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troublesomeshika · 3 years

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After all this time, I'm still into you

shikamaru nara x reader word count: 2k warnings: i think there’s one swear word?

You two had grown up together. You’d been the yin to his yang, that was the joke you two always heard. You had energy for days, and he was the laziest person in the village. Although you were able to get him moving, he somehow always managed to get you to mellow out. You were the only one who could pull Shikamaru from his spot cloud watching and force him to play ninja with you. He was the only one able to talk you out of your crazy ideas. He held you back from danger, and you pushed him out of his comfort zone. It was a perfectly balanced friendship.

In your academy days, you were able to keep Shikamaru paying attention in class, even if he did sleep for most of it. He likely wouldn’t have passed without you there by his side, bouncing your leg throughout the class. And whenever you’d get too excited to focus, he was able to ground you and make you concentrate on your work. Once you were placed on separate teams, it was harder to keep up your friendship, but something drew you back time and again, and it seemed to be the same for him. He’d see you running around the village and convince you to take the rest of the day off to watch clouds with him. You’d check up on him if you hadn’t seen him around, usually finding him napping. Forcing him to spar with you was the easiest way to get him up and moving, even if he did beat you most times. He knew how you fought, and even if you knew how he fought, you weren’t really one for complicated plans of attack. You weren’t quite as bad as Naruto, but you also weren’t hard to predict. The loser always bought lunch afterwards, and more often than not, your wallet was lighter after spending the day with him. The few times you’d managed to beat him, you’d held it over his head for weeks, not letting him forget until he’d managed to beat you again in retaliation. Through the years, you maintained this dynamic. No one was quite sure how you could motivate him so well and they’d often shake their heads at your polar opposite personalities, sure that one day the differences would be too much. But he was always your lazy best friend. Then you’d gotten into a relationship with Kiba. He perfectly matched your energy and was always up for a good fight. You two were unstoppable and you’d accidentally caused damage to the village more than once. But as you got closer to Kiba, you began to drift away from Shikamaru. Sure the two of you still got together now and then to swap stories and have lunch, but you had less time to seek him out, and turned him down more and more because of dates with Kiba. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to be friends, but you both had more and more demands on your time, and Shikamaru’s friendship had just...... become less of a priority in your mind. You felt confident that you’d always be best friends though, you’d been through too much together not to be.

Eventually, your relationship with Kiba ended. You both loved each other, but a good relationship needs balance, and that just wasn’t possible between you two. Luckily, you’d both realized and parted on good terms. That hadn’t made it hurt any less. And so you’d turned to your best friend. Except that, he couldn’t be there. Not in the way you needed him. You’d drifted far, and although there was still love, you just didn’t quite know each other as well as you once did. But he’d reintroduced you to Ino, and you’d quickly hit it off. It began mostly with a mutual hate of Shikamaru’s laziness, but you’d gone on to bond more and more after that. You began to regularly visit the flower shop Ino worked at to go for lunch. Walking in you called out to her, “Inooooo! You ready to go?”

“Yep! Gimme a minute to hang up my apron.” She smiled, stepping to the back room, “Mom! I’m heading out for lunch, the register is unsupervised!” You heard a voice call back, but couldn’t make out the words. “Whatever, she knows.” Ino shrugged, stepping out from behind the counter. She looped her arm through yours. “Where to?”

“I don’t know, where do you wanna go?”

“I think Choji had mentioned that he and Shikamaru were gonna try out that new barbeque place that just opened- wanna see if they’re there?”

You grinned at the thought of barbeque, “Sounds good to me, let’s go!” And with that, the two of you strolled off.

You weren’t excited to see Shikamaru, it was still awkward between you, but Ino seemed to want to hang out with her team, and who were you to stop her just because you were afraid of an awkward silence. As you walked over to the restaurant, you made small talk with Ino, telling her about the mission you’d just gotten back from. “Ugh, I can’t wait till Lady Tsunade sends us out again. I’m so tired of sitting in that flower shop everyday!” Ino groaned, rolling her eyes. “Like, I’m happy to have something to do I guess, but it gets really old really- Oh there they are!” she raised a hand, spotting the two boys sitting at a table. “Hey! Got room for two more?” she pulled you over with her. “Yeah of course, are you gonna pay?” Choji asked, grinning.

Slapping his arm, Ino sat down next to him. “Of course not, pay for your own food!” She smiled at you, nodding towards the seat across from her, next to Shikamaru. You grabbed the chair and slid it out, sitting down. “So, what’ve you guys been up to on our time off?” Ino started.

“Nothing much, I learned how to bake which has been awesome. Now I can have cake whenever I want!” Choji exclaimed, smiling. “Nice, Shikamaru?” Ino looked to the boy next to you.

“Ehh, just been laying around mostly.” Ino seemed satisfied and launched into a conversation with Choji. You chuckled and under your breath said, “Now who’s surprised at that.” You kept your eyes trained on the menu, searching for a meal you liked.

“Yeah well, at least I can relax.” you heard quietly from beside you.

Your head shot up, looking at Shikamaru. “Oh? Well, there is a difference between relaxing and becoming one with your bed you know.” You cocked an eyebrow at him. His mouth twitched, a small smirk betraying him. “Mmm you’ve got me there. One of these days you’ll run out of fuel and end up sleeping for days, and when that happens I won’t let you forget it.”

“Yeah no, sleeping for days? Sounds like a drag.” You grinned, teasing him just like you used to, this time, feeling your cheeks heat slightly.

He side-eyed you, grinning, “You and your mouth never stop moving, isn’t it troublesome to be always going?”

You opened your mouth, pretending to be offended, but before you could reply, the waiter showed up to take everyone’s orders. The rest of lunch passed in casual conversation with the table, as you avoided looking at Shikamaru. It felt good to trade insults again, but something was still different, it wouldn’t ever really be the same, and you knew you held most of the blame for that.

When lunch finished, you offered to walk Ino back to the flower shop. She agreed, and you bade Choji and Shikamaru goodbye. Turning your backs on the restaurant, Ino grinned at you. “So?” You just continued walking, “So what?”

She groaned, “You and Shikamaru! Didn’t it feel good to be just like the old days? I remember how you two always were.” She knocked her shoulder against yours. “Haha, yeah I guess....” you trailed off, staring at the feet. “I don’t know though. It’s just not the same you know? It’s different. There’s still.... distance between us.”

Ino rolled her eyes, “You know, I still wonder, how did you two even get so far?”

“Hah, I don’t. It’s my fault really,” you proceeded to spill the beans on how you’d chosen your relationship with Kiba over Shikamaru’s friendship. “And now we’re basically strangers compared to how close we used to be. I hate it but, it is what it is, there’s no going back.”

She nodded silently before asking, “Wasn’t he your first kiss?”

You chuckled remembering the day. A soft blush covered your cheeks thinking of how embarrassed and nervous you’d been. Shikamaru had asked you after school, and you’d agreed to be his first kiss. You’d been hoping it meant that he felt something for you, but looking back, you knew it was just your schoolgirl crush clouding your thoughts. “Yeah, but that was just because we were both awkward kids and wanted to get it out of the way with someone we trusted, you know?” Ino scoffed. “Hey, Shikamaru was the one who had suggested it. You know he never saw me like that. And I felt that way for like, 3 months tops. Well, okay maybe more like 5 months.” Ino stopped in her tracks. You turned around, staring at her. “What’s wrong, did you forget something?”

“God you’re dumb Y/N.” She shook her head. “You really think Shikamaru just ‘wanted to get it out of the way’? I wish I lacked critical thinking, you seem so happy.”

“Hey what the hell?” Your brow furrowed. “He did!! He called first kisses “a drag” and said it was better to just be done with it!”

Ino walked over, grabbing your hands. “Sweet sweet Y/N. So much energy, so few brain cells. He liked you. For a long time. Anyone could see it!”

You shook your head, laughing, “Ino, I really don’t know what you think you saw, but we were best friends. Nothing else.” “Y/N,” She stared into your eyes, “when you started dating Kiba? He wasn’t just put out because you pulled away. He never actually said it, and he seemed to think he was hiding it,” she chuckled, “honestly I don’t know if he knew. But seeing you with Kiba, and the fact that you pulled away,” she pursed her lips, “it wasn’t a great time for him.”

You were shocked. You didn’t quite believe her about his feelings, but the idea that you’d caused him so much trouble and hurt brought tears to your eyes, which threatened to spill over. You shook your head and began walking away. “Ino, I just remembered I have some errands to run,” you raised a hand in farewell, “I’ll... see you soon.”

Your mind was going a million miles an hour, and even though you hadn’t lied, you did have errands to run, you weren’t going to get anything done. You walked, without knowing where you were going. You were lost in your thoughts, and you allowed your feet to steer you wherever they wanted to go. Finally looking up, you found yourself at a familiar clearing. Smiling sadly, you reminisced over the days you’d spent here when you were younger. Sure you were still always going, but your body had gotten better at knowing when you needed to take a break. And now, almost at a breaking point, your body had brought you back here, to the place you’d relaxed a thousand times. This time though, you laid down by yourself, feeling the grass prickling against your back. Staring up at the sky, you breathed deeply, trying to organize your thoughts. Clouds passed by quickly and the wind played with the hair around your face. “After all this time, Shikamaru?” you covered your face with your hands and groaned, “I can’t believe I’m still into you, this sucks. I was so sure it was nothing but a childhood crush, and now? Ugh.” You laid there, slowly drifting off into a nap you desperately needed. When you cracked open your eyes and sat up, the sun had disappeared and only lights twinkled in the village. You sighed, “Get it together, Y/N.” You weren’t sure if you were going to apologize, confess, or something else, but you knew you needed to see him. And so, standing up, you began your walk of shame towards the Nara compound.

･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

i just really enjoy listening to paramore and writing angst. honestly it’s not even that angsty imo, i was gonna make it worse but the writing gods said not to. n e ways, hope you enjoy!!

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#shikamaru x reader #shikamaru x y/n #shikamaru nara #shikamaru nara x reader #shikamaru angst #shikamaru x you #shikamaru #shikamaru nara x (y/n)#shikamaru nara angst #nara shikamaru #nara shikamaru x reader #naruto imagines #naruto #imagine #naruto imagine #anime #reader insert #x reader

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stillness-in-green · 3 years

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I felt like the plf war was rushed

1.Plf advisors getting hype but no payoff

2.Only miruko, Momo, and Kirishma got time to shine

3.Machia got defeated to easily

4.The war felt more like a raid

I don't know if I feel like it was rushed, per se--it's by far the longest arc in the story so far by number of chapters, and would be even if you cut off the Tartarus jailbreak and the entirety of the hospital aftermath. What it absolutely does feel like to me is unbalanced.

You note that the "war" feels more like a raid, and you're right. As a caveat, it's worth keeping in mind that "Paranormal Liberation War" as a name for the arc in question is entirely an invention of the fanbase. To the best of my knowledge, the reasoning for the name was that big action shonen series like BNHA (Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, etc) always have a war arc, so what we were seeing in the lengthy, mass combat confrontation with the PLF had to be HeroAca's equivalent. It's not a term that's in the manga itself, however, not called as such by the characters, not referred to as such by Horikoshi or his editors, not even namedropped in chapter or volume titles. If it feels like a raid, that's probably because that's what it was intended to be.

And that's the problem, really. This arc shouldn't have been about a couple of raids; it should have been about a war.

(Below the cut: a bunch of fired-up complaining. Uses some harsh language, and talks about both injuries and deaths we did see and some we logically should have.)

From the outset, we were told that the resources Shigaraki had amassed were "on par with, or even stronger than" the resources of the hero-saturated society. Yet, we're expected to believe that a force that strong is so easily taken down by a single coordinated set of raids? Yes, the heroes had the benefit of surprise, but there's just so much that doesn't work for me.

First off, and to get this out of the way, it's ridiculous that the heroes even had the benefit of surprise. The MLA had an unknown number of hero double agents. They had people in the government; they had people in the infrastructure. This is an organization that had been living undercover completely unsuspected for multiple generations--how did the HPSC ever manage to carry out a massive, country-wide investigation on such a secretive group and coordinate multiple simultaneous, comprehensive raids without a single person finding out and alerting the higher-ups over a period of only three and a half months?

When exactly did Hawks have time to go and revive Best Jeanist--which he tells us he did personally--such that none of the bugs and micro-cameras he was covered with picked up on it, and both he and BJ could be back in the positions they needed to be in for the raid to begin?

How did Skeptic find out about the raid such that he only discovered it at the last possible second and not minutes, even hours, before it kicked off? How did hundreds of heroes (and even "hundreds" is being conservative, given the fact that they had seventeen thousand people to detain) close in on the villa without anyone from the PLF noticing, either Skeptic with his information network or mundane precautions like people on watch?

Even granting the heroes their surprise advantage--which I don't want to--if the advisors were all supposedly "stronger than the average hero," why didn't we see any of them winning? Okay, yes, Hose Face beat Midnight, but he had every possible advantage in that "fight"; I hardly count it as some big impressive defeat that shows us that the villains were holding their own.

Here's another thing: the MLA styled themselves as an army--they were demonstrably trained in troop tactics. When we saw them in Deika, even their nameless on-the-ground people were capable of coordinating with each other on the fly in response to the movements of the enemy, as we saw come up repeatedly:

Yeah, they were off-guard at first, but as soon as the advisors made the front line (which, you'll note, was immediately), that disadvantage really should have begun eroding. Certainly once Geten--Geten! The number one MLA member most willing to disregard collateral damage! And there he was being a proper leader!--got to the front and started yelling orders, we should have seen the PLF rallying, and I can't imagine any sensible justification for the tides not turning when a) Re-Destro showed up to occupy the highest-ranked hero on the field, b) a bunch of heroes peeled off to try to stop Machia only to get trampled for their efforts, and c) Trumpet got dug out.

You know who don't style themselves as an army, though? Heroes. Oh, they get some basic lessons in cooperation as students, but the extent of such lessons we see is stuff like "why it's important for heroes to have signature moves"--so that on group missions, their reputations will precede them and fellow heroes will already know their shtick. U.A. teaches the odd lesson plan that involves the kids fighting in groups, but there's a huge difference between you and 3 to 6 of your buddies fighting a similarly-sized group in a practice fight, or a handful of heroes teaming up to take down some criminal low-lives, and the mass combat scenario that was the raid. For heaven's sake, look at our closest other equivalent: the raid on the Hassaikai base. At every turn in that encounter, the heroes let themselves get split up and picked off, winnowing down their numbers. It's even explicit in the narrative that hero team-ups were, in the age of All Might, uncommon, and heroes are only just beginning to adjust to fighting in teams. The erstwhile MLA should have had the advantage there.

As to Machia's defeat, I think the big problem with it is not how it happened, per se, but the timescale involved. The plan itself was sound enough, and even with all the kids' efforts, it still took Machia reaching Shigaraki and not getting any new orders to follow to really do him in. Given what we can extrapolate about his movement speed, though, I just don't think the kids should have had time to set all those traps, especially given how much of that equipment would have had to be fabricated by Momo on the fly. I know she's gotten stronger and all, and good for her, but you're telling me that in the four months between Joint Training and the raid, she went from passing out because she created a bag of goodies and one (1) cannon to being totally fine and still able to coordinate her fellow students while cranking out 23 jars of sedative, dozens of feet of rope/cable, multiple fire-resistant coats, explosives they somehow had time to bury, and three cannons?

For fuck's sake, Jirou gave Machia's ETA as under ten seconds. Yeah, Mount Lady slowed him down, but "only a little"--how much time could she possibly have bought them, that the kids were able to to coordinate and enact everything that plan involved?

You guys, go read this post by @codenamesazanka. Machia is so fast. So unbelievably, incredibly fast. "Twice as fast as the fastest train in the world" fast. "Horikoshi clearly did not stop to think about the distances involved here" fast. Three miles in ten seconds fast. It would have been hard enough to square with the needs of the plot that the kids were sufficiently far from the villa to have the kind of time they needed to swing Momo's plan at all, but Horikoshi explicitly letting Machia get right on top of them before the kids even start just makes it completely impossible for me to credit. Machia clearly being slower aboveground than he is when burrowing does not make that much difference to my suspension of disbelief.

My other big complaint? More people should have died, for real. The PLF warriors would not have been holding back. They were ready and willing to kill anyone they came up against. The heroes did have to hold back, because heroes, as we're told over and over again, are not supposed to kill, no matter how dire the circumstances. That difference in ability to exercise force should have been yet another significant advantage for the PLF. I could write an entire list of characters that I think could have reasonably been killed during the raids. That wouldn't be to say that I think any individual, specific character on that list should have died, just that, based on the parameters as they were presented to audience, some number of them should have.

I mean, honestly. How did Horikoshi wanna show us Gang Orca's unmoving claw in the wake of Machia's passage and not have Gang Orca on the list of the dead? How did Fat Gun run right into a mass melee and still have enough fat left over afterward to survive getting trampled by a walking mountain? How did Thirteen survive not getting pulled out of the hospital basement when Shigaraki's Decay hit? How did Trumpet survive getting a staircase dropped on top of him? How did Gran Torino survive a fist through his tiny old man chest cavity?

I could go on and on, but it's not just about the deaths, either. I'm not saying that Kamui Woods necessarily should have died by swinging himself face-first into a blast of blue fire, but I am saying that he should have been out of commission for longer than three goddamn days. You bet your ass I'm saying that after telling us that Hawks' weak point is fire, making us watch him spend at a solid minute or more with his wings wholly enveloped in Dabi's 2000 degree flames, and having Dark Shadow exclaim that his back is completely burned away, Hawks should never have grown his wings back, much less so quickly that they were already visible under his shirt a single day later.

More deaths, more maiming--heck, even more retirements. I'm not saying I love that kind of thing in my fiction--I don't, actually. I think an overreliance on it is a sign of edgelordy nonsense. But the scenario that we had demanded to be treated with the kind of gravity that would have led to such an outcome. To set up a conflict like the raid and have the villains only barely be able to scrape a partial escape, to try to tell us that Shigaraki's victory in Deika granted him such a terrifyingly powerful force only to have them lose every battle they got into, to tell us this was a blow that shook Hero Society to its core, only to be so unwilling to kill or retire any heroes the audience cares about that Midnight is literally the only significant loss… It doesn't work. None of it works.

I don't have much to say on which characters did or didn't get a highlight. I think there were a few more people than you listed that got some good scenes--Tokoyami and Uraraka both got material I liked quite a bit; Dabi famously out-trended the U.S. presidential election on Twitter when he (literally) came clean, and Mr. Compress gave us some wonderfully interesting and characteristically opaque material to chew on. On the whole, though, adding more character moments would only have been dragging out the problem: the scale of the PLF's threat and the HPSC's chosen method of dealing with it are simply incompatible with the feeble "neither side truly won or lost" resolution we got.

And that's my rant on that--thanks for the ask!

#and yet #i still hate it less than the shitshow that went down with lady n and overhaul #inkbuckets #paranormal liberation front #meta liberation army #bnha #stillness has salt #stillness answers

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uchihashisui-kun · 3 years

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Shisui doesn't become an academy teacher in time to teach Sasuke's class.

He has to heal first, starting with the physical aspect of it. His body was injured pretty badly between the fall and the river's harsh current slamming him left and right, and the medics have been very clear with him: if Itachi hadn't dove after him, he would have died without a doubt.

He has rehab to do. He had risked a punctured lung because of his broken ribs, and he had fractures a bit everywhere. His right leg was unusable for the first period after he woke up, it took a lot to slowly heal the damage and sometimes, even years after, Shisui has to use a cane to help his leg take his weight. Not much often, it gets better with time, but it does happen once in a while.

Not to mention his hands. Not as bad as his leg, but, for the first time since he became a shinobi, he can't keep them completely still. They tremble sometimes, and there are moments where objects as light as a pen feel much more heavy. They are better, though. They take less time to heal, and for that Shisui is glad.

It takes a long time to heal enough to be able to stand up and walk on his own, and even then he's in no state to stay out for too long. He gets tired easily, and he feels much more older than the twenty-something he should be.

After that, of course, there's the mental part of healing. He mostly stays at the hospital first, and at home second while his body is slowly healing. He has nightmares, and he wakes up choking on a scream more often than not.

Inoichi takes it as his personal job to help him, because he's a familiar face and he knows Shisui better than any other Yamanaka. He would never leave Shisui in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to deal with him, especially in such a fragile period.

Shisui starts his sessions with Inoichi while his body is still healing, and it takes a while before he can tell the Yamanaka about everything that happened. He refuses to, at first. He knows how these things work, and he knows that talking and working through his problem will help, but at the same time trauma is a bitch, and he can't find it in himself to talk about it for a long while.

Inoichi is a patient man though. He is used to working with traumatized minds, he knows how they work. He knows when to push and when to let go, when to ask and when to stay silent, and even when Shisui finally decides to tell him the truth- he doesn't speak. No. He gives Inoichi the permission to mind-walk his memories instead. He makes him experience that night through his eyes.

To say that Inoichi is horrified is an understatement, and he's so very glad that Itachi was able to save Shisui. He now also understands why they have Danzō locked in the lowest, deepest, most protected and sealed cell available in T&I.

(Shisui doesn't want to know what happens with Danzō. Itachi asked him, once, if he wanted to know, and Shisui was happy with not knowing.

He doesn't need to know that Team Ro took care of him, or that he's now kept in T&I for questioning, or that ROOT has come to light, the stolen clan kids bringing all the clan heads together against the Hokage alongside the Uchiha clan.

He just needs to know that there will be no coup, and that Danzō is gone. He doesn't want any more details. He doesn't even care that Danzō destroyed Shisui's right eye to not let anyone retrieve it. Danzō's name is too big of a trigger for him to care.)

It takes years for Shisui to finally feel like a somehow functioning human being once again. To be able to walk in the village without flinching away from anyone who gets a bit too close for comfort, even if it happens on accident.

It's around that time that Itachi asks him what he would like to do, and Shisui finds himself at a loss.

He won't re-join ANBU, and he's sure only about that. But other than that? He doesn't know what to do with this life he had been ready to throw away.

It's Inoichi that tells him that the academy might use someone to take over Mizuki's now empty spot, after the mess with Naruto and the stolen forbidden scroll has passed, and Shisui is like- might as well. He can just decide to nope out of the situation if he doesn't like it, after all.

#uchiha shisui #shisui survives au #shisui survives au: teacher edition #tw rehab #tw injuries #tw trauma #mention of suicide attempt #tw eye trauma #I mean he's Shisui #he's a walking eye trauma

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tarithenurse · 3 years

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Nightingale - 23

Fandom: Naruto Pairing: Hatake Kakashi &/x Fem!OC Contents: Hints at fluff? Longing. Slight angsting. Mostly just people existing together. A/N: In other news: I need more winter/xmas decorations. As usual, ASK or REBLOG for tag!

Ch. 23

For the first time, the two sit on the roof of the water tower while Konoha still is awake. It will be hours before the sun sets and the stars appear, but even so there’s something wonderfully familiar about the situation. If Kakashi were to stretch, then he’d be able to reach the woman with his fingertips – an expanse between them seemingly as great as the continent itself – and he has to continuously remind himself not to move closer. Not now. He can see it on her, the fear conjured by memories is skittering under her skin.

“- but maybe that’s typical kids, right? Just accepting things.” Her voice changes to faultlessly imitate that of a child: “An adult in class? Oh, fine.” She giggles and Kakashi is happy to hear the sound he adores.

“Yeah, they’re curious and stuff but recognize a different kind of logic than we do as adults.”

Uguisu continues for a while longer about school and lessons, seemingly content with this new aspect of her life. “Back in our village, there were a few of the elder who would teach us kids as best as they could,” she rambles, “and sometimes in the summer we might get lucky and have some merchant or other stay for a few days to inspect the quarry...then we’d pester them to teach us something new.”

“Uguisu...”

“Generally, I’d be the one doing the convincing but not the way you’ve see-”

Barely managing to keep his hands to himself, Kakashi rounds completely on the woman. “Can you stop for a moment, please?” She does, and suddenly the jōnin doesn’t feel right about that either. “I want to hear all of it, I really do. But I gotta ask you...how are you doing?”

Where Kakashi’s face (to the extend it can be seen) normally exudes a sense of boredom, Uguisu’s is completely blank. Too neutral.

“As I was saying -”

“You weren’t telling me about how you feel...how you’re doing,” he sighs, “you were talking about events.”

Shifting, the woman takes in the view of the uneven rooftops, a mix of browns and greys and reds, without opening her mouth. Even when the breeze tugs at her hair and pushes it into her face, she remains immobile. I can out-wait her. And so they sit in silence, each of them probably willing the other to give up.

“Why do you want to know?” she asks eventually. A blue curtain obscures part of her profile but Kakashi doesn’t dare move closer for a better view.

He holds back a sigh. “I know you remember what I told you less than two weeks ago.”

“Yes. Have you forgotten what’s happened since? Haven’t you learned?”

Leaning forward, he catches a glimpse of teeth digging into the plump bottom lip. “I listened. I saw. I’ve learned.” The defeated nod acknowledging his answer bothers him. “There were several monsters in that story but none of them were a nightingale. You’re the only one who thinks you’re a bad person!”

“Fine!” she snarls, turning to the white-haired man and leaning in until a hand’s width is all that separates them, “maybe...but I’m still broken. Worthless! I allowed that...that snake to -” Maybe realizing how close they are, she pulls back a bit. “People were hurt because of me, Kakashi.”

“People were hurt because of Orochimaru and many more would have been too if you hadn’t managed to eventually escape. Uguisu, you were one person, all on your own...yes, your jutsu was used for evil but it was never your choice, was it?” Retreating further, she shakes her head. “See? And now you’ve made it all the way here to help stop the horrors. That’s a victory. You’ve been strong...are strong.” Kakashi’s hands twitch from the suppressed urge to reach out and wrap the girl in his arms and of course the dark eyes notice. “You’re not broken. Maybe damaged, but I believe you can repair yourself...and it’ll make you even stronger.”

“That’s a sweet notion.” The sarcasm isn’t exactly subtle but it withers quickly. “You are sweet. It’s...scary...”

I’m sorry. “Do what you think is right.” It hurts to say. “It’s your life, your choice. I’ll respect whatever decision you make...but I’ll keep caring and worrying. If you need my help for anything, I’ll be there.”

An attempt at a smile wrinkles Uguisu’s nose slightly. “Well, you are my warden.”

“Even if I wasn’t.”

Silence falls between them and somehow manages to create a shield against the sounds of the Village below. It won’t be long before people finish work and head home either to families who are waiting for them or to the calm of solitude.

“Mayb-” the woman hesitates, her hands now busy playing with the long, silken strands. “I don’t know how to do these things, ‘Kashi. I see people touch each other. Hug. Kiss. And I want that...I think? Once upon a time: I’d have refused the possibility. Then...I realized why people want it.” She tugs the knees close to her chest, letting her forehead rest on them and wrapping her arms around the legs as if she could turn herself into a small ball. “You say I’m not broken beyond repair...but it feels that way because even wanting something like that with you...it freaks me out.”

“I’ll wait,” the jōnin promises, “you pick the pace and I’ll be whatever you need me to be.”

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chemicalmagecraft · 3 years

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Foresight is 20/20 Chapter 10

I laid on my stomach and rested my head on my hands. That I was doing it on a surprisingly-comfortable invisible barrier made of pseudomagically solidified air and even moving forward was natural. Honestly, what do you guys expect at this point? And of course my parasol was floating in just the right position that my entire body was covered even with the odd positioning. Because why not? "So what're we doing today?" I asked Gaara.

"I don't know," he said, fidgeting slightly. "Why are you with me?"

"I literally have nothing else to do. Plus we're raccoon eye buddies."

"Raccoon eye buddies?"

I traced my eye markings. "Raccoon eye buddies. I heard you've had trouble making friends in the past, so I figured you might like some company." I shrugged. "But if you don't, I can fly away."

I caught a tiny smile on his lips. "Don't go. Having a friend would be... nice..."

"Stinks that I'm going to have to leave soon... Maybe we should find you a friend who isn't from another village?"

"How do you make friends?"

I opened my mouth to say something, then paused. "I don't actually know, to be honest. The only person I became friends with without random chance playing a part was Naruto-chan, and he... let's just say he would've become best friends with whoever was the first person to actually show him kindness, and that just so happened to be me. Everyone else, one could argue I was guided to them by fate..."

"What about me?" he asked.

I shrugged. "No offense, but I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for Shukaku." He frowned a bit. "That doesn't make our friendship meaningless, if that's what you're worried about." I saw a group of kids playing kickball or something and pointed to them. "Maybe we could ask to join them?" We walked (and floated) over to them. I honestly didn't really know what to say, so I just waved.

"Woah, are you floating?" one of the kids asked me.

"Yeah," I said. "Can we... join? I promise to not use my powers if you don't want me to." I lowered myself to the ground, landing gently on my feet.

"Hey, isn't that the Kazekage's son?" another of the kids said. Gaara tensed up, so I squeezed his hand.

"He's cool," I insisted.

"But my mom said he's a demon."

I scoffed. "He has a demon sealed inside him. Big difference." I shrugged. "Sure, he used to have some trouble keeping the thing down, but I fixed that right up for him. As I said, he's cool."

"Thank you, Kouki-san," Gaara muttered.

I gave him a small smile and said, "So are we going to play or what?"

I was picked first. I guess the team captain figured I'd be awesome at sportsball because I could fly or something. Joke's on him, though, because I'm horrible at all manners of sportsball. Even with my ninja training, I was horrendous. On the other hand, Gaara was somehow the other team's best player. It didn't even look like he was trying to hard, he just... drifted over to the ball and launched it over to the goal net thing. Yeah, everyone ended up liking Gaara a lot more than me.

Just as planned.

Okay well I genuinely am terrible at sports but I totally planned it. It wasn't an accident at all. I am a puppetmaster.

kukukuku~

Come to think of it, I could think of a likely suspect. I drifted to an out-of-the-way alley near the Kazekage's house, sending a beacon to the presence as I flew. It responded to my psychic touch sluggishly, like its mind was damaged or something. It felt like sand slipping through my fingers, but I reeled the presence in. As I leaned on the alley wall, the sand in front of me shifted and slowly rose up in front of me, roughly in the shape of an adult woman. "Yo," I said.

"W͡h̘̠̩̱̬̬̱ͦ̔ͯͮ́ͮ̚o̦̙ ̫͖͐͑a͛́̃̆͢r̓̀̂̿͐̒̊e ̝̮̳͓̯͙ỹ̏̈́ͫ͌͊ͨ͞o̙͚͛͌u͛̏̿ͣ͞?̵͕͈͐̐" the sand witch asked hollowly. "...W͕͇̗̱̠͊ͥ͋ͤͭ̄ͅḥ̶͚̞̞̮ͬ̆̋̓̐ō̼̘͆.͇̠̆ͥ..͏̺ ̪̙͈͒̂̈͘a̡̤͔m I͕̫͎̱̮̗?̲̘̺͓̺͙̲͛͒͒̂̄̾ͩ"

I winced. "You... aren't in the best shape, are you?"

She made a few confused noises that I took as a 'yes.'

I tightened my grasp on her mind a bit. "Right, I'm going to try to help you. Can you tell me your name?"

After a few seconds of thought and me poking around in her nonexistent brain, she said, "I̷̤ͦț̢̞͓̲̟ͅ'̻͕͖͇̣̣ͤ̊̓ͯͩ̅ͦͅs̲̦̹͔ͯ́͒̓.̱͞.͕̩̮̥̦̻̇͊̋ͮ̃ͣͪͅ.̲͖ ̍͑͑ͧ̓ͬ̾͏̙̹̮̜͚̩͍G̠̣̗̪͝ȁ̢͉̥̋r̛̠̘̺͖̬̒̔̓͐̍uda.̘̫̲̬̺͓̇̀ͦ̊̍̿.̡̯͍̯̯̤̳̓́̋̍̒ͧ.ͧ͐̉̎͊" I tilted my head a bit and poked a few bits into place. "N̛o͓͉͎͢,̵̫̫̱ͨ̎ͮ ́ͫ̐͜i͖̱t's̀̏̚ ̨̲̬̓̂Ḱ̬̘͋ar͏u͓̥̞͆̂ͣ͟r̙̃̀a," she corrected herself.

"That's good," I said in a soothing tone. "Now, can you please tell me something about yourself? Maybe any family or loved ones you have? I need you to keep focused on something, anything."

"Th͔r̛e̙͎̜͡eͥ̃̒ ̢c̝̹h̲̹̙̎̉͌͘i͍̦̺l̨d̘̐́ṟ̔e͞ǹ̪͙̞̈̿͡,͔͖̯ a̓̇͂́ ̫̖̳͒ͩ̏d̲̮̖͊̄̿au̴g͕͎̀h̪͉͆̚t̵̐͂̚e͆r̴͔̤ ̥a̟̩̎ͦn͕̱̎̆dͣ̍ͦ ͫ͗͆tw̬̫̲ợ̀ ̴͚̩ͦ̂şo͘nś͍͎ͣ.̸ͪ T̹̫̱e̟͈̟͒̊̒mar̔ͥ̈i̥, K̟̪̝̈́͊ͭañ͙͔̼ͮ̌k̲̋uͧ͆ro,̼̓ ä́̄̐n̦͙͈ͮͭͤd̊ͦ́ ͑̓G͙̞̽͊a̬̾ar̗̥ͦͦa," she said. "I ̏͋alͭ̈́̍so ̎ḧ́̒av̅̚e ͪ̓a ̓br̊̊oͨͨthͯͣ̏eṙ̈́,̐ͨ̐ ̽̓Ȳ̈as͋h́ͩá̅mͪͫaͩͤruͭͦ...̒͒̓"

"Good," I murmured. "Now, this might feel a bit weird, but I need to do this to stabilize you." I took out my newest demon gem, one that I'd made from leftovers from the bandits and some insects I'd managed to attract. Okay, it was only almost done, but it was good enough for what I needed it for. I rammed the gem into Karura's sandy "navel," using it to work some yin-yang magic on the unstable chakra that made her up. Her form evened out and red lines spread from the gem to her arms and legs. Then I averted my eyes. "Aw, ew!" I exclaimed. "Put some clothes on!"

"I have no clothes," she noted.

"Then make some out of sand!"

"I have no idea how to do that..."

"And yet you managed to almost do a jutsu I still haven't figured out yet!" I shouted.

"My mind is still hazy..."

I grumbled a bit and formed a rough "cloth" out of the surrounding sand. "You even made yourself a body out of sand..." I wrapped the cloth around her body. "Right, you have to figure out how to keep that up." I opened my eyes as I felt the chakra of her body taking over the wrapping. Now that she was stabilizing, she looked just about human, only with the red markings and eyes colored like, though not shaped like, Shukaku's. The sand cloth had turned into a sort of cloak that made her really look like a sand witch. "You want to meet your kids now? Just to warn you, though, you've been dead for years, so they aren't exactly expecting you."

"Oh..." She looked very concerned, which was probably a good sign that her mind was becoming less fuzzy. "Oh dear."

kukukuku~

"Heeeey~" I said from outside the Kazekage's window. "Guess what I found today?" Thankfully, his family was already there, so I didn't have to do that much work.

Rasa sighed. "What?"

I smiled a bit. "Actually, it's more of a 'who.' I believe you've met her before, though you probably aren't expecting her." The platform of sand I was standing on floated into the room, deposited me on the floor, then turned back into Karura next to me. "Introducing, for the first time in almost four years, your wife."

"Karura," he gasped.

"Rasa," she scowled.

"Oh right, you were responsible for her death," I said smugly. "Ouch."

"Mom?" Temari asked. "Is it really you?" Karura floated over to her and picked her up, holding her close.

"Temari. I'm so, so sorry I left."

"How did this happen?" Yashamaru asked.

"I don't remember," Karura said, "but I'm grateful it did."

"If I had to guess," I said, placing one hand on my chest, "and I'm sorry to butt in here, but I think I might be the only one here who knows what's going on. So if I'm right, you had Shukaku sealed in her when she was pregnant with Gaara to see how prenatal exposure to Shukaku would influence jinchurikihood, then transferred the raccoon to Gaara, either not caring that she'd die or assuming your medics could resuscitate her because she was only jinchuriki for less than a year. That about right?"

Rasa nodded grimly.

"Right, so obviously that didn't work out quite like you hoped. Don't worry, I can tell you think past you was an idiot. Karura, while dying, found that she loved Gaara so much that she wanted to protect him even after death, so she imbued the sand around her with her will and chakra, or however that worked. In this, her having had Shukaku sealed inside her actually helped, as some of Shukaku's power was left over in her, so it ended up a success despite the fact that she didn't have much knowledge on the subject of yin-yang release, which would have otherwise been vital for that jutsu. 'Course, it still ended up rough, causing her to be scattered and unable to properly gather herself. The existence that was once Karura was scattered to the winds, spread about a wide area of sands and expending so much effort to simply exist that she couldn't do anything, with one exception that I do believe is still in effect." I licked my lips and pointed at Gaara, shooting a demon gem at him fast enough that it'd hurt.

The sand blocked it.

"What was that for?" Rasa, Yashamaru, and Karura simultaneously demanded of me.

I shrugged. "Its trajectory was curved a bit. Looked like it'd hit him, enough for Gaara's still-active defense to catch it, but it would have missed if it wasn't caught. As you can see, a part of Karura was... anchored, I suppose, to Gaara, creating an automatic sand defense." I turned to the door. "Right, you guys probably wanna catch up, so I'mma go work on my seals or something now."

"Wait," Karura said. "There are still holes in my memory."

"Those'll hopefully clear up over time, though unfortunately some stuff is probably lost for good... Can't really do too much more for you. The best thing is probably to try to jog your memory, which I'm pretty sure your family and douchey ex can do better than me."

"Douchey ex?" Rasa asked.

"Until death did you part," I said with a grin. "That's the rules, right?"

Rasa blinked. "...Well you're not wrong. And Karura, I honestly wouldn't put it past you if you wanted to leave me."

"Yeah this is the part where I disappear and let you guys have a heartfelt reunion and however KaRasa's going to go." I grinned as I activated the Transparent Escape Jutsu. "And yes, that was a pun!"

kukukuku~

"Right, so maybe you should stay up on full moons," I told Gaara as I was checking the seal after his horrible, nightmare-filled sleep. "Default won't break at all under the light of the moon."

He rubbed his eyes a little more. "That was unpleasant..."

"Yeah, well at least it looks like it'll only be once every thirty days," I noted. "That should be manageable, right? Better than thirty times in thirty days."

He sighed. "I'm going to miss you when you leave..."

I gave him a small smile. "Don't worry, you can always find me..." I poked him in the chest. "...Riiiiiight here."

"But I would like to be able to talk to you more..."

"I know, I was talking about how you should theoretically be able to use Shukaku's power to telepathically contact me from anywhere in the world."

His eyes widened, and I could see a small twinkle in them. "How?"

"See, there's this thing called biju telepathy that biju have, and any two sources of the same type of biju chakra can be used as a sort of relay for it. You have Shukaku and I absorbed just enough of his power from the seals you guys sent me that I gained his power, which means that we're linked. Now, I should note that because of the seal I placed on you, any time I'm calling you, you'll get a notification from your seal and have to manually allow it. Now let's teach you a new psychic power!"

kukukuku~

"That was delicious~" I sighed in delight after finishing my dinner of the third day, this time some heavenly chicken tikka. "Thank you for the meal~. So how's my favorite chakra spirit ghost thing doing after a full day of life and activity?" I asked.

She poked at her food. "I still have no idea how I'm eating this..." she muttered.

"Magic?" I offered. "You holding up alright?"

"I don't feel as scattered as I did before. That's good, right?"

I shrugged. "I've literally never had to deal with a situation like this before, but that sounds about right." I stood up. "Now, I think it's you're bedtime, Gaara-chan. Let's see how the seal's doing today."

"But I want to stay up," Gaara protested.

Karura wagged her finger. "No 'buts,'" she said, then smiled. "Tell you what, I'll tell you a bedtime story. I've missed the opportunity to do that for too long."

Gaara smiled. "Okay, mother."

kukukuku~

"Goodbye!" I waved to my sendoff party as I mounted my lindwyrm. "I'll miss you all! I wish you the best!" I slumped back into Gai's chest. "And I'm pooped. G'night, Gai."

The journey home wasn't as eventful as the journey there. If there were any bandits, they were scared off by my giant monsters long before I even noticed them. I managed to make a new demon gem with all of the bugs that my gems attracted when we set up camp for the night, especially once we hit the forest. There were a lot of bugs in the forest. Never thought I'd say that positively...

"We're back," I said with a smile as I looked at the gates. "Suna was nice, but I was starting to miss home."

"Yes, Konoha is a nice place," Gai said. "Though I must admit that I'll miss being able to train in both hot and cold environments..."

"Pretty sure you're more than fine on the training front already, dude..."

#fanfiction #naruto fanfiction #naruto #Foresight is 20/20 #F20 CH10

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uzumakinomegami · 4 years

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Rebirth AU

Mito was reborn into Kakashi's generation with her knowledge and some- but not all- memories from her past life.

She was reborn to protect the future reincarnations of Ashura and Indra- Naruto and Sasuke- in much the same way that she was supposed to help protect the past reincarnations- Hashirama and Madara- of the two.

Assigned to a team with Tsumemasa Hyūga and Minako Inuzuka, Mito was under the questionable guidance of a mostly inebriated sensei. She still learnt a lot and somehow managed to fly under the radar of Minato and Kushina, which she can only be thankful for.

After the Kyuubi attack, Mito was put in charge of raising Naruto as she was the only one in the village capable of controlling the fox, not to mention she was the only other Uzumaki in the village. She is known only to be Narutos "elder sister".

She does her best to raise Naruto how the village wants but she eventually slips up and tells Naruto about the fox and his parents, not disclosing their names or who his father was. She was trying to raise Naruto as well as work in the hospital.

By the start of the series, she is akin to a stressed-out single mother who is trying to raise a rambunctious teenager while also working every single day with little to no breaks. Mito does hold a sisterly affection for Naruto though and she does her best to be there for him when he needs/wants her.

Mito teaches Naruto everything she can regarding sealing among other things. She also teaches him how to cook more than just ramen, though she does treat him to ramen every weekend. Her wallet couldn't take them having it any more than that.

Mito was the medic on call when Team 7 returned from their mission to the Land of Waves. She reprimanded Kakashi for not sending back a message to let the Hokage know that the mission had changed rank and for putting the children in danger like that. This wasn't a war and he needed to stop assuming that those children were trained soldiers like they were, they were untrained for that sort of mission and they had nearly died as a result. Not to mention the fact that Naruto's seal broke which could have put him in danger.

She was also promoted to head doctor after the Chūnin Exams and the Konoha Crush, taking over from the last head doctor when it's revealed they died in the attack. This doubled her workload and she is often kept away from Naruto for even longer periods, though she does take one break to deal with Gaara's shoddy seal as well as fixing Naruto's again. She inevitably collapses from exhaustion before Tsunade comes to Konoha and therefore is unable to meet with her.

Mito wakes up just after the Sasuke Recovery Team leaves Konoha, immediately going back to work. It is because she is awake at all that she can assist Tsuande- who by this point she knows fairly well- in the healing of the team. It is mostly due to Mito's intensive research that she and Tsunade were able to heal Choji. Mito is also the one to personally heal Neji and repair Shikamaru's dislocated finger. Mito also heals Naruto alone, reprimanding him gently all the while. He had worried her sick when he came back injured and exhausted.

The three-year time skip sees Mito becoming closer with Tsunade, even going on to become a close confidant. It also sees her becoming head of the hospital, relieving Tsunade of that duty altogether. She becomes privy to just how corrupt Konoha is and she feels disgusted that this is what became of the village Hashirama had created.

She doesn't have any defining events happen to her between Naruto's return and the Pain Arc so all I can say is she continues refining her medical skills to create even better medical practices than they had.

When Pain attacks Konoha, Mito is among the few that escape the initial attack. Instead, she has her entire body broken in multiple places and she is most definitely not going to make it. Naruto gets concerned when he sees her and Pain uses that to his advantage. Instead of it being Hinata getting injured that triggers Naruto's nine-tails transformation, it is Pain killing Mito in front of him that does it.

Mito is revived after the attack but due to the damage her body sustained, she was rendered comatose again while her body was gradually healed. Her body wasn't fully healed until just before the war started and she was absent from said war for a day while she woke up and readjusted to living again.

She arrived in time to help the best she could during the war, which mostly resulted in her being placed on medic duty. She has no idea if Madara or Hashirama would recognise her and she works out a way to nullify the effects of the black receivers. She tests her theory on Hashirama and is able to remove the receivers stuck in his body before mending the damage done. She reinstates the Edo Tensei's regenerative abilities and then goes on to test if her theory would work on Minato, though the results are unknown as she doesn't quite make it to him. Instead, she is sidetracked by Karin manifesting the incomplete Adamantine Attacking Chains.

Deciding that the time for hiding was over, Mito chose to head onto the battlefield proper and fix any injuries while fighting alongside the shinobi. Because she was on the battlefield at all, she was able to save Neji's life using clones and a lot of chakra. She had him rushed to the medic tent and he was properly healed there.

After some time, Mito had to bust out the SoaHS and she used that to heal others quickly while also dealing some devastating attacks to the enemy.

When Naruto got killed, Mito sensed his chakra just disappear. It caused her to go through what could only be described as a mental breakdown as she tried comprehending that the boy she had raised was gone. They may not be blood-related but that doesn't mean that she loved him any less. This breakdown caused her to go on the hunt for Madara.

She saw what he did to Sasuke and chose to stay back, simply to see what he would do next. Mito rushes to Sasuke's side after the incident and is the reason Kabuto can come to his aid in time and rescue him. When Kabuto arrives and takes over the healing, Mito goes to release Tobirama from the black receivers and grant him his regeneration again.

She gets caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and her dream is not like the others. Instead, she is forced to relive her past lives. She has been reborn more than once in the past after all. It is a weird dream that she never quite gets to the end of. She is saved like everyone else and she is able to reunite with Naruto after they both recover.

Within the Boruto era, or a similar era, she is still the head of the hospital. She has taken more of an active role within the hospital- more so than before anyway- and deals with any difficult cases herself. Sakura becomes her assistant head and also is there for difficult operations. Mito does her absolute best to keep a high rate of survivals and she has more than made up for any time lost from her previous absences.

She has not started a family and has no intention of doing so. Her career has always been her priority and finding love has taken a bit of a back seat. Although, the right person could make her change her mind. When Naruto gets married and has kids, Mito is a great help as an aunt and she does her best to pamper them.

Mito has also discovered that within a meditative state, she has access to all her past lives memories. Meaning, she can discover who she was and then use any information that she can find to possibly assist the future development of seals and medicine.

#(Time And Time Again I'll Be There For You. Death Won't Hold Me Back For Long: Rebirth!AU)#[Still a bit iffy about some of these]#[But this is that AU I was talking about]#[I have no idea what to call this but Rebirth seems the most appropriate!]#[This is for characters who would otherwise only interact with her older or Edo Tensei self]#[I.e Rin Sakura Mei... All of those!]#[Now onto other things]

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celticfeather · 4 years

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Akatsuki Fanfic: Campfires

On: FF Ao3 Tumblr

First. 1. Dawn

Previous: 4. Slaughter’s Court

Campfires chapter 5: Kraken Hall

-Hoshigaki Kisame-

Thukk.

Right by his ear. His awakened eyes slid right. The tag of a paper bomb waved from a kunai.

Kisame sprung away in the fraction of a second before its detonation. Adrenaline damped pain: his neck and shoulder had been torn open, he did not know how much. His priority was seizing a few seconds of distance and time.

Midleap he looked for the boy, he was gone, the white cloth that bound him a twisting ribbon snaking to the forest floor.

Flickers manifested into crouching shapes on tree branches. Their animal masks denoted the Anbu of the Hidden Leaf, though the rogues were outside the Leaf's territory. The masks' inset eyes were round and black like a shark's, but leaf ninja moved like ghostly gray leopards. The assailants were three ninja: two men, one woman, and a ninja hound.

He had to get them out of the trees, the leaf ninja the advantage there. They met him on the ground. He grasped Samehada's hilt, and from the reserves of stolen chakra, his steaming flesh began to rapidly regrow where it was damaged. He grinned at the three masked ninja.

"Tell me, am I next to Itachi in your bingo book?"

There was no answer and a lightning jutsu struck at Kisame then. Huge and white and it sucked the air from the ground. He let it strike along Samehada, most of it was absorbed and channeled along the sword's scales, with the rest of the lightning shocking off into something behind him.

He felt Samehada purr. Or perhaps it was more like a stomach growling. As the leaf ninja stared in disbelief, he smashed the sword into someone's body, the shock traveled up his arms, and the exhilaration of combat flooded him.

He quickly dispatched the other two ninja with crushing strikes from his sword. Then the dog sprung at him. Dogs were not pets in the Mist. He grabbed the beast by its forelegs and winched them apart.

One, two, three, dog, down. Done.

He stepped forward to the bodies to make sure the job was finished, but his limbs didn't obey him. He looked down, an ink black shadow had reached to his foot, and somehow he could not move. One of the crumpled men he'd thought dead had wielded a shadow like a tentacle. He tried to budge his leg,

Kisame struggled against the bind. He could move slightly. A few more seconds of fighting and he would break free. He stared inevitable death at the man, and Kisame did not smile.

At that moment a shape, small and angular, inspective and fearless as a crow beside a carcass, appeared beside the crumpled Anbu. The Anbu's head turned to regard the sudden darkness over his shoulder.

"Uchiha...Itachi..."

Well? Kisame wondered of his partner. What will you do?

Itachi's red eyes looked deeply into the mask. Kisame could not know what nightmare was shared. But what he did see was Itachi's kunai strike. The tentacle around Kisame's leg uncoiled, and the fight was over.

Kisame wondered what summoned the assailants. Like a bird Itachi was so visually focused. Last night he had allowed for no fires, no loud noises. But as fine as his sharingan was, it could never see a scent. From their skirmish hours before, the boy smelled like a bloodbath. And Kisame, feeling responsible, knew that he should have been wiser.

Itachi stepped to each of the three corpses and lifted their painted masks. He stared into their faces.

"No member of the Leaf's two ninja hound clans are among these dead," the former Leaf ninja said.

Kisame's eyes slid suspiciously to the surrounding forest. So, their main course was elsewhere.

Then Itachi placed the masks back on. To face the afterworld as they lived, he supposed. The sanctity of a human body never really mattered to Kisame. Dead meat was dead meat. He accepted none of the people in this clearing, alive or not, would ever receive a proper funeral.

Itachi parsed signs and raised a hand. Dozen of crows and ravens and hulking raptors bigger than cats arrived from somewhere. The birds were fearsome, but lightweights by nature, and Kisame wondered what a bird did with a human pelvis.

"You know what doesn't leave bones?" Kisame suggested.

Itachi's expression did not change.

"Sharks."

Icy Itachi looked at his expectant wards and then at Kisame. "Leave them the hound."

Kisame lifted the human bodies and threw them into the river, and summoned four freshwater tolerant sharks. At a scarcely perceptible twitch of Itachi's finger the obedient ravens plunged. His bull sharks needed no such instruction, and when one did not not focus closely, the splashing sounded peaceable in comparison. The ravens, social and hierarchical, argued noisily with each other over the best positions. With a businesslike demeanor, the two ninja turned their backs to the clamor of devouring.

"The Leaf will have sent a second jounin squad after us. I will reroute them," Itachi said.

Itachi intended to bait an informed jounin team alone, in his condition, and probably half his unimpressive chakra with a shadow clone.

Kisame smiled. "Still slightly suicidal, I see."

"I expect no problems."

"Are you gonna say something to me about last night? Or are you just gonna let it fester?" Kisame said.

Itachi's eyes were sharp. "Do you want me to apologize for attempting suicide? Or for abusing you?"

"I want you to acknowledge that you looked into my head, revived my dead-sister's dead-kid, impregnated her, and stabbed her through the spine. To try to get me to kill you, because you decided that you can't cope with the fact that you're a killer. Have I got that right?"

Itachi continued aloofly. "I am different from all of you. Senseless killing bothers me deeply."

"You are so elitist. You think I wasn't bothered by it? You think when I was a boy, I wanted this?" Kisame gestured at himself, huge and beastly and covered in scars.

Itachi was midstride, but he stopped at Kisame's words. Kisame continued menacingly.

"I grew up in the Blood-Mist Village. I was younger than you when I became a killer. I have no family, no purpose, and almost no friends. So what I want to know, Itachi, is why you don't accept it like the rest of us."

"I can deal with the fact that I'm a killer. What I could not accept last night, Kisame, is my continuing existence in the Akatsuki causing dozens of unnecessary deaths. But whatever. It doesn't matter- you were right anyway. Ending myself is not going to solve this problem. It must be fought directly."

"Directly?" Kisame repeated. The word insinuated rebellion. Wars were won with less manpower than that would require for a rebellion against the Akatsuki, and Kisame knew he was under orders to take Itachi out if he did so.

Wisely, Itachi did not elaborate. The dark haired young man looked somewhere and Kisame followed his gaze down. The dog was just a skeleton. The winged scavengers took the bones in their slender beaks and flew away with them.

"We must leave now," Itachi said.

Kisame stepped onto the now-still water to hide his tracks and scent. He showed the scroll between his knuckles. "I'll start Kakuzu's other mission," he said gruffly.

"Hm."

Only a few wind-trembling feathers testified what happened at the scene, and the two ninja vanished with the wind that scattered them.

—Uchiha Itachi—

Itachi broke a twig between his fingers. In this moist climate, a twig would not have snapped naturally. The Anbu would halt to discuss the stick for a few precious moments and come to the same conclusion. Animals could leave smears in the moss. But only ninja leave decoys. Even if they did not have a second dog, they would know it was him.

But these Anbu would have another dog. No Inuzuka had been among the dead. No Hatake had been among the dead...

Ninja who abandon the rules are scum. But ninja who abandon their comrades are worse than scum.

Itachi thought he had embodied the persona of cold parricide. Apparently not. His ruse of coldness had been translucent as ocean water. Strange round, silver and black eyes regarded him from his memory:

You might just be the only friend I've ever had.

He had been cruel to manipulate his partner last night. Kisame had been uncomfortable fighting him, even as easy as Itachi planned to make it. He would find Kisame and apologize properly for his manipulative attempt. Maybe he could convince him to spare some of the bandits, Kisame probably would probably kill most of them if he did not interfere. Itachi hated these Akatsuki kill missions: Kakuzu, Pain, could just try and punish him for leaving some people alive after the goal was achieved. Kisame was right. Death would not solve the problem of Itachi's existence; he would have to think his way out.

That was far enough to cost the Anbu the necessary time. He parsed signs for a shadow clone, and his double unceremoniously continued forward. Last he tested, he could be separate from his clone for two kilometers before it disappeared. The real Itachi jumped some twenty meters to the water, expecting that if he did not touch solid matter, his scent would vanish in seconds in the air.

But he was not sure. He did not see his world through scent. He threw a final glance towards the past, towards the Anbu, towards his old captain Kakashi, then ignited his sharingan and focused on the way before him. Now, to track Kisame.

—Hoshigaki Kisame—

Kisame lowered the hand-drawn map and stared at the island that filled its place on the horizon. It was a fine little place for a bandit camp.

He stepped across the ocean water to where the stolen wooden skiffs crowded the island's white sand shore. He found the cave entrance by smell. Men: those lazy brutes had taken to pissing where they ate.

He walked into the tunnel. It would be inconvenient to swing Samehada in such a small place, but he did not expect the bandits would want to stay there long. Someone saw him and asked him a question. Kisame shoved their head into the wall and kept walking deeper into the cave. The scroll's task had been to 'eliminate the bandit threat,' and he would do that in the way he decided most enjoyable and convenient.

Two bigshots argued in the common area, surrounded by lower members. The two leaders raised swords at him, but he twisted their arms around, and thrust one into the blade of the other. Then the screams started. He threw the trembling survivor to the ground and stepped on his neck. A surrounding man threw a knife, Kisame returned it.

A woman called her comrades to flee. The remaining members streamed around him, out of the cave, down the beach, and Kisame stalked after the prey unhurriedly. They untethered their rowboats and launched them into the waves, running astride their vessels, tossing oars to each other.

He wet his feet in the surf and shed his robe on the beach. A grin slit his lips. He parsed a few signs and a water dragon overturned the skiffs and spilled their human cargo into the sea. He let Samehada's spiked pommel embed in the skin of his palm. What a terrible day to be a pirate, he thought as the cool tide sloshed against his now-sandpaper hide.

He smashed a skiff with a whip of his tail. The electricity in his snout fired ablaze, they were so alive, so frantic, so afraid. This prey was small, a tenth of his weight, almost small enough to swallow whole. Their tender bones waned and crunched in his jaws. He'd bite, tear, release when the muscles flexed limp, and bite the next thing that moved. The blood was intoxicating, heavy, arousing. The meat in his mouth did not taste bad.

He pictured Itachi. The cruel face he made last night shined in his mind's eye. With his grinning teeth and the weasel look in his bloodthirsty, fight-hungry eyes. Bring out Samehada!

An impulse occurred to him. He had not done that before. But that did not mean he could not start. He was frightfully hungry. A chemical of frenzied excitement flooded his brain, no longer fully human, at the prospect.

He identified a target. He sank into the depths for a pregnant moment. Then he snapped the red-muscled braided whip of his tail, shot dart-fast towards the surface, and a second before he breached, yawned wide a razored chasm of death.

—-—

Kisame staggered human out of the waves. He descended from the fogging rausch, the tremendous high. His hands trembled from ecstasy, from shock, from disbelief.

An uncomfortable feeling plagued him. It was the first time in fifteen years that he felt it. Not quite fear, not quite cold, but it gripped him around the chest like those. It was the unfamiliar realization that, maybe, he had done something wicked.

He swung Samehada off his body and flung it viciously against a palm tree, and he leered at it with shark teeth bared.

"Look what you made me do!"

The words felt hollow when they became reality. He knew better than to decry an object. It was not Samehada's fault, it was not Itachi's fault. The deed had been his alone. He knew not which god to pray to forgiveness, or demon for sanctuary.

"Holy Buddha, Amaterasu, Susanoo, fuck it, Jashin, anybody."

He knelt on the sand.

"Why did I do that?"

Kisame's gods, as always, remained silent.

Looking at the familiarity of his own limbs made him want to retch, but he knew retching would not absolve his sin. He did not know the physics of it. If he ate something big, and then he shrank back down to normal size. But he felt gorged and sick and he could not bear the thought of eating. He could not bear the thought of meat, of flesh. Of muscles pulling under skin, of intricate ligaments gently meshed to slippery bones... He looked away from his own body and towards the ocean horizon.

He did not indulge in the sleep his exhausted body craved. He sat on the beach, feeling strangely nervous. He let the surf wash coolly over him, but it brought little relief. Something brushed by his hand on a wave. He feared what it could be. He held it in front of his face to eclipse the setting sun, but it was just a harmless abalone sea shell, and the iridescent mother-of-pearl material glittered gently like mica in his hand.

He stood up from the surf and took Samehada off the tree. The moment he did, he was blasted with the instrument's chakra sensing ability. Itachi was tracking him, and a shock of unease probed him: he did not want to see Itachi right now.

Water crested around his ankles. He rubbed the smooth abalone shard with his thumb like a netsuke. He felt the sharingan-wielder nearing and decided it would be too much effort to evade him.

"Hey." A pause. "Bandits are taken care of?"

"Yeah."

"Do we have bodies to dispose of?"

"No."

Itachi had speared two fish next to a burning, salt-blue piece of driftwood. "You want some?"

"I'm not hungry."

Itachi's vivisecting black eyes probed him. Or maybe it was just a normal look. Kisame feared what he could see with those eyes, if he could read inside his mind, and pluck his nightmares into reality, like he had with Akaei.

Itachi waved his hand. "Come sit by me."

Kisame sat by him.

"Kisame, I'm sorry I attacked you last night. I thought a world minus me was for the best."

"Itachi, the day men like you are the bad ones, is the day this world has gone to shit," he said.

"I manipulated you, and I terrorized you, and I tried to kill myself. Do you forgive me?"

"Yeah. But do it again, I'll..." bite you in half, he would have said to someone else, sometime else, but he found his usual bravado unappetizing. "Don't do it again."

"Thank you, Kisame."

Itachi ate alone, neatly and quietly. Kisame stared at the abalone shard and stroked it between his thumb and finger. It was smooth and flat and not quite triangular, like a tooth, or maybe a teardrop.

"I did something I regret today, Itachi," Kisame eventually said.

Itachi looked over the moon-streaked water. "At times it's hard to live with our crimes. But we need to understand that we are worthy of our own acceptance."

Did he know? Maybe. Maybe those eyes saw every thought Kisame had ever thought. But Itachi did not grasp the crux of the incident that troubled Kisame.

"It felt good."

Now Itachi understood the severity of the problem. The young man bridged his hands before his nose and closed his eyes, and stayed quiet. Somehow Itachi's recognition sobered Kisame.

"I understand if you want to spend a few days away from me, or want to leave altogether," Kisame said.

"If you're sorry, I'll forgive you."

Kisame raised a calm eyebrow, looking down at his sea shell. This was different from Itachi's crime. "I'm not sure this is yours to forgive."

"Then, I accept you."

He contemplated the sentiment. Unlike forgiveness, acceptance invoked no debt, no guilt, and nothing to prove. There was nothing about it he could interpret as ingenuine or undeserved. It was merely a validation of his existence. He did not ask for forgiveness, or was so forward as to say he deserved it. Acceptance… Kisame liked that.

Itachi's eyes slid to the object in Kisame's upturned palm. "What is that?"

"It's an abalone shell." He passed it to his partner.

Itachi's eyes flashed red for a second and he smiled small. "It's beautiful. It has many unique colors, ones humans cannot even see. What kind of animal lived in it?"

"An abalone is a big, ugly, sea snail the size of a rat that eats slime."

"The universe is wise, how even such a wretched creature must not stay ugly at its core, is it not?"

"You can have it if you want," Kisame said. Itachi was a small, pretty man who seemed to like small, pretty things.

Itachi handed it back. "I think you'd better keep it."

He turned the silvery rainbow shard around in his palm. Yes. He would keep it, to remind him of the stupid, ugly, scum-eating, ocean creature that Itachi decided was still beautiful. He was glad Itachi found him this night. He would be miserable alone. The two ninja sat before the glow of the salt-blue flames, and stared up at the thick belt of stars.

"If you're not a bad person, and you've hated killing in the Akatsuki the whole time, why did you decide after this mission to off yourself?" Kisame asked.

"Utilitarian ethics. I had a goal, but I realized that fewer people will die if I was dead."

"Avoiding physical trauma… it might not be the most ethical thing, you know," Kisame said.

Itachi gave him a doubting look. He was starting to not be terrible at reading Itachi's expressions.

"Have you ever thought about what makes you happy?"

"Rarely," Itachi said.

"Maybe this eye of the moon scheme can make the world a better place for people like us," Kisame said.

Kisame noted Itachi's flinch. Of course Itachi would know, he and their leader were related, after all, but it was a privilege for Kisame to know the secret of the Akatsuki's true plan, the Eye of the Moon.

The Uchiha looked at him intensely. "You know the truth."

"That our leader is Uchiha Madara? Yes. He recruited me personally," Kisame said.

"Even I… was not strong enough to kill the Uchiha clan alone. Madara helped me do it."

Itachi's lips were uncharacteristically loose, and Kisame, always a hunter, identified when to act. "History paints Madara as a fanatic for his clan. Why would he cull his own legacy?"

"Some sixty years ago, Madara thought the Uchiha betrayed him when we wanted peace alongside the Senju."

"Then maybe it makes sense for him to kill his clan. But you… I can't explain why you'd do it."

The silence hung. Itachi did not relieve it with an explanation. Kisame's luck had run out and Itachi returned taciturn.

Kisame looked around. It was well into the night. Itachi probably did not like this exposed beach for a campsite. "Where should we sleep?"

Itachi signaled their departure by standing. "I noted a possibility on my way."

Kisame looked out into the blackness. "You can see in this?"

Red eyes gleamed. "Moderately."

Kisame took a torch from the fire for himself, washed the evidence into the waves, and followed Itachi.

With the starfield and ocean on his left, Kisame followed the small swift shadow through the dark hemisphere along the rocky coast. Itachi sprang down the sharp rocks with the same limberness of the Leaf Anbu, and he realized the boy had spent his formative years among their ranks. Kisame felt somewhat clumsier, hindered by the dark and a torch. They found themselves in a tidal cave which overlooked the sea, with shallow tide pools on its sharp floor. He peered into one: an octopus wilted into the cracks at his face.

"Need we be concerned about the tide?" Itachi asked him.

Kisame noted the lack of algae on the wall and the height of the moon. "No."

Itachi leaned his back against the sharp wall and let his legs sink. Kisame doused his torch in an unoccupied tidepool. With the moonlight that reflected in flashing tortoise-shells from the ocean, he could see the silver edge of Itachi's short, angular face.

Itachi stared at him for a moment, as if deciding to say something. He said, "Good night, Kisame."

Kisame was caught off guard. But he too formed his lips around the strange words. "Good night, Itachi."

Itachi closed his eyes and Kisame leaned himself on the wall opposite him. But now Kisame was watchful, and for a while he stayed awake to the sounds of waves. Comforting, hollow sounds, that like the breaths of ghosts, reminded him of a home that no longer existed.

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading!

I am looking for a new Beta for this story. If you are 18+ and might be interested in looking over this story with me for style and plot, please write me a message. I'd love to have a partner to make this piece as strong as it can be. Thanks!

And if you like reading this, please do let me know your thoughts!

Steadfast,

Kelto

#Campfires #sorry im a few days late i had to find a new place to live #and rent an apartment in a language i dont speak legalese of #But I did it because I am unkillable!#and also im flying home for christmas which will be nice #I am also looking for a new beta for this story so please let me know if you are interested #its a lot of fun I think!#thanks for reading #naruto #fanfiction #itachi #kisame #kisaita #celticfeather #keltodier #And again this is super M rated but I guess this chapter is as bad as the story gets

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echodrops · 6 years

Note

So, given Dabi's perceived incompetence, you think his scars are self inflicted? I figured that, if Dabi is indeed Touya, he must have tried to impress Endeavor and show him that he is "worth it". So he probably tried to train himself in seclusion. But with a body meant for ice, he was not able to handle the flames and ended up burning himself and running away, traumatized or something along those lines. Admittedly, it could be a stretch, since we have no details on what exactly happened.

Post is NOT spoiler free, watch out anime-only fans~!

Had a bunch of asks about Dabi in my inbox after my Dabi post but I got distracted thinking about ships… I’m back now and gonna answer a few that are all about that Dabi is a Todoroki theory~

Look man, if he’s not Touya, I will officially be the S H O O K E S T. At this point, the real plot twist would be if he wasn’t! I really think there are just so many signs at this point that I can’t make myself believe it won’t happen. I mean the fact that Horikoshi deliberately drew Endeavor’s eyesight being damaged before his confrontation with Dabi so that Endeavor wouldn’t be able to see him clearly??? COME ON.

But man we’re all going to look so stupid if he isn’t Touya…

Rest under the read more to save people’s dashes:

As for how Dabi got his scars… I don’t have any answers, of course, just my own theories and conjectures based on vague statements and panels in the manga…

I guess first I’d point out that while we don’t know really much about Touya at all, we do know a couple things:

1) He physically took after Rei way more than Natsuo or Fuyumi did. Despite being Natsuo’s confirmed older brother, Touya was a tiny kid. Given that he would have to very close to Fuyumi in age or older than her, the fact that he was shorter than his sister just makes this all the more noticeable. This kind of tininess is usually (although of course not always) a deliberate visual indicator that there was something wrong with the child’s health. Looking at the only two panels he appears in definitely gives the impression that he was a pretty fragile-looking kid who I would not be surprised to hear had health problems (bad fevers from an overpowered fire quirk, anyone?).

2) His posture in this frame is also pretty telling. They all look nervous–it’s obvious they’re being looked at by Endeavor and are uncomfortable with it–but while Natsuo looks a little shame-faced and Fuyumi a little confused, Touya is clutching his hands together in a classic “timid child” pose. It seems likely to me that he wasn’t an especially assertive kid.

3) Then there’s the whole hair issue–is his hair red like the anime or white like the manga? The only reason I could see for not coloring his hair dark in the manga is that Horikoshi specifically uses black ink for the red color of the Todoroki family’s hair–coloring Touya’s hair completely black would make it beyond obvious that he’s Dabi. But still, couldn’t he have used tone like he does for Kirishima’s hair? We know that white hair = ice quirk, so I am very interested to find out whether the anime has it right in using red, or whether the white used in the manga is plot relevant, and we’re going to find that Touya really did have a body meant for an ice quirk…

4) We also have Natsuo’s ominous comment:

To me at least, this statement seems somehow… specific? Like there was some Big Deal™ that immediately caused Touya not to be in their lives anymore, and Endeavor was directly involved in it. Natsuo definitely strikes me as the type who would blame Endeavor for a training accident, even if Touya was training of his own free will, but I can’t personally shake the feeling that Endeavor was right there whenever the Bad Thing with Touya happened and that Endeavor, Fuyumi, and Natsuo all know more about Touya’s fate than they’re willing to talk about. I think it’s important that we’ve never seen a scene of Natsuo and Fuyumi getting any close looks at Dabi either.

6) The kids’ ages are important I think. Shouto is about five years old when he sees his siblings playing soccer, and they all looked about the same age there as in this second screen cap, although I wouldn’t put Fuyumi at 12 in the screen cap above, so maybe not… In any case, we know that Shouto was already in training (~5 years old) and Touya had no major visible scars. So Touya made it to at least 12 years old without doing major damage to his body (although of course it could be under the clothes). Based on that, personally I would doubt a bit that he was training and burning himself in secret, at least not for any extended amount of time.

6) The one piece of evidence we have for figuring out what actually happened to cause the scars is the burn pattern itself, especially on Dabi’s face. One thing that people have often pointed out is that Dabi’s facial burns line up fairly well with the places fire also settles on Endeavor’s face:

Also I’m pretty sure Dabi officially qualifies as BNHA’s biggest glow up. If you compare chapter 67 to chapter 190 it’s like looking at two totally different characters lol

But, more importantly than this, I think, is the fact that we never see Dabi’s fire take this shape in the manga. Although in a couple of scenes his flames have covered parts of his face, we’ve never–not even one time–seen fire specifically come from below his eyes or around his mouth like Endeavor. This is not something that normally happens with his quirk–which could mean that he was copying Endeavor when the injuries occurred.

So what did happen?

I don’t know, but if you ask me for a personal headcanon about it:

In a desperate attempt to protect his mother from being taken away and forced into the mental institution, Touya Todoroki challenged his father to a fight he could never win and pushed his own body so far beyond its limits that he nearly died.

I mean, if sweet baby Shouto had a reaction this intense:

Just imagine the reaction of the children who would have been conscious to see their mother ripped away from their home, possibly violently, possibly forever? With Rei having snapped hard enough to attack Shouto, I can’t imagine that she would have taken well to Endeavor physically confronting and restraining her to force her away… It could have been quite a horrific scene in the house after Shouto passed out from the pain, and what better way to cover up damage to one kid then to blame Rei, who had already damaged the other? This would help lend greater credence to Rei still being in the mental institution too: if the doctors have her on the record for causing or at least provoking the injuries of not one son but two…

Obviously such a fragile-looking child as Touya, who we know was never formally trained, would have stood no chance against an absolutely enraged Endeavor, but if we know one thing about the Todoroki family, it’s that they’re stubborn beyond belief. Endeavor probably batted aside his failure of an eldest son like it was nothing… but Touya refused to stay down. I think, overwhelmed by hatred and resentment, he put everything he had into trying to fight back against his father, bursting with flames too hot for his ill-suited body, heedless of his own pain.

That break in Dabi’s bottom lip is from the unprotected skin splitting as he screamed in rage and agony while on fire. Just sayin’!!

And even after going beyond his limits in every way, to still inevitably be crushed beneath his father’s heel… I can’t imagine the degree of loathing such a miserable defeat would make a child feel for heroes and all of hero society who let down the Todoroki siblings so badly…

If Touya ran from the hospital afterward, we could even be looking at a situation in which Dabi has been raising himself all alone since he was 12 or 13. Hell, he might even have caught the tail-end of Stain’s soapbox speeches about the revival of heroics while living out on streets…

BUT, YOU KNOW, that’s just my imagination running wild. XDD

I’m sure that my headcanon is too exaggerated to be true, but I do think the scars are self-inflicted and that Touya did fight with Endeavor at some point before abruptly leaving the Todoroki household.

Or… he’s not even a Todoroki and he totally gave himself those scars just to look cool or something lolol.

It’s SYMBOLICCCCC.

Okay, being a little more serious, I think it’s mostly being used the same way as that one scene of Itachi in the rain in Naruto:

Holy shit I never thought I’d be looking at a page of the Naruto manga again…

It’s basically a scene used to humanize and show a tiny glimpse of a “villain” character’s hidden depths–is Dabi all evil, or is there some softness underneath?

The blood is definitely supposed to symbolically represent tears, which actively tells the reader “Something about the idea of families hurts Dabi.” Coupled with the fact that he’s also smiling in a way that does not suit the moment at all and talking about how thinking about what Snatch said actually drove Dabi crazy, I think we’re also supposed to be getting the feeling that Dabi is not quite as calm and collected as he seems to be on the surface. We all love to call him the “sane man” in the League of Villains’ sea of crazy, but it’s entirely possible that Dabi is experiencing or has, at some point, experienced a psychotic break and that the almost lazy, unaffected behavior we see from him most of the time is little more than a thin veneer on top of a much less stable inner-mind…

What interests me is how many people (even the BNHA wiki) seem to suggest that these symbolic blood tears indicate that Dabi feels remorse for the families of all his victims… But I wonder if that’s really the case at all.

Does he feel remorse regarding his victims’ families… or only his own? While I think it’s tempting to imply that Dabi feels bad about all the families he’s hurt in general (which would be a good redemption arc flag), I’m actually inclined to think that Dabi is a little more self-centered character than that, and it’s his own family that’s on his mind here, not guilt over strangers he’s never met and never will meet.

I lol’d. Even more than that–by saying this to Endeavor, he’s almost certainly ensured another Dabi vs. Endeavor clash in the future, so like… he basically gave his dad impenetrable plot armor for another 50-100 chapters. XDDD

Dabi, my dear heart, why are you such a dumpster fire???

#dabi #dabi is a todoroki #touya todoroki #dabi headcanons #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #boku no hero academia meta #dabi meta #you can pry this headcanon from my cold dead hands #my hero academia #my hero academia spoilers #I dislike when series are not named the same thing across all languages #it's a pain feeling obligated to tag with two names for the same thing

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kuriquinn · 6 years

Text

Sex Ed [5/5]

Blanket Fic Disclaimer

Prompt: Rereading chapter 19 of Unplanned, and I sorta want a story about the aftermath of Sarada accidentally crushing a partner during her first time because she didn't get Sakura's advice. Specifically, I want Sasuke's reaction. Him being confused and not knowing whether to be angrily protective or sympathetic. I think that has the potential to be hilarious.- Anon

Author’s Note: I had to change the injury a bit, and I didn’t get all of your prompt in this chapter, but if you’ve read the previous ones, parts of your request were in there too. There were a surprising amount of people who wanted to see Sarada’s sex mishaps, so I tried to get everyone’s request somewhere in the fic. I hope this (and the previous chapters) has been to your liking :)

Warning: In this universe, Sarada is bisexual, and her parents are very supportive of her, thank you very much.

First Chapter

“Are you going out?”

Sasuke pauses in the act of slipping into his shoes and glances up at Sakura, wandering down the hallway and buttoning her tunic the rest of the way up. “Yes. One of the officers at the police station says he found some of my family’s old files. He wanted to know if I wanted the hard copies.”

“Well that was nice of him. What are they, old case files?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, call me if you need anything,” she tells him, and as usual there’s the implicit reminder that if it’s too hard for him to do on his own, she’ll be there in an instant. He nods, grateful, but doesn’t take her up on it.

“Since Sarada’s apartment is along the way, would you take her that basket of vegetables in the kitchen?” Sakura asks as she shrugs into her coat. “It’s all fresh from the garden. And you know what those girls are like. Leave them alone long enough, and they’ll live off of cup ramen and poki. I’d take it myself, but I’m already late, thanks to a certain someone.”

“You weren’t complaining an hour ago,” he answers mildly, but heads to the kitchen anyhow.

“I wasn’t late an hour ago,” Sakura replies, straining up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “I’ll see you tonight, if there are no world-ending crises.”

“Hm.”

They leave the house together and part ways on the street, Sakura heading to the hospital and Sasuke to the police station.

It’s been quieter around the house since Sarada moved out, even if she was never a really loud child to begin with. Barring her rough teenage years and occasional temper, she was rather like Sasuke as a teenager, but a lot less prone to vengeance fuelled vendettas. Sasuke misses having her around, even though she lives within walking distance.

It’s not exactly common place for young people to move in with roommates in the village (at least it wasn’t when he was younger; most people lived at home with their parents until they got married), and as much as he disliked the notion when Sarada brought it up, he has to admit that her having her own place has made their relationship better.

Much as she is the light of his life, there are certain aspects of their life together he doesn’t miss.

Such as dealing with awkward situations or information that a father should not be privy to when it comes to his daughter. He doesn’t have to worry about her safety, because Chōchō and Wasabi are just as brash and protective of Sarada as he is. And she hasn’t had another boyfriend in a year, which is also a relief.

None of them are good enough for her anyway, and if she intends to be Hokage, she shouldn’t have more distractions than necessary. She’s already going to have to work harder than before because Naruto is still a bit ticked off about his son’s broken penis. He and Sasuke have come to literal blows about the whole matter, considering Boruto was just as involved in causing that injury as Sarada was.

Eventually the dobe will get his head out of his ass about the whole thing; maybe if he spent more time at home with his family his kid would have known how not to get injured during sex.

As for Sasuke, without Sarada living at home, he and Sakura can have sex again whenever they want instead of waiting for their daughter to be away on a mission or at a friend’s house. He’d be lying if he hasn’t been waiting twenty years for a return to that status quo at least.

Logically speaking, there’s no downside to the arrangement.

When he reaches the apartment, he dutifully knocks and waits for a response; as far as he knows, Sarada isn’t scheduled for any missions this week so she should be home. Which is why he frowns when he doesn’t get a response.

Glancing at the basket in his hands, he considers for a moment just leaving it outside the door, but discards it a moment later. Any co-tenant or stray animal can get to it here, and he doesn’t like the idea of Sarada living off ramen any more than her mother does.

Naruto has had way too much influence on his daughter.

I’ll go through the window and put it in the kitchen, he decides, knowing this course of action won’t take but a minute.

It seems the most simple idea, and it’s nothing to slip into the kitchen and place the basket on the table. He considers leaving a note for a moment, and then—

“Oh, yes! Right there!”

Sasuke feels a chill like ice creep down his spine at his daughter’s voice echoing from the living room.

No. No, for fucks sake, this cannot be happening. No. Not again.

In a panic, he seeks an easy exit, at the same time castigating himself for such an amateur mistake. This isn’t a covert mission to steal documents, it’s a visit to his daughter’s place of residence. He should have called ahead. And knocked. And announced his presence.

Possibly with a bullhorn.

He’s about to make his escape, when the relative silence is broken by a familiar crack, followed by a girl’s sharp yell of pain.

“Wasabi?” Sarada cries a moment later. “Wasabi, are you alright?!”

“My hips…they…ow!” the other girl gasps. “And I can’t…can’t feel my legs. Ah, stop moving!”

“I’ll fix it, just let me get out from under—”

“No—ow! Don’t move—”

“I can’t help you when I’m lying on my back, just let me—”

“DON’T MOVE, IT HURTS!”

There’s a sharp, panting gasp of someone trying to breath through the pain.

Broken pelvis, Sasuke decides, wincing out of empathy. He’s had that particular injury before, and from similar circumstances. Except, lucky for him, he was on the bottom and it was the work of a minute for Sakura to fix it.

Speaking of…

“If I don’t move, we’re both going to be stuck here!”

“Stop…talking…!” the other girl growls through the pain. “It’s making it worse.”

Sasuke sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Why? Why is it always me? Why is Sakura never on hand when Sarada gets herself into situations like this?

A mental image pops up of his wife furiously reminding him of her miserable nine-month-morning sickness and a ruined vagina.

Oh. Right.

Though, personally he doesn’t know what she’s complaining about (he has no issues with her vagina as it is), he can acknowledge that she went through the most difficult bit of bringing their daughter into the world. Perhaps this is the universe’s way of balancing karma or something.

He considers this and thinks he might have preferred to be the one to give birth. At least then it would have been over with in less than a day…

“Fuck…”

There’s utter silence in the next room.

“…Dad?” The word is timid and questioning, hope mingled with humiliation. “Are you there?”

Thunk!

Sasuke lets his head fall against the hallway wall in defeat.

“Yes. I was dropping off vegetable from your mother,” he says eventually. “Do you need help?”

Panicked silence, the sound of Sarada whispering and Wasabi snaps, “Yes we want his help!”

Well, at least this one has sense. If they don’t break up over this incident, maybe she can teach his daughter some. “Are you both…decent?”

“Sarada, if you don’t get your old man in here now, I will bite through your jugular and—!”

The rest of the diatribe is cut off like a record hauled off the turntable; there’s rustling sound and then Sarada squeaks, “Come in.”

Cautiously, Sasuke peeks around the doorway to assess the situation.

The girls are still in a tangle of limbs, but Wasabi is unconscious—Genjutsu. Hmph. Well, at least she’s learned something—and a heavy burden draped across Sarada’s (mercifully hidden) body. His daughter has somehow managed to arrange a quilt and a discarded shirt to cover any flesh that he doesn’t want to see, but she’s still trapped underneath her—

Roommate? Girlfriend? Partner?

If he thinks about questions like that, he doesn’t have to focus too much on yet another embarrassing situation.

“We’ll move her carefully so as not to do any further damage,” Sasuke tells Sarada; decades of marriage to Sakura have taught him enough about fractures to be wary. Then he adds conversationally, “Have you considered becoming a monk?”

She scowls at him, blowing a lock of Wasabi’s hair out of her face. “Monks don’t have sex.”

“Exactly. And they lead perfectly fulfilling lives and don’t injure anyone.”

“Or you could tell me how you and mom have managed.”

“No,” Sasuke says immediately. That is a conversation for her and your mother, one which he doesn’t want to know if it ever happens or not. That is where he draws the line.

Yes, he gets the irony in that, considering he’s trying to carefully move his daughter’s – paramour? Lover?— off of said daughter without injuring her spine or any internal organs. But really, at this point, enough is enough.

“If I had my time back, I’d have insisted your mother train you in medical ninjutsu,” he tells her. “Clearly learning better chakra control would have benefitted you more than wielding a sword.”

“Very funny,” Sarada grumbles, tugging the quilt across her torso a little tighter as Sasuke starts to move the other woman off her. “I could always just date someone invulnerable. Then it wouldn’t be a problem.” She thinks about this for a moment, and then her face brightens in speculation. “Come to think of it, Mitsuki—”

“No,” Sasuke cuts her off, shifting the other girl enough that Sarada can get out and closing his eyes tight. “Now get dressed and help me stabilize her so we can get to the hospital.”

He hears her moving around the living room, grabbing articles of clothing; a second later, he senses her presence right beside him and then feels a quick peck on his temple.

“Thanks for rescuing me again, Dad,” she tells him solemnly, and then flounces from the room.

Sasuke just sighs.

It’s not easy being the ‘dad’…

終わり

Phew! Well, that’s officially the longest thing I’ve written in a long time. And it was a lot of fun. I hope everyone liked it ^_^ I’m exhausted now, though, so I probably won’t have it all edited nicely and on ao3/ffnet until next week. Think I’m gonna rest my brain a few days.

Thanks for reading, guys!

クリ

#naruto faniction #sssfamily #sasuke uchiha #sarada uchiha #sakura uchiha #wasabi izuno #hints sasusaku #humor #sex humor #painful accidents #super strength and sex don't mix #sex positive upbringing #sasuke is just done #at this point i think sarada is resigned too #bisexual sarada #injuries during sex

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thepondonthemoon · 6 years

Text

Chasing Tails - 2

A/B/O alternate universe Everyone-has-tails AU Alpha! Sasuke, Omega! Naruto Cat! Sasuke, Fox! Naruto

NO MPREG

In a society where male omegas are unable to give birth, Uzumaki Naruto is ostracised for being a ‘defective’ omega. With his parents dead, he suffers from nightmares and despite a loving adoptive father and best friend, he is left to believe that he will never be able to find an alpha who will accept him for the individual that he is.

Uchiha Sasuke never planned on taking a mate, instead finding the very scent of omegas to be revolting. But as he finally surrenders to the pressures of his father to hold a ceremony for the pure purpose of obtaining a mate, he may find this decision to be life altering.

Click for Chapter 1

xxx

Hmm.. wow I did not plan for this to be a modern setting but hey it is what it is so here you go.. (also both Naruto and Sasuke chose their occupations; I had no part in deciding, they just looked at me and said ‘this is what I’m going to do in this fanfic’ so.. uh.. yea)

As always, please validate this time that-I-probably-should’ve-used-for-studying by giving me a note!! Thanks c: hope you enjoy

“Alright, here are your suppressants and scent blockers”, Tsunade said as she handed Naruto a box of pills and a spray bottle. “Start taking them in two days; the pheromones in your blood have started increasing again, though it’s a bit earlier than usual”. She frowned. Although the heat cycles of male omegas were typically irregular, Naruto’s cycles had been almost too accurately regular for the past nine years.

Naruto grinned at her, his faint whisker-like scars stretching across his cheeks, “Thanks again Granny!” He paused, hesitating on his next statement before deciding to ask her anyways. “Uchiha Sasuke’s mate ceremony is in five days, should I be okay to go?”

“Hmm.. you should be fine to go, but make sure you have those suppressants on you just in case. Your heat this time looks a bit strange so just be careful brat,” the doctor finally responded. “Plus,” she smirked, “I thought you hated that kid”.

Naruto scowled. “Huh? Of course I do! It’s just that Sakura’s going to court him and she wants me to be there for support and blah blah blah all that stuff. That’s the only reason I’m going”.

Tsunade rolled her eyes at his outburst. “Yeah, yeah sure fine whatever. Just be careful, there’s going to be quite a few alphas there who might catch the scent of your heat and I really don’t want another rape victim ending up here, alright?” Naruto ignored the slight nervous twitch of his tail as he realised that of course there’d be alphas there! How could he have forgotten that?

Chewing on his bottom lip, he contemplated on whether he should call Sakura and cancel, though as soon as the thought hit, a frustration built up inside of him. “Damn alphas”, he muttered. He wasn’t going to let the fact that he was an omega stop him; Sakura was his best friend after all. In fact, the thought of potential rape didn’t scare him at all. Nuh-uh. Nope. Not one bit. Not. One. Bit.

Tsunade watched as the blonde’s emotions played out across his face, slightly amused by the fact that he had no idea how easy he was to read, especially with his tail jerking around nervously. Well, she knew he was scared nonetheless, any omega would be. The last thing anyone needed was an unwanted pregnancy or an unwanted mating mark, considering it’d be a very permanent and painful process for the omega to have to go through, though not so much the alpha. Yeah, Mother Nature was a bitch that way.

The blonde doctor sighed as she looked through her desk drawers. Thankfully, rape had finally been declared a crime and as a result, the rates had dropped over the last decade. As to why it hadn’t already been a crime was a mystery no one could solve. However, unfortunately there were still ways of getting around the system, and whilst rape is never ideal, it’s best to prepare for such an event anyway. Tsunade melancholily chuckled to herself at the idiocracy of that statement. Hopefully, a day would arrive when the Omega Rights Association ensured that omegas no longer had to live in fear of rape.

But as of right now, Naruto needed to protect his nape from mating marks. “Ah, there it is”, she muttered as she finally found the collar. “Here”, Tsunade said as she threw the black leather collar to the fox kid, startling him out of his reverie. “I doubt you have a collar since you never have the opportunity to encounter alphas, so I’ll give you this one”.

“Oh”, Naruto caught the collar, albeit fumbling to catch it in the process. “Thanks Tsunade”, he said forcing a smile at the protective, yet somehow degrading object. Turning it over in his hands, he admired the strength of the leather, knowing that it would protect him from permanent damage. Naruto brought the collar closer to his face to examine it before suddenly biting it, almost like a dog gnawing on a chew toy. Tsunade facepalmed, forever wondering why Kushina and Minato had left her in charge of this helpless child.

“Naruto… why are you biting it?”, she finally asked.

“I’m just testing to make sure you can’t bite through it”, he grinned at her. A glint of silver on the collar caught his eye. “Oh yeah, is there a key for this?”, he asked despite being unable to find a keyhole on the silver clasp.

“Nah, it actually uses your fingerprint to lock and unlock. Here, we’ll configure it now”. After fumbling with an app on her phone, which Naruto assumed was connected to the collar, she placed his index finger on the metal square of the clasp which prompted a message on her phone, indicating that configuration had been completed.

Tsunade smiled. “There you go. Try putting it on your neck now, we should probably check that it’s comfortable enough.” Naruto placed it around his neck, and with ease he locked the clasp before opening it up to ensure that he could, in fact, open it back up with his fingerprint. He locked it again, finding that the collar was comfortable enough against his neck, snug without restricting his breathing. Yet he frowned, more displeased with the concept of the collar than the physical feel of it. Naruto sighed, his tail drooping slightly. Well, there was nothing to be done about it anyway.

“Yeah, it’s comfortable”, he told the blonde doctor who was still waiting on a reply.

Tsunade smiled slightly, albeit a bit sad. “That’s good. Make sure you’re wearing it when you go to the ceremony, I know it’s a bit demeaning but it’ll protect you in the worst case. Are you going to be taking off work today?”

“Nah”, Naruto responded. “I need to make money somehow, and I won’t be able to be as efficient once my heat hits.”

“Well alright then brat, I’ll see you later”, Tsunade stated as the blonde began to leave her clinic. “Make sure you call if something happens!”

Naruto waved back, his fox tail swishing from side to side almost as if it were waving back too. “Okay Granny!!” He grinned.

With his medication safely in his bag, the fox hummed as he headed off to his part time job.

xxx

Uchiha Sasuke glared at the blank canvas before him, before scowling and deciding that the pure nothingness of it had personally offended him in some way.

“Little brother, are you still sulking?” A deep voice echoed behind Sasuke, his black cat tail jerking up in surprise before curling around his waist. Sighing, he turned around only to be faced with the perfect posture he had long associated with his older brother.

“Sulking about what?” The younger Uchiha replied in a monotonous tone, refusing to give away any information. But as usual, Itachi was able to see right through him. The man had lived with him for over 20 years after all, so it wasn’t unexpected and yet that small detail only served to irritate Sasuke even more.

“Oh, are we pretending that your mating ceremony, which you so adamantly refused for two years, isn’t coming up in five days?” Itachi replied drily. “Sorry, guess I didn’t get the memo we were playing pretend”.

Closing his eyes, Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose as he exhaled a groan of frustration. “God damn it is it your mission in life to make mine so miserable?”

“Well of course it is”.

“...It was a rhetorical question”, Sasuke stated through gritted teeth before smirking. “Or maybe you just failed Literature that badly”.

“Sure, but you’re going to fail your Visual Arts course soon if you keep this up”, Itachi glanced over to the blank canvas before raising an eyebrow at the lack of progress.

Sasuke abstractedly stroked the end of his black cat tail as he sighed. “Yeah..”

Itachi stared at his usually stoic brother in contemplation, both amused and concerned at the fact that he was displaying such a wide range of emotions before reaching the conclusion that the ceremony had affected him more than he thought. Reaching his hand forward, he poked Sasuke on the forehead eliciting a yelp of alarm.

“What’d you do that for?” the young alpha whined. “Can’t you see I’m suffering enough?”

“You know, even though Father is pressuring you to find a mate, it doesn’t mean you need to actually pick one out”, Itachi paused. “Just focus on your project. It’s the path you chose for yourself after all”.

Sasuke scowled as he watched his older brother walk away without a care in the world before resuming his initial glare at the still-blank canvas. The project was due in a month, and whilst he had started on the day it had been issued, he just could not tap into any inspiration during the last two months.

The brunette glanced over at the other canvasses in his blue-walled study. Over the last two months, Sasuke had completed no less than five artworks. Graphite, pastel, acrylic, oil, charcoal. Nothing had worked. Mountains and oceans and trees and rivers; it all just didn’t feel right to him. As if something was missing - some minor yet crucial detail that he had forgotten somewhere and couldn’t find again.

Standing up from his chair, Sasuke walked over to his bed before falling face first into his black bed sheet covers. Adding on to the stress of the art project was the mate ceremony that he had finally agreed to, for what reason he couldn’t understand why.

xxx

“Sasuke”

Sasuke paused the movement of his chopsticks, bringing them back down to his bowl as he turned to look at his Father, inwardly groaning at the inevitable conversation.

“Yes, Father?”

“Sasuke, your Mother and I think that it’s about time you found a mate. We need an heir to carry on our family name.”

Sasuke’s eyes twitched infinitesimally. “I’m only 20. Itachi’s almost 26 but you haven’t forced him to find a mate.”

“Yes”, Fugaku glanced over at Itachi who seemed to be paying no mind to the conversation, yet all at the dinner table instinctively knew he was. “Itachi has resisted all advances from his lovely omega suitors, for reasons he has not yet revealed. Which is why-”

“Which is why you need me to fuck an omega and produce children”, Sasuke finished monotonously, having heard the same speech a thousand times.

“Sasuke”, Mikoto said, placing her bowl down. “Please, no cursing in this house, much less at dinner. Could you just hold the ceremony and at least meet with all the omegas? Maybe you’ll find one you like, maybe you won’t. We’re not asking for much here; we just want you to be happy.”

Sasuke’s poker face melted at the soft voice of his Mother. He exhaled deeply at the thought of holding the ceremony which he had resisted for the past two years. Well, it was true he didn’t have to find a mate immediately, and maybe his Father would stop pestering him about it.

He turned back to look at Fugaku, his tail curling in on itself behind his back as he prepared to speak the words which he so dreaded.

“Fine. I’ll hold the ceremony like you want, Father. But I don’t plan on fuc-finding a mate immediately.” Sasuke stood up from the dinner table, his appetite lost as he carried his bowl to the sink.

“That’s all I want, Sasuke”, Fugaku’s voice echoed behind Sasuke as he walked towards his bedroom, flinching at the sound of his Father’s voice.

xxx

A buzzing sound broke him out of his reverie. Sasuke groaned as he half-heartedly felt across his bed for his phone before sitting upright on his bed.

“What’s up, Sai?” he answered groggily.

“Bro do you have ten dicks in your mouth or something? What’s wrong with your voice?” The ever so annoying voice of his Visual Arts partner echoed in his ear.

“Fuck off, what do you want?”

“Dude I understand you don’t want to answer whether or not you have dicks in your mouth, but next time make sure you call me since I’m more than happy to go.”

“What. Do. You. Want.”

The annoying jabber of Sai paused for a moment, making Sasuke check whether or not the call was still going before it returned.

“I heard you’re finally holding that mate ceremony.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Bro I didn’t know you weren’t asexual! Otherwise I would’ve made my advances a long time ag-”

Sasuke hung up, failing to find the energy to deal with Sai at the current moment. Plopping back on his bed, he stared up at his ceiling; a ceiling as white as his canvas. Yet he kept staring up at it, as if his ceiling was the key to unlocking the inspiration and motivation he needed for his art piece. He sighed, his eyelids slowly drifting shut as his body decided that it needed a break from all the stress he shouldered.

As Sasuke sank into unconsciousness, a small image popped up behind his retinas. A yellow daffodil amongst a sea of exquisite white and red roses, and yet somehow the daffodil was the most beautiful.

#au #fanfiction #sasuke x naruto #naruto x sasuke #abo #modern au #cat sasuke #fox naruto #awwwww fox naruto is adorable #omegaverse

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recentanimenews · 6 years

Text

Bookshelf Briefs 2/19/18

Assassination Classroom, Vol. 20 | By Yusei Matsui | Viz Media – So in the end there is no easy way out, and no happily ever after. Oh, the kids survive, though it’s a bit touch-and-go for Kayano, who tries to protect Koro-sensei and gets impaled for her troubles. But no, what it means is that, despite Koro-sensei taking care of the bad guys, with one very satisfying death, he still has to be killed—and, given the entire premise of the series, the kids have to kill him. We’re at the climax of the series, which is apparently rather awkward in volume format—expect a lot of padding in the final volume. Still, for fans of this series, this may be a bit of a tear-jerker, but it feels right, and will also make you smile. (Though please stop with the “Kayano has a small chest” jokes, please.) – Sean Gaffney

Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 5 | By Bisco Hatori | Viz Media – This was a much stronger volume of the series, though I admit that sometimes I have trouble remembering who is who—this is what happens when you catch up to Japan so quickly. Here we see the pain of unrequited love, and how for the most part there can be very little you can do about it other than pine, especially when you love is pining for someone else. That said, the core of this series is still its special effects, which branch out here into scene design as our heroes run into a school with a lot of ideas but no idea how to convey those with an actual budget. The end design was quite clever, showing off the desperation that frequently drives genius when pushed to a deadline. Solid. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 10 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – As it turns out, permanent damage is pretty easy to heal when you live in a world of magic and you’re also the main character. Black Clover is never going to win any originality awards, and will likely never rise above “good.” But it also doesn’t plumb the depths of some series—it’s pacy, knows how long to do an arc for, and is also not afraid to bring in characters introduced in the light novels when it wants to, which might be a bit of a wrench for North American readers who know Viz doesn’t really license Jump light novels unless they’re Naruto. Meanwhile, Noelle levels up, and Asta tries to solve things by talking rather than punching (shame it doesn’t work out). Black Clover is fun if you’re a teen who’s never read Jump manga before. – Sean Gaffney

Dokudami Tenement, Vol. 1 | By Takashi Fukutani | Black Hook Press – Thanks to the efforts of Black Hook Press, a niche publisher based out of Tokyo currently focusing on gekiga and more obscure manga, the beginning of Fukutani’s most popular and successful series Dokudami Tenement is now available in English. The first volume includes the manga’s prologue and three stories—”Sun Is Shining,” “The Fetishist’s Lament,” and “Midnight Mover”—in addition to an introduction by Mitsuhiro Asakawa, a short biography, and a list of Fukutani’s publications. Dokudami Tenement began serialization in 1979, Fukutani incorporating semi-autobiographical elements into his stories about Yoshio Hori, an unemployed twenty-six year old living in a decrepit apartment building in Tokyo. It’s a funny and entertaining series, although at times admittedly lewd and crass; the characters somehow manage to be both appalling and sympathetic while the manga explores social and economic issues of the time period with a biting sense of humor. – Ash Brown

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 22 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | VIZ Media – The advancement exams in Hokkaido continue and the resisters have survived until round three, when they must go up against members of the Council of Ten. Yukihira is having a rematch against Hayama, who defeated him in the Fall Classic, and their theme ingredient is bear. Despite a lot of focus on how the boys manage to overcome the stinky attributes of bear and create delicious dishes, I have to say I’m still not particularly keen to try it. We get the typical fanservice of clothes being blown off by flavor, but I could’ve done without the really awkward explanation for why the Nakiri family has this reaction. It was still entertaining, though, and I really liked that Yukihira acknowledged that he’s a better chef now because Hayama defeated him in the past. Beyond that, I remain “meh” about this Central arc. – Michelle Smith

Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, Vol. 15 | By Yomi Hirasaka and Itachi | Seven Seas – The first half of this volume continues the giant high from the second half of the last one—these are probably the best scenes in the series. After getting his ass kicked by Rika, Kodaka finally stops ignoring Sena and tells her the truth—he loves her, and wants to do lots of naughty things to her, which… sort of pleases her, ish. But he won’t date her, because it would ruin the Friendship Club. Which, honestly, is getting pretty ruined even without dating, as Yozora has finally sunk into deep depression and run away, all the way to… Kodaka’s house. The manga says—possibly to stop readers abandoning ship—it will have a different ending than the polarizing light novel. We’ll see how that develops next time. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 20 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno is engaged in their first five-set match against formidable opponent Shiratorizawa and they’re approaching the limits of their endurance. Kageyama’s accuracy is suffering, and though Tsukishima (who has apparently become my favorite character) continues to make some awesome moves, he ends up injured and in the infirmary for the beginning of the fifth and final set. Can the team pull off victory without him? Well, it’s not surprise that we don’t know the answer to that yet, since Haikyu!! is always pulling off excruciating cliffhangers, but once a rested-up Kageyama returns to the court, it certainly seems possible, as he and Hinata execute a spectular quick set that narrows Shiratorizawa’s lead to one point. As exciting as ever! – Michelle Smith

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 6 | By Hirohiko Araki | Viz Media We’ve finally gotten to Egypt, but alas, Dio still eludes us, as we continue instead to plow through a series of mooks trying to stop our heroes getting there in time to save Holly (who long-time readers may have totally forgotten about, to be honest). There is some very amusing comedy, as our heroes’ new ally is a Stand User who’s a dog—a very eccentric, unlikeable dog. The dog manages to do something that hasn’t happened the entire series, which is briefly make Jotaro interesting. But be it Youssou N’Dour, Oingo Boingo or Chaka Khan, no amount of unsubtle 80s music references can stop our heroes. Will we finally see Dio next time? Probably not, but hey. JoJo’s fans will want to read this. – Sean Gaffney

Kase-san and an Apron | By Hiromi Takashima | Seven Seas – The physicality of Yamada and Kase-san’s relationship is dialed back in this new volume, possibly due to being serialized in a magazine, Wings, which is slightly less OK with it. The yuri cuteness is still there, though, and this remains probably the best of our ongoing “girls in high school like each other and start dating” series. There are few surprises—the fact that Kase-san hadn’t dated her sempai seemed fairly obvious to me—but the emotions seem real, the girls are both sweethearts, and you root for them. I had thought this was the final volume, but apparently it is continuing on an occasional basis, so we may see a new volume. A must-read for yuri fans. – Sean Gaffney

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 19-20 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | VIZ Media – It’s the Winter Cup quarterfinals, and Seirin is up against Yosen. Most of the first part of the volume is Kagami suddenly evolving amazingly in response to Yosen’s strength, entering “the zone” in a way that is visible to the audience and demonstrating an ability to replicate moves belonging to the Miracle Generation. It’s over-the-top but still an exhilarating finish as Seirin manages to win by one point. After meeting Shogo Haizaki, a former Miracle Generation member who lost his position to Kise, we progress to the first semifinal game, between Akashi’s Rakuzan and Midorima’s Shutoku. Turns out, Midorima and his teammate Takao have a sort of Hinata/Kageyama (from Haikyu!!) past and even a quick set equivalent! It’s pretty spiffy, but is it enough to beat Akashi? Stay tuned! – Michelle Smith

Kuroko’s Basketball, Vols. 19-20 | By Tadatoshi Fujimaki | Viz Media – As you might expect, loving basketball is better than not loving basketball, and therefore those with passion—particularly in a sports manga—will always beat those who have talent but little drive. And so our heroes advance, and get the rest of the volume to watch the competition. I admit I wasn’t wild about the section in the middle, though at least Alex freed herself on her own, and Shogo made a particularly unpleasant antagonist. But now we’re on to the other semifinal, with our old friend Midorima, who is not going to win because we have already seen Seirin play them, but it’s a nice thought. Two-thirds of the way through the series, and it’s still exciting, though it does make me realize that the final game could indeed be stretched a lot. – Sean Gaffney

Nameless Asterism, Vol. 1 | By Kina Kobayashi | Seven Seas – My interest in Nameless Asterism was piqued when I heard that the series includes both yuri and boys’ love elements. Turns out there’s cross-dressing involved, too, which also holds some appeal. The story revolves around Shiratori, Washio, and Kotooka, three young women who have become particularly close. They’re not all aware of it, but Shiratori has fallen for Washio, Washio has fallen for Kotooka, and Kotooka has fallen for Shiratori. On top of that, there are boys they like and who like them, too. It’s not so much a love triangle as it is an increasingly complex love ouroboros with feelings of friendship and romance in delicate balance. Nameless Asterism is a slowly paced but sweet manga with characters who genuinely care for one another. Future volumes of the series promise to reveal even more complications as the various relationships continue to evolve. I’m curious to see how it unfolds. – Ash Brown

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vol. 6 | By Kiseki Himura and Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – I’m enjoying the fact that Himura, the artist of this manga, is being allowed to do his own thing a bit more. We’re curling back to the book plot, as Kirito runs up against a smiling villain named Morte who has a plan to sow discord. The manga has always felt more like Asuna’s story, with Kirito acting as a Greek Chorus, and we continue that here. Also, Argo is back, which makes me very happy, as I love Argo. Most adaptations of light novels don’t really need to be read if you’ve already read the prose, but this is an exception. And there’s also quite a bit of fanservice for those who like that. Great stuff for SAO fans. – Sean Gaffney

Yona of the Dawn, Vol. 10 | By Mizuho Kusanagi | VIZ Media – Man, Mizuho Kusanagi could teach a masterclass in how to not only redeem a former antagonist but make you love him fiercely. Yona and friends have been masquerading as bandits to protect poor villages in Fire Tribe lands from exorbitant taxes. Tae-jun is sent to deal with them and, after many comical reactions whilst in disguise, his genuine relief upon learning Yona is alive is massively endearing. This whole volume is about his gradual rehabilitation; initially, he cares only about Yona and can’t see the suffering around him, but eventually his eyes are opened and he spearheads a campaign to bring much-needed government support to the people. Yes, he still cares a lot about what Yona thinks of him, but he’s also truly changed, earning the loyalty of his troops in the process. I may have shed a few tears. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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chemicalmagecraft · 5 years

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I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya’s Butt Chapter 10

A/N: This is going to be a bit of a shorter chapter because, like I said in my other fic, college stinks and also because I don't want to end an arc mid-chapter either.

kukukuku~

"I don't know," he said, fidgeting slightly. "Why are you with me?"

"I literally have nothing else to do. Plus we're raccoon eye buddies."

"Raccoon eye buddies?"

I traced my eye markings. "Raccoon eye buddies. I heard you've had trouble making friends in the past, so I figured you might like some company." I shrugged. "But if you don't, I can fly away."

I caught a tiny smile on his lips. "Don't go. Having a friend would be... nice..."

"Stinks that I'm going to have to leave soon... Maybe we should find you a friend who isn't from another village."

"How do you make friends?"

"What about me?" he asked.

"Woah, are you floating?" one of the kids asked me.

"Yeah," I said. "Can we... join? I promise to not use my powers if you don't want me to." I lowered myself to the ground.

"Hey, isn't that the Kazekage's son?" another of the kids said. Gaara tensed up, so I squeezed his hand.

"He's cool," I insisted.

"But my mom said he's a demon."

I crossed my arms. "He has a demon sealed inside him. Big difference." I shrugged. "Sure, he used to have some trouble keeping the thing down, but I fixed that right up for him. As I said, he's cool."

"Thank you, Kouki-san," Gaara muttered.

I gave him a small smile and said, "So are we going to play or what?"

I was picked first. I guess the team captain figured I'd be awesome at sportsball because I could fly or something. Joke's on him, though, because I'm horrible at all manners of sportsball. Even with my ninja training, I was horrendous. On the other hand, Gaara was somehow the other team's best player. It didn't even look like he was trying to hard, he just... drifted over to the ball and launched it over to the goal net. Yeah, everyone ended up liking Gaara a lot more than me.

kukukuku~

I floated in the air above Suna, my senses extended as far as I could. I'd caught a faint whiff of... something while I was playing with Gaara and the others. I scanned the area, moving around a bit to get the best feel of whatever I was sensing. Whatever it was, it was vast, almost spread out, and felt a bit like Shukaku but without the malice. It was like the sands themselves were possessed, especially around Gaara. I could think of a likely suspect. I drifted to an out-of-the-way alley near the Kazekage's house, sending a beacon to the presence as I flew. It responded to my psychic touch sluggishly, like its mind was damaged or something. It felt like sand slipping through my fingers, but I reeled the presence in. As I leaned on the alley wall, the sand in front of me shifted and slowly rose up in front of me, roughly in the shape of an adult woman. "Yo," I said.

I winced. "You... aren't in the best shape, are you?" She made some noises that I took as a 'yes.' I tightened my grasp on her mind a bit. "Right, I'm going to try to help you. Can you tell me your name?"

"That's good," I said in a soothing tone. "Now, can you please tell me something about yourself? Maybe any family or loved ones you have? I need you to keep focused on something, anything."

"Th͔r̛e̙͎̜͡eͥ̃̒ ̢c̝̹h̲̹̙̎̉͌͘i͍̦̺l̨d̘̐́ṟ̔e͞ǹ̪͙̞̈̿͡,͔͖̯ a̓̇͂́ ̫̖̳͒ͩ̏d̲̮̖͊̄̿au̴g͕͎̀h̪͉͆̚t̵̐͂̚e͆r̴͔̤ ̥a̟̩̎ͦn͕̱̎̆dͣ̍ͦ ͫ͗͆tw̬̫̲ợ̀ ̴͚̩ͦ̂şo͘nś͍͎ͣ.̸ͪ T̹̫̱e̟͈̟͒̊̒mar̔ͥ̈i̥, K̟̪̝̈́͊ͭañ͙͔̼ͮ̌k̲̋uͧ͆ro,̼̓ ä́̄̐n̦͙͈ͮͭͤd̊ͦ́ ͑̓G͙̞̽͊a̬̾ar̗̥ͦͦa,"she said. "I ̏͋alͭ̈́̍so ̎ḧ́̒av̅̚e ͪ̓a ̓br̊̊oͨͨthͯͣ̏eṙ̈́,̐ͨ̐ ̽̓Ȳ̈as͋h́ͩá̅mͪͫaͩͤruͭͦ...̒͒̓"

"Good," I murmured. "Now, this might feel a bit weird, but I need to do this to stabilize you." I took out my newest demon sage core, one that I'd made from leftovers from the bandits and some insects I'd managed to attract. Okay, it was only almost done, but it was good enough for what I needed it for. I rammed the core into Karura's sandy "navel," using it to work some yin-yang magic on the unstable chakra that made her up. Her form evened out and red lines spread from the core to her arms and legs. Then I averted my eyes. "Aw, ew!" I exclaimed. "Put some clothes on!"

"I have no clothes," she noted.

"Then make some out of sand!"

"I have no idea how to do that..."

"And yet you managed to almost do a jutsu I still haven't figured out yet!" I shouted.

"My mind is still hazy..."

I grumbled a bit and formed a rough "cloth" out of the surrounding sand. "You even made yourself a body out of sand..." I wrapped the cloth around her body. "Right, you have to figure out how to keep that up." I opened my eyes as I felt the chakra of her body taking over the wrapping. Now that she was stabilizing, she looked just about human, only with the red markings and eyes colored like, though not shaped like, Shukaku's. The sand cloth had turned into a sort of cloak that made her really look like a sand witch. "You want to meet your kids now? Just to warn you, mullo, you've been dead for years, so they aren't exactly expecting you."

"Oh... oh dear."

kukukuku~

"Heeeey~" I said from outside the Kazekage's window. "Guess what I found today?" Thankfully, his family was there, so I didn't have to do that much work.

Rasa sighed. "What?"

"Karura," he gasped.

"Rasa," she scowled.

"Oh right, you were responsible for her death," I said. "Ouch."

"Mom?" Temari asked. "Is it really you?" Karura floated over to her and picked her up, holding her close.

"Temari. I'm so, so sorry I left."

"How did this happen?" Yashamaru asked.

"I don't remember," Karura said, "but I'm grateful it did."

The sand blocked it.

"What was that for?" Rasa, Yashamaru, and Karura simultaneously demanded of me.

"Wait," Karura said. "There are still holes in my memory."

"Douchey ex?" Rasa asked.

"Until death did you part," I said with a grin. "That's the rules, right?"

Rasa blinked. "...Well you're not wrong. And Karura, I honestly wouldn't put it past you if you wanted to leave me."

"Yeah this is the part where I disappear and let you guys have a heartfelt reunion and however KaRasa's going to go." I grinned as I activated the Transparent Escape Jutsu. "And yes, that was a pun!"

kukukuku~

"Right, so maybe you should stay up on full moons," I told Gaara as I was checking the seal after his horrible, nightmare-filled sleep. "Default won't break at all under the light of the moon."

He rubbed his eyes a little more. "That was unpleasant..."

"Yeah, well at least it looks like it'll only be once every thirty days," I noted. "That should be manageable, right? Better than thirty times in thirty days."

He sighed. "I'm going to miss you when you leave..."

I gave him a small smile. "Don't worry, you can always find me..." I poked him in the chest. "...Riiiiiight here."

"But I would like to be able to talk to you more..."

"I know, I was talking about how you should theoretically be able to use Shukaku's power to telepathically contact me from anywhere in the world."

His eyes widened, and I could see a small twinkle in them. "How?"

"See, there's this thing called bijū telepathy that bijū have, and any two sources of the same type of bijū chakra can be used as a sort of relay for it. You have Shukaku and I absorbed just enough of his power from the seals you guys sent me that I gained his power, which means that we're linked. Now, I should note that because of the seal I placed on you, any time I'm calling you, you'll get a notification from your seal and have to manually allow it. Now let's teach you a new psychic power!"

kukukuku~

"This is awesome!" I yelled as I finally got to avail myself the full joy of having flight-granting crystals adhered to my body. I still made sure to keep close to Karura, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, who were either standing on or being used as a floating sand platform.

"The view is breathtaking from up here," Gaara agreed with telepathy.

"How you holding up, Karura?" I asked.

"...I think I like being a sand spirit." She sounded fine. "My children are enjoying my powers as well."

I smiled. Sure, we were still over a tower because of safety concerns, but we were flying! And the others were having fun.

kukukuku~

"That was delicious~" I sighed in delight after finishing my dinner of the third day, this time some heavenly chicken tikka. "Thank you for the meal~. So how's my favorite mullo doing after a full day of life and activity?" I asked.

She poked at her food. "I still have no idea how I'm eating this..." she muttered.

"Magic?" I offered. "You holding up alright?"

"I don't feel as scattered as I did before. That's good, right?"

"But I want to stay up," Gaara protested.

Karura wagged her finger. "No 'buts,'" she said, then smiled. "Tell you what, I'll tell you a bedtime story. I've missed the opportunity to do that for too long."

Gaara smiled. "Okay, mother."

kukukuku~

"Goodbye!" I waved to my sendoff party as I mounted my lindwyrm. "I'll miss you all! I wish you the best!" I slumped back into Gai's chest. "And I'm pooped. G'night, Gai."

The journey home wasn't as eventful as the journey there. If there were any bandits, they were scared off by my giant monsters long before I even noticed them. I managed to make a new core with all of the bugs that my cores attracted when we set up camp for the night, especially once we hit the forest. There were a lot of bugs in the forest. Never thought I'd say that positively...

"We're back," I said with a smile as I looked at the gates. "Suna was nice, but I was starting to miss home."

"Yes, Konoha is a nice place," Gai said. "Though I must admit that I'll miss being able to train in both hot and cold environments..."

"Pretty sure you're more than fine on the training front already, dude..."

kukukuku~

A/N: And if you were wondering, mullo basically means "vampire," "ghost," or just generally something dead that's still walking about.

#I Would Totally Kick Jiraiya's Butt #fanfiction #IWTKJB CH 10 #naruto #naruto shippuden spoilers #naruto fanfiction

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