a connection to both Naruto and Hinata (making him equally as good a sacrifice as Neji if that’s the canon criteria). However, unlike most other (male) characters, Shino isn’t shown to have a particularly close friendship with Naruto. The one recurring joke around Shino is that he’s so irrelevant even Naruto can’t remember his name.

But he is good friends with Hinata. And he knows she’ll spend the rest of her life miserable if Naruto dies, and that if she dies right now she will never have gotten her life’s greatest wish.

So Shino goes out in a blaze of glory, and we’ll probably insert something about how Naruto has somehow secretly inspired him all along— or maybe something cynical about how he always wanted to be included by Naruto but never was unless Kiba or Hinata were around, so he’s sacrificed himself to maintain the livelihood of everyone else while not “losing” that friendship himself— and we of course get the touching moment with Hinata (oh just imagine the drama if Shino lay dying and told Hinata “Why did I protect you? It’s simple. The reason is… for the same reason you protected him.” and we find out that the huge secret crush of the show was not Hinata toward anyone, but Shino toward Hinata, never confessing because he knew it would be futile).

Good luck forgetting his name now, Naruto. Now no one will ever forget about Shino Aburame.

[lil-door-knob]

The Flower Prince: A New Mission

Prompt- At first, he felt prideful of the praise his teammate [Sakura] was getting from the Prince. But the moment he saw the blush on her face and the arm around her waist, pride was no longer what he was feeling.

Word count: 1,497 words

Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes

Warnings: Not edited, sorry sorry.

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Although Kakashi may come off as indifferent to his team's dynamic,  he did pay attention to them. Which was why he chose a simple escort mission. He had noticed the slight tension between Naruto and Sasuke, hell anyone would have noticed by the way they glared daggers into each other and how Sakura always had to be near to numb the awkwardness. Kakashi had hoped that this mission would reignite even a semblance of the teamwork they once had. 

Naruto and Sakura stood talking about their mornings and whatever else came to mind. Sasuke stood to Sakura’s left, looking up at the morning sky as it finally brightened. Pink and orange fighting for dominance over the blue night sky. 

“Sasuke-kun?” Kakashi noted how instantaneously the boy seemed to turn to face the pink-haired kunoichi. He wasn’t shocked though- Sakura had a warm innocence to her that made the boys on her team fond and protective of her, including himself. It was something none of them had felt before due to the cards they were dealt. Sasuke had warmed up to Sakura the most, although the boy would never admit nor show it; assuming he had taken notice himself. 

“Hn.” came Sasuke’s typical response. 

“You’re always the first one to arrive… why’s that?” the hesitance in her question was obvious.

Shaking his head he simply stated ‘I’m used to it’ before staring back ahead. Sakura nodded in understanding. It wasn’t a secret that Sasuke had nightmares on occasion; they had experienced it firsthand on their first overnight mission. Poor kid probably didn’t get much sleep.

“Dam, that stupid flower prince is late.” scoffed Naruto, “Even Kakashi is here before him, that says a lot!” all three genin turned to glare at their sensei. Kakashi chuckled and looked behind them at the figure that approached.

“Looks like the Prince is here.” pointing behind them they all turned to look at the boy who seemed no older than them. 

Sasuke noted that the boy had dark brown curls and complimenting hazel eyes- though he wasn’t dressed as a Prince. He wore a sleeveless pale blue top with a black unzipped jacket, that didn’t seem to be doing much as it hung off his shoulders, and dark wide-legged pants.

“Sorry, I’m late. I had to stop by to visit family before I left.” the prince bowed. Returning the gesture team 7 accepted the apology, Except for Naruto who had a few insults conjuring in his head while they waited for his arrival. 

“You think sorry is gonna cut it?! We’ve been waiting for two hours for you!! I even skipped breakfast to be here early.” Naruto complained, pointing an accusatory finger at the poor guy. About to speak again and try out some of his ever-so-creative insults, Sakura cut him off. 

“Naruto! That’s no way to speak to a prince!” Sakura pulled Naruto’s ear as she lectured him about manners. Sakura had seemed to be nicer to Naruto since he saved her from Gaara, she normally would have punched him by now.

  Sasuke’s expression softened as he looked at his teammate's antics before he turned back to the prince and questioned him, he couldn’t believe a Prince would be dressed and act so… un-prince- like. “What family were you visiting?” his monotone voice came, stopping Sakura and Naruto’s arguing. 

Before the prince could respond Kakashi interjected, “The Yamanaka right? You’re a part of the clan, no?” at this, the Prince brightened up. 

“That is correct sir, my name is Yamanaka Daiki. I am from the branch of the family with no real ninjas, which is embarrassing-” Daiki blushed scratching the back of his neck, ” but we try to serve our village as their leaders.”

“You’re related to that Ino-pig?!” Sakura practically screeched. 

“Ah, you must be Sakura Haruno. I assumed such based on your hair, Ino told me about you guys.” Daiki stated as he smiled at Sakura.

“What did she say?” Both Sakura and Naruto asked at the same time, Sasuke himself also seemed curious about what Ino had to say about himself and his teammates, not that he cared much about her opinion- she always irritated him.

“He can tell us on the way.” Kakashi ordered, “We should get going.”

They formed a line, not something they would normally do on a mission, but, they were close to the village, so, not much trouble would likely arise. Sakura and Sasuke stood to the right of Daiki and Naruto to the left. 

With that, they set off on their mission, Sasuke and Sakura naturally falling into pace with each other, something they seemed to do often, Kakashi noted.

“What did she say about me?” Naruto piped up.

“Naruto right?” the boy nodded, “Well… she called you annoying. But she said that you were a good ninja. She told me that she admires your bravery, although quite stupid at times. I hear that you managed to beat that Hyuga guy?” Kakashi, who was walking in front of them, allowed a smile to form as he read his book. It was good to know that his [Naruto’s] comrades were starting to recognize him as a capable ninja. 

“You bet I did! I wasn’t going to let that jerk win after what he did to Hinata-chan.” Naruto yelled.

“Stop screaming dobe. He doesn’t need to hear your annoying voice get any louder.” Sasuke gave him a condescending look, knowing that it would rile up the blonde. Naruto was about to fire back an insult but stopped as Daiki spoke again. 

“Uchiha Sasuke. You seem to have quite an effect on women. Ino went on about how ‘cute’ and ‘handsome’ you are. She rambled about how you were such a strong ninja and how she was going to be your future wife.” Daiki let out a small chuckle at the memory.

Sakura couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the expected description of Sasuke from Ino. Although, she couldn’t argue much as she probably would have said something similar a few months ago.

“Ino said that you were a mysterious guy; she likes you, I guess? You should have seen how flustered and blushy she got when talking about you” Sasuke let out an unamused huff. “But she wasn’t wrong on some of that, you do seem to be strong. You’re an Uchiha, my people have heard plenty of the Uchiaha’s strength.”

Turning to Sasuke, Sakura gave him a smile signifying that she agreed with Daiki’s statement. Meeting her gaze Sasuke stared at her blankly before looking straight ahead once more. 

“What did she say about Sakura-chan?” asked Naruto, he was genuinely curious as he knew those two girls had a past. 

“Sakura…” his voice trailed off as he let out a sigh, “I don’t want to say.”

“Why not?” Naruto questioned.

“I wouldn’t want to offend Sakura-chan.”

“Daiki-san, please? I need-” Sakura caught herself before continuing,” It’s not like I care what she thinks but, I’m curious about what she said.” Sakura stared down at her feet. Glancing behind him, Kakashi noticed how the Prince’s gaze lingered on Sakura for a moment too long. 

“Fine, as you insist.” Sakura's head shot up as she tried her best to look indifferent. “She told me about how you guys were ‘rivals’ and how you had distinct pink hair. Something about how you were weak and useless if I remember clearly?” Glancing to his right Daiki looked at Sakura’s hair, it was a nice shade of pink but it did look like it was cut unprofessionally. 

“Ah- I see.” her voice came just above a whisper. Sakura’s usually pristine posture had slumped. 

“But, she said that she thinks of you as a sister. She said that you also impressed her, like when you cut your hair and broke free from her jutsu...”

“You broke from her jutsu?” Sasuke asked. This was the first time he had heard of this. 

Sakura carefully nodded, “Yeah.” 

“You should have seen her teme- they tied, but Sakura-chan should have won. She looked so cool!” Naruto gloated for her. 

She didn’t know why but she suddenly felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her as all eyes seemed to have fallen on her. She rushed ahead of the boys and walked beside Kakashi, who gave her a pat on the head to comfort the embarrassed preteen before continuing to read his interesting book. Sasuke felt some sort of pride overcome him at what he just learned. To his knowledge it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to break from the mind-transfer jutsu, especially for a genin. 

“Sakura-chan is quite impressive,” Daiki said to no one in particular. 

Naruto nodded, “Yeah she is! She’s been improving a ton recently, right Sasuke-teme?”

Sasuke subconsciously nodded in agreement. He had noticed a drastic change in the girl after the forest of death. On more than one occasion, Sasuke had come across Sakura training on their off days.

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Next Part

[rantahead]

This is your idea of a Hokage?

If you couldn't tell by the title, this is an anti Sarada post, keep scrolling if you're not into that

Let's begin with the outfit:

ok, so the pose is just… she looks like a wanna be prostitute. Sakura didn’t even dress this way when she was OLDER than Salad, let alone when she WAS her age.

let’s start with the heels. even Tsunade didn’t wear heels that high when she, too, was OLDER than Salad. how can she fight in those? I’m surprised she hasn’t hurt her ankles yet.

those gloves… I have nothing to say about them, they’re normal.

her miniskirt tho, ewww! she has nothing to show at the bottom, but in the Chunin Exams arc, when she stopped when Bolt was attacked, you could see her fucking underwear. it just me hard moving in that ugly ass miniskirt.

the top, oh my god. what if she had a chest? it would be revealed.

her hairstyle too. that is the most disgusting hair style in the entire series.

the glasses, oh don’t get me started. they suit Karin, but Salad, it makes her look even more disgusting and I didn’t think that was possible.

with this design, at least she’s modest (not that much tho). I still stand corrected with her hair style and glasses 🤮.

I have so many things wrong with her timeskip design.

her hairstyle is a lame copy of Bolt’s. she tried and failed.

the outfit! It’s going to fucking fall off her. I’m just waiting for her to be in battle and it to just slip down and show her chest (not that she is one) and it will only be connected at her waist and lower. it also must be uncomfortable moving with such short shorts.

the jacket is a BIG no no. it’s gonna fall off her shoulders. it also looks like a bad copy of Bolt’s jacket, like her hairstyle. she admires Bolt so much that she’s a cheap copy of him (🤢🤮).

her shoes, oh my god. they, too, look like they’re about to fall off. how can she fight in those ugly things? I can’t wait for her to be in the middle of battle, trip in those ugly heels, fall face first on the ground, and break her glasses.

she’s inappropriate (this is probably the biggest board):

there’s plenty more scenes, but I just couldn’t fit them.

she’s always hiding behind people’s backs:

there’s so many more and let alone all the ones in the anime, but I couldn’t fit anymore on there, but there’s so much more.

like, can’t she defend herself??? some Hokage she is gonna be. if she’s like this then I want Iwabe as Hokage.

her Sharingan/Mangekyou awaking was the dumbest and lamest thing in the whole Naruto universe:

she’s rude to her “friends”:

she hit Bolt and drags him and shouts at him. she ditched Mitsuki because he was Orochimaru’s son. she spent an entire arc crying for a dad, and when she got one, she was rude and mean to him. she wanted to ditch Sakura because she thought she wasn’t her mother. she was rude to Kawaki and said he should use his past to justify his actions, which is ironic consider she has done the same thing.

her personality:

don't even get me started

she's a crybaby

she thinks she's oh so good yet needs saving

Mary Sue

rude to people

underestimates her enemies and ends up needing to be saved

overestimates her abilities

constantly belittling Boruto for the tiniest things even tho he's BETTER than her

always shouting

picking fights with anyone

she's dumb

I could go on and on.

she’s such a crybaby:

she cried when she first met Sasuke and he didn’t even show any emotion, goes to show how little he cared about her. she cried when she couldn’t bring the dummy fish alive. she cried for no reason when she questioned Sasuke about her mom. and she cried for no reason when they were fighting Shin.

at this rate, she’s becoming more and more of a lame and useless girl with a boring backstory. I hate her, her looks, her personality, and her in general.

my concerns for her at that she’ll never amount to anything, she’ll go blind by 20, maybe 18, she won’t achieve her dream, she’ll become the most hated character, she will get killed off. I have so many concerns about the direction this character is going.

enjoy Salad’s real face:

[watermelonsloth]

Alternative Canon Ships

I think something that annoys me and a lot of other people about the canon ships is that they weren’t the only options by a country mile. So I wanted to finally put my money where my mouth is and take a crack at pairing the Konoha 12 without changing the manga.

Anyone I didn’t mention here should be presumed single in my AU because I either think they’re better single or I don’t care about who they end up with.

Option 1

Naruto and Sasuke - The entire series is about them learning to understand each other and ending the cycle of hatred by coming together (in holy matrimony). Naruto wouldn’t have a character arc without Sasuke and Sasuke’s character arc is incomplete without Naruto. I don’t think I need to explain how they act as foils and compliments for each other or how they’re willing to go to great lengths for each other or how they show time and time again how much they value each other.

Sakura and Rock Lee - We really went through the chunin exams for nothing. They have very little screen time together, but what we have is good enough for it to at least make sense. Rock Lee is clearly willing to both wait and die for her and Sakura has a mini arc about learning not to judge people on appearances and to respect him that culminates in her giving him flowers in the hospital. Worst case scenario it needs to get the NaruHina treatment and have a movie made about why they came together in the end.

Shikamaru and Choji - I’ve already said that I don’t care for any of the inter-Ino-Shika-Cho ships, but they interact with too few characters for me not to bring them up here. They’re childhood friends, they obviously care for and respect each other, they have complimentary personalities, and Shikamaru stands up for Choji on multiple occasions. They don’t get too much attention in shippuden because Choji and Ino were shafted, but they at least continue to support each other when they are shown interacting.

(This is where we start losing a sturdy foundation because the characters don’t have enough screen time spent interacting with anyone unmentioned. From here on out the bar is in hell and I’m only pairing the characters off because it would’ve been expected.)

Ino and Sai - A lot of people shit on this ship and I get why (Ino is caught in Sakura’s shadow and Sai was literally Sasuke’s replacement in team 7, so it’s easy to see them as discount SasuSaku). However, the ship isn’t the most unbelievable in canon. Ino has shown that she has genuine feelings for Sai and they at least interact with each other.

Hinata and Shino - Hinata would make sense with either of her teammates, but I’m choosing Shino because he makes more sense. They’re similarly introverted types, they get along, Shino has been shown to have faith in her abilities (I’m not saying Kiba doesn’t, but Shino’s more consistent about it), and I think it would be fitting for Shino (who’s insecure about being unnoticeable) to end up with someone who would prioritize him if he ends up with anyone at all.

Option 2

Naruto and Sakura - These two would’ve made more sense, “red herring” and “pursued her for rivalry” my ass. Both are ready and willing to make sacrifices for each other, they interact a lot and most of it is positive (we aren’t mentioning the slapstick because I’m not having that asinine argument), there were hints throughout shippuden of Sakura returning his feelings, they have complimentary personalities, Sakura ending up with Naruto is beneficial to her character, Naruto ending up with Sakura is in-line with his character arc and theme, both stop to consider each other’s feelings on multiple occasions, Sakura attempts to help Naruto in any way she can on a regular basis, (even if I hate how often this is mentioned) Sakura is explicitly compared to Kushina, there are more hints at their relationship than I care to list here, and there’s symbolism for a flower under the sun/heaven and earth.

Sasuke and Karin - SasuKarin is the sister ship to Naruto and Sakura because of its parallels (the Uzumaki has feelings first, the girls are both compared to Kushina, the girls both act as support and medics to the boys who take on leadership roles, the Uzumaki wants to protect/see their love interest’s smile, etc). As for reasons: Sasuke has been shown to respect Karin and her abilities, Karin loves Sasuke because he was the first person to show her kindness, Karin has put her life on the line for Sasuke on multiple occasions, both are willing to go to great length for the other, and both unlocked abilities for the sake of saving the other.

Ino and Sai - I’ve already explained this.

Shikamaru and Temari - This ship isn’t perfect, but I think it makes enough sense for most people to not be upset (the only people I’ve seen complaining about it are people who hate Shikamaru or ship something else). They always share at least one scene when Temari enters the story, there are hints about it being romantic, and makes more sense in canon than many of the other options.

Choji and Hinata - This is, admittedly, a stretch, but it isn’t as much as a stretch as ChoKaru so I’m considering this still in the safe zone. The two both have shy and sweet personalities that make it easy to imagine them getting along, both struggle with overcoming their low self-esteem and taking action themselves, both care deeply for their friends, Hinata fits with what Choji wanted romantically in his infinite tsukuyomi dream, and both have the shared idea of maintaining kindness even in a ruthless shinobi world.

Bonus

Naruto and Hinata - This ship was fine, even with its lack of screen time, but the Last and Boruto ruined it, so we’ll just pretend that didn’t happen. Naruto learned to not judge and respect Hinata, Hinata has multiple scenes where she snaps Naruto out of spiraling (the proud failure speech is still peak NaruHina), Naruto stands up for Hinata, Hinata takes a lot of inspiration from Naruto and his determination, and Hinata cares about Naruto’s wellbeing and feelings so much it’s a near irrevocable part of her character. With nothing changed it would still be just as flawed and clumsy as in canon, but it wouldn’t be unforgivable.

Hinata and Rock Lee - Again, I’m stretching canon for a Hinata ship, but I think there’s enough ground to stand on to at least mention it. That ground being a weird amount of parallels. They both have experience being in Neji’s shadow, both of them are untalented and make up for their shortcomings through hard work, both care about the people they love to a self-sacrificial degree, both are true to their word, both of them admire Naruto (join the club), both of them has a teacher that acts as a parental figure, and both of them have unrequited love because the target of their affection has feelings for someone more conventionally attractive than them(though Hinata gets more conventionally attractive as the series goes on so…).

Ino and Choji - It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done. They support each other as teammates, Ino could help Choji be more confident, Ino getting with Choji could symbolize her getting past her superficiality, and they don’t have opposing personalities or beliefs as far as I can tell.

Sasuke and No One - I’m just putting this here to remind everyone that there’s an argument to be made about Sasuke being better off without a relationship. I absolutely get why he was paired off and I probably would too if I was in charge of the epilogue (it can be an indicator of him and the clan healing, plus an Uchiha child/the sharingan is a fun idea to mess around with), but him remaining single also makes sense. He states how he’s disinterested in romance and he just doesn’t have that many working potential love interests in canon. Yes, there’s Sakura but more than a movie could cover would have to change before the two of them could reasonably work together and it might still ruin her character.

[livinglouderx3]

Joined hands

The air had suddenly gotten thick around them, the silence nearly suffocating. Naruto rarely felt like this, he always avoided this unpleasant feeling, the lack of noise. He would usually start blabbering, filling the quiet with too many – often unnecessary – words. But this time it was different. This time he couldn’t stop it, the reason for this utter and deafening silence. It shouldn’t be like this, not when he was surrounded only by people important and close to him. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason. Why had they gone quiet like that?

Ok, he could pinpoint the exact time it had happened. Gaara’s eyes had widened and before Naruto had even had time to register the flow of quite familiar chakra, Sasuke had already been standing beside him, meeting his eyes. The Uchiha didn’t say anything, he had only given Naruto an unimpressed look as if already expecting Naruto to know exactly what he wanted without him even having to express it. Stupid. He always did this.

Naruto knew, of course. Naruto always knew.

So, he shifted, making space for Sasuke to sit down right beside him. And Sasuke did so, without even bothering to say anything in greeting to Gaara, whom Naruto had been having lunch with.

Of course, Naruto knew those two were no friends by any means. But they had cleared things up (or so he hoped), it has already been 2 years since the war – 2 years since Sasuke’s name has been cleared, not only in Konoha but in all those other villages too. Naruto had made sure of that. He had to.

That’s why they were here, passing Suna on their joint journey – visiting Gaara, as Naruto has triumphantly told Sasuke. Then he had asked if Sasuke wanted to join them for lunch, which Sasuke had given no answer to. The dark haired had only frowned, muttering something under his breath as he had left the room they were currently staying in, leaving a confused Naruto behind.

So now, Naruto was even more confused that Sasuke had decided to show up after all. Gaara seemed confused too, maybe even tense. Naruto saw no reason for that though. It was only Sasuke.

Obviously, he just had to keep talking, he had to end this long-reigning silence and after lunch those two would surely get along. There was no way they wouldn’t. This was just unfamiliar right now.

Out of reflex he brough his hand up, scratching his neck awkwardly. A little teasing would surely help. “Hah. Forgive Sasuke. Seems he left his basic manners at home when it comes to greetin-“

Blue eyes widened when Sasuke yanked his sleeve, making Naruto’s hand slide down. Sasuke took it, lacing their fingers together. He didn’t even bother to hide it, but instead guided their joined hands onto the table right in front of Gaara, making them hit the wooden surface with a barely audible smack.  Naruto couldn’t hold back the slight blush that involuntarily formed on his cheeks. They hadn’t talked about this. In fact, they hadn’t told anyone yet, hadn’t shown anyone yet. Naruto thought Sasuke wouldn’t care either way. Still, here they were holding hands in front of the Kazekage, one of his closest friends. They were showing how their friendship had evolved, had shifted into something else, something more. Naruto loved it. He loved Sasuke. He wanted everyone to see it.    

Sasuke suddenly cleared his throat, pulling Naruto out of his thoughts. “Sorry I’m late.” He raised his gaze from their joined hands, locking eyes with Gaara now. Naruto nearly shuddered at the intensity of it, at the smug smirk forming on Sasuke’s lips. “Hope you don’t mind that I join the two of you for lunch, Kazekage.”

Gaara took a moment to answer, “Not at all, Uchiha.”

SNS Month Day 2 & 3 - Possessive & Blank period

[keithisbae1]

Bones and All

Sasuke Uchiha is no stranger to death, he welcomes it with open arms.

He lost his family, his clan and even killed his brother with his own two hands. Even if the illness did get to him first. He still harboured such hatred for his brother and wanted him dead. Then after finding out the truth about what happened to the clan. He wanted Konoha to bleed. To crush his enemies' skulls and hear their pleas and cries as they begged for mercy.

Just like what they did to him.

Now, things were different. He protected Konoha but only to help Naruto with his dream.

His views had changed and he didn’t want anyone else to suffer the way he had.

Despite this, it doesn’t change his past and the fact so many had wanted him dead. Which is why he was here now bleeding on the forest floor. 

Maybe if he’s lucky enough he’ll be reunited with his family, not that he feels like he deserves it.

And as for his friends? They’ll live without him just fine.

Naruto had his own family now to worry about, Kakashi like him had been used to death. What was one more? And as for Sakura? She loved him yes but he was sure she’ll move on and find someone else.

He knows they’ll never forget him if them chasing him despite everything he’s put them through doesn’t show it, what will? But he doesn’t want any of them to put their life on hold for him. 

So when his heart gave its last final beat the last thing expected was to see Sakura already on the other side. And talking to his parents in his old house?

What?

Wasn’t she meant to be in Konoha with the rest?

“Sakura,” she jumped turning to the sound of his voice and he can see the damage to her body. A deep gash on her stomach and her right eye was missing. He doesn’t dare want to think how or rather who was the cause of it and judging from how she was avoiding eye contact, neither did she.

This wasn’t a dream. 

“Well, hello to you too dear.” Mikoto broke the eerie silence.

“We were just talking about you, she didn’t have anywhere else to go and since we know how good ‘friends’ you two are, we figured she could wait here with us. Until either, you or her parents showed up.” Like it was only natural for her to be there, but it wasn’t or shouldn’t be.

She didn’t even have any children of her own yet, from what Naruto wrote. It was too soon for her to be here. Unlike him. 

“Nothing to say dear?” No hi or I’m back or any emotional reunion with his beloved parents. Instead, only two words crossed Sasuke’s mind.

“Marry me.” He ignored the coughing fit his father had as Mikoto patted him on the back chuckling at how her little boy hadn’t changed. 

His eyes solely focused on Sakura.

“I believe you're meant to get married before death little brother.” Itachi came in at perfect timing. Maybe he was selfish but what was stopping them now?

They had all the time in the world together. 

[h8ani]

Naruto Reaction to you kissing one of their friends

A/N - hello! I just recently got my account taken off of explicit so I will be posting more! I was recently an only kpop reaction/writing blog which I’ll still write for them but I will be writing for different animes as well. So I’m going to start off with reactions for right now since I no longer have my laptop. I hope everyone enjoys this and feel free to request other reaction posts from me!

Reaction includes - Konoha 12 boys + Sai & Gaara

Naruto: Seeing you kiss him was something that easily changed his mood. Seeing you so close to his friend, it made his insides turn. He didn’t know why he felt like this, maybe it’s jealousy, maybe it’s the fact he wants to be the one kissing you instead of Gaara, but something in Naruto makes him avoid you from here on out. No more smiles at you when he passes you by in the village, no more inviting you out to eat whenever you got back from a mission, all he’ll give you is a cold shoulder because brushing you off and not seeing you is better than seeing you with his friend.

Sasuke: He scoffs out loud, he couldn’t help it, it might’ve slipped out and was a bit louder than he meant to but he still felt the same about it. You turn around facing away from Neji and raise an eyebrow at Sasuke.

“You don’t think anything will come from this do you?” Sasuke speaks before you can even question him. Your features soften after realizing what he’s said.

“What?”

“Don’t be stupid, love never works out for a shinobi, let alone when it’s between two of them. You’ll become distracted or dead.” His voice is harsh and his eyes are staring at you making you cower down. He huffs out a breath and walks past you and Neji who has stayed silent to this all. His words were harsh but he could never admit how he was feeling the moment he saw you kissing someone else.

Sai: Its easy not to show any emotion for him. No one ever knows what he’s thinking but that’s for the best, because seeing you and Kiba together did something to him that even Sai himself doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand it, no, he can’t believe it. He can’t believe why you would want to kiss Kiba, you’ve never hinted at anything romantic towards him, you’ve always acted the same so why were you and Kiba kissing so casually as if it were normal? Sai’s mind was malfunctioning while he still had the same indifferent look on his face. Only he would deal with the thoughts that would fill his mind up, no one would ever know.

Shikamaru: Shikamaru never cared about much. He never cared about the useless relationships around the village because all that led to was drama and that was another headache he didn’t care to have. That was, until he saw you walking around with Lee. You were walking around with Rock mf Lee and Shikamaru couldn’t help but stop to watch you two. Nothing out of the ordinary until he sees you raise up on your tippy toes to quickly kiss Lee. Like some grade school kids you quickly walk the other direction while Lee sprints away with almost a gust of smoke following his heels. You not paying attention you run straight into Shikamaru.

“Oh! Sorry!” You look up and Shikamaru sees your cheeks are flushed and somehow he couldn’t help but find that annoying.

“So you and Lee? Really?” He looks down at you as you crane your neck up to meet his eyes. “You do know you could do better right?”

You look at him surprised. “What? Why would you-”

“I’m not bashing him, I’m just saying that I would be better.” He shrugs and walks off leaving you completely shocked in his response.

Choji: His mood would immediately change and it’s even worse because Choji wouldn’t be able to hide what was wrong to anyone. Just assume everyone around him could see a giant storm cloud following him around because that’s how obvious he would be. Right away, and I mean riiight away Ino, Shikamaru, and even random villagers would notice Choji’s change in demeanor. It’s not like he hated Sai, he just doesn’t understand why you of all people would like him. Sai was so out there, doesn’t seem to show any like or dislike towards anything or anyone other than his drawings he’d do. Then there was you, someone completely different and someone Choji really liked. Poor boy would be so sad for days on end.

Kiba: He stopped in his tracks once he saw his teammate kissing someone, he was more nosy than anything but once he saw who Shino was kissing Kiba just wished that he kept on walking. You looked behind his teammate and smiled at Kiba.

“Hi Kiba.” Your smile meets your eyes and Shino turns to nod at his friend. “What’re you doing?” You ask.

“Oh um…” he scratches the back of his head thinking. “I was going to get something to eat, did you guys-”

“Ooo! Let’s all get something to eat together!” You say excitedly while grabbing Shino’s hand. Shino just mumbles a ‘sure’ and you all make your way down.

Kiba smiles and walks beside you. The stinging in his chest still there but at the end of the day he can’t be selfish, he won’t be selfish, not when it comes to you and your happiness.

Shino: He never cared about you, you were just a simple shinobi who got brought along a few missions. He didn’t care about how happy you got once you perfected your jutsus’. He didn’t care about your life secrets whenever you let something slip about your past and the look on your face when you’d realize you said too much. He certainly didn’t care if you made it back alive from any solo missions and if you were a few days late from them either. At least, that’s what he’s going to say to himself whenever he sees you kissing Shikamaru goodbye every time you leave for your missions. Yeah, Shino totally doesn’t care about you at all.

Neji: He’s trying, he really is trying to think positively and for the best, but something about seeing you, the always cheerful and kind hearted girl with the likes of him, it just doesn’t sit well with Neji. He doesn’t know why or what caused you to be with Sasuke but Neji at the very least is trying to be happy for you. If you’re happy and being treated right by the sole Uchiha in the village Neji can at least make peace with that. At least that’s what he’s trying to convince himself ever since he saw you two together.

Rock Lee: It was out of the ordinary for him to feel this way, he would never say anything bad about his comrade, no never. He’d never say anything about you either, but his tongue moved faster than his brain could stop him and seeing your pained expression and the look his friend is giving him made Lee instantly regret the words that left his mouth.

“Wh-What did you just say?” You stumble on your words while Choji just sighs. You were always too nice, too forgiving. Lee didn’t deserve it, he knows that, Choji knows that, but you still didn’t.

Lee just shakes his head, mumbling an apology while walking away.

Gaara: He couldn’t help but frown, his face changing as he saw you and Naruto kissing, he wasn’t jealous, no he could never be jealous of his closest friend. He was happy for Naruto, but his emotions for himself were present and anyone could see it. He walks away and makes the long journey back to the Suna suddenly abandoning whatever reason he came to the leaf village in the first place

[greatideas-badwriter]

Worth The Risk Chapter 16

Extreme content/trigger warning! This chapter contains graphic descriptions of physical/sexual violence.

ALSO: I’ve gotten some feedback that Naruto seems like too nice a person to do something so awful, but that’s why I chose him as the villain! The character is supposed to seem super good-natured to everyone who doesn’t know the truth, which is why Sakura wasn’t able to convince any of her friends in Konoha.

This is also just a fanfiction. 

The real Naruto would never do something like this, of course. 

Thanks again for reading, y'all!

“Whoa, Sasuke, calm down! What happened?” Itachi lifted both hands in a calming manner as his little brother paced back and forth, red in the face, cursing unintelligibly, and overwhelmingly pissed off. 

“I swear to fuckin’ god, I’m gonna kill them both.” 

This morning, Sasuke uncharacteristically wanted to dote on Sakura, to kiss her, hold her, and smother her with gifts just because he could. Now, he wished she was in front of him so he could wrap his hands around her neck and- ‘Don’t lie to your damn self, you sad sack of shit. If she was here, you wouldn’t lay a finger on her.’ 

The thought only made the younger Uchiha brother angrier. 

“Tell me what happened, or I won’t be able to help,” the elder one said, an expert at dealing with his sibling’s violent temper. 

Sasuke stopped pacing and faced him, nearly shouting, “She played me. That’s what happened. Sakura fucking- She-!” He groaned before returning to the therapeutic act of walking back and forth in the large bedroom. Itachi asked, “What did Sakura do? And where is she? Doesn’t she usually come home with you?” 

~One Hour Ago~

“My name’s Naruto. What’s yours?” 

Sasuke’s red-tinted gaze locked onto the blonde-haired, blue-eyed dickhead Sakura was cowering behind, “If you want to live to see tomorrow, shut your fuckin’ mouth.” 

The tan-skinned man, apparently named Naruto, was about the same height and only slightly less muscular. He grinned sheepishly as though he hadn’t grasped how serious the Uchiha man was about that threat, “Well, I can’t just let you talk to my girlfriend like that, can I? I’m not that type of guy.” 

‘Did he just say boyfriend?’ Sasuke’s dark eyes turned onto Sakura again, who refused to meet his gaze and continued staring at the ground with a pale face and trembling limbs. 

“You’re her ex,” he said, more of a statement than a question. 

Naruto’s grin faltered slightly before returning in full, “Not anymore. We’re back together, right?” Sakura subtly nodded but refused to do anything else. 

“So, are you gonna back off? I don’t want to fight you, but I will,” his blue eyes were warm and cheerful, as was his voice, “I’m a lot stronger than I look.” 

Sasuke’s hand slid into his pocket, wrapping around his knife, “I’m not going to fight you, asshole. I’m gonna kill you.” 

“Please, stop. Both of you,” Sakura suddenly said, her voice softer than usual. 

~Back To The Present~

“-and my dumb ass actually let them leave.” 

Itachi’s eyes were narrowed, unfocused, and directed at the ground as he thought aloud, “It doesn’t make any sense. Sakura said she doesn’t have anyone.” 

“Yeah, well, she said a lot of shit, didn’t she? The lyin’ bitch.” Sasuke was masking his hurt with rage. Both brothers knew it but didn’t acknowledge it. 

“I don’t know, Little Brother. Something seems off about all of this. I think we should ask Nagato for the info he has on her.” 

The Akatsuki gang would never allow someone to live under their main house’s roof, much less offer them a position among their ranks, without doing a more than thorough and highly illegal background check. Hospital, police, and court records, all of which were sealed, had been hacked into and copied for the gang’s personnel files. 

Sasuke wasn’t having any of his brother’s coolheadedness, though. No, he was still full of anger and dying to murder something or someone with his bare hands, “Who gives a fuck about her past? She’s as good as dead to me.” 

‘That’s not true, and you know it. You weak, fragile man.’ 

Itachi rolled his eyes, coming to a stand and opening the bedroom door, “Well, if you won’t do it, then I will. I’ll let you know if I find anything.” 

‘Fuck him. Why can’t he just get mad with me? If she doesn’t want anything to do with me, then I don’t want anything to do with her.’ 

The younger Uchiha man finally gave up pacing and pretending to be angry, falling heavily onto the bed with his hands in his hair and glaring at the ceiling. After all they did last night and even how calm things were when they woke up together this morning, Sasuke never expected this to happen. 

It was all too confusing. 

Besides the few short-lived relationships with crazy bitches like Tayuya and Yugao, Sasuke’s entirely new to the idea of a relationship. He and Sakura didn’t outright agree to date, but it was obvious that was where they were headed. It’d have been his very first actual girlfriend that he didn’t intend to drop before their one-month anniversary. 

Even before last night, he’d occasionally catch Sakura looking at him with an unfamiliar, warm expression that no one’s ever sent his way. At first, he didn’t know what it was and even felt a little awkward, but once he realized it was her inability to completely mask her feelings for him, it made him happy and a little prideful when he noticed. 

‘How did all of that change over the course of a few hours? Did she seriously sleep with me while dating someone else?’ Sasuke never imagined she’d be capable of such a thing. Even now that he witnessed it with his own eyes, he struggled to believe it. 

~

Sakura was so terrified she couldn’t contain her trembling as Naruto all but dragged her along up the stairs of the house he’d rented out. ‘Something terrible’s about to happen; I just know it.’ 

After four years of tiptoeing around the violent man, sensing when he was about to have an outburst became second nature, and all her alarms were going off at max volume. The biggest hint was that the blonde didn’t speak a word or even look at her the entire car ride here. 

Upon unlocking and opening the front door, her fears were confirmed when she was shoved roughly inside, stumbling and barely stopping herself from falling onto the hardwood floor. 

“Why would that low-life care if we’re dating, Sakura?” His voice was calm, as was how he steadily locked the door and turned to face her. 

“When we signed the employment contract, he agreed to protect me, that’s all.” 

Naruto held out his hand, “Give me your phone.” 

Sakura stepped back, her grip tightening on the device, “Why?” 

“I said, give me your phone. Hand it over.” 

For a split second, the duo stared at one another, and nothing happened. There was no sound or movement. Then, all hell broke loose. 

The woman turned her back to Naruto, holding the phone to her midsection with both hands as he wrapped his arms around and tried to pry her fingers away, “Let go!” 

“No!” 

After about a minute of struggling, the man became fed up with Sakura’s defiance and grabbed a firm handful of her hair at the scalp. He pulled her through a hallway, “Why do you always make me do this? You know I don’t like it.” 

She clawed at his grip with her free hand, crying and trying to kick him while stumbling not to fall. He opened the last door in the long hallway before pulling her down a set of wooden steps. 

“N-Naruto, what are you doing? Where are we going?” It wasn’t lit well, and Sakura couldn’t turn to look ahead without losing her balance. 

“Where do you think I’m taking you?” 

‘...No….’ 

Just before she broke up with him and he threw her through that window, he’d locked her in the spare bedroom of their house for three entire days. You can probably guess what he did to her during that time. It was the last straw for the pinkette and why she chose to run for her life. 

They entered a small room in the basement, and then Sakura was tossed unceremoniously onto a small metal cot with a thin mattress atop it. Before she could gather her bearings, Naruto was on top of her, wrestling her arms down to the bed as he tried to pry the phone from her fingers. The woman sobbed as he finally won. He pressed his knees down onto her biceps to keep her from fighting as he went through the device. 

“N-Naruto, please! It hurts!” Her bones wouldn’t break from this, but the bruising would be substantial, not to mention the muscle soreness. 

The plea was ignored. A minute later, the blonde tossed the phone to the foot of the bed, “There. I told Sasuke you won’t be coming to work for a few days.” Naruto moved back to straddle Sakura’s hips, his cheerful grin and warm expression in place as though he wasn’t about to torture the poor woman, “Now, what should I do with you? I’m still hurt you thought you could hide, Babe. What do you have to say for yourself.” 

‘Just go along with whatever he says. Do what he wants, or it’ll only make things worse.’ 

Sakura knew from experience not to misbehave when at his disposal like this, so she nodded, “I-I’m sorry! I was wrong. Please forgive me. I’ll never do it again!” He paused as he searched her tearful, scared face before kissing her. She wanted to puke but choked it back because it’d only anger him further. 

At first, the woman begrudgingly went along with the kiss, but when she felt his cold fingers slide under her shirt to hold her waist, she pressed her hands to his shoulders and tried to shove him away. Naruto’s nails dug into her skin, his lips leaving hers. His hot breath dusted her face as he said, “If you keep fighting me, I’ll have no choice but to teach you again.” 

The threat sent a flight response through her, and she frantically tried to kick and shove the man away with all her strength. 

“Just when I think you’ve gotten smart, you pull something like this,” Naruto hissed. While quickly holding her down with one hand, he removed his belt with the other before skillfully tying her wrists together with it. 

‘He’s going to hurt me! I can’t do this….not again.’ 

“Please, no! I’ll stop! I’ll behave, Naruto, please!” All her fighting didn’t matter much to the man, and he made quick work of removing her clothes, tearing some of them in the process to make things go smoother. 

Then he was forcing himself inside, between her legs. She cried, screamed, and fought, but nothing helped. A harsh pain came across her cheek, and then a hand wrapped around her throat, effectively quieting the woman. 

Naruto glared at her, not pausing in his disgusting actions, “If you don’t stop, I’ll have to be rough. Don’t make me do that.” 

Before she could react, those baby blue eyes became distracted, dropping to her shoulder. The monster stopped moving as he released her throat and moved her hair away from where he was looking. His face gradually reddened, the faux cheerfulness disappearing as his glare turned onto her face, “Did he touch you?” 

Sakura was so distraught she could barely speak, but she tried, “I-I didn’t-We-!” “Did you let him fucking touch you, Sakura?!” Naruto bellowed, making the woman squeeze her eyes closed and prepare to be hit while sobbing helplessly. 

‘I’m going to die. I’m sure of it.’ 

~

The next day passed in a whirlwind of rage for Sasuke. Last night, Sakura had the audacity to text him, saying she’d be gone for a few days with an excuse as weak as not feeling well. He knew better. She was just too scared to face him after what she’d done. He didn’t bother replying because all he had to say was for her to go fuck herself.

Itachi called him earlier, between classes, to inform him that Nagato was emailing over all he had on the pinkette, but Sasuke just hung up on him. 

‘Why should I care? Fuck her.’ His elder brother tried calling him three times after that, even texting, saying he needed to talk to him about something important, but he knew better. ‘All he’s gonna do is try and convince me Sakura’s not at fucking fault here because she has some stupid ass sob-story-past. I don’t wanna hear it.’ 

Upon arriving home just before dark, Itachi grabbed his arm and all but dragged him into Nagato’s office, where the redhead, Konan, and Yahiko were waiting. To his surprise, but not that much, another man was there, but he was beaten, bloody, and tied to a chair with a cloth bag covering his head. 

Sasuke pulled away, glaring at his brother as the door was closed, “What the fuck?” 

“You need to sit down and listen to-” “I don’t need to do shit, Itachi! Get the hell out of my way before I move you myself,” the younger Uchiha threatened, really not in the mood for whatever game they were all trying to play. 

“Sakura has been compromised.” 

He froze, facing their leader with a paling face, “What did you just say?” 

Yahiko repeated himself, “Sakura has been compromised. It’s your duty to take care of this.” 

Sasuke shook his head, utterly confused, “What do you mean “compromised”? She may be a cheating bitch, but she wouldn’t do something that stupid.” 

Konan then stood, crossed the room, and removed the sack from the bloody man’s head, revealing the white-haired teacher Sakura always hung around. He’d even been at the Christmas party as a plus one of another, trusted guest. Seeing him didn’t clarify anything, and the others seemed to understand that because Itachi explained, “He’s not really a teacher. He’s an undercover cop from Konoha.” 

‘No fucking way. This has to be a joke.’ 

He tried to reason with them, “So? What’s that have to do with-” “I went through Sakura’s records and discovered she’s been in an abusive relationship for over four years. When I looked into the man, his father turned out to be a cop, and who else but Professor Kakashi Hatake stood beside him in their unit photo.” 

Itachi was obviously angry, probably because he’d come to like the pink-haired girl. Now, because of this asshole, she was going to die. 

Sasuke saw red, speaking directly to the undercover agent, “Why would you do this to her? You had to know what’d happen if we found out.” 

“I could’ve brought you all down weeks ago, but I didn’t because I didn’t want her caught in the crossfire.” 

“You expect me to believe that horseshit?” 

“He’s telling the truth,” Nagato interrupted. “We went through his phone; he has enough proof to send us all to prison. It seems they’ve been watching all of us, Sakura included, for over a month.” 

Sasuke needed to sit down, but also couldn’t because too much uncomfortable energy was shooting through his veins, “I don’t understand….” 

“Sakura never met me before coming here, but I knew of her well before this assignment,” Kakashi explained, his voice quiet and raspy as he breathed through his injuries, “My unit captain is her ex’s father, and she’d often visit the station with his son when we worked late.” 

‘What the hell is he going on about?’ 

“I don’t think Captain Minato knew about it, but I noticed immediately. My mother was in an abusive relationship when I was a teenager, and it was like I was looking at her all over again.” 

“So you knew she was being hurt. That doesn’t explain why you’d sit on the bust of the century for the girl,” Yahiko said. 

Kakashi winced, swallowing hard before continuing, “All those photos. Did you bother checking who they came from?” 

The Akatsuki leader shared a look with Nagato, who nodded and began typing on his laptop. Itachi shared a glance with Sasuke, but the man looked away to glare at the cop, who was staring as though waiting for him to do something. After a minute, Nagato said, “Found it. All the photos were sent from a phone belonging to someone named Naruto Uzumaki.” 

Sasuke’s blood turned to ice. “My name’s Naruto. What’s yours?” 

Then, Sasuke had to sit down because if he didn’t, his legs might’ve given out from the guilt that suddenly weighed on him like a ton of bricks. 

‘How was I supposed to know?! Why didn’t she tell me?’ 

Sakura undoubtedly went along with that blonde asshole to prevent those photos from being leaked. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. Of course, they’d already been handed over to the police, but she hadn’t known that, or else she probably would’ve either told him about it or disappeared without a trace. 

She ran to the person she’d been running from, and the Uchiha man showed zero faith, blaming her for playing with his feelings and calling her names.

“Naruto is her ex-boyfriend,” Kakashi added. 

Sasuke scoffed, “Yeah, no shit. We’ve gathered that.” 

“I chose to wait to do anything until I could get Sakura to trust me enough to listen when I told her to run. I wanted to prevent her from getting caught by that boy again.” 

For some reason, the younger Uchiha’s blood turned to fire again, and he punched the man’s face harshly before Itachi grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He still yelled, though, “You have some sick fuckin’ pedophile crush on her? If you care about her so much, how come she still ended up with that asshole?” 

‘He knew. He fuckin’ knew she was in danger and didn’t stop it, even before she came to Oto. This fuckin’ jackass. I’ll kill him. I’ll slit his goddamn throat.’ 

At that moment, all Sasuke could think about was the scars. All of those scars on Sakura’s body. The reason he knew she’d lied about them being from a car wreck was because they were at different points of healing. Some were fresh, some were newly scarred, and some appeared years old and faded. 

‘But they were from that blonde guy.’ He pictured Naruto’s outreached hand when he introduced himself yesterday, ‘With those hands, he put her through years of bullshit.’ Sasuke suddenly stood, gaze like fire, and directed on the white-haired cop, “Where is he?” 

“He has a rental near the college. I’ll give you the address if you swear not to hurt Sakura.” 

Yahiko interjected, “We can’t do that. Because of her carelessness, you have incriminating photos of us all.” 

Kakashi shook his head, “I haven’t sent them to anyone else or even backed them up to any hard drives, I swear. You can do whatever you want to me, but leave her out of it. She’s innocent.” 

“Is there a way to verify his claim, Nagato?” Konan asked, but her orange eyes were hard on Sasuke in a silent threat to shut up so she could try to help. 

The redhead responded, “Yes, but there’s no guarantee this Naruto person hasn’t shared them. I’ll need his devices or at least his IP address.” 

The Akatsuki leader said, “If we can locate this boy and prevent the photos from being leaked, then I swear not to harm Sakura.” 

“And if Naruto’s sent them to someone else?” 

“Then he, Sakura, you, and whoever else has knowledge of this incident will be dealt with.” 

[depressedhatakekakashi]

A Gift From Far Away

Prompt: Birthday/Free Day

Words: 2,082

Note: Happy Birthday to the sweetest dork. I’m sorry this turned into a bit of an inner look on Kakashi and the struggles i think he has in canon (but which never get touched on cuz he’s not the main) but also… no i’m not XD

Birthdays were fleeting. 

Every year Kakashi woke up on September fifteenth and watched as the day passed by at speeds he had never experienced before. From the moment he woke up to the second he dragged himself back into his tiny apartment and fell into bed it felt like someone had turned the day's speed up by eleven.

There was never a moment’s break. His friends made sure of that.

Asuma would be there to greet him as soon as he opened his apartment door, a tiny cupcake in hand and an invite to join him for a morning walk that Kakashi could never muster up the energy to refuse no matter how terrible he was feeling. 

About halfway through their walk Kurenai joined them and offered to pay for breakfast. When they were younger it was just the three of them sitting comfortably in a small booth chatting over omelettes. Now that they were Sensei’s, though, the booth felt a lot smaller with the three of them crammed in alongside nine hungry pre-teens fighting over the food. Kurenai still offered to pay for everyone’s meals, but Kakashi and Asuma had made an agreement with each other to pitch in so she didn’t have to suffer such a giant bill alone.

Once breakfast was done and they’d all said their goodbyes, it was time for training. Even on his birthday, Kakashi likes to make sure he gets some training time in. A fact that Sakura complained about endlessly while she, Sasuke, and Naruto trudged along behind Kakashi toward the training field. He didn’t mind though. She made some good points about everyone needing to rest and enjoy themselves on their birthday, and if it were anyone else's birthday he would agree.

The problem was, it was his birthday, and resting simply meant that the day would drag by. That was the last thing he wanted. So, he trained. Occupied himself during those few fleeting hours when his friends weren’t demanding his attention and tried to forget about the one person he wanted to see, but couldn’t. 

After training and a quick check-in to make sure his students hadn’t died on him, Kakashi made sure to leave Sasuke with a little money to pay for lunch and made his escape.

The rest of the day was spent jumping between his friends. 

An hour playing card games with Gemma, Raido, Kotetsu, and Izumo. 

Two hours enjoying a nice quiet tea with Yamato and listening to his precious Kohai complain about all of the things he had to deal with on his own in the Anbu locker rooms now that Kakashi wasn’t there to watch over him. 

An hour to sit in front of his father’s grave filling him in on everything that had happened in the last year. This year he’d spoken a lot about his students. More than he’d ever dared to speak about them before. He told his dad all about Sakura’s skill with chakra control and genjutsu, Naruto’s hard-headed personality and the endless similarities he saw between his student and the parents who never had the opportunity to raise him, and Sasuke. He spent the most time talking about Sasuke, but where he’d praised Sakura’s skills and fondly remembered his old Sensei and Kushina-San through Naruto, Sasuke was a kid he’d lamented about. A kid who he saw far too much of himself in, and who he couldn’t help but worry about. If his father had really been there with him he might have assured him that everything would turn out alright. There would have been comforting words and promises that Sasuke would make it through all of his struggles just fine. 

The problem was, he wasn’t here. 

He was another body buried in a cemetery that never seemed to stop growing. There were no words of comfort to be spoken and as much as he’d thought talking about it would help Kakashi found he only felt worse at the end. 

Saying his goodbyes to his father, he moved onto the next birthday task. Five precious minutes that he spent visiting with Obito and Rin, and that was only if he managed to keep his thoughts from spiraling downward into those all too familiar feelings of failure, self-hate, and regret. 

Once he’d managed to drag himself away from the cemetery he was certain to find Asuma waiting for him beside the gates. As soon as he was close enough his friend would throw an arm around his shoulder, smile, and offer to buy him a drink. Kakashi never turned down that offer and after that, the rest of the day flew by in a blur of alcohol and laughter.

It would be another three hours before he stumbled back to his apartment with Sake on his breath, Asuma’s laughter still ringing in his ear, and the fond memory of Yamato singing Karaoke so terribly that the entire bar had offered to buy him a drink or five just to get him to stop.

Another birthday came and went, full of friends and cheer, yet Kakashi couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. Something that he still had to do for his birthday to be the fulfilling, wonderful day that all of his friends had tried so hard to make. 

‘It’s him, isn’t it?’ He thought, frowning at his own weakness. ‘There’s nothing to be done. He can’t be here.’

The door creaked open, revealing the emptiness waiting for him inside of his home. A clean table, an organized bookshelf, a comfortable bed, and a plant were all that were waiting for him. 

No unexpected guest that he’d silently been hoping to see all day.

‘I told you’ he scolded himself as he stepped into the room and shut the door behind himself. ‘Not here.’

It was a stupid thing to have to tell himself. A conversation he should never have had to have.

This was Konoha, and no matter how much he wanted to see Gai on his birthday it simply wasn’t possible. An Iwagakure shinobi would never be allowed into the village and where Kakashi had a certain skill for stealth that allowed him to sneak into Iwagakure whenever he wanted to, Gai didn’t share that skill.

He wasn’t a man known for being stealthy and that was just one of the many things Kakashi loved about him.

‘Love,’ toeing his shoes off, he kicked them back towards the door and listened to the clatter of them bouncing against the hard floor. ‘You keep saying that. You should know better.’ 

Love was an emotion that should have been reserved for someone within Konoha, or at least a civilian. The last person he should be claiming such feelings for was an enemy shinobi.

Yet, he couldn’t help it. No matter how much he wanted to be a completely loyal shinobi, it was impossible. His heart had made the mistake of falling for someone he could never be with as openly as his friends were with their lovers.

He couldn’t walk down the street holding his hand like Asuma and Kurenai did. That would only result in him being labeled a traitor and falling down the same path of shame as his father. 

He couldn’t send a letter with anyone but the hounds, because even a whiff of what he would do would result in the elder’s pouncing at the opportunity to have him arrested.

Perhaps a stronger man would cease to care. 

They would choose their own feelings and desires over their village, just as his father had when he chose to save his friends over completing his mission. 

Kakashi couldn’t, though. There were too many people he cared about.

Precious people that he wanted to protect, even if it meant he couldn’t have the life that he wanted. It wasn't the first thing he’d had to give up in his life so he could keep fighting to protect his precious people, but most days it felt like the hardest.

‘Quit it,’ he scolded himself as he trudged toward his bed. ‘Sleep will clear my head. A nice rest and then everything will be back to normal.’ Or, as normal as things could be when his ‘normal’ was longing to see someone that he shouldn’t even be thinking about. 

Reaching the bed he began unzipping his vest when something caught his eye. A small spec of green is sitting just outside the window. Forgetting about sleep for the moment, he took a step toward the window and peered outside of it.

When he saw what was sitting there on the outside ledge his eyes widened and he felt a tightness in his chest that ached just a little, but also caused him to smile.

Somehow, against all odds, he’d managed to sneak into Konoha and leave something at Kakashi’s window. An impressive feat for a man who had failed at hiding his chakra the last time he tried to sneak up on Kakashi. 

“And what is this?” he asked aloud, shaking his head when he realized what he’d done. “Let’s see.” unlatching the window lock, he lifted the window just enough so he could reach out and retrieve whatever it was waiting for him.

The answer came to him as soon as his fingers touched the object. A fabric sort of feeling with just a little bit of fuzziness to it. There was only one thing it could possibly be. Curling his fingers around it, he brought it inside and promptly closed the window once again. 

“I hope you weren’t out there too long,” he whispered, chuckling when he thought about how ridiculous the whole scene would look if any of his friends caught him speaking to an object. “Well, you’re safe now regardless, and now that you’re safe,” he turned the object over in his hand and shivered when the fabric brushed against his fingers. It was a softer fabric than he would usually find himself holding, but then of course he didn’t have a habit of collecting stuffies. “Oh,” the realization hit him as soon as the thought had crossed his mind. Now that he had a good look at it, he knew without a doubt that it was stuffy.

Not just any stuffy, though. A Tortoise stuffy. One that looked oddly similar to a specific tortoise summon that a certain Iwagakure shinobi liked to summon when he found himself in a tight spot.

“You…” his fingers tightened around the stuffy. Inside himself, there was a slew of emotions bubbling up threatening to spill out.

A sadness came from knowing that even on his birthday, the one day that was supposed to be all about him, he couldn’t spend it curled up in his lover's arms with his face buried in his neck. 

Fear at the knowledge that if anyone in Konoha found out about this gift, a tiny turtle that meant nothing to anyone else but held a world of love inside of it for him, he could find himself facing accusations that would make his father look like he’d done nothing wrong. 

Happiness. 

That was the emotion he tried to zero in on. The warmth engulfed his entire soul like one of Gai’s bone-crushing hugs. An inescapable feeling of being wanted and cherished.

Growing up he’d given up hope on ever feeling something so wonderful again when he buried his father, but then Gai came crashing into his life with a terrible bowl cut, the ugliest jumpsuit he had ever seen, and more love than he thought anyone who existed in their world could possibly have. 

Love that he happily shared with Kakashi, an enemy shinobi.

“You…” lifted the stuffy, he buried his nose into it and sniffed. His nose was immediately rewarded with that scent he’d come to love so much. The smell of grass mixed with burnt sugar, sunflowers, and a hint of dirt.

The smell that he had become accustomed to after having spent so much time with Gai over the years. A scent that he would happily surround himself with every day for the rest of his life if he could. 

“Thank you,” he whispered to a man who was most likely tucked away safely in his bed thousands of miles away from him. A man who would never hear his words, but who he hoped could somehow feel the overwhelming love that filled his heart as he pushed his nose deeper into the stuffy and surrounded himself in his lover’s scent. 

[madara-fate]

Hey, maddy! It’s been awhile, I’m currently writing this at midnight because while I was tinkering here and there and also simultaneously doing my assignments and projects, a sudden thought came into my mind. The causes of female character hate. The first thing that would come to ones mind will always be misogyny and sexism but as I was hanging out in Twitter, Facebook, and Tiktok, I’ve come to realize that the very thing that uplifted women all these years is now tearing itself bit by bit, feminism or to be precise, toxic feminism.

We’ve come to an age where people would scream “pro-choice!” “my body, my rules” but when women chase after a man, do the first move, or pursues the man they actually want instead of waiting for a damn old lady to transform into fairy godmother, they would criticize her for her choices, saying that she has either poor judgement or bad taste. Sakura chose to be with the guy she likes and she would never end up with him if she simply stood there. Doing the first move actually gets you the guy you like, not in every situation the guy you like actually likes you back, this isn’t some fantasy book.

They would want women to just sit still and look pretty but that’s what 90’s women did but that didn’t stop them from ending up with abusive husbands. They would tell you that being a housewife is not the problem, that it’s okay and not bad, they would tell you that it’s okay to be a housewife but deep inside even these women possess internal misogyny— that while it’s okay to be a housewife it’s still BETTER to have a job, carry the pants in the family, make your husband basically your slave and that it’s nice if he’s under you instead of striving for a healthy relationship where both partners are heard and stand on equal ground.

Seeing post here on Tumblr about Sasuke being jealous has started to irked me. People are now starting to romanticize jealousy as if your partner getting jealous is a good thing, people automatically equate jealousy to “I’m afraid of losing you” instead of “I’m insecure, I’m easily replaceable, I don’t know who I am and where I stand in your life”. If Sasuke is jealous that simply means that Sakura hasn’t reassured him enough and we both know she has. I know Sasuke isn’t the jealous type, anyone wouldn’t want their partner to be looked at as if they’re somewhat being undressed.

I’ve also come to have realize that the other reason why SasuSaku works so much is how Sakura is the type to always extend her hands to anyone, I remember how she would notice Naruto is sad or down (one in the Chunin Exam and one after the Pain Arc) how she tries to comfort him, cheer him up, and set asides her own feelings even though she needs the comfort herself. The thing is I like how Sakura can’t fully fathom someone (she can understand just not fully, she isn’t a robot who’s heartless after all) but she tries, she tries to understand him or them, not just to Naruto or Sasuke but to anyone because that’s just the kind of person she is, the kind of girl that Kakashi is so proud of. This is why I like SasuSaku because Sasuke has moments where he meets Sakura half-way, how he told her that he’s the only who could kill him (Itachi) there were times where he would try and reach out for her hand but would stop and take it back again and this is why I think their relationship works a lot because there’s Sakura who’s extending her hand, willing to help and then there’s Sasuke who tries to reach out to her hand half-way and I just love that. I like how Sakura is so independent and free in their relationship that I feel like Sakura could never get if she ended up with Naruto. Hear me out, Naruto thinks Sakura is strong, okay? He cares about Sakura a lot and believes in her but he would rather not risk it, he oftentimes worry about not being able to save someone, about someone important dying because of him or he failed to protect them and it seems to be the cause why he’s not that willing to risk Hinata or Sakura’s safety in battle or anyone for that matter, he would rather risk his own life that someone else’s.

While Sasuke does worry, he chooses to trust Sakura. I think that the Uchiha Family is heavily bounded by trust. How Sasuke trust Sakura and vice versa and how they trust Sarada and her capabilities. Despite there’s an obvious power imbalance between Sasuke and Sakura (strength wise) they stand in equal ground in there relationship and Sakura surely isn’t submissive, I actually find it comical how people say she listens to anything Sasuke says when Sakura this entire time hasn’t been following what Sasuke wants in the first place. Then they say she’s being forceful but she never demanded him to love her nor did he outright rejected her either. Not to mention, due to Naruto growing up alone he seemed to have grown accustomed to not relying on anyone else, he seems to prefer doing things alone or by himself because reading Shippuden made me see that there were numerous times Sakura wanted to help Naruto but Naruto never wants it, he doesn’t mind doing things all by himself, Naruto isn’t willing to meet Sakura half-way and accept her help which makes their relationship looks one-sided but it never was.

It’s been a while, I’m currently writing this at midnight

What a coincidence, I'm currently answering this at midnight :D

The first thing that would come to ones mind will always be misogyny and sexism but as I was hanging out in Twitter, Facebook, and Tiktok, I’ve come to realize that the very thing that uplifted women all these years is now tearing itself bit by bit, feminism or to be precise, toxic feminism.

I know what you mean, and that's partly the reason why a few years ago, I stopped identifying as a feminist, and instead chose to identify as an egalitarian. The toxic femininity was derailing what feminism at its core was supposed to represent. By no means was this the only reason for my switch, but it was becoming increasingly noticeable.

We’ve come to an age where people would scream “pro-choice!” “my body, my rules” but when women chase after a man, do the first move, or pursues the man they actually want instead of waiting for a damn old lady to transform into fairy godmother, they would criticize her for her choices, saying that she has either poor judgement or bad taste.

Yeah, it seems that a lot of them often have progressive values in some areas like employment, and traditional values in other areas like dating, which is annoying because it's very contradictory. It's like how they appear to have modern values because they insist they have good jobs and can take care of themselves financially, but then when it comes to dating they expect the man to pay on dates. Why?

Regarding the criticisms you mentioned, one of the most annoying ones for me has always been when women often call other women "desperate", just because she decided to make the first move or take some initiative in her relationship. You're literally just letting someone know that you're interested in them, where's the desperation in that? It's like some of these women think they're devaluing themselves when they make the first move, it's ridiculous.

Sakura chose to be with the guy she likes and she would never end up with him if she simply stood there. Doing the first move actually gets you the guy you like, not in every situation the guy you like actually likes you back, this isn’t some fantasy book.

Some of them then like to fall back on that typical and lame excuse - "if he doesn't make a move, then he's probably just not that into you", as if that's the case in every possible scenario.

They would want women to just sit still and look pretty but that’s what 90’s women did but that didn’t stop them from ending up with abusive husbands. They would tell you that being a housewife is not the problem, that it’s okay and not bad, they would tell you that it’s okay to be a housewife but deep inside even these women possess internal misogyny— that while it’s okay to be a housewife it’s still BETTER to have a job, carry the pants in the family, make your husband basically your slave and that it’s nice if he’s under you instead of striving for a healthy relationship where both partners are heard and stand on equal ground.

I actually kinda saw that happening with Hinata. I saw a lot of comments beginning with something along the lines of "it's obviously okay for Hinata to be a housewife, but...". To which they'd proceed to put her down in comparison to Sakura and Ino due to their professions. It was kinda transparent.

Seeing post here on Tumblr about Sasuke being jealous has started to irked me. People are now starting to romanticize jealousy as if your partner getting jealous is a good thing, people automatically equate jealousy to “I’m afraid of losing you” instead of “I’m insecure, I’m easily replaceable, I don’t know who I am and where I stand in your life”. If Sasuke is jealous that simply means that Sakura hasn’t reassured him enough and we both know she has. I know Sasuke isn’t the jealous type, anyone wouldn’t want their partner to be looked at as if they’re somewhat being undressed.

Definitely, someone could have all the faith and belief in the world that their partner wouldn't ever leave them, but that still doesn't mean that they'd be okay with someone making any gestures towards them which would overstep their boundaries.

Sasuke was definitely bothered by Jiji's actions, and who wouldn't be? He didn't want someone inappropriately touching his wife. But the way people are now using this to insinuate that he's the jealous type, and insecure, and possessive is just irritating.

If Sasuke was actually as jealous and insecure as some people are making him out to be, then quite frankly, I'd just feel bad for Sakura. For him to still feel this way after over a decade of marriage? After all the times that Sakura had made it clear how much she loves him? How much more would the girl need to do get it through to Sasuke that he is her one and only? That's not a positive look for their relationship, so I dunno why this thought is so appealing to them.

The thing is I like how Sakura can’t fully fathom someone (she can understand just not fully, she isn’t a robot who’s heartless after all) but she tries, she tries to understand him or them, not just to Naruto or Sasuke but to anyone because that’s just the kind of person she is, the kind of girl that Kakashi is so proud of.

Yeah, which is part of the reason why I'm always so puzzled whenever antis like to hate on Sakura for apparently never even trying to understand Sasuke. They constantly say that all she ever cared about were his looks and never tried to actually know who he was, but it's just as you said - even when she didn't understand fully, she tried. During her first confession, Sakura was hurting because she wanted to know more about Sasuke, she wanted to understand him better, but Sasuke was closing himself off:

This is why I think their relationship works a lot because there’s Sakura who’s extending her hand, willing to help and then there’s Sasuke who tries to reach out to her hand half-way and I just love that.

That's a very good analogy, it reminds me of the way in which they held hands in the Forest of Death, because it was a good representation of a recurring theme of their relationship - Sasuke suffering and being in a dark place, and Sakura being there and offering him love to illuminate his dark life.

I actually find it comical how people say she listens to anything Sasuke says when Sakura this entire time hasn’t been following what Sasuke wants in the first place. Then they say she’s being forceful but she never demanded him to love her nor did he outright rejected her either.

Exactly, Sakura and Naruto both went against Sasuke's wishes for the majority of the story. And yeah despite Sakura never demanding that Sasuke love her back, you get these extremists spouting how Sakura apparently "begged" Sasuke to love her, and I always just wonder where the fuck they get that from.

Not to mention, due to Naruto growing up alone he seemed to have grown accustomed to not relying on anyone else, he seems to prefer doing things alone or by himself because reading Shippuden made me see that there were numerous times Sakura wanted to help Naruto but Naruto never wants it, he doesn’t mind doing things all by himself, Naruto isn’t willing to meet Sakura half-way and accept her help which makes their relationship looks one-sided but it never was.

This is a tough one, because while Naruto has indeed shown that he often prefers to do things by himself and on his terms, such as the time he told he peers that he alone will fight Sasuke:

The series also made it a point to highlight the fact that Naruto is, among other things, Ashura's reincarnation, which means that he inherited Ashura's philosophy which dictates that cooperation and relying on the help of those around you are what allows someone to attain strength and achieve your goals:

So I dunno, I can see your point with Sakura though. It's just that when speaking in general terms, it becomes a little harder to make conclusive judgements about Naruto when it concerns this topic. Naruto is supposed to be all about accepting the help of others, but he's shown that he doesn't always do that. Well, that's only human.

[capriciouswrites]

on the seventh day of halloween my true boo gave to me...a failure to cook

“Look,” says Sakura’s favorite kunoichi class teacher, pulling her aside after class, “you’re a civilian kid, right?”

Sakura nods and tangles her fingers together. Analee-sensei is her favorite teacher because she teaches more practical things — but the kunoichi classes aren’t Sakura’s best subject. Ino always shows her up here, unlike with the academics. Except, sometimes, for Analee-sensei’s lessons.

“When you get put on a team,” she says, seriously, crouching down and grabbing Sakura’s hands, “because you’re a girl and a civilian they will expect you to do all the ‘female’ chores. Start off by being worse than them at all of them, if you want to ever have a chance to do anything else.”

“But —“ Sakura isn’t even sure what her protest will be, maybe just that she is skilled at those things and doesn’t want to be seen as bad at something — or maybe just something about wanting to prove to Sasuke-kun that she’d be a good wife.

Analee-sensei doesn’t give her a chance. “You don’t have to totally fail at them, just be worse than the worst person on your team. You can get better. But I promise you, you don’t want to be stuck in that role.”

If it was anyone but Analee-sensei, Sakura wouldn’t have listened. But Analee-sensei is her favorite teacher and — “I promise, sensei,” she says, with a determined nod.

It’s possible she wouldn’t have done it, even still, but then Naruto had seemed so excited about cup ramen and —

(Looking back, she doesn’t regret this decision, which is more than she can say for a lot of things that she did at twelve, but she does feel a little guilty that her first action was out of spite against Naruto. She knows, now, that he didn’t deserve it, and yet.)

“I brought lunch!” she announces, brightly, not even lying when she says, “I’m really proud of this! Please let me know what you think!” She is proud, of course. But what she’s proud of is her experimental hypothesis (“there is a way to prepare ramen that Naruto won’t eat”), but, well, Sakura has always been an over achiever. (She is a bit dismayed to find that her hypothesis isn’t totally supported — although he does cry the entire time eating it, and they are not tears of joy, so she’s willing to count it as a partial success. Neither of the other two take more than a bite — though Kakashi-sensei does do her the favor of just making his disappear.)

And she knows she could stop there. But, well, Sasuke keeps insisting that tomatoes count as a desert, and she’s going to make him eat his words. So she does make the cookies just for him. Alas, he does not eat his words, and he mostly fails to eat the tomato-cookie as well, since he just opens his mouth and lets it fall out after one chew.

(She does count this as an almost successful bid to see Kakashi-sensei’s face as he steals a cookie and has eaten it before anyone else and almost fails to hold back his gag reflex and has to take off his mask. Or maybe he does fail, but he vanishes before he fails. Still, she almost succeeds.)

(He's the one who taught them to look underneath the underneath — surely he can see her attempts at cooking warfare for what they are?)

The rice is, she’s willing to admit, not intentional. She intends to prove her ability to make plain rice — that should be safe and keep her from having to cook every meal, after all, but still able to help out. Unfortunately her parents are involved in a prank war and she’s an innocent bystander.

(She’s not sure why her father swapped out the salt in the salt shaker for sugar, since it seems just as likely to harm him as her mother, but mostly it ends up harming her team.)

And to be fair, she does try the rice before bringing it, but she doesn’t have money to buy cooked rice, or time to make more. And she thinks it could at least be a desert. But then she gets distracted because Naruto splashes her with water when he’s lunging at Sasuke for an insult and she doesn’t warn anyone that the rice is sweet and — ah well.

So Team Seven is fully of the opinion that she doesn’t know how to cook. She tries, a few times, to insist that she can. But Kakashi-sensei miraculously finds coupons that are going to expire in a few hours and so they must be used and she never gets a chance to prove she’s not a total disaster.

There are definitely worse things. (Like most of the rest of the their short time as a team.)

But it’s funny, and she thinks that once they all make chunnin she’ll surprise everyone with a glorious feast that she’s cooked herself, but, ah, well…

And to be honest, by the time Team Kakashi is formed she’s forgotten about her culinary warfare.

(Looking back, she thinks that even if she’d wanted to convince them she was still a menace in the kitchen she wouldn’t have come up with something this good.)

Before their first mission, Tsunade hands her a Tupperware of what look like perfect brownies. Sakura is too jaded to eye them with anything but suspicion, but when Tsunade arches an eyebrow and says, “Eat one,” she does.

She immediately regrets the decision.

“You know how to control your own reflexes,” Tsunade says with a smirk, “keep it down.”

She’s only taken a bite — not shoved the whole thing in, she knows better than that — but it still takes her several minutes to be sure she’s not going to bring it all back up if she opens her mouth. “Ugh,” is all she manages once she can make noise through a throat that’s trying to close to keep her from feeding more toxic waste to it — Tsunade pushes a cup filled with a clear liquid towards her (probably poured while her eyes were shut in the hopes of having that control her mentor had insisted she had). She shoots it back, relieved when it is sake and not water.

It burns through some, although not all, of the taste. She eyes the Tupperware — still alarming full — with wide eyes. Tsunade laughs at her, although it should probably be characterized as a cackle. “We just went over shuffling tastebuds, kid. Your secondary assignment when you’re on this mission is to figure out the ideal way to shuffle your tastebuds, the right amount to use so that the effect only lasts for the time it takes to eat one of the bars, and the fastest way to do it. Don't go just shutting off your tastebuds, I want a shuffle.”

“If I eat more of those,” Sakura says, already considering the likely rewiring to make them not taste like a fate worse than death, “am I going to be poisoned?”

Tsunade laughs again, “They’re protein bars with vitamins. Good for you! You better eat all of ‘em before you get back!”

Sakura grimaces but nods, and accepts the container. She doesn’t bother to label the container with any sorts of warnings, because it’s been long enough since she’s traveled with anyone who would just go riffling through someone else’s possessions that she assumes they’ll be safe.

So it’s a surprise to her, on the second day of their mission, when she comes back from cleaning off in the river to see Naruto gagging and rolling around in the dirt and the other two members of the team staring in horror at her protein bars.

“Hey!” she protests, upset because she’s only just figured out the right way to shuffle her taste buds and she’s still working on the time and they’re wasting them! “Those are mine! Why are you eating them!” She grabs the ones out of Kakashi and Sai’s hands, scowling, and stares at the one that Naruto has dropped in the dirt with a frown before deciding it's not actually worth recovery. She carefully places the two bitten ones back into their container and scowls.

“Dickless thought you were hiding treats from the rest of us,” Sai says, eventually, voice tight like he’s fighting something, “but maybe you brought them in case we needed to torture someone?”

“Stay out of my stuff!” she scowls and then after a moments concentration rearranges her tastebuds and pops one of the bitten ones into her mouth — the flavor is now lightly nutty and fruity and kind of bland to be honest but so much better than the real thing — and chews it to show dominance.

Sai pales more than she would’ve expected possible, considering that he’s the color of a piece of paper, and Kakashi covers his mask with a hand, gags, and vanishes. Naruto is still hollering like someone’s stabbed him as she stalks to her sleeping roll clutching her assignment from Tsunade.

So really it’s not her fault how bad a reputation she’s got around cooking.

[the-letter-horror-lover]

So I’m guessing here that ‘Gaara’s’ not who you really are either,” the now blond butler said smirking at the demon who was still covering his young master’s eyes throughout the whole exchange.

“’Gaara’ is the name my master has given me, so I am Gaara. For now at least.”

“Hmm, so that’s the type of role you like to play, ne? Well, you sure are good looking enough to play the ‘faithful dog’. Well, since we’re all here, Gaara… no, I’m gonna call ya Gaa-chan, why don’t I introduce myself properly. I’m Naruto Uzumaki, the super awesome Namikaze butler! Say Gaa-chan, since you ‘n’ me are both butlers how about we get along?” The hyper blond then winked at his redheaded ‘colleague’ while blowing him a kiss.

Poor Gaara blanched. It was embarrassing for one such as him to be flirted with while the young master was present. Not to mention extremely disgusting when the one doing the flirting was one of their kind.

“It’s awesome that I can finally talk to you in my real form, Gaa-chan. You’re the first demon I’ve ever seen playing at being a butler, believe it!”

“I can say the same about you,” Gaara spat back, veiling his hatred and disgust with an amicable smile, “I find it rather odd for one of your kind doing the same. You’re supposed to be liaisons between humans and the Gods, a shinigami*. Now would an immortal such as you pretend to be a human servant I wonder?”

“Ya wanna know, Gaa-chan?” Naruto parroted, the prostitute’s blood now completely washed away by the rain and the menacing grin still plastered on the shinigami’s tan and whiskered face. “Let’s just say I did it outta love.”

“Oh, and that person would be…” Gaara requested, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

“I don’t think you really need to ask, do you Gaara?” a woman replied, coming from the murder scene, her blood read coat and dress hiding all or any stains.

Upon hearing that voice, Sasuke shoved the arm blocking his view out of the way. “Auntie,” he said sullenly.

“Well it looks like I goofed,” Kushina said crossing her arms, “I didn’t think there’d be anyone who’d know what Naruto really is.”

“Hn. To tell the truth Aunt Kushina, you were on the list of suspects, right from the start. However, each of your alibis were airtight.”

“Sasuke sweetie!” she cried in dismay, “I can’t believe you’d suspect your own darling aunt, believe it!”

“I was ordered to find ‘Kyuubi’. I could care less who he or she was,” the raven haired boy replied coldly, “As for your alibis, as airtight as they were, Auntie, they would have worked perfectly since none of the humans on the list were capable of being ‘Kyuubi’. But what if any of them had an acquaintance, one that wasn’t human? That would have changed this game completely. The accomplice would have to be someone who can come and go without ever being noticed. A person who could travel from one end of Konoha to the other in an instant. So it’s come down to this, only you two could be ‘Kyuubi’, Aunt Kushina, Naruto Uzumaki.”

“I began to notice one other thing,” the Uchiha heir continued, “All of your victims may have been prostitutes, yes, but they also had a certain operation at the Kohona Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where you work, Auntie.” He then reached into the vest and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper. “This is the list of those women who came to see you for that operation. The only one still alive on this list was Michiru Kanzaka. That’s why we were here. We knew you’d come for her sooner or later. But we weren’t…” Sasuke looked away briefly, an immense guilt beginning to make itself known, “fast enough.”

“I tried to get you to stop this ghastly ‘work’ of yours, Sasuke,” Kushina said forlornly. “You should have just let it go. We would still be able to play shogi together. But now… YOU’VE RUINED EVERYTHING!!!” she screamed.

There was the sudden sound of a motor roaring into life and Naruto came barreling toward the raven haired Uchiha with a strange type of bladed weapon attached to a small box like motor. Just as the rapidly spinning blade was about to hit the boy, Gaara caught it between the palms of his hands.

“W-What the hell is that thing?!” Sasuke sputtered, still reeling from the unexpected attack as the demonic butler shoved the weapon and blond shinigami away.

“A shinigami uses a tool to collect the souls of the dying,” the redheaded demon explained, making sure he was between said shinigami and his master, “To be precise, a scythe”

“Oh, puh-leaze,” Naruto huffed indignantly, “You don’t know how long it took me to make this baby so don’t ya dare call it a lousy old scythe! This beauty will chop anything up into itty bitty pieces, believe it!” To say the shinigami was proud of his self made deathscythe would be a grave understatement. “Ya know Gaa-chan,” the blond began again, ‘I’ve been such a good boy lately, I’m gettin’ out of shape. So how about you ‘n’ me get some training? I’ll make it worth your while,” said with another wink.

“Be a bit more respectful,” the redheaded demon butler scolded, “I’m on duty.”

“I just loooove it when they play hard to get,” gushed Naruto, “That just makes ya soooo much more irresistible! Did I ever tell ya I love the color orange?”

Gaara frowned. That much had been obvious since every time they’d seen each other, the shinigami had been dressed in that hideously garish orange and black uniform.

“It’s just the thing for hair, clothes,” the blond went on, “heck I’ve even seen a few chicks with orange lipstick. But I really love the shad of freshly dried blood. It’s not red, but not quite brown, a kinda darkish, reddish, orange. So that’s what I did to those sluts. I made them all over with that pretty, pretty orange. And now, I’m gonna give ya a makeover too. As good lookin’ as you are now, you’ll be even more handsome when I’m done! Trust me, you’ll looove every second, believe it!”

“You should be quietly collecting souls like the rest of your kind, shinigami,” Gaara said, turning away form the flirtatious death god. “Not gallivanting about and flirting with men like a common whore.” He yanked off his burgundy trench coat and draped it around Sasuke’s shoulders and over the boy’s head to ward off the increasing rainfall.

“And since you’re so fond at playing butler,” the demonic redhead persisted, “You must be a shadow of your master. You have failed as a shinigami and as a butler. Frankly, you disgust me, Naruto.”

Naruto looked as if he was about to cry, the sexy demon didn’t have to be so harsh with the rejection. “That hurt, Gaa-chan,” he moaned, pouting, “I may not look it, and I admit I can be a bit idiotic sometimes, but I’m deadly efficient, believe it!”

Sasuke glared at his aunt, letting the taller demon handle the shinigami. He reached for the medical badge that had been covering the contract marked eye. “I order you Gaara…” he commanded, the now uncovered optic glowing a fiery crimson, “In my and the Hokage’s names, end those two!”

“Yes, my lord,” the demon answered, a hellish smirk on his face as his normally teal eyes glowing a bright aquamarine. The demonic servant bit the end of one black glove, pulling it back down, making sure it was secure. He really hated getting his pristine nails dirty.

Naruto revved up the chainsaw like deathscythe again and began lunging at the slightly shorter demon. “Go ahead and run, Gaa-chan!” the blond purred as Gaara leapt backward out of harm’s way each and every time the shinigami swung at him. “I loooooove playing tag!”

The redhead’s back hit a nearby wall, but the demon didn’t flinch for an instant. Instead, he nimbly performed a side flip as Naruto’s deathscythe came barreling down toward his head. The blond grinned, enjoying their battle immensely. It had been so long since he’d ha a worthy opponent. The shinigami took another swing at Gaara yet again.

This time the demonic butler was unable to dodge the blow completely, the force of the swing knocking Gaara firmly against the wall and causing the inferior plastering to crack and dent slightly. However, he did manage to keep the constantly whirring blade from doing too much personal damage due to the two hands made of sand that were currently gripping the deadly reaping tool.

“That’s what you get for not being quick enough, Gaa-chan,” sneered the taller blond, “You get cut. I bet that’s gotta smart like heck.”

The red haired demonic servant glared as the blade pressed against the hands, causing it to cut deeper into Gaara’s right shoulder.

Meanwhile, Lady Kushina started approaching her adopted nephew, a mad gleam in her eyes. “Ever the loyal guard dog I see,” she said, her rueful smile never leaving her face, “I truly did want to save you from this life,” she continued sullenly, “But you always were so stubborn Sasuke sweetie. So now, you’ve become prey.” The redheaded woman then reached into the sleeve of her coat and pulled out the large surgical knife she’d used in her ‘off duty activities’. “If it’s gonna be hunt or be hunted,” she resumed as she ran toward the boy, “Then there’s only one thing I can do!” The blade grazed the fourteen-year-old’s upper arm, slicing through Sasuke’s shirt and skin in a vain attempt at the boy’s life.

The Uchiha lord grunted in pain and stumbled back against the brick wall of Kanzaka’s hovel. “How could you do it, Aunt Kushina?!” he demanded, grasping his arm to staunch the blood flow. “You’re a doctor for kami’s sake!”

“A child like you would never understand!” yelled Kushina, “Not even if I told you, believe it!” She abruptly whirled on him and snatched the Uchiha heir’s throat, shoving him against the wall. “Y-You gaki*!” she ground out, squeezing the delicate neck, causing Sasuke to gasp desperately for air and weakly clutch at the vise like grip of the woman’s. “YOU NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN!!!” The insanity in the redhead’s eyes softened a tiny bit as if something were pleading with her to stop. Kushina gasped as the boy she’d been so intent on killing suddenly took on the appearance of her deceased beloved best friend.

“YOUNG MASTER!” Gaara screamed, teal eyes flaring at the sight of his lord’s immediate peril. He directed the sand hands to release the blade and he surged forward. Naruto’s deathscythe continued to slice into his right shoulder until it had cut the entire arm clean off at where it joined the torso, causing an enormous gush of demon blood to spray onto the wall and reaper. Ignoring the pain, the demon dashed over to the woman, deadly intent shining in those glowing aquamarine depths.

“No Gaara!” ordered Sasuke, “Don’t kill her!”

Gaara’s hand of sand paused mere millimeters from Kushina’s head, its fingers were outstretched in a squeezing gesture. The grainy substance fell apart and onto the ground as Sasuke’s aunt dropped her knife, the blade clattering against the cobblestone.

Both servant and mortal stood panting heavily. “You’re injured,” stated the boy, mismatched eyes wide in utter shock at Gaara’s missing limb. In these two short years he’d known him, not even once had the raven haired child seen his demon butler allow himself to be so gravely wounded like that.

“Oh how precious!” Naruto giggled, yanking his still gyrating deathscythe out of the wall, Gaara’s blood rapidly drying on the blade. “You’re a real prince of a guy, giving up an arm for that gaki. But,” he went on, turning his disappointed and disgusted gaze onto his former ‘employer’, “You lady, really make me sick. Stop wasting time and get rid of the stupid kid already!” he ordered.

Kushina ignored the scorned shinigami, her head in her hands as she wept bitterly. As much as she wanted to and knew she had to kill the boy, she could not nor would she ever be able to harm her beloved best friend’s only child.

“I-I loved Mikoto,” she sobbed as flashes of her dearest ‘family’ ran through her fractured mind, “I loved Fugaku, I love, Sasuke. I just can’t. I can’t kill Mikoto’s darling little Sasuke,” she whispered defeatedly.

“Hey! Don’t be goin’ soft on me now!” griped Naruto, fully baring his fangs, “Not after all those women we’ve killed! Look lady, if you don’t do it, it’s gonna be the end of you, believe it!”

“Aunt Kushina,” Sasuke pleaded.

“I-It’s Mikoto’s boy,” the redheaded woman murmured, “This child’s…” she started to yell, turning to face her bloodthirsty partner.

However, Kushina would never get to finish what she wanted to say. Utterly disgusted now, the blond shinigami revved up his chainsaw and drove it straight through the woman’s heart, her blood mixing with the dried demon blood. “It’s too late to grow a conscience,” jeered Naruto. “What a shame, it looks like you were just another dumb chick after all. I have no use for that kind of woman.”

As Madame Red fell backwards, reels of film sprung from her gaping chest.

“That’s…” started the demon.

“Yup, you guessed it,” smirked Nauto, “We shinigami don’t just collect souls, we judge ‘em too. We have to see what kind of people you humans are so we can decide if you deserve to go on living or not. That’s where the cinematic record comes in.”

“’Their lives flash before their eyes,’” Gaara said, quoting Nauto’s words from the day the shinigami spent ‘training’ under him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kushina’s cinematic record

A MUCH YOUNGER KUSHINA SAT CHATTING WITH HER BEST FRIEND MIKOTO TAKEUCHI*, ENJOYING A LOVELY AFTERNOON OF TEA AND GIRL TALK WHEN MIKOTO’S FATHER ENTERED THE DRAWING ROOM FOLLOWED BY A TALL, STERN LOOKING MAN WITH SHORT BLACK HAIR.

“MAY I INTRODUCE MY DAUGHTER, MIKOTO,” LORD TAKEUCHI PROCEEDED, “AND HER FRIEND LADY KUSHINA UZUMAKI.”

“LADIES,” THE MAN REPLIED, BOWING POLITELY.

“THIS IS LORD UCHIHA,” MIKOTO’S FATHER EXPLAINED, “HE HAS BEEN KIND ENOUGH TO OFFER HIS ASSISTANCE WITH THE FAMILY BUSINESS.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘How I loathed my red hair that I got from my clan,’ Kushina thought as she lay dying and watching the strips of film as they played out her past.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“MY WHAT VIBRANT RED HAIR YOU HAVE, LADY UZUMAKI,” LORD UCHIHA COMMENTED, “AS RED AS THE LYCORIS IN MY GARDEN. IT IS QUIET BECOMING.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘It was because of him that I no longer despised my red hair. I had come to love any shade of red. And I came to love Fugaku.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I HAVE THE GREATEST NEWS, KUSHINA!” BEAMED MIKOTO, “FUGAKU’S PROPOSED AND I SAID YES!” A STUNNED AND DEVASTATED KUSHINA STOOD BEFORE THE SMILING COUPLE, HER HEART SHATTERING TO PIECES.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SIX MONTHS LATER, A VERY SUBDUED KUSHINA SAT WATCHING AS HER BEST FRIEND STOOD BEFORE THE PRIEST ALONG WITH THE MAN SHE’D SO DESPERATELY DESIRED. A FALSE SMILE WAS PLASTERED ON HER FACE WHILE INSIDE, KUSHINA WAS SCREAMING.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘ Because of my beloved and dearest Mikoto, I one again began to hate the color that he said looked so good on me. No matter ho much I wanted to, I could never hate either of them. Eventually, I found happiness in marrying Minato, an acquaintance of Fugaku’s. He was such a kind, loving and gentle man.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“SO WHAT DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO BE?” HER HANDSOME BLOND HUSBAND ASKED AS HE LAID HIS HEAD ON HER SWOLLEN BELLY. “A BOY OR A GIRL?”

“YOU’RE ALWAYS SO IMPATIENT, MINATO!” CHIDED KUSHINA, GIGGLING WHILE GIVING HIM A ‘NOOGIE’. “YOU’LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT TO THE KID GETS HERE TO FIND OUT.”

“AW NO FAIR!” HE WHINED.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘It certainly didn’t go as I had wanted, but still, I was happy. Once again, I came to love that brilliant crimson color. Then it happened.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE CARRIAGE SHE AND MINATO HAD BEEN RIDING IN TOPPLED ONTO ITS SIDE, THROWING THE TWO OF THEM VIOLENTLY ONTO THE ROAD.

“SOMEONE’S BEEN HIT! SEND FOR A DOCTOR QUICK!” SHE COULD BARELY HEAR, THE PAIN IN HER MIDDLE RAPIDLY BECOMING UNBEARABLE AND SHE BLACKED OUT.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘The day I thought I’d lost it all.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KUSHINA HAD LATER AWOKEN IN A HOSPITAL BED. FRANTIC, SHE WAS ABOUT TO LEAP FROM THE BED, BUT A KINDLY LOOKING ELDERLY DOCTOR HAD CHOSEN THAT MOMENT TO ENTER HER PRIVATE ROOM.

“I SEE THAT YOU’RE AWAKE,” HE SAID NERVOUSLY, “HOW ARE YOU FEELING?”

“WHERE’S MINATO?!” SHE DEMANDED, GLARING AT THE FIGETING DOCTOR. “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND?!”

“I AM TRULY SORRY, LADY KUSHINA,” HE REPIED, PLACING THE CHART ONTO THE BEDSIDE DRESSER AND LAYING A SYMPATHETIC HAND ON HER SHOULDER. “YOOUR HUSBAND, SIR NAMIKAZE, IS DEAD. HE DIED INSTANTLY WHEN THE TWO OF YOU WERE THROWN FROM YOUR CARRIAGE.”

THE RED HEADED WOMAN LOOKED LIKED SHE WAS ABOUT TO THROTTLE THE OLDER MAN, BUT JUST SILENTLY STARED AHEAD BLANKLY AFTER LOWERING HER HANDS TO HER LAP.

“THERE’S MORE SAD NEWS, I’M AFRAID,” THE DOCTOR SPOKE ONCE MORE. “THE ONLY REASON YOU ARE STILL ALIVE IS THAT WE WERE FORCED TO REMOVE YOUR WOMB ALONG WITH YOUR UNBORN SON. I AM DEEPLY SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS. I WISH THERE WAS SOME OTHER WAY TO SAVE YOU AND YOUR SON, BUT THAT WAS OUR ONLY OPTION.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Nothing. I was left with nothing. I lost the only man I ever truly loved to my best friend. I l lost the child and husband I had come to love. For the third time, I had yet again hated the color red. On that day, it looked as if that accursed color had stained the very world itself.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KUSHINA LEAPT FROM THE SLOWING CARRIAGE AS THE UCHIHA MANOR DREW NEAR. HOWEVER, INSTEAD OF A PEACEFUL, STATELY MANOR HOUSE, SHE WAS GREETED WITH A BLAZING RED INFERNO. ALL HER EYES COULD SEE WAS THAT HIDEOUS VERMILLION AS IF THE HOUSE WERE BLEEDING FROM EVERY PORE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘My dearest Mikoto was buried with her beloved Fugaku. I had so wanted to bury rip out my own heart and bury it with them.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I KNOW WHUT I’M DOIN’,” THE LOW BORN WOMAN SAID, TOSSING HER HAIR TO THE SIDE, “A BRAT’S NOTHIN’ BUT BAD FER BUSINESS. ‘SIDES I DON’T MAKE ENUF TA FEED MYSEL’ MOSTA THE TIME.”

KUSHINA HID THE DISGUST AND HATRED SHE WAS FEELING BEHIND A MASK OF PROFESSIONAL INDIFFERENCE AS THE WHORE WENT ON AND ON.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘I had absolutely nothing left. Those b*^#es had what I wanted more than anything, what I can never have now. They all threw that away like yesterday’s rubbish without a second thought. How I wanted to stain them in that loathsome color.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“OH IT’S YOU!” THE LATEST WHORE SHE’D OPERATED ON SAID UPON HEARING FOOTSTEPS FOLLOWING HER, “W-WHAT ARE YA DON’ ‘ERE?”

THE WOMAN QUICKLY BECAME FRANTIC AT SEEING THE MADNESS IN THE RED HEADED DOCTOR’S EYES. “N-NO STAY AWAY!” SHE SCREAMED ONLY TO BE IGNORED. SHE CONTINUED TO SCREAM AS KUSHINA’S KNIFE STABBED HE BELLY OVER AND OVER.

“THAT WAS SOME SHOW LADY,” CALLED AN UNEARTHLY VOICE.

KUSHINA GASPED AND LOOKED AROUND FRANTICALLY, WORRIED SHE’D BEEN DISCOVERED BY THE AUTHORITIES. THERE WAS A MAD GIGGLING BEFORE THE VOICE SPOKE UP AGAIN. “UP HERE, BABE.”

GLANCING UP AT THE STEEPLE OF THEH NEARBY CHURCH, SHE SAW A BOY ABOUT TWENTY OR SO SITTING ON THE HIGHEST PART. HE GRINNED AT HER, GIVING HER A SAUCY WINK.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘That was when I met that maelstrom of a reaper, Naruto. A few months later, the child of my best friend reappeared after being missing for almost a year.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“SASUKE!” KUSHINA CRIED AS SHE BURST INTO THE DRAWING ROOM OF THE STILL UNDER RECONSTRUCTION UCHIHA MANOR, A LOOK OF UTTER JOY UPON HER FACE. HOWEVER, IT QUICKLY TURNED TO SHOCK AND CONFUSION AT SPYING THE REDHEAD DRESSED IN SCARLET LIVERY WITH HER ‘NEPHEW’.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘With him was a butler, a man that was red from head to toe.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“IT’S REALLY YOU!” SHE SHOUTED AND RUSHED OVER TO THE BOY, IMMEDIATELY SCOOPING HIM UP INTO HER ARMS. “THANK THE GODS!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘I was so sure I had one precious thing returned to me, the son of my beloved Fugaku and dear Mikoto. But why? Why didn’t Fugaku come back?! Why did he have to pick Mikoto?! It was at that point in my life I decided to fix everything that had been wrong in my life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kushina’s cinematic record ended and a single tear spilled from the dying murderess. “You really were beautiful, Kushina,” Naruto said as the last bit of life left her body with that tear. “all covered with blood as you slaughtered those whores. I could almost have loved ya. Shame you had to go and ruin it all by growing a conscience.” The blond shinigami then forefully yanked her red trench coat off her cooling corpse. “Now that I think about it, red looks better on me, dontcha think? Well, jya ne* ‘Madame Red’.” With that, Naruto donned the coat, which was a bit small for him and wound up being draped over his elbows, and commenced to nonchalantly stroll away.

“What are you waiting for?” scolded Sasuke as he gingerly closed his aunt’s eyes and covered her with Gaara’s coat. “Didn’t I tell you to stop ‘Kyuubi’? Do you think this is over?” he called to Naruto, “Kill him already, Gaara!”

“Of course,” replied the demon.

“You know,” the blond death god said, pausing, “I was going to let you go, Gaa-chan, as a professional courtesy, buuuuuut if you’re insisting…” The shinigami’s chainsaw roared into life, anxious for more blood. “I’ll send you and the two of you straight upstairs!”

“Don’t be stupid,” Gaara chided, smiling as he once again began to evade the attacks with grace and ease. “You should know, one of my kind isn’t welcome in heaven,” he quipped, placing a well aimed kick to Naruto’s face.

“Hey! Not the face!” the blond whined, “Don’t ya know how many ladies have gone for this gorgeous hunk of flesh?!”

“My apologies,” the demonic redhead quipped with mock sincerity, “But you see, I’m simply ‘one hell of a butler,’”

“If you think a demon can beat a reaper, then bring it pal!” he challenged.

“Indeed. Though I feel compelled to want you, if the young lord orders me to win, I will win.”

“My, my, you’re quite attached to that gaki, aren’t ya Gaa-chan?” huffed Naruto, “You’re making me jealous. You may be immortal like me, but one hit from this baby and it’s game over. I’d start gettin’ scared if I were ya, believe it!”

Gaara smirked at the boastful shinigami, placing his remaining hand upon his heart. “Don’t count on it shinigami. I am my master’s servant. I belong to him, mind, body, and soul, down to every last hair. Our contract is still intact, thus I will follow his every single order. That is what being a butler is all about.”

The redheaded demon gave the blond shinigami a Cheshire grin, eyes blazing with an icy fire.

~TBC~

Notes:

A/N:

* Ningenkai – human world

* Shinigami – literally ‘God of Death’ but can also be translated as Grim Reaper

* Gaki – brat

* Takeuchi – since Kishimoto-sensei still hasn’t given us much info on Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke’s mom, I had to come up with a last name for her so this is what popped up.

* Jya ne – slang term like ‘see ya’ or something. I’m not too sure, but that’s what I think it is.

Chapter 6: Episode 6

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Episode 6

The blond’s chainsaw roared into life once more as Naruto rushed the redheaded butler. With the grace all of his kind was gifted with, Gaara leapt into the air and flipped backwards.

“Would you look at us,” Naruto jeered, grinning insanely, “A shinigami and a demon.” The demonic servant’s sand formed a spear like object and swiped at the death god. Naruto, however, just floated upwards and out of the spear’s reach. “Looks like we’ll never work this out, these forbidden feelings we have for each other. Why it’s just like Orihime and Hikoboshi*!” he all but squealed.

Gaara blanched at the shinigami’s wild imaginings. Utterly disgusted by Naruto’s flirtations, the redhead promptly leapt after the blond and attempted to give him a boot to the head. Naruto dodged the potentially damaging attack with mere seconds to spare and landed on one of the city’s many rooftops, the demon close behind. “Ne Gaa-chan, what don’t ya ditch the brat? I’m so much better than a child could ever be!”

The redhead smirked maliciously. “The moment he called me ‘Gaara’, that simple word became our solemn pact. I was reborn as his and his alone. Ever since that day, I’ve been ‘Gaara’ and my master’s only. I swear this by the moon above.”

“How can I believe a thing you say,” replied the blond shinigami, showing off his love of literature, “when you swear by something as inconstant as the moon? But I can see what you’re really doing, you naughty demon you. You’ve been checking me out all this time and undressing me with those icy eyes of yours, haven’t ya?” He then stuck a suggestive pose, leering lustfully at the demonic butler. “So how ‘bout it lover boy, wanna make some li’l demons with me?”

Poor Gaara started to turn a vivid shade of green at Naruto’s lewd suggestions. “I must ask you to cease and desist such talk. You’re being nauseating.”

“Why must you treat your one true love so cruelly Gaa-chan?!” Naruto cried with mock hurt. The shinigami yet again revved up his chainsaw causing Gaara to immediately increase his guard.

“You bewitching tyrant!”

The demon leapt and did a mid air split as the deadly blade came rushing at him.

“Hellish angel!”

Gaara leant backward and rolled out of harm’s way.

“My blood soaked tanuki!”

Gaara rolled again in the opposite direction causing the blade to slice into the roof’s shingles. “Ahh if only the night would never end,” moaned Naruto as the red haired demon stomped onto the hand holding the chainsaw, effectively pinning the weapon down and rendering it useless. “We could stay here like this forever and ever in love under the moon’s magic glow. But I know it’s not to be, so I’m afraid it’s end of the line for you, my seductive demon lover.” The blond surprised Gaara with a classic and well placed head-butt. “How ‘bout a kiss before you go? No? Well then, parting is such sweet sorrow ‘n’ all that jazz.”

Due to the death god’s surprise attack, Gaara hadn’t enough time to recover and gasped slightly as the deathscythe whirred and slashed clean across his chest. Strips of film began to explode forth from the fatal wound. “So show me your cinematic record, Gaa-chan. I bet it’s sooooo much better than any old mortal’s.”

Naruto grew increasingly annoyed as frame after frame of the Uchiha lord’s bumbling servants flashed by. “W-What the heck is all that junk?!” he demanded. “Where’s the good stuff?!”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Gaara said, smirking and rising to his feet. Lucky for him, demons healed extremely fast. “But you’ll have to pay fro the juicy bits,” he added from behind the blond’s ear.

“Cheapskate!” snarled Naruto, whirling around only to face an incoming boot to the head from the demon. The shinigami flipped back and landed a few feet away, out of the demon’s reach.

“My clothes are ruined again, thanks to your shenanigans,” grumbled the butler, frowning at the gash in his uniform jacket.

“Hey! You shouldn’t be worrying ‘bout your stupid clothes,” shouted the blond, “Or are ya that confident? But then, I can’t say I blame ya either. A guy’s gotta look good for his sweetheart, ne Gaa-chan?”

“I was hoping I didn’t have to resort this,” Gaara replied, fighting against the nausea and tearing off his ruined jacket with great flourish, “but it seems I have no choice.”

“Ooo, gonna get serious now, are you?” the shinigami asked, getting psyched up at the thrill. “Ok, bring it on, Gaa-chan! I’m gonna end this in one blow, believe it! Sayonara, Gaa-chan!”

The two combatants lunged at each other in what appeared to be a very deadly game of chicken. However, true to his fashion, the redheaded demon shoved the remains of his tattered jacket into the workings of the death god’s chainsaw, effectively jamming the spinning blade. “T-T-The hell?!!” sputtered the blond as he fell flat on his face.

“That coat was made of the finest Kusagakure wool,” Gaara said, smirking triumphantly, “It’s a rather tricky fabric. Once it gets caught in something, good luck in getting it out.”

“H-H-How could you do this to your beloved?!” wailed Naruto as he desperately tried to remove the stubborn jacket.

“The young master acquired that coat for me and I certainly did not intend to ever use it in such a disgraceful manner. But of course a certain bothersome person did destroy it already,” he added, looming over the shinigami. “So, shall we settle this like gentlemen?” the demonic butler inquired, cracking his knuckles a devilish grin on his face. “I should warn you, I am rather good at pugilistic endeavors.”

“W-W-W-Wait!!!” pleaded Naruto, “N-N-N-Not the face!”

Of course, being the hellish being he was, that was exactly what Gaara did. The redheaded demon struck the poor blond’s adorable face over and over again with hand and foot.

“I-I-I said not the face! S-S-Stop please!!!” begged Naruto as he went sailing over the edge of the roof. Just as the shinigami was about to land on top of the boy kneeling by his murdered aunt, a red and black blur knocked the still wailing death god a good few yards away.

“Forgive me, my lord,” Gaara apologized, landing gracefully before his master. “I miscalculated the distance of my attacks.”

“You’re filthy,” was all the child said in response.

“That one was rather troublesome to deal with, young master.”

“I-I-I-I’ll kill ya, ya b@$@rd!!” groaned Naruto, his once handsome face a bloody unrecognizable mess.

“I guess you can’t kill a shinigami with your bare hands after all,” quipped the demonic butler, picking up the blond’s discarded weapon and yanking out the jacket in one practiced jerk before turning it on. “There,” he said leering maliciously at the cringing and whimpering reaper. “Now it should work perfectly. Should we test it? Perhaps on you, beloved?”

“N-N-N-N-No wait!!!!”

The blond’s pleas fell on deaf ears as the demonic butler stomped again on Naruto’s head and started toying with it, much like a cat would its prey. “I must admit, kicking is much better than being kicked,” he quipped, “My lord, as vile as this thing may be, it’s still a divine being. Are you sure you’d be willing to accept whatever punishment we may receive for killing him?”

“Must I repeat that order, Gaara?” huffed Sasuke.

“Of course not, master. Oh look,” jeered the redhead as he returned to toying with the blond, “we found something you’re actually good at, screaming. As a reward, why don’t I kill you with your own precious toy?”

“N-No w-w-wait!!! I know who killed the brat’s parents!” screamed Naruto.

The last of the Uchiha clan gasped and was about to order Gaara to stop as the chainsaw began its descent toward the reaper, when a flash of silver and the clang of metal striking metal rang throughout the alley.

All three present whirled their heads toward the rooftops where the immensely long hedge clippers had come from.

“Sorry for interrupting your little get together,” the figure holding the clippers said as he retracted the weapon to its normal length. “I am Sora Furido.” The clouds obscuring the moon moved aside to reveal a primly dressed boy a year or so older than Naruto. His black hair cut short with the sides angling down toward his chin. “Head of the Shinigami Staffing Association. I’m here to collect that idiotic shinigami there,” he said scowling at the bloodied and bruised creature that was Naruto.

“Sora! Hey there, buddy!” Naruto greeted cheerfully upon realizing he was about to be saved. His superior leapt off the roof and landed right upon the poor blond’s head, causing it to get smashed into the cobblestones yet again. “Naruto Uzumaki,” Sora began reading from a notebook he’d taken out, “you have violated copious amounts of rules and regulations not to mention, 1) Killing people before their appointed times, 2) Using an illegally modified deathscythe, and 3) Willfully volunteering highly classified information regarding the Uchiha murders.” He then roughly ground the blond’s face into the pavement at that last bit.

“I must apologize for the trouble my baka subordinate has caused you,” the boy said, reluctantly bowing to the demon. “My card,” he added, handing a business card with his clippers. The redhead begrudgingly accepted it, the scowl never leaving the demon’s face. Oh how he hated having his fun ruined. “To think I’d live to see the day I’d be forced to bow to demon filth like you. What a disgrace to us shinigami,” Sora said tersely.

“Then I would suggest you keep better watch over your employees so they won’t bother us filthy creatures,” Gaara shot back, inwardly seething at the brat’s insults in spite of the civil smile upon his handsome face. “Mortals are so easily tempted,” the demon baited, “When forced with complete and utter despair, there’s no telling what they would do. Desperately grasping onto whatever flimsy thread they can if they think it’d save them from suffering, regardless of the outcome. You of all people should know that, Mr. shinigami.”

“Such charming hypocrisy,” spat Sora, “you demons take advantage of that more than we ever could.”

“Too true,” was the redheaded demon’s smug reply.

“Though as of now, it appears that you’ve been collared, demon scum,” the dark haired death god noted, glancing over to the Uchiha child and frowning at the glowing contract seal in Sasuke’s right eye. “which means, you’re less of a threat than the many wild animals running amok these days. We’re leaving, Naruto.” With that, Sora began dragging the blond by his hair. “You damned well knew we were understaffed and still went off and got me even more overtime,” he groused, “The higher ups aren’t going to be happy about all this.”

As the two were about to make their way back to the shinigami realm, the sound of Naruto’s chainsaw came barreling toward the older death god. Sora deftly caught the deadly weapon between two gloved fingers.

“I believe you forgot something,” Gaara called cheekily, grinning.

“My gratitude,” replied the boy, not bothering to look back, the demon’s Cheshire grin was quite palpable. Sora promptly released the silenced blade and the deathscythe landed on Naruto’s stomach, causing the blond to groan in pain. “Now do pardon us,” the dark haired shinigami continued, “we’d be on our way.” Then proceeded to continue dragging his moaning subordinate into the shadows.

“My deepest apologies, master,” Gaara said, returning to his charge, “I let half of ‘Kyuubi’ get away.”

“Whatever,” Sasuke mumbled defeatedly, “What’s done is done.”

Gaara knelt and cupped a hand to the boy’s cheek. “You’re practically cold as a corpse, my lord. We need to get you back to the house at once. Then I’ll have some nice hot tea made to help warm you up.”

“Sounds nice,” the raven haired lord replied sullenly, rising to his feet.

“Young master!” Gaara called as the boy started to stumble and sway. He went to help his lord only to have his arms promptly smacked away.

“I can stand by myself!” snapped Sasuke. “I’m just a bit tired, is all,” he added in apology.

“Of course, my lord,” the redhead acquiesced, wrapping the torn and bloody tatters of his jacket around the boy before accompanying the Uchiha back toward his town home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What are you still doing here, Umino?” Sir Mizuki asked as the inspector carefully picked up a few strands of blond hair from the scene of ‘Kyuubi’s’ latest murders. He had just come from meeting a certain bunch of worthless higher ups when he spotted his subordinate crouching and crawling around the now closed crime scene.

“Something doesn’t fit right, sir,” Iruka replied, “I can’t just believe it’s really all over and we must continue to look into this further. All this shadowy business is making me ill.”

“You’re a good man, Umino,” the head of Hi no Kuni’s police force began, “So I’ll give you a good piece of advice. You know of our country’s long and rich history, I assume.” The younger brunet nodded, “Well with that history there are certainly going to be plenty of secrets. Secrets which I suggest you stop poking into, if you want a long, prosperous life. It’s been determined that the ‘Kyuubi’ case is part of our country’s ‘underworld’ so let the ‘underworld’ deal with it.”

“W-Who decided that?!” demanded the inspector, not liking these recent turns of events, that such a violent and heinous criminal was to be ‘swept under the rug’ so to speak. “On whose authority?!”

“Take my advice, Umino. Some stones are best left unturned. But if you still insist on knowing, then get a bloody promotion,” huffed his superior, “You’ll regret it though, mark my words, Iruka.”

The inspector said nothing as the silver haired man returned to his carriage, his teeth clenched in righteous indignation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So you’re not telling them who ‘Kyuubi’ was?” Lee asked as he leant against the museum window.

“Hokage-sama ordered me to ‘stop the murders’, so I did,” Sasuke answered, turning to gaze at the city outside instead of the paintings laid out before him.

“You’re treading on quicksand, my youthful friend, letting yourself get sucked in deeper and deeper like this. Yet you just refuse to call out for assistance. But that’s just how you are, guard dog of the Hokage. You’re quite the challenging opponent, Sasuke-kun. I must be extra cautious around you.”

“Indeed. Your opium dens are becoming a nuisance, Lee. As your ‘friend’, I suggest you get out now while you still can.”

“Ah, but if I did that, I’d have to find another line of work. Organizing businesses isn’t exactly easy nor is it youthful.”

“Then go back to your home in Ta no Kuni*,” quipped the Uchiha lord as he made to leave.

“I don’t think so, my most youthful friend,” the green clad man protested, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder before continuing to whispering his ear. “There’s so much more in your charming country that I’m interested in. You in particular, Sasuke-kun.

Sasuke froze, but said nothing as Lee made his way out of the museum. “I hope to have many youthful challenges from you, my lord,” he called before leaving completely.

“We have appointments to keep, come Gaara.”

The ever present red haired demon nodded and followed his master toward the opposite exit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So this is where she is?” Gaara asked as he and his charge stood before ‘Kyuubi’s’ last victim, Michiru Kanzaka.

“She was the last customer sent to me by ‘Kyuubi’,” replied the Undertaker, a bouquet of lilies in one arm.

“It looks like she was a foreigner who came here looking for a better life after losing all her family,” the raven haired boy explained as he solemnly stared at the simple headstone. “She practically had no land who could claim her body.”

“Quite noble of you to request me to fix her up and give her a headstone, little lord,” teased the eccentric mortician.

“What nonsense are you spouting now?” grumbled the fourteen-year-old, blushing slightly, “There’s nothing noble about this. It would have been noble if I had saved her, and I could have if I hadn’t been so hot on catching them first instead of putting that woman’s life before anything else. I knew what was going to happen to her, but I still let her die, along with Aunt Kushina.”

“My, is that regret I hear?” the silver haired man asked.

“Of course not,” was the boy’s firm reply, “’Kyuubi’s’ gone for good and I followed Hokage-sama’s orders.”

“Tsunade, ne?” queried the Undertaker, “To tell the truth, I don’t particularly care for that woman. Always sitting back, enjoying her sake, while you’re out and about doing her dirty work for her. Such a lazy Hokage. Not exactly fair, is it?”

“It is the duty of us Uchiha. You know nothing about that,” snarled Sasuke, “Such a duty has been passed down generations along with this ring,” he said proudly brandishing his father’s signet ring.

“It’s more of a leash than a ring if you ask me,” the mortician spat.

“That’s enough! I chose this life, so stay out of where you don’t belong!” the boy yelled, smacking the Undertaker’s hand away. Quicker than a King Cobra, that hand grabbed Sasuke’s tie and yanked until they were face to face. Each other’s single visible eye stared at the other’s intensely.

“I’d watch myself, if I were you, my lord,” the older man warned, “Your precious leash just may choke you yet.”

Gaara’s sand hovered dangerously by the silver haired man, but the Undertaker took no heed as shoved the last of the Uchiha against his demonic servant. “If you need my help again,” the Undertaker said, leaving the poorer section of the grave yard. “you’ll know where to find me. Do bring that wonderful butler anytime. He’s always welcome in my shop,” he added giggling as he walked away.

“He was right,” Gaara began as his master placed the discarded bouquet onto Michiru Kanzaka’s grave. “That was noble of you.”

“I’m not repeating myself,” snapped the raven haired Uchiha, blushing slightly again.

“Regardless of what you may say, I think it was noble. But if you insist otherwise, then perhaps it was weakness?” jeered the redhead. Sasuke whirled around, scowling at the demon. “So young master, why didn’t you kill your aunt? I was so sure she was going to kill you. You had the ability to stop that woman and defend yourself, but at that moment, you faltered. You refused to pull the trigger of your gun. Why? Was it the fear of being guilty for taking her life? Perhaps you refused to kill her because she was someone you knew and not a stranger like this woman lying here now?”

“Why would I do your job, Gaara?” the boy sneered, “I know you’d always protect me, even if it meant your life as long as our contract stands firm. That’s why I refused to kill Aunt Kushina. Was I wrong in thinking that?”

“Of course not, my lord, but you did order me not to kill her as well.”

Sasuke sighed. “She was hesitating at that time; I could see the conflict in her eyes,” he explained, “She wasn’t capable of killing me, the son of the friend she considered a sister. Just like in chess, Gaara, one wrong move and you lose. She made that wrong move, that’s why I don’t hesitate,” he remarked as started to leave, passing by the demonic butler.

“Now, that’s my master,” the redhead said smirking evilly, “Always manipulating your pieces with the skill of a grandmaster. It’s the only way for you to survive isn’t it?”

“I’ll never regret the moves I make, so I won’t hesitate, Gaara. Of all the people around me, you’re the only one who’ll never betray me. That’s an order!”

“As you wish, young master,” the redheaded demon replied, placing his hand over his blackened heart and kneeling before him. ‘I will be there,’ he silently promised, ‘Even if you’ve lost all your pieces and the king has fallen with them. I will be there, right at your side upon the pile of the bodies of your fallen pawns.’

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a bright, sunny day in Konohagakure, the kind that made one whistle as they went about their daily mundane activities or take long leisurely walks aimlessly about and children run about and enjoy the simple pleasures only a child could understand. Certainly not the type you’d expect for a funeral of a loved one, but sure enough, the Undertaker’s hearse carriage was stationed off to the side of the entrance to Konohagakure’s finest, oldest, and richest church in the city’s suburbs. The black carriage with it’s equally dark horses looked out of place amongst the other fancy carriages parked outside.

“Hey look, onii-san,” a little girl of seven or eight in plain simple clothes cried as she ran past the church and stopped to gape at the spectacle.

“Wow the church is sure is crowded today,” her nine-year-old brother remarked as he ran back to her, “Wonder if there’s a party or something.”

“Search me,” said a much older boy who also happened to be passing by.

“But you’re older than us, mister,” the first boy huffed, “Grown ups are supposed to know everything.”

“Stupid mister! Stupid mister!” taunted the girl.

“Oi!” shouted the eldest of the three, “I’m only fifteen! I don’ know ev’rythin’ yet so shut yer traps, ya babies!”

“You’ve got a point there, kiddo,” a man dressed in black and a mask covering half his face piped up from behind the church’s wrought iron fence, not taking his eyes from the little orange book he’d been reading. “Still it’s a shame that someone who’s ‘only fifteen’ doesn’t understand what’s so special about today.”

“Why’s today special, grandpa?” the little girl asked, making the man’s only visible eye twitch at the ‘grandpa’ remark – he did have silver hair after all.

“Why it’s a very special Lady’s big day, of course,” replied the strange man.

The older boy gasped and backed away, finally realizing what he meant and who the stranger was. “What do you mean, gran-?” The fifteen-year-old quickly covered the girl’s mouth in an attempt to keep her from asking further. No child so young should ever know about that kind of ‘big day.’

“She’s attending the most important ceremony in anyone’s life,” replied the Undertaker, grinning behind his mask at the child’s innocence and naiveté. Too bad to go and shatter it in such a way as he was about to do, “a funeral.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile back at the Uchiha manor…

“The funeral’s probably starting about now,” Hinata said, listening to the church bells in the distance as she and her fellow servants were enjoying a bit of a break on the manor’s front steps.

“Sure is gonna be quiet from now on,” Kiba added glumly, “with ‘Madame Red’ being gone ‘n’ all.”

“Aww, c’mon, un!” scolded Deidara, “You’ve gotta get it together you two, un! The li’l guy’s gonna be needing us more than ever right now, un.”

“Y-Y-You’re, right Deidara-san!” agreed the maid and dragged the gardener back into the house. Deidara shook his head, but followed them.

Asuma, however, continued to enjoy his beloved green tea and the fresh air. “So you’ve gone where we can not, Lady Kushina,” he said, gazing at the clear blue sky, “You’re with them now. My you finally know the peace you so desperately sought, my lady.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of women weeping filled the church as they sat meekly and properly in their fancy dresses and hats. Their men, however, sat stoically at their sides, wishing they were elsewhere of course while the preacher droned on and on.

“She has been called away,” the ancient priest continued in his soporific and monotone voice. “as we all must be one day ourselves. Her body will return to the dust from which it came, but her spirit will live on with those who have gone before…”

“S-Sayonara, A-Auntie,” a black dressed Sakura whimpered as her remarkably stoic mother sat quietly at the weeping girl’s side.

The clergyman continued to deliver his sermon fro a few more tortuous moments then the large heavy wooden doors burst open, causing him to pause in startlement and gasps from all those around.

“S-Sasuke…” the pink haired girl sniffled as her cousin and fiancé calmly strode through, carrying his aunt’s favorite red party gown. Gaara followed in behind, surreptitiously daring anyone to try and stop them. But that did not stop the harpies from immediately whispering their venomous gossip.

Sasuke glared challengingly at one old biddy who had gotten a tad loud in her zeal to spread the rumors she’d heard and she immediately stopped her yapping and attempted to leave as gracefully as she could without further damaging her tarnished reputation. Gossip amongst nobles was deadlier than any war or disease combined.

Sasuke continued his trek down the aisle and did not stop again until he reached Kushina’s open coffin. The fourteen-year-old scowled at the hideous chaste and white dress she’d been dressed in as she lay upon a bed of equally white lilies.

“Those weeds and plain clothes never did suit you, Aunt Kushina,” he said for all to hear, “So why would they now?” He then carefully laid the bright scarlet gown over the peaceful looking corpse until it hid every bit of the white dress. “Red always suited you best,” he continued, taking the Crimson Beauty rose from his suit’s buttonhole and lovingly tucked it into the woman’s blood red hair, “the color of passion; of the Lycoris* flower. Sayonara, Aunt Kushina.”

As he placed one final kiss to her cheek, an enormous swarm of Lycoris petals swept through the church, each one gently lifted and caressed by an unseen wind or was it a hand? The attendees watched in awe as the petals started to float about until finally taking their final rest upon the coffin. Lady Kushina was now drowned in a sea of red. Just as she had been in life.

“You can finally rest now, ‘Madame Red’,” the Uchiha lord whispered.

~TBC~

Notes:

A/N:

* Orihime & Hikoboshi – star crossed lovers of the Japanese Tanabata festival tale

* Ta no Kuni – Rice Patty County

* Lycoris – another name for the Spider Lily, a bright red flower that is often found growing in or near graveyards. Also a symbol of death and ill-fortune.

I know some of you are probably gonna nick-pick me for switching a few scenes around this episode, but I felt that ‘Madame Red’s’ funeral should have been at the end of the original anime episode instead of after the ‘eye-catch’, it just feels right to me this way.

Chapter 7: Episode 7

Notes:

Disclaimer/Warning: The author of this fanfiction does NOT condone any types of animal cruelty whatsoever. Any mentions or scenes of animal abuse is strictly for plot purposes and therefore does not represent said author’s views or ideas. Nor does Gaara’s view on dogs reflect my own. I love both dogs and cats equally – or all animals for that matter.

Chapter Text

Episode 7

“Vacation! Vacation! We’re having a vacation!” The Uchiha servants sang – rather off key – as their carriage followed their master’s. Sasuke did his best to keep the famous Uchiha cool while being subjugated to such ridiculous and heinous torture of Kiba and Deidara’s horrible singing.

“This is so awesome!” Kiba crowed.

“Y-Yes,” agreed Hinata, “I don’t b-believe the young master w-would bring us to a health spa as well.”

“Yeah, the kid’s being generous for once, un,” piped the cook.

“Those three seem rather pleased,” Gaara remarked as he continued to drive his master’s buggy. “Such a kind master you are.”

“Hn,” huffed the raven haired boy, “They’d only destroy the mansion if I’d left them unsupervised.”

“True,” was the butler’s only response. “This must be the village entrance,” the redheaded demon said, coming to a stop. The outskirts of Canis Collis was a desolate looking place. The welcoming sign, if you could call it that, was a simple plank of wood with ‘Welcome to Canis Collis’ sloppily scribbled on it in flaking black paint. A spiked dog collar hung from it on an old rusty chain. Several dead trees were scattered about, each decorated with dog collars on equally rusty chains. Bleached bones and dog skulls littered the ground around them.

“W-W-W-W-What?!!” screamed the now shocked and disappointed servants.

“Oops,” Sasuke said, smirking slightly, “I was sure I mentioned that there was no health spa here yet, that only Lady Tsunade was thinking of building one here.”

“No you didn’t!” they replied in unison.

“Well, I just did. Any more complaints?”

“No young master,” was the dejected reply.

***************************************************************************

Earlier that week…

“A vacation? At this time of year?” queried Gaara after serving his charge’s afternoon tea.

“Yes. Tell me Gaara, has someone such as you ever heard of a past time known as bull-baiting?”

“No my lord. I have not, though it does have an interesting ring to the sound of it. Care to enlighten me?”

“A bear is captured for the sole purpose of being tied or chained to a pole or fence, surrounded by dogs trained for one purpose only, attack and kill the bear. Of course the bear would fight back, thus dragging the battle on, sometimes for hours.”

“Only you humans could come up with such ‘past times’, master,” the demon said. In all the centuries of his life, he never grew tired of the evil and cruelty of those his kind preyed upon.

“Yes, well, it has been banned several years ago under the Cruelty to Animals Act. However, a loophole was found almost immediately. The dogs used were not banned.”

“Let me guess, young master,” Gaara interrupted, “They now use dogs against dogs, am I correct?”

“There is a village that is known for just that,” the fourteen-year-old lord replied, digging his spoon into his flan, “Canis Collis. Publicly, they’re known for their intense hunting dogs, however…” he trailed off, leaving the rest to be unsaid. “Lady Hokage is heartbroken at this.”

“In other words, she lost another bet, this time on a dog, I’m guessing. So now she wishes for us to stop them before they call upon her to collect.”

“We’ll be going there under the pretense of purchasing the land in order to build a health resort under her name.”

“So we’re going to a village of dogs then?”

“Yes. So?” Sasuke looked at his demonic servant puzzledly.

“Hardly a task befitting one of your station, my lord.”

“Gaara…” warned the boy, remembering the demon’s intense dislike for anything of the canine persuasion. “We are going to Canis Collis and that is final, regardless if it is suitable for an Uchiha or not, which it is by the way.”

Gaara said no more on the subject, instead dutifully removing the now empty plate and cup.

**************************************************************************

Present…

Present…

“I don’t believe it,” muttered Kiba upon spotting an old woman with a baby carriage. “People actually live here. Yo, Asuma stop for a sec will ya?” The former Uchiha steward obeyed and pulled up alongside the woman.

“N-No don’t!” Hinata stammered as Kiba leapt out of the carriage and made to help the villager. “Y-You m-might hurt the baby!”

“Hey, speak up Hinata,” the shaggy haired boy called, the baby carriage already suspended above his head. Kiba never did really learn to control his monster strength. Realizing what he’d done, the Uchiha gardener immediately stammered an apology to the old villager and slammed the carriage back down.

“I-Is it ok?” Hinata asked, rushing over to help only to give out a shriek. Inside the baby buggy was a dog’s skeleton wrapped in rags, just as if it had been a real baby.

“There isn’t any baby anymore,” croaked the old woman. “It ate it.” She then cradled skeleton in her arms and began to rock it. “The white dog is a good dog, good,” she sang as she walked toward the village proper. “The black dog is a bad dog, bad…”

“Now do you see why we’re here?” Sasuke asked his butler. “There have been reports of villagers being violently murdered or have gone missing over the past ten years. Canis Collis is now reduced to a third of its original size. The other part of our task is to find out what’s been going on and put an end to it.

*******************************************************************

“Oh how a-adorable!” squealed Hinata as they passed a young farmer training his dog. “I-I-I’d like someone to hug me like that,” she added blushing as she snuck a glance toward a certain red haired butler.

“So they use the ‘reward and punishment’ method do they?” the demonic butler remarked, “However, dogs aren’t exactly completely innocent. They worship their human masters, all too happy to let you put chains around their necks. I find that hard to understand.”

“You’ve got something to say, Gaara? Just spit it out already,” spat Sasuke.

“It’s just that I truly despise dogs. Cats are far superior creatures.”

The Uchiha lord silently glared at the demon. The redhead knew of his allergy to cats and never missed a chance to mess with the boy. “Bow-wow!” he barked petulantly. He hadn’t missed the barb at the underground’s nickname for him hidden in that remark.

“You are Lord Uchiha, I assume?” a blue haired woman in maid’s dress inquired as Sasuke’s carriage drove up to a large manor house that was starting to show signs of neglect. Welcome to Ninken Castle, his lordship has been expecting you.”

Gaara’s icy teal eyes narrowed upon meeting her steel gray ones as the maid rose from her bow to smile at them. There was no mistaking this woman’s scent and it rankled him immensely.

Deidara let out a barely stifled wolf whistle at the maid’s apparent beauty, the pale blue paper flower peeking from under her cap, accenting her cornflower tresses perfectly. “W-Wow, w-what a p-pretty maid!” called Hinata, feeling even more inadequate against the other woman. For once Kiba was at a loss for words, haven immediately fallen under this mysterious beauty’s spell.

****************************************************************************

“This way if you please,” the maid said, opening the door to her master’s office only to immediately be set upon by the master’s whip.

“What is the meaning of this, Konan?!” he bellowed not ceasing his whipping, “What’s this Chihuahua doing here?! You were to escort the Hokage’s watch dog some spoiled runt of a Pomeranian!”

“Gaara.”

No need for explanation was needed, the demon instantaneously sprang into action and grabbed the man’s wrist just as he was about to strike the poor girl again.

“Unhand me at once you flea bitten, Rottweiler!” snarled the man, only to have the redhead smile evilly at him and increase the pressure upon the bone ever so slightly.

“He’ll only listen to me,” snapped the Uchiha lord.

“And just who the hell are you?!” the manor lord growled.

“I was under the impression that you must have received my letter by now. I am Lord Sasuke Uchiha,” replied the boy, sitting down smugly into a nearby chair.

“There is no way Lady Hokage would send a Toy Poodle like you!” their host spat indignantly.

“What have you got against small breeds, Lord Madara? Highly unfair if you ask me, since we both are so found of dogs.” The lord of the manor growled but reluctantly gave up. If that runt was indeed who he said he was, then he’d currently be the alpha dog in this situation.

***********************************************************************

“Allow me,” Gaara surreptitiously whispered into Konan’s ear, when he noticed how badly her hands were shaking as she attempted to pour their tea. The maid glanced at him quizzically, but gratefully stepped away from the tea cart.

“There is no deal. I will not sell Ninken Castle to anyone, Hokage or not,” Lord Madara snarled after reading through the proposal he’d been handed and slamming the stack of papers onto the table.

“And why not?” inquired the raven haired lord.

“The curse,” was the host’s reply.

“Come now, Lord Madara, surely you don’t think I’d back down at such childish nonsense. There is no curse and you know it,” retorted Sasuke.

“This is not children’s nonsense!” the older man yelled, shooting up from his seat. “We have been here on this land with our dogs for thousands of years! Anyone who dares to interfere with or go against my family has met very messy ends! Not even the Hokage is immune to this curse!”

“Is that so?” the fourteen-year-old queried, “I must say you’ve piqued my curiosity Lord Madara. I’d very much like to se this so-called curse of yours, what makes you so passionate about it.”

The man just stood there, towering over him and growling in frustration at this upstart’s flippancy.

***********************************************************************

“You’re the only servant in this entire house, un?!” the blond cook said in shock as he and the other Uchiha servants enjoyed some tea with Konan in the manor’s paltry kitchen.

“I-I’d never manage a-anything on my own, Konan-san. I’m impressed,” the violet haired maid admitted.

“You really flatter me. But, truthfully, it’s not that impressive. I do manage to mess up quite a bit.”

“Well if ya need us for anything, we’d be glad to help. Us servants have go to stick together, un. Right kid?” Deidara kicked the daydreaming gardener under the table, snapping out of his romantic fantasies with the blue haired maid.

“U-Um right!” Kiba piped rather hastily, blushing rather cutely.

“You’re all so kind to offer your aid, but I’ll be…”

Just then the bell for the master bedroom rang. “I have to go,” Konan said, rising from her seat immediately. “His lordship can be rather furious if I’m not prompt.”

****************************************************************************

Later…

“Oh Konan!” moaned Madara as he ran his hands all over her bare legs and rubbing his cheek against the silky soft milky white skin, her skirts bunched up into her lap. “That hag of a Hokage wants my village! You know what has to be done now, right? That I have to protect this village!” The maid merely sat as if she were nothing more than an expertly crafted porcelain doll, her face as blank and emotionless as one. “My Konan…” he moaned, “My lovely angel.”

************************************************************************

“Yes, what is it?” the Uchiha lord called upon the knock to the guest room door.

“What is it you need?” Gaara asked as Konan entered the chamber.

“I beg of you!” she pleaded, “Leave this place; leave the village. You can not be allowed to stay!”

“And why not?” the young lord demanded.

“I…” Konan was interrupted by the howl of a rather large dog, seemingly close to the manor. “T-The demon dog!” she gasped, frightened.

“Demon dog?” pressed Sasuke.

Konan whimpered, placing her head into her hands as the shadow of an enormous hound appeared behind the drawn curtains.

“Gaara!” barked the boy.

Once again the demonic servant sprang into action and flung open the curtains to only reveal… nothing but the bleak stony countryside.

“Well?” inquired the Uchiha lord.

“See for yourself, my lord,” the redheaded butler replied, moving aside.

A glowing figure of a dog could be seen running towards the village.

***********************************************************************

“Oi! What’s with all the noise, un?” Deidara asked sleepily as he and his fellow servants came bustling out of the manor.

“The demon dog came here,” Konan grimly explained, “Anyone who goes against his lordship’s family is punished by that fiend. Such is our way. There is no way to stop that hellish hound.”

“Konan!” shouted the village headsman, as he and the entire village came running up to them. “What is going on?! The demon dog is back in the village again! His lordship must be told at once!”

“W-Who was it?” asked the maid, visibly shaken. She knew all too well that someone had just been ‘punished’ by the demon dog.

***********************************************************************

The body of the young farmer they had seen earlier that day lay before his kennel, blood and bite marks littered his rapidly cooling corpse.

“Don’t you dare touch him!” Lord Madara roared upon seeing the raven haired lord about to inspect the farmer. “So it was Izumi this time.”

“He broke the law,” one man said, “We’re only allowed five dogs each. Izumi had six.” “He should have seen it coming then,” sneered Lord Madara.

“How can ya be so cruel, un?!” demanded Deidara.

“How dare you!” snarled the manor lord. “That dog is what protects this village as well as the guardian of my family! It had every right to punish those who go against my rule!”

“The white dog is a good dog, good,” the villagers began chanting eerily, “The black dog is a bad dog, bad….”

“You’re lucky it had other prey tonight, outsiders,” Lord Madara said turning to leave.

“I believe it’s your move, master,” said Gaara, his eyes never leaving Konan for an instant as she began following her master.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day found the Uchiha servants moping about in the rear of Ninken Castle. “Worst. Vacation. Ever, un,” griped Deidara as he slumped over a crate.

“I-It can’t be that bad,” stuttered Hinata.

“What’s going on?” asked Gaara coming over to them, “I thought you were thrilled to have this vacation.”

“Yeah, about that…” started the cook.

“It’s still a vacation, regardless of this unsavory turn of events,” the demonic butler interjected, grinning very much like a Cheshire cat as he produced a picnic basket and bathing suits for all. “You should be relaxing and not moping about.”

At the sight of the food, everyone’s mood brightened considerably. Within minutes, the men were changed into their bathing gear and happily splashing about in a nearby lake.

“Now this is relaxin’, un!” called Deidara, “It’s been ages since I’ve gone swimin’ and this here lake’s not even cold, un!”

“Oi, Hinata! C’mon and hurry it up already!” shouted Kiba toward the lake’s changing shed.

“I-I-I-I c-c-c-can’t! I-I-I-I-I-It’s…” the lilac eyed maid answered, her head peeking out from the curtain, which was redder than her lord’s cherished tomatoes.

“Aww, c’mon, Hina-chan!” whined the blond, “How often do ya get to go swimming; un?!”

It was several moments before the maid gathered her courage and timidly stepped from the shed and into the lake. Deidara stopped his splashing to stare open mouthed at the vision before them. There stood the very vision of a nymph dressed in a pale lavender one-piece suit. The cut of the bathing suit was made to the girl’s exact measurements and showed off her womanly figure to perfection, especially her well toned legs; the high cut making them appear much longer.

“I-I-I-I’m s-s-s-so embar-barrassed!” she stammered, desperately trying to hide herself from the others’ eyes.

“Wow, Hinata!” said Kiba, unused to seeing his fellow servant in so little clothing, “You… uh… look great!”

“R-Really?”

“Yep. I bet you’d look even better without those glasses, un!” added Deidara, making to grab said spectacles.

“N-N-N-N-No! D-D-D-Don’t!” she cried and ran from him, starting an all out, no holds barred splashing match between the Uchiha servants.

“You’re not joining them, young master?” queried the demonic butler. Sasuke had opted to just sit in a beach chair a safe distance from his rambunctious servants and read one of his many books. “Oh I see,” Gaara realized upon receiving an icy glare from the Uchiha lord. “You can’t…”

“I just don’t feel like getting wet!” snapped the boy, “Stop making such a fuss, what’s so great about swimming anyway? It’s just a resort.”

“So you actually plan to make that ruse into truth?”

“Of course, it’s what she ordered, isn’t it?”

“Oh? What about that demon dog from last night?” queried the redhead, refilling the fourteen-year-old’s lemonade glass.

“Since when were you one to pay attention to local superstitions Gaara? You and I both know it’s some sort of trick. By the way, I’d like a word with you.”

“Oh hiya, Konan!” called Kiba, waving from the lake upon spotting the maid sitting on their picnic blanket, a parasol shading her from the sun.

Sasuke glanced over to her before returning to whispering to his demonic servant. “Go,” he ordered, once his instructions had been delivered.

“Right away, my lord,” Gaara replied, turning to leave.

“You’re being rather obedient today,” remarked the raven haired fourteen-year-old, “Considering that you ‘despise dogs’.”

“I absolutely loathe them,” the red haired demon replied, “I’d like to get this over with as soon as possible. Before all hell breaks loose,” adding the last bit under his breath.

About an hour later, the Uchiha servants had enough of their frolicking and were ready for lunch. As always, Gaara had outdone himself for each of them were treated to a feast of all their favorite picnic foods.

“Try some, Konan,” Kiba said offering the other maid a cucumber sandwich, blushing quite a bit.

“You don’t mind sharing?” the cerulean haired woman asked shyly, “that was made for you after all.”

“N-Not at all, Konan-san,” stammered Hinata, “G-Go ahead, it’s delicious. G-Gaara-san’s a r-really g-g-good cook!”

[im-still-watching-anime]

naruto: ugh how is sasuke so COOL

sakura: i know right? prodigies are just plain unfair

naruto: huh? oh. yeah i guess the prodigy uchiha thing is cool too but i was thinking about the worm he found the other day. i found a neat stick but it wasn’t nearly as impressive. :(

[tamelee]

Hi. I am one among them who believes Sakura knows there's something between Naruto & Sasuke. Even in that shitty movie the way she forces Naruto to fall in love with that weirdo stalker and in the ED (I don't know if anyone noticed this or not) comparing with the genuine smile of others, she has that evil smile like 'finally it's over my plan worked now Sasuke kun is mine'. What do you think Tamelee??

Hi~ 

Of course she does! 

I don’t know about Sakura’s smile being “evil”, I’ve always felt like it’s.. uneasiness and insecure more than anything else. 

Remember Sarada stepping in between Ino and Sasuke simply because she wanted to greet him after not seeing him for so long? 

"You’re not allowed to come close to my dad, because he is connected to my mom he said.. through me and that connection is so weak that everything and everyone is a threat, so stay away, please, because I’m still not sure what is up with this woman with the glasses that he was with and my mom and everyone else are being super secretive about it and it makes me feel anxious. I want a family photo to fix this. "

Sakura: “HAHAHAHA....” 

If Sakura’s smile or feelings towards this subject truly are ‘evil’ it means there is a sense of ‘victory’ as well, but there isn’t, not even in the slightest, despite them supposedly being “husband and wife”. 

Sakura confessed to (fake Sasuke) Naruto himself early on that she felt like Naruto was getting in the way. 

“He’s always getting in the way when I do something important.” (Other translation says “love or happiness”)

Why did she say this? 

We were shown that something important to her was trying to get Sasuke’s attention and stealing away his first kiss which both she failed to do and Naruto succeeded in. 

It seemed like Naruto didn’t even realize he was sitting next to Sasuke as he turned to look at him.

Sasuke, who ignores everyone and minds his own business reacts immediately as Naruto simply looks at him and even initiates a conversation, "what?" why? 

 We find out later that Sasuke always “kept his eyes on Naruto and couldn’t stop paying attention to him.” 

Naruto acting this way with Sakura, a classmate, is just another instance of him trying desperately to create a bond since there is zero emotional connection involved and he gets scolded by her rudely regardless. Him “having a crush on her” therefore truly is funny.

Meanwhile Sakura takes the opportunity to trample Naruto (the topic of Sasuke’s attention) to scream at Sasuke to try and redirect it to her.. which he disregards completely as he turns back again. An instance of Sasuke’s body moving (away from Sakura) on its own. 

She doesn’t give up though as she in turn ignores how incredibly uncomfortable Sasuke looks, only selfishly thinking about what she wants. 

“Today I’m going to get Sasuke-kun and I’m going to steal his first kiss!!” 

 But who stole Sasuke’s first kiss? 

Sakura’s confession: “He (Naruto) enjoys to see me struggle.. he doesn’t understand anything about me, he’s just annoying.”

Sasuke never knew that the kiss was an accident, it is possible that Sakura didn't either.

What did she say to Naruto after seeing him kiss Sasuke? 

“..Naruto.. you are.. annoying!!” Then, proceeding to beat him up. 

Further proving that Sakura’s earlier hatred towards Naruto primarily stems from him “taking away Sasuke(’s fantasy)” from her. Sasuke was never her’s, nor anyone else’s, yet she always treated him like an object. Something that had to be won. 

And Naruto, to her, got in the way of that. 

“He always comes between us!” 

Sakura’s confession: “All I want is for you (Sasuke) to acknowledge me.” 

“And I’m absolutely serious about this, I would do anything, because I like you a lot.” 

Naruto is blushing like an idiot here, even looks shocked. Worse, his eyes are drawn in a way like he realized something, surely, like Google says, he “is soooo in love with Sakura here”, right? 

Wrong. 

She helped Naruto sort out his own feelings for Sasuke. 

Up until now Naruto “hated” Sasuke the most, because he was “so cool”, not understanding what it meant or how to call the bond that was forming with him,

but he also wanted to be acknowledged by Sasuke more than anything as we know..

(Wasn't the original translation something about Naruto being 'aroused' using the sexual term for it here? lol)

Naruto also did everything and anything he could for Sasuke, being more serious about that than his dream of becoming Hokage “How can I become Hokage if I can’t even save one friend?” Or even his own life “I’ll bear the burden of you hatred and die with you!!”. 

Nothing, not even a vision he could think of for Konoha's future or him as Hokage, not the acknowledgement of the villagers, not this 'Will of Fire', absolutely nothing, to Naruto, is more important than Sasuke's wellbeing.

As Sakura leans in for her kiss with Sasuke, Naruto closes his mouth and comes to the realization that he understands thanks to her words..

“I feel like I finally understand.. why I like her.” 

“What.. Sakura-chan, you already met with Sasuke!?”

Sakura met up with Sasuke before he left the village and selfishly refused to let Naruto, or anyone else for that matter know about it. She was found on a bench and all she did during that time was sob by herself leaving Naruto completely in the dark.

“Naruto! I beg you!! Please.. Please bring Sasuke back, I couldn’t do it.. I couldn’t stop him! The ONLY person.. who can probably save Sasuke-kun now is you.. Naruto.” 

Sakura already has her suspicions here. She knows that Naruto is the only one that could possibly influence Sasuke or has a chance to get through to him. 

Naruto almost wants to look happy about it, but knows he can’t.

Naruto looks contemplative as he thinks a moment before putting up this fake, almost painful smile, the same Sakura showed him when not believing his words about Sasuke, 

He always has been mindful of her as well as we've seen by his odd reactions and many "(.........)" panels. Literally connect the dots and anyone would understand that Naruto does not have a crush on Sakura, but instead has deeper rooted feelings for someone else and they both realized it during this time.

He looks conflicted. The panels are also drawn that way. The shadow in his face and Kishimoto deciding to not show his eyes means there are hidden and suppressed emotions. 

“Sakura-chan, you really like Sasuke, huh? I know how much pain you’re in because of Sasuke. I can understand.” 

He tells her he understands the pain she feels... and that’s when it hits her.. and it hits her hard. Perhaps she already knew, but Naruto confirmed what she already suspected. 

How do we know? 

Because his words link her to this particular memory right away as she starts to cry harder: 

“Naruto is annoying, because he comes in between my love life. He comes in between me and Sasuke.”

She comes to understand, because she knows that Naruto, despite his own feelings has always been helping her. 

“He always knew, he always helped me.”

These panels are probably the most telling out of the whole manga. And I personally consider these on par with Naruto confessing his love for Sasuke under the bridge.  

This is only the beginning...

And about that terrible movie, I haven’t seen it, but I know that all of a sudden Sakura and Hinata are besties only because Sakura forces Hinata on Naruto’s lap by calling him an idiot who knows how many times even though she perfectly understands in canon Naruto’s feelings and how good his emotional perception is. 

Hinata confessed to Naruto in front of everyone, he rejected her. Ignoring is the same as rejection albeit a bit cowardly, let’s be honest. Then again, I do understand considering the ridiculous circumstances and Sakura knows this too. Yet during the filler movie, as far as I read when Hinata asked Sakura why she encouraged her to go after Naruto she thought of Sasuke for some reason and said that they needed to “support each other”. Yet where is all that support now? LMAO, if that ain’t telling.. 

[actuallysaiyan]

Uh! All Night(Nightly Sessions headcanons)

Word count: 1,849 Pairings: Naruto Uzumaki x Reader, Sasuke Uchiha x Reader, Shikamaru Nara x Reader Warnings: Smut, unprotected sex, very light dub-con, creampies, the usual smutty suspects on this blog. Summary/Content: Headcanons on how Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru would fuck you all night long and leave you sleep deprived. A/N: So this is part one of a series that I've been thinking about all day! I hope you all enjoy! I tag @beneathstarryskies as she helped me think of some very sexy headcanons! Part two will include Madara, Izuna, Kakashi and Jiraiya, and part three will be for the Dragon Ball fans ;)

Naruto started seeing you very casually. Things didn’t escalate quickly and instead the two of you decided it was best if it stayed casual

One night, Naruto invites you over to hang out and maybe hook up. What you don’t know is that you are in for some very intense fun.

“Hey there, y/n. Glad you came over, dattebayo!” Naruto greets you as he smiles real wide. He looks you up and down when he notices your sexy little outfit.

He leads you into the bedroom where the making out starts very quickly. Naruto has his hands all over you while you start to straddle him.

“You’re so sexy,” you whisper as you bite on his bottom lip. Naruto is rock hard already and he’s just thrusting up against you. You can hear little whines coming from him.

“You like that?” you ask, grinding right back. Naruto’s head falls back as you start to dry hump him.

His hands tangle in your hair as he continues to kiss you, leaving you aroused and breathless. You never thought you’d be feeling so good with Naruto, but he learned very quickly.

“Get on the bed,” he demands as you both get up. You do as he says, and Naruto eyes you. He looks like a predator about to catch his prey.

Naruto climbs on top of you, his hands are pulling at your clothes to get you naked as fast as he fucking can. He can’t wait to be balls deep inside of you.

“I’m so fucking hard, dattebayo. I need your pussy!” Naruto kisses a trail down your body as he struggles to remove his own jacket and shirt. Once he’s exposed to you, you trace all of his scars.

“I want you to take me, Naruto.” You plead as he finally spreads your legs. He leans in to kiss your clit, making you shiver.

“You taste good,” Naruto moans as he swirls his tongue over your clit, making you buck up against his face.

Naruto spends a long time between your thighs, making you cum over and over. He’s very good at giving head, and that’s mostly because you taught him how to eat you out.

Finally, he looks over at the clock and sees that it is getting late. Something clicks in his head. He wants to fuck you all fucking night. He wants to make you sleep deprived.

“Are you fucking ready for this?” Naruto asks as he takes his cock out of his underwear. It’s leaking precum and he starts to pump himself in his hand.

“Puh-please! Naruto!” You’re whining and you can’t help but want him so badly. He’s been making you cum so much that you just need his cock.

He slides deep inside of you, struggling to compose himself. He feels your pussy fluttering around him and it makes him want to pound himself into you.

“Your pussy is always so damn tight, dattebayo. Fuck, you’ll make me cum so fucking quickly,” Naruto says as he starts up his slow pace.

For hours, the man just fucks you in every position imaginable. He has you bent over his desk which makes you squirt all over him. In the shower is good too, because he can just clean you both off while he continues to pump you full of cum.

There are few breaks, but every now and then Naruto pulls out and goes to get you both some water so you can continue fucking.

When morning comes, Naruto pulls out for the final time and pulls you close to him. You both share a sweet kiss as the sun is rising. You are so tired, but so damn satisfied.

You and Sasuke have a very secretive relationship. Nobody really knows about it and he loves it that way.

Most of the time, if you’re seen in public with him, he just ignores you and acts cold, but in private...whoa boy.

Sasuke loves fucking you for as long as he can. It’s one of his favorite things in life. The way you just take his cock is divine.

He invites you over one night to his place, and you make your way over without anyone spotting you.

You knock on his door with the secret knock, and instantly, Sasuke is pulling you inside.

The room is dim and he’s shirtless. It would seem that he’s been preparing for tonight after all. You squeeze your thighs as you watch his muscles ripple.

“Glad you made it,” he says shortly. You just smirk at him as you slowly approach him. You wrap your arms around his neck and start kissing him.

It doesn’t take long for Sasuke to deepen the kiss and to press himself against you. You can tell he’s been waiting all day for this.

“You better not tease me, or things will be so bad for you.” Sasuke mutters as he sucks on your bottom lip. You shake your head, not daring to defy him.

He leads you onto the bed and starts to remove your clothing. He loves soaking in every inch of your body. You look so delicious to him.

He mounts you, making sure to straddle your hips as he begins kissing your tits. He cups them in his hands, squeezing them together and sucks on one of the nipples.

“Oh fuck yes, Sasuke!” you moan as he begins to suck on your nipples. His mouth goes back and forth between your two breasts, making sure to stop and leave bites between them.

You’re whimpering as his fingers trail down your abdomen, stopping just short of where your panties are. He’s watching your reaction as he teases you, which you find unfair.

“Quit teasing me, Sasuke!” You whine as he slowly peels off your panties. You clamp your thighs together tightly as soon as he looks at your glistening pussy.

“Don’t make this worse for yourself,” Sasuke says as he leans in to smell your arousal. He’s rock hard and he doesn’t know how long he can handle not being balls deep inside of you.

His hand goes to your mouth to try and shut you up a little while his free hand spreads your legs. You’re a little insecure but you know you don’t need to be.

“You have a gorgeous little pussy, and I’m going to spend all fucking night pumping it full of cum.” You moan at his words. “You like that, you little cumslut?”

Sasuke leans in to begin devouring your dripping cunt. You’re instantly bucking up against him, which makes Sasuke hold you down and continue his ministrations.

He quickly brings you to the edge, only to pull away and watch you sigh in frustration. He loves edging you so good. This is when he undresses himself and slides his cock deep into your wet cunt.

Sasuke fucks you for hours, keeping you right on the edge for what seems like hours. It makes you cry and whine and beg for his cock, but he loves the patheticness of the situation.

His favorite position tonight is cowgirl and he guides your hips to fuck you hard. He pumps your pretty little pussy full of so much cum it’s always leaking out.

When you think you’re done when the sun comes up, Sasuke surprises you by sliding deep inside of you while you’re lying on your side. “We’re not done yet!”

You and Shikamaru have had crushes on each other since you were younger, so it was only naturally that it turned into something new when you were both grown up.

He loves claiming you as his, though you aren’t one to give up the fight. You’re both feisty and try to outsmart one another.

Shikamaru loves to have sex with you, but you play coy a lot which frustrates him.

One night, he invites you over under the guise of just having a few drinks and maybe playing some shogi.

It’s pretty obvious once you get there and the lighting is dimmed and there are rose petals everywhere.

“How romantic, Shika,” You tease slightly, and he just blushes.

“C’mon, I do like you, you know.” Shikamaru says as he hands you a glass of wine.

One glass turns into two, which quickly turns into your third and you are feeling very frisky. The game of shogi is long forgotten.

“C’mere beautiful,” Shikamaru slurs as he beckons you over. You slink over to him, straddling him and kissing him passionately.

His tongue is in your mouth in seconds while you’re grinding him. Shikamaru is very hard already and he just wants to fuck you hard.

“I’m going to fuck you all night, princess.” Shikamaru mutters against your neck as he bites down. You can feel your panties dripping at this.

He grabs onto you and you wrap your legs around his waist as he brings you to his bedroom. Thankfully, you were both alone tonight.

He throws you onto the bed unceremoniously, watching you prop yourself up on your elbows.

Shikamaru is quick to continue kissing you and he starts to undress you, leaving no patch of skin unkissed. He loves licking and kissing a path from your neck to your tits.

“Such amazing tits,” he groans as he squeezes them together to suck on the nipples. You’re already a moaning mess beneath him.

It doesn’t take him long before he’s pulling off your panties and spreading your legs to take a good look at that glistening slick. It’s so inviting to him.

Shikamaru spends lots of time making you cum, but he knows it’s not the main act. The main part of tonight is going to be fucking you all throughout the night and not letting you sleep a wink.

Once he’s undressed along with you and he’s made you cum at least three times, Shikamaru is sliding into your fluttering pussy.

“Fuck, you have the tightest pussy ever!” He’s moaning as he’s pumping into you. It feels so fucking amazing.

His pace changes drastically as he fucks you for hours, never letting up. He needs to edge himself a lot so as not to cum right away.

There aren’t many breaks, but Shikamaru loves to stop every once and while to have a cigarette.

One time, he leads your pretty face to his crotch while he smokes and he guides your lips around his cock.

“Fuck yes, princess. Just like that.” You start to suck him off while he continues to smoke.

His hands tangle in your hair as he gets closer, and he just keeps shoving your face down as he makes you choke on his thick cock.

“Ahhh fuck yes!” Shikamaru moans as he takes another drag from his ciggy. You’re deepthroating him now, just loving the sounds coming from him.

He ashes his cigarette and pushes you onto the bed once more. Once he starts to fuck you hard, he can’t hold back and pumps that pussy full of cum.

If you think you’re done, think again. He’s lighting up another cigarette and having you suck his cock clean.